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Top Obscura
The Creepiest Amusement Park of All Time? 
21 Amazing Bangalore Breakfast Dishes 
Why Chinese People Eat Sea Horse 
Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names) 
Amazing Old Bollywood Poster Shops 
The 38th Reich: Korean Nazi Cosplay 
Beijing’s incredible (and completely fake) Disneyland 
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao 
Castration Classes at the Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall 
Why Chinese People Eat Ants 
Prosthetic Noses, Red Wigs, and Whiteface… American Characters in Chinese Films 
Learn How to Speak North Korean 
Beijing’s Single Most Horrific Meal 
This Hindu God has 1,000 Vaginas! 
Nazi Fashion in China 
About Andy Deemer & AsiaObscura 
India’s Incredibly Cool Hand-Drawn Movie Posters 
Small Children Feeding Live Animals to Tigers in a Chinese Zoo 
The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes 
Why Chinese People Eat Deer Penis 
What the Fortune Teller Told Me (Hong Kong) 
Outrageously Cute Korean Cosplay: The 21 Favorites 
Chisney & Koreansney: Local Disney Knockoffs 
Whoring in Chiang Mai 
18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell 
One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin 
Dr Shankar’s Wonderful Collection of Brains and Other Medical Obscura 
Another Abandoned Beijing Amusement Park 
The Poem I Can’t Find… 
A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters 
American Imperialist Bastards in a North Korean Comic Book 
Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods 
Our Six Best China Stories! - The Disastrous Fall of Sanmao
Sweet gruesome statue asking for donations 
Why Chinese People Eat Snake as Medicine 
Porn, Rats, and Antique Projectors at Sri Lanka’s Classic Cinemas 
North Korea frightening customs declarations form 
North Korean traffic lights… um… robot ladies. 
13 Amazing Indian Circus Posters 
Return to Fake Disneyland? Sweeeeeet! 
China’s first sci-fi movie: Death Ray on Coral Island (1980) 
Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing) 
The Incredible Furniture of North Korea - 15 More Pictures from weirdoid Tiger Balm Park
The Great Chinese Chip Taste-Off 
On Horse Meat Sashimi 
A Postcard from Erenhot 
Metropolis finally finds the right marketing campaign… 
The Bold Boys of Korean Cosplay
Tag Archives: China
Shameless Promotion
The Eko Nugroho Flower Suit Lives On
Remember the Eko Nugroho flower suit we spent a month sewing? Well, even though we've left Beijing, the suit lives on! We'd gifted her to the fantastic prog-rock band Not There, and apparently she's been making the rounds. "Thousands" line up in Nanluogu Xiang for photos with her... Strawberry Music Fest 2013 gets a little ...
Life in Miniature
Another Diana Pose at the Taj Mahal
From Beijing's miniature Taj Mahal, of course... Oh, what an unforgettable day that was...
Extraordinary Eats
Beijing’s Single Most Horrific Meal
The Beijing Penis Restaurant, officially known as Guolizhuang, doesn't just serve cock. You can get absolutely anything there. Stewed Deer Face. Sheep foetus in brown garlic sauce. Peacock claws. It's like a Guangzhouren's wet dream. And the peacock's name was as poetic as the plating. It was called A Set of Palms from Heaven ...
Strange Tourism
Peking Opera Dreams
I've long dreamed of full Peking Opera costume and makeup. After five hours and far too much money, it finally became a reality. I have to say, this photo shoot was one of the most mind-blowingly cool things we've done in China... Book a session yourself at FMNZ.com Currently on Liangmaqiao's Anjia Lou in Beijing, ...
Consumerism, Historical Wonders
Bizarre Old North Korean Stamps Celebrating Regal Excess
On my way out of Deshengmen Tower -- where you'll find a strange collection of ramshackle museums crammed in together -- I noticed the most remarkable thing for sale: old North Korean stamps, celebrating European regal excess! There was the Versailles stamp, which reeks of excessive opulence... Franz Joseph I hot on the chase... And of ...
Extraordinary Eats
On Eating Old Beijing Fried Enema
"Why not start today with a plate of freshly-fried old enema," I thought. It was bright, garish, and advertised on the wall. "It must be good." It wasn't. Dripping in oil and yet crispy enough to snap a molar, it tasted like a bad plate of pork cracklings. The dipping sauce -- chopped garlic in ...
AO Events, Extraordinary Eats
On Eating a Steaming Hot Bowl of Sweet AIDS Soup
"I'll have the AIDS soup," I said. It wasn't officially called AIDS soup. Not now. Shortly after I'd blogged about their deviant menus, the restaurant had crossed out every appearance of the word "AIDS" with a sharpie. Now it was simply "Strong Tibetan Sheep Placenta Nourishing Soup [XXXX]." Still a mouthful. But I'd had a few beers, ...
Offbeat Museums
Rediscovering Beijing: The Ancient Observatory
The author of the the 1897 guide book charts the Astronomical Observatory as one of the must-sees of Old Peking. It's his first stop on any three-day tour. I'd always planned to pay a visit. This is what you see from the highway: Almost identical, but... In 1897 it wasn't a museum. It was a working ...
Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Rediscovering Beijing: Finding the Elephants
On using an 1897 guidebook to explore modern Beijing... My adventures begin with the elephants. A few hundred yards westward of (the Shun-chih-men) is the place for the Imperial elephants, the Hsün-hsiang-so, a large enclosure in which the elephants of the Court are kept... The intelligent animals are taught to salute the Emperor by kneeling down, and ...
Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Rediscovering Beijing with an 1897 Guide
Did you know that Beijing has a dozen or so elephants that kneel as the emperor passes by? Seriously. At least that's what my book says. It's a Beijing travel guide from 1897, author unknown, that Charlie Custer found on archive.org. The copy originally belonged to Herbert Hoover, China expat and one-time US President. ...
Copyright Carelessness
Bootleg Wikipedia-Brand Bread
Why buy generic no-name Beijing loafery when you can pay just a few extra kuai for the sweet wheat of Wikipedia-brand bread? Oops, sorry, Wekipedia-brand. That's right! The Free Encyclowheatia That Anyone Can Edit! Now all that's left to do is pair it with some McDonald's Eggs for a copyright infringing Egg in the ...
Offbeat Museums
The Chinese Businessman Museum
With only ten days left in Beijing, I'm realizing how many things I've left undone. The Summer Palace... Fragrant Hills... the Chinese Businessman Museum! It's ugly, so you might not notice it. It's in Sihui, so it's hell to reach. It's expensive, so who wants to enter. And it's also a lie. The museum ...
Extraordinary Eats
Ice Cream Flavored Soda, the Perfect Summer Treat
Headline says it all, if you ask me. Michelle's first words after a pull were more like shrieks. "Oh my god," she cried. "It's like an ice cream float in a bottle!" Softly vanilla-scented and creamy, barely carbonated, sweet but not too sweet, it was just lovely. I added a strong pour of Mongolian vodka, and a ...
Extraordinary Eats
Badminton Theme Restaurant
The Professor just cycled by this brand spanking new Wangjing eatery. "Shuttlecock shaped plates?" he offered. "Badminton-racket-strained spaghetti?" As long as they allow hairpin net shots, I'm in!
Offbeat Museums
Castration Classes at the Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall
The first time I ever met The Professor, he told me about the eunuch museum. He didn't say much. Just that there was one. In West Beijing. "You really should go," he said. "It's... well, it's interesting." He adjusted his glasses the way a professor should, but he wouldn't say more. ...
Fashionista
Nazi Fashion in China
That's twice I've seen guys on my street wearing the Nazi iron cross. The first was an office worker on lunch break. He was dressed in a handsome suit, but in place of a tie wore a heavy Nazi cross. He saw me staring, and he smiled. I think he thought it looked dapper. ...
Lost in Translation
Uighur Poetry
Local Xinjiang menu doubles as undiscovered Situationist/Dada manifesto... All seen at 都市同心阁 (also known as "Concentric Urban Court" or "One-Hearted City Pavilion"), Gongti Beilu. Avoid the dodgy 串。
Lost in Translation
Strange Warnings Posted Outside a Beijing Toilet
He was desperate to cover all his bases. Or maybe this was just a really twisted shitter.
Copyright Carelessness
Another Gem of McDonald’s Piracy
A few weeks ago I found these gorgeous McEggs at the local supermarket... McAwesome! But Jade Garden Jewelry has also jumped on the McBandwagon. Clearly, there's a new Beijing logo-piracy McMovement.
Lost in Translation
A Sweet Series of Chinglishy Gift Fails
Christmas wrapping paper always works well. Especially for Papa Pickles' belated birthday present... But the wrapping paper turned out to be a little more generic than we'd expected. And the greeting card, which Woo bought in Bangalore, turned out to have a rather unexpected adhesive. That's right, as in the maxi pads. At least we didn't have to ...
Offbeat Museums
Speaking of Revolution at The Beijing Police Museum
"Have you heard about the coup?" "Only that there may have been one." The Professor and I were making our way through Beijing's Police Museum, a few blocks from where a coup would have happened. We'd already broken the door of a fake interrogation cell, and almost knocked over a motorcycle. We shouldn't have been ...
Extraordinary Eats
Two Chinese Beers The World Could Live Without
Sitting in the back of my fridge, I just found a pair of abominations: lemon juice beer and pineapple flavor beer. Where they came from, god only knows. But it was time to get rid of them. Brewed in Beijing -- out in the chic and rural Shunyi, in fact -- the Yanjing-brand lemon ...
Offbeat Museums
Steampunk, Eat Your Heart Out in the Basement of Beijing’s Printing Museum
"There's nothing like that around here," said a shoe-repair man. Two waitresses laughed at us, and a woman selling onions gasped. "A watermelon museum?" she asked, "Really?" So we tried the Printing Museum instead. It was closed. The 12-foot-tall black doors, the entire four-floor building, was firmly locked. I'd read about a great statue of ...
Cute & Kawaii, Extraordinary Eats
Hello Kitty Dreams, Hello Awesome Reality
"You ever feel like you're stuck in a wind-up music box?" Michelle asked. The walls were pink. The waitresses were dressed as dolls. Piano keys tinkled softly. There were balloons and glitter and an off-season Christmas tree. We were trapped in a music box. That's how Hello Kitty wants you to feel. Welcome to Hello ...
AO Events, Extraordinary Eats, Lost in Translation
Sheep Placenta AIDS Soup
Sure, every restaurant may have a maggot-filled dish called Insect Story, and what's a Chinese restaurant without a Jacopetti-inspired Monkey Head offering (even if it is just a bowl of fried mushrooms). I don't know, however, of a single other Beijing restaurant that boasts acquired immune deficiency syndrome sheep placenta soup. That's right: AIDS soup, the most ...
Strange Tourism, Theme Parks
Don’t Forget Your Cute Tiger Pictures
After the horrors of the tiger park, I neglected to mention the cute photo ops at the end of the tour. I mean, how awesome is this vertical line of tigerocity? After taking the picture, the employee wrenched the doped-out cub from our cuddle. He shoved it in a medium-sized tupperware storage container. He clipped on ...
Strange Tourism, Theme Parks
Small Children Feeding Live Animals to Tigers in a Chinese Zoo
In northern China there's a tiger park. Like so many things in China, it's nothing like you might expect. To start with, there's a menu at the gate. These aren't animals to take home and domesticate. They're fodder. Victims to be released on your tour. "Let's get a cow," I said. Michelle just ...
Extraordinary Eats
The Great Chinese Chip Taste-Off
Lobster and Cheese! Melon! Lemon Tea! Chinese potato chips enter a mad world of flavors... but are they any good? I invited over a dozen wary friends, and put these crisps-of-amazement to the AsiaObscura taste test... Oishi Melon Flavor Corn Curls Baked, not fried! 14 minerals and vitamins! 0g ...
Cute & Kawaii, Extraordinary Eats
Hello Kitty, Hello Beijing!
Asia's newest Hello Kitty restaurant, Dreams Hello Kitty, may not be open yet, but it's getting reeeeeal close. We snuck inside for a few sweet pix before getting ousted... Looking AWESOME! As cool as Seoul's Hello Kitty Cafe... but with maid outfits!!! I just hope we'll get the sweet potato lattes, too! But sadly, I ...
Extraordinary Eats, Lost in Translation
Not Just Pork Balls, But…
Dim sum offering, a few days back.
Consumerism, Cute & Kawaii, Somewhat Perverted
Sweet Sexy Dolls (and How to Make Your Own)
You've seen those sexy collectable figurines around Asia, right? You know the ones... in Singapore malls, Beijing shopping centers, all over Japan? Nervous kids and creepy adults browsing the aisles... subtly saucy... Creepily paedo... GABOOMBAH with sweet pink hair and sword. Who buys these things? Who actually sets one of these ladies on their shelf, ...