Quanzhou is not a place many people have heard off but several hundred years ago (back when China was responsible for more than 40% of World GDP and much of the World's trade along the land/sea silk road) it was famous as one of the biggest ports in the World. There were even 6 Mosques for the Arabic residents/traders. Today there are plenty of temples and 1 mosque left standing; though not much else.
It is now, though 1 of the many ports in China at the forefront of exporting goods to the rest of the World. In fact the area of east and south-east china is full of cities that come to specialise in certain products. 1 city makes something ridiculous like 95% of the world's plastic lighters; another makes shoes; another makes ceramics; another makes stone statues... most of them don't just sell out of China but of course to the huge market inside of China too -and every finished product requires many more people working to create the components too.
After Quanzhou I headed into the mountains to an area now inhabited by the Hakka People, who lost many battles against the Han Chinese a thousand or so years ago and were forced into the mountains. Their language is (as is typical of China) as different to Mandarin Chinese as Italian is to English though their writing is mostly the same. What makes the area attractive to tourists is that the Hakka people built their homes out of mud, straw and so on and in square and circular shapes for protection. Typically the 'Tu Lou" (Earth Buildings) are 3-4 stories with the ground level being for cooking, the next level for storage and the next couple for accommodation. The bottom 2 levels had no windows whatsoever, and there was only 1 entrance into these massive structures (with walls around 2m thick).
Of course many of them are still standing (i saw one almost 900 years old), and what makes the area so interesting is that they are all still inhabited and new buildings are still created in the same style (though with some mod-cons, like taps a long with the well). Visiting the Tu lou (and there are thosuands in the area; most villages are full of them) is a glimpse into a way of life little changed for a thousand years -and still ongoing. The only real changes are that many of the young people migrate to the cities to work, so most of the tu lou are half-empty and motorbikes are the method of transportation of choice.
The people are extremely kind with several families offering me in for tea and feeding me -making it hard to leave politely. Each Tu lou houses several families with the biggest holding 2-300 rooms: around 1,000 inhabitants! Quite a sight -and great if all the families get on well; though i am not sure if i can handle the closeness of these kinds of communities (brought up, as i was, in a house of just 5 people and a couple of pets). Actually the most annoying thing from staying in these tulou was not the lack of toilets inside, the hardness of the beds or the smell from the animals downstairs (though these might be too much if i was staying more than just a night or two!), but the damn cockrells that never shut up and could be heard through the open windows!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
legacies of colonialism
A great deal of China was actually colonised by the western powers. During the 19th century after the Brits and a few others forced China into giving us Hong Kong, over the next 60 years many Foreign powers actually ended up with whole tracts of land in the most important trading cities. This meant these 'foreign concessions' were just like bits of Europe in China: old brick buildings, real sewers, street lights and so on.
Although owning a few bits of a few cities was not enough for japan, who invaded about half of China for its raw materials before and during world war 2 (The Allied powers were giving China weapons and so on to help them defeat the Japanese, but the Japanese only really left because they lost to the USA in WW2).
Anyway, I am now in one of those cities (Xiamen) that had a bunch of foreigners living there a while ago. In fact the foreigners set up home on a little island nearby, because the city itself was too 'dirty'! Thus in the period before and after 1900 over a thousand western style villas were built: grand mansions with columns, balconies, turrets, domes and so on. Some are more 'Mediterranean', others more 'American' depending on who the owners were.
Now the traffic-less island is a wonderful place with many tiny, winding alleys between grand mansions (there were 13 consulates amongst other residences) and not-so-grand-but-not-so-bad chinese buildings. There are beautiful trees everywhere that are 1-200 years old although many of the buildings are now falling into disrepair as the chinese owners have no need for 20 room mansion! They use 4 rooms and leave the rest in a mess, unfortunately (it is possible to have a look in some actually homes, due to some enterprising locals).
Weirdly 1 now houses a museum of art made from fish bones -surprisingly good (photos up later hopefully). Most of the pianos that the foreigners took there seem to be housed in the museums on the island, though in the past you would hear the pianos being played everywhere it seems. It is a wonderful place to relax with some great beaches and parks, fresh sea food and, despite the tens of thousands of tourists each day (compared to the 5,000 or so residents!), still quite quiet off the main streets.
It is definitely much 'better' than either Macau, Qingdao or Shanghai which also have great foreign concessions. Here so much has been left and not knocked down, not filled in with horrible cheap buildings, not destroyed by traffic noise and fumes and not turned into bars! highly recommended. A shame all us foreigners left during the war (taking all the nice stuff with us i presume), because now the houses are kind of bare :-(
Although owning a few bits of a few cities was not enough for japan, who invaded about half of China for its raw materials before and during world war 2 (The Allied powers were giving China weapons and so on to help them defeat the Japanese, but the Japanese only really left because they lost to the USA in WW2).
Anyway, I am now in one of those cities (Xiamen) that had a bunch of foreigners living there a while ago. In fact the foreigners set up home on a little island nearby, because the city itself was too 'dirty'! Thus in the period before and after 1900 over a thousand western style villas were built: grand mansions with columns, balconies, turrets, domes and so on. Some are more 'Mediterranean', others more 'American' depending on who the owners were.
Now the traffic-less island is a wonderful place with many tiny, winding alleys between grand mansions (there were 13 consulates amongst other residences) and not-so-grand-but-not-so-bad chinese buildings. There are beautiful trees everywhere that are 1-200 years old although many of the buildings are now falling into disrepair as the chinese owners have no need for 20 room mansion! They use 4 rooms and leave the rest in a mess, unfortunately (it is possible to have a look in some actually homes, due to some enterprising locals).
Weirdly 1 now houses a museum of art made from fish bones -surprisingly good (photos up later hopefully). Most of the pianos that the foreigners took there seem to be housed in the museums on the island, though in the past you would hear the pianos being played everywhere it seems. It is a wonderful place to relax with some great beaches and parks, fresh sea food and, despite the tens of thousands of tourists each day (compared to the 5,000 or so residents!), still quite quiet off the main streets.
It is definitely much 'better' than either Macau, Qingdao or Shanghai which also have great foreign concessions. Here so much has been left and not knocked down, not filled in with horrible cheap buildings, not destroyed by traffic noise and fumes and not turned into bars! highly recommended. A shame all us foreigners left during the war (taking all the nice stuff with us i presume), because now the houses are kind of bare :-(
tea
Not the best of starts to a holiday when it all the travel agencies take the day off for chinese new year's eve; and hence had no tours available -so i left Nanchang quickly for Wu Yi Mountain to meet 2 Japanese Girls and spend New Year's Eve letting off fireworks in the street and drinking beer on a bridge (in the drizzling rain).
Then followed 2 days of fantastic hiking -some times following hundreds of people up steps, sometimes alone on paths that were not just fun but also difficult -cut out of the rock in crazy ways (if there were no handrails, it would be almost impossible) and sometimes trying to follow footpaths that do not exist. Chinese people tend to only go to an attraction, then back to the bus (and then onto the next one). Hence, though a map hints at paths between 'sites' they actually do not exist really... just lots and lots of paths used by the farmers during the harvest to 'harvest' (or whatever you do to tea when it is ready to sell!).
Anyway, after carefully leaving my GPS behind in the hotel the one time when i could actually use it, I wondered off finding a house (and some maybe crazy guy in it) hours from the nearest road and 4 hours later i managed to crawl down an embankment on a main road to hitch a ride on a motorbike back to town (the driver complained i was too heavy for his bike!). It was, though, a great trip.
Many of the real signposted paths were also pretty and full of waterfalls/ I splashed out 5 pounds to drink some supposedly amazing tea (supposedly, i can't really tell the difference) but thought 'what the hell' -bringing on another bouth of hundreds of people staring at the white person drinking tea. To be honest I was looking very confused, trying to understand the lecture the tea woman was giving me about the history of the tea and traditions of pouring, drinking etc... not understand a word.
For some reason, though I am in south-east coastal China (which has been growing fast in the last 20 years), everyone is more suprised to see a foreigner than in the back waters. Or, maybe the parents are just much more vocal about telling their kids about the 'laowai', whilst the teenagers are braver in shouting 'hello'. I do try to reply hello back.. but after hundreds of times in 5 days my mind is saying other things, much less polite (though i do keep my mouth shut, just).
Then followed 2 days of fantastic hiking -some times following hundreds of people up steps, sometimes alone on paths that were not just fun but also difficult -cut out of the rock in crazy ways (if there were no handrails, it would be almost impossible) and sometimes trying to follow footpaths that do not exist. Chinese people tend to only go to an attraction, then back to the bus (and then onto the next one). Hence, though a map hints at paths between 'sites' they actually do not exist really... just lots and lots of paths used by the farmers during the harvest to 'harvest' (or whatever you do to tea when it is ready to sell!).
Anyway, after carefully leaving my GPS behind in the hotel the one time when i could actually use it, I wondered off finding a house (and some maybe crazy guy in it) hours from the nearest road and 4 hours later i managed to crawl down an embankment on a main road to hitch a ride on a motorbike back to town (the driver complained i was too heavy for his bike!). It was, though, a great trip.
Many of the real signposted paths were also pretty and full of waterfalls/ I splashed out 5 pounds to drink some supposedly amazing tea (supposedly, i can't really tell the difference) but thought 'what the hell' -bringing on another bouth of hundreds of people staring at the white person drinking tea. To be honest I was looking very confused, trying to understand the lecture the tea woman was giving me about the history of the tea and traditions of pouring, drinking etc... not understand a word.
For some reason, though I am in south-east coastal China (which has been growing fast in the last 20 years), everyone is more suprised to see a foreigner than in the back waters. Or, maybe the parents are just much more vocal about telling their kids about the 'laowai', whilst the teenagers are braver in shouting 'hello'. I do try to reply hello back.. but after hundreds of times in 5 days my mind is saying other things, much less polite (though i do keep my mouth shut, just).
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Chinese New Year
Train Tickets just delivered by agent... 3 hours before train leaves...with a note "if anyone asks, tell them you queued for a looong time to get the ticket from the return's office". Whatever, he got his commission and i got my ticket for a 23 hour journey down south-east to coastal (and hopefully warmer) China. Hopefully it will rain -although i can barely remember what rain is like!
On Sunday, it is Chinese New Year. Now it's time to leave on holiday!
On Sunday, it is Chinese New Year. Now it's time to leave on holiday!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Pigs, Taxi Drivers and more
Today was a wonderful day: shorts and t-shirts weather (well, whilst playing football anyway!) and it was about 15 degrees in the sun: evidence of global warming maybe -the lake where we go ice skating froze 1 week later this year than last year and unfroze another week early. I am talking about Beijing of course; Xi'an never has beautiful days -just a few 'nice' days.
Xi'an only had 1 real period of rain in 2006; it had 4 in 2005 according to my chinese teacher here -and currently Shaanxi province is in the middle of a serious drought forcing the government to bring in drinking water for many places in the countryside. It means that I feel like a girl using 'moisturizing lotion' and the pollution will probably be awful in the spring with more violent dust storms than usual. Beijing won't be much better (though it has more 'induced rain' -through putting chemicals into the clouds), so it is a good thing that the Olympics are only 16 months away -another few years and even the Chinese government might not be able to stop the dust!
On that note, I heard that half of the new subway lines in Beijing won't be finished in time for the Olympics -proof that there are still some things beyond the means of the all-powerful Chinese government in Beijing. Actually, there are many things beyond their means (corruption, controlling the faraway provinces, enforcing the law....), but I am surprised at this. A real shame, because the traffic continues to get worse. A presentation by GM recently mentioned that the growth in automobiles in the last 5 years has been twice as much as their most ambitious prediction (the GM speaker had a big smile on his face -any environmentalists less so!)
More excitement in Beijing comes from the taxi drivers who have now started learning English (all of them will be tested before the Olympics) and english words are translated into phonetics based on chinese characters. This is hilarious and really hard to understand: I am trying to remember some examples; but imagine someone trying to pronounce Bowel but saying it: Bo-Ah-Le or Bo-Way-Le. Poor guys. I think all foreigners should help them during journeys.
In 1 week's time it is Chinese New Year (so start preparing your hong bao now -red envelopes with money in to give to those younger than you) -so on monday i am going to call our 'train ticket' guy who promises train tickets no matter what... to see if he can live up to his word. This year tickets went on sale a whole month before new year (rather than the usual 4 days!) and still for at least the first 10 days of that period people were lining up at 7am; 90 minutes before the ticket office opens!
Next year is the year of the pig- a year that is supposed to be very lucky (this was the year everyone was getting pregnant so next year they can give birth), so there will be lots more chinese people being born -which means lots more boys than girls as usual.
In case you didn't know 123 boys are born for every 100 girls on average: and in some parts it is more than 150-100. Predictions are that more than 20m males will never be able to get married (unless China gets into divorces and remarriages in a really big way) -now that is going to be a lot of frustrated men (whose mothers will be screaming at them until they die for not having children) which will be yet another social issue for the government, along with the increasing trade in wife-trafficking (a national and international problem throughout SE Asia because of China). It is funny how when there are so many people in a country, that even tiny little inbalances involve millions of people: HIV/AIDS, unemployment, job-hunting graduates, migrant workers... even if it only affects a tiny proportion, it still affects so many people!
Xi'an only had 1 real period of rain in 2006; it had 4 in 2005 according to my chinese teacher here -and currently Shaanxi province is in the middle of a serious drought forcing the government to bring in drinking water for many places in the countryside. It means that I feel like a girl using 'moisturizing lotion' and the pollution will probably be awful in the spring with more violent dust storms than usual. Beijing won't be much better (though it has more 'induced rain' -through putting chemicals into the clouds), so it is a good thing that the Olympics are only 16 months away -another few years and even the Chinese government might not be able to stop the dust!
On that note, I heard that half of the new subway lines in Beijing won't be finished in time for the Olympics -proof that there are still some things beyond the means of the all-powerful Chinese government in Beijing. Actually, there are many things beyond their means (corruption, controlling the faraway provinces, enforcing the law....), but I am surprised at this. A real shame, because the traffic continues to get worse. A presentation by GM recently mentioned that the growth in automobiles in the last 5 years has been twice as much as their most ambitious prediction (the GM speaker had a big smile on his face -any environmentalists less so!)
More excitement in Beijing comes from the taxi drivers who have now started learning English (all of them will be tested before the Olympics) and english words are translated into phonetics based on chinese characters. This is hilarious and really hard to understand: I am trying to remember some examples; but imagine someone trying to pronounce Bowel but saying it: Bo-Ah-Le or Bo-Way-Le. Poor guys. I think all foreigners should help them during journeys.
In 1 week's time it is Chinese New Year (so start preparing your hong bao now -red envelopes with money in to give to those younger than you) -so on monday i am going to call our 'train ticket' guy who promises train tickets no matter what... to see if he can live up to his word. This year tickets went on sale a whole month before new year (rather than the usual 4 days!) and still for at least the first 10 days of that period people were lining up at 7am; 90 minutes before the ticket office opens!
Next year is the year of the pig- a year that is supposed to be very lucky (this was the year everyone was getting pregnant so next year they can give birth), so there will be lots more chinese people being born -which means lots more boys than girls as usual.
In case you didn't know 123 boys are born for every 100 girls on average: and in some parts it is more than 150-100. Predictions are that more than 20m males will never be able to get married (unless China gets into divorces and remarriages in a really big way) -now that is going to be a lot of frustrated men (whose mothers will be screaming at them until they die for not having children) which will be yet another social issue for the government, along with the increasing trade in wife-trafficking (a national and international problem throughout SE Asia because of China). It is funny how when there are so many people in a country, that even tiny little inbalances involve millions of people: HIV/AIDS, unemployment, job-hunting graduates, migrant workers... even if it only affects a tiny proportion, it still affects so many people!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Singing
Tonight was the FESCO party -FESCO is the government run organisation that every foreign owned company must use to pay its taxes and staff. It was a typical-ish chinese party with the mask-switching guy, the singers and party games, plus of course a tombola. Always fun, as long as the awful music they play is not too loud, especially as one of only about 5 foreigners there out of 300.
Since I came to China i have had to go to ktv a few times, and voluntarily gone a few times too -a south-east and east Asia thing, karaoke is hugely popular and high-tech. It helps being quite cheap and being open 24 hrs including free buffet/drink (not normally alcohol though this is normally what us foreigners need to get us to sing!). Once you realise how bad half the chinese men are and that everyone expects foreigners to be bad, then it's not too bad -and quite good fun (also comfortable to sleep in).
Well there is a link between karaoke and the FESCO party -since at the FESCO party, a woman by the name of Yun En Feng was singing; she is the most famous singer in the province of Shaanxi, celebrating her 70th tomorrow and apparently famous throughout China in the 80s. She sings the kind of music that us foreigners listen to and at first say: hmm, different; then -ah, so it's a cultural thing; then -ok, that's enough with the screeching already.
However at the FESCO party, there was a slight difference, since I (with 2 days notice) was nominated by Plan's HR Manager to sing with this lady in a love song duet (me first verse, her second verse then a final verse together). And as you ALL know singing is probably the one thing i am worst at. Let alone singing in Chinese (i had the words in advance) and in a song which involves screeching (i.e. high pitches -that does not suit my growl!). After making a total fool out of myself on stage in front of 300 people (with 50 Plan colleagues cheering me on, making things worse) I then managed to ..... if you can guess... slip on/break the stairs (obviously designed for flimsy chinese girls not meant for big white men) and fall on my ass (whilst holding the flowers i was given during the love song). However there were no injuries physically and no more pride to lose -and the flowers survived.
Anyway the kids in the audience loved it; my colleagues admire me for my guts (and not for my singing, so hopefully i won't get asked to do anything like that again for their sake) and I can say i sang with one of the most famous singers in china (once-upon-a-time) -and get 4 of her CDs as a gift (yay!)
Otherwise things are ticking along ok; since i moved into a new apartment, committed to a new year resolution of writing at least 4 chinese (very short) essays a week before class, and go back to an AIESEC conference tomorrow as an Alumni (am delivering training and making an interesting announcement and launching something even more interesting -hardly an inactive alumni!)
Since I came to China i have had to go to ktv a few times, and voluntarily gone a few times too -a south-east and east Asia thing, karaoke is hugely popular and high-tech. It helps being quite cheap and being open 24 hrs including free buffet/drink (not normally alcohol though this is normally what us foreigners need to get us to sing!). Once you realise how bad half the chinese men are and that everyone expects foreigners to be bad, then it's not too bad -and quite good fun (also comfortable to sleep in).
Well there is a link between karaoke and the FESCO party -since at the FESCO party, a woman by the name of Yun En Feng was singing; she is the most famous singer in the province of Shaanxi, celebrating her 70th tomorrow and apparently famous throughout China in the 80s. She sings the kind of music that us foreigners listen to and at first say: hmm, different; then -ah, so it's a cultural thing; then -ok, that's enough with the screeching already.
However at the FESCO party, there was a slight difference, since I (with 2 days notice) was nominated by Plan's HR Manager to sing with this lady in a love song duet (me first verse, her second verse then a final verse together). And as you ALL know singing is probably the one thing i am worst at. Let alone singing in Chinese (i had the words in advance) and in a song which involves screeching (i.e. high pitches -that does not suit my growl!). After making a total fool out of myself on stage in front of 300 people (with 50 Plan colleagues cheering me on, making things worse) I then managed to ..... if you can guess... slip on/break the stairs (obviously designed for flimsy chinese girls not meant for big white men) and fall on my ass (whilst holding the flowers i was given during the love song). However there were no injuries physically and no more pride to lose -and the flowers survived.
Anyway the kids in the audience loved it; my colleagues admire me for my guts (and not for my singing, so hopefully i won't get asked to do anything like that again for their sake) and I can say i sang with one of the most famous singers in china (once-upon-a-time) -and get 4 of her CDs as a gift (yay!)
Otherwise things are ticking along ok; since i moved into a new apartment, committed to a new year resolution of writing at least 4 chinese (very short) essays a week before class, and go back to an AIESEC conference tomorrow as an Alumni (am delivering training and making an interesting announcement and launching something even more interesting -hardly an inactive alumni!)
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
the best alley in beijing
3 weeks after arriving in China I went looking for some bar where there was supposed to be a meeting called BINGOs -Beijing International NGOs. Arriving 30 minutes late after really struggling to find the place, I was told it was not on that night. I eventually went to another BINGO meeting a few months later, and never again after that (i believe it stopped meeting) -but i did go back to the bar again: Pass-by-bar has been legendary for ages it seems... stuck in a very old and decrepid hutong (traditional beijing alley) and actually in 3/4 of a Si He Yuan (4 sided courtyard building, which is a very traditional beijing house from a long time ago -many of which were knocked down but are now being preserved/restored).
The toilets are outside; since no houses in the area have any toilets: they share communcal ones, though they have been done up to be rather posh in the last 3 years. Since that day I used to often return to the bar, since it is actually more like a cafe/bookshop, where one relaxes read books, eats good food and has a cheapish drink in a wonderfully comfortable, relaxing environment. Well since then most of Beijing is now covered in bar/cafe/lounges -most are nice, but Pass by bar alwyas stood out.
Especially compared to the lake 1 km away, that is pretty at night and day, winter and summer..but with tens of similar places, just more 'barsy' and more 'tacky' (though 1 or 2 nice places). Thus Pass-by-bar, hidden in an alley was a great retreat -plus there was a cheap muslim style restaurant nearby too!
8 months ago, a few more tasteful places had cropped up on the street.. now the road is redone, there are loads more tasteful places; a few boutique shops and more people. but the alley (xiang) keeps its style with old buildings tastefully decorated as a wonderful place to go and mix with others eating, reading, sipping and 'surfing'. Plus its possible to pop off and check out the untouched 'hutongs'.
Long live (in its current state) South 'something' Old Alley!
Please make sure future developments keep its wonderful atmosphere, and in the summer the alley is not crowded with taxis, drunk people, loud music, neon etc!
p.s. blood diamond is a film everyone must watch. Although it is a gruesome and moving film that is simply horrible to believe, it is all based on truth. Sad how human beings can use other human beings so mercilessly
The toilets are outside; since no houses in the area have any toilets: they share communcal ones, though they have been done up to be rather posh in the last 3 years. Since that day I used to often return to the bar, since it is actually more like a cafe/bookshop, where one relaxes read books, eats good food and has a cheapish drink in a wonderfully comfortable, relaxing environment. Well since then most of Beijing is now covered in bar/cafe/lounges -most are nice, but Pass by bar alwyas stood out.
Especially compared to the lake 1 km away, that is pretty at night and day, winter and summer..but with tens of similar places, just more 'barsy' and more 'tacky' (though 1 or 2 nice places). Thus Pass-by-bar, hidden in an alley was a great retreat -plus there was a cheap muslim style restaurant nearby too!
8 months ago, a few more tasteful places had cropped up on the street.. now the road is redone, there are loads more tasteful places; a few boutique shops and more people. but the alley (xiang) keeps its style with old buildings tastefully decorated as a wonderful place to go and mix with others eating, reading, sipping and 'surfing'. Plus its possible to pop off and check out the untouched 'hutongs'.
Long live (in its current state) South 'something' Old Alley!
Please make sure future developments keep its wonderful atmosphere, and in the summer the alley is not crowded with taxis, drunk people, loud music, neon etc!
p.s. blood diamond is a film everyone must watch. Although it is a gruesome and moving film that is simply horrible to believe, it is all based on truth. Sad how human beings can use other human beings so mercilessly
Saturday, January 20, 2007
China's ambitions and great movies
When I was in the USA I was discussing with a friend about how empires come and go.. and most often empire's (or anyone in a powerful position) do not want to actually go! Hence, the inevitability of some kind of 'war' between the US and China... cold or otherwise. There is simply no reason to expect the US to want to allow China to be the dominant player in the World; why would they want to?
The question then is will China want to be ambitious -and this I feel is the interesting question. Hopefully in the future, sometime, the Chinese leadership will realise it is in their best interests (in the World's best interests) to settle for 2nd place. But, if the recent missile they fired against a weather satellite in space is much to go by, it seems like they are planning on being a Super Power... and recent history doesn't seem to promise a bright future if there are 2 superpowers, separated by ideologies or otherwise (China is not a communist country, but that is probably not relevant).
On a unrelated front, I just watched 'hard candy' a disturbing movie about a young girl and a pedophile. I really don't want to say any more about the plot -its best to watch it for yourself; if you can stand watching it (especially if you are a guy) and my emotions were really flying around about what is ethical or not for the girl to do in the movie... i definitely recommend it -and then you will understand what i mean better. In the end I suppose it depends on whether you think people can change, and whether they deserve a chance to change or not (and what harm they might do if you give them that chance).
It is a great movie, because it is interesting; it raises interesting questions and perspectives and it is gripping to watch.. like all my favourite movies :)
The question then is will China want to be ambitious -and this I feel is the interesting question. Hopefully in the future, sometime, the Chinese leadership will realise it is in their best interests (in the World's best interests) to settle for 2nd place. But, if the recent missile they fired against a weather satellite in space is much to go by, it seems like they are planning on being a Super Power... and recent history doesn't seem to promise a bright future if there are 2 superpowers, separated by ideologies or otherwise (China is not a communist country, but that is probably not relevant).
On a unrelated front, I just watched 'hard candy' a disturbing movie about a young girl and a pedophile. I really don't want to say any more about the plot -its best to watch it for yourself; if you can stand watching it (especially if you are a guy) and my emotions were really flying around about what is ethical or not for the girl to do in the movie... i definitely recommend it -and then you will understand what i mean better. In the end I suppose it depends on whether you think people can change, and whether they deserve a chance to change or not (and what harm they might do if you give them that chance).
It is a great movie, because it is interesting; it raises interesting questions and perspectives and it is gripping to watch.. like all my favourite movies :)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
it's cold in north China!
The recent holiday down South mostly involved either grotty white-tiled towns where you really don't want to stay very long or really cool old villages with all the buildings made out of wood, or stone. Currently I am North of Shaanxi.. which means in the middle from left-right and at the top, from top-bottom. So, very close to Mongolia -which is where Plan works. The villages here are very poor since they are so far from the sea (no trade), have very little water and desertification makes it hard to grow many crops.
What this area does have is plenty of mud, sand and the like -including coal. Thus there are some wealthy people (who own the coal mines, and drive in Audis), but not very many! There are, though, lots and lots of bricks.. If only bricks were something that could be exported! It means that the buildings look quite nice, though all the same colour! Normally the landscape might be quite dull, except in the winter when it's minus 5 in the daytime, and minus 20 at night... hence though it only snows once all winter, the snow stays for months (and it stays white, unlike polluted Beijing snow that turns black quickly!).
So everything is quite pretty. Toursit-wise, there is some Great Wall to see (though mostly it is just lying in ruins, or covered in mud -several feet of mud, from looking at some bits that are being 'restored'/dug-out). The capital of this county (Yulin, population of a few million i suppose) is a strange place. The old town is inside some old city walls (mostly collapsed, but parts restored); 2 streets inside the old town have changed: 1 is full of neon and shops; the other is full of pagodas every 400 metres and nicely styled chinese buildings (also shops). Everything else is run-down brick places. Then there is the newer parts outside the city wall with fancy new streetlights, paved communal areas, hotels (no idea who uses them though) and a couple of tall office buildings. Plus a 1,000 year old pagoda.
What is cool about the pagoda is that it has 4 windows on each level. Look out of 3 of them and you see brown, brick buildings, ruined city wall and some motorbikes/horse-cart traders. Look out of the 4th and you see the neon, the hotels, the restored city wall, the Audis and buses racing by. You get the idea -quite a contrast. Everything in China is a contrast! I have endless photos of going to places where fancy apartment buildings are being built on the right. In the middle is the remains of something -and on the left is the Chinese equivalent of a slum.
Except in China, there are no really bad slums compared to other countries (thanks to the government limiting migration to some extent; since you can only claim 'benefits' in the city you are registered with -which leads to massive problems for the 200million migrant workers who cannot get healthcare, send their children to normal schools etc for free). Just run down houses, litter everywhere (the resident's fault of course) and awful sanitation conditions (shared toilet blocks).
Tomorrow i'm being shown around some of the villages we are working in (we don't work in the towns) including the projects we are doing, and I will spend the night in a yao dong, which is cave house -where people here live. Should be interesting (I have seen one before, but not stayed in one).
The good news is that, despite staying in a hotel alone, I did NOT get a call on the room phone from a prostitute (yet)... and the guy next to me in the internet cafe stopped smoking. Having said that no-one in the internet cafe is actually on the internet. Every person (guarenteed -and there are more than 400 people in this one) is playing games (and maybe using QQ -like MSN Messenger). They should change the name of these places!
There is an ongoing debate about how much of a threat China is to the World (economically). Some argue a big threat: endless cheap labour, great infrastructure, endless supplies of cheap coal, huge investment and technology transfer from foreign companies etc.. Others say the threat is over-rated: too many internal social issues, environmental issues, endemic corruption (related to the autocratic political system), lack of innovation, dominance of inefficient state owned companies etc.
I say -look at the young people. If all their spare time is spent on computer games.. there is your answer....
What this area does have is plenty of mud, sand and the like -including coal. Thus there are some wealthy people (who own the coal mines, and drive in Audis), but not very many! There are, though, lots and lots of bricks.. If only bricks were something that could be exported! It means that the buildings look quite nice, though all the same colour! Normally the landscape might be quite dull, except in the winter when it's minus 5 in the daytime, and minus 20 at night... hence though it only snows once all winter, the snow stays for months (and it stays white, unlike polluted Beijing snow that turns black quickly!).
So everything is quite pretty. Toursit-wise, there is some Great Wall to see (though mostly it is just lying in ruins, or covered in mud -several feet of mud, from looking at some bits that are being 'restored'/dug-out). The capital of this county (Yulin, population of a few million i suppose) is a strange place. The old town is inside some old city walls (mostly collapsed, but parts restored); 2 streets inside the old town have changed: 1 is full of neon and shops; the other is full of pagodas every 400 metres and nicely styled chinese buildings (also shops). Everything else is run-down brick places. Then there is the newer parts outside the city wall with fancy new streetlights, paved communal areas, hotels (no idea who uses them though) and a couple of tall office buildings. Plus a 1,000 year old pagoda.
What is cool about the pagoda is that it has 4 windows on each level. Look out of 3 of them and you see brown, brick buildings, ruined city wall and some motorbikes/horse-cart traders. Look out of the 4th and you see the neon, the hotels, the restored city wall, the Audis and buses racing by. You get the idea -quite a contrast. Everything in China is a contrast! I have endless photos of going to places where fancy apartment buildings are being built on the right. In the middle is the remains of something -and on the left is the Chinese equivalent of a slum.
Except in China, there are no really bad slums compared to other countries (thanks to the government limiting migration to some extent; since you can only claim 'benefits' in the city you are registered with -which leads to massive problems for the 200million migrant workers who cannot get healthcare, send their children to normal schools etc for free). Just run down houses, litter everywhere (the resident's fault of course) and awful sanitation conditions (shared toilet blocks).
Tomorrow i'm being shown around some of the villages we are working in (we don't work in the towns) including the projects we are doing, and I will spend the night in a yao dong, which is cave house -where people here live. Should be interesting (I have seen one before, but not stayed in one).
The good news is that, despite staying in a hotel alone, I did NOT get a call on the room phone from a prostitute (yet)... and the guy next to me in the internet cafe stopped smoking. Having said that no-one in the internet cafe is actually on the internet. Every person (guarenteed -and there are more than 400 people in this one) is playing games (and maybe using QQ -like MSN Messenger). They should change the name of these places!
There is an ongoing debate about how much of a threat China is to the World (economically). Some argue a big threat: endless cheap labour, great infrastructure, endless supplies of cheap coal, huge investment and technology transfer from foreign companies etc.. Others say the threat is over-rated: too many internal social issues, environmental issues, endemic corruption (related to the autocratic political system), lack of innovation, dominance of inefficient state owned companies etc.
I say -look at the young people. If all their spare time is spent on computer games.. there is your answer....
Thursday, January 11, 2007
dog and snow
After a visit to the largest waterfall in China (and the much better scenic site down the road that no-one goes through) and a trek through fields (can't beat the look on villager's faces when a white boy just wanders down from the top of a mountain -seemingly from nowhere); I left a town with more dog restaurants than cars (pretty dogs smiling all over the windows; no tourists in sight) met with my dad in the capital of one of China's poorest provinces.
After a meal outside on the street the weather just got colder and colder, but the villages got prettier and prettier (as did the comfort and length of the bus and train journeys). My dad managed the 2 hour bus journeys sitting on 6 inch tall wooden stalls fine, although did not try any of the local rice-spirit, for some reason!
It was pleasant to stay in local villagers' houses, go for treks, boat rides, hike through snow storms and ride bikes on the ice. But it was even better trying out my new camera and taking pictures of the beautiful river-side towns and talking to the chinese students we came across at new year's eve and in the awful 'hotel' on top of the mountain.
There was nothing too special about the trip, but it was nice and off-the beaten track.. good exercise (though its easy to order and eat way too much when your dad is paying!) and the occasional nice hotel. I got lots of practise talking Chinese -which has now got much better and i can even talk about micro-finance, achieving balanced development and government policies :)
There are a few things that are typical of China: losing a bank card and waiting for 20 minutes at the window as the bank guy signed, stamped, printed, stamped, chopped and printed documents; whilst also writing everything into a computer; trying to find anywhere in southern china that is warm (no where south of china has heating, and in the villages people sit round a bucket with heated coal in it) and settling for KFC; wondering around Beijing ('s only) international airport and not being able to buy any English language newspaper (even the government's one; though there are a few novels available upstairs in the empty shop) .
After a meal outside on the street the weather just got colder and colder, but the villages got prettier and prettier (as did the comfort and length of the bus and train journeys). My dad managed the 2 hour bus journeys sitting on 6 inch tall wooden stalls fine, although did not try any of the local rice-spirit, for some reason!
It was pleasant to stay in local villagers' houses, go for treks, boat rides, hike through snow storms and ride bikes on the ice. But it was even better trying out my new camera and taking pictures of the beautiful river-side towns and talking to the chinese students we came across at new year's eve and in the awful 'hotel' on top of the mountain.
There was nothing too special about the trip, but it was nice and off-the beaten track.. good exercise (though its easy to order and eat way too much when your dad is paying!) and the occasional nice hotel. I got lots of practise talking Chinese -which has now got much better and i can even talk about micro-finance, achieving balanced development and government policies :)
There are a few things that are typical of China: losing a bank card and waiting for 20 minutes at the window as the bank guy signed, stamped, printed, stamped, chopped and printed documents; whilst also writing everything into a computer; trying to find anywhere in southern china that is warm (no where south of china has heating, and in the villages people sit round a bucket with heated coal in it) and settling for KFC; wondering around Beijing ('s only) international airport and not being able to buy any English language newspaper (even the government's one; though there are a few novels available upstairs in the empty shop) .
Friday, December 22, 2006
2006 is ending
The last 2 weeks in Xi'an had been particularly polluted so the intervening weekend was spent watching 24 -fantastic stuff, even if it takes 20 hours to watch! There was also 3 days of presentations about Plan China's 5 year program plans: lots of complicated diagrams and technical words which i did not understand; but i could at least read half of the powerpoints -and if certain presenters spoke slower, maybe i could listen to more too (we had some english translation fortunately).
The excitement came from buying my birthday present; eating a 3 course italian meal; all-you-can-eat sushi and planning for the winter holiday. So I now write from an internet cafe in Anshun. A town that has sprung up in the last 10 years and is Chinese in every way (many small, run down shops, plus some fancy buildings, lakes and pagodas for example) -except for the fact that a lot of the people walking the streets (i.e. those that cannot afford cars) are ethnic minorities with different languages, clothing and customs to the Han Chinese.
The next 2 weeks will allow me and my Dad to see some more of these villages (rather than big towns), get some fresh air, see some nice scenery and backpack (only hard beds and bumpy minibuses from now on) across 2 of China's poorest provinces (though we won't have time to really get off the beaten path). Not sure how much of Christmas or New Year we will encounter -but it's not such a bad thing to escape the tacky music and lights that the big cities in China have thrown up everywhere!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Here's wishing to a year where more people start to actually do something about climate change, water, energy and related issues (rather than just caring), and one where politicians stop killing their own people in unsuccessful personal vetures and get back to less-selfish free trade, poverty reduction and equality. wishful thinking -but that's what i would have wished had candles and birthday cakes existed in Xi'an :)
The excitement came from buying my birthday present; eating a 3 course italian meal; all-you-can-eat sushi and planning for the winter holiday. So I now write from an internet cafe in Anshun. A town that has sprung up in the last 10 years and is Chinese in every way (many small, run down shops, plus some fancy buildings, lakes and pagodas for example) -except for the fact that a lot of the people walking the streets (i.e. those that cannot afford cars) are ethnic minorities with different languages, clothing and customs to the Han Chinese.
The next 2 weeks will allow me and my Dad to see some more of these villages (rather than big towns), get some fresh air, see some nice scenery and backpack (only hard beds and bumpy minibuses from now on) across 2 of China's poorest provinces (though we won't have time to really get off the beaten path). Not sure how much of Christmas or New Year we will encounter -but it's not such a bad thing to escape the tacky music and lights that the big cities in China have thrown up everywhere!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Here's wishing to a year where more people start to actually do something about climate change, water, energy and related issues (rather than just caring), and one where politicians stop killing their own people in unsuccessful personal vetures and get back to less-selfish free trade, poverty reduction and equality. wishful thinking -but that's what i would have wished had candles and birthday cakes existed in Xi'an :)
Saturday, December 09, 2006
party update
Another beautiful blue sky followed a night where I actually saw stars (though in the middle of the week there were some grey days); and today was somewhat of a party. The best thing was seeing some of my friends who i look forward to seeing more on more frequent trips to Beijing and then a likely relocation back here sometime next year (still with Plan). However a close second was going to my favourite, cheap, chinese restaurant.
Despite the 'girls' struggling to find it (everyone else could!), the food was great: most of my favourites: Jiang Bao Ji Ding (Chicken and nuts in an addictive sauce), La zi Tu Dou Si (Friend strips of potato piled high with some spices), Ze Ran Yang Rou (Lamb fried in a layer of breadcrumbs or something), Jing Jiang Rou Si (Sliced beef served in tofu pancakes with spring onion and saunce), Yu Xiang Qie Zi (Typical Chinese Eggplant/Aubergine dish) and a couple of other dishes that people ordered including Chinese vegetables, Fried Beef and Sweet and Sour Pork. All this (3 servings of each dishes and rice of course) and a few bottles of beer each for about 45 USD in total for 16 people.
Most of the food is typical Beijing, and i definitely miss it. I have ordered it in Xi'an but it is often cooked differently, or does not exist. The only problem with my wonderful restaurant is it does not serve any Broccoli (a good vegetable option in China). If anyone happens to be in Guomao (the central business district) and is looking for a cheap, tasty restaurant, then this is (literally) the only option... plus in the winter its normally empty... however, I advise you not to go to the toilet.... The restaurant is just south of Jian Wai SOHO on the canal, and can be recognised by the red lanterns outside it.
A very pleasant day; although the ice skating was not as good as last year. Climate change has led to a warmer winter than usual, meaning Hou Hai (an ourdoor lake) was not frozen enough to go ice skating/chairing/cycling; which is cheaper, larger and much more fun.. oh well something to look forward to on my return in January! And of course, the fantastic hot chocolate in 'No Name' Bar.
Despite the 'girls' struggling to find it (everyone else could!), the food was great: most of my favourites: Jiang Bao Ji Ding (Chicken and nuts in an addictive sauce), La zi Tu Dou Si (Friend strips of potato piled high with some spices), Ze Ran Yang Rou (Lamb fried in a layer of breadcrumbs or something), Jing Jiang Rou Si (Sliced beef served in tofu pancakes with spring onion and saunce), Yu Xiang Qie Zi (Typical Chinese Eggplant/Aubergine dish) and a couple of other dishes that people ordered including Chinese vegetables, Fried Beef and Sweet and Sour Pork. All this (3 servings of each dishes and rice of course) and a few bottles of beer each for about 45 USD in total for 16 people.
Most of the food is typical Beijing, and i definitely miss it. I have ordered it in Xi'an but it is often cooked differently, or does not exist. The only problem with my wonderful restaurant is it does not serve any Broccoli (a good vegetable option in China). If anyone happens to be in Guomao (the central business district) and is looking for a cheap, tasty restaurant, then this is (literally) the only option... plus in the winter its normally empty... however, I advise you not to go to the toilet.... The restaurant is just south of Jian Wai SOHO on the canal, and can be recognised by the red lanterns outside it.
A very pleasant day; although the ice skating was not as good as last year. Climate change has led to a warmer winter than usual, meaning Hou Hai (an ourdoor lake) was not frozen enough to go ice skating/chairing/cycling; which is cheaper, larger and much more fun.. oh well something to look forward to on my return in January! And of course, the fantastic hot chocolate in 'No Name' Bar.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
3 years in china?
Another trip to Beijing, and another Birthday coming up. Having a third birthday in China feels like I have been here 3 years, though it is only a few months more than 2. None-the-less it is a nice feeling to have friends in Beijing.. who are not leaving every few months (most people in China seem to, either foreigners or local chinese!). It is also exciting that in a few days Ian's wedding invite will arrive -already looking forward to a trip home for it in May!
The last few couple of weeks in Xi'an were not too exciting -the highlight was buying wardrobes and moving my clothes out of my suitcases (3 months after moving in and 1 month after getting a bed!); finding a new type of yummy dish (shao guo -noodles and stuff boiled in a clay pot); ongoing chinese lessons and then putting all my winter clothes at the very top of my new wardrobe! Beijing has been most exciting since I did Chinese Kung fu for the first time (at 7am at minus something degrees) and played football (in the same day) for 2 hours for the first time in more than a year (at 8pm at minus something degrees) -and 2 days later my muscles are still aching!
Beijing is changing. Buildings are supposed to be finished by next summer, to allow a year to settle before the olympics (apparently), meaning that all the buildings that were started a year ago are now rising up. Glassmakers must be making a fortune! Truly the number of skyscrapers (30 storeys or so) in Beijing by 2008 will be ridiculous.. more than New York? Who knows, but much more spectacular and exciting. Everyone will have lots of time to admire them whilst stuck in traffic along any parts of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th ring roads which are now surrounded by apartment towers or office towers. How long till the 6th Ring road (which is fully 30 miles from the centre of Beijing) will be the same? But, damn it, the progress on all 8 or so new subway lines is still so depressingly slow -with almost all of them expected to open in the last 6 months before the olympics starts. Londoners -despite the Tube's problems it exists and it works and it covers most places you ever need to go -stop complaining!!
For those with time on their hands, you can check out my other weblog that I have been posting more to recently: http://responsibleleadership.myaiesec.net. Any comments left on the site are welcomed.
p.s. did anyone realise how much I like using () and -?
The last few couple of weeks in Xi'an were not too exciting -the highlight was buying wardrobes and moving my clothes out of my suitcases (3 months after moving in and 1 month after getting a bed!); finding a new type of yummy dish (shao guo -noodles and stuff boiled in a clay pot); ongoing chinese lessons and then putting all my winter clothes at the very top of my new wardrobe! Beijing has been most exciting since I did Chinese Kung fu for the first time (at 7am at minus something degrees) and played football (in the same day) for 2 hours for the first time in more than a year (at 8pm at minus something degrees) -and 2 days later my muscles are still aching!
Beijing is changing. Buildings are supposed to be finished by next summer, to allow a year to settle before the olympics (apparently), meaning that all the buildings that were started a year ago are now rising up. Glassmakers must be making a fortune! Truly the number of skyscrapers (30 storeys or so) in Beijing by 2008 will be ridiculous.. more than New York? Who knows, but much more spectacular and exciting. Everyone will have lots of time to admire them whilst stuck in traffic along any parts of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th ring roads which are now surrounded by apartment towers or office towers. How long till the 6th Ring road (which is fully 30 miles from the centre of Beijing) will be the same? But, damn it, the progress on all 8 or so new subway lines is still so depressingly slow -with almost all of them expected to open in the last 6 months before the olympics starts. Londoners -despite the Tube's problems it exists and it works and it covers most places you ever need to go -stop complaining!!
For those with time on their hands, you can check out my other weblog that I have been posting more to recently: http://responsibleleadership.myaiesec.net. Any comments left on the site are welcomed.
p.s. did anyone realise how much I like using () and -?
Monday, November 13, 2006
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...
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...
Monday, November 06, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
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!
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!
Monday, October 23, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
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?
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?
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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).
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).
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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?
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?
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