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A Morning Bowl of Mutton Soup in Yinchuan Changed How I Understand Light and Rich
On my second morning in Yinchuan, I woke before the alarm. The sky outside looked rinsed with cold water, the trees along the street were thin and clear, and taxis slid through emp
At a Hotel Front Desk, I Learned Not to Rely Only on Email
“Could you show me the booking?” the young woman at the front desk asked softly, her hands already resting on the keyboard as if she was ready to solve a small matter quickly. But
Arriving in Beijing at Dawn Taught Me Not to Overpack the First Day
When the plane landed, Beijing had not fully woken up. Outside the window, the runway lights stretched like thin wet threads under a pale blue sky. I sat up slowly after a long fli
A Hot Soup at a Highway Service Area Showed Me the Details of Road Trips in China
The rain grew heavier after dusk. We were driving from Hangzhou toward southern Anhui, and we had thought the guesthouse would be only a little more than two hours away, but the na
Security Lines at Chinese Scenic Spots Have Their Own Rhythm
The first time I really noticed the security line at the entrance of a Chinese scenic spot was on a misty morning. The plaza had just been washed by a street-cleaning truck, and th
A Xi’an Night Market Lesson: Don’t Chase the Longest Queue Blindly
At half past six in the evening, I walked from the Bell Tower area toward the Muslim Quarter, and the sky had not quite turned dark yet. For a foreigner trying to eat a serious din
At a Wet Market Breakfast Stall, One “This One” Got Me Hot Soy Milk
The first time I walked into that wet market in a southern Chinese city, the morning had not fully opened yet. Low bulbs hung over the entrance and shone on the damp concrete floor
A Plastic Stool in a Guiyang Night Market Made Me Drop My Tourist Distance
When I arrived in Guiyang that evening, the rain had just stopped. The road looked freshly wiped, and neon lights broke into red, green, and orange fragments in the puddles. I had
Learning Dim Sum at a Guangzhou Morning Tea Table
The first time I truly sat down in a Guangzhou morning tea restaurant, the air felt as if it had just been lifted from a bamboo steamer. Drops of water still clung to the banyan le
I Lost My Direction at a High-Speed Railway Station but Not My Trip
The first time I took a Chinese high-speed train alone to another city, what made me nervous was not the speed or even the language, but direction inside the station. I carried a s