Hi Reader,

Today's newsletter is a little different! Instead of sharing learning tips and strategies, I wanted to tell you about what I've been up to for the past few months.

As you may know, the original reason for creating Traverse was to learn Chinese, so that I could communicate with my wife's friends and family. After the Traverse method helped me master Chinese, I wanted to put it into practice by living in China and speaking with locals.

For the past three years, this dream was hindered by COVID policies and outbreaks. However, towards the end of last year, my wife and I finally managed to get to China 🎉 And just a few months later, China opened up its COVID policies completely!

We took this opportunity to embark on an epic road trip. We rented a car and started in Yunnan, in the southwest of China, at the border of the Himalayas, and drove in the direction of Shanghai. During the trip, I got to know China, its people, its culture, and its language much better, so I wanted to share some of the highlights with you (amidst growing tensions between the East and the West).

The Nature

One of the things that surprised me the most during the whole trip was how stunningly beautiful China's nature is, especially if you like mountains like me! From cycling at the border of the Himalayas in Dali,

to hiking the stunning Huangshan (Yellow Mountains, 黄山), which are the main inspiration for many Chinese paintings.

While China has done a good job preserving the nature, the downside is that you often have to pay to enter 💸 and go through a very touristy entrance point before you get to enjoy it.

The Old China

But even outside of these national parks, there is a lot of natural and man-made beauty. China is the oldest society in the world, and you can still see this in places. Temples are everywhere, with Buddhist monks practicing a lifestyle of meditation, chanting, and, surprisingly often, staring at their phones.

I’d often hike up some mountain, thinking I must be the only person there, only to find that some locals had been there since sunrise, gathering wood or harvesting their small plots of land to sell at the local market.

The People

That "old" way of living, with a very low daily wage, is still surprisingly widespread. And even though these people have very little, we found them to be very friendly (and interested in what a foreigner could possibly be doing there). In a small village in Guizhou, where people still pretty much live like in the 16th century Ming dynasty (although with mobile phones and motorized rickshaws), we were even invited to a local wedding.

I got to practice my Mandarin a lot speaking with locals, even though in most cases it is a second language for them as well -- almost every region has its own, mutually unintelligible, language. Visiting these rural places and then arriving at the next big city really shows the gap that exists in China between the countryside and the city.

The Cities

People in the cities earn much higher wages and enjoy higher education. I remember, however, during my first visit to China five years ago, I was appalled by the endless, boring grey skyscrapers where people lived. This has changed for the better though. China's cities now have lots of green, including electric cars from a variety of Tesla-clones.

All in all, China's cities are extremely safe and liveable -- except for one thing: the Chinese (at least in the south) are not used to heating their homes, shops or restaurants, so you better wear a thick jacket everywhere.

The Modern China

Living in China really makes you feel like Europe has come to a standstill by comparison. When going anywhere in China, all you need is your phone. It’s your payment method, identification tool, and a way to make friends. When waiting for a traffic light, your phone can even sync up and notify you when the light turns green!

These were just some random thoughts after our epic trip. There is still a lot left to process.

And in case you were wondering, I still managed to get a lot of work done on Traverse ;) The spaced repetition update is becoming more stable, and we plan to release an updated home screen next week!

Happy traversing,

Dom

Founder

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