See here for a full list of transcripts

[Trailer]

Maple ZUO: So that's amazing. I was like “Oh god, this is…” I believed in God in that moment.

OF: Yeah. Wow.

[Intro]

OF: Welcome to Mosaic of China, a podcast about people who are making their mark in China. I'm your host, Oscar Fuchs. 

And welcome as well to the first of 10 special compilation episodes from Season 01. If you've been listening to the season, you will already know by the different Intro music that things aren't quite the same as usual. And if you're entirely new to the podcast, a third and special welcome to you. In a usual episode of the show, I will interview one person, and that interview starts with a freestyle conversation based on an object that the guest has prepared in advance. And it ends with the guest nominating someone for me to interview in the next season of Mosaic of China. And that's how tile by tile the 30 episodes of each season build out to form a Mosaic of China. But before they make this nomination, I asked every guest the same 10 simple questions on their tastes and opinions of life in China. And it's the answers to these 10 questions that form the content for these 10 special compilation episodes. 

Today's compilation is about the guests’ favourite travel destinations in China. I wanted to get this one out of the way first, because as a subject, it's perhaps the most ironic of the 10, given that none of us have got any travel planned for the foreseeable future. But I hope that you'll at least be taking some notes for when the borders finally reopen, and transport networks begin to hum again.

[Main]

[Voiceover]

OF: Srinivas Yanamandra, the compliance leader from Episode 15.

[Clip]

SY: I would always recommend to people to definitely visit the Three Gorges Dam. That is a phenomenally, infrastructure-ally, technologically and engineering marvel that one should watch when he has been in China. So, alongside the dam, you created a kind of a ship lock system. But when I saw it - literally the water getting poured, the door getting closed, and the water getting poured inside - and the ship literally gets lifted up, and then moves on to the second stage, third stage, fourth stage. The three-hour journey is like a journey of a lifetime, when you're getting transferred from this side of the dam to the other side of the dam.

[Voiceover]

OF: Roz Coleman, the theatre producer from Episode 22.

[Clip]

RC: I think my favourite one is 杭州 [Hángzhōu]. And I love that you can get there so quickly and be in the 浙江 [Zhèjiāng] hills, and then walking around and then drinking tea on that mountainside. I really love the way that - you know, they're not necessarily the big mountains, those ones but like - you can still feel the kind of transformative nature of them when you go up and then come down.

[Voiceover]

OF: Astrid Poghosyan, the violinist from Episode 04.

[Clip]

AP: I love 杭州 [Hángzhōu] city, and I remember until now, every time when I go there, it’s some kind of peaceful emotion I always get there, something unexplainable. And I think it's different when you go to Europe, it’s a different kind of peace you find in 杭州 [Hángzhōu]. It’s really like those old Chinese times, like when you read in the books, it's exactly that.

[Voiceover]

OF: Philippe Gas, the Disney resort CEO from Episode 01.

[Clip]

PG: I think one of the most memorable trips I have made in China is Tibet. 18 months ago, 12 months ago, I had the chance with a few friends to go to Lhasa and just travel in Tibet. And it's been a fascinating experience. At many levels: cultural, religious, geographic. You know, arriving and landing in a place that is about 4600 metres is a shock, right? As you arrive, some of my friends were shocked immediately. It took me a little bit more time. But it was fascinating, the place is beautiful, and understanding how people leave their religion, live Buddhism. I'm not an expert in Buddhism, but I have been very impressed by how connected they are all the time to their practice and their philosophy.

[Voiceover]

OF: Maple Zuo, the comedian from Episode 02.

[Clip]

MZ: Tibet. I love it, because my partner proposed to me there. We climbed nine hours in that day, to the top top mountain. And then there was a beautiful blue lake. And then above that was snow on the mountain. It was so pure. And the name of the lake was ‘Tears of God’. And then over the lake, there was a some stone. And on the stone, there was a Buddha. Like you can’t see it, but it was a natural Buddha thing. And the shadow contained a whole Buddha image. So that's amazing. I was like “Oh god, this is…” I believed in God in that moment.

OF: Yeah. Wow.

[Voiceover]

OF: Angie Wu, the jewellery craftsman from Episode 18.

[Clip]

AW: Definitely 云南 [Yúnnán]. I was designing museums before, that's what I was doing before my brand. And we built an Agricultural Museum in 云南 [Yúnnán]. So I've been there, for three years, going back and forth. It’s so biodiverse. And they are 26 minorities in 云南 [Yúnnán] itself. And this is so beautiful. These are native, local people, and they still make a lot of things by hand. They create their own tools. And the jewellery, this is so beautiful, I mean, it’s the most exotic thing about China. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Jorge Luzio, the marketer for Sprite from Episode 05.

[Clip]

JL: Shanghai. I love this city, I've been amazed from day one. And yes, I think China has fantastic places. But every time I feel more amazed, and I love the city even more. So it would be Shanghai.

[Voiceover]

OF: Octo Cheung, the fashion designer from Episode 30.

[Clip]

OC: I think where I am, Shanghai. Actually, some of the old Hong Kong culture was influenced by Shanghai. So you can see so many poets who lived here, and some of the famous political people. It contains so many different types of people. So that means Shanghai is a very good city for you to connect different ideas, and then you can find your own way.

OF: Yeah, I agree. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Vy Vu, the fitness community leader from Episode 08.

[Clip]

VV: I am gonna say my own street. I live in 长宁 [Chángníng] district, and I recently did a walking tour with Duncan from SHANGHAI FLANEUR, and looked at all this architecture that was just right in front of my nose. I've been living in my apartment for five years, and I never realised that this was just under my nose. And how much I did not know about where I lived.

[Voiceover]

OF: Gigi Chang, the translator from Episode 24.

[Clip]

GC: I went to 运城 [Yùnchéng], and it's a beautiful place. Lots of history around. You know, you’ve got the Yellow River, it was a major battlefield for hundreds of years, there is one of the few surviving 元 [Yuán] dynasty temples there…

OF: Right, awesome.

[Voiceover]

OF: Sanford Browne, the biochemist from Episode 29.

[Clip]

SB: I went with my wife and a bunch of friends on a motorcycle trip. We were in a sidecar. And we went to Mount Everest base camp, on the China side, on the north face. And we went up, right up to the base camp. And we wake up first thing in the morning, and the clouds part, and you see the top of Everest, with the sun coming through, it was really quite spectacular.

OF: Wow.

[Voiceover]

OF: Sebastien Denes, the inclusion advocate from Episode 11.

[Clip]

SD: My favourite destination would be 九寨沟 [Jiǔzhàigōu], which is in 四川 [Sìchuān]. It's a wonderful Alpine-style valley, with beautiful lakes, and it's very close to Tibet. I remember it, when we visited five years ago, because it was the unexpected.

[Voiceover]

OF: Michael Zee, the Instagram influencer from Episode 07.

[Clip]

MZ: 千岛湖 [Qiāndǎo hú], ‘Thousand Island Lake.’ It’s in 浙江 [Zhèjiāng] Province, about two and a half-ish hours on the train from Shanghai. And it's a man-made lake. It was created in 1959 when they constructed a dam. And now it's one of the cleanest lakes in the world. And I went for my birthday. And it was so beautiful.

[Voiceover]

OF: Emily Madge, the aquarium conservationist from Episode 14.

[Clip]

EM: I'm a big fan of 三亚 [Sānyà]. Just because it's beachy, and it's more my kind of thing than a city.

OF: It's the closest thing to Weymouth in China. 

EM: Yes, it is.

OF: Right. Do you know, I haven't been there yet.

EM: Really?

OF: Yes.

EM: It's wonderful, you need to go.

OF: OK.

[Voiceover]

OF: Abe Deyo, the tour manager from Episode 27.

[Clip]

AD: 武当 [Wǔdāng] Mountain is nice. It’s a really pretty temple on top of this mountain. It’s like sheer drops on all four sides. It’s one of those where the emperor saw it and was like “I want a temple up there,” and made people scale this unscalable mountain and build this massive temple. There are quite a few trails to walk around. But you can stay there. I haven't been in a few years, so I don't know if it's changed. But you used to be able to stay in this little…

OF: Guesthouse type thing?

AD: Yeah. A Buddhist guest house, in the temple, on the top of the mountain. Because the only way to get there is either by a cable car, or you can walk up this path along the side of the mountain that they built. But staying in the guesthouse is quite nice, because you're right there in this temple. Sunset and sunrise is very beautiful. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Yael Farjun, the historical researcher from Episode 12.

[Clip]

YF: I've been to 阳朔 [Yángshuò] a few times, I have good friends there. And I just cannot have enough of that place. It's just… it's magical.

OF: That's the area where there's the mountains jutting up straight from the water. 

YF: Exactly. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Eric Olander, the journalist from Episode 03.

[Clip]

EO: I spend most of my time in the tier one cities Beijing, Shanghai, 广州 [Guǎngzhōu], 深圳 [Shēnzhèn]. But the heart of the country is not in these tier one cities. The heart of the country in the countryside. So I was just in 贵州 [Guìzhōu] which is in the south, which is one of the more poor provinces, I was in 新疆 [Xīnjiāng] a few years ago, in 甘肃 [Gānsù]… I've been to about 15 different provinces. And so for me, it's going out into the countryside, and it's just the simplicity of it, you're still seeing oxes, and electrification hasn't reached everywhere. It's much better than it was. But the standard of living is very, very different. The way that they do things, the tiered farming, the mountains are all tiered. I mean, these go back centuries, and how they do things in those techniques. And you realise again, just the scope and scale of how big China is, and how complex it is, as soon as you go out. And by the way, you only have to leave Shanghai an hour or two outside and you've gone back centuries.

OF: Right.

[Voiceover]

OF: Noah Sheldon, the documentary filmmaker from Episode 09.

[Clip]

NS: I've been to the Tibetan autonomous area, and 四川 [Sìchuān], I think that's amazing, rural 四川 [Sìchuān] is amazing. I love Shanghai, Shanghai is such a beautiful, amazing city. But I always love getting out of Shanghai as well, because it's like…

OF: Yeah.

NS: You don't have to go far. You go an hour outside of Shanghai, and all of a sudden you're in this very different place.

[Voiceover]

OF: Lori Li, the private club GM from Episode 10.

[Clip]

LL:  I like the small cities, small towns, we call them 五线城市 [wǔxiàn chéngshì]. So when you go to a very far place, or like a small town, you feel it's so interesting, crazy, and people have their own local culture. My latest visit was to a small town beside a lake in 广西 [Guǎngxī]. The people, they don't speak Mandarin, they speak their local language which I can't understand. We communicated not using language. We communicated in other ways.

[Voiceover]

OF: Nick Yu, the playwright from Episode 13.

[Clip]

NY: Home. When I am in Shanghai right now, I always miss home. That is in the village, we have a small house there. That's still there. 

OF: Well, when you say that, I can feel that your heart is in that village in 安徽 [Ānhuī]. And on the subject of 安徽 [Ānhuī], like, can you tell me something in the dialect that you speak?

NY: [Speaks in dialect].

OF: What?

NY: It means ‘Today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow’.

OF: Really? 

NY: Yeah. Before I went to Shanghai, I thought the 安徽 [Ānhuī] local language is Mandarin. But when I went to Shanghai I was all “Oh my God, it’s really different”. I can speak the Shanghai local language.

OF: Right.

NY: But it’s just the Shanghai people, they don't understand. That’s not my fault, it’s their fault. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Nini Sum, the artist from Episode 16.

[Clip]

NS: I will say my hometown.

OF: Which is…

NS: Which is 南京 [Nánjīng]. Actually, Nanjing is a very slow city. And there was an ancient capital of The Six Dynasties. So it's a very historical place. And it's very green, because it has a mountain in the heart of the city, and a big lake. So if you get out of the train station, you see this big lake. And when I was little, I always pedalled boats on it, and also went to the mountain a lot, just for climbing, and you can go to the astronaut centre on it. So 南京 [Nánjīng] is a place I think that’s really good for living a chill life.

OF: Lucky.

[Voiceover]

OF: Gina Li, the invention company CEO from Episode 06.

[Clip]

GL: My hometown, for sure. The Gobi Desert, with mountains. And also because it has been involved with so much history, from thousands of years ago. We actually have the 汉 [Hàn] Dynasty Great Wall there. It wasn't built of stone, it was actually just built of mud, it’s just how little the rain every year drops on it, so it’s still there, out in the wild, you can actually just go visit without any problem buying tickets. No, you just drive and you go out to the wild, and you see what is left there from 2000 years ago.

[Voiceover]

OF: Greg Nance, the ultramarathon athlete from Episode 23.

[Clip]

GN: I've got two. So I love the Gobi desert in 新疆 [Xīnjiāng] with the 天山 [Tiānshān] mountains. Just absolutely amazing, totally recommend that. My second is 哈巴雪山 [Hǎbā xuěshān], Haba Snow Mountain. Totally beautiful. It's over 5,000 metres tall, and you actually have a beautiful view into Tiger Leaping Gorge. And when I went there were literally no tourists there. It was me and a bunch of yaks.

OF: I thought that was a racial slur, that. But you mean the animal.

GN: Literally, yeah.

OF: “You bloody yak”.

[Outro]

OF: So that was the first compilation episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing all of those voices. We actually only heard from 23 of the 30 guests there. But on next week's show about favourite KTV karaoke songs, you will be hearing from all 30. 

I hope that the topic of travel has got you thinking about those days when the luxury of travel didn't feel like such a distant dream. I really want to hear about all of your favourite travel destinations within China. So please drop me a message on social media; tag me in a photo from somewhere in China, either on Instagram or Facebook; or of course share with the community on WeChat. If you have WeChat on your phone and you haven't already joined the listeners group there, then please add me on ID: mosaicofchina,* and I will add you there myself. 

Mosaic of China is me Oscar Fuchs, with artwork by Danny Newell. I'm releasing these compilation episodes every two weeks, so we'll be back with the next one on May 19th. See you then. And I hope that you're still listening because I've included a special little surprise in the outro music.

*A different WeChat ID was mentioned in the original recording. That ID is now obsolete, and the updated one has been substituted.

[Clips]

PG: Thank you very much.

MZ: Thank you.

EO: Thank you so much.

AP: Thank you too.

JL:  Thank you very much.

GL: Thank you.

MZ: Thank you again.

VV: Thank you so much.

NS: Great, thank you.

LL: My pleasure too.

SD: Thank you very much.

YF: Thank you.

NY: Thank you.

EM: Thank you.

SY: Thank you so much.

NS: Thank you for having me.

SM: Awesome, thank you.

AW: Thank you.

SDM: Thank you.

LC: Thanks for having me.

YY: Thank you for having me.

RC: Thank you so much for having me.

GN: Thank you for having me.

GC: Thank you

TB: Thank you very much.

SC: Thank you.

AD: Great to see you too.

LT: Thank you so much.

SB: Thanks.

OC: Thank you.

See here for a full list of transcripts