Taichi outside the Summer Palace

Beijing Arrival

---

July 17th 2010
My arrival in Beijing has been a marked turning point. As soon as I landed, it was a whole new ball game. Culturally, it has been absolutely mind-blowing. Language wise, it's been a sort of linguistic playground where my Mandarin has improved greatly. Ironically, nowhere else have I felt more like a 100 percent red-blooded American. Chinese culture is vastly different than its Western counterpa ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing

---

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