Some photos from the Olympics

The day after

90% of the volunteers have disappeared
90% of the Olympic flags and banners have been replaced with Paralympic flags and banners
Staff are out testing all the chairlifts that have been installed at the subway stations

It is a new century; one with a strong China, a proud China and a satisfied China. But, everyone wonders, how will the demands of Chinese people be met to keep them satisfied?

How much say will they want in decision making?
How much corruption will they put up with?
How will their demands for a high-consumption lifestyle be fulfilled with such high prices for food and other resources?
How much pollution will they put up with? How will their needs for water, housing and transportation be met?
How will the movement of 250 million or more people to cities be dealt with to keep as many of them (and those already in cities) happy and fulfilled?
How will the aging population's needs be fulfilled?
How much nationalism will need to be generated to keep everyone happy and the country together?
How will this nationalism, increasing domestic terrorism, the drive for resources from around the Globe, the expulsion of waste, the shifting of political and economic power from West to East and so many other pending challenges be dealt with by the rest of the World?

An interesting future awaits. Monday is my first day at BSR; trying to set the World to rights by helping businesses in China and Chinese businesses in particular work out the solutions to some of these problems; or at the very least, helping them become part of the solution rather than part of the problem!

Reflection on Olympics

Now the Olympics has finished some reflection reveals my Chinese to have improved (as none of the other Olympic related foreigners could speak Chinese, so mine received plenty of warranted praise!). It also reveals that only the Chinese can make an Olympics so boring with nothing happening outside of the sporting stadia. The no-fun Olympics is an understatement with so little cultural, music, street or other festivities taking place. There were very few protests (though a few did happen for half an hour or so each, before being spotted and curtailed) and very few special events.

I also wonder what the stadiums will be used for afterwards. Though several were University gymnasiums, there were specialist softball, baseball, rowing, fencing, hockey, archery and other stadiums built especially. Since the Chinese are not particularly sporty (though when there are so many of them, really only a small % need to be sporty to use the stadiums!), i wonder what will happen to those minority sports. Anyway, there will always be plenty of tourists wanting to look at the stadiums, so that might keep them busy!

There really was an incredible attention to detail with regards to the environmental features of the Olympic venues; global best practise, fancy new technology and plenty of money was thrown together to do some magnificent things. Now, if that could be expanded across Beijing and across China, that would be fantastic. In fact many were wondering that if Beijing could function perfectly well for 2 months with half of the cars of the road, why not make that temporary restriction a permanent one and improve the traffic and atmosphere for everyone...forever? Not possible was the reply, unfortunately. But at least the public have seen what is possible and have seen the blue sky and might demand more of it, and that would be a good start.

I am sure London will be different; well i hope so. Though we might also be security-obsessed, one hopes there will be more fun, more diversity, a better atmosphere, plenty of protests, much more open stadiums and, probably much more traffic!

Whether we can match Beijing for size is definitely not possible. Beijing created an extra 50 bus lines to transport the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of spectators, tens of thousands of media, tens of thousands of athletes, tens of thousands of VIPs and support crew, tens of thousands of security personnel and who-knows-what-else. This kind of organisational ability and planning is incredible. Such incredible planning. Such excellent execution; A shame about the atmosphere and the legacy!

Last events of the Olympics

Arriving off the train from Xi'an we wondered over to the mountain bike course to scalp some tickets to the Women's mountain bike race. No Brits involved but it was an enjoyable couple of hours sitting in the woods. Later that evening we went to the Hockey final. The Germans were out in force and created an amazing atmosphere -so much so that the paid 'cheerers' (volunteers paid to cheer for both sides) had nothing to do! We saw the medal ceremony, which was a great demonstration in 'white man' -ness as all the 6 people giving out the medals and flowers were old white men who had some important jobs in the International Olympic Committee or other National Olympic Committees. I do find it rather embarrassing.

Another early morning start for the men's marathon (wow, how do they run so fast after 25 miles of running so fast?) and then it was time to prepare for the evening. Rather disappointing compared to the opening ceremony, and somewhat embarrassing as a Brit (i received several messages from Chinese friends wondering what our 8 minutes was all about). I have to say, when there is a huge stadium, why do we bring 1 bus and about 15 people and 2 unknown singers? Why does the only person anyone recognised (Beckham) only have a 15 second role and how is anyone expected to actually see the tiny little lit-up landscape of London on the side of the bus, or supposed to get the whole umbrella-and-rain thing?

One hopes that in 4 years time LOCOG have done some research about what people know or think about Britain and do not confuse people even more than the Chinese confuse people (since most people know little about Chinese history or culture). If they focus on comedy and rain and sports, they might just be laughed at so much, no-one will care about the sports! I know we cannot spend 100m USD (well, times 7 since we are at least 7 times more expensive than the Chinese) on an opening ceremony, but surely we can do better than the whole bus thing! Anyway, at least people might remember what we did (even if for bad reasons)!

The medal ceremonies (luck marathon runners with theirs in the closing ceremony!) are quite interesting to watch in person. Even during the athletics the whole stadium comes to a standstill; all the other events stop, all the judges, security and spectators (of course) turn to watch the flag raising and listen to the anthem. To be honest it was only watching that, that i finally actually believed that there is some purpose to the Olympics. That, despite the competition between nations, it really is about individuals working incredibly hard to do things others just cannot do.

It is a triumph of the human spirit and ability. It is a celebration and recognition of this. It is about co-operation and friendship amongst the competition. And that is something worth continuing, and something that will be great in London!

Olympics (well what else is going on?)

Almost 2 weeks after I watched the cycling on the streets of Beijing, I am now preparing to watch the men’s marathon, taking place on the last day of the Olympics. A last day that also includes the handover of the torch to the Mayor of London, so the closing ceremony should not be missed, even if it will not be anything like the opening ceremony.

A number of events have come and been, mostly observed through the BBC live update site online (and accessible by mobile phone, thankfully)! Chinese TV only actually has 3 channels providing live footage of the Olympics and they are always showing the Chinese (understandably) in weightlifting, volleyball, shooting, diving or some of the other sports the Chinese are good at. Though desperate to watch the Brits in some cycling, sailing, rowing or other events, we have been unable to.

We have sometimes wandered to bars in the evenings to watch some of the athletics, when it is on; however most bars are nothing like they would be for the World Cup or European Championship. The atmosphere in Beijing is well, not very atmospheric, without too many big screens anywhere, without any special activities (apart from the sports themselves) and without much to distinguish Olympic Beijing from usual Beijing; the Olympic signs and slogans have been up for years, though I admit that there are many more freshly cut and planted shrubs and trees that green everything up.

A week or so ago we went to the athletics stadium and marveled at the stadium and the entire Olympic complex in terms of size, greenery and, well, size. It is huge. A good 2-3km to walk from one end to the other (i.e. from the Bird’s nest to McDonalds), though with only 1 shop selling souvenirs (and a massive queue to get in), the Chinese have missed a trick there. Plenty of places to buy Coca-cola though; some lessons from the sponsors to the organizers on commercial sales might be needed. I am sure London will have plenty of souvenir shops!

Apart from the pleasure of walking around the complex and scoping out the generally unimpressive sponsors’ exhibition stands, we did, of course, watch some sports on the track. There is nothing too amazing to mention sports-wise, though it was definitely a fun experience and incredibly well organized; not just the security and the front-house organization, but the back-house and the sports themselves. Run to a tight schedule with teams of judges, volunteers, media and others all involved in preparing events, athletes, scores and more.

The atmosphere was half decent, but did get more exciting when Chinese athletes ran past our section of the stadium, cleared the pole vault or was being introduced over the tanoy system. For most of the other athletes there was not much cheering, though some long-jumpers tried. For most Chinese sports is not really something they participate in or even care much about, apart from for the nationalistic pride of their country doing well they would not even watch on TV (as we found in Xi’an, where most Chinese did not really care too much actually).

After a late night being impressed by Mr Bolt’s 100m jaunt, we got up early to watch the women’s marathon in 3 places (plenty of practice watching marathons from Dad running the London) and there were more spectators than I expected. There were a few polite claps sometimes, plenty of oohs and aahs at the 4 (yes, 4) helicopters flying overhead and some frustration from us when it started raining and a million umbrellas came out to block our view (temporarily, thankfully).

There was an attempt to get tickets to watch the track cycling that was unsuccessful, since the velodrome’s capacity is so limited –one hopes that in London they are redrawing the plans for the velodrome to allow 3million or more in to watch British success! Instead we hit some boxing for an hour or two where there were plenty of tickets available.

The highlight of another night at the athletics was being right by the front near the pole vault for the Russian woman’s new World Record which was pretty cool; decent atmosphere and all that. At the stadium we found the volunteers with the best job of the games (compared to those directing cars in car-parks or directing people through security barriers, or hauling hurdles all day long) –they had remote controlled cars (actually looking more like rocket ships) which they were driving all day long to and fro to collect the discus and bring it back to the throwers.

Another early morning start to watch the triathlon turned out to be well worth it, with the venue set in the countryside by a reservoir and mountains. Apart from the threat of the sun ruining everything (2 hours in 35 degree heat with no shade or sun-tan lotion at 11am) we really enjoyed watching the swimmers in front of us and then the runners and cyclists coming past as they did their laps. The added bonus of having a Brit in the top 4 for most of the race helped keep our spirits up, though he faded in the last lap of the run, unfortunately. With seats in front of the giant TV screen we watched the whole thing and had English commentary too (something missing from watching on regular TV)!

3 days in Xi’an tidying some things up in my penultimate week at Plan gave Dad more opportunities to try to be a tourist in China alone; though having me on the end of a mobile phone made his life somewhat easier! He did, though manage to get to, climb and get back from, a Mountain twice the size of the highest mountain in England in one piece (though having gone through two 70 pence backpacks!).

We’re now back in Beijing for the final weekend, and then everyone will start having to get used to a life after the Olympics; dread the thought!

The customer is never right

The Olympics have shown, yet again, that China want what is best for anyone apart the 'customer'; be it making life easy for customers, giving them useful products or anything else - what is convenient for customers is not important. Instead what is important is what is convenient for the other party, a couple of recent examples:

The government who does not think about the impact of visa policies on business, tourism or even the Olympics. Instead it created policies that are supposed to ensure security but as we have seen with at least 3 protests by foreigners so far, this has not worked. Keeping it relatively easy to get tourist visas but hard to get work visas does not stop potential trouble makers

The subway, who told me that, because my subway card stopped working, I had to get (and pay for) a new one or go to a special station to complain. So the deposit and value stored on my card can only be recovered at the cost of who knows how much time!

And what makes all this worse than other countries is the attitude that accompanies these decisions; which make it seem like the customer's fault (even if it is no-one's fault); wondering why the system is as it is, is to act/be stupid. This reflects Chinese society where no-one is allowed to question authority. This is an ancient cultural trait as well as the consequence of an authoritarian government.

There is never anything to be gained from arguing with, or questioning, a Chinese person or the Chinese system. You will never win and rarely feel better -even after slogging insults!

In a box

Yesterday I had a chance to walk around the Olympic Green (you need a ticket to get in), where the main stadiums are and the 12 main sponsors have built pavillions. The area is very park-like and the stadiums look impressive. Each of the pavillions was specific to the sponsor with different themes and all intended to be better than the others -some even had queues to get in they were so popular.

We only went inside 1 of them, the Coca-Cola one, though as VIPs we did not have to queue. I commented I must be the least important VIP of the entire games. After drinking lots of soft drinks and eating a meal at McDonalds (sponsor) that was somewhat unrecognisable from the usual salads they serve, we headed to the basketball stadium.

It's another brand new stadium that looks spectacular from both in and out. We had great views from the Coke box alongside the half-way line and felt suitably special :) The stadium was not full with 10% or so of the regular seats empty and many more of the media, reserved and other special seats empty too. So, the atmosphere was not incredible, even though it was China vs USA Women's.

The second game, Aus vs Brazil was much closer and Brazil staged a comeback from 25 points down to 8 at one point. Fortunately a lot of the spectators stayed after after the China game, and got noisily behind the Brazilians -though the biggest cheer of the night was when the cameras spotted the US Men's team who'd come to support their female counterparts.

There seems to be the need for a Wimbledon style scheme to re-sell used tickets and/or to make available those seats that are still unoccupied 20 mins after games begin. It seems plenty of stadiums have plenty of seats free, and some are almost empty by the end of the day (according to the BBC at the tennis).

Good news that 'Team GB' have 2 golds. I guess I saw the women's cyclist somewhere in the pack of women that rode by on sunday but I'll have to check my video recording in slow-mo!

The cycling -how close can the people get to the Olympics?

After an hour of indecision of where to watch the cycling -downtown might be crowded, foot bridges with good views might be closed, could i use the subway to watch in 2 places etc, i finally headed out into the suburbs. At the station exit, the volunteers did not know where the cyclists would pass exactly, even though i found the route 20m away. Most of the volunteers really only know such general information as to be rather useless it seems. My friend could not get answer to when the trains from nearby Tianjin would end as he has tickets to some football there and they did not know if they would be extended to help people get back to Beijing.

Apart from the rather useless volunteers wasting their time all over the city either having no-one to help or not being able to help, but satisfied with the addition to their CV; the other interesting group are the security.

I found some white barriers, all 4 different kinds of volunteers mingling nearby and 5 different types of security too. There was the regular police, the regular 'public security', special Olympic security, special Beijing city security and the cycling security as well as some other marshals or something. None of us watching (me being the only foreigner in a group of 300 or so at our spot) seemed to know who was in charge. Neither did the security, but they knew we had to be behind the tape. 1 of the security people realised we were supposed to be 6 metres from the road...so the tape was moved back.

Despite several loud protests (the Chinese love a good loud argument) we scuffled back and wondered when the cyclists would turn up. Until 15 min before they arrived the road was still open with plenty of regular traffic and the odd cyclist practicing for their later events to keep us on our toes and confuse us.

Fear not, when the lead 2 came through it was after at least 12 other cars (mostly typical black Audis with tinted windows and occasionally the odd flashing light) had actually stopped to inspect us and another 8 vehicles in the lead cavalcade including police coaches, police vans and other weird contraptions.

We got all excited for the 10 seconds from when we saw them till they had past and then looked for the 'pack'. 16 minutes later they turned up incredibly close together and then they were gone. It was all rather quick. Could only do 1 of a) watch, b) take photo, c) take video. I sort of managed b) and c) and ended up not really doing a)!!

Memories of 1st ever live Olympics event? Well it was a shame we could not just watch wherever we wanted to and string out along the road; it was cool to sort of feel in the spirit and since the race was not on tv, there's not much else to do!

Looking forward to the women's basketball Monday night though- It should last a bit longer than the cycling :) ....and the good news is that there has been a bit of wind and the pollution has cleared. woo hoo

It's started

We hired a room in a restaurant for the day and from 2pm started playing board games and mah jiang (traditional chinese game) whilst flicking between Toy Story and Olympic stuff on TV. After dinner we gradually got nearer 8pm and all kinds of friends of friends turned up to pack out little room.

During the ceremony itself we would sometimes dash to the window to see the fireworks (we were about a mile or two away from the stadium) and other times go 'ooh' or 'aah' especially when there were hundreds of incredibly well co-ordinated people doing fancy things with oars, drums, lights or (memorably) block letters of a printing press. We all liked the cute children that seemed to pop up every now and again though we weren't always sure why they were there.

Everyone else translated occasionally for me -not really the language parts but the meaning of the cultural relevance and we all generally thought it was very good. Then came the painful 2 hours of athlete/country introductions only punctuated by some cries of 'hao shuai' or 'mei nv' ='so handsome' or 'very beautiful girl'.

The mystery over the translation of Great Britain was solved (Chinese translation was 'England' rather than UK or GB, so I wonder what the non-English parts of GB think about that) and finally the huge Chinese team turned up, the speeches could me made, the athlete's vow taken (in Chinese only strangely -maybe its only the Chinese who might cheat, desperate as they are to be a national hero!) and the flame lit.

After midnight we wondered outside but the fireworks did not go on that long, so we all headed home. Finally IT has started. It really is impossible to understate the importance of IT for China domestically or Internationally; yet at the end of the day most events can only be watched on TV and it will be over in a couple of weeks.

None-the-less, I'll try to make the most of it, lookout for things to do and just read the numerous media stories that try desperately to find a new angle on the event or on China and wonder what will go wrong... be it pollution (absolutely awful today for the cycling) or security (already been 4 people kicked out the country for scaling a pole and hanging a 'free tibet' flag earlier in the week and some others kicked out for unfurling something similar in Tiananmen; though none reported in Chinese media of course).

More reports to come, but feel free to read or delete as you wish!

A special morning

After a few days in Xi'an (where i handed in my resignation effective end of August) me and John returned to Beijing this morning and took the bus from the West Station all through town to where we live in the East, through Tiananmen etc.

We actually came on the train from Tibet (though we got on at Xi'an) and it was not a particularly exciting journey, except the guy next to me had got 1 ticket to the opening ceremony from booking online last year and was traveling from Xi Ning (30 hours away) to Beijing for it. As we got closer to Beijing and light dawned we saw mist over the fields, but as we got into Beijing it was still 'misty' and even now, at 9.30am visibility is absolutely awful, which is a shame.

All the Olympic street signs had been up for months, even the scaffolding that was up around most key buildings making them look beautiful for the big day had been taken down last week. The first signs of the 'special day' was on the bus as the conductor was selling special tickets (just for today) and although most people had already used their card to swipe on, they still (me included) bought an extra 'special' ticket. Indeed, during the journey it became clear people were riding buses just to collect the special tickets (several different versions, only available today).

Next, from the bus, we noticed long lines outside all the post offices -of course today is the only day you can get special stamps commemorating the Olympics (unless there are more special ones on the closing plenary day too). John got a call from his friend -he had been queuing all night at a bank to get a special 10 Yuan note, only available today.

As we went through Tiananmen, it was closed for hundreds of cheer leaders who were practicing, it seems, for the cavalcades of important leaders who will be coming through for lunch with President Hu and the others. The TV on the bus informed everyone some roads will be closed for this lunch, as well as the torch relay as the torch makes its way to the stadium tonight.

The streets are very bare (apart from the legions of volunteers, police, army and all kinds of other 'groups') for a 9am rush hour -partly because everyone in Beijing gets the day off work today; a consequence of having the opening ceremony on a friday i suppose, but it had to be on the 8th -the special number that it is!

The week before...

In the mornings, many of the subway riders are wearing some kind of BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) badge; the armies of volunteers are out in force (rather bored it seems but enjoying their free kit from Adidas); the air has cleaned up (some well-timed rain maybe?); 2/3rds of all advertising in the central part of the city is Olympic related (either the City's adverts, or the many Olympic sponsors).

The traffic restrictions are still in force; the newspapers and websites around the world have established their subsites with hundreds of stories published daily; everyone is asking who has or has not got tickets; the athletes have mostly arrived; the country villages for athletes and journalists to hang out in are up and running (my flat mate works in the Italian one); companies are desperately wondering how to get their VIPs into the country because of the tightened visa restrictions (and rumours abound as to the potential to get into some of these special events at the last minute if you know the right people, because they might be half-empty!)

6 days to go...

Holiday in Jiangxi

Earlier this month, dashed down South for a quick holiday in Jiangxi -a province that is not really famous for anything really of note. However we paid a visit to Jindezhen, famous for its pottery (or China) I suppose. Here you can see a dragon made of pottery in the main square of the town. There really was not many signs of pottery left in the area; presumably it is all in mass production and factories mostly. However there was some karaoke in the local park that kep us busy (i.e. everyone paid more attention to us watching the karaoke than to the karaoke itself). Next we were off to Wuyuan county, and specifically to the least toursitic (but hopefully still pretty villages) we could find, since the area is getting increasinlgy well known for tourists.

The highlight of the trip was Likeng, a town that has not been touched for centuries, and even the tourist groups barely bother with spending more than 20 minutes there. Life still moves slowly, although the young people have, of course, moved elsewhere to earn money. The village has streams running through it and the houses are pretty untouched. Since the village was determined a suitable site for toursists in 2000 the government gives each village a certain amount of money (from the admission fee us tourists pay to enter the area) which boosts their income and, presumably, restricts the changes they can make to the homes.

Here, as with the other villages we went to), the locals had expanded their houses into hotels, where we stayed. In Xiaoqi we found 2 villages, 1 of which no-one went to and the other 1 of which there was only 2 coaches all day. It was not as pretty as Likeng, but we had a wonderful meal with a local guy who was an entrepreneur offering guide services and all sorts.

Food in his house involved a journey into the kitchen to see what they had (nothing) and then a list of possible items from his wife; she then went and picked the food and cooked it. Lovely and fresh! In between the two villages i took this fantastic picture, totally by luck, as the rain started coming down. The next village was near Jiangling, in an area famous for its yellow Rape. Except not the season we were there. So there was no-one there and everyone was surprised when a couple of foreigners wondered into the village looking for somewhere to stay.

After lunch (some rice that was cooked so it tasted like potato!) we were still hungry. How spoiled we are for food normally. Look at the grandfather, who evidently had been working hard and eating little all his life. We did not see him drink any beer, so it must have been his son (with a large beer belly) that the crates are for in the background (we were told it is cheaper to buy the beer in bulk!)

We went wondering up into the hills, found a canal (later were told it was taking water to a hydroelectric station to generate electicity), strolled along it till we came to a new road that was being built and ended up at Mountain Lake (3 hours later), where we found a house being dismantled tile by tile and a number of run-down delapidated hotels.

We also had a small problem when Andrea's sandle broke and had to hitch a lift with the old women who collect recylable rubbish once a fortnight to take to the town and collect money. In a truly memorable experience the 2 of us were squished in with 4 other women plus the driver as they drove at top (i.e. walking) speed to their destination dropping us off on the way. There is a short movie clip here.

And then, after 1 last night and more walking around the local countryside buying ice lollies it was time to leave. Although, from Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) it had taken us 1 over night train, 1 express bus, 1 local bus and a series of motorbike rides to get to this place, we were right next to a brand new expressway that goes to Shanghai in about 6 hours. If only we had a car like all the other Chinese tourists who were in the Wuyuan area!

2 weeks...

Back in Beijing after 3 weeks away, I eagerly anticipated riding the new subway that connects my home to my work and the blue skies. Alas, despite half the cars being off the road the sky was still blocked by smog. Word is that the power stations are running over time now to generate enough electricity to then be turned off during the games itself -ensuring clean skies during the games. If that is not the reason, then the government must be panicking, for what else can it do? Maybe it will just make it rain every night for a couple of hours.

Been receiving text messages recently (though not as often as others seem to be receiving them) which say something along the lines of:

Central Propaganda Dept, Central Civilised Dept, Central Foreign Propaganda Dept declaration on 16th July: "I wish the Olympics fortune, I wish the Olympics colour, I encourage the Olympics" Website with Q&A in multiple languages is online, you are welcome to register on the China Civilised Website and participate.

My translation is a little too literal, but you get the gist. China loves the word 'civilised' and anyone who has been here for a while quickly gets used to it and understands what they mean by it... just like that the government (stupidly) translates its Propoganda Dept as 'Propaganda' instead of using another word, like 'Information'!

Maybe the excitement of spending several days exploring villages and all things green got me going, because now i am back in the Beijing office, somewhat demotivated. It might also have been the excitement of the AIESEC Conference I ran for 5 days or seeing Andrea, or being in our Xi'an office. Plan's new Country Director starts next week so everyone in Xi'an was waiting with baited breath -obviously no pressure on him then!

I don't want to talk too much about the Olympics; after all in about a month they will be finished and everyone will have forgotten about the Paralympic games (though some companies seem to have changed their logos recently to include the Paralympic logo as well as the Olympic logo which is good) and life will be back to normal. China will have to find other things to say in the media to cover up the dire situation regarding inflation, water shortages, energy crises, climate change and countless other problems. Maybe it will be back to the Earthquake, showcasing all the wonderful work the government has done rebuilding homes etc.

Anyway, until that month, i guess it is all about the Olympics...and how many exciting corporate events will be happening on the side i can attend/slip into!

Back on the road

In more ways than one, I am back on the road. 1 of my new flat mates departed on Tuesday, leaving his bike behind for me to use. I now have a racing bike (rarely used) in Beijing, a mountain bike in Xi'an (will be used once i figure out a way to get it to Beijing!) and this cheap road bike.

Having not cycled around Beijing for close to 2 years (been back here almost a year without a bike and previously spent a year in Xi'an, where i cycled to/from work/chinese lessons every day); it has been somewhat exhilarating. It is so much faster than any other form of transport, yet so dangerous. In rush hour cars go wherever there is space: bike lanes, bus lanes or whatever -no matter where you want to go, there will always be a car trying to get there first.

There is no bright future for pollution in Beijing, as the government would never dream of restricting middle and upper classes from owning cars (apart from during and 2 weeks before the Olympics). This would annoy them -it is their right to have a car in order to spend the increasing wealth in Beijing, they would become dissatisfied with the government and that will never do. I suppose it is like guns in the USA. Both need to be restricted much more but not many governments are brave enough to do that. In particular Beijing is full of government employees cars and no government official with a car once to stop him/her self using it! Funny that London managed to do something -I suppose that the support of government in the UK is so low, it is not a problem if citizens are dissatisfied with their government even more!

The quality of cyclists seems to have improved though. Probably the slow or bad cyclists have given up by now, or upgraded to cars or buses. The new subway line should finally open this weekend, and then the number of cyclists should drop; whether then number of drivers will too is anyone's guess. And guessing is difficult in China -who would have thought 1 month before the Olympics Beijing is suffering from its worst pollution in years, even though June was its wettest June in 15 years (mostly rain induced by the government, one presumes, since it only rained temporarily each time -enough to clear the skies for 1 day and that was it).

But when it rained, the roads become swimming pools disrupting the traffic and all the water is presumably lost to evaporation or run-off, rather than stored in reservoirs or systems to be re-used. What is needed is good old British drizzle... for weeks to solve China's water crisis. But, apparently the government is determined to have a rain-free Olympics, so anytime rain clouds might threaten (August is supposed to be in the 'wet' (though hardly 'wet' by SE Asian standards) season), they will disperse them. Seems strange to have such a need to control the weather all the time. I guess the Chinese athletes are not sued to doing sports in the rain and it might give other countries' athletes an advantage!

I am also back traveling; after 2 weeks in Beijing, it is time to go to Hong Kong for a few days work, Jiangxi for a few days holiday and Wuhan for several days.

Taking more than your fair share hurts

This year seems to be year when, finally, those individuals and countries who have for so long been using so many resources started to realise that, though these people and countries are still the richest countries, they are going to have to change.

There just are not enough resources (especially at current ways of using them) to provide a 'good standard of living' (aka Western standard of living) for everyone. So the more we life the poor out of poverty, the more they are going to be putting us into poverty, by making everything we want to buy more expensive. Fantastic irony!

Who would have thought that China could force the Americans to use less oil, simply by using more oil themselves! Who could have thought that one possible solution to the West's obesity crisis is developing countries increasing obesity crisis? Unfortunately what is more likely is that Westerners and Developing countries will just eat more processed food, unhealthily cooked food and get lazier and lazier.

Apparently 22% of Chinese are obese. If they are, then how am I still alive.... their level of obesity must be somewhat different to us 'Westerners'!

So as the World starts to realise that we are all using too much energy, too much water, too much food and too many other resources (and the world's population continues to grow, now at 6.6bn) what is going to happen? Well, individuals will complain to their politicians; politicians will be expected to do something -i.e. complain to other countries and the World will continue to make no progress.

Thankfully good old capitalism should come to our rescue as all these higher prices for scarcer commodities create incentives for people to find better alternatives. And this is why China is always in the news: not just because it is causing all these price rises, but because it must be at the forefront of any new ideas. Otherwise there are hundreds of millions of people who will not be able to afford what they want, and what they expect!

Today i felt like i had to write something positive, because the greyness has been so depressing and unbearable. A few hours of rain clears the skies...but the next day the smog is back. Just as everything seemed to be getting better -and should be getting better because of the Olympics, it is pretty clear that is not. So, though all cars and factories and who knows what else will be banned during the Olympics; there is no way that is a sustainable solution. So we can all look forward to the return, and increasing, smog after the Olympics.

But, to be positive.... many of the new technologies in factories and boilers are permanent, more efficient, 'cleaner', and new subway lines are coming online... and, well, tomorrow we are screening a film that shows that nature can heal itself incredibly quickly and better than we could ever believe (if we leave it alone and let it). www.earthshope.org is a glimpse that maybe there is hope yet!

In the meantime, the Chinese are starting to realise they cannot blame the West -because that will not solve the problem. They have to shut-up and get on with solving these many problems, because, they are the ones who will suffer! And simultaneously, the West is going to realise (as they have started to by investing in carbon reducing projects in the developing world) that they key to our own survival is really, truly, helping developing countries overcome these global problems.

Usually, if you wanted to be a hermit and ignore the rest of the World through TV, internet, Phones and World Cups, you could do...to be a part of globalisation you had to be active (indeed, unfortunately, many in Africa are denied the opportunity to actively take part in globalisation through trade subsidies and poor governments) but now, now we are realising we cannot even be passive and ignore globalisation -because our food, energy and water are getting more expensive, our climate is changing and new health epidemics are constantly on the horizon that we cannot avoid.

China and the West. So different, yet so similar.

Restoring something to actually look orginal!

Today, i read the following:

Visitors from around the world can now leisurely savor China's traditional architectural beauty at the Imperial College in Beijing, about 400 years after the first foreign students were sent there to sit tough Chinese exams.

The school, and the adjacent Confucian Temple, were formally re-opened on Saturday after three years' renovation.

Though, the reopening of Confucian Temple which is one of the best places in Beijing that no-one goes to (it is 1 minute away from the Lama Temple which everyone goes to), is good news, it is not the exciting part, which is:

The project aimed to reinforce and repair the centuries-old structures while keeping them "as original as possible," said Yu Ping, vice head of the Beijing Municipal Administrations of Cultural Heritage.

"We did not repaint the ancient patterns on the beams or remove the faded glazed tiles on the roofs because we do not want to lose the antique flavor," she said.

After the face-lifts, the two sites are now basically what they were in olden times, in terms of the layout and scale, Yu added.

Wow. This must be the first time any historic attraction has not been 'restored' by being freshly painted looking to look like it was only just finished! I have yet to go visit the 'restored' Temple but I cannot wait to see if it is true. If it is I might just agree with the comment:

The temple, which looks very authentic, is what I expected to see here in China," said Vishal Shorma, a Singaporean tourist.

Could this be a turning point for Chinese tourist attraction restoration work? Could China finally be realising that the beauty in ancient sites is lost once it becomes 'brand new' again, and that foreigners can only value how old China is if China actually looks old! Too many times, and i really mean, TOO MANY times have I seen re-painted monuments, statues, temples, shrines and everything else besides and not only does it annoy me, it makes all these repainted attractions look identical!

On a less happy note, China has, in the last few months changed its visa regulations with particularly bad timing, bad communications and illogical explanations. It seems they want to 1) keep 'bad' people out of China who might cause trouble during the Olympics and b) make it harder for foreigners to work in China if they are taking away jobs from Chinese people.

Both reasons are fine, but the solutions are ridiculous. It is of course still relatively easy to get a tourist visa (and if you can come here for 30 days, that is enough time to cause trouble, surely?) but it is now very hard to come here for longer than that and this affects entrepreneurs, those working for charities or those working in SMEs, since the only other option is to get an official work visa (instead of a 'working visa' which is now no longer available) which requires an official company to apply on your behalf, much hassle and a trip back to one's home country to reapply for such visa.

If they want to make it harder for foreigners to work in China, that is fine (though slightly crazy bearing in mind how dependent China is on foreign trade), but why make the changes with only 2 month's notice and why before the Olympics, whilst everything else is happening, and why not tell people, and why not universally implement the regulations (every different visa office around the world, or 'visa extension' office in different cities in China are translating the confusing regulations differently)?

It has led to a drop in tourism, it has led to people jumping ship to hang out in hong kong or Thai beaches for the summer and it has even led people to just going home and finding jobs elsewhere. It is just crazy, though fortunately does not affect me (touch wood)!

Too many apartments

The 1st apartment I lived in was an old 20 story Chinese building and I spent about 5 months living on a camp bed in the living room (that was also the office in the daytime) though the bathroom did not have a Western style toilet, sharing the apt with 1 Chinese girl and 1 Australian girl. Rent =0; the 2nd was in an old 6 story Chinese building and I spent about 5 months living in my own double bedroom sharing the apt with a Chinese girl. Rent =100 pounds a month; the 3rd was in a modern 25 story building and I spent 1 year living in bunk beds with 3 other guys (Indian, Slovakian, Chinese) in 1 room (this time there was a living room AND an office room) and there were 2 Chinese girls in the other room. Rent =50 pounds a month.

Then, the 4th was in a modern 25 story building (this time in Xi'an) and I had the study room (converted into a bedroom with 1 of those raised beds that had my wardrobe underneath) for 6 months sharing the apt with a Chinese guy. Rent =0 (though had to furnish the room); the 5th was a slightly lower quality building 100m down the road and I actually rented that apartment myself, sharing with an Australian girl for about 4 months. Rent =50 pounds a month; the 6th was only temporary (3 months) 200m back the other way in a run-down 6 story Chinese place that had a pipe for a shower, coming out on top of a true 'hole in the floor' and no kitchen (not that i ever use one). Rent =10 pounds a month.

Back in Beijing, the 7th is the nicest so far in a very well built 30 story building with en-suite and everything. Rent =100 pounds a month. Tonight I am leaving for apartment number 8; back in the same complex as number 3, though this time with a room to myself (and thus higher rent). Hopefully I won't be moving anywhere else soon, but who knows...

I have accumulated one hell of a lot of stuff in close to 4 years; 3 large rucksacks worth of clothes, 2 suitcases of files, several bags of shoes/sandles etc, several bags of wash stuff (so many free shampoos and toothbrushes etc), lots of bedding, lots of camping gear, lots of computer gear and who knows what else is in the other bags. Oh well, time to look a fool trying to take it all downstairs to the taxi. Happy Children's Day everyone (though I believe it is only celebrated in China)!

Earthquake's wider impact

Everyone is talking about the earthquake; the media is blanketed with it, Chinese people are all continuing to fund raise, bloggers discuss the most and least generous celebrity/company/entrepreneur etc, volunteers pile in to help, charities organise fundraiser events, Foreign governments donate supplies (the country has run out of tents!) and everyone competes to donate even more.

For those westerners here, we have been eagerly anticipating the Olympics, not because of the sports but because of everything else that it will affect. Now we have the earthquake and the impact is incredible -the Olympics will be boring in comparison.

Every company is competing who can donate more and employees donate more and more by the day, government departments set a mandated minimum donation from public servants, companies that do not loudly say how much they have donated run the risk of being boycotted (and many have, e.g. McDonalds branches being forced to print flyers saying how much they donated, as customers were concerned they had not). Will it affect all the other causes that need money? Will businesses do anything above and beyond cash donations?

The whole country has learnt what a charity/NGO is and they are, for the first time, not only being motivated (by media, peer pressure, guilt etc) to help, have found a way to help by donating..and there are plenty who can afford to donate. The amounts are staggering. Will it kick start the charity sector in China? Will it kick start a new conscience amongst the urban rich?

During the 3 minute silence the country came to a standstill and made a noise, during the 3 days of mourning it was so intense websites literally stopped publishing any non-earthquake news, some people were beaten up for celebrating a birthday party and you were unpatriotic if you did not buy a flag, a sticker and a 'I love China' t-shirt. Great that the patriotism was no longer channeled against Westerners (because we all, of course, want to split China up) and was just a solidarity thing for those affected. Will this last or will the patriotism quickly turn anti-someone else? Will it be noted that foreigners living here donated so much and that foreign aid has come from other governments or will that be swallowed up in the media? Will the fact that Taiwan provided experts be the start of some closer collaboration between the two?

As there are so few charities in China; especially few that are allowed to fundraise and are capable of managing such amounts of money, all the corporate, foreign, individual donations have all gone to just 3 or 4 organisations. Whether they will be transparent with their spending is one issue; another is whether they will sub-contract to local charities, who are always desperate for funding, yet another is will all the other charities who are piling in to the affected areas to help (from other regions in China) mark a step growth in the scale and capacity of the sector in China?

Unfortunately a second outlet for people's desire to help has been through flying or driving to Sichuan to volunteer. The result is scary. Even without the volunteers the army themselves lacked equipment and training. The volunteers blocked the roads, used up scarce water and food, got in the way and most of all, did not even realise they were making things worse not better. Most just ended up taking photos and showing all their friends back home. Some did this because they could not find anything productive to do; others actually went to the affected area with the objective of taking photos and showing off how they 'helped'. Will this lead to a huge increase in volunteering in China and will charities improve their abilities to manage such volunteers? Is it just a skin-deep act of showing off and will put all charities off using volunteers & all true volunteers from volunteering?

There are so many aspects to the impact of this earthquake to keep everyone talking. For many Chinese though, they are starting to get fed up of the horror and the depressing images. Outside of China everyone compares the relatively efficient government response to the Americans' mess-up in New Orleans and the Burmese Generals selfishness and evilness; Charities fear they cannot raise more money for Burma as the media has such poor access to the country there are few images/updates available on the news; Corporations admit China's market is just a little more important than Burma's (hence their massive donations to China in comparison) despite the lack of domestic funding resources in Burma compared to China.

Plan is doing something and I will share details of that later for those interested. In the meantime www.china-crossroads.com is the place to go for updates. I was actually in the air when the earthquake struck, on my was to Bangkok for a 2 day work trip (followed by a few days holiday in Malaysia), and just got back on Tuesday night to the furore, here in Shanghai (Olympic torch was in town, so everyone was super-patriotic!)

Reflections on the Earthquake

I have been in Bangkok for 2 days at a Plan regional meeting, and was on the way there as the Earthquake struck. My colleagues at the meeting are highly experienced in disaster relief, unfortunately, due to our projects in Pakistan and Tsunami affected areas. Plan China's work has not been too badly affected, though hundreds of houses and tens of schools in the villages we work, about 400km from the epicentre were damaged.

Now, we must decide what we will do in response, since we have no experience in disaster relief in China, nor do we work in the areas directly affected. However, as Plan and others recognise, after the first 2 weeks of rescuing survivors, comes the incredibly hard job of rebuilding villages, schools, communities, water systems, food supplies, livelihoods and so on.

In these areas, Plan China does have expertise, and if we couple this with the expertise from our Asian colleagues in child-centred disaster relief planning participation, socio-emotional support programs and the other programs. We have a number of reports on what we did well and what we did badly in the Tsunami affected areas especially, so we will have to see what Plan China decides to do.

As terrible as the earthquake has been, the western media is now starting to focus on the wider impacts on China and, possibly, some silver linings. Money is not the problem -the government does not lack money, and neither do many of its middle/upper class citizens and Chinese/Foreign businesses -all of whom who are donating spectacular amounts. What is the problem is managing and coordinating the resources, departments and organisations involved.

What the disaster might lead to is a more free media, a greater focus on preventing disasters, less attention on the Tibet/Olympics issue and, most importantly, an opportunity. An opportunity to rebuild communities, that were already quite poor, with a focus on the elderly, women or children; an opportunity to ensure a corruption-free rebuilding project where villagers get fair compensation, quality homes etc; an opportunity to make the communities better than what they were before with more attention to environmental issues for the new buildings; an opportunity for community involvement in decision making and reconstruction efforts etc.

We will have to see what happens; we can, i am sure, all hope for the best for the victims in China and those in Myanmar, whose situation is undeniably bleak in comparison to China. China is fortunate to have a relatively competent government, a wealthy government, a strong capable private sector, an open (though not free) media and the desire to do what is best for its people. If only Myanmar was the same.

After the rain

Yesterday was beautiful, with not just clear blue skies but also (unusually) some wisps of cloud floating through the sky. The perfect weather to overcome a hangover by spending a few hours in some of Beijing's beautiful parks which are being replanted with flowers (everything dies in winter and gets replanted in the spring). The day was only ruined because the DVD i watched stopped working 15 mins before the end :(

Today, the sky is blue but the pollution has started to return -1 day more of solid traffic and the sun will be hidden once again... until it rains again, like it did on Saturday, which cleared the skies and alleviated Beijing's water shortage for a couple more days. Thankfully it only started pouring down after me and Chris had got off the Great Wall into a bus. We'd spent the entire previous day hiking and (literally) climbing the Great Wall with 5 girls.

Unfortunately the girls all bailed out and got a ride back to Beijing Friday night, wasting all the camping gear they had carried for 10 hours; leaving me and Chris to spend the night alone in one of the guard towers atop the Wall. I fell asleep looking through the tower entrance at a the stars, though didn't sleep too well because of the worry some night-time hikers might stumble (literally) onto us during the night.

We'd already had to deal with 2 hikers who wondered through at 11pm, a Chinese couple who must be crazy to be hiking in the dark over such dangerous terrain. Though we were relieved to hear one of the voices was female as they approached we still hid as they walked through our tower -with us on the top!

The long holiday over (Thursday was int'l workers day, the weekend was moved to be Friday and Saturday and Sunday was a holiday for youth to commemorate youth day) I'm in Beijing for a week before heading to Bangkok for a couple days work and Malaysia for a quick break.

Chinese wedding

An affair that is a curious combination of East meets West. The wedding couple take millions of photos before the wedding in full wedding dresses then, on the big day everyone meets at the husband's home to smoke, eat fruit and eat sweet things. Guests cannot say no to anything, of course.

With the bang of firecrackers the couple arrive at the house with cameras flashing and the groom carries his new wife into his bedroom that has been decked out in red and double 'xi' 喜喜 everywhere. After photos of the couple on the bed and in the house (the whole wedding really is about photos!) everyone goes to the nearby hotel for the wedding lunch to give a red envelope of money to the couple upon their greeting at the entrance. More sweets, more cigarettes and then the celebrations begin.

The wedding I went to is a colleague of mine... you can imagine that charity workers are not the richest, so it was no fancy shanghai 5 star hotel or anything (more like a 2 star, but still looking nice); in fact my other colleagues who went, and are not from the local area the bride is from, could not really understand the local accent. Me, well i had no chance :)

Everything seems informal as no-one dresses up for the occasion apart from the couple themselves and bridesmaid/best man, kids run around screaming, cigarettes/nuts/Sunflower seeds litter the floor in seconds and nothing seems well organised; but of course this is China so everyone takes it in turn to go on stage and wish the couple well (in the mean time the cold dishes sit on the table untouched, which is remarkable!); they both go around the tables drinking with everyone and the parents do their utmost to keep order!

Once the eating has finished, everyone ups and leaves with another quick photo and thanks and then the bride, groom, bridesmaid etc go back into the dining area to finally eat! With wedding invites sent out just a couple of weeks before it is quite different from the very big deal we make of weddings in the West. Though the wedding dress, wedding music and honeymoon are all imitated here; there are a number of traditional Chinese customs, such as red everywhere, 'xi' everywhere, speeches and drinks etc. Overall a rather strange experience, and somewhat anti-climatic, but still pleasant and the bride, Li Na, looked incredible!

Under the Malaysian sea

Malaysia photos

Philippine Photos

Under the surface of Malaysia

Now, after a day of work, I am writing this whilst sitting on a beach at a candle-lit table waiting for the BBQ to be ready. The afternoon was spent lying in the sun, finally getting a few hours sleep, enjoying the air, sun and sea views. I chose one of the medium-size beaches on the Perhentian Kecil island, with about 6 restaurants/cafes/bars, 5 chalet style accommodation options and 2 dive shops. Of course most people are couples, but they are all friendly and open at the bar!
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Yesterday was my first wreck dive which was pretty cool, although the visibility was not that high. The second dive was a traditional 'coral and fish' dive and had more to see. A night spent sitting on the beach at the 'bar' with candles in the sand, chilled out music playing and slightly drunken conversations followed.

The last dive was the best, seeing some sharks, turtles, stonefish and generally swimming around amongst scholes of fish the entire time; swimming eye-to-eye alongside many of them is very cool... somewhat humbling as the fish show how superior to humans they really are - and truly beautiful, of course the corals are stunning too. And everything down there has evolved in its own way, with own colours for a reason.

I took the bus to the airport to fly back to KL and, as the area near the islands is particularly Muslim, found my fellow passengers to be entirely Women dressed with a headscarve and beautiful, flowery dresses. Malaysia is a great example, even more so than Turkey, of a country with many Muslims that can successfully modernise and where Muslims can live in harmony with Chinese, Christians, Hindus and so on.

Having said that it seems they are not really creating a single Malay identity (as the UK tries to do with its immigrants) but allows them to live separate identities alongside each other, to some extent -a policy the UK tried and declared a failure...leading to a segregation of ethnic groups and conflicts. I'll have to find some Malaysians to ask more about how they think their ethnic groups coexist, or otherwise.

The last day was spent (well, 4 hours of it -which is enough) exploring KL's squares, mosques, buildings, shops, ethnic quarters and so on. It seems a delightful city, easy to be in and get around in, clean and simple, relatively small and cheap. Only the heat and humidity bothered me, which was really high on the last day.

The flight back was packed with chinese tour groups (either Chinese from China or Malaysian Chinese), most of whom had never flown b4, and this is always an interesting experience as they struggle to adapt from the Train to the Plane... not turning phones off, standing up 10 secs after take off and touch down (only for a hostess to rush over and shove them back into their seats), sitting next to their friends rather than in their allocated seats (and walking back up the plane to find their friends while everyone else is still boarding) and so on. Well, its good to be back, I suppose!