A tale of one real and one faux Uber
In recent weeks I enjoyed one fabulous Uber ride and one fake Uber ride. One was in Hong Kong with a worldly-cool Uber driver and the other was in Shenzhen with an […]
Tag Archives: Shenzhen
The picture that got away from us in Shenzhen
“Hey, take a look at that outfit,” my friend whispered over lunch at an outdoor cafe. I turned and saw a middle-aged woman wearing rainbow-splattered clothes from head to toe. […]
Lo Wo, Shenzhen: shopping, spitting and savoring
Is that the long, loud, guttural sound of someone hacking up a giant wad of phlegm? I must have crossed the border into China! After receiving countless short-term China visas, I […]
Dafen 大芬 Art Village: Mass Art for the Masses
Dreamt of owning Starry Night but too timid to pull off a heist at the Van Gogh Museum? Then Shenzhen, China’s Dafen Art Village is your (relatively) lawful solution. In this odd corner […]
“Get the Hell Out of Asia, American Bastards!” or when not to gather insider tips from locals
Scrolling through my Twitter feed this afternoon,” I stumbled across this incongruous pair of tweets: The first tweet relates to the American [foreign policy] “pivot to Asia” and China’s annoyance that […]
Twice Lost in Translation
1. Why are Shenzhen pensioners arguing about a Canadian winter sports hero? For a short time everyday I tune into a radio station broadcast from across the border in Shenzhen, […]
I lie to myself about pollution
I spent a year deluding myself that the Tai Po District of Hong Kong was (relatively) wholesomely clean. Then I hiked up Cloudy Hill on a ‘clear’ day and fully […]
View from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong
It has recently come to my attention that a certain class of Hong Kong expat refers to anything “off the island” as “the dark side.” As someone who currently lives […]
Shenzhen calling, but not for American me…
Shenzhen, a classic border town, full of shopping, prostitutes, and taxi scams. It’s no “Venice of the East,” but I wouldn’t turn up my nose at a tasty inexpensive meal […]
“China is not dangerous,” but I have been known to be wrong-ish
I’m recalling snippets of a conversation I had recently with a group of Hong Kong expats about China. In retrospect I was rather patronizing. And wrong. Me: “I’ve never felt […]
