Exciting! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH32...

The capital of Laos, Vientiane (Wīang chan ວຽງຈັນ), has two beautiful Chinese names😀: 永珍 Wing5 Zan1 ('perpetual treasure') is Canto-based; the Mandarin phonetics are way off 萬象 Wanxiang ('myriad elephants'): the Mandarin-based PRC name is a semantic match for the Lan Xang ລ້ານຊ້າງ ('million elephants')

Two of the more interesting buildings I saw while subdistricting around the outer reaches of Chaoyang district & the north west side of Tongzhou

Really happy to see these guys on KEXP. Probably my favourite new band I've found this year. youtu.be/0tVAHORcGJ8?...

guess they heard you were coming

My woke socialist vegetarian ass ate a full English with my non-British, non-white girlfriend as our last meal in The UK recently before flying back to our home in communist China, so it's very funny that that's now the new, forced, culture war shite of the perpetually appauled snowflake UK right

Do you know what's dead fun? Supporting a team that are consistently, verifiably, statistically one of the worst teams in the English Football League every. single. year. Just proper fun. Love it.

Was thinking of skipping the monthly anonymous q&a this month & transitioning to once every two to three months to keep it fresh But worth gauging interest I suppose? Submit your questions here: ngl.link/curtexplores... If there's a few I'll answer now, if not I'll do it next month!

JD Vance retweeting Drew Pavlou is very 2025

The world's number one illegal sports betting platform, already a sponsor of PSG, Barcelona, FIBA, CAF, etc etc ad nauseam, signs yet another partnership - and with a Tour known to be a favourite playing ground for match-fixers. Nobody gives a fuck anymore it seems. www.ggrasia.com/1xbet-announ...

Scum. & if you want proof of that, here's the location of fixed odds betting machines overlayed on a map of poverty rates in. my hometown. Scum, praying on misery.

Jokes aside, having not been blocked by anyone for almost a month, I've been blocked by 6 people in less than 2 days — almost entirely Italians. What did I do to upset you, Italy?

Pleased to announce that @susanjgrey.bsky.social has mastered spicy hotpot on her first day & has already earned her China-understander certificate 😁. Pleasure to finally meet Dr Susan in person over some good food in some awful weather

I've written about the life and just some of the achievements of my former classmate Andy West aka 魏安, Ando, and BabelStone @babelstone.co.uk www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Very sad to have just learned of the passing of Andrew West. His old travel threads of his trips through parts of China that remain alien to many of us even now, in 2025, never mind the 1980s, are perhaps my favourite things on this entire website. A true font of knowledge.

It seems that within the past hour, I have upset the Italians

Does anyone know if Lu is still around? It would be nice to have a catch up, see how (s)he's doing. If you are here under a different name & don't want it known publicly, drop me a DM here or elsewhere. I'll keep it a secret. You just popped into my head & would be nice to know you're doing well 👍🏻

I am forever grateful that Facebook asks the real questions

No country has been more successful at PR than Japan in recent decades. Its worth studying. So successful, it has Americans offended by proxy at a tepid joke on a video of people speaking Japanese, cooking a Japanese dish on Japanese equipment, posted by a Japanese account w/ a Japanese caption

Very blessed to be surrounded by good hearts

last day on the oblong of dreams

two days, two ferries, two continents

Well I've been here a morning & everything feels at boiling point in working class Britain & we just paid 1.60 for a packet of crisps in Birkenhead of all places. But the waterfront is still very nice, even if the next ferry isn't for 40 minutes

A wee Shanghai pre-show before the main event holiday

Israeli forces kill 15 Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-forces-kill-15-palestinians-waiting-aid-gaza

It's very nice to see the fine people of the wonderful, historic city of Liverpool really embracing their new favourite pastime: queueing for ages for fast food chains.

In a world of China hawks, I am the China seagull (yaps too much, enjoys the coast, mostly preoccupied with scranning loads of food)

Fake China-understanders will tell you that Chongqing is China's biggest city. But real China-understanders (me & me only) will tell you it's Nagqu. Know who to trust.

You just know CMAT is a generational talent because very few people could write what is arguably the year's most touching, moving track, & include a line calling trees the 'saddest cunts of plants' within the first few lines youtu.be/z5B5ZGuZz2I?...

Having only gotten back into F1 this year after a quite a long break, I totally missed Zhou Guanyu's Shanghai Metro-inspired helmet for the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix. Love it!

lmao

'I can accept a full on genocide & the mass slaughter of children, livestreamed in HD, but I *absolutely* draw the line at someone walking out of a room when the architect of the genocide is speaking' - lots of very clever people (& Drew Pavlou) on X dot com right now.

He's blue for an amazing reason

‘I can’t escape these machines’: addicts tell of huge losses from slot gambling

I feel like, as a person that spends a lot of time on Wikipedia, I should be a bit better at this game than I am. Will keep practicing. catfishing.net #460 - 6/10 🐈🐈🐟🐈🐟 🐈🐟🐈🐈🐟

As far as I'm aware - & Peter Joliceur isn't here to correct me - there are currently only 3 cities in China with more than one operational international airport, & a further 3 with one operating & one under construction. From these satellite images, can you name each city? 1)

At least 85 Palestinians killed across the territory, as global leaders demand end to the war at UNGA.

When I did the Bad China Take Awards, I had an unwritten rule to limit how often I nominated the inherently ridiculous empty vessels - Goode, Pavlou, Chang, Hinkle et al Conspiracy nut Songpinganq was right up towards the top of that list. Heres Politico's China guy sharing him uncritically. Fun 👍🏻

This is cool - Baidu Maps now has a 'city walk' feature, where you select a start & end point (in my case, the metro I was at & the nearest 711 for some lunch) & it crafts you two nice sightseeing routes. Great in an unfamiliar area with time to kill!

The Hohhot Metro has two stations named after Genghis Khan - Genghis Khan Park & Genghis Khan Plaza - both on Line 2. Which got me thinking - is there any other historical figure with more than 2 stations named after them on the same system?

PopMart must pay for what it has done

Some of you may recall Im on a mission to visit all 343 subdistrict-level divisions in Beijing Heres how were looking on 183, with Shijingshan joining Fengtai, Dongcheng & Xicheng in full completion after I ticked off Wulituo Subdistrict (pic 2), & Miyun finally w/ some blue from this weekend (3&4)

Israel kills displaced Palestinians in strike on car fleeing Gaza City - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-kills-displaced-palestinians-strike-car-fleeing-gaza-city

#OtD 16 Sep 1982 right-wing Christian militias, supported by the Israeli army, began carrying out out acts of murder, torture, rape, and abuse in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon. 800- 3500 people were killed stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1271...

A momentous day and massive congrats to the #Hillsborough families and campaign. We firmly hope that the MoD will be covered by the legal duty of candour on public bodies. We have issued this statement

"At least 41 people have been killed since dawn [today]"