Moving...again!

This is my third, and hopefully final, move. Blogspot has been blocked in China for a few months now. I've been publishing (not very frequently) via Windows Live Writer. It's been good, but I have to setup an ftp account on blogger for images (can't do - blocked). On top of that, I can't respond to comments.

So, I've got a new domain - mannblogs.com. I'm using Yahoo hosting and Wordpress for my blog. I'm continuing on with manninchina, but manninchina.com will redirect to the new blog location.

So - please visit - www.mannblogs.com/manninchina

1 Million cars...where did they go?

Supposedly, Beijing is removing 1 million cars from the roads between 7 August - 20 August. I'm not surprised by this and completely believe they can and will do this (did something similar last October for the China-Africa Summit). However, I didn't notice any reduction in cars between the 7th - 10th.

Beijing has over 3 million cars on the road today...they add over 1,000 new cars to the roads each day. Why not stop adding? I know it's not that easy...but for a government who can tell 1 million people they can't drive for 2 weeks, why can't they tell potential car buys they can't buy for 1 year? Yes, this has other impacts (car sales, fuel sales, etc...), but there will be just that much more of a demand post Olympics - just start preparing for that.

Much of the city traffic, in my view, is caused by people walking and on bicycles. The "people watchers with flags" really don't do much in the way of stopping people from walking or riding through the intersections when they aren't supposed to.

Blue skies

Happy to report that the skies are blue in Beijing today - not one sign of polluted air (other than the stains on all of the buildings).

Today marks the 1 year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but it doesn't seem like there is much celebration going on. Maybe because I'm out in Shangdi, very far from the "cool area" of Beijing at work. But, even at Lenovo - I haven't seen any sign of a celebration...

The countdown begins...

Tomorrow (08/08/07) marks the 1 year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It also marks my attempt to get back to regular blogging again and put some more interesting content up to get my following back! We'll see how that goes...

Lot's of talk as to whether China is ready for the 08' Olympics or not. I can't speak to the status of any project in particular, but I can tell you the following...

• Construction projects - seem to be moving faster & faster. It's unbelievable to see how quick they are moving on the CCTV complex and China World #3 ... both huge, huge projects. But, will all the cranes be out of sight by year's end? ... doubtful.
• Traffic - sucks...will continue to suck until; 1) They get better driving schools in China; 2)Stop selling new cars; 3)Current drivers get better road manners (patience, for starters).
• Food - I haven't noticed a problem, but maybe that's because I'm used to it after being here for almost a year.
• English - taxi drivers aren't even close to being able to take foreigners around without relying heavily on written directions from the passengers (in Chinese) or maps (in Chinese)
• Air quality - keep forcing it to rain, maybe it will wash it all a way (for a few days). I think this and food are the two biggest concerns for Olympic athletes coming to Beijing.

NY Times has a good article published today too -

"China under fire..."

My recent experience (yesterday) with the traffic situation, which is mentioned in the article, really opened my eyes to how bad these issues may be.  My commute sucks as it is (1 hour in the morning, usually 1.5 hours in the evening). Last night ... 3 hours. Why? Due to the rain. It has been raining here a lot lately, which is very unusual for Beijing. Usually, the rain is "forced" (they seed the clouds with sulfur rockets). Why is this done? People believe mainly to clean up the air when there are important visitors in town. I'm taking a guess that this is why it's been raining so much the last week.

Well, a lot of rain causes problems...flooding. Was this not expected? Last night, 2 days before the 1 year mark, this flooding wreaked havoc on the city (and caused my shoes to be caked in mud). I hope tomorrow (8/8) proves to be a clear and traffic free day! 

"Toilet Culture"...what the....???

Let's just hope they can keep this clean...

"A lulu of a loo"

Back in Beijing & can access flickr!

I arrived back in Beijing yesterday afternoon...feels great to be back. I never thought I would call China home, but I do...for now.

I previously reported that flickr was blocked in China. It may have been last week, but can access it now. This is the good news. The bad news is, the pages (and images) in flickr are not loading completely. Pages with photos will load, but the actual photo won't appear. The status bar at the bottom of the page says "done" ... hmm. This may just be a network glitch now, but likely has something to do with the great fire wall.

So, I think I got my hopes up. Sucks to not be able to view images, but at least I can load up my images for those outside of China to view. The saga continues...

This is getting old, really old...

Users rage against China's 'Great Firewall'

It seems that since I left Beijing last week for India, flickr.com is the latest casualty of the Great Firewall. It's starting to eat at me. Blogger blocked again and now flickr, where I have all of my photos (OK, not all, since I've been slacking).

I understand why the blocking happens (understand = know the reasons...not agree with), but I'm fed up. What can I do? Find work-arounds. I'm moving back into yahoo hosting for my blogs (have confirmed that it is accessible in China...as of now). As for flickr...not sure yet. I guess I'll just host my pictures on yahoo via my hosting account.

This sucks.

Biodome II anyone?

Space pioneers wanted for 520-day Mars experiment

This reminds me of the movie "Biodome." Don't think Pauly Shore is going to make the cut for this one though. Odds of this being turned into a reality TV show? I would say not good, but they should definitely consider it. I can't imagine the doors not being opened before 520 days.

Bangalore @ 6:30am

I decided to take a walk through the streets of Bangalore this morning. It's amazing to walk out of a nice hotel and see what you see around here. Not even pictures can tell the story about how far behind India is in many aspects.

This woman caught my eye as I was walking back to the hotel. I wonder what her story is. I don't even want to guess.

India vs. China - Outline

I'm on my third trip to India (Bangalore) and have spent about nine months in China (Beijing) so far. I think it's about time I start providing my view of a comparison between the these two massive countries.

What I'll cover (if anyone would like any other areas covered, let me know and I'll try my best):

1. Ease of travel to & from (Visas, Airlines, Routes, Airports, etc...)

2. Transportation in country (Driving services, taxis, etc...)

3. Infrastructure (Roads, Power, Water, Internet, etc...)

4. Hotels/Apartments

5. Population/Poverty

6. Skill/Capabilities/Cost

7. Foreign enterprises and investment

8. Stock Market

9. Culture

10. Language/Communication

11. What people think (about their own country and others).

12. Manners

13. Corruption/Government

I think that'll be a good start.

Blogspot blocked in China...again

Can't access manninchina.blogspot.com from China. This is getting old.

Pinyin to English / Chinglish to English / Old English to Proper English

Beijing is really starting to make an effort with changing out Chinglish to English. The most well known example is the change from the "Dongda Anus and Intestine Hospital" to the "Dongda Proctology and Intestine Hospital." That place is right near my apartment, laughed every time I saw it.

Here's an article covering the other areas...

"Hello toilet, goodbye WC for Beijing Games"

Some concerns with this:

1. Taxi drivers cannot speak English. Out of the thousands of taxis I've ridden in Beijing, a handful could speak some, very broken, English...similar to my level of Chinese. If street signs are changed to English - are the taxi drivers going to understand? I think not. Same goes for Olympic venues, restaurants, etc... I had heard all taxi drivers in Beijing have to pass an English test prior to the Olympics if they want to drive during the Olympics. I'm not sure how this is progressing, but from what I can tell...it hasn't move past "Hello!" and "OK".

2. I don't want to see the pinyin removed. For someone who lives here and is trying to learn Chinese to effectively communicate with the the people of China, the pinyin is very helpful. Keep the pinyin, add the English.

3. Good luck with the menus...that's all I have to say about that.

I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of pointing during the 2008 games. Pointing at maps, location cards, menus, sporting events, etc...

Windows Live Writer & Google Reader

After connection issues with live writter, it's working again. This is nice, especially because my blogger account still remains 100% in Chinese.

I've started to use Google Reader, mainly so I can read wordpress blogs (which are blocked again by the Great Firewall). However, I can't find a way to comment on blogs via Google Reader...is there a way to do so? If not, any other solutions out there?

Taxi ditch

I've done it before and I'll do it again in Beijing. There are some great taxi drivers in this city...the guys who are very cheerful, nice and always willing to help and deal with my poor Chinese...they even teach me to say things properly. Then, there are the guys who are  just aholes...pretend they don't understand you and then try to rip you off.

I have some friends in town visiting; they got to experience taxi ditch last night. Needless to say, they guy wasn't too happy when we ditched at a red light. As he pulled up to me and spoke some choice words...I did the same (those, I can say perfectly). We then hopped in another taxi and went on our way.

Frustration

My blogger account remains in Chinese, no matter how many times I've changed the country/language settings + cleared cache & cookies. The "recognize your country" function for some websites really sucks. Just because I'm in China doesn't mean I want my account in Chinese!

In addition to this problem, wordpress is yet again blocked.

Last...yesterday I went to the Lenovo "restaurant" with some other assignees here in Beijing (from Greenock, Scotland). My Chinese is the best of the group (which isn't saying much), so I did the ordering. Needless to say, it was a complete debacle. 5 minutes in, we had 4 or 5 waitresses hanging around us giggling and trying to figure out what the hell we wanted. In the end, we got what we wanted, just a bit too much of it.

Immediately following that, I contacted the language school and got my classes back on the calendar.

India

IMG_0055
Originally uploaded by MJM80.

After my second trip to India (Bangalore), it's starting to grow on me. This time around, I think it was the King's Castle. He had some cool stuff in there...namely, some elephant feet. I think they have fungus under their toe nails though. The head that belongs to a couple of those feet was also in the castle...picture is in the flickr stream, somewhere.

BTW...the King lives in the Castle too...weird.

Back at home...in China

Finally back in Beijing, after the US & India. Good to be back...lots of catching up to do.

Fast & free

I didn't think there was that much of a difference in internet speed from US & China, but wow, I really do notice a difference. At this 5 times faster here. And of course, the ability to roam the internet freely is a nice change.

Home sweet home

After 20+ hours of travel, I'm finally home in Buffalo. It feels good. I felt really weird when I was in Chicago, seeing so many people, that weren't Chinese. I also got to experience my first taste of home "hospitality" ... as I asked a woman working at one of the ticket counters in Chicago ... "can you tell me what terminal flight X is leaving from?" ... "No, I can't!" ... "Thanks so much for your help." So, that was nice.

First meal...BBQ chicken finger sub. First drink...MILK.

Hope to get some sleep tonight. Then it's off to Tony's in the morning for a haircut and then some friends from Raleigh are flying in for my brother's stag this weekend.

Goin' home!

Well, after 8 months in China, I'm finally making a trip back to the US. Hard to believe it's already been 8 months, seems like it's only been a couple.

So, off to Buffalo, NY tomorrow. 10 days there. My older brother is getting married on May 5. Stag (bachelor party) this coming Saturday. It's been more than 8 months since I've seen most of my family & friends, so I'm really looking forward to it. I've also got my liver nice and primed for the amount of alcohol consumption that will occur.

After the craziness in Buffalo, I'm heading down to Raleigh, NC for 4 days. More family and friends to see there & I'll finally get to see the new Lenovo campus there (wonder if I'll have a desk...likely not). Have a round of golf planned with some friends and people from work too.

So, after 2 weeks in the US, I'm off to India for a few days for work. Then finally, back to Beijing.

It'll be nice to get away from here for a while, but I'm sure I'll miss it!