An ancient city, mingled with modernised lifestyle

Background

Flashback February 2026, I was in China to spend and celebrate the Spring Festival with my family.

After a week of boredom over the Spring Festival, I decided to visit Xi’an, Shaanxi on a whim. The reason I chose Xi’an was because I am a history enthusiast, and Xi’an has been top of travel destination list for a while.

Introduction to Xi’an

Xi’an (Chinese: 西安; pinyin: Xī’ān) is a capital city of Shaanxi province (Chinese: 陕西省) located in central western part of China. Not only is Xi’an one of the oldest cities (3100 YBP) in China, but also one of only Four Great Ancient Capitals (1100 YBP). Due to its location and historical importance, Xi’an is listed in one of the national central cities and a major transport hub in Western China.

A famous poet, Luo Binwang (Chinese: 骆宾王) wrote this line in 帝京篇 (pinyin: Dijingpian) to describe the city in Tang Dynasty:

山河千里国，城阙九重门.

Museums in Xi’an

It goes without saying that Xi’an boasts a rich history and a vibrant cultural blend. One of the best ways to experience its past is through the many museums scattered across the city. According to official statistics, “Xi’an has a total of 159 museums, attracting over 30 million visitors each year.”

Among the must-see attractions are, of course, the Terracotta Warriors, located at the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇陵) on the eastern outskirts of Xi’an.

Since the sensational discovery of the Terracotta Warriors in 1974, visitors from around the world have flocked to the site. In their eagerness to capture a photo of this extraordinary wonder, many attempt to secure a “good” vantage point—often resulting in a chaotic scene.

By contrast, a visit to the Shaanxi History Museum (Hall of Qin & Han) can be more enjoyable, despite its distance from the city centre. Situated near the sites of ancient imperial palaces from the Qin and Han dynasties, the museum showcases a remarkable collection of locally sourced artifacts that illuminate governance systems and everyday life more than 2,000 years ago. Notably, the Han Dynasty-the second imperial dynasty of China-played a pivotal role in shaping China’s global significance. For example, it saw the formal establishment of the Silk Road, which connected powerful empires in the East and West, including the contemporary Roman Empire. Its legacy endures today, not least in the name it bequeathed to the majority ethnic group in China, the Han people (汉族).

Food in Xi’an

Local food in Xi’an is dominant by the wheat products. Biangbiang noodles and Roujiamo (肉夹馍 or a Chinese equivalent to the Western Hamburger or meat Sandwiches) are the most two well-known delicacies to many visitors.

Gallery

There are lots to share, and I certainly missed some places due to the short timeframe. In the meantime, enjoy the photo gallery: here.

Itinerary

Notes Below

[1] Luo, Bingwang (c. 640 – 684) 帝京篇, https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/帝京篇_(骆宾王).

[2] CGTN, 09/08/2020, Ancient Xi’an city wall collapses due to severe rainfall, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-09/Ancient-Xi-an-city-wall-collapses-due-to-severe-rainfall-SOzuPoS8ms/index.html.

[3] Prior Bookings Required. Bookings are usually done through WeChat Official Channels, and will open a week prior. For some places during the peak season, such as Shaanxi History Museum, are VERY hard to book an a time slot. All pricings listed here are indicative, and only valid in February 2026.

[4] I booked a wrong date, so I did not make it.

[5] Booking required.

[6] 10 minutes of a free connect bus and ￥15 for a trip by an Electric Tourist Vehicle.

[Ends]

System: Linux Mint 22.2 “Xia” / Cinnamon Desktop
Issue: System persistently booted into Wayland session; unable to switch back to X11 (Xorg)

Problem Description

On a Linux Mint 22.2 “Xia” system running the Cinnamon desktop environment, the user attempted to switch from the Wayland session back to the default X11 (Xorg) session. The LightDM login screen did not display a session selection icon, making the standard switching method unavailable.

Troubleshooting Steps

Step 1 — Login Screen Session Selector (Failed)

Action: Attempted to click the session selector icon on the LightDM login screen to choose “Cinnamon (Default)”.
Result: No session selector icon was visible on the login screen. Method not applicable.

Step 2 — System-Level LightDM Configuration (Failed)

Action: Edited /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and set the user-session value to cinnamon.

[Seat:*]
user-session=cinnamon

Result: System still booted into Wayland after reboot. Change had no effect.

Step 3 — AccountsService User Configuration ✅ (Resolved)

Action: Inspected and edited the user-level session record managed by AccountsService.

sudo nano /var/lib/AccountsService/users/$USER

Finding: The file contained an incorrect session name:

Session=ubuntu

Fix: Changed the value to the correct Cinnamon X11 session name:

Session=cinnamon

Result: After reboot, the system successfully launched the Cinnamon X11 desktop environment.

Root Cause

The file /var/lib/AccountsService/users/$USER contained a stale and incorrect session entry (Session=ubuntu). LightDM reads this file with the highest priority when determining which session to launch for a user — overriding any system-level configuration set in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf. As a result, modifications to the system config file had no effect.

Resolution

sudo nano /var/lib/AccountsService/users/$USER

Change:

Session=ubuntu

To:

Session=cinnamon

Save the file and reboot the system.

Configuration File Priority Reference

Key Takeaway: When troubleshooting persistent Wayland session issues on Linux Mint, always check /var/lib/AccountsService/users/$USER first. This file holds the highest-priority session setting and is the most commonly overlooked location.

Verification

After reboot, confirm the active display server by running:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

Expected output: x11

Additional Notes

• Cinnamon’s Wayland support in Linux Mint 22.2 remains at alpha stage and is not recommended for daily use.
• If a similar issue occurs in the future, inspecting /var/lib/AccountsService/users/$USER should be the first diagnostic step.
• Linux Mint 22.x is expected to support X11 until at least 2029 (end of support date), so switching to Wayland is not required at this time.

This post celebrates the official start of my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) journey at CQUniversity Australia.

An interactive map for The Northern Territory Agriculture Land Suitability Series (Study Areas 2014-2022)

You can access this new webpage through GitHub landing page or ShinyApp page

[Ends]

A unique lens of Australia-China Bilateral relations

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

Background

Attending the 14^th Australia-China Youth Dialogue is truly a privilege. With thirty brightest minds hailing from Australia and China across various fields, we gathered together in Adelaide from 22^nd November to 25^th November, 2024.

At the time of the blossoming season of jacaranda in Adelaide, we were fortunate to hear the views from prestigious speakers over the sixteen sessions within the theme of “Planning for the Future by Learning from the Past” (Chinese:从过去，见未来). This Dialogue covered a range of topics from re-engagement between two nations, heated geo-political tensions to arts and sustainability.

Site Visit - Wolf Blass Winery

As an agricultural professional, visiting the Wolf Blass Winery was one of the most memorable highlights.

According to the South Australian Government website, South Australia contributed 67 per cent to the total value of Australian wines exports, which reached $2.32 billion (up 14.65 per cent).

China remains an important two-way trading partner for South Australia with merchandise exports the highest on record at $4.23 billion to the end of June 2024.^[1]

For many Australian agricultural producers, particularly the wine industry, China is a major player in the global commodity market. Even though the trade disputes and many efforts into market diversification over the last couple of years, Chinese market still dominates the shares of Australia’s exports destinations - as Australia’s exports to China rose 18% to a record $219 billion in 2023, or 32% of total exports according to Export Finance Australia^[2].

Take-home Message

In our last day, our journey reached its climax when Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, the 36^th Governor of South Australia, hosted a reception at South Australian Government House. She was also the 12^th Australian Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2015.

Throughout the Dialogue, we learnt many perspectives on Australia-China Bilateral relations. For both nations, there is no doubt that only the co-operation brings prosperity and mutual benefits. Amidst the rise of populism and protectionism, we need to cherish the peaceful moments we have. After all, there is still room for potential collaborations.

In the end, although there are many differences between two nations, keeping engaging plays a pivotal and centric role in building a stable bilateral relationship between Australia and China.

A relationship where we can cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest. ^[3]

Acknowledgement

The author would like to acknowledge the management team from Australia-China Youth Dialogue for organising and curating this fantastic event so seamlessly. The author also would like to thank to all supporters and sponsors for making this event possible, particularly the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations (NFACR) (Chinese: 澳中基金会).

References

[1] South Australian Government Department of State Development (2024, August 22) SA’s wine exports flow past $1.5 billion, South Australian Government Department of State Development, https://statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/news/sas-wine-exports-flow-past-1-5-billion.
[2] Export Finance Australia (2024, July) China—Record imports from Australia, but economic headwinds mount, Export Finance Australia, https://www.exportfinance.gov.au/resources/world-risk-developments/2024/july/china-record-imports-from-australia-but-economic-headwinds-mount/.
[3] Wong, P. (2024, August 16) Opening remarks at the eighth Australia-China High Level Dialogue, Minister for Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/opening-remarks-eighth-australia-china-high-level-dialogue.

[Ends]

Several weeks ago, I bought a new PC with a dual operating system - Windows 11 and Mint OS installed. Last weekend, I finally got some free time to modify brand-new Mint OS. But this is what the whole drama really started.

Linux (and Ubuntu) weren’t new to me. I used them when I was a research student in the university - installing Ubuntu and Tails OS systems on a Raspberry Pi module or a USB stick, using some Linux command lines on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for fun. Before that, I have also been using Mac OS system (a UNIX-based system) for approximately six years (also using Wine containers or Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine for accessing Windows based software for my studies, such as APSIM). However, this time was my FIRST time really seriously using Linux.

To be fair and honest, I am not good at coding. Coding for me has been a steep learning curve for last four years. Before downloading and installing Linux permanently, I have already heard from people that coding is essential to use Linux, and this is probably because Linux is easily broken - many of basic uses involve coding and troubleshooting, such as installing the software by sudo apt-get install.

Challenges accepted!

Issue 1 - Step into a “trap”

While I was using the Mint OS, my cursor couldn’t move around. Luckily, the keyboard was working, and I did not feel panic about it, because I mentally prepared for anything going wrong. However, this time I didn’t realise I went too far!

I forced the PC to shut down, and attempted to restart in the hope of resolving the issue automatically picked up by the system. Unfortunately, it didn’t, so I was looking for the possible solution online.

Many seconds, hours, days have gone through Oops, I messed up the boot

Issue 2 - Can’t boot up the Mint OS

It was bit late that I couldn’t boot up Mint OS. At the beginning, I was bit annoyed but I was optimistic that I could fix it up. Over the course of several nights, while I was searching the possible solutions, I started losing patience, and felt upset that I wouldn’t be able to use Linux at all in near future. Then I was thinking it might be a good idea to reinstall another Linux-based OS, such as Arch OS or Debian OS. I gave it up after I was attempting to install them. It was a very complicated process.

Pivotal success

While I was talking my friend, I learnt that there is a boot repair tool from Ubuntu might be able to help me from this situation. I wipe the only USB out and to boot the live session from this boot repair tool. I followed the instruction, and it did not help. I have to seek the help from other people on Ubuntu Forum.

On the second day, I discovered the boot was deleted from the booting list. The solution code as follows:
root@ubuntu:~# efibootmgr -c -w -L "Mint" -d /dev/nvme0n1p5 -p 1 -l /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi

Distorted display resolution

Cheerful moment didn’t last for a long time.

I found you can actually set up a new mode for this display by following these codes:

cvt 1920 1200 # it will give the output for Modeline “1920x1080_60.00”  173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --newmode  "1920x1080_60.00"  173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode None-1 "1920x1080_60.00"

But this gave me a black screen! At least, I can still boot up, so I tried the last resort - Recovery mode.

Eventually, successfully done!

This is my first post.
仅作留念。