Spring is a brief, but lovely, season in Beijing.  Last Sunday afternoon, I was in the general vicinity of Zhongshan Park, which is...

My Chinese class just finished reading an essay about emperor Kangxi, one of China’s greatest emperors.  Somehow in our discussion,...

Spring comes quickly in Beijing, and quickly proceeds to summer.  We hit the upper 80s already at the end of April, as we usually do....

This past weekend was a 3-day holiday in China, for the traditional Tomb Sweeping holiday.  I decided to do something that I would find...

My first project after returning to China was finding a new apartment.  The landlord of my previous apartment sold it, so I couldn’t...

Shortly after I arrived in China, I visited Yuanmingyuan (The Old Summer Palace) for the first time.  That was in October, and I could...

Spring has arrived in Beijing!  Actually, we had a day or two this past week that felt like summer was about to arrive (but most people...

Last winter, I saw snow on the ground ONCE, and it wasn’t very much snow.  Winter was cold and dry.  After surviving the previous winter,...

Earlier this summer I shared the top 10 unexpected t-shirts I had seen to that point.  After I posted it, I kept seeing interesting...

Visitor: Is that our bus honking the horn? Experienced with China Friends: (with a shrug of their shoulders) Maybe… Visitor: (trying to...

On Saturday, I went on a group hike to a section of the un-restored Great Wall.  This section is far off the tourist path and some work...

I don’t start back to class until Monday.  So this week I decided to spend a day learning about and enjoying Beijing.  First, I went to...

Sunday I took a quick trip to the Temple of Heaven with some church friends who were passing through Beijing.  The Temple of Heaven is...

In some ways, it seems odd for a coffee shop to be popular in China, where tea is the most common beverage.  And yet, coffee shops are...

If this blog is any indication, I go to the Great Wall a lot.  I promise this isn’t normal.  We just had more visitors.  When you have...

I had visitors this week, and I took them to the Great Wall Wednesday.  There are several portions north of Beijing, and the one we went...

Today I took advantage of the “golden season” weather (temperatures in the mid-60s, clear, with blue skies) and visited a site I’ve long...

If I had cameras following me for the last week (plus a bigger budget and higher expectations) this is what I imagine my House Hunters:...