From a friend (and hosted on Danwei), a new show on urban life in Shanghai: “The Shanghai Beat”. The first episode features a tour of Shanghai’s gay scene. More to come…

Another video, also from the Children’s Palace in Pyongyang. This one is of a band playing the song “Thunder on Jong-Il Peak”, possibly my favourite of the DPRK’s musical contributions:

To make up for the continuing lack of a DPRK travelogue, I present this video, filmed at one of Pyongyang’s “Children’s Palaces” on our last full day in Pyongyang:

Winter in Beijing is deceptively cold. An absolute minimum of about -10 Celsius may not sound too bad to true cold-weather veterans, but it discounts the effect of the gale-force Siberian winds I encounter riding to and from my university; by some quirk of meteorology, I run into headwinds in both directions. I’m not sure […]

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, I was fortunate to be invited to stay at the home of a Chinese friend of mine in Eastern Beijing. In preparation for the holiday, his family had bought a veritable arsenal of fireworks, which we all proceeded to set alight with little regard for personal safety. I shot two […]