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Anita Joice living in Beijing
From Hutong to High-Rise: I moved
My new home is very different to the hutong. I have moved out of a living relic of ancient China and been thrust into the heart of modern aspirations in Beijing. My hutong was so quiet and dark at night, I could not tell I was living in a city of 25 million people. My […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Emei Shan
May 20, 2012
Postcard from travels in Emei Shan: I am on holiday and travelling in Sichuan province with a couple of companions at Emei Shan. Yesterday we started at the foot of the mountain and set off on our pilgrimage with bamboo poles and a bag of nuts. We visited several temples at the start of the […]
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Pirates and Sailors in Tasmania
April 11, 2012
Pirates and Sailors, Tasmania, 1 April 201 Sailors at the bar: “Don’t eat alone, nah don’t be stupid, come and join us…” I take the opportunity for a first-hand social anthropology study of local crewmen. They are from Tasmania, in their 50s I’d say. The bosun has a bristly moustache. The other is slender and […]
Posted in: Environmental Issues, People
Warships, sand-dunes and koala cuddling
March 24, 2012
It has been a monstrously busy day. After breakfast at 11, I strolled through the gardens by the river, past the white ibis and the people swimming in the splendid pools with beautifully designed water fountains and jets in all directions. Leisure feels very enlightened in this city. At the end of the park was […]
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From Beijing to Brisbane
March 23, 2012
I am still alive, and I’m in Brisbane, Australia! The world feels very un-Chinese. On my first night I went to a Vietnamese restaurant so I could practice a little Chinese with the restaurant staff, but they did not have the Beijing accent. The Beijing accent is very distinctive. I love speaking with my neighbour […]
Posted in: Culture
The Journey Home
March 13, 2012
As I struggle to remain conscious in this blurry haze of death-inducing pollution, let me talk you through a typical journey home after work. These days, I try to leave the office before I am the last person, since I discovered that our office is haunted. We are on the 15th floor, as floors 13 […]
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798 – Art: Darkness, Twitching Frogs and Nudity….
March 8, 2012
On my birthday I got a box of chocolates from the Beijing office, and I ate them for my dinner. The next morning I went to the trendy ex-factory 798 art district to take in some art on my day off. Being mid-week there were few day-trippers, but some gangs of funky looking youths with […]
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Lucy Jordan
March 4, 2012
Why do Sundays feel the same everywhere in the end? Whether it’s people in blue Mao suits cycling their rusted trike-cart down a hutong, or a youth strolling down the Magdalen Road in Oxford with a bulldog. Sundays look the same everywhere. Perhaps it’s my eyes that haven’t changed. On this Sunday evening, my head […]
Posted in: People
The Ancient Tea-Horse Trail
March 2, 2012
The seasons here swing like a slow pendulum from one extreme to another, pausing at the ends while they change direction. The passage of time is marked by the change from freezing to boiling and back again over a year. Each time it feels impossible to remember the other state of being. Time is also […]
Posted in: Culture
The Lone Fish Finally Swims
February 28, 2012
Tonight I went swimming. It was not as difficult as I’d let myself believe it was. There is a pool just near me, relatively. The whole building is labelled Dongdan Sports Centre in letters that must be visible from space. But it’s not clear how to get in. I suffered a whole over-heated summer without […]
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Dust and the City 
September 18, 2012
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