Culture

Few others, if any, have been given a funeral procession such as this. Not only was it long, from Zhongshan Wharf in Nanjing’s northwest all the way to Purple Mountain, it was wide. Roads along the entire route were ripped...

“Clang, clang”, goes the level crossing on Chenguang Lu as foot and vehicular traffic give way to an average of 90 enormous freight trains each day. They have just departed, will shortly arrive at, or completely ignore, Nanjing Zhonghua...

Some 2 years ago, with the passing of Elizabeth II, I speculated in these pages that the late Queen would become, principally, the woman crowned in 1953, young and beautiful. I suspect that was an image she herself was...

Christianity in Nanjing as regards architecture is reflected in the enormous significance of three structures in particular, each remarkable for having survived until this day. Capable of simultaneously accommodating over 1,000 worshipers, Nanjing Christian Mochou Lu Church (南京基督教莫愁路堂; below left) ...

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. There they both were. And it was my wife who’d put them there. Strewth. It wasn’t even that one of these dishes was left-overs from the previous day; no, she had consciously cooked both...

Suntory’s bottled “Black Oolong Tea” is an institution, as well loved in China as in its native Japan. And here it is, refrigerated and available for purchase, in the UK. Always the stingy skinflint, I resent paying three times the...

Just as compasses do in China, the statue of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing’s Xinjiekou that marks the very centre of our City, faces south. Perhaps out of respect for the accepted way of doing things, but more pragmatically so...

I need to cut back. We’ve overspent this month. When I look back, I don’t know whether it’s the newly-printed poster board on my wall which I’ll point to as “peak-splurge”. Maybe it will be the sailing sun-hat from the French...