Turn off the TV and e-games and travel through time, space

One of the many good things I have experienced since I moved to China has been an invigorated interest in reading. With my favorite television programs harder or impossible to access, I turned to the (electronic) pages of an e-reader.

Since I was eager to learn all about my new home, I turned to Chinese authors as well as foreign authors, including those of the Chinese diaspora. (I had read a biography of early revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen when I was about 12, long before I ever imagined living here.)

One of my early favorites when I arrived in China was US writer and journalist Peter Hessler, who took the name He Wei in China. His River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, about his introduction to China in 1996 as an English teacher in Fuling, Sichuan province (now part of Chongqing), is an excellent primer for newcomers. His descriptions of day-to-day life are insightful, and he captures an interesting point in time as China opened up.