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Unfortunately, the title of this post is neither a joke nor a temporary situation. By government fiat, homes and offices In China that happen to be located south of the Yangtze River do not have any central heating in the winter. This despite the fact that the temperature in many places (including Changsha, where I [...]
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Until you’ve lived in China, it’s hard to understand the speed with which everything changes: restaurants, neighborhoods, government regulations, you name it. This is an occupational hazard of travel writing here, since the expiration date on your recommendations can pass in the blink of an eye. You might recommend a neighborhood for shaokao, only to [...]
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Every September, military uniforms become a common sight at university campuses around China. It’s not a sudden influx of soldiers — though there are some of those around, too. The military-clad teenagers are actually China’s newest university students. Before starting classes, all college freshmen in China must undergo a few weeks of military training. At [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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As you already know if you’ve seen a major Western newspaper, today is the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. Not that you would know it from any Chinese newspaper. As reported elsewhere, Tiananmen Square is closed today, and the perimeter is surrounded by plainclothes cops. I had to wonder — would I [...]
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Over the weekend, a group of fellow teachers and I headed out for one of our favorite Changsha traditions: spicy bullfrog! Called 牛蛙 (niuwa, which literally means bullfrog), is a specialty of Hunan cuisine. Dinner at the Bullfrog Restaurant is the traditional first-group-dinner for the Yale-China fellows in Changsha every September. This weekend, we were [...]
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I’m following with interest the pursuits of Alison Stein Wellner, self-proclaimed Heat Seeker, as she tries to find the hottest food in the world. So far, Frankfurt (not my first thought when it comes to spicy food, but apparently there is such thing as the “currywurst”) and India have yet to truly test her spice-tolerance. [...]
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Travel stories and advice from an independent traveler and expat in China. Full bio
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