Do only Mandarin-speaking foreigners really feel like they belong in China? Or will foreigners always feel like outsiders, no matter how good our Chinese is?
That's the dilemma I encountered during an evening walk with a newly-arrived foreigner in Hangzhou.
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On the morning of July 22, a solar eclipse will darken skies over a large swathe of Asia. The eclipse’s umbra – an area of almost complete darkness, where the sun, moon and earth’s surface are perfectly aligned – will pass over north-east India, China’s middle and Japan’s Pacific Ocean islands.
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Imagine the scene: 20 year old Hu Bin, prince of a nouveau riche family throttles-up his blazing red, modified, sports car, zooms down a Hangzhou street - and hits a 25 year old male, Tan Zhou, on a pedestrian crossing.
The victim - according to local reports - is thrown 5 metres into the air, landing 20 metres further down the road.
A blind boy born with an "untreatable" eye condition is travelling to China to receive a revolutionary stem cell therapy that could partially restore his sight.
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China's southern Guangdong province will resume the weeklong May Day holiday this year in a bid to revive the economy. In 2007, China cut the May Day holiday from 7 to 3 days to ease overcrowded travel. The holiday will fall on May 1-7. Two days will be paid leave and local residents will have to work over the weekend of May 9-10.
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People enjoy a good horror story. In fact, travel writing often feeds on the negative aspects of a place rather than the positive. A guest lecturing journalist at my university once said that good travel writing is full of horror, the unexpected and the absurd.
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You probably do not know what ostmanthus tree is. It doesn’t matter. But I can tell you it smells so wonderful when the tree is in blossom, producing a light, fresh and pleasing fragrance with its small yellow flowers.
To experience this very delightful smell, you must visit Hangzhou in September. For ostmanthus is the city flower of Hangzhou, which is one of China’s five ostmanthus producing areas. The Manjuelong Village to the south west of the West Lake is the spot for smelling the tree flowers. There, more than 7000 ostmanthus trees are planted, with some 200 years old.
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