One of the nicest surprises about my nearly four years stay in China is that I've learned a lot about ... Belarus.

Although I'm an avid reader of world news, I hadn't thought that much about Belarus before.

My first flash came at the Shanghai Expo 2010, when I saw the Belarus pavilion. The edifice was a massive folk-art painting: Brightly costumed people and all sorts of interesting architecture swarmed the surface like fairy-tale mosaic.