Free Ai Weiwei !

Artist Ai Weiwei in the ruins of his demolished studio in Shanghai in January 2011 (via Getty Images)

Ai Weiwei (or Ai Wei Wei), probably the most internationally known Chinese artist who often criticises the Chinese Communist Party for many good reasons, is still detained in Beijing by police since April 3rd.

 Ai Weiwei's international popularity allowed him - so far - to express outspoken social critics without being arrested. However, according to himself, he was dangerously beaten up by Chinese police while protesting in Sichuan after the 2008 earthquake where hundreds of schoolchildren died due to poorly built school houses.

There are many other Chinese artists that make money by selling art to the international market that's subject is criticising former chairman Mao. But there are not many artist that dare to openly criticize the actual government.

Although, Mr. Ai continuously built up international relationships with galleries and museums in the US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria etc. and additionally used the new media twitter (#Aiww) to create a kind of public protection around him, he lately was under house arrest in Beijing and now is detained.

I am really sad and shocked to hear what happened to Ai Weiwei.
I liked to live in China, I liked Beijing.
I like the Chinese cultural heritage.
China's economical power is growing and Chinese citizens are proud of their nation.

Why on earth does the Chinese government need to detain this artist?

Most of the Chinese citizens will not care about Ai Weiwei, I am afraid. They will believe the government that this silly old man has committed a tax fraud or so.

When I say "FREE AI WEIWEI", I am not (only) saying that to the Chinese officials, I am saying this to the Chinese people. Please, stand up, stand behind him. His critics are human. He is not asking much. He is a bright and intelligent man. His art is not commercial as the one of many others. He is doing this for a better China. - When this man is arrested, they can arrest anybody.

When the German chancellor Merkel is asking to "Free Ai Weiwei", most of the Chinese people will not understand her and dislike this involvement - as they did, when she said something in favor of the Dailai Lama. Chinese citizens are proud of their nation, once again, they do not like to be criticised by the West.

It is like someone is talking bad about your parents. You need to grow up to understand that your parents are not always right. It feels like most Chinese have not grown up yet. And this is why I feel sad for Ai Weiwei: While he is putting his live at danger to improve human rights in China, most of the Chinese don't care.

This dilemma drove him abroad where he made sure his concept work and installations become well-known in the art world. But as a Chinese born he also feels connected to China and therefor lives in Beijing with studios in Beijing and Shanghai - the latter was demolished by the government in January 2011. However, he was said to open a gallery in Berlin soon and even move there. He must have felt very unsafe.

It is in the Chinese mentality that critics are not appreciated by superiors. - Will this ever change?


Here more information about Ai Weiwei and his detention at New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04china.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=ai%20weiwei&st=cse
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/ai_weiwei/index.html

And check blogger Peking Duck's post with over 200 comments of both sides:
http://www.pekingduck.org/2011/04/the-global-times-and-ai-weiwei/

You may also like this post with my links to Ai Weiwei:
http://beijingnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/10/60-years-people-republic-of-china.html

*** Comments and critics are welcome! ***

UPDATE May 3rd:
Still nobody knows where AWW is detained.
A friend gave me this link to read:  http://www.economist.com/node/18560351, an article about China's recent crackdowns by The Economist from April 14th, 2011

UPDATE May 16th:
His wife met him yesterday (May 15th) for 15 minutes after 6 weeks of no notice. They give him his medicine, they do not torture him. At least a sign of life. His wife said, he seemed very quiet/serious and only said he does not understand for what he is accused. More discussion on this subject was not allowed during that meeting.
I hope they will let him go soon.

60 Years People Republic of China

Happy 60th birthday to PR China and its people !

Yesterday, the world could see the big party and parades on Tiananmen Square.

The Chinese government is good in well organizing big public parties and knows how to ensure good weather!

A hillarious parade of good looking tall Chinese female soldiers (above is a training photo by Reuters)

The media including internet provides tons of information and comments about this birthday and China in general.

I decided to provide the following links on this occasion  :

Ai Weiwei,  contemporary Chinese artist, blogs another kind of birthday speech for his motherland about 60 years of shame and ignorance.

At the moment Ai Weiwei stays in Munich (Germany) where he got operated because of an injury that he claims happened during beiing beaten up by Chinese police. But the main reason is the upcoming opening of his exposition "So sorry" on October 12, 2009 at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.

Don't miss Ai Weiwei's article on Times Magazine reflecting on the subject. 

(Images : Reuters)

The Chinese Way

China had tried to dissuade Christie's from auctioning the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat heads sculptures that were part of the art collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. China argued that these sculptures, which were looted from the Summer Palace by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860, belong to China.

But the Chinese objection was rejected by the French court. However, Pierre Bergé offered to give back the sculptures to China when China frees Tibet ...

As everybody knows by now: The two relics were auctioned on February 25 for 14 mio. Euro (almost 20 mio USD) EACH (!) to an anonymous telephone bidder in Christie's sale of the collection in Paris.

And, surprise, surprise, the winning bidder is a Chinese man, Mr.Cai Minchao, who has no intention paying for the treasures looted from Beijing.

I thought it is a fun story to demonstrate the Chinese way of making business or politics. Smart and tricky. Beware!

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Related Post: What you need to know when doing business with Chinese

Moving Nightmares Part XXII

This is an email from our moving company (it was in my spam file for a while)... anyway... our container will sit in Beijing for a while:

"The latest announcement is that trucks that do not have the proper “emission standards”, and all non-Beijing plate trucks are abandoned from driving on the roads, we are experiencing a shortage of available trucks for line haul here in Beijing and we are experiencing many new restrictions related to trucking.

Due to this, there has been a huge increase for demand of trucks available for hire; plus, there are many import and export shipments are sitting in warehouses while exporters and importers wait to get inland transportation. From the last week of June, we have a serious hard time in booking container trailer, which can continue to Sep. 20th. Even the prices has been increased much higher than normal rates, we still unfortunately could not confirm or guarantee on timing to release the containers.

We are trying our best to arrange your container to be on vessel earliest possible as we can. My best estimation is to have them loaded into container in one or two weeks.

If there is any change to this situation we will keep you updated, and we will keep your shipment with free storage in our warehouse. Sincerely, I wish to have your understanding on this situation which is truly out of our control."

Have I recommended Santa Fe lately in Beijing Cafe as the best moving company?

Well, well, after my experience about 10 days ago, I can say, every other moving company might be capable of the same or even better service at a better price because they might not be overbooked like Santa Fe and do not need to hire so many unexperienced staff.

This time is crazy for shipping goods in and out of Beijing. If you can postpone your shipment, wait until after September 20st, when the Paralympics are over as well and things return to normal.

Don't Underestimate the Power of the Dragon

I am just a little blogger girl and I have not much time to fully research the two stories that I think are related. If you like to know more, you can google around.

1. story: Sharon Stone and her big mouth

By know you might have heard the Sharon Stone Karma story.
It is not that stupid, as one might think, as I read in some other news paper, was it China Daily?, something similar about the last big earthquake and that Chairman Mao died 2 or 3 month afterwards. Chinese are supersticious. They like to "read signs".

But these days, in the pre-Olympic phase, the Dragon is especially sensitive ...
Chinese Media published the story on the front page. I don't know the wording, but I guess, it was ment to dislike the actress. Her new film (I don't know the title) will be boycotted.

But what I thought is most interesting: Dior dropped adds with the actress! This is the Power of the Dragon. Either Dior's marketshare in China is really high, or their business with China will have some disadvantages when they don't dropp her - or both.


2. story: what the NBA has learned

I read that NBA basketball games were suspended from TV. It was said that it is not appropriate to show basketball games during the three days mourning period. But after these 3 days, all channels were broadcasting again (before 3 days of black TV screens! Only newschannels like CNN and BBC were broadcasting and Chinese channels of course. But not even Deutsche Welle DW was on). So people were wondering - and I had a guess - I won the bet with myself - later in May it was reported that NBA donated several millions of dollars (I forgot the amount, maybe 28 mio $ ?) to the victims of the earthquake. They should be back on TV by now.

Dior knew faster then NBA how to please the Dragon.

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Remark: This story is not ment to offend anybody. It should help to understand a bit more the way things work here and to not understimate the power of 1.3 billion people.

Update from Beijing

I am still here. I just lost my voice through censorship. And after pkblog.com and other useful sites could not help me to get back to blogspot I gave up. Of course I was angry and sad. Not only could I not write about my thoughts and little daily adventures, I had no access to all my favorite blogs hosted by blogger, blogspot, typepad etc. But after a while I almost get used to a blog free life...

Every now and then I checked my statistic (via statcounter.com) and wondered that I have still lots of hits although I am not updating my blogs.

And just right now, checking again, I see that a lot of hits come via ... www.websurfing.cn - and I followed the link and found this free proxy server that not only allows me to see again my blog - but also to sign in ! THANK YOU THANK YOU !

It feels great! I am back online !

I had so many little daily adventures to tell, that right now I do not know where to start. I see that my last post was May 6, more than three weeks ago (it felt longer to me).

Maybe I should start with what I posted last - about "the virus".
Mmmh.... tricky, I guess, politically not correct to talk about it, I can feel it.
Or why does no newspaper gives any update about it? In the beginning they promised weekly updates. Or was it only monthly? I read somewhere that they do not report statistics anymore (about how many kids have the virus and about how many died - in Beijing) because the blood test with HMFD (hand mouth food disease) is optional, so any reported figure will not give a clear picture. This explanation - I recognize the style - might have been given. So for now, nobody, including me, seems to know anything. Everybody pays attention to the kids hygiene (washing hands as often as possible) and hops that their own kid(s) does not get sick before they leave Beijing for summer holiday or before they move away.

Shortly after the virus subject, a far more dramatic nature disaster happened. The earthquake. I have been in the car on the 3rd ring road on May 12, at 2.28 pm when the earth shaked - even in Beijing. The epicenter was 1545 km away from Beijing, but the quake with magnitude 7.9 (or 8.0) was still to feel in Beijing. Some did not feel it, like me. But many, working on higher floors in Beijing office buildings, or even in schools could feel it and left the buildings or were evacuated respectively. Many people were seen in the streets while others still wondered why, until it was on the 3.00pm news on the radio and was spread my word of mouth and SMS. There were - apparently - thank god - no casualties in Beijing - and no news about what the impact was here in the capital. You get your picture from talking to many different people. Not from reading some newspaper.

I am glad that the Bookworm Beijing organised a donation for Chengdu. They were collecting clothes, blankets, dried food etc. until Saturday May 17, 4.00pm. I was happy to donate kids clothes and our blanket together with my son at the bookworm. It was impressive to see all the big boxes packed so fast by DHL and stored in several yellow vans and trucks - and knowing that the needed goods will arrive in Chengdu the next day to be distributed via the Bookworm Chengdu. I am glad to have been enabled to contribute a little bit, and thanks to the Bookworm, the goods hopefully have arrived at the right moment at the right place.

All other things since the earthquake appear minor and unimportant. That is why the newspaper concentrate on the earthquake, the rescue works, the survivors, the heroes. There seems (almost) no space or time for other news.

Later that month I had an issue with the Bank of China... I was at the ATM machine waiting for my money, that did not come out, but when checking the bank account it showed that 2.500 RMB were debited. It was solved in about 10 days, but with some minor headache as the customer service staff did a very bad job, indeed they did not do their job at all. Anyway, maybe later more. Maybe not.

The air quality last month was not good at all. It seems to get worse. Due to the strong winds all the dust from the many construction sites was blown all over the city (they are sill building like crazy, until there is no more between July 20 and September 20).

And last but not least the news that I have not told yet:
We are moving! June is my last month. In less then 4 weeks (!) from now we are moving. And this is another story.

I am happy to start this month with a new post. And I have many pics to post soon.
Good night from Beijing.

Beijing: Fake Money

For the first time in my life I hold fake money in my hands! Counterfeit money, funny money, bad money, bogus money, false money... whatever it is called.
Where is it coming from? - From my purse! I don't know who dared to give it to me! To the naive laowai who cannot tell the difference. - Now I can!

Can you tell the difference? One is real, one is fake.
It is the 50 yuan bank note (equal to 5 Euro).

But how did I find out? In jail?
No, no. Not that dramatic.
I left it for my ayi today, because we were waiting for the water to be delivered (two barrels of drinking water). When I came home I saw the change - but my 50 yuan bank note was still there. And before I could ask, ayi was telling the story: The guy from Jenny Lou, the supermarket that delivers the water, did not accept my money. It is fake. - What? While our driver was examining the bank note I took out another 50 yuan from my purse to see the difference. Now you see the two together, scanned for this post.

Since this afternoon I am more careful. I never watched out for fake money although everybody checks my 100 yuan notes wherever I pay. Probably because I only get 100 yuan bank notes from the ATM machines. The highest value of a Chinese bank note is 100 yuan (10 Euro). But the 50 yuan bank note comes back to you with change. And among the real ones might be the counterfeit ones.

So if you are in China and want to pay attention to the change given to you (according to our driver only 100 and 50 yuan notes are counterfeit), here is a quick lesson about how to recognize a false yuan bank note:



It is easy. Just remember point 1, 2 and 3 !
The other points show differences you only see when you compare the false note with a real one - and of course depend on the source.

1
The '50' is shiny golden on both notes, but only the real one turns green when moving (the 100 on the 100 yuan note changes to blue color)

2
The real bank note has a water sign of another '50' (or 100). My fake does not - but others might have.

3
The silver stripe looks almost real on both sides of the fake money. But when you hold the note against the light, only the real one has one dark non-stop stripe, while the fake one is interrupted.

4
Here is a water sign with Chairman Mao's face. Even on the fake one (that's why I think that they might even be able to do the 50 or the 100 of point 2) - the face looks slightly different, but if you have not another real one to compare with, you cannot tell. - Also the paper feels different.

5 and 6
The colours on the fake one are too bright and too much contrast between the colors.

7
The silver stripe is a bit too much on the left and a very slightly too fat.

So be careful, it might happen to you too.

I wonder if I should use my false note in some market to pay some nasty vendor... I could play the naive laowai... naughty... (and illegal, I guess).

Views from my Beijing Windows

My idea today was to publish a post about the view from my window here in Beijing. I know that this is not a very original idea. Other bloggers have done that before. But I think it gives a great insight. Very simple, very basic. 'Oh, that’s how it looks like living in Beijing! Grey, okay it is winter - but blue sky, not that many of it back in Europe during this time of the year – neat residential area, not too bad.'

First picture (above): view from home office window – on the other side of the street is a typical Chinese apartment building. Why it has iron grid in front of some windows even on the 6Th floor? I don’t know. Beijing is a relatively safe city.

Second picture: view from my living room window – our tiny garden; not bad at all for living in the city just about 1 Li (600 m) outside the second ring road. Some of my neighbors have the whole garden plastered because the grass dies during winter. What you see is the left over grass. It looks more like a desert. Since yesterday the water is open and I can finally water my plants. No rain here during winter. And I will get new grass, as every year, next month. Unfortunately Easter is a bit early this year. But I could buy some plants. I have to admit, color is missing. I have some flowers at the entrance though, not in the picture. The bicycle is mine and waiting for me to go on a discovery ride.

Third picture: view from my bedroom window – when I wake up (and open the curtains) I can see lots of trees! And very often blue skies! In Beijing there are a lot of trees along both sides of the streets. Chinese people love and respect trees. They rather build around a tree then cut a tree. - And I love my orchids. I never throw them out. If you wait a while, they have more blossoms then before.

So this is a very simple and basic post.

I could stop here. But I have something else on my mind that has literally to do with “View from my Beijing Window”. I ask my self if living in Beijing changes your view on China? Of course it does. But did I start to wear ‘blinders’?

I got a phone call the other day from a woman who is going to move to Beijing soon. She is following her expat husband with their toddler and their baby. Beside her question about what I would put in the container (something that is not available in Beijing), she had more serious questions. She talked about what she has been reading and hearing about China in the Western media. About human rights and the freedom of press. I held my breath and for a second I was waiting the call to be interrupted. But nothing happened. So I assumed that it is not that bad here in China at least for the freedom of speech on the phone… although it does not mean that this call was not registered. She continued about food scandals and pollution and came back to human rights, about more people taken under arrest in order to avoid any civil disturbance during the Olympics…. Hello? Where am I living? Behind the moon? Am I sleeping in Beijing? Or do I wear blinders? Apparently she knows more than me. Maybe it is the Western media, which takes every tiny incident in China and makes a big story out of it. And on the other hand it probably has to do with some missing stories in Chinese media …

There is actually a story missing in Chinese media right now and people are wondering why. It is the story about a (apparently dilettante) terror attempt (– if it was any after all since there is not much evidence provided -) on a flight between Urumqi (capital of an autonomous region in the far west of China) and Beijing last Friday. You can read more about the strange case of a disappearing news story by British journalist Richard Spencer. The comments on his blog are very interesting as well. There are thoughts that the plot served as an excuse to arrest more … but then it might have become too much thread after a kidnapping incident in Xian just 2 days earlier … too much for foreign visitors to bear… and the mysterious terror incident was widely retreated from the press.

Different media views:
A second post by Richard Spencer, Telegraph: The plane incident...
The Times online: China says that it foiled a terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics
Die Welt: China fürchtet Terroranschläge zu Olympia
Der Spiegel: Chinesen decken Attentatspläne auf
Le Nouvel Observateur: Un attentat ouïghour déjoué à bord d'un avion de ligne chinois ?


The views out of my windows today are pretty much the same like yesterday. (Expat) Life is good in Beijing.

No more Sleepless in Beijing

One of the last fireworks tonight.


It is midnight and almost quiet ! Only some single far away detonations here and there... Tonight was the last day and this year there is a regulations: after midnight no more shooting. Oh, I am not reporting from a war zone, I am reporting from Beijing, China. Tonight we had non-stop firing since sunset. Not to forget that this all started over two weeks ago. Since February 6 every day and every night fireworks, firecrackers and these bomb like detonations... this is China. The highlight of a around 20 minutes firework at midnight of New Years Eve that we know from Europe or other countries is what we have here for hours and days.... and beautiful fireworks just in front of your windows on all sites of the house, every minute... it is soooo cheap here and Chinese love the noise!

Our driver bought tons of firework-boxes, no need to have a pyrotechnician. Our son preferred to watch from the car - too loud, too dangerous (some rockets explode too low and burning things might fall down) - and the air is totally polluted. A volcano eruption could not do much more harm to the air (today I really have breathing problems). Well then I should not go outside, but we did for some minutes and I took some pictures (above and below):

One of the biggest firework boxes I have seen (front left), around 600 RMB (60 Euro) for 100 rockets.

Full moon over Dongzhimen with firework and leaveless trees. The full moon tonight (lantern festival) marks the end of the New Year celebrations in China.

Just in case you are curious: 434 is the number of Beijingers injured by fireworks during the first seven days of the Spring Festival (People's Daily via That's Beijing online from Feb 14).

BTW, sleepless in Beijing - the other night I could not sleep because I was too busy and too much thinking about our housing project in Pizzo. This also kept me away from posting here.

But things are calming down. Good night from Beijing and Happy New Year !!

Chinese New Year 2008

Firework sets and boxes are for sale in the streets of Beijing

We are leaving the city for Chinese New Year, as are millions and millions of other Chineses and laowai, foreigners.

I read that 200 million Chinese are travelling home this year. As you have probably read, heard or seen in your international media this year has the worst winter conditions since 50 years. Millions of migrant workers want to go home to see their families. It is the most important Chinese holiday. Some see their families, including their young children only once a year. Heavy snow and ice in many parts of the country (except Beijing) have blocked railways and shot down power lines, thus millions of travellers got stranded.

My ayi left last Saturday together with her husband, who works as a carpenter in Beijing. They went home to see their 8 year old son and their parents and siblings in Anhui province. I am really releaved to hear from our driver, who brought them to the railway station that they made it home. She text messaged him that she had arrived, after a train ride of over 30 hours.... last year it took her 17 hours. We gave her extra money to be able to buy a better ticket in the sleeper on her way back. Apparently it is not possible to buy a return ticket in Beijing, only in her home town. Or it has to do that her husband's company only buys one way tickets to go home. Anyway, she will be anxiously awaited here in Beijing in two weeks. But I told her that I do not mind if she cannot get an earlier ticket... I feel bad that she takes care of my son while she cannot see her own son. It is one of the problems that migrant workers are facing. Chinese kids only can go to school where their parents are registered and the registrations seems for some too expensive - but more expensive than that are the school fees in Beijing in comparison to the schools in the countryside.

I also feel sorry for the 12.46 million migrant workers that will remain in Guangdong for the Spring Festival due to the bad weather. It is not only that they probably face terrible conditions during their stay, but that they miss the reunion with their beloved-ones.

China Daily, an English language newspaper, does report factually about that subject. I guess other international media are jumping on that subject and reporting individual fates. But also Chinese media seems to report more. The picture left shows a soldier with a flame thrower melting ice off frozen power-lines in Yunnan on the cover of Qilu Evening News of February 4th (photo via Danwei). It looks like James Bond is fighting for China. I heard also from my neighbour, who is Chinese, that the people who got stocked for 40 hours in a train couldn't use the bathrooms and used noodle cups instead... Now we have arrived at one of my favorite subjects... the Chinese loos... However I could not get the confirmation of another rumor that was reported a year ago - that people on a train would wear adult diapers because the trains are so full that there is no way to make it through to a loo.

But when is Chinese New Year after all?

This year New Year's Eve is on February 6th. So beware, the fire crackers will explode all day long! And for those who do not know, fire works are on sale since some days in front of supermarkets or at street crossings (above picture from last Friday night). You can buy the biggest red box with thousand of rockets that fires for 20 minutes for 50 to 80 Euro. Amazing. That is why you hear fire works already now every evening, even during day time. Althoug it seems to be illegal to fire your rockets before the 6th when you live inside the 4th ring road. But the higlight will be the night from the 6th to the 7th, when the year of the Pig ends and the year of the Rat - or more cute, the year of the Mouse - starts. The 7th is the first day of the New Year and is a real holiday. Even Yashow market & company closes its doors. The staff will stay home, just for one day.

The celebrations will go on for a week, meaning more fire works during the evenings. If I remember well, the lantern festival, this year on February 21st, will be the last day and showdown of fire works. Two years ago there were "detonations" all day long until around 2 am.

This last weekend were two working days. And who has not left yet is leaving on the 6th, like we do. There are an estimated 22 million people using the plane to travel home this Chinese New Year Holiday (10% more than in 2007). Hopefully not all on the 6th from Beijing airport...

Xin Nain Kuai Le!, Happy New Year

or

春节快乐!
Chun Jie Kuai Le!
Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year !

(photo: creative Coke advertising in Beijing at a bus station)

Happy New Year 2008 !

I am back in Beijing after a busy Christmas holiday back in my hometown in Germany. I guess every visit back home is just too short to see all friends and family members and spend enough time with them. Especially when you have these long holidays when all the shops are closed in good old Germany. Imagine: you have only a half day for grocery shopping on December 24Th (Monday) to stock for 3 breakfasts, 2 lunch and 3 dinners more or less until shops are open again December 27Th (Thursday) ... similar thing on Monday 31st. You can imagine the queues...
And you want to meet friends and parents want to meet you...

I have almost adjusted from jet lag. Here are some news from Beijing:

* first new thing on the plane: no more health form needs to be filled out. So from 3 forms down to 2 forms to fill out before immigration. Progress for 2008 where half million foreigners a expected in Beijing!

* the magazine I am writing for, tbj home, is gone, kaput, no more. BUT: it lives on in the form of urbane - a new name for "China's best English lifestyle magazine" (I am citing). New is the name and that it's distributed not only in Beijing but all over China (I am not sure if the first issue in January is already distributed all over China). And I am still in.

* If you stay with kids in Beijing: the magazine tbj kids is getting better and better. Since the new editor re-designed the magazine it is really worth reading. And the website is informative as well with a blog and a forum.

* In Germany I heard that the exhibition of Chinese terracotta warriors in Hamburg was stopped as some of the worriers that were deemed as originals were fakes. I was smiling about that 'scandal'. Hey, what do you expect? In China copying is a form of art. I am also amused to read at Danwei that someone somewhere heard a gossip that maybe all terracotta warriors, even the ones in Xian, might be made by modern hand (and original clay, of course). Read Danwei's (German) critical article here.

* One more thing about China and the German media. It seems more a la mode than ever to write about China. Of course the world focuses on China because of the upcoming big event, the Olympics 2008, that start on August 8 at 8.08 in Beijing. So I read articles in Germany about migrant workers, Chinglish, etiquette training, Chinese art scene etc.

* The air quality report (see blogroll) is back online. Even if the air of downtown Beijing is not surveyed anymore on the busiest streets but in less polluted areas, I am glad it is reported again. (I am not sitting at a traffic junction all day).

* Today I passed by a river near Liangma flower market and looked twice through the window as I could not recognize the area. It took a moment until I realized that all the hutong houses were demolished and cleaned up. I remembered that I wanted to take some photos there as it was a picturesque area in the middle of a developed business and residential area. Too late.

* In China we are still in the old year of the PIG. The new year of the RAT is still to come. Chinese New Year will be celebrated a week long in February and is a national holiday. My ayi wants to take off two weeks, better three weeks! help! The trip to her hometown in Anhui province takes 19 hours by train. She will be reunited with her 9 year old son and family.

* The national holidays in May, the May Golden Week, instead is cancelled by the government. This change was made in order to avoid the negative effects when millions of Chinese are travelling and to allow flexible holidays.


I discovered this photo art by Floriane de Lassee, a young photographer born in 1977 in Paris. It is available via the photo art gallery Lumas. It is not Beijing. It is Shanghai. She didn't do any shot in Beijing, but in Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Istanbul, NY... I am fascinated and that's why I am posting it on my Beijing Notebook. Click on the picture to enlarge. Happy New Year!

Beijing: The Marathon Girl or Another form of Child Abuse ?

3.560 km from Sanya, Hainan Province to Beijing in 55 days. Little Zhang Huimin, 8 years old was running and running and running. She weighs only 20 kilo and is 1,25 cm tall. Every day she got up 2.30 am and ran an average of 70 km, accompanied by her father on his motorized bicycle. They arrived in Beijing on August, 28 where they made it to the front page of the China Daily.

Is this another form of child abuse? Chinese parents are very ambitious with their offsprings. You might call it pro-active parenting when a four year old get tennis and piano lessons. But when a father sends his three year old daughter running 3 km a day dreaming her to win the marathon at the 2016 Olympics. What is that?

The father's training methods have been widely criticized (see relevant Independent article) and the girl's picture on the front page of a Chinese Newspaper at Danwei.

Matchmaking in China

The Chinese matchmaking website Baije.com held a Chinese Valentine's Day(*) meeting at a Beijing park last weekend. More than 2,000 people attended. The organiser said 30 % of the attendees were parents of singles trying to find the right match for their children. Parents even register on the website to find online potential partners for their children.

Matchmaking has a long tradition in China. In the countryside parents would go to see the matchmaker of the village to find the match for their son or daughter.

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(*) The Chinese Valentine's Day takes place at the seventh lunar day of the sevens lunar month and flowers a given to loved ones, same like on the worldwide Valentine's Day on February 14th.

Flickr Photos partly unblocked in China

Amazing! I see my flickr badge on the blogroll showing colourful pictures again! I immediately accessed flickr to see whether China's 'Net Nannie' has finally unblocked flickr... I couldn't believe my eyes: from all my sets only the one with the title 'China Style', the one feeding the flickr badge on this blog was deblocked. Well, the 'Net Nannie' must be really busy deblocking pictures/sets by tags or names... Amazing!

This is my unblocked set at flickr.com. All other pictures are still not available in China.

Update: Thursday 2.30pm, the Censors are not that generous anymore... all gone again. However some minutes later some other pictures, not my China Set, were visible...Maybe the Censors play around or the filter does not work right. I don't know if you know how censorship in China looks like, therefor here the latest screenshot:

Beijing: Beachvolleyball and Tips Before Wearing a Bikini

The final and the bronze medal match of the 2007 FIVB Beach Volleyball Women's Challenger were staged in Chaoyang Park in Beijing last Sunday. This was the first test event for Beach Volleyball one year before the Beijing Olympics. The Brazilian pair Angela Vieira/Danielle Vivian remained unbeaten for the title with a victory over the Chinese pair Yue Yuan/Zhang Wenwen. The Thai pair Kulna/Yupa Phokongpoly edged out the Swiss pair Sarah Schmocker/Isabelle Forrer to finish third.

The participants praised the venue and were happy to simulate the situation of the real Olympics, including weather conditions.

Source:
Pictures from Beach Volleyball 2007,


Will Beach Volleyball bring the 'Bikini' fashion to China?

The magazines this summer are full of sexy beach fashion. However, most of the Chinese women (as other Asian women as well) usually do not wear these two-peace beach wear. It is not decent to show bare skin and not popular to get a sun tan. So they avoid the beach, sit in the shadow or wear t-shirts for swimming. Quiet reasonable and healthy ...

But then there was this article in China Daily for Chinese women:

- Tips before wearing a bikini -

With the opening of China's economy, women are also becoming more open about showing their bodies, and they can do it with bikinis in the summer.

This swimwear is becoming popular among Chinese girls. But before wearing a bikini, there are a few things women need to know before donning a bikini.

Many women will try to lose weight before wearing a bikini. Yet fashion experts say that in order to look attractive in a bikini, the following things are more important than weight.

Tip 1: The color of your skin means much more than the color of the bikini you wear.

According to a survey conducted by an international fashion magazine, tanned looking skin is more attractive to men than perfect body curves on beaches. So when going to the beach, apply foundation darker than the one you use in office.

(...) And for a glittering touch, add shimmering powder to your collarbone, shoulders and cleavage to make you look sexier.

Tip 2: Pay attention to little corners of your body.

Women don’t pay enough attention to their backs, elbows and knees when in the office, but you need to make up for it before setting out for a beach.

Before you go, have a hot bath. It will help soften the hard skin on your back. If you can have someone scrub your back, it works even better.

For knees and elbows, apply a polishing cream with big grains in it to exfoliate the dead skin.

Bruises can also diminish the looks of a charming lady. The way to get rid of them is to use a tube of yellowish correcting cream, apply it to the bruised area, and then cover it with some dark foundation powder.

Tip 3: A bloated body is far from attractive

During traveling, lack of sleep and adapting to a strange place can both lead to a bloated body.

To prevent the body from swelling, don’t wear tight pants or socks and wear low-heeled shoes. If you body is bloated, here are four life savers:

No.1 Drink four to five glasses of Job's tears water (Chinese barley) the day before you go to the beach. This helps drain extra water from your body.

No.2 Massage slimming cream or massage oil onto your body for 15 minutes, and the next day you’ll have a slimmer body.

No.3 If you don’t notice you have a bloated body until just before starting for the beach, drink a cup of black coffee with an empty stomach and that can drain extra water out of the body quickly. But this method isn’t very good for the stomach, so avoid it if you have a weak stomach.

No.4 If all three above tips fail, here is the last suggestion. Make your arms look slimmer by putting your hands on your waist Akimbo arms make arms look slimmer and leaning the body forward at a 45 degree angle makes whole body appear slimmer!

Tip 4: Have a pair of charming feet.

A pair of neatly groomed feet adds to your charm. Moisturize your feet. Bathe them in hot water and then apply some body lotion to your feet. Wrap them with thin plastic wrap and warm the feet with hot towels for 10 minutes. Paint your toe nails. Pearly white and bright red are mostly commonly used nail colors. When applying nail polish, leave some room on nail edges to make nails look more delicate.

Tip 5: Give skin after-beach care.

Direct exposure to salty seawater and strong sun rays harms the skin and makes it dry and then peels. Some skin is even allergic to ultra violet rays. So it’s necessary to take special care of the skin within one hour after coming back from seaside.

Cool your whole body by having a green tea bath. Soak a make-up pad with a cooling lotion and then keep the pad in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Pat burning areas of the skin with this pad and keep it on sensitive areas like shoulders, back and chest for 20 minutes. After this cooling treatment, apply a soothing gel to supplement water to the skin.

(from China Daily, August 13th 2007)

-------------------
? What do you say?
-------------------
Dear China Girl, if you think about wearing a bikini, don't be afraid after that article. Life on the beach should be fun. And btw, who has hard skin on the back?

I don't know if the author of the article was male of female. It is quiet entertaining, but scary regarding this is meant seriously. One more tip from me, that was forgotten in the article and is the most important thing before going to the beach: SHAVING!

-
I think the Chinese Beach Volleyball girls did all right, see picture above.
-

Beijing: Measurements to improve the air and traffic

'9 million bicycles in Beijing' a beautiful song by Katie Melua gives a false impression. There are more cars than bikes around nowadays, according to what I see in the city center. Beijing faces 1,000 newly registered cars every single day and reached 3 million registered automobiles this May.

Today was the last day of Beijing's second four-day experiment to test whether 'pulling 1.3 million cars off the roads each day would prove effective in reducing air pollution during the Olympic Games in August 2008'.

Drivers with even-numbered license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, were told to stay off the roads on Friday and Sunday - or face a fine of 100 RMB (10 Euro). Odd-numbered cars were banned on Saturday and Monday. Switching time was 6am.

From what I saw, Beijingers respected the rules. Saturday morning my husband and I rode a bike to Houhai lake with our son. It was the first time in two years that I dared to ride that short distance of about 3 km from our house. The crossing of the second ring road was absolutely no problem. There were definitely less cars on the road. Although the air did not seem cleaner, but 34 degrees Celsius do not make the air feel fresh anyway.

When a car was necessary this weekend and this morning for work, we shared cars with friends. So we contributed to the test.

Other measurements took place at night. Dongzhimenwai Dajie, all six lanes, was totally flooded around midnight on Saturday. It was not only sprayed wet by these cleaning trucks to ground the dust, it was flooded. I don't know why only this road and what kind of test this has been. Not to mention the water shortage situation.

Today I read in China Daily, the Olympic city plans to put 50,000 bicycles for rent across the city ahead of the Games 'to curb pollution and ease congestion'. Brand new bikes will be available at 230 outlets close to subway stations, Olympic venues and hotels according to a "rent a bike" program carried out by Beijing Bicycle Rental Services, a Beijing-based company. The daily rent will be around 20 RMB (2 Euro).

I also read last week that several national daily flights will be cancelled soon. But the explanation was for safety reasons. I think this might contribute as well for better air.

Further more the government plans to have finished all ongoing constructions (there are no new construction activities allowed in the city until September 2008), to stop earth moving activities and shut down polluting industries for the time of the Olympics.

The weather in Beijing will be controlled by the 'Weather Modification Department'. They will launch rockets into the clouds containing silver iodide ('cloud seeding') to make them rain before the opening ceremony. This kills two birds with one stone: no wet opening ceremony and better air quality. The rain clears out air pollution and washes away the dust from the streets and trees.

Sources:
Photo Reuters, China Daily

If you're going to Beijing ...

If you're going to Beijing, make sure to visit Busintss Hootel...


... and charming dentist, english full of process


... feel hungry?

After some not so amusing posts I want to see some smiles. 'Chinglish' is English made in China. I do not want to criticise, my English might be funny as well from time to time, I am not a native speaker. But smiling is healthy, right?

There are still some amusing signs around in Beijing. However, there is an office that is in charge to eliminate all badly translated signs before the Olympics.

The first picture is from Xiaming who has a good collection of Chinglish signs here. The other photos are from flickr as well - more Chinglish at flickr here.

Chairman Mao Imitation

'Chen Yan, a 51-year-old woman, poses for a portrait while impersonating China's late Chairman Mao Zedong, in Mianyang, Sichuan province May 26, 2007. Chen, who stands at 1.55 meters (5 feet 1 inch) has to wear a pair of specially designed shoes to increase her height to 1.80 meters (5 feet 11 inches) to imitate Mao. She was discovered by a beautician while impersonating Mao on a local TV show. [Reuters]'

I wonder how her shoes looked like...
... and I wonder why Chinese still adore Mr. Mao?

Other Odd News from China via China Daily - Odd News

Beijing: You Want Fake Ferrero ?

If you are craving for chocolate, maybe specifically for ‘golden pralines’ from Ferrero, you have to watch out at your local supermarket! Don’t put the box too fast in your shopping cart as you might have got a fake in your hands.
- Fake Ferrero? Yes! Not fake Rolex or fake Gucci. Fake Ferrero.

Ferrero S.p.A., the Italian chocolate producer won a court case early in 2006 against a Chinese company (Montresor) that counterfeit Ferrero Rocher pralines. Montresor even had to pay 87.000 Euro for compensation. But this seems to not have changed anything.

Look at the pictures, can you tell the difference? - Okay, the name is different. The fake is called ‘Trésor Doré’ or 'Montrésor'. But everything else, the logo, the golden wrapping, the brown paper cases, the differently shaped plastic boxes, all details are perfectly copied. But when you unfold them, you see the difference. The fake one looks like someone has licked it….yucky. However the taste is not too bad, but it’s different. It tastes more from roughly cut hazelnuts while the real one tastes creamier and more from chocolate. So do not try to cheat your loved ones by eating up all their Ferrero Rocher pralines and replacing them with fakes. I made the test with my husband. When the fake one is unwrapped you get caught. Of course quality has a higher price. The fake one is about 30% cheaper.

Driven by my curiosity I followed up the information printed on the back of the packing including manufacturing address, telephone and fax numbers as well as e-mail. In case someone from Italy want to contact them: ‘Trésor Doré’ is manufactured by the Foreign Trade Shanghai Shengang Foodstuff Factory in 9 Zhenxing Rd., Zhangjiagang Economic Development Zone. It is the same company that was sued by Ferrero under the name 'Montresor'.

I googled and found this website which is advertising their excellent chocolate products that have won ‘prices on ministry level, a silver medal of international fair and the fame of gifts for state guests’ (if I translated well the following: ‘the honos of excellent product psize of Ministry level, silues medal of intenational fais and the fame of gibt for state gnests’).

I would guess any other effort of Ferrero to win the case is a waste of money and time. It is better just to continue producing the best ‘chocolate hazelnut praline’ since 1982 and people will continue to pay more for the quality. The perfect mix of the ingredients (hazelnuts, Nutella, waffles and chocolate) makes Ferrero’s recipe unique.


Check this link for the real Italian Ferrero.

XING - What is the Chinese Meaning?

The German internet network former known as openBC is going global with a new name: XING. An official explanation for the meaning of XING is not available. Of course I first thought it is Chinese. But it is also the American abbreviation for ‘Crossing’. Xing.com reaches out for two new markets: America and China. That is maybe why they have chosen a name that makes sense in both markets. But what is the meaning in Chinese? A friend visiting Beijing just reminded me that I still do not know.

I thought it might be ‘Star’. So I asked my Chinese teacher today and she said it means ‘okay’.

More curious I looked it up in my dictionary. Depending on the tone and Chinese character there are different meanings. I only picked the best:

1st tone XĪNG: to flourish, to start / star, particle / intelligent / raw meat, fishy smell
2nd tone XÍNG: penalty, torture / journey, to do, it is okay, behaviour / body, form
3rd tone XĬNG: to survey, to visit / to re-gain conscious, to wake-up / to sneeze
4th tone XÌNG: joy, interest / peach / luck / nature, gender

I am sure that XING.com should not mean fishy smell, torture or sneezing.

CONCLUSION: Communication in China is difficult. Chinese people have to guess what someone means by saying something.