I wouldn’t call my writing on China “travel writing.” The setting is China; Chinese culture and my experiences in China are the topics, but I am not just blogging my personal pictures and daily highlights of new foods and fun times. I have sharp points and observations to make (at least I think they are sharp) and my scope is really more about how life on this earth broadly, how it is lived and how upsetting one’s normal expectations by living abroad causes a new examination of life and that broad word “culture.”

I am still far from where I would like to be though. I lack the life experience, travel experience, writing experience, and the growth and responsibility that comes with being published and gaining a large readership. I am happy to admit that, in pursuing this vision of mine, I am learning from and emulating the writer Peter Hitchens. I’ve read three of his books, and I regularly read his blog posts (at http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/ ). I look forward to his Sunday column every week. His writing is- almost without fail- trenchant, lucid, and even poetic. It is fascinating to read him and pick up how much thought he must have put into his arguments, and even more so to hear his detailed descriptions of life in Britain during the post-war years, or of his many train rides throughout Europe, or of any of his remembrances of old books and the true details of life that are often overlooked or forgotten in the past.

I try to imitate him, but really he is inimitable. He puts too much thought and real experience into each paragraph. Only someone with his mind and life could write as he does.

Here is a sample of his writing abroad, this one- appropriately enough- on China. http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2015/09/as-george-osborne-visits-chinas-dangerous-far-west-an-article-from-my-archives.html

I also highly recommend his book “Short Breaks in Mordor,” a collection of all his articles from abroad. http://www.amazon.com/Short-Breaks-Mordor-Departures-Scribblers-ebook/dp/B00L1AWJA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443494340&sr=8-1&keywords=short+breaks+in+mordor