China Blogs and Stories

Some interesting blogs and stories about China.

Introduction to China
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

Photos from travelling around China
http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=James

"One of the things that frustrates me most is not that most foreigners know so little about China ... 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. It has come a long way in 25 years - although obviously not far enough (yet) for most people (me included)."
http://adam.nomadlife.org/

"Another report came and went this week about the Chinese government's practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners for transplant with hardly a speck of take-up in the international press."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/

While in Inner Mongolia, we decided to swing by the Gobi Desert..."
http://devrim.nomadlife.org/

"Being a Chinese, I am very critical about commercializing things - NOT because I am a big fan of communism. Because in a market size of 1.3 billion, market economy is too theoretical to work. I dare to say that with a good justification, selling shit can make one rich in China. Our consumers are very unsophisticated and a tiny percentage ends up with a huge number."
http://jingwei.nomadlife.org/

"Villagers in southwestern China are puzzled by a county government's decision to paint the entire barren Laoshou mountain green. Workers who began spraying in August told villagers that they were doing so on orders of the county government but were not told why."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/news/green.php

Why China needs Sesame Street and why the Chinese don't eat Cheese
http://www.lostlaowai.com/commentary/blog/

Spring Festival Stats from 2006.
- 2 billion+ is the total number of passengers in China in this period
- 10 million of these are expected to arrive in Shanghai
- 170.000 is the peak daily flow of passengers through Shanghai Railway Station
- 25 million is spend on fireworks in Shanghai
- 8 million of these fireworks is bought from a legal source"
http://www.chinasnippets.com/2006/01/28/spring-festival-chinese-new-year-statistics/

A Third of Fish Species in Yellow River Extinct
"There used to be more than 150 species of fish living in the Yellow River, but one-third have disappeared for good"
http://beijing.nomadlife.org/

Chinese New Year: my experience

Spring Festival

The oldest and most important festival in China, more commonly known in the West as Chinese New Year. In someways it's very similar to our Christmas, but different in so many ways.

I spent the majority of the New Year's Eve day with Roxie (one of my best friends in China) and Asia (a new cool Polish trainee) wandering around Beijing. Firstly we went to Lama Temple, where there was a fair around the Temple's grounds.

With red lanterns were hanging off many of the trees...

... traditional dancing on a stage ...

... they tried to show off Chinese culture.

After spending a few hours wandering around, we decided to walk towards the Hutongs in central Beijing, which are the small houses in old lanes and alleyways, many of which are being knocked down every day (www.hutongphotography.com). On first sight these houses look run-down, poor and on the verge of collapsing. However, like most things in China, the reality is different to how it first seems.

Roxie showed us her grandparent's house in the Hutong area, which from the outside it looks like one of the nicer hutongs. While we couldn't go inside, we could look through the windows, where to my suprise the inside looked really similar to my Serbian grandad's house, and similar to my late grans house, with old black and white framed photos, flowers, stylish wooden chairs and a twenty year old TV. For 8 months I believed that this area of town was really poor and therefore a special part of Beijing, but now I realise that my perceptions weren't accurate, and that it's special for different reasons.

After lunch, we moved onto Beihai park, a well preserved imperial garden just north of the centre of Beijing - which was incredibly relaxing. In spring I think I'll spend a lot of time there, as it's a really nice place where I can enjoy it's peace and quiet.

After this, we went back to the apartment for a nap, before going down to Beijing's bar district (Sanliton) to meet up with the other international AIESECers around the world. England, Northern Ireland, Japan, Poland, US, South Africa, Italy, Romania and Germany were all represented around the table of this Thai restaurant, which although expensive was really good fun.



We then moved to a bar, where we had a few drinks European style, chatting away.

When it hit midnight, we moved outside with our beers, where the whole of Beijing seemed to be on fire! Fireworks were banned from central Beijing for 5 years, but this year they were allowed again, so fireworks were exploding everywhere, with two big firework displays nearby, with people shooting fireworks from the streets and even from their house windows! It is incredibly dangerous to do all of this, but it did make an amazing sight, and these fireworks have continued throughout the whole of New Years Day also, which I guess must be very difficult for anyone with a hangover.

All in all, it wasn't a 100% authentic Chinese experience, but it was quite Chinese and it was really enjoyable.

Chinese New Year - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

Year of the Pig - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_(zodiac)

Time to start normal life again...

7.34am, Monday morning.

I'm getting up early to start work in a few minutes, simply because I woke up and didn't want to sleep anymore. I'm listening to Jack Johnson, wearing a pair of shorts (although outside it's minus 5), looking forward to eating the potato salad thats in the fridge, sitting in our 5 bedroom apartment that is currently holding between 10 and 12 people on a regular basis at the moment.

The conference was pretty good, we elected and selected our successors! However my best day was the day after the conference (pictures to come later). We woke up at about midday, so Kitty (a Chinese AIESECer), Fish (also a Chinese AIESECer) and I cooked lunch for everyone. I love cooking, but since I've been in China I haven't cooked often, so this was something I really enjoyed.

After eating a really big and good lunch (thanks girls!), Ciao (the Brazilian guy) joined Kitty, Fish and I in going down to one of the universities to play badminton for a bit. I was literally rolling on the floor with laughter as we continously changed the rules: having mild punishments for the losers, adding volleyball rules to the game so that our team could hit it multiple times and having a small water fight to finish off. Quite odd but extremely funny.

Then a few others joined us and we had dinner in a good dumpling restaurant, then returned back to the apartment where I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. 14 hours later, I woke up again. Perfect.

7.49am, Monday morning. Time to start normal life again.