Head in the Trees

Blogger is working properly again, so I decided to post a photo for Friday. This is a Buddha head that is being housed in a banyan tree. When Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, was destroyed, so were the numerous Buddha statues. This banyan grew around the head, creating a spiritual image for Buddhist visitors. With the a small fence surrounding it, taking a good picture of this can be a little complicated.

Squat at Your Own Risk

You better watch where you squat when you visit Beijing for the Olympics. According to "Tiger Temple" blogger (in Chinese, translated on Global Voices), there was a fire in a portable toilet near the Bird's Nest in Beijing. Cause of the fire are yet unknown and probably being withheld to avoid embarrassment.

If my personal adventures in Chinese toilets are any indication, my conspiracy theory on the cause of the fire would involve poor ventilation, plenty of methane gas, and an improperly discarded cigarette.

My advice is to avoid public toilets. But, if you must attend to the call of nature, be sure there is enough ventilation and that no one is smoking.

All About Shenzhen

I came across an amazing article in Esquire by Colby Buzzell about Shenzhen (thanks to Laowaijohn at Twitter). This is quite possibly the best portrayal of the city since Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones (except that this one doesn't focus as much on history). It's a bit lengthy and almost a year old, but well worth reading.

Reading through "Digging a Hole All the Way to America" I noticed the reactions of people who arrive in Shenzhen for the first time--it's all very much the same. Having lived here for almost three years, much of what is written is fairly common knowledge. However, there are moments of amusement when depicting everyday scenes on the street. There's also a reminder of why I don't like bars in Shekou--the foreigners the writer meets are not exactly the desirable acquaintances of the city.

Some of my favorite parts:

The Americans have complained that so many of their products are being hijacked by bootleggers, and the Chinese say they're cracking down, but somebody forgot to tell the bootleggers of Shenzhen. In fact, a fun game to play is the find-something-that's-not-a-fake game.

The heavy metal music of construction is all around you as you walk the streets down there, and you can't help but feel, see, and hear the city expand with every step you take.

He tells me that the Chinese soul is being lost thanks to the fast economic development and modernization, and that it is happening way too fast.

Soaked and Fake

It's been raining for the better part of the last week. Yesterday and today have been the worst with constant downpours. We're getting more rain than we did when the tail-end of the typhoon past through a while back. Fortunately, my area and university campus have decent drainage and there hasn't been any flooding. But, it does ruin plans for the three-day weekend with flooded roads to potential destinations. It looks like we get to spend the days inside watching TV and reading.

I was struck a little bit ago with a common gripe--finding a fake 1 Yuan coin. Identifying a fake coin is quite difficult. Generally, the fakes are slightly thinner than the real thing. Also, most fakes don't have any printing on the edge. For some reason, the one I had today actually had that printing.

I asked my students Thursday why people would bother making these. They responded with: "You can make a lot of money." This argument doesn't make sense seeing as it takes too much effort to make a lot of money 1 Yuan at a time (not to mention the cost of actual production). Is it really worth counterfeiting such small sums?

All The Muck That's Fit To Rake

Photo Friday is canceled this week due to a problem with the hamsters powering the Internet. For some reason I'm not getting the full features of Blogger at the moment. Therefore, I present some news and commentary.

Today, China Daily released a story about 16 Tibetan monks who were arrested for three separate bombings and plots. This news is a little late, as these incidents occurred in April--shortly after the March 14 riot in Lhasa. Very few details were mentioned in the article. The question now is why does the government feel that it is an appropriate time to publish this information in the newspaper? Could it be that most of the Chinese citizens have forgotten what happened a few short months ago? Or is it that foreign media have been more sympathetic to China in recent weeks due to the situation in Sichuan? With any reason, it was buried within the paper.

In earthquake news, China Vanke Co., the largest publicly-traded real estate company in China, has vowed to donate 100 million Yuan to help rebuild homes in Sichuan province. Apparently, the company is doing this to make amends for its paltry original donation of 2 million Yuan, which received excessive amounts of disdain from Chinese netizens. As part of its public humiliation, Vanke chairman Wang Shi resigned. On this news, the stock rose 4.7%. However, that still doesn't erase its 29% plummet for this year.

Baggin' the Environment

China has officially entered the world of forceful environmental protection. As of June 1, the government mandated that all stores must charge customers for the use of plastic bags and that said plastic bags must adhere to strict quality requirements. Supposedly, there will be checks on shops to ensure that they are charging a minimal fee (anywhere from 1 to 5 jiao, depending on size).

This is the first effort China has made to curb its use of an estimated 3 billion plastic bags a day--that number is taken from the Chinese news, not Western news sources. This is certainly music to the ears of environmentalists and tree-huggers worldwide.

There are, however, some minor negative effects to this plan. The first being the cost to the poor. Reusable bags at the major stores range in price from 3 RMB to 30 RMB (Jusco is far too expensive sometimes). Still, the cost isn't a huge burden to the poor of the country who will probably find some way to cope. The second problem is that many plastic bag manufacturers have had to adapt to new regulations or close their doors, costing jobs (usually a side effect of any environmental legislation). Finally, there's the loss of free garbage bags. Most people here reuse the larger plastic bags for use as trash bags. Now, we'll have to go out and purchase trash bags when the supply at home runs out.

Next, I'd like to see China tackle the abundant use of styrofoam and excessive packaging of products in multiple wrappers.

Review: Iron Man

Marvel found a winner in turning Iron Man into a movie. Unlike the comic flops of recent memory, the writers realized that an action movie is always better when it focuses on the story rather than the action and special effects. Aside from the ending action sequence, most of the special effects scenes are rather brief.

I was never a fan of the Iron Man comic books--I may have read one or two in the past, but I don't remember it that well. The movie is obviously updated, with a storyline involving terrorists in what appears to be Afghanistan. It opens with the life-altering situation for weapons developer Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). He realizes that his weapons aren't just used to protect his country, but also to attack it. There's significant opposition to Stark's plans of running a responsible corporation. His partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), marginalizes Stark's influence and continues some shady dealings all in the name of profits (doesn't sound so far fetched).

Iron Man is certainly an enjoyable movie. The performances from Downey, Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow were very good (I haven't watch a film with any of them in quite some time). There were some parts near the beginning that could probably have been cut to speed up the action without much effect on the story. The man who helps Stark in Afghanistan, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), is a great character, but is completely forgotten half way through the movie. The film runs 126 minutes, which is a little lengthy for an action movie.

On Tour with Buddha

We chose to visit Leshan on my second journey through Chengdu in August of 2006. We booked a tour through the Wenjunlou Hotel--a private car and guide for a full day outside the city.

Maggie, our guide, met us at the hotel early in the morning to arrive at the Giant Buddha (乐山大佛) before the vacationing crowds. There was already quite a crowd by the time we got there, but it only got worse as the day went on. Unlike our two tours in Beijing a week prior, our guide this time spoke English quite well and didn't pressure us to rush through the sites or purchase any tourist junk.

The Giant Buddha was carved out of the mountain beginning in the 8th century under the supervision of a monk named Hai Tong. The Buddha overlooks the meeting of three rivers to protect ships that pass through (prior to this time, many ships were lost in the river). Hai Tong lived in a cave in the mountain during the sculpting and never saw the completed work because he supposedly gouged his eyes out when faced with officials trying to extort money from the project.

As we entered the park and walked along the trails through the mountain that is home to this enormous seated Buddha, Maggie provided us with bits of history and other conversation unrelated to our day of sightseeing. She pointed us to the line that led to steps down to Buddha's feet--we decided we should get in line before it grew any longer. From this point we could only see the top of Buddha's head.

The line was slow, but fortunately well shaded. August in this part of situation is also unbearably hot and humid--it was actually worse than Shenzhen. Along the steps down the mountain, we met a friendly woman with her daughter. She was surprised to hear that we had come to Sichuan after visiting Xinjiang, which happened to be her home province. I sent Jia a text message about meeting someone from Xinjiang in Leshan. Jia sent a message back from the train to Shenzhen saying that she just met someone from New Jersey. Strange timing for a coincidence.

As we greeted Buddha's feet, we realized just how immense this statue carved out of the mountain really was. Buddha is 71 meters tall--and figures and photos don't even come close to the feeling one gets from seeing this statue up close.

The area surrounding the Giant Buddha is beautiful, with many trails and small sites. With the heat and humidity, however, we didn't have the energy to see anything else that day. On our ride back to Chengdu, Maggie offered to take us to places we hadn't yet visited. As this was our last day in Chengdu, we thanked her and said we had seen everything we wanted.
Supposedly, the statue was not damaged during the recent earthquake.

I'm a Doppelganger

I got used to being told I look like people, but it wasn't until I moved to China that I was told I resembled anyone famous. Is it considered a compliment when they choose to say I look like Vladamir Lenin or Karl Marx? I've encountered this a few times now.

Return to Photo Friday

I'm trying to remember to keep it simple for photo Fridays. Unfortunately, I'm having a difficult time remembering what photos I've used on this blog in the past few years.

This is the Bell Tower in Xi'an in August 2006. It was one of the friendliest cities I've visited in China. Just around the corner is the Muslim Quarter, where I met a nice shopkeeper who tried to converse with me in Chinese (although my ability was quite lacking at the time). I've also heard similar stories from other foreigners in China about how friendly the people of Xi'an can be.

Mixed Bag

The past few days have been pretty good. There's been a wide variety of positive actions going on around me.

Yesterday, I had a PhD student from last term stop by my office. He wanted to thank me for helping him with his writing last term. He asked me to edit his article because it had been rejected by some publication, but his writing wasn't good enough to find and correct the mistakes. It turns out, he just got published. I congratulated him and asked him to bring by a copy of the journal for me to read. He also gave me some really nice iron Buddha tea--apparently it's from a well-known brand around here.

On my way home, I got on the bus with one of the Pakistani students. I had met him briefly in December, but didn't remember much about him. We spent the next half hour on the bus having some very pleasant conversation. At least now I can remember his name for the next time I run into him.

And today, on the school bus home, I shocked a couple people by asking the driver if he could stop further up the street (a more complicated sentence than you'd think) because I didn't want to walk through the construction site. After agreeing, the driver said a few kind words about my Chinese. I also had a short conversation with one of the Chinese professors before stepping off the bus. I really should find more excuses to talk with these people--they're not comfortable speaking English, and they're always excited when I speak a little Chinese.

My Kingdom for a Paper Clip

I never realized how complicated a paper clip could be. A while back, I asked a coworker how to say paper clip in Chinese. Rather than tell me, she said she'd go to the copy room to get some for me. They didn't have any, but they'd get them soon, I was told. I forgot about it until today.

I spoke to my coworker on the phone and asked how to say it again. It took a while to get an answer. Wen zhen jia, I was told after the wait. With this knowledge on a scrap of paper, I headed over to the copy room. I memorized the word and asked for it--the woman in the copy room appeared to understand. Then she held up plastic folders to give to me. I said, "No, wen zhen jia." She explained that it was. I was lost.

Fortunately, another professor was in the room. She spoke English and tried to help. I explained what I wanted, but she too looked confused. Finally, I found a binder clip and showed her. I now had my small box of binder clips to help organize my students' assignments.

The professor explained that wen zhen jia is a formal word in Chinese and has many meanings. It can be used for binder clips, binders, folders, staples, and paper clips (there might also be some other things in there). Apparently, you have to use this word AND explain what kind you'd like. This was later confirmed by my coworkers who listened to my story of confusion.

Unfortunately, after all that, I still have no clue how to properly ask for a paper clip.

More on Sichuan

A view of Sichuan on the road south to Chengdu.

Today I was relieved to hear from my only Sichuanese student. I asked if his family was safe, and he said they were fine but they couldn't return to their home. He also thanked me for caring enough to ask.

I also found that about a quarter of my class wanted to get out to Sichuan to help in relief efforts. This made me feel much better about my group of students. This also happens to be one of my more enjoyable classes--they tend to put in more effort than some of the others.

For any of you out there who wants to read a great article, Peter Hessler (author of Oracle Bones) has written about the earthquake in The New Yorker. It's interesting to hear Hessler's comments on Chinese culture in times of disasters. He also has excerpts of letters from his former students in Sichuan province.

A Moment for Sichuan

There isn't much I can do for the earthquake victims while I sit at home doing work for school. I'll ask Jia later if there is any way to donate some clothes to Red Cross in Shenzhen (assuming they have an office here).

I thought I'd share a photo from one of my two trips to Sichuan province--this is from Chengdu, one of my favorite places to visit. The sites were beautiful, the culture was wonderful, and the people were friendly. I'm fairly certain this was a tea performance on Qingtai Lu. (Another Sichuan post here.)
For anyone interested in helping the relief effort, you can donate online to the Red Cross Society of China: www.redcross.org.cn
If the link doesn't work (it hasn't been working for a lot of people lately), check out the American Red Cross and choose where to donate your money (you can also donate to help the people of Myanmar).

Non-Earthquake Stuff

Everyone blogging in China is writing about the earthquakes in Sichuan. So everyone knows, we're fine here in Shenzhen--didn't feel a thing, which is surprising considering I'm pretty sure we're closer to the epicenter than Beijing.

While the others keep you up to date on the relief situation, I have other things to think about here. Later today, I have a going away party for four friends. One is getting transferred back to the states against his will, one is leaving for greener pastures (not sure where), and two are leaving because they can't get working visas because they are not native English speakers, even though they speak better than most English teachers I've met.

As they all go back home (or close to it), I'm staying here thinking about home a bit. I received quite a few emails asking if I was OK after the earthquake (mostly because people don't know where everything is in China). It reminds me that I have caring friends and family to return to when the time comes for me to leave China.

Capitalism Comes to China

My friend from Beijing stayed with us a while back. He brought Monopoly--the China edition. I love the irony of the capitalist board game in a communist country. The only difference between the China edition and the regular one is that all the Atlantic City names are changed to Chinese cities. Plus they added a zero to all the prices and money (inflation).

Absent from the Chinese cities on the board are Taipei, Lhasa, Hong Kong, and Macau. But they did keep Urumqi on it. I was disappointed that Mao's face doesn't appear anywhere--nor does Deng Xiaoping.

We're trying to make the game more fun and thinking of ways to make it more Chinese (or at least communist). We'll do our best to rewrite the community chest and chance cards. We'll certainly begin our new rules with returning property to the bank after 70 rounds.

If you have suggestions for rules, let me know.

Olympic Communications

Last year I had the opportunity to teach English to 40 police officers in Bao'an district. This was the entire foreign affairs department of the district's public security bureau. The training center's staff was instructed to teach from Olympic Security English by Wang Sheng'an. This is apparently the official handbook for China's police to learn English.

The small textbook covers topics ranging from lost tourists and missing property to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, I found it rather lacking.

The book is filled with out-dated English and rather dull dialogues. One of the major problems I found was that all the foreigners in the situations were extremely honest idiots--they easily broke down and confessed their crimes.

One of my favorites is the chapter on "How to Stop Illegal New Coverage". You can make your own judgments about press freedom. Here's the dialogue (pages 20-22):

Police: Excuse me, sir. Stop, please.
Reporter: Why?
Police: Are you gathering news here?
Reporter: Yes.
Police: About what?
Reporter: About Falungong.
Police: Show me your press card and reporter's permit.
Reporter: Here you are.
Police: What news are you permitted to cover?
Reporter: The Olympic Games.
Police: But Falungong has nothing to do with the games.
Reporter: What does that matter?
Police: It's beyond the permit.
Reporter: What permit?
Police: You're a sports reporter. You should only cover the games.
Reporter: But I'm interested in Falungong.
Police: It's beyond the limit of your coverage and illegal. As a foreign reporter in China, you should obey China law and do nothing against your status.
Reporter: Oh, I see. May I go now?
Police: No. Come with us (to the Administration Division of Entry and Exit of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau).
Reporter: What for?
Police: To clear up this matter.

Read part 2.
Part 3

Olympic Chances Missed

The torch relay went by my apartment this morning on its way through Shenzhen. I missed it because I had to work. Almost half of my first class skipped out to watch. I really didn't care to watch someone jog a few feet with a torch, surrounded by crowds.

What I did miss was my chance at some Beijing Olympic memorabilia. A few days ago they put up some flags and banners along the relay route. I was tempted to swipe them, but decided it would be better to at least wait until after the whole hoopla. When I arrived home around 5:30, I discovered that the flags and banners were already gone. At first I thought the crowds might have taken them home. Then I noticed that the garbage cans were filled. All those nice flags are now in the trash and covered in filth.

I guess now I'll have to continue with my dream of owning the largest collection of Olympic knock-offs. I now have some metal key chains, baby toys, a shirt, a misspelled pen, and a bunch of other little pieces of junk that cost about 25 cents. I'm still searching for more misspelled items to include in my collection.

Finally, Culture in Shenzhen

Saturday, we took a long bus ride out to Longgang district to visit the Hakkas Custom Museum. It took more than two hours to get there from Nanshan.

Hakka people are Han Chinese, but have different customs than the rest of China. The migrated from the north and settled south--there are many photos of Hakka villages from Fujian province.

The Crane Lake Villa was turned into a museum by the city in 1996. Prior that, it belonged to a single family--the Luo family, which began building the home during the Qing Dynasty. It is not the circular structure-style Hakka village that is shown in most pictures, but rather a trapezoid-shaped structure.


There isn't much in the way of exhibits at the museum. It appears that most of it is being renovated. Many of the 300 original rooms are inaccessible at this time. Most of the exhibits pertain to this specific Hakka village, with original tools and stories of the family. Other exhibits include stories of famous Hakka people, including Sun Yat-Sen. Unfortunately, they do not explain much about the customs and traditions of the Hakka people.

There is also some rather confusing propaganda set as an exhibit. It seems some Hakka villages were mistaken as secret nuclear sites. Apparently, this is a true story. However, the way it's written makes it much more difficult to comprehend or believe. I particularly like the last line about Reagan.
















The neighborhood surrounding the museum isn't the most pleasant in Shenzhen. It's filled with numerous small shops selling cheap products and knock-offs. We came across a two yuan store that sold fake Crest toothpaste (the Chinese was the same, but the product was called Cvozt.

If you plan to go, I suggest stopping in at the nearby Jusco down the street for some food--there isn't much near the Hakka museum.

Holiday Musings

Quite a bit has gone on around here during the short holiday weekend. First, a warning to all who pass through the Nantou checkpoint between Bao'an district and Nanshan: bring your passport. Our friend A. was not allowed to pass through to the Special Economic Zone using a photocopy. Foreigners and Chinese used to be able to pass through easily even without ID, but it looks like those days are over.

Friday, we celebrated another friend's birthday in Shekou. We went to the Seagull restaurant near Sea World. The food looked good (I ate earlier), but was a little pricey. The beer was cheap though--40 kuai for a pitcher of Tsingtao is a bargain in that area. After a few of those, we met up with some people at The Terrace who had already been drinking there. It was crowded and no tables were available for us. We were harassed to buy drinks after five minutes of entering and dancing.

Given time, we might have purchased drinks (even though they're expensive at The Terrace), but we decided to leave with our money instead. I'm reminded of my last time there--at the end of my first year in China. I was with Jia and the bar was empty. The service was slow even though we sat at the bar. This is just another reason to avoid ever going back to The Terrace.

Yesterday, we headed out to Longgang district to visit the Hakka house/museum. I'll post a photo essay with information later.