Xi’an

It was nice to get out of Beijing. Though our trip out of Beijing meant we would be on a hard seat train for 12 hours. This meant sitting upright with now reclining seat for 12 hours. Needless to say after this quite uncomfortable experience Andrea and I have decided to no longer travel on a hard seat and that we would not travel for any more than 15 hours in a single shot.

Xi’an was nice. The pace was a bit more relaxed than Beijing with cleaner streets and seemingly fewer cars.






The main reason for coming to Xi’an was to check out the Terra Cotta soldiers, but since we would save that for tomorrow, we decided to check out the town. There was the Drum Tower and Bell Tower that provided some great views of the city and then the Muslim Quarter that had loads of street food to enjoy.



Thanks to Song and her friend Jackie for showing us around town and leading us to all these sights around town, including the Goose Pagoda, which is known for having housed the earliest Buddhist texts in China.

The journey begins

I think this pictures below say it all…I’m not sure how many thousands of kilometers we’ll be covering but everything we have has to fit on our backs so that means you’ll have to get used to seeing me in pictures with the same outfits…deal with it.

Leaving Beijing

With the end of our time in Beijing means the end of our internship at the China Academy of Urban Planning. I’ve learned a lot about China’s governance structure and how planning is done. Though at times it felt like my work here wasn’t that meaningful since the Academy is dedicated mostly to design and I’m more of a policy wonk. But I prepared a couple of presentations before leaving and was able to share some knowledge that I’ve gained from researching watershed management in the States. On the last day of my internship I presented to my team with the help of Gui Ping as my translator. I even got a cake as part of my send off.

As for saying goodbye to my fellow interns and Beijing we enjoyed a final meal of the Dai food...mmm deep fried potato balls. And Andrea, Stephan and I hit the town. I finally got to use that bottle of tequila that I had brought with me. Fortunately the clubs don’t pad you down when you enter so we made our own mixed tequila drinks all night long.

Also click here for a short video on our night on the town

Doing what planners do best..

Our time in Beijing is quickly coming to an end. So Andrea and I have stepped up the planning for our trip around the world. As we’ve come to realize that we just don’t have as much time as we would like we’ve decided to cut out India from our itinerary. The world is just too big and too interesting to try to squeeze in everything. So the idea for now is to head down south through Xi’an then to Lijiang then get our visas for Laos in Kunming, work our way down to Laos then on to Vietnam then Cambodia and finally Thailand. We’ve decided to keep our trip flexible and take the advice of fellow travelers in checking out things that strike our fancy.

Great Wall

Nothing evokes the grandeur of China more than the Great Wall. So it was with much anticipation that I was waiting to climb the wall. Andrea had already gone to the wall a previous weekend while I was at Qingdao but she went to Mutayun which didn’t quite capture the image of the Great Wall that she and I had because of the excess number of tourists and almost too well kept wall. So we took the less traveled road by hiking from Jingshaling to Simatai.

Our adventure started out by trying to find the bus station that would take us to the nearest town where we could catch a cab. Unfortunately, as we’ve come to know that the lonely Planet can’t quite keep up with the quick changing pace of Beijing, the bus station that was listed on our map was now a University. So we walked around a bit and ended up agreeing to paying a taxi driver to take us to Jingshaling then pick us up at Simatai.

Watch a short video documenting Andrea’s and my Great Wall Adventure below, or click here for the link.

International Water Conference

With my work being less structured than I had hoped for, I began to look forward to attending the 2nd International Conference for China Urban Water Development being held in Beijing. I was tipped off to its occurrence by one of my coworkers, Gui Ping, who would be presenting at the conference. Andrea, Peter and Kenetha had attended the Transportation conference a few weeks ago and had to pay the hefty fee 800Yuan. As far as conferences go it was pretty cheap, but when you are making 100 Yuan a day, it’s not a small matter. So I was prepared to pay a similar rate. I took to shuttle bus that my office had arranged and arrive at the conference center. When I got up to the registration booth I was informed the registration fee would cost me 1,200 Yuan. I contemplated turning back home, but another of my coworkers said it would be taken care of. At first I thought the CAUPD would pay for my registration until all the badges were handed out and I got nothing. Then it became clear to me that my team was going to smuggle me in. By getting smuggled in I would miss out on the conference book, which was fine, since it was mostly in Chinese.

I sat through the opening speeches, a few were in English so I was content, but the majority of speeches where in Chinese so I had to sit there and let my thoughts wander since I couldn't make heads or tails of what was being discussed. It wasn't until after the session that I realized there was simultaneous translation going on and I could have rented the translation headphones. I spent the rest of the conference seeking out the sessions that had simultaneous translation, which proved to be few and far between. And the sessions that sounded most interesting to me were conducted entirely in Chinese. Well I still learned a lot and I got to see the nearby Olympic Stadium that was still under construction. Its pretty impressive and I only wish I could have gotten closer.

Parks and open space in Beijing

Parks in Beijing are quite different than how we view parks in the States. As I've learned from my daily walking commute to work through the Purple Bamboo Park. But the scale of the difference takes on a whole new level on my visits to Beihei Park. Beihei Park is one of the oldest parks in Beijing. It's history goes back as far as the Liao Dynasty (916AD – 1125AD) when it was first built, following subsequent repairs and reconstructions since then. And it appears that parks had the function more of a place for serene contemplation. And the notions of being in the wild or in some pristine natural space is completely foreign. Every inch of this park seems to have been manicured from the trees to the stones. And an amazing thing is that people use these spaces for everything from spending a day away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the traffic, but of course the immense crowds here draw a hustle and bustle of merchants and people traffic as the crowds meander about here and there in the park checking out the different sites of interest.

Amusement park

Our last day in Qingdao meant we finally got to check out the beer festival I wasn’t quite sure what to expect other than copious amounts of beer. But what I found was pretty much a temporary amusement park complete with carnival games and amusement rides. We started off by going on the swing then working our way up to the roller coaster which was pretty much like the . Now I know that some people would be a bit concerned about riding a roller coaster or other amusement rides in a foreign country with lax safety regulations, but that thought didn’t cross my mind until I was trying to put the safety restraint on and noticed that there was a bit more wiggle room than I was comfortable with. But before I could do anything we were off and running. Fortunately for me, the g-forces kept me glued to my seat, but there was a point where we were upside down that I felt like I could have slid off my seat. That was pretty much the end of my thrill seeking that day. One of my workmates went on this crazy hammer like ride. I was content to just take the video.

We topped off our day by going on the Ferris wheel and where treated with a full view of the entire fairgrounds.

And after all the fun and games we never even touched the beer. I was a bit bummed. We didn’t even get the 1Yuan bag of beer that was being sold. Oh well I guess I’ll just have to go back some time.

On my own

When we arrived at the hotel in Qingdao I was taken aback with the excellent view of the bay and the city that the hotel room provided. I was first whisked into this huge room that was for all 6 of us. All the guys in one room and the one girl that was with us had her own separate room. Given that much of the experience of this trip I had been wading through with few things spoken in English for me I was getting prepared to stay up all night with the rest of my team. But then out of the blue, Liu Han suggested that she and I switch rooms since she would have to be up all night translating a document from English to Chinese with a few of the other team members. So given that I would be completely useless in this task, as with most things around work, I agreed. When I got down there I was completely ecstatic of the possibility to have not only my own huge room, but satellite TV complete with CNN and a few other English channels, and the bedroom opened up to an amazing view of the bay.



I was told to meet up in the group room at 8am so that we could get breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After breakfast I was told that I’d be on my own for the day since everyone else would have to work on the translation which I would not be able to help out with. I was fine with this prospect given that most of the previous day had been left out of much of all the conversations due to the lack of my Chinese skills.

This day was sunnier than the first day in Qingdao and the heat was absolutely unbearable. Well it wasn’t the heat so much as it was the intense penetrating rays of the sun, far more than in Beijing, I think partly because there was no layer of pollution to block the sun’s powerful rays.

So my walk down this coastal path from the hotel to where the Olympic Regatta would be held for the 2008 Olympics left me a sweaty mess. But at least it was a pleasant walk.

Field Trip

My previous knowledge of Qingdao was only that it was some sort of Chinese beer. Well now I know that this city used to be a German concession, hence they left their mark by establishing several breweries. But that wasn’t why I was visiting Qingdao. I was here to check out the site that my project team has been working on. It’s an area outside the central city where an amusement park and an eco development will be built. When we made it out to the project site I was a bit perplexed at how such a development would get built. Not only is the site extremely rocky, it is also very hilly and covers a very nice open space area that would be great as a park. Well given that China has to accommodate the growth in its population somehow.







But the most interesting thing on this trip was the inordinate amount of seafood I’ve had to eat while with my team. It seems that whenever they travel its on the company’s dime, so that means that you get to eat out at the finest restaurants and order the most expensive food on the menu. And of course the most expensive food happens to be seafood. So one of our stops was this quaint seaside seafood restaurant with a view of the bay and Qingdao in the distance.



I’m not a huge fan of seafood, but I also didn’t want to be rude to my hosts by declining what I’ve been offered. And of course eating Chinese style means that all the food is served on the table and you eat a small portion as the table spins around to you. At one point there was nothing but seafood on the table not a single carb, vegetable, or meat that did not come from the sea. So some of the more interesting things I had were some sort of sea snail and a pale mini lobster-like creature. Now you know its bad when I’m looking forward to these two items as the table runs around, since my other options where this tube like sea creature which looked a lot like pasta, but sadly was not. There was also this gelatinous cube thing which I was informed was also a sea creature.

(for more photos check out my photobucket page)

Clearing the streets...cleaning the air

Many of you have probably heard that Beijing is imposing new driving restrictions this weekend as a way of testing out their plan for cutting air pollution during the 2008 Olympics. In the weeks leading up to today, the day the test begins, I had been searching high and low for some accurate information about just what this meant. Well it looks like a third of the 3 million plus cars that ply through the streets of Beijing will be taken off the read each day by only allowing cars with an odd number on August 17th and 19th to be on the road and cars ending with an even number will be allowed to drive on August 18 and 20th.

Many cities around the world have used this type of policy for air pollution control, with Mexico City being the most notable. It did help to bring Mexico’s air pollution levels down, that is until the policy became institutionalized and drivers wizened up by buying second cars that turned out to more polluting than their first car…d’oh! Let’s hope this policy stays as an emergency measure to ensure those pitfalls aren't repeated here.

My morning walk to work today did not immediately seem any different but as Andrea pointed out, the flow of traffic did seem to increase. Andrea’s more versed in transportation concepts than I am, but it made sense that fewer cars can move faster. So even though it may not immediately look like there was less traffic for the pedestrians, I’m sure the drivers sure felt the difference. We did also notice a lot more bicycles on the road this morning. As for the air quality, that’s harder for me to say. In the days following the official 1 year countdown to the Olympics, we had some amazing air quality. Partly due to the rain that cleaned out a lot of pollution from the sky and lifted the veil of foggy haze that normally hangs over the city blocking out the sun and traps in all that pollution with it. So the air quality this past week has been amazingly great. I was able to see blue skies for several days, much to our chagrin, that meant our morning commute felt even hotter without the haze and smog providing some protection from the sun’s penetrating rays. We of course weren’t sure if this was nature’s present to China or if the government actually succeeded in altering the weather through their cloud seeding plans. Apparently even China’s state run media wasn’t quite sure what the cause was.

We asked some people at work how this was all affecting them. Most of the interns take public transit so they didn’t notice much difference and I didn’t hear from anyone that drives a car so I can’t say how the drivers are dealing with these restrictions. The fact that the test is being done from Friday to Monday will certainly minimize the disruptions to people’s lives, but it will be interesting to see how people deal with the 2 week long implementation of these measures during the Olympics.

I’ll try to take some pictures of the hopefully less crowded streets and cleaner air to post here soon.

I feel like I just won the lottery!

I was just informed that I would get to travel to Qingdao (known in the West as Tsingtao…yes that is the home of Tsingtao beer) for work. We’ll be flying out on Sunday morning and I think we will be gone for 4 days. Since I took a trip last week to this wetlands outside of Beijing I thought that was treat enough, but being able to visit Qingdao and see the project site is a pleasant surprise. So I’m definitely excited about this trip, but this sort of last minute planning has been happening to me a lot, I’m starting to wonder how people function around here when they are told that they will take a 4 day trip on just a day’s notice? At first I thought it was just because I didn’t speak Mandarin that I was being kept out of the loop, but I found out from one of the Chinese interns also working here that it’s a fairly common practice. She told me that she has usually been given a heads up that a trip will take place during a given week, but not know the date they actually leave until the day before. Being that my schedule here is very flexible, I can easily cope with the changing schedules, but what if I lived here? What good is a day planner here when you constantly have to wait around not knowing when a meeting will take place or when you’ll be leaving for a multiple day trip? She just kind of laughed and said “you just wait.” She then admitted that it never really occurred to her before to have things scheduled with more certainty. Perhaps I’ve been too entrenched in the American model of efficiency and certainty, always wanting to control everything possible right down to how I spend my time. So when you are confronted with this sort of last minute arrangements you can either view it with frustration or as a pleasant surprise. I’ve choose to do the latter.

It just so happens that our trip to Qingdoa coincides with their international beer festival. I'm not entirely sure how much work will get done, but I'm sure I'll learn a lot. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I sober up

Virtual Tour of Boyle Heights

I'm still in China, but thanks to the internet I can keep up with what's going on at home, and this recent blog posting has certainly made me a bit nostalgic for my hometown...so check out and explore the KCET websitehttp://kcet.org/explore-ca/departures/for a look at Boyle Heights..

 

 

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Virtual Tour of Boyle Heights

via Metroblogging Los Angeles by EL CHAVO! on Aug 16, 2007

EL CHAVO!:

I finally got around to checking out this link http://kcet.org/explore-ca/departures/ that was the subject of a NY Times article (mentioned over at view from a loft) and I'd highly suggest anyone with a bit of computer time do the same. Ed and the NYT focus on the artistic merits (there's some talk of cyber murals) but the website has elements that should make it enjoyable for the layperson just taking a stroll down some internet side street. With pictures, video, and audio, the flash based site does an excellent job of capturing the feel of walking thru the Eastside neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

It's pretty fucking amazing, go check it out already!
http://kcet.org/explore-ca/departures

Comments (3)

Comments on this Entry:

(teck on Aug 16, 2007 10:30 AM) I live in Boyle Heights, and I love it, nothing will ever compare to this place.

(chimatli on Aug 16, 2007 11:14 AM) Hey Teck, Did you grow up in Boyle Heights? I've noticed the accent is changing there. It used to be more sing song almost like a Norteno or Tejas accent. Now, it's...different.

(cindylu on Aug 16, 2007 4:54 PM) That's a familiar place of Boyle Heights, and now you can't really drive down that stretch of First St. because of the Gold Line expansion. I used to practice Danza a few blocks East of First and Boyle. The spot is pretty to look at, but I think it may have been razed like the buildings around it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/34319368/

 

 

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Friendly...?

The mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are called the Friendlies, but as you can see from the picture above you might not want to piss them off. Actually, this cute and cuddly character known as Jingjing is just showing off the modern sport of shooting. There are a couple of Youtube videos below that you can also check out to see these little guys in action.






The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

China's environmental movement

It’s been tough keeping this blog current with the pace of change taking place here in Beijing. I had started writing this post about two weeks ago alonghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif with a slew of others posts and as I got back to making my final edits, I realized this was woefully out of date. So I’ve had to completely redo this post (I guess that should teach me not to procrastinate too much).

I had been thinking a lot about the state of the environment in China and the attempts that the Chinese government has made to address those consequences, from global warming to polluted rivers, and horrendous air quality. So when I came across this article in the Washington Monthly on I was pleasantly surprised to read that China has been taking proactive steps to develop grow its economy and raise standards of living all while trying to turn back the environmental destruction that has allowed it to do so. China has already passed some strict environmental protection laws and last year started factoring in the cost of environmental degradation as a way of correcting the value of the nation’s GDP. Additionally China has taken dramatic steps to curb its emissions, with its investment in green technologies, and a commitment to have Beijing receive 20% of its electricity from renewable energy sources in time for the 20008 Olympics.

Where China has been lacking is in the enforcement its environmental laws and monitoring of companies that violate those laws. I was intrigued to find out that China has been tolerating and to some extent promoting the growth of a civic engagement on issues of environmental protection. And with that has grown up a burgeoning environmental movement where the people are allowed to criticize the government in a watch dog role. The balance has been in making sure this doesn’t spill over into greater calls for human rights, or any challenge to the current power structure. Though it looks like the limits of China’s openness to environmental criticism are being tested. I recently read that one of China’s eminent environmentalists was taken into custody…so much for openness. That and China has put a hold on its environmental audit for this year and no plans have been released for when and or if the program will continue. So the skeptics out there certainly have much cause to wonder if in fact China is committed to taking the steps necessary to curb its environmental destruction. I guess only time will tell if the calls for greater attention to the environment are merely window dressing, or if the recent snafus are just growing pains as China learns to deal with its environmental problems.

Food to Dai for!

Beijing has some amazing food options, and I am fortunate enough to live near the University of nationalities, which I think has attracted a fair number of ethnic restaurants. There are 55 ethnic minority groups in China, though they make up only 8.4% of the population (or course that’s 106.4 million people). It’s been great exploring the great variety of the cuisine thanks to this diversity.

Andrea turned me on to this Dai food restaurant, and I think I've found my new favorite place. It’s hard to describe the food other than absolutely savory. We ordered three items, this tater tot-like dish, which were mashed potato balls deep fried and arriving with a dipping sauce that I only wish I could buy jars of to take home with me. Then there was the eggplant dish smothered in this dark sauce and again completely amazing. And finally there was the pineapple rice that is served inside the pineapple. Andrea and I gobbled up everything on our plates and are looking forward to going back.

“Sorry I can’t call you, you have a 4 in your phone number”

When I was looking to buy a cell phone number here in Beijing, I had been told that people will pay top dollar to buy a cell phone number that have lucky numbers such as “6”, “8” or “9” but of course if you are looking for a bargain, you can buy a cell phone number with a bunch of 4’s (an unlucky number). When I was looking to buy my cell phone number I had asked, half jokingly if I bought a number with a bunch of 4’s if people would not want to call me. I got a few laughs, but no one really answered my question….and pretty much the only people that call me are Andrea and Peter…so maybe there is something to that whole 4 business.

“Mobile Numbers for Sale = big business as the usual numbers for mobile phones in China starts with 13 (bad luck). Recently users are willing to pay high prices to purchase unique number such as numbers with 4 eights which can sell as high as 2400 to 2800 RMB and those which have no lucky or fortunate numbers can be purchased at 50 to 60 RMB. (Lucky numbers are 6, 8, and 9.)”
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=470888

Morning Commute

Getting to work has never been so much fun. Each morning I join up with my bipedal carpool (i.e. walking group) for the 35-45 minute walk to work. The crew has varied but its pretty much Andrea, Peter and I. This walk has given us a chance to catch up on the latest blogs and other articles we've been reading, new finds, and pretty much anything. The conversation has certainly gotten me to think much more about planning and helped to spur my creativity and interest in planning. But if that weren't fun enough, the detour that we take through Zizhuyuan Park (translates to Purple Bamboo Park) is like the icing on the cake. Aside from the daily escape from the city that the walk provides we get to see throngs of mostly elderly people engaged in some sort of physical activity each morning, including Tai Chi, some modified hackey sack game, badminton, fan dancing, ball room dancing, sword fighting and my favorite aerobics (both jazzercise style and classical Chinese music). The only drawback is that its hot and muggy, but fortunately the office is on casual dress so I don't have to worry too much about arriving in a hot and sweaty mess. And then there is air conditioning in my office to look forward to.

Art tour of Beijing

I'm getting the feeling that China doesn't do anything on a small scale. The Forbidden Palace is huge, then of course there is the Great Wall, and the recently complete Great Restroom. So its no surprise that the Dashanzi Art District would cover 1 square kilometer (or about 247 acres), it is absolutely immense.



I had learned about this place during a presentation given by one of the student interns from USC who mentioned 798 Space in this artist district and showed pictures of some converted warehouses. It looked cool but it didn't prepare me for what I got. Andrea, Peter Jenny and I hopped in a cab on Saturday to visit this place. It was in the cab ride that I learned the area had been featured in a number of articles of late including a New York Times piece, which discussed China and Beijing's growing art scene. What we found when we got there was a huge area dedicated to mostly art galleries exhibiting works form local artists that have moved to other areas as the rents here have increased due to its growing popularity (ah..gentrification..its everywhere). I think I ended up taking more pictures here than I did at the Forbidden City. So I'm just including a few photos here. And you can check out the rest on my photobucket page.

Streetside gourmet

Andrea and I ate what looked like a cross between a falafel and an egg McMuffin, filled with some marinated pork (or at least I think that's what it was) cilantro and onions...mmmm so good.



Next was the Chinese crepe burrito. The process of making it was so mesmerizing...the taste. so so, but if I could get the falafel McMuffin lady to work with the crepe burrito lady they would make a killing.

This mini street feast took place in our attempt to explore the city by bus in our quest for books in English and cheap electronics. With our maps in hand, our limited Mandarin, and Andrea's nifty compass on her wristwatch, we were able to make our way around and get to where we wanted to go. We stumbled on the street food near Book City, designated in our guide book as a good place to find books in English. We were looking for books and found them...lots of them ..including a sizable English section, mostly comprised of the classics, and lots of business and self help books.

After getting our fill of the books, we headed out to find the electronics market. But as we were standing around staring at our map, completely lost, a nice Chinese guy, Alex, offered to help us find what we were looking for. He spoke excellent English, which was amazing, since he said he learned to speak English by himself because he couldn’t get into an English language course. He said he had nothing else to do so he joined us. Since he was also new to town he kept asking everyone we passed if they knew where the market was. It turned out the map showed the market on a corner that was now a major construction site. But it appears the market was moved up a few blocks, practically right next to where started. Alex was even nice enough to help Andrea negotiate with the electronics store vendor in purchasing her card reader and made him giver her a receipt so if she had any problems she could bring it back...wow

We topped the evening off by going out to dinner at this restaurant that we have been passing everyday on our way to work. The decor was imperial Chinese, so what would we expect to have there, but pizza, hot wings and beer right? Well that's just what we had and in fact that was the only thing on the menus so we really had no choice. I think I'll be back there again...that pizza was very good.