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NYC- I was taking my seven-year-old daughter out to New Jersey to spend the weekend with one of her friends. We were chatting on the bus and she told me that she looked up to me and explained that she didn’t understand the difference between Paris and France.

“Paris is a city in France,” I told her. “Kind of like how New York is a city in America.”

She nodded her head in understanding.

“Why did you ask that?” I queried.

“Because I want to go there.”

“Why?”

“To see the Eiffel Tower.”

I didn’t mention to her that I’d been to France and Paris numerous times but never bother to go see the Eiffel Tower, as I knew that she’d ask me why and I’d have to be like, “Because I thought I was too cool for it.”

But she looked up at me and asked another question:

“Where do you want to go, daddy?”

I immediately began responding, seeing this as a simple question to answer, but stopped short as nothing really came to my lips. I thought about it for a moment. I thought about all the places I’ve been and, especially, all the places I haven’t been but still couldn’t come up with a reply. “I’m not sure,” I eventually stammered.

I really wasn’t sure. Losing access to China really disrupted my travel patterns. That was the country that kind of anchored everything. I’d travel these massive circuits or do spokes of the wheel through Mongolia, SE Asia, South Asia but would always begin and end in China. That was the country that I gained recognized expertise, it was the primary country that I reported on for big media, it was the country that I’d go on Squawk Box, ABC, MSNBC, etc… talking about. It was the country where I established my career as a journalist and author. I knew a few things about the place, I could operate as well as anyone there, and, in a weird way, it’s where I became a man. Then suddenly it was gone.

You could say that I never really recovered. I don’t want to say that the rest of the world seems boring when compared to China, but, for me, the depth just isn’t there. There was just something about that place that got me — everyday was an exploration, everyday was an experience, everyday you’d see something that would make you go what the fuck? I would cherish my days when I had nothing to do there, as I would just take off walking … and I would come back at the end of the day with a half dozen stories to write about.

China was like an assembly line for the writer. The stories would just keep coming … Reporting in the rest of the world is like assembling a 5,000 piece scale model with your fingers.

But that’s all gone now, and it’s something I’ve never really acknowledged. I just figured I would begin reporting somewhere else but nowhere has struck me quite the same.

But I know I have to stop thinking about it like this. Nowhere will have the same pull for me as China, and I can’t expect it to.

I’ve always liked the post-Soviet realm, and its relevance has again peaked. I guess that should have been my answer.

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Filed under: Travel Diary

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

2 comments… add one

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  • Lawrence Casey Hamilton February 24, 2023, 4:52 pm

    The Phillipines, Mongolia, Ethiopia, and Antartica and Suriname and Alice Springs and the Trans Siberian Railway …..lol.
    I have slowed down a bit (although I travel for work all the time) but still want to go places but for some reason it seems harder as you get older, but I really don’t have any restrictions…strange.

    This more of an answer to your previous post, but I saw an old friend who, honestly, has done very well in the journalism game. A few books published, appeared on some national broadcasts and of course they hustled to get me to look at all their websites and social and media and everything. I don’t know man, without even looking I knew exactly what their opinion was on everything. It’s unbelievable how tame and predictable it all was. I could pick every side of every issue they would be on. It’s sad really and of course they think they are the most groundbreaking thing to ever been born to educate all us ‘unsophisticates.’ Its nuts.

    Where do you get your news for places like China and Central Asia, etc. I need some deeper things to read, although I have fallen into some amazing fiction and of course independent professional wrestling which is the most honest sport around…LOL.

    Hope you are well

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    • VBJ February 28, 2023, 10:48 am

      It’s excellent to hear from you, man! Good to hear that you’re still out there moving around. I can’t really mention what I’ve been focusing on on this site too much, but it fills the role that travel once did for me. But as I mentioned previously, I’m going to get back at it a little … probably next month I’ll take a blogging trip. I eat a weird diet though so that’s going to be interesting. I don’t eat any vegetables, grains, processed foods, refined sugar, seed oils … pretty much anything that makes up 90% of the diets of the people fo this world. I just eat meat and organs and raw dairy. Going to be weird traveling with such a dumb diet. Maybe I will go to Argentina and make life easy for myself 🤣

      The state of journalism today is really fascinating. It really takes a certain type of person to do the job. It took me a long time to figure out what defined this type of person, and now I finally have it: they just have to be really, really bad at journalism. It’s kind of like how medical doctors need to be really, really bad at being medical doctors to retain their licenses. Journalism means you need to be skeptical of those in power, and you never take what those in power say verbatim. You need to check them, ask difficult questions, and have no regard for financing models or the status quo. Today, journalists just write whatever the dominant power structures – political, corporate, social – tell them to. The news has become a PR agency that they pay for with advertising dollars. Covid showed the coup was complete.

      Where do I get my news? Mostly former big media journalists who got fired / exiled for actually doing their jobs. Many are on Substack. Anything with a masthead and an editorial board is a joke. Well, besides Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and a few others.

      I love your passion for professional wrestling! Have you been covering much of that lately?

      Where are you going next?

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