Mark's China Blog

Mark Moved Here...

Metabetable — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:29:04 GMT

Hello faithful readers! This is Mark's brother again posting from America. Mark never did regain access to his blog so he decided to just start up a new one instead.

The new address is - markschinablog.blogspot.com. Go ahead and update your Bookmarks and RSS Feeds.

Thanks a lot.

I've been blocked?!

Metabetable — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:18:08 GMT

This is Mark's brother David. Mark hasn't been able to access his blog from China the past few days and has asked me to post the following on here:

Hello faithful readers. I've been having a terrible time updating and accessing my blog the past several days. Beginning two or three days ago, both the editing interface and the blog itself have been completely inaccessible.

Not sure what was going on, I ran this test a couple days ago.

http://www.websitepulse.com/tests/d5358e37728fb526.html

Website Test Results

Tested From:	Shanghai, China
Tested At:	2008-07-30 20:05:52 (GMT -04:00)
URL Tested:	http://blog.metabetable.com
Resolved As:	208.109.80.14
Status:	couldn't connect to host
Response Time:	0.491 sec
DNS:	0.491 sec
Connect:	0.000 sec
Redirect:	0.000 sec
First Byte:	0.000 sec
Last Byte:	0.000 sec
Size:	0 bytes

Tested From:	Seattle, WA
Tested At:	2008-07-30 20:05:52 (GMT -04:00)
URL Tested:	http://blog.metabetable.com
Resolved As:	208.109.80.14
Status:	OK
Response Time:	1.315 sec
DNS:	0.205 sec
Connect:	0.040 sec
Redirect:	0.000 sec
First Byte:	0.829 sec
Last Byte:	0.241 sec
Size:	112268 bytes

This test seems to confirm that my blog has indeed been blocked in China.

I'm not sure exactly why this has happened. I read other blogs and websites on a daily basis that are far more controversial than my news/personal blog (which gets about 50 unique hits a day).

Needless to say, I'm disappointed that this site will not be updated during the Olympics.

At some point in the near future I'll blog again. I'm not sure if this site will ever open back up in China. If it does, I'll continue using it. If it doesn't, I'll create a new blog. If a new blog is created, I'll put a link to the new one on this site.

I appreciate the dozens of readers this blog has. If you're really craving some China news/commentary/blogging during this blog's break, I recommend checking out shanghaiist.com. It's a solid resource which will be particularly good over the next few weeks.

Thanks

China's Young and Restless

Metabetable — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:22:32 GMT

Here is a PBS Frontline documentary called "Young and Restless in China." This program is a few weeks old now, but it is worth watching.

The show follows nine young Chinese people's lives. I've watched the first couple segments. It shows different types of young Chinese people - people who've been studied abroad, migrant workers, etc. - who are remaking China and the conflicts, struggles, and triumphs they meet in contemporary China.

Olympic News Roundup - July 28, 2008

Metabetable — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:23:04 GMT

- Get your Pray for China wrist bands just in time for the Olympics.

- Just days ahead of the opening ceremony, Beijing's air quality is horrendous. Emergency plans are in the works.

- Islamists in Xinjiang are claiming jihad on China and the Olympic Games. And in related news, a third bus bomb in a week hit China today.

- China says all of its gymnasts are indeed eligible for the Games and that no ages have been falsified.

- Bill Gates is spending $130,000 to try to curb smoking in Beijing during the Games.

- Internet access from the Olympic Village is going to be ridiculously expensive. It doesn't look they're even going to need the Great Firewall of China!

Going to the Gym (to Pole Dance)

Metabetable — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:09:23 GMT

I imagine one could meet some interesting women at these gyms.

From The New York Times:

BEIJING — Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts and asports bra, Xiao Yan struck a pose two feet off the ground, her headglistening with sweat and her arms straining as she suspended herselffrom a vertical pole.
"Keeping your grip is the hardest part," she said. "It's really easy to slide downward."
Ms. Xiao, 26, who works as a supermarket manager, is one of a growingnumber of women experimenting with China's newest, and mostcontroversial, fitness activity: pole dancing.
"I used to take anormal aerobics class, but it was boring and monotonous," Ms. Xiaosaid. "So I tried out pole dancing. It's a really social activity. I'vemet a lot of girls here who I'm now close friends with. And I like thatit makes me feel sexy."
A nightclub activity mostly consideredthe domain of strippers in the United States, pole dancing — but withclothes kept on — is nudging its way into the mainstream Chineseexercise market, with increasing numbers of gyms and dance schoolsoffering classes.
Read On

There's a video accompanying the story which I'm sure at least a reader or two of this blog would find interesting. So click the link if you want that.

Pole dancing has really taken off here in the Middle Kingdom. Nearly every night club which plays dance music has dancers up on stage with poles.

The controversial moves aside, one has to be pretty fit to be able to pole dance. So this idea of pole dancing as a form of looks like it may very well be a good thing for these women who are taking up the activity.

Olympic News Roundup - July 25, 2008

Metabetable — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:26:15 GMT

Instead of commenting on just one story today, I've gone ahead and linked up several.

- Chinese athletes pledged to bring "honor to the motherland" and "avoid provocation" today.

- Athletes are going to be juiced this summer... on Viagra?? From the article:

"Any physical activity that goes for longer than say two minutes would be a beneficiary of something like Viagra just like the normal blood doping drugs are."

- Chinese people in Beijing won't ask you about your sex life or how much money you make during the Olympics. Once the Games end though...

- That little pesky island off the mainland's coast and China seem to have agreed upon what it's going to be called this summer.

- LeBron James guarantees a gold medal for the Americans in basketball.

- Don't look at the sky to determine air quality! Listen to us! Everything is fine!!1!

- It looks like the Iraqi squad will be missing out on Beijing this summer.

Chinese People Love China

Metabetable — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:20:31 GMT

While these numbers aren't that surprising, I think that they reflect something about the current state of China.

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

CHINESE people are overwhelmingly satisfied with the direction of their country, a Pew Centre survey published yesterday shows.

The survey results, which rank China first among 24 nations, point to an enormous gulf between domestic and Western perceptions of China that has widened in the aftermath of the Tibet riots and troubled Olympic torch relay. China's country satisfaction rating soared to 86 per cent from 48 per cent in 2002.

Analysts said the results should not be dismissed merely as Chinese people saying what the Government wanted them to say.

"Even if you take away 10, 15 per cent for that kind of bias you still have a very strong result," said Susan Shirk, a professor of political science at the University of California and a former deputy assistant secretary for China in the US State Department.

The results are a vote of confidence in the administration of the President, Hu Jintao, and the Premier, Wen Jiabao.

The Pew survey is an important source of political information because China does not have democratic elections, opinion poll surveys or free media reporting on political issues.

It was conducted after the Tibet riots in March but before the Sichuan earthquake in May - both of which generated an increase in patriotism across mainstream China.
Read On

What's startling is when you compare China's enthusiasm with America's complacency.

Let's have a look at some polling numbers from the United States.

From Associated Press/Ipsos polling via pollingreport.com:

Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. July 10-14, 2008. N=1,000 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.1.

"Generally speaking, would you say things in this country are heading in the right direction, or are they off on the wrong track?"
.
		Right Direction	Wrong Track	Unsure
		%	%	%	.
	7/10-14/08	16	77	7	.
	6/12-16/08	17	76	7	.
	4/7-9/08	24	71	5	.
	3/3-5/08	22	73	5	.
	2/4-6/08	25	71	4	.
	1/7-9/08	27	68	5

Sixteen percent of Americans believe that the country is heading in the right direction. Wow.

Now I'll admit that I can only get a cursory view of what's going on in my home country from websites that I read on a daily basis and personal anecdotes from family and friends, but America really sucks right now.

The economy has stagnated, troops are still "surging" in Iraq yet political reconciliation is tepid, Afghanistan is falling apart, oil prices are through the roof, nearly fifty million people don't have health care, Guantanamo Bay still is open and betraying America's core values, John McCain still seems to have a reasonable chance at being elected president in November despite the fact that he's running as a third term of failed president George W. Bush, etc.

While I acknowledge America's problems, I'd be foolish to not acknowledge China's problems. It has many.

Political and human rights' abuses are rampant, out-of-control inflation is really hurting ordinary Chinese people, a enormous economic inequality gap is getting worse every day, pollution is literally choking or giving cancer to millions of people, corruption is still business-as-usual, etc.

But despite these problems, Chinese people are taking their problems in stride more than Americans.

I suppose one can say that this is because of China's media and propaganda has brainwashed China's citizens. But I don't think this is a very good answer. I'm not convinced China's government-run media is that much worse than America's corporate/conglomerate run media (I that both are horrible).

My knee-jerk explanation between the two countries' populaces' attitudes is this:

America is a country in decline. Although far from certain, America's glory days could very well be behind it. There's seems to be little cohesion and/or national pride and hardly any optimism emanating from America.

Meanwhile, China appears poised to rise up over the coming decades and become America's peer or, one day down the road, its superior. This ascendancy is no doubt invigorating to a country and the people living in that country. China, for good reason, is excited about the future.

My Other Olympic Shirt

Metabetable — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:14:05 GMT

I saw this shirt for sale when the torch came through Xi'an. It was too interesting for me to pass up.

I haven't actually worn this shirt outside yet. I feel a bit awkward wearing it to work or even out and about around Xi'an. I'll surely bust it out at some point though.

China a Bit Bigger After Today

Metabetable — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:16:34 GMT

China resolved one of its many border disputes today.

From The BBC:

China and Russia have signed a treaty settling a long-running territorial dispute along their border.
The pact - signed in Beijing by the two countries' foreign ministers - marks the end of a dispute which has been going on for 40 years.
The area saw armed clashes between the two sides during the Cold War.
Correspondents say the deal is the latest sign of warmer ties developing between Russia - a big energy exporter - and China, a big energy consumer.
The border between China and Russia is 4,300 km (2,700 miles) long, and the latest treaty resolves a dispute over the eastern part of the border.
According to Chinese reports, Russia will return all of Yinlong island (known in Russian as Tarabarov) and half of Heixiazi island (Bolshoi Ussuriyasky) to China.
Read On

Here is a map highlighting China's other border disputes:

Needless to say, these border issues are very delicate issues for China and its neighbors.

Beijing's Nightlife Being Blacked Out

Metabetable — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:21:39 GMT

Hopefully all of the tourists who are going to Beijing for the Olympics weren't planning on having any fun outside of the sporting events.

From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - Heavy-handed security measures to ensure the Beijing Olympics pass without incident are threatening to choke the cultural life from the city and leave Games tourists cold, Beijing bar and club owners said on Friday.

Staff at several night spots near Beijing's Workers Stadium, venue for Olympic soccer qualifiers, were clearing out their bars on Friday after police ordered shut-downs three days before a mandated deadline.

"I didn't like the way they went about closing everybody, it would have been better if they had stuck to the date they told us," a manager at one of the venues told Reuters.

"I don't think we'll get any compensation. There's no point asking for it, you just hope that they'll offer some," said the manager, who requested anonymity.
Beijing, which has declared terrorism to be the greatest threat to the Games, has also come down hard on local entertainment venues, demanding that owners attend anti-drug seminars and conduct searches of patrons.

Read On

It's sad to think, but Xi'an's nightlife is probably just as good as Beijing's now. (Actually, Xi'an's nightlife is fine by me. It's not excessive, like Beijing or Shanghai's, and therefore makes it easier for me get away from going out too much. There are some pretty wicked places to go when I do want to go out though.)

I've been to the bar area near Workers' Stadium a couple different times.

My favorite memory from that area is getting a couple drinks there with my brother and then going to have a look at the stadium itself. As we were walking around the stadium, we saw a couple loose planks on the construction fence (there was massive construction at the time, June of 2007) going around the stadium. We thought - "What the hell, let's check it out" - and meandered into the stadium.

We heard some commotion from construction workers from underneath the bleachers, but really hardly anything at all. We started to make a lap of the area under the bleachers when we then decided to check out the field.

Expecting a screaming Chinese man to yell at us within seconds, my brother and I stepped on to the field. As we tiptoed onto the field, nobody yelled at us. Feeling more confident in our endeavor, we then continued towards the center kick off area. With beers in hand, we surveyed the pristine green turf glimmering in the construction lights and the thousands of empty bleachers surrounding us.

Feeling the rush from being somewhere we most certainly shouldn't have been, we put down our drinks and started making some runs on the pitch. We ran some attacks (sans ball and opposing team). We took a couple shots on goal. We had a race from one end to the other (if I can remember correctly, I won the first 40 or 50 meters but then David beat me to the end line).

After the race we were both beat and decided it was best to leave while we were still ahead (ie. not caught). We meandered back out of the fence upon which we had entered and descended back upon Beijing's streets.

Feeling that no bar or club would compare with what we'd just experienced, we called it a night and went back to our hotel.

Keeping the Riff Raff Out

Metabetable — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:37:42 GMT

The Washington Post has a good article featuring several foreigners and their recent visa troubles.

HONG KONG -- Brad Eddington arrived in Shanghai on a whim seven years ago and fell in love with the place. He got a job teaching English to kindergartners at a private school, an apartment in the trendy French Concession district, and a girlfriend. And even though he was on a visitor's visa he had to renew every year, he considered China his new home.
That changed this month. After several frustrating weeks of trying to negotiate China's new visa policies, getting exiled to Hong Kong and failing to gain permission to reenter the mainland, Eddington gave up.

Thousands of other foreign residents are also finding China far less hospitable than it once was because of visa restrictions tightened ahead of the Olympics and reported increasing hostility toward outsiders.

"I thought things would get easier the longer I stayed, but it's the opposite," said Eddington, 36, an Australian. "China's a different place than when I first came." The controversy over Tibet and the Olympic torch relay "may have surfaced feelings that had long been there" about foreigners.
Read On

I'll believe that there's a fair share of anti-western sentiment going around China right now. And lord knows the visas have been problems for tons of foreigners. But I can't say I've encountered anything like this article describes though.

My visa's good and I haven't run into any angry mobs of Chinese people.

In fact, I still feel today as though Chinese people are particularly polite and/or generous to me because I'm a westerner. Whether it's giving me free drinks when I go out for dinner or to a club or whether it's having people approach me on the street wanting to take a picture with me, I still feel quite welcome in Xi'an.

I can't imagine that Chinese people in America feel this way very often.

Fishing In the Mountains Near Xi'an

Metabetable — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:47:56 GMT

Jackie, a couple of her friends and I went about an hour outside of Xi'an this week to go went fishing. It was really nice.

I've always said that, coming from Kansas, I wish I lived near mountains. Because of Xi'an's pollution, I can't see these mountains which really aren't very far at all from Xi'an on a consistent basis. But this week I learned that if you do indeed get close enough to the mountains, you can see them.

The spot where we put in our reels

Jackie staying dry under an umbrella during a brief downpour

A nice shot of the landscape

I'm going to try to start getting out into the areas surrounding Xi'an on a more frequent basis.

The Coffee is Always Blacker on the Other Side (of the World)

Metabetable — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:14:59 GMT

Starbucks is hoping to become the KFC of coffee houses in China.

From Bloomberg.com:

Starbucks in Xi'an

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee-shop chain, will expand in China after announcing plans to close underperforming U.S. stores and slash jobs.
The chain's changes will affect Starbucks' China operations ``more positively,'' the Seattle-based company's Greater China President Wang Jinlong said in an interview today in Hong Kong. ``There will be more innovation, more new products, more resources, not only investment.''

U.S. consumers are spending less on so-called affordable luxuries like gourmet coffee as they face a contracting economy and record gasoline prices, forcing Starbucks's biggest closures and job cuts in its history, announced on July 2. The company will close 600 U.S. outlets and eliminate 12,000 jobs, slowing its domestic expansion after doubling in size in four years.

Starbucks will instead turn to China, Canada, the U.K. and Japan for growth.

Starbucks expects to gain as more-affluent Chinese are drawn to gourmet coffee. There are now 100 million middle-class consumers in China and this may grow to 200 million by 2020, Wang said today at the Retail Asia Congress in Hong Kong. Retail sales in China gained 21.6 percent in May, close to the fastest pace in nine years.
Read On

Coffee still has a ton of room for growth in China. None of my Chinese friends drink coffee on a regular basis. In fact, most think I'm quite strange for wanting to begin my work day with a cup of coffee.

That's not to say that nobody in China drinks coffee. The huge coffee culture that America has just isn't here. Visiting a coffee house in Xi'an, you truly see the elite and trendy.

The whole idea of drinking ground coffee in China is a novelty in itself. In Xi'an, I have to go to one of a handful of specialty stores to buy non-instant coffee. Instant coffee is available in most supermarkets, but again, I don't think Chinese people are really taking to drinking the instant stuff that much.

Seeing how untapped this potentially huge coffee market is in China, investing heavily in China seems like an obvious move for Starbucks.

Fake Quake Propagator Arrested

Metabetable — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:09:23 GMT

This helps explain some of the panic that Xi'an felt in the weeks following the Sichuan earthquake.

From the Shanghai Daily:

A UNIVERSITY student was arrested for fabricating and spreading online rumors about an earthquake by police in Shaanxi Province, Xinhuanet.com reported.

Jia Zhipan, 23, a native of Shandong Province, allegedly hacked into the Shaanxi Province Earthquake Administration's Website on May 29 and released a fake notice that read: ``A serious earthquake will hit Shaanxi and other places in the country at 11:30pm tonight,'' the report said.

Although the computer major deleted the fake notice 10 minutes later, the hoax created a public panic, the report said.

During the 10 minutes the notice was posted, it was read a total of 771 times and about 100 residents called the administration to inquire about the earthquake, the report said. Some residents started to take precautions on their own, which disturbed public disorder for a short period of time, the report said.

Read On

Thankfully, life has resumed back to normal in Xi'an. There are no longer any tents outside anywhere and I haven't received an earthquake text message in weeks.

While it's good that people have gotten on with their lives, the people still suffering in Sichuan should not be forgotten.

Coal Pollutants = Birth Defects

Metabetable — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:59:58 GMT

This news isn't all that surprising, but still pretty hard hitting nonetheless.

From The International Herald Tribune:

BANGKOK, Thailand — Children born after the closure of a coal-burning plant in China had 60 percent fewer developmental problems, a study released Monday suggests, giving ammunition to those who argue the country should embrace cleaner sources of energy.

The study in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health Perspectives journal found that after the coal plant was shut in the midwestern city of Tongliang, pregnant mothers living in the area had far less exposure to pollutants and their children showed significantly fewer delays in developing motor skills such as muscle coordination by the age of 2.

"This study provides direct evidence that the Chinese government's action to shut down a polluting power plant had measurable benefits on the development of children," said Frederica Perera, lead author of the study and the director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York.

"These findings have major implications for environmental health and energy policy in China and elsewhere," she said.
Read On

I've said it many times on this blog already: China is mortgaging its future and its future generations for its unprecedented economic growth.

It's great that millions of Chinese are now getting more opportunities to live better lives because of the country's robust growth. But at the same time as millions are getting wealthier, millions of people are being aversely affected or simply left behind in China's booming economy.

Hopefully news like this will put pressure on China to take into account more than just GDP numbers as it moves forward.

Some More Music Videos

Metabetable — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:35:04 GMT

Here are the last of the videos I have from one of our rock shows from last summer:

Grounded From Flight:

This was only the third time we'd ever played the song. I think it ended up being the best video we got from the show. My improvised guitar solo at 3:42 makes me happy that I bothered learning the guitar.

The Jazz Song:

Such a rocking song. I just wish the video didn't end where it does.

Travel Light(ly):

The drumming in this from my brother is absolutely tenacious.

Open Roads:

Again, ridiculous drumming on this poppy tune.

The studio album we made can be downloaded here for free.

Doing all this stuff - playing shows, recording albums, etc. - last summer was so much fun. I hope I get the chance to do them again in the future some time.

Two Months After the Sichuan Earthquake

Metabetable — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:22:20 GMT

Thousands upon thousands of people are now rebuilding their lives in the, now, sweltering hot Sichuan Province.

From the Times Online:

The doctor’s sign is perched on top of a great mound of roadside rubble that was a three-storey house before the Sichuan earthquake of May 12.
Incredulous, we clamber up the fallen masonry. On the far side a doctor has set up a makeshift surgery beneath a canvas awning in what was once his garden.
Long Shifu is 62. He lost his brother, brother-in-law and everything he owned in the quake. He, his wife and widowed sister-in-law live in another tent. His only medicines are what he managed to retrieve from the ruins of his home, but for two months now he has been treating his patients for free.
“This is a skill I learnt from childhood. People need me,” he said. Suddenly he burst into tears — a brief lowering of his guard after so much fortitude.
There is nothing exceptional about Dr Long. A similar spirit pervades Jiulong, a once-beautiful farming town that sits amid lush green ricefields at the foot of steep, forested mountains. The earth is so rich, locals say, that even chopsticks stuck in the ground grow into trees.
Hundreds, probably thousands, of its 11,000 inhabitants — nobody knows exactly how many — are now buried in that earth. Hardly a building was left standing after the quake.
But in the two days that The Times spent in Jiulong there was no bitterness or self-pity to be found — just an astounding determination to rebuild and recover. Here, and throughout an earthquake zone several times larger than Wales, we found the very best of that uniquely Chinese fusion of collective action and individual enterprise — of communism and capitalism.
Read On

It's hard to imagine the suffering people in Sichuan Province are going through. It sounds as if they have quite the fighting spirit and good attitude about the bad hand they've been dealt though. Lots of inspiring stuff going on down there.

Want to Eat Some Dog?

Metabetable — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:31:49 GMT

Some crushing news today for an oft forgotten and oppressed minority - dog meat lovers.

From The BBC:

China has ordered dog meat to be taken off the menu at its 112 official Olympic restaurants in order to avoid offending foreign visitors.
Restaurant workers are advised to "patiently" suggest other options to diners who order dog.
Any restaurant found violating the ban would be black-listed, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Dog - known as "fragrant meat" - is eaten by some Chinese for purported medicinal properties.
The ban, issued by the Beijing Catering Trade Association, forbids all designated Olympic restaurants from offering dog and urges other food outlets to remove the meat from menus.
Read On

It's common to see dog meat available in many different types of restaurants. I've learned the characters for dog meat - 狗肉 - and see them pretty regularly when out and about.

Chinese people tell me that it is best to eat dog meat in winter because it "is very hardy and will keep you warm."

Amazingly, I've lived in China for more than two years now and have yet to try dog meat (to the best of my knowledge). I'm not that opposed to eating dog meat, but have never felt particularly compelled to do so.

We'll see if I can manage to hold out much longer. If I cave, the faithful readers of this blog will be the first to know.

Watching Kung Fu Panda in Chinese

Metabetable — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:42:15 GMT

Dreamworks' "Kung Fu Panda" is a hit in China.

From AFP:

BEIJING (AFP) — The Hollywood blockbuster "Kung Fu Panda" has broken box office records for animated films in China, raking in 135 million yuan (19.6 million dollars) in its first three weeks, state press said Tuesday.
The film is the first cartoon feature in China to surpass 100 million yuan in box office receipts, the Beijing News said, citing distributor Huaxia.
The comedy portrays a bumbling panda who goes on to become a martial arts star.
Although Chinese critics have praised the film for its story-line and animation, its producer DreamWorks has been criticised for seeking to cash in on China's national treasure, the panda bear.
Read On

Considering how rampant China's counterfit DVD markets are, I'd say that this is a pretty good haul so far.

Although I have friends who've purchased this movie for 6 kuai at Xi'an's impressive illegal DVD black markets, Jackie and I went to go see Kung Fu Panda in the theatres yesterday.

Since the movie's been out for a few weeks now, theatres are no longer showing the English version on the big screen. This means that I wasn't able to listen to Jack Black and Dave Cross as the animated animals' voices, but I'm still glad I saw the Chinese version.

Seeing the movie in Chinese was a good test of my listening. I would say that I understood roughly half of the movie's dialog. There were certain sections where I understood every word, but then there were sections where I didn't understand anything. Overall, I'd say I completely understood about 1/3 of the words spoken in the movie and was able to make sense of about half the sentences, even if I didn't understand every word in it. Jackie helped fill in holes, although being a children's movie, it was pretty easy to follow regardless if I understood every sentence.

I really liked Kung Fu Panda. In addition to the incredibly impressive imagery of the movie, I also really liked its story line. It was very "Chinese-d out." I loved the mountain scenery where the movie largely takes place. The stairs up the mountain the panda frequently climbed are a familiar site to me. This all reminded me of Hua Shan a lot. The panda's dad who sold noodles and the little village where the panda was from were nice Chinese touches.

Afterwards, Jackie and I discussed a lot of the Confucian thought present throughout the movie. There was one instance where the old kung fu master, a turtle, told the panda something along the lines of:

"Yesterday is the past and is gone forever. You can't change the past. Tomorrow is a mystery which you can't know today. Today, well today is a gift from above. Do as much as you can today to prepare for tomorrow."

And then later in the movie when the panda is still fat and is showing little progress in his training, the old wise Confucian turtle imparts the following to the soon-to-be leader racoon:

"You must learn to trust others. If you do not trust that the panda, he will not be able to trust himself."

I find both of these nuggets from the old Confucian master very enlightening.

So in addition to having impressive graphics and cute/funny fight scenes, the movie does share some traditional Chinese thought with contemporary audiences.

Sprint to the Finish In Beijing + My Analysis of Beijing's Air Quality

Metabetable — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:48:55 GMT

There's one month to go until the Olympics' opening ceremony. A lot still has to be done.

From The Wall Street Journal:

A Chinese paramilitary policeman stood guard before the Water Cube and National Stadium, which were shrouded in smog in Beijing Tuesday

BEIJING -- Just one month before the Aug. 8 opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics at the city's new National Stadium, numerous hurdles remain for organizers. Among the biggest: Worries about persistent pollution cloud the horizon, prompting the closing of scores of factories.
While the primary Olympics sports venues are completed, the rest of the city is a frantic construction site. The downtown station of a new airport railway is unfinished. New subway lines have just started trial runs for opening before mid-July. A major redevelopment of a historic district near Tiananmen Square is shrouded in billboards and construction dust.

Preparations for the Olympics often involve a last-minute sprint, and Beijing may well finish preparations on time, as officials have promised. Still, the amount of work left to be done is impressive -- perhaps most significantly when it comes to pollution, a concern that literally hangs over Beijing.

The past few weeks have had an especially noxious combination of unusual heat, rain and stifling smog. In the 20 days up to Monday, air quality averaged 87.75, according to the government's air-pollution index, a 500-point scale. That is just within what China considers safe -- though double typical levels seen in developed cities in the West. Six days were close to or above levels that China considers mildly polluted, when outdoor activity for the young and old or sick should be reduced.
Read On

That picture from yesterday looks awful. It's hard to believe that the pollution index is within what is considered safe. As the article goes on to say, those pollution numbers that have been officially released could very well be fudged.

I thought it'd be appropriate to post some of the pictures I've taken in Beijing to show the varying degrees of air quality. Although I've never lived in Beijing, I've visited the city on three separate occasions and took a decent number of pictures each time I was there.

I'll post the pictures in order of best air quality to worst.

My friend Meaghan and me from May of 2007. This has to be the gold standard of Beijing's air quality. Bright blue skies from right in the middle of the city at Tiananmen Square. Incredible.

Here's my family at the Temple of Heaven in June of 2007. This certainly isn't a "nice day" by western standards, but at least the sky is, maybe, hinting at blue up there. Visibility doesn't seem to be getting to distorted at short distances either.

Here is me, my mom, and my brother. This was taken about three weeks after the picture just above in Tiananmen Square with Meaghan. This was a bad day. Mao's picture is already starting to be clouded out and he's just a few hundred feet away.

This has to be the gray standard, or just about as bad as it gets. You can kind of see the Forbidden City in this picture. This is again while my parents in Beijing. Not pleasant at all.

So, what does Beijing have in store for the world next month?