Hi, I’m Andrew Wang

I was born in 1987 in a poor mountain village in Hunan Province, in central China.

My hometown was surrounded by mountains, with a small river flowing through the village. To many people, it might sound like an idyllic paradise. But to me, it was a place filled with both hardship and happiness—a place that shaped my childhood and a place I desperately wanted to escape.

My parents were farmers, and I grew up with two older sisters. Life was not easy. We rarely worried about starvation, but eating well was another matter. Meat was a luxury that appeared on our table only a few times a year. Eggs were also considered special; sometimes we could only afford them once a month.

As a child, I constantly told myself that education was my only way out. I studied hard because I believed it could change my destiny and help me leave the poverty of the mountains behind.

I was endlessly curious about the world beyond my village, yet I had almost no opportunity to explore it. In fact, I could barely travel beyond the neighboring hills. Television was my only window to the outside world. We didn’t own a TV, so I would often visit other families just to watch one.

The skyscrapers, bright lights, and bustling cities I saw on television felt like scenes from another universe.

Whenever an airplane flew overhead, I would stop whatever I was doing and stare at it. From the ground, it looked no bigger than a fly. I couldn’t understand how something so small could carry hundreds of people across vast distances. I felt the same wonder when I saw trains on television. How could something so enormous move so fast while carrying so many passengers?

I didn’t leave my village until I was eleven years old, when I visited the county town for the first time. Looking back now, it was a small and rather ordinary place. But to the boy I was then, it felt magical—a gateway to a much larger world. Every trip there filled me with excitement. I loved riding the bus, watching the scenery change outside the window, and experiencing what felt like city life.

Years passed quickly.

After finishing middle school, I visited Wuhan for the first time. It was my first encounter with a true metropolis. Standing among the tall buildings and busy streets, I made a promise to myself: I would never spend my life in that mountain village. I wanted to build my future in a city.

In 2009, I moved to Shanghai, one of China’s most dynamic and international cities. I lived and worked there for nearly ten years. I loved its energy, diversity, and endless opportunities, and I was determined to build a life there.

Then, in 2010, I traveled abroad for the first time.

My destination was Singapore.

I still remember the excitement and curiosity of that trip. Everything felt new. As a child from a poor farming family, I had never imagined that one day I would hold a passport, board an international flight, and explore another country on my own.

That journey changed something inside me.

Over the years, I continued to travel, visiting Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and many other countries. Eventually, I ventured beyond Asia to explore the United States, France, Italy, Hungary, Germany, and more.

In 2019, I moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou, a vibrant city in southern China.

There, I experienced one of the most important moments of my life: becoming a father. My twin children—a son and a daughter—entered the world and completely changed my perspective on life.

In 2024, our family made another life-changing decision. We moved to Malta, a small Mediterranean island nation, so that our children could grow up in a more international English-speaking environment.

If you had told the boy from that mountain village that one day he would live in another country, he never would have believed you.

Along the way, I’ve met many wonderful people from different parts of the world. My English is far from perfect, but it has allowed me to build friendships and have countless conversations about our countries, cultures, and daily lives.

Through those conversations, I discovered that many people are genuinely curious about China. Yet the information they receive is often incomplete, one-dimensional, or disconnected from the experiences of ordinary Chinese people.

That’s why I created CuriousChina.

This website is my attempt to share the China I know—the food we eat, the traditions we celebrate, the places we visit, the stories we tell, and the everyday experiences that rarely appear in headlines.

My goal is not to present a perfect China, but a real one.

If you’re curious about China, I hope you’ll find something here that surprises you, teaches you something new, or simply helps you see the country from a different perspective.

And if you’d like to connect, feel free to reach out to me on WhatsApp. I’d love to hear from you.