alreadydawn
@alreadydawn • 9,240 subscribers
Taiwanese writer vlogger. On 🇹🇼+🇨🇳+🇺🇸 culture, geopol, travel, spirituality, Naruto, tech, everything China. Check out my latest podcast with Al Jazeera👇
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One common misconception about Taiwan is that all the Han Chinese on the island came over with with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, when Mao's forces took control of all of mainland China and established the PRC. The Chinese have been immigrating to Taiwan since the 1600s, before the Qing Dynasty (or the United States) was even established. Both sides of my family immigrated during Qianlong's reign, during the latter half of the 1700s. We have been in Taiwan for so long that we don't know of a single blood relative in mainland China - which is something that surprises even my mainlander friends.
alreadydawn54,434 Aufrufe • vor 26 Tagen
I'm seeing more and more instances of demand not keeping up with supply in China: * Hotels are abundant, even at random cities like Jinan, where rates are amazingly low. You can get a decent place at below 20 usd per night. The ones I've stayed at so far seem to lack customers in general. The hotel I stayed in Yangzhou has a coffee/drinks bar that has been unmanned for quite some time and just collecting dust. * Lines of taxis waiting for riders outside of HSR stations. Some pointed out that this has been the case for years, but the number of potential riders does not match the sheer number of cars. Even at 3rd tier cities at night where few people are out and about the station, the taxi lines stretch on forever like the Great Wall. (I get that taxis around the world have been severely impacted by ride-hailing softwares like Uber and Didi, but these great wall-like taxi lines are nuts to witness.) * Malls outside of the hot ones in Tier 1 cities (ie Coco Park in Shenzhen) are quiet. The one I'm next to here in Qingdao by their Olympics sailing center is nearly deserted, with most storefronts closed. I'm sure there are many reasons for this supply/demand problem (as do most complex issues), but a big factor has to be involution (內卷), where the Chinese try to outcompete each other at the exact same thing, driving supply way up and prices down. This all reminds me of a story shared by Spandrell that goes: "When a Jewish businessman opens a gas station at a new town, other Jews come to the city to open various businesses - bakery, accounting firm, law firm, restaurant. When a Chinese businessman opens a gas station at a new town, other Chinese come to the city to open gas stations."
alreadydawn33,824 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
Tsinghua University students eat like KINGS 🧵 Today I had the pleasure of touring and eating at a cafetaria at Tsinghua University, China's number one college in Beijing. This one, Zijingyuan (紫荊園), is loaded to the gills with different stalls at each of its 4 floors. It is one of \\20// cafetarias serving Tsinghua's 63k students and 17k staff. As usual, the scale in China is simply nuts. Each of the stall among the 4 floors is unique. Most of the various Chinese cuisines (think Shanghai food, Sichuan food, Hunan food) are represented here - from sauerkraut fish and HK BBQ to soup dumplings and a gajillion different stir-fries. Taiwanese/Fujian food was missing though. Sad 🥲 The pricing is decently affordable too, at about 5 USD per meal if you want to have hearty portions of protein. The school subsidizes.. in other words, the CPC subsidizes. Contrast this to American universities that serve straight garbage for 20 dollars each meal. That is what happens when international finance takes over your country, by the way - every single thing becomes usury, every single time.
alreadydawn28,753 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
One more China travel *PRO* tip 🍽️ On the delivery app Meituan, you can look up restaurants in advance and look for combo deals. The discounts are massive - often 50% or more. My friend and I look for 2-3 people meal deals that always come down to just 6~7 USD per person (big portions too). Not only do you save money, you also save yourself the time and mental strain of having to pick each dish one by one. This is especially helpful for Chinese cuisine's family style - by letting the restaurant essentially do omakase, you don't need to worry about making everyone at your table happy. The pressure is delegated to the restaurant staff. Last but not least, you de-risk from picking too many or too few dishes.
alreadydawn14,879 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten
Been using this super useful Chrome extension called "Zhongwen: Chinese-English Dictionary" to help improve my language skills (I am specifically looking to get better at reading simplified characters). Mouse over a character, and it will show: * The definition(s) * The pronunciation - pinyin with tones * Both traditional and simplified versions of the character Saves you the friction from manually looking up every word yourself.
alreadydawn11,436 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten
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