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Lunar New Year
Friends from Singapore and Taiwan celebrate the Lunar New Year, of course, but this year’s launch of the annual spring festival makes me nostalgic for my last trip to Beijing, nearly six years ago. March still hung clouds and rain in the skies, but as a treat I roamed through the Forbidden City on my…
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An Oasis Of Calm
Even in the midst of major upheaval, my favorite hotel in the world cocooned us in its nearly transparent embrace. You’d never know the traffic howled outside on Bras Basah Road, the construction whirring behind scaffolding on the hotel itself—and the chaos we felt in our lives—as we checked into the Raffles in Singapore last…
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Dirty Martini in the Writer’s Bar
If the cocooning comfort of the room embraced me more completely, I would be loathe to leave. I would conspire to remain in Beijing as long as my yuan would allow. How many writers and travelers had passed through these tall French doors in to the Peace Hotel back in the early 20th century? Now…