Category Archives: Uncategorized

Around this time, I got the news that Beijing was going into COVID war mode. Although still low, in the single digits, the delta cases kept increasing and as I stated earlier, if there is one thing the Chinese understand, it’s the power of exponentials. War mode in this case meant that tracking was inContinue reading “Lijiang, Yulong and Baisha”

Originally, I was planning to write a blog entry every day during my trip around northern Yunnan, but it turned out that my days were so full of activities and new impressions that I was exhausted by the time I retreated to my hotel room. The last thing I had inspiration for was to writeContinue reading “Dali and Xizhou”

My arrival in昆明 (Kunming) by highspeed train, with only a 24-minutes delay, was effectively flawless. My travel guide / Chinese teacher / friend, Yuwen, was waiting for me and ready to go to dinner and drop me off at the hotel afterwards. She invited the travel agency organizer along so we could finish up someContinue reading “Kunming and Shilin”

This is going to be a first of a series of blog entries about my vacation in 云南 (Yunnan). When I decided to go to China, the whole China team was encouraging me to go on vacation and see different parts of the country. That sounds great but you don’t really get to do thatContinue reading “Getting to Yunnan the slow way”

Any visitor to Beijing during the summertime, especially someone who likes to explore the downtown Hutong neighborhoods, will quickly get familiar with the concept of a Beijing bikini. A Beijing bikini is the name for typically middle-aged men that roll up their t-shirt and let it rest on the ledge of their beer bellies soContinue reading “Beijing Bikini”

Did you know Beijing had a rainy season between mid-July and mid-August? I didn’t and it was quite a surprise to me. I associate summers with high temperatures and sunny weather, not high temperatures and a constant down poor. This results in high humidity, and it makes any kind of outdoor activity a draining experienceContinue reading “Rainy Season”

I want to do something different with this entry and make it more like a guest blog. A friend of mine, Yungang Bao, provided me with extensive feedback that further illustrate some of the points I was making in my previous blog post. It’s interesting to read his Chinese perspective and therefore I copied hisContinue reading “Feedback from a Chinese citizen”

July 1st was the 100-year anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It was a major event and then again it wasn’t. Let me explain. The whole city was reminded of the upcoming anniversary about a week before the event. Posters were all over the subway stations and 100-year signs were mounted all across theContinue reading “100-year Anniversary of the Communist Party”

Like a true local, I haven’t done much sightseeing yet. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet, but that changed this weekend. I’ve been trying to catch up with a friend of mine in Beijing for almost a month and we hadn’t managed to do so. He probably felt guilty about that because thisContinue reading “A Weekend Excursion: 古北水镇”

After almost a month I have found my daily routine. In the mornings, I get up around 6am, have breakfast at 6:30am and I’ll start my US calls from 7-11am and then head for the Microsoft Research office in Haidian, Beijing. If I have a late office start like this, then I tend to grabContinue reading “Daily life”