We are still in Beijing and I would describe today’s weather as “ashen grey.” Laowiseass presents an interesting ethical dilemma that won’t be unfamiliar to foreigners living in China. Read about his night out on the town with the local taxation official and his internal debate over the exact ethics and etiquette of such a situation. Danwei posts a link to an animated map showing the ebb and flow of empires across the Middle East from 1405 BC to 2003. Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei writes of the different powers: “If you switch out Mongol Empire for China and Persian Empire for Iran etc., the list seems eerily contemporary: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China, Turkey, Europe.” I suppose that’s true to an extent, though I wouldn’t be so quick to conflate the modern states of “China,” “Iran,” and “Turkey” with past historical empires. The Mongols, for example, were foreign conquerors of both China and the Middle East. It’s true that some Chinese like to claim the Mongols were a “part of China” because the Mongols were later Incorporated into the multi-ethnic Qing empire and contemporary China has inherited much of its territory from the Qing. But it just wasn’t that