Today I discovered something that was definitely not on my 2026 bingo card: apparently, I am a German travel blogger now.
Those who know me professionally will probably find this as amusing as I do. I normally describe myself as a researcher working in artificial intelligence, neuromorphic systems, and sustainability. I have been writing on this website for many years, including about my travels, but I have never really thought of myself as a travel blogger.
And yet, during the last two days, I started discovering my name in Chinese and international media, where I was introduced as „German travel blogger Sorin Liviu Jurj“.
I smiled when I first read it. But after the initial amusement, another feeling became stronger: gratitude.
In May 2026, I travelled to China for the first time and spent almost three weeks in Beijing, Shanghai, and Lijiang in Yunnan Province. I started writing about the trip while I was still there, beginning with “Hello from China” from Beijing, followed by posts about Shanghai, museums, vegetarian food, high-speed trains, Yunnan, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and many of the small practical and sometimes funny experiences that come with visiting a country for the first time.
When the trip was ending, I wrote “Thank you, China!”, and after returning home I published a practical guide, “What You Need for Visiting China in 2026”.
Nobody asked me to write any of it. There was no campaign, sponsorship, or organized media project. They were simply my personal impressions of a country I was discovering for myself.
Then I returned to Germany and moved on with everyday life.
Or so I thought.
On August 11, Xinhua News Agency published a feature titled “The boom in China-Europe travel runs in both directions”. To my surprise, the article opens with my experience travelling through Beijing, Shanghai, and Yunnan and quotes observations from the practical guide I had published in May.
That appears to be where my new title, “German travel blogger Sorin Liviu Jurj”, came from.
From there, the story spread quickly through a much larger media network. It appeared on China.org.cn, the Namibia Press Agency, the State Council Information Office of China, China Today, and Shaanxi Daily / 群众新闻网.
It was also translated and republished in other languages, including by People’s Daily Online in German, China Today Germany, and People’s Daily Online in Italian.
The story travelled even farther through Xinhua Myanmar, WE News South Africa, iChongqing, China.org.cn’s German edition, and ABC Nepal.
I also saw the story being shared on various Facebook pages such as Chinesische Volkszeitung Online und Dialog China-Deutschland, to mention only a few.
One of the most unexpected discoveries for me personally was seeing the story amplified by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Frankfurt am Main. Its official X account, @ChinaCG_Ffm, shared the story mentioning my journey through Beijing, Shanghai, and Yunnan. The consulate’s official website is here.
For accuracy, these were not separate interviews conducted with me by all of these organizations. The original material appears to come from Xinhua and was then republished, translated, syndicated, adapted, or amplified through other media and official channels.
Still, watching a few personal travel notes move through such a large international information network has been fascinating. It reminded me of the time in 2005 when my name appeared in several Romanian newspapers after I won the SIVECO Prize at the national e-Idea 2005 competition in Bucharest, Romania. The awards were presented on September 29, 2005, during the eighth edition of BINARY 2005, where the winners of the “Software Ideas for Youth” (e-Idea 2005) competition were officially recognized.
There is also something wonderfully ironic about the whole thing. In May, I was simply walking through Beijing, taking high-speed trains, figuring out mobile payments, trying vegetarian food, exploring Shanghai and Yunnan, and occasionally getting confused by things that seemed perfectly obvious to everyone around me.
Three months later, I open the internet and discover that I am a “German travel blogger.”
I am still going to say AI researcher when somebody asks me what I do. But perhaps “researcher who occasionally becomes a travel blogger” is a reasonable compromise. 😀
What makes me happiest is not the label itself. It is the possibility that sharing an honest personal experience might encourage someone else to become curious enough to see a place for themselves.
As an AI researcher, I spend a lot of time thinking about models. Humans build mental models too, and if everything we know about another country comes from headlines, geopolitics, social media, or somebody else’s interpretation, that model will inevitably be incomplete.
Travel gives you new data.
You walk through a city. You take a train. You try to order lunch. You get lost. You talk to people. You discover that some things are easier than expected and others more complicated. Slowly, assumptions are replaced by observations.
Three weeks in China certainly did not make me an expert on a country of more than a billion people. It simply gave me something I value much more: my own experience.
That was what I tried to document.
Not a perfect China. Not somebody else’s China. Simply the China I personally encountered.
If somebody in Europe reads about my trip and thinks, “Maybe I should go and see it for myself,” I am happy. If somebody in China reads it and sees that a European visitor arrived with curiosity, enjoyed his time there, spoke with people, learned how things worked, and returned home with good memories, I am equally happy.
We do not have to agree about everything to remain curious about one another.
And sometimes the best way to update our model of the world is simply to go somewhere and look for ourselves.
In May, I travelled through China.
In August, my story started travelling through China, and far beyond it, without me.
Somewhere along the way, I apparently became a German travel blogger.
I can live with that. :))
Thank you, China. Once again.
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