China is opening up, slowly, by fits and starts

Some of you may have followed the news about protests against censorship at Southern Weekend, one of the more independent-minded Chinese pub...

Chinese adults stay limber with hacky sack

http://youtu.be/d5ckSU7X7wg The adults in this video are pretty limber. Cindy and I went to Ritan Park on Saturday in Beijing. It's rig...

Hike in hills has auspicious beginning

Cindy and farmer near Auspicious Village On Sunday we joined about 20 other folks on a hiking trip to villages about 90 minutes north of Bei...

What a $6 haircut looks like

 The barbershops on the Tsinghua University campus offer haircuts for 10 yuan, about $1.75. Last year I had a couple of bad experiences at $...

To get a girlfriend, you need a back seat

One of my favorite sites on the Tsinghua University campus is of the male students hauling their female friends around on the back of their ...

Be bold, and luck be with you

My address to the 2012 graduates of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University, Beijing.  I am going to talk with you a b...

Guangxi: Terraced rice paddies, sugarloaf mountains

Rice paddy near Ping'an Yao women are famous for their long hair. A tourism boom is fueling construction of new homes and hotels  in rur...