Beijing Location: From Our Correspondent

Jan van der Putten has been associated with de Volkskrant since 1975, and has been a correspondent in China since 1998. In Standplaats Peking he describes his experiences in China: a country of extreme contrasts. Integration seems almost impossible. Van der Putten writes about his first language lessons, the strict rules in China and about outright espionage. When his correspondentship in China ends, he will have to get used to a new foreign country again: the Netherlands.
Jan van der Putten studied classical literature in Leiden and Paris, where he became a correspondent for the daily newspaper "De Tijd" during the May Revolution of 1968. In the seventies and eighties he was a correspondent in Latin America for Dutch and Belgian media; since 1975 he has been associated with the "Volkskrant".
From 1987 to 1998 Van der Putten was a correspondent in Italy, from 1998 to 2003 he was a correspondent in China and since 2003 he is director of Eyes on China: www.eyesonchina.com. Jan van der Putten is the author of several books.
In the series "From our correspondent" correspondents write about their life and work; what it is like to be a correspondent and expatriate. They are journalistic and also personal stories about impressions and experiences, the region and its residents.