Uniquely Beijing...

Beijing is a city that is literally morphing and transforming right before your eyes. There is palpable sense of excitement and energy in the air. In general, people are optimistic - their incomes are higher than ever before, given them a new spending power that they could not even dream of in the past. Consumerism is very much part of the "new" culture - the Chinese love to buy and spend. The whole concept of Chinese being avid savers may seriously end with this new generation of "little emperors." Many only children live at home, spend all that they make, and then take money from their parents. At least in the cities, the younger generation is pretty open and liberal. They don't sell tampons or pads in the women's bathrooms at restaurants, but they'll sell condoms. It's rather bizarre.

And everywhere you look, there is construction (the Central Business District is expanding by 50% according to someone here). Along with that comes the destruction of old hutongs. One day, the hutong across the street from my apartment was there. Then suddenly, these flags bearing propaganda about the Olympics and the good of the people (or something like that... my Chinese is a bit rusty) went up and the next thing I knew, the hutongs were gone. No doubt, they have been razed to make way for new modern residential towers much like the ones I live in right now. Office towers and residential buildings are popping up all over the place. I wonder where the local displaced people have been forced to move... there are already 6 rings in the city and the 6th ring is really far away and the public transportation is really terrible...

But even the destruction of the hutongs happened in typical Chinese fashion. Labor is just so ridiculously cheap (for example, our "ayi" or housekeeper gets 15RMB an hour... about $2USD. That's including the 50% premium we give her because she's fantastic and I have issues paying someone 10RMB an hour), that no machines were involved. Little men with picks and hammers stood on the roof of these buildings and knocked them down using brute force. For those of you that don't believe this, I have pictures to prove it. It was a bit disconcerting. Worker's safety is also not an issue. There are no laws protecting these people. Lives are pretty much considered expendable here which is sad.

I went to an interesting talk on the development of Modern Dance in China. The speaker implied that the government's recent embrace of modern dance (once considered a corrupting Western influence to be avoided at all cost) was a result of events such like the pending Olympics, which has really driven them to adopt things considered modern and new and reject the old. So out goes hutongs and in comes modern dance and modern buildings. However, I hope that they find some happy medium between 5,000 years of history and modernity. While they are preserving and restoring the main historic sites, there are a lot of other smaller things that deserve protection. China is still very much looking for an identity and hopefully they will find it soon.

Another crazy thing: the government doesn't really think twice about inconveniencing people. They've shut down Dongzhimen subway station, the station near where I live, which may be the busiest subway stop in the city. There are a few additional buses, but you think they'd try to find a better solution that closing an entire stop for 6 weeks. They're building a bunch of new subway lines (which is absolutely necessary!) but the construction is blocking off a couple of lanes on several major streets so traffic has been atrocious. 1,000 new cars are added to the roads everyday. There's no way that can continue. The pollution and air quality is terrible so expansion of public transportation will be really important.

I still haven't made it to any of the hutongs yet. I should do that before more of them disappear.

Matchmaking in People's Park

I spent Saturday walking around Shanghai with Morgan and her friends who were visiting from the States. We wandered into People’s Park, expecting it to be similar to any other Chinese park with the requisite rock garden and artificial lake. However, we found a lot more in People’s Park than just rocks and water. There were hundreds of people in the park, holding pieces of paper and chatting with each other. Upon closer inspection the pieces of paper were personals complete with stats on sex, age, weight, height, education and job. Turns out the park turns into a forum for matchmaking on the weekends, where anxious parents concerned about their children’s single status can go meet other parents and find their son or daughter a spouse! Some were even hung up on a clothesline like minimalist public art in the park. Many parents were also armed with photo albums of their children ready to show anyone interested. Some of these kids are younger than me, still babies really (I'm sure they're probably not worried about their future prospects on the marriage mart, just their parents!).

An English professor at one of Shanghai’s universities started talking to us. Not surprisingly, educated women have it tough in China since men find them intimidating. Her daughter is getting an MBA in the States so she’s coming out here in secrecy to help her daughter “look around.” We saw lots of signs for female doctors and such. It was all so fascinating. I also think that the Chinese found it funny that we were there. Several of them thought we were there to join the party and look for a significant other too. We were shown albums of pictures from parents who told us their sons spoke good English!

I left feeling so relieved that my parents pretty much leave me alone and harbor no grand illusions of being able to find me my true love in a Park. But it does make me wonder what my parents would have said about me, what qualities they think I'd be attracted to, and what they qualities they would look for in a guy for their daughter.

Thanksgiving in China

Many people have asked me whether or not I would get any turkey in China for Thanksgiving. It’s not celebrated by the Chinese who think it’s an American religious holiday and don’t understand that it has to do with English colonists giving thanks to the Indians for helping them survive. And I wasn’t even sure if they even have turkeys in China to be honest. But nevertheless, I did get to eat turkey at a couple of Thanksgiving meals in Shanghai, complete with all the fixings including stuffing, yam and cranberry sauce. Qin and Mike cooked for several days to prepare the Thanksgiving feast. For the expats in China, friends are substitutes for family.

On the flight down to Shanghai, I was reading the China Daily, the English newspaper in China. There was a funny article about how some American company that exports turkeys is working on trying to convince more Chinese people to celebrate Thanksgiving and eat turkey. They’ve even invested significant time and money into coming up with turkey dishes suitable to the Chinese palate. While the Chinese are pretty eager to adopt most things American and Western, I think this one is a tough sell, considering the fact that even my parents usually substitute chicken for turkey at Thanksgiving even after living in the States for almost 20 years. They think it’s just a tough and dry bird.

Besides stuffing myself on Thanksgiving food, since the food in Shanghai is awesome, I went out to several different restaurants over the course of the weekend. For lunch on Friday, Qin took me to the French Concession where we ate at this tiny French bistro called 570. The food was delicious and the neighborhood reminded me of the village. We ate at a Chinese fusion restaurant called People 6 that night. There are 3 “People” restaurants in China, People 6, 7 and 8. Although the name is completely uncreative, the owner must have a funny sense of humor since there is usually some trick involved in getting into the restaurant and finding the bathroom. I cheated getting in since I saw someone push the hidden button that opened the door but the bathrooms were hidden in a maze of mirrors. If you walk too quickly you might just run into the mirrored wall (almost did that several times!). People 6 was followed by Thanksgiving party #2 where I had really yummy pumpkin pie.

On Saturday, I went to Yu Yuan Gardens in the Old Town. It’s a traditional Chinese area with shops, restaurants and a garden. There were thousands of people there, local and foreign. We went to Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant, which supposedly serves some of the best Shanghai soup dumplings in the city. And it must be so since the lines were absolutely outrageous. The restaurant had an army of people making the dumplings on multiple levels. It was fun to watch while we waited for our table.

On Saturday night, I went with Qin and some of her friends to the Jay Chou concert. Jay Chou is probably the hottest male pop star at the moment in Asia, often referred to as the Justin Timberlake of Asia. The Linkin Park concert I attended the weekend before had been the largest concert in Shanghai but this one had about twice as many people. I was seriously worried we would get crushed in the crowds. There were 80,000+ people in attendance. The concert was quite a visual spectacle, with fireworks, fancy lighting and graphics on multiple LCD screens. I know that he’s singing in Mandarin, a language I understand okay, but I honestly just cannot understand what he says. Nevertheless, he is quite talented – plays the piano (classically trained), drums and traditional Chinese instruments in addition to writing a lot of his own songs and lyrics.

I grabbed one last Western meal for Sunday brunch at Xintiandi, a recently renovated block of traditional “lang houses” that houses a bunch of trendy restaurants and stores. It’s a fun area if completely commercialized.

Shanghai

I visited Shanghai for the first time this past weekend. I have to say, Shanghai is so much nicer than Beijing. A big cosmopolitan city, China’s financial capital is filled with a ton of amazing restaurants and great shopping. The skyline of Pudong, with its tall, striking skyscrapers, including the soon to be tallest building in China (beaten only by the yet unfinished but soon to be tallest building in the world in Dubai I believe), rivals that of Hong Kong. People talk about stocks there the way people discuss politics in Beijing – incessantly – leading to a stock market that most agree is completely overheated and based mostly in irrational exuberance rather than any real market knowledge. Shanghai’s stock market has doubled in less than a year. Selected as the host city for the World Expo in 2010, they have embarked on an intense campaign to ready the city for the event that rivals Beijing’s preparations for the Olympics in both scope and scale. There are ads everywhere about the expo which is still 3 years away.

I arrived at Pudong airport which is located about 30km outside downtown Shanghai. I took the Maglev which got me to the city in less than 8 minutes. The train, built with high-tech German magnetic levitation technology, reached a speed of 431km/hr (over 250 miles/hr) during the ride – it was incredible. I even took a picture just to prove it! The train doesn’t go anywhere at the moment except between the city and the airport. Of course, you might be wondering why the hell a city would spend a ton of money to build a high-speed railway that only goes 30km in total when the technology clearly only makes sense for longer distances. Rumor has it that China hired the German company so that it can watch and learn and then promptly kicked out the Germans after stealing their technology. While I don’t know if this is real or not, I do believe they plan to extend the train to Hangzhou eventually. There are also plans to build a high-speed train between Shanghai and Beijing (now this completely makes sense… right now, it takes 11 hours to travel between the two cities by train and this will be cut by half). Regardless, the train is pretty amazing.

Shanghai’s subway system is also really nice – very similar in design to that of other big major Asian cities including Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taipei. But you won’t forget you’re in China because the people are extremely rude, and push and shove. A girl was reduced to tears since people shoved onto the train at one particularly crowded stop without letting her off. It was unreal. Like every other place in China, there are just masses of people everywhere. I was so sure someone would get crushed on that train. It was completely out of control. This is why I avoid public transportation in Beijing unless forced by congested traffic during rush hour.

Across the river from modern Pudong is the Bund, which is lined with beautiful buildings with European architecture. We ate at New Heights, a trendy restaurant on 3 on the Bund, which had fabulous views of the rest of the Bund and of Pudong. The food in Shanghai was fabulous – better than Hong Kong (or maybe I just really miss Western foods). New Heights and Azul, the other restaurant I ate at with friends, were both delicious. Azul in particular had an amazing brunch, complete with scones, muffins, smoked salmon and an antipasto plate. Now, I am resolved to seek out more foreign restaurants in Beijing. I have grown tired of traditional Chinese food despite the variety since it is too heavy and greasy here.

The main reason I ended up in Shanghai this weekend was for a Linkin Park concert. I know that it’s really random for me to come out to China to see Linkin Park but it was the idea of a colleague who is a local person. Although she ended up cancelling on me, the tickets were already purchased so I ended up coming to Shanghai. Watching dorky Chinese guys sing to Linkin Park was a funny experience. But I have to say they were good – they knew all the songs and all the lyrics. They really do take their karaoke seriously in this part of the world. My friend said that they probably practiced for the concert. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese concert my friends are taking me to this weekend (Jay Chow – the “Justin Timberlake” of Asia) compares to this one. I’ve been told to “do my homework” and listen to Jay Chow’s music. Since he mumbles through all of his songs, I often can’t even tell that he’s singing in Chinese. It just sounds like gibberish.

It’s back to Shanghai tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I don't think turkeys exist here, so it will be interesting to see what kind of Thanksgiving meal my friends come up with!

Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong is a bustling city mixed with tall modern skyscrapers and old tenament buildings. It is also a lot more expensive than Beijing – comparable to New York City. Having to spend the equivalent of $40+USD on a meal rather than 40RMB was a bit shocking at first. While there are some cultural institutions like the Hong Kong Museum of Art, we did not do a whole lot here except shop and eat. Much like Singapore, the city is filled with shopping malls galore and restaurants. It was extremely commercialized, with huge, flashy signs everywhere. Many of the signs stick out perpendicular to the buildings so oftentimes, much of what you see is just a chaotic jumble of signs everywhere.

Qin and I stayed in Causeway Bay, a major shopping area on Hong Kong island. While waiting for her to arrive, I walked around and visited some of the more touristy sites on my own. I saw the Golden Bauhinia – a sculpture symbolizing the return of Hong Kong to China – by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center along the waterfront, and St. John’s Cathedral. I also saw some of the old British colonial buildings on the island. Being a pedestrian in Hong Kong is very confusing. Besides the fact the streets are not straight, there are also a lot of pedestrian footbridges but it is not always clear how to get on to them or where they lead. In the Central area, the main business district, footbridges connect almost every building, and to get from point A to point B often requires going through buildings. It was so much easier to just follow Qin, who worked here for several months, and Malcolm, who is from Hong Kong.

Qin and I took the tram up to Victoria’s Peak for a view of the harbour on Friday. It was beautiful but a bit scary because you can actually see the layer of pollution in the distance from up there. Many people say that Hong Kong has gotten really polluted recently and rivals Beijing in that matter. We then went to Kowloon across the harbour where we shopped in Tsim Sha Tsui and Lady’s Street (where all the bustling street stalls are) in Mong Kok. At night, we walked along the promenade and then saw the sound and light show by the water. The buildings across the water had flashing lights that were coordinated to music. The new Batman movie was also being filmed but we did not actually see any of the film crews.

We ate at a Thai place for dinner one night (supposedly one of the best in Hong Kong), a local Cantonese restaurant called Zen for lunch on top of Victoria’s Peak the next day, and had sushi for dinner that night. Although everyone raves about the food in Hong Kong, I though the meals were good but not fabulous. We must not have been going to the right places. But seafood here was indeed extremely fresh. The Cantonese does not believe in eating dead seafood. It must be alive just prior to being cooked.

We went to Macau by ferry Saturday morning. The ferry was definitely no Staten Island ferry – instead, it was set up like an airplane on the inside with cushy assigned seats. We did not realize this and when we got to the terminal around 10:30, the next available ferry was at 2pm. So we walked around the Sheung Wan area of Hong Kong – the older and more traditional part. We meandered through Western Market and up little streets each specializing in a different dried good. There was a bird’s nest street, a dried ginseng street and even a dried seafood street. We shopped at the local candy store which carried different candies from all around the world. When we finally got on the ferry later, it got us to Macau in an hour. While the ride over was a breeze, customs was absolute chaos with long lines and angry hoards of shoving people so typical of China.

Macau is an even more interesting mix of new and old than Hong Kong. On the one hand, it is a World Heritage site filled with charming, old Portuguese colonial buildings and churches. On the other, it is also the most profitable gambling center in the world (the Chinese do love to gamble), filled with gaudy, mega-casinos. As such, Qin and I hoped on a shuttle and headed to the newly opened Venetian. The huge monstrosity (it’s got a man-made canal with gondolas!) joined a venerable group of already opened casinos like the Hotel and Casino Lisboa (truly hideous looking!), the Sands, and the Wynn with more along the way. Cotai Strip, the strip of land between Taipa Island and Coloane Island, where the Venetian is located, will soon become the new Las Vegas of the East. Multiple casinos are planned for both sides of the road that goes down Cotai Strip, including an underwater themed one, as well as several high-end hotels including the Four Seasons, the St. Regis and the Conrad.

We visited Taipa village where we sampled and purchased hand-made almond cookies that Macau is famous for. They are seriously absolutely amazing – they just melt on your tongue. Definitely just as good as the box Kelly gave me when she visited Macau earlier this year. We also tried some of the other little cakes and pastries – all were really yummy. We ate Portuguese food at a little Portuguese restaurant in the village for dinner, then headed to the Westin where we were staying at the tip of Coloane Island. The resort is beautiful but relatively far from everything.

Qin left early the next morning but I walked around Macau peninsula to see the main sites, including the Ruins of St. Paul. Although the streets curved every which way up and down little hills, it was impossible to get lost since at every street corner, there were signs pointing out how to get to each of the sites. I loved the beautiful colonial buildings although it was too early so I did not get to go inside any of them.

A ferry ride took me directly to Hong Kong International Airport later that afternoon, where I did not even have to go through Hong Kong Customs. They had little mini-check-in areas for all the airlines where they had your boarding passes waiting for you. It was so amazingly efficient. I left and came back to a cold, foggy Beijing, and no hot water again. It was so nice and warm down south…

Halloween in Beijing

Halloween is celebrated by a small sub-section of people in Beijing - mainly expats and young local students and professionals. We went to a club called Vics that was covered with all the requisite Halloween decorations - cobwebs, pumpkins, smoke, etc. Even all the people working there were dressed up - as pirates, pumpkins, cats and ghouls. Nevertheless, it was still obvious I was not in NYC. Besides the fact the club was full of smoke, the costumes are very wholesome. While the notion of dressing up has taken hold, the notion of Halloween as the one day of the year where it's okay to dress like a tramp and wear very little (with no repercussions) has not make it over here yet. People were for the most part, fully covered. The one exception was this one expat who went dressed as a belly dancer and wore almost nothing. She definitely got lots of stares and amused looks.

Since I'm in Beijing so little, whenever I'm in the city, I feel the need to go out as much as possible. Went out 4 nights in a row, starting Halloween. Met some fun people Thursday night for dinner and then hung out with a bunch of them on Friday and Saturday as well. The expat circles are pretty small here and it does feel like everyone is a friend of someone you know. From my nights out at mainly expat hangouts, I've concluded that there are 2 groups of foreigners in Beijing - the first are interesting people who are doing really cool things here and the second are people who just didn't quite make the mark in the States (jobless, socially awkward, not well adjusted, etc.) who came out here because its a cheap playground for foreigners and you can achieve "cool" status by virtue of being white. So many local Chinese girls are willing to put up with anything to date a white guy (and some have a rule to date only white guys), making it easy for even the biggest losers to find hot girlfriends. The second group is in general quite weird. Needless to say, I hang out only with the first.

Qin and I are going to Hong Kong and Macau for 4 days starting this Thursday. It's freezing in Beijing and there's no heat, so I'm looking forward to a bit of beach time. Besides, I've faded into almost fashionable Asian paleness - a bit of sun will do me good. I've had to resort to sleeping in a hooded sweatshirt and DHA sweatpants and 3 layers of blankets to sleep. Can't wait for the heat to come on. Ironically, I've been told that it's much colder in the southern parts of China during the winter because there is no heat except in 5 star hotels and expensive new apartment complexes; thus, people in the south supposedly can handle the cold better. It's so miserable to have to stay almost as bundled indoors as outdoors, which is what I've basically had to do these past couple of weeks so can't imagine having to do that for a whole winter. Finally went out about bought a bunch of cashmere sweaters and a down jacket. Oh, and I finally have hot water again, after a week of only icy cold water. Just can't take anything for granted here!

Tianjin

Last weekend, I went to Tianjin, a port city that China was forced to open up to the West in the 19th century. Since I was in Henan, I tried to rush back to Beijing in time to catch the train with the colleagues I was going to Tianjin with, but really dense fog in Beijing ruined those plans. Many of the pilots in China are relatively new and inexperienced since the aviation industry in China is growing so rapidly. Thus, even though the planes are equipped with technology to land and take off in heavy fog, they decided to just shut down the airport. Since I was away, I did not realize that the fog had been a problem for almost a week. When I finally did get back to Beijing, it felt almost surreal – dark, misty clouds covered everything, making even the building down the street difficult to see. The next morning, I embarked on my first train experience – on my own. Masses of people were everywhere, pushing and shoving like their life depended on it. But eventually I did managed to get on the right train and made it to Tianjin. When I arrived there, a mass of taxi cab drivers approached me like a pack of wolves. I could barely understand most of them but managed to get one of them to take me where I wanted to go.

As a result of its history, Tianjin is a cool mix of local and foreign. On the first day, we went to visit the Ancient Cultural Street and the Old Chinatown, where we sampled a ton of local snacks, and visited some cool arts and crafts stores. It’s funny that a city in China has a Chinatown, but for a while, it was occupied by all these foreign players. The French, English, German, Austrians, Italians, Belgians, Russians and Japanese all established their own concessions in Tianjin, so there is a ton of buildings with European architecture. We walked around the Wudadao area the next day, where it completely does not feel like you are in China. We saw beautiful Italian palazzos, old German and British buildings, and even an old French church.

Since Tianjin is so close to Beijing (only an hour by high-speed train), definitely want to come back. We saw the Tianjin Olympic Stadium, which is called the “water drop” in Chinese, where they will be hosting some of soccer matches for the Olympics next year. The stadium is a beautiful combination of metal and glass. It in the sun, it was shiny and reflective, and it does sort of resemble a water drop. Am trying to get Olympic tickets for next year for events in both Beijing and in Tianjin. But alas, the website crashed within half an hour yesterday when the tickets went on sale. Now, they are not sure when they are going to sell tickets again. The problem is the tickets are priced way too low (to make the games accessible to the local people). Ticket prices start at 30RMB, the equivalent of less than $5. Even the most expensive tickets to the women’s gymnastics finals only cost about $40! Craziness. I’m just planning to see what I get and then if anyone is interested in coming to China for the Olympics, let me know! Should be fun.

First it was heavy fog in Beijing, and this week it’s crazy windstorms. They blow up all the dust on the ground, sending huge swirls of dust and debris everywhere. There are heavy sandstorms in the winter which blows sand all the way from the Gobi desert to Beijing. Not looking forward to those. The sand supposedly coats anything and everything outside – including people. And I decided not to go to Africa so I wouldn’t have to deal with lack of electricity or hot water. However, even in my building, I haven’t had hot water in almost a week (thank goodness for the showers at the gym!) and they are cutting electricity tomorrow for several hours. I guess you can’t take anything for granted here. Tonight is Halloween. Should be an interesting experience here in China! But alas, I am lame and costumeless. Did not even know where to go to get one (not that I've had time to shop)...

Hygiene

I spent the past week in Henan province, one of the regions where there is a high-prevalence of HIV infection due to the blood selling schemes in the 1990s. The town I stayed in is pretty rural and is surrounded by villages and farms. This is what most of China is like – not big modern cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but rural towns and villages. As a result, some of the modern comforts and even habits you are used to is not available here (although to be honest, sometimes people’s habits not much better in Beijing!).

For example, despite the speed and progress of development in China, good hygiene is still a serious problem. The constant hacking and spitting of phlegm, the bathrooms that smell perfumed with urine, the lack of soap and toilet paper in many of the bathrooms has given me a renewed appreciation for Purell (Kelly – I should have brought the big bottle like you said!). People just hack loudly and spit freely even in public – they don’t even try to be discreet about it. Cab drivers hack and spit out the window, people walking on the streets just hack and spit on the street. People even spit indoors. Besides the fact that it transmits germs, it is just truly gross.

And even after being in China for more than two month, I still approach every public bathroom experience (including at airports, restaurants and hospitals) with great trepidation. Although many bathrooms have western style toilets, many of them still only have squat toilets. Although they are technically more sanitary, I dislike using them. You’d think that if people grew up using squat toilets, they’d have figured out how to use it without peeing all over the place. Not the case though. But even the squat toilets can be considered a luxury in some places where the “bathroom” is pretty much just a gutter. In addition, you can never forget to bring toilet paper with you. It seems like such a basic necessity, but it is just not provided in many places.

If you visit Beijing, you will notice that there are many public bathrooms on the streets. Although there are many renovated hutong courtyard houses with all the modern amenities, most of the old hutong buildings (the ones they are knocking down left and right to make way for modernization) still do not have bathrooms. Thus, people still rely on these public bathrooms. They are to be avoided except in the most desperate of situations. And the B.O. here is simply atrocious. Deodorant has clearly not made it to this country. I try to avoid hot, crowded places (like the subway which is not air-conditioned). Enough said.

Kelly is convinced that living in China for a year will shorten my life by five. I originally told her not to be silly, but I’m beginning to concur. I think I have inhaled more second hand smoke this month than my entire life prior to moving to China. People are allowed to smoke everywhere. 50% of Chinese doctors smoke (and one of them told me that there have been studies that prove that people who smoke and those who don’t have the same life expectancy…). The tobacco industry is government-owned so there is absolutely no incentive for the government to encourage people not to smoke – it is just too lucrative for them. People smoke in front of children with lung infections, pneumonia and TB. Some doctors even smoke during patient consultations. It is just crazy. They pretty much consider it an inalienable right.

On top of that, the pollution in Beijing is really out-of-control. I really don’t see how the Chinese government will be able to clean up the air by the Olympics next year. On bad days, it feels like you are walking through a cloud forest. It appears foggy all the time and even buildings just a short distance away is barely visible through the haze. They claimed to have had over 250 blue-sky days last year. Not sure who makes the determination that the sky is blue in Beijing, but I can assure you there’s no way they can have that many. I’ve only witnessed a handful. Oh, and I mentioned that I’ve already been to China’s most polluted city – Linfen. It’s apparently also the world’s 2nd most polluted city. Some city in Azerbaijan beat out Linfen to earn the ignominious honor of world’s most polluted city. As a result of the combination, I seem to have developed a cough that won’t go away.

Many of the kids I’ve seen suffer from infections as a result of their depressed immune systems. However, most of the adults did not really understand the importance of hygiene. When a kid dropped some M&Ms that I had given him on the ground, his grandmother tried to pick it up off the ground and put it in the kid’s mouth (granted M&Ms are a luxury to them, one that many of the kids were enjoying for the first time, but eek!!!). In addition, I have seem so many little hands (and big hands!) caked with dirt during my site visits that I started to lecture the parents on the importance of cleanliness – on how even simple things like washing your hands more often can make a difference and prevent the transmission of germs and diseases. I also try to emphasize to smokers that they should NOT smoke in the presence of children. Maybe that is my contribution to public health in China, since I can’t actually treat patients.

The Etiquette of Formal Meals in China

Over the course of the past month, I’ve had to survive countless formal meals with our partners in the Chinese government. These formal meals are important for the development of “guan xi,” a term that is hard to translate but sort of means relationships. Guan xi is an integral part of doing business in China and is developed over time over lunches and dinners, much like in the U.S. However, the level of binge drinking and smoking that takes place at these events has me convinced that many Chinese men are quite frankly, alcoholics. People toast each other left and right over the course of these meals, which usually takes place in private rooms within the restaurants and sometimes lasts hours, saying “gan bei,” which means dry glass. So people end up draining their glasses many times each meal. The bigger the glass, the more drunk people get. In addition to drinking beer, they drink “bai jiou” or “white wine” – a type of hard liquor made from red sorghum or another grain (it tastes sort of like tequila according to a colleague). It is generally considered really bad form to not drink when being toasted. The Chinese believe that willingness to drink a sign of honesty as liquor loosens tongues – it is a demonstration that you have nothing to hide.

In order to get things accomplished in China, our relationships with our partners at both the national, provincial and local levels are all extremely important. At each site we visited last month, we were served elaborate, multi-course meals, and of course, alcohol. It is impolite not to drink and no one wants to offend officials or doctors. As a woman, it has been tough, but not impossible to pass up the liquor with excuses that it is harder for you to drink as much as they can and take just a tiny sip of beer to placate them, but there is serious pressure to drink if you are a man. Some of these officials are seriously like tanks they can consume so much alcohol in one sitting. It feels sort of like initiation into a frat, with the drinking a part of the hazing (although the pressure to drink a lot stays pretty constant). One of the doctors I work with said that people have hold her that at the local, more grassroot level, the more you drink, the higher up you can go on the government ladder – basically, it’s a requirement to be successful. In addition, there is nothing one can do about the clouds of smoke. The restaurants even provide cigarettes at the table to patrons.

It is also important at these multi-course banquets to always ask what type of meat goes into a dish before trying it. In some areas, the specialty of the city/region is something that you don’t want to eat (like dog meat in Nanning) and they might order it for you to try. In Anhui, they ordered donkey at one of the dinners, which I managed to avoid.

I am still torn on whether it is okay to eat fruit without peeling it, raw vegetables and sushi. Every meal here is elaborate – breakfast is pretty much the same as lunch and dinner – when you’re on the road traveling with a bunch of Chinese doctors. I sort of miss a nice plain salad and a simple sandwich. But some people here wash their vegetables in a solution of diluted bleach to make it safe to eat. I’ve definitely had my fair share of raw fruits and veggies already(not washed with bleach) but so far it seems to be okay. And I was craving sushi so badly that I ate it twice this weekend even though my mom thinks I should avoid anything raw at all cost. I really miss the simplicity of fresh fish on a bed of rice. Maybe this is all just building up my immune system. Or maybe it’s just a matter of time before I inevitably get sick from being bad and ignoring professional advice on food safety. Arrgh.

I used to wonder why restaurants would only provide one copy of the menu to each table, regardless of the number of people in the party. Turns out it is the norm for one person to do all the ordering for the table. Ordering an elaborate, multi-course meal is considered an art. You have to pick several cold dishes to start, usually a soup and a variety of meat and vegetable dishes (usually heavy on meat since meals too heavy on vegetables might be taken as or considered an insult to the guests of honor at the meal) that not only highlights the specialties of the restaurant, but is also a visually pleasing blend of colors and a palatable mixture of flavors. I think you do get judged as a woman based on how well of a job you do at that. Something I need to work on since I don’t want to mess up if I were ever asked to do it for the table. However, luckily, most of the menus are thick, beautifully bound books with pictures of just about all the dishes (another reason why they only give you one per table – they must be really expensive to print). They are fun to flip through and make it easy for even a foreigner who can’t speak Chinese to order a meal. You can eat really well by just pointing at pictures. Bon appétit!

Great Wall

I've always considered the Great Wall, which recently got selected as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, one of those things I should see because I am in China, not one of those things I am particularly excited about seeing. I mean, it's just a big, long wall (or so I thought). Since I had not seen it yet and we had visitors at the office from other countries who wanted to go to the Great Wall earlier this week, I tagged along with them. We were short on time so we went to the Mutianyu section of the wall, approximately 90km outside Beijing. On a clear day in Beijing, you can make out the faint outlines of the mountains on which the wall is built on the horizon (but this is a rare sight indeed). We had a relatively pollution-free week and really good weather so it was a great time to go.

There are 2 ways to up the mountain to the wall - hike up hundreds of steps or do it the lazy way and go up via cable cars. We decided to walk up. I have to say I was really impressed with the wall when I made it up there. You can see the wall stretch in both directions as far as the eyes can see. It was built over the course of 2,000 years and measures about 20,000 km, going all the way out to Gansu province in the west. Beijing is definitely not the only place where you can catch a glimpse of the wall - it's just the most convenient one for visitors. The views from the wall are beautiful. Although the trees have not changed colors yet, the mountains were tall and majestic and surround you on all sides. While there is some development in the area, I think the government has done a good job maintaining the pristine beauty of the countryside here for visitors to enjoy.

There are many sections of the wall you can visit around Beijing. Some are completely renovated and feel very fake, but there are other sections that are unrenovated (in fact, sections of it are crumbling) where walking along the Great Wall makes you feel like "you are walking on a part of history." I'd definitely want to try hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai sometime this month. Now that I've actually seen the wall, I am excited about that trip!

More on Mooncakes and My First Blue Sky Day

Just to emphasize the silliness of the whole mooncake-giving culture in China, here are some stats as reported by China Daily, the English language newspaper controlled by the government. Approximately 250,000 tonnes of mooncakes were sold last year for Mid-Autumn Festival. The cost of all the mooncakes – a whopping $1.42 billion (11 billion RMB). They come in with all sorts of fillings and all a wide range of price points. In Chengdu, I saw advertisements for mooncakes with shark fin and bird’s nest (basically bird spit collected in caves – really expensive stuff). To impress clients, family members, friends, etc., the Chinese spent exorbitant amounts buying mooncakes, which can cost hundreds of dollars a box and which come in extravagant packaging.

According to the China Daily columnist, “consumption of mooncakes has one simple purpose – to maintain relationships.” It’d be more accurate to say “the exchange of mooncakes” as opposed to “consumption.” People basically give this stuff to each other even though I am certain that no one actually eats all the mooncakes he or she receives. In addition the writer added, “How many mooncakes one gets measures his intangible value. The more you receive, the more respect you have.” By this logic, I am pretty much valueless and wholly unrespected since I only received 3 boxes (and that’s already more mooncakes than any one person can actually consume!). It’s all just so wasteful and ridiculous!

And in exciting news - Beijing was absolutely gorgeous today. We had our first clear day since I arrived in China almost 2 months ago. For a change you can see the color of the sky (it's really blue!) and see things in the horizon. Definitely a momentous occasion in my mind.

A Boat Trip up the Yangtze River

For October holidays, my friend Reshma and I decided to do what the locals do – take a boat trip up the Yangtze River from Yichang to Chongqing to see the famed Three Gorges on a Chinese cruise ship. We arrived in Wuhan, traveled across Hubei Province by bus to Yichang where we met another friend and headed to Changyang, a sleepy little farming town about an hour outside Yichang, for a day of hiking before making it back to Yichang to see the Three Gorges Dam prior to embarking on our river cruise.

Changyang was a pretty little town surrounded by mountains next to a river. We were there for National Day (October 1), one of 3 major holidays in China where residents get the full week off. It felt like the entire town was out on the streets and in the main town square. One of the things we noticed right away was the profusion of shoe stores (I just don’t see how this small town can support this many shoe stores), clothing stores and babies. Out in the countryside, the one-child policy is less stringently enforced, and we saw babies everywhere. Many people carried them in baskets on their back. The babies in China don’t use diapers – instead, they were pants with a split crotch and parents literally hold them over trash cans and street corners whenever nature calls. A bit unsettling to see when you are walking down the street. This happens everywhere, not just in Changyang.

In Yichang, we visited the Three Gorges Dam – the biggest dam in the world. The massive dam was built to supply energy to an increasingly power-hungry country. The local people were very proud of it. The project has been going on since the late 1990s and will finally be completed in 2009. It has displaced over 1 million families (many of them not properly compensated) and when completed, the rising waters from the dam will flood many cultural sites, including filling in parts of the Three Gorges. The dam contained a 5-layer ship lock and a massive wall that spans the river. It is quite a tourist spectacle, with buses hauling thousands of people there daily to several designated viewing sites to see the monstrosity. The scale of the whole project is really quite impressive. However, there are concerns that shoddy work went into it and that the damming of the river will cause serious environmental degradation.

Our Chinese cruise is definitely not for the faint of heart. Reshma and I were the only foreigners on the boat. Even though the 2 of us were in a first class cabin – it was small and very basic. In some of the cabins, we saw 6 beds cramped into the same space as our room, which is crazy. The Chinese were loud, they smoked incessantly, and they were aggressive and pushy (and unapologetic about it). But the views of the Gorges were beautiful (reminds me a bit of Halong Bay, but not as impressive) and it has been interesting seeing what a typical, mid-upper class Chinese family vacation is like.

At Shennonxia, we took a smaller boat up the Shennon River where we saw the rock formations up close. We also got to take small wooden boats rowed by the local “boat trackers.” Before we left, the guide had been explaining in Chinese that we would get the opportunity to see the local way of life there, but because of my imperfect Chinese, all I could understand was that we would see people doing something and we ladies don’t need to worry about our sensibilities since they won’t be doing it naked as they used to do it because of tourism in the area. It turned out that he was talking about the boat trackers – now they row and pull boats in underwear or shorts as opposed to in the buff, but there were pictures of them doing it naked all over the place (they show their naked behinds). We also got to see a performance where someone juggled knives and meat cleavers, something they do in the area. It was fun to watch – definitely a “do not try this at home” type of performance.

We stopped by the White Emperor Town in the evening. Perched on a cliff overlooking the waters, the temple at the top could only be accessed by a set of stairs with hundreds of steps. As a result, there were locals who carried people in these seats attached to bamboo poles all the way up to the top. The temple commemorates an event detailed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I feel like I should read. Neither Reshma nor I had read the novel and we know almost nothing about Chinese history so while it was a pretty stop, we really could not understand the historical significance of the site.

On the second day of the cruise, we stopped at Ghost City near the town of Fengdu in Chongqing Province. It was definitely my favorite stop. Numerous temples have been built atop a hill with sculptures of demons and ghosts since the Tang Dynasty. We walked down Ghost Street, which, according to legends, is a bazaar for the nether world. It is dotted with some altars and temples, as well as a bunch of little shops selling Halloween-style masks. It felt sort of like a Chinese version of Salem, MA. A bunch of demon sculptures lined both sides of the path up to the Ghost Palace, which for some reason we couldn’t get into.

However, we were able to go up the other side of the hill to the temples that lined the hillside. We climbed up over 400 steps to get to the base of the temples, passing by the Thanks Giving Temple, to reach the Temple of Light. More steps led us up past yet more temples to the very top to the hill where the Palace of Heaven (the path was also lined with sculptures of demons) was located. The climb up was really pretty with views of Fengdu across the river and the fauna-covered hills surrounding the temples. I guess all the creepy temples with names such as Palace of the King of Hell were in the other area, inside Ghost Palace.

I couldn’t quite understand whether the local people believed it was a place representing hell. Despite all the demon and ghost sculptures, you’re supposed to light incense for peace and serenity. Either way, Reshma and I definitely had a great time there.

We arrived in Chongqing City, at the crack of dawn yesterday. Chongqing is built on a bunch of steep hills overlooking the Jialing River and the Yangtze River. The two rivers meet at Chaotianmen dock, which is built to look like a ship (and it really does!), where we disembarked. As a result of the hills, there are almost no bikes in this city. The streets looped up and down the hilly slopes, making navigating the city difficult even with a map. Some roads are so steep that some of the cars had trouble going up. The weather there was also really hot – over 90 degrees even though it’s October. The weather during the summer often exceeds 100 degrees, earning it a place among China’s 3 furnaces, alongside Wuhan and Nanjing (2 cities I’ve stopped through but have not visited).

After we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we decided to join a tour to what we thought were the Dazu Caves, a set of Buddhist Grotto Caves about 2 hours outside Chongqing. Instead, we found ourselves going to random stops around the city, including the Ciqikuo Ancient Town and the Huguang Immigration Museum. Although I asked several times if we were going to the caves, the answer was always yes. Turns out that my Mandarin Chinese failed me badly – we ended up at the Zhazi Caves (in my own defense – Dazu Caves and Zhazi Cave sound really similar, especially when people speak with such different accents!), a former coal mine turned prison during the Kuomingtang (KMT) rule in the 1940s. So instead of taking Reshma to see caves filled with Buddhist murals and sculptures (a World Heritage site), we ended up touring a couple of notorious prisons. The second prison, Baigongguan, used to be a former villa that U.S. diplomats stayed at during visits to China. Both were located up in the mountains surrounding the city. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit Dazu Caves today since we had to return to Beijing.

I definitely join tour groups in China with a bit of apprehension since they usually involve a lot of random shopping stops and very little time at the actual sights. This one was no different. The tours are sometimes unavoidable since it is difficult to get to some of the tourist sites otherwise. Getting to Dazu Caves requires taking a bus to Dazu County and then another bus to the caves. We thought a tour would make it easier to get there. But in the end, we got stuck touring the production site for spices that went into Chongqing’s famous hotpots, which ended at the company’s store, and watching a knife demonstration (a live infomercial) at their Olympic center (I think it’s actually just a stadium since I don’t think any Olympic events will be taking place here).

But the day ended well nonetheless. We walked around downtown Chongqing, visited their Liberation Monument, found the Arhat Temple (which we could not go into since it was closed by that time of the night), took a cable ride over the Yangtze to the south side of the city and had a really yummy dinner right by the river. The views from the cable car station, which is on top of a hill, and from the cable car as we were crossing the river were both really neat. We got a bird’s eye view of some old sections of the city (though much of the old buildings are being knocked down for new high-rises along the river). When it got dark, the city was lit up by neon lights. There were lights on buildings and even lights along the bridges and highways. It was rather Vegas-like but fun.

We spent most of the day back at Ciqikuo Ancient Town. We got chops made with our names in ancient Chinese, sampled a bunch of Chongqing snacks, browsed through some local arts and craft, bought some souvenirs, visited the Bao Lun Temple and learned about the history of ceramics in Ciqikuo (the name means ceramics). The views from the temple were really pretty since we were so high up.

Now, I’m back in Beijing after spending 3 weeks on the road. Will upload more pictures from my trip to Picasa.

Chengdu

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, which is famous for its spicy cuisine. Sichuan Province is also the main habitat for panda bears - considered a national treasure. We came here for a conference where Herb was supposed to be the main speaker, teaching Sichuan Province's doctors about pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment and care. However, the hotel they picked to hold the event was smack in the middle of the military district. We were not allowed to stay there, nor was he allowed to lecture for more than half a day in the end.

I stayed several days in Chengdu, a couple with colleagues during the conference and then on my own for a couple more. It was a city of several firsts for me. Since half the guys I work with are gay, including my direct manager, I ended up going to my first gay bar with him and a couple of other people. Definitely a very interesting experience, complete with underwear modeling and drag show. The men were so androgenous that they actually looked like really pretty women in drag. I definitely think that Chinese society is becoming liberal very rapidly. I've definitely noticed a ton of "adult health" or "couples health" stores - which someone pointed out were sex shops. They are not hidden in back alleys but had prominent signs. I found it a bit surprising.

I went to get a massage at this place where the the masseuses were trained at the Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine University. While I was there, I decided to be adventurous and get "scrapping" and "cupping" done on my back as well. Scrapping involves scrapping your back with a porcelain spoon to improve circulation. They believe that in spots where you have stress or tension, scrapping releases tension by drawing the blood to the surface and leaving a bruise. Cupping involves heating glasses with fire to remove oxygen from the glass, and then quickly cupping your back with the glass so that it creates a suction effect on your back. It is supposed to draw toxins out by drawing blood to the surface and leaving a bruise also. Places that are normal should not bruise. However, my back must be in bad shape since it is currently a mass of horrible looking bruises. I seriously look like a battered wife or something - it's pretty terrible. Don't think I believe in the effects of either.

A visit to Chengdu is incomplete without seeing a panda, so I visited the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. The fall is when the baby pandas are born and I had heard in the news that a couple of panda bears had given birth to twins. I was excited about seeing panda babies. It was a rainy and dreary morning but I saw several month-old pandas (not as cute as you would imagine) and one about 2 months old (this one was adorable) in the "panda nursery." The 9 1-year old cubs that were playing in their enclosure were so adorable - they chased each other around in their playground and climbed trees. It was fun to watch. The adult bears are rather boring though - they just eat and sleep. I also watched a video about the panda breeding process at the center. Pandas are sometimes just unable to find a mate and breed, so they've resorted to artificial insemination.

I also made it to most of the other sites in the city including Wenshu Temple, the Green Ram Temple, the Wuhou Temple and Du Fu's Cottage, but one of the best parts was definitely the food. I tried Sichuan Hot Pot (but I was a chicken about spicy food so my co-workers order it not spicy) as well as tons of little Sichuan "snacks." We tried 24 different kinds at one restaurant - it included dumplings, noodles, sweets and other little dishes. I also tried several snacks at Jinli, an old street in the middle of the city right next to Wuhou Temple. You walk up and down the snack street there where just about everything is less than a dollar and you create a meal out of snacks. It was delicious and fun. I met a couple of local Chinese people who were shocked I didn't know what some kind of candy was and ended up eating with them. The candy looks like cotton candy rolled in peanut powder, but rolled up in small pieces. It was not that good. Oh well.

One of the other fun things about Jinli was also the arts and crafts on display. Chengdu is famous for its blown candy. They blow candy into animal figures just like you would blow glass. It is incredible to watch. There is also some type of candy art where they draw pictures using molten sugar which then hardens and becomes a lollipop. Also - there was a booth with Shadow Puppets. They make these puppets attached to sticks dance behind a lit-up screen. It is fun to watch.

Sichuan also has its own form of opera which involves a mix of more traditional opera, some acrobatics, fire-blowing, face-changing and slap-stick humor. The acrobatics was amazing to watch but the face-changing was really what made Sichuan Opera unique. The actors would cover their faces for a second and they would literally change their faces to a different mask. But it's instantaneous - I still don't know how they do it. Definitely something to go see if you are in Chengdu.

Am in Hubei province now where I will be taking a boat ride up the Yangzhi River to see the Three Gorges. Really looking forward to that - it's supposed to be beautiful.

Visit to an IVDU Detention Center

The spread of HIV/AIDS in China is extremely different from other countries. Besides the normal methods of transmission - intravenous drug use (IVDU), tainted blood transfusions and unprotected sex - many poor villagers contracted HIV in the 90s by selling blood. This occurred in the Central China region (which includes Anhui province). In Central China, the infection rates have stabilized since selling blood is now banned. However, in the IVDU regions, the disease is spreading due to the sharing of tainted needles.

Yunnan Province in southern China, which shares a border with Myanmar, is a region where IVDU is a serious problem. Much of the border is completely porous - no guards, fences or anything. Just walk across the street. As a result, a lot of drugs flow into China from Myanmar. Once in Yunnan, the drug travels to Guangxi Province next door and into rest of country. On average, 50% of the IVDU drug users in Yunnan are HIV+, a staggering figure.

We flew to Lincang, a small town high up in the mountains yesterday morning, and did some patient consultations at the local hospital. The infection rate among intravenous drug users here is approximately 70%. Unlike our other sites, where we only saw Pediatric patients, here, we saw adult patients too, many of whom contracted the virus from unsafe needle use. Today, we visited an IVDU Detention Center where drug users were incarcerated to provide patient consultations. 90+% of the inmates here are HIV+. It was a truly depressing experience. Inmates live 15 to a cell. The thin mattresses they slept on were lined up one next to another on the ground. There were no beds. The cells are located around an outdoor courtyard and the metal bars on the door provide no protection against the elements. They put up a cover of some sort over the bars in the winter. Food is passed to them through a small window on the outside door. It is such a sad existence.

We took a tour of the detention center. We walked on a platform above the cells and looked down into them. One of the inmates saw us and said - "welcome to the zoo." And he is not far off. That was exactly how it felt. These people were locked up behind bars and we were observing them from afar. It felt rather voyeuristic. The inmates are there for a year and then released, but many of them end up back there again. Only 2-3 inmates out of a hundred stay off drugs for any meaningful length of time. It just shows you how strong drug addictions can be. The fear of returning to a place that is so dehumanizing does not seem to trouble most of these people.

The staff at the hospital visit the detention center and provide care to the patients several times a week. All patients who need ARV receives it for free. I'm glad the Chinese government is trying to treat them. They've even opened up methodone clinics. The consequences of ignoring the problem is too great since this is the major cause of the spread of HIV in China today. Figuring out how to help these people will be key to limiting the spread of the disease in the future.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Since arriving in China a bit over a month ago, people everywhere have been carrying around boxes of moon cakes and giving them as presents for mid-autumn moon festival, which took place tonight (we did see the full moon, but it was a cloudy night, so the moon was mostly obscured). It’s a day you’re supposed to spend at home with the family but I was on the road for work in Yunnan Province (not that I have family here). The whole ritual is one that I find rather wasteful since the moon cakes all come in elaborate boxes and packaging that is thrown out afterwards and I swear no one actually eats all the moon cakes that they receive. How can you when you get boxes and boxes of that stuff?

I’m generally not a fan of moon cakes (except for the ones made from mochi and ice cream called “snow cakes” in Taiwan – those are delicious). I find them way too heavy and sweet, and really dislike the egg yolks in the middle of the pastry. However, the interesting thing about moon cakes in China is the sheer variety you can find. In the U.S., there is basically one kind – there’s some kind of sweet paste (like lotus paste or red bean paste) and egg yolks (sometimes as many as 4 per moon cake). But here, it seems like every province has a specialty. In Guangxi, the moon cakes are filled with spicy beef (did not actually try them). In Beijing, I sampled a type of moon cake that sort of just looked like a huge pie without filling (rather bland and tasteless but supposedly the earliest type of moon cake), as well as a bunch of moon cakes with different flavors more closely resembling the American kind, but less sweet and without egg yolk. In Pingyao, I tried the local “hand-made moon cake” which is flat and hollow, with just a bit of sweet paste inside. In Yunnan Province, the moon cakes are filled with a local ham mixed with egg yolk and sugar (didn’t really taste like ham). It’s been interesting trying all the varieties, but still not a huge fan.

There’s a box of moon cakes waiting for me in Beijing – a gift from the office. It was really sweet of them, but I doubt I’ll be able to finish them. Oh well. It's just all part of the cultural experience.

Site Visits

I spent the week traveling with my team and a Pediatric AIDS expert (Herb) from the U.S. to various sites doing patient consultation. So far, we have been to two different provinces – Guangxi and Anhui. Guangxi is a region with rising HIV infection rates since it is along the drug route and intravenous drug use is widespread along the border with Myanmar. Anhui is a Central China province (the area of China where villagers sold their blood for money) that also happens to be one of the poorest in China. To say the experience has been eye-opening would be an understatement. Learning about how doctors treat HIV patients in resource-limited situations and watching them in action has been an incredible experience. The week has been an emotional rollercoaster though. I spent quite a bit of time playing the role of social worker, comforting care-takers (parents, grandparents and other relatives) and children alike, trying to give them hope and bring a smile to their faces. I have heard heartbreaking stories about how these people got HIV, and seen so many babies and precocious kids that have suffered way too much in their short lives.

The Chinese government provides anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to all Chinese HIV+ patients free of charge, assuming the patients can be found. All the pediatric formulations are donated to China by the Clinton Foundation, courtesy of a grant from UNITAID. The goal is to get 100,000 children on treatment worldwide by the end of the year. Even in the United States, not everyone has access to free ARV drugs, so I was pleasantly surprised. But as I have learned, access to free drugs does not necessarily lead to a successful patient treatment program, especially when it comes to children. China currently has less than a thousand children on treatment.

Admittedly, I knew almost nothing about HIV/AIDS when I accepted the position of Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program Officer, and I did not know a whole lot more when I arrived in Beijing a month ago to start work. I am still developing my knowledge, reading as much as I can about the disease and its treatment, including the WHO and UNICEF guidelines. After seeing dozens of HIV+ children, many just babies, I asked Herb what the average life expectancy of these children is, and his response was “what’s the life expectancy of an average Chinese person?” Advances in medical science has yielded a number of drugs, with even better ones coming down the pipeline, that makes it possible for HIV+ people to live full lives, something that was unimaginable even a decade ago. But much of this depends on drug adherence, and proper storage and administration of the drugs. These affected children depend on the adults in their life to help them with all three.

However, for every child who has a caring care-taker, there is an orphan or a child who has been abandoned by the adults in his/her life. Two days ago, I met a child who had been left at a train station. Another child had no one to take care of him – his father was a gambler, his mother had died of the disease, his grandmother just developed cancer and his stepmother wanted to leave him at an orphanage (but orphanages won’t take children who are HIV+ and have a living parent). Luckily for the first child, they managed to find him a foster home, where an old grandmother has done an extremely good job of caring for 4 HIV+ children. All of these kids were doing well, appeared healthy and were as happy as can be. Their drugs have successfully kept their disease at bay and under control. But the second boy looked forlorn (who can blame him??), was dirty, has no one to give him his drugs on a regular basis and receives absolutely no adult love or attention. Even his doctor did not bother to show up for the consultation. As a result of his poor drug adherence, he is likely to develop resistance to his drugs very quickly and the virus will have the opportunity to take over and, in the worse-case scenario, kill him. I wanted to cry. This is just one example, and of course, the problem is not limited to China. The stigma these children face is huge regardless of location. It is truly heartbreaking.

Poor adherence has led to serious drug resistance in many of the children. We worked until 1am last night trying to figure out what 2nd line drugs we can potentially give a group of children with multiple drug resistance. After listening to the experts talk and helping with translations, I now have a pretty good knowledge of the 1s and 2nd line drugs available. There are fewer drugs available to children than adults and several of the children have few options left. While my hope is that all these children will hang in there and pull through, some of them are in really bad shape, and the future does not look promising for them.

Even in cases where the parents care, many of them don’t have a refrigerator to properly store the medicine. One of the drugs, d4T suspension, requires refrigeration, but in Guangxi (in Southern China), where the temperatures can easily exceed 100 degrees in the summer, only one family we saw at the clinic owned a refrigerator at home (we saw approximately 3 dozen there). We are trying to donate fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs in the future, that combine the 3-drug cocktails into one small pill which would not require refrigeration. By making it easier to take the drugs and to store it, we hope to improve adherence and give more children the opportunity to live to adulthood. The suspensions are also supposed to taste terrible (they make some people drink it to understand why it is difficult to get small children to take their medicine, but I have not had to do that), a problem the FDCs will also resolve.

Many of the children were also malnourished since they come from poor farming families that still reside in rural villages far away from urban centers. Some of the children had to travel 9 hours just to get to the provincial clinic (they normally see their local doctors – but their training and experience is likely more limited). We are looking into whether Chinese children will like “plumpinut” – a peanut butter-like high-calorie nutritional supplement for kids. I had given out some chocolate to the kids during the consultations – for many of them, it was the first time they had tasted chocolate – and they loved it. Hopefully the kids will like plumpinut too so we can donate some to China to help combat malnutrition.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about why the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is so great. HIV/AIDS children are not allowed in orphanages and many hospitals won’t admit them into care. Some restaurants won’t let them eat there. There are other deadly diseases but people don’t seem to fear it as much. Is it just fear of getting the disease? Is it ignorance about how it is spread? We had to do one consultation secretly at night – 5 orphans with HIV live in a foster home in an apartment building where none of their neighbors knew about their condition. They will get kicked out if anyone found out.

One of the kids I just saw today has a cleft palate, and I am hoping that I can either find an organization to give her cleft palate surgery, or raise enough money to get her the surgery for free. If anyone knows of an organization or wants to help, please let me know.

I have another week of site visits. We’re going to Yunnan Province next, and then heading to help Sichuan Province with their ARV Training for local doctors. We’ve worked throughout the weekend and traveling from site to site has been exhausting, but truly, truly rewarding.

Shanxi Province

For my first site visit in China for work, I had the opportunity to visit a children's AIDS hospital in Linfen in Shanxi Province with our Global Peds Director, who was in China for a visit, and the China Peds Manager. Shanxi is a major mining region and its biggest export is coal, followed by vinegar. The mines in the area has caused heavy pollution. As a result, Linfen has the dubious honor of being the most polluted city in China. Linfen, Taiyuan (the capital where we flew to) and Pingyao (where I visited an ancient Ming-dynasty city) all seem constantly cloaked in fog, except its not innocuous fog blanketing those cities, it's pollution. During the 3-hour drive from Taiyuan to Linfen, we passed by multiple quarries. Dug deep into the ground, they looked like massive green and yellow mountains with steps on the side. They are actually quite a sight to behold. We saw coal being hauled in small trucks everywhere.

According to the Global Peds Director, the hospital we visited is one of the nicest children's HIV/AIDS she has visited. In addition to medical facilities for the patients, there is an elementary school. Through a donation they received, they were able to purchase instruments for the children, and we caught them during music class. They performed a dance and played their instruments for us. It was absolutely adorable. There are also dorm rooms for the children and a vegetable and flower garden. They are also building apartment-like facilities for the patient's relatives to stay in when they visit. The whole thing was very well-thought out. The whole facility only serves a handful of patients at the moment, but they are thinking of expanding it to serve the entire community.

Besides coal mines, Shanxi is famous for its vinegar and its noodles. They make over 100 different kinds of noodles here. During lunch post-site visit, we tried 8 different kinds of noodles, including cat's ear (a pasta-like noodle shaped like cat's ear) that is a Shanxi specialty. My favorites include a sauteed noodle with vegetable called "knife sliced noodle" and a noodle that was shaped like a shell and cooked with a bit of vegetable and shrimp. Knife sliced noodle is a noodle made by using a knife to slice thin slivers from a big chunk of dough. We added a bit of vinegar to all the noodles we tried. The people of Shanxi are extremely proud of their vinegar and insist that everything tastes better with it. One little boy I met a couple of weeks ago, whose father was from Shanxi province originally told me that he didn't want to visit America because the food would be bad since there would be no vinegar. I found that really cute and funny. Trying to explain that we do have vinegar in America did not really work. In addition to eating just about everything with their vinegar, the women also insist that it does wonders for your skin (even the doctor told us that!). I bought some back to Beijing with me (but just to use with food, not for any type of beauty treatment).

Rather than coming straight back to Beijing, I took the opportunity to stay in Shanxi for an extra day to visit Pingyao. Pingyao is an interesting mix of old and new. Pingyao contains a city within a city. The ancient city of Pingyao, which is completely surrounded by an intact Ming-dynasty wall (supposedly the last remaining in China), is a charming little area with hundreds of old buildings featuring Ming-dyansty era architecture complete with courtyards located inside Pingyao - a relatively modern city. It feels like you have stepped straight into the past (except for the throngs of tourists). Even my hotel had a small but beautiful courtyard and my room featured a Ming-style bed, which looks like a platform with bedding on top of it. Most of the city is extremely well-preserved, but some of the less touristy parts are crumbling. Through the doorways of some houses and in the smaller alleys less frequented, you can see buildings that are falling apart, although some are being renovated.

Pingyao used to be a financial center and a thriving merchant town in the Ming and Qing dynasties. I visited several old banks and former residences of wealthy financiers, as well as a few temples. Many of the banks and residences are like mini-cities inside. Some have hundreds of rooms surrounding several courtyards, all enclosed within its own set of walls on the outside. The architecture of the buildings were all pretty similar, so it felt repetitive after a while, although they were all quite beautiful. One of the most interesting complex was the ancient government buildings. A vast maze of courtyards and rooms, it featured a cool photography exhibit on some of its walls.

The modes of transporation in Pingyao was really varied. There were donkey carts, bicycles, mopeds, big golf-cart like things serving as taxis, tricycles, trucks with only three wheels, cars, etc. I rented a bicycle early this morning and biked to Shuanglin Temple, approximately 7km from the ancient city. Every time I ride a bike, I still feel a sense of trepidation because I'm terrible at it, and I hate riding on streets congested with vehicles of all kinds coming at you from every direction. I was relieved when I found it. There were few visitors when I arrived but there were dozens of art students from Xian making clay sculptures. Shuanglin Temple is known for its clay sculptures but time has really washed out the colors of the scultpures and most of them were enclosed behind a cage-like barrier, which really detracted from the experience. While I was there, a monk started talking to me and decided to tell me my fortune. He claims I will have an unhappy marriage. Talk about incentive to stay single. Most of the stuff he said about my past were completely off (was not sick last September and no one in my family was sick either) and I am not really superstitious so I'll let the comment slide.

I stopped by the Qiao Family Courtyard House, the site where Zhang Zimou's film Raise the Red Lantern was filmed, on the way back to Taiyuan. The guy who built it was a wealthy merchant in the Ming or Qing Dynasty. I remember watching the movie back in high school and thinking that the buildings were gorgeous so I was excited to see the place in person. To get there, I had my first China long-distance bus experience. There was no schedule, which was kind of frustrating - the buses leave only when they are full - so I ended up wasting almost an hour sitting on the bus. When I finally made it there, it was like a zoo. There were requisite red lanterns hung all throughout the main corridor of the house as I had expected, but there were also dozens of tour groups packing the place, following tour guides holding flags and talking into microphones or megaphones. There were masses of people everywhere. It was total chaos. The place is big, but not that big so I quickly walked around and got out of there.

Getting back to Taiyuan from there was my sketchy bus experience #2 in China. I had to go across the street and flag a bus down. The bus was dirty and gross but had no choice at that point. I managed to make it back to Taiyuan without any major problems and am back in Beijing now. Here for a day and then I'm off for 3 weeks! Visiting Guangxi, Anhui, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces for work, and then going to Hubei (to see the Three Gorges) and Chongqing for October holidays. Am really excited.

Settling into Life in Beijing

Prior to moving to Beijing, I figured I'd be working a lot less and therefore have a ton more free time to do things like read, learn Chinese, etc. I figured I'd go out on the weekends, but not so much during the week. However, since arriving, I've been out just about every night of the week. Between quiz nights on Tuesday nights and casual dinners and drinks with friends, it feels like I haven't had a moment of free time. I've been slowly checking out the restaurant scene in Beijing. Tried tons of Chinese restaurants for various provinces, including Gansu, Xinjiang and Sichuan. At the Gansu (a province in Chinese's northwest region), I tried "lamb's back" which was lamb's back cooked in a way similar to Peking Duck, with crispy skin and some meat you wrap with sauce and vegetables in a thin flour pancake, and bones that they cut into pieces to look like ribs. I even tried camel for the first time. At first, I didn't realize it was camel - it seriously could have been beef. Definitely the most unusual things I've tried so far.



Xinjiang province (really want to visit!) is another province in the northwest that is mostly occupied by the Muslim Uyghur minority as opposed to Han Chinese. The cuisine there is heavy on lamb, a type of bread called naan (but nothing like Indian naan) and noodles in a tomato-based broth with vegetables that reminds me of minestrone soup. The noodels are made by hand and has a thicker, chewier texture that is really delicious. I'm looking forward to visiting this region as either part of the job or for fun. It will be like visiting a foreign country.

Sichuan cuisine is popular and heavy on chilies. I still really can't tell the difference between the cuisines of the Han Chinese provinces, but Sichuan is easy to recognize since it is very spicy. There is a dish called Chicken with Chilies that is served to you on a huge plate covered with chilies. There's so little chicken in it that you really have to search hard to find a piece, but it looks really impressive. I find it rather pointless. I think Sichuan cuisine is okay.

Other foods I've tried here include pizza (not so great - something just not right about the dough and the cheese), American (terrible), Indian (not bad) and Thai (really good). Think I'm going to stick to Asian cuisines. One of my favorite restaurants so far is a vegetarian restaurant called Pure Lotus. The restaurant is so serene and beautifully decorated, and the food so simple yet delicious that the entire dining experience is bliss. I can't even think of a similar restaurant n NYC. The service here is also really good, which says a lot in Beijing since attentive service is almost non-existent. I'm usually just glad when the servers don't yell at me.

One of the people I've met here works for That's BJ, a free monthly magazine similar to Times Out or New York magazine. He says that I can do restaurant reviews for them in the future, which will be awesome. Looking forward to that.

The nightlife in Beijing I've experienced so far is definitely very expat oriented. Been to a couple of chill expat hangouts such as The Tree and Rickshaw. People are friendly and everyone seems to be a friend of a friend. I ended up going to the Summer Palace with a guy who was visiting Beijing for 10 days. He knew a friend who knew someone in Beijing who happened to have brought him to Rickshaw one night. Funny how things work out here. There are also modern, trendy bars with expensive drinks like Alfa. It's got couches and pillows and curtains that create small pockets of privacy inside a huge restaurant/bar. One of my favorite little bars so far is a tiny place located in an alley behind Gulou (the Drum Tower). It's got a rooftop area that is really nice.

I've also had the opportunity to go to a club here called Suzie Wong. The guys here claim that it's awesome, one of the few places which is classy, where the girls know how to dance and don't giggle. The truth is the place was rather boring with crappy music, and girls that did not impress. I felt like I was going to drown in smoke since smoking is allowed everywhere unfortunately. I think that when class = girls don't giggle, your standards have just sunk way too low.

And after being in Beijing for a few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that half of Beijing (including most of the places you want to go to be it restaurant or bar) is located in an alley behind something. Instructions like go around Gulou to the dark alley and walk down the alley until you see this bar, is not uncommon. It makes finding anything very difficult. I usually call the restaurant or bar in the cab and hand the phone over to the cab driver.

Besides eating and drinking, I have been taking time to see the local Beijing sites as well. The Summer Palace, which is a bit far from the center of the city in the northwest part of Beijing, is beautiful. It's very renovated, and as a result, the buildings are in great conditions and the colors on the various buildings are vibrant and pretty. The lake and grounds are pretty to walk around. However, there are so many visitors that it feels like a zoo. We climbed to the top of the main building and then went down to this street with little shops. The emperor and his many women used to go there to pretend to be regular people shopping. It feels straight out of Disney World, only it's a cute rendition of an old Chinese street.

The Temple of Heaven, which I visited after finishing up work one day, was filled with tour groups of Chinese and Korean tourists, but still felt a lot less hectic and crowded than the Summer Palace. The temple, with it's beautiful cobalt blue roof set against the clear blue sky (well, as clear as the sky in a a polluted city like Beijing can be) is absolutely stunning and magnificent. I seriously think it is one of the prettiest structures in Beijing. It is inside a big park with perfectly straight rows of old cypress and juniper trees. The grounds are extensive and there are many quiet corners to escape to, which explains why many local Beijing people just come for walks in the park.

Am in Shanxi province right now. Will write a post about my experiences here visiting the Children's AIDS hospital in Linfen (the most polluted city in China) and the ancient city of Pingyao when I get the chance.

Apartment Hunting in Beijing

After spending a week looking at dozens of apartments, my roommates and I settled on a large 3BR apartment in the MOMA at Dongzhimen. A big apartment complex whose occupants are reportedly 70% foreign, it's modern amenities is a sharp contrast to it's random location in a hutong in Beijing. It is an interesting blend of new and modern with old and traditional that serves as a reminder that I'm actually in Beijing. But rather ironic that I moved all the way to Beijing from NYC, and ended up living in a place called the MOMA. I definitely miss home!

There are a few major differences between apartment hunting here versus in New York City. Here, many of the real estate agents/brokers you use do not have their own private listings - it seems to be a shared thing. Thus, real estate agents compete with one another for business and many of them will try to show you the same apartments. In addition, the landlord is the one who ends up paying the fee (equivalent to one month's rent), not the renter, which is really nice. Apartments also come furnished. You can even request additional furniture and ask the landlord to change some of the furniture. All of this is negotiated prior to signing a lease. As a result, it took us 5 hours of negotiations and discussions before we were able to finalize our lease agreement and get the document signed. Ultimately, these differences make life as a renter so much easier in Beijing. The agents do much of the work, the landlord pays them and supplies you with furniture - all you have to do is show up. The only thing that's rather annoying is the fact that it is customary to pay a 1 month deposit and 3 months of rent upon signing. Good thing I have a savings account.

I spent last Saturday furniture shopping with my new landlord and one of my new roomates. We picked a couch and selected the fabrics to use. The couch, made to our specification, was delivered a few days later. Since we ordered several different things from different vendors, it has been a frustrating experience waiting for the deliveries. In China, punctuality does not seem to be important. In fact, the whole notion of time is somewhat disregarded. An appointment scheduled for 8am might very well become 6am without a warning and 7pm can become 2pm. Slowly, as furniture is delivered and replaced, the apartment is coming together. Can't wait until it's all set up.

Perhaps one of the most bewildering things as a renter is how electricity, gas and phone bills are paid. I don't really think people use personal checks and people don't receive bills in the mail either. Instead, you have to add value to a smart card by paying in advance at a bank and then sticking it into the meter to add credit it with units of electricity and gas. It's somewhat of a hassle since the lines at the bank are always a couple of hours long (when I went to set up my account, there were 119 people ahead of me according to the machine) but you can do it at some special automated machines too. It's an amazing business model for the electric, gas and phone companies. None of them will have cash flow problems since they are pre-paid, before their service is utilized. Even cell phones are pre-paid. You buy credit and then charge up your phone.

All foreign residents have to register themselves at the police station. I guess the Chinese government must really want to keep tabs on us. Need to do that this weekend.

Qingdao, Warm Beer and Other Weird Asian Quirks

If you've ever wondered whether there is a place in China where there were no bikes, the answer is yes. Although the new sections of the Qingdao is flat, most of the older (and more charming) parts of the city are on the hilly parts of town, making biking impossible. Thus, bikes are not a mode of transportation here and traffic flows a lot more smoothly. Surprisingly, given the ubiquity of mopeds and motorbikes in Vietnam and Taiwan, there are very few in Beijing and Qingdao (the only 2 places in China I've been to so far). If I had a license, I would totally get a Vespa to get around. Traffic is horrendous in Beijing.

We visited Laoshan, a mountain range about an hour's drive outside Qingdao, where the mineral water (supposedly the purest water in China) for Qingdao beer is sourced. Some local guy convinced us that he could help us bypass the ticket booth and led us through a really sketchy trail up part of the mountain that got us on the main path. We had to crawl through a section of cut-open barb-wired fence. Yes, it did occur to me several times that it was a very dumb idea. Once we got on the main path, we climbed up hundreds of steps to get us up to the top of the mountain where we crawled through the dark Mitian cave (we didn't believe the vendors that were trying to sell us flashlights). It was a hot and sweaty endeavour, but the views from the top of the mountain are incredible, making it worthwhile. There were other things on the mountain but we skipped it since we were starving. We took a chair lift down the mountain.

Post-lunch, we visited the Tsingdao brewery and museum, where we had the opportunity to try several kinds of freshly brewed Tsingdao beers. There was this little house you could go into (called the "Beer House") that was so slanted that even though I was not drunk, I felt drunk and disoriented. It was a really bizarre feeling. And I met a guy, who asked me where I was from. He was surprised that I spoke perfect English. When I told him I was from New York, his response was, "but you look Asian." I could not believe it. He was from South Carolina. I'll leave it at that.

The first time I was served warm beer in Qingdao, I just figured maybe they ran out of cold beer. But after I was repeated served warm beer, I asked someone about it. Apparently the Chinese believe that drinking things that are too cold is bad for the body. They drink warm beer, warm milk, etc. Not a huge fan of beer to begin with and warm beer does not help. It tastes terrible. Oh, and the term "white wine" refers to hard liquor such as vodka. Someone asked me if I liked Qingdao's red wine, which I had tried earlier, and I told him it tasted great but I liked white wine better. He almost fell out of his chair. Apparently you have to specify white "grape" wine if you mean white wine.

On the subject of weird alcohol drinking habits, in Taiwan, people drink red wine with ice cubes. They think it tastes too thick without ice and they prefer to drink it cold. One of my cousins, who is living in Paris, had brought back wine from France... the French would have flipped out if they saw what the Taiwanese were doing to their red wine. In China, they drink red wine without ice, but they literally only pour a taste each time. The tradition is to "ganbei" when you toast someone, which means "dry glass," so they just pour very little each time since you are supposed to finish drinking until your glass is empty when they say "ganbei" and they say "ganbei" a lot.

Tap water is not safe to drink in Beijing (although the water people claim that water that comes out of the plant is drinkable, it's the old pipes that the water pass through that makes it unsafe to drink straight from the tap), making it necessary to buy bottled water. I know that people say that they make fake everything in China, but it shocked me to find out that there's fake water. I got a bottle that tasted funny, and the friend I was with told me to stop drinking it since he thought there was something wrong with it too. Makes me rather paranoid.

First Week in Beijing

My first week in Beijing was filled with real estate agents. I was originally promised two weeks in a hotel to give me time to find an apartment, but they cut that down to one. After that, I would have to move into a temporary apartment they have rented for their interns (who have not arrived yet). While the apartment itself is fine, the building is located in a dark, dingy old Chinese building on the 6th floor of a 6-story walk-up. That was incentive for me to try and find an apartment - asap.

The apartments near Dongzhimen and Sanlitun (the area close to work) fall into 2 categories - luxury apartment complexes complete with spas, grocery stores, gyms, pools and clubhouses or old Chinese buildings from the Mao era - nothing really in the middle. After looking at a couple of older apartments, I decided to splurge on a nice apartment (which is still only about $400-$500 a month!). I looked at over 20 apartments over the course of 5 days and managed to get a 3BR apartment in the MOMA with a couple of friends. There are so many buildings in Beijing that are named after New York City buildings and neighborhoods. There's the MOMA, Central Park and Upper East Side among others. There's also the Twin Towers and someone said the Empire State Building is going up too. It's sort of a funny reminder of home. The nice thing about apartments in Beijing is that they come furnished, and landlords will replace furniture, within reason. Hopefully the furniture that I've requested will come soon so I can move into my new place!

Although everyone in China speaks Mandarin, the plethora of accents you can hear in Beijing alone is hugely variable. Sometimes, it is hard to understand what others are saying, even though we are speaking the same dialect. There are also many words that are just different here in China. The words for things like spoon, pineapple, bicycle and cabbage are completely different, which has been confusing. Furthermore, I am practically illiterate since I can't read simplified characters. Sometimes, I wonder how I'm going to survive in this country for a year!

Olympic madness continues unabated here. Besides experimenting with the weather and "rain-making" technology to thwart rain during the Olympics, the Chinese government is also trying to figure out how to make the two flowers most associated with China, the chrysanthamum and the lotus flower, bloom next August. Neither flower naturally bloom during that month. The government's goal of pulling off a perfect Olympic is also accompanied with a "service with a smile" campaign. While they can attempt to make rain or stop rain, and make flowers bloom, I am not certain they can ever convince some of the surly, rude and inattentive Chinese locals servicepeople from waiters to cab drivers to be nice and crack a smile. I feel lucky to get acknowledged with an annoyed snort or sound when requesting anything.

I'm in Qingdao (a part of Shandong Province) right now for China's annual National Pediatric AIDS Conference. Qingdao is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and oceans and several lovely beaches. It will be the site of the rowing sports during the Olympics. I actually just missed the regatta held here by a couple of days. Once a German controlled town, there is a charming mix of German-influenced architecture and tall modern buildings that gives Qingdao its uniqueness. In the historic area of town, even new buildings must be built with red-tiled roofs. The people here are proud of how the pretty the contrast of their red rooftops look against the green trees that dot the hills inside the city. Our local guide (courtesy of Yao's dad) took us to Huashi Lou, a castle-like villa perched on the side of the cliffs right over the water. There were dozens of bridal couples here taking their bridal pictures. While the scenery is gorgeous, it must have been a miserable experience for them given the sweltering heat.

Qingdao's German history is also the reason why this city is know for it's Tsingdao beer. I made it to Qingdao just in time to enjoy the last day of their Tsingdao International Beer Festival. Must say it is the first time I've seen local Chinese dance on tables. Their equivalent of vodka in water bottles must have been beer in plastic bags. I saw some of them pour beer into glasses from plastic bags. The men were also unabashed about walking around with naked potbellies. They either roll their shirts up above their bellies, or take their shirts off and sling it over their shoulders. Unsurprisingly, the naked potbellies are also a target of the Chinese government's preparation for the Olympics. There are commercials preaching proper etiquette for next year's big event, which includes keeping your shirt on, and covering your belly.

Government Controls in China

Censorship in the media is clear from the newspaper, which reports mostly innocuous, mundane stories. Someone just asked me if I have noticed any blocked websites, and I said no, but I learned last night that blogs are mostly blocked. So yes, I can post things to the blog, but I can't actually read the blog or see any of my own postings. People use proxy websites to view blocked sites, just like in Myanmar. Where there is a will, there is a way. People will always find a way to access blocked material.

Pollution is terrible in Beijing, despite government efforts to move factories out of the city, plant trees and clean up the air. Over 1,000 new cars hit the roads daily. When I landed a couple of days ago, the sky was so hazy that it was like I was looking through a screen, and it is that way almost everyday. Colors do not appear vibrant through the thick, polluted air. In preparation for the Olympics, when the government wants to allow only about half the cars on the road, they are holding a 4 day practice. Over the weekend, yesterday and today, on alternating days, only even or odd cars are allowed to drive. Those that disobey the rule faces penalties of 50RMB (about $7). When I looked at license plates of the cars on the road, they were indeed almost all odd or even (with the exception of taxis and buses).

Perhaps one of the funniest things I've heard of the government in China doing to prepare for the Olympics is to purchase a super advanced weather system from IBM. In an attempt to prevent it from raining during major outdoor Olympic events like the opening ceremony, they are hoping they can use their new weather system to detech rainclouds early enough to divert the rain using modern technology. I guess we will see whether they succeed at controlling the weather.

Rabies Vaccinations in Foreign Countries

After leaving Bangkok, I assumed it would be easy to get subsequent rabies post-exposure vaccinations in Taiwan. Afterall, it's a pretty developed country. It wasn't until I had already gone to the biggest hospital in the area and to the Public Health Center in Pingzhen City, talked to several doctors and nurses, and called the National Center for Disease Control in Taiwan and a travel medicine clinic in Taipei, that I learned: 1) rabies doesn't exist in Taiwan anymore; 2) almost no one even knows how you can get a rabies vaccine in Taiwan (because it doesn't exist anymore); and 3) there is only one hospital where you can get it in all of Northern Taiwan and that is only after registering with the government. What I thought would be a quick trip to a local hospital like the one in Bangkok (I was in and out in about an hour) took literally the whole day yesterday. Who would have guessed that Taiwan would be one of a handful of countries that doesn't have rabies? At least I know where to go for the 3rd vaccine this Friday. In all, I've visited 5 different hospitals in 3 different countries already in the past week. Hopefully, it will be easy to figure out where to get the 4th and last vaccine when I get to Beijing next week. Luckily, rabies is still a problem in China. I think I am going to avoid monkeys for a very long time. No more petting random cats or dogs either, no matter how cute.

Ironically, it was a good thing the monkey bite left a nasty-looking bruise and mark on my shoulder, since no one actually believes it when I first explain to them why I was looking for the rabies vaccine in the first place. In hindsight, the whole experience is sort of funny and it'll definitely make for some funny stories later but figuring out how to navigate foreign health care systems and prevent rabies has been stressful to say the least.