So I should have my visa extended by 1 month -enough for me to getto Hong Kong to then get another visa; very relieved as the fine foroverstaying your visa is at least £50 a day!
It was not easy though. well, actually getting the extension waseasy, but getting the certificate of residency in order to get thevisa was tough.
Chinese law says that foreigners who are not staying in a hotel haveto register with their local police station within 24 hours ofarriving (in the cities, 72 hrs in coutryside). Easier said thatdone, when the relevant person was not in the police station allweekend. You may have realised that trying to register this weekendis hardly 24 hours after I arrived, and you would be right; but as Ihad not registered yet, but needed to to get my visa (no otherreason to, to be honest), I 'arrived' in Beijing from 3 months oftravelling on friday night.
Getting this permit thing required the landlady to be there thewhole time (she lives 3 hrs away); it also required 1 hour 30minutes of..well I don't know what, but the guy was filling lots offorms in (3 or 4 times, even though there was a working photcopierin the corner..?). Unfortunately as I was late registering (not myfault as police guy was not in at the weekend, and landlady is ateacher so couldnt take monday off work) I was punished.
As long as it didnt involve expulsion or arrest, I didnt reallycare. In the end it was even financial, just an offical verbalpunishment. Then I realised what this meant...it meant 2 hours and30 minutes of even more form filling, essay writing and stupid-assquestions such as:
-do you understand this punishment? [yes]
-do you understand what this means? [yes]
-do you agree with this punishment? [yes]
-do you want to appeal? [no]
-if you want to appeal.. [I don't]..if you want to appeal, this isthe procedure...do you understand this? [yes]
-are you sure you do not want to appeal? [no]
-if you change your mind, do you understand the procedure [yes]
and on, and on...so pointless, then I had to sign this and that. Iaccidentally forgot to date something so the AIESEC member who washolding the pen, went to write the date in for me -oh dear, what amistake. Only I can date the piece of paper, so that involved somedisapproving looks (and laughs from us!). Have I mentioned how Chinasometimes has the strictest of laws (rarely obeyed) and mostly hasthe most lax?
Then to top it all off the other guy didn't beleive that I waswithin my 90 days of original visa (from sep 11th) -anyone wouldguess 90 days would go till dec 11th, or 1 day either side of it, sothis being dec 7th, i thought i was fine...no, he spent 20 minutessearchin for a calendar, and then went through counting the days! ialmost screamed. In fact, I might well have done a bit, and notstifled it. grrrrr.
so stupid! anyway, its all sorted out :) Its an interesting learningexperience anyway about something that is so simple. I was impressedwith the multiple appeals procedure anyway!
Other news: The CSR programme I am working on is going well, I amhaving a toss-up between choosing Tsinghua and Beijing Langauges andCulture University for a 1 semester long Chinese course starting atthe end of February (but got to decide this week), I am having anearly Birthday Party this Friday night and yesterday I saw anamazing Gong-Fu show (a king-fu type musical/show) -very spectacularand Chinese (had free VIP tickets too!!).
Enough from me, what about you?
Adam
p.s. did you read about Lenovo (Chinese PC company) buying part ofIBM? the takeover begins...
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Some answers!
Today I have been resigned to staying in the apartment, despite thenice weather as I slept in too late after last night's partying.
I'll explain why I have to stay in -its because Flic is coming backlater, but someone has to let her in as her key no longer works.This is because our locks were changed (since she left). The lockswere changed by the landlord because we had not paid our rent yet (aweek late I think). The locks were changed when we were not in theapartment, and after he changed them he then refused to give us thekeys until we paid. We did of course pay, so he did give us thekeys. After charging us for changing the locks, and after chargingus for the inconvenience of changing the locks (I think...) and ofcourse also wanting to charge us extra because of late payment ofrent.
hmm, extortion or what? So we are checking out if we have toactually pay all these extra costs. I am sure in the UK, if you were1 week late with rent, the landlord could not change the locks andleave you homeless until you paid. I hope not, anyway! Hey, itsChina :)
So, apart from clubbing, lock-outs, alumni gatherings (welcome back,Kate!) and unusually warm weather (a recent rend according to thepapers...could it be because of global warming?), onto today's topicof mild interest.
Well, I found it interesting. Firstly I had always been confusedbaout communism, because everywhere you read that the Chinesegovernment is activley persuing 'Socialism with Chinesecharacteristics) -this is the offical line. So why is it called thecommunist party, then? I found the answer. go tohttp://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22249.htm (the Ministry of Culture's site) and youwill read: "Now the CPC is leading the Chinese people to buildsocialism with Chinese characteristics, and strive to achieve itsultimate goal -- communism." yay, I am happy.
On the same site I read some of (got quickly bored and laughed toomuch) the Chinese constitution -apparently the state still owns allthe land in cities! I think that law was recently reformed, yet theconstitution is out-of-date. In fact I think most of the constituionis out-of-date because so many laws are being changed and rewrittenhere daily. I was shocked at the changes China has to make due toWTO accession, and wondered if the UK could ever make anysignificant changes in anywhere near the time. What with 1 year ofdebate, 1 years of consulation, another year of debate and thenfinally a law being passed, its amazing that China passes far-reachign reforms weekly.
Also on the site, it explains about elections and parties. It seemsthere are elections (mostly indirect, and only in certain cases) -Ihad heard before that a lot of villages have some kind of election.It also seems there are 8 other non-communist parties -this somewhatshocked me, especially when you read the names of theparties: "China Association for the Promotion of Democracy", "ChinaDemocratic League".
Actually you notice 2 things. Firstly the parties don't do anythinglike their name suggests (although they might have done when theywere founded in 1948), eg, in these cases, the former "devotesitself to economic construction, improvement of the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation, and the reunificationof the motherland." and the latter "to hold high the banner ofpatriotism and socialism, implement the basic line for the primarystage of socialism, safeguard stability in the society, strengthenservices to national unity and strive for the promotion of socialistmodernization, establishment and improvement of a market economy,enhancement of political restructuring and socialist spiritualcivilization, emancipation and development of productive forces,consolidation and expansion of the united patriotic front andrealization of the grand goals of socialism with Chinesecharacteristics. " -that being a VERY chinese long, winding sentence!
The second thing is that "The non-Communist parties of China areneither parties out of office, nor opposition parties, but friendlyparties that coexist over a long period of time, engage in mutualsupervision, show utter devotion to each other, and share honor anddisgrace, weal and woe with the CPC". So, nothing like Westernparties at all then.
The final thing is that their combined membership is around 500,000people. Only a few less than the Communist Parties' membership of 60million! (although of a population of 1.25 bn, 60 million is muchless than I expected, but doesn't include 62 million Communist YouthLeague Members)
Anyway, so one correction i need to point out about the chineseminorities is: "According to the fifth national census taken in2001, the Han people made up 91.59 percent of the country's totalpopulation, totaling 1159.4 million; and the other 55 ethnic groups,8.41 percent, totaling 106.43 million. "
Thats enough for now. Apologies for boring you, I kinda find thisstuff interesting. Will talk more about crappy chinese superclubsand 'chinese women' some other time; although the latter will haveto be carefully worded depending on who is reading ;)
Enjoy the weekend, come on Spurs (2 wins in 3 months!!!! ha ha)
Adam
I'll explain why I have to stay in -its because Flic is coming backlater, but someone has to let her in as her key no longer works.This is because our locks were changed (since she left). The lockswere changed by the landlord because we had not paid our rent yet (aweek late I think). The locks were changed when we were not in theapartment, and after he changed them he then refused to give us thekeys until we paid. We did of course pay, so he did give us thekeys. After charging us for changing the locks, and after chargingus for the inconvenience of changing the locks (I think...) and ofcourse also wanting to charge us extra because of late payment ofrent.
hmm, extortion or what? So we are checking out if we have toactually pay all these extra costs. I am sure in the UK, if you were1 week late with rent, the landlord could not change the locks andleave you homeless until you paid. I hope not, anyway! Hey, itsChina :)
So, apart from clubbing, lock-outs, alumni gatherings (welcome back,Kate!) and unusually warm weather (a recent rend according to thepapers...could it be because of global warming?), onto today's topicof mild interest.
Well, I found it interesting. Firstly I had always been confusedbaout communism, because everywhere you read that the Chinesegovernment is activley persuing 'Socialism with Chinesecharacteristics) -this is the offical line. So why is it called thecommunist party, then? I found the answer. go tohttp://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22249.htm (the Ministry of Culture's site) and youwill read: "Now the CPC is leading the Chinese people to buildsocialism with Chinese characteristics, and strive to achieve itsultimate goal -- communism." yay, I am happy.
On the same site I read some of (got quickly bored and laughed toomuch) the Chinese constitution -apparently the state still owns allthe land in cities! I think that law was recently reformed, yet theconstitution is out-of-date. In fact I think most of the constituionis out-of-date because so many laws are being changed and rewrittenhere daily. I was shocked at the changes China has to make due toWTO accession, and wondered if the UK could ever make anysignificant changes in anywhere near the time. What with 1 year ofdebate, 1 years of consulation, another year of debate and thenfinally a law being passed, its amazing that China passes far-reachign reforms weekly.
Also on the site, it explains about elections and parties. It seemsthere are elections (mostly indirect, and only in certain cases) -Ihad heard before that a lot of villages have some kind of election.It also seems there are 8 other non-communist parties -this somewhatshocked me, especially when you read the names of theparties: "China Association for the Promotion of Democracy", "ChinaDemocratic League".
Actually you notice 2 things. Firstly the parties don't do anythinglike their name suggests (although they might have done when theywere founded in 1948), eg, in these cases, the former "devotesitself to economic construction, improvement of the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation, and the reunificationof the motherland." and the latter "to hold high the banner ofpatriotism and socialism, implement the basic line for the primarystage of socialism, safeguard stability in the society, strengthenservices to national unity and strive for the promotion of socialistmodernization, establishment and improvement of a market economy,enhancement of political restructuring and socialist spiritualcivilization, emancipation and development of productive forces,consolidation and expansion of the united patriotic front andrealization of the grand goals of socialism with Chinesecharacteristics. " -that being a VERY chinese long, winding sentence!
The second thing is that "The non-Communist parties of China areneither parties out of office, nor opposition parties, but friendlyparties that coexist over a long period of time, engage in mutualsupervision, show utter devotion to each other, and share honor anddisgrace, weal and woe with the CPC". So, nothing like Westernparties at all then.
The final thing is that their combined membership is around 500,000people. Only a few less than the Communist Parties' membership of 60million! (although of a population of 1.25 bn, 60 million is muchless than I expected, but doesn't include 62 million Communist YouthLeague Members)
Anyway, so one correction i need to point out about the chineseminorities is: "According to the fifth national census taken in2001, the Han people made up 91.59 percent of the country's totalpopulation, totaling 1159.4 million; and the other 55 ethnic groups,8.41 percent, totaling 106.43 million. "
Thats enough for now. Apologies for boring you, I kinda find thisstuff interesting. Will talk more about crappy chinese superclubsand 'chinese women' some other time; although the latter will haveto be carefully worded depending on who is reading ;)
Enjoy the weekend, come on Spurs (2 wins in 3 months!!!! ha ha)
Adam
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
What is China?
Hi all
After some positive feedback from my previous comments, I am gettinga bit carried away (Will I end up still writing about China in 60years time like Alistair Cook in USA with the BBC, I wonder?). Ifeel like I can continue to let you all know a bit more about Chinamore frequently, and not just what I have been doing.
Briefly, I have done the Shanghai conference, upgraded my hard seatto hard sleeper (thus ensuring I have tried all 4 classes on ChineseTrains), created a CSR Learning Network (oooooh) bought some shirtsfor £2 each (from a proper shop, not a market) and started gettingrid of my (SARS-like) illness. I also heard it is 27 degrees in theplace I am heading to in 3 weeks, yippeee
anyway, back to business! What is China?
This is an interesting question. It struck me (not for the firsttime, but most recently) walking over the footbridge across the roadwhere a poor lady was holding her child, and both were not moving -it was only about 2 degrees. Although this is not a very common site(you will see it several times a day, but I imagine it is worseelsewhere in China and the rest of the World), it reminded me ofChrisi (another AIESECer working with us) who gave 2 RMB to a beggaroutside the train station because she felt like there is no socialnet in China, whereas in Germany, she would not so readily give, asthere is one of the best in the World.
So although not an expert at all in politics, philosophy or history;I think the following deductions can be drawn:
1) China is not democratic as there is no voting generally
2) China is not free, as you are supposed to apply for permission tohold a gathering of anyone more than a very small number of people,like 20! And of course, they censor the media -in regards theinternet, particularly heavily
3) China is pretty autocratic, as what the government says goes, butthere are a lot of 'leaders' -not just 1 'dictator', and stillcontrols things (eg. you have to register when you move location, in(some) hostels they show a list to the police of who are theresidents that night)
4) China is not particularly socialist, as there is no real socialsecurity as far as I know (or can visibly see), yet there is aminimum wage sometimes, but no limits on working hours, or stronglabour law
5) China is very competitive -the average graduate salary has halved(apparently) due to competition for places, China would generallyput its economic wellbeing over its environmental and social, andwill certainly only do what is best for itself.
6) China is very capitalist -the few who make money live very verywell
7) China cannot be communist because it now has pretty much a marketdemand economy
8) China is not religious -religions are certainly not encouraged,and indeed the Vatican still recognises Taiwan as 'China', ratherthan China.
9) China is very friendly and close-knit. All the students put theirparents as their role-models and leaders who they aspire to be, andChinese people are always more than willing to help, even at theirown expense.
10) China is very selfish -pushing and shoving are natural, as wellas are grabbing, and although crime seems rare, I know 3 people whohave been pickpocketed on the bus. The rules of the road arenot 'give way', but 'you give way to me no matter what' leading tomany frequent accidents -I saw a body lying in front of an accident2 weeks ago and although some people were staring (The chinese dostare a lot) traffic was as normal, going around the body, thepolice were just looking, thinking and wondering what to do...
11) Chinese youth are VERY hard working, determined and ambitious.The elderly don't seem (and I don't know them that well at all) likethat -just frequently sit around
12) China is not hygienic with food or bodily functions, yet willcover your jacket when it is on your chair to keep it clean (andstop it getting stolen) or in Shanghai, every taxi has bright whitecovers on its seats
13) China is cheap, but only essential things. Anything electronic(and not copied) or luxurious is expensive -Due to marketing I amsure.
14) China is very proud of its heritage and culture, yet everyonewants to study abroad, marry a rich foreigner and work for a foreignmultinational.
15) There is no transparency in China whatsoever, yet there isdetermined effort to stamp our corruption. The effort may never beenough due to the cultural aspect of guanxi...where does a favourturn into a bribe?
Of course, these are just brief ramblings and personal observations,but if anyone knows what China is, please tell me! In the future Iwill talk more about what China calls itself (politically etc) -eventhough this is mostly rubbish (a taster being the 1 country, 2systems model, despite there (for me anyway) evidently being HK,Mainland and Taiwan equalling 3 at the least)
I mention this, because as you may have noticed, some of the abovewere slightly contradictory and by the time I had finished eachsentence was a paradox in itself. I have touched upon before Chinais the biggest paradox of all, and I remain that way.
Lastly, have a browse of this, that I just found:http://www.asianjoke.com/oneline/50_myths_about_china.htm. Itconfused me greatly!
good morning (its 3am...)
Adam
After some positive feedback from my previous comments, I am gettinga bit carried away (Will I end up still writing about China in 60years time like Alistair Cook in USA with the BBC, I wonder?). Ifeel like I can continue to let you all know a bit more about Chinamore frequently, and not just what I have been doing.
Briefly, I have done the Shanghai conference, upgraded my hard seatto hard sleeper (thus ensuring I have tried all 4 classes on ChineseTrains), created a CSR Learning Network (oooooh) bought some shirtsfor £2 each (from a proper shop, not a market) and started gettingrid of my (SARS-like) illness. I also heard it is 27 degrees in theplace I am heading to in 3 weeks, yippeee
anyway, back to business! What is China?
This is an interesting question. It struck me (not for the firsttime, but most recently) walking over the footbridge across the roadwhere a poor lady was holding her child, and both were not moving -it was only about 2 degrees. Although this is not a very common site(you will see it several times a day, but I imagine it is worseelsewhere in China and the rest of the World), it reminded me ofChrisi (another AIESECer working with us) who gave 2 RMB to a beggaroutside the train station because she felt like there is no socialnet in China, whereas in Germany, she would not so readily give, asthere is one of the best in the World.
So although not an expert at all in politics, philosophy or history;I think the following deductions can be drawn:
1) China is not democratic as there is no voting generally
2) China is not free, as you are supposed to apply for permission tohold a gathering of anyone more than a very small number of people,like 20! And of course, they censor the media -in regards theinternet, particularly heavily
3) China is pretty autocratic, as what the government says goes, butthere are a lot of 'leaders' -not just 1 'dictator', and stillcontrols things (eg. you have to register when you move location, in(some) hostels they show a list to the police of who are theresidents that night)
4) China is not particularly socialist, as there is no real socialsecurity as far as I know (or can visibly see), yet there is aminimum wage sometimes, but no limits on working hours, or stronglabour law
5) China is very competitive -the average graduate salary has halved(apparently) due to competition for places, China would generallyput its economic wellbeing over its environmental and social, andwill certainly only do what is best for itself.
6) China is very capitalist -the few who make money live very verywell
7) China cannot be communist because it now has pretty much a marketdemand economy
8) China is not religious -religions are certainly not encouraged,and indeed the Vatican still recognises Taiwan as 'China', ratherthan China.
9) China is very friendly and close-knit. All the students put theirparents as their role-models and leaders who they aspire to be, andChinese people are always more than willing to help, even at theirown expense.
10) China is very selfish -pushing and shoving are natural, as wellas are grabbing, and although crime seems rare, I know 3 people whohave been pickpocketed on the bus. The rules of the road arenot 'give way', but 'you give way to me no matter what' leading tomany frequent accidents -I saw a body lying in front of an accident2 weeks ago and although some people were staring (The chinese dostare a lot) traffic was as normal, going around the body, thepolice were just looking, thinking and wondering what to do...
11) Chinese youth are VERY hard working, determined and ambitious.The elderly don't seem (and I don't know them that well at all) likethat -just frequently sit around
12) China is not hygienic with food or bodily functions, yet willcover your jacket when it is on your chair to keep it clean (andstop it getting stolen) or in Shanghai, every taxi has bright whitecovers on its seats
13) China is cheap, but only essential things. Anything electronic(and not copied) or luxurious is expensive -Due to marketing I amsure.
14) China is very proud of its heritage and culture, yet everyonewants to study abroad, marry a rich foreigner and work for a foreignmultinational.
15) There is no transparency in China whatsoever, yet there isdetermined effort to stamp our corruption. The effort may never beenough due to the cultural aspect of guanxi...where does a favourturn into a bribe?
Of course, these are just brief ramblings and personal observations,but if anyone knows what China is, please tell me! In the future Iwill talk more about what China calls itself (politically etc) -eventhough this is mostly rubbish (a taster being the 1 country, 2systems model, despite there (for me anyway) evidently being HK,Mainland and Taiwan equalling 3 at the least)
I mention this, because as you may have noticed, some of the abovewere slightly contradictory and by the time I had finished eachsentence was a paradox in itself. I have touched upon before Chinais the biggest paradox of all, and I remain that way.
Lastly, have a browse of this, that I just found:http://www.asianjoke.com/oneline/50_myths_about_china.htm. Itconfused me greatly!
good morning (its 3am...)
Adam
Thursday, November 25, 2004
politics....
i realised although i covered most of everything in a wordy post afew hours, before, i neglected politics, so here goes....
a meeting today with a University in Shanghai (one of the best inChina)...In Universities, there is the university structure and thecommunist party structure..they work alongside each other, probablydoing the same things, but the party is more powerful, so we metsomeone at the top of the party in this uni.
he is typically chinese -ambitious! What he says, goes. What hewants, happens. So we are happy he wants to support AIESEC; ofcourse, what makes this interesting reading is he is typicallychinese in that he wants to use AIESEC to his own ends (that is thedefinition on china) -not a bad thing of course. So AIESEC will dowhat he wants, to ensure we can get what we want.
his solution to AIESEC's polical issues (we are in taiwan too -its aloooong story) was that a few AIESEC people at the uni should jointhe communist party, that way they will never hard China, and favourTaiwan. I was assured by the AIESECers that this can be done in amatter of minutes...so by being a token communist, the whole bigproblem gets solved..and who says being communist doesnt open doors?
also chinese was the impact I had, the foreigner, white guy, givingadvice, a global perspective ...kinda useless, as mostly they spoekin chinese, but a big impact. I felt weird cause he was thanking mefor my time more than i was thanking him for his; he obviouslythinks iam more powerful/older/respected than I am, but hey... andpeople wonder why I want to stay in China?
the other interesting stuff is our preparation for the meeting was:
-say yes, never say no...then worry about what you committed tolater, or bend what you committed to
-be careful about what you say.
the last one was particular with AIESEC, as a youth movement,international and about leadership (3 words that are not the best touse often in a communist country) -but of course china is not verycommunist, so you can often get away with things (just never talkabout Taiwan!)
right thats the political stuff covered briefly, until next time...
Adam
a meeting today with a University in Shanghai (one of the best inChina)...In Universities, there is the university structure and thecommunist party structure..they work alongside each other, probablydoing the same things, but the party is more powerful, so we metsomeone at the top of the party in this uni.
he is typically chinese -ambitious! What he says, goes. What hewants, happens. So we are happy he wants to support AIESEC; ofcourse, what makes this interesting reading is he is typicallychinese in that he wants to use AIESEC to his own ends (that is thedefinition on china) -not a bad thing of course. So AIESEC will dowhat he wants, to ensure we can get what we want.
his solution to AIESEC's polical issues (we are in taiwan too -its aloooong story) was that a few AIESEC people at the uni should jointhe communist party, that way they will never hard China, and favourTaiwan. I was assured by the AIESECers that this can be done in amatter of minutes...so by being a token communist, the whole bigproblem gets solved..and who says being communist doesnt open doors?
also chinese was the impact I had, the foreigner, white guy, givingadvice, a global perspective ...kinda useless, as mostly they spoekin chinese, but a big impact. I felt weird cause he was thanking mefor my time more than i was thanking him for his; he obviouslythinks iam more powerful/older/respected than I am, but hey... andpeople wonder why I want to stay in China?
the other interesting stuff is our preparation for the meeting was:
-say yes, never say no...then worry about what you committed tolater, or bend what you committed to
-be careful about what you say.
the last one was particular with AIESEC, as a youth movement,international and about leadership (3 words that are not the best touse often in a communist country) -but of course china is not verycommunist, so you can often get away with things (just never talkabout Taiwan!)
right thats the political stuff covered briefly, until next time...
Adam
Parties and Conferences...
Hello everyone, from warm Shanghai
The heating is on! We had our First Appartment party before it did,so we had to reply on people's bodies warming the place up -it did,along with smashing bottles of beer and mine/Flic's little plasticchair -it was a disaster, but it did get me washing the floor thenext day (a rare sight!)
I had blagged my way into a couple of nice, swanky, importantconferences last week -one involving the WTO, and the other with theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development. My networkingdiary has dried up a bit, but its ok, because its a busy couple ofweeks. It was a tough comparison of these conference -5 star hotels,lots of free food, alcohol and translation devices (even a USB flashdisks!), compared to the AIESEC Beijing conference last weekend in akind of an army camp 90 minutes from town.
It was fun, an insight into Chinese 'parties' -still very littledrinking and very little unplanned dances (although this is anAIESEC-specific problem), but scarily, the amount of effort thatwent into the sex-change party: most of the chinese men look likegirls already, so with some effort it was scary. Not me though; iwas one hairy woman! Also an insight into how spoiled chinesestudents are -they were complaining about the quality of the food -which i know in the UK we'd do, but then we don't have 200millionpeople living in poverty...
Which brings me to how little many chinese people know about theircountry (and the World), partly due to their education system (theyprobably spent 5 solid years just learning their own language! hehe) and partly due to the size of the country. I think they learn alot once they get to University. There is a huge problem in Chinawith getting poor students into Universities -because most of Chinacannot afford to go to University, and it seems that their is hugediscrepancies in the level of edcuation given in different cities,as well as in the countryside, but bearing in mind 800 million on1.2 billion people still live in the countryside with poor educationand infrastructure, it really puts everything into perspective.
I went to the Ethnic Minority Culture Park as well; it showcasesaround 25 of China's 55(I think?) offical minorities in addition tothe 'Han' (Chinese). It was very impressive physically -lots ofbuildings that were designed as if you were in this or that part ofChina (by the minorities, using orgiginal materials too!), but Ifelt that it was not being used to its potential -the impression isof that it opened to much fanfare and expense 10 years ago and nownoone knows about it, although there is a timetable of 'events' atthe park. Maybe its busier on weekdays or during the Summer? So,lots of minorities exist in China; many speaking different dialectsand being small populations in comparison to Han (who are 95%, Ibelive), but that still gives you a million or 3 here and there inlittle pockets living different lives! There is a theory taught inthe West (according to some students I have met) about the Chinesegovernment's dealings with the Minorities (I'm interested in hearingmore about this theory).
Theory: Minorities tend to be in economically underdeveloped areas,so as part of the Policy to develop these areas, Han are shipped outto work there and help with development. They are the ones with thejobs, thus they are the ones that attract the women, marry the womenand thus breed mixed race kids, slowly reducing the numbers ofminorities -why? Because there are a lot of tensions betweenminorities and Han -Tibet is an extreme example, but note the 25deaths in riots in China about 3 weeks ago. (search for 'chinariots' on google and you'll find many examples, Note: I cannotaccess most of the pages that come up)
I also had a wonderfully interesting chat with one of the studentshere about what she knew about Tiananmen Square (she actually livednearby, and heard the gun shots) -she started by asking me about apicture she heard existed that was taken on that day in 1989. Ipresumed she meant the famous one of the boy standing in the square,with a tank about to run him over. She asked if I was sure it wasnot made up by the West. I was pretty sure it was not. Thediscussions went on, and were very interesting about what she doesand doesn't know about various things, but more about that someother time.
moving swiftly on (I'll have to come back to more history andculture another time), I'll just report that Work is going well,preparations are being made for an exciting fmaily holiday in theSouth of China for the end of December, I went clubbing for thefirst time with JUST chinese people (no germans or australians oramericans involved!), and that will be repeated, and its my birthdaycoming up soon, so more parties to be planned!
China is such an interesting place! Hope to hear more from you all!
hugs
Adam
The heating is on! We had our First Appartment party before it did,so we had to reply on people's bodies warming the place up -it did,along with smashing bottles of beer and mine/Flic's little plasticchair -it was a disaster, but it did get me washing the floor thenext day (a rare sight!)
I had blagged my way into a couple of nice, swanky, importantconferences last week -one involving the WTO, and the other with theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development. My networkingdiary has dried up a bit, but its ok, because its a busy couple ofweeks. It was a tough comparison of these conference -5 star hotels,lots of free food, alcohol and translation devices (even a USB flashdisks!), compared to the AIESEC Beijing conference last weekend in akind of an army camp 90 minutes from town.
It was fun, an insight into Chinese 'parties' -still very littledrinking and very little unplanned dances (although this is anAIESEC-specific problem), but scarily, the amount of effort thatwent into the sex-change party: most of the chinese men look likegirls already, so with some effort it was scary. Not me though; iwas one hairy woman! Also an insight into how spoiled chinesestudents are -they were complaining about the quality of the food -which i know in the UK we'd do, but then we don't have 200millionpeople living in poverty...
Which brings me to how little many chinese people know about theircountry (and the World), partly due to their education system (theyprobably spent 5 solid years just learning their own language! hehe) and partly due to the size of the country. I think they learn alot once they get to University. There is a huge problem in Chinawith getting poor students into Universities -because most of Chinacannot afford to go to University, and it seems that their is hugediscrepancies in the level of edcuation given in different cities,as well as in the countryside, but bearing in mind 800 million on1.2 billion people still live in the countryside with poor educationand infrastructure, it really puts everything into perspective.
I went to the Ethnic Minority Culture Park as well; it showcasesaround 25 of China's 55(I think?) offical minorities in addition tothe 'Han' (Chinese). It was very impressive physically -lots ofbuildings that were designed as if you were in this or that part ofChina (by the minorities, using orgiginal materials too!), but Ifelt that it was not being used to its potential -the impression isof that it opened to much fanfare and expense 10 years ago and nownoone knows about it, although there is a timetable of 'events' atthe park. Maybe its busier on weekdays or during the Summer? So,lots of minorities exist in China; many speaking different dialectsand being small populations in comparison to Han (who are 95%, Ibelive), but that still gives you a million or 3 here and there inlittle pockets living different lives! There is a theory taught inthe West (according to some students I have met) about the Chinesegovernment's dealings with the Minorities (I'm interested in hearingmore about this theory).
Theory: Minorities tend to be in economically underdeveloped areas,so as part of the Policy to develop these areas, Han are shipped outto work there and help with development. They are the ones with thejobs, thus they are the ones that attract the women, marry the womenand thus breed mixed race kids, slowly reducing the numbers ofminorities -why? Because there are a lot of tensions betweenminorities and Han -Tibet is an extreme example, but note the 25deaths in riots in China about 3 weeks ago. (search for 'chinariots' on google and you'll find many examples, Note: I cannotaccess most of the pages that come up)
I also had a wonderfully interesting chat with one of the studentshere about what she knew about Tiananmen Square (she actually livednearby, and heard the gun shots) -she started by asking me about apicture she heard existed that was taken on that day in 1989. Ipresumed she meant the famous one of the boy standing in the square,with a tank about to run him over. She asked if I was sure it wasnot made up by the West. I was pretty sure it was not. Thediscussions went on, and were very interesting about what she doesand doesn't know about various things, but more about that someother time.
moving swiftly on (I'll have to come back to more history andculture another time), I'll just report that Work is going well,preparations are being made for an exciting fmaily holiday in theSouth of China for the end of December, I went clubbing for thefirst time with JUST chinese people (no germans or australians oramericans involved!), and that will be repeated, and its my birthdaycoming up soon, so more parties to be planned!
China is such an interesting place! Hope to hear more from you all!
hugs
Adam
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Photo viewing
I have found a better way of displaying photos online, so click onthis link (and bookmark it):
http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
From there you can see all the albums (I even compressed thepictures this time for easier viewing), and I'll mention in anyemails whenever I update them (probably weekly).
Unfortunately you have to join imagestaion (Sony), but its free, andthis is easier than other options which limit MB space online(imagestation does not), or mostly you have to send everyone aspecific link to a photo or album, and therefore have to resend thateverytime you upload a new photo or album etc. Thus I have gone forthis option, should only take you a sec to register :)
Adam
http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
From there you can see all the albums (I even compressed thepictures this time for easier viewing), and I'll mention in anyemails whenever I update them (probably weekly).
Unfortunately you have to join imagestaion (Sony), but its free, andthis is easier than other options which limit MB space online(imagestation does not), or mostly you have to send everyone aspecific link to a photo or album, and therefore have to resend thateverytime you upload a new photo or album etc. Thus I have gone forthis option, should only take you a sec to register :)
Adam
Saturday, November 06, 2004
cabbage and communism...
Another week has come and gone. The exciting news that Spurs'manager resigned was not welcomed, grr. This week's achievementsmostly fall into 2 categories: 1)shopping and 2) partying!
Shopping, me? Yes, well, after the expenditure of suits and all, Ididn't want to get too carried away, so yesterday I boughtsome.....gloves! oh yes, 2 pounds worht (they are v. nice!) Flic isgoing to buy some for about 30pence, but mine are obviously worthit! we found a small market nearby us that is kinda useful.Seriously though, I also bought a coat, cause its now around 3-10degrees outside, with a bit of a wind (more than 2 pounds though,unfortunately).
The latest excuse for a lack of exercise is that noone has trainersin any size bigger than UK 9, bummer. I'll keep looking whilst Icontinue to put on weight from the oily, fatty foods! However, thepartying (since the ball, been out 3 times and going out againtonight!!) normally requires a trek up the 14 flights of stairs aswe get home after the lift shuts down. The negative side is thatthings can be expensive. The positive side is we discovered someunbelievably nice places to go.
Once you venture through various roads being dug up, over and undera combination of alleyways, pipes, construction sites; I haverealised you can find some great places. I presume the land ischeap, but the 2 we went to this week were a bit like cafes, butwith gardens, traditional decorations, nice buildings, nice chilledout music (hey, the 1 even had beds in separate rooms, ha ha).
This weeks observations are around cabbage (for the full story seehttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/05/content_388874.htm), in short cabbages used to be THE staplediet for the Beijingers in Winter (now there is much more choice).Still the taste and history continues with people stacking cabbagesup on their bikes to take home, filling the lift with cabbages androlling them to their appartments. Its kinda funny, believe me,never have you seen so many cabbages!
Tez (ex AIESEC Australia, trainee in london) was in town this week,and at dinner we all launched into an interesting discussion withmany of the AIESEC students here, finding out what they thoughtabout reciting Mao at School, their views on brainwashing by thegovernment (is it just me, or are we brainwashed in the west too? Inwhich case, the chinese are way ahead of us by not beleiving halfthe stuff their government tells them. Having said that, who trustsour government in the UK any more?), and also their general views onthe goverment, power and the party. Kinda cool, and we hope to getinto those conversations again.
Its in the last few weeks that I have realised how much of a cultureyou miss out on by not speaking the language, and this isencouraging me to stay longer to learn some Chinese for a few monthsnext year whilst investigating any job opps here. I bought a 'learnchinese' book recently and will attempt to read it frequently.
Word of the day is 'lang' (I think) meaning 'cold'. Hell you can addin 'hen', meaning 'very' too!
Hope everyone is well studying, working, freezing or whatever youare doing...
Adam
Shopping, me? Yes, well, after the expenditure of suits and all, Ididn't want to get too carried away, so yesterday I boughtsome.....gloves! oh yes, 2 pounds worht (they are v. nice!) Flic isgoing to buy some for about 30pence, but mine are obviously worthit! we found a small market nearby us that is kinda useful.Seriously though, I also bought a coat, cause its now around 3-10degrees outside, with a bit of a wind (more than 2 pounds though,unfortunately).
The latest excuse for a lack of exercise is that noone has trainersin any size bigger than UK 9, bummer. I'll keep looking whilst Icontinue to put on weight from the oily, fatty foods! However, thepartying (since the ball, been out 3 times and going out againtonight!!) normally requires a trek up the 14 flights of stairs aswe get home after the lift shuts down. The negative side is thatthings can be expensive. The positive side is we discovered someunbelievably nice places to go.
Once you venture through various roads being dug up, over and undera combination of alleyways, pipes, construction sites; I haverealised you can find some great places. I presume the land ischeap, but the 2 we went to this week were a bit like cafes, butwith gardens, traditional decorations, nice buildings, nice chilledout music (hey, the 1 even had beds in separate rooms, ha ha).
This weeks observations are around cabbage (for the full story seehttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/05/content_388874.htm), in short cabbages used to be THE staplediet for the Beijingers in Winter (now there is much more choice).Still the taste and history continues with people stacking cabbagesup on their bikes to take home, filling the lift with cabbages androlling them to their appartments. Its kinda funny, believe me,never have you seen so many cabbages!
Tez (ex AIESEC Australia, trainee in london) was in town this week,and at dinner we all launched into an interesting discussion withmany of the AIESEC students here, finding out what they thoughtabout reciting Mao at School, their views on brainwashing by thegovernment (is it just me, or are we brainwashed in the west too? Inwhich case, the chinese are way ahead of us by not beleiving halfthe stuff their government tells them. Having said that, who trustsour government in the UK any more?), and also their general views onthe goverment, power and the party. Kinda cool, and we hope to getinto those conversations again.
Its in the last few weeks that I have realised how much of a cultureyou miss out on by not speaking the language, and this isencouraging me to stay longer to learn some Chinese for a few monthsnext year whilst investigating any job opps here. I bought a 'learnchinese' book recently and will attempt to read it frequently.
Word of the day is 'lang' (I think) meaning 'cold'. Hell you can addin 'hen', meaning 'very' too!
Hope everyone is well studying, working, freezing or whatever youare doing...
Adam
Monday, November 01, 2004
post-Ball....
Hi everyone
The Ball has come and gone; I didn't quite realise until it happenedthat All weekend we were running a mini-conference, so I was a bittired on the sunday when forced to wake 3 hours after getting backto then inspire new members; but actually i think the alcoholhelped :) They even had Baileys at the free bar! I met the LordMayor of London, so I could kindly thank him for his small donationto AIESEC China, which was news to him, not surprised!
Seeing 700 people, almost all british or white was a bit of a shockto the system; I don't know where they hide during the day! Ofcourse, almost all of them are here long-term and almost all of themspeak fluent Chinese.
I got all excited that Spurs actually won a game for the first timein a month or so, then they went and lost again, so back to reality.
I am EVEN more excited that we got a quilt (duvet in england) so nowI can sleep properly without getting cold (you remember thegovernment turn our heating on in 2 weeks). Wow only 2 weeks till weget heating! Right now I am planning my acquisitions of warmclothes, hats, jackets etc.
Thanks to Mel (was in China from AIESEC Canada before me), whoseCanadian paper rna a special on China, to forwarding the link (seehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialChina.html ).
Really interesting is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041022.wxchi-boom1023china/BNStory/specialChina/
and also more entertaining is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041023.wxchinaten23/BNStory/specialChina/
My comments on the latter are: yes, mobiles work on the subway andabsolutely everywhere, no idea how (the subway is not that deep, butstill!), the gyms i have mentioned before, the covers thatrestaurants put voer your chair, if your jacket is there, to protectfrom theft and spillage is cool and i experienced that for the firsttime a couple weeks back. The rest of the points are pretty dullyand hardly 'OIC' -only in china, maybe Canada is further behind thetimes that the UK, ey?
We have another flat mate, a girl from AIESEC Germany, yay :), sheis a bit of a fitness freak, so is off at the gym once a day..me, Iam still looking for cheap trainers, before i attempt any exercise -funny how I haven't bought any yet..
I picked up my suit that I had tailored, trousers and jacket costaround £40, which isn't bad! Next purchase will be a jacket, as itscold, not freezing yet, but you really realise its cold withoutheating in your appartment, especially when its your office too!Hence I am now sneezing lots, grr.
work wise, everything is going pretty well, I am developing a prettygood network of contacts out here, partly due to the CSR stuff I amdoing (Shell, BP, citigroup..everyone wants to get involved).language wise, hmm, not so well, need to try harder!!
I had my first hamburger since i left the UK last week, it tastedGOOD (not fast food of course); and at the Ball, it was steak etc; iforgot how much i missed some nice western food. Oh I also won 1 or2 prizes at the Ball, though not exactly sure what yet; apparentlythey might be chinese lessons. there were some prize tickets in someof the goody bags on each chair, and funnily enough our table wonquite a few, and I think Sam encouraged me to sit in a particularseat for a reason....Sam organised the event and stuffed the goodybags ;), now THAT is what they mean by having good connections inChina!
take care everyone.
Adam
The Ball has come and gone; I didn't quite realise until it happenedthat All weekend we were running a mini-conference, so I was a bittired on the sunday when forced to wake 3 hours after getting backto then inspire new members; but actually i think the alcoholhelped :) They even had Baileys at the free bar! I met the LordMayor of London, so I could kindly thank him for his small donationto AIESEC China, which was news to him, not surprised!
Seeing 700 people, almost all british or white was a bit of a shockto the system; I don't know where they hide during the day! Ofcourse, almost all of them are here long-term and almost all of themspeak fluent Chinese.
I got all excited that Spurs actually won a game for the first timein a month or so, then they went and lost again, so back to reality.
I am EVEN more excited that we got a quilt (duvet in england) so nowI can sleep properly without getting cold (you remember thegovernment turn our heating on in 2 weeks). Wow only 2 weeks till weget heating! Right now I am planning my acquisitions of warmclothes, hats, jackets etc.
Thanks to Mel (was in China from AIESEC Canada before me), whoseCanadian paper rna a special on China, to forwarding the link (seehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialChina.html ).
Really interesting is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041022.wxchi-boom1023china/BNStory/specialChina/
and also more entertaining is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041023.wxchinaten23/BNStory/specialChina/
My comments on the latter are: yes, mobiles work on the subway andabsolutely everywhere, no idea how (the subway is not that deep, butstill!), the gyms i have mentioned before, the covers thatrestaurants put voer your chair, if your jacket is there, to protectfrom theft and spillage is cool and i experienced that for the firsttime a couple weeks back. The rest of the points are pretty dullyand hardly 'OIC' -only in china, maybe Canada is further behind thetimes that the UK, ey?
We have another flat mate, a girl from AIESEC Germany, yay :), sheis a bit of a fitness freak, so is off at the gym once a day..me, Iam still looking for cheap trainers, before i attempt any exercise -funny how I haven't bought any yet..
I picked up my suit that I had tailored, trousers and jacket costaround £40, which isn't bad! Next purchase will be a jacket, as itscold, not freezing yet, but you really realise its cold withoutheating in your appartment, especially when its your office too!Hence I am now sneezing lots, grr.
work wise, everything is going pretty well, I am developing a prettygood network of contacts out here, partly due to the CSR stuff I amdoing (Shell, BP, citigroup..everyone wants to get involved).language wise, hmm, not so well, need to try harder!!
I had my first hamburger since i left the UK last week, it tastedGOOD (not fast food of course); and at the Ball, it was steak etc; iforgot how much i missed some nice western food. Oh I also won 1 or2 prizes at the Ball, though not exactly sure what yet; apparentlythey might be chinese lessons. there were some prize tickets in someof the goody bags on each chair, and funnily enough our table wonquite a few, and I think Sam encouraged me to sit in a particularseat for a reason....Sam organised the event and stuffed the goodybags ;), now THAT is what they mean by having good connections inChina!
take care everyone.
Adam
Monday, October 25, 2004
Beijing, its a cool place to be...
Howdy
Beijing has started to get cold, we are now planning to get ourquilts for our beds, warm clothes and everything. I guess autumn isending soon :(. i discovered we have no control over our heating.The city decides when to run on the heating, and i think that is nottill november 15th or 25th. I was also told that once they turn theheating on everyone has to open their windows cause it gets so hotinside..don't know what their reasoning is, i guess until theyswitch it on they are saving energy. Anyway, its lots of layers forus!
Back at work, and I have been at a swanky hotel for a couple of days(not the evneings though) for an ethical investment conference;interesting and useful (generally) -it was my first experience ofusing headphones to listen to the translators, felt kinda cool! I'vealso been out shopping in preparation for the 'British Ball' onSaturday, so kitted myself out with a nice traditional chinese suit,i guess i'll upload some pics after the ball. Also ordered atailored suit -still very cheap compared to UK.
All the bigwigs go to the ball (Ambassador, Heads of BP...that kindof thing). I have been told they will be leaving around 11, so thenwe can finish with the networking and enjoy the freeflow bar :)Kindly a 'survival breakfast' is provided between 1-3am to keep usgoing -a fantastic idea! A shame that on the sat and the sun I am afacilitator at a mini-conference all day both days ... maybe thesunday I won't be so 'efective'!
I finally found a chinese student with a car! the first (its rare!) -u'd be mad to drive here, drivers have 6 senses i swear, swervingand weaving between lanes without using mirrors. Noone knows howmany die on the roads because the gov has all that info, and noonereally believes the numbers they give out, but i haven't seen many(serious) accidents. Its one thing creating an extra lane when intraffic (i.e. fitting 4 cars in 3 lanes), its another when doing itat 60 mph...as they say: OIC -Only In China!
I have been sampling the CBD -Central Bus, District here, and itsbetter than i expected (Shanghainese pooh-pooh it in comparison);even here (when generally new business is all in shanghai) half ofbeijing is still being built, upwards, and in glass! I have alsobeen sampling the nightlife a bit more -Hou hai is an area around alake -its fantastic, highly reccommended and still pretty cheap.Although did I tell you the newsagent type shop in our 'lobby' sells640ml of beer for 1.6 RMB, thats about 12p!! Joy oy joy :)
other intersting observations: korean food is more individual (youdont all grab from the same plate) but they have metal chopsticks -areal bitch to use. The chinese love the outdoors and nature (its abeautiful country outside the cities, so why are they destronying itso much? I am shocked by how bad it is, with coal, litter, refuse,waste, pollution etc. And it is much better now than it used to be.A
nyway, work is going well, I'm off on a CSR focus now, which isgreat, gonna stay working for aiesec till early feb i guess (visaspermitting). Soon it will be 4 of us in the appartment, instead ofjust 3 -should be even more fun -more fighting for the internet :)
Let me know how you are all doing.
Beijing has started to get cold, we are now planning to get ourquilts for our beds, warm clothes and everything. I guess autumn isending soon :(. i discovered we have no control over our heating.The city decides when to run on the heating, and i think that is nottill november 15th or 25th. I was also told that once they turn theheating on everyone has to open their windows cause it gets so hotinside..don't know what their reasoning is, i guess until theyswitch it on they are saving energy. Anyway, its lots of layers forus!
Back at work, and I have been at a swanky hotel for a couple of days(not the evneings though) for an ethical investment conference;interesting and useful (generally) -it was my first experience ofusing headphones to listen to the translators, felt kinda cool! I'vealso been out shopping in preparation for the 'British Ball' onSaturday, so kitted myself out with a nice traditional chinese suit,i guess i'll upload some pics after the ball. Also ordered atailored suit -still very cheap compared to UK.
All the bigwigs go to the ball (Ambassador, Heads of BP...that kindof thing). I have been told they will be leaving around 11, so thenwe can finish with the networking and enjoy the freeflow bar :)Kindly a 'survival breakfast' is provided between 1-3am to keep usgoing -a fantastic idea! A shame that on the sat and the sun I am afacilitator at a mini-conference all day both days ... maybe thesunday I won't be so 'efective'!
I finally found a chinese student with a car! the first (its rare!) -u'd be mad to drive here, drivers have 6 senses i swear, swervingand weaving between lanes without using mirrors. Noone knows howmany die on the roads because the gov has all that info, and noonereally believes the numbers they give out, but i haven't seen many(serious) accidents. Its one thing creating an extra lane when intraffic (i.e. fitting 4 cars in 3 lanes), its another when doing itat 60 mph...as they say: OIC -Only In China!
I have been sampling the CBD -Central Bus, District here, and itsbetter than i expected (Shanghainese pooh-pooh it in comparison);even here (when generally new business is all in shanghai) half ofbeijing is still being built, upwards, and in glass! I have alsobeen sampling the nightlife a bit more -Hou hai is an area around alake -its fantastic, highly reccommended and still pretty cheap.Although did I tell you the newsagent type shop in our 'lobby' sells640ml of beer for 1.6 RMB, thats about 12p!! Joy oy joy :)
other intersting observations: korean food is more individual (youdont all grab from the same plate) but they have metal chopsticks -areal bitch to use. The chinese love the outdoors and nature (its abeautiful country outside the cities, so why are they destronying itso much? I am shocked by how bad it is, with coal, litter, refuse,waste, pollution etc. And it is much better now than it used to be.A
nyway, work is going well, I'm off on a CSR focus now, which isgreat, gonna stay working for aiesec till early feb i guess (visaspermitting). Soon it will be 4 of us in the appartment, instead ofjust 3 -should be even more fun -more fighting for the internet :)
Let me know how you are all doing.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
leaving the cities...
hello
firstly apologies for saying Flic has been going to the gum, i meantof course gym. She has now discovered the playground near ourappartment that contains exercise equipment, and I had previouslyenjoyed that whilst locked out the appartment ;)
All over Beijing there are these kid's playgrounds with barbells,skiing/step machines and so on. They are designed in that big,bulky, blu kinda plasticy way so they are safe to use, but stillkinda serious. I like the idea. Might not be fun in teh snow alterin the year though, but it could help cut down the obesity crisis inthe 'west'.
In an email following this, you should be able to access some photosonline (fingers crossed) -a selection of pics, people, cities,countryside. The great wall ones will also be uploaded in the future.
So I went to China's most popular tourist (bear in mind most oftheir toursits are Chinese from other parts of China) site onprobably the busiest day of the year: the forbiddent city on theweekend of the national holiday (celebrating china's 55th birthdaytakes a whole 6 days!). But it was not too crowded. Frustratingly,and typical of China, not only are there extras inside that costmoney in addition to the entrance ticket, there arecompeting 'offical audio guides'. grr so I only chose the wrong one -the one with the chinese person talking and not the other companythat has roger moore!
Anyway its a very big, old, chinese place to visit. Previously Iwent to a rock/punk festival (just 1 day of it though) whichwas 'different' although the music was quite good. We left early andwent out drinking and clubbing in Sanlitun. I should add we alsospent a while buying the kebabs, and giving them away to the beggars(the things alcohol does to you, but hey, at least they cant tradekebabs for drugs...).
oh, so the cities...I went away for a few days into the mountains.they were very pretty and me and a yank walked half way across themand back with mroe than a little effort -well worth it though.Finally got rid of the stupid hooting that was going on int hehorrible village that has grown up in the valley. It nicely joinsall the monasteries together with a mess of crappy restaurants,stands, run-down hotels and so on. the guide book says the 4 starhotels are a few km away! rant over, on my way back we passed halfof the world's coal being moved down this one road via trucks.another fantastic bit of china. 1 long road, 1 truck every 10seconds, each truck double length, overflowing with coal, and theonly buildings are catering to the local trucking community -lovely.but its nice to see another part of China.
I was suitably impressed by a UNESCO site (1500 yr old caves cutinto rocks, a bit like Petra i guess, but not as large), beforegetting my 3rd night train in 5 nights. Now I'm in Shanghai; but imaanged another day out to ZhouZhuang yesterday (the venice of theeast) supposedly -a fantastic little town, where toursim has been agood thing and well managed, unlike in the Wutai Shan. fantasticcontrast. in fact i liked it more than the real venice (it wasquieter, less polluted),a nd even got a free concert of some kind offamous chinese music that is also somehow protected by UNESCO....
time to get to work (its sunday but all of china is working, tocatch up the days lost cause of the national holiday)
come on England!
Adam
firstly apologies for saying Flic has been going to the gum, i meantof course gym. She has now discovered the playground near ourappartment that contains exercise equipment, and I had previouslyenjoyed that whilst locked out the appartment ;)
All over Beijing there are these kid's playgrounds with barbells,skiing/step machines and so on. They are designed in that big,bulky, blu kinda plasticy way so they are safe to use, but stillkinda serious. I like the idea. Might not be fun in teh snow alterin the year though, but it could help cut down the obesity crisis inthe 'west'.
In an email following this, you should be able to access some photosonline (fingers crossed) -a selection of pics, people, cities,countryside. The great wall ones will also be uploaded in the future.
So I went to China's most popular tourist (bear in mind most oftheir toursits are Chinese from other parts of China) site onprobably the busiest day of the year: the forbiddent city on theweekend of the national holiday (celebrating china's 55th birthdaytakes a whole 6 days!). But it was not too crowded. Frustratingly,and typical of China, not only are there extras inside that costmoney in addition to the entrance ticket, there arecompeting 'offical audio guides'. grr so I only chose the wrong one -the one with the chinese person talking and not the other companythat has roger moore!
Anyway its a very big, old, chinese place to visit. Previously Iwent to a rock/punk festival (just 1 day of it though) whichwas 'different' although the music was quite good. We left early andwent out drinking and clubbing in Sanlitun. I should add we alsospent a while buying the kebabs, and giving them away to the beggars(the things alcohol does to you, but hey, at least they cant tradekebabs for drugs...).
oh, so the cities...I went away for a few days into the mountains.they were very pretty and me and a yank walked half way across themand back with mroe than a little effort -well worth it though.Finally got rid of the stupid hooting that was going on int hehorrible village that has grown up in the valley. It nicely joinsall the monasteries together with a mess of crappy restaurants,stands, run-down hotels and so on. the guide book says the 4 starhotels are a few km away! rant over, on my way back we passed halfof the world's coal being moved down this one road via trucks.another fantastic bit of china. 1 long road, 1 truck every 10seconds, each truck double length, overflowing with coal, and theonly buildings are catering to the local trucking community -lovely.but its nice to see another part of China.
I was suitably impressed by a UNESCO site (1500 yr old caves cutinto rocks, a bit like Petra i guess, but not as large), beforegetting my 3rd night train in 5 nights. Now I'm in Shanghai; but imaanged another day out to ZhouZhuang yesterday (the venice of theeast) supposedly -a fantastic little town, where toursim has been agood thing and well managed, unlike in the Wutai Shan. fantasticcontrast. in fact i liked it more than the real venice (it wasquieter, less polluted),a nd even got a free concert of some kind offamous chinese music that is also somehow protected by UNESCO....
time to get to work (its sunday but all of china is working, tocatch up the days lost cause of the national holiday)
come on England!
Adam
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Beijing....
me again....I have been having internal arguments about abandoningthe yahoogroup cause everyone else uses xanga to weblog, but so farI am sticking with this.
the overnight journey from Shanghai was interesting, what struck memost was not just the stares, but that the people opposite decidedto sleep from 8pm till 1am and then wake up and talk for the next 6hours straight whilst I was trying to sleep -gits. Anyone since Iarrived here, I have been working with Chris (she is the Chinesepresident) and Flic (she is HR, from Aus) full-time, the others areall part time in the head office (well they are not physically inthe office, so its an interesting 'team'). Its fun, laid back andvery different to last year in the UK. Inevitably most decisions andideas are made by the full-timers and that makes things easy.
I love the freedom that I have to do whatever I want. Met theBritish Alumnus, various MNEs, toured a few Universities, gave a 10min speech to 300 chinese students about my life in AIESEC (that wasa new experience). I got a big laugh when I asked if they can hearme without the mic (as they covered their ears!) and was told toslow down, only about 3 times -not bad going I thought. 1 personcame up afterwards and said they thought it was good, so a 1/3rd a %not a bad start, ey!
I now have a vocabularly of around 30-50 words I think..today itgrew by just one (young row, phonetically) as it means lamb, andlamb 'shwoar' is a lamb kebab. They are small, but a fantasticsnack, only about 8 pence each :)
The Great Wall was the excitement of last weekend -it was fantastic,great weather, superb views, and very relaxing. I went with a coupleGermans and an american. This friday the week-long national holidaystarts, so we might go to inner mongolia (a province of china); or Imight do something else. I have not done the biggest tourist thingshere yet; but I did walk aroun Tiananmen Square (where i pretendedto be french so as to avoid all the randoms appraoching me), and an18m high Buddha in a temple (absoultely massive) -I loved the tackyguiness book of records certificate on the wall outside though. Ialso saw a quiet, old, confuscian temple that was interesting andreally serene with an art display in too!
I think I am used to the traffic and the smog (7 of the 10 mostpolluted cities are in China I think!), but not the noise, permanentdigging and traffic it seems all night long. I haven't lived incentral london (the AIESEC office was never central despite thenights i spent there), but I doubt its the same. Kindly the workmenstart at around 7am, replacing the lift here (it took 2 months to dothe last one!) The place I live is a bed, in a corner of the 3rdbedroom of the appartment. that bedroom is also the office :). Ihave got used to the 'whole in the floor toilets' finally, but itsnot easy!
any random stuff this week?
well, the universities tend to be very well kitted out. Theembassies are supremely well guarded, roads near there tend to beclosed and so on. Most MNEs in China are made up of Chinese people,much less foreigners that I expected. I got my business cards made,yay (for those interested the best email to get me on isadam.lane@aiesec.net, the Beijing mobile is +86 13641330497). Flichas started going to the gum (occasionally joined by Chris), I haveresisted....but everyone here thats non-chinese puts on weight :(all the food is fatty and oily, so we'll see. The 2 mile walk alongthe great wall did me good, fresh air and all.
I think chinese people arguing is hilarious. Especially a german whospeaks chinese arguing with a chinese man and breaking all the rulesof 'face' (i.e. bargaining the taxi driver down to 70 RMB from 80RMB in front of the lady we stayed with. He now refuses to drive herguests again! We were pissed off though, as we were expecting thelife to be free, so were entitled to complain we thought)
Finally, my closing thought is about the weatherman on CCTV 9 (theenglish language station on chinese TV). I watched it once or twiceon sky, but missed the weatherman. for those of you who have sky,watch the weather dude! he is american and hilarious -at the end, hedoes a 'city of the day' kind of thing, and talks about randomfacts, including prices to get there, people to fly with and reallystupid information.
right, off to bed, up early tomorrow to go the BritishCentre/Chamber...Back to Shanghai next thursday for a week too.
Adam
p.s. cannot believe Spurs lost to Man Utd, but very happy noonescored a hatrick against us...
p.p.s saw Ghandi on DVD -fantastic film
p.p.p.s been thinking about post CEED in China life; it mightrevolve around staying in China and getting a job/traineeship for awhile, we'll see.
the overnight journey from Shanghai was interesting, what struck memost was not just the stares, but that the people opposite decidedto sleep from 8pm till 1am and then wake up and talk for the next 6hours straight whilst I was trying to sleep -gits. Anyone since Iarrived here, I have been working with Chris (she is the Chinesepresident) and Flic (she is HR, from Aus) full-time, the others areall part time in the head office (well they are not physically inthe office, so its an interesting 'team'). Its fun, laid back andvery different to last year in the UK. Inevitably most decisions andideas are made by the full-timers and that makes things easy.
I love the freedom that I have to do whatever I want. Met theBritish Alumnus, various MNEs, toured a few Universities, gave a 10min speech to 300 chinese students about my life in AIESEC (that wasa new experience). I got a big laugh when I asked if they can hearme without the mic (as they covered their ears!) and was told toslow down, only about 3 times -not bad going I thought. 1 personcame up afterwards and said they thought it was good, so a 1/3rd a %not a bad start, ey!
I now have a vocabularly of around 30-50 words I think..today itgrew by just one (young row, phonetically) as it means lamb, andlamb 'shwoar' is a lamb kebab. They are small, but a fantasticsnack, only about 8 pence each :)
The Great Wall was the excitement of last weekend -it was fantastic,great weather, superb views, and very relaxing. I went with a coupleGermans and an american. This friday the week-long national holidaystarts, so we might go to inner mongolia (a province of china); or Imight do something else. I have not done the biggest tourist thingshere yet; but I did walk aroun Tiananmen Square (where i pretendedto be french so as to avoid all the randoms appraoching me), and an18m high Buddha in a temple (absoultely massive) -I loved the tackyguiness book of records certificate on the wall outside though. Ialso saw a quiet, old, confuscian temple that was interesting andreally serene with an art display in too!
I think I am used to the traffic and the smog (7 of the 10 mostpolluted cities are in China I think!), but not the noise, permanentdigging and traffic it seems all night long. I haven't lived incentral london (the AIESEC office was never central despite thenights i spent there), but I doubt its the same. Kindly the workmenstart at around 7am, replacing the lift here (it took 2 months to dothe last one!) The place I live is a bed, in a corner of the 3rdbedroom of the appartment. that bedroom is also the office :). Ihave got used to the 'whole in the floor toilets' finally, but itsnot easy!
any random stuff this week?
well, the universities tend to be very well kitted out. Theembassies are supremely well guarded, roads near there tend to beclosed and so on. Most MNEs in China are made up of Chinese people,much less foreigners that I expected. I got my business cards made,yay (for those interested the best email to get me on isadam.lane@aiesec.net, the Beijing mobile is +86 13641330497). Flichas started going to the gum (occasionally joined by Chris), I haveresisted....but everyone here thats non-chinese puts on weight :(all the food is fatty and oily, so we'll see. The 2 mile walk alongthe great wall did me good, fresh air and all.
I think chinese people arguing is hilarious. Especially a german whospeaks chinese arguing with a chinese man and breaking all the rulesof 'face' (i.e. bargaining the taxi driver down to 70 RMB from 80RMB in front of the lady we stayed with. He now refuses to drive herguests again! We were pissed off though, as we were expecting thelife to be free, so were entitled to complain we thought)
Finally, my closing thought is about the weatherman on CCTV 9 (theenglish language station on chinese TV). I watched it once or twiceon sky, but missed the weatherman. for those of you who have sky,watch the weather dude! he is american and hilarious -at the end, hedoes a 'city of the day' kind of thing, and talks about randomfacts, including prices to get there, people to fly with and reallystupid information.
right, off to bed, up early tomorrow to go the BritishCentre/Chamber...Back to Shanghai next thursday for a week too.
Adam
p.s. cannot believe Spurs lost to Man Utd, but very happy noonescored a hatrick against us...
p.p.s saw Ghandi on DVD -fantastic film
p.p.p.s been thinking about post CEED in China life; it mightrevolve around staying in China and getting a job/traineeship for awhile, we'll see.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
the well-off, the scale and the life of a lawai
well China! Slightly further afield than Turkey!
I arrived and quickly estableshed that the few toursits here are mostly from Asia (korea, japan). There are really very few 'westerners', and i think a lot of those here are ex-pats!
Things of note:
the food, certainly cheap and certainly an intersting variety/mix. Most locals dont even know what most of the things they get served are! The best though is monkey brains. A live monkey is brought out, the ehad chopped off in front of you and then you crack the skull and suck out the brains. Fortunately I have not been witness to this yet, but its pretty common!
the size. I always though NYC, the US in general does things on grand scale, but nothing beats China. The skyscrapers, the buildings being built are all fantastic. I was shocked though that they are building a deep-sea containter port. Its going to be a man-made island (I think) around 30km off Shanghai, that they will then build a bridge from linking it to the mainland! the 3 metro lines here are up to 5 yrs old. they are building 9 more i think in the next 5-10 years! the whole of shanghai seems to be constantly under construction, adn spaghetti junction in B'ham is nothing compared to some of the junctions here. Finally how can the chinese build things, and get them finished quickly so that they work, whilst in the UK things take ages, are always delayed, cost more and tend to need redoing 2 days after the opening?
the traffic: something that every traveller in every country points out; here its a case of knowing that red means amber, that there is no such thing as 'right of way', 'speed limit' or limits to what a cyclist can carry on them, on their bike, on their trailer.
the 'lawai' dimension: meaning foreigner, i finally get what everyone else who has been outside fo EU/N. America gets with the hassling for money, dvds, watches etc. 'bu yau'(spelling?) is no! But I am a mean negotiator adn currently pay 30% of asking price (the askign price on the label, not jsut the one they tell me cause I am not chinese) for goods that I have bought. Interstingly its tough to communicate here as there are many, many people, even in their 20s who have had no exposure to english at all (don't even know 'hello', let alone 'please unlock my sim card, that's sim card, not pin number, and no please don't call the SOS number')
finally I wanted to say that I am living with a friend, through AIESEC UK, in a ratehr nice house, wtih a maid and driver; when her parents were here we visited a country club, a restaurant in the 56th floor of jin mao tower (apparently the tallest in Asia?), and a friend's penthouse appartment with his own cinema room, so its been nice. driver's cost about 100 pounds a month -bargain! even people from HK won't drive here! Maids are commonplace for anyone with a management job it seems.
So, a long introduction and some observations that may not be actually true, and might change by next week! its a fantastic city, and I cannot wait to get to Beijing in a day or two. I could go on, but I won't instead I'm off to the french quarter.
Adam
p.s.some great prices (13 RMB = 1 pound): 2 RMB for a single train ticket, 5-8 RMB for fake, good quality DVD, 25 RMB for a real DVD, 4-8 RMB for lunch, 3 RMB for a bottle of coke. Glad to leave London!!!
I arrived and quickly estableshed that the few toursits here are mostly from Asia (korea, japan). There are really very few 'westerners', and i think a lot of those here are ex-pats!
Things of note:
the food, certainly cheap and certainly an intersting variety/mix. Most locals dont even know what most of the things they get served are! The best though is monkey brains. A live monkey is brought out, the ehad chopped off in front of you and then you crack the skull and suck out the brains. Fortunately I have not been witness to this yet, but its pretty common!
the size. I always though NYC, the US in general does things on grand scale, but nothing beats China. The skyscrapers, the buildings being built are all fantastic. I was shocked though that they are building a deep-sea containter port. Its going to be a man-made island (I think) around 30km off Shanghai, that they will then build a bridge from linking it to the mainland! the 3 metro lines here are up to 5 yrs old. they are building 9 more i think in the next 5-10 years! the whole of shanghai seems to be constantly under construction, adn spaghetti junction in B'ham is nothing compared to some of the junctions here. Finally how can the chinese build things, and get them finished quickly so that they work, whilst in the UK things take ages, are always delayed, cost more and tend to need redoing 2 days after the opening?
the traffic: something that every traveller in every country points out; here its a case of knowing that red means amber, that there is no such thing as 'right of way', 'speed limit' or limits to what a cyclist can carry on them, on their bike, on their trailer.
the 'lawai' dimension: meaning foreigner, i finally get what everyone else who has been outside fo EU/N. America gets with the hassling for money, dvds, watches etc. 'bu yau'(spelling?) is no! But I am a mean negotiator adn currently pay 30% of asking price (the askign price on the label, not jsut the one they tell me cause I am not chinese) for goods that I have bought. Interstingly its tough to communicate here as there are many, many people, even in their 20s who have had no exposure to english at all (don't even know 'hello', let alone 'please unlock my sim card, that's sim card, not pin number, and no please don't call the SOS number')
finally I wanted to say that I am living with a friend, through AIESEC UK, in a ratehr nice house, wtih a maid and driver; when her parents were here we visited a country club, a restaurant in the 56th floor of jin mao tower (apparently the tallest in Asia?), and a friend's penthouse appartment with his own cinema room, so its been nice. driver's cost about 100 pounds a month -bargain! even people from HK won't drive here! Maids are commonplace for anyone with a management job it seems.
So, a long introduction and some observations that may not be actually true, and might change by next week! its a fantastic city, and I cannot wait to get to Beijing in a day or two. I could go on, but I won't instead I'm off to the french quarter.
Adam
p.s.some great prices (13 RMB = 1 pound): 2 RMB for a single train ticket, 5-8 RMB for fake, good quality DVD, 25 RMB for a real DVD, 4-8 RMB for lunch, 3 RMB for a bottle of coke. Glad to leave London!!!
Saturday, September 11, 2004
About me
My name is Adam, I've just arrived in China, from the UK. This is the farthest I have been away from home; I'm 22 and graduated a year ago in Management. AIESEC brought me first job, and now it has led me here, as a volunteer to support AIESEC in Mainland of China.
This is my thoughts, activities and opinions...
This is my thoughts, activities and opinions...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)