The Night My Card Froze at a Noodle Counter in Xi’an
It was 11pm in Xi'an, I had an 18-yuan bowl of noodles, and both payment apps were failing. The bank fraud freeze, the dying phone, and the vendor who let me charge at her counter.
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The Morning at Chengdu’s Panda Base With My Eight-Year-Old Niece
Seven days in China with my eight-year-old niece, day three at Chengdu's Panda Base. Early gates, baby pandas behind glass, and the 380-yuan photo I didn't buy.
The DiDi Ride That Went to the Wrong Station and What I Learned About Getting Around China
I needed to get from my hotel near the Bell Tower to the train station in forty minutes. The subway would take twenty-five if I walked fast and caught the right line. A taxi would take fifteen if traffic cooperated.…
A Chinese Pharmacy, Sign Language, and the Cough That Would Not Quit
The cough started on the train from Chengdu to Kunming. A tickle at first, then a full rattle in my chest by the time I checked into my hotel. By the second morning in Kunming, I was coughing hard enough…
The Park Mahjong Game I Wasn’t Supposed to Join
The Table Had Three Players and a Gap I wasn’t looking for a game. I was cutting through People’s Park in Chengdu — the same park where I’d spent an afternoon doing nothing a few days earlier, as described in…
A Week in Beijing: My First Time and the Things I Got Wrong
My taxi from the airport overcharged me by maybe sixty yuan and I knew it at the time. The driver had refused to start the meter, said something I did not understand, made a circular hand gesture that I read…
The Ultimate Guide to eSIMs and VPNs in China: How to Stay Connected from Day 1
The Moment My Phone Died and So Did My Entire Trip I landed at Beijing Capital at 6am on a January morning, switched on my phone, and watched the signal bars cycle through every carrier on the planet before settling…