Christmas Eve was a regular school day, save for lots of time spent decorating classrooms, a secret Santa gift exchange among the teachers in my office, and student Christmas parties in the evening.
Christmas Day was a day-off. It was kinda slow - I got a haircut, went to the gym, which was nearly empty, studied and worked on my final exams, and then had dinner at someone's apartment, where we made huge amounts of pasta, salad, and some brownies, apple pie, and cupcakes.
I posted some pictures from the Christmas parties at school and a dinner with a bunch of people on Christmas Day.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Shanghainese and Wu Chinese
Some poking around Wikipedia led me to an interesting discovery that Wu Chinese, the name for the broad family of dialects spoken in Shanghai and its neighboring provinces, has more speakers than Cantonese. (Chinese dialects use the same characters, but the spoken language is mutually unintelligible, as different as German and English, and there can be some grammar and lexical differences. There’s a number of dialects within Wu Chinese, including a Changzhou dialect.) Although it’s far outnumbered by Mandarin speakers, Wu Chinese, with 77 million speakers, ranks second in China and enough to be somewhere around 10-15th among world languages.
It’s puzzling because Cantonese seems so much more widespread and influential, while Shanghainese is little known abroad, is not taught in schools, and has little media such as radio and films. Some further digging revealed why.
The Yangtze River valley is densely populated, so there have always been a lot of native speakers of Wu Chinese, but the language is dying out quickly because of the movement of people within China and the government’s standardization of the Beijing dialect – Mandarin or putonghua. Instruction of local dialects in schools and its use in spoken media is heavily restricted in and around Shanghai, but less so in the Cantonese areas of Guangdong and Hong Kong, which is more or less autonomous, so Cantonese is flourishing there. And the film industry in Hong Kong is extensive – it was in recent decades one of the biggest film centers in the world – and there are millions of overseas Cantonese speakers.
It’s puzzling because Cantonese seems so much more widespread and influential, while Shanghainese is little known abroad, is not taught in schools, and has little media such as radio and films. Some further digging revealed why.
The Yangtze River valley is densely populated, so there have always been a lot of native speakers of Wu Chinese, but the language is dying out quickly because of the movement of people within China and the government’s standardization of the Beijing dialect – Mandarin or putonghua. Instruction of local dialects in schools and its use in spoken media is heavily restricted in and around Shanghai, but less so in the Cantonese areas of Guangdong and Hong Kong, which is more or less autonomous, so Cantonese is flourishing there. And the film industry in Hong Kong is extensive – it was in recent decades one of the biggest film centers in the world – and there are millions of overseas Cantonese speakers.
Stumbling on hard times
China’s exports fell for the first time since 2001. There was a dramatic drop late this year, and that is bad news not only for weakening the argument that China’s growth would be a bright spot in a global recession, but it’s also bad for social stability in China. So much of the government’s support rests on the steady job creation and rising wages of double digit economic growth.
Likewise, the recession in the States not only threatens our job market and wealth, but also erodes our soft power in the form of our leadership and trust among nations in the world. All kinds of people have asked me how the US could have stumbled so hard and so swiftly, with banks that once dominated global finance have going bankrupt, merging, and going abroad to raising capital, Bernard Madoff’s vast fraud that scams investors out of $50 billion dollars, selling the vacant Illinois Senate seat for personal gain. Thomas Friedman gets it right – we became complacent about our ethics and corporate responsibility, we got greedy, and we got stupid.
No wonder people are throwing shoes out our president.
Likewise, the recession in the States not only threatens our job market and wealth, but also erodes our soft power in the form of our leadership and trust among nations in the world. All kinds of people have asked me how the US could have stumbled so hard and so swiftly, with banks that once dominated global finance have going bankrupt, merging, and going abroad to raising capital, Bernard Madoff’s vast fraud that scams investors out of $50 billion dollars, selling the vacant Illinois Senate seat for personal gain. Thomas Friedman gets it right – we became complacent about our ethics and corporate responsibility, we got greedy, and we got stupid.
No wonder people are throwing shoes out our president.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Bonds in the financial turmoil
People used to snicker at Japan’s government bonds when they were offering yields of 0.001% or so during their worst years of deflation and economic contraction.
It’s happening in the U.S. now, too, even negative yields on short-term Treasury bills. You can pay the government to hold your money. At least that’s a good way to finance the trillions of dollars in government bailouts and deposit guarantees.
It’s happening in the U.S. now, too, even negative yields on short-term Treasury bills. You can pay the government to hold your money. At least that’s a good way to finance the trillions of dollars in government bailouts and deposit guarantees.
Gov. Blagojevich gets bagged
Corruption rears its ugly head again in Illinois. Governor Blagojevich tried to leverage his authority to appoint a replacement for Barack Obama’s Senate seat for personal gain. And his brazen conduct was unbelievable.
One offer was $500,000 in return for Illinois’ Senate seat (which is a bargain, given that the average Senate race costs several millions of dollars), or you could provide a cushy job for the Governor and his wife in return for the Senate post.
If those offers weren’t good enough, that's no big deal. “‘If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,’ the governor said in recorded conversation.”
He must be in pretty deep denial about the charges. “The governor was woken at 6 a.m. with a telephone call from the F.B.I., telling him that two agents were waiting outside with a warrant for his arrest, and that he should quietly open his door and let them in, to avoid waking his sleeping children. Mr. Blagojevich’s first response was, “Is this a joke?”’
One offer was $500,000 in return for Illinois’ Senate seat (which is a bargain, given that the average Senate race costs several millions of dollars), or you could provide a cushy job for the Governor and his wife in return for the Senate post.
If those offers weren’t good enough, that's no big deal. “‘If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,’ the governor said in recorded conversation.”
He must be in pretty deep denial about the charges. “The governor was woken at 6 a.m. with a telephone call from the F.B.I., telling him that two agents were waiting outside with a warrant for his arrest, and that he should quietly open his door and let them in, to avoid waking his sleeping children. Mr. Blagojevich’s first response was, “Is this a joke?”’
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Tuberculosis
My roommate's sudden diagnosis of tuberculosis in September was an eye-opening experience about a disease that I had thought was only found in history books or in the poorest developing countries. It is still a common killer around the world while its highly contagious nature and drug-resistant strains are a ticking time bomb.
Nick Kristof wrote an insightful essay in yesterday's New York Times on the disease. His previous piece is also a must-read on another overlooked public health problem - iodine deficiency.
Nick Kristof wrote an insightful essay in yesterday's New York Times on the disease. His previous piece is also a must-read on another overlooked public health problem - iodine deficiency.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Marathon
The marathon was marked in kilometers (42.195 total) so I’ll break it down into five kilometer sections and give a brief recap.
Kilometers 0-5: I shuffle along in a dense pack of runners, the sidewalks and pedestrian bridges are also packed with onlookers. The streets are fairly narrow and the sun is still low so we are in the shade and it's pretty cold. Kilometers 6-10: I start to break a sweat and get more room to open up my stride. We run under a raised six-lane road for a while so there is still no need for sunglasses. Every once in a while there is a group of older Chinese women in colorful outfits banging drums and symbols, chanting “jia you… yun dong yuan… jia you…” (let’s go, runners, let’s go…) Kilometers 11-15: we run down long stretches of road heading south, the runners thin out and it starts to feel more like a long-distance race. Kilometers 16-20: the longest race I’ve ever run is 15k, so I’m in new territory by now, and I start to feel a little tight and sore in my butt and calves. Kilometers 21-25: I cross the half way point around 1:50 hours, chat with several runners in my vicinity - a Canadian living in Vietnam, a Korean living in China, and a local Chinese guy.
Kilometers 26-30: I start to feel some pain in my knees from the pounding and my legs are stiffer and harder to move. I close my eyes halfway and settle in behind other runners, just watching their feet and following behind, not thinking about much. We go up and over some six-lane highway overpasses which are the only “hills” on the route. The runners get two full lanes and a long line of cars and trucks are squeezed into one lane and are backed up for long stretches. I see an exasperated man in a suit get out of a taxi, pay, and start walking. Others are sitting in their stalled cars with the doors open, smoking and watching us jog by. Kilometers 31-35: I thought I’d have plenty of time to think during the race, to let my mind run through all the things I’ve done in the past year and a half, think about next year, about my family, etc. but my brain partially shuts down and all I can concentrate on is the next kilometer marker. I strain my neck to look for the big white signs with large red numbers that mark each kilometer. Anything red and white grabs my attention. I don’t do much thinking other than repeating to myself over and over “Where’s 33… just find 33… 33…” There are few people along this section of the run, other than a few bored volunteers with water and first aid kits. We run by lots of factories and make frequent turns, zigzagging north towards the finish area outside a sports stadium.
Kilometers 36-40: Just over four hours into the race and still miles from the finish, I’m walking on and off and I resign myself to the fact that I won’t finish in under four hours. My shirt is hardly even damp from sweat, my back and neck are fine, despite my worries that I’d get a lot of back pain from bad posture. In fact, my entire upper body is feeling great but from the waist down I’m in intense pain. I can barely move my legs. I get a spray of icy-hot from a volunteer on my legs, scarf down a banana, sip a sports drink, all to no avail. I simply can’t move my legs. I shuffle and walk a lot while rubbing down my thighs and butt with my hands, trying to get some flexibility and movement out of my legs. It’s a strange feeling.
The kilometer 40 marker gives me a boost of energy and I’m able to shuffle-jog the last 2 kilometers, cross the finish line (all that was going through my head was “finish… finish… finish”). I immediately head into a large public bathroom in the sports complex, which is full of sweaty half naked men bathing in the sinks and I almost vomit from the stench. I urinate for the first time since the start but never really felt dehydrated due to sweating so little. I get a small medal, a certificate with my time, and a bag of little goodies, including a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce.
I had little trouble walking later that day and had sore legs for the two following days. The quick recovery made me realize that I could have and should have pushed myself harder at the end. Looking back, it was more my mind telling me that my legs wouldn’t move if I only mustered more will power. I’ve got to do another one next year.
Kilometers 0-5: I shuffle along in a dense pack of runners, the sidewalks and pedestrian bridges are also packed with onlookers. The streets are fairly narrow and the sun is still low so we are in the shade and it's pretty cold. Kilometers 6-10: I start to break a sweat and get more room to open up my stride. We run under a raised six-lane road for a while so there is still no need for sunglasses. Every once in a while there is a group of older Chinese women in colorful outfits banging drums and symbols, chanting “jia you… yun dong yuan… jia you…” (let’s go, runners, let’s go…) Kilometers 11-15: we run down long stretches of road heading south, the runners thin out and it starts to feel more like a long-distance race. Kilometers 16-20: the longest race I’ve ever run is 15k, so I’m in new territory by now, and I start to feel a little tight and sore in my butt and calves. Kilometers 21-25: I cross the half way point around 1:50 hours, chat with several runners in my vicinity - a Canadian living in Vietnam, a Korean living in China, and a local Chinese guy.
Kilometers 26-30: I start to feel some pain in my knees from the pounding and my legs are stiffer and harder to move. I close my eyes halfway and settle in behind other runners, just watching their feet and following behind, not thinking about much. We go up and over some six-lane highway overpasses which are the only “hills” on the route. The runners get two full lanes and a long line of cars and trucks are squeezed into one lane and are backed up for long stretches. I see an exasperated man in a suit get out of a taxi, pay, and start walking. Others are sitting in their stalled cars with the doors open, smoking and watching us jog by. Kilometers 31-35: I thought I’d have plenty of time to think during the race, to let my mind run through all the things I’ve done in the past year and a half, think about next year, about my family, etc. but my brain partially shuts down and all I can concentrate on is the next kilometer marker. I strain my neck to look for the big white signs with large red numbers that mark each kilometer. Anything red and white grabs my attention. I don’t do much thinking other than repeating to myself over and over “Where’s 33… just find 33… 33…” There are few people along this section of the run, other than a few bored volunteers with water and first aid kits. We run by lots of factories and make frequent turns, zigzagging north towards the finish area outside a sports stadium.
Kilometers 36-40: Just over four hours into the race and still miles from the finish, I’m walking on and off and I resign myself to the fact that I won’t finish in under four hours. My shirt is hardly even damp from sweat, my back and neck are fine, despite my worries that I’d get a lot of back pain from bad posture. In fact, my entire upper body is feeling great but from the waist down I’m in intense pain. I can barely move my legs. I get a spray of icy-hot from a volunteer on my legs, scarf down a banana, sip a sports drink, all to no avail. I simply can’t move my legs. I shuffle and walk a lot while rubbing down my thighs and butt with my hands, trying to get some flexibility and movement out of my legs. It’s a strange feeling.
The kilometer 40 marker gives me a boost of energy and I’m able to shuffle-jog the last 2 kilometers, cross the finish line (all that was going through my head was “finish… finish… finish”). I immediately head into a large public bathroom in the sports complex, which is full of sweaty half naked men bathing in the sinks and I almost vomit from the stench. I urinate for the first time since the start but never really felt dehydrated due to sweating so little. I get a small medal, a certificate with my time, and a bag of little goodies, including a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce.
I had little trouble walking later that day and had sore legs for the two following days. The quick recovery made me realize that I could have and should have pushed myself harder at the end. Looking back, it was more my mind telling me that my legs wouldn’t move if I only mustered more will power. I’ve got to do another one next year.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Over consumption
You ever wonder how the United States could have a negative personal savings rate? The reason may be that whatever little we do save throughout the year we blow on holiday shopping in November and December.
In an article about shopping during last week's Black Friday, one shopper remarked that “in the past she would ‘spend thousands of dollars on Black Friday’ - even withdrawing money from her retirement account.”
Another shopper on Black Friday justified her shopping spree on the recession. "The fact that the economy is down has actually led me to spend a little more this holiday season, because there are so many good sales out there today," said Owolagi, a nurse, who spent more than $1,000 at three retailers by 8:30 a.m.
Another explained her credit card purchases, "I am paying a lot with credit cards, and I'm hoping the banks go out of business and I won't have to pay them back.”
That was not from “The Onion” and those are genuine comments from real people, despite sounding like a outrageous parody of lazy, debt-ridden Americans. Some people are hopeless.
And we overeat, too. Several interesting studies have shown how we underestimate the calories of diet foods, trans-fat free foods, and meals from restaurants that are marketed as health-concious places with more diet-friendly fare. The result of this miscalcuation is that we eat more of supposedly healthier options and in the end consume even more calories.
In an article about shopping during last week's Black Friday, one shopper remarked that “in the past she would ‘spend thousands of dollars on Black Friday’ - even withdrawing money from her retirement account.”
Another shopper on Black Friday justified her shopping spree on the recession. "The fact that the economy is down has actually led me to spend a little more this holiday season, because there are so many good sales out there today," said Owolagi, a nurse, who spent more than $1,000 at three retailers by 8:30 a.m.
Another explained her credit card purchases, "I am paying a lot with credit cards, and I'm hoping the banks go out of business and I won't have to pay them back.”
That was not from “The Onion” and those are genuine comments from real people, despite sounding like a outrageous parody of lazy, debt-ridden Americans. Some people are hopeless.
And we overeat, too. Several interesting studies have shown how we underestimate the calories of diet foods, trans-fat free foods, and meals from restaurants that are marketed as health-concious places with more diet-friendly fare. The result of this miscalcuation is that we eat more of supposedly healthier options and in the end consume even more calories.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Two ways of looking at carbon emissions and other data
While clicking around on Wikipedia recently, I came across two maps on global CO2 emissions.
Total CO2 emissions (the developed countries and the rapidly developing economies of Russia, India, and China are the biggest emitters).
CO2 emissions per capita (the U.S., Australia, and the Persian Gulf states are the dirtiest).
This reminded me of a Chinese news article (English translation) that compared the economic consumption levels of the United States and China, adjusted to the population size. The conclusion: “the consumption of China’s 1.3 billion people is only equivalent to a population of 43 million Americans.”
This number is reached by comparing consumption levels, in US dollars, per person in the two countries.
“In 2006, US per capita income was $36,000 and total consumption was nine trillion dollars. The US has a population of 300 million so per capita consumption was $30,000. In 2006, China’s per capita income was $2,000 and its consumption rate was 51%. Thus, per capita consumption was $1,000 or 1/30th of the US per capita consumption. If you divide 1.3 billion by 30, the consumption of China’s 1.3 billion people is only equivalent to a population of 43 million Americans.”
It’s worth noting that consumption levels measured in dollars are considerably skewed by purchasing power and exchange rates. One dollar buys 6.8 yuan at official exchange rates, yet the yuan is undervalued by 15-20% due to government capital controls, and a dollar buys a lot more (2-4 times as much for most goods and services) in China than in the United States because of the lower cost of living.
It all goes to show how data can be selectively chosen and tinkered with to produce very different conclusions. It’s also a reminder that absolute size is not everything, instead the relative amount (or per capita value) is more relevant, especially when comparing among countries. China is the world’s largest source of C02 emissions, yet the average person consumes 1/30th of the average American’s consumption level. The United States is 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 25% of the world’s energy.
Total CO2 emissions (the developed countries and the rapidly developing economies of Russia, India, and China are the biggest emitters).
CO2 emissions per capita (the U.S., Australia, and the Persian Gulf states are the dirtiest).
This reminded me of a Chinese news article (English translation) that compared the economic consumption levels of the United States and China, adjusted to the population size. The conclusion: “the consumption of China’s 1.3 billion people is only equivalent to a population of 43 million Americans.”
This number is reached by comparing consumption levels, in US dollars, per person in the two countries.
“In 2006, US per capita income was $36,000 and total consumption was nine trillion dollars. The US has a population of 300 million so per capita consumption was $30,000. In 2006, China’s per capita income was $2,000 and its consumption rate was 51%. Thus, per capita consumption was $1,000 or 1/30th of the US per capita consumption. If you divide 1.3 billion by 30, the consumption of China’s 1.3 billion people is only equivalent to a population of 43 million Americans.”
It’s worth noting that consumption levels measured in dollars are considerably skewed by purchasing power and exchange rates. One dollar buys 6.8 yuan at official exchange rates, yet the yuan is undervalued by 15-20% due to government capital controls, and a dollar buys a lot more (2-4 times as much for most goods and services) in China than in the United States because of the lower cost of living.
It all goes to show how data can be selectively chosen and tinkered with to produce very different conclusions. It’s also a reminder that absolute size is not everything, instead the relative amount (or per capita value) is more relevant, especially when comparing among countries. China is the world’s largest source of C02 emissions, yet the average person consumes 1/30th of the average American’s consumption level. The United States is 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 25% of the world’s energy.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The Yangzte River and other news
I’ve lived within 10-15 miles of the Yangtze River for about 13 of the past 15 months but I had never laid eyes on it until today. I had heard that it’s possible to bike there and back so I tried it out, wearing bike shorts and long underwear under my clothing, and reached the river in just over an hour. It was an interesting ride, sharing a quiet four lane road with trucks, buses, a few cars, many motorcycles and electric bikes, a few tricycles hauling trash, and some pedestrians with luggage, either waiting to be picked up or looking for a ride. On either side of the road were factories, abandoned fields, and run down concrete homes and warehouses.
I expected it to take longer than it did to reach the river, so I wasn’t sure what to make of all the cranes, empty paved lots, and piles of sand and coal. It certainly started to look like a port and there were signs pointing to the Changzhou port and a harbor. I turned down one of the smaller roads headings towards cranes and biked until it ran into a long rolling hill with a narrow road on top. I carried my bike up the hill hoping there was a river on the other side and indeed there it was, the longest river in Asia.
It was only about 100 yards wide and there was a bridge across it, so even though it was much bigger than any canal or river I’ve seen before in China, I thought it was quite the Yangtze River. Once I got on the bridge, I realized that it went to an island on the south side of the river and most of the river was just to the north. From the highest point in the middle of the bridge, I was able to see pretty far and watch two barges go by directly underneath me. There was a port full of cargo containers and cranes and an export customs office on the island and lots of huge ships. I got a lot of strange looks by workers near the river and on the roads there and back people on motorcycles and sometimes an entire bus full of people would turn their heads around stare at me. There must almost never be cyclists out for a casual ride on those roads.
[UPDATE] Some pictures are now online.
The economic situation in China has some parallels to the United States, slowing growth and sharp falls in real estate values and inflation and the government announced a stimulus package of over $500 billion. As in the U.S., there may be an additional bailout for Chinese car companies. In other ways it’s entirely different – GDP growth may slow to 5 or 6% and cities are still growing at an astounding rate
And the largest foreign holder of American debt is now .
A couple other things of note, an oft-forgotten part of China, the expansive northwestern province of Xinjiang, has an interesting debate over ethnic and cultural histories, sparked by several mummies preserved for thousands of years in the dry desert climate.
Kimchi, which is a Korean dish of vegetables pickled with chilies and garlic, is something I eat several times a week at school and on occasional visits to Korean restaurants. In Seoul this week, 2,200 people helped make 143 tons of the stuff. Kimchi has a strong smell so I wonder if the whole city stunk, so I hope it wasn’t a hot day and it was all eaten or refrigerated.
Finally, the Shanghai Marathon is next Sunday, November 30. I signed up and plan to run the full marathon.
I expected it to take longer than it did to reach the river, so I wasn’t sure what to make of all the cranes, empty paved lots, and piles of sand and coal. It certainly started to look like a port and there were signs pointing to the Changzhou port and a harbor. I turned down one of the smaller roads headings towards cranes and biked until it ran into a long rolling hill with a narrow road on top. I carried my bike up the hill hoping there was a river on the other side and indeed there it was, the longest river in Asia.
It was only about 100 yards wide and there was a bridge across it, so even though it was much bigger than any canal or river I’ve seen before in China, I thought it was quite the Yangtze River. Once I got on the bridge, I realized that it went to an island on the south side of the river and most of the river was just to the north. From the highest point in the middle of the bridge, I was able to see pretty far and watch two barges go by directly underneath me. There was a port full of cargo containers and cranes and an export customs office on the island and lots of huge ships. I got a lot of strange looks by workers near the river and on the roads there and back people on motorcycles and sometimes an entire bus full of people would turn their heads around stare at me. There must almost never be cyclists out for a casual ride on those roads.
[UPDATE] Some pictures are now online.
The economic situation in China has some parallels to the United States, slowing growth and sharp falls in real estate values and inflation and the government announced a stimulus package of over $500 billion. As in the U.S., there may be an additional bailout for Chinese car companies. In other ways it’s entirely different – GDP growth may slow to 5 or 6% and cities are still growing at an astounding rate
And the largest foreign holder of American debt is now .
A couple other things of note, an oft-forgotten part of China, the expansive northwestern province of Xinjiang, has an interesting debate over ethnic and cultural histories, sparked by several mummies preserved for thousands of years in the dry desert climate.
Kimchi, which is a Korean dish of vegetables pickled with chilies and garlic, is something I eat several times a week at school and on occasional visits to Korean restaurants. In Seoul this week, 2,200 people helped make 143 tons of the stuff. Kimchi has a strong smell so I wonder if the whole city stunk, so I hope it wasn’t a hot day and it was all eaten or refrigerated.
Finally, the Shanghai Marathon is next Sunday, November 30. I signed up and plan to run the full marathon.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
The Presidential election
A sense of doubt always hangs in the air the night before an election, even if there is a big spread in the latest polls, because really all that matters is the vote tally on election day. It’s a little odd to be overseas during such an important election, but I am glad that it’s almost over (I remember talking about it with students in Spain nearly three years ago as rumors emerged about who was going to run), and I’m happy to be removed from all the day-to-day advertisements and gossip. It’s allowed me to take a more critical view and a wider perspective on the race.
Every Chinese paper today had a long article on the election and will certainly have extensive coverage of the results in Thursday’s edition. You can read a collection of views on the election from people around the world in The Guardian.
Everyone is connected to the United States and every nation is affected by our policies, but it’s notable that many in Asia feel strongly that America’s influence is declining as others grow in wealth and power.
In one young Chinese man’s view, "America is going down, while China is rising up." Another commented that "A lot of young people still think America is our enemy. They're quite happy with the sub-prime crisis - they think this is China's chance."
The sentiment in Russia is similar: "We don't beg from the west any more and Washington can't order us around like it did in the 1990s."
Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean former diplomat and now dean of a public policy school, is one of my favorite commentators on current events and he recently described how Asia is handling the and coming out ahead. He’s written several books on how Asia and the West differ, and how the West will no longer dominate world affairs. The subprime crisis and the financial bankruptcies in the Europe and America are one such example of the reversal of roles between the two.
If I have no trouble sleeping tonight I’ll be up in time to see the first results from the East Coast come in as polls close and hopefully see the final results before my first class at 1:25 pm (my morning classes were cancelled for exams).
Every Chinese paper today had a long article on the election and will certainly have extensive coverage of the results in Thursday’s edition. You can read a collection of views on the election from people around the world in The Guardian.
Everyone is connected to the United States and every nation is affected by our policies, but it’s notable that many in Asia feel strongly that America’s influence is declining as others grow in wealth and power.
In one young Chinese man’s view, "America is going down, while China is rising up." Another commented that "A lot of young people still think America is our enemy. They're quite happy with the sub-prime crisis - they think this is China's chance."
The sentiment in Russia is similar: "We don't beg from the west any more and Washington can't order us around like it did in the 1990s."
Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean former diplomat and now dean of a public policy school, is one of my favorite commentators on current events and he recently described how Asia is handling the and coming out ahead. He’s written several books on how Asia and the West differ, and how the West will no longer dominate world affairs. The subprime crisis and the financial bankruptcies in the Europe and America are one such example of the reversal of roles between the two.
If I have no trouble sleeping tonight I’ll be up in time to see the first results from the East Coast come in as polls close and hopefully see the final results before my first class at 1:25 pm (my morning classes were cancelled for exams).
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Shanghai and Suzhou with Andy
Last weekend a couple things were going on in Shanghai. Andy was in town and had the weekend off, so I meet him after he got off work on Friday night and had dinner together at a Japanese restaurant. He was shocked when I first opened my mouth to order in Chinese (though not very good Chinese), because the last time he had seen me was seven months ago. It’s barely noticeable to me because its slow and incremental, but I’ve improved a lot in that time and now can get by pretty well interacting with people in Chinese.
On Saturday we saw a lot of the city and did quite a bit of shopping. We were on the streets much earlier than when most stores open, so we spent the early morning walking around new and old parts of central Shanghai, including the new skyscrapers around People’s Square, the old two-story stone houses in Xintiandi, and the run-down, local neighborhoods around the touristy Old Quarter and Yu Yuan Garden. We saw the same little shops and businesses – noodle restaurants, barber shops, bike repair shops, tobacco vendors – over and over again. When we came upon a street full of fresh produce, seafood, and meat, the first thing sight we saw was a butcher chopping a chicken’s head off and draining the blood into a bucket before tossing it into a pot of boiling water. It’s very different on the streets of China, all normal to me now, but it was fun to see Andy’s culture shock and his interest in every little aspect of daily life.
Inside the Old Quarter, we waited in line for over an hour to buy a couple servings of xiao long bao, the Shanghai specialty of soup dumplings. The long wait was livened up by watching all of the tour groups shuffle around in big herds, and we were both interviewed by a marketing researcher, and then pestered with questions by an eager young Chinese guy. I get lots of attention, but even more when I’m with other foreigners. Andy and I seemed to be pretty popular.
When we started to make our way to an antiques market, the first taxi we saw was a three-wheeled motorcycle with a little bench in the back. It didn’t take long to realize we were both thinking, “sweet, let’s do it!” so we immediately hired the driver to take us to the antiques market. We later took some pictures by the river and then went to shopping in a big store… I can’t say the name of the place because it will give away the contents of many Christmas gifts.
That evening I met my roommate and about 18 of our friends for dinner. He only recently was able to check out of the Chinese hospital where he had been receiving treatment for his TB and get permission to return to his home country. (I got another TB test that weekend, by the way, and am still TB free!) We were there until the place closed and we all said our goodbyes before he flew home the next day.
On Sunday Andy and I took a day trip to Suzhou, a medium-sized city (5 million to Shanghai’s 18 million) roughly half an hour away by train to the southwest. We took another pseudo-taxi from the train station. This time it was an old guy with a bicycle rickshaw. It was a rusty old single gear bicycle, and with the two of us on the rear bench we were going along at about walking speed, until we reached a bridge and the poor guy had to get off and pull us up and over the bridge.
Our first stop was a silk museum, were we saw lots of old silk clothing and looms and a large, flat basket of leaves where hundreds of pasty white little silk worms were munching away. They were funny little things with six little feet near their heads that they use to hold a leaf, and then they nibble from side-to-side, making little half circles in the leaf. Like all worms, they have several hearts (or simple artery pumps, rather) that you could see rhythmically pulsing under their pale skin. It was a fascinating site to see this ugly little worms turning green leaves into beautiful silk (and feces).
Our next taxi ride was a regular taxi, probably an old VW, and the driver dropped us off on a street with plenty of good restaurants. We vacillated between a few before settling on one serving food from the southern Hunan province. Little did we know what we would discover on the menu. In the picture-filled English menu there was lots of good pictures and descriptions of dishes for adventurous carnivores, such as duck gizzards, “duck cooked in soil sauce,” hotpot with pig intestines, and turtles, both large and small (baby turtles). On the Chinese menu only there were two hotpots with dog meat. Finally, there was a simple vegetable dish with the most shocking name imaginable, “Fuckness w/ eggplant.”
It was hard to control our laughter (to the point of tears in our eyes, it was a good laugh), we attracted a few stares, and then were disappointed to learn that they were out of the fuckness with eggplant and that we could not keep the menu, despite Andy’s steady pleas.
We browsed some silk shops, a book store, pet stores, an antiques store, and saw a few canals and lots of rundown housing, and then got lost after walking for miles around the city. Minutes after Andy said in exasperation, “My dogs are barking, I don’t think I can walk much longer,” we came upon a foot massage parlor. Another spontaneous, “what the hell - let’s do it!” decision and we both found ourselves reclined in armchairs with our shoes off about to get our first ever foot massage. Two sister, Xiao Lei and Da Lei, spent 45 minutes soaking, moisturizing, kneading, and massaging our calves and feet. Most of the time we were gritting our teeth from the pain (it sometimes hurt a heck of a lot) or laughing from the ticklishness of the whole ordeal. And the two sisters were hilarious. They rarely get any foreign customers, and only from nearby countries such as Japan and Russia. Most of the time we were able to communicate in Chinese, and even when we couldn’t, they always understood our yelps of pain or our laughter from the ticklish sensations (or from the whole absurdity of a getting a foot massage in this little place).
Those are just some of fun stories and adventures from the weekend. I took some pictures on my iPhone, so the quality isn’t so great.
Lastly, the Milwaukee Bucks played an exhibition game in China the week before. And who knew their 2008 draft pick, Joe Alexander, spent part of his childhood in China and speaks Mandarin?
On Saturday we saw a lot of the city and did quite a bit of shopping. We were on the streets much earlier than when most stores open, so we spent the early morning walking around new and old parts of central Shanghai, including the new skyscrapers around People’s Square, the old two-story stone houses in Xintiandi, and the run-down, local neighborhoods around the touristy Old Quarter and Yu Yuan Garden. We saw the same little shops and businesses – noodle restaurants, barber shops, bike repair shops, tobacco vendors – over and over again. When we came upon a street full of fresh produce, seafood, and meat, the first thing sight we saw was a butcher chopping a chicken’s head off and draining the blood into a bucket before tossing it into a pot of boiling water. It’s very different on the streets of China, all normal to me now, but it was fun to see Andy’s culture shock and his interest in every little aspect of daily life.
Inside the Old Quarter, we waited in line for over an hour to buy a couple servings of xiao long bao, the Shanghai specialty of soup dumplings. The long wait was livened up by watching all of the tour groups shuffle around in big herds, and we were both interviewed by a marketing researcher, and then pestered with questions by an eager young Chinese guy. I get lots of attention, but even more when I’m with other foreigners. Andy and I seemed to be pretty popular.
When we started to make our way to an antiques market, the first taxi we saw was a three-wheeled motorcycle with a little bench in the back. It didn’t take long to realize we were both thinking, “sweet, let’s do it!” so we immediately hired the driver to take us to the antiques market. We later took some pictures by the river and then went to shopping in a big store… I can’t say the name of the place because it will give away the contents of many Christmas gifts.
That evening I met my roommate and about 18 of our friends for dinner. He only recently was able to check out of the Chinese hospital where he had been receiving treatment for his TB and get permission to return to his home country. (I got another TB test that weekend, by the way, and am still TB free!) We were there until the place closed and we all said our goodbyes before he flew home the next day.
On Sunday Andy and I took a day trip to Suzhou, a medium-sized city (5 million to Shanghai’s 18 million) roughly half an hour away by train to the southwest. We took another pseudo-taxi from the train station. This time it was an old guy with a bicycle rickshaw. It was a rusty old single gear bicycle, and with the two of us on the rear bench we were going along at about walking speed, until we reached a bridge and the poor guy had to get off and pull us up and over the bridge.
Our first stop was a silk museum, were we saw lots of old silk clothing and looms and a large, flat basket of leaves where hundreds of pasty white little silk worms were munching away. They were funny little things with six little feet near their heads that they use to hold a leaf, and then they nibble from side-to-side, making little half circles in the leaf. Like all worms, they have several hearts (or simple artery pumps, rather) that you could see rhythmically pulsing under their pale skin. It was a fascinating site to see this ugly little worms turning green leaves into beautiful silk (and feces).
Our next taxi ride was a regular taxi, probably an old VW, and the driver dropped us off on a street with plenty of good restaurants. We vacillated between a few before settling on one serving food from the southern Hunan province. Little did we know what we would discover on the menu. In the picture-filled English menu there was lots of good pictures and descriptions of dishes for adventurous carnivores, such as duck gizzards, “duck cooked in soil sauce,” hotpot with pig intestines, and turtles, both large and small (baby turtles). On the Chinese menu only there were two hotpots with dog meat. Finally, there was a simple vegetable dish with the most shocking name imaginable, “Fuckness w/ eggplant.”
It was hard to control our laughter (to the point of tears in our eyes, it was a good laugh), we attracted a few stares, and then were disappointed to learn that they were out of the fuckness with eggplant and that we could not keep the menu, despite Andy’s steady pleas.
We browsed some silk shops, a book store, pet stores, an antiques store, and saw a few canals and lots of rundown housing, and then got lost after walking for miles around the city. Minutes after Andy said in exasperation, “My dogs are barking, I don’t think I can walk much longer,” we came upon a foot massage parlor. Another spontaneous, “what the hell - let’s do it!” decision and we both found ourselves reclined in armchairs with our shoes off about to get our first ever foot massage. Two sister, Xiao Lei and Da Lei, spent 45 minutes soaking, moisturizing, kneading, and massaging our calves and feet. Most of the time we were gritting our teeth from the pain (it sometimes hurt a heck of a lot) or laughing from the ticklishness of the whole ordeal. And the two sisters were hilarious. They rarely get any foreign customers, and only from nearby countries such as Japan and Russia. Most of the time we were able to communicate in Chinese, and even when we couldn’t, they always understood our yelps of pain or our laughter from the ticklish sensations (or from the whole absurdity of a getting a foot massage in this little place).
Those are just some of fun stories and adventures from the weekend. I took some pictures on my iPhone, so the quality isn’t so great.
Lastly, the Milwaukee Bucks played an exhibition game in China the week before. And who knew their 2008 draft pick, Joe Alexander, spent part of his childhood in China and speaks Mandarin?
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Changzhou Sports Stadium
Several sports complexes have been built recently in Changzhou. A soccer stadium with a track, a badminton arena, and an exhibition center were recently finished. Another arena for tennis is still under construction. An electronics convention was held last week in the exhibition center and the China Master’s badminton tournament was held in the badminton arena two weeks ago. They were all built in preparation for Changzhou’s hosting of the 2010 Jiangsu province sports meet.
The stadium was used for the first time a couple weekends ago to hold an opening ceremony for the 13th Changzhou sports event. Every school and city seems to have an annual sports day or weekend now. Our school’s 11th sports day is Thursday this week.
Our staff or foreign teachers were invited to watch an opening ceremony for the stadium. It was only a couple days before hand that we found out we were also going to march in the ceremony. We have Saturday classes every other week but, including last Saturday, but I was excused from all of them for the event. It felt like a college football game day as thousands of people, mostly local students, stalled traffic walking through the streets towards the stadium. We were seated inside the stadium, called the Bird’s Egg because it’s similar in shape to Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, only with a smooth and solid silver-colored exterior. We weren’t inside for very long because we were soon taken outside to line up for the parade.
All sorts of civic groups and schools and performers were gathered outside and in the tunnels of the stadium. The police were in their uniforms, the students in their track suits, the performers in all kinds of colorful outfits, and then about 80 foreigners dressed in everyday street clothes. We really stood out from the other groups who all dressed the same and had practiced marching in order. We were a disorganized mix of business people, teachers, and high school AFS students waving our home country’s flags and snapping pictures as we marched around the track.
We entered the stadium behind a several groups of police officers and military and in front of students representing each of the city’s districts. Over 60,000 roared as we shuffled around the track. Hundreds of balloons were released, and then birds, and then several hot air balloons flew over the stadium. We went back into the stands to watch some performances and hundreds of people in the far stands held up colored signs that together made different pictures. It was both impressive and humorous and very Chinese.
Pictures here.
The stadium was used for the first time a couple weekends ago to hold an opening ceremony for the 13th Changzhou sports event. Every school and city seems to have an annual sports day or weekend now. Our school’s 11th sports day is Thursday this week.
Our staff or foreign teachers were invited to watch an opening ceremony for the stadium. It was only a couple days before hand that we found out we were also going to march in the ceremony. We have Saturday classes every other week but, including last Saturday, but I was excused from all of them for the event. It felt like a college football game day as thousands of people, mostly local students, stalled traffic walking through the streets towards the stadium. We were seated inside the stadium, called the Bird’s Egg because it’s similar in shape to Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, only with a smooth and solid silver-colored exterior. We weren’t inside for very long because we were soon taken outside to line up for the parade.
All sorts of civic groups and schools and performers were gathered outside and in the tunnels of the stadium. The police were in their uniforms, the students in their track suits, the performers in all kinds of colorful outfits, and then about 80 foreigners dressed in everyday street clothes. We really stood out from the other groups who all dressed the same and had practiced marching in order. We were a disorganized mix of business people, teachers, and high school AFS students waving our home country’s flags and snapping pictures as we marched around the track.
We entered the stadium behind a several groups of police officers and military and in front of students representing each of the city’s districts. Over 60,000 roared as we shuffled around the track. Hundreds of balloons were released, and then birds, and then several hot air balloons flew over the stadium. We went back into the stands to watch some performances and hundreds of people in the far stands held up colored signs that together made different pictures. It was both impressive and humorous and very Chinese.
Pictures here.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Nanjing
I went to Nanjing for a few days during the holiday with three other teachers who work at a university in Changzhou. It was extremely crowded wherever we went – in the city the “Golden Week” sales brought tons of people out shopping and outside of the city when we hiked around Purple Mountain, the roads were packed up with tourists, taxis, and tour buses.
We visited the Nanjing Massacre Museum and Memorial. It was renovated a couple years ago. The events in Asia before and during World War II, outside of the United States and Japanese conflict, were relatively unknown to me. The history of the Japanese occupation of China was well documented. A timeline with pictures and newspaper articles traced the Japanese army as they moved west, through many places now familiar to me, including Taicang and Changzhou (which fell on November 29th).
On December 13th, 1937, the Japanese army reached Nanjing, which at the time was the base of the Kuomintang and the capital of the Republic of China. The museum houses artifacts and bones of the victims, news reports and diaries, including some by western teachers and professionals, and photographs, many of which were taken by the Japanese army. A lot of anger and resentment still linger over the massacre, and some of those emotions show up in the descriptions in the exhibits.
On National Day, October 1st, we climbed part of Purple Mountain, which is a big hill in an enormous park next to the city. We also visited Sun Yatsen’s mausoleum. He’s regarded as the father of modern China, so it was only appropriate to visit him on China’s national holiday, except for the dense crowds that day.
The rest of the week has been pretty slow. I have a cold and it’s rainy so I have done a whole other than study and read. A number of people stayed home because traveling at this time is not ideal (everyone has the same week off).
We visited the Nanjing Massacre Museum and Memorial. It was renovated a couple years ago. The events in Asia before and during World War II, outside of the United States and Japanese conflict, were relatively unknown to me. The history of the Japanese occupation of China was well documented. A timeline with pictures and newspaper articles traced the Japanese army as they moved west, through many places now familiar to me, including Taicang and Changzhou (which fell on November 29th).
On December 13th, 1937, the Japanese army reached Nanjing, which at the time was the base of the Kuomintang and the capital of the Republic of China. The museum houses artifacts and bones of the victims, news reports and diaries, including some by western teachers and professionals, and photographs, many of which were taken by the Japanese army. A lot of anger and resentment still linger over the massacre, and some of those emotions show up in the descriptions in the exhibits.
On National Day, October 1st, we climbed part of Purple Mountain, which is a big hill in an enormous park next to the city. We also visited Sun Yatsen’s mausoleum. He’s regarded as the father of modern China, so it was only appropriate to visit him on China’s national holiday, except for the dense crowds that day.
The rest of the week has been pretty slow. I have a cold and it’s rainy so I have done a whole other than study and read. A number of people stayed home because traveling at this time is not ideal (everyone has the same week off).
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Brewers clinch the NL wildcard
I didn’t pay any attention to this year’s baseball season until early September, and to my surprise, when I first checked the MLB standings the Brewers were above .500 and had a comfortable lead in the wildcard race. Then they started their late season slide, fired their manager, and slipped from the top spot in the wildcard standings. I thought they were done for, but they surprised me once again and made it to the postseason for the first time since 1982.
Perhaps the two biggest events in Wisconsin sports, Brett Favre retiring (only to unretire and be traded) and the Brewers making the playoffs, both happened while I was overseas. Both events were inevitable and the speculation and interest intensified each year about the Brewer’s success and Favre’s career. It’s been a big year in Wisconsin sports.
Perhaps the two biggest events in Wisconsin sports, Brett Favre retiring (only to unretire and be traded) and the Brewers making the playoffs, both happened while I was overseas. Both events were inevitable and the speculation and interest intensified each year about the Brewer’s success and Favre’s career. It’s been a big year in Wisconsin sports.
Historic space walk
An interesting event was recently going on in China… or rather, in outer space, but it was closely watched by many in China. The country’s first space walk was completed successfully and people everywhere tuned in on TVs and on the Internet to watch. I found out about the time of the launch through a chain text message. It is putting people in a patriotic mood, probably not unlike what the 1969 moon landing did for Americans, and just in time for the P.R.C.’s 59th anniversary on Wednesday.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
September
The past month has been pretty up and down with little time to relax and sit down to reflect, so blogging hasn’t been a priority.
I moved into my new place and started teaching a new semester of classes four weeks ago. I have a pretty light load of classes so I’ve taken up some tutoring work, Chinese lessons with a tutor, and some sports. Most of my classes are math classes, only one is an English class, and all are with middle school students. Teaching math is a nice change; I find it more interesting and easier to prepare for, though there was some adjustment in figuring out what the kids know and don’t know, and how to teach things that I learned ten years ago in a simple and understandable way.
I bought a new Giant road bike for about $100 and met a young guy at a small bike shop (there’s only three places that sell road bikes in the entire city) while looking at bikes. He owns several nice bikes and introduced me to a group of young people who do group rides and join mountain bike races around the area. I’ve also played some soccer and started a basketball tournament for the students at school. I went through a couple difficult weeks with little free time or energy to keep up on my running, but I did sign up for the Shanghai marathon, which is two months away so I should focus on running much more now.
One of my two roommates had a bad cough a couple weeks ago and went to the hospital to find out that he has tuberculosis. It’s one of those things that you hear about but never expect to happen to you. It’s also one of those diseases that has plagued humans for ages and you easily forget that it is still around in the 21st century since we have so little firsthand experience with it. So it’s a huge shock when it affects someone you know. He spent two weeks in the hospital before being able to part of each day and will likely go back home in another month or so. He’s able to get out of the hospital for part of each day now but is weak from the medication and limited in his diet and activities and has go back to his dumpy hospital room every night.
It was depressing to see someone’s life turned upside down so abruptly and face so much treatment and an extended hospitalization. It put a damper on our moods as others who live and work with him wondered how the heck he got TB and if we were going to end up like him. Everything has brightened up and improved lately, however. A friend from Beijing visited last weekend. School and work has become a stable routine, the weather has cooled down, I’m able to focus more on Chinese and the marathon, and starting today we have an eight day break for the Chinese National Day on October 1.
I moved into my new place and started teaching a new semester of classes four weeks ago. I have a pretty light load of classes so I’ve taken up some tutoring work, Chinese lessons with a tutor, and some sports. Most of my classes are math classes, only one is an English class, and all are with middle school students. Teaching math is a nice change; I find it more interesting and easier to prepare for, though there was some adjustment in figuring out what the kids know and don’t know, and how to teach things that I learned ten years ago in a simple and understandable way.
I bought a new Giant road bike for about $100 and met a young guy at a small bike shop (there’s only three places that sell road bikes in the entire city) while looking at bikes. He owns several nice bikes and introduced me to a group of young people who do group rides and join mountain bike races around the area. I’ve also played some soccer and started a basketball tournament for the students at school. I went through a couple difficult weeks with little free time or energy to keep up on my running, but I did sign up for the Shanghai marathon, which is two months away so I should focus on running much more now.
One of my two roommates had a bad cough a couple weeks ago and went to the hospital to find out that he has tuberculosis. It’s one of those things that you hear about but never expect to happen to you. It’s also one of those diseases that has plagued humans for ages and you easily forget that it is still around in the 21st century since we have so little firsthand experience with it. So it’s a huge shock when it affects someone you know. He spent two weeks in the hospital before being able to part of each day and will likely go back home in another month or so. He’s able to get out of the hospital for part of each day now but is weak from the medication and limited in his diet and activities and has go back to his dumpy hospital room every night.
It was depressing to see someone’s life turned upside down so abruptly and face so much treatment and an extended hospitalization. It put a damper on our moods as others who live and work with him wondered how the heck he got TB and if we were going to end up like him. Everything has brightened up and improved lately, however. A friend from Beijing visited last weekend. School and work has become a stable routine, the weather has cooled down, I’m able to focus more on Chinese and the marathon, and starting today we have an eight day break for the Chinese National Day on October 1.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
One year in China
I'm now into my second year here. I arrived on a Monday afternoon one year ago today - August 27, 2007.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The last of the Olympics
The Olympics are finally over, Beijing can breathe a big sigh of relief, and the television stations can go back to showing… highlights and reruns of the Olympics. It never ends! Well, there is somewhat of a break from the Olympics and most things are back to normal, but it’s really more of an gradual moderation of Olympic mania during the interlude between the closing ceremony and the kickoff of the Paralympics next month. In a way, I’m glad to get out of here soon, before the traffic and air quality reverts (deteriorates) back to the norm (the rule banning half the city’s cars – about two million – from driving every day will be lifted in a month).
The third and final weekend of the Olympics was another eventful several days. I tutored a few more times after my Chinese class ended, and started on some of the things that I had not gotten around to doing yet. I also saw three events over the final three days of the Games.
I was offered a ticket to some water polo games Friday night but it conflicted with the mountain bike event that I planned to go see on Friday afternoon. On Thursday there was a heavy rainstorm and I learned that the mountain bike race was rescheduled for Saturday morning so I got to go see water polo after all, another sport that I had never seen before in person. My roommate’s friend had two extra tickets, and we showed up at the pool together to meet him, while both of had no idea who was playing. It turned out to be the men’s semifinals, with the USA team playing for the chance to go the gold medal game.
The guy who gave use the tickets was a former college water polo player, and he upgraded our seats as soon as we got into the venue, so we were seated in the section of family and friend’s of the American team. I saw the end of a game between Germany and Greece, who were playing to advance to the 7th and 8th place game, and then I watched Hungary defeat Montenegro in a very close game. Hungary is the best team in the world and have won more gold medals than any other country in the sport so they were surprised to find themselves behind early in the game. It was a really close game and the players got pretty physical and rough with each other. In the end, Hungary won 11-9.
The last match of the night was the USA versus Serbia. The American team was ranked 7th coming into the Olympics and had a great tournament, winning all but one game. The Americans were up by just one point at halftime, but built a solid lead in the second half and came away with a 10-5 win. It was a blast cheering them on with dozens of other Americans and watching the players and their families and girlfriends celebrate after their huge win.
On Sunday morning, their successful run ended and the US lost to Hungary 14-10 in the gold medal game. Hungary won their ninth gold medal, while Serbia beat Montenegro (they used to be a single country until two years ago) to win the bronze medal.
On Saturday morning, I took the subway to the southwest side of the city, were the BMX track, mountain bike course, and velodrome were all built for the Olympics. I got a ticket for the women’s final cross country race from a Chinese friend for face value, which was only ¥30 (about $4.5 USD). There were several preliminary races to decide the mass start in the final race. About 30 riders raced six laps, which took nearly two hours, and the medals went to riders from Germany, Poland, and Russia.
Spectators were able to hike around the hilly and densely forested course to see the riders from almost anywhere along the course. It was a normal looking new-growth forest and often times you would find yourself deep in the trees and unable to see any sign of the city around the park. I haven’t been in that kind of setting in a really long time. It was, however, highly wired, as there were TV camera towers in some places, cameramen seated next to the course in other places, cables crisscrossing the ground, and even some cameras zipping back and forth on wires above the trees and others secured to tree branches, turning and zooming so they must have been remotely control by someone in a media room somewhere.
The riders quickly thinned out after the first lap and I was able to watch them go by in five different places, including some steep climbs and descents. Some riders were going extremely fast downhill and others seemed to struggle in the heat and were trudging along with great difficulty. After the leaders went by for the fifth time, the two guys I came with grabbed me to go find the finish line. It was pretty crowded there yet I was able to get a good spot right in front of the finish line and watch the first dozen or so riders finish, including the three medal winners who raised their bikes over their heads to celebrate.
The medal ceremony followed and I had a good view of that as well. We were kicked out before the men’s final race later in the day so we walked around the area and saw the other two venues, for the BMX and track cycling competitions, from the outside, stopped at a Trek store, which was a pleasant surprise to find, and ate at a restaurant in a huge housing development for the Capital Steel factory workers (it was an entire neighborhood built by the enormous Capital Steel company, and even the metro line was initially a private line for the company and it’s workers decades ago.)
On Sunday morning I headed out the door at 6 a.m. to go downtown. I parked my bike outside of a metro station on the northwest side of the city and had a detailed plan to race around the city and catch the marathon race at four different spots. I wasn’t sure if the timing would work, or if I would get lost or find myself stuck on the wrong side of a closed road, which is what held me up during the women’s marathon, but in the end, everything went smoothly.
Seeing Beijing early in the morning was nice, and the excitement around the race got me going at that early hour. It was fairly cool and the sky was clear and spotless; the air quality was excellent after the heavy rain on Thursday. I went to a metro station at the south end of Tiananmen Square, only to find that the entire square and the streets around it were closed so I couldn’t get very close to the start, which was near the northeast corner of the square. The route runs a couple of blocks east of the square, then turns south and goes through a big park before looping back to Tiananmen and then goes to the northwest, passing through the area where I live. Just before the race got underway at 7:30 I had to readjust my plan and I jogged east until I ran into a closed street and happened to get there just before the race arrived. I saw the runners go by in one big pack and several smaller chasing groups at the two kilometer mark, six minutes into the race.
I ran back to the south end of Tiananmen, where the first runners went by the ten kilometer point in just under 30 minutes (6.2 miles in 30 minutes!). Half a dozen African runners and one Spanish guy were in the first group and smaller groups, which included the three American runners, followed soon after them.
I hopped on the subway and went northwest, where the subway line goes above ground and I could see the subway train overtaking the helicopters that follow the runners. I jumped on my bike and went to a street in between my apartment and Tsinghua University, this time staying on the east side of the road, where I could quickly head to the stadium and see the race just before it enters the Bird’s Nest. Just three runners were out in front this time, about ¾ of the way into the race, looking strong and still running at a blistering pace. The morning air had warmed up considerably under the glaring sun. Samuel Wansiru of Kenya would soon push the pace even further and break away for good. I stuck around to watch a few more runners and they all looked pretty beat.
I grabbed my bike and quickly pedaled east towards the stadium, trying to beat the helicopters as they looped south to follow the leaders on their last 10-12 kilometers. When I reached the wide boulevard south of the Bird’s Nest, I settled in for one last glimpse of the runners. Just south of the stadium – I would guess one mile – Samuel Wansiru came by at just under two hours. Everyone roared but he seemed to pay no attention to us and kept running hard towards the stadium. He would finish in 2 hours 6 minutes and 32 seconds to set an Olympic record. I saw him briefly at four different points, for maybe one minute total, but I can say I saw a record being broken. It was an impressive performance, the whole race was fun to watch, and witnessing the best runners in their world running their hardest was incredible. It was definitely cool to experience some of the race in person.
There were a couple more great performances left to watch in the Olympics, including the USA men’s basketball team getting back to winning gold in a close game against Spain, and the USA men’s volleyball team winning an exciting gold medal game against Brazil. The closing ceremony was pretty good, too, and now it’s nice to came back down to earth after two exhilarating weeks.
Pictures are available here:
Water polo
Mountain biking
Men’s marathon
The third and final weekend of the Olympics was another eventful several days. I tutored a few more times after my Chinese class ended, and started on some of the things that I had not gotten around to doing yet. I also saw three events over the final three days of the Games.
I was offered a ticket to some water polo games Friday night but it conflicted with the mountain bike event that I planned to go see on Friday afternoon. On Thursday there was a heavy rainstorm and I learned that the mountain bike race was rescheduled for Saturday morning so I got to go see water polo after all, another sport that I had never seen before in person. My roommate’s friend had two extra tickets, and we showed up at the pool together to meet him, while both of had no idea who was playing. It turned out to be the men’s semifinals, with the USA team playing for the chance to go the gold medal game.
The guy who gave use the tickets was a former college water polo player, and he upgraded our seats as soon as we got into the venue, so we were seated in the section of family and friend’s of the American team. I saw the end of a game between Germany and Greece, who were playing to advance to the 7th and 8th place game, and then I watched Hungary defeat Montenegro in a very close game. Hungary is the best team in the world and have won more gold medals than any other country in the sport so they were surprised to find themselves behind early in the game. It was a really close game and the players got pretty physical and rough with each other. In the end, Hungary won 11-9.
The last match of the night was the USA versus Serbia. The American team was ranked 7th coming into the Olympics and had a great tournament, winning all but one game. The Americans were up by just one point at halftime, but built a solid lead in the second half and came away with a 10-5 win. It was a blast cheering them on with dozens of other Americans and watching the players and their families and girlfriends celebrate after their huge win.
On Sunday morning, their successful run ended and the US lost to Hungary 14-10 in the gold medal game. Hungary won their ninth gold medal, while Serbia beat Montenegro (they used to be a single country until two years ago) to win the bronze medal.
On Saturday morning, I took the subway to the southwest side of the city, were the BMX track, mountain bike course, and velodrome were all built for the Olympics. I got a ticket for the women’s final cross country race from a Chinese friend for face value, which was only ¥30 (about $4.5 USD). There were several preliminary races to decide the mass start in the final race. About 30 riders raced six laps, which took nearly two hours, and the medals went to riders from Germany, Poland, and Russia.
Spectators were able to hike around the hilly and densely forested course to see the riders from almost anywhere along the course. It was a normal looking new-growth forest and often times you would find yourself deep in the trees and unable to see any sign of the city around the park. I haven’t been in that kind of setting in a really long time. It was, however, highly wired, as there were TV camera towers in some places, cameramen seated next to the course in other places, cables crisscrossing the ground, and even some cameras zipping back and forth on wires above the trees and others secured to tree branches, turning and zooming so they must have been remotely control by someone in a media room somewhere.
The riders quickly thinned out after the first lap and I was able to watch them go by in five different places, including some steep climbs and descents. Some riders were going extremely fast downhill and others seemed to struggle in the heat and were trudging along with great difficulty. After the leaders went by for the fifth time, the two guys I came with grabbed me to go find the finish line. It was pretty crowded there yet I was able to get a good spot right in front of the finish line and watch the first dozen or so riders finish, including the three medal winners who raised their bikes over their heads to celebrate.
The medal ceremony followed and I had a good view of that as well. We were kicked out before the men’s final race later in the day so we walked around the area and saw the other two venues, for the BMX and track cycling competitions, from the outside, stopped at a Trek store, which was a pleasant surprise to find, and ate at a restaurant in a huge housing development for the Capital Steel factory workers (it was an entire neighborhood built by the enormous Capital Steel company, and even the metro line was initially a private line for the company and it’s workers decades ago.)
On Sunday morning I headed out the door at 6 a.m. to go downtown. I parked my bike outside of a metro station on the northwest side of the city and had a detailed plan to race around the city and catch the marathon race at four different spots. I wasn’t sure if the timing would work, or if I would get lost or find myself stuck on the wrong side of a closed road, which is what held me up during the women’s marathon, but in the end, everything went smoothly.
Seeing Beijing early in the morning was nice, and the excitement around the race got me going at that early hour. It was fairly cool and the sky was clear and spotless; the air quality was excellent after the heavy rain on Thursday. I went to a metro station at the south end of Tiananmen Square, only to find that the entire square and the streets around it were closed so I couldn’t get very close to the start, which was near the northeast corner of the square. The route runs a couple of blocks east of the square, then turns south and goes through a big park before looping back to Tiananmen and then goes to the northwest, passing through the area where I live. Just before the race got underway at 7:30 I had to readjust my plan and I jogged east until I ran into a closed street and happened to get there just before the race arrived. I saw the runners go by in one big pack and several smaller chasing groups at the two kilometer mark, six minutes into the race.
I ran back to the south end of Tiananmen, where the first runners went by the ten kilometer point in just under 30 minutes (6.2 miles in 30 minutes!). Half a dozen African runners and one Spanish guy were in the first group and smaller groups, which included the three American runners, followed soon after them.
I hopped on the subway and went northwest, where the subway line goes above ground and I could see the subway train overtaking the helicopters that follow the runners. I jumped on my bike and went to a street in between my apartment and Tsinghua University, this time staying on the east side of the road, where I could quickly head to the stadium and see the race just before it enters the Bird’s Nest. Just three runners were out in front this time, about ¾ of the way into the race, looking strong and still running at a blistering pace. The morning air had warmed up considerably under the glaring sun. Samuel Wansiru of Kenya would soon push the pace even further and break away for good. I stuck around to watch a few more runners and they all looked pretty beat.
I grabbed my bike and quickly pedaled east towards the stadium, trying to beat the helicopters as they looped south to follow the leaders on their last 10-12 kilometers. When I reached the wide boulevard south of the Bird’s Nest, I settled in for one last glimpse of the runners. Just south of the stadium – I would guess one mile – Samuel Wansiru came by at just under two hours. Everyone roared but he seemed to pay no attention to us and kept running hard towards the stadium. He would finish in 2 hours 6 minutes and 32 seconds to set an Olympic record. I saw him briefly at four different points, for maybe one minute total, but I can say I saw a record being broken. It was an impressive performance, the whole race was fun to watch, and witnessing the best runners in their world running their hardest was incredible. It was definitely cool to experience some of the race in person.
There were a couple more great performances left to watch in the Olympics, including the USA men’s basketball team getting back to winning gold in a close game against Spain, and the USA men’s volleyball team winning an exciting gold medal game against Brazil. The closing ceremony was pretty good, too, and now it’s nice to came back down to earth after two exhilarating weeks.
Pictures are available here:
Water polo
Mountain biking
Men’s marathon
Monday, August 18, 2008
Liu Xiang is out
I heard the news when walking through a subway station Monday evening. People were staring at television monitors, stunned into silence. China's most popular athlete, Liu Xiang, dropped out of the hurdles event during the first round with a hamstring injury. The 110 meter hurdles was the most anticipated event of the Games because Liu was expected to go head-to-head with the Cuban runner who beat his world record earlier this year. More importantly, he was going to defend his 2004 gold medal in this event, which was the first track gold medal won by a Chinese male athlete. I felt bad for him because of the immense pressure he was under and now he has suffered from a common injury at the worst possible moment and everyone is devastated.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Olympic events
I bought two tickets to a beach volleyball event off the Internet a while ago with some help from a Chinese friend. The event was Saturday night and was the first time I've attended a sporting event in China. The venue is a temporary stadium that was put up in a parking lot in Beijing’s largest park. Although there’s no real beach in Beijing, the setting of the beach volleyball arena was pretty nice.
You can see my pictures here.
I went with an American student I met through Chinese classes and initially we couldn’t believe we were at an Olympic event. We sat in the 11th row and later moved down the 6th row while watching a total of five matches. There was a sixth, but five hours of volleyball was enough. An American pair played in the first match, beating a team from the Netherlands. It was the first of three women’s matches, followed by matches between Germany and Cuba and then Brazil and Georgia. The two Georgian players are originally from Brazil and later this week they played a team from Russia.
The first men’s match was an American team versus a Latvian team. The two Americans were ranked second in the world and were a seemingly perfect pair – a shorter guy with years of experience and outstanding defensive skills, and a younger guy who is 6’9” and was a dominating blocker and attacker. The two Latvian guys were young, both 23 years old, and were very similar players, both with good all-around skills. The Americans started off strong but showed lackluster play through much of the match while the Latvians were always tenacious and energetic. It was a thrilling match and the Latvians were able to pull off an upset. We were more happy to see a thrilling game and see such spirited play from the Latvian team that we didn’t care that the Americans lost. In the next game a Swiss pair beat two experienced players from Argentina, including one who is the only player to compete in beach volleyball at all four Olympic Games that have included the sport.
On Tuesday afternoon I went to the subway station near the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest with my roommate and a Chinese friend. This spot has become the unofficial gathering point for ticket scalpers and we wanted to see what was available. There were really expensive tickets for popular events like basketball, soccer, and diving. It was impossible to find tickets to one widely popular sport – ping-pong. Tickets to final events were going for a lot of money – over $100 USD for a fencing final later that night and over $1000 for the 100 meter final in men's track.
We had no luck getting reasonably priced tickets from the serious scalpers until two Europeans approached us and said they couldn’t go to an event later that night and had to get rid of a pair tickets to two handball matches. Handball happened to be one of the sports we were most interested in seeing. I met an American guy who was attending his fourth Olympics and he said handball was his favorite sport, so it was near the top of my list. We offered ¥100 for each (about $14) and snapped them up as quickly as possible. They were pleased to sell the tickets to us because we were excited for the chance to see handball and told them we wouldn’t resell them.
Not long after, a Danish guy and then a German woman who were looking to buy handball tickets to watch their home countries play offered us several times the price we paid for them, but we turned them down. We still needed a third ticket and almost bought one from another Dane who offered us one for ¥400 but we decided to try our luck closer to the handball venue. On our way there we found a Chinese guy who had two tickets and was asking ¥300 for each; we got him to sell us one for ¥200. Our Chinese friend had low hopes of attending an event because prices were outrageous for so many events. She balked at the handball tickets because ¥100 means a lot more to her than it does to me, but my roommate and I didn’t want her to go home alone and miss out so we bought the third ticket for her. It was well worth it because she was ecstatic and came close to tears.
Handball turned out to be even better than we expected (pictures here). We saw two back-and-forth games full of action and high-flying goals. It was a really small arena packed with fans from the four countries playing that night. We knew nothing about handball and it was the first time any of us ever watched a full game. In the first game Denmark played South Korea. Denmark is one of the gold-medal favorites so we assumed they’d win.
The two teams had very different playing styles. The Danes were big and had some extremely powerful shooters and passed a lot. The Koreans were smaller and didn’t pass nearly as much, but they were faster and pulled off some highly coordinated attacks. They made a few tricky goals by leaping at the goalie and drawing him out with a fake throw only to softly float the ball over his head. They also scored the best goal of the night. It was like an alley-oop – one player passed the ball from one side of the goal arc to the far side (except for the goalie, no player from both teams can enter the goal arc until the ball first enters that area) with a hard bounce pass. A teammate on the opposite side anticipated the pass and leapt into the arc, caught the ball as it bounced up and turned and threw it in the goal before his feet touched the ground. Denmark was up more often than not, though never by more than three points. It was extremely close throughout the second half and Korea scored a goal in the last ten seconds to win 31-30.
Germany and Iceland played in the second match and we all thought that Germany looked like the better team. It was close in the first half but the Germans fell apart and they couldn’t stop a couple Icelanders who had flawless games and seemed to score at ease. We were surprised once again as the Iceland team won the second game.
It was a really cool atmosphere; the arena was very intimate – no more than 6,000 seats – and loud because of the rabid fans from each of the four countries. A few members of the Chinese men’s handball team sat a few rows ahead of us during the first game and a dozen or so Danish and Korean players sat in front of us to watch the second game. Some Danish fans near us knew a bunch of the players personally. And the games were non-stop action and fun to watch. There was lots of passing like in soccer, lots of scoring like in basketball (though only by single points), and it was very physical. The rules seemed to allow for a lot more contact than basketball does, but when a foul was called (using yellow or red cards), a player was given a 7 meter penalty shot. Those were cool to watch because the player would stand on a line and do several fake throws to get the goalie to jump before falling forward and whipping the ball towards the goal. I don’t think the U.S. has a team and it’s unfortunate that the sport is not more popular in the States because I wish I had more chances to watch and play the sport.
Like everyone else, I have watched a number of past Olympics on television, however, I’ve never given much thought to what it is like to see one in person and I never thought I’d have the chance to do just that so soon. It has turned out to be much cooler than I expected. There are so many visitors from around the world, which is a novelty after living here for almost a year and having very limited contact with foreigners. It makes me appreciate the multiethnic qualities of large American cities because it’s not usually that way here and all Chinese all the time gets old (I'd say the same for small town America). By the way, demographers project that the U.S. will no longer have a majority ethnic group in about 35 years.
There is a lot going on, from country-specific events sponsored by the embassies and various other groups, big corporate events like the Coca-Cola one where I saw the opening ceremony, and all the media (I’ve never seen more cameras before), and athletes (I've seen buses full of athletes and cyclists riding the streets around the Olympic village). And you get to attend events and watch sports that you’d never think of watching in person, not to mention see those sports played at the highest level by the world’s best athletes. Over 16 extraordinary days you are in the middle of history in the making (if only I could go to a swimming or track event and witness a world record-breaking performance), and the whole time people around the world are watching intently.
If you have any interest, make plans for London 2012 soon!
You can see my pictures here.
I went with an American student I met through Chinese classes and initially we couldn’t believe we were at an Olympic event. We sat in the 11th row and later moved down the 6th row while watching a total of five matches. There was a sixth, but five hours of volleyball was enough. An American pair played in the first match, beating a team from the Netherlands. It was the first of three women’s matches, followed by matches between Germany and Cuba and then Brazil and Georgia. The two Georgian players are originally from Brazil and later this week they played a team from Russia.
The first men’s match was an American team versus a Latvian team. The two Americans were ranked second in the world and were a seemingly perfect pair – a shorter guy with years of experience and outstanding defensive skills, and a younger guy who is 6’9” and was a dominating blocker and attacker. The two Latvian guys were young, both 23 years old, and were very similar players, both with good all-around skills. The Americans started off strong but showed lackluster play through much of the match while the Latvians were always tenacious and energetic. It was a thrilling match and the Latvians were able to pull off an upset. We were more happy to see a thrilling game and see such spirited play from the Latvian team that we didn’t care that the Americans lost. In the next game a Swiss pair beat two experienced players from Argentina, including one who is the only player to compete in beach volleyball at all four Olympic Games that have included the sport.
On Tuesday afternoon I went to the subway station near the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest with my roommate and a Chinese friend. This spot has become the unofficial gathering point for ticket scalpers and we wanted to see what was available. There were really expensive tickets for popular events like basketball, soccer, and diving. It was impossible to find tickets to one widely popular sport – ping-pong. Tickets to final events were going for a lot of money – over $100 USD for a fencing final later that night and over $1000 for the 100 meter final in men's track.
We had no luck getting reasonably priced tickets from the serious scalpers until two Europeans approached us and said they couldn’t go to an event later that night and had to get rid of a pair tickets to two handball matches. Handball happened to be one of the sports we were most interested in seeing. I met an American guy who was attending his fourth Olympics and he said handball was his favorite sport, so it was near the top of my list. We offered ¥100 for each (about $14) and snapped them up as quickly as possible. They were pleased to sell the tickets to us because we were excited for the chance to see handball and told them we wouldn’t resell them.
Not long after, a Danish guy and then a German woman who were looking to buy handball tickets to watch their home countries play offered us several times the price we paid for them, but we turned them down. We still needed a third ticket and almost bought one from another Dane who offered us one for ¥400 but we decided to try our luck closer to the handball venue. On our way there we found a Chinese guy who had two tickets and was asking ¥300 for each; we got him to sell us one for ¥200. Our Chinese friend had low hopes of attending an event because prices were outrageous for so many events. She balked at the handball tickets because ¥100 means a lot more to her than it does to me, but my roommate and I didn’t want her to go home alone and miss out so we bought the third ticket for her. It was well worth it because she was ecstatic and came close to tears.
Handball turned out to be even better than we expected (pictures here). We saw two back-and-forth games full of action and high-flying goals. It was a really small arena packed with fans from the four countries playing that night. We knew nothing about handball and it was the first time any of us ever watched a full game. In the first game Denmark played South Korea. Denmark is one of the gold-medal favorites so we assumed they’d win.
The two teams had very different playing styles. The Danes were big and had some extremely powerful shooters and passed a lot. The Koreans were smaller and didn’t pass nearly as much, but they were faster and pulled off some highly coordinated attacks. They made a few tricky goals by leaping at the goalie and drawing him out with a fake throw only to softly float the ball over his head. They also scored the best goal of the night. It was like an alley-oop – one player passed the ball from one side of the goal arc to the far side (except for the goalie, no player from both teams can enter the goal arc until the ball first enters that area) with a hard bounce pass. A teammate on the opposite side anticipated the pass and leapt into the arc, caught the ball as it bounced up and turned and threw it in the goal before his feet touched the ground. Denmark was up more often than not, though never by more than three points. It was extremely close throughout the second half and Korea scored a goal in the last ten seconds to win 31-30.
Germany and Iceland played in the second match and we all thought that Germany looked like the better team. It was close in the first half but the Germans fell apart and they couldn’t stop a couple Icelanders who had flawless games and seemed to score at ease. We were surprised once again as the Iceland team won the second game.
It was a really cool atmosphere; the arena was very intimate – no more than 6,000 seats – and loud because of the rabid fans from each of the four countries. A few members of the Chinese men’s handball team sat a few rows ahead of us during the first game and a dozen or so Danish and Korean players sat in front of us to watch the second game. Some Danish fans near us knew a bunch of the players personally. And the games were non-stop action and fun to watch. There was lots of passing like in soccer, lots of scoring like in basketball (though only by single points), and it was very physical. The rules seemed to allow for a lot more contact than basketball does, but when a foul was called (using yellow or red cards), a player was given a 7 meter penalty shot. Those were cool to watch because the player would stand on a line and do several fake throws to get the goalie to jump before falling forward and whipping the ball towards the goal. I don’t think the U.S. has a team and it’s unfortunate that the sport is not more popular in the States because I wish I had more chances to watch and play the sport.
Like everyone else, I have watched a number of past Olympics on television, however, I’ve never given much thought to what it is like to see one in person and I never thought I’d have the chance to do just that so soon. It has turned out to be much cooler than I expected. There are so many visitors from around the world, which is a novelty after living here for almost a year and having very limited contact with foreigners. It makes me appreciate the multiethnic qualities of large American cities because it’s not usually that way here and all Chinese all the time gets old (I'd say the same for small town America). By the way, demographers project that the U.S. will no longer have a majority ethnic group in about 35 years.
There is a lot going on, from country-specific events sponsored by the embassies and various other groups, big corporate events like the Coca-Cola one where I saw the opening ceremony, and all the media (I’ve never seen more cameras before), and athletes (I've seen buses full of athletes and cyclists riding the streets around the Olympic village). And you get to attend events and watch sports that you’d never think of watching in person, not to mention see those sports played at the highest level by the world’s best athletes. Over 16 extraordinary days you are in the middle of history in the making (if only I could go to a swimming or track event and witness a world record-breaking performance), and the whole time people around the world are watching intently.
If you have any interest, make plans for London 2012 soon!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
8/8/08
Most people had the day off on Friday but I had class in the morning and one hour tutoring English in the afternoon. A few people left right after class at noon to go by the Bird’s Nest. I went over there in a taxi with two other students at 4 pm. The traffic on the main road slowed and then came to a standstill about a mile west of the stadium. We got out and walked until we reached a human barricade – the security guards were only letting people with tickets and passes through.
We wandered the streets around the area and picked up Chinese flags and stickers from the locals who were out in force. It was extremly crowded and crawling with security and there were lots of dead ends. People had bags of food, cameras, and folding chairs, making it feel like the Fourth of July. There were no good places to watch on a video screen, and since we wanted to see the live video feed much more than the fireworks, we took off and went to another part of the city.
We met up with a group of students outside of a rundown sports bar – someone didn’t know that it was closed – so we stood around trying to figure out where to go. It was hard to decide with such a big group and someone with a bike went around to check public places that had big outdoor screens, but one place turned out to not have any screen and another place did but the video feed was not working. It was two hours until the ceremony began.
We all went to an outdoor mall that has a huge screen over a pedestrian street. It was a great spot but the mall was taken up by a huge Coca-Cola sponsored event and tickets were required. A group of American girls were there with red, white, and blue face paint and big 2008 sunglasses. They painted “USA” on our cheeks and we attracted a lot of attention. After posing for some pictures, a woman came up to us and asked us if she could take video of us for the NBC station in Atlanta. We said yes, of course, and before we knew it someone pointed a camera at us and she did a 30 second take asking us where we were from and typical and obvious questions like “are we having fun!?” A newscaster from NBC in Minneapolis (this guy) also shot a quick video with us. One of the girls, a Minnesota resident, recognized him from the local news, so he asked her to say hi to her family at home.
All that media attracted even more attention from onlookers and we still didn’t have tickets to get in so we slipped into the mall to get away from everyone, grab a bite to eat, and figure out what to do about being ticketless. The advanced tickets were sold out and there didn’t seem to be any other way in, so we asked whoever looked like a staff person for help and started begging. At first we had no luck, but somehow one woman surrendered to our pleas and came back with a crumpled stack of tickets and a warning not to tell anyone. We couldn’t believe it worked and we got in.
The Coca-Cola event was called the “Shuang Experience” (shuang means refreshment) and was basically one big advertisement around the Olympics. It was like we were in a Coke commercial.
There was some dancing and music and lots of Coke ads running everywhere you turned. At 8 o’clock the two big video screens switched to the national broadcast of the opening ceremony. The minutes leading up to start of the ceremony were extremely tense. I’d been waiting months for the Olympics to start, and the country had been waiting over fifteen years for this moment (Beijing led every round of voting for the 2000 Olympics, only to lose the bid to Sydney by 2 votes in a final round that later turned out to influenced by some unethical practices).
During the hour or so of performances, I was approached by two different Chinese TV stations for interviews on camera, once by a reporter and her interpreter from a Beijing daily paper, and once by someone with a camera but no TV affiliation. I’ve never been interviewed or shot on video like that before in my life and then it happened multiple times in one night. I was not the only one interviewed, dozens of people were, but for some reason I was picked out more frequently than the foreigners I was standing with. I didn’t dare move from where I stood because it seemed to be the lucky spot.
When ceremony was was all over and the torch was finally lit, a full four hours, we left for a bar street and had to walk quite a ways to get there because the streets were empty and the few taxis around were quickly nabbed by the huge crowd spilling out of the Coke place.
It was a huge party in the streets with tons of tourists, national flags, and drunken cheers. It was quite an experience and the night didn’t end until 5 a.m., just as dawn was breaking.
Pictures are up here.
Go Team USA!
We wandered the streets around the area and picked up Chinese flags and stickers from the locals who were out in force. It was extremly crowded and crawling with security and there were lots of dead ends. People had bags of food, cameras, and folding chairs, making it feel like the Fourth of July. There were no good places to watch on a video screen, and since we wanted to see the live video feed much more than the fireworks, we took off and went to another part of the city.
We met up with a group of students outside of a rundown sports bar – someone didn’t know that it was closed – so we stood around trying to figure out where to go. It was hard to decide with such a big group and someone with a bike went around to check public places that had big outdoor screens, but one place turned out to not have any screen and another place did but the video feed was not working. It was two hours until the ceremony began.
We all went to an outdoor mall that has a huge screen over a pedestrian street. It was a great spot but the mall was taken up by a huge Coca-Cola sponsored event and tickets were required. A group of American girls were there with red, white, and blue face paint and big 2008 sunglasses. They painted “USA” on our cheeks and we attracted a lot of attention. After posing for some pictures, a woman came up to us and asked us if she could take video of us for the NBC station in Atlanta. We said yes, of course, and before we knew it someone pointed a camera at us and she did a 30 second take asking us where we were from and typical and obvious questions like “are we having fun!?” A newscaster from NBC in Minneapolis (this guy) also shot a quick video with us. One of the girls, a Minnesota resident, recognized him from the local news, so he asked her to say hi to her family at home.
All that media attracted even more attention from onlookers and we still didn’t have tickets to get in so we slipped into the mall to get away from everyone, grab a bite to eat, and figure out what to do about being ticketless. The advanced tickets were sold out and there didn’t seem to be any other way in, so we asked whoever looked like a staff person for help and started begging. At first we had no luck, but somehow one woman surrendered to our pleas and came back with a crumpled stack of tickets and a warning not to tell anyone. We couldn’t believe it worked and we got in.
The Coca-Cola event was called the “Shuang Experience” (shuang means refreshment) and was basically one big advertisement around the Olympics. It was like we were in a Coke commercial.
There was some dancing and music and lots of Coke ads running everywhere you turned. At 8 o’clock the two big video screens switched to the national broadcast of the opening ceremony. The minutes leading up to start of the ceremony were extremely tense. I’d been waiting months for the Olympics to start, and the country had been waiting over fifteen years for this moment (Beijing led every round of voting for the 2000 Olympics, only to lose the bid to Sydney by 2 votes in a final round that later turned out to influenced by some unethical practices).
During the hour or so of performances, I was approached by two different Chinese TV stations for interviews on camera, once by a reporter and her interpreter from a Beijing daily paper, and once by someone with a camera but no TV affiliation. I’ve never been interviewed or shot on video like that before in my life and then it happened multiple times in one night. I was not the only one interviewed, dozens of people were, but for some reason I was picked out more frequently than the foreigners I was standing with. I didn’t dare move from where I stood because it seemed to be the lucky spot.
When ceremony was was all over and the torch was finally lit, a full four hours, we left for a bar street and had to walk quite a ways to get there because the streets were empty and the few taxis around were quickly nabbed by the huge crowd spilling out of the Coke place.
It was a huge party in the streets with tons of tourists, national flags, and drunken cheers. It was quite an experience and the night didn’t end until 5 a.m., just as dawn was breaking.
Pictures are up here.
Go Team USA!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Pre-Olympics reading
Serving dog meat at restaurants and other practices that may offend western tastes are tightly regulated.
Transportation and entertainment is highly restricted and regulated because of security concerns.
I am starting to believe that the high level of security – the police and volunteer security people on every block, the cars that are searched upon entering the hotel near my apartment, ID checks, etc. – are not intended to stamp out terrorists, but rather to stop activists. Any disruptive protest or public criticism of the government would put them in a tough spot.
The government is attempting to manage every little detail to make sure that the Games go of without a hitch, even the weather. And, yes, there is rain in the forecast for Friday evening.
The sports and Olympic training system in China is widely different from that in the United States.
The New Yorker published a thorough discussion of Chinese nationalism and online activism. Several conservative young Chinese are profiled and they express many of their concerns for the rapid changes in Chinese society and the loss of traditional values.
Finally, some insight on what the Olympics mean for China and how it can bring the country closer to the world.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Eventful weekend
I packed in a lot of things because it’s the last non-Olympics weekend until the end of August. In some ways, it’s already not so normal; the Olympic Green is buzzing with activity and there is a noticeably higher number of visitors now.
On Friday evening, after a double session of tutoring, I went for a run down the street just north of my apartment complex and got to the Olympic Green in about 20 minutes. I took a much longer route the first time I ran there, not realizing that the street nearby runs at an angle directly to the Olympic media center, stadium, and Water Cube.
A lot more signs, fences, and barricades are up, not to mention hundreds of volunteers and some photographers and media trucks.
On Saturday morning I went to a dam in a steep river gorge near the Great Wall. Along with three other students, we rented a van and a driver for the day and drove out there on the cycling road race course. It is a really cool drive towards the mountains north of the city. We went by the Olympic Village and then up a winding highway towards the Great Wall. For whatever reason, our driver took the service road that runs along side the four-lane expressway. The road was lined with signs for the cycling race, workers were filing down the speed strips at each sharp corner, and the finish line was already up. It’s a great road for a race and the finish is at the top of a long and winding uphill.
At the Longqing Dam we took an escalator to get up and over the dam. It’s the largest dam in northern China and the only really big dam I’ve ever seen. Above the dam we hopped on a boat with a bunch of umbrella-wielding tourists and went on a slow ride that wound back and forth around steep mountain peaks. The water in the reservoir was a bright aquamarine and the sky was a deep blue color. It was beautiful.
And then all of us went bungee jumping, which was the highlight of the day. There was a long and narrow platform that extended from rock cliff out over the river and two bungee ropes and a motorboat that picked jumpers up once they stopped bouncing and ferried them back to tour boat dock.
We hiked some and then took a boat back to the dam, got back in the dam, and stopped at a place near the Badaling Great Wall, which is where Andy and I hiked around in March, took some pictures, drove further down the mountain, and then took more pictures near a section of the wall that was closed.
That night I meet a university student from Changzhou who was in town and took him and his friend to a cheap food court with tons of typical Beijing foods. It was a place that a local took me to once and I wanted to go back to try more of the local food.
On Sunday I spent five hours at the new Capital Museum, including one hour waiting in line. It was a Sunday and the museum had some new exhibits, so it was expectedly crowded, but this was extremely crowded, even by Beijing standards. When I finally got into the first exhibit, I couldn’t help but laugh because all I could see were clusters of people swarming displays and madly snapping pictures. I didn’t see much of anything in the first exhibit because they were obscured by too many heads and cameras. It wasn’t nearly as bad in other parts of the museum and I was able to see nearly all of it in four hours, including ancient Chinese painting, pottery, jewelry, calligraphy, a computer animated video of the history of the city, an exhibit on the ancient Greek Olympics, and a break eating a delicious buffet lunch.
I biked back to the Olympic Green Sunday night, which was even more crowded than it was on Friday, before finally getting down to studying later that night.
[UPDATE] more pictures are online.
On Friday evening, after a double session of tutoring, I went for a run down the street just north of my apartment complex and got to the Olympic Green in about 20 minutes. I took a much longer route the first time I ran there, not realizing that the street nearby runs at an angle directly to the Olympic media center, stadium, and Water Cube.
A lot more signs, fences, and barricades are up, not to mention hundreds of volunteers and some photographers and media trucks.
On Saturday morning I went to a dam in a steep river gorge near the Great Wall. Along with three other students, we rented a van and a driver for the day and drove out there on the cycling road race course. It is a really cool drive towards the mountains north of the city. We went by the Olympic Village and then up a winding highway towards the Great Wall. For whatever reason, our driver took the service road that runs along side the four-lane expressway. The road was lined with signs for the cycling race, workers were filing down the speed strips at each sharp corner, and the finish line was already up. It’s a great road for a race and the finish is at the top of a long and winding uphill.
At the Longqing Dam we took an escalator to get up and over the dam. It’s the largest dam in northern China and the only really big dam I’ve ever seen. Above the dam we hopped on a boat with a bunch of umbrella-wielding tourists and went on a slow ride that wound back and forth around steep mountain peaks. The water in the reservoir was a bright aquamarine and the sky was a deep blue color. It was beautiful.
And then all of us went bungee jumping, which was the highlight of the day. There was a long and narrow platform that extended from rock cliff out over the river and two bungee ropes and a motorboat that picked jumpers up once they stopped bouncing and ferried them back to tour boat dock.
We hiked some and then took a boat back to the dam, got back in the dam, and stopped at a place near the Badaling Great Wall, which is where Andy and I hiked around in March, took some pictures, drove further down the mountain, and then took more pictures near a section of the wall that was closed.
That night I meet a university student from Changzhou who was in town and took him and his friend to a cheap food court with tons of typical Beijing foods. It was a place that a local took me to once and I wanted to go back to try more of the local food.
On Sunday I spent five hours at the new Capital Museum, including one hour waiting in line. It was a Sunday and the museum had some new exhibits, so it was expectedly crowded, but this was extremely crowded, even by Beijing standards. When I finally got into the first exhibit, I couldn’t help but laugh because all I could see were clusters of people swarming displays and madly snapping pictures. I didn’t see much of anything in the first exhibit because they were obscured by too many heads and cameras. It wasn’t nearly as bad in other parts of the museum and I was able to see nearly all of it in four hours, including ancient Chinese painting, pottery, jewelry, calligraphy, a computer animated video of the history of the city, an exhibit on the ancient Greek Olympics, and a break eating a delicious buffet lunch.
I biked back to the Olympic Green Sunday night, which was even more crowded than it was on Friday, before finally getting down to studying later that night.
[UPDATE] more pictures are online.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Chinese food and art
An article in the New York Times about Chinese food (real Chinese food, not American-Chinese food) in Flushing, Queens, gives you a good idea of the tremendous variety of food found in China. Chinese cooking is both simple and complex – the ingredients are fresh and ordinary, yet the huge variety of ingredients creates complexity (menus have several pages of main dishes), and the staples are made efficiently and quickly, yet there are many ways of turning flour and water into noodles, or countless styles of dumplings.
The restaurants in Flushing seem authentic - the article could just as well be describing mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gify neighborhood. You find similar food courts and family-owned restaurants in Beijing, where cuisines from every province can be found. Some of the foods described in the article I eat all the time here, such as the hand-pulled “Lanzhou” noodles, the cold noodles with several sauces, cucumbers and cilantro, not to mention the bubble tea. It looks just the same as the pictures and the pull noodles are made in the same way as in the video, so be sure to check out the pictures and video clips along with the article. The prices were interesting to see, too. It’s cheap food for NYC, but it’s even cheaper here (about ¼ of the price or less).
Another recent article surveyed female artists in China. I’ve heard of a couple of the artists (and a couple of the male artists mentioned) and visited the 798 art district mentioned a couple weekends ago (see my pictures here).
With all the attention on Beijing right now, it’s fun to read the media’s perspective on all the sights, foods, and culture that I am experiencing firsthand here.
The restaurants in Flushing seem authentic - the article could just as well be describing mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gify neighborhood. You find similar food courts and family-owned restaurants in Beijing, where cuisines from every province can be found. Some of the foods described in the article I eat all the time here, such as the hand-pulled “Lanzhou” noodles, the cold noodles with several sauces, cucumbers and cilantro, not to mention the bubble tea. It looks just the same as the pictures and the pull noodles are made in the same way as in the video, so be sure to check out the pictures and video clips along with the article. The prices were interesting to see, too. It’s cheap food for NYC, but it’s even cheaper here (about ¼ of the price or less).
Another recent article surveyed female artists in China. I’ve heard of a couple of the artists (and a couple of the male artists mentioned) and visited the 798 art district mentioned a couple weekends ago (see my pictures here).
With all the attention on Beijing right now, it’s fun to read the media’s perspective on all the sights, foods, and culture that I am experiencing firsthand here.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Security
I’ve mentioned the high level of security in the city before. For some pictures of the thousands of police officers, security guards, and 100,000 antiterrorism soldiers (and a missile defense system around the National Stadium!), check out the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog.
There are security guards in many public places and especially at the entrances to schools, apartments, and other large buildings. Because of their ubiquity, I’ve gotten used to seeing security guards everywhere and I guess I didn’t notice the steady rise in their numbers lately. I know see teams of security gathered for a talk or marching in straight lines. There aren’t too many armed officers in this area, but they are pretty common in the city center and around the Olympic venues.
This morning on my way to class I counted the number of security guards. It’s not a very long distance - about a 15 minute walk or maybe three minutes on a bike.
I saw 57 security guards, way more than I expected. That’s at least five for every block! Granted, they tend to stand (or sit) around in groups and I did see about a dozen at once who were marching down the street. Only on the last block of the campus, while approaching my classroom building, did I not see a single security guard for a whole block, which made me wonder if I should start to worry about being in an unsafe area. I also saw 24 Olympic and Beijing Language University volunteers during my commute.
It's already feeling like a police state. Will it be any different during the Olympics?
There are security guards in many public places and especially at the entrances to schools, apartments, and other large buildings. Because of their ubiquity, I’ve gotten used to seeing security guards everywhere and I guess I didn’t notice the steady rise in their numbers lately. I know see teams of security gathered for a talk or marching in straight lines. There aren’t too many armed officers in this area, but they are pretty common in the city center and around the Olympic venues.
This morning on my way to class I counted the number of security guards. It’s not a very long distance - about a 15 minute walk or maybe three minutes on a bike.
I saw 57 security guards, way more than I expected. That’s at least five for every block! Granted, they tend to stand (or sit) around in groups and I did see about a dozen at once who were marching down the street. Only on the last block of the campus, while approaching my classroom building, did I not see a single security guard for a whole block, which made me wonder if I should start to worry about being in an unsafe area. I also saw 24 Olympic and Beijing Language University volunteers during my commute.
It's already feeling like a police state. Will it be any different during the Olympics?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
I’m in BusinessWeek
I came across an article about Apple in China on the website for BusinessWeek magazine and found myself in a picture included in the article. Well, I’m buried deep in the background, partially obscured by raised arms and umbrellas, but at least I’m in there.
Where am I? I'm in the top right, wearing glasses, and the left side of my face is visible. Here’s a close-up to make it easier.
Basketball
The United States basketball team arrived in China yesterday.
They'll face the toughest competition in any international basketball tournament to date, but they seem better prepared and more focused than the 2004 team that finished in a disappointing third place.
LeBron is guaranteeing a gold medal.
Too bad in this basketball crazy country all of the tickets to the basketball games were quickly sold out and resales run in the high triple digits or more (US dollars). All of the Olympic tickets to events in Beijing are sold out, in fact. A few of the soccer games in other cities still have tickets available, so it may turn out to be the first Olympic Games to completely sell out.
The gymnasium on my university's campus has been closed all summer as it will be used for basketball team practices. I'll have a camera on me at all times in case I spot some NBA players.
They'll face the toughest competition in any international basketball tournament to date, but they seem better prepared and more focused than the 2004 team that finished in a disappointing third place.
LeBron is guaranteeing a gold medal.
Too bad in this basketball crazy country all of the tickets to the basketball games were quickly sold out and resales run in the high triple digits or more (US dollars). All of the Olympic tickets to events in Beijing are sold out, in fact. A few of the soccer games in other cities still have tickets available, so it may turn out to be the first Olympic Games to completely sell out.
The gymnasium on my university's campus has been closed all summer as it will be used for basketball team practices. I'll have a camera on me at all times in case I spot some NBA players.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Crowds, cigarettes and stories of young people in China
Beijing's population is roughly 15 million people, so out on the streets you never find yourself alone. It’s busy with people virtually everywhere and at all hours of the day. According to Xinhua news, it’s only going to get busier:
Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg are starting an intriguing public health initiative - a campaign to reduce smoking rates in developing countries. The pollution is bad enough in China, but then so many men smoke cigarettes as well. For whatever reason, there is a large discrepancy between men and women. It seems like roughly half of middle-aged men smoke but it is rare to see a woman smoking (it turns out my approximations were right, according to the NY Times, more than 60 percent of men smoke but only 3 percent of women do). Reducing smoking rates would have a huge effect on China, where it is so widespread.
Smoking bans are spreading in China, although compliance is pretty low. Cigarettes are deeply entrenched in the culture.
The government is limiting factory production hours, shutting down coal power plants, closing a number of restaurants and bars (ostensibly for security reasons), keeping half the cars of the roads, giving out fewer visas (and of shorter duration), kicking out transient workers who do not hold official residence in the city, and searching cars and trucks that enter the city. They now are trying to prevent embarrassing protests or civil unrest and recently announced that they will allow for limited protests in three special zones.
PBS Frontline produced another fascinating documentary on China. Young and Restless in China follows nine young working Chinese over four years. Their lives are full of unexpected obstacles and hardships, changing jobs, living far away from family, falling in love, divorce and breakups, raising children, and finding a place in a rapidly changing society. The country and the subjects of the documentary are both struggling to find a balance between tradition and modernity; the documentary tells the story of the nation’s recent history at a personal level through these nine people (well, a lot of their struggles would be familiar to most Americans, too).
I was captivated by their stories and surprised at how much I could relate to them. I have visited many of the places featured in the documentary and lived through similar experiences as they have.
I also highly recommend anther PBS documentary on China, Tank Man, which is an in-depth look at Tiananmen. I watched it a while ago but still think about it often – it’s a powerful film.
Finally, there are some more great pictures of Olympics preparations on the Boston Globe’s site.
During the Games, more than 20,000 athletes and sporting officials, 70,000 working staff, 2,200 registered reporters and 7 million spectators will descend on Beijing and other cities.
Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg are starting an intriguing public health initiative - a campaign to reduce smoking rates in developing countries. The pollution is bad enough in China, but then so many men smoke cigarettes as well. For whatever reason, there is a large discrepancy between men and women. It seems like roughly half of middle-aged men smoke but it is rare to see a woman smoking (it turns out my approximations were right, according to the NY Times, more than 60 percent of men smoke but only 3 percent of women do). Reducing smoking rates would have a huge effect on China, where it is so widespread.
The tobacco industry produces more than 5,400 billion cigarettes a year. The biggest market is China, where more than 300 million smokers consume about 2,200 billion cigarettes a year, 40 per cent of the global total.
Smoking bans are spreading in China, although compliance is pretty low. Cigarettes are deeply entrenched in the culture.
The government is limiting factory production hours, shutting down coal power plants, closing a number of restaurants and bars (ostensibly for security reasons), keeping half the cars of the roads, giving out fewer visas (and of shorter duration), kicking out transient workers who do not hold official residence in the city, and searching cars and trucks that enter the city. They now are trying to prevent embarrassing protests or civil unrest and recently announced that they will allow for limited protests in three special zones.
PBS Frontline produced another fascinating documentary on China. Young and Restless in China follows nine young working Chinese over four years. Their lives are full of unexpected obstacles and hardships, changing jobs, living far away from family, falling in love, divorce and breakups, raising children, and finding a place in a rapidly changing society. The country and the subjects of the documentary are both struggling to find a balance between tradition and modernity; the documentary tells the story of the nation’s recent history at a personal level through these nine people (well, a lot of their struggles would be familiar to most Americans, too).
I was captivated by their stories and surprised at how much I could relate to them. I have visited many of the places featured in the documentary and lived through similar experiences as they have.
I also highly recommend anther PBS documentary on China, Tank Man, which is an in-depth look at Tiananmen. I watched it a while ago but still think about it often – it’s a powerful film.
Finally, there are some more great pictures of Olympics preparations on the Boston Globe’s site.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Some good pics and insights on current events
There is a great series of articles on China in the year of the Olympics in the Financial Times. I recommend this one on the growing political activism among the middle class. The article recounts a protest against expandinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif the Maglev train line through some residential neighborhoods that was going on during the past school year in Shanghai.
There is also an excellent audio slideshow that accompanies the article. You can find the same sort of gated communities with large homes, multicar garages, and golf courses around Beijing. I’ve spent some time in one such place in northern Beijing through a number of sessions tutoring a young girl in her home. Going to her house feels just like stepping into an American suburb. It’s a fairly dull place but the quiet, empty streets and the smell of wet grass provide a pleasant break from the hectic and dirty urban streets that I’m used to. It also brings back memories of suburban life in the States.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
The complex and swiftly changing economy and politics in this country are what make it so fascinating.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I have always felt lucky to be born at this time in history, at the inception of the technology age and during a time of relative peace, stability and accelerating globalization. Now I feel further appreciative of the chance to be living in this spot on the globe, where I am witnessing such a tumultuous charge towards modernity at an immense scale.
Finally, I recommend checking out these pictures (and more) on the Boston Globe's website. Next to being there in person, it’s the best up close look you can find on China. I also recommend these diving pictures.
There is also an excellent audio slideshow that accompanies the article. You can find the same sort of gated communities with large homes, multicar garages, and golf courses around Beijing. I’ve spent some time in one such place in northern Beijing through a number of sessions tutoring a young girl in her home. Going to her house feels just like stepping into an American suburb. It’s a fairly dull place but the quiet, empty streets and the smell of wet grass provide a pleasant break from the hectic and dirty urban streets that I’m used to. It also brings back memories of suburban life in the States.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
The complex and swiftly changing economy and politics in this country are what make it so fascinating.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I have always felt lucky to be born at this time in history, at the inception of the technology age and during a time of relative peace, stability and accelerating globalization. Now I feel further appreciative of the chance to be living in this spot on the globe, where I am witnessing such a tumultuous charge towards modernity at an immense scale.
Finally, I recommend checking out these pictures (and more) on the Boston Globe's website. Next to being there in person, it’s the best up close look you can find on China. I also recommend these diving pictures.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Olympics warm-up
Just under three weeks until the Olympics begin. Advertisements that feature the Games are everywhere, obviously. For a quick description of the athletes most commonly featured and the dueling billboards between Nike and Adidas, check out this article.
For the first time, beginning this weekend, the information kiosks that have been built on many street corners are open and staffed with the official volunteers. I’ve noticed there are a lot more traffic guards, too.
There are a few inconveniences, however. Starting today half of the cars on the road will not be allowed, among other restrictions on factories and building construction. A number of bars have been shut down for a month or more and other places are forced to move their closing time to an earlier hour. I have no idea why and some people are not pleased. Students also now have to show their student IDs to enter my university's campus. I’m not happy about that. Long lines can form and I hope I don’t ever lose it or forget it at home or else I’ll be highly inconvenienced.
There was a recent article about the new face of Beijing through some examples of its modern architecture.
Finally, here is a picture of me and my snazzy new bike in front of Beijing University's main library.
For the first time, beginning this weekend, the information kiosks that have been built on many street corners are open and staffed with the official volunteers. I’ve noticed there are a lot more traffic guards, too.
There are a few inconveniences, however. Starting today half of the cars on the road will not be allowed, among other restrictions on factories and building construction. A number of bars have been shut down for a month or more and other places are forced to move their closing time to an earlier hour. I have no idea why and some people are not pleased. Students also now have to show their student IDs to enter my university's campus. I’m not happy about that. Long lines can form and I hope I don’t ever lose it or forget it at home or else I’ll be highly inconvenienced.
There was a recent article about the new face of Beijing through some examples of its modern architecture.
Finally, here is a picture of me and my snazzy new bike in front of Beijing University's main library.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Great Wall
I went to the Great Wall on Saturday through a trip organized by the university. It wasn’t very crowded and the wather was perfect. Check out the clear views and blue skies in the pictures.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Pre-Olympics
This article is a good synopsis of how far Beijing has come and how differently things are run in China.
The reporter’s observations are spot on; I’ve experienced all of the this. I’ve seen store and restaurant employees, all wearing identical uniforms, going through training sessions or pep talks, just like in the picture. The smog in the city is really bad some days. It’s become just another dimension of the weather, in a way. The contradictions between an austere, communist past and a vibrant, free-wheeling market economy are visible everywhere. And people are friendly and curious about foreigners. For better or worse, you’re never left alone.
The reporter’s observations are spot on; I’ve experienced all of the this. I’ve seen store and restaurant employees, all wearing identical uniforms, going through training sessions or pep talks, just like in the picture. The smog in the city is really bad some days. It’s become just another dimension of the weather, in a way. The contradictions between an austere, communist past and a vibrant, free-wheeling market economy are visible everywhere. And people are friendly and curious about foreigners. For better or worse, you’re never left alone.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Beijing – the first week
I’ve been here for a week already and the time flew by. I had little time to sit down and write and only just realized that I should do it soon before it becomes too much or before my days become even busier. On the first day, I moved into my place and met the first of two roommates, an American guy my age. I also got down to studying since I will take a placement exam on Thursday morning and the first class is Friday morning. My stack of flashcards on my desk is really high and I’m trying to get them all down to take stock of where I am before the course begins. On my second day I registered with the police, which is mandatory for everyone, even hotels and hostels do it for their guests, bought a metro card, and placed an ad on the Internet soliciting work as an English tutor.
I recieved about two dozen responses to my online ad in less than 48 hours, mostly from language schools who hold small classes or match tutors with students. I had also contacted a few language schools several weeks earlier, so I had a lot of leads. After turning down lots of offers and giving four free initial lessons to three people and one small group, I narrowed down the workload. I’m tutoring a nine-year girl at her home nearby everyday this weeks as she prepares for an English competition on Saturday and may tutor her on and off in August. I’m also tutoring a graduate student in electrical engineering in my apartment, and I may tutor another young girl, also in her home. It was a lot of commuting and I got all of the emails and requests mixed up, but the jobs were easy to find and the pay is really good.
I also responded to one ad for a language exchange and last Thursday I met up with a young guy who works at a telecom company. We instantly hit it off and he showed me around the upscale Chaoyang district and we spent hours in a restored hutong (one of Beijing’s old alleys), which was full of new shops and restaurants. We ate a western restaurant on that street, where I had a delicious salad and a Chinese influenced pizza – it was “gong bao ji ding,” or as Americans know it, kung pao chicken.
One of the shops we visited earlier had a lot of vintage style t-shirts, some with ironic or humorous pictures and sayings. One simply said 宫爆鸡丁 across the front, which is “gong bao ji ding” a.k.a. kung pao chicken. I chuckled when I came across it, and then realized it’s an inside joke that only Chinese-speaking Americans can really get. I’m now one of them – I get the joke! When the Chinese guy I was with saw it, he said, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen foreigners wearing that T-shirt. They must really like gong bao ji ding.”
Over the weekend, I visited the two largest malls I’ve ever been too, aside from the Mall of America. One was the Oriental Plaza, an upscale mall just east of Tianan’men Square. I had driven by it once or twice with Andy when we stayed near there, but I had no idea how big it was inside. Nearby is Wangfujing street, which is the city’s big pedestrian shopping street. It seemed like every store and advertisement had an Olympic theme. Just off of this street is a heavily trafficked street with a long line of food stalls. It was packed with camera-toting tourists sampling Chinese food that was far from their familiar kung pao chicken. Vendors dangled octopus on a stick and lamb kebabs right in my face, which was a little annoying, meanwhile much of the food looked unhealthy or down right gross, and it was overpriced. But it was worth it to see some of the more strange foods on offer, although the whole place seemed to exist more to draw attention from tourists than to win any Michelin stars. (see pictures of cicadas, kidneys, and seahorses, all grilled on wooden skewers, at gallery.mac.com/sambrummitt)
The other giant mall I went to was underneath a big plaza a couple kilometers southwest of where I live. I saw a modest sign and entrance for a Carrefour on one end of the plaza, so I decided to head inside and check out their food (they always have good bread). I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I expected to be in and out in no more than10 minutes, enough time to look around and pick up a few things. I descended into an underworld of restaurants and shops, got lost, and didn’t see the light of day for at least an hour and a half. There was a maze of chain restaurants and only a few signs to point you to one of many exits, but no map to help you find out where everything was, including the giant Carrefour. When I finally found the Carrefour, I put my bag in a locker and then wasted a ton of time finding my way around both floors of this supermarket that sells everything from food to clothes to mopeds (think Wal-Mart over two floors and entirely underground).
I got lost again trying to find the locker where I left my bag, because I entered on the first floor of the Carrefour (level B1), and exited on level B2 and had no idea where I was or how to get back because I couldn’t simply re-enter the supermarket and retrace my steps. I found myself lost in the maze of restaurants and little shops once again, but found the lockers and got out okay.
I registered for my class as soon as I possibly could early Monday morning. I paid the tuitiong, got my student ID, and scanned the a wall of papers with the students’ names to find out my exam room. There’s roughly 200 students in the six-week course, and maybe a third of them, by far the largest group, come from Korea. There were about 20 Americans on the list, a similar number of Japanese, and a sizable number from some Central Asian and Southeast Asian countries, Russia, Australia, and Canada. Then there were smaller numbers of students from some European and African countries. I couldn’t understand the Chinese names of a few countries, so I’m guessing based on the students’ names in some cases. I’ll find out after the placement test who is in my class, but I’m sure there will be at least someone with the name Park or Lee from Korea (there were at least ten of each of those two Korean names).
So far a few things have struck me. First, there is a lot of construction and it seems like it is stuff that should be finished by the Olympics, but I don’t see how it can possibly all get done within the next month (the Opening Ceremony is in exactly one month, not to mention all of the other things that could go wrong). Second, people seem to be really educated and knowledgeable. There are tons of universities around, and Beijing has one of the highest per capita income levels in the country, so I guess that means I met a lot more educated people. Interacting with people is much easier, which was not the case in Taicang, where a lot of people had limited English or little experience with foreigners. Third, the streets are really wide, the city is not very dense, and commuting is time-consuming and involves lots of walking. Finally, it’s really hot. Maybe I’m still getting used to it, and walking a few miles each day doesn’t help, but every single day I sweat a ton. There’s no way to avoid it and sometimes no relief from the heat.
I recieved about two dozen responses to my online ad in less than 48 hours, mostly from language schools who hold small classes or match tutors with students. I had also contacted a few language schools several weeks earlier, so I had a lot of leads. After turning down lots of offers and giving four free initial lessons to three people and one small group, I narrowed down the workload. I’m tutoring a nine-year girl at her home nearby everyday this weeks as she prepares for an English competition on Saturday and may tutor her on and off in August. I’m also tutoring a graduate student in electrical engineering in my apartment, and I may tutor another young girl, also in her home. It was a lot of commuting and I got all of the emails and requests mixed up, but the jobs were easy to find and the pay is really good.
I also responded to one ad for a language exchange and last Thursday I met up with a young guy who works at a telecom company. We instantly hit it off and he showed me around the upscale Chaoyang district and we spent hours in a restored hutong (one of Beijing’s old alleys), which was full of new shops and restaurants. We ate a western restaurant on that street, where I had a delicious salad and a Chinese influenced pizza – it was “gong bao ji ding,” or as Americans know it, kung pao chicken.
One of the shops we visited earlier had a lot of vintage style t-shirts, some with ironic or humorous pictures and sayings. One simply said 宫爆鸡丁 across the front, which is “gong bao ji ding” a.k.a. kung pao chicken. I chuckled when I came across it, and then realized it’s an inside joke that only Chinese-speaking Americans can really get. I’m now one of them – I get the joke! When the Chinese guy I was with saw it, he said, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen foreigners wearing that T-shirt. They must really like gong bao ji ding.”
Over the weekend, I visited the two largest malls I’ve ever been too, aside from the Mall of America. One was the Oriental Plaza, an upscale mall just east of Tianan’men Square. I had driven by it once or twice with Andy when we stayed near there, but I had no idea how big it was inside. Nearby is Wangfujing street, which is the city’s big pedestrian shopping street. It seemed like every store and advertisement had an Olympic theme. Just off of this street is a heavily trafficked street with a long line of food stalls. It was packed with camera-toting tourists sampling Chinese food that was far from their familiar kung pao chicken. Vendors dangled octopus on a stick and lamb kebabs right in my face, which was a little annoying, meanwhile much of the food looked unhealthy or down right gross, and it was overpriced. But it was worth it to see some of the more strange foods on offer, although the whole place seemed to exist more to draw attention from tourists than to win any Michelin stars. (see pictures of cicadas, kidneys, and seahorses, all grilled on wooden skewers, at gallery.mac.com/sambrummitt)
The other giant mall I went to was underneath a big plaza a couple kilometers southwest of where I live. I saw a modest sign and entrance for a Carrefour on one end of the plaza, so I decided to head inside and check out their food (they always have good bread). I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I expected to be in and out in no more than10 minutes, enough time to look around and pick up a few things. I descended into an underworld of restaurants and shops, got lost, and didn’t see the light of day for at least an hour and a half. There was a maze of chain restaurants and only a few signs to point you to one of many exits, but no map to help you find out where everything was, including the giant Carrefour. When I finally found the Carrefour, I put my bag in a locker and then wasted a ton of time finding my way around both floors of this supermarket that sells everything from food to clothes to mopeds (think Wal-Mart over two floors and entirely underground).
I got lost again trying to find the locker where I left my bag, because I entered on the first floor of the Carrefour (level B1), and exited on level B2 and had no idea where I was or how to get back because I couldn’t simply re-enter the supermarket and retrace my steps. I found myself lost in the maze of restaurants and little shops once again, but found the lockers and got out okay.
I registered for my class as soon as I possibly could early Monday morning. I paid the tuitiong, got my student ID, and scanned the a wall of papers with the students’ names to find out my exam room. There’s roughly 200 students in the six-week course, and maybe a third of them, by far the largest group, come from Korea. There were about 20 Americans on the list, a similar number of Japanese, and a sizable number from some Central Asian and Southeast Asian countries, Russia, Australia, and Canada. Then there were smaller numbers of students from some European and African countries. I couldn’t understand the Chinese names of a few countries, so I’m guessing based on the students’ names in some cases. I’ll find out after the placement test who is in my class, but I’m sure there will be at least someone with the name Park or Lee from Korea (there were at least ten of each of those two Korean names).
So far a few things have struck me. First, there is a lot of construction and it seems like it is stuff that should be finished by the Olympics, but I don’t see how it can possibly all get done within the next month (the Opening Ceremony is in exactly one month, not to mention all of the other things that could go wrong). Second, people seem to be really educated and knowledgeable. There are tons of universities around, and Beijing has one of the highest per capita income levels in the country, so I guess that means I met a lot more educated people. Interacting with people is much easier, which was not the case in Taicang, where a lot of people had limited English or little experience with foreigners. Third, the streets are really wide, the city is not very dense, and commuting is time-consuming and involves lots of walking. Finally, it’s really hot. Maybe I’m still getting used to it, and walking a few miles each day doesn’t help, but every single day I sweat a ton. There’s no way to avoid it and sometimes no relief from the heat.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Happy Fourth of July
Most of the fireworks sold in the U.S. originate in China and it turns out that a host of problems have raised prices and depressed the supply of Chinese made fireworks. I heard about this in two different podcasts - from NPR and from Bloomberg - that I happened to listen to today.
The world is closely connected in more ways than you’d expect.
The world is closely connected in more ways than you’d expect.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Darn good location
Just down the street is the Olympic Village where the athletes live and to the east is the Olympic stadium and the aquatics center.
[UPDATE] I just ran to the Olympic stadium. It took me just under an hour to reach it, even though I got a little lost and went too far south. I walked around the Olympic sites along with a handful of tourists and wandered through a few different neighborhoods. I brought a subway card along with me but ended up not using it because the station next to the Olympic stadium is not open yet and I had good time going back a different way on foot anyways.
[UPDATE] I just ran to the Olympic stadium. It took me just under an hour to reach it, even though I got a little lost and went too far south. I walked around the Olympic sites along with a handful of tourists and wandered through a few different neighborhoods. I brought a subway card along with me but ended up not using it because the station next to the Olympic stadium is not open yet and I had good time going back a different way on foot anyways.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Transition to summer
As the spring semester ends and summer begins, I move from full-time teaching to full-time studying. The best perk about teaching is that you have a summer free. Although my break is merely two months, the shortest summer break I’ve ever had, I’ll try to make the most of it and by learning as much Chinese as possible in two months. When I was reflecting upon this, I realized that I have been in the pattern of a school year followed by a summer break ever since I started kindergarten at age four, nearly 20 years ago. I don’t know how many more summer breaks I’ll have.
This past week has been packed with events and lots of goodbyes and it all went by at a dizzying pace. Last Tuesday and Wednesday students took my three exams and I took a Chinese exam in between correcting the English exams. I also watched the last Korea versus China student basketball game, which the students took so seriously that I was not allowed to play. On Thursday night we a had party for the high school students where we ate pizza, watched a slideshow of pictures that I put together, and exchanged gifts anonymously by picking numbers out of a hat.
On Friday we had a final school assembly and virtually all of the teachers went out for lunch. About 25 of use ate around a huge table in a private dining at some hotel in town. There was a torrential downpour all day long and by the time we got back to school the soccer field was underwater, the ponds were overflowing and the streets and walkways on campus had all turned into shallow rivers of swiftly moving water. I got pretty wet walking around the campus saying goodbye to everyone.
I got a ride home and quickly changed and grabbed a pair of shorts before heading out again to get a taxi and meet a student named Paul who lives in town. Paul is a really outgoing kid and a gifted athlete; at school we compete in everything from one-on-one basketball games to computer games. He has taken me out to a couple good restaurants in Taicang and we’ve played tennis at a public court in town. We had talked about going to a swimming pool near his house for weeks but never had any time until school was out.
Walking outside to catch a taxi got me wet all over again so going for a swim was only appropriate. We had the swimming pool to ourselves and spent about an hour racing each other back and forth in the pool. In between pool-length sprints we’d sit on the edge to catch our breaths and chat. We’d become pretty close after nine months so we were able to talk about a lot of personal things – joking with each other, talking about girls, deciding who has more body hair (me), who is stronger (him), and discussing our future plans.
His mom was going to take us out for dinner so after we got out of the pool I was disappointed to see that my clothes had not dried much at all in the damp locker room. I felt like I had never gotten dry all day long. Luckily, Paul had brought along a small hair dryer but when we looked around for a place to plug it in we couldn’t find one. There were no outlets in the locker room but an employee told us we could use one at the front desk. So we followed him and I found myself standing in the middle of the lobby with three women staring at my me as I stood there barefoot, with my damp clothes in hand, wearing nothing but my boxers. Paul simply burst out laughing. I sat on a stool and dried my clothes as much as I could with the little hairdryer while trying to ignore the people around me.
Paul is going to study Japanese at an international school in Tokyo for a year before going to college, so I wrote him a letter of recommendation and his mom was extremely grateful. I think she also appreciated a teacher who could keep up with her son’s athletic pursuits, too.
I got a ride to Changzhou on Saturday and spent the weekend unpacking and storing my winter clothes and other things I did not need for the summer, and then repacking a small bag and a big backpack with some clothes and books for the summer. I said goodbye to lots of teachers, including a number who are leaving China soon, and then I took a train to Beijing on Monday night.
I woke up in Beijing today and grabbed a taxi to the student apartments near the university where I will be studying. It was a surreal morning. The taxi ride took me around Tiananmen Square, where a big sign with a countdown to the opening ceremony of the Olympics read 38 days and nine hours. The taxi driver was quite talkative and asked me teach him some English phrases like “train station” and “you’re welcome.” I met the brother of the Chinese woman I am renting from and met one of my two roommates, an American guy my age who has been here for a couple weeks.
It was a nice welcome to the city and I’m already moved in so I’ve now got time to head out and explore the area around the university.
This past week has been packed with events and lots of goodbyes and it all went by at a dizzying pace. Last Tuesday and Wednesday students took my three exams and I took a Chinese exam in between correcting the English exams. I also watched the last Korea versus China student basketball game, which the students took so seriously that I was not allowed to play. On Thursday night we a had party for the high school students where we ate pizza, watched a slideshow of pictures that I put together, and exchanged gifts anonymously by picking numbers out of a hat.
On Friday we had a final school assembly and virtually all of the teachers went out for lunch. About 25 of use ate around a huge table in a private dining at some hotel in town. There was a torrential downpour all day long and by the time we got back to school the soccer field was underwater, the ponds were overflowing and the streets and walkways on campus had all turned into shallow rivers of swiftly moving water. I got pretty wet walking around the campus saying goodbye to everyone.
I got a ride home and quickly changed and grabbed a pair of shorts before heading out again to get a taxi and meet a student named Paul who lives in town. Paul is a really outgoing kid and a gifted athlete; at school we compete in everything from one-on-one basketball games to computer games. He has taken me out to a couple good restaurants in Taicang and we’ve played tennis at a public court in town. We had talked about going to a swimming pool near his house for weeks but never had any time until school was out.
Walking outside to catch a taxi got me wet all over again so going for a swim was only appropriate. We had the swimming pool to ourselves and spent about an hour racing each other back and forth in the pool. In between pool-length sprints we’d sit on the edge to catch our breaths and chat. We’d become pretty close after nine months so we were able to talk about a lot of personal things – joking with each other, talking about girls, deciding who has more body hair (me), who is stronger (him), and discussing our future plans.
His mom was going to take us out for dinner so after we got out of the pool I was disappointed to see that my clothes had not dried much at all in the damp locker room. I felt like I had never gotten dry all day long. Luckily, Paul had brought along a small hair dryer but when we looked around for a place to plug it in we couldn’t find one. There were no outlets in the locker room but an employee told us we could use one at the front desk. So we followed him and I found myself standing in the middle of the lobby with three women staring at my me as I stood there barefoot, with my damp clothes in hand, wearing nothing but my boxers. Paul simply burst out laughing. I sat on a stool and dried my clothes as much as I could with the little hairdryer while trying to ignore the people around me.
Paul is going to study Japanese at an international school in Tokyo for a year before going to college, so I wrote him a letter of recommendation and his mom was extremely grateful. I think she also appreciated a teacher who could keep up with her son’s athletic pursuits, too.
I got a ride to Changzhou on Saturday and spent the weekend unpacking and storing my winter clothes and other things I did not need for the summer, and then repacking a small bag and a big backpack with some clothes and books for the summer. I said goodbye to lots of teachers, including a number who are leaving China soon, and then I took a train to Beijing on Monday night.
I woke up in Beijing today and grabbed a taxi to the student apartments near the university where I will be studying. It was a surreal morning. The taxi ride took me around Tiananmen Square, where a big sign with a countdown to the opening ceremony of the Olympics read 38 days and nine hours. The taxi driver was quite talkative and asked me teach him some English phrases like “train station” and “you’re welcome.” I met the brother of the Chinese woman I am renting from and met one of my two roommates, an American guy my age who has been here for a couple weeks.
It was a nice welcome to the city and I’m already moved in so I’ve now got time to head out and explore the area around the university.
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