Poor goldfish! 

Goat or a sheep? They cannot tell which is my sign in Chinese astrology 

Bumper Boats with Black Australian Swan somewhere in Pond 

Saturday in the park...

I know it was not the fourth of July (any Chicago fans out there?). Yesterday I arrived in Dalian. Formerly known as Darien, part of it Port Arthur, now part of it Lushun (off limits to laowai because it is militarily sensitive), to-gether known as Luda. Any luddites out there might well be confused, just think of Lakehead, Thunder Bay, Port Arthur (a Chinese connection?) and Prince William and things will sort themselves out. I landed in a park, having forgotten it was Saturday, and smack in the middle of a parent-child festival. The colour, activity, intensity, brightness there was a microcosm of China. Crowded, good-natured, although to-day I have encountered several unfriendly people. But back to the park. It has a giant soccer ball dominating it, in this the city of China's "Manchester United." But I was taken in by the fishing for goldfish in a pond fully stocked, the skipping over bamboo poles not getting your feet caught, the keepsi-uppie, the Dalain equivalent to the London Eye, the ski lift, the paddle boats, the giant tipsy mountain which toppled when kids reached a certain height etc. etc This trip is a kaleidoscope of sensations. Dalian has been previously occupied by Russians (many signs are in Russian), Japanese, badly damaged by the European powers, but to-day is fully modern with awesome architecture.

One Way to Defend the Great Wall at Old Dragons Head (Mile Zero) - with your Elbows 

Olympic Park Beidaihe - Samaranch and the Pig-tailed Kid 

A Young Student (Helen) and Soon to be Prof 

Colinfuscius - Professor?

<< One of China’s Key Universities, directly under the State Education Ministry, Beijing Foreign Studies University (commonly known as Bei Wai) is China’s most prestigious school for the study of Language. With courses in over 30 different foreign languages, most of the diplomats and foreign relations officials are graduates of this Chinese Georgetown. Bei Wai has nearly a 1,000 students from around the world studying Chinese each year, as well as 4,500 Chinese students of foreign languages, offering many opportunities for language and cultural exchange. >>

OK so you get the drift. The above quote came from the first website I looked at to research this university. I dropped in to their summer campus in this resort (Beidaihe)and was offered a job from the President within five minutes. Teaching from mid-July to mid-August. So is this a no brainer? The connection with Russia is interesting and I will share what I can in the future when I am better informed. Now where did I put my wallet? Who did I speak to on the phone last night? Just warming up to be professorial folks!

Mao Needs a Dusting

Several days ago in Beijing I went to the Revolutionary Military Museum, an imposing building with a Red Star atop. The lobby is dominated by a statue of Mao who has been neglected by an army of cleaners if you forgive the pun. Surprising really since so many things in this city are spotless. His former car is in the background and floors have different themes. I now have a good appreciation for the Communist-Kuomintang split in the twenties, the reconciliation to fight the Japanese occupation years later and lastly China's participation in the Korean War. The tunnel display depicting guerrilla underground tactics in the villages to fight off the Japanese invaders was excellent. Since that visit I have met up with Helen, a student I met my first day in China. A visit to the Summer Palace and a couple of restaurants were on the agenda. Yesterday was the Great Wall (how many Wonders of the World have I now seen, not counting Keith Richards?)at the town where it enters the sea, Shanhaiguan. It is both hilly and ancient, the hutong neighbourhoods offering up good photos. Posting has been troublesome and I have lost several posts in the last few days so I hope to get photos up to-morrow if this resort(I am in Beidaihe) has the resources. Ciao

Hit the Road Jack.....

O.K, I have just said good-bye to my host family for three weeks and am off travelling. I will return to Xingtai for a couple of days mid June. I have got the process to alter my visa underway and today have made it up to Beijing. I must alter my plane ticket and will visit two friends here. I caught the train this am after hunkering down with an American, Scot and Australian at an apartment the agency New Times maintains in Shijiazhuang. Yesterday I did the patriotic thing and visited the Revolutionary Martyrs Mausoleum where Norman (Sleeps Here) sleeps permanently. I have caught a newspaper out and apologise to the readers of this blog. Bethune is not the only foreigner to have a statue in China. Kontis, also a doctor, left India to help the Chinese against the Japanese and likewise his statue is ensconced in the memorial park. Yesterday two young ladies picked me up, dropped me at one point then came back on their bikes and arranged to take me to lunch, which they paid for. Heck I just go with the flow. Today I had to stand for an hour but unlike the double decker train the last time this train had higher windows so I could still see out. In the country side if you look far enough in any direction you always eventually run into a brick wall so encroachment is obvious. There are lots of trees in straight lines and virtually no wild or untamed areas, at least on the plain in this province. To-morrow it is off to visit Helen, at uni here in Beijing. Remember how we met at the airport?
She has just been told she must rethink her thesis so she may be a bit grumpy. To-night was sublime. Mild temperatures and a beautiful walk in the downtown area. The music on the train, Moon River, seems to have set a soft summer breeze tone for the next while. I am tempted to go into the government travel head office and ask to teach them tourism English. Must go. Time is up. Hope to have photos soon (I've taken enough). Colin

Colinfuscius Say

I just had a Big Mac attack. Colinfuscius eating noodle and looking at picture box when Colinfuscius see on picture box screen Mac Harb. Colinfuscius think Big Mac in sleepy chamber Senaty place. Must be an election on. Big Mac looking to get nod in Ottawa Centre riding and come China to get ethnic vote and enough people (1.3 billion) to stack the nomination meeting. Move over Eddie Broadband, bend, bent.

The restaurant near me. Funny I never noticed it until last night. 

5 into 3 goes......?

Sounds like grade three math. In fact I'm talking zixingche (come on, pinyin for bike). Five people, three bikes works well. One pedals, the other rides side saddle on the rack, dare I say seat, at the back. No support for the feet most times. Everyone learns as a kid. When I had to show my residents permit at the police station, four girls and I went on three bikes. I learned that day that the person at the back hops off at red lights. Hopping on again is a feat and you discover new muscles. I have seen all combinations on bikes and scooters. The seventy year old on the back of a bike, not holding on, not scuffing feet which remained suspended an inch off the ground, in perfect balance, was precious. The mother lurching as she pedalled but with good reason! Daughter was at the back, facing backwards and smiling as she went. Son turned out to be nestled at the front underneath the handlebars. At least he was looking where they were going. No one signals. Probably just as well since space is so limited it avoids a lot of straight arms across the chops!

He is planting cotton. "Let the textiles go" he says (in Putongua, or Mandarin) 

Late Night Video Games and Alice (shortest) Should Be In Bed 

Decisions, Decisions

I approach the end of my homestay and will regrettfully move on but I intend to adhere to my plan to teach and travel beyond my homestay location. Travelling over the next month will take me mostly to coastal cities between Shanghai and Beijing. If I find the appropriate situation then I will suggest to New Times Agency they work out a contract for me. Meanwhile I have several topics I wish to post but do not know which I can squeeze in. So lets see what you wish to hear about. Potential topics for this last week could be Dynasties (Chinese TV), Bike Balancing (bareback riding), Library Photo Exhibit (my photos), Women In My Life, Brownfields, Music and Tian He Shan. That is not even including what will transpire in the meantime. By the way, if you think I will talk about the women in my life on the Internet, think again. I just wanted to see if you were awake! To round off my musings on France -China and the current contoversy over textiles etc, the Foreign Minister made a telling statement the other day. China has just ordered a number of commercial aircraft. It would need to sell 600 million worth of textiles to pay for just one Airbus. so who really is the loser here? Mind you to-day the paper notes exports of textiles have gone up 200% since the tarif was lifted on January 1st. Coal production doubled in 2004, and of course mine disasters are almost a daily ocurrence here as unsafe mines work illegal operations to cash in on the energy squeeze.

Swallows

Seven weeks into my homestay and Xingtai has been as dry as the Kobi Desert, but it rained the other day. This in the middle of the May Day holiday. I decided to go to the park, which is the main feature of my part of town, on my bike. The park is dedicated to Xingtai favourite son Guoshoujing, astronomer and inventor of a well used calendar. Whereas the day before the vicinity had been teeming with people, buses and taxis, this day I was the only bike to park at the entrance. Entrance price is very cheap, about 30 cents. I did not have to pay to park the bike because the attendant had absconded. When I entered, it should not have surprised me that the park would be all but empty of people. However it did. I realized that for the first time in my China stay I had enough room to swing the proverbial cat without running into a Chinaman (or Chinaperson to be politically correct). The constant activity and density of people here is I believe the most striking difference with the countries I have experienced. So if you want privacy wait for a rainy day, at least in the dry northern plains of China. I did nontheless share the park with a miriad of swallows and martins weaving swift and intricate patterns around the pond. I watched for fifteen minutes as I gradually got progressively damper but it was a fascinating sight. I think they were catching insects although I didn't see any. I went into the museum (partly to live up to a commitment to teach the guide a tad more English) and when I came out thirty minutes later the rain had stopped. The swallows had gone and there was still virtually no one in the park. Either the people were all at the train station, which is what it seems like during holiday weeks like this, or they had dissolved in the rain (which could be a strategy for the China one-child policy committee).
Note: I am posting these comments to New Times Hebei Agency website, if anyone is interested. Just Google.

2005 - Year of the Rooster

My cousin in Limoges, France, made some observations recently about China and the bad press it is getting for its economic policies of undercutting established industries in Europe and North America. All true I am sure. Nonetheless politicians from overseas come here to strengthen ties through an ever turning revolving door. In Beijing, Austria had its flag flying one day, the next day France its tricolor. This is the "Year of France in China" with no less than 3,000 events involved. Jean Michel Jarre and next week Patricia Kaas, play to Beijing audiences. The French Ambassador opens twelve events in eight days. Simultaneously, photo exhibits of Paris and expos on French architecture run at major venues. Two young ladies talk about France without my prompting, one wanting me to explain the culture (hey I could give that a try since I have drunk cassis) the other because she sells me a painting and then says in a few days for the first time she leaves China to exhibit her work, yes, in Paris in the spring! I think I saw Prime Minister Raffarin, since the day of his Forbidden City visit I was a block or two away and saw the cavalcade with his likeness ensconced in a limousine. France is advocating a lifting of an arms embargo on China, presumably set by the European Union because of Taiwan. Meanwhile France-China trade rose 31% in 2004 to reach $18 billion. Trains, planes and automobiles (or at least what Total puts in the tank) account for a lot of the French exports. France's expertise in design for structures, homes, stadiums etc and its recent organizational skill in hosting the World Cup are door openers to a China going to host the 2008 Olympics and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

If you hurry you might still find Linda and her work in Paris 

Ten Pin Bowling Anyone? 

Norman Slept Here

If you ever intend a trip to the Middle Kingdom where you range beyond the world of hotel clerks and tour guides, you had better brush up on Canadian history (assuming you are from the Great White North which is a stretch for a good many of you I know.) You will get enormous mileage from the very fact you share a native land with Norman Bethune. Free announcements on the radio, free beer, instant celebrity status, unfailing ice breaker etc. etc. On two successive trips to the mountains west of here the people have said "Norman slept here" which is in all likelihood correct. In the late thirties the Japanese were the bitter enemy and occupying power and this region was a scene of ongoing resistance. Mao Zedung and the Communists used the hills near here for a base in the ongoing fight. Norman was an unfailing hero who put his life on the line establishing the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH - move over Alan Arkin) he is renowned for. Mao has written texts praising the only foreigner whose statue stands in China and they are still required reading in school. The Chinese will always know more than you about Bethune. That is unless you check the facts. Despite his enormous legend, in fact he was in China less than two years before dying of blood poisoning from a surgical knife wound. He went to McGill so they can't have taught him the basics, don't operate on yourself! Many Chinese think he was here a decade and I enjoy tripping them up. I have been in the home of the son of a general who fought alongside Norman. Now who in Canada knows where he was born?

Colinfuscius Say

In Land God Gave to Cain Colinfuscius hear many times womany beautiful say to manly man, "Go Fly Kite." Colinfuscius think China have many womany beautiful with knickers in a twist. Manly man fly kite everywhere. One manly man fly kite on stringy thing two kilometres long. Need twelve manly friends get kite fly. Manly man kite flyer keep distance from womany beautiful. Not need ten foot pole.