Home is where the heart is - and where the tracks lead

2012-02-08 11:22:32

At 12:37 pm, the elegant and futuristic-looking bullet train zips out of Jiaxing station.

Is it the zombie apocalypse or Chinese New Year?

2012-02-07 13:16:39

The chilled January wind swirled dust across our path as my Dutch friend and I walked down a side street just east of the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

A new class of Chinese students emerging in US

2012-02-02 16:49:31

University students from China studying in the United States don't look like they used to.

Gift of giving is one click away

2012-01-19 11:11:09

As the Chinese New Year draws near, I am getting anxious: What gifts should I take to my hometown of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province?

A trip worth more than I bargained for to Taiwan

2012-01-18 10:00:57

What I didn't know at that time was that mainlanders go to Taiwan with the purpose of buying, and visiting while buying, while my purpose was visiting first.

A cultural difference that pricks and drips through healthcare

2012-01-17 10:11:22

My first look into the Chinese medical system came six years ago, when my wife and I traveled to see family in her hometown in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.

My inner cave person speaks Chinese

2012-01-11 10:58:33

Back in the days when men were men and mammoths were wooly, language was a simple affair.

Time to accept I'm forever a foreigner in Zhengzhou

2012-01-05 10:31:47

It's strange how I can be aware of how far behind China's first-tier cities Henan's provincial capital Zhengzhou is, yet still remain desensitized to the fact.

An all-consuming word that turns people into economic units

2012-01-04 13:55:10

If there are two words in the English language that I find increasingly irritating, they are the words "consumer" and its plural.

Winter chills and warm hearts show a different theory of relativity

2011-12-28 09:32:16

Spring Festival will arrive as early as Jan 23 in 2012. I'm wondering where I will spend it.

Now I'm learning how to live life all over again, from speaking to renting

2011-12-22 15:22:59

Living in China, I feel that I've had to re-experience rights of passage I dealt with long ago in the US.

White lies about the man in red, and other things, color parenthood

2011-12-21 15:45:14

As Christmas flies round again, some Chinese friends have asked me how we can justify lying to our children about the man in red.