Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » beijing

Beijing to New York on foot

Bryan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:59:15 +0000

Nice to see hear of folks who still carry compasses around with them when they travel. Moscow Times:

Far East border guards have detained a Chinese man who said he was traveling to New York from China by foot, RIA-Novosti reported Thursday.

The traveler, a young man who was not identified, was expensively dressed and carried a compass, a passport and 14,000 yuan ($2,000), said Natalya Rondaleva, a spokeswoman for the Primorye branch of the border service.

Border guards detained the man on the outskirts of Dalnerechensk, a town on Russia’s border with China, and he said he had just crossed the frozen Ussuri River on the border.

Another attempt at one of the most discussed and coveted travel routes ends in failure. Sorry, only Ewan MacGregor-types allowed. Actually, I’ve looked into this possibility in the past as a potential “interesting path home” and several routes exist …all of which require a solid month’s salary (US$$) and quite possibly the donation of one’s life to the Alaskan King Crab feeding program.

I wonder where this fellow was planning on obtaining an American visa? Reminds me of this Japanese guy I travelled on the Trans-Mongolian Railway in 2006 on my way to Mongolia. His grand plan was to circle around through Siberia and drop back down into Japan via the Sakhalin Islands. He hadn’t yet obtained a Russian visa, but was surprisingly optimistic about receiving one in Ulan Bator. Maybe visas come easily to Japanese passport holders, but getting a Russian visa anywhere is a rather obnoxious ordeal and foreign embassies Ulan Bator are notorious for their inconsistency in issuing travel visas to anyone going anywhere for any reason.

Travel visas is such areas of the world require rather extensive research…even if you are the holder of a powerful passport. Yet it never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to think they can just waltz up to a consulate or embassy and buy one. It isn’t Southeast Asia.

*added a random post generator to get a little replay value on some old stuff.

Technorati Tags: alaska, beijing, bering strait, china, russia, trans-mongolian railway, travel, travel style, traveling

How to melt one’s brain in 12 easy hours – A day at the China International Urban Planning Conference

Bryan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:26:36 +0000

Some topics of note:

Perceptions of Shanghai – Politics of Built Form (Foreign interpretation regarding the rise of Shanghai…from hybrid city to…hybrid city).
Urban Renewal Under Shenzhen’s Rapid Urbanization (a 30 year old modelcity undergoing urban renewal)
Revitalizing Genes and Curing the Body – The Regeneration Road of Nanshi District in Yining City in Xinjiang (interesting because I visited this place back in 2005).
The Globalization of Planning Education – One World or Not?
Trends of Urban Development in China
Development of Rural-Urban Transformation. Based on Population Migration. (migrants are everything right now)
The Ideas and Practice of Sustainable Regeneration in Nanlouguxiang Land, Beijing. (public participation results during hutong restoration in Beijing).

Tasty planning tidbits for the Urban Planning geek with some big names from the Chinese planning world (Wu Fulong and Zhang Tingwei among others).

However,

Like most things in China (when one is an urban planning graduate student), no one knew I was coming…even though I had paid the fee and apparently had ‘confirmation’.

In the session timetable the space is listed as “discussion” and is allotted exactly ten simple minutes. Ten minutes for friendly, easy-going dialogue between the speakers and (although a remote possibility) the greater audience regarding a the topic(s) discussed.

In reality, a Chinese conference “discussion” or “Q&A” period is a mind-numbing, stomach growling, head-banging, whisker growing experience spanning a time slot that is just about as long as the Tang Dynasty.

Such “discussion” periods is obviously, not unique to Chinese conferences, it is just that they seem to take it too the next level of insignificance. When I started in on this conference I was surprised at how many people would walk in and out of the presentations, especially during the discussion period. At the time, I found such behaviour to be quite rude…now I think it is utter and pure genius.

The final session I attended today was entitled Urban Regeneration and Community Development – a set of several pretty good presentations on urban renewal, urban regeneration (renovation of buildings) and the beginnings of community development in China.

Several of the scheduled presenters dropped out so their time was donated to discussion, which doesn’t appear to be necessarily a bad thing, after all, discussion is good, right?

I’m not sure if it was the translation or if this is just the way discussion is held at such conferences….but I lost my mind at around 6:15pm and had to leave because I just could not longer take the never-ending 20 minute monologues delivered by each party regarding…unfortunately, almost nothing of significance. These guys just talked…and it was fluff. It was “comments on your comments…and then you comment on my comment”…I just didn’t’ see hear the questions.

The Los Angeles Planning Commissioner, Michael Woo was mediating this discussion (in English) and even he looked like he was about ready to fall asleep.

At the risk of releasing my cultural bias…the foreign commenter’s at least asked somewhat direct questions and gave somewhat direct answers regarding their topics…the local presenters (for the most part) just blabbed. I suppose it could be a face issue…not wishing to embarrass colleagues…I felt that many of the foreign speakers were really holding back some tough questions, especially in regards to public participation and cultural issues (there was a presentation about a redevelopment in Xinjiang).

Maybe I didn’t get it – although I did notice the regional rivalries poking out between the speakers from Shenzhen and Beijing.

…Hok Lin Leung is a planning god in China…a god…

…and I am the only foreign student there…

…and there are still two days of ‘discussion’ banter.

Technorati Tags: beijing, china, china urban planning conference, renmin university, urban planning

Skyscraper Fire

Bryan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:22:56 +0000

I’ve never seen, except in movies and the time that my building in SimTower caught on fire, a high-rise blaze .

The hotel complex to the side of the main, two-legged leaning structure was engulfed in fire from top to bottom.

The cause of the fire was not confirmed, but local residents said it had been sprayed with fireworks. Monday night is the Lantern Festival, the last night of the Chinese New Year festival and more importantly for many people the last day when fireworks are on sale.

The structure next to the now destroyed Mandarin Oriental Hotel is the brand-spanking new starchitect CCTV headquarters tower.

Technorati Tags: beijing, china, fire, hotel

Getting back into the feeds – Blogs, Beijing, RSS

Bryan — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:36:16 +0000

For the time being I’ve opted against purchasing Internet for my apartment largely because of the expense incurred for just one user and the fact that SURP has a very decent connection and wireless is available all over campus. This means I can’t browse the headlines in the morning or in the evening (unless I’m on campus) so the most efficient way of viewing is to fire up the old RSS feeder. I’ve dabbled with such feeders in the past but I found that given my solid 24/hour net connection in Nanjing (both home and work) I had the opportunity to surf at leisure and enter the individual websites one at a time.

Recently I haven’t had an opportunity to keep up with the comings and
goings in Big Red and I’m just now getting back into the habit of
reading blogs and various other websites pertaining to China. Given
that I’m not longer in that country I’ve also had to update my reading
list to include local Kingston news more Canadian content…possibly
even more urban planning items.

Browsing through Fallows blog I was blown away by how blue Beijing has been lately. It truly is unbelievable and I remain in awe that it actually looks like that and it stands as a great example of the huge impact that automobile emissions have on the air-quality of a city. Factories obviously also play a big role – but the draconian traffic measures implemented up to and during both the Olympics and Paralympics truly highlight the evils of vehicle exhaust. Every time I’ve been to Beijing it has retained the qualities of Fallow’s July 20th photo .

I have yet to find any Kingston or Queen’s related blogs. I know they are there but it continually surprises me how many bloggers and other site owners don’t list their URL on a major search engine (Google, for instance). A site isn’t listed by itself…one needs to actually submit the URL to a webcrawler. Even the WordPress engine hasn’t picked up much of interest.

Technorati Tags: beijing, blogs, canada, china, current events, internet, Kingston, pollution, rss

“On this spot in 1989 nothing happened here”

Bryan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:00:50 +0000

Well, not quite as the writers of Family Guy so sarcastically wrote into one episode.

The date almost slipped my mind.

I suggest a meal at the Peking Duck for a fuller, bolder experience.

Nearly 20 years later it seems so far away, so distant. But not at all forgotten. At least not for me. Talking with my Chinese friends in Beijing, it also seems so irrelevant, something they would rather not acknowledge let alone dwell upon. I only really began to understand the Chinese perspective on the tragedy five years ago when I held an extensive conversation with an actual demonstrator .

His words sounded so strange to me. He had gone to demonstrate, to actively protest against his government, and now he looks upon the massacre as a practical and necessary business decision. Painful to make at the time but ultimately good for the country. And I believe it’s safe to say that his opinion is in line with that of most young Chinese people today. There is almost a sense of gratitude for what the government did, saving them from the anarchy that consumed Russia in its rush to democratize. Preserving the harmony that allowed the economic miracle to rise to undreamed of height. Surely it was all for the best, and your heart has to go out to the poor officials forced to make such a difficult decision.

I understand his argument, and I understand why my Chinese colleagues across the board tow the line on this topic. Many months ago I gave up hope of having a rational discussion with them on topics like this. The last time I tried was about two weeks ago, when I argued with a beloved colleague about whether Mao had been good for China or bad. When I recited the litany of his sins, which are nearly as bountiful as Hitler’s, I got the tape recorded message that still, he was good for China. You know, seventy percent and all that. At least now I understand why she says that.

Read the whole thing .

A well written, balanced and thoughtful post regarding this pivotal moment in 20th century history. It is a sense of denial, that “this didn’t happen” or a “we know nothing about this” claim, but rather a somewhat interesting perspective holding to the line that while it was a massacre, it was a necessary action in an effort to preserve social harmony, stability and economic progress/development. The apparent support among many for the actions of the CCP during this time provides a snap-shot of contemporary Chinese attitudes towards their government. While they may not be universally liked and hardly loved, it could be easily argued that the CCP is the guardian of stability, holder of moral authority and retain the respect of many segments of the Mainland population. I would argue that the support received from large segments of the population is something not understood by the general masses of the West.

Technorati Tags: attitude, beijing, ccp, tiananmen square

Climate

Bryan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 12:42:21 +0000

The time in China has helped to reduce my previously well developed shade of green. Rather ironically, as one would suspect that witnessing environmental catastrophes daily would reinforce their present convictions even more so. However, the situation in China (and other mega developing nations) illustrates do me just how hopeless (in many ways) the situation actually is and how silly the Kyoto Protocol appears without the proper involvement of these countries.

It’s been very trendy to blast the Canadian government recently over their environmental performance. Much of it is warranted (See the hilarious South Park spoof on trawling) but in the case of current Kyoto initiative, I’m going to have to side with the (ah! Have I sold out?!) Feds on this. Canada produces approximately 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Adhering to Protocol guidelines and reducing emissions is not going to cost a few dollars of our money, make no mistake. So Canada invests billions into the program, and on a good day we just might possibly meet our targets (not that the targets would negate the impact of climate change). In Beijing ALONE , 1000 new petroleum powered vehicles are placed on the streets every day. It doesn’t matter where emissions are produced, only that they are produced. For every ton of carbon we take out of the air countless more from mega developing countries go back into the air.

I don’t for a moment blame these countries for balking at the prospect of reducing emissions, given that even rich nations like Canada have doubts about the ability of their economy to handle such changes. The salvation of Kyoto lies in the ability these countries to develop efficient infrastructure based upon and around sustainable technologies etc…before they invest in a inefficient old school infrastructure based upon largely fossil fuels. Once such an infrastructure is in place (and it is rapidly becoming the base in China) efforts to change over to more efficient systems are very difficult. Imagine building a brand new coal power plant at a cost of millions of dollars, then being expected to change over to a wind farm several years later…it isn’t easy. However, constructing a wind farm in the first place, would most likely negate this problem…except that a wind farm is slightly more expensive that coal power (given locale restrictions…not necessarily per/kilowatt costs). Cost is everything, and driving towards economic prosperity follows the shortest route (usually the most cheapest and mos unsustainable) in developing countries, so rationally. Kyoto recognizes this problem, and allows such countries to the opportunity to sell their emissions by allowing developed countries to improve infrastructure and promote sustainable practices (ie. planting forests, upgrading energy systems etc). Yet again, though, there is a problem, such projects are not nearly happening fast enough nor often enough to negate the addition of 1000cars/day phenomenon.

Kyoto was/is such a good proposition…never as a serious contender to reduce emissions, but as a incentive to develop ways of doing things better. However, I feel it fails developing countries which are the essential piece in the equation. If these countries don’t develop properly now, they will be cemented into a system that the West is desperately trying to get out of. If it fails them, it fails everyone.

*Oddly enough, China views itself as a contributer to the world environment, given it’s population control methods, citing that from a per-capita basis, it’s energy usage is below most other countries. However, I believe that when discussing emissions, per-capita data offers little, other than a hollow pat on the back from yourself.

Technorati Tags: beijing, canada, china, climate change, energy, environment

Blogging, with Chinese characteristics

Bryan — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:58:37 +0000

Breaking into my Mongolian scribblings to add this bit of nastiness which is being considered by Beijing.

China has yet to take an official stand on whether to require bloggers to register under their real names, but a group that works closely with Beijing on Internet policy is recommending that such a system be implemented.

Huang Chengqing, secretary general of the Internet Society of China, told the official Chinese news agency Xinhua that a real-name system for bloggers was necessary for China to standardize and develop its blog industry. The society, an affiliate of China’s Ministry of Information Industry, is working on such a system for the Chinese government.

Just when you thought restrictions on blogging and internet usage couldn’t become any more draconian, the CCP goes the extra mile. I feel very lucky that I’m able to use my own name freely not only in my posts, but as the title of my website. I have no need to fear reprisals for something I wrote or discuss, or more importantly, something I didn’t think I wrote or discussed. If I were a Chinese blogger the possibility of suffering reprisals over something that I wasn’t aware of would most likely blog up my writings. In addition, such name registrations also raises questions over blog security and political smearing. Blogs are generally protected by a simple encryption system, a system easily bypassed for those intent on creating ‘political’ problems for rivals.

Furthermore, this piece highlights another trend I’ve noticed in Party controlled journalism, their development of justification of such policies in attempts to glaze the genuine reasons (which well all are hopefully aware of). For instance, in this article, justification of real name registration was based upon the need to ‘standardize’ and ‘develop’ the Chinese blog industry. Unfortunately for this argument, the Chinese blog phenomenon is developing quite well on its own, and I would further argue that one of the founding principles of blogging is the ‘non-standardization’ of the whole entity. How can one possibly justify standardizing a phenomonen that is composed of millions of individual voices? Oh wait, that’s the whole idea…standardize Chinese blogging in an attempt to create a massive Party mouth piece. First, the right to argue openly and anonymously on internet forums was revoked, and now it appears the simplicity and joy of blogging is no longer respected. A sad day indeed for those in the Chinese blogging world.

*When I read about stuff like this, I just keep thinking to myself…we gave this government the Olympics? It is just a waterbedding environment in China. Progress maybe made in some areas, but the problems just get pushed over into another sphere.

Technorati Tags: beijing, blog, ccp, china, environment, internet, mongolia, olympics

Waiting

Bryan — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 19:16:32 +0000

Missed the Mongolian Visa office by 20 minutes. 4 nights in Beijing *yawn*.

Technorati Tags: beijing, mongolia, visa

Foreign Loonballs

Bryan — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:11:51 +0000

Sometimes when you drink too much, you do stupid things. Activities which, in one form or another will find their way back to you.

Take for instance, my time in Beijing. I found myself in a bar one night with a pair of Swedes (who turned out to be the most obnoxious…in a bad way, blokes I’ve ever met) and several others from Britain. How exactly I ended up in this hole-in-wall punkish establishment is

While in this bar drinking copious amounts of beer (such quantities are required on Chinese New Year’s Eve for bored foreigners) I experienced which could probably be described as the worst band on the planet. This trio (foreign of course) was so bad that…well, I can’t even make a suitable comparison. This of course, is compounded by the fact that they are in China, and as a foreign act, are somewhat elevated to a position that enables them to book gigs on a regular basis, and claim that they are pioneers in the Chinese ‘rock scene’. This of course ignores the Chinese themselves, who have been pumping out some freakin’ good rock music ( Xu Wei, for instance was making kick ass rock music ten years ago) They prefer to ignore the fact that they would be chased out of most North American bar with pepper spray and extreme prejudice

I’ve noticed though, that in regards to really, really shitty bands, no one has the heart to tell them that they suck, and instead choose to encourage their lunacity by engaging in post-set conversation.

So there I was, somewhat bored and fuelled by several pints of all you can drink Qingdao. I then made the well-thought out choice that it would be a good ideas to go talk to a one “Tim Jim” the lead singer of the afor mentioned terrible incarnation “The Supernaturals”.

The best way to describe this character is a Steven Tyler look-alike, except who had lived a much, much, much harder life that Steven Tyler could ever hope to.

Bryan: “Hey man, great set!”
Steve Tyler Zombie: “Thanks man! You know I communicate with the dead”.
Bryan: ……..

People like this are fun, and even more entertaining when you engage them in a serious conversation about their beliefs. I usually try to keep a straight face and ask legit questions and give the impression that I am genuinely interested in their recent communion with Jim Morrison.

It was tough this time.

Tim Jim communicates regularly with rock legends, and apparently was ‘Jammin’ with Kurt Cobain and Jimmy Hendrix on stage…which was why he was playing his guitar backwards, he later explained to me.

My British companion, who was having as much fun with this as me, proceed to ask our esteemed rock star if his band was considering touring China, as well as maybe making a stop in England.

“We’re planning a tour, just give us a call and we’ll set something up”

“I’m not your agent”

I ended up signing up on their mailing list…using a legit email….ah…the things you do….

I received my first ‘fan mail’ yesterday. Essentially a ad for an upcoming concert. Pablum…except…The Supernaturals have a website .

Some gems I pulled off:

The Supernaturals were born from the womb of Jim Morrison, weened on the milk of Jaco’s family, played the Whiskey and Roxy in L.A., gained an international release through Invisible Records, and, after Lucifer nearly lost his life in a Hollywood fire, the rock theatre band resurrected in Harbin, China, where the experience continues in the Forbidden City!
“From the sky, Kurt is smiling right now about this show,” said Alien Superstar after another near-death experience. “Can you imagine anything more wonderful. You are all making this happen. Everyone who supports us. And 13 Club! Wow! We all know Kurt is Rock God here in China.

We played at two clubs, and neither could work the CD properly. No one understood English. We were playing one song, the CD drums another. We had gig in a week at 13 Club, and Dan and I knew ‘the show must go on.’ Of course, the next day I was contemplating various methods of suicide to decide which was best.

If you have time to waste, I encourage you to waste it on something else, and not on their mp3′s.

Technorati Tags: beijing

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Chopstick Tax

Bryan — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:32:10 +0000

I go through my own private bamboo forest worth of disposable chopsticks. This isn’t because I particularly enjoy utilizing these single use tools, but rather because most hole in wall noodle and staple food establishments do not offer customers a viable and reusable alternative. Carrying around your own chopsticks is easier said than done. But enter the world of environmental tax. The government has followed up, rather quickly I might add, on their promise to curb timber use by creating a luxury tax which is largely a response to critiques against Chinese led Asian deforestation and to combat growing white pollution problem.

< blockquote>The finance ministry is imposing a 5 percent tax on chopsticks and floor planks, citing a need to conserve timber. Environmentalists around the world have been warning that China’s voracious demand for wood was contributing to the clear-cutting of many forests, especially in Southeast Asia.

The production of disposable wooden chopsticks consumes two million cubic meters (70.6 million cubic feet) of timber each year, the ministry said. Plastic chopsticks, which can be washed and reused, will not be subject to the new tax.

I remember reading, but despite my best efforts, I cannot recall or find the source, that several cities in China had introduced an environmental tax on plastic bags. The tax wasn’t large, maybe .1 or .2 RMB, yet it was incredibly successful in reducing the use of plastic bags. I admire the financial conservation demonstrated by many Chinese people. The deposit on my empty bottles amounts to about .1 RMB, yet they practically snatched out of my hands by some residents in my neighborhood. Given these examples, I think that it is safe to assume that increasing the price of chopsticks will incur conservation and that more multiple use chopsticks will appear at noodle stands. However, I’m unaware of current market prices of disposable chopsticks relative to multiple use varieties and the success of this tax depends on making disposable chopsticks more of a financial burden than the reusable ones. Keep in mind that switching to reusable sticks will require a modest noodle stand (these guys are not pulling in a lot of RMB) to purchase adequate steam cleaners to sanitize the chopsticks.

Another alternative which has been floating around in the Chinese news recently is the idea of launching edible chopsticks made from cornstarch. At this point it appears to be mostly talk, with edible chopsticks and toothpicks being showcased most recently for top party officials at the 10th National People’s Congress in early March. Many questions still remain about the ability of these sticks to help me down Lanzhou da wan niu rou la mian without disintegrating.

The chopstick tax is only a portion of a wide range of items being taxed on April 1st, including luxury watches, yachts, golf balls and golf clubs, vehicles, and a 20% tax on baijiu 白酒 (white wine)…Not that I drink a lot of that anyways.

Chopsticks are a wood related item, and while on this topic I feel that it is apt to ask…”Do you know where your furniture is coming from?”

I write often about illegal forestry in Asia, which is mostly fuelled but China’s growing appetite for timber. Yet I had always assumed that use of such timber was to satisfy the Chinese domestic wood product demand. I cannot understand why I assumed this, given that a good proportion of almost everything produced in China, aside from energy, is exported in some form or another.

From the Financial Times:

Consumer demand in Europe, Japan and the US for reasonably priced everyday furniture and other Chinese wood products is feeding a growing appetite in China for imports of illegally felled timber, according to a new report.

According to the report by US-based Forest Trends, the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Re-search, and the Beijing-based Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, China has become the world’s biggest wood workshop in less than a decade.

Chinese manufacturers account for 30 per cent of the world’s furniture trade, with the value of China’s exports of forest products rising from $3.6bn (£2bn) in 1997 to $17.2bn last year. Big markets such as the US and European Union have in- creased imports of Chinese wood products by between 700 and 900 per cent over the same period, the reports says.

It is not only China that is promoting illegal forest practices in developing or underdeveloped countries. Make sure you know where your forest products are coming from. If it’s got wood and says “Made in China”, please, don’t purchase.

Technorati Tags: beijing, bus, china, energy, environment, japan, plastic bags