Norway wasn’t lacking for Internet connections, but I wasn’t exactly eager to spend time glued to a computer screen. As a result, my welcome-home present was a Google Reader crowded with new and interesting posts. A few of the highlights:
The recent uptick in Chinese web censorship: Rebecca Mackinnon offers a comprehensive roundup of “The Month [...]
I came back from Norway last night, and was greeted by my Google Reader with Matt’s extremely resonant post on the problem of “reverse culture shock.” I’ve been back in the home-orbit (counting Norway, since I traveled there with college friends) for almost two weeks, and the question of how to explain the past year [...]
Beijing’s terrible summer weather is not a recent development. Just a few decades into the Qing dynasty, the emperors decided they needed a summer alternative to the Forbidden City. For their Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), they chose a site approximately 10 miles northwest of the city center. A 2.2 square-kilometer man-made lake was excavated to provide [...]
I took a cooking class during my brief stop in Beijing last week, about which more will come. But first, a brief story to illustrate the difference between Chinese food in China and American “Chinese food”:
After the first part of the lesson, we were all about to dig into our gongbao jiding (better known to [...]
Starbucks stores in Beijing are taking on the local milk tea market this summer. In addition to black tapioca balls, many Chinese milk tea vendors put sweet flavored jellies in the bottom of their drinks for an added dose of texture and flavor. Now, the coffee chain is offering its own variation on the jelly-drink [...]
In 1570 in India, the Mughal Emperor Akbar decided to move his capital from Agra to Fatehpur Sikri, about 25 miles away. A huge mosque, the Jama Masjid, went up. Palaces covered in elaborate carvings and inlaid stone were built to house the royal entourage. But just 15 years later, the new capital was abandoned. [...]
If you’re on a longer stay in China (or if you overestimate the number of tea sets you’ll want to take home), you may end up with more RMB than you know what to do with. In any other country, this wouldn’t be a problem. You could just take your cash to a bank and [...]
On Saturday night, I finally caught up with a Changsha specialty that had eluded me so far this year: 口味虾 (kouwei xia). “Xia” (虾) is a catchall term for crustaceans — for instance, shrimp and lobster are both referred to as xia. Kouwei xia (badly translated as flavor-crustacean) is the Chinese name for crayfish/crawfish/crawdads. According [...]
When you’re tired of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers and expensive bars, head to Mong Kok in Kowloon. There’s still plenty of hustle and bustle, but instead of suits rushing to and from the office in Central, look for old Hong Kong ladies doing their daily shopping. This is a good place to sample Hong Kong delicacies, [...]
A year ago today, I arrived in China, toting 100 pounds of luggage and not a clue as to what I was in for. I vividly remember standing on a corner near Xizhimen in Beijing, sweaty, loaded down with suitcases, and with no idea where I was or where to find my dormitory. It was [...]
