The author is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily USA.
If you paint on a blank piece of paper, says a Chinese proverb, you may create a beautiful picture.
Yulin is "the world's biggest trouser manufacturing city" and cranks out millions of pairs of jeans at less than US$2 apiece.
I have longed to see how farmer Huang Shengde has fared since I visited his home in 2004 during China's first case of deadly bird flu.
All Chinese cities have their own individual characters, but they have one thing in common: Their parks teem with health-conscious urbanites.
When I got two tickets for the athletics competition to be staged on Sunday night in the Bird's Nest, I was more worried than excited.
For thousands of reporters combing for off-beat stories at the Games host city, those of a cancer-afflicted athlete and an Olympic cheering squad battling the same disease could be just the right stuff.
I always feel sad when I see someone get hurt in a car accident. But last week my grief doubled because an old man died after he was struck by vehicles, twice, as a result of possible reckless driving.
Office "worker bees" in their 30s and 40s like myself, worn out by the daily stress and strain of living in busy Beijing, have become increasingly blunted emotionally. On most weekdays we look as sulky as the wintry weather.