Monthly Archives: January 2017

Bleak

I need to spend a single night at the airport hotel in Ürümqi before catching my morning flight back to Xi’an and thence to Shanghai.  The hotel was massive, the surveillance ubiquitous, and the architecture distinctly Sino-Authoritarian.  Looking out my window … Continue reading

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Bourgeois III

Security at the Kashgar airport was insane.  To get into the ticketing area, you had to show ID and undergo the most thorough pat-down I’ve ever been subjected to.  Crazy long lines, stretching outside into the freezing cold.  Then another … Continue reading

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Juxtaposition

I thought this image from Kashi was telling:  remnants of the city’s ancient wall, surrounded by razor wire and with a surveillance camera perched on top.

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Common

Ah.  A hospital for “common people” rather than, say, Cedars-Sinai.

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Apples

“Chiken” is “chicken,” I assume.  But wait, do they feed the apples to the chicken?  Is it like food for chickens or is it human food that’s a mix of apples & chicken but with double the amount of expected apples … Continue reading

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Fashion

Throughout Asia, I’ve seen some pretty absurd things written in English on clothes.  Misspellings.  Mangled grammar.  Embarrassingly unintended vulgarities.  But I have a real about not taking pictures of people without their permission and I’m always reluctant to ask people … Continue reading

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Silk III

Remember this thing?  The Colosseum tchotchke I bought in Rome?  The one made in China? I had an idea.  I brought the mini-Colosseum with me to Xinjiang. Now, I think of myself as a Romantic.  And I do things other people wouldn’t … Continue reading

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Livestock

The farther away from the cosmopolitan center of Shanghai and the deeper into the remote parts of China that I venture, the more I have to rely on my Mandarin.  But sometimes, my Mandarin fails me. This was such a … Continue reading

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Bazaar

Lying, as it does, at an important crossroad of the Silk Road, Kashgar’s Sunday Market is legendary, providing a hub for over two thousand years where goods could be traded between East and West. It is sprawling.  Absolutely sprawling.  It makes the … Continue reading

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Landscape

I call this one “Blackbirds in Tree with Smokestack and Cooling Tower.”

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Concubine

The Chinese word for “concubine” is 妃子 (fēizi).  Eli & I only learned this because it comes up so often in Chinese soap operas.  There is a famous story from the Qing Dynasty about one of Emperor Qianlong‘s consorts who was … Continue reading

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Dream

Saw this sign on a street divider.  It reads 中国梦,我的梦 (Zhōngguó mèng, wǒ de mèng meaning “China’s dream, my dream”) It’s quite poetic & beautiful.  If you take it at face value.

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Population II

While I’m at it, I might as well update my population chart. Location 地方 Population Chongqing 重庆 52,100,000 Tokyo 东京 37,800,000 Shanghai 上海 34,000,000 Beijing 北京 24,900,000 Hangzhou 杭州 21,521,000 Tianjin 天津 15,500,000 Xi’an 西安 13,500,000 Los Angeles 洛杉矶 13,000,000 … Continue reading

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Distance

I started wondering wondering if Kashgar was the farthest I had ever been from where I grew up.  (Almost, but not quite, as it turns out.)  In the spirit of the population and elevation charts, I made this: Location 地方 … Continue reading

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Peripatetic

Stacks of camel saddles in the marketplace around the Id Kah Mosque. My grandparents had a passion for travel.  They went all over the world, often with my father, aunts, uncle, and then, later, grandchildren in tow.  Their house was filled … Continue reading

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