This is the fourth installment in a multi-part series of essays by former Lonely Planet China editor Megan Eaves. It’s recommended to read the Prologue first. Catch up on previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 South China Morning Post standalone episode In 2005, after travelling from Xi’an, at…

This is the third installment in a multi-part series of essays by former Lonely Planet China editor Megan Eaves. It’s recommended to read the Prologue first. Catch up on previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 A giant citadel made of dried mud. I am standing on the ramparts, four storeys…

This is the second installment in a multi-part series of essays by former Lonely Planet China editor Megan Eaves. It is recommended to read the Prologue first. Nothing went as planned on my second trip to China. In retrospect, the events recounted below started to prepare me for all that…

This is the first installment in a multi-part series of essays by former Lonely Planet China editor Megan Eaves. It is recommended to read the Prologue first. In the weeks leading up to the end of term in the spring of 2004, I was studying full time at the University…

This is the prologue to a multi-part series of essays by former Lonely Planet China editor Megan Eaves. I hesitate to write this. There are thousands of China watchers, Sinologists, and Old China Hands in the world, many of them brilliant current affairs journalists, political analysts, legal experts, historians and…