Top articles
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rain
I like rain. Rain is good. First of all, Beijing doesn't have enough water. More rain equals more water. Secondly, rain cleans the air, but unlike wind, it doesn't bring with it the threat of dust and sand and other nasties blowing around. It simply,...
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Hainan Yellow
When we visited Gege and his family last weekend, one of the many things he insisted we take with us when we left was a box containing two small jars of chilli sauce. No big deal, right? I spent my first year in China in Hunan, home of the hottest, and...
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warmth?
Apparently our central heating is on. The pipes are a little warmer than they were two days ago. We were warned that the heating in this apartment is kinda pathetic, but even so... Silly thing is that neither of us feel cold and we have the windows open...
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老诚一锅
Well, I think I've got the name of the place right in the title. It's a chain of restaurants with branches covering most of Beijing (including two within an easy bus or taxi ride of BeiGongDa), but we visited the one near our friends' place in Beichen....
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another anniversary
The 70th anniversary of the Rape of Nanking falls this week. Nanjing (formerly spelt Nanking) fell to the Japanese on December 13, 1937, 70 years ago today, and when they entered the city the Japanese soldiers started an orgy of rape and murder that lasted...
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tears streaming down my cheeks
My bike got stolen. I'm very sad. Really, I am. Alright, I'm not. It's a pity the bastard had to cut a perfectly good lock to steal my bike. Well, no, obviously it was not a very good lock at all. Ok, so I have no reason to be sad about the theft of my...
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biodiesel
Y'know, I'm a bit sceptical about biodiesel and other alternative fuels (ethanol being the big one, which is already causing problems). I mean, aren't we still burning hydrocarbons and churning out carbon dioxide? Well, I suppose the plants raised to...
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Nanking
Last night we watched Nanking . It is an excellent film. A timely film, appearing for the seventieth anniversary of the Rape of Nanking. It's a much needed film: How is it that the Rape of Nanking is still so little known outside China? It is not a scholarly...
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oops, I forgot
I was actually quite impressed with Wang Lihong's performance in Lust:Caution. lzh assures me he's famous for singing. I thought he was famous for his silly English name (Wang Lihom?) and all the ads he's in. Anyway, I certainly wasn't expecting any acting...
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exams
I hate giving exams. I have one more then I'm done for the semester, but that also means I have a huge stack of papers to mark. But it's not the marking that I hate most. No, that's only second worst. What I hate the most is that exams bring out the stupidest...
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snowed under
I really should be marking assignments. This is taking too long. Trouble is, four classes of thirty-something, pushing fourty students each, and most of the students really are not up to university-level English writing.... Well, they are IT majors, so...
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In My Father's Den
I watched In My Father's Den last night. Finally. The first attempt was when my parents and Roubaozi were here, we'd just got back from pizza at The Tree, and lzh had already gone up to Yanqing to take care of all the last minute wedding stuff... that...
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hit+miss
So it went like this: Miss: Wanda Plaza cinema, or whatever that place is called. Well, I suppose it's a good sign, amidst all this talk of inflation, that plenty of Chinese people feel confident enough to go out and splurge on Christmas Eve. I mean,...
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I hate exams
I really hate giving exams. Especially writing. It results in so much mind-numbing paperwork. First everything needs to be marked, then I have to spend forever calculating grades and filling in the official forms. Gah. One more to go. Year 2 Writing at...
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the aftermath
Early in the afternoon of Friday, 30 November, 2007, lzh and I and all those involved in the planning and running of our wedding sat down, utterly exhausted, at a few empty tables and finally got some lunch. Looking back, I can't see what it was that...
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the end is nigh
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it's not a train about to run me down. Or, for the sake of not being unnecessarily melodramatic: I've caught up on the paperwork. Everything that can be done, is done. So, one more exam tomorrow morning,...
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Lust:戒:Caution:色
One of the films we picked up on our trip through Wanda on Christmas Eve was Ang Lee/李安's latest, Lust:Caution/色戒. It's quite different from what I expected, in many ways, and I think that's probably because of all the hype. And yet it is an Ang Lee film:...
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青梅酒
Greengage. That's what that other Fengshou/丰收 fruit wine was. My first impression is just as positive. It's 15% alcohol by volume, very slightly stronger than the haw wine, although I'm not sure how much of an effect that has on the flavour or drinkability,...
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Christmas
So it's Christmas Eve again. I've definitely been in China too long. Christmas just about slipped by unnoticed. It's odd how that happens, but it's to be expected. Well, no, not really, because Christmas, or something bearing a superficial resemblance...
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大西北
Once again, thanks to Danwei (there's a very good reason why Danwei and ESWN are the first two blogs I read every day), I found my way to the China Heritage Quarterly. The current issue focusses on the Northwest, in particular Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia....
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和谐号
Thanks to Micah for the reminder- in fact, I don't understand how I could've forgotten this, but anyway: On the way back from picking up my residence permit on Friday (which I thought at the time was Thursday- yeah, I'm on summer holiday time), as the...
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a reputation destroyed
Everybody always says Sichuan food is the best food in the world. Well, Sichuan people are always saying that, and a lot of others agree that Sichuan food is pretty damn good. Personally, although I've never been to Sichuan itself, I was never that impressed...
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one of those days
It's one of those days when I have to remind myself to step away from the computer and get some lunch. Remind? No, force. It's also one of those days when my usual sifting through blogs and the news gets cast aside in favour of a sudden obsession. Well,...
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who?
Now twice so far in my research in Yanqing's history in two different Chinese sources, one in English one in Chinese, I've come across the Shanrong people. First up was this article, The Economy and Culture of the Shanrong People, from the Beijing Municipal...
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The Shanrong people
So trying to figure out what was happening in and around prehistoric Yanqing is rather frustrating, as is trying to figure out exactly who the Xiongnu and Shanrong were and where they came from. But what can we find out about the Shanrong? Fortunately,...