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MAGA embraces the long-standing CCP policy of "Patriotic Education for the Masses" (爱国教育） www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

The original was nine stories tall. The 1933 reboot is a little shorter, but still easily visible from the other peaks of Baoshi Hill. ca. 1920s photograph from University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: JM01-028.

The king's uncle, a minister of the Wuyue Kingdom (one of the kingdoms of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era), built it as an architectural prayer for the safe return of the king Qian Chu, who was in Song custody working out the terms of his eventual capitulation to the surging Song Dynasty.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 31/07/2026

Morning hike up Baoshi Hill in Hangzhou. The Baochu Pagoda site dates to the 960s.

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Nellie Bly saw her race around the world as a competition against time, Jules Verne’s fictional Phileas Fogg, and society’s notions about what a woman could or couldn’t do. New York City newspapers saw it differently. Listen to the full episode here: www.bytheirowncompass.com/p/nellie-bly...

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It’s also a survivor. During the Taiping War, General Charles “Chinese” Gordon of the Ever Victorious Army (who was an ENGINEER by training) tried to cut one of the arches to let a steamship pass through. 26 arches collapsed. Then in 1937, Japanese planes destroyed six more.

Fun legend: The name of the bridge comes from a story that the local prefect, Wang Zhongshu 王仲舒, donated his jeweled belt (the eponymous baodai 寶帶) to raise the funds needed to build the bridge.

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Morning walk in Suzhou on the Baodai Bridge. 53 arches constructed in the 9th century so barge pullers (job description = position title) could tow cargoes across the mouth of Dantai Lake. The steel monstrosity behind it is the younger, hotter replacement with far less charm and grace.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 29/07/2026

Somerset Maugham's On a Chinese Screen was written over a century ago. So why do so many of the expat archetypes Maugham collected in his travels still feel so relevant today? Alexander Boyd of @chinabooksreview.com joins me to discuss on the latest episode of Barbarians at the Gate. Link below.

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Nellie Bly faked insanity to expose the horrors of a 19th-century asylum. Sarah subjected herself to industrial quantities of hairspray and make-up to infiltrate a budget airline. Learn more about Nellie Bly’s amazing story and her epic journey around the world at By Their Own Compass. Link below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 16/07/2026

The World Cup final is Sunday, and the latest episode from By Their Own Compass looks back at one of the most improbable journeys in World Cup history. Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours (183 visits to the DPRK and counting!) joins to discuss. Link to the full episode below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 01/07/2026

On our latest episode celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66, I want to talk about highways, but Sarah has a more basic question: Sure, America has great roads…but why doesn’t it have a decent train system?

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 19/06/2026

Did Chinese admiral Zheng He discover America? What’s the evidence, and what do historians make of Gavin Menzies ’ best-selling book 1421? Listen to the latest episode of By Their Own Compass on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 18/06/2026

Zheng He was a eunuch and a badass commander of an armada. Listen to the latest episode of By Their Own Compass for more about why historians haven't always been fair to eunuchs in Chinese history. For more, listen to the latest episode of By Their Own Compass (link below)

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 12/06/2026

China built the world's biggest armada, sailed it across the Indian Ocean seven times, and then just... stopped. Why? New episode on Zheng He, the eunuch admiral who commanded it. Link to the full episode below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 22/04/2026

What do burgers and food festivals tell us about the state of China's commercial real estate sector? Apparently quite a bit. Michael Wester joins me on the latest episode of Barbarians at the Gate to talk burger fests and business. Hope you're hungry! Link to the episode below.

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 17/04/2026

How did a Muslim diplomat from Fez end up a prisoner in the Vatican, the namesake of a Medici pope, and the author of the book that defined Africa for Europeans for three centuries? New episode of By Their Own Compass is out. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 10/04/2026

Hemingway's characters are drinking in the lobby of the Hôtel de Crillon. Orwell is in the basement washing their dishes. Jean Rhys is outside trying to figure out who will let her in. Same Paris. Same era. Three completely different cities. New episode of By Their Own Compass. Link below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 07/04/2026

And once the kids are grown, free to book that ocean cruise they've been saving up for.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 03/04/2026

The Mongols Discovered Europe. Marco Polo Got the Book Deal. Historian Nicola Di Cosmo on Mongol diplomacy, Venice versus Genoa, and all of the things "The Travels of Marco Polo" failed to mention.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 02/04/2026

Was Marco Polo a sexpat?! We address this and everything else you always wanted to know about the famous medieval traveler but were too afraid to ask...all in the latest episode of By Their Own Compass. Listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts! 🗺️ 🎧

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 31/03/2026

"I can't be perfect and funny at the same time." Da Shan spent decades as China's most famous foreigner, but when every skit ends with "Your Chinese is so good," it's hard to find the funny...or the inspiration. New episode from Barbarians at the Gate 🎙️

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 26/03/2026

New episode of By Their Own Compass: Marco Polo spent 17 years in China and never mentioned tea, the Great Wall, or chopsticks. Did he really go? Did he make it all up? Pioneering Sinologist or Prototype Sex Pat? Sarah and I dig into the evidence and tell the story of Marco and the Khan.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 22/03/2026

Great insights into AI + China from Yajun Zhang. Sometimes the most important exports are the hardest to track. yajunzhang.substack.com/p/china-is-e...

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 19/03/2026

Fanny Trollope's war on American manners. Alice Roosevelt's pet snake. Empress Dowager Cixi's private theme park. We debate whether the term “diva” means difficult, or if it is just what lazy people call a woman who refuses to travel on someone else’s terms. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 13/03/2026

The Song Emperor asked Sima Guang to create a special office to cut government spending. Sima Guang suggested that creating a government bureau to cut government spending was dumb. Sound familiar?

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 12/03/2026

Divided hosts. I argue that everything Annie told the press about herself was fiction, and she never actually cycled around the world. Sarah steps up for Annie. Fantabulist or fabulous? Listen and decide. Search for By Their Own Compass on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or follow the link below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 11/03/2026

Lee Moore did the crazy historian thing and went back and actually read the primary sources on Taiwan that everyone cites, but nobody checks. Turns out a lot of the "history proves Taiwan is or is not" arguments are based on texts that might not even be about Taiwan. Link to full episode below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 10/03/2026

When a reporter accused Annie Londonderry of lying about her around-the-world bicycle trip, she basically said, "You print fiction every day. I'm just better at it than you are." A 23-year-old Jewish immigrant in 1894. Almost nothing she told the press was true. The trip was real. New episode ↓

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 07/03/2026

In this episode of By Their Own Compass, we follow Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, advertising saleswoman, Latvian immigrant, mother, and one of history’s most audacious self-promoters as she talks, pedals, and occasionally steamships her way around the world.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 06/03/2026

In 1895, Annie Londonderry became the first woman to cycle the world. Except she didn't, really. She cut corners, fibbed to reporters, and turned the whole thing into a publicity stunt. Was she breaking barriers, a supremely confident fabulist, or a PR savant sent from the future? We debate.

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 25/02/2026

Edmund Backhouse forged documents, claimed a love affair with China’s empress, and left a memoir too scandalous to publish for decades. Most historians dismiss him. But what if the lies were hiding some actual truth? New Barbarians at the Gate × @chinabooksreview.com on Substack, Apple, Spotify.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 18/02/2026

Sir Edmund Backhouse arrived in Beijing in 1898 and, four decades later, wrote a memoir that is 50% memory and roughly 158.5% Qing Dynasty slash fic. Décadence Mandchoue is unreliable, outrageous, and surprisingly informative. Does a story need to be accurate to contain truth?

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 17/02/2026

"Viking is more of a job description than an ethnicity." In the latest episode of By Their Own Compass, we dig into Erik the Red, Leif Erikson, and what happened when Norse explorers reached Greenland and North America around 1000 CE. 🎧 Link to the full episode below.

Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 15/02/2026

New Research Absolves the Woman Blamed for the demise of the Western Zhou dynasty www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 13/02/2026

In around 985 A.D., Icelandic exile Erik the Red founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland. Years later, his son, Leif Erikson, became one of the first known Europeans to set foot in North America – centuries before Columbus. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts! 🎧 ❄️

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 12/02/2026

Are you the type of traveller who likes to tick off the must-sees? Is your first port of call still buying a guidebook? You have the Grand Tour to thank for that! #thegrandtour #louvreparis #guidebook #18thcenturytravel #travelhistory

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 03/02/2026

Where did all of the Chinese tourists go? Thailand-based global strategist Yajun Zhang joins David, Jeremiah, and travel writer Thomas Bird to discuss the changing face of Chinese tourism in Southeast Asia and beyond. The full episode is available on Substack. Link in the comments below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 30/01/2026

Author Thomas Bird (Rough Guide to Thailand, Harmony Express: Travels by Train through China) joins us on Barbarians at the Gate to talk about the changing face of outbound Chinese travel in Southeast Asia and the origins of the Chinese community in Thailand.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 15/01/2026

Will the battle for AGI between China and the US heat up? Do kids still need to learn how to write Chinese characters in a digital age? What’s the future of restaurants? Global strategist Yajun Zhang joins @davidmoserbeijing.bsky.social and me to make a few prognostications for 2026. Links below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 07/01/2026

Is not smiling an act of resistance? Is optimism a mental health goal or a state-mandated requirement? Prof. Wendy Larson and I are discussing the "Global Good Cheer" of the 1950s and 60s for RASBJ on January 14. 7:00 pm. Beijing time. Online. Link to register is below.

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Jeremiah Jenne @jeremiahjenne.com · 24/12/2025

Between 1884 and 1886, Thomas Stevens became the first person to circumnavigate the world by bicycle. Why did such an epic event make our holiday list of great travel fiascoes? Well, for starters...there was his curious choice of bicycle. Link to our Travel Fiascoes special episode below.