I’ve long loved the look of watercolor painting and wished I could do it myself. Seeing a friend share some of her beginning watercolor...

A couple of years ago, I arrived back in Beijing on about March 17. A few days later, I noticed that the lilac bushes in my apartment...

“Return Slowly” sign at The Hermitage Community Last week, I heard a story. There was once a group of Western scientists that wanted to...

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

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....

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,...

I currently have a six-month visa that can’t be renewed in Beijing.  In order to get a new one, I had to take a trip to Hong Kong.  Since...

After the days we spent exploring the breathtaking Jiuzhaigou and admiring the pandas’ cuteness, we spent our last day relaxing in the...

After our beautiful day in Jiuzhaigou, we took a 9+ hour bus ride south, through the area where the epicenter of the 2008 earthquake was,...

Sometimes I like to take my camera out and take a saunter around my neighborhood, stopping to photograph whatever seems interesting. ...

“Welcome home,” a friend greeted me when I got back to Beijing from my travels.  It was a good feeling, to be welcomed back to this...

“All it takes is the decision to walk with some awareness, both of who you are and what you are doing” (An Altar in the World, Barbara...