hi all
a few random observations on beijing:
-there is no such thing as red or yellow lines to prohibit anyonefrom stopping or parking almost anywhere. So although most peopleare generally sensible, the typical reason for a traffic jam is ataxi blocking 2 lanes as it dashed across 3 lanes to pick up acustomer, and thus parked at an angle...causing chaos, especiallywith the long (bendy) buses trying to go around them!
-there are no trucks or lorries! there are a few..there are lots ofcoal trucks that appear after around 11pm, but during the day itsjust buses and cars mostly. Plus, of course, the many carts, cylesetc taht carry goods like vegetables, cardboard, TVs, doors..youname it!
-Having said this, all the bridges are really low in beijing, thedouble decker buses are kinda short, and only squeeze under thebridges by less than a metre (no kidding), so maybe this was a planto keep lorries away an reduce congestion/pollution?
-I've managed to read bus maps now since i know enough characers toknow where i am and where i am going. It helps no end! It also makesme realise what a superb invention the 'spider maps' are that areused in London, on each bus stop showing where the buses that stoptheir go, and their frequency.
-Noone in China uses deodarant. This is something i have known for awhile (since trying to buy it) but was reminded of again when packedvery, very, tightly onto a bus at rush hour..thankfully a fewwindows were open!
Anyway, moving on, we had our listening test today which waspointless because:
a) it was 50 times harder that what we practise in class, so we weretotally unprepared
b) nothing was repreated
c) everything was in chinese characters, including the answers..thusby the time i had understood the answers i had missed the actualconversation on the tape
d) the conversation was first, and then the question. so we had toremember the entire conversation in order to be able to answer thequestion, since we did not know which particular piece ofinformation to remember or look for in the conversation....and on and on. anyway everyone left wondering what the point ofthe test was. but since noone actually cares what the results are(its not like it matters what mark you get at the end of thecourse), it was a 'who cares' situation.
4 hours later i then had the oral test. it lasted approximately 3mintues since i was asked only 5 questions of such ease i could haveanswered most of them even before i started the course (and everyoneelse agreed). such the opposite of the listening test, everyone wasvery bewildered.
tomorrow is the written, therefore predcitably hard (but at least wehave been prepared with practise tests already)..so i'd better learnsome 'hanzi'.
just before i go, i'll mention that tomorrow night is flic andchris's leaving party :( i wont see flic again for a long time oncei go to inner mongolia (sunday) although i will see chris foranother week. kinda sad..the end of an era :( such a fun,interesting, chaotic time. even sadder than when i moved out of theoffice. oh well, better enjoy tomorrow night.
oh, and this is a great article on 'blogging'. If you dont know whatblogging is, you should know, and you should read this. and if youdo, you should read this anyway, cause its very interesting:
click here
will report back after the camping in a gurt in inner mongolia, andafter we take pictures of the north korean border from a lake on topof a (doramnt?) volcano...
adam
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Sunday, April 24, 2005
beautiful Beijing
Back from another trip to the outskirts of Beijing for a dose of non-polluted air, and it was very invigorating.
The area is called Shidu (10 (shi) ferries or crossings of the riveris the rough translation and there is 1du, 2du...etc along theriver), and we went to a 'village' called mujiakou, which is in factjust a recently built village designed to house goats and be ahotel. its nicely done, with the rooms in little stone rooms thatfit in well.
It was very beautiful (a bit like Yangshuo), and i promptly ledeveryone on a 2 and a half hour trek up the mountains...i managed toconvince them all to trust me, and my sense of direction.Fortunately everything worked out well and the exercise, views andanimals, plus the rarity of absolute silence was fantastic.
there are a bunch of photos on the wesbite(http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane for those with abad memory).
other news is that we have midterms this week so i need to startdoing some work ASAP, the tickets for inner mongolia are bought andwe all went out for a class lunch last week (hot pot) which waspleasent (unlimited beer, shame i had to work afterwards).
this week i am hoping to get lots of big names (government etc) tocome to the next CSR conference I am organising..hoping they accept.Also this weekend will be the last time I see Flic until...? aww :(have to make the most of her till then, like by eating the xmaspudding at her leaving party!..since the weather is now a perfect 25degrees, why not?
nothing too much interesting in the news this week except theongoing demonstrations and japan issues...a good update is here:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1581091,00.html. Althoughmore interesting is to read elsewhere about what China does not havein its textbooks, or distorts..(wars with India, Vietnam, TianenmanSquare amongst others...)
lets all keep our fingers crossed for the big derby game tomorrow!
Adam
The area is called Shidu (10 (shi) ferries or crossings of the riveris the rough translation and there is 1du, 2du...etc along theriver), and we went to a 'village' called mujiakou, which is in factjust a recently built village designed to house goats and be ahotel. its nicely done, with the rooms in little stone rooms thatfit in well.
It was very beautiful (a bit like Yangshuo), and i promptly ledeveryone on a 2 and a half hour trek up the mountains...i managed toconvince them all to trust me, and my sense of direction.Fortunately everything worked out well and the exercise, views andanimals, plus the rarity of absolute silence was fantastic.
there are a bunch of photos on the wesbite(http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane for those with abad memory).
other news is that we have midterms this week so i need to startdoing some work ASAP, the tickets for inner mongolia are bought andwe all went out for a class lunch last week (hot pot) which waspleasent (unlimited beer, shame i had to work afterwards).
this week i am hoping to get lots of big names (government etc) tocome to the next CSR conference I am organising..hoping they accept.Also this weekend will be the last time I see Flic until...? aww :(have to make the most of her till then, like by eating the xmaspudding at her leaving party!..since the weather is now a perfect 25degrees, why not?
nothing too much interesting in the news this week except theongoing demonstrations and japan issues...a good update is here:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1581091,00.html. Althoughmore interesting is to read elsewhere about what China does not havein its textbooks, or distorts..(wars with India, Vietnam, TianenmanSquare amongst others...)
lets all keep our fingers crossed for the big derby game tomorrow!
Adam
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
snowing in Beijing at 25 degrees?
Yep its snowing! well not really, its just these white flowers thatare flying absolutely everywhere and getting in all the rooms (pluseyes of cyclists!), so it looks like its snowing!
no-one wuite knows where the flowers are coming from though, but iguess they are spreading their wings for flower mating season!
recently i had my first accident on the road :) not a bad one, justsome idiot on a motorbike pulled out and looked right before lookingleft (the traffic was coming from the left in the closest lane)..soI hit him at about 10mph, missed his leg unfortunately and just wentinto the side of his motorbike. anyway, totally harmless, butexcitingly i was looking at him saying 'kan, kan' afterwards (kan =look)
I also noticed that the chinese are nothing if not clever, in thatsince its so dry in spring (but the trees need water), they dig bigholes around the trees (mini-lakes if you like) and then fill themwith water (from a truck driving along the road taking aim so as tospray into the wholes) so the trees get more water. I think it isjust for 'young' trees and don't know if its just my area or thewhole of Beijing!
most of you will have read about the anti-japanese demonstrations inchina -I havent seen any yet, but there has always been historicalissues between the 2 countries. I asked my tutee..he said: "thechinese not like the japanese" so there you go. anyway, itsinteresting that the government seems to be tacilty encouraging thedemonstrations on one hand (to make japan look bad, and maybe tofocus attention on an external issue), whilst being careful to makesure they don't get too bad that they encourage other demonstrations(ie. against the chinese government). its rpetty obvious they arebeing lax though, since normally they would crack down instantly,and last weekend cars were being wrecked, embassies attacked andjapanese shops ransacked in shanghai and elsewhere.
the other interesting thing i learned is about a wordcalled 'pingde'. Some of you may know that recently UK introduceda 'citizenship' class into the national curriculum, so students knowa bit more about stuff like the law, ethics, voting etc. I am sureother countries have this too. Well the chiense have 'pingde' fromage 5-18, and it literally translates as 'morals/ethics'. Thats alot of classes on that subject. apparently a lot of it is based onstories etc from old times, Mao or whoever with a moral to them(like the bible really!)
Had my first KTV experience last friday night (karaoke), but not tooamazing since I slept through most of it (started at 1am, finishedat 5am)...I have to get up at 7am every morning and had not had abreak since conference, so i have an excuse (plus the room was toohot, and we had to wait an hour to get it)...maybe the next timewill be better. It was weird though that for the beatles songe,there were some 'imitation' videos involving a chinese 'lookalikeband' -classic! Sadly Ralph has now left; maybe I'll see him inIndia at International Congress...although I need to find a reasonto go! maybe an AIESEC CSR job could be the excuse...
tomorrow the whole class is going out for lunch, woohoo. we'll seeif I'll throttle the annoying old german lady (she wasted 45 mins ofmy revision time when she collared me on cmapus trying torevise!)..she is very nice and intelligent and quite a character,but sometimes...grrr
rightyo, better do some more revision, before teaching, dinnermeetings and then sorting out my tickets (and sleeping bag) to innermongolia (ooooh).
au revoir!
Adam
no-one wuite knows where the flowers are coming from though, but iguess they are spreading their wings for flower mating season!
recently i had my first accident on the road :) not a bad one, justsome idiot on a motorbike pulled out and looked right before lookingleft (the traffic was coming from the left in the closest lane)..soI hit him at about 10mph, missed his leg unfortunately and just wentinto the side of his motorbike. anyway, totally harmless, butexcitingly i was looking at him saying 'kan, kan' afterwards (kan =look)
I also noticed that the chinese are nothing if not clever, in thatsince its so dry in spring (but the trees need water), they dig bigholes around the trees (mini-lakes if you like) and then fill themwith water (from a truck driving along the road taking aim so as tospray into the wholes) so the trees get more water. I think it isjust for 'young' trees and don't know if its just my area or thewhole of Beijing!
most of you will have read about the anti-japanese demonstrations inchina -I havent seen any yet, but there has always been historicalissues between the 2 countries. I asked my tutee..he said: "thechinese not like the japanese" so there you go. anyway, itsinteresting that the government seems to be tacilty encouraging thedemonstrations on one hand (to make japan look bad, and maybe tofocus attention on an external issue), whilst being careful to makesure they don't get too bad that they encourage other demonstrations(ie. against the chinese government). its rpetty obvious they arebeing lax though, since normally they would crack down instantly,and last weekend cars were being wrecked, embassies attacked andjapanese shops ransacked in shanghai and elsewhere.
the other interesting thing i learned is about a wordcalled 'pingde'. Some of you may know that recently UK introduceda 'citizenship' class into the national curriculum, so students knowa bit more about stuff like the law, ethics, voting etc. I am sureother countries have this too. Well the chiense have 'pingde' fromage 5-18, and it literally translates as 'morals/ethics'. Thats alot of classes on that subject. apparently a lot of it is based onstories etc from old times, Mao or whoever with a moral to them(like the bible really!)
Had my first KTV experience last friday night (karaoke), but not tooamazing since I slept through most of it (started at 1am, finishedat 5am)...I have to get up at 7am every morning and had not had abreak since conference, so i have an excuse (plus the room was toohot, and we had to wait an hour to get it)...maybe the next timewill be better. It was weird though that for the beatles songe,there were some 'imitation' videos involving a chinese 'lookalikeband' -classic! Sadly Ralph has now left; maybe I'll see him inIndia at International Congress...although I need to find a reasonto go! maybe an AIESEC CSR job could be the excuse...
tomorrow the whole class is going out for lunch, woohoo. we'll seeif I'll throttle the annoying old german lady (she wasted 45 mins ofmy revision time when she collared me on cmapus trying torevise!)..she is very nice and intelligent and quite a character,but sometimes...grrr
rightyo, better do some more revision, before teaching, dinnermeetings and then sorting out my tickets (and sleeping bag) to innermongolia (ooooh).
au revoir!
Adam
Thursday, April 14, 2005
hm..
Back from conference!
I had a great time chairing the AIESEC conference over a 3 dayweekend; including the rather emotional closing plenary, since Chrisand Flic were leaving China before the next month, and by the nextconference, there will be a new national team. Ralph is also leavingsoon (party tomorrow though!), but I'm not :)
Our mid-term examination is in 2 weeks spread over 3 weeks. Then thefollowing day I'll hopefully be heading off to Inner Mongolia for aweek holiday (no uni for a week) once i sort out the train vs. planeticket options.
This week the weather has warmed up again to around 20 degrees, soit is very pleasent and we'll be picnicing in the park on saturday!Maybe even the shorts will come out!! The meeting we had to ask formoney went quite well; more info in a couple of weeks, and I haveanother tutoring job paying lots :) (equivalent of 20 Euros perhour!!) for 6 hours, which will mean i might even be able to startsaving some money to travel in the summer.
I noticed that Tony Blair has released his own little red book,which has been compared to Mao's. what an honour! I have a copy ofMao's but have not got around to reading it yet. Not much excitingnews I am afraid, but hopefully there will be more soon.
My bike looks quite amsuing now half of it is tied on with a straw(the chain guard) or pieces of wire (the padlock). Got to dash.
Adam
I had a great time chairing the AIESEC conference over a 3 dayweekend; including the rather emotional closing plenary, since Chrisand Flic were leaving China before the next month, and by the nextconference, there will be a new national team. Ralph is also leavingsoon (party tomorrow though!), but I'm not :)
Our mid-term examination is in 2 weeks spread over 3 weeks. Then thefollowing day I'll hopefully be heading off to Inner Mongolia for aweek holiday (no uni for a week) once i sort out the train vs. planeticket options.
This week the weather has warmed up again to around 20 degrees, soit is very pleasent and we'll be picnicing in the park on saturday!Maybe even the shorts will come out!! The meeting we had to ask formoney went quite well; more info in a couple of weeks, and I haveanother tutoring job paying lots :) (equivalent of 20 Euros perhour!!) for 6 hours, which will mean i might even be able to startsaving some money to travel in the summer.
I noticed that Tony Blair has released his own little red book,which has been compared to Mao's. what an honour! I have a copy ofMao's but have not got around to reading it yet. Not much excitingnews I am afraid, but hopefully there will be more soon.
My bike looks quite amsuing now half of it is tied on with a straw(the chain guard) or pieces of wire (the padlock). Got to dash.
Adam
Thursday, April 07, 2005
busy times....
Wow, its exciting to be me right now :)
This week I have been meeting all the AIESEC students in thedifferent Universities to finalise all their lectures andconferences they are organising on campus related to CSR, so I havebeen eating at all the different 'shitang' (canteens), and I cansafely say the food at my Unis is one of the worse (but thats causeall the foreigners eat at the restaurants on campus instead).
I'm thus chairing the event tonight, as well as organising all theevents, speakers, and coaching the students with their events, plusplanning the other activities. Its great, and very rewarding to seethem come along, be innovative and confident and so on (quite rare Ithink in china). I am also chairing the National Conference thisweekend. So 3 days of no sleep! But I am looking forward to it, asits a challenge; especially as it is essentially 2 conferences (1for new AIESECers, 1 for experienced AIESECers).
Noone knows I am chairing yet, so it should be a fun surprise forthem all. After 25 or so AIESEC conferences, now I am the one incharge of making this one go smoothly! woo hoo. I'll report backnext week. Anyway, I have to skip class friday morning and when Ireturn late sunday night, will have 8am class on monday as usual :(Then the important videoconference with Swiss Re in Zurich! andhaving to deliver a speech or 2 on CSR apparently next week, as wellas trying to teach some more.
Actually one of the speakers tonight is an important person from theUK FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), who is the head of theGlobal Business Group (ooo, sounds good, doesn't it!)...hopefully ifshe is impressed she will convince her colleague based in Beijing togive us money too (as the colleague is waivering!)
Whats been up? Well Ralph (the Aussie CEEDer) has signed a superbpartnership with the Australian Chamber of Commerce for lots oftraineeships, Flic has returned from Bangladesh; Beijing had 3 daysof pollution so bad that the government warned everyone to stayinside, as it was actually 'at dangerous levels', the weather issupposed to go through a cold patch soon (boohoo), and the test waskinda pointless since we could finish it at home.
Otherwise I've been listening to the new Sterophonics album(downloaded most of it illegally, but it seems impossible toactually buy western CDs here legally, as they are not in shops, sowhat can I do? buy it online and get it shipped over? or pay todownload it legally? well, since I'd have to pay western prices forit, then no way!) and Coldplay release their new one in the Summer.I highly reccommend Counting Crows to everyone since I becameaddicted to their stuff recently.
Last Saturday me and Karen went on a trip to BJ;s suburbs with someunderwater great wall, a big lake, clean air and quiet countrysideto revise. It was great to get a way. If it wasn't for conference,I'd do the same again (over 20 excursions listed in the guide book!)
wooh, this email is tooo long. Anyway, the latest China-news isabout Japan's recent attempts to 'rewrite history' (or so thechinese and south koreans claim) by covering up their militaristichistory and downplaying it in a popular school text book. For thosewho are unaware, there are pretty big Chinese-Japanese tensions,since Japan invaded China a few times, raped lots of people andkilled lots too (not just in the 2nd World War, also inother 'invasions')....last year there were riots after the Asia CupFinal (Japan vs. China).
so better dash, I am busy you know ;)
Adam
This week I have been meeting all the AIESEC students in thedifferent Universities to finalise all their lectures andconferences they are organising on campus related to CSR, so I havebeen eating at all the different 'shitang' (canteens), and I cansafely say the food at my Unis is one of the worse (but thats causeall the foreigners eat at the restaurants on campus instead).
I'm thus chairing the event tonight, as well as organising all theevents, speakers, and coaching the students with their events, plusplanning the other activities. Its great, and very rewarding to seethem come along, be innovative and confident and so on (quite rare Ithink in china). I am also chairing the National Conference thisweekend. So 3 days of no sleep! But I am looking forward to it, asits a challenge; especially as it is essentially 2 conferences (1for new AIESECers, 1 for experienced AIESECers).
Noone knows I am chairing yet, so it should be a fun surprise forthem all. After 25 or so AIESEC conferences, now I am the one incharge of making this one go smoothly! woo hoo. I'll report backnext week. Anyway, I have to skip class friday morning and when Ireturn late sunday night, will have 8am class on monday as usual :(Then the important videoconference with Swiss Re in Zurich! andhaving to deliver a speech or 2 on CSR apparently next week, as wellas trying to teach some more.
Actually one of the speakers tonight is an important person from theUK FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), who is the head of theGlobal Business Group (ooo, sounds good, doesn't it!)...hopefully ifshe is impressed she will convince her colleague based in Beijing togive us money too (as the colleague is waivering!)
Whats been up? Well Ralph (the Aussie CEEDer) has signed a superbpartnership with the Australian Chamber of Commerce for lots oftraineeships, Flic has returned from Bangladesh; Beijing had 3 daysof pollution so bad that the government warned everyone to stayinside, as it was actually 'at dangerous levels', the weather issupposed to go through a cold patch soon (boohoo), and the test waskinda pointless since we could finish it at home.
Otherwise I've been listening to the new Sterophonics album(downloaded most of it illegally, but it seems impossible toactually buy western CDs here legally, as they are not in shops, sowhat can I do? buy it online and get it shipped over? or pay todownload it legally? well, since I'd have to pay western prices forit, then no way!) and Coldplay release their new one in the Summer.I highly reccommend Counting Crows to everyone since I becameaddicted to their stuff recently.
Last Saturday me and Karen went on a trip to BJ;s suburbs with someunderwater great wall, a big lake, clean air and quiet countrysideto revise. It was great to get a way. If it wasn't for conference,I'd do the same again (over 20 excursions listed in the guide book!)
wooh, this email is tooo long. Anyway, the latest China-news isabout Japan's recent attempts to 'rewrite history' (or so thechinese and south koreans claim) by covering up their militaristichistory and downplaying it in a popular school text book. For thosewho are unaware, there are pretty big Chinese-Japanese tensions,since Japan invaded China a few times, raped lots of people andkilled lots too (not just in the 2nd World War, also inother 'invasions')....last year there were riots after the Asia CupFinal (Japan vs. China).
so better dash, I am busy you know ;)
Adam
Friday, April 01, 2005
testing times
Hey
Monday marks the first time we have a proper test; aarggh. It wil befor all the stuff we have studied so far. In preparation, tomorrow Iam going into the countryside with some tongxue (classmates) tostudy (hopefully); I'll report back on how much of the Great Wall wesee (its supposed to be underwater, where we are going!)
Not much news this week; things are going as usual. However I justwanted to post a quick update on Zimbabwe, since if you read thisarticlehttp://english.people.com.cn/200503/31/eng20050331_178858.html fromthe government's official paper, you get a very different view fromthe Western view of the elections.
There is a few comical lines, including a quote from the Namibianpresident that: "I think the situation there in Zimbabwe is movingnow towards a goal that the government of Zimbabwe has worked outfor the common benefit of all the people of Zimbabwe. There isreally no serious problem there, no problem there," despite the 80%uneployment, 400% inflation..hmmmm
Anyway, read the article to see how it is phrased; and how differenta perspective you would get if you were chinese reading thatcompared to a westerner reading what is in the western press. Maybeits the western press that is all lying? hmm, anyway, today 2British journalists were arrested; whilst the biggest reason to votefor Mugabe was nothing to do with jobs or food, but because 'Blairis a liar'. quite how Blair lying impacts upon starving africans,I'm not sure, but hey...
enjoy your weekend. Its supposed to hit the mid 80s in the middle ofnext week; although we had the first rain in Beijing for 4 monthstoday (a shame it only lasted an hour, and was very light)
Adam
Monday marks the first time we have a proper test; aarggh. It wil befor all the stuff we have studied so far. In preparation, tomorrow Iam going into the countryside with some tongxue (classmates) tostudy (hopefully); I'll report back on how much of the Great Wall wesee (its supposed to be underwater, where we are going!)
Not much news this week; things are going as usual. However I justwanted to post a quick update on Zimbabwe, since if you read thisarticlehttp://english.people.com.cn/200503/31/eng20050331_178858.html fromthe government's official paper, you get a very different view fromthe Western view of the elections.
There is a few comical lines, including a quote from the Namibianpresident that: "I think the situation there in Zimbabwe is movingnow towards a goal that the government of Zimbabwe has worked outfor the common benefit of all the people of Zimbabwe. There isreally no serious problem there, no problem there," despite the 80%uneployment, 400% inflation..hmmmm
Anyway, read the article to see how it is phrased; and how differenta perspective you would get if you were chinese reading thatcompared to a westerner reading what is in the western press. Maybeits the western press that is all lying? hmm, anyway, today 2British journalists were arrested; whilst the biggest reason to votefor Mugabe was nothing to do with jobs or food, but because 'Blairis a liar'. quite how Blair lying impacts upon starving africans,I'm not sure, but hey...
enjoy your weekend. Its supposed to hit the mid 80s in the middle ofnext week; although we had the first rain in Beijing for 4 monthstoday (a shame it only lasted an hour, and was very light)
Adam
Monday, March 28, 2005
Pingyao
Back from Pingyao; a town the Lonely Planet (aka 'the bible') calledthe best preserved traditional, old, chinese town still around.
It was the financial capital of China until around 100 years ago,and for the 400 years or so before that was an important (andsuccessful) trading town.
I learnt that Beijing has clean air in comparison to this place(where the sun barely peeped through the pollution) and I thoughtabout the role of tourism in such a town. The old, preserved, partof town is inside the 6km circumference walls. It consists of acouple thousand buildings, of which 10% are fancy temples, old banksor old residences which have been restored (or not in some cases)and in total form the 20 'historic attractions' that you can visiton 1 ticket. Of the rest; I think only half are actually occupied(their residents have probably moved on looking for betteraccommodation or jobs).
This old part of the town only survives of tourism (and providingbasic services to those staffing the restaurants, hotels and (mostof them) the 20 historic attractions. These 'attractions' wereridiculously overstaffed (maybe there are more tourists at othertimes of the year); as were all the (identical) shops selling tackygoods. The fact that all the kids ran up to us saying 'hello',presumably means they don't see many white faces! I think Karen(friend I travelled with) enjoyed the attention though!
Outside of the walls, is the rest of the town; which is a depressingexample of Chinese urbanisation. I wont say more about it, just thatit 'sucked'. We rented some bikes so I could show Karen a bit moreof crappy Shaanxi province (I had been to this province before) -shesoon realised visibly that this province provides 30% of china'scoal. In fact, I think we saw 5% of it either piled on the roadside,being piled into trains, or as coaldust (which we were breathing in).
The trip was fantastic. The old stuff was great; the hotel we stayedin was very traditionally chinese and we spent the whole weekendtrying to read characters (we know about 100 most common ones). Therest of the city was so chinese, you just feel like you areexperiencing the real urban China. The weather was great, theovernight train journeys fun; and then there were lots of littlequirks to amuse us:
-the bike I hired had a metal bar for a brake, connected to anothermetal bar, connected to the brake pad (no wires or plastic when thisbike was built!);
-the pedicabs chased us everywhere wanting to drive us the few kmsthe town took up;
-the 12 of the 20 attractions that we did were complete withhilarious signs (bad english, or just dumb, 'desparate-to-invent-something-interesting-to-say') and the same group of actors doing adifferent show at a different attraction every hour (or so itseemed);
-the obvious extortion we received as foreigners when buying streetfood: a chinese woman would pay 3 RMB for 6 of something, and wewould pay 2 RMB for 1 of something. Yet when we tried to haggle,they refused; even when we could buy it from 15 other people sellingthe same thing!
It was fun, and it has made me determined to learn more Chinese andsee more of China. The routine I seem to be settling into in weekdayevenings suits me fine. My flatmate or her sister cook for us; Ipractice my chinese with them, learn new words, make them laugh as Itry to create sentences, and so on.
In a week or so, I have a videoconference with the HQ of a bigassurance company who MIGHT sponsor AIESEC China for all, or someof, a full-time CSR coordinator (a job I will hopefully do iffunding gets secured, and if the rest of AIESEC here want meto)...so we'll see.
and to end (another long email!), I'll get my new name/businesscards soon which will have all 4 chinese characters of my chinesename on (Ya Dam Lay En). Ya Dam -Adam. Lay =thunderstorm and En=kind person who helps others. I like it. The first is a directtranslation of Adam (no meaning) and the second part shows mymasculinity (grr, big thunderstorm) whilst ensuring I am still intouch with my 'feminine side' (kind, with feelings)....or so I liketo think :))
anyway, hoping to enjoy more of this 20-25 degree weather, before itstarts getting too hot and humid in a month or so.
Adam
It was the financial capital of China until around 100 years ago,and for the 400 years or so before that was an important (andsuccessful) trading town.
I learnt that Beijing has clean air in comparison to this place(where the sun barely peeped through the pollution) and I thoughtabout the role of tourism in such a town. The old, preserved, partof town is inside the 6km circumference walls. It consists of acouple thousand buildings, of which 10% are fancy temples, old banksor old residences which have been restored (or not in some cases)and in total form the 20 'historic attractions' that you can visiton 1 ticket. Of the rest; I think only half are actually occupied(their residents have probably moved on looking for betteraccommodation or jobs).
This old part of the town only survives of tourism (and providingbasic services to those staffing the restaurants, hotels and (mostof them) the 20 historic attractions. These 'attractions' wereridiculously overstaffed (maybe there are more tourists at othertimes of the year); as were all the (identical) shops selling tackygoods. The fact that all the kids ran up to us saying 'hello',presumably means they don't see many white faces! I think Karen(friend I travelled with) enjoyed the attention though!
Outside of the walls, is the rest of the town; which is a depressingexample of Chinese urbanisation. I wont say more about it, just thatit 'sucked'. We rented some bikes so I could show Karen a bit moreof crappy Shaanxi province (I had been to this province before) -shesoon realised visibly that this province provides 30% of china'scoal. In fact, I think we saw 5% of it either piled on the roadside,being piled into trains, or as coaldust (which we were breathing in).
The trip was fantastic. The old stuff was great; the hotel we stayedin was very traditionally chinese and we spent the whole weekendtrying to read characters (we know about 100 most common ones). Therest of the city was so chinese, you just feel like you areexperiencing the real urban China. The weather was great, theovernight train journeys fun; and then there were lots of littlequirks to amuse us:
-the bike I hired had a metal bar for a brake, connected to anothermetal bar, connected to the brake pad (no wires or plastic when thisbike was built!);
-the pedicabs chased us everywhere wanting to drive us the few kmsthe town took up;
-the 12 of the 20 attractions that we did were complete withhilarious signs (bad english, or just dumb, 'desparate-to-invent-something-interesting-to-say') and the same group of actors doing adifferent show at a different attraction every hour (or so itseemed);
-the obvious extortion we received as foreigners when buying streetfood: a chinese woman would pay 3 RMB for 6 of something, and wewould pay 2 RMB for 1 of something. Yet when we tried to haggle,they refused; even when we could buy it from 15 other people sellingthe same thing!
It was fun, and it has made me determined to learn more Chinese andsee more of China. The routine I seem to be settling into in weekdayevenings suits me fine. My flatmate or her sister cook for us; Ipractice my chinese with them, learn new words, make them laugh as Itry to create sentences, and so on.
In a week or so, I have a videoconference with the HQ of a bigassurance company who MIGHT sponsor AIESEC China for all, or someof, a full-time CSR coordinator (a job I will hopefully do iffunding gets secured, and if the rest of AIESEC here want meto)...so we'll see.
and to end (another long email!), I'll get my new name/businesscards soon which will have all 4 chinese characters of my chinesename on (Ya Dam Lay En). Ya Dam -Adam. Lay =thunderstorm and En=kind person who helps others. I like it. The first is a directtranslation of Adam (no meaning) and the second part shows mymasculinity (grr, big thunderstorm) whilst ensuring I am still intouch with my 'feminine side' (kind, with feelings)....or so I liketo think :))
anyway, hoping to enjoy more of this 20-25 degree weather, before itstarts getting too hot and humid in a month or so.
Adam
Thursday, March 24, 2005
random stuff
First I am remembering to let you know there are some new picturesup on the site (http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane);a new album from my second trip to the great wall and one from mytrip to Yuanmingyuan (ruins of famous palace) and some others havebeen updated too.
There will be more photos uploaded next week -these onese shouldactually be interesting, as this weekend I am going on a weekendtrip to the best preserved old city in China, called Pingyao.
Things about Beijing/China:
-the huge number of security guards at entrances and exits to mostdecent size shops, all Universities, most appartment buildingcomplexes, most car parks .... everywhere. no wonder Beijing is safe(well it certainly seems so anyway)
-the ridiculous number of food selling places (street vendors,small, medium and big restaurants). So spoilt for choice -so manydifferent types of chinese restaurants (xinjian, cantonese,shanghainese, sichuanese, hotpots etc), and each one with menus of15 or 20 pages -even the restaurants with only seats for 20 people(and a kitchen the size of a large wardrobe!).
-the construction; i read that half of all the cranes in the worldare in china right now (or something close). things are just alwaysbeing built, altered, knocked down or something. it all happens,literally overnight. within 1 weekend, near the university, a wallwent up. no hints of anything; but now there is a square wall (withtrees within it, so not sure what it will turn into -maybe acourtyard or something).
-end of this year =120 million internet users in china and 25% ofpopulation currently own a mobile phone (of a population of 1.3bn,thats a lot!)
the second trip to great wall was nice; it was pretty warm, greatviews and no pollution! however there was not much greenery (time ofyear), and we saw some pictures of what it looked like covered insnow :( i'll have to go back next winter.
so its defintely warmer. Although there is sometimes a harsh wind;without it, in the afternoons there is no need for a jacket, andwhen i played table tennis with my room mate (and her sister), istripped down to t-shirts! Did i mention the room-mate's sister? shedoesnt speak more than 5 words of english and is here for a (long)while, not working, so always around for me to try and talk to.
having said that, my roommate skipped work today (cause sheis 'lazy' or something), so that makes me feel better. normally thechinese are very diligent and hard working (relatively). she helpsme a lot with my bad attempts to create sentences; i just need totalk to her more!
the exciting china-news developments were Rice's visit here, and thesubsequent Europeans decision to probably not lift their armsembargo on China (I think the fact that China just passed the 'anti-succession' law allowing for force to be used against any part ofchina that might do something beijing doesn't like, played a part init). The law is intentionally very vague about what is an offence -it just says that force should be used if an offence occurs!
I also just read that: "The CPC is currently launching a nationwideimage building campaign to show as a ruling party, it is "open-minded, progressive, responsible and democratic and competent" tolead the nation." (CPC is Communist Party)
finally, i have been reading up on RSS, and thus spending more timeon the internet, but reading and learning much more, much moreefficiently; including getting all the People's Daily's articles; sonow I am very much in touch with the chinese government's propoganda.
no more to write just now really, although we went to a fantasticindian restuarant last night for Rohit's birthday (indian friend, ex-AIESEC), not cheap but i hadn't had a tikka massala or curry sincejuly probably!
Adam
There will be more photos uploaded next week -these onese shouldactually be interesting, as this weekend I am going on a weekendtrip to the best preserved old city in China, called Pingyao.
Things about Beijing/China:
-the huge number of security guards at entrances and exits to mostdecent size shops, all Universities, most appartment buildingcomplexes, most car parks .... everywhere. no wonder Beijing is safe(well it certainly seems so anyway)
-the ridiculous number of food selling places (street vendors,small, medium and big restaurants). So spoilt for choice -so manydifferent types of chinese restaurants (xinjian, cantonese,shanghainese, sichuanese, hotpots etc), and each one with menus of15 or 20 pages -even the restaurants with only seats for 20 people(and a kitchen the size of a large wardrobe!).
-the construction; i read that half of all the cranes in the worldare in china right now (or something close). things are just alwaysbeing built, altered, knocked down or something. it all happens,literally overnight. within 1 weekend, near the university, a wallwent up. no hints of anything; but now there is a square wall (withtrees within it, so not sure what it will turn into -maybe acourtyard or something).
-end of this year =120 million internet users in china and 25% ofpopulation currently own a mobile phone (of a population of 1.3bn,thats a lot!)
the second trip to great wall was nice; it was pretty warm, greatviews and no pollution! however there was not much greenery (time ofyear), and we saw some pictures of what it looked like covered insnow :( i'll have to go back next winter.
so its defintely warmer. Although there is sometimes a harsh wind;without it, in the afternoons there is no need for a jacket, andwhen i played table tennis with my room mate (and her sister), istripped down to t-shirts! Did i mention the room-mate's sister? shedoesnt speak more than 5 words of english and is here for a (long)while, not working, so always around for me to try and talk to.
having said that, my roommate skipped work today (cause sheis 'lazy' or something), so that makes me feel better. normally thechinese are very diligent and hard working (relatively). she helpsme a lot with my bad attempts to create sentences; i just need totalk to her more!
the exciting china-news developments were Rice's visit here, and thesubsequent Europeans decision to probably not lift their armsembargo on China (I think the fact that China just passed the 'anti-succession' law allowing for force to be used against any part ofchina that might do something beijing doesn't like, played a part init). The law is intentionally very vague about what is an offence -it just says that force should be used if an offence occurs!
I also just read that: "The CPC is currently launching a nationwideimage building campaign to show as a ruling party, it is "open-minded, progressive, responsible and democratic and competent" tolead the nation." (CPC is Communist Party)
finally, i have been reading up on RSS, and thus spending more timeon the internet, but reading and learning much more, much moreefficiently; including getting all the People's Daily's articles; sonow I am very much in touch with the chinese government's propoganda.
no more to write just now really, although we went to a fantasticindian restuarant last night for Rohit's birthday (indian friend, ex-AIESEC), not cheap but i hadn't had a tikka massala or curry sincejuly probably!
Adam
Sunday, March 20, 2005
authentic beijing, pizza, ruins and the end of overemployment?
Back from an exhilerating run this morning; where I ran past some ofthe most 'authentic' parts of Beijing I have ever seen. Rubbishlying around, chaos on the roads with bikes and cars being repairedall over the place and lots of people sitting around. Next time I'lltake some pictures, because it was great.
I subsequently watched 'Finding Neverland' -the (relatively true)story about JM Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. I highly reccommend it.Last night was Ralph's 21st party; so I had my first visit to apizza buffet in China! Its AYCE (All You Can Eat) and a crossbetween western food (pizza, chips, chicken nuggets, ice cream etc)and chinese food too with beer and everything included. It was verypopular and I ate way too much (predictably), but enjoyed a lot ofthe food.
Earlier I had a traditional Peking Duck lunch and spent a few hoursat Yuanmingyuan -an old 'palace' that now lies in ruins, since itwas destroyed the Brits and French in 1860 (1st Opium War....when wegot Hong Kong from China). There were so many mentions of this, itgot extreme (the israelis and aussie i was with thought ithumourous...although i'm not sure where either of them would bewithout the brits! he he). As it was also designed in a europeanstlye the ruins looked a bit like Rome -very different to everythingelse in China that is all so Chinese! And the few colonial stylebuildings are either in perfect condition (renovated or exclusive)or been replaced by high-rises.
I've now suped-up my bike too :) Well, I replaced the old, tiny,seat post (so now I am more than a few inches off the ground) andgot the front brake installed. The result: a faster, more efficient,safer cyclist :). Cycling is such a joy here, and so much safer thenthe buses that deliberately slamn you around their 20 year oldinteriors that are generally so sparsely kitted out, its just apiece of wood or metal between your feet and the road.
I heard on the news today that Beijing has approved plans to installautomatic ticketing machines on the subway here! I never thoughtthat day would come. That move will create several thousandunemployed ticket sellers and ticket collectors, so its a brave,sensible move. Not sure when it will be finished by, but I guessbefore 2008 once the other 5 subway lines are completed.
Its school-trip time on tuesday! wow, its been SUCH a long timesince i went on one of them; at least 6 years. such fond memories.although it wasnt often that we went on a school trip to somethingcomparable to the Great Wall :) should be fun. we can continue ourbitching about the german girl who disrupts the class so by treatingthe teacher as a personal tutor!
any more news? i dont think so. did i mention that Mark who waspresident after Sarah (who was president after me) in AIESECManchester will be the new President of AIESEC UK? Its great thatwe've made such steady progress in the last 5 years since me and afew others started sorting AIESEC Manchester out. I'm so proud ofhim :)
today when i went running i wore shorts for the first time sinceoctober! not as hot as UK, but it might be almost 20 sometimeshere :) hopefully Spring is FINALLY here!!
Adam
I subsequently watched 'Finding Neverland' -the (relatively true)story about JM Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. I highly reccommend it.Last night was Ralph's 21st party; so I had my first visit to apizza buffet in China! Its AYCE (All You Can Eat) and a crossbetween western food (pizza, chips, chicken nuggets, ice cream etc)and chinese food too with beer and everything included. It was verypopular and I ate way too much (predictably), but enjoyed a lot ofthe food.
Earlier I had a traditional Peking Duck lunch and spent a few hoursat Yuanmingyuan -an old 'palace' that now lies in ruins, since itwas destroyed the Brits and French in 1860 (1st Opium War....when wegot Hong Kong from China). There were so many mentions of this, itgot extreme (the israelis and aussie i was with thought ithumourous...although i'm not sure where either of them would bewithout the brits! he he). As it was also designed in a europeanstlye the ruins looked a bit like Rome -very different to everythingelse in China that is all so Chinese! And the few colonial stylebuildings are either in perfect condition (renovated or exclusive)or been replaced by high-rises.
I've now suped-up my bike too :) Well, I replaced the old, tiny,seat post (so now I am more than a few inches off the ground) andgot the front brake installed. The result: a faster, more efficient,safer cyclist :). Cycling is such a joy here, and so much safer thenthe buses that deliberately slamn you around their 20 year oldinteriors that are generally so sparsely kitted out, its just apiece of wood or metal between your feet and the road.
I heard on the news today that Beijing has approved plans to installautomatic ticketing machines on the subway here! I never thoughtthat day would come. That move will create several thousandunemployed ticket sellers and ticket collectors, so its a brave,sensible move. Not sure when it will be finished by, but I guessbefore 2008 once the other 5 subway lines are completed.
Its school-trip time on tuesday! wow, its been SUCH a long timesince i went on one of them; at least 6 years. such fond memories.although it wasnt often that we went on a school trip to somethingcomparable to the Great Wall :) should be fun. we can continue ourbitching about the german girl who disrupts the class so by treatingthe teacher as a personal tutor!
any more news? i dont think so. did i mention that Mark who waspresident after Sarah (who was president after me) in AIESECManchester will be the new President of AIESEC UK? Its great thatwe've made such steady progress in the last 5 years since me and afew others started sorting AIESEC Manchester out. I'm so proud ofhim :)
today when i went running i wore shorts for the first time sinceoctober! not as hot as UK, but it might be almost 20 sometimeshere :) hopefully Spring is FINALLY here!!
Adam
Saturday, March 12, 2005
oh, and....
and while the focus in on Africa, Blair, G8 etc, spare a though forthe ongoing disaster in Zimbabwe, which will just get worse at theirnext 'election':http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1521516,00.html
also, there are many other Human rights atrocities in Africaincluding the Congo...but noone seems to mention death as muchwhilst the World lauds Blair's economic Marshall Plan...
Zimbabwe is one of those things that REALLY annoys me; because it isis such a stupid waste...a case of 1 man turning a successfulcountry that was exporting excess food, into 1 that is as corrupt,chaotic, starving and as poor as any other in the World. SUCH BADLEADERSHIP! and what does the West do about that? If only they hadoil, he'd have gone a long time ago...
i feel better now :)
also, there are many other Human rights atrocities in Africaincluding the Congo...but noone seems to mention death as muchwhilst the World lauds Blair's economic Marshall Plan...
Zimbabwe is one of those things that REALLY annoys me; because it isis such a stupid waste...a case of 1 man turning a successfulcountry that was exporting excess food, into 1 that is as corrupt,chaotic, starving and as poor as any other in the World. SUCH BADLEADERSHIP! and what does the West do about that? If only they hadoil, he'd have gone a long time ago...
i feel better now :)
taiwan, strange students, dating chinese ppl, teaching, the BBC....
Some of you may have known that the BBC ran a special 'questiontime' in Shanghai with representatives from China's government whichincluded controversial topics about Taiwan etc.
I read about this from various sources. Notably the China Daily(offial, english language, state run media) commends how open thecountry is becoming about these issues and western media accessingthem. I find this very amusing, as the show was not shown in China,and the BBC is blocked in China, in all but the expensive hotels (orrich who have satellite TV). So its a great example of many things Ihave highlighted about China (controlling media, being open to somepeople but not to others, pretending so much) -I wonder if thechinese version of the paper mentioned the show at all?[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/12/content_424237.htm]
So what's news with me? Last week I taught 4 evenings out of 6. Ipromptly then quite the company that provided 3 of them due to:
-kids being too young
-pointless teaching them English
-kids being uncontrollable in English (my chinese is bad)
-any serious attempt for me to teach them would require seriouspreparation and thought into designing games, communicating somehowand so on.
-travel time being around 30 minutes each time....based on all this, I am not being paid enought for it to beworthwhile at all. Anyway, the other job is great; kids are 8 yearsold, speak some english, I have a textbook to use, and its evenbased in a classroom. I'll continue to look for other opportunities!
I met an english girl at a party (dont see many of them around!),and she had taught english for her gap year (pre-uni) in a ruralpart of China, been proposed to by a chinese student of hers (whowas only a year younger) -the proposal was the same as 'asking outfor a date' as they hadn't been on a date yet, she accepted; wentback to uni, quit after 1 semester to start Uni in China instead,and now hopes he can get into Uni Beijing. wow, the things Love willdo (did she really know she would love him, having just taught/beena friend with him for a few months?). apparently her parents gotengaged after knowing each other for 10 days, so it must be a familything. Although she also said that every year at least 1 girl getsengaged, from the group that go to teach overseas through ProjectTrust (the ngo that she went with), and some even come backpregnant. YIKES!
Anyway, the fiancee is from one of the most remote, poorest placesin China (1 of the 100s of millions of chinese who have never lefttheir province, live in a 2 room hut with a fire..); so I am veryinterested as to how their relationship works (cultural differencesetc, although she speaks fluent chinese). I mention this due tosmall-scale past experience with Katy, but also from a couple ofother friends who have dated Turkish guys and others who have datedChinese guys and so on.
She's a nice girl, and I might help her and a friend start a newcharity on campus here to raise money from the (rich) foreigners tosend to help poor people with their education/health etc. She wantsto make it a national movement across all Unis here...nice idea :)
Other news is, and I could go on about this for a loooong time, I amabout ready to kill one of the girls in class; too many irrelevantquestions, too much talking, too bad a dress sense, too critical,grrr. Anyway, a bunch of us students met after class informally, andalso at dinner, to vent our feelings! Felt SOO good! enough of thatthough! the rest of the class are pretty cool; an american who wantsto get drunk (and get the teacher drunk too) in class -just becausehe thinks he can. He isn't here for the studying obviously! Also metsome Andorran who studied in UK and enjoys doing acid in theevenings and a french girl who got arrested last time she was inChina for almost killing a chinese man (who had been stalking her)with her high-heels!
so you meet all kinds here!!
did i mention how weird it is that China is talking about this 'anti-seccession' law with Taiwan and talking about reunification; yetclaims the country is already unified? Bizarrely claims Taiwan as aprovince yet classes its students here as 'international'...the listgoes on. Anyway, for those of you out there interested, the bestarticle i read yet was how this law will be a bad thing for China,because it will allow Taiwan to just look for loopholes in it and dothings that are 'according to the law', whilst going against thespirit of it (if there is no law, then anything against the idea canbe criticised). Also keep a look out for the development in the nextfew months of the EU arms laws being officialy relaxed to China, theconflicts this is causing with the US and so on. Taiwan shouldbecome a bigger issue in the western press I think. Long-run, lookout for signs that US-China cooperation is turning into US-Chinacompetition. From what I have read, the signs are all there forexplicit military and economic competition within the next 5 years.
Lets just hope its not another Cold War (I know noone has mentionedthis much in the press, but...) -I sincerely hope not!
Enjoy your Saturday night, wish England well :)
Adam
I read about this from various sources. Notably the China Daily(offial, english language, state run media) commends how open thecountry is becoming about these issues and western media accessingthem. I find this very amusing, as the show was not shown in China,and the BBC is blocked in China, in all but the expensive hotels (orrich who have satellite TV). So its a great example of many things Ihave highlighted about China (controlling media, being open to somepeople but not to others, pretending so much) -I wonder if thechinese version of the paper mentioned the show at all?[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/12/content_424237.htm]
So what's news with me? Last week I taught 4 evenings out of 6. Ipromptly then quite the company that provided 3 of them due to:
-kids being too young
-pointless teaching them English
-kids being uncontrollable in English (my chinese is bad)
-any serious attempt for me to teach them would require seriouspreparation and thought into designing games, communicating somehowand so on.
-travel time being around 30 minutes each time....based on all this, I am not being paid enought for it to beworthwhile at all. Anyway, the other job is great; kids are 8 yearsold, speak some english, I have a textbook to use, and its evenbased in a classroom. I'll continue to look for other opportunities!
I met an english girl at a party (dont see many of them around!),and she had taught english for her gap year (pre-uni) in a ruralpart of China, been proposed to by a chinese student of hers (whowas only a year younger) -the proposal was the same as 'asking outfor a date' as they hadn't been on a date yet, she accepted; wentback to uni, quit after 1 semester to start Uni in China instead,and now hopes he can get into Uni Beijing. wow, the things Love willdo (did she really know she would love him, having just taught/beena friend with him for a few months?). apparently her parents gotengaged after knowing each other for 10 days, so it must be a familything. Although she also said that every year at least 1 girl getsengaged, from the group that go to teach overseas through ProjectTrust (the ngo that she went with), and some even come backpregnant. YIKES!
Anyway, the fiancee is from one of the most remote, poorest placesin China (1 of the 100s of millions of chinese who have never lefttheir province, live in a 2 room hut with a fire..); so I am veryinterested as to how their relationship works (cultural differencesetc, although she speaks fluent chinese). I mention this due tosmall-scale past experience with Katy, but also from a couple ofother friends who have dated Turkish guys and others who have datedChinese guys and so on.
She's a nice girl, and I might help her and a friend start a newcharity on campus here to raise money from the (rich) foreigners tosend to help poor people with their education/health etc. She wantsto make it a national movement across all Unis here...nice idea :)
Other news is, and I could go on about this for a loooong time, I amabout ready to kill one of the girls in class; too many irrelevantquestions, too much talking, too bad a dress sense, too critical,grrr. Anyway, a bunch of us students met after class informally, andalso at dinner, to vent our feelings! Felt SOO good! enough of thatthough! the rest of the class are pretty cool; an american who wantsto get drunk (and get the teacher drunk too) in class -just becausehe thinks he can. He isn't here for the studying obviously! Also metsome Andorran who studied in UK and enjoys doing acid in theevenings and a french girl who got arrested last time she was inChina for almost killing a chinese man (who had been stalking her)with her high-heels!
so you meet all kinds here!!
did i mention how weird it is that China is talking about this 'anti-seccession' law with Taiwan and talking about reunification; yetclaims the country is already unified? Bizarrely claims Taiwan as aprovince yet classes its students here as 'international'...the listgoes on. Anyway, for those of you out there interested, the bestarticle i read yet was how this law will be a bad thing for China,because it will allow Taiwan to just look for loopholes in it and dothings that are 'according to the law', whilst going against thespirit of it (if there is no law, then anything against the idea canbe criticised). Also keep a look out for the development in the nextfew months of the EU arms laws being officialy relaxed to China, theconflicts this is causing with the US and so on. Taiwan shouldbecome a bigger issue in the western press I think. Long-run, lookout for signs that US-China cooperation is turning into US-Chinacompetition. From what I have read, the signs are all there forexplicit military and economic competition within the next 5 years.
Lets just hope its not another Cold War (I know noone has mentionedthis much in the press, but...) -I sincerely hope not!
Enjoy your Saturday night, wish England well :)
Adam
Sunday, March 06, 2005
more on bikes, teaching
Well I've now done a few trips by bike, and covered a few differentring roads and many miles. I have learnt:
-that you have to pay to park your bike! In busy areas, thereare 'bike parks' (not very obvious, just more bikes than usual) anda government employee watches over them (for theft) and you pay them(not much). I finally clicked when 1 lady chased me a bit down theroad when i didnt pay her (I didnt know why she wanted money, andhad never seen anyone else paying before!)
-that the ring roads are fantastically designed, and its generallyvery safe and efficient to cycle in the bike lanes alongisde them
-that I will cycle everywhere at anytime, in any state ;) (wellmaybe not in ANY state). Its like being back in Manchester again!
I've also done my first teaching job and learnt:
-preparing lesson plans helps if you know more about the targetclass!
-the internet has lots of useful resources
-teaching kids in a living room is not so easy
-teaching kids who have their parents with them is not so easy
-teaching chinese 3 year olds who speak no english is also not toeasy (for 2 hours!)
-this job required huge amounts of effort and energy since most kidswere cycling round the room, ignoring me or too shy to do much; andwhat the parents wanted was just fun and games (why pay for anenglish person to do that?).
-kids are good at reciting words, if you give them fancy stickers asrewards and chocolate!
anyway, probably wont teach such young kids again (too far away & ona saturday), but will teach some older kids (teach, not just play!!)
It does seem to genuinely be getting a bit warmer (no coat today,but i was warm cycling); and my chinese has progressed ever soslightly. But as I have a test tomorrow, I will post more later!!
adam
-that you have to pay to park your bike! In busy areas, thereare 'bike parks' (not very obvious, just more bikes than usual) anda government employee watches over them (for theft) and you pay them(not much). I finally clicked when 1 lady chased me a bit down theroad when i didnt pay her (I didnt know why she wanted money, andhad never seen anyone else paying before!)
-that the ring roads are fantastically designed, and its generallyvery safe and efficient to cycle in the bike lanes alongisde them
-that I will cycle everywhere at anytime, in any state ;) (wellmaybe not in ANY state). Its like being back in Manchester again!
I've also done my first teaching job and learnt:
-preparing lesson plans helps if you know more about the targetclass!
-the internet has lots of useful resources
-teaching kids in a living room is not so easy
-teaching kids who have their parents with them is not so easy
-teaching chinese 3 year olds who speak no english is also not toeasy (for 2 hours!)
-this job required huge amounts of effort and energy since most kidswere cycling round the room, ignoring me or too shy to do much; andwhat the parents wanted was just fun and games (why pay for anenglish person to do that?).
-kids are good at reciting words, if you give them fancy stickers asrewards and chocolate!
anyway, probably wont teach such young kids again (too far away & ona saturday), but will teach some older kids (teach, not just play!!)
It does seem to genuinely be getting a bit warmer (no coat today,but i was warm cycling); and my chinese has progressed ever soslightly. But as I have a test tomorrow, I will post more later!!
adam
Thursday, March 03, 2005
human rights...
just wanted to mention another very interesting story i read:
"China lashes out at serious US human rights violations"http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421497.htm
Compare the US's opinion on human rights in China:http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm =indexhttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41640.htm =china page Ithink...but ironically, it is blocked from China ...if someone couldaccess it and email it to me, that would be much appreciated!!!!
with China's opinion on human rights in the US:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421420.htm
i'd appreciate also being emailed the US's report on human rights inthe UK...as that is also blocked here (??)
i won't make any comments as my opinion, but wanted to mention thisissue and show you what china's stance is as you can read theofficial english language paper's news story on it.
I could write a lot about human rights in china, but won't. Wellactually I will mention that I read 200 people were executed inChina in the week before Chinese New Year, which is higher thanusual apparently (its usually over 100 a week!)..compared to only 59executions in the whole of 2004 in the whole of the US.
Adam
"China has executed more people in the past three months than therest of the world in the past three years, says AmnestyInternational."news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1425570.stm
again, i can't read this, since the BBC is banned, and so isAmnesty's website!
"China lashes out at serious US human rights violations"http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421497.htm
Compare the US's opinion on human rights in China:http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm =indexhttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41640.htm =china page Ithink...but ironically, it is blocked from China ...if someone couldaccess it and email it to me, that would be much appreciated!!!!
with China's opinion on human rights in the US:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421420.htm
i'd appreciate also being emailed the US's report on human rights inthe UK...as that is also blocked here (??)
i won't make any comments as my opinion, but wanted to mention thisissue and show you what china's stance is as you can read theofficial english language paper's news story on it.
I could write a lot about human rights in china, but won't. Wellactually I will mention that I read 200 people were executed inChina in the week before Chinese New Year, which is higher thanusual apparently (its usually over 100 a week!)..compared to only 59executions in the whole of 2004 in the whole of the US.
Adam
"China has executed more people in the past three months than therest of the world in the past three years, says AmnestyInternational."news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1425570.stm
again, i can't read this, since the BBC is banned, and so isAmnesty's website!
bikes, studying, jobs...
hey'all
so what's news? 3 classes are done (80 odd more to go!), and I feelok -my tones are not
good still, but my vocab feels quite good(well, i have been here 6 months longer than the rest of the class!)and i now think i know maybe 5 characters. I have realised I have tospend a lot of time writing characters in order to learn to bothwrite and read them, and I also need to up the revision on thevocab :((
and i was just starting to enjoy the DVD player/TV too! I willprobably have a job lined up by next week, teaching english to some6 or 8 year old kids for 4 hours a week (earning about 8-10 poundsan hour) -it seems like the perfect job, close by, well paid andlots of fun just talking to kids, so no preparation really required.
today i finally joined the ranks of the 'cyclist' in Beijing. Ittook a while; as i finally bothered to ask Flic for her bike, andthen get both puntures fixed. Then on a ride home, at 11.45pm, theback tyre went flat again -i guess the guy had not removed the thingthat caused the puncture in the first place :( Then i got anotherguy to fix it, but he only pumped it up, thinking that would fixit..? anyway, it didn't, cause it promptly went flat again, so theni forced him to fix the puncture and check the tyre to removeanything in it....and now it works :)
I must look an idiot by western standards -but typical by chinesestandards. why? the bike is a) female, b) too small for me c) almostprehistoric (no gears, but there are 2 brakes thankfully!). its notmade my life much faster (1 gear, lots of traffic and a need to beVERY careful when cycling = not very fast), but its fun and relaxingand some kind of exercise, and i feel more chinese...thanks Flic :D
The food in the canteen here is great; i normally splash out for 50pence for a cooked meal of 2 dishes + rice. i have a routine now andeverything (including breakfast on the way to uni for 15 pence) asuni is all morning, afternoons is revision and/or aiesec work andevneings will be working (paid) or revision or DVD or party. Its anice life and there are millions of people who i'm befriending in myclass (of 13-16 people) and all the other classes, and all thefriends/roommates of everyone else.
Tell you what, I do feel poor, now all the students have descendedflashing their euros and dollars around (canadian, aussie and US);but after 6 months, you learn to live with being thrifty...althoughits kinda pathetic hunting down cheaper food brands or supermarketsfor the sake of a few pennies. most of the non-asian students havefound accommodation such as: a cheap hotel for the whole semester,an appartment similar to those the expats live in, homestays or ifthey live in the dorms, they have gone for the expensive rooms andoccasionally paid for both people! yikes, we are all so spoilt!
today i realised that in the best University in China they sell beerin the canteens -and that the big 600ml bottles are cheaper than the330ml cans (?? -it might be because the uni can get money bacm fromrecylcing the bottles, whereas noone recycles cans as much). I alsorealised that me being tone deaf (as you all very well know) is nothelping me pronounce my tones. I learned that some of theuniversities here are fantastic, with facilities and the right kindof attitude that puts my (ex-) university to shame. I also askedwhat the chinese version of my surname is (my first name is thesame -adam, but said ya(3rd tone)dam(1st tone)). It seems it is Lay-en (phonetics) which might mean thunderstorms (first word) and aperson who is kind and give things to other people (second word).Not too bad, I think. So I'm getting some new name cards made upwith my chinese name on too (i need more).
that's almost it for now, except for a comment on Gordon Brown'svisit to China..although it seems he was praised for realisingChina's economic importance, I still totally think that the westunderestimates China, and really has no clue about China; so littleabout it is known, and that which is seems to be from some oldhistory class, or to be related to words like communism whichprovoke images of china that are inaccurate. This is summed up bythe fact I am yet to meet a bitish person studying at my Uni (theremust be some!) but plenty from most other countries. anyway, i guessjust me being in china makes you a bit more aware of anything in thenews that cops up about it, so keep on reading (especially about thenew issue of the Hong Kong governor being replaced and the reasonsabout this...which also leads to discussions in the papers aboutdemocracy in hong kong).
enjoy your weekend -I will be off to a party in my old appartment -the office! yay where I will also meet the new German guy who is SOfortunate to have my bed in the corner of the office, he he.
Adam
so what's news? 3 classes are done (80 odd more to go!), and I feelok -my tones are not
good still, but my vocab feels quite good(well, i have been here 6 months longer than the rest of the class!)and i now think i know maybe 5 characters. I have realised I have tospend a lot of time writing characters in order to learn to bothwrite and read them, and I also need to up the revision on thevocab :((
and i was just starting to enjoy the DVD player/TV too! I willprobably have a job lined up by next week, teaching english to some6 or 8 year old kids for 4 hours a week (earning about 8-10 poundsan hour) -it seems like the perfect job, close by, well paid andlots of fun just talking to kids, so no preparation really required.
today i finally joined the ranks of the 'cyclist' in Beijing. Ittook a while; as i finally bothered to ask Flic for her bike, andthen get both puntures fixed. Then on a ride home, at 11.45pm, theback tyre went flat again -i guess the guy had not removed the thingthat caused the puncture in the first place :( Then i got anotherguy to fix it, but he only pumped it up, thinking that would fixit..? anyway, it didn't, cause it promptly went flat again, so theni forced him to fix the puncture and check the tyre to removeanything in it....and now it works :)
I must look an idiot by western standards -but typical by chinesestandards. why? the bike is a) female, b) too small for me c) almostprehistoric (no gears, but there are 2 brakes thankfully!). its notmade my life much faster (1 gear, lots of traffic and a need to beVERY careful when cycling = not very fast), but its fun and relaxingand some kind of exercise, and i feel more chinese...thanks Flic :D
The food in the canteen here is great; i normally splash out for 50pence for a cooked meal of 2 dishes + rice. i have a routine now andeverything (including breakfast on the way to uni for 15 pence) asuni is all morning, afternoons is revision and/or aiesec work andevneings will be working (paid) or revision or DVD or party. Its anice life and there are millions of people who i'm befriending in myclass (of 13-16 people) and all the other classes, and all thefriends/roommates of everyone else.
Tell you what, I do feel poor, now all the students have descendedflashing their euros and dollars around (canadian, aussie and US);but after 6 months, you learn to live with being thrifty...althoughits kinda pathetic hunting down cheaper food brands or supermarketsfor the sake of a few pennies. most of the non-asian students havefound accommodation such as: a cheap hotel for the whole semester,an appartment similar to those the expats live in, homestays or ifthey live in the dorms, they have gone for the expensive rooms andoccasionally paid for both people! yikes, we are all so spoilt!
today i realised that in the best University in China they sell beerin the canteens -and that the big 600ml bottles are cheaper than the330ml cans (?? -it might be because the uni can get money bacm fromrecylcing the bottles, whereas noone recycles cans as much). I alsorealised that me being tone deaf (as you all very well know) is nothelping me pronounce my tones. I learned that some of theuniversities here are fantastic, with facilities and the right kindof attitude that puts my (ex-) university to shame. I also askedwhat the chinese version of my surname is (my first name is thesame -adam, but said ya(3rd tone)dam(1st tone)). It seems it is Lay-en (phonetics) which might mean thunderstorms (first word) and aperson who is kind and give things to other people (second word).Not too bad, I think. So I'm getting some new name cards made upwith my chinese name on too (i need more).
that's almost it for now, except for a comment on Gordon Brown'svisit to China..although it seems he was praised for realisingChina's economic importance, I still totally think that the westunderestimates China, and really has no clue about China; so littleabout it is known, and that which is seems to be from some oldhistory class, or to be related to words like communism whichprovoke images of china that are inaccurate. This is summed up bythe fact I am yet to meet a bitish person studying at my Uni (theremust be some!) but plenty from most other countries. anyway, i guessjust me being in china makes you a bit more aware of anything in thenews that cops up about it, so keep on reading (especially about thenew issue of the Hong Kong governor being replaced and the reasonsabout this...which also leads to discussions in the papers aboutdemocracy in hong kong).
enjoy your weekend -I will be off to a party in my old appartment -the office! yay where I will also meet the new German guy who is SOfortunate to have my bed in the corner of the office, he he.
Adam
Sunday, February 27, 2005
new photos, old stories...
hello
now i have internet in my room (and its actually quite fast ADSL), Ihave uploaded lots and lots of photos to the website:http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
You have to register to enter, but its free and its Sony, so youshoulfnt get millions of junk emails. There are loads of albumsthere (22), I have resroted them a bit too, and the ones that havebeen added of note are:
-Chinese New Year (see some pictures of dragon dancing and redlanterns everywhere!)
-BJTourist-blackbamboo park
-Tianjin
-random socials
-appartment
-holiday (see my lovely family in these pictures too!) includingspectacular Yangshuo
Below I have copied the interesting article that I read about ZhaoZiyang who died earlier this year. I mentioned it a bit in Januaryso won't go on, but I did realise forgot to copy the article. Formore information, even better (longer) articles are here:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA29Ad03.html
Anyway, what is most interesting is that I can access these articleshere, when from reading them, you would think that China would wantthem banned...the answer i am sure is that they are in english soruling out most of china from reading them.
On other matters, Thursday morning was a test to establish mychinese level (very low -short test!), friday night I went to theAustralian Chamber weekly drinks (and suffered pom jokes) withRalph, and tuesday lessons start for real :)
Now I'm off to watch a video of poor schoolkids in the westernprovince of Yunnan, that a friend filmed as part of a schoolproject -she showed the film in shanghai to friends.fmaily etc inorder to raise money to pay for the education of the kids. She isgoing back in October, so if I am still here, I hope to go with (wehave to apply for permission, and be accompanied by a local povertyalleviation officer, but she thinks I will be allowed) -veryexciting!
Enjoy the weekend, from sunny (yet with ice still lying everywhere!)Beijing
Adam
Farewell to a righteous official
Zhao Ziyang is dead and buried, but the memory of Tiananmen Squareremains very much alive
Isabel Hilton
Saturday January 29, 2005 The Guardian
It took 12 days of hard bargaining, but today there will at last bea funeral at Babaoshan, the cemetery for China's senior leaders, forthe disgraced Zhao Ziyang who died on January 17. Family and friendswill be permitted to attend and, after days of confrontation, it isreportedly agreed that the Communist party's negative assessment ofZhao Ziyang's life will not be rammed down the throats of hisgrieving circle until after the funeral. Even in death, Zhao, theman disgraced for trying to save the students in Tiananmen Square in1989, offers a reproach to Beijing's ruling elite.
Before Jack Straw's visit to China, the Foreign Office tried hard topersuade us that the EU's desire to lift the arms embargo on Chinawas a simple, practical matter with no wider resonance. The embargo,their argument went, is ineffective, and EU rules would bettercontrol Beijing's access to lethal weaponry.
That remains to be tested. But the argument neglects the symbolicvalue of the gesture. To lift an arms embargo imposed after themassacre of Chinese citizens by their government in Tiananmen Squareis to announce to China that the episode is over and done with. Thatwould please Beijing's rulers. But as their reaction to ZhaoZiyang's death demonstrates, they themselves believe that Tiananmenis far from over.
It is difficult to pull off the modernisation of a society ascomplex as China's without relaxing authoritarian controls. Socialdevelopment demands enough freedom to permit talent and enterpriseto flourish. Political stability requires a population inclined totrust its government and share its goals.
In the People's Republic it is far from clear that people trusttheir government. There is a muscular patriotism, Maoism's lastideological legacy. But China is in the throes of a profoundtransition and its people have every historical reason to be wary.For the last decade the majority has generally accepted the bargainof political acquiescence in return for rising living standards.Even so, rebellious minorities continually break through. It isclear from the events around Zhao's death that Beijing fears thatdisaffection and the potential for trouble are even more widespreadthan the visible protests that take place daily suggest.
Beijing routinely suppresses news of civic protest, fearful thatstrikes and demonstrations might coalesce into something moreorganised. They feared that Zhao Ziyang's death might galvanise justsuch a movement. Its explosive potential rests in a culturalarchetype - that of the righteous official, whom tradition suggestsis as powerful a focus of loyalty as the figure of the oppressiveemperor.
A righteous official, in Chinese history and mythology, risks hislife to stand up for justice against the tyrant. His symbolic valueat moments of political crisis is immense.
The opening shots of the Cultural Revolution in the early 60scentred on a play that honoured a righteous Ming dynasty official.The play was understood by Mao to be a coded attack on himself fordisgracing Peng Dehuai, whose crime had been to blame Mao, rightly,for causing the death by starvation of about 30 million Chinese.When Zhou Enlai - who was remembered, rightly or wrongly, fordefending several of Mao's victims - died, and the Maoist hardlinerstried to bury him without due honours, the crowds erupted inTiananmen Square. When Hu Yaobang - who had been disgraced in 1987for sympathising with democratic reform - died in 1989, it was thesignal for the occupation of the square by pro-democracy protesters.That episode ended in the massacre Zhao is credited with trying toprevent. Hence the explosive potential of his memory.
There are ironies in this succession of names: Zhao helped to toppleHu Yaobang, two years before he himself was toppled. But the idea ofthe righteous official does not represent a coherent movement oreven a rigorous view of history. Its power lies in the symbolism ofa moment when a man stands up for what he believes to be right,regardless of the consequences.
Despite China's facade of modernity, the battle over memory andhistory runs as deep as ever. Today's leaders know that they are thebeneficiaries of economic reforms that Zhao Ziyang pioneered in the70s, but to honour him officially for helping to lay the foundationsof today's market-driven growth would demand a reassessment of thepolitics of his disgrace. In 1989, for his opposition to the use offorce, Zhao was accused of trying to split the party, a crimegreater in the bureaucrats' eyes than the murder of an unknownnumber of citizens.
To rehabilitate him posthumously is unthinkable as long as JiangZemin, chief beneficiary of Zhao's disgrace, is still alive, and themen he chose are still in charge. Even to discuss it risks openingup a festering wound - hence the close surveillance extended sinceZhao's death to his family, friends and anyone suspected of sympathyfor him. Yet not to face it means that the wound continues tofester. Whatever the EU apologists argue, the subject is far fromover.
• Isabel Hilton is the author of The Search for the Panchen Lamaisabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk
now i have internet in my room (and its actually quite fast ADSL), Ihave uploaded lots and lots of photos to the website:http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
You have to register to enter, but its free and its Sony, so youshoulfnt get millions of junk emails. There are loads of albumsthere (22), I have resroted them a bit too, and the ones that havebeen added of note are:
-Chinese New Year (see some pictures of dragon dancing and redlanterns everywhere!)
-BJTourist-blackbamboo park
-Tianjin
-random socials
-appartment
-holiday (see my lovely family in these pictures too!) includingspectacular Yangshuo
Below I have copied the interesting article that I read about ZhaoZiyang who died earlier this year. I mentioned it a bit in Januaryso won't go on, but I did realise forgot to copy the article. Formore information, even better (longer) articles are here:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA29Ad03.html
Anyway, what is most interesting is that I can access these articleshere, when from reading them, you would think that China would wantthem banned...the answer i am sure is that they are in english soruling out most of china from reading them.
On other matters, Thursday morning was a test to establish mychinese level (very low -short test!), friday night I went to theAustralian Chamber weekly drinks (and suffered pom jokes) withRalph, and tuesday lessons start for real :)
Now I'm off to watch a video of poor schoolkids in the westernprovince of Yunnan, that a friend filmed as part of a schoolproject -she showed the film in shanghai to friends.fmaily etc inorder to raise money to pay for the education of the kids. She isgoing back in October, so if I am still here, I hope to go with (wehave to apply for permission, and be accompanied by a local povertyalleviation officer, but she thinks I will be allowed) -veryexciting!
Enjoy the weekend, from sunny (yet with ice still lying everywhere!)Beijing
Adam
Farewell to a righteous official
Zhao Ziyang is dead and buried, but the memory of Tiananmen Squareremains very much alive
Isabel Hilton
Saturday January 29, 2005 The Guardian
It took 12 days of hard bargaining, but today there will at last bea funeral at Babaoshan, the cemetery for China's senior leaders, forthe disgraced Zhao Ziyang who died on January 17. Family and friendswill be permitted to attend and, after days of confrontation, it isreportedly agreed that the Communist party's negative assessment ofZhao Ziyang's life will not be rammed down the throats of hisgrieving circle until after the funeral. Even in death, Zhao, theman disgraced for trying to save the students in Tiananmen Square in1989, offers a reproach to Beijing's ruling elite.
Before Jack Straw's visit to China, the Foreign Office tried hard topersuade us that the EU's desire to lift the arms embargo on Chinawas a simple, practical matter with no wider resonance. The embargo,their argument went, is ineffective, and EU rules would bettercontrol Beijing's access to lethal weaponry.
That remains to be tested. But the argument neglects the symbolicvalue of the gesture. To lift an arms embargo imposed after themassacre of Chinese citizens by their government in Tiananmen Squareis to announce to China that the episode is over and done with. Thatwould please Beijing's rulers. But as their reaction to ZhaoZiyang's death demonstrates, they themselves believe that Tiananmenis far from over.
It is difficult to pull off the modernisation of a society ascomplex as China's without relaxing authoritarian controls. Socialdevelopment demands enough freedom to permit talent and enterpriseto flourish. Political stability requires a population inclined totrust its government and share its goals.
In the People's Republic it is far from clear that people trusttheir government. There is a muscular patriotism, Maoism's lastideological legacy. But China is in the throes of a profoundtransition and its people have every historical reason to be wary.For the last decade the majority has generally accepted the bargainof political acquiescence in return for rising living standards.Even so, rebellious minorities continually break through. It isclear from the events around Zhao's death that Beijing fears thatdisaffection and the potential for trouble are even more widespreadthan the visible protests that take place daily suggest.
Beijing routinely suppresses news of civic protest, fearful thatstrikes and demonstrations might coalesce into something moreorganised. They feared that Zhao Ziyang's death might galvanise justsuch a movement. Its explosive potential rests in a culturalarchetype - that of the righteous official, whom tradition suggestsis as powerful a focus of loyalty as the figure of the oppressiveemperor.
A righteous official, in Chinese history and mythology, risks hislife to stand up for justice against the tyrant. His symbolic valueat moments of political crisis is immense.
The opening shots of the Cultural Revolution in the early 60scentred on a play that honoured a righteous Ming dynasty official.The play was understood by Mao to be a coded attack on himself fordisgracing Peng Dehuai, whose crime had been to blame Mao, rightly,for causing the death by starvation of about 30 million Chinese.When Zhou Enlai - who was remembered, rightly or wrongly, fordefending several of Mao's victims - died, and the Maoist hardlinerstried to bury him without due honours, the crowds erupted inTiananmen Square. When Hu Yaobang - who had been disgraced in 1987for sympathising with democratic reform - died in 1989, it was thesignal for the occupation of the square by pro-democracy protesters.That episode ended in the massacre Zhao is credited with trying toprevent. Hence the explosive potential of his memory.
There are ironies in this succession of names: Zhao helped to toppleHu Yaobang, two years before he himself was toppled. But the idea ofthe righteous official does not represent a coherent movement oreven a rigorous view of history. Its power lies in the symbolism ofa moment when a man stands up for what he believes to be right,regardless of the consequences.
Despite China's facade of modernity, the battle over memory andhistory runs as deep as ever. Today's leaders know that they are thebeneficiaries of economic reforms that Zhao Ziyang pioneered in the70s, but to honour him officially for helping to lay the foundationsof today's market-driven growth would demand a reassessment of thepolitics of his disgrace. In 1989, for his opposition to the use offorce, Zhao was accused of trying to split the party, a crimegreater in the bureaucrats' eyes than the murder of an unknownnumber of citizens.
To rehabilitate him posthumously is unthinkable as long as JiangZemin, chief beneficiary of Zhao's disgrace, is still alive, and themen he chose are still in charge. Even to discuss it risks openingup a festering wound - hence the close surveillance extended sinceZhao's death to his family, friends and anyone suspected of sympathyfor him. Yet not to face it means that the wound continues tofester. Whatever the EU apologists argue, the subject is far fromover.
• Isabel Hilton is the author of The Search for the Panchen Lamaisabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
student, new year reflections...update
So I am in the University computer lab writing this email! wow, itsbeen a while since i was here. I've paid my tuition fees, got mystudent card and therefore enrolled as Adam Lane, Chiense name isjust 'yadam'. fortunately there are few translation issues for myname, as I can just use the chinese translation of Adam (from Adamand Eve). Other people have more issues. For example, if i had triedto translate my surname i either have to find something in chinesethat sounds similar, and then it could mean anything, or translateinto 'little street'(=xiao lu) or something.
I am moving tonight :), I have a Chinese test on thursday morning(8am!!) so they can decide exactly what class to put me in (beginnersfor sure, despite my few hundred words) and then start classesproperly next tuesday.
Actually AIESEC work has been a bit slow since the new year festival,but it gets more exciting now I will just arrange and go to importantmeetings, whilst coordinating my team of 6 local AIESEC students. Sotomorrow we will get confirmation from Shell on how they want tosponsor us, next week I meet the head of something similar to the IODI think (Insitute of Directors), and will also be meeting a goodfriend from the IBLF -International Business Leaders Forum (he isinviting us to the launch of the China BLF, which is very exciting).So I am looking forward to my part-time AIESEC work.
New Year is almost over; and it was maybe a little less exciting thani anticipated because so many people all go home to spend time withtheir families. Whereas in New York or London Chinatowns, there is ahigh concentration of chinese people with lots of festivities and notflying home to be with their families. I also don't think that newyear here is that commercial. There is the market for decorations andthings, but nothing really around presents (kids, and sometimes otherfriends/family tend to get the little red envelopes with money insometimes), no expensive restaurant packages for new year (orclubbing nights for that matter)- apart from those for expats, and soon. In Beijing anyway, most of the festivities took place in thesetemple fairs, which are great, but its not quite street paradeseveryday or anything (for some reason i had this idea in my mind fromsome movies...maybe its different in hong kong or other cities).
On another of my rare runs i discovered this amazing park that is notin the tourist guides (but is on the map, thankfully!) with lots ofbamboo, rock gardens -as in gardens with carved rock formations andso on (seems to be a chinese/japanese thing), and it was just verypretty all covered in snow.
Still not been to KTV yet (maybe this weekend), but instead ahve beento Banana, a club where western women get surrounded by chinese menwithin seconds, and where westerners generally don't seem to frequentmuch. Its kinda upmarket, with rich kids boozing bottles of whiskeyor renting private rooms. It had a very cool dance floor that bouncedthough. Strangely at 1.30am, they stopped the music and on the 1stfloor, a lady popped onto a stage/balcony to sing ballads/opera for20 minutes -I've never seen that before.
I also forgot to mention how drunk i got on something similar tomulled wine on friday night, which led to some strange pictures andsome strange memories or trapsing around sanlitun for a long timeacting like drunk idiots with Sam (well we were both drunk idiots tobe fair). I do remember the restaurant staff staring at us a lot, andi do think we were the last in the restaurant. anyway, it was greatfun :))
better run,
Adios
Adam
I am moving tonight :), I have a Chinese test on thursday morning(8am!!) so they can decide exactly what class to put me in (beginnersfor sure, despite my few hundred words) and then start classesproperly next tuesday.
Actually AIESEC work has been a bit slow since the new year festival,but it gets more exciting now I will just arrange and go to importantmeetings, whilst coordinating my team of 6 local AIESEC students. Sotomorrow we will get confirmation from Shell on how they want tosponsor us, next week I meet the head of something similar to the IODI think (Insitute of Directors), and will also be meeting a goodfriend from the IBLF -International Business Leaders Forum (he isinviting us to the launch of the China BLF, which is very exciting).So I am looking forward to my part-time AIESEC work.
New Year is almost over; and it was maybe a little less exciting thani anticipated because so many people all go home to spend time withtheir families. Whereas in New York or London Chinatowns, there is ahigh concentration of chinese people with lots of festivities and notflying home to be with their families. I also don't think that newyear here is that commercial. There is the market for decorations andthings, but nothing really around presents (kids, and sometimes otherfriends/family tend to get the little red envelopes with money insometimes), no expensive restaurant packages for new year (orclubbing nights for that matter)- apart from those for expats, and soon. In Beijing anyway, most of the festivities took place in thesetemple fairs, which are great, but its not quite street paradeseveryday or anything (for some reason i had this idea in my mind fromsome movies...maybe its different in hong kong or other cities).
On another of my rare runs i discovered this amazing park that is notin the tourist guides (but is on the map, thankfully!) with lots ofbamboo, rock gardens -as in gardens with carved rock formations andso on (seems to be a chinese/japanese thing), and it was just verypretty all covered in snow.
Still not been to KTV yet (maybe this weekend), but instead ahve beento Banana, a club where western women get surrounded by chinese menwithin seconds, and where westerners generally don't seem to frequentmuch. Its kinda upmarket, with rich kids boozing bottles of whiskeyor renting private rooms. It had a very cool dance floor that bouncedthough. Strangely at 1.30am, they stopped the music and on the 1stfloor, a lady popped onto a stage/balcony to sing ballads/opera for20 minutes -I've never seen that before.
I also forgot to mention how drunk i got on something similar tomulled wine on friday night, which led to some strange pictures andsome strange memories or trapsing around sanlitun for a long timeacting like drunk idiots with Sam (well we were both drunk idiots tobe fair). I do remember the restaurant staff staring at us a lot, andi do think we were the last in the restaurant. anyway, it was greatfun :))
better run,
Adios
Adam
Friday, February 18, 2005
snow, tianjin, valentines....
I strated snowing again! In fact it has snowed on and off for the lastfew days making Beijing look pretty again. I noticed a downside lastnight is that it means 'night-time' is much brighter wiht more lightreflecting off the snow...this affects me because i don't have anycurtains :) Actually it doesn't really affect me at all, cause i stillsleep well, but its a random observation to start the the email with!
We went to Tianjin on Wednesday, which is one of the fast growingcities 90 minutes from Beijing. Its very nice; it was also (likeShanghai) one of the early port cities opened up for foreignconcessions after the british and other colonial powers kept beatingChina in the opium wars in the 19th century. Actually mostly thebritish were to blame -they were making lots of money selling opium(the drug) to China, which was grown in the Indian sub-continent). TheChinese realised it was having some negative effects, and bannedit..hence the British attacked! It led to several port cities beingopened up for trade, and different countries had different 'concessionareas' in those cities. Thats a brief history lesson for you (therewas actually 2 opium wars!).
Anyway its nice -not as built up as Beijing or Shanghai, but muchbetter planned, less tall buildings and lots of nice old colonialbuildings (thankfully they are protected by the city). There was anamazing street which was traditional chinese selling traditionalchinese things (I'll upload the photos eventually), and we had Tianjindumplings (kind of a speciality, but dumplings are eaten all overChina!) from the most famous place in Tianjin. Amusingly we ate themin a cheap place opposite the road, but they went and bought thedumplings from the fancy restaurant as take-away (for a special request)!!
On Monday, it was Valentines Day, so me and Flic made a little bit ofeffort; splashed out on Dominos pizza, drank some wine left lyingaround, had some fancy Marks & Spencers chocolates (left over from myparents visiting) and watched friends all night! there's no love thereof course, but it was still fun, and less depresing being single ;) hehe. (ok, i'll admit it was all my idea, flic doesn't mind being single).
China celebrate Valentines Day in quite a big way, but this year itwas during the week-long new year holiday, so actually it was quitesubdued, but still there were hearts everywhere, and special deals atthe hotels etc. I read an article about western festivals beingcelebrated in china...are they affecting chinese culture? Anyway,seeing as china has so much culture and history and all the westernfestivals are basically just based on pure commericalism, i dont thinktherei s much to worry about. Remember, christmas here is of noreligious significance, apart from about 10 million christians in thewhole country, so people celebrate it just for an excuse to see theirfamily and buy decorations etc!
Other things of note...I ate at a Hakka restaurant (a minority group)which was nice...downloaded the new MSN messenger (v.7 beta) so i canhave fun winking and nudging people (so sad!)...bought 4 fantastic CDsfor 1 Euro equivalent (a bargain, even for China!) -counting crows,norah jones, alfie and bond...haven't been running because of the iceand thus feel unfit...got depressed reading about how bad england areat rugby now...bought a Union Jack (well 2 actually, a small one toleave in the office and a big one for special occasions!)...woke uplast night with a shock as the A0 world map on the wall by my bedcollapsed on me.
For now, ta-ta
adam
We went to Tianjin on Wednesday, which is one of the fast growingcities 90 minutes from Beijing. Its very nice; it was also (likeShanghai) one of the early port cities opened up for foreignconcessions after the british and other colonial powers kept beatingChina in the opium wars in the 19th century. Actually mostly thebritish were to blame -they were making lots of money selling opium(the drug) to China, which was grown in the Indian sub-continent). TheChinese realised it was having some negative effects, and bannedit..hence the British attacked! It led to several port cities beingopened up for trade, and different countries had different 'concessionareas' in those cities. Thats a brief history lesson for you (therewas actually 2 opium wars!).
Anyway its nice -not as built up as Beijing or Shanghai, but muchbetter planned, less tall buildings and lots of nice old colonialbuildings (thankfully they are protected by the city). There was anamazing street which was traditional chinese selling traditionalchinese things (I'll upload the photos eventually), and we had Tianjindumplings (kind of a speciality, but dumplings are eaten all overChina!) from the most famous place in Tianjin. Amusingly we ate themin a cheap place opposite the road, but they went and bought thedumplings from the fancy restaurant as take-away (for a special request)!!
On Monday, it was Valentines Day, so me and Flic made a little bit ofeffort; splashed out on Dominos pizza, drank some wine left lyingaround, had some fancy Marks & Spencers chocolates (left over from myparents visiting) and watched friends all night! there's no love thereof course, but it was still fun, and less depresing being single ;) hehe. (ok, i'll admit it was all my idea, flic doesn't mind being single).
China celebrate Valentines Day in quite a big way, but this year itwas during the week-long new year holiday, so actually it was quitesubdued, but still there were hearts everywhere, and special deals atthe hotels etc. I read an article about western festivals beingcelebrated in china...are they affecting chinese culture? Anyway,seeing as china has so much culture and history and all the westernfestivals are basically just based on pure commericalism, i dont thinktherei s much to worry about. Remember, christmas here is of noreligious significance, apart from about 10 million christians in thewhole country, so people celebrate it just for an excuse to see theirfamily and buy decorations etc!
Other things of note...I ate at a Hakka restaurant (a minority group)which was nice...downloaded the new MSN messenger (v.7 beta) so i canhave fun winking and nudging people (so sad!)...bought 4 fantastic CDsfor 1 Euro equivalent (a bargain, even for China!) -counting crows,norah jones, alfie and bond...haven't been running because of the iceand thus feel unfit...got depressed reading about how bad england areat rugby now...bought a Union Jack (well 2 actually, a small one toleave in the office and a big one for special occasions!)...woke uplast night with a shock as the A0 world map on the wall by my bedcollapsed on me.
For now, ta-ta
adam
Friday, February 11, 2005
games
majiang. its a chinese game; everyone knows it and plays it, so i havebeen told. and now, now i know how to play, and can even play (badlythough), thanks to being taught last night. unfortuantely some of thetiles (like cards) have chinese characters on, including the chinesenumbers. I am not very hot on these; which doesn't help. fortunatelythe other suits in the game dont have this problem, so i just dont usethe suit that i cannot understand!
anyway, i also taught my chinese friends how to play cluekey (i donteven know how to spell it in english!); its a good game that oldpeople tend to play in england -so thats me spreading english culture.unfortuantely i only remembered about pancake day, the day afterwards,although its a christian thing, its only in england (so it seems) so imissed an opportunity. however maybe we will do it if we have ourdinner party (its being postponed).
most of you will have gathered that life is generally very fun andpositive; although i have a bit of a lack of work to do and its aholiday; which combines to just a lot of relaxing and socialising anda bit of boredom but thats ok right now, as life will get busier oncethe students get back from their holidays, my course starts and itactually allows me to see friends more which is great -properfriendships are so much more meaningful!
so i recently read the AIESEC UK new strategic plan; its weird, I havebeen so distant from AIESEC UK, i dont really know what is going onthere any more. its great, that i have finally managed to break away!on the other hand i was very happy that Mark, who was president ofmanchester after the person who was after me, is the new president ofAIESEC UK -first AIESEC Manchester person who has been MCP for a good10 years. unfortunately Bee didnt get elected; which makes me verysad, as she is enormously talented; but i am sure whatever she decidesto do will be even better. it reminds me of when i lost the electionsin 2003 and again in 2004. seems so long ago.... as does seeing somany of my friends back in the UK. I guess i'll try and get home inthe next 12 months (if i end up getting a job here in the summer),and/or encourage everyone to come visit me in the Summer (its cheapeverybody! -just last night i had to pay a 3 pounds taxi fare whichkills me and broke my budget!)
enough reminiscing for now, back to watching friends, then i thinksome cheapass food from the restaurant downstairs, before more DVDs(yay!). Hope that everyone has a great weekend.
Adam
anyway, i also taught my chinese friends how to play cluekey (i donteven know how to spell it in english!); its a good game that oldpeople tend to play in england -so thats me spreading english culture.unfortuantely i only remembered about pancake day, the day afterwards,although its a christian thing, its only in england (so it seems) so imissed an opportunity. however maybe we will do it if we have ourdinner party (its being postponed).
most of you will have gathered that life is generally very fun andpositive; although i have a bit of a lack of work to do and its aholiday; which combines to just a lot of relaxing and socialising anda bit of boredom but thats ok right now, as life will get busier oncethe students get back from their holidays, my course starts and itactually allows me to see friends more which is great -properfriendships are so much more meaningful!
so i recently read the AIESEC UK new strategic plan; its weird, I havebeen so distant from AIESEC UK, i dont really know what is going onthere any more. its great, that i have finally managed to break away!on the other hand i was very happy that Mark, who was president ofmanchester after the person who was after me, is the new president ofAIESEC UK -first AIESEC Manchester person who has been MCP for a good10 years. unfortunately Bee didnt get elected; which makes me verysad, as she is enormously talented; but i am sure whatever she decidesto do will be even better. it reminds me of when i lost the electionsin 2003 and again in 2004. seems so long ago.... as does seeing somany of my friends back in the UK. I guess i'll try and get home inthe next 12 months (if i end up getting a job here in the summer),and/or encourage everyone to come visit me in the Summer (its cheapeverybody! -just last night i had to pay a 3 pounds taxi fare whichkills me and broke my budget!)
enough reminiscing for now, back to watching friends, then i thinksome cheapass food from the restaurant downstairs, before more DVDs(yay!). Hope that everyone has a great weekend.
Adam
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Happy New Year!
Xin Nian Kuai le everybody.
Its a new year in China- a 1 week holiday marks the start of the yearof the Rooster -its my year :) This means I will either be lucky orunlucky. To ensure i am lucky i am supposed to wear something red 24/7for the entire year; such as a belt or underwear (and not take themoff een when sleeping); a friend is wearing a red bracelet (notsomething i want to do....). Anyway, my solution has been to buy alittle rosster to hang up near by bed and wish me luck whilst guardingaway the evil spirits. I figure its cuter than wearing red underwearall year, cleaner, and also a much better source of luck. My roosterwill kick ass!
Lsat night we went out for our second New Years Eve; a bunch of AIESECAlumni as usual from around the world; it was much fun; from theawesome hot chooclate in no name bar on the lake to the cheaprestaurant, lazy Souk (middle eastern type place with couches andshishas) and finally the comfortable Suzy Wong's. We really must bemore adventuresome and go somewhere else sometimes! Unfortunatelythere werent many fireworks/crackers as they are banned within centralBeijing :(
Today we went to Yonghegong -lama temple- -the most famous temple inBeijing, to check out the crowds of people burning incense, prayingand generally being noisy; then had dumplings (traditional for newyear, especially for the northerners). Apparently dumplings are shapedlike ears, and northerners eat them, as fable goes, so that their earswont fall off from the cold! a classic, typically chinese, tale!Afterwards we went to a 'temple fair'; there was a stage with somegreat chinese gong fu, some dragon dances and other chinese dancing;but mostly it was hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling food, crapand good gifts, rooster this and rooster that, plus some awfulrides/games. I was told its only really a Beijing thing to do and itwas freeeeezing cold :(. It was kinda fun anwyay.
This week might not be so much fun, but i will try to make it so! Dosome work, watch lots of DVDs, sleep, go out a little, try andexercise more (now my cold has gone) etc. Highlights include lunchtomorrow with some alumni, a dinner party on saturday night that Flicis hosting, and probably some other stuff. I might even try and readsome books for a change!
Since Achim left (cool German guy who was here since summer), weinherited all his stuff from his appartment including clothes (fomrhim and other past flatmates), a very cool sword, alcohol andmagazines etc. It was strange him leaving -he has been a good friendand has a unique sense of humour that will be missed. hopefully hewill be back in the next 2 or 3 months. Anyway 1 of the magazines ishilarious -very chinese, talking about china's win-win situations withother countries, China's stance on arm-controls and so on. I alsorecently found a map of the Beijing subway's planned route by 2008 -itwill be great, with 1 or 2 lines opening a year for the next 3 years.There are stations and tunnels being built everywhere (one outside ourappartment for example).
thats enough for now, more comments on more interesting stuff soon Iam sure. The last thing to say, is that I watched American history Xfor the 3rd time recently, and it is still one of the most powerful,great, films of all time. See it, if you have not.
from a cold Beijing
Adam
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
news and taiwan
today i managed to grab the internet for a few hours to catch up onsome internet reading (you may remember we share the line between 4of us right now). i found out that the first flights between themainland and taiwan took place! wow, very cool. I will endeavour tofind out more about it from a western source.
why a western source? because all the news online in english here isso dull. from what i can gather the flights are just for chinese newyear and just for business travellers, and explicitly does not meanrelations are immproving...very confusing. anyway, check it outyourself on english.peopledaily.com.cn. Even on the chinadaily,there was very little about whether this actually meansanything...man i love reading analysis in the british papers!
compare the article here:http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200501/27/eng20050127_172058.html with the much better and very interesting one in atimes (nonchinese): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA21Ad01.html. It isalso interesting comparing it to one on CNN, that really does notcover much of the history or situation in much depth, unfortunately :(. Its here -http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/28/bt.china.taiwan.flights.ap/
the people's daily is generally regarded as the mouthpiece of thecommunist party, and i have been told the english versions ofchinese news are much more 'liberal' than western ones too! also onthe site you will see an article about local (grassroots) electionswith the worse ever interview with an official about them. it mademe laugh reading it.., it was actually dull (how can the issue ofelections in a communist country be dull?). I've covered electionsbefore, so i wont touch on it again.
just some interesting comments about recent developments; man i musttry to read the news, and chinese news more often. I read some otherpeople's posts recently, so will endaevour to write more about me,less about my activies and less about china if i can, as that seemsto be what people write about.
anyway, onto bed now. should be paying the deposit tomorrow to myflat mate (wont move in till end of month though) :D
Adam
why a western source? because all the news online in english here isso dull. from what i can gather the flights are just for chinese newyear and just for business travellers, and explicitly does not meanrelations are immproving...very confusing. anyway, check it outyourself on english.peopledaily.com.cn. Even on the chinadaily,there was very little about whether this actually meansanything...man i love reading analysis in the british papers!
compare the article here:http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200501/27/eng20050127_172058.html with the much better and very interesting one in atimes (nonchinese): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA21Ad01.html. It isalso interesting comparing it to one on CNN, that really does notcover much of the history or situation in much depth, unfortunately :(. Its here -http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/28/bt.china.taiwan.flights.ap/
the people's daily is generally regarded as the mouthpiece of thecommunist party, and i have been told the english versions ofchinese news are much more 'liberal' than western ones too! also onthe site you will see an article about local (grassroots) electionswith the worse ever interview with an official about them. it mademe laugh reading it.., it was actually dull (how can the issue ofelections in a communist country be dull?). I've covered electionsbefore, so i wont touch on it again.
just some interesting comments about recent developments; man i musttry to read the news, and chinese news more often. I read some otherpeople's posts recently, so will endaevour to write more about me,less about my activies and less about china if i can, as that seemsto be what people write about.
anyway, onto bed now. should be paying the deposit tomorrow to myflat mate (wont move in till end of month though) :D
Adam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)