Lucinda
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I gave a talk last week, it was recorded. Its about online agencies, so pretty off-topic for this blog, but nonetheless... Apologies for the ad.
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I got up, did yoga, and had breakfast before joining Claire for my last taxi ride in China, to the airport. Although the Shangri-Las breakfast buffet falls fall short of the Beijing Hilton Wangfugings, they let me take pictures! And even provide a placemat map. I have three more photos but I cant figure out what they are, so Ill spare you. Amazing, huh? After breakfast Claire and I headed to the airport and said goodbye she was a great traveling companion. Goodbye Claire! She loves pandas, so I bought that hat for her
After an uneventful security check (yes, the Lhasa treatment was definitely special) I flew to Shanghai.The last time I was in this same place I was running to make my connection from Lhasa to Shanghai! The terminal is far too small for its traffic, so you board a bus to most planes. Note the horrific air quality I havent seen the sun since I was at the Great Wall. And the ubiquitous cranes, building what looks like three more terminals. The alarm woke me at 5a, but I didnt get up until 6, when I rode the bike in the most beautiful (and least populated) gym I've even been in Then I met Claire for a day of sightseeing. We started off at the Jinsha Site Museum, which was terrific, way better than I had anticipated. Its comprised of an active dig site with a soaring modern building over it and a museum with tons of artifacts, on gorgeous grounds Its very cool to see the digging active then walk over to the museum and see the kind of artifacts that theyve uncovered It was nice to see lots of children running around. Im mystified why there were so few at the Panda Center. From Jinsha we took taxi towards the Wuhou Shrine, but it was noon and we were hungry and had Sichuan snacks on Jinli Street, another relatively new street built on the site of one from the Qin Dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. Then we went to the Shrine, which built in the Three Kingdoms Period (220 -280) to honor Zhuge Liang and was combined with a Temple to Emperor Liu Bei at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty when it was all rebuilt. Today it is a beautiful oasis in the midst of the busy city, with lush greenery and traditional Chinese buildings and red walls. After the shrine we took an insane taxi ride the kind Ive heard about but hadnt experienced. Since Im still alive I can say it was fun. The cab was a Jetta that was so old and abused it didnt look like it should even go. The driver was amazingly agressive, at one point squeezing between a construction truck and bus with about 2 (NO EXAGERATION) on each side, right up to the back of a soot-spewing truck. Im just not a good enough writer to describe the experience, but it was a lot like an amusement park ride. Except it was real. We ended the day at De Fus Cottage. Amazingly I can't find a decent link for it. The city of Chengdu is trying to develop a focus on tourism, but they have a ways to go. For example, I love this sign in the airport, just before baggage claim what could it mean? Baggage check. Anyway, the Du Fu Cottage site was very much like the shrine a big pleasant compound with traditional buildings, gardens, and walls After that Claire headed off to meet some friends and I went back to the hotel to write three days worth of posts, do some work, and work out again with the goal of going to bed early in preparation for my last, packed, day in China. I intended to venture out for dinner, but it got late and I ended up ordering Indian curry and naan from room service, for about $12 delivered, at a 5-star hotel
I highly recommend reading David Leonhardts In China, Cultivating the Urge to Splurge in the New York Times on the 24th, Its long, but spot-on, with great photos (the left sidebar, not so much the slide show) and goes beyond what youd think given the title.
My experiences align directly with the observations David Leonhardt makes, particularly one I havent highlighted: the odd juxtaposition of overcrowding and emptiness. For example, the hospital in Tianjin was full for outpatients but only one of the diagnostic machines were running and most of the rooms were empty. The Hilton in Beijing seemed to have very low occupancy, as measured by people in elevators and at breakfast and China Dailies in front of hotel rooms. Huge restaurants can be ghost towns too (though many are teaming with people). The highway from Beijing to the Great Wall had sparse traffic, and the one from downtown Tianjin to the economic development zone had almost none. My guess is that, like Third Ring Road, all of these will fill up faster than one could imagine but its also possible that misguided government investment is wasting a lot of money. The Tianjin hospital, according to The Wall Street Journal (Hospital Caters to Chinas Wealthy and Poor, 1/4/07), cost $91 million as wasnt turning a profit yet. It would be hard to imagine that it is now, although so much is so cheap here that it is possible. The NYT article added to my list of favorite China factoids:
* I was told this by a super-reputable person. The best citation I could find was 1990 data, when the number was 99. Im sure that its 160 now if it was 99 20 years ago. But this does point to one of the challenges blogging and in understanding China. Writing stuff like this I feel a semi-journalistic responsibility to get the facts right, but I dont have the resources to do so. I end up like most (all?) bloggers I generally take a sources word caveat lector (reader beware). |
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I blog in spurts, about all sorts of things. |