JESSIE WENJIE LI · GLOBAL LIFESTYLE CURATOR
A world of places.
A curiosity about people.
I am Jessie Wenjie Li, a Hangzhou-based Global Lifestyle Curator. I write about the ways people live, believe, eat, build and make meaning, drawing on journeys through 102 countries and a background in hospitality.
Founder, Garden Villa Collection · explore my practice ↗
Where my attention goes
A sacred site can lead me into religious history. A street snack can lead to a conversation. A museum, a hotel or a market can change how I understand a city. I like to move between these different settings and leave room for a place to surprise me.
A traveller and a practitioner
My background includes international hotel management, tourism planning research and cross-cultural projects. I hold a master’s degree in International Hotel Management from the University of Queensland and undertook doctoral research in tourism planning at Peking University. Creating a hospitality space of my own made questions about design, welcome and guest experience very concrete.
How these stories take shape
I return to travel notes, conversations and photographs, sometimes years after a journey. I want to keep the texture of what happened: pleasure and inconvenience, an unexpected kindness, a meal I remember or something I did not understand. The English and Chinese editions share that material, with editing for different readers.
What I value in travel
Travel Well. Spend Wisely. Experience Deeply. A beautiful hotel and a simple guesthouse can belong in the same journey. I choose according to what a place adds to the experience, including its setting, local connections and the time and effort needed to reach it.
Conversations and collaborations
I welcome editorial commissions on cultural travel, hotels, food and designed spaces; thoughtful hospitality observations; and conversations about original cultural experiences and cross-cultural projects. My interest in small, personally researched journeys begins with shared curiosity and careful exploration.