It appears to be my 10 year Chinaversary. Thanks to all of you that have congratulated me. It feels very weird, because:
The whole Shanghai vs. Beijing debate is somewhat tired, I know, so I’m not interested in rehashing it. I’m not going to bash or gush over either city. Rather, I’ve had sort of a change of heart about Beijing, and I’d like to tell why. To be honest, the more time I spend in Beijing, the more I like it. But I doubt I’d ever voluntarily relocate to Beijing.
Still, if I found myself in any of the following scenarios, …
Now that I’m a “Shanghai snob,” I had to laugh at Hangzhou’s East Train Station waiting room VIP seating:
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I love stylized Chinese characters.
It says 西湖一號 (West Lake No. 1). This is a good example of mainland Chinese designers using traditional Chinese characters for artistic effect (號 rather than 号).
Taken next to West Lake in Hangzhou.…
After eating all Chinese food for about a week, my family was delighted to stop into Starbucks in Hangzhou. (Funny how a familiar corporate logo can engender feelings of fondness.) We had the following conversation:
Me: You don’t need to gather up the trash. They’ll clear the table when we leave.
Mom: But the trash can is just right there.
Me: Still, you don’t need to do it. It’s their job. You don’t want to take away their job, do
…
One food that foreigners miss while in China is doughnuts. Sure, Shanghai has its “Mister Donut” shop, but those small, hard doughnuts never impressed me. Then there are those that call Chinese youtiao (fried bread-like sticks) a “Chinese doughnut,” but I find that very suggestion laughable. A proper doughnut is a whole different animal. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to stumble across these yesterday near West Lake in Hangzhou:
Fresh, soft, and dusted in powdered sugar. No glaze, and they …
So I’ve already explained how I arrived in China with a decent foundation in grammar and characters, but some problems with my pronunciation. So what happened next?
Well, first I should explain my initial attitude. Two years previously I had had a great experience studying Japanese in Osaka. I enjoyed the process of learning a new language in a foreign society so much that doing it all over again had become central to my post-graduation plan. So when I arrived …
Last Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Beijing on ChinesePod business. I can’t really talk about that, but hopefully our reasons for being there will all be public by the end of the month. This trip was significant for other reasons, though — I got to (briefly) experience Beijing as a non-tourist for once, and to finally meet some guys I’ve been communicated with over the internet for years (that’s hard to believe) without ever meeting.
The last time I …
The People have spoken through their partner, The China Daily, that unrivaled bastion of integrity on a never-ending quest for Truth. There has been a new survey on the top 10 most livable cities in China.
I am compelled to make a few statements.
While I used to live in Hangzhou, I made the observation that Chinese people seemed to have an unreasonable fear of germs. True, China is not always the most sanitary place on earth, and there’s no question that many Chinese germs live out a blissful existence where antibacterial disenfectants are restricted to germ horror stories. Still, I felt that the germ threat was overplayed in a lot of cases. I will offer but one example.
One time before class started, …
John has lived in China for
11.5
years. He is a linguist focused on SLA and tech.
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