Regret

I have been engrossed in study of late, hence the lack of blog postings. However, today reminded me that there are certain things in life that should never be neglected. Namely, family and friends.

Today I learned that a friend of mine, who I met during my high school days, had died at the age of 22. We drifted apart over the years and lost contact more recently.

I regret not keeping in touch. I regret not being able to say 'good bye'. I regret that I made certain decisions that allowed us to lose touch.

An 'A' on an exam makes all that hard work worthwhile, but will never bring back someone you care about.

Nick

China told to mind its manners

An interesting article that appeared in The Age this morning. After 12 months of living in Beijing, I feel Mrs. Lu-Chin Mischke has a very valid point...

"The residents of Beijing are being urged to be on their best behaviour for the Olympics. FOR Lu-Chin Mischke, an elegant Chinese woman who lived abroad for many years, life back in China is sometimes one long assault on her sensibilities.

A stroll in one of Beijing's lovely parks or temple complexes is a respite from the city's smog and traffic — until the first ear-splitting hawking up of phlegm lands too close for comfort. Then there's the mindless littering, the mobile phones ringing — and being answered — in cinemas, the flagrant disregard for traffic rules and the failure to queue.

Beijingers have a deserved reputation for being friendly and straightforward, but with the world descending here in 2008 for the Olympics, city leaders and fed-up citizens such as Mrs Mischke are campaigning to ensure their fellow citizens don't disgrace 5000 years of history with ill-timed belching, farting and spitting.

Mrs Mischke, who lived in the US and Japan for more than a decade, set up the not-for-profit Pride Institute last year to improve manners because she was tired of being embarrassed by Chinese lack of etiquette. "I want my kids to grow up and be proud of being Chinese," she says.

Since then she has personally, tactfully, told off more than a hundred offenders and held more than a dozen free seminars for the city's less-well-off to explain why spitting, using mobile phones indiscriminately, bad breath, body odour and treating the motherland as a garbage bin are unacceptable.

Mrs Mischke's seminars are free, helped by a growing number of enthusiastic volunteers. Her motivation is patriotism and the message is self-respect and self-discipline for a better society. She teaches people to make eye contact, smile and be considerate and friendly.

"I do not want people to associate Chinese people as being uncivilised," she says. "We Chinese are very proud of our long history, but where does it say that spitting or bad breath is part of our culture?"

Beijing's municipal government is also intensifying its efforts to improve behaviour through newspaper columns, cartoons and television commercials. The city has hired more than 3000 public transport attendants who will patrol bus stops and the subway to encourage queuing rather than the free-for-all that greets every overcrowded bus or train.

Almost 3 million etiquette handbooks are to be sent to households telling residents to stop belching, slurping or farting, especially while eating in public, or at least, to apologise if they do. And, to Mrs Mischke's horror, millions of "spit bags", left over after the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, are being distributed with instructions on "civilised spitting".

Read the entire article here

Chinese New Year

On the eve of Chinese New Year (CNY), I spent a fantastic evening with one of my colleagues and his parents. In what was an enlightening cultural experience, where we spent the night watching the traditional Chinese television event and making dumplings from scratch, the highlight of the night was definitely the fireworks.

Picture, for a second, the organised fireworks displays of any major city, say Sydney's NY celebrations. Now imagine that before the display commences the organisers decide instead to distribute the fireworks to every family in the city to 'set off' at their own discretion. The end result...Beijing on CNY eve. It was incredible! Whilst walking down the street at 12:30am it was like a war zone. Many thanks to the Beijing authorities for lifting the ban on fireworks.

Nick

Happy Lunar New Year - 新年快乐!

The Chinese new year officially commences on Sunday, 29 January, with a traditional family feast held on the evening of the 28th. A colleague today invited me to spend the evening with him and his family, which should prove to be an insightful experience.

As Devrim noted, this year will be the 'Year of the Dog', which happens to be my lunar year. Well, lets just hope that it's a prosperus one! A shout out to all the other 'Dogs'!

恭喜发财 (gong xi fa cai - wishing you a propserus new year!)

PS. Don't you think the girl on the right of this picture looks like Sheila?
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Courtesy of The Economist - 26 January 2006

IN THE broad scheme of things, it may rank low on the list of problems Chinese people have to complain about, but bans on fireworks, enacted throughout the 1990s in hundreds of Chinese cities, drew widespread scorn. In response to popular pressure and to the delight of many, most bans have since been lifted. This year Beijing has removed its 12-year ban as well. When the Year of the Dog dawns on January 29th, the capital will greet it in the traditional, cacophonous, style. For some, fireworks are a solemn matter of superstition: the sound and light show is believed to scare away evil spirits and ensure an auspicious good year. For others it is merely a way to share in a centuries-old tradition.

Other spring festival traditions remain very much intact. Except for restaurants, stores and travel services, business comes to a standstill as people focus on family gatherings, temple fairs and, above all, feasting. Getting all those families together requires an astonishing logistical exercise. Transport officials expect to see a total of 2 billion journeys in the 40-day period surrounding the holiday. Train stations have become madhouses as people wait days on end for tickets. Buses and aircraft are likewise filled to bursting.

Among the cramped and cranky travellers are the estimated 100m migrant workers who leave their rural homes to take menial jobs in cities across China. Though they are often looked down upon by the city folk they live among for most of the year, they are sorely missed during the holiday period when people like street sweepers, delivery boys and bicycle repairmen are suddenly in short supply.

One unwelcome feature of the holiday period is an annual spike in petty crime, attributed to migrant workers who are under great pressure to return home flush with cash. Those who didn't earn it (or manage to hold on to it) are easily tempted to grab it where they can.

Arctic weekend - Harbin (哈尔滨)

Definitely no promises on how often I will update this blog, but here goes...

Last weekend, a group of us headed to Harbin to enjoy the annual Ice Festival and experience firsthand what -35 degrees (Celsius) feels like.

Highlights and pictures follow:

• The 12-hour train ride, which was a lot of fun thanks to drinking games (we were even lucky enough to have a local join us for several rounds!);
• Drinking Russian vodka at Russia Cafe (we spent roughly 38.3% of our time at this place);
• Spending time with Sheila while she was passed out on my arm at Russia Cafe;

• The Ice Festival - this was actually really impressive. It was an entire city, castles and all, made out of ice! The toboggan ride was a definite highlight, along with the infamous 'photo shoot'

• Tiger Park - this is totally controversial - we saw a live sheep mauled by a streak of tigers! Live chickens were also on offer. The most disturbing part of this whole experience was when returning to work on Monday, and telling several colleagues what we had seen, one commented in a delightful manner: "You are so nice to feed the tigers a sheep. The tigers were very lucky!". Mmm...

All in all, a fantastic weekend! Thanks to all those who joined in the fun: Devrim, Sheila, Simon, Dom, Habib, Aude and Rebecca.

Nick

Yes, I enter the world of blogging. An Australian, living in Beijing, China.