Back from the 'light' jungle

After two nights in the jungle we have now arrived in Sempora, a typical local town with a few dive resorts and cafes in it catering for those preparing themselves, like us, to visit Sipadan, one of the best dive-sights in the world, apparently. We'll see. I am hardly an expert so anything will do! The town is fairly nice and bustling. We splashed out on the best hotel in town: about 18 pounds for a room including breakfast and a swimming pool. Bargain. Also get a good view over the harbour, and a nice shower.

Our minibus ride from the jungle was very pretty and i think i got sunburnt through the open window during the 4 hour ride, however we still arrived at the hotel remarkably clean. There are a few reasons for this: we wore wellington boots in the mud, we did not walk more than a couple of kilometers -instead mostly taking boat rides up the river, and we did not really go into the jungle. I mean it is, or was, jungle -real jungle. But a lot of Borneo's original (aka primary) jungle was cut down a while ago, and continues to be cut down. There is some left, there is also new (secondary) jungle around, which is where we were, so most of the trees were less than 150 years old. None-the-less, there was a lot of nature, a lot of insects, a lot of monkeys and plenty of birds and other wildlife on our doorstep. Literally on our doorstep, as our huts were on stilts in a swamp. That was the highlight of the trip.

The reason for there being so much to see (though still limited to insects, birds, and some lizards etc) was that most of the jungle is gone, replaced by plantations of palms. I knew this was an issue before i came here, but after driving over 300km today and seeing palm trees (for palm oils) on both sides of the road almost the entire time, and stretching as far as the eye can see, now i can get a better sense of the scale of how much Borneo must have changed. For us it was good, the animals still surviving are all packed into a small sliver of jungle along a river, so making it easier for us to see them. A real shame though. The best the environmentalists have done is convince some of the plantation owners to leave between 10m-30m of jungle lining the river so animals can continue to move between the few patches of jungle, using those channels.

It was pretty cool seeing orangutans in their natural habitat, as well as the other creatures mentioned above, including some pretty birds during night river trips and night hikes. One highlight must have been drifting down the river with the engines of our tiny wooden boats off, at dusk, as the flying foxes, a kind of bird that looks like a bat, flew overhead, under the moonlight, across the river. Hundreds and hundreds of them -it was very surreal and quite an experience after some of our earlier rather poor attempts to find much else in the jungle -maybe our expectations were too high. But the overall experience was pretty cool, the 'camp' where we stayed was great and so were many of the fellow backpackers and the local staff. Unfortunately to go further into the jungle requires a lot of money and time: certain 'eco-lodges' have a monopoly and charge accordingly -extortionately in fact!

A couple of days of diving are up next, and then it is 2010. Already. Holy ****. Merry Christmas everyone, as i believe i forgot to mention it before. Not really a big deal here in Malaysia, as you can imagine. Now I am off to eat a chocolate pudding we found in a bakery nearby. It looks really good, but it would be too good to be true if it actually was!

Up-side down

After a morning watching Orangutans in the flesh (and on a decent educational film) and Dad pulling leeches out of his leg, we are now getting prepared to spend a few days in the jungle with some wildlife-spotting river cruises amongst other activities.

Yesterday we went white water rafting and capsized once whilst falling out once. It was fantastic. The 'danger' (not that there really us much, adds a lot to the experience, and the thrill of it! A great day and definitely something i want to do again -although it is hard to find decent white water rafting in Asia it seems. The rafting included trips along an old train line that is the only transport to parts of the river, passing by incredibly remote villages who had built tiny little stations/platforms near the train to get on when it came by. I have no idea where the villagers came from sometimes as from the train we would be lucky to even see 1 house, but they came, and we all crowded onto the very old train as it trundled along, peering out the windows or through the (open) doors along the way.

I imagine the train was built to get access to the forests and cut the trees down -most of the forests in the area did not look more than 50 years old; certainly compared to what we saw today. Malaysia has a bad (though not as bad as Indonesia) problem with deforestation for either timber or for using the land for agriculture, often growing palm trees for their valuable oil. Both being awful for the forests, the former as it is often done illegally and the latter because it destroys biodiversity and affects wildlife.

A passing comment, as we have decided not to climb the mountain here that takes 1-2 days; instead we literally flew (on our way to the jungle) right next to it, at the same altitude (4,000 m) and only a kilometre or so away. A great view/photos of the mountain and the surroundings without the hike -almost making it worth waking up at 5am for the early flight this morning!

An old friend and an excellent documentary about the earthquake

Last Sunday we went out for Dinner, but because my previous 'birthday restaurant' was destroyed during the summer (birthday restaurant meaning somewhere cheap, friendly, with good atmosphere, convenient and with space for a large group of people), a new one had to be found. After 40 minutes of hunting, a new one has been found and it did not disappoint. After a great hotpot dinner, we went to the Mississippi Bar which has happy hour from 11am to 11pm -fast becoming a favourite!

Tuesday night was quiz night -actually it was my first time at this particular quiz at Tim's Texas BBQ, now just one of over ten different quiz nights at various bars for foreigners in Beijing. This one was somewhat easier than the other one, and less high-brow, so I made a few meaningful contributions (such as knowing the length of a snooker table, knowing how many clubs have been in the Premiership consistently without being relegated etc); although more amusing was the quizmaster reading out questions that often, for some reason, had french words or names in them, and he had no idea how to pronounce them.

Tonight I took the bus to meet a friend for dinner and the driver said something to me -a bit confused and not sure what he said i moved further down the bus (thinking that i was blocking something), but then he beckoned me over, so i went over and chatted to him. It seems that he remembered me from 2 years ago when I often used motorbike taxis (with little cabs/sidecars on the back), and quite often him, to get me to work. Somewhat bizarre that he remembered me after two years -I guess he did not have many foreign customers.

Also tonight we went to watch a documentary (called '1428' after the time of the Sichuan Earthquake) by a Chinese director which won some prestigious awards. It has not been released in any cinemas as I know, but a special screening was organized along with a Q&A from the director. The documentary is just 2 hours edited from the director's 178 hours of footage he shot in the week after the earthquake and then around 9 months later -the director says nothing in the film at all. Interestingly there is no real message in the documentary though it is well done.

It has several different perspectives expressed by those affected; mostly related to reconstruction, getting aid etc. There was plenty in there that will teach viewers a lot about China, from the government slogans painted on the walls ("only the lazy rely on the government") to the visit of the Prime Minister to the area, and the clips related to the police, military and party officials. There are some interesting insights, such as people rummaging through rubble to get scrap metal to sell which is the only income source for most people or others who were stealing. There were perspectives from the elderly and the middle-aged, from those who lost everything and those who lost almost nothing. There was also though a couple of larger points i took from the film that i had not really thought specifically about before.

The first is that the Chinese government has made sure the people know it is in charge and have expectations that it will meet their needs. This ensures the government is seen as the only source of power in the country, but it also means that the people have very high expectations of the government and expect them to help no matter what. Thankfully the government is fairly efficient, as most of you will have heard.

The second is that when the government encouraged its people to "go get rich", which many of them are doing, or at least are trying, it also opened a can of worms by creating expectations that everyone should be able to get rich. But for those who do not? How patient can they be? Who do they blame if they are still impoverished? Thus the government has unleashed entrepreneurialism but at the risk of also undermining its authority if it cannot deliver.

In hindsight there were plenty of other interesting things in the documentary, and some comical moments too. Probably it meant more to me having lived here for 5 years, and visited the earthquake area 6 months ago, but i do think it is well worth watching!

A chocolaty night

Last night we went out to Chocolate, as Andrea had never been but had wanted to go as she heard lots about it. It is the newest Russian club in town, out of about 5 in the Russian quarter. This one though is one special place. It is all underground with the entrance down a red escalator with red velvet drapes overhead. Once inside the club is designed around a dance floor with 2 poles (you can guess what they get used for). Behind is a stage with a couple of platforms (you can also guess what they are for) framed by massive photo frames, so the dancers almost look like they are in the photo frames. Surrounding the dance floor are probably 100 tables which match the chairs in style: the chairs are velvet backed and golden framed as if they are from a 17th century palace banquet room. On the ceiling, everywhere, are handing face down, hundreds of large fake french paintings, each one 2m x 3m or so and around the outside of the club are a couple of bars.

At the back is another room with pool tables, as well as a kids area, believe or not, though most of the clientele (and predominantly non-Russian, unlike all the other Russian clubs, but maybe this club is just too garish even for the Russians, or there are not enough Russians to fill the club) sit and drink vodka, or dance to the awful Russian band. Around midnight the show starts with the girls coming out and 'exotic dancing' though they don't actually take their clothes off. It is one strange experience.

This afternoon i got a call from a random Russian guy that it seems i gave by business card to last night, and whom i communicated with in Chinese, since i speak no Russian, and he speaks no English. Hopefully he won't call again as i really have nothing to say to him. Although i am keen to find out just what is appealing about Chocolate, apart from its strangeness and exotic dancers.

The Russian quarter in Beijing is very distinctive with at least 3 shopping malls of 3 floors each purely for Russian clientele: the Chinese sales people there even speak Russian. there are several Russian restaurants of course selling hearty Russian food and vodka too, as well as Treasure Island, the precursor (but still in existence) to Chocolate with its own exotic dancers that was perfect for Leon's stag earlier this year. Yet the strangest thing about the Russian quarter is that it is not near the Russian Embassy!

Milestones at work and arrival of 85 degrees in Beijing

85 degrees, a taiwanese coffee chain that does excellent chocolate
doughnuts and coffee for half the price of anywhere else finally
opened in beijing, so I don't have to wait for trips to Shanghai to
binge. (the weather in Beijing is nowhere near 85 anything, fairly
settled at or below freezing). Their quality and prices have done them
so well they're running close to 100 stores in China now, having
opened their first only about 2 years ago. They are so popular that if
they are presumably aiming to make lower margins but sell higher
volumes, they look very successful.

There is still no sign of the massive complex of 15+ tower blocks
being built nearby being finished. I am mystified how slow they seem
to be working on that, and also the mysterious building to the other
side of us; although our latest guess is that it might be a school.
It's still covered in scaffolding so we are not sure, but the massive
whole that was subsequently repeatedly filled in with soil to a depth
of 20 metres or so is now covered in buildings. Thus it seems like it
won't be a lake, and the mystery of the hole (and other strange
construction) might never be solved.

The last two weeks marked a couple of milestones: Andrea's Paragon 100
fellowship program was launched (www.paragon100.asia) after 6 months
of establishing partnerships, identifying over 500 inspiring young
entrepreneurs, and selecting 100. Next they'll be given access to
various resources and work together in their network to help each
other whilst Andrea and her partners promote them as role models like
crazy to inspire other young Asians to follow their dreams.

The other milestone was the launch (finally) of Sustainable Investment
in China (www.ifc.org/sustainableinvesting), a report I contributed
to; and a launch event we held that was successful. This is just the
beginning of our work in this area which is quite exciting... not only
is the concept of bankers doing good with their money (by investing in
ways that makes money whilst supporting responsible business
practices) somewhat topical nowadays, but in China its a field that is
only just beginning so we hope to play a leading in it. For me,
someone who studied business but stayed away (as much as possible)
from finance at university, it is quite ironic!

If anyone is still reading, and in the UK, you might be happy (or
not!) that i'll be back in the UK in february. I am struggling to
access facebook to stay in touch but still hope to see friends and
family then of course.

Winter has arrived!

A cold patch in the last few days led to beliefs that the short autumn of around 6 weeks has already ended, though some optimists believed it might warm up again for a few more days. Waking up today to snow dispelled that notion. Though it might get a bit less cold at some point, winter certainly seems to be here. On the up side, skiing should be possible soon.

The other upside is the joy of eating hotpot (a tub of boiling water/spicy broth that you put food in and cook yourself) which warms you up and is lots of fun and tasty. I had that this week with a friend who was working at AIESEC in the UK 2 years before who was in town. In fact, with Flic (who i worked and lived with when I first came to Beijing 5 years ago) also visiting, and a couple of other friends of friends somewhat related to work in town also requiring attention, it was a busy week for visitors!

As you may have read, or watched, the parade on the 1st October was a fairly impressive thing, though, really a tale of two halfs. The first was a North Korean style military parade which kept the military and academic geeks happy checking out the latest Chinese military capabilities. It also satisfied the Chinese public, who felt incredibly proud of their country's military strength. They still fear invasion, having been defeated and invaded so many times in the so-called '100 years' (around 1850-1950) by the Europeans and Japanese. They still have some innate fear of something similar happening, though this is not rational or logical but is bred by the Chinese media.

The real story is one where China has no real chance of being attacked and defeated by anyone due to its size, its standing army being over 2 million people, and the fact it has nuclear weapons. In fact, the USA is more likely to be attacked than China, since the USA has made so many enemies, yet even such conventional warfare is unlikely. It was interesting talking to friends here, and seeing that many of them do not yet see China as a threatening force, which of course a number of other countries now do, with its economic, trade, and increasing military might being of more use to attack, than defend. 1 American friend of mine commented on what would the world say if America has a military parade in Washington DC showcasing its most fancy technology (i.e. stupid arrogant super power showing off and showing its power to potential enemies to frighten then), which the Chinese did not see as applicable to them. I bet in 10 years time, by the 70th Anniversary, the world might well see another Chinese parade as they might see an American one today. For a quick summary of this read this article from the Chinese government's official media outlet, Xinhua, entitled: China shows military might on National Day, stresses self-defense (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/01/content_12147021_2.htm)

Other conversations that took place on that topic tended to revolve around the issue that China's military is still about 20 years behind the Americans though it is catching up in some areas quicker than others. It's military budget is increasing fast, though is still way way behind the USA. It is quite funny really when most Western countries are trying to decrease their military budgets and completely change their strategies for new types of warfare, counter-terrorism, and wars on foreign soils that require lighter nimble forces, as well as machines more than people; the Chinese seem to be going the opposite way. Although the announcement that the army would hire another 130,000 graduates is more likely to be about ensuring students get jobs than about actually expanding the army.

The second half of the parade involved each province having a float along with other floats displaying green energy, harmony and other key themes. There was also tens of thousands of people, ordinary (but selected) as well as military marching past with signs (and a few photos of Mao and the other big Chinese leaders) all lauding the country, its leaders and its aim for a sustainable and harmonious development etc.

This was done whilst 80,000 children were holding up different colored boards in the background to make different words related to what was happening which in itself was very impressive!

The 60th was also marked by having tens of thousands more volunteers on the streets to do nothing useful really. As with the Olympics, although it is generally good for people to get into the spirit of volunteers, I have to wonder whether it somewhat demeans the concept of volunteering. Standing in a street or sitting in a booth is not quite the same as washing old people in a hospital or committing to teach the poor every weekend!

Last night we struggled to get to yet another leaving party (it really seems as if most foreigners hit about 4 years and then leave), because Beijing Guo An football team won their last match of the season winning the Chinese league for the first time. We did not know the match was on yesterday and got stuck whilst the crown celebrated on the streets with a parade of sorts straight after the game that blocked lots of roads. It was quite cool to join in for a bit, and also surprising the celebration was happening (though it seemed planned and was well policed). I am not even more surprised having read there were riots on Thursday after tickets for the game sold out. It was the first time i had ever seen a large number of Chinese people on the streets ever and an encouraging sign that such things are possible in very controlled and non-political environments (other political protests have happened in smaller villages or cities, normally involving protests about environmental concerns, but these are not normally planned and often lead to violence).

Having watched Guo An lose twice in the Summer during the Asia Premiership Cup, with the stadium about half full, i wish i had known about the match yesterday and gone to the game as at 60,000 capacity it must have been a great atmosphere.

October was a month for several small projects, November is now when a couple of longer and larger projects are starting that will keep me busy until February -Chinese New Year- when I will be home for a couple of weeks. It seems so close already!

The BIG day is tomorrow!

Since I last wrote, the last 3 weeks have been dominated by preparations for tomorrow.

All the trees, flowers and bushes have been recently cut in pretty shapes. The lawn has been mowed all over, including in the sections between the highways and other strange places.

Every lampost in the inner city (an area of several miles) has a banner celebrating and welcoming the big day.

Every bus stop (in an even bigger area) has changed all the advertisements to government advertisements welcoming the big day. The TV is full of shows commemorating the achievements of the last 60 years.

Security which used to be a few people at each entrance to the subway is now 5-6 people (some men standing behind the women to back them up) and women who used to get away without putting their handbags on the x-ray machine no longer get away with it.

Our favorite restaurant is now longer able to put seating outside on the street as a massive information/notice board has gone up. Written at the top of the notice board a sign declares its purpose (translated into English): The Building a Civilized Spirit in the Capital Promotion Notice Board. Classic. Truly Chinese. These kinds of words are used all over the place, but I still laugh when I see them!

Due to two knife attacks earlier this month (an unusual event in a safe city) knifes are no longer on sale for the next 2 weeks and have been removed from any serviced apartments or hotels that have knifes of any kind in kitchens. This should keep the city much safer, as of course, no-one in the city already has any knifes!

And of course the Western media has articles covering China's progress and commemorating various points in the last 60 years since the People's Republic of China was founded. Aah, the PRC. 6 months ago, the government was always proudly talking up the significant progress the country has made since 1979. And it has. Now, though, the government talks up the progress from 1949 until 2009, which is laughable, as there was no progress in the first 30 years. In fact the country almost went backwards (which is a hard thing to do, since in 1949 the country was emerging from over 20 years of civil war and fighting the Japanese in WW2). It also leads to crazy comparisons of GDP going up thousands of percent.

So tomorrow will be military parade, the civilian parade and security is insane, so we'll be watching it on TV (although hopefully we'll see the air force's display overhead). I am not sure what will happen after tomorrow; the country has been solidly geared up for this after the Olympics finished. Next up is the Expo in Shanghai I suppose, and them i imagine some other event needs to be secured, so the government can continue promoting how amazing it is and inspiring everyone towards whatever slogans and goals it wants to associate with these events.

Well one thing is for sure, China will get back to looking at the future, and will forget about the past. For China only cares about the future as it races into a future that is moving very fast. Whether that future will be incredibly unsustainable or just a little unsustainable, we don't know... but the government is making promising noises around Climate Change at least -so lets stay tuned for more daily news on that until (and likely after) the Summit in Copenhagen in just a month or so.

In the desert

We went to some spectacular grottoes that i had been to before, which
are fun to look at due to the stairways carved out of, and sticking
out of, the cliff that you clomb to see the carvings. However the 6 hr
return journey was 12 in the end, so it might not have been worth it!

We did finally arrive at the desert for glorious sunshine, zip lines,
sand duning and quad biking amongst others. The area, sha po tou, is
split into a south section, where the desert meets the Yellow river
with fantastic views, and the north section. After zip lining down to
the river, it was the north section which we fell in love with and
ended up spontaneously staying the night at, in a hotel in the desert.
It was very well designed and fit into the scenery well, as did the
other buildings containing the attraction, and a bar which provided us
with a roof to drink on whilst the sun set. A quick game of football
on the sand broke up the drinking games before dinner.

The amazing quad biking was one of the best ten minutes i have ever
had doing any sport, so we did it 4 times. Flying, almost literally,
over the massive dunes was a wonderful experience, at speeds that did
not feel safe.

The resort area was very well designed physically and well laid out,
unusually for China. We really were in a playground in the desert,
with few other people, and surrounded by sand. Unfortunately the
Chinese are so keen to take your tourist money, after paying an
entrance fee we still paid for each activity we did.

The following day at another scenic site, sikou, we saw some dramatic
rocky scenery and had a fight over paying an additional fee to cross a
rope ladder, which was the main attraction we came to see (and paid
the entrance ticket for). As much as it was ridiculous to charge
another fee, we had to accept the Chinese tourism industry's desire to
play its role in increasing national consumption.

We then took a bus half way up Ningxia province to the capital. It is
a small province so it was only a 2 hour (fast) bus ride, which was
nice and then a quick dash out to the Western Xia tombs, from a
dynasty the ruled much of north-west China a milennium ago.

The province was one of the last provinces to be specified and is
supposed to be a Hui one, the Hui being an islamic ethnic minority.
But most Hui live elsewhere in China (only 1/3rd of those in Ningxia
are Hui nowadays) due to population movements. We saw more mosques a
few days earlier in Gansu than we did in Ningxia.

Being able to speak the language has rfevealed another benefit with
our constant negotiations with taxi drivers or others: being able to
understand them helps mean we can get their perspective on why a price
is set as it is; and in many cases found no need to bargain. Though
this has beem difficult for my sister who thinks we should bargain
everything, all the time, always!

The lack of english at the museum, a typical problem, even in major
cities, is frustrating. This especially so when they translate 1
paragraph, but nothing else!
More frustrating though is the lack of any interesting content that
gives you context or keeps you engaged or makes you interested.
Instead text is boring and factual, out of context and meaningless.
Museums is one area where the Chinese are not making much progress.

A night with the animals in the hills

Our next stop was to a monastery in the Sangke grasslands which
refused women entry. The monks there were interested in talking to us,
well the one monk who spoke Chinese was at least; the rest just stared
at my hairy arms! Most average Tibetan people we have met on this trip
have not spoken much Chinese, only Tibetan. The guides and shop
keepers have though, thankfully.

We visited Ba Jiao, a 2000 yr old town, which has been an unexpected
highlight of the entire trip. I have seen a lot of old, rural, poor
villages, but this one was special. Set in beautiful wheat fields, the
inner wall of the town survives in its entirety and there are remains
of the outer wall and moat in between.

80 households live within the walls in houses still made almost
entirely of mud and straw, though some recent brick reinfocements keep
the houses standing. Inside one of the houses, where we had lunch, was
a typical Kang adjoining the stove. A Kang is a bed on a platform
which is kept warm from the steam from the stove that is fed under the
bed. Lunch was Tibetan milk tea, Tibetan cake (cheese/butter mixed
with hot water and a kind of flour) and Local bread. Hanging on the
line next to where we ate were two sheep skins drying! Outside the
houses were small mud wall enclosures for keeping animals and wooden
contraptions for hanging the straw to dry. Dung was stuck on the side
of many of the walls to dry, and later be used as fuel.

Nothing in the village or village life seemes to have changed for
centuries, apart from a primary school that was built a decade before.
The locals were using horse-driven carts to transport straw and few
houses even had tvs.

The next day we took a 4 hour bus, avoiding the many yaks on the road
to the Gansu/Sichuan border to go horse riding. First we hiked in a
beautiful gorge, enjoyed the sun and watched the child monks playing
games outside the monastery. The overnight trek was quite something.
Though the rolling hills and mountains were special and seeing yaks
everywhere reminded us where we were, it was the night in the local's
tent that was most interesting. The locals move every 6 weeks during
the grazing season so everything is in boxes and a simple stove is
used for cooking, powered by dung, which the women spend half their
day raking, gathering and drying. There was also a solar panel used to
charge a battery for powering a lightbulb at night. Other tents just
used a car battery for important things like charging mobile phones!

The women work all day, waking up at 5am to milk the yaks, then
unhooking the yaks, who they leash together during the night once the
men herd them back to the camp. Once the yak are gone its dung
collecting time, then cooking time (which takes over an hour) and then
time for chores including going into the hills to collect more dung,
preparing for moving, fixing and sewing, going to market etc. In the
evening they are back cooking, rounding up yak and so on. The lady we
stayed with had been at it since she was 15 but was expecting to
'retire' at 40 to live in the village or town and try to earn money
there.

Each family has at least 2 very evil dogs to keep the thieves away
(other tibetans from neighboring areas) and to keep us up at night
with their barking. With a mimimum of 30 yak each and a hundred sheep,
but with tens of amilies living on the same, or neighboring, hills,
the evening rounding up is incredible as herdsmen bring thousands of
animals back to camp. We stood by the tent surrounded by animals
3,800m high up in the hills and felt how hard the life was, especially
with high winds and cold nights -even in August.

Langmusi town had a couple of chinese youth hostels, which started
appearing a few years ago, but are still outnumbered by those oriented
towards foreign backpackers. The first difference is an all-chinese
menu, the second is the chinese messages and flags all over the
walls, and the various other differences include: karaoke at evenings,
less tourist information and less helpful staff, hot water flasks for
rooms, a bar that is barely used and that sells wine by the shot, and
an internet connection that is not continually used. Oh, and of
course, the awful bathroom conditions!

The day we left Langmusi was a festival day so there hundreds of
colorful Tibetans in town for the day in their best dresses and with
balloons. They are beautiful people with their rugged, weathered looks
particularly striking, particularly amongst the elderly and children.
The youth ride around on motorbikes, but are still heavily involved in
local life, and i have no doubt the lady who we stayed with will have
her son and daughter up in the hills once they leave school at 15. We
did see her nephew herding (and riding, barebak) yaks after all.

We're now on our way to our next destination, which has been
continually up in the air due to the difficulties of travelling in
rural China, particularly getting hold of train tickets. At least
there are always busses with great views of the surrounding scenery,
and taxi drivers willing to take us anywhere for a price (and with 4
of us, not much more than a bus).

Back on the tourist road

2 weeks ago when I was fretting about my sisters' visa I really should
have wondered when mine needed renewing. As it was it occurred to me 1
day after my visa expired, so a panicky renwal process began and
somehow I even managed to avoid a fine and get my passport back 6
hours before flying off to Gansu with mum and sisters.

Upon arriving at 1am a taxi driver convinced us to ride through the
night to our 1st destination, rather than staying the night first.

Now we are very tired having not slept at all in the car but have had
an enjoyable day in Xiahe, where 15 months ago the Tibetan monks
rioted following those in Lhasa. Foreigners were only allowed to the
town a few months ago. Still foreigners cannot buy bus tickets to get
here unless as part of groups, through other destinations, or by taxi.

Not too much has changed in the monastery itself since i was here 3
years ago, though several new developments have been built on the edge
of town. The town's special feel still remains with a thousand monks
living and working in the monastery and wondering around. We even went
to a nunnery where all the nuns had shaved heads (and Kate was
disappointed they were not in black and white robes Sister Act-style).
I can barely imagine how awesome the place must have been years ago
with 20,000 monks and no new developments.

As it is the monk giving the tour in English struggled to avoid or
diplomatically answer certain questions from people with a massive
range of knowledge on Tibettan buddhism. He did a good job though.

Earlier in the morning the girls had failed to bargain with the
locals, as there was an unequal balance of bargaining power, desperate
as the girls were for some warm clothes that we all under-brought
(Xiahe is 3,000m up).

They'd done a better job in Beijing spending almost 2 days at a flea
market, clothes markets and boutiques. They also managed a day at the
beack (by a lake in the park), a day at the Summer Palace + Olympics,
a day around Tiananmen and Forbidden city area, a day at the Great
Wall and even went to the urban planning museum + lama temple without
getting bored for a day. I accompanied them to a wide variety of
meals: hot pot, ma la tang, pizza, xinjiang, BBQ, dim sum and all
sorts.

Still plenty of chinese food for them to try though. They're doing
well so far, with Beth even drinking beer (as well as shopping,
clubbing and watching the awesome acrobatics). So if you come to
Beijing, there's your 1 week itinerary pretty much sorted!

Watching football in Beijing

Football in China is commonly regarded as a joke. The Chinese national team almost never qualifies for any meaningful tournaments and the domestic league is an embarrassment, unfortunately. Just 2 weeks ago 1 team chased a referee around (and off) the pitch as they disagreed with a decision. This happens regularly. The clubs and league is run by an organization somewhere under the government, is under-funded and badly run with little discipline and a low fan base. Although the Chinese are much bigger basketball fans, they do love football, and thus watch plenty of European football, when they can. The greedy Premiership though stupidly sold the rights to their games to a cable channel that has barely a few hundred thousand subscribers, to the benefit of Italian football which is on national TV. The Premiership might be changing things soon, as they realize the millions of fans they are losing.

2 weeks ago the Premiership came to Beijing in the form of the Asia Premiership Cup, which, apparently, takes place every 2 years. I only heard about it as I found out for 8 pounds i could watch 2 games on a wednesday evening, and then the same again on a friday evening. 2 of the 4 games involved Spurs, so it was the cheapest Spurs games I have ever seen... and to top it all off, we won the 'cup', though only a couple thousand people stayed on to watch the 'ceremony'!

The new premiership season starts this weekend, though I'll be traveling with mum and sisters so expect more stories from afar... probably involving melting in the 37 degree heat that we have now. wonderful when not exercising!

Visit to the earthquake affected area

Before we left Tagong, where we had seen beautiful villages, we
watched a basketball match in the town that was well attended, despite
the rain. Part of a town cup sponsored by China Mobile, 95% of those
watching were focused on the men's match, rather than the adjacent
women's match. The police beat the government team 66-56 in what was
actually a decent match. Not too surprising I suppose, since
basketball is easily China's favorite sport, mostly because of a
Chinese player whos is one of the best in the NBA. There are another
couple of Chinese players in the NBA but Yao Min is the 7 foot
something giant that has brought the NBA to a billion people. If he is
really injured so badly that his career might be over, the NBA will be
in trouble. None-the-less, basketball's smaller court size and greater
flexibility means it should continue to rule. The closest (but
different) competitors might be table tennis, or pool/snooker.

A driver finally took us back to Chengdu and thanks to a mammoth
series of tunnels that have been built to replace the roads that will
be flooded for a new hydroelectric dam, we almost made it in 9 hours.
Until we ran into two traffic jams that added 3 more hours to the
journey. I expect we might still have beaten the bus that left 24 hrs
before us with some friends on it, who wanted to save some money, as a
bridge collapsed blocking their road. Although, even before that, the
bus station man would not be willing to guess when the bus would
arrive. He just said at least 15 hrs, be.ause of the landslides and
floods!

The last two days were spent at a town that was badly affected by the
earthquake, where I was doing some work. The town and the villages are
now a massive construction site and moany people's new houses are
almost completed (with money and also loans from the government),
though until they are completed there are still thousands (that we
saw, and maybe millions overall) still living in temporary buildings
made of the same material as portable toilets. Each family has 1 room
to squueze their bed, fridge, tv and belongings into.. and live there
for a year or more. Not great, but in true Chinese style these areas
were well organised with a police station, medical centre, running
water, decent toilets etc. It must have been tough for the first few
months though, when there were only tents.

The area we were was not the poorest so many locals were able to
afford the extra needed in addition to the government grants and
loans... some even had built two storey houses or had flat screen tvs
(these were the people who had earned money in the cities as migrant
workers). We saw one village that had been destryoed by the earthquake
and not yet cleared, as some people had made temporary wooden homes
there whilst their new places were being built (preferring such wooden
contraptions to the tents) and it was almost totally rubble. The new
houses are supposed to be built with some poles every few metres that
will absorb the shock from any future quakes. They worked fine when
there was a 5.6 quake last month, but I am not convinced they would
withstand another 8.0 -hopefully such a quake will not happen for a
long time, and the weight of the water behind the 3 Gorges Dam (where
Dad is off to in a couple of days) and other dams was not behind this
quake (as rumours have it, and thus further quakes could happen as
more dams are built).

We also met some volunteers; a girl who was just finishing up 2 months
working in a village library/culture center looking after kids and a
guy who teaches local people how to raise (and sell as meat) rabbits.
It was great to meet them, though it seemed clear that the young
people affected by the earthquake really should be able to do some of
this kind of work instead of relying on volunteers from the other side
of China. The adults (especially the women) were busy building, and
the elderly were helping; the kids were running around having fun
(including in the local swimming pool) but I'm not sure where the
youth were... plenty seemed camped out in the internet cafe, though
some may have gone elsewhere looking for work.

Unusual events at high altitude

The eclipse came and went, but was mostly behind cloud so we did not
see the famed corona of the sun peeking around the moon, despite
hiking up a hill early in the morning -well the extra 200m closer to
the sun was never likely to help much. Though the 9 or so of us
created some kind of group atmosphere during the eclipse, in the town
the locals set off fireworks when it went dark and probably had more
fun!

Tagong, the small Tibetan town where we watched the eclipse, 3,000m in
altitude and surrounded by grasslands, had a minimal police presence.
With so few Han Chinese there I suppose there was not much tension.
The other towns and cities with a higher mixture of ethnicities were
different though, with police cars cruising around or parked in
prominent places, after the unrest of last year that spread from Lhasa
to these areas. Sensibly the police kept their distance when a living
buddha, a lama (not the dalai lama of course), came to visit and there
was a procession through town.

The procession involved smoke, some humans dressed up as animals, over
50 horsemen and some 4x4s for the lama and his party. In fact one of
the cars in the party was a sports car (not sure how it fared on the
awful local tracks) and the lead 4x4 carried a monk who jumped out
early to film it all. We looked on, impressed, especially with the
horsemen with their white and gold outfits and swords. We also went
into the monastery where the whole town gathered to sit in the
courtyard to eat and take turns in going into the prayer hall. After
getting sunburnt in the courtyard, enjoying the atmosphere and peaking
into the prayer hall we left and went for a walk.

It had been an interesting experience and more was to come the next
day when we rode a horse to another monastery where the monks were all
kneeling amongst flowers in a square under a tent praying, and it
looked stunning. In fact the morning ride was better than expected: we
trotted a fair bit and even broke into a brief canter to escape a mean
dog who left the tent on the hills with his tibetan nomadic owners to
attack us. Life up there seemed pretty bad and a mean dog seemed as
important to the tibetans as their herd of yak (seems like even the
tibetans have to deal with criminals)... but it was fascinating to
see.

Another 4 hours on a rough road took us to our last destination,
Danba. The roads were all under construction and suffered from the
rain, but the scenery was incredible over the last week or so.
Particularly as we went over 4,000m and past the second-highest
airport in the world that looked out-of-place surrounded by yaks and
grass. We've had to hire minivans often due to a lack of buses, roads
too bad for buses, and the recent decision not to sell bus tickets to
foreigners to go to certain places. We've got to know some fellow
travellers fairly well in these journeys and over meals of yak, and
i've been speaking plenty of chinese whilst struggling to understand
the local dialect when we've found someone who spoke putonghua, rather
than tibetan.

We met some wonderful people running hostels and restaurants in these
small villages; none of whom could speak English so I am not sure how
they manage . 1 restaurant owner was an inspiring woman, who had come
here to find work, alone; her kid and husband in other, separate,
places; she ran the little restaurant all alone doing the ordering,
cooking, cleaning and even providing tourist advice at the same time.

We spent the last 2 days admiring some of the most beautiful villages
in China set in the hills, made of stone and surrounded by 800 year
old 30m high watchtowers that the locals had built all over the area.
In the most beautiful village (according to Chinese National
Geographic in 2005) we found a wonderful hotel with a bar. Inside was
a drunk policeman.(presumably off-duty) with a gun and bullets
attached to the holster... it was 4pm. We left quickly and quietly to
continue admiring the magnificent and massive buildings.

Unfortunately when we arrived back at one hotel at 11.30pm after
dinner, we were told we had to leave before the police came, as we
weren't in a hotel that had a license for foreigners to stay in.
Furious at the hotel manager we had to move, I gave her an earful as
it seemed clear she did this all the time, trying to take in
foreigners illegaly. 2 days later we were angry again when the bus
ticket office told us there might not be a bus leaving the day we
wanted to go and even the bus leaving the day before was likely to
take several hours longer than normal due to the roads which were
affected by rain. It was the "might" that was frustrating. In the end
we decided to hire a taxi for the 9 hour trip only to be told by the
driver he was unable to take us, but his brother would. Then his
brother said the same, so now his friend will take us.... hopefully.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

In Tibetan/Western Sichuan

Tonight I am sleeping in a Tibetan guest house having just tucked into
bed after gazing at the stars that are everywhere, for in a small town
in the middle of the grasslands, at 3,400m hight, the stars shine
bright. The dogs, kept by the Tibetans bark in the night, whilst
preparations are all set for the eclipse in the morning.

On saturday, my dad and I spent 8 hours climbing up (with some descent
unfortunately in the middle which required more ascent!) Mt Emei, a
holy, famous and very tall mountain in south-west China. We spent the
night in a Monastery/guesthouse and the next morning, after another 3
hours reached the top... more than 40km walked and 75,000 steps.. to
3,065m. It was the highest mountain I'd climbed, and the toughest. It
was also the first time I was jumped by wild monkeys who live in the
area and lay-in-wait, literally, for tourists on the paths, to grab
their food. The first time the monkey grabbed a bottle of juice from
my backpack pocket with me barely noticing. The second time 3 monkeys
jumped on me from the fence as i quickly threw them the other bottle,
which they quickly pierced and drank from. I realised the monkeys like
drink as well as food!

On Monday we arrived in Kangding, after an 8 hr bus journey, which
passed many hydropowered electricity generating stations along the
main river. The city is growing rapidly, seems under construction, and
presentes an interesting mix of Tibetan and Han Chinese populations
(and a decent museum, surprisingly). A heavy police presence was
visible after last year's ethnic tensions that spilled into this area
from Tibet. We also met up with a number of other tourists planning
their eclipse viewing experience and befriended them.

Kangding is the gateway to Western Sichuan, an incredible province
with immense natural beauty. On Tuesday we witnessed this in going up
to a beautiful (mu ge cuo) lake 3,700m up and then walking down
alongside the gushing river amongst the trees. Raw nature: water,
trees, animals and their sounds can be incredible. A newly, and still
being, developed tourist site, so far it is well done, all things
considered and a great morning. In the afternoon we took a car over
4,300m through the mountains and grasslands to Tagong. The 4 hour ride
went so fast amongst the beatiful greens and yellows, the yaks and
herders, the small villages and tents... and the blue sky.

Tomorrow, the eclipse, a local festival and more nature. I have
already had to recharge my camera battery twice!

The impact of last week's riots and their meaning

Last week was an important week for China, and unexpectedly so, as for the first time an ethnic minority who has never been particularly happy about being a part of China decided to voice their anger. The spark was a scuffle thousands of kilometres away where some Chinese killed some Uighurs based on a rumour that a Uighur had raped a Chinese woman. Once the truth was out, the Uighurs in Xinjiang voiced their anger.

But because there is no such thing as a right to protest in China, any protests become violent and fast -this one was no exception and it was particularly bloody, beyond just the breaking of shop windows. The Uighurs killed over a hundred Chinese; the police killed a number of Uighurs, and then the next day the Chinese retaliated.

So the region where the two groups had lived side-by-side unhappily, now and for the future, is going to be unstable; and memories of last week will not go away. The simmering tensions are no longer underneath the surface. Being a part of China for the last 50 years or so has not been the preferred choice of the Uighurs, who speak a dialect like Turkish and look nothing like Chinese, nor do they eat Chinese food, and they are generally Muslim.

The last twenty of years have brought economic benefits to Xinjiang (although Xinjiang is oil-rich and its resources mostly bring economic benefit back to Beijing, so it is hard to say who wins that one), and Uighurs do get preferential treatment in theory, like less restrictions on children, and jobs -but the political jobs are still dominated by the Chinese, and the Chinese now outnumber the Uighurs. The Chinese entrepreneurialism and hard working ethic seems different from the Uighurs -many of the Chinese just think of the Uighurs as lazy.

The underlying cause of the unrest is simply that the two cultures are very different and can not really coexist side-by-side, but now the Chinese outnumber the Uighurs. As long as that continues I do not see any solution to the ethnic problems -whether the Chinese might end up leaving (if they feel unsafe or for more economic opportunities elsewhere) is unlikely, but that could reduce the tensions. Quite simply, there is not much of a happy future in sight for the region now.

The government cares little about the Uighurs particularly, though of course it fears the minority of them that want Independence. Really, the bigger fear is, as the Economist puts it that:
"Tibetans and Uighurs are only two of the groups which may not accept the growth-for-freedom trade-off that China's government offers. There are the unknown numbers of adherents to the Falung Gong movement; tens of millions of Christians who cannot follow their faith freely but already probably outnumber the 75m members of the Communist Party; farmers who have been victims of local-authority land-grabs; and many young who, unlike their parents, take economic prosperity for granted and are frustrated by the restrictions on their liberty".

The last line might be the most relevant at the moment, where the elderly remember how bad things were -and they were really bad. The young have only known the good times, and when the times are less good... well, thankfully at the moment China has pumped enough money into the economy to keep growth ticking along enough. But enough is only just enough... and with the environmental problems as well as the economic problems, there might be growing social problems.

What country wants growing social problems? Certainly not the Chinese. The country is not likely to split apart any time soon (though the government often pretends it is, as excuses to repress such riots), but whether the country can remain peaceful, stable and thus prosperous is a more tricky issue... if it cannot, and the value of prosperity that gives the government its legitimacy and credibility , will no longer be enough. The government will then only be able to retain control through force -and without alternatives for people to peacefully vote for, or support, more violence is likely to appear.

Whether the government realises that it desperately needs to allow more peaceful means for the public to express themselves is a good question. It has realised that so far the Chinese are expressing themselves through the internet.. and when that gets too much it blocks the internet or censors it. And when the Chinese turn to their mobile phones, they get censored too (or if they are used to organise protests, the mobile signal is cut altogether). Maybe the internet is a peaceful enough outlet, and non-violent outlet. But it is not enough -and not a long-term solution. There are no organizations controlling or massaging the emotions.

Instead the emotions are all individual and sporadic, and increasingly leading to off-line consequences. The 'human flesh search engine' is a uniquely Chinese phenomenon where someone is identified as requiring punishment (either for corruption or for doing something wrong, maybe a government official, but normally just a regular criminal). So-called 'netizens' search out the person's details, expose their private life and abuse them online, destroying their reputation, making-up things and making their life unbearable. But, there are now many cases where beyond just loosing jobs or being arrested by the police for being exposed, such people are being physically attached in the streets -all because of the original online 'human flesh search engines'.

In fact these individuals who have the time and intelligence dig up these details and publish them are the very ones who could do something more serious in the future. Let's hope the government gives them, and the general public, more opportunities to peacefully give voice themselves and choose amongst different options. Otherwise they might create their own options, and that is surely only going to lead one-way. There is no doubt the Chinese government does not want to rule like the current Iranian government -nor will it be able to, in a country this big and diverse.

Some small steps have been taken -there are increasingly open elections within local communist party branches, and there are numerous residential committees that allow free elections for residents of that community (though these committees just manage the compounds, which is nothing political or impactful). Some government officials are starting to listen to the online chatter, and some even listen to offline voices. But more is needed, and quickly. The government can not be as cautious as it has been before. Change too fast and there can be risks, especially if small pilots cannot be trialled first, but if change is too slow, the risks might be even greater.

4 years ago, I used to think the government had 20 years or so to work this out. But with the growth of the internet and mobile phones, with the increasing environmental problems and the recent economic crisis (reminding people that things could go wrong), i think even 10 years is now looking generous. Hopefully things will start changing soon.. small things, like allowing NGOs (who the government can regulate) to campaign on issues and get public support to provide avenues for self-expression, are possible to start implementing now. Some environmental NGOs have started to do something in this area, but they keep their campaigns to energy and animals (so to speak). I'm looking forward to NGOs who provide real options on real issues that matter to the public who are most wanting and needing to express themselves. Maybe other options will evolve, such as consumer associations, for example. Time will tell...

Beijing vs Shanghai

I'm writing this in Shanghai in a jazz bar bar on a Saturday night; packed of course with foreigners who seem to still be packed into Shanghai, and who seem not to speak any Chinese. In Beijing there are so many foreigners there studying Chinese or working but still trying to study. Shanghai is, true to its reputation, more International than Shanghai and its clear more Chinese people here speak English. This is especially true in bars, but then this would be necessary to serve the foreigners!

The city is laid out completely the opposite to Beijing. Whereas Beijing only  has roads going North-south and East-west, as it was planned hundreds of years ago and has been rebuilt in the same way in the last ten years; Shanghai developed in a mess eighty years ago and is still a mess with traffic lights everywhere from zigzagging criss-crossing roads. Shanghai has a couple of highways from the centre out to the suburbs but Beijing's 5 ring roads start just 3 miles from the centre (is diameter) which, when they are not gridlocked make travelling much smoother.

As public transport goes, Shanghai's subway has variable pricing (the longer you go, the more you pay) but Beijing is set at a paltry 25p for any journey. Shanghai auctions off new car registration plates forcing the prices up and trying to reduce car numbers but Beijing only lets 80% of cars on the roads each day.

Beijing has plenty of parks, but Shanghai almost none. However Shanghai has more trees and definitely looks and feels green compared to Beijing's mass of concrete and wide roads. But in the winter shanghai is wet and cold and lacks heating, whilst in the Summer it is hot and humid. Beijing is cold and dry with excellent heating in the winter and, in the summer, hot but rarely humid. But Shanghai is more modern, with old people often doing modern dance or the tango in parks as well as Tai Qi. Shanghai is more forward thinking and better designed with more 'food streets', 'painting streets', 'art dtreets', 'bar streets' etc that are well planned, well designed and useful.s

Shanghai has at least 3 major districts with another 3 smaller ones, and numerous special trade/development areas whereas Beijing's businesses are mostly all concentrated into 1 big area. The one thing they both have in their bars and clubs are generally all within an area of 5sq miles -but Shanghai's are more expensive as with everything else in the city, and there are more trendy bars (that are even more expensive).

There is not much to see as a tourist in Shanghai or much countryside, but some nice towns within an hour or two nearby. Beijing though, is packed with touristy stuff and beautiful countryside but has no nice towns nearby really. On the one hand Beijing is the government, media, NGO and political and thus conference centre of China. On the other hand Shanghai has the edge commercially, although only just. Beijing has many more Unis and thus research centres, but Shanghai has the lion's share of Asia headquarters (and more and more are moving here from Singapore and Hong Kong).

Shanghai gets more of the international musicians on their Asian tours but Beijing has the slightly better local music scene. Shanghai has the Masters Tennis and F1 racing but Beijing has, because of the Olympic stadiums, all the other minor sports that come to China. Beijing is beyond doubt the winner for history, art, culture, theatre and the like -as is often the case for a capital.

Overall it all depends on the kind of person you are and what your job/passion is. For career-minded business people or partying and socialising people head to Shanghai. For those with more interesting, diverse or meaningful (such as media, government or NGOs) jobs, or more interested in culture and history head to Beijing. Then again China is a country where generalisations are impossible, so no matter what you do or like, you can find it, or do it, in either city.

Of course, the battle and competition between Beijing and Shanghai, let alone the debate, is sure to continue...

Successful, and cheap, football

The last two weeks have been hot...very hot sometimes 40 degrees, on average 35 degrees in the day and 25 degrees at night. It is not so bad outside, to be honest. Beijing is dry, without any humidity at all, though still after several minutes walking, a few beads of sweat break out. The problem is being inside. With large windows and wind, air conditioning might not be necessary, but there is not much wind and nowhere really has big windows, so air conditioning it is then!

Last sunday we went playing CS, or Counter Strike, which is basically shooting people with lasers. In the morning we were out in the forest near the Great Wall -fun running around the forest looking for people to shoot, but in the afternoon, for some reason, we could not go and play in the abandoned villas. So we found another company, courtesy of the internet, and drove there for the afternoon. There it was even better (though more expensive) as they had custom made several different scenarios or landscapes. Plenty of barrels, small houses, walls and all sorts to hide behind, and a few different games too. Not sure how i would feel if it was real weapons though, prefer not to think about it!

On Wednesday i gave a presentation at the French Chamber of Commerce about Sustainable Development in China. I spoke in English of course, as my spoken French is non-existent... all that comes out is Chinese when i try to speak French. But a few other presentations were in French and actually i managed to understand a good deal of what was said, which was satisfying... most of it came back to me, though i still could not speak!

In return for the various weekends I have been working, i am taking an extra week off in a couple of weeks, which will be nice. A chance to spend some time outside, hopefully somewhere not too hot. Earlier in the week Hong Kong celebrated their 12th anniversary of independence from Britain -it is generally celebrated with a march for more democracy; as they wait (until 2017 at the earliest, according to Beijing) for direct elections. Currently they can only elect about half of their government. Must be a busy few weeks for Hong Kong and they must really enjoy marching in the heat, as June 4th was also the annual march in memory of tiananmen. I guess there are more unemployed bankers nowadays who are around to march... or maybe they all work extra hard to keep their jobs, so numbers are lower than usual. I wonder...

Last week we finished our monday night football season in an impressive 5th out of 8 teams, much much beter than our 8th place last season... and we beat the best team in the league in our last match. a shame the season is now over for the summer, as we were finally just getting good! I reserved my tickets for the end of July when Tottenham will be out playing in Beijing. You can't see them play for 8 pounds in England that is for sure... and the 8 pounds is for 2 matches!

Anyway, i hope you all enjoy your weekend, and go Wimbledon crazy.

Impatient

Last night we had a housewarming party that went well. One guest who is involved in finding ideas/small companies and giving them funding to expand brought along a gift from one of the companies he has invested in, a simple but effective idea: a big teddy bear with a speaker inside. You download some music or audio files (i.e. learn english part 1) and the teddy plays it, so it might make learning english from cd more fun or interesting for children. Alternatively, you can just get it to play some soothing music and cuddle the teddy to sleep! Interesting idea, and cute with each hand/foot representing a different function (play, volume up etc).

As I write this, i am sitting on a bean bag, which was collected from a friend who recently went home; she had it custom made, and the more i use it, the more i marvel at its simplicity yet total comfort; much like the hammock my sister had in her room at home. Now, just have to hope i don't burst the bag!

Today we went back to our favorite park, but also checked out another part that has a swimming pool and a beach. Not much space on the sand amongst all the people, but a beach with nice clean sand none-the-less, and only a few pounds for the whole day! The joys of discovering new things in Beijing.

Next to our building, across a new road, that is not open yet, there is some bizarre construction going on, involving a big pit that they have been filling up with soil for the last 2 weeks and a small 1 story building (we think) next to it, which has very few walls (so far) and is also now being given a soil floor. In an ideal world it might turn into a lake of somekind with a tea house or restaurant next door, but we are not sure exactly, and eager to find out; hopefully in the next few weeks.

To the north of our complex is another massive new complex under construction (well the financial crisis led to a government stiumulus to support more building work, as it creates substantial employment), which is moving ahead at full steam. It might actually be 2 or 3 complexes in total, we are not sure right now, but do know that there are over 20 buildings of 25 storeys going up. Also found out from a friend that she is keen to buy one of the new apartments, and already slipped the sales agent a bribe of 1,000 pounds or so to try to get one, as they are in high demand it seems (maybe one reason is that from 2012 or so another subway will open right next door, saving the ten minute walk to the current subway line!). If there was a lull in construction during the Olympics to reduce dust, everything is at full-speed ahead now.

Indeed, though we were the first to move in on our floor (the 16th) it seems we will soon have some neighbours. Yesterday some more lighting was added to the footpaths through the park in the middle of our compound, and the grass was cut. The tennis court was finished ages ago, though I am not sure if we can use it (no net up yet), the adjacent gym/pool has not made much progress as is still an empty concrete whole though. I am also keen for that to get finished, along with a few shops to open up nearby, as there is not many at the moment. In the meantime, i'll continue to enjoy some glorious weather and the green park in the daytime, and almost romantic lighting in the evening.

Rain!

Isn't it always the way; as soon as the weekend arrives, the blue
skies disappear. None-the-less, last weekend Andrea and I got out to
visit several parks and green spaces as well as buying the last few
things for the apartment which is now looking very homely. On friday I
was thinking how almost every day I saw trees being watered, and then
on Monday it rained for perhaps the third time this year, suitably
flooding the streets that are not designed for dealing with rain
water. I suppose those who water the trees finally got a day off!

The big China business news recently has been the failure of the large
Aluminium company (ChinAlco) to buy a substantial part of an
Australian firm, Rio Tinto, who needs to reduce its debt. It would
have been a massive deal with political implications as well as
competition concerns (ChinAlco is one of Rio Tinto's major customers)
but Rio Tinto changed its mind, thinking it can get better value from
elsewhere. 2 months ago when Coke tried to buy a Chinese juice
company, the government blocked it. We can expect more of both
happening in the future -as Chinese companies with cash buy up
companies in debt whilst western companies desperate for growth put
yet more investment in China.

On Monday i got a 'black cab' which means an illegal one, due to a
lack of legal ones at the time... such cabs are fairly rare but useful
and my driver was a talkative fellow who used to be in the army. He
said the current government is somewhat corrupt as he went through a
red light; was upset at the British for destroying the old summer
palace back in 1860 when we were at war with the chinese (and took
hong kong); and was just generally an interesting guy.

After the rain came beautiful blue skies and warm, dry, weather that
has parched the earth. Will the weather last to the weekend? Will I
get to enjoy it, or be stuck in the office? find out next week!

Making life harder online

Tomorrow is a big date for China, but no-one in China will mention it to anyone, apart from foreign journalists writing page-upon-page on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the protests/massacre at TianAnMen Square. It started as some students commemorating the death of a liberal politician and then became a movement against corruption and for political change... at that point, enough was enough and the government stopped it after 6 weeks and with the death of several hundred people. What it means 20 years later is the government is trying to control and restrict communication -hence youtube, twitter and flickr is blocked, blogging softwares are blogged and more websites are blocked -even hotmail got blocked for a while. And it might not be unblocked until after October 1st, the 60th Anniversary of People's Republic of China.

Such self-censorship becomes ingrained eventually... i mean why cause trouble when your whole life depends on your visa! The subway stations have all had X-ray machines for baggage since pre-Olympics, but now you can see they have moved the barriers closer to make sure no-one can sneak though without putting their bags through the machine... the government can control things when it wants to, that is for sure! Meanwhile a few of my Hong Kong friends will be out in force at the annual protest there. The strange '1 country -2 systems' means Hong Kong is still somewhat independent and its people are especially independent!

Meanwhile I've moved into a new apartment which is looking nice -the beanbags i got off of a friend are especially comfortable. simple. but comfortable. it seems the recession has made people rethink things. 3 of my good friends have left in the space of a month... another will hopefully find a girl to keep him here! It is an extra 10 minute walk to the subway station, but i definitely need that exercise, and most of the walk is through a nice park betweek the complex, so no complaints.

yesterday a letter from my dad came. great. except it was sent on 16th april, which is ridiculous. a simpel small letter. would love to know why. it was sent by air mail and everything! other news is that we are not bottom of the table in the new 5-a-side season (yet); work was so intense i had to cancel a Thailand wedding trip, which was a shame, and i learnt the work for Swine Flu in Chinese, as it was/is a hot topic. Amusingly someone was identified with Swin Flue and they tracked him to having taken a subway, and got the video from inside the subway car and put it on national TV encouraging anyone in the video to go get a check-up!

1 year on...

I just came back from facilitating a workshop with some student club leaders about how to incorporate a values-based framework into their projects. The idea being that if they can impart the right values into students through their activities, the values will affect the students decisions and thus actions and hopefully have a larger and longer lasting affect, than just doing a single activity.

Before this part of the workshop there was a few speakers; a teacher, a businessman and a low-level government official who studies this kind of topic (its called ESD - Education for Sustainable Development). They were all upstaged by a migrant worker who works in the hotel's restaurant. He decided to join the workshop and challenge the speakers. I was very impressed with his guts, though not sure what he was actually saying! It was the kind of topic that some of the speakers took to heart and thus some impassioned speeches and topics on how to educate students for sustainable development ensued.

On thursday i had a drink with a friend in an American multinational. It was fascinating to hear how they are dealing with the current crisis. It seems companies are making some fairly (apparently overdue) restructuring without really knowing if it will work or not. None-the-less restructuring they are, cutting jobs, increasing efficiency, reducing production due to reduced demand, changing product lines etc.

Work is interesting at the moment, though the days start early and finish late. The project I am requires interviewing all kinds of NGOs, and international banks, UN etc. We finished our project reviewing a company's volunteering program after the earthquake -also a fairly interesting project because of the topic.

That project was on a tight deadline because next week is the anniversary of the earthquake as I am sure you will read in the news. Ultimately the government has acted fast many of the homeless are now moving from temporary accommodation into permanent accommodation; many of the fallen schools will be rebuilt by the September school term.

But the region is still a mess; the government could only afford to compensate the homeless with money equal to a third of building a home (more than a million homes have to be rebuilt!); companies are being asked to donate more money for rebuilding (to show they are committed to China; and that their last donation was not just a one-off); all kinds of fund raising events are happening around town and so forth.

Amongst the CDs being released, the celebrities getting involved and the PR department people all dashing off to Sichuan and announcing their new donations and programs, the government has been slowly releasing more information -particularly the sensitive number of children. Sensitive because government corruption was blamed for the poor quality schools and the huge number that collapsed. But Chinese statistics are even less trustworthy than British ones, so it does not mean much.

Somewhat more meaningful, thankfully, has been that it seems the government has truly recognised how important and useful charities were a year ago (even though they are few in number and mostly unofficial) and is really starting to support their work, and at least reduce many of the barriers that held them back. So the future for that sector does look a bit more promising -though noone expects major changes as this government is still paranoid about controlling the country to prevent social unrest. Charities, the media, students etc all need to be carefully discouraged (or controlled) from doing anything too ambitious!

On that note, I have been sharing with some of my American friends about Labour's self-destruction, and it is amusing how every other day they create more internal divisions, come up with more stupid ideas, reveal how unethical they are and.... well i won't go on any more. I will though look forward to reading next week's papers though!

Happy Labor Day

The 1st of May is a public holiday in many countries across the World in recognition of the 'worker'. International Labor Day means a three-day weekend in China as well as the UK, so a time to finally get back to my blog! (and probably many of you have noted the american spelling of labor, which you will have to get over -I have no american accent though!)

April finished with us bottom of the league, unfortunately. When we played Laser Tag (Laser Quest - paintball with lasers) our team did not fair much better: we lost 3 of the 4 games we played. However it was an interesting day, playing outside in a forest, and then in and around a number of uninhabited villas. Add in some sound effects of civilians shouting in Iraqi and it could have been Baghdad!

Other highlights of the month included going to a few jazz concerts, watching some more films and downloading lots of music, courtesy of Google China who now allow free legal music download if you access the internet in China.

Work-wise 1 project has finished, and another started -a few more are lined up for the Summer, so BSR in china seems to be doing ok at least, despite the financial situation. We also have 2 new directors starting, and our office is now packed, with our interns having to hot-desk and move around the conference room or share desks with other people!

At the end of this month our contract in our apartment is up, so this morning Andrea and I found a new apartment a 5 minute walk away that we'll move into. We'll be the first ones living there so at least it is clean and everything should work fine! The area is very green and convenient; we just have to hope the continuing construction of new buildings nearby is not too loud -although I am sure they will be finished soon!

I read this week that the so called 'eco-city' of Dongtan, near Shanghai, has now almost officially been declared dead and buried. Although the plans and hopes for the city were always 'too' high, it is a shame that the entire project is not going ahead. It would have been an interesting test-city, built entirely sustainably with locally produced energy, produce, water harvested etc. It is somewhat embrassing for the UK, as the Guardian says:

Tony Blair signed the deal to design and build Dongtan with Chinese president Hu Jin-tao. His deputy, John Prescott, went there twice. So did Britain's top urban planner, Peter Hall, and the London mayor Ken Livingstone, who wanted ideas for greening his urban landscape.

It seems the British are particularly bad at this stuff. There are many critics of Brown's plans to build 12 eco-towns, not least the people that currently live in or near them. Is it only the British that are so maried to their old ways they cannot accept change or refuse to sacrifice anything? It seems the UK wind industry is also in a mess because of delays in getting planning permission. Maybe we can just build our wind farms in poor countries and pay them for the wind? I am sure they can handle the sight of them!

What happened to Spring?

So much for the 29 degrees ten days ago, the subsequent week was down below 15 and this morning it was snowing! Somewhat shocking since yesterday me and Andrea spent the afternoon out at the Olympic Park lying in the sun and walking around the Forest Park, without a jacket!

I think the reason we headed out there was the brainwashing from the TVs on the subway, which show a constant stream of repeats from the Olympics: different sports, the opening ceremony, the annoying Olympics song (when you hear it every single day, annoying is the lightest word i can use right now). On and on it goes, only interrupted by brief interludes when arriving at a station. It was, though, a worthwhile trip, including a visit inside the Water Cube which still remains at its most impressive at night, lit up.

Apart from the wild weather fluctuations, the week's highlight was a birthday party and the excellent news that despite losing both our 5-a-side matches on monday night (making a rather dismal record of lost 5, won 1) we are not bottom of the league (due to goal difference). A few more weeks left in the season, and one hopes, time left to redeem ourselves.

We can't fire our Manager, since we don't have one; nor can we bribe the referees, since we tried and it did not work, nor can we bring in any new players from overseas, since if they are better than me then I won't get a game! How about blaming it on the weather?

Never mind, I am off go-karting tonight and then back to planning my trip to Thailand at the end of May for a wedding (and more scuba-diving). So, in case you want to ask, life is still good :-)

Spring is here

Its been a month since I last wrote: a busy month with rather too much working and helping out AIESEC, but compensated for with plenty of fun too, including another trip skiing/snowboarding and a trip to the Great Wall, where I finally fulfilled one of the many things on my list to do -see the Great Wall in the snow.

It was indeed beautiful, though somewhat dangerous as we were rock-climbing up parts of it (same part as we went to last May, but only then there was no snow on the wall)! The great thing about Beijing is that it is just so easy to hire a van (with driver), grab some friends and go hiking for the day to get some fresh air and some exercise in the mountains around Beijing; some are as close as half an hour away (though the air there is not as clean an those further away).

China has been in the news this month for 3 main reasons: the economy (of course, like everywhere else... who knows if there is light around the next bend of the tunnel), Hilary Clinton coming to China to try to save the climate and the economy, and Tibet -as it is a month of anniversaries in Tibet, none of which are particularly good ones, and all stem from the first one -when the Dalai Lama was forced to flee the country (50 years ago); with riots 20 years ago and 1 year ago (as you might remember as it impacted on the Olympic Torch journey).

In order to prevent anything else happening this year the government has restricted travel to Tibet and many of the Tibetan areas in other provinces for all foreigners, including journalists, and has even taken down the internet and mobile phone networks in Lhasa. They have always been monitoring them, but it is a new thing to take them out of action altogether! China Mobile has said there are repairs and network issues that are ongoing, but last year they had 99.something % reliability. This year will be a bad year for their statistics i think.

The other highlight of the last month was watching Spurs lose to Utd on penalties. A highlight because, well, we played the best team in the World and didn't get slaughtered -and, there is some hope (misguided, i am sure) that we might still finish in the top 8 this year. Plus the bar i watched the game at was full of Spurs fans, so we could all grumble and moan together. A problem shared is a problem halved!

Spring has arrived now; we were skiing in the glorious sun, and now it is time to get rid of our thick jackets. Hell, i have had lunch outside for the last two days! It has been a long 5 months of winter, but bring on Summer.

Fire on Chinese New Year

As you might have read the Chinese new year holiday finished on Monday night with a festival known in English as Lantern festival, and it finished with the customary bang and not-so-customary fire at the almost-finished 5 star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Beijing, which is owned by CCTV and adjacent to their awesome new HQ. Hearing about the fire we walked there (roads were closed) at about 10.40pm and were mildly impressed by several small fires on several floors of the 34 floor building.

But, upon returning home and twittering/you-tubing the fire we realized we missed the real fire: Indeed, if we'd been an hour earlier we'd have seen the entire building on fire and balls of fire coming out at some point. What a shame! Classically CCTV admitted an employee got carried away and ordered fireworks that were so impressive they required a license to set them off. He had no license or clue how to set them off and they managed to set the building on fire! With the new CCTV building supposed to open soon and begin broadcast, it must be problematic that the building will need to be destroyed (noisy and inconvenient) and rebuilt (to save face); and rumors abound that the hotel has another purpose of balancing the CCTV HQ (built on same platform) which complicates matters further.

After a few days of ridiculously late nights working, I've just returned from Guangzhou where it was a wonderful 27 degrees for a team building and planning trip. We went paint-balling which was great fun; although i am not sure if its a good idea that the first time i met my colleagues i shot them! We also did some planning and had training.

On Friday we used our oven for the third time - to bake brownies: the first time was making muffins, though the second time was cooking baked potatoes, and to be fair we did cook roast chicken before the brownies!

It finally rained earlier last the week. I say finally because there had been no precipitation for more than 100 days: a record even for dry Beijing. But the government saved the country, seeding the clouds to make it rain for a few hours at least. When the government can control the weather they can also ensure an accurate weather forecast, so everyone was prepared! In fact their expertise in this area may well be more advanced and in the West and something they can export!

And today, I touched down in Beijing to -3 and two inches of snow. A 2 and a half hour flight was a difference in 30 degrees!

China and Climate Change

"Dao Liang said the following: you know, Americans use 7 times CO2 per capita as Chinese. Then he asked: why should China sacrifice our growth so that the west can continue to profitable and stupid. Anybody here has an answer for him? I don't."

About that comment. Well, you know, I have a very good answer to that question. Yes, USA uses more energy and produces more CO2 per person than any other country, and USA will suffer...from droughts, floods and hurricanes, lack of tourism. China will suffer as well. China will suffer worse, and because China is poorer, China will not be able to cope as well as USA will. That is not fair. It is especially not fair, because USA, over the last 150 years, has generated thousands more CO2 than China has, as China has only had factories for 10-20 years (and some before that, but not much). BUT, and this is the problem, China will suffer. If China just blames USA, will that save Chinese lives? No. Will that make USA more willing to work with China -being called the enemy? No.

I agree it is not fair. But, when you look at the facts...which is that a lot of Chinese people will suffer; no matter whose fault that is, we need to look at what is the best way to stop them suffering in the future. That solution involves encouraging other countries, like USA, to reduce their CO2, but that is hard to control. The only thing China can control, is its own emissions. And for the same of its people, China is, in the next 5 years, going to realize this. Criticizing other people will not save Chinese people, or stop Global Warming. It is not fair. It is definitely not fair. But that is the way it is. Ideally, of course, China, USA, everyone will work together to reduce their CO2 -and i hope that will happen. China is trying to reduce how much CO2 is released per unit of GDP, but China has said it will never consider reducing its total CO2 emissions until after China gets to about 5,000 USD GDP per person (i think) -currently on about 2,300 USD per person. But China cannot wait that long -the longer China waits, the more China will suffer, and the harder it will be to get to that level. I think, soon, Chinese government will realize this. Climate Change is going to destroy China. It might not be China's fault, but China has to do everything it can to try to stop it. And that means reducing its total emissions. Yes that will harm the economy (and nowadays the economy here is bad), but there is no choice.

Of course America has the same problem. It will also suffer a lot from Climate Change, and it needs, for its own reason (not to help China, but to help itself) reduce CO2 etc. Finally, USA government is realizing this. But USA reducing its emissions will not help China if China's emissions keep going up. China will still suffer. USA will still suffer. Let's hope everyone works together to reduce their emissions.

A new year -what will it bring?

Chinese New Year has come and gone amongst a storm of fireworks, quite literally. Things have quietened down now but might heat up again in a week once the festive period officially ends. Beijing is not that much fun during Chinese New Year; everyone goes to visit friends and family and stuffs themselves silly for the whole week off. I got assigned to a new, very interesting, project, so had to work 1 day (and am now working flat out, but gladly so).

Me and Andrea flew up to Harbin for 3 days, in the far North-east of China, where the average temperature is 20 or 25 below, but we had a warm spell -it was only minus 15 in the daytime! Wrapped up warm we traipsed around the old town that was built by Europeans and Russians at the turn of the century when the Railway came out here and when turmoil in Europe and Russia during the war led to massive immigration. Most had left once China had become chaotic in the 60s, but their buildings remained and look wonderful; many are in pretty decent condition. The beautiful church has an exhibition of photos inside showcasing what the town was really like, and it's quite well done -something had to be done in the Church as everything else in it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution!

Every winter Harbin hosts an Ice lights and Snow Carving festival so we visited them and were suitably impressed by the replica (life-size, almost) castles and churches that were built of ice and bathed in LED lights; and both the massive and intricate carvings of snow. The Ice buildings are big, but somewhat like a film set, have nothing on the inside (well, they are solid ice really) so you look at the buildings and ooh and aah, then go on all the slides and go ooh and aah some more. In fact, I discovered that trying to go down an ice slide on one's feet is 3 times faster (and more dangerous) than doing so on one's backside. Faster and dangerous is also much more fun too!

We also went to Unit 731, a division of the Japanese military, that during WW2, performed scientific experiments on prisoners in order to develop weapons and to generally conduct research. The research was not something that would stand up to an ethics test and the Americans valued such research so highly (because they would not be allowed to conduct it themselves), that they let all the scientists off the hook in return for the results. Visiting the few buildings remaining is somewhat eery and the stories told through photos, models and equipment reveals another piece of history and insights into just what human beings can do. The Nazis had similar Units, but not as intensive as the Japanese.

Last stop was a new museum in a restored Synagogue showcasing the history of the Jews in Harbin. There were 20,000 in the 1920s and 30s and, not surprisingly, were running many of the banks and other businesses. The museum was surprisingly well done (by Chinese standards), but that is partly due to the large funding they seem to have and partly due to the connections of those who lived in Harbin then, including Ehud Olmert's Father (Ehud Olmert has visited Harbin and, one presumes, help to get funding for the museum).

Chinese New Year did allow some time to watch some movies: Slumdog Millionaire being the best, Benjamin Button being good, and Red Cliff 2 putting in a credible Chinese showing. Now, though, it is time to get back to the interesting project... Happy Niu Year everyone, so they say over here, since Niu is the Chinese word for Ox (and is pronounced like 'new') -and congratulations to Ian and Hannah on the birth of little Owen, a future Wolverhampton Wanderers superstar I am sure!

Photos from Philippines 3

A child sleeping on the streets of Manila

Rubbish in the rivers of Manila

A beggar on the streets of Manila

Some of the worst housing in Taguig

Our hut on Busuanga (with me outside)

Photos from Philippines 2

Another crazily decorated side-car in the Coron Xmas competition

Sunrays over Coron bay


Sunrays over Coron bay, orange tinted

A deserted beach waiting for us!

One of the many islands with private beach resorts near Busuanga

Photos from Philippines 1

Flying Kites in Rizal Park

A swimming pool in an unfinished apartment complex that we found very conveniently on our walk!

A highly decorated side-car!

Proud owner-decorator of a side-car during the Coron Xmas competition

Crazy, 2 storey tombs in the Chinese Cemetary in Manila