Villages above the clouds in Zhejiang

We visited two villages today, Chenjiapu (陈家铺) and Xikeng (西坑). Both are north of Songyang (松阳) and ‘touristified’ (for instance, Chenjiapu has a ‘design’ hotel & book store), but you can still see the original village in between the cafes & hotels, with lots of houses made of rammed earth (夯土).

Chenjiapu (陈家铺)

The freedom to blast fireworks, that’s one thing big cities don’t have.

Remnants of the slogan ‘吉祥如意’ (May all your dreams come true).

Xikeng (西坑)

The temple from the outside…

… and inside.

Twenty-three years

In June we moved back to the Netherlands, six suitcases across 8000 kilometres, and after a brief spell at my parents’ place, we moved into our own home. This second move also involved putting down carpet, curtains, buying appliances and furniture — so that our new garage quickly filled with cardboard boxes and other packaging […]

August 29, 2026

Searching for meadows

Our new home in the Netherlands sits in a mundane residential area full of young families like ours. The street name comes from made (‘meadow’), still referring to a field that once lay here and now survives only in the name (just how the name Shanghai refers to a river that no longer exists). And […]

August 5, 2026

Degrees of wealth

In eight years of living in China, taxi drivers or older colleagues loved to ask, “Which is better, the Netherlands or China?”, hoping for a single insightful answer that would explain everything. And now, back as a resident in the Netherlands, people ask the mirrored version: do I miss living in China? Neither question is […]

July 11, 2026

Goodbye to Guanyin

It’s a Saturday morning, and we’re in a taxi on the way to the airport. My clothes cling to my body and already reek of sweat, and that’s even before our 12-hour flight has started. Today I woke up at 5:30 to get up early and throw away the last furniture and items we used […]

June 30, 2026