Category: China

How to Pick a Good Tailor in Shanghai, or Anywhere

The fabric markets in Shanghai can house hundreds of mom and pop booths, this translates to hundreds of potential tailors for you. Which one should you choose? How do you spot a good tailor? I spent two days interviewing tailors from booth to booth, here...

Shanghai: Home Cooked Meals Edition

Compare to other provinces in China, Shanghai’s traditional dishes distinguish itself by the delicate and time intensive process of food preparation. Often times the cooking begins early afternoon for dinner. Here’s what I got to try at my aunt’s house:  

Guilin: Longsheng and the Rice Terraces

Part 2 of 2 – Longsheng After a three days stay in Yangshuo I hopped on a bus and head towards Longsheng. I heard they have the most well known rice terraces in that region and the women of the villages are often seen washing their life-long...

Guilin: A Painting by God

Part 1 – Yangshuo First stop in Guilin is Yangshuo. Before we get into any more details, there is one thing and one thing everyone must try in Guilin: Guilin Vermicelli. Like Pho is to Vietnam and Pad Thai is to Thailand, Guilin Vermicelli is regional...

What’s so Hard About Climbing 1840 Meters?

An attempt to hit the peak of the most well-known mountain in China…HuangShan. Let me start with a brief summary of how the three of us decided to go. During dinner Thursday night at a Japanese BBQ restaurant I asked if anyone wants to go...

Public Utensils Broken

Yes it is true. I have been public utensils broken. What the heck is that you ask? Public utensils=serving spoons and forks. This might be the norm in western culture but in Asia, there is no such thing. When me and my brother was little...

Shanghai: Where My Local Relatives Took Me

 Tips and things to do: Visit the tailor market and get a custom made suite/dress/qipo. You can bring a picture of what you want or pick out a style from the displays or magazine they have. Buy a silk comforter. It’s the best thing (even...

Getting Run Over Just By Standing

Tips for Hong Kong: If you’re Asian, speak English, not Mandarin. Apparently since the ’97 deal, there were a lot of mandarin speaking people who snuck in from China, took many blue collar jobs from the local HKnese. Since they can’t tell apart mandarin accents...