Holiday in Jiangxi

Earlier this month, dashed down South for a quick holiday in Jiangxi -a province that is not really famous for anything really of note. However we paid a visit to Jindezhen, famous for its pottery (or China) I suppose. Here you can see a dragon made of pottery in the main square of the town. There really was not many signs of pottery left in the area; presumably it is all in mass production and factories mostly. However there was some karaoke in the local park that kep us busy (i.e. everyone paid more attention to us watching the karaoke than to the karaoke itself). Next we were off to Wuyuan county, and specifically to the least toursitic (but hopefully still pretty villages) we could find, since the area is getting increasinlgy well known for tourists.

The highlight of the trip was Likeng, a town that has not been touched for centuries, and even the tourist groups barely bother with spending more than 20 minutes there. Life still moves slowly, although the young people have, of course, moved elsewhere to earn money. The village has streams running through it and the houses are pretty untouched. Since the village was determined a suitable site for toursists in 2000 the government gives each village a certain amount of money (from the admission fee us tourists pay to enter the area) which boosts their income and, presumably, restricts the changes they can make to the homes.

Here, as with the other villages we went to), the locals had expanded their houses into hotels, where we stayed. In Xiaoqi we found 2 villages, 1 of which no-one went to and the other 1 of which there was only 2 coaches all day. It was not as pretty as Likeng, but we had a wonderful meal with a local guy who was an entrepreneur offering guide services and all sorts.

Food in his house involved a journey into the kitchen to see what they had (nothing) and then a list of possible items from his wife; she then went and picked the food and cooked it. Lovely and fresh! In between the two villages i took this fantastic picture, totally by luck, as the rain started coming down. The next village was near Jiangling, in an area famous for its yellow Rape. Except not the season we were there. So there was no-one there and everyone was surprised when a couple of foreigners wondered into the village looking for somewhere to stay.

After lunch (some rice that was cooked so it tasted like potato!) we were still hungry. How spoiled we are for food normally. Look at the grandfather, who evidently had been working hard and eating little all his life. We did not see him drink any beer, so it must have been his son (with a large beer belly) that the crates are for in the background (we were told it is cheaper to buy the beer in bulk!)

We went wondering up into the hills, found a canal (later were told it was taking water to a hydroelectric station to generate electicity), strolled along it till we came to a new road that was being built and ended up at Mountain Lake (3 hours later), where we found a house being dismantled tile by tile and a number of run-down delapidated hotels.

We also had a small problem when Andrea's sandle broke and had to hitch a lift with the old women who collect recylable rubbish once a fortnight to take to the town and collect money. In a truly memorable experience the 2 of us were squished in with 4 other women plus the driver as they drove at top (i.e. walking) speed to their destination dropping us off on the way. There is a short movie clip here.

And then, after 1 last night and more walking around the local countryside buying ice lollies it was time to leave. Although, from Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) it had taken us 1 over night train, 1 express bus, 1 local bus and a series of motorbike rides to get to this place, we were right next to a brand new expressway that goes to Shanghai in about 6 hours. If only we had a car like all the other Chinese tourists who were in the Wuyuan area!

2 weeks...

Back in Beijing after 3 weeks away, I eagerly anticipated riding the new subway that connects my home to my work and the blue skies. Alas, despite half the cars being off the road the sky was still blocked by smog. Word is that the power stations are running over time now to generate enough electricity to then be turned off during the games itself -ensuring clean skies during the games. If that is not the reason, then the government must be panicking, for what else can it do? Maybe it will just make it rain every night for a couple of hours.

Been receiving text messages recently (though not as often as others seem to be receiving them) which say something along the lines of:

Central Propaganda Dept, Central Civilised Dept, Central Foreign Propaganda Dept declaration on 16th July: "I wish the Olympics fortune, I wish the Olympics colour, I encourage the Olympics" Website with Q&A in multiple languages is online, you are welcome to register on the China Civilised Website and participate.

My translation is a little too literal, but you get the gist. China loves the word 'civilised' and anyone who has been here for a while quickly gets used to it and understands what they mean by it... just like that the government (stupidly) translates its Propoganda Dept as 'Propaganda' instead of using another word, like 'Information'!

Maybe the excitement of spending several days exploring villages and all things green got me going, because now i am back in the Beijing office, somewhat demotivated. It might also have been the excitement of the AIESEC Conference I ran for 5 days or seeing Andrea, or being in our Xi'an office. Plan's new Country Director starts next week so everyone in Xi'an was waiting with baited breath -obviously no pressure on him then!

I don't want to talk too much about the Olympics; after all in about a month they will be finished and everyone will have forgotten about the Paralympic games (though some companies seem to have changed their logos recently to include the Paralympic logo as well as the Olympic logo which is good) and life will be back to normal. China will have to find other things to say in the media to cover up the dire situation regarding inflation, water shortages, energy crises, climate change and countless other problems. Maybe it will be back to the Earthquake, showcasing all the wonderful work the government has done rebuilding homes etc.

Anyway, until that month, i guess it is all about the Olympics...and how many exciting corporate events will be happening on the side i can attend/slip into!

Back on the road

In more ways than one, I am back on the road. 1 of my new flat mates departed on Tuesday, leaving his bike behind for me to use. I now have a racing bike (rarely used) in Beijing, a mountain bike in Xi'an (will be used once i figure out a way to get it to Beijing!) and this cheap road bike.

Having not cycled around Beijing for close to 2 years (been back here almost a year without a bike and previously spent a year in Xi'an, where i cycled to/from work/chinese lessons every day); it has been somewhat exhilarating. It is so much faster than any other form of transport, yet so dangerous. In rush hour cars go wherever there is space: bike lanes, bus lanes or whatever -no matter where you want to go, there will always be a car trying to get there first.

There is no bright future for pollution in Beijing, as the government would never dream of restricting middle and upper classes from owning cars (apart from during and 2 weeks before the Olympics). This would annoy them -it is their right to have a car in order to spend the increasing wealth in Beijing, they would become dissatisfied with the government and that will never do. I suppose it is like guns in the USA. Both need to be restricted much more but not many governments are brave enough to do that. In particular Beijing is full of government employees cars and no government official with a car once to stop him/her self using it! Funny that London managed to do something -I suppose that the support of government in the UK is so low, it is not a problem if citizens are dissatisfied with their government even more!

The quality of cyclists seems to have improved though. Probably the slow or bad cyclists have given up by now, or upgraded to cars or buses. The new subway line should finally open this weekend, and then the number of cyclists should drop; whether then number of drivers will too is anyone's guess. And guessing is difficult in China -who would have thought 1 month before the Olympics Beijing is suffering from its worst pollution in years, even though June was its wettest June in 15 years (mostly rain induced by the government, one presumes, since it only rained temporarily each time -enough to clear the skies for 1 day and that was it).

But when it rained, the roads become swimming pools disrupting the traffic and all the water is presumably lost to evaporation or run-off, rather than stored in reservoirs or systems to be re-used. What is needed is good old British drizzle... for weeks to solve China's water crisis. But, apparently the government is determined to have a rain-free Olympics, so anytime rain clouds might threaten (August is supposed to be in the 'wet' (though hardly 'wet' by SE Asian standards) season), they will disperse them. Seems strange to have such a need to control the weather all the time. I guess the Chinese athletes are not sued to doing sports in the rain and it might give other countries' athletes an advantage!

I am also back traveling; after 2 weeks in Beijing, it is time to go to Hong Kong for a few days work, Jiangxi for a few days holiday and Wuhan for several days.