A Hui Muslim butcher, in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.Are you worried about food safety in China? If news reports concern you and you’re not sure how you will eat during an upcoming visit, your concern is well founded. During my five years in China, I learned the hard way and suffered frequent food poisoning, especially during my first year when I wanted to try everything new and exciting. However, as experience is an exacting teacher, my lessons were learned, and I soon became much better at avoiding food poisoning. I found the best way to eat safely in China, and I hope my advice can help y ..read more

Truth be told, I tend to stay away from using medicine. Coming from the U.S., I may be a bit wary from seeing how many people are overly-medicated and dependent on their pills. However, there are times abroad when you find yourself in a bad situation, and while it may not require a trip to the hospital, it may be too uncomfortable or inconvenient to ignore. I wrote about China’s hellish air pollution, and one of the most common issues you will encounter will be a sore throat and a bad cough. Fortunately, Chinese cough syrup is effective, cheap, and readily available, although it can be hard t ..read more

Foundation of a Chinese day: youtiao and a bowl of soymilkTranslated literally, a youtiao ( 油条) is an “oil stick”. Like many direct translations of Chinese foods, it is neither appealing nor descriptive. The Chinese name of “oil stick” comes from the fact that a youtiao is long and shaped like a stick, and fried in oil. In fact, a youtiao is one of the stars of a traditional Chinese breakfast, and it is better described as a Chinese doughnut, although cruller may be more apt. Somewhat remarkably for Chinese food, it is widely eaten across China and not restricted to a particular region. A y ..read more

Recent prosperity notwithstanding, China has never enjoyed great food security, and the specter of a new Chinese famine haunts the middle kingdom. While it may seem unthinkable today, hunger has not long been absent from China. The younger generation may only know the round face of today’s abundant wealth, but one need only go a generation further back to find memories of gaunt faces and hollow eyes, and bellies swollen not with oil and beer but with want. This year, African Swine Fever and Fall Armyworm provide one of the biggest threats to China’s food supply in decades. What is African S ..read more

We were all there for work and not prepared. Never let that hold you back from an adventure.My previous article featured the last day of my trip, when our hosts organized a visit to Mongolia’s grasslands. The first part was packed with excitement as we saw, and climbed, a colossal equestrian statue of Genghis Khan and went off-road over the steppes to visit an open-air museum of medieval yurts. Following that, in this article, I will describe the completion of our adventure as went to another living history museum of a royal yurt, met a shaman, and had an amazing Mongolian lunch (not for the v ..read more

If you’re visiting China for the first time, or have lived there a while and are without a clue, you should know there are some things not to say to or discuss with a Chinese person. There are relatively few Chinese taboos, but don’t say you weren’t warned! 1. Who did you vote for? Chinese don’t vote, and their government is not representative. China is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP or GongChanDong), However, the truth is slightly more complicated. Party members may vote on some party decisions, and as the party is over 90 million strong, a substantial number of Chinese a ..read more

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Mongols? Personally, I love entertaining myself with “what happened to” and “what if” questions, and if I remember them long enough to find an answer, I typically learn something as well. It’s good to exercise your mind this way, as remembering to ask questions is the surest way to learn. Last year I read an autobiography of Leonardo da Vinci, and much of his genius came from asking childlike questions adults would disregard. “Why is the sky blue”, wondered da Vinci, and this led him to discover the chemical composition of the atmosphere. When you tr ..read more

Mongolia is the land of the eternal blue sky, which is represented by the blue portion in the middle of their flag. And so, the final day of my work trip to Mongolia dawned, and no such trip is complete with visiting Mongolia’s grasslands. The work was done, and the education group that had hosted the college fair was taking all the college reps on a day outside of the city. This is not something to miss, as although Ulaanbaatar is the gateway to Mongolia, and a fun, unique city in its own right, Mongolia’s culture and identity is entirely linked to and comes from its grassland heritage. D ..read more

Lunch at a Buffet Mongolian Cuisine Explained Mongolian Milk Tea and Borts Khorkhog Sheep Head Honorable Mentions: Cheese, Milk Candy, Yogurt and Tsuivan Khuushuur for Dinner Mongolia, a Bodybuilders Paradise? To follow off my last post, the second and third days of my time in Ulaanbaatar were working. Although visiting schools was interesting and I was lucky to get that perspective, the food did awaken a bit more passion in me. Mongolian cuisine is unique: I love it, some hate it, and a vegan would likely starve to death. Lunch at a Buffet For lunch, I went searching for food with a fe ..read more

After the school visits and our dinner was done, we got to enjoy some traditional Mongolian music played by a band of local high students. Mongolian music is very culturally significant, and is the top medium for expressing discontent and discussing societal troubles (you know, like music used to be in the U.S.). It does it so effectively, I recommended listening to it as a means to better understand the country and prepare for a visit. An interesting thing about Mongolian music is how its creativity while taking on ideas from outside while retaining such a great deal of original Mongolian ..read more