Hi, I'm Mofei Zhu, a Chinese software engineer living in Finland. I write to make sense of the real things happening around work, family, and life abroad.
Over the years, I've worked across frontend, maps, data systems, and AI applications. At the same time, I've been rebuilding daily life through migration, parenting, language, and routine. Many posts start where those threads meet.
Professionally, I've worked inside a few very different systems:
Yiban: early Web product work inside China's higher-education digital ecosystem
Baidu Maps: map products, frontend engineering, and geospatial visualization
Mapbox: map products, large-scale data pipelines, and the work of bringing AI into geospatial workflows
This blog is not only about technology, and not only about life. It is a long-running personal lab where engineering thinking, family life, and concrete problems from migration can sit in the same place.
Work and Life
At work
Engineering PracticeMaps & DataAI Applications
In life
Long-term WritingMigration NotesDad of Two
Technology gives me a way to solve problems. Writing gives me time to see life more clearly.
Expertise
My work is mostly about turning complex systems into usable products: frontend experience, maps and geospatial data, backend platforms, and AI/agent workflows that can fit into real work.
AI & Agents
Agent Systems
MCP
Prompt / Tool Orchestration
Skills
Frontend
React
Next.js
TypeScript
Performance Optimization
Backend Systems
Node.js
Python
API Design
Platform Engineering
Data, Maps & Pipelines
PySpark / Spark
Airflow
Geospatial Systems
Data Pipelines
The Journey
From Huainan to Shanghai, Beijing, and eventually Helsinki. Over 16 years, the cities changed, and so did the way I build, live with family, and look at the world.
-2008Huainan
Huainan · The Start
I grew up in a small city, always curious about the wider world and about technology. A lot of what came later started from that curiosity.
2008-2014Shanghai
Shanghai · Yiban (Campus Social)
I came to Shanghai for university and joined Yiban to help build a campus social product. That was where I slowly moved from being a student to becoming an engineer, and where frontend work became serious for me.
2014-2018Beijing
Beijing · Baidu (Data Visualization)
At a large internet company, I kept sharpening my frontend and interaction skills, and started thinking more seriously about data, visualization, and product experience as one whole.
2018-2023Shanghai
Shanghai · Mapbox (Maps and Data Platform)
I joined a global team at Mapbox, working on map data processing and platform engineering. That was where geospatial systems, large-scale data, and cross-region collaboration became part of my daily work.
2023-NowHelsinki
Helsinki · Data, Maps, and AI
After moving to Finland, I continued going deep on map data work while spending more energy on AI and agents, thinking about how they can actually enter geospatial systems and daily workflows.
