Not Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, but Special Administrative Region. That is the term for Hong Kong (the former British colony). It is also the term for Macau -a former Portugese colony that was returned to the Chinese at about the same time. It is 30km west of hong kong, and is mostly based on a peninsular attached to mainland china along with a couple of islands (Hong Kong is split between 1 island and a different peninsula. Though Hong Kong is much bigger than Macau, and has millions more people and hundreds of other (mostly empty) islands. Macau was given to Portugal in somewhat of a friendly way -Hong Kong was taken by the british as reward for beating the chinese in a couple of wars (along with bits of tens of other cities (similar to Berlin after WW2) that were forced to give a few miles of their land to the Brits, French, Americans, Germans etc during various other wars/activities).
This weekend I went to both. I've been to Hong Kong twice before and love the city. It is totally unique: romantic, buzzing, beautiful, crazy, noisy... a very emotional place. This time I went to one of the tiny islands that you would think is more like a piece of vietnam than hong kong (not a single car on the island and only a 20,000+ people living in 1-3 story houses or shacks. I also went to the northern part of hong kong, towards the Chinese border where the remains of many old villages and temples still exist surrounded by lush forest (and of course english speakers, english roads and english efficiency).
Yes, I did say English efficiency -you see you have to compare Hong Kong to China, where everything is a mess! Hong Kong has a great subway, great footpaths, great cultural heritage protection projects, great architecture.. Modern China had pretty much none of that until 5 years ago (now its building subways, restoring its heritage and thinking a bit about its new buildings -sometimes thinking too much!).
Macau is a strange place. Physically it looks quite mediterranean with many bright yellow churches or majestic mansions and road signs in portugese and chinese (and often in english too!); but under the surface no-one speaks portugese, you can use the hong kong dollar interchangably with the Macca Pataca, they drive on the left (like hong kong), there are very few europeans and most of the population is poor. Macau used to be more successful than Hong Kong 100 yrs ago.. but until 5 years ago was very poor.. most of its industries lost out to China (Macau is tiny with not much of anything!). It used to be a port city trading with Asia, but when I was there the only ports were for the ferries to China and HK, and for fishing boats. Aah, fishing, hardly the most profitable of industries :-)
But now Macau is changing..supper fast, at something like 20% GDP a year since the end of the Asia Financial crisis and its all because of gambling (which is illegal in China proper and many other chinese or muslim asian countries). But Macau is full of rubbishy housing intermingled with fancy european mansions; so they filled in land to build casinos and hotels.. lots of land. So much in fact that one of the bits of sea between 2 of the islands has pretty much disappeared under cranes and hotels. Now you can find fake volcanoes, impressive fountains, neon and Bentleys. Of course, you'll only find them in the new Macau.. the rest of the citizens survive on tourism and employment in the casinos or hotels.
Anyway, interesting place. Hong Kong though is awesome, especially since i went to one of their beaches and on some great hikes. Macau is ok for a day or two, but be warned -the only cheap hotels there are in the red-light district (don't ask....)
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Surprising people
The last couple of weekends, with me (firstly) and my friends (I went back to the same place with 3 friends/colleagues) in rural china have provided lots of surprises. Sometimes its the woman at the top of Kong Tong Shan (a relatively famous Daoist Mountain) selling fangbian mian (literally: convenient noodles -instant noodles) who was surprised to see a foreigner, let alone one with a massive backpack and tent -or one who comes back 2 weekends in a row!
Other times its the kids who see you strolling through their village in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the nearest track; or the shepherd and his son who were sitting with their bulls admiring the view when i came and sat next to them; or the 70 year old guy pulling a cart piled high with straw who turned the corner to find me lying on a hill reading a book; or the 15 year old kid who was looking after his 3 cows only to turn around and find a Brit, a Japanese, an American and a Chinese all speaking english eating a packed lunch.
Then there were the construction workers building a high-way who were just a little surprised to see the 4 of us descend out of the middle of a craggy valley and dodging their dumper trucks.. it goes on. Actually I wonder if I should have told the villagers my name -then they might name the village after the 'white man'! he he. We found several shepherds who remembered me along with the hotel manager and noodle woman.
Actually for the 15 year old whose school is a 4 hour walk away (they normally stay overnight during the weekdays in appalling conditions), I am sure he won't go to the city very often, and he won't even dream of going to Beijing or seeing foreigners -but he's got a story to tell his freinds. I don't know if meeting (or seeing really, since we don't talk too much) people like me inspires these villagers or makes them laugh.. or makes them come a little bit closer to the life they hear about on TV.
I can tell that they are happy people; they may be uneducated, and live a harsh life, but its simple and happy. But at the same time most of these villagers only wash their bodies once a year (fact!) and have a cash income of a hundred dollars a year. Now to put it into perspective, they don't need much cash -except for a) education and b) health. Which is where Plan comes in, as a development organisation (not a charity), Plan works not just to give the children money to go to school (although we convince the government to do that too), but to help teach the teachers and the parents about washing hands (and the kids), and teach them how to make a toilet, or to use toilet paper instead of newspaper. Or help women understand their role in their local community (when the men are all looking for work in the cities, or on the hills); or encourage parents to care about their child's early development.
In Bhutan; the tiny mountainous kingdom somewhere between tibet, burma and india, they don't measure GDP, they measure happiness (and there was an international conference discussing this recently). It is an interesting question -that of happiness. Much like how pointless the 2 USD a day poverty line is. 2 USD a day is a fortune for many of these people, and they are living without it. But the questions are, are they able to have the opportunies others have? Do they want to be able to reach their potential? Do they want to be educated to a higher level... hmmm
Other times its the kids who see you strolling through their village in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the nearest track; or the shepherd and his son who were sitting with their bulls admiring the view when i came and sat next to them; or the 70 year old guy pulling a cart piled high with straw who turned the corner to find me lying on a hill reading a book; or the 15 year old kid who was looking after his 3 cows only to turn around and find a Brit, a Japanese, an American and a Chinese all speaking english eating a packed lunch.
Then there were the construction workers building a high-way who were just a little surprised to see the 4 of us descend out of the middle of a craggy valley and dodging their dumper trucks.. it goes on. Actually I wonder if I should have told the villagers my name -then they might name the village after the 'white man'! he he. We found several shepherds who remembered me along with the hotel manager and noodle woman.
Actually for the 15 year old whose school is a 4 hour walk away (they normally stay overnight during the weekdays in appalling conditions), I am sure he won't go to the city very often, and he won't even dream of going to Beijing or seeing foreigners -but he's got a story to tell his freinds. I don't know if meeting (or seeing really, since we don't talk too much) people like me inspires these villagers or makes them laugh.. or makes them come a little bit closer to the life they hear about on TV.
I can tell that they are happy people; they may be uneducated, and live a harsh life, but its simple and happy. But at the same time most of these villagers only wash their bodies once a year (fact!) and have a cash income of a hundred dollars a year. Now to put it into perspective, they don't need much cash -except for a) education and b) health. Which is where Plan comes in, as a development organisation (not a charity), Plan works not just to give the children money to go to school (although we convince the government to do that too), but to help teach the teachers and the parents about washing hands (and the kids), and teach them how to make a toilet, or to use toilet paper instead of newspaper. Or help women understand their role in their local community (when the men are all looking for work in the cities, or on the hills); or encourage parents to care about their child's early development.
In Bhutan; the tiny mountainous kingdom somewhere between tibet, burma and india, they don't measure GDP, they measure happiness (and there was an international conference discussing this recently). It is an interesting question -that of happiness. Much like how pointless the 2 USD a day poverty line is. 2 USD a day is a fortune for many of these people, and they are living without it. But the questions are, are they able to have the opportunies others have? Do they want to be able to reach their potential? Do they want to be educated to a higher level... hmmm
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Lessons from travelling for Work (or life?)
1. Have a plan
2. Do some research
3. Take extra resources, just in case (money)
4. Be prepared for trouble/unexpected (first aid, torch, spare food)
5. Attitude: expect problems (always look on the bright side!) and be flexible. Be positive!
6. Adapt. Make the most of everything. Recognise the achievements and beauty. Take time to reflect.
7. When alone, challenge your decisions. listen to your conscious, since there is no-one else to disagree with you!
8. There are distinct benefits to going alone: no arguments, more opportunities to meet other people and less compromise
9. Be brave -just do it. Be determined and ambitious. Explore -opportujnities and try new things -what is there to lose? But don't take stupid risks
10. Choose advisors carefully: make the right friends. If you don't ask you cannot get!
11. Always prepare for the next step
12. Learn your lessons.
2. Do some research
3. Take extra resources, just in case (money)
4. Be prepared for trouble/unexpected (first aid, torch, spare food)
5. Attitude: expect problems (always look on the bright side!) and be flexible. Be positive!
6. Adapt. Make the most of everything. Recognise the achievements and beauty. Take time to reflect.
7. When alone, challenge your decisions. listen to your conscious, since there is no-one else to disagree with you!
8. There are distinct benefits to going alone: no arguments, more opportunities to meet other people and less compromise
9. Be brave -just do it. Be determined and ambitious. Explore -opportujnities and try new things -what is there to lose? But don't take stupid risks
10. Choose advisors carefully: make the right friends. If you don't ask you cannot get!
11. Always prepare for the next step
12. Learn your lessons.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Scientific-ness
After my previous post about the need to change the education system in China, if China is to have a responsible role in the World, I am happy to report (NY times):
"The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.
I miss the UK with 'pudding lane', 'grimsdyke road' and millions of other examples. I guess most streets are named after people who lived there, their professions, or places along the road. And in China the system extends to schools and hospitals, eg. Beijing 101st Primary School! On another note, I am told that in teh early 80s during China's opening up, Xi'an's stupid government decided to imitate Shenzhen (a brand new city near Hong Kong) to become a beautiful garden city, with parks, flowers and grass. They promptly cut down or allowed to die most of the trees, replacing it with grass.
Of course they failed to anticipate things like:
-the grass cannot survive in a city with little water
-the trees played a crucial role in drainage
-trees use up CO2 and create O2, grass doesn't
.... leading us to a city permanently grey and smoggy.. apparently the wind normally comes from the north so blows the pollution from factories or coal mines in to Xi'an and it gets stuck here, because of the mountains to the South. Any other direction would be fine as there are no mountains to the E, W or N, stupid wind!
Then of course you have all the stupid unscientific ideas, like sending students off to the countryside, with few skills and few ideas or plans to create any lasting change.. 1 recent campaign led to students advising and helping build B&B equivalents -i wonder if they investigated is there is actually a market for this? You also have the military service that every University student (and some high school students) do. It involves 1-2 weeks (once in your life) marching. It culminates in each 'cadre' firing 5 real bullets. Everyone calls it a joke and hates it. I don't think it benefits the country at all, helps install any discipline, provides any useful skills, or prepares students to defend the country in terms of crisis. Old habits die hard.....
An interesting interview in the Times, Wen Jiabao (PM) said though democracy is occuring at local levels, it will not grow until Chinese society can handle it and that it is not the most pressing problem: inequality or environmental degradation (and many others) are. He seems to fail to recognise that democracy can help solve those problems! There is an excellent commentary that I totally agree with on the problems in China and role of the media: spot-on.
and finally.... Bullet and bomb proof WC in Beijing
I am not quite sure the point of this -is it to throw a bomb in, so it can be detoanted safely? -is it for all of zhonguancun to try to squeeze into the toilet when there is a bomb threat? -Is it just that some American company bribed a local official to buy their latest invention which they couldn't even sell in the USA?
any other ideas?
"The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.
Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
Nearly overnight the country's most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950's. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today's economic and political goals.". Though I have to admit that I didn't learn much at School about Asian history (rather important economically for the world) or even about Africa and colonialism. What did I learn that was useful?
I miss the UK with 'pudding lane', 'grimsdyke road' and millions of other examples. I guess most streets are named after people who lived there, their professions, or places along the road. And in China the system extends to schools and hospitals, eg. Beijing 101st Primary School! On another note, I am told that in teh early 80s during China's opening up, Xi'an's stupid government decided to imitate Shenzhen (a brand new city near Hong Kong) to become a beautiful garden city, with parks, flowers and grass. They promptly cut down or allowed to die most of the trees, replacing it with grass.
Of course they failed to anticipate things like:
-the grass cannot survive in a city with little water
-the trees played a crucial role in drainage
-trees use up CO2 and create O2, grass doesn't
.... leading us to a city permanently grey and smoggy.. apparently the wind normally comes from the north so blows the pollution from factories or coal mines in to Xi'an and it gets stuck here, because of the mountains to the South. Any other direction would be fine as there are no mountains to the E, W or N, stupid wind!
Then of course you have all the stupid unscientific ideas, like sending students off to the countryside, with few skills and few ideas or plans to create any lasting change.. 1 recent campaign led to students advising and helping build B&B equivalents -i wonder if they investigated is there is actually a market for this? You also have the military service that every University student (and some high school students) do. It involves 1-2 weeks (once in your life) marching. It culminates in each 'cadre' firing 5 real bullets. Everyone calls it a joke and hates it. I don't think it benefits the country at all, helps install any discipline, provides any useful skills, or prepares students to defend the country in terms of crisis. Old habits die hard.....
An interesting interview in the Times, Wen Jiabao (PM) said though democracy is occuring at local levels, it will not grow until Chinese society can handle it and that it is not the most pressing problem: inequality or environmental degradation (and many others) are. He seems to fail to recognise that democracy can help solve those problems! There is an excellent commentary that I totally agree with on the problems in China and role of the media: spot-on.
and finally.... Bullet and bomb proof WC in Beijing
I am not quite sure the point of this -is it to throw a bomb in, so it can be detoanted safely? -is it for all of zhonguancun to try to squeeze into the toilet when there is a bomb threat? -Is it just that some American company bribed a local official to buy their latest invention which they couldn't even sell in the USA?
any other ideas?
Monday, September 04, 2006
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Another sunday
Its sunday night, and time to go to sleep. A 1-2-1 Chinese class that starts at 7.30 in the morning for 2 hours requires intense concentration! It is an unusual Sunday, since I won't be working tomorrow. At work I only have to work 12 (out of about 24) working days a month -and the rest I can spend travelling or visiting our programme areas as a volunteer (not too useful out in the countryside yet, with current chinese level!).
Tomorrow's a day-off (as with Thursday and Friday) since Chris (Jingwei) came to visit -the 1st visitor to Xi'an. Chris was a girl I was living with in my first 6 months in China (along with various other people) and just returned from 1 year in the AIESEC Global HQ -but we don't just talk about AIESEC, or about Europe vs Asia stories! It means I have now done all the standard touristy stuff in Xi'an -and probably not for the first time. Definitely the hardest was climbing Hua Shan, one of the 10 or so famous 'must-climb' mountains in China, all above 1,500m or so. It was not too tough -we went quite slowly and weather was very cool; the views were some of the best of the various mountains I have climbed, with little cloud cover at the top.
I am always amazed at just what human beings can achieve: the Great Wall truly is breathtaking -at 5,000 km long and built mostly at the top of small mountain ranges, the wall is more like a highway made of solid bricks. But these mountains are similar, with most of the way paved with stone slabs, handrails and at the top -hotels and everything. Hard climbing up, let along carrying some stone up too! We gathered for the sunrise (the sun rose, but behind some clouds, unfortauntely) and I enjoyed watching on as another white guy was forced to stand in every chinese person's photos -aah, so often it has been me (though I was forced into 1 nearby some random well!).
This mountain was short of temples, but was also a superb example of good tourism (meaning the entrance fee of 10 euros is not so painful) with litter bins everywhere, guardrails, warning signs, signposts (yes, they do exist sometimes in china!) and snack/water sellers who were not too pushy. I don't see the point in cliumbing up at midnight, in time to arrive for sunrise, since you miss all the scenery and its more dangerous. Plus going down is so much harder on the feet (we took the cable car).
Random recent activities:
-seeing 2 'famous' Gou (ancient chinese board) players (Chinese champion and Korean champion) being carried from the cable car to the top of the mountain in sedans for a game
-realising that Chris is more impatient than me with her own country! (i.e. the minivan driver who refused to pay extra to go on the highway, or the smokers on the no-smoking buses, or the spitting...)
-rain, and lots of it in Xi'an. Unused to this level of rain (obviously the town planners never went to Manchester!) Xi'an becomes flooded as the drains cannot handle it. Apparently it gets so bad sometimes the trycicles come out to shepherd you just across the road for a few mao
-traffic jams, not much in Xi'an, mostly just just in a few areas -but when encountered, they are of the '20 minutes to go 500m' type
-crossing the road adventures. Chris finds this so stressful that she holds my arm! Xi'an has zebra crossings, but very few pedestrian lights. The zebra crossings lead to a gap in the railings dividing the 2 lanes. You have to therefore be no fatter than the railings to avoid losing your toes, and be very fast across the zebra crossings. Cars don't stop for you, People get impatient and start to be pushy, forcing cars to swerve around pedstrians without slowing, creating chaos and danger. Be warned!
Tomorrow's a day-off (as with Thursday and Friday) since Chris (Jingwei) came to visit -the 1st visitor to Xi'an. Chris was a girl I was living with in my first 6 months in China (along with various other people) and just returned from 1 year in the AIESEC Global HQ -but we don't just talk about AIESEC, or about Europe vs Asia stories! It means I have now done all the standard touristy stuff in Xi'an -and probably not for the first time. Definitely the hardest was climbing Hua Shan, one of the 10 or so famous 'must-climb' mountains in China, all above 1,500m or so. It was not too tough -we went quite slowly and weather was very cool; the views were some of the best of the various mountains I have climbed, with little cloud cover at the top.
I am always amazed at just what human beings can achieve: the Great Wall truly is breathtaking -at 5,000 km long and built mostly at the top of small mountain ranges, the wall is more like a highway made of solid bricks. But these mountains are similar, with most of the way paved with stone slabs, handrails and at the top -hotels and everything. Hard climbing up, let along carrying some stone up too! We gathered for the sunrise (the sun rose, but behind some clouds, unfortauntely) and I enjoyed watching on as another white guy was forced to stand in every chinese person's photos -aah, so often it has been me (though I was forced into 1 nearby some random well!).
This mountain was short of temples, but was also a superb example of good tourism (meaning the entrance fee of 10 euros is not so painful) with litter bins everywhere, guardrails, warning signs, signposts (yes, they do exist sometimes in china!) and snack/water sellers who were not too pushy. I don't see the point in cliumbing up at midnight, in time to arrive for sunrise, since you miss all the scenery and its more dangerous. Plus going down is so much harder on the feet (we took the cable car).
Random recent activities:
-seeing 2 'famous' Gou (ancient chinese board) players (Chinese champion and Korean champion) being carried from the cable car to the top of the mountain in sedans for a game
-realising that Chris is more impatient than me with her own country! (i.e. the minivan driver who refused to pay extra to go on the highway, or the smokers on the no-smoking buses, or the spitting...)
-rain, and lots of it in Xi'an. Unused to this level of rain (obviously the town planners never went to Manchester!) Xi'an becomes flooded as the drains cannot handle it. Apparently it gets so bad sometimes the trycicles come out to shepherd you just across the road for a few mao
-traffic jams, not much in Xi'an, mostly just just in a few areas -but when encountered, they are of the '20 minutes to go 500m' type
-crossing the road adventures. Chris finds this so stressful that she holds my arm! Xi'an has zebra crossings, but very few pedestrian lights. The zebra crossings lead to a gap in the railings dividing the 2 lanes. You have to therefore be no fatter than the railings to avoid losing your toes, and be very fast across the zebra crossings. Cars don't stop for you, People get impatient and start to be pushy, forcing cars to swerve around pedstrians without slowing, creating chaos and danger. Be warned!
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