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Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand • 407,339 subscribers

Entrepreneur. Previously HouseTrip (sold to TripAdvisor), now https://t.co/C4SmZQ8bl6 Subscribe if you like what I write

Shorts

A story in 4 acts 👇 We stupidly drained the RV's battery during the night by leaving both air condition units at full blast all night long and it wouldn't start anymore... Some kind locals here in Yining tried to help with a jump starter but it wouldn't work because the problem is with the main EV battery, not the engine battery. So we got a tow truck to drop the RV at a charging site. Now we just need to wait for the battery to charge and we're back on the road. As we call it in our family: type 2 fun 😊

A story in 4 acts 👇 We stupidly drained the RV's battery during the night by leaving both air condition units at full blast all night long and it wouldn't start anymore... Some kind locals here in Yining tried to help with a jump starter but it wouldn't work because the problem is with the main EV battery, not the engine battery. So we got a tow truck to drop the RV at a charging site. Now we just need to wait for the battery to charge and we're back on the road. As we call it in our family: type 2 fun 😊

31,748 views

"Our veto against Palestinian statehood does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood" When you go full Orwellian doublespeak.

"Our veto against Palestinian statehood does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood" When you go full Orwellian doublespeak.

2,378,511 views

Irony is well and truly dead. Israel accuses Iran of “a flagrant violation of international law”. Which is not even true by the way. Iran had a right of self defense following article 51 of the UN Charter after the Israeli strike on its consulate. They only targeted military sites and didn't kill a single person. Whereas Israel's attack on the Iranian consulate was of course a flagrant violation of international law, as it was an almost unprecedented breach of the Vienna Convention on the inviolability of diplomatic premises.

Irony is well and truly dead. Israel accuses Iran of “a flagrant violation of international law”. Which is not even true by the way. Iran had a right of self defense following article 51 of the UN Charter after the Israeli strike on its consulate. They only targeted military sites and didn't kill a single person. Whereas Israel's attack on the Iranian consulate was of course a flagrant violation of international law, as it was an almost unprecedented breach of the Vienna Convention on the inviolability of diplomatic premises.

964,521 views

VERY rural Xinjiang 😅

VERY rural Xinjiang 😅

12,956 views

When you thought Macron had reached peak tone-deafness and condescension, he just tops it. He's now literally berating Africans for not thanking France: "I think [Africans] forgot to thank us. It doesn't matter it will come with time. Gratitude, I am well placed to know it, is a disease not transmissible to humans. But I say this for all African rulers who did not have the courage with respect to their public opinions to say it: none of them would today have a sovereign country if the French army had not been deployed in this region"

When you thought Macron had reached peak tone-deafness and condescension, he just tops it. He's now literally berating Africans for not thanking France: "I think [Africans] forgot to thank us. It doesn't matter it will come with time. Gratitude, I am well placed to know it, is a disease not transmissible to humans. But I say this for all African rulers who did not have the courage with respect to their public opinions to say it: none of them would today have a sovereign country if the French army had not been deployed in this region"

315,584 views

Just spent the last 4 days on a sailboat exploring the Flores and Komodo islands in Indonesia and I have to say, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Just spent the last 4 days on a sailboat exploring the Flores and Komodo islands in Indonesia and I have to say, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

146,023 views

This is one of the nicest things about China: whatever happens to you, you can always count on people's solidarity. This is what just happened to us. We wanted to park our RV right next to Hulun lake for the night but stupidly managed to get it stuck in the sand. Impossible to drive out anymore 😓 Immediately, and I mean immediately, people around us started to pitch in to help. Luckily it so happened that a group of ex-PLA soldiers were having a get-together barbecue 100 meters away from us. They got told about our issue, stopped their barbecue and came to help. They told us "don't worry, no matter what we'll get you out, it's just a matter of time". Before we know it, one of the guys takes the wheel of the RV and the others start pushing. In 5 minutes, job done! RV unstuck and the guys get back to their barbecue. The Chinese are often depicted as cold and distant but my consistent experience is that they're one of the kindest people in the world, always ready to help a fellow human in need!

This is one of the nicest things about China: whatever happens to you, you can always count on people's solidarity. This is what just happened to us. We wanted to park our RV right next to Hulun lake for the night but stupidly managed to get it stuck in the sand. Impossible to drive out anymore 😓 Immediately, and I mean immediately, people around us started to pitch in to help. Luckily it so happened that a group of ex-PLA soldiers were having a get-together barbecue 100 meters away from us. They got told about our issue, stopped their barbecue and came to help. They told us "don't worry, no matter what we'll get you out, it's just a matter of time". Before we know it, one of the guys takes the wheel of the RV and the others start pushing. In 5 minutes, job done! RV unstuck and the guys get back to their barbecue. The Chinese are often depicted as cold and distant but my consistent experience is that they're one of the kindest people in the world, always ready to help a fellow human in need!

239,913 views

When they say China thinks long term, this 👇 is a perfect example: we're in Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, a massive irrigation project constructed in 256 BC that's still very much in use today, making it literally the longest-serving infrastructure project in human history. The project was supervised by the Qin kingdom (before it became the Qin dynasty, the dynasty that first united the whole of China) and was about dividing the Mingjiang river in two and createb a new river to irrigate the Chengdu plain for agricultural purposes. To this day, that artificial river created from here is the main water supply for what's now the city of Chengdu and its surroundings!

When they say China thinks long term, this 👇 is a perfect example: we're in Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, a massive irrigation project constructed in 256 BC that's still very much in use today, making it literally the longest-serving infrastructure project in human history. The project was supervised by the Qin kingdom (before it became the Qin dynasty, the dynasty that first united the whole of China) and was about dividing the Mingjiang river in two and createb a new river to irrigate the Chengdu plain for agricultural purposes. To this day, that artificial river created from here is the main water supply for what's now the city of Chengdu and its surroundings!

152,387 views

Status update: having coffee on top of the cooling tower of a mega waste incineration plant in Chongqing. Literally. I'm at the Chongqing Sanfeng Yulin waste-to-energy incineration plant, one of the largest in China. When traveling abroad, some people like to visit museums or amusement parks, I'm more into garbage treatment facilities 😊 That's actually a pretty cool thing in China: you can visit many industrial facilities, they often have a small museum attached that tells you about the history of the place, and how it works. This particular facility is pretty impressive: it treats 3,000 tons of waste daily, which is the amount of the amount of waste produced by 3 million people. With this waste, it produces enough energy for 200,000 households. When you visit you can see the actual garbage dump pit, which looks insane, as well as the central control room (both on video).

Status update: having coffee on top of the cooling tower of a mega waste incineration plant in Chongqing. Literally. I'm at the Chongqing Sanfeng Yulin waste-to-energy incineration plant, one of the largest in China. When traveling abroad, some people like to visit museums or amusement parks, I'm more into garbage treatment facilities 😊 That's actually a pretty cool thing in China: you can visit many industrial facilities, they often have a small museum attached that tells you about the history of the place, and how it works. This particular facility is pretty impressive: it treats 3,000 tons of waste daily, which is the amount of the amount of waste produced by 3 million people. With this waste, it produces enough energy for 200,000 households. When you visit you can see the actual garbage dump pit, which looks insane, as well as the central control room (both on video).

50,436 views

This is quite funny. We're visiting Kamakura in Japan and we came across a large group of Chinese tourists in a place that, at first glance, looked nothing special. Turns out that this very spot is one of THE most iconic locations in Japan for Chinese people who grew up in the 1990s. Why? Because in the 1990s there was this Japanese basketball manga called "slam dunk" that every kid was watching in China, and the opening credits featured an image of this very spot: a railroad crossing on a small street leading to the beach in Kamakura. Apparently this place is so popular with Chinese tourists that they had to cordon it off at some point. Now it's obviously reopened with 3 guards assigned to handle the traffic. And now that they've heard about it, it's my daughters' turn to be hooked on the series so maybe in 20 years' time they'll be perpetuating the passion and come back to this "Slam Dunk" shrine ☺️

This is quite funny. We're visiting Kamakura in Japan and we came across a large group of Chinese tourists in a place that, at first glance, looked nothing special. Turns out that this very spot is one of THE most iconic locations in Japan for Chinese people who grew up in the 1990s. Why? Because in the 1990s there was this Japanese basketball manga called "slam dunk" that every kid was watching in China, and the opening credits featured an image of this very spot: a railroad crossing on a small street leading to the beach in Kamakura. Apparently this place is so popular with Chinese tourists that they had to cordon it off at some point. Now it's obviously reopened with 3 guards assigned to handle the traffic. And now that they've heard about it, it's my daughters' turn to be hooked on the series so maybe in 20 years' time they'll be perpetuating the passion and come back to this "Slam Dunk" shrine ☺️

62,647 views

One year afterwards, back to my favorite spot in Chongqing: Xiaohaoli. Everyone coming here always posts about the cyberpunk buildings but, call me traditional, I prefer good old charming places like this: it looks like a beautiful small village in the city.

One year afterwards, back to my favorite spot in Chongqing: Xiaohaoli. Everyone coming here always posts about the cyberpunk buildings but, call me traditional, I prefer good old charming places like this: it looks like a beautiful small village in the city.

42,901 views

I'm jumping on the opportunity of our current trip to Chongqing to do a health test: I do it once a year in China, always with the same company (iKang, which has test centers all over China) and it is the most comprehensive health test you can possibly imagine. As you can see in the videos the place is divided into small rooms, and in each room there's a doctor performing a specific test (blood test room, IRM room, x-ray room, ECG room, etc.). I'll do about 25 rooms this morning, in the space of approximately 2 hours, resulting in me being checked for hundreds of possible health issues (including, for instance, all testable cancers). The market price for this is RMB 8k (about $1200) but like every year I managed to get it at a heavy discount for RMB 2k or about $300 (most people get a discount, I don't think anyone pays the full price). Which considering a visit to a specialist doctor in China typically costs about RMB20, is actually very expensive and shows just how comprehensive this test is. Lastly, public service announcement: everyone should get health tests yearly if they can, especially for high probability issues (like prostate cancer for men), early detection often makes all the difference.

I'm jumping on the opportunity of our current trip to Chongqing to do a health test: I do it once a year in China, always with the same company (iKang, which has test centers all over China) and it is the most comprehensive health test you can possibly imagine. As you can see in the videos the place is divided into small rooms, and in each room there's a doctor performing a specific test (blood test room, IRM room, x-ray room, ECG room, etc.). I'll do about 25 rooms this morning, in the space of approximately 2 hours, resulting in me being checked for hundreds of possible health issues (including, for instance, all testable cancers). The market price for this is RMB 8k (about $1200) but like every year I managed to get it at a heavy discount for RMB 2k or about $300 (most people get a discount, I don't think anyone pays the full price). Which considering a visit to a specialist doctor in China typically costs about RMB20, is actually very expensive and shows just how comprehensive this test is. Lastly, public service announcement: everyone should get health tests yearly if they can, especially for high probability issues (like prostate cancer for men), early detection often makes all the difference.

53,243 views

André Rieu is what Americans who don't know European culture actually think it is, it's like a fake Disney version of it. This 👇 is genuine European culture: we're in Avignon at the theater festival, we just watched an absolutely brilliant play (the actor, Jean-Baptiste Darosey, pictured with us, is truly extraordinary), and we're now eating cheese sitting on a public bench on a beautiful square.

André Rieu is what Americans who don't know European culture actually think it is, it's like a fake Disney version of it. This 👇 is genuine European culture: we're in Avignon at the theater festival, we just watched an absolutely brilliant play (the actor, Jean-Baptiste Darosey, pictured with us, is truly extraordinary), and we're now eating cheese sitting on a public bench on a beautiful square.

32,100 views

Today I was visiting the exceptionally beautiful Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium (one of the only museums in the world that is itself listed as UNESCO World Heritage), which is one of the oldest printing shops in Europe, with the oldest surviving printing presses in the world. I stumbled upon an old 16th century atlas - written in Old French - and I was pretty amused to read their understanding of China at the time, which was surprisingly accurate, maybe even more than today's! A translation of some of the most interesting passages: - They call it "China" in French (it's now called "Chine") and they write that the locals call it "Tangis", which probably refers to the Tang dynasty but which is strange given that by the 16th century the dynasty had already ended for about 600 years - They write that to its North China is bordered by "tartares" (which I guess means Mongols) whom they describe as "very warlike people from whom it is separated by a wall made by hand" - The Chinese work ethic was already legendary: "those who live there are not at all lazy but devoted to labor and work, because it is there a shameful thing to be idle" - They share a number which must have seemed astonishing at the time: "in the city of Canton, one of the smallest in the entire country, some ten or twelve thousand ducks are eaten daily at table". And then they marvel during a good proportion of the text about the abundance of food in the country, which probably made a big impression on travelers at the time. - They write that "there are in this kingdom two hundred and forty famous cities, whose names end in this syllable FU which means a city: like Cantonfu, Panquifu: the small towns, which are in great number, end in CHEU [undoubtedly refers to "zhou"]. There are infinite villages, heavily populated, because of the continuous agriculture." - China's infrastructure and engineering capabilities were also already legendary at the time: "The city gates have entrances magnificently and marvelously well made, the streets are made level, not sloping this way or that, but following their straight line. They are so wide that ten or fifteen men on horseback can march abreast and are everywhere marked and separated by triumphal arches that marvelously ornament the cities. Portuguese say they saw in the city of Fuchco [probably Fuzhou] a tower set on forty solid marble pillars, the height of which was forty palms (masonry measure) and the width twelve: that this work is so grand, so exquisitely made, so beautiful to see, so sumptuous and so pleasing that it far surpasses all the magnificent buildings of all Europe." - Already at the time, China was very wary of safeguarding its sovereignty: ""[The Chinese] rarely or never leave their country and do not easily let foreigners enter it, especially into the interior of the province, unless they first have safe conduct from the king." - On moral and cultural habits: "They put adulterers to death. There are no brothels in the cities, all manner of prostitutes being sent to the suburbs. They celebrate their weddings at the time of the new moon and around the month of March which is their first day of the new year, and they make these celebrations, like us, very magnificently. They show themselves valiant in banquets and entertainments, in which they owe nothing to the Flemings or the Germans. They eat at tables like us in Europe, on chairs or on benches, and not on the ground as other peoples of Asia do." - On justice: "Bandits and murderers are kept in perpetual prison. Theft, which is a very odious crime, is punished by whip strokes in this manner: they put a man belly down, tie his hands behind him, striking him on the fleshy part of the legs with a whip made of reeds or canes." - On China's naval capabilities at the time: "This kingdom has an infinite number of ships, galleys and vessels of all sorts, with which they cross the seas and rivers. So much so that when they want to show through vainglory the power of their king, they are accustomed to say in a common proverb that he can make a bridge of ships joined together, which can reach and extend from China to Malacca, which is a distance of five hundred leagues and more." - On the emperor and China not being warlike (already back then): "All this region is subject to a single king, like a monarch; whom they call lord of the world and son of the sun. He holds court at Paquin [Beijing], which is a city toward Tartary. He never leaves it, except in time of war. It is said that when he makes war on the Tartars he leads an army of three hundred thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand horses, although it is also said that this nation is not very warlike. This king has under him fifteen very large provinces, which they call governments, and he alone surpasses in power all the other neighboring princes of Asia; and his annual revenues exceed all the riches of Europe. Antonio Pigafetta [the chronicler of Magellan's voyage] calls this king the most powerful of all the universal earth and says that the royal city is fortified and ramparted with seven walls, having ten thousand soldiers for the guard, and that the king commands seventy other crowns of the royal diadem [likely refering to the tributary state system]." Reading these passages, it seems that the further we've come in our ability to know China, the more obscured our vision seems to have become. These 16th century observers, working with fragments brought back by explorers, merchants and missionaries, managed to capture the essential - the industriousness, the engineering mastery, the administrative sophistication, the careful sovereignty. They approached their subject with the humility of the genuinely curious. They had no framework to force China into, no predetermined narrative to fulfill. They simply watched, counted ducks in Canton, measured city walls, and wrote it down. Their errors were errors of transmission - a dynasty name lingering centuries past its time, numbers perhaps inflated through retelling - but the spirit was one of simply describing unknown territory, not to convince anyone of anything. Today however, drowning in information, we're somehow seeing less of what's there and more of what we expect to find. Each observation must fit into existing narratives, serve predetermined conclusions, advance familiar arguments. So much so that we must ask ourselves: have we actually moved backward from those 16th chroniclers? Maybe we need to re-learn to approach China - and others in general - like those old cartographers, pen in hand, ready to be surprised? What might we discover if we stopped explaining and started counting ducks again?

Today I was visiting the exceptionally beautiful Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium (one of the only museums in the world that is itself listed as UNESCO World Heritage), which is one of the oldest printing shops in Europe, with the oldest surviving printing presses in the world. I stumbled upon an old 16th century atlas - written in Old French - and I was pretty amused to read their understanding of China at the time, which was surprisingly accurate, maybe even more than today's! A translation of some of the most interesting passages: - They call it "China" in French (it's now called "Chine") and they write that the locals call it "Tangis", which probably refers to the Tang dynasty but which is strange given that by the 16th century the dynasty had already ended for about 600 years - They write that to its North China is bordered by "tartares" (which I guess means Mongols) whom they describe as "very warlike people from whom it is separated by a wall made by hand" - The Chinese work ethic was already legendary: "those who live there are not at all lazy but devoted to labor and work, because it is there a shameful thing to be idle" - They share a number which must have seemed astonishing at the time: "in the city of Canton, one of the smallest in the entire country, some ten or twelve thousand ducks are eaten daily at table". And then they marvel during a good proportion of the text about the abundance of food in the country, which probably made a big impression on travelers at the time. - They write that "there are in this kingdom two hundred and forty famous cities, whose names end in this syllable FU which means a city: like Cantonfu, Panquifu: the small towns, which are in great number, end in CHEU [undoubtedly refers to "zhou"]. There are infinite villages, heavily populated, because of the continuous agriculture." - China's infrastructure and engineering capabilities were also already legendary at the time: "The city gates have entrances magnificently and marvelously well made, the streets are made level, not sloping this way or that, but following their straight line. They are so wide that ten or fifteen men on horseback can march abreast and are everywhere marked and separated by triumphal arches that marvelously ornament the cities. Portuguese say they saw in the city of Fuchco [probably Fuzhou] a tower set on forty solid marble pillars, the height of which was forty palms (masonry measure) and the width twelve: that this work is so grand, so exquisitely made, so beautiful to see, so sumptuous and so pleasing that it far surpasses all the magnificent buildings of all Europe." - Already at the time, China was very wary of safeguarding its sovereignty: ""[The Chinese] rarely or never leave their country and do not easily let foreigners enter it, especially into the interior of the province, unless they first have safe conduct from the king." - On moral and cultural habits: "They put adulterers to death. There are no brothels in the cities, all manner of prostitutes being sent to the suburbs. They celebrate their weddings at the time of the new moon and around the month of March which is their first day of the new year, and they make these celebrations, like us, very magnificently. They show themselves valiant in banquets and entertainments, in which they owe nothing to the Flemings or the Germans. They eat at tables like us in Europe, on chairs or on benches, and not on the ground as other peoples of Asia do." - On justice: "Bandits and murderers are kept in perpetual prison. Theft, which is a very odious crime, is punished by whip strokes in this manner: they put a man belly down, tie his hands behind him, striking him on the fleshy part of the legs with a whip made of reeds or canes." - On China's naval capabilities at the time: "This kingdom has an infinite number of ships, galleys and vessels of all sorts, with which they cross the seas and rivers. So much so that when they want to show through vainglory the power of their king, they are accustomed to say in a common proverb that he can make a bridge of ships joined together, which can reach and extend from China to Malacca, which is a distance of five hundred leagues and more." - On the emperor and China not being warlike (already back then): "All this region is subject to a single king, like a monarch; whom they call lord of the world and son of the sun. He holds court at Paquin [Beijing], which is a city toward Tartary. He never leaves it, except in time of war. It is said that when he makes war on the Tartars he leads an army of three hundred thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand horses, although it is also said that this nation is not very warlike. This king has under him fifteen very large provinces, which they call governments, and he alone surpasses in power all the other neighboring princes of Asia; and his annual revenues exceed all the riches of Europe. Antonio Pigafetta [the chronicler of Magellan's voyage] calls this king the most powerful of all the universal earth and says that the royal city is fortified and ramparted with seven walls, having ten thousand soldiers for the guard, and that the king commands seventy other crowns of the royal diadem [likely refering to the tributary state system]." Reading these passages, it seems that the further we've come in our ability to know China, the more obscured our vision seems to have become. These 16th century observers, working with fragments brought back by explorers, merchants and missionaries, managed to capture the essential - the industriousness, the engineering mastery, the administrative sophistication, the careful sovereignty. They approached their subject with the humility of the genuinely curious. They had no framework to force China into, no predetermined narrative to fulfill. They simply watched, counted ducks in Canton, measured city walls, and wrote it down. Their errors were errors of transmission - a dynasty name lingering centuries past its time, numbers perhaps inflated through retelling - but the spirit was one of simply describing unknown territory, not to convince anyone of anything. Today however, drowning in information, we're somehow seeing less of what's there and more of what we expect to find. Each observation must fit into existing narratives, serve predetermined conclusions, advance familiar arguments. So much so that we must ask ourselves: have we actually moved backward from those 16th chroniclers? Maybe we need to re-learn to approach China - and others in general - like those old cartographers, pen in hand, ready to be surprised? What might we discover if we stopped explaining and started counting ducks again?

19,380 views

They also have the longest ice slide in the world, at over 1km long. Pretty fun!

They also have the longest ice slide in the world, at over 1km long. Pretty fun!

20,995 views

Want to see what an amusement park in Inner Mongolia looks like? Like this 😊

Want to see what an amusement park in Inner Mongolia looks like? Like this 😊

26,656 views

Day 23. We visit Labrang Tibetan monastery, one of the largest in Gansu and spend the whole day there meeting many monks.

Day 23. We visit Labrang Tibetan monastery, one of the largest in Gansu and spend the whole day there meeting many monks.

16,660 views

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People in the comments have been asking me for videos of a local supermarket during my current roadtrip in Xinjiang, so here you go 👇 It's actually proven to be a very humbling experience: the abundance and diversity of products vastly exceeds anything you'd find in most supermarkets in the West, even in my native France. And we're not even in a big city: I'm at a local supermarket in a small remote town named 特克斯, only 50k inhabitants, which is super tiny by Chinese standards.

People in the comments have been asking me for videos of a local supermarket during my current roadtrip in Xinjiang, so here you go 👇 It's actually proven to be a very humbling experience: the abundance and diversity of products vastly exceeds anything you'd find in most supermarkets in the West, even in my native France. And we're not even in a big city: I'm at a local supermarket in a small remote town named 特克斯, only 50k inhabitants, which is super tiny by Chinese standards.

Arnaud Bertrand

38,303 views • 5 hours ago

Something quite interesting happened to us earlier today in Xinjiang. We were in a place called Jade Lake (玉湖, Yu Hu) and noticed on Xiaohongshu (the most popular social network on China) that a place nearby had recently gone viral for being super charming and looking like a small hobbit village (see screenshot of the XHS post 👇). So we decided to go check it out. However, before the entrance of the village we saw the road was blocked by a local villager: no-one could go through except locals. We asked why and sure enough it was because of the XHS post: the villagers didn't want their village suddenly turning into a tourist attraction. Which can take very dramatic proportions very fast in China: before you know it, literally tens of thousands of people could come to this village every day. The local villagers would be completely overwhelmed, and it could actually prove very dangerous. Chinese tourist spots are sometimes criticized for being highly managed: well imagine what happens when they're highly unmanaged... People can literally die. In any case we really wanted to see this particular spot so we asked that an exception be made, my wife even argued her case on the phone with the village leader (see video) but no luck 🤷‍♂️ So looks like, for the foreseeable future, all we'll know of this hobbit village in remote rural Xinjiang is that one Xiaohongshu post.

Something quite interesting happened to us earlier today in Xinjiang. We were in a place called Jade Lake (玉湖, Yu Hu) and noticed on Xiaohongshu (the most popular social network on China) that a place nearby had recently gone viral for being super charming and looking like a small hobbit village (see screenshot of the XHS post 👇). So we decided to go check it out. However, before the entrance of the village we saw the road was blocked by a local villager: no-one could go through except locals. We asked why and sure enough it was because of the XHS post: the villagers didn't want their village suddenly turning into a tourist attraction. Which can take very dramatic proportions very fast in China: before you know it, literally tens of thousands of people could come to this village every day. The local villagers would be completely overwhelmed, and it could actually prove very dangerous. Chinese tourist spots are sometimes criticized for being highly managed: well imagine what happens when they're highly unmanaged... People can literally die. In any case we really wanted to see this particular spot so we asked that an exception be made, my wife even argued her case on the phone with the village leader (see video) but no luck 🤷‍♂️ So looks like, for the foreseeable future, all we'll know of this hobbit village in remote rural Xinjiang is that one Xiaohongshu post.

Arnaud Bertrand

36,438 views • 7 hours ago

It's day 13 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've just arrived in one of Xinjiang's weirdest towns, at least in terms of city-planning: it's called "Tekes Bagua City" (特克斯八卦镇, "te ke si ba gua zhen") and it was entirely planned according to the I Ching (Book of Changes), a 3,000 years old Chinese philosophy classic. Specifically, it's in the shape of a "Bagua" which I'd describe as "a philosophical shape based on the yin-yang theory". If you want a quick "explain me the yin-yang theory like I'm 10 years old," my eldest 10-year old daughter did a very decent job explaining it in the second video 👇 The Bagua figure is basically the consequences of the yin-yang theory, as a drawing. Each "gua" - there are 8 of them - represents a different combination of yin and yang. For instance the "Li (离/離)" gua is fire: two yang lines with a yin line in the middle ☲. The idea is that from the interplay of just two opposite forces, you can generate the entire complexity of the world. Tekes Bagua Town is basically that idea, as a town, with each area of the city a specific "gua." This city shape actually has some interesting concrete advantages: for instance Tekes is one of the only cities in China with zero traffic lights! The Bagua shape means the city works as a series of concentric ring roads connected by 8 radiating avenues, so traffic flows continuously in circles rather than stopping at intersections - essentially the whole town functions as one giant system of roundabouts. Ancient Chinese philosophy accidentally solved modern traffic engineering 😅

It's day 13 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've just arrived in one of Xinjiang's weirdest towns, at least in terms of city-planning: it's called "Tekes Bagua City" (特克斯八卦镇, "te ke si ba gua zhen") and it was entirely planned according to the I Ching (Book of Changes), a 3,000 years old Chinese philosophy classic. Specifically, it's in the shape of a "Bagua" which I'd describe as "a philosophical shape based on the yin-yang theory". If you want a quick "explain me the yin-yang theory like I'm 10 years old," my eldest 10-year old daughter did a very decent job explaining it in the second video 👇 The Bagua figure is basically the consequences of the yin-yang theory, as a drawing. Each "gua" - there are 8 of them - represents a different combination of yin and yang. For instance the "Li (离/離)" gua is fire: two yang lines with a yin line in the middle ☲. The idea is that from the interplay of just two opposite forces, you can generate the entire complexity of the world. Tekes Bagua Town is basically that idea, as a town, with each area of the city a specific "gua." This city shape actually has some interesting concrete advantages: for instance Tekes is one of the only cities in China with zero traffic lights! The Bagua shape means the city works as a series of concentric ring roads connected by 8 radiating avenues, so traffic flows continuously in circles rather than stopping at intersections - essentially the whole town functions as one giant system of roundabouts. Ancient Chinese philosophy accidentally solved modern traffic engineering 😅

Arnaud Bertrand

26,972 views • 9 hours ago

This is quite funny: just spotted cannabis growing in the wild in China. We're in Xinjiang in the Zhaosu valley, at the bottom of the TianShan mountains. It's actually not that unsurprising to see wild cannabis here since the plant originates from the region. And cannabis is traditionally an ingredient in TCM (under the name dà má - 大麻) although today it's of course banned, for the most part: interestingly the seeds - called huǒ má rén in TCM - are still allowed AFAIK (see the details of the ingredient here: ) Necessary addendum: don't ever think about doing drugs in China, the regulation is extremely strict here - in part due to the extremely bad experience they had with widespread opium addiction during the century of humiliation.

This is quite funny: just spotted cannabis growing in the wild in China. We're in Xinjiang in the Zhaosu valley, at the bottom of the TianShan mountains. It's actually not that unsurprising to see wild cannabis here since the plant originates from the region. And cannabis is traditionally an ingredient in TCM (under the name dà má - 大麻) although today it's of course banned, for the most part: interestingly the seeds - called huǒ má rén in TCM - are still allowed AFAIK (see the details of the ingredient here: ) Necessary addendum: don't ever think about doing drugs in China, the regulation is extremely strict here - in part due to the extremely bad experience they had with widespread opium addiction during the century of humiliation.

Arnaud Bertrand

242,915 views • 2 days ago

This really shows how much coffee culture has picked up in China. I've been traveling in the country for 20 years and, up until a few years ago, finding coffee when traveling in the countryside was basically mission impossible. Now even when you go to the most remote places (I'm presently next to a remote mountain lake in Xinjiang next to the border with Kyrgyzstan) you see itinerant coffee sellers like this guy 👇 selling really high-quality espresso that even the snobbiest Italians would approve of! And he is not a one-off: you know see these itinerant coffee sellers in almost all tourist spots!

This really shows how much coffee culture has picked up in China. I've been traveling in the country for 20 years and, up until a few years ago, finding coffee when traveling in the countryside was basically mission impossible. Now even when you go to the most remote places (I'm presently next to a remote mountain lake in Xinjiang next to the border with Kyrgyzstan) you see itinerant coffee sellers like this guy 👇 selling really high-quality espresso that even the snobbiest Italians would approve of! And he is not a one-off: you know see these itinerant coffee sellers in almost all tourist spots!

Arnaud Bertrand

45,888 views • 15 hours ago

This is day 13 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've now reached Xinjiang's famous Jade Lake (玉湖, Yu Hu), one of the most beautiful lakes in China. The lake is located deep in the Ahexiazhi Canyon, not far from the border with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. You can drive along it by car (or RV in our case) and even take a boat tour, which we'll do!

This is day 13 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've now reached Xinjiang's famous Jade Lake (玉湖, Yu Hu), one of the most beautiful lakes in China. The lake is located deep in the Ahexiazhi Canyon, not far from the border with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. You can drive along it by car (or RV in our case) and even take a boat tour, which we'll do!

Arnaud Bertrand

36,274 views • 16 hours ago

That was a really cool experience! After about 5 hours of walking we noticed a very remote yurt, lost in the mountains, so we went to check it out. There we met two Kyrgyz boys (at first we assumed they were Khazak but we were wrong) - two brothers 14 and 12 years old - who lived there with their horses and cows. As they explain, they were a whole family living there during the summer: these 2 boys, their sister, and parents. The parents were out working when we went there. During the rest of the year, they live down in the city where they have an apartment and where the kids go to school. They kindly invited us in and we bought some of their homemade cheese and yogurt. We paid them through WeChat, which really goes to show how universal it is in China: even in the most remote places! We also spoke about life and... guess what... Mbappé, who truly is the only thing people worldwide seem to know about France these days 😅 Having traveled in some 64 countries so far, China is really one of the only countries out there where you can still find people - like them - living truly in accordance with their ancestral ways and their traditions. I've met hundreds of people like them over the years in China. Which is why the accusations against China on eradicating minority cultures are so shameful: they're literally best in class worldwide in letting people preserve their traditional ways of life.

That was a really cool experience! After about 5 hours of walking we noticed a very remote yurt, lost in the mountains, so we went to check it out. There we met two Kyrgyz boys (at first we assumed they were Khazak but we were wrong) - two brothers 14 and 12 years old - who lived there with their horses and cows. As they explain, they were a whole family living there during the summer: these 2 boys, their sister, and parents. The parents were out working when we went there. During the rest of the year, they live down in the city where they have an apartment and where the kids go to school. They kindly invited us in and we bought some of their homemade cheese and yogurt. We paid them through WeChat, which really goes to show how universal it is in China: even in the most remote places! We also spoke about life and... guess what... Mbappé, who truly is the only thing people worldwide seem to know about France these days 😅 Having traveled in some 64 countries so far, China is really one of the only countries out there where you can still find people - like them - living truly in accordance with their ancestral ways and their traditions. I've met hundreds of people like them over the years in China. Which is why the accusations against China on eradicating minority cultures are so shameful: they're literally best in class worldwide in letting people preserve their traditional ways of life.

Arnaud Bertrand

69,803 views • 1 day ago

This is day 12 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've just arrived in Xiata (夏塔), one of China's most beautiful natural parks. I think most people wouldn't believe such a place exists in China, yet here we are 🤷‍♂️ We'll spend the day here, hiking in the mountains. I'll add to this thread as we discover this place!

This is day 12 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we've just arrived in Xiata (夏塔), one of China's most beautiful natural parks. I think most people wouldn't believe such a place exists in China, yet here we are 🤷‍♂️ We'll spend the day here, hiking in the mountains. I'll add to this thread as we discover this place!

Arnaud Bertrand

71,295 views • 1 day ago

It's day 10 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we're now driving through the legendary TianShan mountains ("TianShan" - 天山 - literally means mountains of heaven), one of the highest mountain ranges in the world with peaks as high as 7,439 meters (24,406 ft). As you can see, quite the scenic drive! Our destination tonight is Zhaosu, a place famous to have the most extraordinary horse breed in the world: the Akhal-Teke, known in Chinese as the "blood-sweating treasure horse" (han xue bao ma, 汗血宝马) because - apparently - they sweat blood when they run and, as a result, are pink in color. These horses are so precious in Chinese history that the emperor of the Han dynasty (emperor Wu) launched not one but two full-scale military campaigns into Central Asia just to get his hands on them. So expect a lot of horse-related posts tomorrow ☺️

It's day 10 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we're now driving through the legendary TianShan mountains ("TianShan" - 天山 - literally means mountains of heaven), one of the highest mountain ranges in the world with peaks as high as 7,439 meters (24,406 ft). As you can see, quite the scenic drive! Our destination tonight is Zhaosu, a place famous to have the most extraordinary horse breed in the world: the Akhal-Teke, known in Chinese as the "blood-sweating treasure horse" (han xue bao ma, 汗血宝马) because - apparently - they sweat blood when they run and, as a result, are pink in color. These horses are so precious in Chinese history that the emperor of the Han dynasty (emperor Wu) launched not one but two full-scale military campaigns into Central Asia just to get his hands on them. So expect a lot of horse-related posts tomorrow ☺️

Arnaud Bertrand

154,458 views • 3 days ago

We found them! China's legendary "blood-sweating treasure horses" than emperor Han Wudi went to war - twice! - to acquire. They're extraordinarily rare and precious: we've been told a pureblood can cost over 10 million RMB. And even more expensive than that at the time of the Han dynasty since the emperor literally spent 10s of thousands of lives to get his hands on those horses. The belief is that they sweat blood when they run, and become pink as a result (hence their "blood sweating" name), but so far we haven't been able to see that since we've only seen them at rest here.

We found them! China's legendary "blood-sweating treasure horses" than emperor Han Wudi went to war - twice! - to acquire. They're extraordinarily rare and precious: we've been told a pureblood can cost over 10 million RMB. And even more expensive than that at the time of the Han dynasty since the emperor literally spent 10s of thousands of lives to get his hands on those horses. The belief is that they sweat blood when they run, and become pink as a result (hence their "blood sweating" name), but so far we haven't been able to see that since we've only seen them at rest here.

Arnaud Bertrand

103,213 views • 2 days ago

Pro-tip: if you travel in China, don't buy honey in the supermarket, buy it from these guys 👇 All over China, next to flower fields, you have those itinerant honey sellers who travel with their bee colonies based on the season. You see them everywhere in China (see quoted post from our previous RV roadtrip in Dongbei) and the honey couldn't be more fresh and natural. This particular guy we met today had 3 types of honey on sale based on the 3 latest flower fields he set up shop next to: mint (first time I tasted mint honey and it's surprisingly good!), lavender, and perilla (the flowers next to which he currently is in the video). We bought the lavender because, as good as the mint was, lavender was still our favorite ☺️

Pro-tip: if you travel in China, don't buy honey in the supermarket, buy it from these guys 👇 All over China, next to flower fields, you have those itinerant honey sellers who travel with their bee colonies based on the season. You see them everywhere in China (see quoted post from our previous RV roadtrip in Dongbei) and the honey couldn't be more fresh and natural. This particular guy we met today had 3 types of honey on sale based on the 3 latest flower fields he set up shop next to: mint (first time I tasted mint honey and it's surprisingly good!), lavender, and perilla (the flowers next to which he currently is in the video). We bought the lavender because, as good as the mint was, lavender was still our favorite ☺️

Arnaud Bertrand

67,778 views • 2 days ago

This is so funny. I followed Luke's recommendation in the comments yesterday 👇 and went to this Russian bakery here in Yining, Xinjiang. And I met the man himself: Alexander, a Chinese Russian! He looks 100% Russian but speaks Chinese like a local. And he is, in fact, a local: we chatted a bit and he explained his family history - they've been here in Xinjiang for 6 generations! This is something people commonly don't know about: China recognizes 55 official ethnic minorities living in the country and Russians is one of them - there are quite a few Russians exactly like Alexander who look Russians in all respects but are Chinese. We saw many of them during our previous RV roadtrip in Dongbei on the border with Russia, it's more unexpected to meet one here in the middle of Xinjiang 😅

This is so funny. I followed Luke's recommendation in the comments yesterday 👇 and went to this Russian bakery here in Yining, Xinjiang. And I met the man himself: Alexander, a Chinese Russian! He looks 100% Russian but speaks Chinese like a local. And he is, in fact, a local: we chatted a bit and he explained his family history - they've been here in Xinjiang for 6 generations! This is something people commonly don't know about: China recognizes 55 official ethnic minorities living in the country and Russians is one of them - there are quite a few Russians exactly like Alexander who look Russians in all respects but are Chinese. We saw many of them during our previous RV roadtrip in Dongbei on the border with Russia, it's more unexpected to meet one here in the middle of Xinjiang 😅

Arnaud Bertrand

122,986 views • 4 days ago

Eric Schmidt saying the quiet part out loud: "What I don't like about [China's AI] is that it's all open source which means it's largely uncontrolled and not controlled in any way by us." He adds, "if that makes you feel any better," that only 2 or 3 countries can be independent AI powers. In other words, it's all about hegemony: the ideal scenario is a world where AI is controlled by the US - and the fewer countries that can resist that, the better. Src for the video:

Eric Schmidt saying the quiet part out loud: "What I don't like about [China's AI] is that it's all open source which means it's largely uncontrolled and not controlled in any way by us." He adds, "if that makes you feel any better," that only 2 or 3 countries can be independent AI powers. In other words, it's all about hegemony: the ideal scenario is a world where AI is controlled by the US - and the fewer countries that can resist that, the better. Src for the video:

Arnaud Bertrand

869,168 views • 28 days ago

I just arrived in Xinjiang for our family holiday and the one thing that immediately strikes me is that, so far, there seems to be virtually no foreign visitors (other than myself). We're in one of THE most touristic spot in the entire region, the central bazaar in Urumqi (which has great food, by the way, offering full refunds if the food doesn't taste good, see picture 👇), and it's fully packed but only with local Uyghurs and visiting Chinese tourists - not a single foreigner around! This is pretty crazy to me: there's so much being said about Xinjiang but obviously people don't bother coming here to check things with their own eyes. Despite there being absolutely zero restrictions to do so: as a French man I can even stay here 30 days visa-free, I just need to book a flight and show up, that's it 🤷‍♂️ I know I sound like a broken record on this but that's the biggest illness affecting commentary on China: people simply speak about it in the abstract without engaging with the reality of the place.

I just arrived in Xinjiang for our family holiday and the one thing that immediately strikes me is that, so far, there seems to be virtually no foreign visitors (other than myself). We're in one of THE most touristic spot in the entire region, the central bazaar in Urumqi (which has great food, by the way, offering full refunds if the food doesn't taste good, see picture 👇), and it's fully packed but only with local Uyghurs and visiting Chinese tourists - not a single foreigner around! This is pretty crazy to me: there's so much being said about Xinjiang but obviously people don't bother coming here to check things with their own eyes. Despite there being absolutely zero restrictions to do so: as a French man I can even stay here 30 days visa-free, I just need to book a flight and show up, that's it 🤷‍♂️ I know I sound like a broken record on this but that's the biggest illness affecting commentary on China: people simply speak about it in the abstract without engaging with the reality of the place.

Arnaud Bertrand

329,168 views • 13 days ago

This is genuinely incredible and says SO SO MUCH about the perception of China in the West. This is the #1 news show in France, and the host - David Pujadas - asks the pundits around the table (a sample of the top media figures in France) if they can name 3 living Chinese people. That's it: they just need to say the names of 3 living Chinese people, anyone. This should be extremely easy. Yet not of a single one of them can name a single Chinese beyond Xi Jinping. They do not know a single living Chinese person beyond the president. That's the level of ignorance of China we're dealing with in the West today, in 2026. This is the source for the video: Aired live yesterday 28th of May 2026.

This is genuinely incredible and says SO SO MUCH about the perception of China in the West. This is the #1 news show in France, and the host - David Pujadas - asks the pundits around the table (a sample of the top media figures in France) if they can name 3 living Chinese people. That's it: they just need to say the names of 3 living Chinese people, anyone. This should be extremely easy. Yet not of a single one of them can name a single Chinese beyond Xi Jinping. They do not know a single living Chinese person beyond the president. That's the level of ignorance of China we're dealing with in the West today, in 2026. This is the source for the video: Aired live yesterday 28th of May 2026.

Arnaud Bertrand

1,135,053 views • 1 month ago

This is day 11 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we're watching probably the most beautiful horse scene I've seen in my life: look at all those horses running together in the water! We're in a place called the "Zhaosu Wetland Park" (昭苏湿地公园) in the Zhaosu valley at the bottom of the TianShan mountains, famous all over China for its legendary horses. 5 times a day, the horses come run in the local "Te Ke Si" river, which is a very popular sight here.

This is day 11 of our Xinjiang RV roadtrip and we're watching probably the most beautiful horse scene I've seen in my life: look at all those horses running together in the water! We're in a place called the "Zhaosu Wetland Park" (昭苏湿地公园) in the Zhaosu valley at the bottom of the TianShan mountains, famous all over China for its legendary horses. 5 times a day, the horses come run in the local "Te Ke Si" river, which is a very popular sight here.

Arnaud Bertrand

33,015 views • 2 days ago

This is a very interesting place, and I think fairly unique in China: a free trade zone that is jointly owned by China and Kazakhstan. I believe that both countries contributed a piece of land to create this place and you need to go through immigration/border control to enter here - which we did!

This is a very interesting place, and I think fairly unique in China: a free trade zone that is jointly owned by China and Kazakhstan. I believe that both countries contributed a piece of land to create this place and you need to go through immigration/border control to enter here - which we did!

Arnaud Bertrand

99,660 views • 6 days ago

If you want to see what a small Uyghur village looks like in Xinjiang today - a place that's absolutely not on tourist maps - here it is 👇 We stumbled upon this small Uyghur village called "yang bu la ke" (央不拉克村), next to Huiyuan ancient town, and decided to walk in. As you can see, we're the only tourists there and, by the stunned reaction of the kids we met (who were speaking Uyghur language between them), I was probably the first French person they ever met 😅 On one of the houses, we saw they were selling ice cream so we went in and got ourselves a delicious ice cream made solely with eggs and milk. It was also a good opportunity to see what a Uyghur house looks like from the inside: very charming and full of flowers! Needless to say, this is very much not the image you'll get from Western media on the way Uyghurs live in Xinjiang today - just basically normal lives - but yet again none of these journalists ever bother coming to places like here so 🤷‍♂️ And, by the way, there are zero restrictions, anyone can come here unannounced as we did.

If you want to see what a small Uyghur village looks like in Xinjiang today - a place that's absolutely not on tourist maps - here it is 👇 We stumbled upon this small Uyghur village called "yang bu la ke" (央不拉克村), next to Huiyuan ancient town, and decided to walk in. As you can see, we're the only tourists there and, by the stunned reaction of the kids we met (who were speaking Uyghur language between them), I was probably the first French person they ever met 😅 On one of the houses, we saw they were selling ice cream so we went in and got ourselves a delicious ice cream made solely with eggs and milk. It was also a good opportunity to see what a Uyghur house looks like from the inside: very charming and full of flowers! Needless to say, this is very much not the image you'll get from Western media on the way Uyghurs live in Xinjiang today - just basically normal lives - but yet again none of these journalists ever bother coming to places like here so 🤷‍♂️ And, by the way, there are zero restrictions, anyone can come here unannounced as we did.

Arnaud Bertrand

75,395 views • 5 days ago

This is pretty cool: we literally just walked from China into Kazakhstan. I believe it's the only border China has where you can walk this easily between both countries.

This is pretty cool: we literally just walked from China into Kazakhstan. I believe it's the only border China has where you can walk this easily between both countries.

Arnaud Bertrand

86,946 views • 6 days ago

As we're driving around Xinjiang, even in remote mountains, the quality of the infrastructure is genuinely insane: brand new and world-class roads and bridges everywhere.

Arnaud Bertrand

90,359 views • 7 days ago