How far will Chinese companies go to avoid creativity?

Here we have a brown paper baguette bag that I got from the supermarket yesterday. Look closely and you'll see the brand is "Wekipedia." I don't even know where to start with this one, it's just so absurd. I just really wish I could ask the person who made this decision to explain their thought process and perhaps a few other names they were throwing around. But then I'd have to ask the people who named the various apartment complexes such as Beijing Hills, Moma, Upper East Side, Central Park, and wait, the fast food place KXC. The list goes on and on, but my favorite to date is this one. I don't think anything more can be said about it, just bizarre. I love it here.

Oh, the things you see in China

Two photos I've recently snapped on my phone:

Even in the metropolis of Beijing, you'll still find a few folks using what appears to be a home phone on the street. I'm not quite sure how it works, but I'd like to get one. It's much more durable than my iphone.

Last weekend in my hotel I spotted this ashtray (at least I think so) with a no spitting reminder.

Begnas Lake and the Royal Trek

Pokhara is the Nepal town that everyone raves about. Both Luhan and I have always felt that if everyone is talking about something it probably isn't really that good, so we opted to stay a little outside the city and away from the thousands of people trying to end up there. We eventually planned to get into Pokhara, but got stranded in Jomsom for two days...more on that later.

So, we ended up at the lake Begnas Resort for two days. To get into this place someone comes to pick you up in a canoe and you travel for about a half hour to the other side of the lake where they've carved out a nice spot with cottages, gardens, and an all natural swimming pool. Again, a very relaxing place indeed. It's a bit hot during the day, but in the morning and evening it's quite pleasant. They also serve deboned fish from the lake.

My favorite hike came from this part of the trip. From Lake Begnas we climbed up to get on a trail called the Royal Trek after Prince Charles hiked it in 1993. It was about 2 hours before we reached the highest point of the mountain. You can see a video here. As was still pretty early we caught the tail end of the sun rise and were able to look out into the highest mountains in the world. I wish we were smarter because if we had had sleeping bags we could have camped up there.

Nargarkot to Bhaktapur

With every intention of escaping Kathmandu ASAP we decided to head up to Nargarkot, a mountain about a two hour drive outside the city with supposed views of distant snow capped mountains. A woman I worked with at the British Council suggested a place to stay called the Fort Resort and it really was a superb stay. Both Luhan and I are incredibly picky about our hotel choices as those that have traveled with us before probably know. Both of us have had our days of roughin' it, but it's comfort we seek now. The Fort has a one main building and stone cottages spread out over the mountain side. Anyway, the Fort turned out to be the best place we stayed during the whole trip. Set up about 7,000 ft both the sunrise and sunset are something to be seen as you actually look down on the clouds and mountains. We stayed there for two days and basically just read books and relaxed in the sun.

Heading out of Nargarkot we wanted to check out the ancient city of Bhaktapur. I thought it was within striking distance by foot, after a grueling 6 hour hot, sun baked walk we gave up and hitched a ride. The people of Bhaktapur still lead an almost pure indigenous lifestyle, in this city built in the 15th century. It really is a pleasant place, but the motorcycles just kill it. Back to Kathmandu, then off to Pokhara.

Back in the dust covered, glue sniffing Kathmandu

Quick, how many things are wrong with this picture to the right? I saw this beauty on the wall of a restaurant.

My friend J sent me an email a few days ago with a link about the glue sniffing gangs in Kathmandu. Now, I've seen this in person on my way to pick up Luhan at the airport, but the kids were like 8 - 10 years old, max. From the window of my taxi I saw a few young kids fighting over what I thought was candy. Then I saw one of them huffing a brown paper bag in and out. Another kid quickly grabbed it and frantically tried to inhale some more fun and the cab driver pointed and said they were bad boys. The most disturbing part about it was how many people were around not giving a flying fart. I guess these kids grow up to become the ones in the article and the ones that design the above wall hanging.

So, in the past few weeks we've been spoiled like the rich, shit on like the poor and at one point stranded for two days. The temperature has been so hot and cold so quickly it's hard to figure out what to wear. I must say that the world that exists within the Himalayan mountains should be seen before you die. I'm going to make three more short posts just to break it up a little, that way it won't be so boring and there will be more pictures, because after all everyone just looks at the pictures anyway.

MIKO Noodles

I kept seeing this commercial for MIKO Noodles on TV, it kept repeating over and over again. The advert was at least a minute long. It was basically a story involving this old Japanese guy slurping noodles. When I went out to get some things at the little store near us I discovered the MIKO noodles and was easily sold by the advertisement. They cost 15 Nepalise Rupees, .02 USD. They were worth each penny, let me tell you. They claim to use Japanese technology...impressive.

Monkey temple

Headed out to the Monkey Temple a few days ago. My Colleague Zak and I hired one of the hundreds of rickshaw drivers to haul us out there. After bargaining for a fair price we settled on this tiny little guy, though at the time we didn't think much of his size. On two occasions we had to get out because he got stuck in some mud. It was actually quite a terrible ride because there was so much dust you basically had to close your eyes and try and cover your mouth. In total it took about 40 minutes or so before he let us off at the bottom of a steep hill and near the entrance of the temple.

On the way there I saw some pretty horrific scenes of poverty and pollution mingling together in ways I never thought was possible. I photographed a couple of things that stuck out, but it would be quite rude and uncomfortable to take pictures of many of the other things I saw.

Soon after the rickshaw let us off we walked over a small bridge with a stagnant river passing underneath it. I could smell the water from above and it wasn't a pleasant smell to say the least. Never have I seen so much garbage, all piled on the banks of the river and in the river itself. What's more, looking down the river a bit I could see women and children swimming or bathing in the water. A picture of this is in the post as well as one from another account on the way back in which a giant cow decided to lay down in a pile of garbage and mud causing a traffic jam.

Now, the temple (Swayambhunath) was quite interesting being one of the oldest holy sites in Nepal. What I found most interesting was the fact that monkeys, stray dogs, pigeons, homeless people, orphans and monks could all live together and only fight a little.

First impressions: Kathmandu

Kathmandu, a city of about a million and a half people. Traffic lights and traffic rules for that matter are apparently absent, cows and yaks roam the streets in competition with stray dogs for a few measly scraps left in piles of colorful garbage brushed up against the side of street curbs. And the cars, bicycles and motorcycles scream by in clouds of exhaust fumes that just about make you gag. All this with a beautiful back drop of the picturesque, often cloud covered Himalaya mountains endlessly stretching, slicing clouds at the edges of the valley hinting at some notion of nature, fresh air and cleanliness.

When we exited the plane into Kathmandu airport it reminded me a bit of south America, minimal, dire need of remodeling and stale. As we walked through a long hall to where I presumed the VISA processing station would be a small peculiar looking Nepali man waited anxiously with a bouquet of flowers. He was sweating and I could tell he was nervous, even from far away because he seemed to be almost shaking. As I got closer he suddenly shouted, "Your Excellence!" and forced the flowers into, no not me, but the chest of what I think was a Korean man decked out in an over sized conservative suit, the kind republicans wear. The whole thing scared the shit out of me because as this happened a security guard stuck out his arm and stopped me and a few others from moving forward and possibly disrupting this incredibly awkward scene. I looked for the Korean man who was probably some sort of government official while I waited in line for my VISA, but he mysteriously disappeared most likely through some secret exit. 'Your Excellence' is easily my new favorite way to great someone, absolutely astounding.

From here on I haven't been out too much because I'm working. But I snapped a few pictures, one from my apartment and some random street shots. I heard there is a casino in the hotel beside my apartment building with free drinks and dinner. I'm quite tempted by this. I'll be out and about soon enough as I have about six weeks here, so rest assured you can look forward to some more posts.

Plenty of things to do in Beijing

As of a few months ago LuHan has been working for a British NGO as a translator, interpreter, and project developer. One of the projects they have is called "One Plus One." To make a long story short, it's basically a full fledged radio station operated entirely by blind people.

One of the things they were working on was finding a theme song for their radio station. They contacted some studios and it was quite expensive. So, LuHan told them that I could probably write, record and produce it for half the price. You guys know I get quite a kick out of doing stuff like this, so I couldn't pass it up. In the end, I made three versions. You can listen to one here.

Disabled Dog

I snapped this with my phone today on my way to get lunch. This dog actually ran up beside me and I gave it some lovin'. I don't think it was able to really understand the fact that it's hind legs were turned into wheels. The dog had full mobility, turning, running, stopping, sniffing...

Cormorant fishing

I think one of the most interesting things we did throughout our travels in Southern China was participate in cormorant fishing. A cormorant is a type of bird...this will explain rather than me writing it Interestingly enough, the picture in that wiki entry is from Erhai lake in Dali, where we went fishing. In Chinese it's called the sea. Along the coastal sections of the lake there are small fishing villages and some of them fish with Cormorant birds. We were able to take a little expedition with a few of these fisherman one morning.

It's amazing how much control the fisherman have over the birds. They actually respond to the fisherman's calls and always bring fish back to the boat like the good little birds that they are. Sometimes they are loured in by the fisherman when he dangles a little fish. Nonetheless, it's impressive. On our boat we must have watched the birds dive in and pull out more than 7 or 8 fish.

I've decided to just put all of my pictures up from this trip here. For your enjoyment I'll also include some thoughtful captions. As soon as I get pics from others on the trip I'll post them as well, so check back.

Being back in Beijing and getting back into the swing of work is quite nice I must say. I do like the adventure, but it's tiring.

Chinese New Year - explosions in the night

So, my friends Joel and Jordan came to visit for about three weeks and the madness has ceased. I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Joel is on a boat to Tokyo and should be arriving in another day. He'll be back in Beijing at some point before heading back to Seattle. Jordan is in Boston, hopefully.

Along with LuHan and two of her friends we traveled quite a bit, mostly in Southern China (Yunan Province). I'm going to write a bit about these travels in the coming days, but first I wanted to rewind to the beginning, Chinese New Year.

Although I will attempt, I can't begin to describe how absolutely insane this experience was. Joel, Jordan and I all said to each other at one point that this was easily one of the most spectacular things we have ever witnessed. Now, I'd have to say that the three of us are not easy to amuse.

The history of setting off fireworks on this holiday is quite simple. It's to scare off the evil spirits. It makes sense right? No one wants those evil spirits lingering around in the night. For about 7 or 8 years fireworks were banned inside the city center in Beijing. Last year was the first time in a while they were allowed to go at it again. Keep in mind that this is taking place everywhere in the entire country at the same time.

Growing up in suburban/semi country America we came to know fireworks quite well around the 4th of July, in fact I used to try and make them myself. Fireworks in our world existed in three ways. One, the legal fireworks like sparklers, snakes and other relatively harmless displays. Two, going to see a professional show at the local fire hall or in the city. Three, having someone drive to the southern states to get illegal fireworks. These included things like roman candles, black cats, m-80s, and rockets. Obviously, choice three was the best. And even with these semi dangerous fireworks we had a ton of fun. We all had a sense of underlying safety that we followed most of the time. We would go out to a huge field, keep away from houses, and warn people when there was a fire in the hole. So, for us three yanks this was our perception of fireworks coming into this.

The night before Chinese New Year we were out at this Japanese whiskey bar that I fancy when a couple of Chinese guys blazed in handing out what looked to us like sticks of dynamite. I couldn't believe the size of these things. Then, they encouraged us to come with them to fire them off on the street. We are in the middle of a gigantic international city and blowing off an explosive just seems ludicrous. Well, when in Rome...This brief session of lighting these things off really gave us an insight as to what the coming evening and week for that matter would be like. As we set these "double boomers" off on the street we could not believe that one could purchase these things on the corner and not have a license to activate them. These were easily equivalent to a quarter if not a half stick of dynamite. They literally shock the ground in front of you and caused an immediate sense of panic as the explosion echoed between the buildings. These particular ones would stand up straight, explode, then shoot another ball into the air with an equal explosion. At one point one of them fell over and we had to run to take cover not knowing where the hell it was going to shoot. It blew up near some girl that probably had to change her underwear shortly after. After this night we had a glimpse of what we'd be in for, but not really.

Let me just break it down for you. During this time period anyone can buy various explosives like I mentioned above, even ones far more powerful and set them off ANYWHERE they want. This is all in good fun, of course. You can put them on the sidewalk, in the street, beside a car, in front of your building, or in the path of a crowd of people. I must say that in no way was there direct intention to harm others or even destroy property, just pure negligence and chaos. The various types of fireworks are equivalent to the size of what you would see being let loose at a professional fireworks display in a small town in America.

The next night, the 17.4 million people of Beijing blew the shit out of their city. From dusk till dawn it was like being trapped in a war zone. I've never been in a war, but this is what I imagine it sounding like. When you stood at any point and spun completely around the sky was lit up with colors and your ears were pounded with massive explosions. Your body shook and you felt alert looking around for a fire in the hole. There were no warnings. It was incredibly ridiculous and dangerous, but we loved every minute of it as we drank beer and roamed around our neighborhood. The peak of the event was of course around midnight and for a solid hour we couldn't even talk to each other without screaming.

For the climax we went out in front of our building near one of the main streets and just stood there in complete amazement as people spent fortunes on gunpowder and sent it all up in flames. While the three of us were standing there occasionally jumping and ducking I think it was Jordan who said to turn around and look at the building beside us because one of the hotel rooms was spitting out flames. And yes, sure enough the room was on fire. We called the police, although they probably already knew as a crowd of hundreds watched from across the street. The building didn't go up, and it was eventually put out (the pictures to the right document a different fire, read on). The night continued and finally when we turned in. It was nearly impossible to sleep with the remaining explosions randomly shaking our apartment. If the evil spirits survived this night, they must be pretty strong.

When we returned to Beijing a week later after traveling we learned that there would be another night of fireworks for the end of the festival, as according to the Lunar calendar. Once again the city would be up in smoke. We all had dinner at LuHan's parents and her mom bought some fireworks for us to set off. Of course, they were amazing and soon that feeling of "I can't believe people are doing this" returned.

We left her parents by taxi and headed out to meet some friends at another bar when we got stuck in traffic on a bridge. As we moved slowly, Joel, this time said that there was a building on fire ahead of us. You could only see the flames in the reflection of another building because it was only burning on one side, so it was a little hard to tell how serious it was. About one minute later when we got closer we could see that this was a serious fire about to engulf a 70 story building. At this point we were right beside it and the thick, bright orange fire was mainly at the base, but climbing steadily. The smoke came off in thick black clouds which made it impossible to see above. We had the windows down in the taxi and panicked a bit when we heard what I think were the windows of the building exploding. That sound was surreal and all I could think about was the twin towers for some reason. This was no longer interesting, but serious and awful. We were only about 200 yards away from the building now and traffic was moving slowly. At one point we could feel the heat coming from the fire and that's something I'll never forget. I've never felt heat like that before, especially from such a distance. We closed the windows and actually contemplated getting out of the car and running. We saw others evacuating, probably from the building itself or another nearby. I remember seeing a man with a baby running away. Finally we pushed through and got off the bridge. As we drove away we watched through the rear window as the flames circled the building. Later we decided to walk back to see the end result. It was over, the building was destroyed.

Will they allow fireworks next year, or have lessons been learned? You can read here about the fire.

The above pictures were ones that I snapped with my cell phone. There are a few of the fireworks scene in general and the others were from our tortuous taxi ride. The video below is of the scene around midnight in our neighborhood. It went on like this for hours. I only wish the sound on my camera had better quality.

A short walk around Xian

As many of you know, I travel quite a bit for work, but I rarely have any time to explore. It's all work and no play, usually.. For some reason or another I had a long morning free last weekend in Xian, a big ol' city southwest of Beijing.

Xian is one of the oldest cities in Chinese hisory. You wouldn't know this by looking at it because honestly, it looks like every other Chinese city. Just outside the city there are a lot of ancient ruins, the famous Terracotta warriors and a few monuments worth noting, but I didn't have time for anything except an hour long stroll around a section the city wall built in 1370. It was quite a hazy day and I could barely see anything in the distance. I'll get back to Xian one day and check out some more things.