Urban Irving

A very large Ferris Wheel at the southern end of Shanghai. Dusty Venus — most of the dust is a result of construction/demolition.

This little boy was making so much noise that at first I thought his life was in danger, but he was simply one of those kids who is very loud while having a [...]

To A Small Town In Eastern Gansu

The typhoon that tried to dissolve Taiwan is now in Nanjing, washing the city in a manner that is downright obsessive/compulsive. Even this far inland, the wind is strong enough to overturn a baby carriage. I care enough about you to hope that you are not out there tonight pushing a baby around Nanjing.
Escape from [...]

Jun Fu Bets His Cow

From Tales of the Times — New Edition/ Stories from 3rd to 5th century, paraphrased
Jun Fu Bets His Cow
Wang Jun Fu had a prized cow named BaBaiLiBo. He or someone else regularly polished the animal’s horns and hooves until they shined.
One fateful day, Wang WuZi said to Wang JunFu, “You are a better archer than [...]

Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong)

Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong)
A colleague here in Nanjing said that he finds most famous tourist sites in China “underwhelming”. The Chinese somehow manage to take a relic or site that has an interesting story behind it and turn it into trivia and platitudes. I don’t know how the process works, but they [...]

incest, someone on a bus, towel of babber

Book Reviews at a Shanghai Bookstore
This bookstore orders most of its history books from the same few publishers, so it’s a good place to learn about the incestuous world of writers and those who write book reviews. Writers sometimes cluster into groups that review and promote each other’s books. The author of this book is [...]

Peninsular Villages – Zhanghu 樟湖

china, villages, fishing, boats

Game Called Off Because of Coal

Between Taiping and Liujiacun (怮, 隸模游, two little Min River towns), I passed some guys burning their fields, then came to an abandoned lumber mill that was now being used to store coal. Behind this was a clan temple. While snooping around the clan temple, the backboard came into view, and so I climbed [...]

Aqua City, Empty Gesture, Boot Camp, Cao Cao

Aqua City!
One of the newest and best-funded shopping malls in Nanjing is called Aqua City (shuiyoucheng). In tribute to the canal culture of Nanjing and the entire Yangzi Delta, long waterways loop around the stores, connecting several ponds with fountains of colorful, dancing water. One of the fountains has a stage in the middle. The [...]

Food Signs in China

Food Signs – Gaoyang Restaurant in Yinchuan

Food Signs – Pingliang 1

Food Signs – Pingliang 2

Food Signs – Pingliang 3

Food Signs – Pingliang 4

Food Signs – Pingliang 5

Food Signs – Pingliang 6

Food Signs – Yinchuan 1

Food Signs – Yinchuan 2

Food Signs – Yinchuan 3

Food Signs – Yinchuan 4

Ancient Rock Carvings Near Yinchuan, Ningxia Province

The first photo shows XiXia or Tangut script next to an older carving of some nomad’s deity; the script is sort of a Buddhist commentary on the earlier image.
The XiXia script has to date between the early 11th century and 1227, when Genghis Khan’s army took vengeance on those duplicitous Tanguts. The script looks pretty [...]