Observed arrival · 2026-11-08
Why Is China? — Field notes from Zhuhai
Retired engineer Billy Li publishes firsthand essays about daily life, costs, and change in China, with short videos and an email newsletter.
- For
- Readers seeking firsthand notes on everyday life in China
- Worth noticing
- The AI-cost article labels Western-model comparisons as list-price estimates, not invoices, and points readers to what the numbers do not prove.
Field notes
The first listed essay reports a DeepSeek bill of $4.35 for 378.97 million tokens across 1,491 calls; it explicitly treats comparisons with Western models as list-price estimates rather than comparable invoices. Another essay starts with the author's memories of calling relatives and acquaintances before dealing with hospitals, purchases, or permits, then frames those connections as risk management. The homepage describes the email letter as a place for sources checked, unverified figures, and material omitted from public pieces.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
One card from the complete issue