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**Xenharmonic Forest** @sudoreboot · Apr 14, 2023 *

**Xenharmonic Forest** @sudoreboot · Nov 21, 2022

Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮Search engines are getting worse, so OpenWebSearch funded by the European Union want to fix it <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/search-engines-are-getting-worse-so-openwebsearch-funded-by-the-european-union-want-to-fix-it/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/search-engines-are-getting-worse-so-openwebsearch-funded-by-the-european-union-want-to-fix-it/</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/OpenWebSearch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#OpenWebSearch</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/EU" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#EU</a>

Keith McNeillBurning wood to make electricity creates 18% more CO2 emissions than burning coal <a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/GlobalCarbonFeeAndDividendPetition" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GlobalCarbonFeeAndDividendPetition</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/21/uk-trees-burned-green-drax-power-station" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/21/uk-trees-burned-green-drax-power-station</a>

Xenharmonic ForestBonus <a href="https://sunbeam.city/tags/cosplay" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#cosplay</a> on a parallel street

Xenharmonic ForestCould almost mistake this for <a href="https://sunbeam.city/tags/solarpunk" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#solarpunk</a> Also, pirate bar.中央大道, Tiaodenghe, Chenghua district, Chengdu

Xenharmonic ForestWould be nice if something like this ever happened at home.

Pffff...<a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/caturday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#caturday</a>

Xenharmonic ForestI had my coping mechanisms, of course.If I had to make a difficult choice or deal with a change in plans, I would walk off, sit down and look busy for a while until my mind was able to deal with it. Sometimes I just defaulted to whatever random option stood out, knowing it might not be optimal but it would stop holding me up and stressing me out.Sometimes I went hungry for a while because I couldn't deal with ordering food.If there was too much planning required to do an activity, I would just do something else. I would rather take a walk through some new neighbourhood than plan a trip with a bunch of tickets and choices to make.I missed out on a lot because, China being Chinese, everything had to be pre-booked and scheduled, and I have a tendency to just walk somewhere and see what's there. (I walked 8km to Tianmen Square and couldn't enter 😂 . Was a good walk though; lots of other things around.)

Xenharmonic ForestBefore my trip I was anxious about the prospect of running out of fuel partway through and just hanging out in my room for the rest of it, because I can normally do about 45 minutes of social activity and need 24 hours of recovery afterwards in order to regain human form.After 23 days of eventful and intense adventures with plenty of social interaction with people I could barely converse with, not only was I perfectly fine, but I was greatly unhappy about the prospect of going back home.During my trip I felt capable. The novelty, curiosity, and excitement kept me going. I took my meds and put on my shoes and I was able to navigate a foreign environment for a full day, and while I was usually quite done in the evening, I was able to do the same thing the next day.People treated me like a normal person - even someone interesting and impressive sometimes. I was an adventurer and everyone was kind and accepting.I knew that once I got home, I would again be disabled and isolated.

Xenharmonic ForestSome other thoughts and moral statements to conclude with:- I'll call China a developed country when they have drinkable tap water and a proper universal social security net. That's my bar. Other than that, based on what I've seen, it's actually a really cool place that I intend to revisit soon enough.- They need to reduce their consumption of (single-use) plastics. It's quite ridiculous. (But to be fair, I stayed in hotels/inns so I saw more of it that a local would.)- There is too much food waste. I love their food - the variety, affordability, and availability of it is reason enough to cry over when going back to Sweden. But they don't really have to serve cow-sized meals and toss out so much of it afterwards.

Xenharmonic ForestI was actually a bit surprised by how few speak English in China.Or to put it more strongly: while I went there with the prior suspicion that the West isn't as big as it thinks it is, I went home with the posterior that, actually, the West is little more than a curiosity to most Chinese. They know about Europe, they learn about the rest of the world from school and media, they sell and export things to us, and they watch some blockbusters from Hollywood. But they don't really care, because we don't know, we don't play nice, and neither Europe nor USA are being great sources of inspiration right now. The latter is just a circus and the former is struggling to get anything useful done.Their (state-censored) media doesn't seem very colourful in their portrayal of other countries, and I feel that this is reflected in the common person's relative indifference. They don't seem to paint the rest of the world as villains the way we do them.Disclaimer: this is just my take.

Xenharmonic ForestLastly, I spent 4 nights in Beijing. I didn't have enough time to get a fair impression, and a mixture of sadness (over having left Chengdu and being about to leave the country) and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the smog somewhat affected my experience while in the city. I also didn't have many interactions with locals, only other travellers (whom, for the record, all had more or less the same impression of the country as me).The smog is a real problem. More so in Beijing, I found, than any other city, but it's a thing in all of them. Obviously not as extreme as portrayed in media, but it's definitely perceptible on certain days. I understand it's getting a lot better in recent years, but there is more to do there.Beijing was the city with the most English speaking locals (as well as foreigners) in my experience.

Xenharmonic ForestI was quite sad I had to leave Chengdu after only 5 nights, but changing my plans felt more upsetting, especially because there were good reasons I planned it the way I did. To break up a very long trip to Beijing, I spent two nights in Xi'An. But aside from spending an evening at a bar listening to some incredibly drunk people being very excited to have me there (and being very proud of their country), I don't have much insight to share. It seemed like a beautiful place with lots of history, but that's all in any tourist guide ever.

Xenharmonic ForestAnyway, after Guiyang, I went to Chengdu - a chill place that gave me very good vibes. It felt highly developed, charming, and relatively green (with an absolutely massive green area just a block from where I stayed that felt like an actual rural area, albeit a rather touristy one).Many people had their own style and I'm pretty sure it's the gayest city in China. There was a pirate bar that also had a bunch of costumes for renting (presumably). I obviously went to that bar and made friends with the owner.I also ended up in another hot pot restaurant and got off with the owner there. Now we chat every day and she teaches me Chinese while I teach her English. She works all days of the week, long and strange hours. This seems to be a general thing across the country. Everyone works really hard. I haven't gotten a clear picture of what life is like for those who are less able to work, yet.I had a very good time in Chengdu, and it's definitely my favourite city (in the world), now.

Xenharmonic ForestNow, don't get me wrong. I know that they are not as free as we are in the West. Here, one gets to express just about any collection of ideas, as long as one isn't labelled a literal terrorist organisation. There, they have low tolerance for ideas that are not in line with their general (Socialism-with-Chinese-characteristics) framework. As I understand it, people are still allowed to promote non-Communist agendas, but that clearly isn't a pathway to a successful political career in China, so take that as you will.

Xenharmonic ForestAfter Changsha, I stayed two nights in Guiyang. There I went to a hot pot restaurant and got a free dinner because the family who runs it were very excited about me chatting with their son (whom was happy to practice his English with me).He was only 17, so obviously had limited life experience, but I tried asking if he knew what the West says about China. He said people are generally aware that a lot of the world speaks ill of their country, but they don't really care what they have to say. I asked if people are just all of the same mind and in agreement about all political matters, happily governed by their great perpetual leader (obv. not with that phrasing), and the answer will absolutely shock you.Paraphrasing his response: "Different people have different opinions, but the local government is doing an OK job, and if not, they are voted out. The locally elected politicians elect those higher up, so we don't choose who governs at the top." and "I get to vote after I turn 18."

Xenharmonic ForestI made stops in Hangzhou and Huangshan, but aside from them being beautiful I don't have much to say about life there.A couple of days later, I stayed at a small inn in Changsha where I was invited for dinner with the family that ran it. I got to chat with one of their sons and we are now friends on WeChat. It's apparently tough to get a job in "the tech sector" due to high competition. He was going to live and work in Shenzhen doing something that honestly sounded really boring (international sales department or something) while I got the impression he would have rather worked doing programming.In the same city I also met a pair of foreigners, one from Ethiopia and the other I forgot, but both from poorer countries. They were happy living there, going to some university (but I didn't catch which one). They said they hadn't experienced any racism. That was an interesting anecdote that I don't quite know what to make of. I will note, there are not a lot of foreigners in that city.

Xenharmonic ForestThe city had plenty of green areas, dimly lit parks that made you forget you're in a city, but a notable lack of wildlife. Parks and public squares were well utilised by residents of all ages, both day and night.Traffic was quieter than I would expect due to how many of them were electric. All the light motorbikes/mopeds were electric.There was a notably abundant presence of public servants (including police officers) everywhere, and they were surprisingly preoccupied with whatever task they had been given. Police didn't go around scanning the crowds or wave weapons around (and I don't know if they even had any).

Xenharmonic ForestEvery province is a bit different and I made many (perhaps too many) stops during my relatively short stay.Shanghai was where I began as a lonely outsider, so all I got were impressions from passive observation and trying to survive with very basic language skills and really no preparation in terms of what was needed to get around besides offline maps (Organic Maps) and an offline dictionary (Pleco). (Yes, I had a VPN and no, it didn't work - thanks for nothing, <a href="https://sunbeam.city/tags/nordvpn" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#nordvpn</a>.) I stayed for 4 nights in the city.It was clean, orderly, safe (even in dark places at night), and it was super easy and cheap to get around. For 3 yuan (~0.4 euros) you could go to a neighbouring town 1-2h away by metro).

Xenharmonic ForestI also made some friends along the way, so I finally have the privilege of access to first-hand accounts of what life can be like.

Xenharmonic ForestObviously I'm not about to debunk/verify any conspiracy theory or unravel any secret Communist government programmes, nor can I tell you extensively about what it's like to be an ordinary local in any of the places I went to. But I can offer perspective on what it looked like on the ground, what people told me, and what observations I made, whatever those are worth.

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