no harbin (ice), due to a failure to get a ticket back to beijingagain :( in china you can only buy one-way train tickets, and wecouldnt risk getting there without being able to buy a ticket backwhen we wanted to (although we tried ringing friends there andtravel agents, and they were all sold out). also, you can only buytickets once they go on sale, 5 days in advance, which makes it hardto plan anything, or get tickets, cause they then all go quickly.well should go in a few weeks instead.
recently we have been relaxing, dvd-watching and working somewhat.the snow has turned to ice -black ice. ..From the pollution. I alsowent for a run!!! my 'made-in-china-bought-in-uk-brought-back-to-china-by parents' trainers were great, and 45 minutes of runningalongside ring roads was lots of fun...honest!
was extremely hungover this morning thanks to a goodbye party lastnight, but had lunch with Swiss Re in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, andthat helped! well tomorrow we meet a lady in the FCO who should beable to get us some money (fingers crossed), ant monday/tuesday aconference starts which is a big uk-china technology thingy, withLord Sainsbury coming over to open it; and its all free, includinglunch at the Summer Palace and a reception at the ambassador's home!
I'm well informed of the news via the web here, but have lessknowledge of what the chinese think about things due to my readinglimitations here (in chinese) and that the english version online ofchinese arent very interesting.
did i tell you that china has energy problems, and it solution is tobuild more power stations? makes sense you think, but not in china.this year they are planning to build so many power stations (no onereally controls this of course) that they would have a surplus ofenergy. of course, someone forgot to mention that you need somethingto go in the power stations, and that there isnt enough of that (orif there is, then, there wont be 3 years down the line!). So thegovernment is going to put a stop to it.
this reminds me that SEPA -State Environmental ProtectionAdministration -only has (I think, but I am probably a bit wrong)about 400 employees nationally. This is the main body helping toreduce China's destruction of its environment. It brings me ontosomething i was reading about in China in various reports....
China is very regionalised in many aspects, with many powers done bylocal authorities, despite orders from national bodies. so this iswhy china has a poor record on labour laws, not that the laws arenot good enough -they are pretty good (and drawn up by centralgovernment), but that they are not enforced locally (no buy-in ofcourse). and the laws vary by region to some extent too (such asminimum wage).
It all leads to the typical Chinese short-termism capitalism thatexists here. An example: in a drive to create jobs, cities willlower their labour standards in order to remain competitive andattract more investment. so other cities do the same in a downwardspiral.. even chinese people agree that at the moment they put short-term economic gains ahead of long-term environmental protection.Going back to my previous emails...anyone could realise thefollowing:
-great tourist attraction
-attract more tourists, create jobs and wealth
-do so irresponsibly (thus destroying the attraction), and at thesame time ensure most of the local economy becomes dependent ontourism-tourists no longer come cause the attraction is crap
-local area loses its source of income, is left with a decayingtown, and no alternative source of income, so has to go back tosquare 1
its not just china..., but its interesting.
just want to briefly touch on something else too. so Lenovo (Chinesecompany) buys the part of IBM that makes a very small profit,despite a fantastic brand and management, and one that has more andmore competition in it. hmm, then i hear a car company here wants tobuy Rover....hmm, sounds like the same kind of story: Chinesecompany buying a brand that has little future, then you add in thecultural differences of the companies, the language barriers, thegeographical issues (IBM HQ is still in US....) and you wonder whatthe future holds. Here is hoping the chinese can work miracles, ortheir investments get wiser in the future, before they get a badname globally....
anyway, thats enough for me
take care y'all
Adam
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