Christmas and Imagining Life without a Camera

I've finally realized why we have eyelashes: so we can still somehow
cycle through the driving snow. I've also realized why we have
fingers: so we can wipe any water or condensation away from one's eyes
(that forms from breathing through a scarf) before it freezes. So it's
been a very cold December.

Since the playmates have dried up somewhat (I suppose most people are
running off for some warmth), we've bought a month membership card for
Hannah to go to a kind of gym for kids. You know the kind, full of
slides, roundabouts and ball ponds. She's the youngest kid in there by
a few months (since few other kids are walking yet) and she can't
really make the most of the equipment but still, she'll crawl up the
stairs to the slide (and fall down the slide), and she'll run around
chasing balloons that are being blown by fans, she'll sit on a swing
and hold on (whilst we push her), and she'll sit on a roundabout. It's
quite sweet, though also amusing, when she'll get to the top of the
slide and play with the little screw in the top, or get to the bottom
of the slide and turn around absorbed with the flashing light on the
side.

She's certainly looking like a toddler but not entirely acting like
one yet. She's sort of half way there. She'll open cupboards and slide
doors. Her latest trick is to get a spoon, but instead of banking it
against a pot which used to be her definition of fun, she'll put it in
a cup, pick the cup up and shake it around. How mature!! She's picking
up her own baby cup and putting it to her mouth but does not yet tip
it back far enough to get anything out of it. She'll push her little
shopping trolley until it hits a wall but then she's not worked out
how to turn it or move it to go in another direction.

She's worked out how to speak a word: ba. And says it all the time,
but she's not given it a meaning yet! So she's making progress. She's
always been a bit of a quiet one so she might not be that fast to
talking. Besides which apparently kids which grow up bilingual are a
bit slower. And at the moment she's still hearing more chinese from
the nanny than english from us. But Hannah came in handy last week
when a taxi driver took pity on us in the cold and picked us up
instead of someone else.

Christmas come-and-gone. We went to a few social events, or held our
own. Nothing major, but some lunches and dinners here and there in the
days beforehand. Not much present-wise, although we do have a tiny
wooden christmas tree, fireplace, snowman and presents that came for
free when we bought something else. Hannah enjoyed grabbing them off
the table and throwing them on the floor. Thankfully she's certainly
moved on past the stage of grabbing glasses or other things to throw
around. And she's definitely in the mood for imitating whatever she
can. She even tried to jump when we showed her how.... all she ended
up doing though was sort of shaking her legs a bit!

I've been going through photos and uploading them to flickr
(www.flickr.com/adamsphotos) but still got a few hundred more to do.
Much of the above moments are recorded in photos and videos on there,
or coming soon. We went and printed a bunch recently and were inspired
to look through some of the old ones. Apart from the passport photo
which was taken on day 6 with her eyes closed and looking like a monk,
the rest are quite adorable. I can't really recognize the baby that
existed in the first two months, but from the time she hit three
months until today she looks very similar. a bit more hair and a few
teeth, but broadly the same. Certainly the same facial expressions
which are really the wonder of babies. So, the closing thought for
this email - what was life like before cameras existed and how did
that affect memories? I pity the parents who could not take photos of
their kids. Having said that i bet Hannah will be distraught when she
is old enough to realize just how many photos of her exist... and
they're all online!

Well maybe by that time everything will be online and she'll just
think it's normal. And how weird for us not to have our entire lives
portrayed, recorded and publicly viewable online... indeed. Yes, i
suppose i do feel a bit older now than i used to. I've been told
Hannah will be able to use an iPhone should we give her one fairly
soon and by the time she's two, though she won't be talking a lot,
she'll already be beating me at computer games. That i can handle. But
despite all the training and practice we've giving her, i hope i'm
still the better footballer than her at that age. Otherwise it won't
be so easy to take!

down the market

There's been a fair bit of snow in the last few days making the roads
pretty dangerous. Since its below zero all day long even the mush
turns into ice, and even some gentle sleet is a major threat once it
hits the pavements. But at least the snow gives you a real sense that
its Christmas time (at least if you are not Australian, otherwise
you'd associate Christmas with the beach). We did have a snow a couple
of months ago, freakishly but that disappeared fast. Here the snow and
ice hang around for ages.

It does make for a more adventurous bike ride into work. It also makes
it easier to find a bike parking space! Cycling is one way to ensure
Beijing remains a liveable city. At rush hour the subway is just not
pleasant, while the traffic is awful. In fact rush hour is so bad it
makes cycling home at rush hour bad too as cars spill over into bike
lanes. I used to leave work after rush hour... around 7pm but
sometimes now i try to get off earlier and it's not an enjoyable ride.

Work is going to get pretty busy until the Chinese New Year holiday
when I'll head home for a couple of weeks. Being busy is often more
satisfying as you feel more has been accomplished but it also means
that other non-urgent things get de-prioritized and it might mean less
time with the little one. This was the first weekend for a while
without a "play date" for Hannah, instead it was playtime for the
adults, hanging out with other friends who all seem to be having some
form of party because of christmas, and hosting a little dinner of our
own. It's funny, even when we don't intent to hang out with parents
with kids, a lot of our friends are all having kids or considering it,
but the conversation thankfully does veer off in other directions
occasionally.

One of the moments of today? A walk down to a local market (or series
of markets) where our local shoe repair guy shined up my shoes,
replaced the heels and worked some miracles. I'm totally impressed and
have brought a pair of shoes back from the dead which are at least
good enough for a back-up pair. And of course we get a healthy dose of
"real China" down in the market; the China that thrives off pure
entrepreneurialism. Next to the shoe guy? A guy selling christmas
decorations. Not sure how many customers he'll get, but the next door
market is full of hotel stuff, so maybe he's pitching to the hotels to
buy his stuff! And the other side of the shoe guy? A shoe woman, next
to another shoe woman. All lovely, photographic, old ladies. Well
until some guy in a van stops in front of them and gets out leaving
the engine running and the exhaust belting into their faces. Those
cute old women can sure get angry when they need to!

Christmas fairs in cold Beijing

It's certainly deep into Winter now. Autumn came and went as fast as
ever and the heating (turned on by the government) had to be turned on
early this year as it got cold earlier in November that usual. Then we
had the marathon last week that began at 8.30am at about zero degrees;
i wrapped my legs in black sacks for the wait at the start line but
ended up keeping my gloves on for the whole race.

Today we froze our feet off at the German Embassy Christmas Fair in
order to drink some Gluhwein and eat some meat. It's always a fairly
cold yet fun occasion. We went with Ben, who became a father a few
weeks ago, so it was good to hear his stories of early fatherhood.
Then we went to a baby shower, where the father-to-be and I chatted
about impending fatherhood downstairs in Starbucks. Clearly a
recurring theme nowadays!

On that note, during a quick trip to Hong Kong, Hannah spent her first
night without her parents-- with her nanny, and all was fine
apparently. Not sure if nanny would tell us otherwise really unless
there was a serious problem. Then whilst Andrea remained in Hong Kong
for a few more days I had the baby at nights and we seem to have
managed to break the "waking up three or more times a night for a feed
from mum" routine, which is good. Now there's just some murmours for a
few minutes once or twice a night but no screaming and no need for
feeding. Let's hope it lasts!

The weather in Hong Kong was pretty miserable too; wet and foggy. The
views were awful so it was good we didn't hang around too long. It was
nice to see some colleagues and friends again. Some were off to a J-Lo
concert. I wonder how it went. We recently saw Elton John which was
somewhat disappointing. Maybe we just don't know enough of his old
music and when we heard it thought it was kind of all the same. When
he finally got going on the piano and kept his band quiet it was
better and more distinctive. Only the one Lion king song though which
was a shame. We also saw The Fray, one of my favorite bands at the
moment. They only have one album but its a corker and there was only a
few hundred of us in a small club. The only downside was that fully a
quarter of the audience seemed to want to record the whole thing on
their mobile phones so all the phones and lights around us somewhat
ruined the view and atmosphere.

A lot of major bands seem to be coming to China nowadays, though i'm
not sure they make that much money off of it. They only play a couple
of gigs, although many of the tickets are very expensive. I suppose
they often target foreigners, at least that was who had paid for the
expensive Elton John tickets and were up dancing around most of the
time. I'm not sure what they heard that we didn't but each to their
own!

Christmas fairs are a popular thing for all the foreigners in China.
All the major hotels have something with free food, tree lighting
things, carol singers and things. Then there are lots of charity fairs
selling second-hand things or other products that charities seem to
profit from to fund their activities. It's always worth going to a few
since there's not a lot else to do in the cold winter!

Elections and Walking

Since I've been back almost three weeks, the focus of the world's
attention has been on a couple of elections and transitions, whilst my
attention was more on a little baby.

Thankfully Obama was re-elected and we can hope that he'll maybe get a
little bit done this time. At least he won't have to start campaigning
again in two years (there will be a funny little Democratic primary
first so Obama can actually focus on running the country). I can't
imagine what his life was like in those last few months and I still
strongly believe that the fact so much time and money was spent on the
election was not a good thing. Yes, there should be debate and the
public should get to know the candidates, but a month or two is
plenty, like most democracies and there is no need to spend so much
money. Having said that, I imagine that without the campaigns the
media, journalists, public relations professionals, and a whole other
slew of industries could not survive without the extra income. I quite
like the British way with a cap on fundraising and a cap on the amount
of time allowed to campaign, as well as some sense of equality in
national advertising for the leading parties.

Then there was the Chinese transition, which was actually more
exciting than one would have expected, with the chaos of the Bo Xilai
scandal earlier in the year, the cutting of the equivalent of the
cabinet from 9 positions to 7, the insane amount of (apparent)
infighting in deciding who got those positions, and the genuine lack
of ability to predict those 7. In the end a few of them were
predictable but a couple of people did lose out. No women again, of
course. China continues to have abysmally low representation of women
in politics where it matters, at senior levels or at grass-roots
levels. We once looked up how many women were ministers, and it was
something like 3 out of 30. Yikes. And we'd better not ask how many
women are on Boards of Chinese companies, particularly the powerful
State-owned ones (where many of the positions are actually political
appointees).

It's clearly going to be tough for those in charge. On a macro-level
China is just getting worse (environmental degradation, inequality,
the need for clean energy, the lack of trust in anything, and on an
on). On a micro-level there are still plenty of amazing people and
organizations doing great things but struggling against a system that
is just not responding to the challenges at hand. A system that loves
status quo as much as the Western systems and a system where
entrenched business and political interests act strongly to keep the
status quo. Authoritarian regime or democracy, there is not that much
different in many ways, and America does have a lot in common with
China in this way as well as many other ways.

Beyond politics I returned to join some play-dates with babies and
some 1-year birthday parties. The parties are somewhat strange at this
age since 1-year olds still can't really play with others (they are
not able to socialize yet) and just play on their own next to others,
or else treat other humans like any other interesting object. Then
there are normally a bunch of older kids actually playing, and there
are the adults who don't really know anyone's names but are quite keen
to drink or eat or play with their own kids. In some cases the women
will all know each other and the men will be at the back, but it
depends. In other cases, the women don't know each other either, since
most of the time its the nannies taking the kids out to play!

And of course the insane consumption that defines our lives begins
with birthday parties. We buy the birthday kid a present; they give
party bags (a concept i had totally forgotten existed) or gifts to the
kids who came; lots of decorations and balloons go up for a few hours
(and then in the rubbish), and our kids who were so happy playing with
an empty plastic bottle or a ball begin to be inundated with things
that flash, beep, or move. Despite Hannah having a number of such
things her favorite activity is walking around and playing in the
playground and her favorite toys are a xylophone, a metal pot with a
spoon and a football. Although she does also enjoying watching her
parents' laptop screens!

Hannah had been pulling herself up and cruising around for a while,
and walking a lot whilst holding one of our hands, but a couple of
days after I came back we had some success withdrawing our hand and
Hannah continued walking on her own. This was especially effective if
she tried to walk towards one of us and we just kept moving backwards!
But for what seemed like a very long time but was only really 10 days,
Hannah was pretty steadfast about not wanting to willingly let go and
walk on her own. Until a few days ago and then she began to get the
hang of it and now, once she has pulled herself up (she still can't
stand up on her own) she'll immediately let go and walk off. Sometimes
she even tried to run, though normally ends up on her bum. In fact her
bum still gets a lot of action, but she's very solid on her feet now
(even if it does not look like it due to the litlte waddle in her
step) and has walked a hundred metres or more each time.

So it's getting more exciting and more dangerous. The little girl is
incredibly inquisitive and marches after anything of interest to her,
especially dogs, no matter if that dog is standing in a dry river bed
20 metres away or next to a bush 5 metres away. So we have to keep a
close eye on her and may soon give her a little present: a backpack
with a leash on the end so we can keep her somewhat close! In other
developments Hannah clearly recognizes her name now (at least when her
parents say it) and has developed her first form of intentional,
expressive and understandable communication: a wave of both hands to
say "no" commonly used when she does not want to eat or drink anymore
(though she is still a good eater). She's also mastered the wave
goodbye too. It's a start. And she's very different from the little
baby she once was. We met a friend last weekend with a 6-week old and
it seems so long ago that Hannah was anything like that. As Andrea
likes to joke, in just a few weeks Hannah will be sleeping with
College boys and smoking.... we have to hope not!

Only in China...

Throughout the whole Summer there was no news on the Marathon. Normally registration begins in June/July for the event in late October. Due to the political conference this year being even more important than the usual political conference at this time, it seemed as though the Marathon was off.

But no, today registration opened for the Marathon that will take place 2 weeks on Sunday. That's 17 days from today. Insane. I'm not sure who will even know about it to register! Meanwhile I have to desperately get in shape. Desperately!

Only in China....

After the storm

Eventually I get kicked out of the Hyatt, but after managing to remain there most of the day. I head over to my friend's girlfriends. She lives up on 55^th street which was not affected by the power cuts. We hand-make pizza for dinner that night (and for the following night) and I end up staying there 2 nights and a whole day. I'm very grateful! On Thursday morning I cab it downtown to get my stuff from the other apartment and then head to the bus station to get back to Newark airport for the flight back to Beijing. Airports mostly opened up again on Wednesday so a Thursday flight is good timing.

Although the subway began to come back to life again, it's still out all of downtown where there parts of it are still flooded and there is no electricity. The BSR office remains closed and without electricity, so my 3 days of work were not as productive as intended to be, and some meetings had to be cancelled, but we made do using skype. Without electricity downtown is strange. The traffic lights are all out of course, and there are no lights on in any shops or restaurants. Most of which are closed but a few shops remain open, taking cash, and selling non-perishable goods. I'm not sure how many people are still living downtown, as most probably did as I did and tried to stay elsewhere. So it's certainly a ghost town down there. And down near the tip, the stock exchange has re-opened, with a power generator to keep it going. I'm not sure who managed to get down there or work there, but it's symbolic at least. Power may return at the end of the week or weekend and then Manhattan will be back to normal (depending on how long it takes to clean the water out of the subways).

In reality the storm did not hit Manhattan that badly—a few trees down, lots of leaves around and so on. Some other areas in New Jersey, or in the New York suburbs were worse hit with some trees collapsing and plenty of flooding from the ocean and rivers (mostly, rather than rain).  At least 70 people died across the US and several million are suffering without power (and for those in high-rises, no water either) which surely has an economic impact. The major problems in Manhattan tended to be at the hospitals where my roommates were all working, so I was somewhat exposed to them, or at least I heard first-hand accounts.

On the Monday when the storm hit, Rachel was working at Tisch hospital , one of two major hospitals right on the east coast of Manhattan and highly vulnerable to flooding. And flood it did. The hospital was also affected by the power cuts, being below 39^th where the power was cut by the power company. The hospital had to use its backup diesel generator to keep priority things running, but that began to fail after a few hours and they had to evacuate the building around 3am. Rachel's story was not pleasant and she said it was worse than in New Orleans, where she was when Katrina hit. At Tisch they had to carry patients down 15 flights of stairs in the dark; sometimes having to balance IV drips. Machines that were in some cases necessary to keep patients alive (for example 20 babies who were born premature) had to switch to battery power but that did not last long and doctors were desperately sitting there, in the dark, calling any hospital they knew and trying to find room for the babies and other patients.  It was pretty chaotic and not pleasant. Even some of the ambulance drivers got lost trying to drive the patients to other hospitals because many additional emergency personnel were from out-of-state and drafted in to help. She got back about 5.30am and collapsed into bed.

Bellevue hospital, next to Tisch, but bigger, with over 700 patients including some which are criminals (and thus on a special floor with protection) had also been running in its backup generator. But the generator was on the top floor and the fuel was downstairs, so apparently up to 200 people, mostly, thankfully, National Guard had to form a chain in the stairwell and spend all day moving diesel upstairs. Meanwhile they began to evacuate the most serious patients. By Wednesday they began to experience problems with their generator too and so a full mass evacuation began. This time in the daytime and better organized compared to that at Tisch (which was happening during the storm) and hundreds of ambulances were on standby. Still, Lucy reported it would take a good two days to complete the evacuation and the hospital was not much fun whilst it was happening, since the toilets weren't flushing and all sorts. The hospital had better learn some lessons about preparing for these kinds of events. To have unreliable generators and no backup plans is embarrassing.

All three of my friends were thus pretty heavily involved, and playing their bit. They were more severely affected than most, but then I also hear the hospital is pretty crazy on a normal day too! Of course the media went crazy over the storm, and it clearly affected many people. On the broad scale of things though, there was good preparation and the storm was not too serious. I imagine that more lives might have been lost on a normal day from car accidents or crime—during the storm there was much less driving and crime taking place! It is still a tragedy of course, but on reflection it's clear that developed countries that are well prepared and with decent infrastructure do pretty well compared to developing countries. The Caribbean was much worse hit by the storm.

And amongst it all politics continued, though adapted. Hopefully it will have helped Obama. And Halloween was cancelled. Well the big street party Wednesday night was, and will be moved to next week, which is a shame. At the girlfriend's apartment, we did get to meet several groups of kids trick-and-treating; some usual costumes like cats and some more unusual like aliens, and some more imaginative like Sherlock Holmes. We had prepared a lot of chocolate, but did not give out much! I imagine there might be more Halloween parties at the weekend, once electricity returns. And maybe people will be dressed up like Sandy.

 

Sandy hits

3pm:
There has actually been some rain. And some wind. Not a big deal, but not nice weather to be walking around in. On TV, some of the reporters a half mile away on the coast seemed to be experiencing quite a bit of rain.

4pm:
Stronger winds now. Some sirens every now and again. The storm has sped up and may hit land (not at NYC, but south of NYC) around 6pm instead of 8pm. At 7pm all the tunnels and bridges out of NYC will be closed. But Manhattan seems like it won't be as badly hit as other parts of NYC. All the media is focusing on a crane that has broken 60 or more floors up and could collapse causing some buildings to be evacuated. The local power company has said it might cut of power voluntarily and it might affect us.

5pm:
Other parts of the East coast have snow or a few places are underwater. NYC seems to be fine so far, but we'll know more about 8pm here. The waters are rising and the reporters were talking with someone jet skiing on the waters. To be honest they didn't look too dangerous yet. Not much rain and wind still comes and goes because we're somewhat sheltered a half mile inland amongst the buildings. The tide is coming in and should be at high tide by 8.30 when they're expecting the water to be a meter deep across lower Manhattan. Matt and Lucy return from the hospital (where they work).

7pm:
Not too eventful in NYC; but other parts of the US are suffering. Atlantic City has several inches of water across the city. There are other parts of NYC with water surges and water has flooded some roads, including the FDR only a couple of miles away from me. Water has now flooded over onto the land at the southern tip of Manhattan too.

8pm:
We're expecting the power to go down soon as a precautionary measure so are eating dinner whilst watching the weather channel online.

9pm:
Power goes down. T-Mobile's phone network goes down but there is some spotty access on Verizon and AT&T every now and again. We light a couple of candles, watch a movie on laptop power and go to sleep.

4.30am:
Rachel (one of the friends I am staying with) returns from hospital (all 3 of the friends I am staying with are doctors). She reported the reason we lost power was that the local power transformer had blown up hence we had lost power. She had been at Tisch hospital when the backup generator went down and they had to evacuate all the patients. It meant trying to carry people down 15 flights of stairs. There were up to 20 babies at risk. They were trying to make calls and find somewhere to put them, but it was not easy. No lights, no power. It was chaos at the hospital.

7am:
Wake up, still no power. Use the gas to boil some water for team and porridge. Heat a croissant over the gas flame, trying to avoid it catching on fire. Success. Have a shower by candle light. Our water is still fine.

8.30am:

Leave the house on a hunt for power to get some work done and maybe some wi-fi. Heard it is necessary to go up town. There is a light breeze and light drizzle that comes and goes. We live on 2^nd street, which is about 30 blocks from the tip of Manhattan. I head north, walking along the coast to survey the damage. There was flooding all along the coast, up to a metre or two high,  that swept things up. Some small trees and branches had collapsed under the wind but nothing too serious.

I walk past the power transformer, now with a lot of trucks from the power company outside, hopefully trying to fix the problem. By the coast the wind is a bit stronger but manageable. I wonder past the hospitals where my friends were all working, trying to imagine what it was like last night. All the traffic lights are still down along with all the power. I continue north and see traffic light on in the distance. It's on 40^th street. I'd walked 38 blocks; so on top of the 30 or so further south of where we live about 68 streets north to south had no electricity (and west to east extends about 15-20 blocks at its widest). It's a lot of people without power.

10.30am:
I find a starbucks that is closed but has wi-fi on. Quickly check the news and emails outside. Arrive at Grand Hyatt hotel and manage to get in and grab a seat and power socket in the lobby.  A bunch of other people are here doing the same thing, but they're not letting anyone else in.  There is a rumor it will take 5 days before the power is back up. Type up everything you read here from 8pm onwards.

The power being down is a pain and means a lot of people can't do any work -- the subway is still down of course, as is the stock exchange (which is on wall st, near the tip of Manhattan and surely without power and probably close to the flooding).

Before Sandy

So hurricane Sandy is coming, apparently. It's kinda weird outside. Not the weather. That's just a bit windy. It's the people and the atmosphere. The City announced the subway system is going to shut from 7pm for at least 24 hours it seems, as a precaution in case of flooding (and because some of the subway lines are above ground so the wind also affects the subway trains) and so it's caused most offices to let people work from home (well, there's no choice, since there is no other way to get around--the buses will also not be running) and all kinds of media hype about the hurricane and how to get prepared. The subway people are even covering up subway entrances (and other shafts that could allow water to get into the subway) with wood and sandbags.

Of course it's better to be over-prepared than under-prepared but it is somewhat surreal. There's two kinda people out of their houses. The people lining up in the big supermarkets queueing for a very long time to buy stuff (to prepare for a storm that might only be a day or two) and then there are the people out eating and drinking. Most of the chains of restaurants or cafes have now closed (it's 5.30pm) until further notice but all the independent corner shops and restaurants are open and doing just fine. While the big supermarkets are running out of certain stock, the corner shops seem just fine; and are planning on being open tomorrow too (well, i only asked 1, so i can't speak for all the rest!). We've bought some large bottles of water just in case, though i can barely imagine the underground water system being affected! We have candles too, in case we lose electricity. I think they did lose electricity last year. Well, so the internet won't work. I guess we'll just have to survive. We've got some alcohol to go with the candles!

Apart from that, it's just kind of weird. Everyone talking about it, everyone preparing for it, and just....waiting. wondering if it is all a storm in a teacup or if it's actually a storm! I guess we'll find out sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. Unfortunately for my housemates, who are all doctors, they have to work overtime since we live fairly close to the hospital so they can walk in, whilst their colleagues who live further out won't be able to get in to the hospital due to the subway closures. I guess why most of us are a bit skeptical is the hurricane in New Orleans was a big deal because the walls keeping the ocean away from the city collapsed, hence all the flooding. Downtown New York is fairly far from the ocean (although the river was a bit choppy this afternoon). When I went for a run down to the tip of Manhattan, there was already two TV weather crews down there filming by the choppy waters. Anyway, more updates to come later I imagine. Maybe they'll be more exciting than this one, or maybe they'll be more boring!

New York, New York

Well it's been a rather busy week in New York. Although next week might be very quiet, with an impending hurricane likely to keep everyone working from home.

When I arrived I experienced the frustration of having to wait behind all the Chinese passengers who took over 5 minutes each to clear immigration, whereas when i finally got to the front, I took less than a minute. But that was soon forgotten as I spent some time re-exploring Manhattan with all it's incredible buildings, neighborhoods, eateries and diverse people. So far I've eaten at two Cuban restaurants, a Venezuelan restaurant and a German restaurant. I've managed to wonder around the East Village, the West Village and other bits in between; crossed the Brooklyn Bridge; experienced a not very thrilling walking tour of the Upper East Side; run all round and through Central Park (it's big - the run took longer than expected); run around the lower half of Manhattan; and spend some enjoyable time with some friends here.

It was interesting to finally check out the High Line, an old railway track turned into a public path, which I had read a great deal about. And it is very nice. It was certainly an expensive undertaking but it has been well executed and is incredibly popular. There's not much green space in Manhattan aside from Central Park so it's certainly welcome. All the runners and cyclists tend to hit the paths along the river, whilst the families take to the High Line. And in Central Park they all collide, making a very big park very crowded--especially at Halloween--as I found. I pity the cyclists and runners that choose a Sunday afternoon to exercise. Fortunately I'd gone running there early in the morning, and walking there on a weekday afternoon, when it was not too crowded. I also encountered a cute little haunted house put on the by the Park staff.

Last weekend I managed to tick a few things off my list. First was a visit tot he 9/11 Memorial (though the museum is not open yet) which is basically two large holes/waterfalls the size of (and in the location of) the old World Trace Center Towers 1 and 2. Nicely done as a memorial, but I'd not really want to work around that area and be constantly reminded of what happened. The memorial is so stark. It's not like a small fountain that could represent anything. I managed to spend some time in Whole Foods, a well-known grocery store that focuses on healthy, organic, and sustainable food. It's a wonderful shopping experience and they do sell great products. It's a bit like M&S but better, and more expensive! I believe there are a couple in London now too. I also managed to find a Chipotle, not yet in London but a copy of which recently opened in Beijing, which is a Burrito place that sells fast food but also sustainable sourced food. Again, my kind of thing since it's what i do for a living.

And I indeed spent 5 days in meetings, workshops and conferences, along with a thousand other people who work on making businesses more sustainable. There were some highlights, and many of these are on the BSR youtube page. Platon, a British Photographer with an excellent sense of humor and some incredible portrait photos; Jeff Jarvis with some thoughtful words on transparency and publicness in the internet age; the CEO of M&S talking about sustainable consumption and engaging consumers; and many others in between. It was as good as the conference last year in San Francisco and similarly nice to spend time with colleagues who we only normally communicate with by phone or email. There is no substitution for human to human interaction, especially when there's beer involved, or a German band playing covers of pop music!

It's funny how it's not just what you see or hear that helps you understand a city, but it's also what you don't see or hear. And comparing London and New York with Beijing, there are certain things you just don't see or hear: ambulances, fire engines or (active) police cars for example. I always knew crime was low in Beijing, but i hadn't really thought about the number of medical emergencies or fires. It seems the Chinese are not as careless, or not used to using emergency services. You certainly see police cars all over China, but normally parked and rarely in a hurry to go somewhere and sort out anything other than yet another minor traffic accident as some idiot decided to cut across three lanes at the last minute, or reverse on a highway after missing an exit.

You also don't see anyone doing any exercise in China: on the streets or in parks, or anywhere. There are the odd sports grounds, but they are rare. Maybe a few gyms for individual exercising or indoor badminton. Not many people outside playing any outdoor team sports. And though Chinese parks are not designed for sports at all, even in the couple with paths and grass, there's not much active exercising going on. It's not that New Yorkers or Londoners are the healthiest people in the world by any means, but clearly there is a sizable (yet small percentage-wise) proportion of the populations that you do see, in certain places out and exercising. Would it make a big difference if China had more convenient spaces for exercising? I'm not sure. My canal in Beijing is perfect for running alongside and I've rarely seen anyone every using it for anything apart from fishing. It's really only left to the kids to run around in communities, the elderly to stretch and do exercises, and to a few youngsters to grab one of the very few basketball courts (which you usually have to pay to rent) to play in.

crawling, old villages and patriotism

The last week has been a public holiday in China, and a great time to enjoy the last of the warm weather (actually, it's more than just warm, it's 25 degrees in the daytime) with the family and friends. Hannah finally began to crawl properly a couple of weeks ago. For ages she'd only moved a few inches to grab something but then she just began going further and further and now she'll go all over. She's not quite as crazy as some other kids who are so fast they'd give Bolt a run for his money, but she goes when she has a need. So she's been motoring around in parks and on floors which keeps her entertained. She still prefers walking though, but needs some help which tends to involve her parents getting aching backs. Today she began to let go of us and try to stand on her own without holding anything, and may have managed 20-30 secs at best. Still a way to go!

On Thursday we went to Jinan, the capital of Shandong province. Jinan is a place that no-one stops in, and is mainly a place for transferring elsewhere. But we stopped there for a few hours to visit a mosque, some nice shopping streets and see the city whilst we waited for a lunchtime train to a small village nearby called Zhujiayu. It is a delightful village that was mostly abandoned around a century ago due to drought, famine, civil war and the like. For some reason it's not been destroyed and the couple of hundred families that still live there have not really touched the place. Now of course this is the draw for tourists, and there are of course some attempts to sell fruit, handicrafts and things to tourists, but it's not too bad, and the village is still, mostly as it was. Many of the houses on the outskirts are in complete ruins and are fascinating to walk around. The others near the main streets are in better condition and show what China really used to look like. It was a worthwhile half day walking around and into houses.

A few visitors have come by recently which has given us a good excuse to go some of our favorite places to eat and walk around, particularly some of the smaller alleyways that have so much life an authenticity to them. They are still what China really is like for most people that can't afford apartments or cars. And they seem happy, although seeing a blue-eyed baby makes everyone here happy! There is not a lot of other news to report, although it is interesting to see how different people raise their kids.

I suppose the most interesting thing that's happened in the last few weeks here is the inordinate display of patriotism that sort of came out of nowhere, fostered by the government, whipped-up by the media, and timed to coincide with the current political events and various anniversaries (of the founding of the PRC, of the islands themselves etc). The islands that China claims its own are currently occupied by Japan. Countries that don't really get on very well. In fact if there is one thing that every Chinese knows it is that China does not like Japan from historical reasons. And history is not just history. The past has influenced how the public view the present and relations with Japan. The dispute led to some significantly sized protests, drops in sales of Japanese companies' products, and a healthy distraction from the ongoing domestic political fiasco. One hopes things will die down in a month, after the initial political transition, although the transition may not be complete until Spring next year, so it could drag on. In the meantime there are plenty of other islands that China also claims, mostly in the South China Sea, and mostly islands that are, on a map, much much much closer to other countries than to China, so seem ridiculous for China to claim. The ones disputed with Japan are geographically more in the middle, so the claim is less unreasonable. That does not forgive the reaction of course, which is fascinating to watch as a foreigner. The issue is deeply felt by the entire population and rational conversation about it is not possible.

I'm slowly adding photos to my flickr account for those interested. Some from the May trip to Japan are up, as are plenty more of Hannah. You can check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamsphotos/sets/.

8 months; 8 years; one big day

Today is Hannah's 8 month birthday; 4 days after I passed the 8 year mark in China. Today was also the day Hannah had her first health problem, but it's just the "German Measles" which are (it seems) pretend measles. Lots of spots, but no itching, fever or anything. So, fingers crossed, it will disappear in a few days and Hannah's not even noticed so far. She has noticed a couple of teeth that are finally beginning to come through. We can feel them (they're sharp) but again it does not seem to bother her too much, apart from a bit more finger sucking. And although she's been pulling herself up a lot to stand recently, today she did it from a lying down position and using the sofa. Which equals warning signs for us!

Meanwhile election fever is gripping China. Future leaders are disappearing without good reason, the government is fostering a bit of a storm against Japan as a distraction, murder and espionage court cases are held in a single day, and yet no-one knows when the transition (since it is not really an election) will be. Will there be any surprises? The Communist Party is not really one for surprises, but then this year has not gone the way they thought it would go. The economy is apparently suffering and the people are becoming ever more vocal about their complaints. We held a conference a couple of days ago with a speaker from the Ministry of Enviro Protection and mark my word, certainly he--and he may be one of the more open and liberal, but he is not the only one--recognizes the social and political consequences of environmental unrest. The government is under no illusions of the challenges it faces and the consequences.

Can it solve them though? As with most other countries there are numerous entrenched interests, political divides, egos, groupings and ideologies to battle with just to decide on direction. Let alone actually implementing across such a vast country with so many local interests too. It's not easy and they are slowly beginning to listen and respond. But is it fast enough? Or it is too fast? We'll see!

Meanwhile I managed to watch the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. It was a nice concert, though it seemed, literally, like a concert. And I like Coldplay. A lot. So I was happy. I guess the choreography and dancing was all pretty cool, but it was also just like a concert. We had lots of fun at the Paralympics watching athletics, goalball (strange game) and wheelchair basketball. A great atmosphere as ever and as awesome as in Beijing seeing what people are able to do do despite their disadvantages. It certainly does put into perspective the appalling lack of effort and pride some other professional sports stars put into their work. Anyway the whole Summer was indeed topped off with Murray actually winning something important. Finally. He does deserve it but it is a shame it took him so long. It seemed ages ago when he burst on the scene and threatened to win something meaningful. So just as the Sporting Summer ends, the football season begins. So it will be more late nights watching online. And probably lots of frustration too. Oh well. At least there is always some playtime with Hannah to cheer things up a bit!

A tiny difference in this trip home

It's not that the trip home has been long - last year was long too (there was a wedding to organize). It's not that there was a large sporting event happening either. But there was something tiny accompany Andrea and I for our trip to the UK and Germany. And that something tiny gets a lot of attention. And toys. And clothes. And somehow it needs to get back to China!

That little tiny person's had a fun time; enjoying bike rides in hertfordshire, tractor rides in brandeburg, pub lunches and sandpits in manchester, BBQs in at least 4 different boroughs of London, and food. Lots of food. In fact her first real food. Not having teeth has not been a barrier. All sorts of things have gone down her throat, and thankfully not the plastic bags, metal spoons or any other object that she is always trying to put in her mouth. It's been mostly fruits and vegetables and mostly mashed, though not always. She's taken a liking to chicken.

She's taken a liking to dogs and walks in the park; she's been to a zoo and a parade, Shakespeare's house, the River Thames, blackberry picking and all sorts. She's met babies and toddlers, uncles and cousins, aunts and grandparents, and plenty of strangers too. She's also--as ever--continued to grow. She managed to push herself up from her stomach to a sitting position a couple of times (though not yet since). She's pulled herself up from a sitting position to standing occasionally too. And she's begun to "cruise" (as it is apparently called), holding onto things to keep her balance so she can stand-up and then grabbing for something else to hold on to and walk towards. She's got herself on all four limbs and swivelled, she's also pushed herself backwards unintentionally, but she's not crawled properly yet. She's probably (...hopefully...) still a bit away from actually walking, but we're not sure. She loves it when holding onto someone else.

Having Hannah with us of course totally changes trips home. Our time with friends is different; several of whom also have kids, though Hannah's not yet old enough to play with them some of the are old enough to play with her! Our time with family is different of course and our choices are different. What transport will we take now we have a baby (and what transport do we take with us for Hannah); where will we go that Hannah can enjoy (or be able to fall asleep in a quiet corner) rather than just where we want to go, particularly involving indoor places.

It's quite interesting seeing how different people interact with her, and I suppose it's been interesting for others to see me or Andrea with Hannah too. But life goes on, and we manage and we enjoy time with her, or time without. Although she can play on her own now, she also recognizes when someone leaves her and increasingly wants the reassurance of having someone around her--and of course she is also increasingly able to get into mischief. So someone needs to be with her. And we're very fortunate our families have the time to be with her when Andrea and I need to do something else (some work, or an anniversary dinner for example). Our families have been great. It's the first grandchild for both sides so maybe future grandchildren will get less attention! We're not complaining of course!

Apart from everything being about Hannah and our families in terms of how we spend our time, I've been to see some football (it is a slightly strange atmosphere when 90% of the spectators do not support either team), some athletics and the triathlon (Paralympics to come too)! I've also watched a few bits and pieces on the television or on someone's ipone (my sister's birthday party coincided with Super Saturday) and even managed to go running with my dad twice (not as frequent as when I'm in Beijing, but hey, I am on holiday! I've now got a few more days in Germany before a few last days in London and then returning to Beijing for what is expected to be an incredibly busy last few months of the year.

Reflections and Comparisons on the Olympics

So the Olympics have come and gone and most of the hysteria has died down but the discussion still continues - about the Closing Ceremony mostly, as well as comparisons with other countries and occasionally something about legacy or the upcoming Paralympics.

Well I watched the closing ceremony and my thoughts on that are simple. As a party goes, it was so-so, but why was it a party? I thought it should have been related to sport and inspiring a generation. Apparently it was more about making us feel good about some British music stars. None of which have anything to do with sport, nor even hinted at sport during their antics in the stadium (I don't class riding minis, sportscars or an octopus a sport).

I went to Beijing so i have a view there too - direct comparisons of course are impossible, and there were some big differences: Beijing's Olympic Park was big in size but small in activity. Besides the swimming and the athletics, it only had a couple of gymnastics stadiums (as i recall, as most other stadiums were elsewhere in the city) and there was not much happening, nor many people around outside the stadiums--apart from when they were queueing for hours to see the massive corporate booths which were three times the effort of those in the UK (the UK is not much of a market in comparison to China). London had at 8 stadiums in the park, a mini-concert venue, a large area to watch on big TV screens and a tremendous amount of food and drink to buy (Beijing was basically McDonald's, Coke, instant noodles or sausages). Hence the Olympic Park atmosphere in London wins hands down. And it really was fun. Policemen would be seen wearing funny hats and taking photos with spectators!

And Sport - well the Chinese don't really care much about sport, or do much sport. Some of the men watch US basketball, a few younger men play it. There's the odd person who plays table tennis or badminton too but that's mostly it. Oh, i think some students do something when they are not studying, but not much. Honestly. There is no domestic sport that is well attended live and only a handful of famous sports stars (a couple in basketball, a couple in tennis and the odd one that did well in an Olympics). Whilst trying to represent 1.3bn people is tough, i think i'm being fair. And during the Olympics of course the Chinese were very happy that they got lots of medals; and maybe because they won so many it is harder for each one to be famous; but it is more that the winners were trained to be winners, and expected to be winners. There was not that much of a story to their lives. No personal interest. And since there was no real sporting interest, the public cared a lot about the Olympics but not much about the athletes or the sports.

Now the British may well forget most of the so-called household names created recently, and over time, i expect the viewing figures for some of the strange sports will drop down, but i expect --and our media will play a more important role in this than the Chinese media did-- something will last. I also think that the spirit of the Olympics existed in London. Sure there was not exactly a party on every street every day, but there were parties organized by people, there were activities organized by local governments, local sports clubs, local parks etc and Beijing had nothing. No parties were allowed (officially), the government did not organize anything at all cultural or sporting that was attended by an actual member of the public (instead of a VIP) and a miniscule minority of the population had any connection to the Olympics. Of course they have a large population - but that could be all the more opportunity for there to be more happening, with more people to participate. But China is not really big on the public organizing or participating in anything (mostly political reasons, but also cultural and historical) and the Olympics was the same.

There was certainly a great deal of pride in China--and there was in the UK too, though tainted with surprise (and maybe some disappointment) that things went well--but London was just as efficient as Beijing, and London seemed to generate real interest in the spirit of the Olympics. Though many people did care about many of the sports, unlike in China, there were many that few cared about, but people actually wanted to see them. They made the effort. As much as people in China may have wanted to say "they were there" i don't think many people tried to get there. Lots of people ended up there, since there were plenty of empty seats, but i don't really know any Chinese person who went. And my networks in China may be small and of a certain cross-section of people, but my networks in the UK are probably likewise, and everyone I know in the UK went or had tried to go.

So something was different. Something was better. And I won't go on any more. Ultimately the true test--and the benchmark--that London has set itself is about it's sporting legacy. And we need one. The UK is far and away the second fattest major nation in the World. And it's youth are hardly famed for inspiration, hard work or anything else really. China never really tried to create a legacy, at least not a sporting one. It was about showing off to its own people and to the rest of the World. Proving it's a great power. And it did that. Success. We don't know how well London will prove to have been a success beyond a couple of months in 2012. I expect it will disappoint. We Brits always do since we rarely look at the bright side of life. But if we truly look beyond the headlines, if our celebrity-obsessed media can actually do what it does well and keep some of these incredible people in the spotlight, we may find that people are inspired by role models, inspired by the history created in 2012, and maybe there will be a little support from the government and people will do more sport. Or maybe we should be a bit more American and ignore the government. Just get on our bike, put on our shoes, jump in a pool, stand beside a net on a beach or whatever it takes and just do some sport sometimes. And maybe, if it's fun, if our friends are doing it, if we feel we should be doing it, if for once we don't blame someone else, then we might just end up doing it regularly!

And that is the difference. People in the UK are encouraged to do something if they want to. The money may not always be there, but the support is. China is the opposite. So if we want there to be a positive legacy, then we need to make it happen. We, not them. There's no-one to blame but ourselves. And I think the media should recognize that and play it's role, beyond just profiling the bad (and hopefully the good too) of the sporting role models, and ask ourselves to do something.

Europe beckons

So in just a week or two, Hannah will take her first long-distance flight to Germany and then hop on her first low-cost flight to Luton. I wonder which will be more enjoyable. In fact, the cost for the infant ticket on the "low-cost" flight is almost the same as the cost for the infant ticket on the long haul flight since the "low-cost" airlines have fixed fares for infants of around 20-30 euros (and the long-haul flights charge around 10% of the adult fare).

I'm sure she will enjoy all the attention and seeing so many new things; she will hopefully enjoy the two dogs (one in germany and one, about one tenth the size, in england); and she'll probably enjoy the cooler weather. It's a solid 30+ degrees here which is nice when there is blue sky and fresh air and a breeze, but otherwise it's not nice, especially at night when it's around 26 degrees and sticky, and often we can't even open the window since the pollution is so bad we need to run our air purifier machine inside (and then revert to using a fan or a/c).

We've all but given up on her crawling - even though the "average" age for crawling is not till 8-9 months and Hannah is still only 6 months. She really is not interested in even trying any more (she was a couple of months ago!). Instead she just loves standing and "walking". She can support her own body weight, but she falls over immediately unless we're holding her, or she is holding onto the side of her cot for support. But if we do hold her, she does try to walk. It's still a way away yet though, she really has no balance at all, and cannot pull herself up to a standing position. It's still lots of fun playing with her in the mornings before work.

The last month has gone fairly quickly. There was another trip to the Great Wall with a colleague; an event on sustainable agriculture that I organized; quite a lot of football in the evenings and outdoor eatings with friends as well as trips to parks at weekends.  Andrea took her a business trip leaving the baby behind for a couple of days and everything was fine (well, the nanny takes care of her during the daytime as usual and in the evenings i just need to feed the baby occasionally).

China is all funny because of this upcoming leadership transition. Still no date set for the marathon (it's normally around the time of the annual political congress and starts right outside parliament) as i imagine there are heated discussions about moving the date or the starting point. But it would be nice if they could decide earlier rather than later! As politicians play safe and try to keep everything low-key so the transition is smooth, the public don't seem to be listening. Using social media more and more. Deciding to speak up for their rights, protest (small scale), and so on. So it's a funny situation - amplified compared to usual.

Ultimately, as I may have explained before China has to choose: The British way or the Other way. And by that I mean giving away political power voluntarily and smoothly and in a controlled way as Britain did over a period of 100 years or so (from around 1812 onwards) or suffering some form of revolution (or more than one) as most other countries experienced. I hope it is the former, but working out the speed of change is tricky (they don't have 100 years that's for sure with today's information flows and the high expectations of its citizens). Hopefully the new leadership will recognize this - if they want to stay in power they need to give away some power. If they don't trust their citizens, their citizens won't trust them. And that is a recipe for... well, something that much of Europe seems to be facing at the moment!

What a mess Europe seems to be. Let's just hang around and do nothing meaningful for 5 years shall we? Talk about putting a patch on a punctured tyre. This is one tyre that needs to be replaced. As any good cyclist will tell you - a few patches in different places on a tyre may be ok, but once you need to start putting patches on top of other patches, and once you have a tyre that resembles a patchwork quilt it is really time to sort out that tyre properly. And until you do, that bike is not going to be going anywhere very fast (and trust me, I had to cycle 5 miles on a flat tyre 2 weeks ago and it took 3 times longer than normal!) - and the front tyre (to keep the analogy going, we could call that Germany) was fine, but it didn't really make any difference to my speed.

Anyway, hope to see some Europe based readers of this blog soon!

Football and nightmares

Well, I'm relieved. Not only do i not need to wake up at 2.45am any more to watch any more football, I won't have to watch England be humiliated by the Germans. Thank you Italy! We went out with a small level of dignity. That would not have happened against Germany who would have cleaned us up. Anyway, now we can get all excited about the British Olympic Football Team. Maybe that team knows how to pass?

In other news, well there's not much other news really. Everything else in the newspapers has been in the newspaper for months-if not years-and therefore can hardly be called news. Just the repeat of previous events: economic crises, uprisings, and the failure to do anything to stem the dire state of the environment. On the latter, maybe there is some similarities with the England team. Everyone turns up, tries to keep expectations low, says the right thing, stays out of trouble (an improvement on the 90s...), works hard but is unable to work as a team or do anything exciting or ambitious. Oh well, we can wait another 10 years until Rio + 30 or something and the World will likely be in an even worse state than now and still we'll be doing little about it.

After two weeks of splendid blue skies in Beijing and pollution levels better than most European cities, the smog descended and survived the rainstorms to put a dampener on the three-day weekend we just had. Never mind, we still went swimming in a river and climbed the great wall. We also managed to survive my worst nightmare, though only just.

My worse nightmare is when there are two lanes of traffic: one going one way and one going the other. There is a blockage somewhere around the corner so there is a queue. Only one lane can go through at one time leaving one lane empty for a period as the cars wait their turn to get through. Because everyone here that drives is both selfish and impatient they don't want to wait in the queue so decide to overtake and try to push in to the queue further up before the oncoming traffic gets going again. And as one car decides to do this, so all the other cars behind decide too. And of course they cannot all squeeze into the tiny gap as the cars inch forward, and then they get stuck, and when the cars in the other lane have their turn to advance they cannot because their lane is blocked. And now everyone is screwed. The queue of queue dodgers gets longer and longer as more and more cars decide they want to jump the queue or just can't see around the corner to see what is happening and so follow the idiot in front. Three years ago, after a trip to the Great Wall such a nightmare occurred leaving us sitting on the grass beside the car for 4 solid hours. Eventually, that time, the cars drove off into the fields to create space for the other cars to squeeze by. On Saturday, fortunately, we managed to stop the line of queue jumpers from getting too long. So most of them could eventually squeeze into the queue to clear the way for the opposite lane to get through.

I hope that makes sense. It's a real nightmare. Trust me. And it quite nicely sums up one of the big issues in China which is, I joke, sometimes the polar opposite to the UK. In the UK, everyone is polite to everyone without even knowing them, but it takes an age to become someone's close and trusted friend. In China, everyone is rude to everyone without knowing them, but quite quickly become close and trusted friends. What this means is that once you know someone here, they are fantastic, friendly and kind. But until then they most likely will treat you like an enemy, competition, or a problem. This may sound harsh, but in public spaces, it is very much true. Of course it has it's benefits of course. After one lunch with someone, they'll be very nice and eager to help you. You just need to have that one lunch. And you can't really do that with everyone in China.

A well-known correspondent for the Guardian recently left China to report from South America. He wrote an excellent leaving piece (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/18/china-birth-of-superpower?CMP=twt_gu) that i highly recommend reading to get a good summary of where China is at now. It's somewhat depressing, but there is hope. There are more and more heroes in China. I'm sure there will be more in the future too. Things are changing - hopefully, they'll get better more than they get worse. But, no time for such depressing conversations. I've just finished a marathon few days of watching Downton Abbey. And the Christmas Special could cheer anyone up. What a closing scene. Cheesiness personified yet done so well it was not cheesy. Great stuff!

Great times at the Great Wall

9 days ago I took a day off from work to go to the Great Wall with Hannah and Andrea, who was due to give a presentation as part of Tedx Great Wall the following day. Along with many of the other speakers we went out to a small training centre at the foot of the Great Wall where we would stay the night and hold the event. As soon as we arrived we went up to the Great Wall - and I promptly realized I hadn't been for two years, which is really not good enough. Going there is something we always say we want to do at least three times a year. It's a great opportunity to get some fresh air and exercise, to marvel at the views and--of course--to contemplate the incredible feat. No matter how many times you go there, and which part you go to across the country, you can't be but impressed with the ambition of the vision and the actual implementation. Deciding to build a massive 5m wide wall that is solid stone up to 10m high on the very peak of the ridges of the mountains is just crazy. That it was actually done is fantastic.

The next day was full of presentations from speakers from around the World (though mostly westerners from Europe or the US living in Asia or who had come from their home countries). Some were very interesting and provided a breath of fresh air especially those that focused on creativity and seeing things from new perspectives. Andrea did a great job talking about women social entrepreneurs and took Hannah on stage for the first few minutes as a prop! That evening we went back up the wall with champagne and wine for sunset. Fantastic.

On the first night we'd sat Hannah down on a picnic table that was on one of the towers of the wall. We held her tight as she grabbed for a small plastic water bottle that was mostly empty that was in front of her. It fascinated her and then we realized she was sitting on her own for the few minutes she played with it, without needing our support. This was the first time she'd been able to support herself sitting up for more than a few seconds, and was quite exciting. Fast forward a week and we spent all weekend with her sitting up in the botanical gardens, in parks and in outdoor restaurants so she's now getting good. However we still need to be next to her to catch her when she falls--which she will at some point, and sometimes quite quickly when she loses attention. Babies have a very short attention span!

Yesterday the weather was so good it was off-the-scale. Today it is also good. I look out the window and the sky is a brilliant blue, i can hear bids chirping and i can see the mountains 30+km away. And it only measures 96 on the pollution index (the maximum is about 900). But yesterday, it measured 22. Simply unheard of and probably better air than london. The air tends to get cleaned up after some rain and wind, it's just a shame it rains so rarely!

Interestingly the air pollution issue was raised up the political agenda recently. A few years ago the US embassy started measuring some very small air pollution particles (called 2.5PM) and putting out the results hourly on twitter (which is blocked but many people can still access it, especially foreigners) - primarily for their own staff to know what the air quality is like and thus whether to go outside or not, play sport or not etc. At that time the government was not keen on reporting that data, instead only reporting data of larger particles (10PM) and not reporting the data very often (and in fact often reporting data from the outskirts of the city, not downtown). Since the US embassy started measuring and releasing its data, the government has had to bow to public pressure to do the same. It is actually a substantial change that has been brought about through such simple methods. Funnily enough last week the Chinese government got a bit crazy and started saying that what the US embassy was doing was breaking international conventions--and that the Chinese government has no interest in measuring US air quality. But it doesn't matter, the government has had to change its stance due to public pressure online.

In fact the Chinese government is, in some ways, almost more responsive to public pressure than a democratic government. In the UK, in theory you voice your opinion every few years at the ballot box, or you can sign an online petition. Here you cannot. But the government is so paranoid about any social unrest they actually respond very quickly in many case to nip any issues in the bud. And in fact, whereas in the UK, the government may well pander to the media, they still mostly only pander to the print media. In China, the print media only really says what the government wants it to (though sometimes is does question the government) and thus it is the online/social media space that more truly represents the people and is the space where people may align opinions, generate momentum and organize and is thus the main driver of the government responding to the public. And apart from very sensitive issues, often once something is "big" in the internet then the print media have more license to explore that issue too. What it means is that the government is often surprisingly responsive to the public in some areas!

And this is just one of the reasons why, despite social media changing the West too, in China it is just revolutionizing everything: the public discourse, government and corporate transparency, public opinion and all sorts. The social media are where stories break that the government may not want to break, but cannot always stop (sometimes it does stop news that it deems sensitive, which is a very broad term), and thus has to accept and respond to. Often it is food safety scares, or transport safety scares, or poor nutrition in rural children or .... the list goes on. Anyway, it has fundamentally changed Chinese society in the last 5 years. More than 300m people use something like twitter every day (half of them on a mobile phone) and several hundred more are using other forms of internet media/messaging. Yes, the government still controls it, but it's latest catchphrase is to "channel" or "guide" "public opinion" rather than control or censor. It's not doing a great job, but it's trying. It is what is radically altering the relationship between people, the state, businesses and the media.

Now, time to stop writing and to play with Hannah before going to work. The more time we spend with our friends with older kids the more i realize the need to treasure a small 5-month old that does not need to eat food, cannot run around, cannot scream and shout, cannot break anything... ah.. the things we have to look forward to!

Roll-over, roll-over!

3 weeks after returning from Japan and Hannah's began to roll-over on her own. Turning over from her back onto her front. First always turning to her right, but now turning to her left too. Of course once she is on her front she is kind of stuck, like a beached whale. And she'd then start crying after 5 seconds or so. Now though, a couple of weeks alter, she keeps kicking, but she is beginning to try to use her arms -at least they are no longer in the way- and she does not cry for at least a couple of minutes. In fact now she turns over so often she's moving all around her little cot and we tend to find her in strange positions in the morning. In fact one noticeable change in the last week has been she no longer sleeps on her back with her arms above her head, but on her side! It's not quite as cute, but i suppose it is progress and is probably more comfortable for her. Funny seeing her in the morning, sometimes at a 90 degree angle to the bed. She's still sleeping well though, normally from 7-11 and then from 11.30-6.30 or so. In fact when Andrea and I wake up around 7am Hannah is usually already awake, quietly sucking.

Ahh, sucking. There has definitely been some progress there. It started a couple of months ago with attempts to shove her entire fist in her mouth which did not really work and led to a lot of saliva everywhere. But now she has mastered getting a couple of fingers in. And she is able to pick up some of her little toys and try to shove them in her mouth too (it's ok, they are too big to fit in, so its quite safe). Actually in the last couple of weeks there seems to be less saliva; for a while we were going through bibs and tissues like there was no tomorrow. Around the same time as the whole fist thing, Hannah has loved standing up. Of course she needs some support, but she can happily stand for 10-15 minutes with us keeping her from falling over. Her legs and arms are still pretty chubby so we hope she can start to burn off some of the fat! There has not been much progress with her being able to sit up yet though. That might still be some way off. She might end up crawling first. Let's see how much progress she makes now she spends so much time on her stomach trying to crawl.

After Tokyo (which involved me spending a large amount of time in the toilet trying to clean up Hannah's explosion) I had to head off to Shanghai for a week. By the time I had returned to Beijing Andrea had a new name! There had been some bureaucratic mix-up in Germany last summer but a new passport arrived. It was a very understated thing; but somewhat momentous. It was around about Hannah's 100-day birthday (a big deal in Chinese culture) too. Something we also failed to celebrate.

Meanwhile the weather is great; the pollution sometimes bad, sometimes non-existent. Beijing can be beautiful--and often is for at least 1 of every 2 days. Dry (almost too dry), hot and with bright blue skies. Avoiding the traffic by cycling is a great way to enjoy it. As is running. Andrea and I are now trying to get into a routine with running for me and swimming for her in the mornings. We take it in turns to spend time with the baby and then the nanny comes. It is a lot of fun playing with Hannah in the mornings; though unfortunately she is usually asleep by the time i get home around 7pm. However, the weekend is coming yet again, so more time outside with Hannah! For those of you in Europe, you'll get to see her beautiful big blue eyes in the flesh in a couple of months!

If you can't wait, check out some of the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamsphotos/collections/72157629293313887/

Civilized

China frequently states 'civilized' is one of it's goals. You see it all over the country: drive civilized, use the public bathrooms in a civilized way, be civilized with your public habits by not spitting or dropping rubbish etc. Japan is already there. And it's reached it through respect for others, be they the elderly or women. Japan aims to provide for them all.

Chinese people may respect their friends, but not strangers. There is definitely a 'me first' culture at the moment, but we did not find that in Japan. We found respect and help everywhere, as well as both services and service. Yes, Japan has had more time to get there than China, so let's see if China can make as much progress!

What is interesting is that you really feel it in the attitude here, and that is reflected in everything else, rather than just a few things. So there are signposts absolutely everywhere, women only train carriages for rush hour, elevators in stations that work and are in service, fantastic changing facilities in shopping malls and museums, free guides in museums, and so on. Drivers actually give way on the streets too!

Yesterday we spent some time in various districts: shibuya, Shinjuku, kitazawa, and Harajuku. the first two are full of shops, though shinjuku also has the Golden Dai, several alleys packed with over a hundred bars which each seat a maximum of 5 on bar stools, and an interesting red light district. Kitazawa has a Camden-like feel to it with small shops and restaurants and an artsy-vibe. Harajuku is the area where Japan's unique fashion comes to life. And Japan certainly knows fashion, and does it well.

Today we went to the excellent edo-Tokyo museum which is well done. We managed to avoid too many cafés unlike the previous days. Who knew how much they're into coffee and desserts! On the other hand, how come so few Japanese ATM's accept foreign bank cards! Strange bearing in mind the costs involved, and the huge breadth of shopping around.

The food may present challenges to Andrea (who doesn't really like fish) and the place is not cheap; but it's green, pollution-free, international (at least in food), and, of course, civilized!

East Capital

Beijing translates as the North Capital (in the past, the capital was often in Nanjing, the south capital). Meanwhile, in Chinese, Tokyo is written as East Capital. Andrea, Hannah and I have now been here since Wednesday. An easy 3-hour flight over gave us some practice flying with Hannah before the long trip home in the Summer, and everything went just fine. We arrived to have dinner with a colleague at a restaurant where Kill Bill was filmed. Nice decor, though neither the food nor service were up to the high Japanese standards we've experienced since then. On Thursday and Friday whilst I was working, Andrea explored various parks and museums as well as a few shops. Both evenings we went out with Fumi (a former colleague at Plan who was about to get married and is the reason why we came over), Francesca (another former colleague) and her fiance Andrew. The first night we had excellent Japanese hot pot and the second night we had more traditional sashimi, sushi and the like (along with 10 or so other international guests who had flown over for the wedding).

The wedding was on Saturday, after an early 3.45am rise in order to watch the tuna auction at the fish market which was somewhat disappointing and a fantastic picnic in beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen park. It began in one of the most famous shrines (Meiji Jingu) in Tokyo. After walking through all the tourists to get to the shrine itself which is closed to the public, we sat down, somewhat praying Hannah would stay asleep throughout the thirty minute ceremony. She did, and we witnessed Fumi and Chris go through several rituals including drinking as they wore their Kimonos. Most of the action was performed by the priest and it was interesting to watch; the building itself was wonderful and it was certainly a Japanese experience. Afterwards we went to a nice French restaurant for the meal and a cigar bar for the party. Hannah did well throughout!

On Sunday we went for a walk through the imperial palace gardens and through Ginza, the shopping and business district. We finally found some reasonably priced noodles and got the monorail over to Odaiba along the Rainbow Bridge (which looks similar to the Golden Gate Bridge). There we happened upon a car festival, and gazed at stunning cars that one normally only sees in movies, like the Fast and Furious. These were classic cars that had been highly customized to bounce, sit very low, go very fast (with nitrox) or just look crazy. I'll provide photos soon. We also happened upon a dog jumping competition. It was very professional, and also made for a few minutes enjoyment. In fact there are clearly a lot of sub-cultures in Japan, and the dog-thing is one of the biggest. More people seem to have dogs than kids and they seem to spend more money on their dogs than their kids! We found entire shopping malls of dog shops with dog-strollers to go with dog clothes. Dinner was Yakatori on the street - nice, but as expensive as everything else in Tokyo!

Today we had another wonderful day, taking a trip out to Kamakura where we had some wonderful soup, visited several temples and shrines in the countryside, hiked several kilometres through woods, and ended up on the beach.

Tokyo is so clean it's crazy. And it shows that cleanliness is not about convenience - there are literally no trash cans anywhere, just a few for recycling cans here and there. Cleanliness is more an attitude. China has a way to go... bins everywhere, but does not help that much (though the streets are not too dirty due to the army of street cleaners). It's expensive, but it's green. The air is clean and the subway efficient (if not very well designed, route-wise). The people are extraordinarily kind, helpful and friendly as well as respectful. And they really respect people (it must be linked to their religion as much as anything else), not just their friends. We've really enjoyed our time here so far; and have two days left, which might give me more time to reflect a bit more. For now, suffice to say, where China tries, Japan masters: from parks and gardens to dining and transport. China is the student and can not do much wrong in learning from Japan!

7 years later - revisiting Yangshuo

I'm sitting outside, boiling hot, in Yangshuo, after a hike from Xingping to Yangdi. I was last year in December 2004 and have come back for some internal planning and team building for work and stayed a couple extra days for fun. Its a great place to come, one of the most famous and beautiful regions in the country- in fact today we took a photo that is a replica of that on the 20rmb bank note. only the best gets on a bank note!

What has changed since I was last here? Well last time it was raining and cold and we couldn't find any decent hotels with heating, since heating is rarely bothered with this far south as they only need for heating for a few weeks a year. The heating was-and still-is provided by using an air conditioner to pump hot air. Eventually we found one, the nicest place in town and it was not great. The other options were a handful of hostels and a smattering of awful Chinese hotels. There was a main street that was fun with a bunch of cafes and shops, supplementing the hostels. It was mostly foreigners and young people, though not entirely and I suspect more Chinese would have come in the warmer months after we were there. I recall a couple of small alleys of the main street (called West Street) and not much else. unlucky with the weather it rained whilst we cycled and when we were drifting downstream on a small bamboo boat. But the scenery in the countryside was stunning.

It still is stunning. And as I look out of the bus on my way to the airport I'm still marveling at the scenery. After a fantastic hike today along a river, the only noticeable change in the countryside is the hum of the many small tourist boats that now ply the rivers. A few old women sell fruit along the hiking path, but their very low price and desperation hints at the small numbers of potential customers that come their way. The houses in the villages closer to town near where our hotel is (we're in a lovely place 10 min drive away)  do show signs of construction and there are many other hotels dotting the area. I'm sure a lot of them have air conditioners that provide heating now.

In the town itself, a lot has changed. Indeed from some directions the town itself seems to take ages to get into as it now sprawls so much.  There are a lot of hotels, but most are still only a handful of floors high. The main street remains pedestrianized though it is now twice as wide to accommodate the insane numbers of people that flow down it in the evenings. Several thousand crowd the street as if a football match has just finished. The main street now has several clubs and plenty of bars. All were doing good business even on a Thursday night. A few nice shops remain though others have been replaced by Chinese food or tourist shops. Most of the nicer shops and cafes have moved into a few side alleys which retain their charm and remind me of the old main street. Unfortunately fewer of those alleys are catering to the foreigners looking for small hostels and small cafes as well as those looking for climbing or biking opportunities with individual operators, and more are catering to those looking for tour agencies or restaurants that can seat 40 outside which dominate the surrounding streets.

I don't begrudge development, nor that most Chinese tour guides seem to prefer taking their groups down hard shoulders of main roads rather than on countryside roads if that saves time to see a particular hill (in fact it's great for keeping many of those small streets quiet).  In all consideration it's not too bad. Some of what makes the town of Yangshuo so special still remains on the side streets off the main street, and the countryside remains relatively unspoilt.

So I'm relieved. let those millions of tourists come each year if they're happy crowding a few small stretches of river in their boats, packing into caves and cycling down main roads. That leaves many countryside lanes a beauty to cycle down, plenty of small villages to check out (though no-one comes here for them as there are nicer ones in other parts of the country), some deserted hiking paths and other stretches of river that remain pretty despite the hum of the small boats.

So maybe Chinese tourism development does not need to be a total disaster after all. Yangshuo remains a great place to come (just don't spend too much time on the main street)!

Her eyes are still blue - will they stay that way?

It's been 5 weeks since I last wrote. Hannah is now 12 weeks old and is enjoying her new bouncy chair. I am sure our nannies will enjoy playing with Hannah in it too. Shortly after the 3 week period, when I went back to work and Hannah began being away for more than a few hours a day we realized we needed a nanny. Andrea was unable to work and play with Hannah; one of the two was going to suffer, which was not fair to either. So we sought out a nanny and as a short-term solution found one recommended but only available in the mornings, and thus ended up getting another one for the afternoons. Also a short-term solution. Except, 9 weeks later, it's clearly become a medium-term solution. It might change in the Summer, we'll see. So Hannah get's a lot of attention at home. And we get a very clean home (when Hannah is sleeping, the nannies clean).

Hannah also gets a lot of attention elsewhere too. On the streets it's often because she is in a carrier (very unusual in China) and facing forward; and because she has big blue eyes. With our friends it is because, well our friends like Hannah. Most don't have babies yet, but we have a few friends with kids. They still love Hannah too. And of course we love her as well. She's not changed that much in the last month noticeably. Still looking around lots, still enjoying flexing her legs and standing up (supported heavily by us), and so on. She is beginning to use her hands a bit more, like when she feeds. I suppose the biggest change is she has begun to be able to put her hand in her own mouth intentionally and to suck on it. Sometimes she even manages to get a finger in her mouth, which is better. At least there is less dribble that comes out that way! She does dribble quite a lot. We've never had so many packets of tissues open in our place at one time! She also still burps up some her milk, but she is getting good at burping which is nice (she tends to cry until she burps).

Another noticeable change -- though hardly a milestone -- is her digestive system seems to be evolving. Less pooping and more peeing. It means less nappies/diapers. She has slept from midnight through to 6am a few times without needing a feed, but that is not the case all the time. We continue to take her out-and-about, and she's also managed on some milk powder occasionally if her mum has been away a long time and not been able to store enough breast milk in the fridge.

Aside from Hannah, work has been very busy with a few new people joining. Having said that this week might be a short lull (i've not had to do any work all this weekend). Recently I've been researching the role of the media in reporting on good/bad social, environmental and governance performance of companies and how that might influence the companies or investors. I've also been researching the role of business-government partnerships in advancing social agendas. And there has been some proposals, a lot of events (we moved to a new office and had a party as well as several other events related to different projects) and various bits and pieces of planning too.

Of course, the last month or so has been quite a wild time for China, with the parliament meeting, a scandal involving a senior politician, a big issue about labor rights with Apple and various other things happening. It's going to be an interesting next 12 months as the political handover (to a new cabinet) takes place. And now, as Spring has come and gone in the space of 2 weeks (it snowed about a month ago), Summer is upon us. The weather is around 25 degrees in the daytime and slowly moving up in the evenings (between 10-15 degrees now), and the skies are still very clear. In fact since Hannah was born, out of 12 weeks I think at least 9 have been relatively pollution-free. With weather like this we've spend most of our weekends outside, eating downstairs by the lake in our community, walking in parks or forests and also just walking around town. It's going to be a great 6 months until Winter gets here!

Now it's personal

Coming back from a business trip to Hong Kong for some planning for 2012, I watched Jane's Journey on the plane. Now, to be honest, BSR's strategizing and planning, though necessary and important, is not hugely motivating. I compare it to the previous two days that I spent baby-sitting in Andrea's office as she kicked-off her incubator: 6 women who want to set-up a social enterprise (a cross between a charity and a business; ideally the best of both) and one woman who already has one and wants to grow it who spent the weekend thinking about why they were there, what they wanted to do and how.

Not only were some of their own stories motivating, but so were some of the speakers who came in, early on a Sunday morning, to share their motivations about what they are doing and why. Just like countless AIESEC conferences that had motivated me in the past, I remember how important it is to be inspired and inspire: to have the conversations that re-energize me. I am fortunate to have so many of these conversations with Andrea and many of our close friends who operate in this space of trying to make a difference in the world. But there is always something special when you hear someone's personal story from their heart – and I am so fortunate to have met so many of these people.

Life at BSR can become detached from individuals, where we work on the organizational level, working with companies and charities, helping them do better things, and to do them better. Of course we talk to people in those organizations, who themselves are comprised of people. But whilst it should be so simple to change things, whilst it should not be necessary to create a business case for doing the right thing, somehow we live in a world where change is difficult, where people don't always act like people but as part of an organization, and where we need to spend huge amounts of time and effort—still—convincing people and their organizations why they should listen to other voices, why they should work with others together, why they should invest in improving things. And of course, we work with them to do this and make those changes in a world that is incredibly complex and where so many things seem to be stacked against making positive change that it needs BSR and many others to spend more effort that one would think necessary to drive change.

And as I sat on the plane watching the film—a documentary about the life of Jane Goodhall, a famous environmentalist who spent years living in the forests of Africa with the Chimpanzees and now inspires literally millions of adults and children through her work—it was the first time that I could think of that fundamental argument (that I, her and many others constantly make) in a new light. For now, when the concept of leaving the world a better place for our children comes up, it is now personal. I have a child, one who I want to live in a better world. This is not hypothetical any more. This is not about realizing how lucky I am or how much need there is, nor even the selfishness of wanting to leave a positive legacy behind. This is really personal.

I don't know if what I am doing—with BSR, with FYSE, with AIESEC or with anyone else I meet and try to help, is making the difference necessary. I, we, need to work out how to make change faster; so that we can create better jobs, products that do not use up so many resources, or societies that inflict pain on others. Listening to Zhong Na, for example, of Hua-Dan, who as a migrant worker stumbled into a program where through theatre she grew her self-confidence and skills and learnt English and was inspired to work for Hua-Dan and now wants to expand Hua-Dan into her own hometown, is inspiring. So is the story of Jane. These personal stories are so important. At breakfast last Saturday morning where we were brainstorming how to help these people, we maybe forgot of the actual people because we talked about role models, and peer pressure, institutional barriers, lack of supporting organizations, lack of funding and everything that we do need to talk about. Everything that we need to fix to help make it easier for people to make the change they want to make. And now, I know I need to help them so they can make the world better for little Hannah.

Watch the film.

Hannah at 1 month old

Hannah does not have a nickname yet, but she does have certain traits. For a start, she still seems to find it difficult to "poop" (and never in my life have I talked about such a subject as frequently as I do no) which is very amusing (for us at least, not for her). It means she always has a little scream before we hear the familiar noise. She continues to want to feed a lot, but a lot of the feeding it seems is actually a need for sucking rather than feeding. So we've discovered a finger in her mouth does the job just as effectively - soothing her for a few minutes. And fulfilling her most basic need (feeding) is the surest way to make her fall asleep (something men tend to do as well, though a different basic need!)

She has begun to change, slowly and surely. It's pretty exciting. Now she can actually produce tears (before she could not, unless we just became much more mean parents all of a sudden) so when she cries sometimes a few tear drops will come out. She has also began to smile a little bit. It's still quite rare and she is still more likely to adopt the Chinese politician expression of dumbness when she is happy (she has a double chin too, so there are additional parallels too). She is growing too - now 4.2kg (still tiny compared to a child born recently in China at 8kg!) and we've had to cut her fingernails a second time (it is a very delicate operation) otherwise she tends to scratch herself. And most excitingly her eyesight seems to be improving and she can better focus and keep track of objects and people.

She has her favorite position (slung over the shoulder) which always soothes her, along with being on the chest (especially in the baby carrier); and she likes to be rubbed... on the tummy or on her forehead. She continues to have hiccups quite often which is very cute, but she has also begun burping properly. If she feeds and does not burp she is not happy, so we merrily pat her on her back after feeding every time. Sometimes she really will just eat too much and more than air comes back up... the stains do give our clothes the "evidence" we need to prove we are parents though! She is definitely a modern person - she wants everything right away without waiting and when she gets it she goes overboard and takes too much too quickly, then takes a break and tucks right back in again. However her stomach definitely looks much bigger (close to being fat, to be honest :)) and so hopefully this will help her learn to go slow and steady. Her sleeping habits are still fine; normally only waking up once between 11pm and 6 or 7am (around 2am) - hopefully in a few more weeks we might be able to get her to last a whole 6-7 hours without needing feeding.

Hannah's facebook page is very popular - I'm sure she will thank her parents for putting all those photos and videos on there when she is older and if she ever wants to continue using facebook!

And for us? Well, I'm back at work, so seeing less of Hannah whilst Andrea both works and takes care of the sleepy girl. We're exploring some other options now she is older for childcare some of the time. Although we still take her out a lot, we've had quite a few visitors, which is unusual but nice. Meanwhile, the weather is going through a warm spell - it's above zero in the daytime, but I doubt it will last and winter will return for another month or more.