327 Gets His Groove Back

Regular readers will notice another lag in my blogs for the next week and a half, as I am fleeing the Chinese International Workers Day "Golden Week" and going on vacation in Kenya.

It turns out I am not the only Chinese resident seeking adventure in Africa this week: a four-year-old stud tiger from the Suzhou zoo was flown to South Africa on Monday as part of a conservation program. Although tigers are neither indigenous nor naturally present in Africa, the environment and habitat is well-suited to them. Beginning a couple of years ago, China and South Africa have been cooperating to raise a few tigers in a reserve in South Africa. The goal is for the nearly-extinct animals to breed and learn to hunt prey before being released into their natural environment in China.

The rare successful conservation story out of China always makes me smile, but I find one aspect of this story particularly entertaining, and I'm sure it says something about the cultures involved. The Chinese simply call their tiger "327", which is his breeding registration number; the South Africans, on the other hand, have given the tigers lively monikers like Madonna, Hope, and Tiger Woods. Hoping this stud will mate with a female named Cathay, they have already begun calling 327 "Boyfriend."

MiaoFeng Mountain 妙峰山

Over the last week or so, Beijing has been blessed with a string of warm, sunny, clear-for-Beijing blue sky days. Sunday was one of those amazing days, so Brendon, Ally, and I headed out to find a reported hiking spot at MiaoFeng Shan. At 1291 meters, it is the nearest 1000-meter + mountain to Beijing. I have since learned the area is known for rose bushes and a temple at the top of the mountain.

At the last stop on the subway line, "Apple Park," we found neither anything resembling and apple nor a park, but there were plenty of ruddy-faced drivers with dodgy little mini-vans eager to take us for a ride. When they told us there was no bus to our destination, we figured they were just trying to trick us into accepting their services, but after about 25 minutes of waiting, some Chinese students confirmed we really did have no choice but to hire a driver.

We hopped into the rattling silver "bread van" of a guy who didn't harass us too much but confidently proclaimed he knew where to take us to climb the mountain at MiaoFeng Shan. The scenery was pretty along the way - although the roses weren't in bloom, the hills were covered in new blossoms of some light lavender-colored flowers - but we were surprised the driver took us to the top of the mountain to begin our "climb."

When we arrived, we found the peak of MiaoFeng Shan has suffered what seems to be the fate of all Chinese scenic spots: a gate, a parking lot, a hefty 30-RMB ($3.75) entrance fee, a bunch of hawkers selling incense sticks, and a loudspeaker. Brendon observed that modern China seems to believe anything and everything can be improved by paving.

The driver was bewildered when we turned our backs on the park and struck off toward a path on the untamed slope of another peak. A few moments of explaining that we didn't come to take our picture in front of the sign on the top of the mountain, but rather to exercise and enjoy the fresh air didn't seem to clear anything up for him, until another Chinese driver in the parking lot said the magic sentence, "Foreigners are like that." Ah. Of course.

In fact, the path we found had also fairly recently been paved, we think to bring equipment to a small construction project we saw at the top. There weren't many people around, however, and the view was wonderful, so we had a really good walk.

At the top of our peak, we ran into a young Chinese group hiking with huge backpacks. They told us they were only walking for a day, but they were carrying the large packs because they were "in training." One of my Chinese teachers explained it was probably military training: first-year university students all participate in one month of compulsory military training. My teacher remembered the training was basically all physical training, without a classroom or political component. After Tiananmen Square, the requirement was one full year of military training, but it has since been reduced to one month. The purpose of the program seems to be to promote patriotism, self-discipline, and defense education. A 2005 survey by the China Youth Daily reported 69% percent of students described it as a "worthy and unforgettable experience," while 20% described it as "useless, boring, and meaningless."

We didn't take many pictures, but you can follow the link below for a few. This one shows me with the patriotic and self-disciplined Brendon Schvetz.

4/22 Miao Feng Shan Hiking

Beijing in the Spring

I've just added to Picasa web some photos from two street corners in Beijing in March & April. The March pictures were taken near the north entrance of Workers Stadium at rush hour while the weather was still chilly.

The April pictures were taken near the gate of ChaoYang Park during late afternoon one of the first warm "blue sky" days, when everyone was out flying kites. On this day, dozens of kites added Spring color to the sky above ChaoYang Park just before the flowers and trees began to bud, while the decorations for an upcoming festival lent plenty of color to the scene on the ground.

I love the kite-flying tradition in Chinese cities. Everyone, from young children to old men, gets out there with ornately decorated kites, and they let them roam so high it's impossible to tell whose is whose; indeed, if you didn't know some of them were kites, you would assume they were high-flying hawks.

I've seen some men in the parks flying kites for hours, meticulously managing an impossibly long length of string, varying winds, and the interference of other kite-flyers.

This couple struggled to reel in their kite as it stubbornly clung to its freedom above. It took the two of them, working together, over 10 minutes to retrieve the kite from the clutches of the overhead winds.


Follow the photo link below to see more In & Around Beijing photos.

In & Around Beijing, general

15 Towers of the Great Wall

A few weeks ago, the Beijing Hikers Club did a "level 5" hike, covering 15 towers of an unrestored portion of the Great Wall outside Beijing in under 5 hours. A lot of the first half was very steep, but the real difficulty in the second half was not the physical difficulty, but the technical difficulty - we had to slide along a couple of very thin ledges and walk downhill on flat rock with no footholds. The Hikers Club had warned we might need to use ropes; we didn't, but at a couple of points I wondered, "if we don't use the ropes now, when are we going to use them?"

I must admit, most parts of the Great Wall are starting to look the same to me now (except Ningxia's mud Wall!), but the structure is so old, so huge, and so never-ending that it still takes my breath away. Follow the link below to see more photos of the hike. For those of you who are familiar with the MuTianYu portion of the Wall, you can see it in the mountains in the background of these pictures.

15 Towers of the Great Wall

Shopping in China: It's More Than Just Buying

While I was home in CT, several people commented on my super cool - if I do say so myself - eyeglasses, which I purchased here in Beijing. A great selection of frames is available at a fraction of the US price here, and most eyeglass places can reliably make lenses for almost all prescriptions.

Like everything in this super-capitalist-no-matter-what-you-want-to-call-it market, though, buying glasses definitely a BUYER BEWARE situation. Anytime you buy something of any value in China, it's essential to be very clear with the seller exactly what quality standard you're paying for and exactly what you want. For example, "I want my dress to be made of the silk that comes naturally directly from the silk worms, not from the 'man-made silk' (polyester)."

Although written, genuine guarantees and returns are unheard of, the personal relationship is king in all types of business in China. So if you develop a relationship with a vendor, you can sometimes make a promise to fix or take back an item part of your price negotiations. Of course, you had better settle this all up front before you pay, and it only works if you buy enough to make the vendor care about your business. If you haven't gotten any promises about the quality/ durability of your product, your only recourse if it turns out bad is to make a big scene and attempt to shame the vendor into helping you so the loud foreigner won't scare away other business. The efficacy of this method should not be underestimated. I had to rely on both methods the first time I purchases spectacles at a local shop in Beijing.

The shopkeeper, who lacked formal training but wore a white lab coat to prove her authority, examined my eyes using the usual eye chart method and tested several lenses until she found the ones that worked the best. It all seemed fine until I came to pick them up the next day. As soon as I donned the glasses, my left eye rebelled and fought vainly to focus, resulting in the following interaction:

ME: Oh, I'm so sorry, you'll have to re-do this lens, it's not correct.
Manager: Yes it is, I checked it myself.
ME: But I'm trying to see and it's not working. My left eye can't take it.
MGR: [taking the glasses and putting them on her own face] They look fine to me. You just don't know what it's like to have new glasses. Walk around a bit.
ME: [walking obediently] Uh, it's still not working. I see better without them.
MGR: There is no possibility they are incorrect. Your right eye is worse than your left eye, but now you're saying you don't like the prescription in your left lens.
ME: [baffled about what the heck she means] Well, this won't work. Yesterday you promised you would adjust the lens or take them back if they didn't work.
MGR: The prescription is the same as what I wrote on the slip. Wear them for a week, then if you still don't like them you can bring them back.
ME: If I wear them for a week, I'll have a terrible headache and permanent damage in my eye.
MGR: [staring at me with arms crossed, adopting the special Chinese "stonewall until the adversary gets embarrassed and walks away" approach]
ME: [staring back, thinking, "Sorry, I'm not Chinese, lady, it won't work."]
MGR: [breaking the stony silence with unassailable Chinese logic] The problem is, they are too clean. I'm sure your old glasses were dirty, but these are perfect. You're not accustomed to seeing the world in such a bright and shining way, so the colors and light are overwhelming your eyes. You have to let them adjust to this crystal clear view of everything.

A China-savvy friend with a fantastic sense of humor later pointed out I should have rubbed some dirt on the lenses then said, "Nope, still doesn't work." Unfortunately, I'm not nearly as quick on my feet as my friend Jen Christian. As I looked out the window of the shop at the "clean" and "bright" Beijing street, I really had no response.

I finally agreed to come back in a week. What? You're thinking, how could you let her beat you? But this is a Chinese negotiation, and everyone has to play their part to get the desired result.

I returned the next morning, when there were customers in the store. When I said in a loud voice, "These absolutely will not work. If I continue to wear these glasses you made me, I will go blind," the manager dutifully inserted them into a calibration machine and tested them. Of course, her machine confirmed the prescription as she intended, but I was ready with my response. "I don't care what your machine thinks, unless your machine is going to wear my glasses," I complained, looking around at the local customers who had gathered to comment on the fact that I speak Chinese. "People wear glasses, and I'm a person, and I can't wear these glasses. I might as well toss them in the trash rather than wear them and damage my eye."

With a heavy sigh, the manager agreed to re-test my eyes. During the process, the manager scolded me for answering the eye exam questions incorrectly the previous day, thereby resulting in her getting the prescription wrong. An hour later, I had a perfect pair of glasses with the correct prescription and a promise to give me a better discount if I ever go back to that shop.

I have since purchased excellent prescription eyeglasses at other places in Beijing with no hassle or confusion, but my first experience exemplified a lot of shopping situations in China. Thus, I hope you can 以小见大 "use the small to see the big" and apply the following lessons to shopping when you visit me in China.

1) Know exactly what you want, and at what price.
2) If it's expensive, get whatever promises you need before you settle on a price with the vendor.
3) If the product is not what it's supposed to be complain, remind the seller what he/she agreed, then complain loud enough to interest bystanders. (This only works if you think the bystanders will side with you, which is not usually the case at large markets, where the other vendors are in the same situation with your seller side by side every day.)
4) Don't give up. The Chinese don't take no for an answer, so neither should you. If you wait around or keep coming back, you will earn the vendor's begrudging respect and build a relationship with him or her.
5) Give the other side an "out" so the vendor doesn't have to lose face. ("You're right, of course I was the reason you gave me the wrong prescription, I must have been too tired and didn't know what I was seeing when I took the eye exam. Thank goodness I had a good night's rest last night.")

Beijing: It's Just Like Home

My hometown of Glastonbury, CT, has fairly strict planning and zoning rules, particularly with regard to signs and billboards. If I remember correctly, ours was the first McDonalds not to have those tall recognizable arches, and shortly after we moved there, the Town told a Texaco station to remove a lighted sign that could be seen for miles.

The sign below is representative of the fact that Chinese cities have no such qualms about huge, splashy, neon advertisements.No qualms, that is, until the wind came along. You see, last week, we Beijingers were promised a huge sandstorm, which would have made an excellent topic for a blog. Instead, the wind came without bringing much sand. No pictures of taxis covered in yellow Gobi dust, just gusts of grimy Beijing air cutting my delicate skin.

I thought wind was too ordinary a topic for a blog, but then again, nothing in China is ordinary. It turns out, the wind blew over many large billboards, one of which fell on woman and, sadly, killed her. The city has now decreed that all billboards on the top of residential buildings within the city must be removed by the end of June. CCTV claims as many 23 billboards will have to come down inside the Third Ring Road, which makes me think they are defining both billboards and residential buildings very narrowly - I could point to 23 signs on the tops of buildings from almost any corner inside the 3rd Ring!

So once again, I feel fortunate to have moved here in time to see the supposedly offensive advertising eyesores before they get torn down at the behest of the local authorities.

Flushing Out Crime

This is a little bit of old news by now, but just in case out haven't seen it, check out this article, and especially the video, depicting the unique capture of a murder suspect in Shenyang, China. After the suspect took shelter in a hospital room window and the police lost patience with the two-hour standoff, fire fighters set up an inflatable target on the ground below and blasted him down with a fire hose. Since the suspect was said to be armed with a knife at the time, it's particularly lucky for him that he didn't slice open the target and lose his cushioning. Most observers were just pleasantly surprised to see Chinese emergency responders actually make it to a scene.

Blind Blog

I apologize for not posting this week. While in fact I have been quite busy, I have the China blogger's best excuse: my site seems to be blocked for the time being. For the last couple of days, I and other Blogspot & YouTube users here have been unable to fully access those sites. I can get to the edit page of Blogger, for instance, but I cannot actually see my own blog or my neighbor's blog, Face the Sun. It's not just China-based blogs - I also can't get to other blogs.

So, I post today without being able to see how my content will actually look on the site. I do not know why Blogger & YouTube have suddenly been shut down in China, but my best guess is it's in solidarity with/ deference to the King of Thailand. Apparently someone posted video/ pictures with graffiti and feet on the image of the King, prompting the Royal Thai Government to cut off Google in Thailand. Since that happened around the same time we lost full Blogger access here, I'm guessing the Chinese are being supportive.

Shanghaist.com and some others reported Blogspot was blocked a couple of weeks ago, but I did not experience any trouble at that time.

I hope to post another entry later today, but please bear with me if the blogging is a little slow this week. I apologize in advance for any spelling/ grammar errors - it's hard to proofread when I can't read the blog.

Special Guest Blogger: Brendon Shvetz

Today, Mom, Dad, and Other Welcome Readers of My Blog, you are in for an extremely rare treat: raw commentary, complete and unedited, from my second visitor in China, Brendon Shvetz.

You usually see China through my eyes, but here it is from a keen observer and great writer who appears to be immune to jet lag. This should cheer up those of you, like me, who were sad to see the end of the Georgetown Hoyas amazing run in the Men's NCAA Bball tournament. (A quick shout of congratulations to Kerri Hannan and her fellow Gators on their great game today, by the way.)

I will leave Brendon's contribution to stand on its own, except to note that he very kindly exaggerated both my Chinese language ability and my tendency to think and pay for my visitors.

Some thoughts on China and Fancy after being here one day:

Fancy lives in a truly fancy establishment. Her 3 bedroom/3 bath palace is wonderful, and she is a great host. Today we woke up early to watch G'Town receive a thumping and then go sightseeing. Some of the various sights I have seen already include: Chinese man spitting on street; Chinese man picking his noise; Chinese taxi driver almost plowing through crowd of pedestrians. We also went shopping where I had the opportunity to buy a watch, with a picture of Mao on it; a lighter, with a picture of Mao on it; a poster, of Mao; or a complete dish set, and every plate had Mao on it.

Her cat, General Tsao, does not really respect my personal space. He is constantly trying to break into my room, even though I am allergic to cats. I think my allergy combined with the dirty air here are setting me up for some serious respiratory problems. You don't breathe the air in Beijing so much as digest it. It is a meal filled with all the USDA required minerals such as zinc, iron, etc. I am one step away from putting on a surgical mask and just being one of those weird people who you sometimes sit next on airplanes. You know, the ones who bring a mask and an entire pharmacy with them.

In any case, I urge you all to visit. Nancy's Chinese is excellent, which means she does all the talking, thinking, and, quite often, paying. I wouldn't want it any other way.

One last note from your usual blogger: Brendon's visit gives him a point on the Visitors Point Tally. Updated totals in the first comment below.