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...

There’s a metaphor in cross-cultural training that goes something like this: your home culture is a yellow culture and has yellow ways to...

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,...

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday.  I love the memories from when I was young and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered...

On my last trip to the Great Wall, about five minutes after I arrived at the top of the wall, a kid (maybe about 12) mustered up the...

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....

One of my favorite memories from the time I was in the U.S. this fall was teaching several groups of people to make Chinese dumplings....

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

Every time I post about my attempts to cook Chinese food, American friends who have lived in China ask about The Green Beans.  This dish...

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...

A year ago, encouraged by Velvet Ashes, I picked a word for 2015.  I honestly wasn’t completely sold on picking one word, so I didn’t...

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,...

Foreigners in China have a phrase, “this is China,” sometimes abbreviated T.I.C.  It is usually used to describe situations that don’t go...

中秋节快乐！  zhōng qiū jié kuài lè !  Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! A few weeks ago (September 27), we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival, one of...

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...

The theme at Velvet Ashes (one of my favorite websites) this week is a fun one—top ten lists.  I I decided to stick with something...

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...

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