Lifestyle
Lifestyle / Hot Pot Column

Gift of giving is one click away

[2012-01-19 11:11]

As the Chinese New Year draws near, I am getting anxious: What gifts should I take to my hometown of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province?

A trip worth more than I bargained for to Taiwan

[2012-01-18 10:00]

What I didn't know at that time was that mainlanders go to Taiwan with the purpose of buying, and visiting while buying, while my purpose was visiting first.

A cultural difference that pricks and drips through healthcare

[2012-01-17 10:11]

My first look into the Chinese medical system came six years ago, when my wife and I traveled to see family in her hometown in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.

My inner cave person speaks Chinese

[2012-01-11 10:58]

Back in the days when men were men and mammoths were wooly, language was a simple affair.

Time to accept I'm forever a foreigner in Zhengzhou

[2012-01-05 10:31]

It's strange how I can be aware of how far behind China's first-tier cities Henan's provincial capital Zhengzhou is, yet still remain desensitized to the fact.

An all-consuming word that turns people into economic units

[2012-01-04 13:55]

If there are two words in the English language that I find increasingly irritating, they are the words "consumer" and its plural.

Winter chills and warm hearts show a different theory of relativity

[2011-12-28 09:32]

Spring Festival will arrive as early as Jan 23 in 2012. I'm wondering where I will spend it.

Now I'm learning how to live life all over again, from speaking to renting

[2011-12-22 15:22]

Living in China, I feel that I've had to re-experience rights of passage I dealt with long ago in the US.

White lies about the man in red, and other things, color parenthood

[2011-12-21 15:45]

As Christmas flies round again, some Chinese friends have asked me how we can justify lying to our children about the man in red.

Where the real deal hides behind facades

[2011-12-20 09:51]

What is it about Beijing property developers?

'The cheese is always bluer on the other side'

[2011-12-15 17:09]

Gorgonzola, Emmental, red Leicester, Port Salut ... every expat has a little nostalgia about home and something that they ache for.

Christmas came much too early this year for me

[2011-12-13 13:22]

One afternoon in November, I was strolling through a supermarket in Beijing on a quick errand.

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