1 dog policy and other tit-bits

After another quick trip to the countryside with nice fresh air, I returned to Xi'an where visibility got less and less as we got closer to the city.. and actually the last couple of weeks have been quite good; it says something that even a pretty good day is still hazy on the horizon!

Today I was pleased to find a new cycle lane had been finished. They started it last week; taking out half the pavement in the process (well, they aren't going to sacrifice a lane of traffic are they?); meaning there was a row of trees between the cars and the cyclists, which helps for safety. At the time I commented that they were making this bike lane wider than usual -and it seemed this was because the tar-mac laying machine was a certain width so the lane was as wide as the machine -helps with speed and costs i am sure compared to using a smaller hand-held machine.

As I zoomed along today I realised that this extra wide bike lane was wide for a reason.. to allow cars to park in it! At one point 2 cars had managed to squeeze into it next to each other -leaving me with no option but walk my bike up onto the pavement and around the cars to carry one. Typical China; maybe the wide bike lane would help the cyclists.. but the opposite happens!

It reminds me that the government originally put quite a high tax on all cars; to reduce buying -and especially on small cars, otherwise everyone would buy cheap cars. What it meant was everyone just bought big expensive cars. Last year they cut the tax on small cars to encourage them instead of the big gaz-guzzling Audi and VWs.

Fresh of the press is news that Rabies has become a major health problem in China. Since in most cities dogs are supposed to be registered (and pay an annual tax) most people don't register them and therefore can't really take them to a Vet if a dog is ill.. and probably don't want to pay the vet's fees either; so dogs stay ill and then infect their owners! Beijing has always limited dogs to a certain size within a 10 mile radius of the city centre. There are 15m people; and apparently, now almost a million dogs! Well, what with the rabies and all, Beijing has now officially introduced a 1-dog policy. maximum.

Xi'an -well, its several years behind Beijing, but I'm expecting a huge influx of dogs soon... shame chinese people have no afliction for cats -they stay inside, only move to eat, and are tiny. This year is, of course, the year of the dog -poor animals, what irony. Well, at least I can return to Beijing and continue laughing at all the very weird cross-breeds that are chinese dogs.. tiny things, spotty things, mouse-like things. In fact, most barely look like dogs!

On another note -for those of you who don't know China's filthy rich do not come from the Mega cities; they come from the countryside, getting rich off corruption, running coal or steel mines or other factory operations. They then go and buy a fancy apartment in Beijing (the capital for their government parties), Shanghai (cause its posh and fancy) and... Xi'an. Because most of the coal mining, oil and other resource stuff is in north-west or middle china. Hence Beijing and Shanghai's property prices shooting through the roof.. and Xi'an now starting to appear like parts of beijing full of nice apartments -even though the incomes here are way low and there really is not that big a middle class yet. The good news, is that there is still lots of cheap restaurants near the city center -not the same as Beijing or Shanghai!

And finally... hopefully most readers will have heard of the Stern Report on the economics of climate change. Of course most of what the UK does.. and even the US is not going to make much difference to the world as China (and other developing countries) carry on as they are. Since there are so many more pressing issues here, climate change is not going to be on the agenda for a while. Even the 'energy efficiency' targets are no where near being met. Shame Stern didn't write his report in Chinese so the government hear could hear that in 30+ years time more than 200 million people will have to move east as their homes will be flooded courtesy of the melting himalayas; or that Shanghai's (current population of) 18m need to start learning how to swim.. or else there could be several more Great Walls being built...

feels like home

Beijing feels like home; not maybe my 1st home, but definitely my second home (Manchester has been relegated to third -especially since so few of my friends live there any more). It is great to come back here and see friends; weird to have not seen them for 3 whole months. Beijing is (as you may have seen in the news) hosting an African-China Summit, and huge swathes of Beijing are promoting the event: billboards, bus stops, flags on the street, flowers and all kinds of things. I'm not sure of the purpose: to greet the 50 or so African leaders who came here, or to tell Beijingers what is happening.

If it is the second its not working: During one of the traffic jams caused by the event (none of the leaders are staying in the same hotels, so they have to close off all the roads to all the different hotels a lot of the time), I was sitting in a taxi right underneath one of the many billboards; but my taxi driver had no idea about the event and was confused as to the traffic jam. I suppose taxi drivers don't normally have time to look up at billboards and there are so many 'special visits' leading to the flower thing it must be normal (i.e. when the Olympic Committee pop over, or any Foreign President, or a CEO Conference etc). I wonder if the owners of the all the billboards are being compensated for all the lost advertising. I also wonder if the Africans in Beijing remember their country as full of beautiful mountains and wonderful wild animals everywhere.. or whether they know a few more unfortunate truths about Africa.

Since saying good-bye to my cousin and uncle in Cleveland (where they took me to the Orchestra -one of the top 5 in the World -and even tone-deaf me was impressed) and thanking them for their hospitality (and to Nighttown for their wonderful beer and bar-tenders) I flew for many hours to (2 days later) venture into the northern suburbs of Beijing for some eco-tourism project we are involved in. After being force-fed Baijiu at lunch with the local tourism bureau I spent a delightful 2 days under blue sky and millions of stars. Never before did I ever see so many stars when just 150km from a big city! This area of Beijing is my favourite: I've been there about 10 times to escape down-town. Now, after several catch-ups, a night in the Hilton (as a mystery shopper) and too much alcohol in a russian restaurant; Now I am back in xi'an. woo hoo. At least I can knuckle down and try to start achieving something at work.

Meanwhile you can draw your own conclusions about whether China's trade with Africa is good or bad. There is evidently a very selfish motivation to access key natural resources; and that may involve supporting dodgy governments, but if it equals more trade and more investment for Africa, it hopefully might be a good thing.

Toronto

5 years after last being in Canada, I've returned to Toronto to meet with Plan in Canada to discuss various work-related co-operation possibilities. Despite arriving at 6am, and leaving 2 days later at the same time (when it is dark!), I have had a successful trip, learning a huge amount from my Canadian colleagues.

Possibly it is because I am coming here from China, and not from the UK as last time, but it has been a delight coming here. The traffic is so considerate, the diversity of people so great as well as the diversity of small restaurants, bars and shops that I almost feel like I am back in down-town London. My perspective must have changed a lot: I see old buildings everywhere and think they are beautiful. Cleveland is similar, though with less (i.e. zero) people on the streets since no-one lives down-town and of course, drives everywhere.

Halloween here is massive. 1 of the ladies in Plan Canada is having a party saturday night and has a full-size coffin as well as cut-up parts of mannequins all over her house (plus all the usual cobwebs etc) -I wish I could go. Instead maybe I can find something in Cleveland. None-the-less there are people all over the streets wearing costumes and everyone is talking about it -even about trick-a-treating with their kids. Meanwhile I'm still tasting the delights of great Indian, Italian and Middle Eastern Food (plus canadian pancakes in the morning and sandwiches at lunch!) -something definitely lacking in Xi'an!

white

Not the most PC of titles, but it introduces my thoughts of today; since I went to the Greyhound bus station (aka. the dirty dog) to buy my ticket to Toronot, while wearing a suit (on way to conference) of all things, and whilst queueing (aka. waiting in line) heard a short afro-american woman screaming behind me into her mobile (aka. Cell phone) about how long the line is every sunday and how she is always waiting in line, and always missing buses (though, she was presumably exaggerating -if its like this way every week, surely she knows to get here earlier?). Then when an employee asked down the line who was waiting for a bus to New York or somewhere else because they were leaving soon, and those people who skip to the the head of the line, she would always ask about the Acron bus, or if she ould get the New York bus, and whether it would get her to Acron quicker. So funny. To top it off she then commented that in the future she might start buying return tickets to save her teh trouble of queuing to get her ticket home (you think?)

Of course most of the people waiting for tickets or their buses were all ethnic minorities; and since my conference is full of smart academic people (mostly from north america) and some business people, they are also predominantly white (though the hotel staff aren't of course) -I had a quick 2 minute chat to the bar tender who didn't think the Mayor of Cleveland (a speaker at the conference) was doing jack sh*t to help the city.

This all brought back memories of my visit to see Ricki Lake being filmed 5 years ago in New York City (hilarious -the topic was afro-american women complaining about their brothers dating white women and asking why afro-american women were not good enough for them) as well as many other experiences from talking to Katy's (my former grilfriend who i was staying with at the time) extended family and friends as well as my work colleagues (I worked for 5 weeks in a small carpenttu/building firm) and others. At the end of my 3 months in the USA I returned to University and was asked to give a short presentation of my trip to Council Exchanges (who I had gone through for the visa etc.) next recruitment of people for their educational exchange programme. I explained how great America is, how much I love the people who are so friendly and how hard-working most people are, how immense the country is it is hard to grasp that some people there just don't need to leave it.. etc etc. I also mentioned in reply to a question that what surprised me the most was how racially segregated USA is (I was living in the mid-west remember, not in a place like New York City).

I wasn't saying it in a negative way specifically, but when some of the 'white' people said that many of the afro-americans were just happy living off benefit, for example, it is not just an opinion but also often a matter of fact -in that area that a large % of afro-americans do live off (unemployment) benefit. There were some riots a while back where a white cop shot an afro-american because the cop thought he was pulling out a gun. He wasn't -the cop was criticised for prejudice, and some riots began. From a British point of view at least, many people in the UK probably feel the same.. to some extent it is natural: a fear of people or things that are different to ourselves. To some extent it is based on stereotypes, which our brains have to use as shortcuts in life to help us make decisions (i studied it in psychology), whether we like to stereoptype people or not. This is of course a long, and unanswered discussion that could go on. Anyway, my point is that USA is still like that.. and the UK is also similar (but our minorities are still more minor).

I find it interesting reading about the possible theories for solving the UK and Europe's racial and immigration issues, with discussions around integration, cultural identity, assimilation etc. I don't know what the solution is.. some sort of compromise I suppose. But I think that some people go to America, see opportunities and take them; some go there and don't. Others, unfortunately, are unable to grasp those opportunities because they are already at a disadvantage (hence positive selection and quotas etc).

All of this comes to my mind as I am now coming from China, where almost nothing is the same as USA. Even the ethnic minorities within China are only 4% of the population, let alone the few foreigners. Everywhere there are chinese people. In America there is sometimes everywhere black people, sometimes everywhere white people, sometimes everywhere mixed people... but those 'times' can easily be labelled. Dealing with ethnicity, diversity, immigration etc. is really not an issue in China (apart from small attempts to support the current 55 ethnic minorities within China); though it is such a huge issue in Europe especially. Such a contrast.

Today ended with the best speech I have ever heard from Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface Inc, explaining how he has created the largest carpet tiliing company (which depends on nylon and oil as raw materials apparently) in America and the most sustainable -explaining how he did it, how it has all been based on 'new thinking' and innovation and how by 2020 his company will have absolutely ZERO impact on the environment, and then after that it will start to have a purely positive impact on the environment. It was almost an hour long but was captivating. Then I went to the local bar with my cousin (who I am staying with) and met Sarah (attractive bar tender, he he) and Tom (local 50+ drunk artist). Such contrasts to China!

Back in the USA

Back in the USA (Cleveland) for a conference about how business can benefit society, I've realised how much of American life had slipped my mind. Ever since my previous American experiences, including working in Southern Ohio, I have long championed USA as a great place, full of friendly, hard-working people -and tried to convince people that USA is not what you think it is. I believe most other Westerners THINK they know what USA is, and that is the problem. Plus of course the USA is a continent rather than a country -and so diverse in itself it is incredible.

So what did I forget?
-How fat the really fat people are
-How many restaurants are EVERYWHERE (and how 90% of them are chain restaurants, and how 75% of the food they serve is the same -burgers, steaks and maybe some salad or pasta)
-How much space there is everywhere
-How everyone's houses have lawns, garages and just 1 or 2 storeys
-How great the service is (and how credit cards are accepted everywhere)
-How big all the stupid cars are.. sorry, not cars -there are no cars anymore in this country, just trucks and Mini-vans!
-How nice it is to have desserts, salads and tap water

And what has changed?
-People seem to be more aware of food issues (organic, healthy) and exercise; though not enough people evidently get involved in both
-Shops have already started to put up Xmas decorations.. instead of waiting until after Thanksgiving (or indeed, after Halloween)
-The food has got even weirder and more man-made "the better it tastes, the more un-natural it is"
-More terrorism threats every week (successfully removed by fantastic government) "intended to keep us scared, and 'confident' of the government"
-My accent apparently, according to people here who last spoke to me 2-3 years ago ("less English")

It was a little weird back in January going to Belgium.. and being a foreigner yet looking somewhat like a local. So although I feel like a foreigner, no-one treats me like one. It is the same in the USA of course, which is just not what I am used to in China. What is weirder is hearing so many American accents everywhere (on street, in malls etc); normally I would turn around to see who the American is (in China, or maybe even in Europe) since they are kinda rare.. and normally Americans overseas are interesting to talk to (apart from the tourist groups) -but of course here, everyone has american accents. It was pretty cool seeing some cultural diversity at Chicago airport (none really in China, compared to number of Chinese people!), and then weirder still seeing absolutely no cultural diversity in suburban Cleveland.

I just read some of the local paper (the 'plain dealer') and discovered that more fast food chains (e.g. dunkin' donuts) are expanding even more (is there even a market for more?) in the USA, meanwhile I have to spend another 8 days in the country where Cider does not have alocohol, biscuits are hard scones, cookies are biscuits, chips are crisps and of course soccer is football. What the?

trying to understand china

It is very very hard to understand any (and every) country. Although many developing countries like China or Russia seem to be harder to understand, they might not be harder to understand -however they are definitely changing faster, so you have to keep re-understanding everything as things change. As a foreigner of course, it often means learning something about China and then having to re-assess this soon after once another piece of new information changes the context.

One of the things that frustrates me most is not that most foreigners know so little about China (I knew almost nothing before I came and there are so many other countries to read about int he news, as well as one's own) and hence this weblog is an attempt to let people learn more in a personal way.. not like a book, but not like a weblog just about what i have been doing. When I read all the western news on China it often falls into 2 categories: problems or successes -fair enough you might say. However read a 'success' story and there will always be a 'put-down' saying the cost to which the success has come. Read a 'problem' story and there is less rarely a comparison to the other successes the government has had (often it is a case of 'there has been some minor changes, but not enough...').

What I have learned about China is (well, like most things in life really) that context is crucially important. Context, though, is not something that can be conveyed easily -but that is no excuse. I am a great fan of 'From our own Correspondent', a twice weekly half an hour show from the BBC that i download as a podcast, but a recent report angered me. It was from the BBC Beijing correspondent who is moving to the Moscow desk and in his last piece spoke about how normally the government dislikes him for his negative reports, but recently applauded him after his trip to India resulted in him compariing India unfavourably to Chin. He continued on about how even his borther had visited and then asked why so many of his pieces were so negative... and then the correspondent carried on for 10 minutes about all the problems China has -for example, the son who was executed for a crime he didn't commit (without a trial, and later the real criminal was found).

Yes, China has tremendous problems -in its legal system, in its environmental enforcement, in its health care sytem, education system... almost everything has problems -but then most newspapers in the UK will also find (smaller) problems in all the same in the UK. China needs a break. People need to understand that until 25 years ago, there was 0 freedom of speech, almost 0 legal system, almost 0 trade, very high malnutrition, poverty, illiteracy etc etc. It has come a long way in 25 years -although obviously not far enough (yet) for most people (me included). But When you are here you need to understand how big the country is, how diverse it is and how recent histroy influences it.

It is not easy to stamp out corruption or create new policies when the people in power in business or in government gew up in that same society that existed 25-45 years ago.. during the cultural revoultion when students were abusing/killing teachers (remarkable for a society that places SO much respect on teachers and education), when the country was at war with the USA (Vietnam, Korea), when travel was tightly restricted, when Mao;s government was more concerned on spending money on a nuclear programme than helping the hundreds of millions who were in poverty. Most of what the government did for 30 years just made matters worse (in an economic or development sense)! Anyway, so when a local official missed a few years of school because he was busy condemning his teacher (if he was lucky enough to go to shcool anyway) and when that school system would have taught him absolutely nothing that is useful or relevant for today's China, people need to understand this.

The government has built tens of thousands of new schools in the last 10 years, but that is still barely enough. The new policy of centralisation has meant closing some schools (of 30 puils) and condensing 5 villages into 1 school... to save on hours of walking every day, the pupils live at school during the week. This creates numerous other problems too (e.g. so many people living in 1 room that once 1 gets ill, the entire room does; or that most toilets are still pits dug in the ground with flies everywhere and no way of cleaning hands). China is still 60% rural... though of course many other towns and cities are in better situations.

So when someone complains about how much pollution China creates, ignore the fact that we made (and still make) the same (or more) pollution ourselves (China's is just more notable because there are more people) and remember that at the same time as trying to enforce its (honestly, fantastic standards of) environmental protection laws, China has to train hundreds of thousands of lawyers in a legal system that is still brand new, stamp out corruption that is mainstreamed into being a ''way of life' (according to chinese public opinion), create an entire healthcare system covering a country the size of USA (but in China 2/3rds is mountains and desert), prepare to look after the World's largest number of old people (especially worse given the 1 child policy, but then China would not be where it is today if it had had to deal with 200m more children!), create an educational system fit for a country moving into the high-tech, value-added knowledge economy and so on. i really could go on about china's many isues for a long time.

The point is not to say how many things are bad and need changing, the point is to recognise the trememendous challenges the government faces and how, actually, it has done an incredible job so far. The UK cannot even create a database for 60m people for the NHS, build a stadium in less than 5 years or buidl a road or airport in less than 10. Yes, China does not listen to everyone's opinions (and i am certainly not happy that up to 10,000 people die each year -most are criminals though) and there is a lack of human rights, but it has built an incredible infrastructure system, puts 96% of children into school for min. 9 years, taken a couple hunded million people out of extreme poverty, tried to provide jobs for hundreds of millions who live in cities (imagine the challenge of managing with the World's largest human migration EVER and wonder how fast buildings, sewers, public transport etc has to be built, before it becomes out-of-date from new migration!).... its successes are also a long list.

My point is, not just to look at the successes or the failures in isolation but to realise all of this together is a massive challange given China's recent history. And now for a quick personal opinion: After witnessing change around the World (3rd hand) I totally believe that a stable society is needed to make any progress at all. And unfortunately if the Government believes it must sacrifice some things in order to maintain a stable society, then so be it. The great majority of these people are much better off than they have been -ever. Let alone compared to the awful situation they have been in since the late 19th C until the late 20th C when the country was generally either at war internationally, in civil war or ruled by a dictator. I'm hoping the government will success with its monumental tasks (and my job is specifically to get businessed more engaged with these development issues) and I'm waiting for the these natural changes to inevitably happen. As students who have studied abroad raise up the ranks of the government nationally and locally (along with those who have got a better education domestically), then I expect the government to continue to make the best decisions, and hopefully, that will include political reform -when the time is right (andI personally beliieve it is not, right now).

I'm an Alien

I now hold an Alien Employment Permit. Sine it required a contract, an endorsement letter from our local partner (Shaanxi Women's Federation) and an endorsement letter from the Foreign Affiars or Foreign Corproation's bureau (?) , me leaving the country, changing my visa, returning to the country, getting a health check and then extending my visa.. it was not so easy to get.

Of course by leaving the country, I only had to go to Hong Kong; since China follows the 1 country -2 systems principle. What this means, who knows? From my point of view both Hong Kong and Macau have totally different laws and systems to China (and to each other of course) and Taiwan is another system: so that makes 1 country, 4 systems doesn't it?

Aaah, Taiwan, the place where the previous government ran away to (with all the country's cultural and financial treasures) before Mao and the Communists took over. China claims it is theirs, though the Taiwanese government don't claim to be a part of China (some people want to return to China, some want to make their 'serperation' more permanant and some are happy as they are) -its likely it will just stay in a weird state of flux for a while yet. For those interested, Taiwan used to be the China recognised by the UN (and the government in Tai pei sat in the UN) and rest of the World until 1971 when Beijing moved into the UN instead (and most countries recognised Beijing instead of Tai pei). Nowadays only a few small countries still think Taipai represents China.

[According to Wikipedia, the Dutch formed the first government in the 17th C, but in 1683 it was taken over by China, in 1895 the Japanese were rewarded with Taiwan as compensation for beating the Chinese in a war. When they lost WWII the Americans 'temporarily looked after it' and in 1951 the Kuomintang took over leadership, which the 'West' recognised as the real China during the Cold War]

Some see Taiwan as a flashpoint that will flare up into a big crisis (since the Americans have declared they will protect Taiwan against any 'forced reclamation' by China); others think maybe Taiwan will happily return to China (only if China sometime becomes democratic -since Taiwan has been a democracy for the last 6 years or so); others think it will just stay as it is. One thing is for sure China will not let it try to declare full independence (and blocks any attempt Taiwan makes to join the UN seperately), and since many Taiwanese fled from China previously, and the rest are still culturally chinese (in fact more traditional than those in China), then there is a lot in common with relationships everywhere.

In the meantime, expect continued political spats (for domestic political gain) and more fanfares over the occasional 'direct flight' (flights must still go through Hong Kong airspace doubling journey time, but usually they have to actually stop there) . For the Taiwanese in China they continue to have 2 passports (1 Taiwanese and 1 Chinese, though of course neither is recognised by the other as a passport), continue to learn how to read simplified Chinese (rather than complex Chinese), continue to make lots of money here and continue to be discriminmated against just like other foreigners (higher university fees, joining the 'international' line in airports) and so on.

The Taiwanese in China are also Aliens in a weird way despite looking the same, speaking the same language and sharing the same culture and a great deal of history. Yet another weird contradiction in this country... how can Beijing claim Taiwan as a province when it cannot controlwhether or not its own people can travel there (it is really hard for any Mainland Chinese to go to Taiwan yet a million or more Taiwanese are over here making so much money!). Well, maybe the Chinese are just sitting sumgly knowing how dependent the Taiwanese are on Mainland China economically.

The big questions... will China ever try and pull the economic plug for some measly domestic political gain/nationalistic pride? Does China now have such an effect on the World economy that the World/USA would continue to let it do whatever it wants, would the USA continue to defend democracy, will China itself slowly become democratic enough so the Taiwanese would be willing to become a full part of China? Or will Taiwan ever try to declare independence, and why?

tibetan tour guide

Life in China is like this for the average person in rural china (remember that the average income per person in China is a little over 1,000 USD ~8,000 Y a year) :

Income: about 30 Y a day for being a tour guide. Not working every day, therefore annual income is about 5-6,000 Y a year.

Education (supposedly free) for 2 kids =1,000 Y a year
Water = 120 Y a year
Electricity =300 Y a year
Tax =500 Y a year
no rent

leaving about 3-4,000 Y a year for food and clothing (and some basic transport, though horses are enough it seems!). which is 500 USD for a family of 4 people -who are not farmers (and do not grow their own food). And this is a good enough life.. the family is ok. This is the China that most people forget about.. just thinking of the rich businessmen, the polluting factories and all the upper class owning cars.

fresh air

coming back to Xi'an was the natural end to a great holiday -and it was supposed to be a great opportunity to show my mum around (including a karaoke party with some colleagues) -unfortunately we landed without even seeing the ground, so bad was the pollution.

It was made even worse since we were contrasting Xi'an smog with the pure fresh air of mountains 2-4,000m up where we had spent the previous week horse-riding (sore bum!) and in the most stunning natural park in China (and possibly the world). Its hard to describe what it is like trekking amongst lush green hills and mountains with waterfalls and streams separating various local tibetan villages; the snow capped peaks in the distance coming closer and closer until we were standing in half a meter of snow under a 5,500m high mountain.

The vistas were incredible (and so was the cold in the evening, in our tents), however not even this could rival JiuZhaiGou. An area of several stunning waterfalls and tens of incredible lakes that were all colours of the rainbow reflecting the algae, the minerals, the leaves, the sky and all other things in their fresh, clear water. The varying depths of the lakes (generally quite shallow it only 1-5m deep) led to such a diverse collection of colours, it could not be painted. It is quite clear why the millions of chinese (and others) flock their every year, and with a night in a local tibetan guest-house and some fantastic examples of environmentally sustainable tourism (by chinese standards and also with signs, maps, walkways etc) it was a great couple of days.

Previously me and mum had tried sichuanese cooking, seen the pandas (cute; though I wonder what future they have), climbed a typical chinese mountain and sampled the local teas and spicy food. Despite forcing my mum to spend most of the time hanging around with 20 year olds and backpacking she loved it -though may welcome the comforable beds at home.

In the meantime I'm leaving later this weekend for the USA and Canada with a stop-off in Shanghai on the way there and a few days in Beijing on the way back; time to turn my attention away from how tibetan kids should be educated (traditionally in monasteries or in real schools) and how beautiful nature is (and cold) -and back to working with companies to develop Plan's programmes. The conference in USA should be fun too... wonder what Cleveland is like 5 years after I was last there?

SARs

Not Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, but Special Administrative Region. That is the term for Hong Kong (the former British colony). It is also the term for Macau -a former Portugese colony that was returned to the Chinese at about the same time. It is 30km west of hong kong, and is mostly based on a peninsular attached to mainland china along with a couple of islands (Hong Kong is split between 1 island and a different peninsula. Though Hong Kong is much bigger than Macau, and has millions more people and hundreds of other (mostly empty) islands. Macau was given to Portugal in somewhat of a friendly way -Hong Kong was taken by the british as reward for beating the chinese in a couple of wars (along with bits of tens of other cities (similar to Berlin after WW2) that were forced to give a few miles of their land to the Brits, French, Americans, Germans etc during various other wars/activities).

This weekend I went to both. I've been to Hong Kong twice before and love the city. It is totally unique: romantic, buzzing, beautiful, crazy, noisy... a very emotional place. This time I went to one of the tiny islands that you would think is more like a piece of vietnam than hong kong (not a single car on the island and only a 20,000+ people living in 1-3 story houses or shacks. I also went to the northern part of hong kong, towards the Chinese border where the remains of many old villages and temples still exist surrounded by lush forest (and of course english speakers, english roads and english efficiency).

Yes, I did say English efficiency -you see you have to compare Hong Kong to China, where everything is a mess! Hong Kong has a great subway, great footpaths, great cultural heritage protection projects, great architecture.. Modern China had pretty much none of that until 5 years ago (now its building subways, restoring its heritage and thinking a bit about its new buildings -sometimes thinking too much!).

Macau is a strange place. Physically it looks quite mediterranean with many bright yellow churches or majestic mansions and road signs in portugese and chinese (and often in english too!); but under the surface no-one speaks portugese, you can use the hong kong dollar interchangably with the Macca Pataca, they drive on the left (like hong kong), there are very few europeans and most of the population is poor. Macau used to be more successful than Hong Kong 100 yrs ago.. but until 5 years ago was very poor.. most of its industries lost out to China (Macau is tiny with not much of anything!). It used to be a port city trading with Asia, but when I was there the only ports were for the ferries to China and HK, and for fishing boats. Aah, fishing, hardly the most profitable of industries :-)

But now Macau is changing..supper fast, at something like 20% GDP a year since the end of the Asia Financial crisis and its all because of gambling (which is illegal in China proper and many other chinese or muslim asian countries). But Macau is full of rubbishy housing intermingled with fancy european mansions; so they filled in land to build casinos and hotels.. lots of land. So much in fact that one of the bits of sea between 2 of the islands has pretty much disappeared under cranes and hotels. Now you can find fake volcanoes, impressive fountains, neon and Bentleys. Of course, you'll only find them in the new Macau.. the rest of the citizens survive on tourism and employment in the casinos or hotels.

Anyway, interesting place. Hong Kong though is awesome, especially since i went to one of their beaches and on some great hikes. Macau is ok for a day or two, but be warned -the only cheap hotels there are in the red-light district (don't ask....)

Surprising people

The last couple of weekends, with me (firstly) and my friends (I went back to the same place with 3 friends/colleagues) in rural china have provided lots of surprises. Sometimes its the woman at the top of Kong Tong Shan (a relatively famous Daoist Mountain) selling fangbian mian (literally: convenient noodles -instant noodles) who was surprised to see a foreigner, let alone one with a massive backpack and tent -or one who comes back 2 weekends in a row!

Other times its the kids who see you strolling through their village in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the nearest track; or the shepherd and his son who were sitting with their bulls admiring the view when i came and sat next to them; or the 70 year old guy pulling a cart piled high with straw who turned the corner to find me lying on a hill reading a book; or the 15 year old kid who was looking after his 3 cows only to turn around and find a Brit, a Japanese, an American and a Chinese all speaking english eating a packed lunch.

Then there were the construction workers building a high-way who were just a little surprised to see the 4 of us descend out of the middle of a craggy valley and dodging their dumper trucks.. it goes on. Actually I wonder if I should have told the villagers my name -then they might name the village after the 'white man'! he he. We found several shepherds who remembered me along with the hotel manager and noodle woman.

Actually for the 15 year old whose school is a 4 hour walk away (they normally stay overnight during the weekdays in appalling conditions), I am sure he won't go to the city very often, and he won't even dream of going to Beijing or seeing foreigners -but he's got a story to tell his freinds. I don't know if meeting (or seeing really, since we don't talk too much) people like me inspires these villagers or makes them laugh.. or makes them come a little bit closer to the life they hear about on TV.

I can tell that they are happy people; they may be uneducated, and live a harsh life, but its simple and happy. But at the same time most of these villagers only wash their bodies once a year (fact!) and have a cash income of a hundred dollars a year. Now to put it into perspective, they don't need much cash -except for a) education and b) health. Which is where Plan comes in, as a development organisation (not a charity), Plan works not just to give the children money to go to school (although we convince the government to do that too), but to help teach the teachers and the parents about washing hands (and the kids), and teach them how to make a toilet, or to use toilet paper instead of newspaper. Or help women understand their role in their local community (when the men are all looking for work in the cities, or on the hills); or encourage parents to care about their child's early development.

In Bhutan; the tiny mountainous kingdom somewhere between tibet, burma and india, they don't measure GDP, they measure happiness (and there was an international conference discussing this recently). It is an interesting question -that of happiness. Much like how pointless the 2 USD a day poverty line is. 2 USD a day is a fortune for many of these people, and they are living without it. But the questions are, are they able to have the opportunies others have? Do they want to be able to reach their potential? Do they want to be educated to a higher level... hmmm

Lessons from travelling for Work (or life?)

1. Have a plan
2. Do some research
3. Take extra resources, just in case (money)
4. Be prepared for trouble/unexpected (first aid, torch, spare food)
5. Attitude: expect problems (always look on the bright side!) and be flexible. Be positive!
6. Adapt. Make the most of everything. Recognise the achievements and beauty. Take time to reflect.
7. When alone, challenge your decisions. listen to your conscious, since there is no-one else to disagree with you!
8. There are distinct benefits to going alone: no arguments, more opportunities to meet other people and less compromise
9. Be brave -just do it. Be determined and ambitious. Explore -opportujnities and try new things -what is there to lose? But don't take stupid risks
10. Choose advisors carefully: make the right friends. If you don't ask you cannot get!
11. Always prepare for the next step
12. Learn your lessons.

Scientific-ness

After my previous post about the need to change the education system in China, if China is to have a responsible role in the World, I am happy to report (NY times):

"The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.

Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.

Nearly overnight the country's most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950's. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today's economic and political goals.". Though I have to admit that I didn't learn much at School about Asian history (rather important economically for the world) or even about Africa and colonialism. What did I learn that was useful?

China is very keen on science. It's translation of science is 'best', therefore China wants a scientific method od development. Presumably this requires research into what the best method of development is, then implementation and evaluation. hmm, well i guess sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Science never manages to deal with people's emotions, unpredictableness etc. For example most Chinese cities, when creating (or changing) their street names, chose to do so in an orderly (and identical) fashion. There are loads of 'Peace Street' or 'Beijing Street' for example and plenty of '2nd ring road, south section, east end'. It makes sense, if say you are an American, where most habitations only have a couple hundred years of history (presumably not much is named after native americans), but in China, with 5,000 years, why are all the street names the same across the country? So boring!

I miss the UK with 'pudding lane', 'grimsdyke road' and millions of other examples. I guess most streets are named after people who lived there, their professions, or places along the road. And in China the system extends to schools and hospitals, eg. Beijing 101st Primary School! On another note, I am told that in teh early 80s during China's opening up, Xi'an's stupid government decided to imitate Shenzhen (a brand new city near Hong Kong) to become a beautiful garden city, with parks, flowers and grass. They promptly cut down or allowed to die most of the trees, replacing it with grass.

Of course they failed to anticipate things like:
-the grass cannot survive in a city with little water
-the trees played a crucial role in drainage
-trees use up CO2 and create O2, grass doesn't
.... leading us to a city permanently grey and smoggy.. apparently the wind normally comes from the north so blows the pollution from factories or coal mines in to Xi'an and it gets stuck here, because of the mountains to the South. Any other direction would be fine as there are no mountains to the E, W or N, stupid wind!

Then of course you have all the stupid unscientific ideas, like sending students off to the countryside, with few skills and few ideas or plans to create any lasting change.. 1 recent campaign led to students advising and helping build B&B equivalents -i wonder if they investigated is there is actually a market for this? You also have the military service that every University student (and some high school students) do. It involves 1-2 weeks (once in your life) marching. It culminates in each 'cadre' firing 5 real bullets. Everyone calls it a joke and hates it. I don't think it benefits the country at all, helps install any discipline, provides any useful skills, or prepares students to defend the country in terms of crisis. Old habits die hard.....

An interesting interview in the Times, Wen Jiabao (PM) said though democracy is occuring at local levels, it will not grow until Chinese society can handle it and that it is not the most pressing problem: inequality or environmental degradation (and many others) are. He seems to fail to recognise that democracy can help solve those problems! There is an excellent commentary that I totally agree with on the problems in China and role of the media: spot-on.

and finally.... Bullet and bomb proof WC in Beijing

I am not quite sure the point of this -is it to throw a bomb in, so it can be detoanted safely? -is it for all of zhonguancun to try to squeeze into the toilet when there is a bomb threat? -Is it just that some American company bribed a local official to buy their latest invention which they couldn't even sell in the USA?

any other ideas?

some recent photos...

Another sunday

Its sunday night, and time to go to sleep. A 1-2-1 Chinese class that starts at 7.30 in the morning for 2 hours requires intense concentration! It is an unusual Sunday, since I won't be working tomorrow. At work I only have to work 12 (out of about 24) working days a month -and the rest I can spend travelling or visiting our programme areas as a volunteer (not too useful out in the countryside yet, with current chinese level!).

Tomorrow's a day-off (as with Thursday and Friday) since Chris (Jingwei) came to visit -the 1st visitor to Xi'an. Chris was a girl I was living with in my first 6 months in China (along with various other people) and just returned from 1 year in the AIESEC Global HQ -but we don't just talk about AIESEC, or about Europe vs Asia stories! It means I have now done all the standard touristy stuff in Xi'an -and probably not for the first time. Definitely the hardest was climbing Hua Shan, one of the 10 or so famous 'must-climb' mountains in China, all above 1,500m or so. It was not too tough -we went quite slowly and weather was very cool; the views were some of the best of the various mountains I have climbed, with little cloud cover at the top.

I am always amazed at just what human beings can achieve: the Great Wall truly is breathtaking -at 5,000 km long and built mostly at the top of small mountain ranges, the wall is more like a highway made of solid bricks. But these mountains are similar, with most of the way paved with stone slabs, handrails and at the top -hotels and everything. Hard climbing up, let along carrying some stone up too! We gathered for the sunrise (the sun rose, but behind some clouds, unfortauntely) and I enjoyed watching on as another white guy was forced to stand in every chinese person's photos -aah, so often it has been me (though I was forced into 1 nearby some random well!).

This mountain was short of temples, but was also a superb example of good tourism (meaning the entrance fee of 10 euros is not so painful) with litter bins everywhere, guardrails, warning signs, signposts (yes, they do exist sometimes in china!) and snack/water sellers who were not too pushy. I don't see the point in cliumbing up at midnight, in time to arrive for sunrise, since you miss all the scenery and its more dangerous. Plus going down is so much harder on the feet (we took the cable car).

Random recent activities:
-seeing 2 'famous' Gou (ancient chinese board) players (Chinese champion and Korean champion) being carried from the cable car to the top of the mountain in sedans for a game
-realising that Chris is more impatient than me with her own country! (i.e. the minivan driver who refused to pay extra to go on the highway, or the smokers on the no-smoking buses, or the spitting...)
-rain, and lots of it in Xi'an. Unused to this level of rain (obviously the town planners never went to Manchester!) Xi'an becomes flooded as the drains cannot handle it. Apparently it gets so bad sometimes the trycicles come out to shepherd you just across the road for a few mao
-traffic jams, not much in Xi'an, mostly just just in a few areas -but when encountered, they are of the '20 minutes to go 500m' type
-crossing the road adventures. Chris finds this so stressful that she holds my arm! Xi'an has zebra crossings, but very few pedestrian lights. The zebra crossings lead to a gap in the railings dividing the 2 lanes. You have to therefore be no fatter than the railings to avoid losing your toes, and be very fast across the zebra crossings. Cars don't stop for you, People get impatient and start to be pushy, forcing cars to swerve around pedstrians without slowing, creating chaos and danger. Be warned!

where the hell is Li Ping?

By 9am tomorrow, I would have been out of Xi'an for 60 hours including:
-23 hours on overnight trains
-11 hours on truly spectacular (and truly bumpy) buses into the mountains
-9 hours sleeping in the only hotel in the mountains (I'm the first foreigner to visit in 2006!!)
-4 hours on local buses visiting a lake mostly without water and an old path along a spectacular gorge (now re-built in 'wood' -i.e. concrete painted like wood)
-3 hours jogging/walking in the mountains (6am-9am!) seeing wonderful mountains, gorges and villages
-2 hours at the lake and 2 hours at the gorge
-1 hour being stared at in 1 of the mountain villages whilst an alternative bus (i.e. crappy chinese minivan with 9 people stuffed on 6 seats) was sought, since the public bus was cancelled (I was the only one that wanted to know why... -must be normal)
...and another 7 hours eating dinner cooked on an open fire, waiting at more bus stops, trying to buy slippers (my feet are too big for china), buying train tickets (such a performance, as always) and writing in my blog :-)

I feel very privileged to have been to such a beautiful place that no-one has heard of. I am sure that it will be different in 5 years either from an influx of tourists or continued droughts! One of my favourite quotes -in fact, probably THE favourite quote- is "life is about the journey, not the destination". It is something i think sums me up very well, and this trip has broken all records (that were already pretty high) for time spent travelling vs time spent doing something else -but the 11 hours on those buses and minibuses into the mountains were spectacular.

Over the journeys it was so clear that the crappy shops selling mobile phones, bric-a-brac, hairdressers that are all over China -started to disappear. Then there were less brick buildings with garish white tiles on them. The road became a track. The motorcyclists disappeared, then the cyclists disappeared. Then the houses were made of brick coated in mud, the few people on the road were over 60 with bags on their backs full of vegetables (most people were still in the fields working); then the bridges became broken fords.

All this happened as the scenery started changing. From small towns along the road to villages where they dry their grains on the road to vegtables growing along the river plain, to terraces in the hills to mountains of just trees and occasional dwellings along the river. It was a combination of all that i saw in southern yunnan (border of Burma) and in Guilin (towards hong kong); but somehow, what was different was that not too much was changing. In southern yunnan they are building roads because of the growing trade with burma (mostly in drugs, illegal timber, people etc!), and in guilin there are tourists everywhere. Both places are beautiful -more so than lowly Li Ping National Forest Park on the border of Shaanxi and Sichuan, but all that was changing was more natural. As people got a bit more money, they were improving their houses; buying minivans etc.

Even in remote China, its almost unheard of! There is so much to be said for pointing at a map that has a mountain marked nearby and just turning up! There is always some kind of lowly tousim available, someone to take you somewhere cheaply and somewhere to stay. We did it last weekend by picking a mountain no one had heard of to go to -instead of 1 of the big 5. The difference? Less people, less steps and more footpaths, lower admission fees :-). I have though decided that I have to go to the remote mountains of scotland hiking. Something I have not done yet, and something I really should do -at least there will be signposts in English!

And to top it all off... I had no mobile phone signal for 2 whole days.

Change in China

There is an opinion that China is going to change for the better -those who went to study abroad in the 80s are now rising up the ladder in government and business. You can see the change in many well-run and internationally successful private Chinese businesses, but you annot yet see teh change in the government. Hopefully, soon, it will happen -and the returned scholars can bring with the best knowledge from overseas to combine it with the chinese situation/culture and create a dynamic, fair, successful China.

However this still seems a long way off. Chinese students sill learn absolutely zero about the rest of the World in their education system: unless they study something like languages or international trade at university or pick it up in the media (which most young people rarely bother to read since its generally useless. If they do read it then they are checking out the business sections, entertainment etc. The international news is awful. People talk about Bush having to know about the World since USA impacts the world, but what about China? China's current and future global impact is tremendous -its leaders, and its people, need to have SOME understanding of the rest of the World!

In addition, China is trying hard to enforce its excellent laws -its tough in a big country where so much has changed so fast and so many people don't want to give up power, or lose their jobs. Slowly though environmental enforcement and labour rights are being enforced..slowly. But all this is pointless if the law is abused, and the courts useless. If we dis-regard the human rights issues for the moment, this story is typical. A blind lawyer brings to the national government's attention (and only because he got the international media's attention first which forced the local media to report on it, and the national government to do something) forced abortions (local officials need to keep the birth rate low to meet targets and stick to the 1 child policy). Many were violent and disturbing, some as late as 8 months into pregnancy. What happens? a few lowly officials get punished and the lawyer gets detained for a year and finally imprisioned for 4 years for 'theft'! How is China supposed to develop when this happens so often? How is it going to encourage other people to come forward about abuses?

Sometimes China's achievements are impressive (even more so after I read more of Mao's destruction of the country), but so often the future can seem bleak. I am hoping to tell the outisde World that China is not just about the successes (economic) and the failures (environmental), but there are normal people too -something that is not 'news', of course. Unfortunately the challenges are still so great...

Some photos from the last month

All of them are uploaded on the imagestation site, in particular in these folders: China-Xi'an-nanwutai , China-Maijijshan, China-BJ&Hainan holiday , China-Xi'an and some older photos: China-BJTourist-zoo, UK-New Year Party, UK-Xmas, China-BJexcursions-fishing ...,
Here are select few (from left-right, top row first): Maijishan caves/buddhas with walkways, Day trip to top of Nan Wu Tai Mountain, Montain Temple's interior, Xi'an City walls, Xi'an modern offices, Xi'an Ancient Mosque, Our hotel in Hainan, Swimming in waterfall in rainforest in Hainan, Lake in Rainforest, Hotel's beach in Hainan

Maijishan

One of the oldest set of grottoes (sculptures carved into the rock related to Buddhism) on the Silk Road) is Maijishan. They are impressive since its half way up a sheer cliff. Having said that, the more recent efforts to put walkways outside are almost just as impressive (now i know where the steep entrance fee went). Unfortunately you have to pay extra to see some of the best caves.. and all the caves are 'protected' by some wire grills.. meaning you have to peer through the wire -ruins the effect. Must be another way to protect them!

Nearby is a cave. What makes it interesting is that its high up a mountain and is pitch-black (though i had a pocket torch) and full of bats. It is weird sitting in a cave, turning the torch off and just hearing bats flying nearby and hearing their 'voices' (or possible their sonar -if i remember my biology). I was very proud that i actually turned around after 50m, realising how foolish it would be continue with a useless torch and no idea where the cave was going, how bats would react to me getting even closer or what the path was like (was already scrambling lots!)

I then walked over the peak to the exit of the cave (presuming its the same one that goes all the way through the mountain) and worked out using fancy GPS device that the cave must be at least 200m in a straight line. that is a LONG way going 1 step at a time in the dark. Glad i didn't attempt it alone. After lunch I wemt on one of the best short hikes ever. It would have been perfect had i not been typically Adam and decided the path was too easy and to explore the cross-country route. Oops. Anyway, back on the path was a fantastic village with cows and chickens and signs from the government (advertising in China in the countryside involves painting massive signs on building's walls) about new initiatives about birth control, taxes or whatever (i think!); later on was some more (smaller) grottoes and a great path back down a ridge through overgrown paths to another village. Thankfully there was a stream to clean all the leaves, branches and blood of my legs!

Physically the trip was great. What made it fantastic was the people involved.

-ticket collector. Only spoke to her for a few minutes but found out she is paid way below minimum wage. 300 rmb (30 euros) for 1 month. working from 6am-8pm 7 days a week. Typical in China

-Hou Family. daughter and parents. Spoke to them, realised they lived in the town nearby (that i was not planning on seeing, apart from the train station). Didn't want to disappoint them so invited myself round for dinner the following night before my train. Awesome dinner, stuffed me silly, piled me up with more fruit for the journey. She's a police woman, he's a bit of a market trader in White goods. Didn't understand half of what we talked about for 3 hours, though understood the daughter more.. and she'll show me around Wuhan (where she studies) when i wander off there! Chinese apartments for a typical city family are all the same. 1 bedroom for parents, 1 for child, 1 small kitchen, 1 small bathroom, 1 balconny of sorts and a living room. 80-100 m squared. Bought cheaply off their 'danwei' (local residents association who gave out accommodation during socialist times) or by their state owned employer. Owns a motorbike. These families are the majority. They don't own cars, they don't even want to. They have dead-end jobs but its enough to eat out sometimes and support child in education, and have a computer etc. Just in case you thought everyone has a fancy air conditioned apartment, car and a child studying overseas -if all 400m urban residents were in that situation...

-14 year old kids who i was talking to at the first 'farmer's cottage' i went to stay in. nothing too exciting, but helped me find further accommodation once i was forced to move.

-50 year old drunk local man (Fred, asked me how i do 17 times, forced me to drink 22 times). Was on the verge of getting scary, dangerous, me drunk. Kids advised me to leave. So I did. Damn Baijiu (cheap vodka like, disgusting spirit). Typical country man.. spend their time drinking and talking lots. Take 'hospitatity' too far.

-66 year old man who was friends of the owner of the 2nd farmer's cottage i went to (after evacuating 1st one). rarely understood what he was on about (accent, slurred speach) but charming guy for 2 hrs. Something about weather, beijing, Da Shan (Canadian who speaks fluent Chinese and teaches foreigners chinese on China's TV stations), Thames River... must have been something more in 2 hours of a monologue....

The joys of talking to anyone and everyone, seeing out-the-way touristy places, and wondering without any worries. Another 6 months of more weekend (or longer, since i am only work part-time) trips. It might help me get fit. Chinese lessons should start next week. Apartment is sorted. Corporate Partnerships strategy almost finished.. delivering training soon and then checking out our programme areas in the poor parts of the country -then talking to companies about partnerships. AND.. the premiership is almost back!

the clever chinese

"Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are going "- chinese proverb. China changed direction (to economic growth).. a few times...slowly. But sucessfully. It has now set a new direction (harmonius development and environmental sustainability). How long will it take to move the ship around? And the same goes for the Developed World, which is even slower at turning the ship.. maybe the ship has got used to going in its old direction!

and another relevant quote:
"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough" - Lao Tzu