https://www.scmp.com/rss/269769/feed A former business reporter at the South China Morning Post, Cameron Dueck is a writer who uses adventure travel to explore remote places and cultures. He is the author of two books of non-fiction. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck The voices come from a distance, indirect and indecipherable. Unfamiliar voices speaking in a foreign language. They weave in and out of range, in and out of my drowsy dream. A child’s shout is followed by the tinkle of laughter. Slowly my mind climbs out of the warm burrow of sleep to see what all the fuss is about. It takes me a moment more to realise the voices are German. I’m still dancing between dreams and reality, enjoying the gauzy confusion. Why German and not English or Cantonese? I... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3353659/mastering-art-tourist-nap-richer-travel-experience?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3353659/mastering-art-tourist-nap-richer-travel-experience?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:09 +0000 Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck We approach from the east, leaving the main islands of Japan behind. The late afternoon sun bounces off the sea in a blinding glare as our anchor chain rattles out of its locker and slides into a small bay off Tairajima Island. All is still as our sailing boat, the Teng Hoi, gracefully pirouettes in the currents, searching for her point of balance, where she’ll rest for the night. Below the sinking sun stretch the Goto Islands, or Goto Retto, literally “five-island chain”, an archipelago of 140... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3345546/remote-villages-surprise-cocktail-bars-and-hilltop-churches-nagasakis-goto-islands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3345546/remote-villages-surprise-cocktail-bars-and-hilltop-churches-nagasakis-goto-islands?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Mar 2026 03:00:07 +0000 Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck The colours dazzle under the midday sun, even through squinting eyes. Aqua blue sea, sparkling and dancing with the waves, a bright baby blue where the sea floor turns to sand, a deeper marine hue where the water deepens. The sea tears itself into dashes of foam along the shore, surprising me as the white rears up and falls with a whoosh right next to my wheels. Then the volcanic basalt, jagged and hot as it absorbs the sun’s rays, stretches clean and black as far as the eye can see. Finally,... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3323297/cycling-around-jeju-volcanic-south-korean-isle-rock-wind-and-women?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3323297/cycling-around-jeju-volcanic-south-korean-isle-rock-wind-and-women?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:00:13 +0000 Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck The hollow donnngg of a bell gently burrows into my sleep. It is a comforting, if unfamiliar, sound, accompanying the strange new dreams of a foreign place, a new bed, an unfamiliar night. Again and again, with increasing persistence, the bell calls me out of my sleep, sounding like a bullfrog in the woods. Donnngg … donnngg. I am still swimming towards consciousness when the ringing stops and the deep baritone chanting of a monk fills the predawn air. As I awake, I slowly remember where I am:... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3315158/mix-martial-arts-meditation-south-korean-temple-retreat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3315158/mix-martial-arts-meditation-south-korean-temple-retreat?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Jun 2025 23:30:11 +0000 Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck I squint into the fog, my eyes streaming in the cold wind that whips over the mountain. Did that rock just move? I give the bell hanging from my backpack a shake, wipe the tears from my eyes and look again at the dark shape 50 metres away. Jingle jingle. Nothing stirs; indeed, it is a rock and not a bear. We continue up the mountainside while keeping an eye out for movement. My partner and I are in the middle of a multi-day, 50km summer trek through Daisetsuzan National Park, in the mountainous... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3312297/hike-through-stormy-daisetsuzan-hokkaido-japans-largest-national-park?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3312297/hike-through-stormy-daisetsuzan-hokkaido-japans-largest-national-park?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Jun 2025 03:00:09 +0000 Cameron Dueck Cameron Dueck From 1,000 feet in the air I could see where the sea shallowed, allowing the white sand to shine through the water around Thailand’s Panak Island, east of Phuket. That would be a good place to anchor a boat for a swim, I pointed out to the pilot. Then, as he banked the small aircraft into a right-hand turn, I saw the serrated outline of the Phang Nga mountains poking through the haze to the north. A good place to go exploring with a 4x4 truck, we agreed. And that was how my friend Torben... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3308792/3-ways-escape-crowds-thailands-phang-nga?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3308792/3-ways-escape-crowds-thailands-phang-nga?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 May 2025 09:03:35 +0000 My partner pokes me in the ribs and points down into a valley beside the road. “Look over there! It’s so beautiful!” I take a quick peek, but all I see is a blur of green before I have to steer us around a right-hand curve. I lean the motorcycle into the turn and before the bike is straight, I am calculating my approach into the next left-hand curve. The Ho Chi Minh Highway twists through the mountains of western Vietnam, along the Laos border, and it’s the first road I’ve ridden on which I have... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3295031/riding-vietnams-ho-chi-minh-highway-motorcycle-odyssey-along-twisty-perilous-mountain-roads?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3295031/riding-vietnams-ho-chi-minh-highway-motorcycle-odyssey-along-twisty-perilous-mountain-roads?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Jan 2025 08:00:09 +0000 It is 3am and I am wide awake, scrolling through listings of Hokkaido restaurants on my phone. I peer at pictures of dining rooms, trying to assess if they are big enough to accommodate the 10 members of my extended Hong Kong family who will arrive in two days’ time. After spending several months travelling in Japan, I invited my family to visit me and my partner, Cameron, in Otaru, a port city on Hokkaido’s west coast, with an offer to plan their holiday for them. In no time at all, my parents... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3290304/planning-chinese-familys-multigenerational-holiday-itinerary-hokkaido-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3290304/planning-chinese-familys-multigenerational-holiday-itinerary-hokkaido-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2024 05:00:09 +0000 It was mid-autumn on the high seas, and we were halfway across the Taiwan Strait, beating into a northeasterly wind. It could have been a much kinder southwesterly, had we sailed a week earlier, but we were starting a new life, a sailing adventure, and saying goodbye to Hong Kong had taken a lot longer than we thought it would. I winched our reefed mainsail in just a little tighter, and tried to point a degree higher, as we clawed our way upwind into a cold grey rain towards Taiwan. The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3272907/couple-who-left-hong-kong-sail-high-seas-islanding-hopping-taiwan-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3272907/couple-who-left-hong-kong-sail-high-seas-islanding-hopping-taiwan-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:45:10 +0000 I arrived in Okinawa knowing only that the island hosts a large United States military base and that tourists flock to its white-sand beaches. A closer look at my map reveals museums, national parks and traditional villages, all spread out on an island that is more than 100km (62 miles) from end to end. Okinawa, I decide, is the perfect place for a road trip. Okinawa is the largest of more than 150 islands in a prefecture of the same name, located far to the south of Japan’s main islands. We... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3269252/road-trip-around-okinawa-reveals-rich-history-and-culture-place-isnt-real-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3269252/road-trip-around-okinawa-reveals-rich-history-and-culture-place-isnt-real-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jul 2024 04:45:08 +0000 My legs are numb and my lungs ache as I shift down a gear and pedal harder still, keeping an eye on the crest of the hill we are climbing. A loaded truck thunders by, the draught it produces buffeting my bike. I look down at the mobile phone mounted on my handlebars, squinting to read the screen in the glare of the sun. Just 40km to go. For today. Only about 800km (500 miles) left in our quest to cycle around Taiwan. I am feeling gullible, old and worried. Gullible because I believed the people... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3268846/how-cycling-around-taiwan-mountains-and-country-roads-makes-you-feel-real-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3268846/how-cycling-around-taiwan-mountains-and-country-roads-makes-you-feel-real-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jul 2024 08:20:08 +0000 We are only a dozen steps into the forest the first time we stop to gawp, our necks craned to scan the towering canopy. We are surrounded by trees that creak in the gentle wind, and 1,000 shades of green that shimmer in the morning light. This is why we have come to Yakushima, an island about 200km (125 miles) south of the city of Kagoshima in southern Japan. We are craving a dose of chlorophyll, and a three-day trek amid the mountain peaks of an island famed for its wildlife and ancient cedar... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3265995/hiking-yakushima-japan-forests-monkeys-and-mountains-island-inspired-hayao-miyazaki-film?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3265995/hiking-yakushima-japan-forests-monkeys-and-mountains-island-inspired-hayao-miyazaki-film?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Jun 2024 03:55:36 +0000 For Taiwanese sailor Andy Kuo Lee, the 2019 purchase of Our Rose, a 44-foot (13-metre) sailing catamaran, was a dream come true. Having taken early retirement from his career as an actuary, Lee and his wife, Jennifer Chen, were looking for adventure. They found it living aboard their new boat, spending four years cruising through Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. They enjoyed being afloat in the azure waters of Southeast Asia, anchored in quiet bays and being immersed in the culture of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3264352/yacht-trip-goes-very-wrong-taiwanese-retiree-who-cant-swim-when-boat-punctured-rough-seas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3264352/yacht-trip-goes-very-wrong-taiwanese-retiree-who-cant-swim-when-boat-punctured-rough-seas?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 May 2024 23:15:08 +0000 The tops of the cypress trees sway back and forth far above my head, keeping a steady, slow count. The giant trunks creak, their music accented with the occasional rattle of branches and the sigh of wind winding its way through the forest. The rough, dull-brown trunks stand ramrod straight as they reach for the sky. Up the trail, they fade to grey in the thick afternoon mist that is rolling in, leaving the brightly coloured jackets of a few distant hikers glowing in the gloom. I take a deep... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3252376/hiking-beaten-track-central-taiwans-alishan-region-coffee-and-tea-plantations-forest-trails-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3252376/hiking-beaten-track-central-taiwans-alishan-region-coffee-and-tea-plantations-forest-trails-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Feb 2024 04:45:09 +0000 The alleyways are so narrow I can nearly touch both sides with outstretched arms. The passage twists and turns, offering up a surprise around every corner, from cocktail bars infused with Japanese style to bookstores selling centuries of culture and cafes that invite me to rest for a while. Although West Central, Tainan’s city centre, is a living neighbourhood, which I am reminded of when a scooter comes whizzing by carrying a mother and two children returning from school, its historical... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3248441/what-see-taiwans-oldest-city-tainan-it-celebrates-its-400th-birthday-night-markets-hotpot-historic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3248441/what-see-taiwans-oldest-city-tainan-it-celebrates-its-400th-birthday-night-markets-hotpot-historic?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Jan 2024 05:14:52 +0000 It’s not a good day to be out on the water. The sky is leaden, the wind is too fresh to be pleasant, and it is beginning to spit with rain. I look at my sea charts for a suitable anchorage, a place sheltered from the wind where I can wait out the weather. I am on a week-long voyage through Hong Kong waters, giving me the luxury of time to work around the weather. The name Snake Bay jumps out at me from the chart, triggering a faint recollection. It is tucked into the western side of High Island,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3044792/sailing-hong-kong-remote-villages-hidden-bays-revealed-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3044792/sailing-hong-kong-remote-villages-hidden-bays-revealed-its?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jan 2020 23:45:11 +0000 A log pops and embers make a rustling sound as they reposition themselves in the fireplace. Silence returns. No matter how hard my ears strain, they can find no other sound; no wind whispering against the cabin, no distant traffic, no music from neighbours. There are no neighbours, and the woods surrounding our rough cabin are asleep under a metre of snow in the long dark night of a Manitoban winter. Suddenly there comes a high-pitched howl – “Yip, yip, yoooowwwww …” – fading into a thread... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3042561/going-grid-snowy-canadian-winter-cosy-cabin-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3042561/going-grid-snowy-canadian-winter-cosy-cabin-will?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Dec 2019 01:00:10 +0000 Some of my closest friends have travelled thousands of miles from around the world for a rare weekend reunion. I am playing tour guide for them in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba province, in the heart of the Canadian prairies. It’s the place our family referred to simply as “the city” when I was growing up on a farm a few hours drive away. Hong Kong family part of dining revolution in Canadian prairies’ heart, where cultural diversity inspires young restaurateurs I left Winnipeg to live... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2141198/canadian-city-winnipeg-celebrates-its-indigenous?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2141198/canadian-city-winnipeg-celebrates-its-indigenous?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Apr 2018 12:30:30 +0000 The map showed an idyllic patch of water hemmed in by parkland islands. I could see small coves and passages, the perfect place to explore in a kayak. Its name, Double Haven, completed the tranquil image. But we’re not there yet. First, having set off from Tan Ka Wan on the Sai Kung peninsula, we have to cross the lumpy, grey seas of Tolo Channel, our kayaks bobbing in the waves as we wait for a ship to pass. Then we round Wong Chuk Kok Tsui, where hikers scrambling along the rocky shore to get... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2074731/kayaking-placid-double-haven-far-hong-kongs-bustle-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2074731/kayaking-placid-double-haven-far-hong-kongs-bustle-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Feb 2017 08:45:45 +0000 No Wall Too High: One Man’s Daring Escape From Mao’s Darkest Prison by Xu Hongci (translated and edited by Erling Hoh) Sarah Crichton Books There are no stories more satisfying than those in which the common man suffers injustice and cruelty at the hands of the powerful but perseveres against all odds, clinging to his values until he can claim victory. They’re all the more compelling when true, and never more so than when the story goes public against the wishes of the antagonist. No Wall Too... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2070728/chinese-papillon-true-story-man-who-escaped-maos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2070728/chinese-papillon-true-story-man-who-escaped-maos?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:00:45 +0000 Our yellow canoe is pulled up on a narrow beach, perpendicular to deep moose hoof prints. The birch and spruce forest leans over the beach, as if reaching for the sunlight that glitters off the water. Most of the leaves have already fallen and the trees are naked and white, bathed in the warm afternoon sunshine. Kilvert Lake, in Ontario’s Eagle-Dogtooth Provincial Park, is one of thousands carved out of the 4-billion-year-old rock. This is the Canadian Shield, the largest mass of exposed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2052505/five-days-all-alone-paddling-through-canadas-wilds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2052505/five-days-all-alone-paddling-through-canadas-wilds?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Dec 2016 12:04:13 +0000 I stand on the gently rocking bow and measure the distance with my eye, then jump onto a granite boulder covered in orange lichen and scramble up the rocks, using scrawny fir trees to pull myself into the forest. Bright green moss swallows my foot­steps and releases a musty, earthy scent I’ve never before smelled on a sailing trip. But then, I’ve never before sailed in Åland. Cruising these islands, sprinkled across the Archipelago Sea, between Finland and Sweden, is as much about exploring the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2040320/sailing-away-it-all-baltics-archipelago-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2040320/sailing-away-it-all-baltics-archipelago-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Oct 2016 03:30:45 +0000 It feels like hours since we last stopped. I’m cramped from sitting hunched over and my sweaty legs are sliding all over the vinyl seats. “Ugh … ooofff … damn!” I grunt as we bang over a pothole, the jolt making my spine throb. The 53-year-old Land Rover bucks like an angry bull, its suspension rigid with age and practicality. “Turn right here,” I shout at the driver, Torben. The crunching of knobby tyres on tarmac, a throbbing diesel engine and windows open for the fresh air – the air-con... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1986669/three-men-one-vintage-land-rover-and-900km-trip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1986669/three-men-one-vintage-land-rover-and-900km-trip?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Jul 2016 03:30:15 +0000 The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China by Guobin Yang Columbia University Press 3/5 stars The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China explores the first generation to be born after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, their radicalism in the 1960s and how their experiences have shaped the China we have today. Raised to be the “flowers of the nation”, that first generation embraced the Cultural Revolution of 1966 but soon split into warring factions. This... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1978393/book-review-red-guard-generation-and-how-they-shaped?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1978393/book-review-red-guard-generation-and-how-they-shaped?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Jun 2016 04:00:15 +0000 Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road by Rob Schmitz Crown/Penguin 4/5 stars Our shelves are full of books about China’s great rise in wealth, but Street of Eternal Happiness uses life on a Shanghai street to show fortune and success don’t always play out fairly. Some make money and claw their way up, but there are hardworking Chinese people who struggle to fit into the system or make it work for them. “Across the street at the sandwich shop, CK’s struggle with the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1969315/book-review-contrasting-fortunes-shanghai-street?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1969315/book-review-contrasting-fortunes-shanghai-street?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jun 2016 00:00:45 +0000 There’s a kayaking destination with exposed shores of rare and beautiful geology riddled with sea caves. It has white sand beaches and small uninhabited islands that are as fun to circumnavigate as they are to camp on. The weather is suitable for kayaking year-round, and there’s something for everyone, from beginners to expert paddlers. New Zealand? Some part of the Mediterranean coastline? Actually, it’s Hong Kong, where ideal conditions make kayaking one of the best ways to enjoy the city’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1969092/kayaking-hong-kong-where-go-and-everything-you-need?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1969092/kayaking-hong-kong-where-go-and-everything-you-need?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jun 2016 03:30:30 +0000 The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything by Professor Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh Viking Books 3/5 stars Every now and again, someone writes a book that brings thorny, complicated philosophical questions to the surface, jarring our media-addled minds into thinking a bit deeper than the next 140-character pronouncement or carefully doctored selfie image. The Path, by Professor Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, emphasises how Eastern ways of thinking challenge Western... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1942632/book-review-path-big-claims-about-using-eastern-wisdom-attain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1942632/book-review-path-big-claims-about-using-eastern-wisdom-attain?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 May 2016 16:16:22 +0000 There's the muffled rattle of floorboards as someone walks across the platform you're living on. Parrots, hornbills and a score of other exotic birds chirp and trill overhead. There's the hiss of waves hitting the shore and maybe the splash of fish. But other than that … silence. Raja Ampat, an archipelago in the Indonesian state of West Papua, is less densely populated than the Western Sahara, but this undeveloped, remote corner of Asia is home to the greatest diversity of marine life and coral... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1934150/live-papuan-back-basics-homestays-marine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1934150/live-papuan-back-basics-homestays-marine?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:00:45 +0000 Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong’s occupy movement uncovered by Jason Y. Ng Blacksmith Books 3.5/5 stars In the autumn of 2014 Hongkongers experienced a social and political event that changed our home forever. Now, we can relive that experience with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight in Jason Y. Ng’s new book, Umbrellas in Bloom. Ng, a Hong Kong freelance writer who regularly contributes to the South China Morning Post and has written two previous books about his home, provides a detailed and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1931326/book-review-umbrellas-bloom-hong-kong-writers-take-2014-protest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1931326/book-review-umbrellas-bloom-hong-kong-writers-take-2014-protest?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Mar 2016 22:00:33 +0000 The Shark and the Albatross by John Aitchison Profile Books In today’s world where inspiration comes from two-minute videos and Instagram photos, it’s easy to forget that words, too, can take your mind to a far-flung corner of the world and leave it seared with an image of beauty and fragility. In The Shark and the Albatross, John Aitchison, a wildlife filmmaker, tells his stories of adventure and discovery in some of the most remote and dangerous corners of the world filming exotic creatures... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1892373/book-review-shark-and-albatross-takes-us-behind-scenes-natural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1892373/book-review-shark-and-albatross-takes-us-behind-scenes-natural?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Dec 2015 04:15:30 +0000 Dragons in Diamond Village by David Bandurski Penguin Random House China’s population is urbanising faster than any other nation in history, and that’s nearly always presented as a sign of progress and development. It’s not quite so simple, as David Bandurski shows in his well researched and solidly written book, Dragons in Diamond Village, examining the truth behind China’s massive, chaotic and historically important push to urbanise. Guangzhou’s drive to become a “National Model City” ahead... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1891355/book-review-human-cost-chinas-rush-urbanisation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1891355/book-review-human-cost-chinas-rush-urbanisation?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:00:17 +0000 It is 44 degrees Celsius on the floor of the Gobi Desert; the air shimmers and dances with the heat. My eyes swim with tedium after hours of staring at the gently undulating ground, trying to spot precious fossil fragments among the countless pebbles. To my right, within shouting distance, a scientist stoops, picks at something on the ground, then squats down for a closer look. He digs with his hammer, the chink-chink-chink of metal on stone carried away by the hot, dry wind. A small fragment... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1856910/gobi-desert-dinosaur-hunting-expedition-throws-few-surprises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1856910/gobi-desert-dinosaur-hunting-expedition-throws-few-surprises?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Sep 2015 07:45:45 +0000 Far to the west in China is a place that is as different to the rest of China as one could imagine. Its people have fair hair and green eyes, the land is sandy and mountainous, and the languages spoken have no relation to those heard in the east. But Beijing insists it has always been a part of the motherland, and it is unrelenting in imposing that view on those who live there. It uses its economic might and intolerance of dissent to overwhelm the people in this land, causing outbursts of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1831952/book-review-dry-prose-mars-valuable-summary-xinjiangs-plight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1831952/book-review-dry-prose-mars-valuable-summary-xinjiangs-plight?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jul 2015 13:34:56 +0000 It's easy to forget the bad moments in history, especially if you caused them. And in Beijing, no moment has become as forgettable as the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989. Twenty-six years after the People's Liberation Army opened fire, the central government continues to go to great lengths to hide the truth about this watershed moment through censorship, falsification of history and using nationalism to redirect criticism. Louisa Lim, a journalist who reported from China for a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1826733/louisa-lim-orchestrated-amnesia-over-tiananmen-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1826733/louisa-lim-orchestrated-amnesia-over-tiananmen-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:45:45 +0000 Xinran's latest book confirms all the worst stereotypes of young Chinese going overseas to study and start their careers: spoilt, incompetent and arrogant - and all because mummy and daddy coddled them. Buy Me the Sky is about the erosion of Chinese values, and it hangs much of the blame on China's one-child policy. The mainland introduced the policy in 1979 and by some accounts that system has now produced a surplus of 30 million men - due to a preference for sons that has led to severe gender... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1820499/book-review-buy-me-sky-xinran-sad-indictment-chinese-youth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1820499/book-review-buy-me-sky-xinran-sad-indictment-chinese-youth?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jun 2015 10:45:50 +0000 China is expanding its claims over the South China Sea, growing as a global economic power and flexing its military muscles. No country feels the impact of these changes more than Japan. Intimate Rivals examines the effect China's rise has on Japan, and does so using remarkably clear arguments and comprehensive context for an increasingly complex and sensitive situation. Sheila A. Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American research organisation,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1816927/book-review-intimate-rivals-tensions-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1816927/book-review-intimate-rivals-tensions-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:47:19 +0000 A wave of vertigo washes over me as I look down. It's not far to the bottom - a few metres at most - but I feel as though I am floating in the air. The water is so clear, it is invisible, the sunlight brightening the colours of the starfish and coral on the sea bed. Palawan is one of the most pristine and remote corners of the Philippines, and the country's largest province by territory. Three of us are on a week-long kayaking tour, slowly winding our way through the karst islets and immaculate... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788138/sea-kayaking-pristine-palawan-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788138/sea-kayaking-pristine-palawan-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2015 14:15:00 +0000 Calauit Island Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary (calauitisland.com) is a surreal but delightful experience in one of the most remote corners of the Philippines. Giraffes and zebras that are thousands of miles from their natural home are free to roam the island, yet tame enough to pet and feed by hand. The 3,700-hectare reserve, off the far northwestern coast of Busuanga Island, was created in 1976 by then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos as a private playground. Closed to everyone but... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788137/philippine-game-park-was-ferdinand-marcos-surreal-playground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788137/philippine-game-park-was-ferdinand-marcos-surreal-playground?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2015 14:15:00 +0000 Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski Granta A collection of hundreds of letters, diary entries and personal stories from four crucial days at the end of the second world war, Swansong 1945 captures the exhaustion and disillusionment with the conflict, and finally the relief when it ends. The book, which took German historian and novelist Walter Kempowski (1929-2007) 20 painstaking years to compile, chronicles the minutiae of daily life and the behind-the-scenes strategy that took place on April... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1763082/book-review-swansong-1945-walter-kempowski?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1763082/book-review-swansong-1945-walter-kempowski?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Apr 2015 10:51:46 +0000 Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Frances Larson Liveright Frances Larson knows a lot about severed heads. Her latest book is a mishmash of historical accounts about human heads that have been chopped off, then boiled, burned, scraped, polished and then jammed onto a spike, or put atop seats of power, or traded for guns, or displayed in Victorian homes or hoarded for their magical powers. The book is meant to be scientific - Larson is a doctor and medical writer, and the book... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1755118/book-review-severed-history-heads-lost-and-heads-found?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1755118/book-review-severed-history-heads-lost-and-heads-found?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Apr 2015 14:30:31 +0000 The Four Books by Yan Lianke Grove Press Deep in the Chinese countryside, far from the puppeteer's hand, a band of characters in a depressing labour camp suffers through a slow, grinding loss of human dignity. They are starving, thanks to Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, and their only hope for survival is to pander to their mindless masters. It's based on a true story, as Mao's reckless and ill-conceived economic reforms killed about 36 million people. But author Yan Lianke is telling a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1742720/book-review-four-books-biting-satire-offers-some-hope?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1742720/book-review-four-books-biting-satire-offers-some-hope?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Mar 2015 14:57:47 +0000 In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China by Michael Meyer Bloomsbury Press China's vast rural areas are often forgotten in the glare of its monstrous and many cities, but much of the nation's history lives in those far-flung third-tier cities and farming villages sprinkled across the land. Manchuria is such a place. The region has played crucial roles in multiple conflicts, including both world wars, and had a distinct identity before it faded into the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1716213/book-review-manchuria-michael-meyer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1716213/book-review-manchuria-michael-meyer?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2015 14:49:50 +0000 I am still trying to get comfortable in my seat and come to terms with steering the canoe when my brother points to the sky. A bald eagle with a two-metre wingspan soars overhead, its brilliant white head twisting back and forth in search of prey. The eagle circles us in a lazy loop and then, with two smooth strokes of its wings, disappears over the treetops. When I come back down to earth, I find that our canoe is drifting down the Manigotagan River sideways - which is bad news, because it's... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1693981/canoeing-along-canadas-manigotagan-river?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1693981/canoeing-along-canadas-manigotagan-river?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Jan 2015 15:30:15 +0000 A Stranger in My Own Country by Hans Fallada Polity With time, the insidious creep of censorship makes outcasts of all those who dare to differ. And those who believe in the rhetoric, or give themselves to it, sow fear among others in order to consolidate their righteousness. "The little tyrants are more dangerous than the big ones," writes Hans Fallada, whose memoir A Stranger in My Own Country is finally in print - half a century after its writing. Fallada, one of Germany's most... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1672935/book-review-stranger-my-own-country-tortured-writers-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1672935/book-review-stranger-my-own-country-tortured-writers-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2015 13:04:31 +0000 White Magic: The Age of Paper by Lothar Müller  Polity Paper, like film and the phonograph, revolutionised our cultures but have now been replaced by digital alternatives. As paper increasingly fades into history, the story of its role and evolution is at risk of being lost, erasing the roadmap that brought us to the digital era. Lothar Müller's White Magic: The Age of Paper goes a long way to averting that fate, going back in time to record and describe in intricate detail how paper came to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1645283/book-review-white-magic-age-paper-lothar-muller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1645283/book-review-white-magic-age-paper-lothar-muller?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:15:36 +0000 The temple is filled with the fug of incense, the air musty with 400 years worth of prayers that have been offered up towards its wooden beams. I'm not a religious man, and certainly not one who prays to Chinese gods, but these are special circumstances. If it worked for pirates, it might work for me. Outside, the tangy brine fills my nostrils and the unrelenting wind tugs at my hair. I stand at the threshold, the darkness of the temple behind me, the sea just a few blocks away, knowing that... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1638020/wind-and-waves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1638020/wind-and-waves?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Nov 2014 12:45:15 +0000 Deng Xiaoping: The Man who Made Modern China by Michael Dillon I.B. Tauris Statesman Deng Xiaoping's grit and organisational skill made him one of China's most effective leaders. His four Singapore-inspired reforms - in farming, industry, defence and technology - transformed the mainland during the 1980s, paving the way for today's mega-state. Too bad that just a decade after Deng announced his reforms, he was denounced as the monster responsible for smashing the 1989 Tiananmen democracy... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1623646/book-review-deng-xiaoping-man-who-made-modern-china-michael-dillon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1623646/book-review-deng-xiaoping-man-who-made-modern-china-michael-dillon?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Oct 2014 15:32:11 +0000 36 Hours: USA & Canada Taschen The first thing I look for in a travel guidebook is how it describes places that I know well. If it's good, it will recommend some of the sites, restaurants and activities I send my friends to, and it will also tell me something I don't know about a place I know well. I grew up near Winnipeg, for example, and I didn't know the city has a good sushi restaurant until I read 36 Hours: USA and Canada. The book also suggests a walking tour of the city's often... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1608860/book-review-36-hours-usa-canada?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1608860/book-review-36-hours-usa-canada?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Oct 2014 15:16:15 +0000 The camp is stirring. I open my eyes briefly, to confirm there is daylight, then nestle down into my sleeping bag, savouring its warmth as I wait for the magical moment that reminds me this isn't just another camping trip. "Sir … sir, good morning," says a voice from outside my tent. "Your chai is ready." I open the flap with a zzzzip and rustle of nylon, and there stand Gaurav and Saurav, teenage brothers, who hand me a cup of steaming hot chai. I'm high in the Indian Himalayas, in the state of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1583784/destination-uttarakhand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1583784/destination-uttarakhand?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Sep 2014 14:45:45 +0000 Siberia: A History of the People by Janet Hartley Yale University Press Few lands can match Siberia for its history of exploitation, both of its people and of its minerals. That exploitation helped create its legendary reputation as one of the world's most remote and difficult places to live, with only the damned and the greedy making their homes in its vast forests. However, author Janet Hartley shows Siberia is a much more complex place than stereotypes suggest, and that while prisoners... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1581702/book-review-siberia-janet-m-hartley?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1581702/book-review-siberia-janet-m-hartley?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Aug 2014 14:12:56 +0000