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