In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...
Category: Culture
China’s Overseas Bullet Train: Malaysians Still Top Foreign Riders
China’s first overseas high-speed rail in Indonesia, the Whoosh bullet train, is carrying a steady flow of foreign passengers, and Malaysians continue to account for the largest share, the operator said. In less than two years since its inauguration in ...
Why China’s Middle-Class Families Are Flocking to Kenya for Summer Trips
In the summer of 2023, a curious travel trend began surfacing on Chinese social media feeds: middle-class parents were flying their children halfway across the world, not to Disneyland or a European city, but to Kenya’s grasslands. For China’s aspirational urban families, East Africa has suddenly become ...
How Chinese Takeout Bags Became Africa’s Street-Style Hit
Chinese social media spotted a quirky trend in African cities like Nairobi. Sturdy, brightly printed Chinese takeout bags, the kind you get from a hotpot chain or milk tea shop, are showing up everywhere. These are not souvenirs from China. They sell for over a dollar ...
Chinese Mountaineer Dies on Pakistan’s K2
A Chinese mountaineer died while descending the world's second-highest peak, with Pakistani rescuers waiting on Thursday for weather conditions to improve to recover her body. Guang Jing was descending from the summit of K2 on Tuesday night when she was hit ...
From Dali to Kathmandu: Why Burned-Out Chinese Millennials Are Fleeing to Nepal for a Better Chill
As burnout reaches critical levels among China’s young professionals, a new wave of job-quitters is quietly shifting their escape route. Once drawn to the artsy idyll of Dali in Yunnan, many have now set their sights on Nepal, where the pace is slower, the costs are lower, ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
China’s Hainan Islamic Pilgrimage Stopover Reveals Bigger Plans
China is quietly transforming the island of Hainan, located 20 kilometers offshore in the South China Sea, into a strategic transit hub for Muslim pilgrims from Southeast Asia, starting with Indonesian travelers seeking to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, known as Umrah.
China Eases Transit Rules for Indonesians. Jakarta Should Push for More.
China’s recent inclusion of Indonesia in its 240-hour visa-free transit program is a notable, if not entirely surprising, development. While Indonesia is now among the 55 countries benefiting from this arrangement, the move signals a step forward in the broader relationship between the two nations. For ...
Gay Chinese Couple Fulfil Wedding Dream in ‘Freer’ Thailand
By Sarah Lai When Wang Zengyi, 41, and Song Jihan, 29, first met at a friend's dinner party in China, it was love at first sight. "I thought he was handsome and pure," says Wang. ...
How Apartheid Shaped U.S. Policy on South Africa: China Study
A provocative analysis from a Chinese think tank examines the collapse of U.S.-South Africa relations, uncovering an unexpected driver: the influence of three tech titans—Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks—all of whom spent their formative years in apartheid-era South Africa.
China’s May Day Tourists Flock to an Unlikely New Hotspot: Central Asia
Over the recent Labor Day holiday on May 1st, an unexpected destination emerged as a top choice for Chinese tourists venturing overseas: Central Asia. While Southeast Asia once dominated the list of overseas travel favorites, recent high-profile cases involving telecom fraud ...
A Taste of Tradition in Nairobi’s Oldest Chinese Restaurant Without Chinese Chefs
It’s lunchtime in Nairobi, and the city buzzes with energy. I arrive at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC), a landmark in the heart of the City in the Sun. But today, I’m not here for a conference or a meeting—I’ve ...
Chinese Lessons in Saudi Schools Show Growing Ties
By Haitham El-Tabei With a map of China on the wall behind him, 14-year-old Yasser al-Shaalan studied the names of professions in a Chinese textbook, one of thousands of Saudi children now learning the language at school.