Views: 12 The tea and coffee odyssey. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/03/2026 Tea and coffee at Hengshan Garden hotel in Shanghai on 28.10.2025 From the ancient tea houses of China to the coffee-houses of Vienna, these two beverages have traversed the globe, shaping economies and defining cult ...

Views: 66 A study in civilisational grief Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 16/03/2026 Photo credit: tearsofdeepgrief Symptoms A French veteran shouts at a Beijing waitress in a language she does not understand. Young Americans drift through Shanghai, certain the world owes them a living, and th ...

Views: 11 How Chinese scientists embody a different value Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 09/03/2026 A confronting image When I first travelled to China many decades ago, the internet did not exist. I remember writing on a postcard to my parents: “Everything is different here.” ...

Views: 11 From active ingredients to finished pills, the cost gap explained. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 02/03/2026 Contentious, complicated, controlled A medicine is a chain: feedstocks processed into key starting materials, synthesised into an active ingredient, combined with excipient ...

Views: 29 Vast knowledge but no capacity to learn. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/02/2026 AI’s stupidity exposed. Image generated with ChatGPT5 Some raw, straightforward, ugly and inconvenient facts about the current status of AI systems. The definition What is AI ? There ar ...

Views: 64 From manufacturing to geopolitics: a litany of error. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 09/02/2026 They were all wrong, very wrong. For years, prominent Western analysts have consistently misjudged China’s trajectory, from its economic resilience to its strategic intentions. T ...

Views: 67 The super-conductivity of Han-blue. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 19/01/2026 The alchemists who conquered colour: how ancient China mastered synthetic chemistry 2,800 years before Europe. Long before European chemists stumbled upon synthetic dyes in their 19th-century laboratorie ...

Views: 102 Divergent paths of control and acceptance.   Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   05/01/2026 Shadow economies, street vendors and the state’s relationship with ordinary commerce: a comparison of China and the EU The informal economy occupies a peculiar space in mo ...

Views: 88 Europe’s financial surveillance has made ordinary family support a matter for the state. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   16/12/2025 There is a curious paradox in how the world’s major powers approach financial support within families. In the European Union, a gr ...

Views: 43 Reflecting on articles that challenged comfortable narratives. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   29/12/2026 The year 2025 stripped away our last illusions as European mirrors reflected only a diminished and unflattering truth. Global events have forced us to acknowledge our f ...

Views: 84 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: 28 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: 78 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: 79 Nanjing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   28/10/2025 Our journey from Shanghai to Nanjing aboard a Chinese high speed train highlighted China’s remarkable efficiency. This busy connection features four separate tracks in parallel, with trains departing on average every ten minute ...

Views: 199 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 ...