Beijing Wide Open

I tried something new today. Inspired by my interview with Amber Mac on WebNation, I interviewed Jamyang Norbu via skype. It worked ok besides the occasional feedback (sorry!) and this is the first of three parts.

Jamyang Norbu is an acclaimed Tibetan writer, thinker and activist. His novel, The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, […]

A Chinese government agent came to our office today. We’ve had a couple of visits like this before. They usually work for a Chinese media outlet based in Beijing or are researchers/academics. They ask a lot of questions and don’t take any notes. They are mostly pretty friendly and have a […]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact of this blog and the banner on the Great Wall over the past few days. So much of the attention our actions in Beijing garnered was because of the technology we used to challenge the Chinese government. More than one story focused on the tools […]

I am on the plane and we’ve just started our descent. According to the captain we’ll be landing in 20 minutes.
I think there’s a guy following me on the plane. Or maybe I’m just totally paranoid now. But I’m pretty convinced…is this what happens after just one week in China as a […]

Yesterday I wrote about my experience visiting the racist theme park outside of Beijing. Today, I’ve posted a slideshow of photos taken during our visit.

I hope these images will help communicate the source of the deep, disturbed feelings I was trying to share with you through my written words. Remember, this is all a fake […]

Strange calls, people following and watching us… is this how it feels to live under oppression?

Outside the window, you can see our “tail” in two cars. They have been following us all day, without trying to hide the fact that they were watching us.

There’s been so much hype and excitement about it. I just had to come see the The Olympic Stadium (nicknamed the Bird’s Nest) for myself. It’s enormous and obviously meant to inspire awe and reverence in Chinese and foreigners alike, regardless of the cost (which at this point is estimated at 3.8 billion Yuan – […]

Paul and I completely forgot to eat today. It was nearly 9pm before we realized we’d only had one bowl of plain rice each! It’s not so easy to eat vegetarian in this town. We ordered spicy beans at lunch and we got spicy beans…with pork. We ordered eggplant tonight at dinner and […]

Some reflections at the end of our first day here in Beijing. Lots of emotion and adrenaline mixed with a good dose of exhaustion and paranoia.

Thank you for all the supportive comments and well-wishes. I wish I could respond to each you, but I have to be careful about how and when I access this […]