Taiwan’s Fantastic Fusion Cuisine
One of the great things about Taiwan is the food. Not only is it fresh, varied, and delicious, it’s also quite inexpensive. For these reasons, eating out is practically a national pastime. There are...
View ArticleA bloody encounter with a Shaolin monk
Back in the late ’90’s I was directing a study abroad group of students in Mainland China. At the conclusion of our studies at Nanjing University, we spent a couple weeks traveling around China. One...
View ArticleYou should go to Taiwan!
My colleague and friend, Professor Henrietta Yang at tthe University of Mississippi, and I have been working on this book for the past 4+ years. It was finally published a couple weeks ago by Rowman...
View ArticleIn praise of noodles
Noodles are a big deal in the Chinese world. We simply call noodles miàn 麵 or miàntiáo 麵條 and noodles in soup is called tāngmiàn 湯麵. There is a huge variety of noodles in China, all shapes and sizes....
View ArticleTaiwan: Getting out of the city—Emerald Valley
Another day in Hualien, we rented bikes and went for a nice ride out of the city up to Emerald Valley or 翡翠谷 fěicùigǔ, about 15 kilometers southwest of Hualien. We wound around the somewhat busy...
View ArticleTaiwan: getting out of the city—Taroko Gorge
Hualien is the largest city on Taiwan’s east coast with a population of about 110,000. That’s pretty small for Taiwan, especially when you consider Taiwan’s big cities have millions of residents. It...
View ArticleTaiwan: Getting out of the city—Alishan
Taiwan is not all dense cities. In fact, the topography is quite varied, from jungle to mountain peaks over 12,000′ (3000 m) high. Once you get out of the city, small towns and villages dot the...
View ArticleA Quick trip to Hong Kong
In October I was headed to China to visit some students at their internship sites in Shenzhen, and decided to stop in Hong Kong on the way. It was also cheaper to fly into Hong Kong than Shenzhen....
View ArticleA Geek in China wins award
I received this notification recently, and was rather surprised. The Society of American Travel Writers Foundation (SATW) announced the winners of the 2017 Lowell Thomas Journalism Competition and A...
View ArticleA Geek in China
This book is a project I have been working on the past few years. I was approached by the publisher to write this book and it is part of a series that is selling quite well, which includes A Geek in...
View ArticleTo the people, food is heaven (民以食為天)
This saying, 民以食為天 mín yǐ shí wéi tiān, is a good indication that the Chinese are pretty serious about food and eating. I have written previously on this blog about food terminology in the Chinese...
View ArticleSpectacular Meals: Kunming (昆明 kūnmíng)
一颗印 yì kēyìn Restaurant in Kunming One may not think of Kunming as a culinary hotspot, but it does have some very good restaurants. The food has a definite Sichuan influence with the liberal use of...
View ArticlePoetry is alive and well in China
I came across this article today about a popular poetry app in China. The article is by Wu Yiyao in Shanghai at China Daily. The story is about a WeChat (微信 wēi xìn) app called 读 诗再睡觉 (dú shǒu shī zài...
View ArticleSpectacular Meals: Guiyang (贵阳 guìyáng)
The name of the restaurant was simply 四合院 sì hé yuàn; this is what traditional courtyard houses were called in China. April, 2013 my side kick Michael and I were in Guiyang for a few days to check out...
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