What is the difference between a temple and a house?

This is a question I am becoming unable to answer after a few days exploring the countryside of Bali. Villagers have impressive walls around their houses and amazing archways that you enter to get into their compound. Once inside you find several temples and small pillars, ornaments and other objects that tend to be gold. Hiding behind them, somewhere is the living quarters -probably extending quite a way back, since the houses seem to have plenty of land. In between will be a water feature and plenty of plants as well as offerings that are laid fresh every day.

We have seen this everywhere, and it extends to hotels too -most of which also seem to be temples at first glance. And when we actually find a temple that is a temple and not a house -and though there might be thousands of houses in an area, there are still hundreds of temples- the temple is deserted, but still impressive. There is clearly no shortage of stone in Bali. We have been taken aback with how beautiful the area is, and now I understand the popularity and legend that has arisen over Bali.

Yet, despite over 20 years of regular and extensive tourism, this large island (over 130 km wide, and over 40 km long), does not seem to have been that affected. Granted we have seen minimal poverty (presumably other parts of Indonesia are much worse) and the government seems to have invested in the road system (still only single lanes, but they are all tarmac), but most people are living their usual, rural life. All over we saw people working in the fields, carrying bushels of something-or-other on their backs as they walked along the roads, and children kicking balls in the roads. Yes, a lot of people are getting an income from tourism, working in cafes, restaurants or hotels, or as tour guides or ticket agents, but it does not seem to have changed the way of life dramatically for most people. This is not exactly what I was expecting.

Then again, Ubud, the 'other half of the Bali duopoly' as the Lonely Planet calls it (Kuta is the beach half and Ubud is the culture/countryside half), is also not what I expected. Initially thinking that a village would be a village I was disappointed to find several long streets packed with motorbikes, cafes and guesthouses. But behind these, most of the guesthouses look out onto paddy fields, and quickly one can escape the 'village' to explore. Has tourism growth here been responsible? Compared to most other places, it seems so. Has it affected the locals? It does not seem that it has.

The other intriguing element to Ubud is the range of accommodation. There is plenty of mid-range accommodation of around 20-40 dollars a night (often with swimming pools), but limited below that, which is pretty expensive for backpackers. But most westerners here are not backpackers (who might only stick to the beaches with more nightlife) but mature travellers or families. Indeed, most rooms come with a double bed and a spare bed; and there is an outrageous plethora of expensive resorts around Ubud -some are several kms away- which cost upwards of 300 dollars a night with gorgeous views and various perks. As can be expected, there are quite a few british people here, but they are totally outnumbered by the Australians, on the streets at least. I do wonder who make up the patrons of the upmarket resorts? In the big scheme of things, I suppose they are not that expensive, it's just they seem unnecessary. Most of the accommodation in Ubud is wonderful, our's is exceptionally so. The rooms really do feel a part of a family's house with most hotels having only 10 rooms meaning you feel like being in a homely environment; and if you are lucky, like we are, one that is quiet and away from the noise of the motorbikes storming past all day long!

Re: Black snow and a vision of hell

p.s. the BBC has a photo show of Bromo and me and Dad are in the photos!
Check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12074769

In the middle is me in a black jacket looking behind me to talk to Dad who is wearing a beige cap -you can just make us out. Our photos are better though -will upload them soon.

Black snow and a vision of hell

Let me start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and say that, shortly, I will going to bed after waking up at 4am this morning, and 3am yesterday morning -however no more early mornings are planned so some later nights will be in the pipeline!

The first 3am rise was to head to the top of Bromo, a volcano that erupted a few weeks ago and still spewing ash everywhere. It is one hell of a site. We'd spent the previous afternoon at a guesthouse near the top of the crater and were being rained on by black ash constantly. The poor staff were cleaning windows, sweeping floors and even sweeping the roof (the ash can get heavy, especially when wet). We'd also ventured out for a walk to see the craziness outside... several inches of black ash had covered all the fields. I think some people replanted vegetables a week or so ago, after the initial eruption subsided but they all got covered again. Some great photos of the fields though will be uploaded soon.

As will the photos of what we saw ridiculously early that morning. Behind one was a vision of hell, everything was black, trees had collapsed or were drooping. Black ash swirled in the wind, especially the ash blowing off of the trees, and roads were covered in a foot of solid black sand-like ash. In front of us was an amazing site: a massive crater which 3 other smaller craters in it. One of them was Bromo, with black ash billowing out and rising into the atmosphere then blowing across miles and miles of nearby villages. Even at Probolingo, the nearest large town, an hour drive away, their was a light ash-fall.

This morning was a trip to another volcanic crater; this one a sulfuric lake that was a beautiful deep turquoise color that was very rewarding after a tough climb at fairly high altitude. The locals dig out the sulfur in solid form, as it comes out of the geyser on the side of the crater and then carry it down the mountain on their shoulders. A horrible job.

This afternoon, i saw something i have never seen before... and it took me a while to work out exactly what it was. We were sitting on a ferry, waiting for it to leave when we saw someone swimming next to the boat shouting. After a while we worked out that he, and two others (who were wearing fins), were actually begging and would swim like crazy to get the coins as they started sinking once they were thrown overboard. It did seems somewhat desperate, and not that safe, but it was kind of interesting too. Most ironically, they were the only beggars i have seen in 3 days in Indonesia, which, on the whole, is more developed, tidier, cleaner and with better infrastructure than I expected. Although a few bones were rattled on the road down from the volcano this morning, and a few bags fell out the van as the boot door swung open!

It has been a wonderful trip so far -special- and more updates to come!

Films about prostitutes and how England needs more bribes

When Beijing is blue, Beijing is blue. Last weekend, and this is not as rare occurrence as the media might make out, Beijing's skies were as blue as almost anywhere you could find in the world. It was perfect for enjoying some gluwein (since it is just a few degrees above freezing) -which is mulled wine- at the annual German Christmas market along with various sausages, beers, gingerbread men and the like. An enjoyable experience as always, after a few hours, most of us were left wondering why so few mugs of mulled wine seemed to have such a substantial affect on us!

Today, I can enjoy the apartment, which has finally had heating since it was turned on by the government 2 weeks ago, and has a floor. For a couple of weeks i had a hole in the living room whilst workers tried to identify the source of a leak, fix it, and then re-lay the floor. I can also enjoy some excellent TED videos (www.ted.com), one of which by Denis Dutton i highly recommend spending 17 minutes of your time watching. He talks about Beauty -where it comes from, and how it is defined, arguing it is not so much in the eye of the beholder as ingrained in us through evolution with a clear purpose. His explanation of the role of beauty to attract us, in finding beauty in things done well and in how across the world we all find similar forms of nature beautiful is very compelling and interesting. Another, by Aaron Huey, reveals the disturbing truth of the native Americans' situation today, and how the US has created the problems.

Over the last 2 weeks, there has been a Nordic film festival on, and I have managed to watch 5 of the films -some, such as the experiences of a Chinese entrepreneur failing to build a conference center in Sweden, one about Dole's use of dangerous pesticides on its banana plantations and one about a brothel in Germany with 200 prostitutes were very interesting. A couple of others were also good: how the Norwegian pension fund tries to get companies it invests in to clean up their acts, and the role of the media in Italy's society. Some of the directors were also in attendance answering questions, though interestingly, for the films that are quite activist, neither of the directors approached the films with the aim of creating change in society -they just wanted to make interesting films -and the side-affect is often that the films lead to change. This was interesting in the context of how much effort would be made to use the films to create change; and whether the films were better because they were not purely aimed at creating change, unlike certain films made by charities or governments.

And the highlight of today? The news: ENGLAND 2026 BID TO BE BASED ON BRIBES AND POISON. Check it out if you still need consoling after Thursday's disappointment! http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/england-2026-bid-to-be-based-on-bribes-and-poison-201012023312/

No longer hobbling like a penguin

Finally, after spending Sunday afternoon and Monday struggling to walk or avoiding walking like a penguin, I am finally walking normally again. Certainly at 11.30 on Sunday the thought going through my mind was that the marathon itself didn't seem to be as hard as walking does now!

Overcoming a flat battery on my mp3 player, rain, wind, the cold, and a lot of boredom, I did complete my first marathon. I know it is an achievement. I am still not sure how I did it... Running non-stop for 3 and a half hours is a hell of a lot of running, not made any easier by the dearth of spectators due to the awful weather and half the route being away from any residential areas.

Anyway it is done, as is the training. Now, whilst we shiver waiting another couple of weeks for the government to turn the heating on I am enjoying the extra time in bed in the mornings. Aside from the running, over the last two weeks I have been exploring what the American chamber of commerce in China should do to drive sustainability, and how pharmaceutical companies' sustainability efforts help them enter new markets or improve their reputations. Work that is, on the whole, interesting.

There was also a small office outing to a local organic farm to understand best agricultural practices which was quite interesting, and two visits to one of my favourite restaurants, Vegan Hut. I m not becoming a vegan, although am trying to eat meat less often, but the food there is wonderful.

In the meantime we've witnessed China flexing its muscles, ignoring all calls to release Liu Xiaobo from jail despite him winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and standing up to Japan over ownership of certain islands by stopping (it seems) the export of certain minerals. Certainly these kinds of issues will continue, foreign countries need to know that criticising China will make it less likely to change, not more, and China needs to be a bit less selfish and see other perspectives (though which country is not selfish?). No doubt more on this at a later date.

Rubbish, rubbish and responsibility

I had no real recollections from my walk past the kungfu temple and
school in 2004; but Andrea, who had briefly studied kung fu in one of
the schools for a couple of weeks back in 2002, left wondering where
the village was that she remembered surrounding the temple and being
full of kung fu and wushu schools. It seems the village is gone and
many of the schools relocated to make way for the electric tourist
buses, street-side sellers, tourist centre and other ancient
Chinese-looking buildings that seemed to have no purpose. Such is
typical with China and necessary to handle over a million tourists
that visit the one temple each year!

The schools seem to be doing well with over a hundred still
thriving-the biggest with over 20,000 students. Impressive though
knife-wielding and punching skills may seem to tourists both of us are
unsure what jobs the students might hope to get. We guess many go into
the army or related private security firms, some go into film or
stage, and the rest... Well maybe their odds are no worse than other
students from their (often poor) backgrounds if, as our taxi driver
reassured us, they do study more regular school subjects in addition
to kung fu. However in 2002 at least (and a lot has changed in china
since then, especially in the education system) when Andrea was at one
school it was pretty regimental... 2 bowls of rice and vegetables a
day and 8-10 hours of physical practice a day.

The next day we visited Longmen Grottoes (one of the four famous
Buddhist caves in China) that are special due to the extensive
carvings and paintings in them. This was the third one I have been to
out of the four and just as impressive. Tens of thousands of Budhhas
of sizes from a few cm to 50m in hundreds of caves carved out of a
cliff overlooking a river. One set were built near Datong when it was
the capital of China almost 2000 years ago. Then the capital moved and
the caves were re-done again (though not identical).

The next day we went to an area known as Taiyun Shan, though we
skipped climbing the mountain itself to spend time in the beautiful
red rock gorge, walking along rivers and past waterfalls, marvelling
at the impressive rock layering and geological formations (the area is
recognised by UNESCO), and even going into the museum. The museum was
worth a 15 minute visit and had English text which places it in an
elite list of museums in China! Unfortunately the site management let
themselves down with a monkey show in one of the gorges (the monkeys
seemed to do their acts out of fear) and a few 3m x 3m cages that
'rescued' monkeys were displayed in and that tourists poked sticks at.

On the one hand I was happy with the site management who had made a
real effort with signage, pathways, electric cars taking tourists to
and from the various sites and rubbish receptacles every few metres
over the several kilometres of pathways. They even had a small army of
rubbish collectors. On the other hand I was dismayed at how incredibly
badly most (not all) Chinese treat their beautiful environment. The
small army and thousands of receptacles were not enough, though they
helped.

Even when we said to a small girl and her dad to put her ice cream
wrapper in the bin that was no more than 5 steps away she just waited
until we turned around and dropped it on the rock. It is a real shame.
I understand that industrial pollution is typical amongst
industrialising counties with lax enforcement of laws and other
(economic) priorities and I know China is not alone in littering...
all across Asia in urban areas it is a problem... but when will
Chinese people 'grow-up' and be responsible? They are not poor
(entrance and transportation around Taiyun shan is an extortionate 30
US dollars and they are not ignorant (there are signs all over the
place) nor are they uneducated. Unfortunately most people are still
fairly disrespectful to anyone they do not know and think incredibly
short-term. Others have probably written fairer and more extensive
pieces on the issue and this is just one paragraph. Of course it is
really impossible to generalise about anything in this country, but I
do like to vent every now and again!

In the course of our six days we have, once again, benefited from the
insane infrastructure that has gone up (and is still going up as we
also experienced with some bumpy rides) and the entrepreneurialism of
the Chinese with highways everywhere, buses all the time, minivan
drivers always hovering nearby, and entire streets of hotels and
restaurants built in a few months to cater for tourists. As
frustrating as it is that everything is so commercial and developed,
it is certainly necessary in order to try to encourage domestic
consumption (or even just manage it as often it is uncontrollable
without any need to encourage it) and to manage the environmental
impacts of having so many people wanting to travel (and often to only
a few places).

Celebrating a 61st birthday in Henan

China's 61st birthday is the occasion for a week-long public holiday,
and for Andrea and I an opportunity to visit her Chinese friends who
live 5 hours away by train. The couple had gone to Germany to study
German and a masters degree a decade or more ago and got to know
Andrea and her family then; and now both teach German at the
university in their city (Zhengzhou, a provincial capital). Their
daughter is almost 2 years old and her presence featured strongly
during our visit. For the most part, as is typical with most Chinese
we spent a lot of time eating and visiting their parents and
grandparents -all of whom dote over the girl.

The couple bought a new apartment several years ago but currently live
in an older apartment with one of their mother's who is retired and
thus helps look after the child. Though the apartment building is old,
the interior is nice - almost the same as the apartment buildings of
the various other relations that we visited, even though their
buildings are newer.

The few days we spent with them were stereotypically typical... The
big meal with all the family with toasting and drinking, each putting
food on the other's plate so they would eat more, an afternoon nap for
the adults whilst the elderly played mahjiang (a Chinese board game)
and so on. Zhengzhou is a typical provincial capital city, with
several subway lines and many apartment buildings under construction.
A new business district was recently built centred on an exhibition
centre, concert hall and several malls. Life is fairly quiet and in
the apartment complexes fairly tranquil. Old people sitting around,
street sellers a regular siting, kids playing between the few cars
parked inside the complexes etc. So far most people seem to suffice
using electric scooters and there are no tourists since there is
nothing to see.

As if to prove my point from earlier in the week, when we got to
dengfeng (next to the home of Kung Fu, shaolin temple) we ate a meal
with 12 dishes T our hotel, even though we were only 4 people. Andrea"
friend's brother's friend's job was related to looking after VIPs in
the area so the meal and hotel were free. As was the evening'
performance which we drove to in a convoy behind a police car. All of
us just put our hazard warning lights on and tried to keep up as the
police car led us to the VIP parking lot. This is the land of guanxi
(relationships) after all where who you know can get you anything.

The show in the evening did not involve much Kung Fu unfortunately as
it was more focused on the story behind it (which was fairly boring)
and on the lighting, stage and visual effects. They were impressive -
the show was set at the top of a hill where a stage and seating had
been built facing a valley with a stunning mountain backdrop. The
stage was 100m wide and almost as deep going up the mountain complete
with 8 storey pagoda, rocks, a gulley and a bridge!

The next day we climbed a mountain that I have fond memories of,
having been here 5 years ago. It was just as impressive due to the
winding path half way up the cliff-face which was a cliff full of
vertical fissures from geological and tectonic plate movement 1.8
billion years ago. At the end of the walk we came out to Shaolin
temple and a million tourists (due to the public holiday). We skipped
the crowded and overpriced temple and went to see some kung fu shows
and students practising.

A man with a helmet in Fat China

After the team outing at work where we cycled around the Beijing
countryside I was returning two bike helmets to friends (since the
travel agency could arrange for bikes but not helmets!) when I failed
to adequately answer their question: "why are you not wearing your
helmet to cycle back home?" So, since then I wear my helmet when I
cycle to and from work every day on my cheap bike, when previously I
only used it for long distance rides on my racing bike (about 1 a
year). At first I thought it was weird that I attracted so much
attention cycling with a helmet but quickly realised that I react the
same when i see someone with a helmet; it is so rare it only happens
once or twice a year -of course usually foreigners wearing them.

Last week we went to listen to a book talk. The book is called Fat
China and is one of the first books to be published looking at the
rising obesity problems in china. The talk itself was nothing amazing
though the book seemed better from a quick flip through. One topic
focused on too much was the issue of western fast food. Obviously not
a positive influence but certainly not that important compared to
issues like the lack of sport or fitness the Chinese do. A lack of
facilities is one element, a second is a lack of sport at school
beyond the required morning aerobics before class; a third is the
academic pressure on children and students, and a fourth is the desire
state of Chinese sports. Aside from some individual athletic stars,
most Chinese prefer to watch American basketball or European football
because their own professional leagues are in such a state.
Unfortunately the Olympics seemed to have been a missed opportunity
here, though Guangzhou is apparently making more effort with the Asian
games next month.

The other issue that the book's co-author touched upon, rightly and
intriguingly so, was the nature of communal eating and food culture in
China. It is customary that when cooking for friends (or take them out
for a meal) you should cook (or order) more than can be eaten, and
guests should never have empty plates as that implies you have not fed
them well enough (the opposite of the UK). Also since dishes are all
shared in China there is no accurate sense of individual portion size
and people tend to order too much (though some is taken home in doggy
bags). An issue not mentioned was the Chinese (well, East Asian)
tendency for dried, preserved food, sweets and all sorts of snacks
that are not made of natural ingredients. More and more, the Chinese
are eating these over fruit, sunflower seeds or other traditional,
less colourful, exciting or artificially flavoured, options.

Though the statistics say the Chinese are already fat (over 30 or 40%
in beijing apparently though the definition must be different to the
West) certainly more and more are getting fat..and not just the kids.
The health consequences will be incredible and it is an issue is
certainly one worth paying attention too. It certainly needs more
research and analysis and thus Fat China is a good start.

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

After a few chilly days of only 14 degrees, today we are back up to the mid twenties which is perfect timing as we have 3 days off for to celebrate the mid-autumn moon festival. Unfortunately that also means we have to work some weekend days to catch up 2 of the days off (it is a Chinese thing) and it implies Autumn is here, which is such a short season, it will very quickly be Winter!

The last two weeks were busy -we had the official launch of the project i have spent the last 5 months setting up, including developing a website (www.ciyuan.bsr.org), and organizing a big conference with international speakers flying in. Anyway, I am hoping to be spending less time doing marketing materials, websites, event logistics and planning in the next few months as the project focuses on more meaningful things, and a couple of smaller projects start as well.

China continues to get in the intenational news, it seems, more and more often, even though I thought this would not be possible; from now having the second biggest economy to the world's longest (70km) traffic jam (twice) and even to the number of new cars per day on the streets of Beijing (1,900 now, because the previous average of 1,000 evidently was not enough to satisfy the middle classes here). Meanwhile at work we organized a half-day cycling trip for us all out in the suburbs of Beijing which was very nice, though due to time pressures (and distance, it was almost 80km) most of the girls (though i hate to be sexist, but it was mostly girls) ended up taking the bus for some of the last few stretches. Evidently our team needs to practice long-distance cycling more often!

When there is beautiful warm weather, clear blue skies, and no work, life seems wonderful. Sadly this is not always the case, but it happens -and the views from our apartment over to the skyscrapers a few miles away and the lake in the middle of our community make it tempting to not even go out and just relax. Then again, on other days, we play football in the smog or rain and struggle to cycle to work through hordes of traffic, cyclists, tuk-tuks and pedestrians. Cycling to work is marvelous -incredibly fast compared to any other form, including the subway, and it so rarely rains that is is comfortable too. It is so rare to cycle to work in the UK, but i would recommend it... even if it feels like it is a long way; several miles, it still may be quicker than the subway, healthier, cheaper and more enjoyable (and less cramped). I even read once that is only rained around 20 times in the UK during rush hour in a whole year, though I am not sure if that is actually true.

Next week is the final week of the 5-a-side football season and both my teams are in mid-league, so we might not finish in the bottom two for the first time in too long to admit!

Dalian

Andrea and I took last weekend to enjoy the summer before it turns into a very short Autumn in a few weeks. We went up to Dalian, near Korea to enjoy the beach, sunsets and seaside beer.

As a result of the oil spill a month or so ago nearby, most of the beaches have booms (that seems to be the word the media used in the US anyway) around them: a long chain of buoys that hang about a metre deep to keep the oil away. On one of the beaches we did see some oil residue on some buoys but not much, and nothing near land. It was a month ago though, so I am not sure what it was like then. The beaches are fine, some sandy, some pebbly, most crowded with umbrellas, tents and marquees (under which the locals sit and eat on plastic tables). There were a fair few Russians too - this being the closest beach to Russia.

The city itself is pleasant enough. Some nice buildings remain from Russian and Japanese occupation from 1895-1905 (for the former) and 1905-1949 (for the latter) and there is a business district since Dalian has a busy port and does a lot of trade between Russia, Japan, and Korea. There is also some foreign companies as Dalian is China' leader in the IT outsourcing industry servicing Korea and Japan mainly. Between those areas and the shopping centres the city is much like other large and fast developing cities (behind the top cities though). It is run-down in places though generally quite nice. The two tram lines which date from, and still resemble, the first half of the century, adds some character.

We happened to be in town when there was a Dalian International fashion festival of sorts..actually the 21st which is somewhat incredible. There were various open-air performances around the city and a parade through the city with floats. Like most things in China, there was nothing much 'international' about it apart from the name, some Africans on the floats (it was weird.. There would be 2-3 pretty Chinese girls on a float with 1 African guy dancing up and down) and a few Russian performers. It was mostly Chinese kids in different outfits and each district in Dalian had a float, as did several companies, and amusingly so did the tax bureau!

Dalian had very little traffic, but also practically zero bikes (and zero bike lanes too) -is there a direct link here? I presume there is some regulation against bikes which is strange. What Dalian does have is a fantastic slide down a hill -the kind where you get on a piece of plastic on wheels with a useless brake and career down a metal half-pipe. Wonderful fun, and a highlight of a city that is pleasant but nothing special. Most of the beaches were busy and the water rarely inviting, though it pays off to walk around the rocks to find the 'other' beach with few people on and clear water.

Blue skies!

This year Beijing has had its worse air quality since 2005, when the government really stepped up efforts ahead of the Olympics. This is not good news; and can be fairly depressing. However, on the bright side, when Beijing has beautiful blue skies like today, everything just feels amazing. These days do not happen more than once or twice a week on average it seems, especially in the last few weeks since i got back from vacation, but they are incredible days -the sun reflects off of the glass skyscrapers and temperatures sore up above 30 degrees. It also makes it very tempting to go and sit in the coffee shop nearby, in a mini-park, to work and enjoy the weather (rather that sitting in the office).

As football starts to take over weekends and weekday nights, now that Tottenham are in the Champions League, I continue to play around 3 times a week, though neither watching or playing seems to make me any better! It is good fun and good exercise to complement my running as the Beijing Marathon comes up in just 2 months. Scary thought.

In the meantime, work is going along nicely, and I even managed to find some time to watch a few movies recently, though none of them offer that much to write home about.  There might not be much free time in the next couple of weeks as we launch a new website for the program i have been managing, hold a big launch event and do a bunch of interviews as part of a white paper on 'the future of philanthropy in China'.  

We moved into a new apartment recently and have now sorted it all out; it is not far from the other one, but more expensive and smaller unfortunately, such is the way with property prices in Beijing. The good news is that we have great views and an attic in our apartment (weird I know) for the extra space for all of our stuff.

Today we went to watch the World Combat Games in Beijing and saw some Taekwondo. Some of it was fairly exciting; others they just danced around and poked at each other with their legs. It was kind of interesting when a Taiwanese person came third as the flag that is raised is a strange quasi-Olympic flag as China refuses to recognize Taiwan as an independent country with its own flag. Not many paying spectators unfortunately but thousands of kids were brought in to watch the violence! Maybe it is part of their self-defence training before the new school term starts, and they have to protect themselves against more psychos running into schools and knifing kids! 

This weekend Andrea and I are off to Dalian for a three-day weekend to get away a bit and check out one of the few cities I have not yet been to. Will be in touch in a week or so I expect.

Burma tales -part 2

On the evening of day 5 we flew into Bagan, getting a decent view of the area from the sky, before checking into our hotel and finding an incredible view from our 2nd floor balcony and from the swimming pool. The view is important because, well, the view is incredible. Around a thousand years ago Bagan was the capital of a country that stretched to much of South-east Asia for over 200 years before Ghengis Khan and his Mongols arrived. During that time, in addition to the trade, living and government buildings that were constructed out of wood and have now disappeared, 4,400 temples, pagodas and the like were built. 2,200 still stand today in an area around 4 miles by 4 miles.

It is incredible. There is no other appropriate word. The Plain is just full of temples, over 100 of which are worth stopping and looking at, many of them have impressive interiors of murals in addition to their amazing structures. In between locals continue farming as they have done for centuries and trees dot the landscape. The Irawaddy river that is the heart of the country runs around 2 sides of the area adding to the backdrop. Even the persistent hawkers trying to sell their paintings and artefacts at most of the well-known sights are unable to distract from the experience.

Cycling around the Plain and exploring the temples along tiny tracks, climbing up to the top of many of the temples to see extraordinary views, taking photos of the incredible view; it was one hell of a few days, and one well worth seeing. Our fantastic (and cheap) hotel, the Kumudara, with balcony and pool views directly over the temples added to the atmosphere. The only dampeners so far was the rain on the first night, the clouds that suddenly appeared on the second and third nights to ruin our sunset views, and several flat tyres!

For two mornings we went for a run over the fields, along tracks and past the temples (and often rather startled farmers). Each day we climbed up several temples to take in the amazing views. We sweated a lot in the heat, drank a lot, and visited lots of temples. On the last night we even went for an evening swim under the stars -as I have noted before I only seem to see the stars every 6 months or so which is quite sad. On the whole Bagan was up there, close to Angkor Wat (though different) as one of the highlights of Asia.

The Burmese seem to be halfway to being Indian, but are certainly not Indian. Their simple food of meet curry and rice is often eaten with cutlery and they don't seem to care much about their political situation, somewhat resigned to fate (elections this year, the first for 20 years since the military junta lost but refused to give up power, will just cement their position behind a pretence of being elected since the opposition leader is barred from running and her party highly restricted) after the failed uprisings last year. The Indians of course eat with their hands and often eat Nan bread with their meal; they also always have lively opinions on politics. Everything here was fairly clean, even the streets of Yangon, and certainly there were few cows to be seen-just lots of dogs. The Burmese tend to give more direct confirmations in response to questions than the Indians, although like the Indians they do love to provide stories or answers without any point. I tried to find out why none of the trees at Bagan seemed more than a few decades old and, ten minutes of discussion later, think maybe it is because the farmers cut them all down to use as wood and to make space for farming - once the area became protected in 1990 maybe some trees were planted along fields or roads or just grew naturally.

After leaving Bagan we flew (the roads are so bad even a car would take ten hours) to Heho which required flying two sides of a triangle, one about 20 min (my shortest flights ever I believe), the other 35 min, and just a short wait on the plane in the middle as some passengers got of and others got on. A great deal quicker than a bus! From the plane it was clear how sparsely inhabited the country is and how rare tarmac is!

Burma tales part 1

Leaving Beijing early in the morning meant I arrived at our very
fancy, but very cheap hotel, in Yangon (Myanmar's former capital but
still the economic centre) in time to make the most of the beautiful
swimming pool which overlooks the lake.

On the way into town from the airport I noticed four things, the first
being that all the car license plates were in Burmese rather than
English numbers which may be the first country I've been to where this
is the case, the second being that there were no adverts for, or any
evidence of, western company's products since most western governments
(and/or most western campaign groups) do not allow their companies to
do business here due to the oppressive military dictatorship, so the
Koreans and Japanese seem to be the main foreign branded products
available here. However we did find many western products had been
imported via Thailand (the packaging was all in Thai), especially Coke
etc. The third thing that intrigued me was that they drove on the
right even though they were a British colony like India. Apparently
the government switched it in 1970 to distance themselves from British
times. Most cars are right hand drive, probably because they are from
Thailand or made for the Thailand market and in Thailand they drive on
the left. However a few cars are left hand drive.

The fourth thing was the traffic cop who stopped us looking for bribe
of ten US$ but my taxi guy actually had a legitimate and current
license so he got nothing from us. Later on we would pay many tolls to
travel around and pass several military checkpoints, though they were
very low-key.

Our hotel in Yangon was stunning, and only 75 US$ a night for a
wonderful room. It overlooked a lake and had a view to the stunning
stupa with so much gold and glass flashing that is the major sight and
that, after enjoying the pool in the beautiful gardens, we visited at
sunset. The Shwedagon Stupa (or Paya in Burmese) was incredible. Its
size, brightness, decorations and aura certainly made it stand out
from the many others we saw on our trip.

We walked around town quite a bit which was bustling and marvelled at
the different food options from street vendors as well as how small a
quantity of vegetables some women were selling. In the centre of the
town was another old pagoda serving as a roundabout and a central
point for beggars though there are not that many really. Even the
street sellers did not hassle us much -the kids (and occasionally
adults) being the exception outside of tourist sites with their
jewellery and postcards. We were more afraid of the pavements which
were a real mess around the markets and downtown!

On Thursday we went into the countryside for some nice views and a
couple more pagodas at Kyauktan and Thanlyin; one of which was on an
island in a river. That afternoon we rode a rickety old train without
glass that goes very slowly and stops at 'stations' every mile. Us
foreigners had to sit in the last carriage, identical to all the
others except that there was a man with a safe collecting the ticket
money from each station's staff as we passed each station.

After a wonderful run on a raised walkway through the park next to our
hotel I went hunting for sandals in my size and made an old book
seller's day buying a book I may never read. We walked around seeing
the old colonial buildings and fancy hotels that were just one block
from streets where locals were sifting through rubbish - though on the
whole Yangon does not have much extreme poverty visible (at least it
actually seemed better than some other cities like Manila). We also
splashed out 35 US$ for the two of us to have a wonderful 2 course
meal with several drinks (a bargain really) in a beautiful old
townhouse. One of the best I have ever been to, including the
incredible service.

Other meals we had were more basic, a dollar or two each for some rice
with meat curry and strange condiments. Nothing fantastic, but good
enough, although breakfast options were more interesting.

On Friday we went to the decrepit national museum to see an impressive
throne, got wet while enjoying the pool (and accompanying wi-fi!), and
dashed through traffic to a strange village of buses where we
fortunately found ours, had settled down for a surprisingly
comfortable overnight bus trip watching a dvd on dad's dvd player in
order to drown out the noise from the tv on the bus. The main road
from Yangon to Mandalay was surprisingly good compared to those around
town and the countryside from the previous days and the service
station we stopped at was nice with an army of kids as waiters even at
11pm.

On Saturday morning, after getting off the bus, we climbed 2 hills
(Mandalay and Saigang), so we could see the huge space of Mandalay
palace (now mostly just trees), lots of temples in the surrounding
area and the large Irawaddy river dotted with tree- studded islands
making the views pretty impressive. We also passed many more buddhas
and the like but are already bored of them!

We then took a tiny motorboat across to the island of Inwa which was
the capital of Myanmar for the better part of 400 years until 1841
years. Left behind are a few hundred basic houses and almost as many
stupas. Without any cars on the island we were driven around by horse
and cart; the sun was shining (for the first time after a few days of
intermittent rain and cloud); the only sound was a few other tourists
rattling by in their carts and some girls selling jewellery and
postcards. The island was almost deserted with just a few shacks amid
the paddy fields and lakes. The 50 or more remaining stupas, temples
or other remains stood alone and untouched, slowly decaying in the
peace. It was remarkable. Though the remains cannot touch the truly
unique and breathtaking ones at Angkor Wat, the atmosphere, experience
and beauty were comparable.

Afterwards in Amarapura (capital for 100 years a few centuries ago) we
visited a remarkable footbridge that is made of 1000 teak posts and is
almost a mile long across a lake and has existed for over 200 years.
Made out of teak wood it is impressive enough; then add in the beauty
of the lake, the life and colour of all the locals using the bridge,
and top it off with a cold beer by the lake and the decent sunset view
(the cloud returned ruining it somewhat) and there was no doubt the
afternoon was the highlight of the trip so far.

In the evening we went to see the famous Moustache Brothers who
perform a traditional cabaret with dancing and comedy. They became
famous due to their satire criticising the government and landing 2 of
them in jail for several years. Now they are out of jail but they are
only allowed to continue the show in English (the third one speaks
good English) and to foreigners, 20 of whom crowd around the stage in
their living room each night.

As impressive as their history and principles are, and as cool as it
was to see the 3 of them, they have whacked up their prices, the show
was pretty boring and it was dominated by dancing rather than satire.
Still they did crack a few jokes about the government and tried to
raise awareness of their plight- it was one of the few places where
photos were encouraged without requiring an extra fee!

An early start this morning took us into the hills of Mandalay to Pyin
Oo Lwin which has a lively market and nice old British mansions now
serving as hotels; the latter originally hosted the British government
during the summers when Myanmar was a colony as it was cooler up here.
We followed three kids on a wonderful 45 minute hike down to the very
impressive Anisakan waterfalls where, unsurprisingly we saw no-one bar
a local living there selling food and drink. The hike back up broke a
sweat which we planned to get rid of in the swimming pall of the
National Kandawgyi Gardens. However the gardens were so beautiful, and
our time limited, we never made it to the pool, instead enjoying the
Orchids, Swamp walkway, Aviary, elevated walkways and wonderful
flowers and trees that were originally planted in 1915 (and are well
looked after today) by a botanist from Kew Gardens. The gardens were
very popular with the locals and there is an abundance of nature
surrounding, and in, the lake and forests (some natural, some
planted). The afternoon of day 5 ended with a ridiculous 25 mile drive
out of Mandalay to get to the airport and a flight to Bagan.

Depressed

The last three weeks have been boiling hot and almost entirely smoggy in Beijing, broken up with just a day or two when it was possible to see the sky or the sun. Fortunately I was working in Shanghai for the better part of a week and thus at least able to get some rain as well as see some friends down there.

 

Our current apartment was a fantastic deal; about 15% cheaper than alternatives in the same place. Unfortunately since our landlord bought the apartment for half price from the government (who owns the building) as pat of the beenfits package of being a government employee, two weeks ago the government decided that they should not be allowed to rent it out (and thus profit from the cheap price they paid), thus we had to look for a new place; knowing we were unlikely to get one at such a good price, and knowing that after recent attempts by the government to cool the property market which restricted buying -but thus encouraged more lending- we would have to pay more for less.

 

Not a fun experience, but never mind. We found a good place; and poor Andrea will have to do the moving herself (with a removal company of course!) whilst I am in Burma with Dad for the next 12 days. Definitely a way of getting over the depression of moving out of a great apartment and not seeing the sun!

Sports and war crimes

thankfully this morning it was overcast and the temperatue was only in
the low 20s; yesterday, in the sun, it was 36 degrees+. This mattered
a great deal as today I ran/cycled/ran a duathlon. Not a big deal
really; taking a third of the time of a full triathlon but since I
don't ever swim I chose to stick to the duathlon. It was almost a full
2 years ago I was last at the triathlon venue to watch the Olympic
event. It's a beautiful location set next to the hills around Beijing
and by a reservoir (where the swimming takes place). It does make for
a hilly bike ride unfortunately.

The last few weeks, since I last wrote have been fairly busy. A few
days in Hong Kong for work took me to one of my favorite cities.
Althought its only been 18 months since I was last there, i had almost
forgotten how great the place is; and in particular how distinctive it
is compared to Shanghai or anywhere else in China. The skyscrapers,
hills, high density, fast pace, linguistic mix and the diversity
between the islands, Central, New Territories and the suburbs are all
worth exploring. And everything is so accessible due to short
distances and excellent transportation.

Of course the World Cup has been the big distraction over the last few
weeks. Andrea's certainly happy at Germany's progress and performance
with crisp passing, pace, invention and finishing. All of which
England lacked for all but half an hour or so of their 4 games. One
day, hopefully in my lifetime England will actually play well as a
team against other good teams, and maybe win a match or so. But the
last few finals we've been in, we have never hit the heights that we
think (or dream) we should be capable of.

The big game last week was fun to watch, that's for sure and Germany's
progress has got Andrea much more passionate about football... which
will hopefully carry on into watching Spurs in the champions league
next season, also at 2.30am on weeknights!

The last thing of note to mention was a film festival organized by
some students at a film academy. We went to see a few films; one of
which was particularly interesting as it was done by a young Japanese
girl who wanted to better understand why the Japanese did not want to
admit, or learn the lessons from, their past atrocities in World War
2. Overall, for a 1st film, it was a good documentary but she could
have spent less time on the facts of the atrocities, more time
interviewing those who disagreed with her opinion (instead of only
interviewing those who agreed with her) and more time analysing the
reasons, and consequences, behind the 'denial' that continues. For
those interested int he topic or war crimes, or unaware of what Japan
did against the Chinese and the American POWs, check out the website
by googling: silentshame

Enthusiastic bus conductor

One of the highlights of last week occurred on Wednesday evening when I took a bus after work. Although all buses are equipped for payment with an electronic card, most buses still have a conductor on board to collect money from those without cards, or to generally be helpful by pointing out names of different stations, getting people to move down the bus, or sticking their arms out of the window to help buses change lanes. On this particular bus the conductor was about 18 and was super keen and smiley. But what marked him out was that before and after every stop when he read out the stop name, and something along the lines of being prepared to get off, he would repeat it in English, in full, before and after every stop. 

I think he was doing it even before I got on the bus (I was the only foreigner on the bus), and even though I told him which stop I was getting off at, he continued to say everything in both languages at every single stop. All the other bus passengers seemed to look at him in a weird way but he continued, and he was good –practice does help, of course. I started talking to him in Chinese, and switched to English since it seemed he wanted practice, and he did know more than just the lines he continually repeated. He said he self-studied and did not think English was that hard. I was fairly impressed. I have to say he must be quite keen, but speaking decent English will probably help him in his career somewhere down the line.

As the scaffolding comes off of the new school next to our apartment, ready for the new academic year starting at the end of August; the construction site next door is also getting finished, ready for its first residents to move in around the same time. As they finish up, I wonder if the temporary accommodation, complete with migrant workers, will be taken down or whether they will stay and start work on another project next door (still more land available to the south). I also wonder if the two tents just by the exit to the complex will remain or not. They are home to a few people who collect everything that can be recycled, from bottles to paper to electronics and they pay for it too. It is helpful having them there, although our complex has not been one of the 50 or so selected for trials in Beijing to be more environmentally friendly with more choice of bins for organic matter, recyclable and non-recyclable goods. It would be nice if the pilot gets expanded though as, although I am sure most of our recyclable goods are taken out of the bins or sorted at the garbage disposal place, all the organic matter is just wasted –instead of being used to improve the soil, grass, and shrubs around our complex.

Today we are organizing an event with about 25 Chinese agriculture companies to discuss about their environmental impact. It should be interesting; tonight I am off to Hong Kong for a few days of meetings and back in time to watch the World Cup.

Imitations and inspiring music

2 months we moved office, only across the road, but today I returned to the old office building to visit a new cafe that opened. What makes it special is that it is pretty much an exact replica of Central Perk from Friends (with the addition of a TV showing friends all day long) -check out some photos here: http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/Photos/6989231.html. It is very impressive and a great idea to distinguish itself from all the other of hundreds of coffee shop. The owner there just loves friends and says it has always been his dream to relax in Central Perk -so he created his own!

Last night we found a new deck outside a bar to watch the England friendly, and it might become the regular spot for watching games, even though most start at 2.30am! And in further bad news, because the chinese Dragon Boat festival is a wednesday and the Chinese want to make it a 3-day weekend, although we'll get monday, tuesday and wednesday off, we'll have to work the saturday and sunday before, which includes the england-usa game. I'm not sure how awake I will be on the Sunday!

In the last few weeks I've been to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra (the second half was particularly good with lots more instruments -see what matters to me about music!) which was truly impressive as ever -very very powerful stuff- and also happily discovered the return of a local vegetable market; this time the sellers have been given an actual permanent structure to be based in so hopefully they'll be here for a while.Tuesday, something we'll organize every 2 weeks to encourage some of our friends out to dinner at a local street vendor to support the local community -and of course drink lots of cheap beer (and last time, we did drink lots!).

The School next door is almost finished, and the massive apartment complex of about 12 30-storey building should be done by August too -there is a new park that they are building next to it, which is nice. The accommodation for the workers is just next door. We counted that with 8 people to a room (on 4 bunk beds), and 16 rooms on a floor (2 rows of 8 with a corridor in between) with 2 floors per building, 6 buildings in a row and 4 rows...well as you can imagine that is a lot of accommodation (around 6,000 workers) although we've certainly not seen that many working!

2 weeks ago we went to Beijing's first organic farmer's market. Unfortunately most of the actual organic farms (there are around 5 near Beijing that are well known) did not come, instead most of the things on sale were packaged organic food (i.e. not fresh), but there were lots of other stands selling fair trade things and a decent band as well as some good food. After watching Food, Inc (highly recommended), the Symphony of Soil (also good) and chatting to a few of our friends who work with environmental NGOs, Andrea and I are making more of an effort to buy organic and eat less meat too (less, not zero!).

On Saturday I learned to my cost the difference between playing football at 6pm or 9pm compared to 2pm... let's just say at 2pm, without any shade and 25 degree heat, the quality and tempo of our (11-a-side) game was not much better than dismal England!

Newspapers and small glaciers

On wednesday I went to my first champions league game. Granted this
was the Asian version of the Champions League so the quality was not
quite the same as the European equivalent, but none-the-less there
were 42,000 people in the 3/4 full stadium watching Beijing Guo An
(who won the Chinese league last year for the first time). There were
almost 100 visitng Japanese fans who, along with their team, were
subject to a torrent of abuse. The Chinese don't generally like the
Japanese because of various atrocities comitted when Japan occupied
parts of China before and during the 2nd World War, but I am not sure
this was the main reason for the verbal abuse. I'll have to go to a
game against snother team to compare. However I was still chcoked in
the harshness of the chanting and the lack of any creativity.

Finally, towards the end of the game, after Beijing were 2-0 up, the
fans started cheering their players and singing more positive chants.
The rest of the time they were just insulting the opposition no matter
what they did. The Japanese team dominated the first 30 mins but
failed to score, Beijing managed to score 2 in their 30 minute period
of domination but the last 30 minutes was less exciting. Overall it
was a good game and Beijing played much better than when I saw them
last season in the Barclays Asia Cup (which you might recall also
involved 3 Premiership teams, and was won by Tottenham).

Outside the stadium, apart from all the touts and police, there lots
of people selling newspaper, though I was unsure why. In the stadium,
after we found a seat near where we were supposed to sit since no-one
sat in their designated seats (this almost caused a fight between me
and some chinese guy in my designated seat), I solved the mystery of
the newspaper. Every single person sat on a sheet or two, and put
another sheet or two behind them when they were sitting -and
rearranged it after standing up in the game (as their seat flipped
up). The guy behind us even gave our group some sheets to use. A
paradox of China where people throw rubbish all over the countryside,
often spit in the street but are afraid of sitting on a clean plastic
seat in a stadium.

Last saturday summer arrived with 25 degree weather so we went to the
Olympic Forest Park; which has a lake, hill, nuermous rivers, a
wetland and all sorts. Its huge, people often hire 4-seat bicycles to
ride around and there is an 'ecological corridoor' connecting the
south part of the park with the north which is a bridge over the
motorway to allow wildlife to cross it. Its a great place to go, and
even has ecological sanitary toilets (which we promoted in rural China
when I was at Plan International).

Yesterday the temperature hit 31, so we headed out a couple hours west
of town via subway and taxi (sine the queue for the bus was so long)
to place called '18 pools' where we followed a path through a valley
along a river with various pools along the way. It was good exercise
despite not being able to see the last 5 or 6 pools since the path was
not built yet. After a cheap night in a local B&B type place (where i
followed the football updates via the internet on my phone) today we
went another 45 minutes west to 'Doune dragon gorge' for another
4-hour return hike up alongside a river. This time we reached the end,
which, bizarrely was a small glacier! Not just there, but on top of
much of the river we followed to get there, was plenty of thick ice...
thick enough to walk on. I think the glacier melts in the Summer, but
we were shocked to see all of this ice in the sun in this heat.

Food

The Chinese food we eat here is pretty different to the Chinese food eaten outside of China. There is a hue variety in Chinese food -the dishes, how they are cooked, how they are presented, what is eaten and so on; with at least 50 different kinds of cooking styles from around the country. But I won't talk about that now. That is something that needs to be explored individually.

After watching Food, Inc, a film i highly recommend everyone to watch, I'm happy i live in China and eat here, and not in the USA. Though there is not much transparency about the supply chain of Chinese food I'm pretty sure most vegetables and fruit are at least grown inside China (although probably with a lot of chemicals). I bet the conditions the animals are raised in are pretty bad, but probably not as bad as in the USA. The UK has been a leader in local sourcing, with many supermarkets making an effort for vegetables and meat. And it is better to eat less meat, something i've been trying to do more often in the last few years.

But, more concerning is all the chemicals that go into the food we buy in supermarkets, from snacks to pre-cut meats; from cereals to drinks. And this is one thing that is as common here as anywhere else. The Chinese are big on their snacks and rubbish biscuits, but they are also big on all kinds of tofu or sausages or meats that have various things added to them so they can sit on shelves for months or years on end and still be ok to eat. Something i definitely stay away from from a taste perspective already. Food, Inc has some great added features on the DVD with some adverts they have broadcast in the USA with celebrities promoting healthy food. I quite like the one with them struggling to read out the ingredients on the back of the food packets. And that is disturbing. In fact a lot of what we eat is disturbing. The documentary is very very well done though. Fairly fair, fairly focused, fairly interesting, quite funny too.

It can be argued that eating healthier is possible without breaking the bank, but it would be more expensive to eat healthier, especially if the healthy food is organically grown. It is probably worth it, but the question arises of if we spent more on food (like we used to 'in the good old days') we'd have less to spend on services, entertainment and luxuries all of which create more jobs than could be created if we had more farmers paid more money. But, this is not a reason not to eat healthier and organically. It is not that much more expensive, and if I ate less non-nutritional stuff, then... well i think it would even itself out. So more self-restraint it is then, as well as more exercise! Am getting back into the running mode again finally, to add to the twice-weekly games of football.

For those in the UK, Food, Inc is coming out in select cinemas this week and hitting London in a couple of weeks (see http://www.foodincmovie.co.uk/cinemas.php). Go watch it, or try to watch it online, if you are in the USA, on PBS (http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/photo_gallery_watch.php) which showed the film last week on TV and is still showing it online for a few more days. Then think about your food.

another year in Harmony and Elegance

Today we re-signed the lease on our apartment for another year (the name means Harmony and Elegance). Happy to have no increase in the price since the purchase prices in beijing have continued to go up over the last year (over 10% a year in Beijing) and i'd heard from some people that rental prices had gone up too, especially after Chinese new year. However our landlady just asked to change the dates on the contract and it was simple. She is a lovely lady who works at the Bank of China and thus requires signatures on everything (in this case, that we both agree to change the dates). Her husband works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is currently posted to the Embassy in Myanmar (or Burma is its previous name). As some readers might know the apartment complex we live in was built by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sold to their (retired) employees for half the retail price, hence our neighbours (see last blog). Actually I believe the apartment is their parents' who must have worked at the Ministry too but have now retired. The old lady came along too although had little to say.

Both of them were impressed with the state of the apartment, and i showed them the new school next door and updated them on other local developments. Always good to keep the friendly relationship going in case we renew again next year! :)

One amusing thing about this compound is the amount of notices we get in our building's lobby -about changes affecting the water supply, about special events, about changes to the benches in the park, about the old people's activity center around the corner and all sorts. There are at least 5 notices up at any time and they are always kept up-to-date and replaced when something else happens. I rarely read more than the headlines (all in Chinese) but do get the impression the compound makes some real effort to organize activities and minimize disruptions for residents with such great communication! New trees have been planed this weekend as Spring takes hold but still no sign of progress in kitting out the gym building (that has remained a shell for over a year) unfortunately. More progress on the massive construction site to the north though where the 15 buildings are now being painted and the new park next door is being built.

In other news, last weekend Andrea and I went to a wedding in Shanghai. It was raining a lot of the time and cold (so cold that unfortunately a marquee had to be put up for the wedding ceremony that was on the roof of a fancy hotel overlooking the river in Shanghai, on the Bund which somewhat ruined the atmosphere/view, but it was still nice). It was a nice wedding and good to be back in Shanghai for the first time since last August. At least 3 new subway lines had opened in preparation for the World Expo that starts on May 1st, lasting 6 months. It should be an amazing thing to go see with so many pavilions from different countries -everyone making huge amounts of effort with them. I am definitely going to try to go for a few days later this year. I can also feel proud that the British pavilion is one of the most striking and most talked about. Check it out here: http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_gj_tpl_71.htm

As expected the Shanghai government has been cracking down on fake DVD sellers, but we found a shop that had a fake door leading to a hidden room at the back that itself had a secret door leading to another hidden room at the back! Fantastic -and one of the best DVD collections i've seen, although the prices were fairly steep (around 16 RMB, or 2 USD) but all good quality and suitable for viewing on the train ride home.

Before Shanghai I was at a team planning/building thing in south china for a couple of days, and was very impressed with the location: one of the many Spa resorts that exist, but this one was well designed, well laid-out, had excellent service and good facilities with pool tables, table tennis, a gym, karaoke (of course) and facilities for the team building exercises. Although it was colder than normal, spending time in the 45 degree pool was enjoyable, though I cannot work out if that brought on my cold, or helped get rid of it. Anyway, no more cold now, just elation after Tottenham beat both Arsenal and Chelsea in the last week. Perfect response after failing to get to get to the Cup final and will mean i'll be on a knife-edge for the next few weeks worth of games. Last week our 5-a-side team all got kits (cheaply) made, unfortunately in red, but never mind -I'll get over it.

Spring finally arrives after the sandstorms and snow

Spring is finally here. But first around a third of the population of China had to endure a horrendous stand storm last weekend (though it was much worse in Beijing than any other large city). Waking up at 7.30am on saturday it seemed like my bedroom window had an orange shade over it. The whole world outside was orange-red. But it was not the window, it was the sand in the air. Once I got downstairs the sand was swirling around, just like being in the desert last Summer, and as cars drove down the street the thin layer of sand on the ground would swirl around. It was the worst sandstorm in Beijing for about 4 years -I remember the one before that, and it was indeed worse. Although most cars this time were dirty and sand-streaked, last time it was much worse. Good business for the car-wash people anyway!

The government had actually warned everyone to stay inside and not go out, but by the afternoon it was pretty clear. By monday it seemed spring was finally here, only for wednesday evening, after going an event in a cafe about Climate Change (Debate: Has China done enough?), to find myself cycling home in a horrendous snow storm, arriving home 30 minutes later soaked and covered in snow. Unfortunately the debate was pretty tame. The team (apparently the more experienced debaters, though much younger than the other team) arguing China has not done enough did a pretty poor job and lost comprehensively.

It is clear China has done a lot and is doing a lot; China has the political will to do something and is getting something done -none of which can really be said about the US or other developed nations. Yet, it is also clear China has to do a lot more, as China will be one of the hardest hit from Climate Change with a third of its population close to the coast and liable to be flooded and another third living next to major rivers that will first flood and then run dry. In the meantime, every year the droughts in China affect more people and get more severe not just ruining farmland and leading to food shortages, but also with real economic consequences from the triple whammy of a lack of food being grown, the need to provide food to those who cannot grow it, and the extra time and resources needed to organize and transport food as part of the 'relief' mission. The rest of the world is not doing much compared to China, but China has to do more -it cannot wait for the rest of the World, for its own sake!

Now, finally it seems Spring is here. The proof is that most of the covers that have kept all of Beijing's bushes hidden during the Winter have come off. As I referred to previously, alongside every main road there are bushes and hedges and around most office and apartment buildings too. Over the winter all of them were crudely covered with wooden frames and a green sheet stitched over the frame. Now thousands of workers have been out dismantling the frames.

Our apartment complex is owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who sold apartments to its employees cheaply as a benefit, so our landlord works there (actually in Myanmar/Burma at the Chinese Embassy) and many of our fellow residents work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I've met old people who speak excellent English from their time served overseas, and young people currently in between postings. The guy i spoke to last week just came back from 3 years at the Chinese delegation to the UN, though his English should have been better (then again, so should my Chinese after living here over 5 years!).

Current 'news' seems to weighted around football, with 5-a-side games twice a week (we actually one our season opener which is amazing, but then lost the second) and a one-off 11-a-side today. Spurs seem to be promising they'll finish 4th or 5th, but i am sure we'll fall at the last hurdle as always. Only 6 weeks left in the season so we'll find out soon enough.

snow and comments

There is nothing much in common between snow and comments, to be honest, apart from that I feel the urge to write about both of them.

After getting back from Paris for some more meetings for a day and the chance to try out some more of the more interesting and innovative chains of restaurants that have opened in the last 5 years serving anything from healthy food to Mexican food, I headed up to the Peak District for a stag party, which entailed rather a lot of drinking, playing poker, watching sport down the pub, some more drinking and some fun about 15 metres up in the air in the woods doing something called Go Ape. A simple concept really, that we all enjoy a bit of scrambling around in playgrounds when we are older, so its about time someone made a playground for adults, and to make it a bit more exciting, put it up in the trees -though give everyone a safety harness just in case (well, we are adults after all).

Its being incredibly successful and is going global -and after 2 hours or so scrambling across rope bridges, zipping down zip lines and the like, i fully understand why and recommend it for an enjoyable afternoon with some friends. We arrived in the snow, not something I was expecting to be honest, and dressed up like we were in the himalayas. Thankfully the snow stopped and we made it to the pub just a few minutes late for the six nations. A taxi through the peak district early in the morning revealed glimpses of some of the beauty of the British countryside -especially in the snow- and a nice fast train took me back down South where I had to catch a flight back to Beijing, where, of course, it was snowing. And again, a week later, it has snowed again. So rather a lot of snow really. Having said that there seemed to have been rather a lot of earthquakes recently too: haiti, chile, taiwan, turkey... i guess i prefer the snow to an earthquake. Though i do have fond memories of the 13 earthquakes in Manchester that occurred over 24 hours on October 22, 2002. Not that the earthquakes (biggest hit 3.9) did much damage apart from knocking a plate onto the floor!

Ah yes, the British countryside -much more of it than one realizes, and it never seems to have much of a purpose -often seen laying fallow or with a few sheep grazing in the fields. None-the-less I assume it must be productively used at other times of the year (i.e. when i am not visiting) since Britain is at the forefront of efforts over the last few years to source more food locally and not import it. And for those of you interested, that is just one element of being a responsible business -reducing travel for products and being more responsible to local communities by creating jobs and keeping money in the communities- which is what BSR (who i work for) help companies do.

Another element of our work is helping investors invest in more responsible businesses, because they are more profitable business (a simple example being the Co-op bank who refuses to loan money to projects or companies who are irresponsible and does not take big risks and did not almost go bankrupt unlike almost every other bank in the country) over the long-term. Not that many people think long-term nowadays, but we do recommend it. Plenty of my meetings in London and in Paris was with investors and related organizations (e.g. researchers) who are interested in investing in responsible companies in China; which we are helping some investors do. Its a fairly interesting concept and I am quite getting into it.

Hence I was reading about wonderful RBS who is involved in extracting oil from the tar sands in Canada, which use up a lot more energy than any other process for getting oil and generate a lot of greenhouse gases too (Canada is the developed country whose emissions have increased the most in the last ten years because of this industry). Since no-one is valuing these greenhouse gases in Canada at the moment (though they do in Europe, though too cheaply right now) it is profitable to support this industry and not worry about the costs of climate change. This in itself is an issue, but it has become a bigger issue recently since the UK government owns most of RBS and has made many promises to itself, to its citizens and to others, that it would do everything it can to reduce UK's greenhouse gas emissions, and global emissions. Hmm, so, the question is should the government direct RBS not to get involved with this project even though it will be profitable, which means more money for the UK government, and thus the taxpayers get their money back quicker?

Well its a good question, and i won't answer it. Kevin Watkins at the Guardian has his own opinion (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/04/rbs-tar-sands-publi-investment) and so did around 60 other people who commented on his article. I rarely bother to read comments on any article, but i read a few of these for a laugh. And a rollicking good laugh I had too. I've read a couple of other articles' comments before (also getting a good old laugh out of them) and they also attracted some crazy people with very firm, and sometimes very bizarre, ideas. I suppose only those that care strongly can be bothered to comment anyway, so they are hardly representative of the readership. Or at least I hope they are not, or else I really must wonder if the snow has gotten to people....

The special city of Paris

Almost a week in Paris has passed partly working, partly on vacation.
Having not been to Paris since about the age of 14 this was really the
first time to really explore and get to know the city. And what a city
it is.

Much of what makes it great is the same as anywhere in France: the
patisseries with their wonderful dessert;, the boulangeries with
wonderful breads and kind, personal, owners; crepes (pancakes)
available everywhere; coffee available even more 'everywhere'; the
(sometimes very thick)hot chocolates; the plat du jour (dish of the
day) and set menus; and, due to even the French going smoke-free, the
outside heating areas in front of every cafe whose tables are in the
highest demand.

Then there are some things unique to Paris, a city barely touched
architecturally in hundreds of years: the small streets; uniformly 6
storey buildings with shutters; the numerous squares; the hilly windy
backstreets of montmatre; the incredible mansions of Marie; the
impressively long queues for falaffels outside the jewish bakeries;
the boulevards; and of course the major sites: Eiffel, Notre, L'Arc,
L'Ouvre et al. All incredibly amazing structures.

Then there was the surprise packages: the amazing morocan tagines
(stews), the literary walking tour of the places where many of the
world's great writers, poets and thinkers found inspiration, and the
crazy business district (La Defense) which is 10km west of the city
and houses the only tall buildings in the city -an area that seems to
have been in the 70s like Beijing is now: a playground for architects.

Apart from the prices, which seem to be around 20% more than even
London (maybe that is because of the bad exchange rate), there aren't
too many faults with the city. But I did find some in my short stay. I
did feel somewhat unsafe walking around the ethnic neighbourhoods at
night, and I was getting bored of the uniformity in the buildings. But
at the end of the day, the vibe, different to London generated by the
many many independent cafes and bakeries etc was fantastic.

I didn't get as much of a sense of history or diversity,or of the
centre of things and future of things, as I do in London; or of
excitement and intrigue from the nooks, crannies and corners of
alleys, pubs and historical buildings that I get in London. But then
Paris has something, something special that means I can now understand
just why it has the reputation it has.

Same old England -and not such a bad thing

Everytime I come back to the UK, its often the same: joy at how
beautiful London is, amazement at the history and culture and
diversity, the wonders of the pub and the countryside etc. This trip
it has been the same: walking around Poultry in london or Ham in the
cotswolds, enjoying small theatres in watford or newbury (the theatre
is an old watermill), enjoying british town centres where there is
still some individualism apart from the chain stores (though this is
rare), having cream teas, cakes and deserts; utilizing the highly
efficient debit card system instead of using cash and the list goes
on.

And of course, enjoying the picturesque villages and high streets in
the countrysides, thatched roofs, pubs, all sorts of footpaths, and
examples of the craziness of the good 'ol times in the countryside
when there were very rich people doing strange things when the country
was strong.

In Bath, one of the most georgious cities in the world: old,
interesting, diverse, historical, intriguing, independent.... it
really is one great place to discover. Whilst there we came across
Sham Castle on a hilltop -built by someone crazy who wanted to see a
castle on the hills when he looked out of the window from his house in
the valley. Thus the front wall of a castle was built, and nothing
else. The sheer craziness of it is so english. The castle is really a
sham, but a great one at that.

It really is impossible to avoid character in London: in any bar, pub,
restaurant, hotel or even station there is something special about the
place. All these places are out there waiting to be enjoyed, although
at a price. Although nothing that is good is cheap, there are some
compromise options. It's not Beijing. It's wonderful.

on way home

After work I cycled off with 3 plants in my bike basket and in plastic bags over the handlebars to take them to a friend to look after while I am gone for the next 2 and a half weeks -working and vacationing in both London and Paris as well as to other parts of the UK to get everything done. It's just the right time to leave China as the New Year holiday is upon us, starting this weekend. Lots of people already started their vacation since last weekend, and the roads are already noticeably emptier. The fireworks stalls are now set-up on most major street corners and outside supermarkets; some people have even started letting them off, although its illegal before (and after) the holiday officially starts.

 

Happy New Year to everyone -and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in the next couple of weeks. It seems i got lucky with my flight, leaving on the 28th feb with the next BA strike likely to start the day after!

Still cold, but only 2 weeks to go...

A month ago, when I finally got back to Beijing at 18 degrees below after a day of cancelled flights, I had to take an illegal cab to escape the airport as the queues for the bus and taxis at the airport were extortionate. Now, finally, the last of the snow that fell then is finally disappearing as the temperature has occasionally hovered above zero in the last few days during the daytime. But winter lasts another 6-8 weeks more, so no high hopes of taking off the thick winter jacket quite yet.

 

At that time the UK was running out of grit: something the Chinese don't need too much of because of the armies of helpers who clear the side streets, pavements and pathways within hours of the snow settling.

 

7-11 only entered China a few years ago but has expanded rapidly with various innovations to meet local tastes; they are very popular at lunch time serving hot food for take away. Recently they went a step too far though. I quite liked their various sushi and salad options and often ate a croissant or sandwhich but their latest sandwhich is strawberries and cream which is very strange.

 

Another oddity appeared recently, which was the structures built to protect the 15-foot trees where we live which were only planted last Spring. To protect them wooden frames, triangular in shape have been built surround them from three sides from the wind and occasional snow. Meanwhile all, and I do mean all, the small hedges that are planted in the middle of highways and alongside them have also been protected and covered up by wooden frames and cloth.

 

The big news of the last week or two has been google going off on a strop because one of their founders woke up not liking censorship anymore. Since China has no need for Google with plenty of other local and foreign companies able to provide the same services and rarely changes anything from foreign pressure, it won't bow down, so google will just be withdrawing certain services from a market which already has the world's largest online and mobile markets in the World that is still growing. Could a shareholder sue the founder for being stupid and damaging future shareholder value?

 

Last weekend, after being told the Killers concert was cancelled and we got our tickets refunded (18 months ago, the same happened with Linkin Park) Andrea and I decided to spend the money (and more) on a netbook. Fantastic value for money that is so quick and with great battery life.

 

2 weeks to go until I leave for the UK for the first time in almost 2 years, and 2 days to go until Murray might make history!.

Scuba diving in Sipadan

On Wednesday we went over to Mabul island, 45 minutes away from
Semporna on the Mainland with a small dive operator called Billabong.
In this case the advantage of Billabong being small was that it had an
allocation of 6 of the 120 permits given out daily for diving on the
nearby National Park of Sipadan Island, but did not often use up all
the permits. In my case 1 of their customers who had been more
foresighted than me in booking ahead to ensure getting a permit did
not turn-up so I was Alexander James for the day's diving. The larger
dive companies always had much longer waiting lists.

Several years ago when Sipadan was declared a National Park the 7
small resorts on the beautiful small island were removed so there is
no permanent presence on the island, ensuring the protection of the
amazing coral and marine life surrounding it, mostly based around the
wall which supports the island, i.e. the land below the island rising
600m from the sea floor to the surface. On my 3 dives there we saw
some sharks as well as a large variety of other fish, plenty of
turtles -creatues which always amaze me in their size and
gracefulness, and even a lizard over 1 metre long whilst we ate lunch
on the island. Unfortunately there was a lot of plankton in the water
reducing visibility but it was still excellent.

The night on the island was spent at a converted locals' house on
stilts over the water. The island also has at least 4 very expensive
resorts, 1 of which provided the beach bar for us to drink at and
another provided us a pool to visit before/after diving! It was quite
striking though to see resorts costing hundreds of dollars a night
right next to locals' houses who probably struggled to make that much
in a year from fishing. However, and maybe the beautiful weather and
scenery had something to do with it, the locals were very happy with
their lot.

The next day's diving was around Mabul island, famous for its tiny
fish and marine organisms (though with larger ones in abundance as
well). A highlight was seeing some of those which were often only one
cm in size (such as crabs or nudibranches), seeing an eagle-ray (a
diamond shaped flat fish about one metre wide with spots and a long
tail), crocodile fish (ugly looking fish that look a bit like its
namesake but only a foot long and lie on the bottom camouflaged), frog
fish (also ugly and looking like its namesake, its is a vertical fish
strangely shaped that often blends into rock), large moray eels poking
their heads out of crevices, garden eels (which are small and bury
themselves in the sea floor then stick out vertically, looking a bit
like grass or flowers hence their name), a cuttlefish (a large-ish
fish often featured in films like 'finding nemo' that sits up
vertically and has almost a moustache from the fringes over its mouth)
and various others.

Diving is such fun, full of adventure looking for, and finding,
amazing things, and a reminder of how much more life and colour and
amazing things live under the water than on land. Of course the diving
in Asia is some of the best in the world and my last few years of
diving in Malaysia and the Philippines has been at some of the best
locations in the world.

One of the dives was around an artificial reef, where the fancy resort
had sunck some small boats and other items to attract fish which made
for an interesting exploratory dive around and over the various
obstacles and items on the sandy bottom. Divers are an interesting
group. There are the novices, like the couple of Malaysian girls who
were with us once but almost got lost twice on the dive and kept
hitting the coral or other divers!; there were the chinese girls who
found each other online whilst looking for travel partners; there were
all the european backpackers; and of course there were the real divers
who fly around the world just to dive solidly. Overall its often a fun
group, who like drinking, and adds to the fun.

We returned to Semporna for New Year's Eve where about 30 dive-related
people were hanging out in the only bar in town, and a day by the pool
of our favourite 3-star hotel, before flying back to Kota Kinabalu for
a day exploring a tiny island and enjoying the very hot sun and beach.
Now I've just descended through the awful pollution of Southern China
and am waiting for my delayed connecting flight to Beijing where
apparantly its snowing too much for planes to land!

I wish everyone a successful 2010!