One of the things I’ve noticed in my years of living elsewhere, is that multinational fast food places seem to try really hard to court their local markets by attempting to mould their products into something vaguely resembling the local tastes. I remember seeing …
Last night around 10, my immune system decided it felt like inviting a cold around for a visit. Just as I was readying myself for what ought to have been a full night’s sleep, my nose went awry and my eyeballs hummed. This alone would …
Shanghai in June is pretty grim. So is Shanghai between November and, say, March. Or maybe April. May and October can be quite nice, with skies you can actually see and skylines with visibility beyond the nearest few blocks. A lot of the year is …
Today I did what every foreign expert must do at least once a year (or like last year when I changed jobs and visas about three times in as many months) and I made my pilgrimage to the Public Security Bureau to renew my residence …
On the 6:44am Line 1 metro out of Shanxi Rd, half the cars are filled with PLA soldiers going to work at People’s Square. They occupy the centre aisle, standing in perfect regimental rows, in half-car segments each led by an officer. When they exit, they exit …
I’m pretty wussy when it comes to meat- I lean heavily towards vegetarian and would label myself a lacto-ovo-bacon vegetarian if it were an option. In Istanbul I was able to veer into shallow omnivore waters because butchers would happily do all the cutting and …
I’ve learned not to schedule a haircut for days when I have anything else that needs doing. The cutting itself usually doesn’t take much longer than it does for hair removal miami. My standard haircut is nothing unnecessarily complicated- it’s a chin-length bob with bangs. …
Shanghai’s got a lot of alleyways. I’m a huge fan of them, perhaps as a human level antidote to the carelessly changing skyscraper skyline of this city. They like things to be new, big and shiny here. I prefer smaller things in my line of …
I have no intention of singling out this city for its very thorough surveillance set up: In fact, I’d say London was worse in the privacy-violation category. However, this is definitely an aspect of Shanghai that is there, that isn’t always obvious, and that …
