In 1999, I received a scholarship from the government of China to continue my Chinese studies for a year. This is the story of the two semesters I spent at Beijing Normal University and the two months I spent travelling around.

Footage of me on Lanse Yaoji

Scanned pictures from China!

Summer Break: a novella Along with a handy reference map (highlighted in masculine pink) that I made so you can see where exactly I went.

Prologue: Lessons that I've learned

Chapter 1: Chengdu: A New Hope

Chapter 2: Emei Shan: Me, my Thai friends, and a holy Buddhist mountain

Chapter 3: Leshan: Harvard boys and the world's largest Buddha sculpture

Chapter 4: Back in Chengdu

Chapter 5: Kangding

Chapter 6: A long bus ride

Chapter 7: Serxu: Chilling with counterrevolutionaries

Chapter 8: Yushu: More breathtaking temples and disgusting gastrointestinal problems

Chapter 9: Xining: In heaven

Chapter 10: Xi'an: Reverse culture shock

Chapter 11: Beijing: I hardly knew ye!

Epilogue: Ann Arbor, MI: Airport hell

Part one: Beijing-Nanning-Pingxiang-Beihai-Wuzhou

Part two: Guangzhou-Macau-Hong Kong

Part three: Yangshuo-random villages in southern Guizhou-Kaili-Guiyang

My feelings of ambivalence to the Lonely Planet series

My not so nice feelings towards the Koreans I've met out here

A review of the Mando-pop scene.

The WM/AF connection My not very politically correct, not suitable reading for children or the weak of heart essay on why there are so many white male/Asian female (and so few of the converse) relationships.

The definitive guide to my experience teaching English

The Golden Bamboo: An economic analysis of the bar(s) in the vicinity of Beijing Normal University

My classes suck

A translation of one of the chapters in my conversation class book.

A summary of Beijing's hottest newspaper.

Random signs I saw this winter break.

Here are a bunch of emails that I've sent out since I've been in China. They're mundane compared to the swashbuckling story of what I did during summer or winter break, but you can deal with it. I have done a little editing to clarify the unclarified, deleting the deletable etc. In vaguely chronological order...

Culture shock

I've seen hell and it's a Chinese hospital

National Day

Taishan

My birthday

Fish heads and Christmas plans

Burmese gangs

On the set of my latest show

Go home, Whitey!

A not very successful job interview in Chongqing

Thoughts on the Old Summer Palace

Email me

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