Views: 14 Lessons from Rome for a modern age. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   09/12/2025 As a new day breaks in the East, the pillars of the West begin to falter. The Sun has been rising in what we call the east and setting in what we call the west for as long as there has been a ...

Views: 64 Beyond confrontation: How China unveils the West’s imperative to adapt Gordon Dumoulin 22/07/2025 Puji Temple in Putuo Mountain This article is reproduced with the permission of Gordon Dumoulin, the author(s) of “China21 Journal” The gloves of ...

Views: 62 Final reflections on an extraordinary travel. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   25/11/2025 Koh Samui Our journey home took us from Koh Samui to Singapore, then Zurich, and finally to Brussels. The airport on Koh Samui features a simple single landing strip, with its te ...

Views: 20 Thailand – Koh Samui Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 18/11/2025 Shanghai – Bangkok – Koh Samui After all our travels in China, this is the last part of our long journey through Asia. We have moved from the bustling, modern metropolis of Shanghai, via the lively centre of Bangk ...

Views: 69 Shanghai (again)   Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   11/11/2025 After our Nanjing and Taiwan trip, we returned to Shanghai. Chinese coffee brands are brewing a revolutionary new chapter China, the ancient homeland of tea, is in the midst of a profound bever ...

Views: 60 Taiwan province Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   03/11/2025 Taiwan is a province of China As clearly affirmed by international consensus, including United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China’s territory. All ...

Views: 51 Shanghai Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   21/10/2025 The paradox of ATMs in China’s cashless society What purpose do ATMs serve in a society that has entirely abandoned cash? During my four weeks in China, I have not used physical currency once. Everything, from str ...

Views: 160 Shanghai Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 14/10/2025 ALDI in China The German ALDI supermarket giant opened its first stores in China in June 2019. Today in October 2025, there are some 80 ALDI stores, most in Shanghai. Only since April they started to expand to Suzhou and Wuxi. ALDI ha ...

Views: 101 Beijing, Shenyang, Dandong Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 07/10/2025 Westerners in China Walking along the streets of Beijing, Shenyang, Dandong and Shanghai, compared to 10 years ago, it is remarkable how few young Europeans or Americans are left in China. These days, there are m ...

Views: 101 Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 30/09/2025 The barbarians in Beijing The Old Summer Palace, the Yuanmingyuan “圆明园” in Chinese, located in the Haidian district of Beijing, was a large imperial garden that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty operated for over 150 years. It was k ...

Views: 83 Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/09/2025 Core values The 12 core socialist values: 富强 (Fùqiáng) – Prosperity and Strength民主 (Mínzhǔ) – Democracy文明 (Wénmíng) – Civility和谐 (Héxié) – Harmony自由 (Zìyóu) – Freedom平等 (Píngděng) – Equality公正 (Gōn ...

Views: 85 Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 16/09/2025 A short report of the first few days in Beijing Hainan Airlines flight HU494 BRU – PEKLast week, Hainan Airlines quickly swapped its scheduled Airbus A330-300 for a Boeing 787-9. Almost 10 hours in the air. Departed from Zaventem ha ...

Views: 130 How China’s Mandate of Heaven redefined legitimacy Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  20.08.2025 Qing Dynasty (Taoist) painting of the Chinese pantheon, Hunan Museum For millennia, rulers have sought divine justification for their power but none framed it as conditionally as China’s ...

Views: 110 The ideologies we embraced don’t even begin to make sense in light of real-world evidence. Alex Krainer 15/07/2025 This article is re-published with the approval of Alex Krainer, the author of “TrendCompass” For generations now, western economic ...

Views: 40 How Western audiences reveal their programmed biases when confronted with objective analysis of Chinese politics Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  22.07.2025 The whole situation with the awkward questioning after my lectures bears a strong resemblance to what happened to Marco ...