Metro Mart

East Meets West

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March 10th 2012
As I write this, I’m sitting in a KFC having a cup of milk tea. This particular KFC -- it's one of three in Xiasha -- is situated in a huge circular shopping mall a few blocks east of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, where I teach. The mall is baby blue, very high design, with a round courtyard in the center surrounded by restaurants and cafes. There’s a Dairy Queen, a Pizza Hut, and a KFC st ... read more

Asia » China » Hangzhou

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For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more