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.

Lately, though, I know Belarus from my mail. You remember mail: You write a message on a piece of paper, stick a postage stamp on it, and put it in a mailbox.

Last year my roommate and I joined a social network called PostCrossing.com, where you become pen pals with strangers from around the world. So far I've sent 80 postcards and received 74, corresponding with students, lawyers, farmers and mothers who hope to interest their children in the wide world out there.

A surprising number of them are from Belarus, it seems. Perhaps that's because that country has opened up, like China in recent years. My new friends from Belarus are often keen to share images of their architecture, including some marvelous grand churches.

Finland, Russia, Germany and China have also produced many new pen pals. We communicate via post cards, so like e-mails and texts, the messages are often short. But they are not received instantly. A card could take a week to reach Bangkok, or 50 days to arrive in Belarus.

But PostCrossing is a game of anticipation.

Of course, the messages are not urgent, anyway. Some correspondents don't really want to chat - they want to get pretty new stamps or just be able to boast receiving a huge number of postcards. And why not - I'm an old stamp collector myself. But I love it when perfect strangers are eager to share snippets of their lives - and it's a refreshing change from the "Whassup? C U at lunch" that's blinking on my cellphone.

Yvonne wrote from the Netherlands recently:

Dear Mike, This card shows a moment from our Queen's Day we celebrate each year ... Most of the Dutch ride bikes. My family goes to a windmill every two months to buy our own flour, so we can bake our own bread.

Annette in Chicago sends a postcard with a picture of a 1966 Pony Mustang, which she and her husband bought for their son when he turned 16. The car is a beauty, and she says the proud owner, now 30, still drives the car in good weather.

Some of the most fun cards come from people who have taken the trouble to study my profile. Fei is from China, learning how to turn seawater into electricity as a PhD candidate in the Netherlands, and hopes I have a fun life in Beijing. Cassidy from Kentucky sends a big card with a 1960s advertisement image for Spam "as good as ham!" - she's sure I'm old enough to remember (and she's right). Katya sends a picture postcard of red wine from Finland, which she knows I like "but I can't help but comment that it looks like a drink for a vampire (blood)!"

Alexandra from Russia sends me a handmade card with birthday greetings - and the hope that the card will arrive on time. (It doesn't, but that makes it an even better treat when it arrives unexpectedly.)

As an expat from the US, however, I got the biggest smile from a card that came from my old state:

Dear Mike, Hello from Texas!

I am a teacher of second-graders (7 to 8 years old) in Arlington, Texas. My students think that children in China eat with chopsticks, learn karate and go fishing a lot! They also think that they learn Chinese and English in school. Happy Post Crossings! - Mrs Medeiros' class

Hmmm. I know something about chopsticks and karate (well, kung fu), and I know Chinese students learn English. I teach some of them.

But fishing a lot? I'll have to find some second-graders here in Beijing who can speak with authority on this question. I'll send the answer by old-fashioned mail - with a big box of enameled chopsticks.

Meanwhile, I wonder what second-graders in Belarus do ...

michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/06/2013 page20)