Hair Where?

It is a hot,sweltering summer day in China.You are on a humid bus full of sweaty people.You lean your head on a post and hastily avert your eyes.Now you are on Huaihai Street,in Shanghai's busy shopping district.It is sale season and you are trying on the latest from H&M or Zara's spring collection.You step outside the dressing room to a wall of mtrrors where other women are admiring themselves,and your jaw drops.     

Hangin’in Hangzhou

In April last year,some friends and I were busy making travel plans to take ourselves from "winter" Beijing to spring Hangzhou,east China’s Zhejiang Province.We booked a cozy little hotel by the edge of town where we were surrounded by tea     

Clean Yourself Up, Beijing!

正Hazardous That’s what @BeijingAir, the U.S. Embassy’s close to hourly Twitter reports said about the state of Beijing’s air pollution the other day, and the worst rating it can give. By now, I’m not all that surprised. It used to be that I would look at the haze outside and deem it fog, primarily due to my     

Beijing and Shanghai—Again

正"So Nikki," she starts. Oh boy, I think. "Since you’ve experienced both," she continues. Here it comes. I brace myself for it."Which is better? Shanghai or Beijing?" my visiting aunt asks me over dinner.If I had 1 yuan for every person that’s     

Chinese Boost Canadian Real Estate

Canadian real estate developers said that the flowing in of Chinese money will keep housing markets stable in Vancouver. The city was recently ranked the second least affordable in the world by Demographia’s International Housing Affordability survey. Colin Bosa,CEO of Bosa Properties,said that as long as the Chinese continue to move to British Columbia,markets will remain stable."They like it in British Columbia because it’s safe and they’re accepted here,"Bosa said."There is a good quality of life with universal health care and good schools."Vancouver is British Columbia’s largest city and known for hosting the 1986 Expo,2010     

Beijing Bumpkin

正I live in Beijing,a city of 20 million people,the capital of the Earth's most populous country and a center of massive cultural,political and economic influence.I've also lived in Shanghai,the financial center of China.So why was I so shocked to discover a clean,sit-down toilet with toilet paper in a     

Winter Flings

正Summer flings.Those summer days of fun under the sun,careless and worryfree,drifting away into those breezy summer nights. It's a concept somewhat romanticized by the media but still pretty common in Western societies,and seemingly other cultures infiltrated by Western media.One can only imagine my surprise when my friend told me there were such things as winter flings too. That's right,winter flings.Strange as it seems, this was introduced to me by a friend from Toronto,a city on the east coast of Canada.     

11/112.0

正It was the night of November 10 and the moment I’d been waiting exactly a year for was fast approaching.At the stroke of 12,my actions would determine whether all that careful planning in the two weeks prior had been worth it.Come midnight,the madness that is China’s annual November 11 sales would be unleashed.November 11 is Singles Day in China,the