More miscellaneous China thoughts

Language
I am quite proud of my Mandarin development over the past few weeks. I can now do such useful things as: get the waiter and the check (fu yen, my dan), say I am feeling “ok” (ma ma hu hu), and of course order ice cream (bing ji ling).

I can also very consistently tell a taxi driver where I live (near Xujiahui, at Tianyaoquio Lu and Nandan Lu). This morning, it was raining, and I had left both my umbrella and map at the office. I had not successfully taken a cab to the office without the map but I felt confident and hopped in a taxi.

My office is at Guanyuan Xi Lu and Huashan Lu. I struggle with the Yua and Hua sounds. But I tell the driver the address and think I get the point across and we set off. 20 minutes later we are at Guanyuan Lu and Hengshan Lu. Not right. I try again, and we set off again. 10 minutes later we are at Guanyuan Xi Lu and Hongqiao Lu. Not right either. Finally, I convince the driver to just go to Xujiahui. Going to Xujiahui, we pass my intersection. I tell the driver to stop and he says “Oh, Huashan Lu!!” 45 minutes later, I am at the office.

Pollution
The World Bank released a report on pollution in China today that is summarized in the Financial Times. They claim 750,000 people die a year due to the air pollution, though Beijing forced the World Bank to cut that statistic from the final version of the report, saying it would cause “social unrest”. It does say the China has made improvements at curbing pollution over the last few years.

Sino-Japanese relations
I think most people know that Chinese people and Japanese people do not get along. But I did not appreciate how tense the relationship is. Many Chinese truly hate Japanese people after the war crimes that were committed in WWII. In Xi’an, one of our friends joked that he was Japanese and that was why he didn’t speak Mandarin (he actually is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese). It went over very badly. Our friends told him to not even joke about that. I have also on several occasions seen World War II referred to as “The War of Defending against the Japanese Invasion”. I don’t think it was used as lightly as the War of Northern Aggression is sometimes used today in the US.

Five Fun Facts about China

• The MagLev train from the Shanghai airport to downtown is the new fastest train in the world, with top speeds of 267MPH (though when I took it on arriving here, we topped out at only 186MPH). The trip into town takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds.
  

• According to CCP reports, there are more 75,000 “incidents of rural unrest” per year in China (that is >200/day).
  

• 31% of the world’s ketchup is produced in Xinjiang province (northwest corner of China).
  

• Wuxi, a city of ~4.3 million people, has been without running water for several weeks now. Poisonous blue-green algae caused by water pollution bloomed in the city’s water source, the 3^rd largest freshwater lake in China. Temperatures have been in the 80s and 90s but city residents have no ability to wash or shower. CCTV news tagline “China learns from algae crisis”.
  

• There are 49 cities in China with a bigger population than Houston, Texas.
  

Also, my hotel has a gun club on the first floor (sign on the left side of the picture below).

Great Wall

It is pretty exciting to be only 3 days into the summer and to have already had a day that you know you will never forget.

This morning I got up at 5:45, picked up a to-go bag of dumplings to go along with my 3 clifbars, and headed out to the Great Wall. I chose to avoid the most common tourist route and instead took the Happy Fun Times Extreme Adventure Great Wall Tour, starring myself as the sweaty, out-of-breath American.

Four hours later, I made it by foot, subway, and very old bus to a fairly remote section of the wall called Simatai. There were probably only 100 tourists in this area of the wall, which is pretty good for a summer Saturday. The sections of the wall closest to Beijing are supposedly overrun this time of year.

A few fun facts I learned (or think I understood) about the wall:
- Mostly built in the Ming Dynasty around the 1300s - my section was built in the 1370s.
- The wall is over 1,200 miles long but is not one continuous piece, there are numerous sections which are not connected everywhere
- In the end, the wall didn't work. The Mongols eventually went around it under Genghis Khan (I think the military history of walls has proved extremely ineffective, all the way to today)

Hiking along the wall was much harder than I anticipated. First, there was a 30 minute cable-car ride (the most poorly constructed cable car I can imagine) from the parking lot to mid-mountain. Then about 20 minutes of hiking straight uiphill. Then, the wall itself. IT was really amazing - ran right on top of a stunning mountain ridge line. I hiked 12 watchtowers long. I don't know exactly how far that is, but I know it was very hot and tiring. But really, really cool. Lots of steep, uneven steps up and down and beautiful views all around the countryside. Same as Machu Picchu, but different.