hello
now i have internet in my room (and its actually quite fast ADSL), Ihave uploaded lots and lots of photos to the website:http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
You have to register to enter, but its free and its Sony, so youshoulfnt get millions of junk emails. There are loads of albumsthere (22), I have resroted them a bit too, and the ones that havebeen added of note are:
-Chinese New Year (see some pictures of dragon dancing and redlanterns everywhere!)
-BJTourist-blackbamboo park
-Tianjin
-random socials
-appartment
-holiday (see my lovely family in these pictures too!) includingspectacular Yangshuo
Below I have copied the interesting article that I read about ZhaoZiyang who died earlier this year. I mentioned it a bit in Januaryso won't go on, but I did realise forgot to copy the article. Formore information, even better (longer) articles are here:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA29Ad03.html
Anyway, what is most interesting is that I can access these articleshere, when from reading them, you would think that China would wantthem banned...the answer i am sure is that they are in english soruling out most of china from reading them.
On other matters, Thursday morning was a test to establish mychinese level (very low -short test!), friday night I went to theAustralian Chamber weekly drinks (and suffered pom jokes) withRalph, and tuesday lessons start for real :)
Now I'm off to watch a video of poor schoolkids in the westernprovince of Yunnan, that a friend filmed as part of a schoolproject -she showed the film in shanghai to friends.fmaily etc inorder to raise money to pay for the education of the kids. She isgoing back in October, so if I am still here, I hope to go with (wehave to apply for permission, and be accompanied by a local povertyalleviation officer, but she thinks I will be allowed) -veryexciting!
Enjoy the weekend, from sunny (yet with ice still lying everywhere!)Beijing
Adam
Farewell to a righteous official
Zhao Ziyang is dead and buried, but the memory of Tiananmen Squareremains very much alive
Isabel Hilton
Saturday January 29, 2005 The Guardian
It took 12 days of hard bargaining, but today there will at last bea funeral at Babaoshan, the cemetery for China's senior leaders, forthe disgraced Zhao Ziyang who died on January 17. Family and friendswill be permitted to attend and, after days of confrontation, it isreportedly agreed that the Communist party's negative assessment ofZhao Ziyang's life will not be rammed down the throats of hisgrieving circle until after the funeral. Even in death, Zhao, theman disgraced for trying to save the students in Tiananmen Square in1989, offers a reproach to Beijing's ruling elite.
Before Jack Straw's visit to China, the Foreign Office tried hard topersuade us that the EU's desire to lift the arms embargo on Chinawas a simple, practical matter with no wider resonance. The embargo,their argument went, is ineffective, and EU rules would bettercontrol Beijing's access to lethal weaponry.
That remains to be tested. But the argument neglects the symbolicvalue of the gesture. To lift an arms embargo imposed after themassacre of Chinese citizens by their government in Tiananmen Squareis to announce to China that the episode is over and done with. Thatwould please Beijing's rulers. But as their reaction to ZhaoZiyang's death demonstrates, they themselves believe that Tiananmenis far from over.
It is difficult to pull off the modernisation of a society ascomplex as China's without relaxing authoritarian controls. Socialdevelopment demands enough freedom to permit talent and enterpriseto flourish. Political stability requires a population inclined totrust its government and share its goals.
In the People's Republic it is far from clear that people trusttheir government. There is a muscular patriotism, Maoism's lastideological legacy. But China is in the throes of a profoundtransition and its people have every historical reason to be wary.For the last decade the majority has generally accepted the bargainof political acquiescence in return for rising living standards.Even so, rebellious minorities continually break through. It isclear from the events around Zhao's death that Beijing fears thatdisaffection and the potential for trouble are even more widespreadthan the visible protests that take place daily suggest.
Beijing routinely suppresses news of civic protest, fearful thatstrikes and demonstrations might coalesce into something moreorganised. They feared that Zhao Ziyang's death might galvanise justsuch a movement. Its explosive potential rests in a culturalarchetype - that of the righteous official, whom tradition suggestsis as powerful a focus of loyalty as the figure of the oppressiveemperor.
A righteous official, in Chinese history and mythology, risks hislife to stand up for justice against the tyrant. His symbolic valueat moments of political crisis is immense.
The opening shots of the Cultural Revolution in the early 60scentred on a play that honoured a righteous Ming dynasty official.The play was understood by Mao to be a coded attack on himself fordisgracing Peng Dehuai, whose crime had been to blame Mao, rightly,for causing the death by starvation of about 30 million Chinese.When Zhou Enlai - who was remembered, rightly or wrongly, fordefending several of Mao's victims - died, and the Maoist hardlinerstried to bury him without due honours, the crowds erupted inTiananmen Square. When Hu Yaobang - who had been disgraced in 1987for sympathising with democratic reform - died in 1989, it was thesignal for the occupation of the square by pro-democracy protesters.That episode ended in the massacre Zhao is credited with trying toprevent. Hence the explosive potential of his memory.
There are ironies in this succession of names: Zhao helped to toppleHu Yaobang, two years before he himself was toppled. But the idea ofthe righteous official does not represent a coherent movement oreven a rigorous view of history. Its power lies in the symbolism ofa moment when a man stands up for what he believes to be right,regardless of the consequences.
Despite China's facade of modernity, the battle over memory andhistory runs as deep as ever. Today's leaders know that they are thebeneficiaries of economic reforms that Zhao Ziyang pioneered in the70s, but to honour him officially for helping to lay the foundationsof today's market-driven growth would demand a reassessment of thepolitics of his disgrace. In 1989, for his opposition to the use offorce, Zhao was accused of trying to split the party, a crimegreater in the bureaucrats' eyes than the murder of an unknownnumber of citizens.
To rehabilitate him posthumously is unthinkable as long as JiangZemin, chief beneficiary of Zhao's disgrace, is still alive, and themen he chose are still in charge. Even to discuss it risks openingup a festering wound - hence the close surveillance extended sinceZhao's death to his family, friends and anyone suspected of sympathyfor him. Yet not to face it means that the wound continues tofester. Whatever the EU apologists argue, the subject is far fromover.
• Isabel Hilton is the author of The Search for the Panchen Lamaisabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
student, new year reflections...update
So I am in the University computer lab writing this email! wow, itsbeen a while since i was here. I've paid my tuition fees, got mystudent card and therefore enrolled as Adam Lane, Chiense name isjust 'yadam'. fortunately there are few translation issues for myname, as I can just use the chinese translation of Adam (from Adamand Eve). Other people have more issues. For example, if i had triedto translate my surname i either have to find something in chinesethat sounds similar, and then it could mean anything, or translateinto 'little street'(=xiao lu) or something.
I am moving tonight :), I have a Chinese test on thursday morning(8am!!) so they can decide exactly what class to put me in (beginnersfor sure, despite my few hundred words) and then start classesproperly next tuesday.
Actually AIESEC work has been a bit slow since the new year festival,but it gets more exciting now I will just arrange and go to importantmeetings, whilst coordinating my team of 6 local AIESEC students. Sotomorrow we will get confirmation from Shell on how they want tosponsor us, next week I meet the head of something similar to the IODI think (Insitute of Directors), and will also be meeting a goodfriend from the IBLF -International Business Leaders Forum (he isinviting us to the launch of the China BLF, which is very exciting).So I am looking forward to my part-time AIESEC work.
New Year is almost over; and it was maybe a little less exciting thani anticipated because so many people all go home to spend time withtheir families. Whereas in New York or London Chinatowns, there is ahigh concentration of chinese people with lots of festivities and notflying home to be with their families. I also don't think that newyear here is that commercial. There is the market for decorations andthings, but nothing really around presents (kids, and sometimes otherfriends/family tend to get the little red envelopes with money insometimes), no expensive restaurant packages for new year (orclubbing nights for that matter)- apart from those for expats, and soon. In Beijing anyway, most of the festivities took place in thesetemple fairs, which are great, but its not quite street paradeseveryday or anything (for some reason i had this idea in my mind fromsome movies...maybe its different in hong kong or other cities).
On another of my rare runs i discovered this amazing park that is notin the tourist guides (but is on the map, thankfully!) with lots ofbamboo, rock gardens -as in gardens with carved rock formations andso on (seems to be a chinese/japanese thing), and it was just verypretty all covered in snow.
Still not been to KTV yet (maybe this weekend), but instead ahve beento Banana, a club where western women get surrounded by chinese menwithin seconds, and where westerners generally don't seem to frequentmuch. Its kinda upmarket, with rich kids boozing bottles of whiskeyor renting private rooms. It had a very cool dance floor that bouncedthough. Strangely at 1.30am, they stopped the music and on the 1stfloor, a lady popped onto a stage/balcony to sing ballads/opera for20 minutes -I've never seen that before.
I also forgot to mention how drunk i got on something similar tomulled wine on friday night, which led to some strange pictures andsome strange memories or trapsing around sanlitun for a long timeacting like drunk idiots with Sam (well we were both drunk idiots tobe fair). I do remember the restaurant staff staring at us a lot, andi do think we were the last in the restaurant. anyway, it was greatfun :))
better run,
Adios
Adam
I am moving tonight :), I have a Chinese test on thursday morning(8am!!) so they can decide exactly what class to put me in (beginnersfor sure, despite my few hundred words) and then start classesproperly next tuesday.
Actually AIESEC work has been a bit slow since the new year festival,but it gets more exciting now I will just arrange and go to importantmeetings, whilst coordinating my team of 6 local AIESEC students. Sotomorrow we will get confirmation from Shell on how they want tosponsor us, next week I meet the head of something similar to the IODI think (Insitute of Directors), and will also be meeting a goodfriend from the IBLF -International Business Leaders Forum (he isinviting us to the launch of the China BLF, which is very exciting).So I am looking forward to my part-time AIESEC work.
New Year is almost over; and it was maybe a little less exciting thani anticipated because so many people all go home to spend time withtheir families. Whereas in New York or London Chinatowns, there is ahigh concentration of chinese people with lots of festivities and notflying home to be with their families. I also don't think that newyear here is that commercial. There is the market for decorations andthings, but nothing really around presents (kids, and sometimes otherfriends/family tend to get the little red envelopes with money insometimes), no expensive restaurant packages for new year (orclubbing nights for that matter)- apart from those for expats, and soon. In Beijing anyway, most of the festivities took place in thesetemple fairs, which are great, but its not quite street paradeseveryday or anything (for some reason i had this idea in my mind fromsome movies...maybe its different in hong kong or other cities).
On another of my rare runs i discovered this amazing park that is notin the tourist guides (but is on the map, thankfully!) with lots ofbamboo, rock gardens -as in gardens with carved rock formations andso on (seems to be a chinese/japanese thing), and it was just verypretty all covered in snow.
Still not been to KTV yet (maybe this weekend), but instead ahve beento Banana, a club where western women get surrounded by chinese menwithin seconds, and where westerners generally don't seem to frequentmuch. Its kinda upmarket, with rich kids boozing bottles of whiskeyor renting private rooms. It had a very cool dance floor that bouncedthough. Strangely at 1.30am, they stopped the music and on the 1stfloor, a lady popped onto a stage/balcony to sing ballads/opera for20 minutes -I've never seen that before.
I also forgot to mention how drunk i got on something similar tomulled wine on friday night, which led to some strange pictures andsome strange memories or trapsing around sanlitun for a long timeacting like drunk idiots with Sam (well we were both drunk idiots tobe fair). I do remember the restaurant staff staring at us a lot, andi do think we were the last in the restaurant. anyway, it was greatfun :))
better run,
Adios
Adam
Friday, February 18, 2005
snow, tianjin, valentines....
I strated snowing again! In fact it has snowed on and off for the lastfew days making Beijing look pretty again. I noticed a downside lastnight is that it means 'night-time' is much brighter wiht more lightreflecting off the snow...this affects me because i don't have anycurtains :) Actually it doesn't really affect me at all, cause i stillsleep well, but its a random observation to start the the email with!
We went to Tianjin on Wednesday, which is one of the fast growingcities 90 minutes from Beijing. Its very nice; it was also (likeShanghai) one of the early port cities opened up for foreignconcessions after the british and other colonial powers kept beatingChina in the opium wars in the 19th century. Actually mostly thebritish were to blame -they were making lots of money selling opium(the drug) to China, which was grown in the Indian sub-continent). TheChinese realised it was having some negative effects, and bannedit..hence the British attacked! It led to several port cities beingopened up for trade, and different countries had different 'concessionareas' in those cities. Thats a brief history lesson for you (therewas actually 2 opium wars!).
Anyway its nice -not as built up as Beijing or Shanghai, but muchbetter planned, less tall buildings and lots of nice old colonialbuildings (thankfully they are protected by the city). There was anamazing street which was traditional chinese selling traditionalchinese things (I'll upload the photos eventually), and we had Tianjindumplings (kind of a speciality, but dumplings are eaten all overChina!) from the most famous place in Tianjin. Amusingly we ate themin a cheap place opposite the road, but they went and bought thedumplings from the fancy restaurant as take-away (for a special request)!!
On Monday, it was Valentines Day, so me and Flic made a little bit ofeffort; splashed out on Dominos pizza, drank some wine left lyingaround, had some fancy Marks & Spencers chocolates (left over from myparents visiting) and watched friends all night! there's no love thereof course, but it was still fun, and less depresing being single ;) hehe. (ok, i'll admit it was all my idea, flic doesn't mind being single).
China celebrate Valentines Day in quite a big way, but this year itwas during the week-long new year holiday, so actually it was quitesubdued, but still there were hearts everywhere, and special deals atthe hotels etc. I read an article about western festivals beingcelebrated in china...are they affecting chinese culture? Anyway,seeing as china has so much culture and history and all the westernfestivals are basically just based on pure commericalism, i dont thinktherei s much to worry about. Remember, christmas here is of noreligious significance, apart from about 10 million christians in thewhole country, so people celebrate it just for an excuse to see theirfamily and buy decorations etc!
Other things of note...I ate at a Hakka restaurant (a minority group)which was nice...downloaded the new MSN messenger (v.7 beta) so i canhave fun winking and nudging people (so sad!)...bought 4 fantastic CDsfor 1 Euro equivalent (a bargain, even for China!) -counting crows,norah jones, alfie and bond...haven't been running because of the iceand thus feel unfit...got depressed reading about how bad england areat rugby now...bought a Union Jack (well 2 actually, a small one toleave in the office and a big one for special occasions!)...woke uplast night with a shock as the A0 world map on the wall by my bedcollapsed on me.
For now, ta-ta
adam
We went to Tianjin on Wednesday, which is one of the fast growingcities 90 minutes from Beijing. Its very nice; it was also (likeShanghai) one of the early port cities opened up for foreignconcessions after the british and other colonial powers kept beatingChina in the opium wars in the 19th century. Actually mostly thebritish were to blame -they were making lots of money selling opium(the drug) to China, which was grown in the Indian sub-continent). TheChinese realised it was having some negative effects, and bannedit..hence the British attacked! It led to several port cities beingopened up for trade, and different countries had different 'concessionareas' in those cities. Thats a brief history lesson for you (therewas actually 2 opium wars!).
Anyway its nice -not as built up as Beijing or Shanghai, but muchbetter planned, less tall buildings and lots of nice old colonialbuildings (thankfully they are protected by the city). There was anamazing street which was traditional chinese selling traditionalchinese things (I'll upload the photos eventually), and we had Tianjindumplings (kind of a speciality, but dumplings are eaten all overChina!) from the most famous place in Tianjin. Amusingly we ate themin a cheap place opposite the road, but they went and bought thedumplings from the fancy restaurant as take-away (for a special request)!!
On Monday, it was Valentines Day, so me and Flic made a little bit ofeffort; splashed out on Dominos pizza, drank some wine left lyingaround, had some fancy Marks & Spencers chocolates (left over from myparents visiting) and watched friends all night! there's no love thereof course, but it was still fun, and less depresing being single ;) hehe. (ok, i'll admit it was all my idea, flic doesn't mind being single).
China celebrate Valentines Day in quite a big way, but this year itwas during the week-long new year holiday, so actually it was quitesubdued, but still there were hearts everywhere, and special deals atthe hotels etc. I read an article about western festivals beingcelebrated in china...are they affecting chinese culture? Anyway,seeing as china has so much culture and history and all the westernfestivals are basically just based on pure commericalism, i dont thinktherei s much to worry about. Remember, christmas here is of noreligious significance, apart from about 10 million christians in thewhole country, so people celebrate it just for an excuse to see theirfamily and buy decorations etc!
Other things of note...I ate at a Hakka restaurant (a minority group)which was nice...downloaded the new MSN messenger (v.7 beta) so i canhave fun winking and nudging people (so sad!)...bought 4 fantastic CDsfor 1 Euro equivalent (a bargain, even for China!) -counting crows,norah jones, alfie and bond...haven't been running because of the iceand thus feel unfit...got depressed reading about how bad england areat rugby now...bought a Union Jack (well 2 actually, a small one toleave in the office and a big one for special occasions!)...woke uplast night with a shock as the A0 world map on the wall by my bedcollapsed on me.
For now, ta-ta
adam
Friday, February 11, 2005
games
majiang. its a chinese game; everyone knows it and plays it, so i havebeen told. and now, now i know how to play, and can even play (badlythough), thanks to being taught last night. unfortuantely some of thetiles (like cards) have chinese characters on, including the chinesenumbers. I am not very hot on these; which doesn't help. fortunatelythe other suits in the game dont have this problem, so i just dont usethe suit that i cannot understand!
anyway, i also taught my chinese friends how to play cluekey (i donteven know how to spell it in english!); its a good game that oldpeople tend to play in england -so thats me spreading english culture.unfortuantely i only remembered about pancake day, the day afterwards,although its a christian thing, its only in england (so it seems) so imissed an opportunity. however maybe we will do it if we have ourdinner party (its being postponed).
most of you will have gathered that life is generally very fun andpositive; although i have a bit of a lack of work to do and its aholiday; which combines to just a lot of relaxing and socialising anda bit of boredom but thats ok right now, as life will get busier oncethe students get back from their holidays, my course starts and itactually allows me to see friends more which is great -properfriendships are so much more meaningful!
so i recently read the AIESEC UK new strategic plan; its weird, I havebeen so distant from AIESEC UK, i dont really know what is going onthere any more. its great, that i have finally managed to break away!on the other hand i was very happy that Mark, who was president ofmanchester after the person who was after me, is the new president ofAIESEC UK -first AIESEC Manchester person who has been MCP for a good10 years. unfortunately Bee didnt get elected; which makes me verysad, as she is enormously talented; but i am sure whatever she decidesto do will be even better. it reminds me of when i lost the electionsin 2003 and again in 2004. seems so long ago.... as does seeing somany of my friends back in the UK. I guess i'll try and get home inthe next 12 months (if i end up getting a job here in the summer),and/or encourage everyone to come visit me in the Summer (its cheapeverybody! -just last night i had to pay a 3 pounds taxi fare whichkills me and broke my budget!)
enough reminiscing for now, back to watching friends, then i thinksome cheapass food from the restaurant downstairs, before more DVDs(yay!). Hope that everyone has a great weekend.
Adam
anyway, i also taught my chinese friends how to play cluekey (i donteven know how to spell it in english!); its a good game that oldpeople tend to play in england -so thats me spreading english culture.unfortuantely i only remembered about pancake day, the day afterwards,although its a christian thing, its only in england (so it seems) so imissed an opportunity. however maybe we will do it if we have ourdinner party (its being postponed).
most of you will have gathered that life is generally very fun andpositive; although i have a bit of a lack of work to do and its aholiday; which combines to just a lot of relaxing and socialising anda bit of boredom but thats ok right now, as life will get busier oncethe students get back from their holidays, my course starts and itactually allows me to see friends more which is great -properfriendships are so much more meaningful!
so i recently read the AIESEC UK new strategic plan; its weird, I havebeen so distant from AIESEC UK, i dont really know what is going onthere any more. its great, that i have finally managed to break away!on the other hand i was very happy that Mark, who was president ofmanchester after the person who was after me, is the new president ofAIESEC UK -first AIESEC Manchester person who has been MCP for a good10 years. unfortunately Bee didnt get elected; which makes me verysad, as she is enormously talented; but i am sure whatever she decidesto do will be even better. it reminds me of when i lost the electionsin 2003 and again in 2004. seems so long ago.... as does seeing somany of my friends back in the UK. I guess i'll try and get home inthe next 12 months (if i end up getting a job here in the summer),and/or encourage everyone to come visit me in the Summer (its cheapeverybody! -just last night i had to pay a 3 pounds taxi fare whichkills me and broke my budget!)
enough reminiscing for now, back to watching friends, then i thinksome cheapass food from the restaurant downstairs, before more DVDs(yay!). Hope that everyone has a great weekend.
Adam
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Happy New Year!
Xin Nian Kuai le everybody.
Its a new year in China- a 1 week holiday marks the start of the yearof the Rooster -its my year :) This means I will either be lucky orunlucky. To ensure i am lucky i am supposed to wear something red 24/7for the entire year; such as a belt or underwear (and not take themoff een when sleeping); a friend is wearing a red bracelet (notsomething i want to do....). Anyway, my solution has been to buy alittle rosster to hang up near by bed and wish me luck whilst guardingaway the evil spirits. I figure its cuter than wearing red underwearall year, cleaner, and also a much better source of luck. My roosterwill kick ass!
Lsat night we went out for our second New Years Eve; a bunch of AIESECAlumni as usual from around the world; it was much fun; from theawesome hot chooclate in no name bar on the lake to the cheaprestaurant, lazy Souk (middle eastern type place with couches andshishas) and finally the comfortable Suzy Wong's. We really must bemore adventuresome and go somewhere else sometimes! Unfortunatelythere werent many fireworks/crackers as they are banned within centralBeijing :(
Today we went to Yonghegong -lama temple- -the most famous temple inBeijing, to check out the crowds of people burning incense, prayingand generally being noisy; then had dumplings (traditional for newyear, especially for the northerners). Apparently dumplings are shapedlike ears, and northerners eat them, as fable goes, so that their earswont fall off from the cold! a classic, typically chinese, tale!Afterwards we went to a 'temple fair'; there was a stage with somegreat chinese gong fu, some dragon dances and other chinese dancing;but mostly it was hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling food, crapand good gifts, rooster this and rooster that, plus some awfulrides/games. I was told its only really a Beijing thing to do and itwas freeeeezing cold :(. It was kinda fun anwyay.
This week might not be so much fun, but i will try to make it so! Dosome work, watch lots of DVDs, sleep, go out a little, try andexercise more (now my cold has gone) etc. Highlights include lunchtomorrow with some alumni, a dinner party on saturday night that Flicis hosting, and probably some other stuff. I might even try and readsome books for a change!
Since Achim left (cool German guy who was here since summer), weinherited all his stuff from his appartment including clothes (fomrhim and other past flatmates), a very cool sword, alcohol andmagazines etc. It was strange him leaving -he has been a good friendand has a unique sense of humour that will be missed. hopefully hewill be back in the next 2 or 3 months. Anyway 1 of the magazines ishilarious -very chinese, talking about china's win-win situations withother countries, China's stance on arm-controls and so on. I alsorecently found a map of the Beijing subway's planned route by 2008 -itwill be great, with 1 or 2 lines opening a year for the next 3 years.There are stations and tunnels being built everywhere (one outside ourappartment for example).
thats enough for now, more comments on more interesting stuff soon Iam sure. The last thing to say, is that I watched American history Xfor the 3rd time recently, and it is still one of the most powerful,great, films of all time. See it, if you have not.
from a cold Beijing
Adam
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
news and taiwan
today i managed to grab the internet for a few hours to catch up onsome internet reading (you may remember we share the line between 4of us right now). i found out that the first flights between themainland and taiwan took place! wow, very cool. I will endeavour tofind out more about it from a western source.
why a western source? because all the news online in english here isso dull. from what i can gather the flights are just for chinese newyear and just for business travellers, and explicitly does not meanrelations are immproving...very confusing. anyway, check it outyourself on english.peopledaily.com.cn. Even on the chinadaily,there was very little about whether this actually meansanything...man i love reading analysis in the british papers!
compare the article here:http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200501/27/eng20050127_172058.html with the much better and very interesting one in atimes (nonchinese): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA21Ad01.html. It isalso interesting comparing it to one on CNN, that really does notcover much of the history or situation in much depth, unfortunately :(. Its here -http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/28/bt.china.taiwan.flights.ap/
the people's daily is generally regarded as the mouthpiece of thecommunist party, and i have been told the english versions ofchinese news are much more 'liberal' than western ones too! also onthe site you will see an article about local (grassroots) electionswith the worse ever interview with an official about them. it mademe laugh reading it.., it was actually dull (how can the issue ofelections in a communist country be dull?). I've covered electionsbefore, so i wont touch on it again.
just some interesting comments about recent developments; man i musttry to read the news, and chinese news more often. I read some otherpeople's posts recently, so will endaevour to write more about me,less about my activies and less about china if i can, as that seemsto be what people write about.
anyway, onto bed now. should be paying the deposit tomorrow to myflat mate (wont move in till end of month though) :D
Adam
why a western source? because all the news online in english here isso dull. from what i can gather the flights are just for chinese newyear and just for business travellers, and explicitly does not meanrelations are immproving...very confusing. anyway, check it outyourself on english.peopledaily.com.cn. Even on the chinadaily,there was very little about whether this actually meansanything...man i love reading analysis in the british papers!
compare the article here:http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200501/27/eng20050127_172058.html with the much better and very interesting one in atimes (nonchinese): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA21Ad01.html. It isalso interesting comparing it to one on CNN, that really does notcover much of the history or situation in much depth, unfortunately :(. Its here -http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/28/bt.china.taiwan.flights.ap/
the people's daily is generally regarded as the mouthpiece of thecommunist party, and i have been told the english versions ofchinese news are much more 'liberal' than western ones too! also onthe site you will see an article about local (grassroots) electionswith the worse ever interview with an official about them. it mademe laugh reading it.., it was actually dull (how can the issue ofelections in a communist country be dull?). I've covered electionsbefore, so i wont touch on it again.
just some interesting comments about recent developments; man i musttry to read the news, and chinese news more often. I read some otherpeople's posts recently, so will endaevour to write more about me,less about my activies and less about china if i can, as that seemsto be what people write about.
anyway, onto bed now. should be paying the deposit tomorrow to myflat mate (wont move in till end of month though) :D
Adam
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