Xi'an is the 2nd most visited place for tourists to see in China after Beijing. It used to be the capital of China and has impressive tombs, old city walls, pagodas and various other things including several thousand life-size statues of an army -yes every single statue is life-size and every one is different. I've not seena ny of this yet -but I will. Of course there is also 1 of the 5 'holy' mountains nearby too -so i can camp on the top.
In China most of the cities that are really growing are those with big populations of workers or potential consumers, or cities with natural resources or good transport links. Shaanxi province has none of that. Its in the middle of China with only 37 million people, not on the Yangtze river and 80% is mountainous or desert in some way (apparently). Although Xi'an is quite prosperous from tourism (and being the provincial capital) the rest is quite desperately poor.
In the middle agriculture is strong, but the rest its not so easy. As with the rest of China its not food that is generally a problem (though its tough growing things in the desert areas and expensive to transport in from elsewhere), the problem is about the quality of healthcare, education, sanitation, environmental protection etc. NGOs are heavily financed from aid agencies and corporate grants, and individual donations from rich countries to help provide the training to jumpstart these problems in China. China cannot wait a few decades to solve these issues like some other countries did when they developed, because its millions of people who are affected!
I am shocked at how much money it does take though to create this jump-start effect. Requiring lots of people to spend many years working with different partners, travelling to every village and organising various capacity building activities for the villages or for other organisations. The sheer scale is incredible -and the level of work Plan is engaged in is very much standard International Development stuff. Most of the people working at a senior level are all Masters or PhD people and use all these fancy acronyms. I mean I can follow on when they talk about base-line surveys or about the cognitive behaviours of children (flashback to Univeristy Psychology class); but some of the other stuff... Well I have a lot to learn.
I've also realised I am somewhat out of my depth, and will be for a good few weeks. Having not been to the areas we are working in yet, or any real practical knowledge of what is happening, I have loads of ideas about different things.. but probably will have to scrap them and start again soon! Anyway, I'm looking forward to heading out into the PUs as part of my role in the SSIP!
More to come later about my exact job -its being finalised this week as we explore where i can best contribute and what i can most learn.... I'm pleasently surprised about everything.. my colleagues are all fantastic -a great atmosphere in the office and some don't speak chinese.. although since i can barely converse in english about some of these things who knows when my chinese will get that advanced!
The good news is things are cheap here -accommodation is about half of Beijing! Since no companies are really opening many offices or factories here there does not seem to be many tall commercial buildings or many foreigners working here. Though there are loads of Universities.
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