Visiting Maomao’s hometown (Patreon)

Hi everyone! While we are taking a few days off due to my inability to record, here’s some vacation update while I am visiting the Forbidden Palace (紫禁城) in Beijing, China, where the Apothecary Diaries is loosely inspired by the Ming Dynasty.

As I shared in my detailed analysis of season 3’s episode 3, this is my first time revisiting China in 19 years since I spent 7 years growing up in Shanghai until I was 14 years old—and I am absolutely blown away by the country’s economic and technological transformation. Not to mention, the visit is giving me inspiration and further appreciation for the masterpiece that Apothecary Diaries is.

The second picture that you see is the Ming dynasty’s royal physician’s headquarters in the Forbidden Palace, where Luomen and the quack doctor would’ve worked out of, and Maomao’s playground throughout the series. The royal physician’s office, shown behind me, is known to have the most complete preservation of the medicine and herbal equipment and records of all the Chinese dynasties in the last thousands of years. Let that sink in.

Hope you are enjoying my Avatar: The Last Airbender and Rascal Does Not Dream series in the meantime.

“To know where we are going, we must study where we came from.” - me, writing the draft, trying to be sophisticated sitting on a train to Xi’an for Emperor Qinshihuang's (秦始皇) Mausoleum Site Museum

We will continue the thrill of episode 4, season 3 tomorrow night on Thursday, after I settle back in from my travels and jet lag ~

I can’t wait to incorporate more historical and cultural knowledge from my trip into the remaining series :)