Travelog
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Zhenyuan, the other Silk Road
A garrison town wrapped around an S-bend of the Wuyang River, a cliff with thirty-six buildings bolted to it, and a lesson about toll gates that cost me a hundred yuan.
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Chongqing, the world’s biggest city?
Everyone tells you Chongqing is the largest city on earth. Thirty-two million people, they say. The number is real, and it is still the wrong number.
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Chengdu, panda town
Three hours through the mountains from Xi’an, an afternoon in a restored Manchu garrison, and a 07:30 slot at the panda base that did nothing whatsoever to beat the crowds.
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Xi’an, the beginning of the Silk Road
Farmers digging a well in 1974, a history museum where you fight for a view of every display case, and eight thousand clay soldiers in the rain outside Xi’an.
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Three days in Shanghai
Three days in Shanghai: a garden built for somebody’s father, a neighborhood I reached ninety minutes late, and a mile of riverfront that everybody stands on with their backs turned.
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Shanghaied
A taxi collected me at half past eight and the next morning I woke up in Shanghai. There is a technical term for that, and it involves nineteenth century Portland.
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Night Market and a Red-Eye Home
The last night in Mumbai: a night market, a decision not to sleep, and a 2:25 AM departure. Seat 59D turns out to be a find. Home before noon.
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Hollywood, Bollywood: Different but the same
Hollywood has the money. Bollywood has the numbers. A comparison of two industries that share a name suffix and almost nothing else, from someone who has spent time in both.
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A morning in Dharavi
A private walking tour of Dharavi, Mumbai’s densest neighborhood. Two million people, three dollars a day, plastic recycling, soap, ceramics. Everyone working, all the time.