Wanghong hell

By:  July 1, 2023 Categories: 

Wanghong hell at floor 52 (out of 128).

Taitai really wants to see this bookstore, but the reservation spots (all free) were already gone. So we pick a date next week, take a screenshot, and in Photoshop change the date to today, and mess a bit with the QR code so it’s unreadable.

The guard scans it, gets an error so she checks the date on the screenshot. I pretend to only speak English “Is it ok?”, she lifts her shoulders and waves us to enter. Ok, not ethical. I feel like such a hacker.

Latest

The Return of Magic

The Return of Magic

My first time in an airplane was in some Cessna 25 years ago. I had never imagined I’d ever sit in a plane, because that was something for rich people. But then after our visit to Legoland in Denmark, my dad decided we’d see the park from above. The whole was so inconceivable, not just […]
November 11, 2025
Toilet Egg Pancake

Toilet Egg Pancake

Sometimes a place or thing becomes super memorable not despite its odd name, but because of it. In Kunshan (昆山) there’s a place that sells ‘Toilet Egg Pancake’ (厕所蛋饼), because their original store was next to a public toilet. It has already moved on, but the name remains. While their pancakes are so good (and […]
November 10, 2025
These Same Roads Again

These Same Roads Again

My parents visited Shanghai for the first time in seven years, and even though the city has changed a lot, I dare say it has changed not as much as I have. Sure. On the surface of Shanghai, a lot of stores have come and gone since 2018, and large areas of the city were […]
November 5, 2025
To Taipei and Back in a Day

To Taipei and Back in a Day

I got the chance to travel from Shanghai to Taipei and back in one day. Rather impractical, very tiring, but still worth it. Because you could stay at home for ten weekends and watch fifty movies, and still not have as many impressions as this. I will refrain from acting as if now I know […]
November 3, 2025