This chonky boy with a short tail is Chinese. The Chinese word for cat is māo which I’m told it’s pronounced like meow.

I’ve had a very different start to the day. We came to the city hospital for a TCM massage and cupping treatment. The hospital media team heard about it and came to photograph my cupping and then video interviewed me asking how I felt about TCM. I’m famous now!

Celebrating my birthday Chinese style. It was actually a double party - my great-niece Muchen is 16 today. And two bottles of Maotai bought from the factory as one of my presents!

4km Didi across the city - about £1. * Didi is the Chinese Uber.

I've found Bluesky very useful when having a meal with 6 other people who all speak Chinese and I don't. It gives me something to keep me busy 🤣

Another evening another banquet. Not sure what kind of fish it is or how they made it look like this but it’s sweet and sour and very nice. As usual plenty of maotai for toasting!

Matcha tea - Chinese style. You add, rice crispies, peanuts, floaty balls (don’t known what they are), chopped chives and sugar/salt if you prefer.

I’ve seen unnamed package delivery vehicles twice now. Once on a busy rural road and once parked outside our apartment complex. So they are happy travelling fairly fast (50km/h?) and navigating through busy city streets. It’s weird seeing a box on wheels driving round!

Who needs a new laptop when your car has a built-in 15.6" touch screen? Chinese BYD car. Don’t know the model because it’s in Chinese characters. It looks like at least some UK BYD models have a similar display. I didn’t have time to see if it would boot Linux from a memory stick 🤣

Epstein files aren't worth seeing or discussing, but Fauci's personal diary...? THERE's our new distraction. I'd listen to this remarkable woman.

I didn’t have wild swimming in a Chinese river on today’s bingo card. Luckily tropical rivers are pretty warm so it was a nice break from the incessant humid heat at this time of the year. The views were much better but I didn’t have a waterproof case to take my phone near the river.

Anyone else got traffic light timers? I’ve discovered that Chinese sat nav knows when traffic lights are going to change. The image shows that the light ahead will change to green in 39 seconds. Route planning can take this into account to plot the fastest route in a city.

Welcome to the modern world! I’ve heard people talk about matcha recently, but never had it. Then we had “Chinese coffee” which I’ve had numerous times on previous visits to China in the last 10 years. Today I discovered that Chinese coffee is really matcha! The base is green tea powder

Where did the Teletubbies go? After their rise to infamy 20+ years ago I didn’t see much of the Teletubbies. Or maybe my kids outgrew them and we didn’t watch those channels any longer? Anyway, I found them again - they moved to China!

East meets West Lays Pringles (at least that’s what I’d call them in the UK). Chinese flavour of Beef Pie but seemingly endorsed by Sir David Beckham. Yesterday we had Lionel Messi Garlic Bread flavour.

Happy Full Moon Day. Today is the day to eat Full Moon cakes if that's a tradition you follow. I've already had a couple of slices of a 5-nut cake and it was very nice.

The city in I'm (Laibin, Guangxi, China) has a population of 2.5 million. There's one westerner living permanently in the city. I increase the count by 100% Weirdly, we're related by marriage - to two cousins from a tiny village 50km away. The world is big and small at the same time!

I didn't have a 4.2km walk in 32C plus 70% humidity on my bingo card this morning but I've just about survived it. I think I've lost 5kg in sweat 🥵

English is the official second language in China. Which mean many products get English names. I often wonder if I could become a naming consultant over here to help them pick better names. Today I present to you “Fly Young” tissues.

There's nothing better than enjoying a drink (30% rice wine with rosehips) with a group of rural Chinese villagers where the only common language is "nyim ju" or "Cheers". Nyim ju is village language for cheers.

It's village cooking time in very rural China. Two huge woks. One cooking pork ribs (with rice wine and beer) and the other cooking pork belly stir fry with celery, onions and garlic (and I think some rice wine too). It's 35C feels like 44C so I don't know how they do it!

We’re in my wife’s village in very rural China for the weekend. We’re an hour’s drive from the nearest city that you'll never have heard of. The village has a population of about 60 people these days. We had roast duck, chicken and goose to eat. Washed down by 30% proof rice wine with rosehips. /1

I've just had a massage. The Chinese believe in "maximum pain, maximum gain". Mine wasn't even a heavy massage but I sure felt it. The massage was followed by gua sha - scraping of my back. I'm pretty black and blue now!

Chinese toothpaste is very unlike Western toothpaste. I'm used to minty flavours. The one I'm currently using has zanthoxyli radix in it which is a traditional Chinese medicine. I can't describe the taste, but it's not unpleasant. Another one is purple and I'm told is jasmine flavour.

This proves that Bluesky is reaching mass market appeal. Advertising events in Knott End must be a pretty niche market. Well done to the CAB for doing it!

Citizens Advice Lancashire West@citizensadvicelw.bsky.social · 2w ago

📢 Need free, confidential advice? We're here to help. 💙 Our next Knott End Advice Drop-In is on 📅 Friday 21st August, from 🕙 10:00am–2:00pm.

It annoys me that Bluesky shows me posts where the OP only allows replies from buddies. Why isn't there an option to stop such posts showing up? If you're not interested in my comments on your post why should I be interested in what you're saying in the first place?

We had a traditional Chinese tea ceremony after eating. We drank black Pu-erh tea, red tea from Yunnan and orange tea. I had a turn at making the tea. I've done it before and it's tricky to make sure you do it correctly! I think I passed the test.

Another lunch time, another Chinese meal. Not surprising as I'm in China. We started with Chinese coffee (actually tea with added herbs), then pigs feet, chicken, fish, rice porridge, beef with pepper and onions, sweet potato leaves, noodles, sticky rice and other things!

A home meal in China with friends. The bottle of baiju (58%) between two of us will make sure I sleep tonight 🤣

I'm relearning 'ganbei' with baiju. It means 'bottoms up' or down in one. Baiju is 58% proof, so even though it's only a small glass, one every few minutes soon adds up 🤣 I can still type so there's hope for me.