TravelStream™ news feed for member robjstaples on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/robjstaples en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:58 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1227304320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1227304320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1227304320/tpod.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:58 -0500 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Qingdao, China

Getting out of the classroom on a Friday afternoon and what better way to do it in Qingdao than in the beautiful spot that is Badaguan. I just hope the kids learn something from it!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203945060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203945060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203945060/tpod.html Wed, 21 May 2008 14:12:24 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Qingdao, China

After almost a couple of years in tropical climes, the sight of snow is unexpected and strangely welcome, although it does lead me to throw a few slightly concerned glances around the room at my totally inappropriate tropical wardrobe. Here I am with the warmest clothes I own and I'm going to be freezing once I step out of the warm safety of the centrally heated apartment. When the mind is faced with such predicaments, all it seems sensible to do is pad around in shorts and t-shirt - inside of course!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203275880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203275880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203275880/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 23:02:52 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong

It had started as a joke over a few beers in the bar; and then the next time we were there it came up again; and then without any thought I started to run to unwind at night after work; and then - again in the bar - Tom and I had somehow agreed to do the Hong Kong half-marathon; This was it: I'd stuffed myself with pasta the night before and then stirred at 4.45am to eat some cornflakes; now at 6:30 in the morning here I was. Sadly, Tom wasn't there, but I was, albeit in a slightly apprehensive state. I'd been feeling moderately confident after my training but suddenly there were a lot of folk around who looked like they knew what they knew what they were doing.  I needn't have worried! I was about to embark on an experience that has given me some memories and images I'll never forget, not least the sweep of runners stretching out along the West Kowloon Highway, and the buzz of excitement and shared camaraderie that swept through thousands of people as the leaders came back towards us running impossibly fast.  I'll remember the surreal feeling of running through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel where the curve of the road gives you a view of every other runner within several hundred metres. To anyone who says they should remove this feature of the Hong Kong route, I say rubbish - it's part of Hong Kong's make-up, although I grant you that if you're struggling with your run when you go into the tunnel you won't enjoy it as much as I did. I'll remember the 50-something grey-haired Western lady clapping runners with great enthusiasm a kilometre from the finish. If you're tiring it's a great pick me up, and if I ever watch a race live, I'll be clapping because it makes a difference to the runners. Before the race, I'd been wondering how fast I could go and was nervous that I might go too fast and end up in pieces. Again, there was no need to worry. Hong Kong is pretending to be a big city marathon. For all the immaculate pre and post race logistics, running seriously is almost impossible unless you force your way to the front before the start. After a first kilometre taking 7 minutes I was puzzled, after 3kms we were coming to a walk, and after 5kms I'd realised the organisers - or more pointedly local authorities - didn't care about the runners being able to run.  A single lane of road made it impossible to do much more than follow the pace of the person in front, and the traffic coming towards us in the opposite direction was sprinkling us with fumes. My dreams of a fast time had disappeared long before we went through 10kms in an hour.  I'd long since settled for enjoying an easy jog through one of the most spectacular cities in the world.  My message for runners is don't do Hong Kong for a time, but if you want a social training run with your mates in spectacular surroundings, then it's great. Inevitably as the field stretched out, it got easier to run but I still felt like I was going around the M25 watching carefully for the brake lights coming on in front of me. I was happy to do the second 11kms in under 58 minutes, but I'd be lying if I said that part of me that had slogged through wind and rain training in OCT or on the sea front at HongShuLin didn't resent being denied a chance to run faster.  Although the organisers and friendly volunteers do a very slick job, the city and government of Hong Kong haven't committed to the event and the local people haven't taken it to heart. The small number of spectators, especially around the finish, and the amount of traffic around the runners are evidence of this. Notwithstanding this small disappointment, I felt elated afterwards, not by my time, but by the sense of achievement at realising just how much work I'd done to find running a half-marathon easy. I'd expected to be creaking and sore afterwards, but until the adrenalin wore off, I'd have sworn I wanted to do it again straight away. My Chinese relatives and even my wife surely thought I was a bit mad to go out and train and now to spend my Sunday morning running around Hong Kong. For me, it was something I'd done by myself, for myself, and the 1h57m55s was a great experience.  It's proof that going to the pub is good for you. Cheers Tom! 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1189892760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1189892760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1189892760/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 22:54:45 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Shenzhen, China

It might just be that I'm more aware, or more sensitive, or it could just be coincidence, but I'm starting to get a feeling that the Chinese authorities - and certainly those in Guangdong - are getting much stricter about the presence of foreigners on the mainland. Some might say it's not before time, as I find myself increasingly embarrassed at being associated by the Chinese with some of the dregs of Western society who are instantly recognisable here in Southern China. When I say that, it is necessary to remember that for a society for whom non-Chinese faces were a strange rarity until recently, it is only natural to lump all foreigners together. It might actually be that the authorities are just starting to apply the rules ahead of the Olympics, but the increasing local media reports of crime committed by foreigners probably give the lie to this. It seems that the major problems relate to drugs and organised scams preying on a relatively naïve population's desire to "get rich quick".  The drugs influence is often easy to see when you see foreigners on the street and it's depressing that these individuals are potentially the first personal exposure many Chinese get to foreigners. It is interesting that the media often single out particular ethnic groups of foreigners and label them. For example, Black Africans are doing this..., Arabs are doing that...The strands of a picture of a crackdown all started to fit together in a hurry. The Public Security Bureau(PSB) was suddenly in and out of school checking on teachers and there were stories of PSB checks across the region.  The South China Morning Post ran stories about the Guangdong PSB's plan to create a database of all foreigners in the province and their whereabouts. I was amazed to find that this didn't already exist, but it is probably a reflection of the imbalance between the speed of the influx of foreigners in Guangdong and the slow moving pace of Chinese civil servants. Just days later, the local paper ran a cartoon showing Beijing's Olympic "Bird Nest" surrounded by undercover security agents wearing dark glasses and long leather jackets. There was, it seems, an Olympic security conference taking place to address "issues", not least the almost unrestricted movement of foreigners across China's non-airport borders such as those in Guangdong.  The following week, I meet some Africans who'd been deported from China for irregularities in their paperwork that exist for hundreds of foreigners in China. None of this actually concerns me too much as I consider myself to be someone on the right side of the rules. I can only applaud and appreciate their being applied with greater clarity and consistency. However, in a country where corruption is endemic and visas are systematically available through the back door of the immigration office, one can't help getting a bit twitchy. I don't think anyone really knows what is going on, and that can only mean that rules get made up on the spot and by the wallet. I can't help thinking that life is going to change for non-Chinese in China, but I'm not sure how and when. Here's hoping all ends well and that "normal" arrives soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1187624220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1187624220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1187624220/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 22:53:48 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Shenzhen, China

Shenzhen is a mystery: a booming city with an estimated population of 12 million people butted against up against Mainland China's border with Hong Kong, it makes up part of the concrete, commercial megalopolis formed by Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Zhuhai across the Pearl River Delta.  25 years ago, the city was a fishing village of 20,000 people. Today, it is awash with architecturally and financially spectacular commercial buildings, and serves as a monument to the pace of urban development on China's Southern and Eastern seaboard. Famously labelled as Deng Xiaoping's Petri dish for market reforms, it has performed commercial miracles. Today, Deng's statue overlooks the city from above the glistening, wing-like government headquarters. Shenzhen is undoubtedly an amazing place, but something doesn't tally and there is a recurring question in my mind, "Why is it here?": Britain had already announced its intention (1984) to return Hong Kong to Mainland China before Shenzhen began to seriously grow, so the argument that Shenzhen was created to compete with Hong Kong doesn't seem to hold water. More recently, it was clear that after international money was pulled out of Hong Kong in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis, it later came back into Shanghai and Guangzhou rather than Shenzhen, but still Shenzhen steamed ahead. If you don't believe that, look carefully around Shenzhen, and you'll notice that from a big business point of view it's not a place of international significance. Nonetheless, the city continues to boom, largely on the back of the activities of large Chinese companies. Today, I heard a story that might just explain why Shenzhen is here: To begin with, it is necessary to consider the development and the structure of the Chinese Communist Party since the founding of the modern Chinese Republic (sic Dynasty?) in 1949. The revolutionary leaders who survived Mao's various purges owed their positions to events long past. Since the opening up of the Chinese economy, government officials and their families have made money hand over fist as a result of their ability to leverage their power and influence. These officials and their families have also retained a tight police- and army- enforced control of the nation. As the original revolutionary leaders grew older they feared losing control of the country and their families' wealth. With the imminent return of Hong Kong to the mainland, the Beijing authorities were also faced with the threat of the historically independent Cantonese in Guangzhou forging an alliance with their Hong Kong brethren in the rapidly expanding economy of Southern China. With Hong Kong's wealth coming online, and the threat of an alliance the Beijing Party risked both missing out on a cut of the economic cake, and also losing financial control of the economy to the non-Beijing Cantonese.  The response was probably something that could only be countenanced in a country the size of China: develop a new city. So it was that Shenzhen was born. It was built with Beijing money to be controlled by Beijing. The city occupies the strategic border crossing between Hong Kong and Mainland China and could effectively be used to control flows of traffic and commerce between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. This is not to say that there are not Cantonese and Cantonese money in Shenzhen, but it is a city whose growth is spurred on by vast numbers of migrants. In simple terms, Beijing got its finger in the Southern Chinese economic pie. Secondly, Shenzhen has provided a training ground to groom the younger generations of the families of the original revolutionary leaders in Beijing. Even in the Chinese Communist Party it is out of the question to parachute family members into provincial governorships. However, it is far more convenient to let younger members of the CCP Dynasty learn the ropes in a stellar, Beijing controlled city such as Shenzhen, before "promoting" them into important roles across China. The result is that Shenzhen helps Beijing maintain economic control of the Cantonese and provides a mechanism for the powers that be to maintain control of the rest of China by feeding their favoured charges into the political system.  This is only a speculatory story, although I have been told it has been corroborated by various Communist Party members in Shenzhen, but it does make sense of a lot of unknowns... 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1194397440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1194397440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1194397440/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 22:53:16 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Shenzhen, China

At current exchange rates, one Chinese yuan is worth about 6 pence.  And yet, one yuan coins are big business these days. The fraudsters churning out replica low-tech coins are quite literally making a mint because the profit on each coin is 300%. In anyone's terms that is very good business. Ever since I first came to China about 3 years ago, I've been used to my 100 yuan notes being carefully checked for forgery, and I've learned to be even more careful myself about accepting 50 yuan notes which are regularly forgeries. Anytime I take a taxi I'm like a hawk when it comes to the change as the drivers seem to be the main conduit of fake notes into day-to-day life.  However, these days it's the 1 yuan coins which are the problem. There are so many in circulation that it's a massive inconvenience to check each one, but the next thing you know you realise that you've got a handful of coins with silver paint chipping off. In an economy which is cash driven and where paying with a note just 5 times the value of the transaction raises eyebrows, you need the small denomination coins to avoid getting umpteen headaches a day. The fakes are becoming a nightmare. More to the point, it's not fun to stop trusting everyone you buy from; in fact, it's plain depressing to treat everyone like a criminal. Sadly, China's citizens are paying the price for the government's short cuts on investing in a secure currency and the criminal genius of those intent on fraudulently reproducing currency. Distrust and suspicion abound. It is a sad sight to see that on a bus the courtesies, smiles and graces that ease the pains of a busy journey are lost in a fog of distrust as the ticket is purchased. One wonders what the longer term effects of such permeating dishonesty and lack of faith will be on the already fractured and self-centred wider society in China. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203650460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203650460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203650460/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 22:23:05 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Qingdao, China

We've been in Qingdao just a few days and everything is a bit weird and my eyes and ears are open wide trying to take in as much information as possible to help me learn about and adapt to my new home. It's not really conscious, but there's a hypersensitivity, which is a bit exhausting at times.  Nonetheless, nothing could have prepared me for the arrival of nightfall today. All hell let loose and you could have been forgiven for thinking there was a war on. I knew that being the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, it was Lantern Festival which traditionally involves hanging lanterns to worship Buddha. However, it seemed that everybody in the city was letting off firecrackers and or fireworks anywhere they felt like it. Firecrackers get an awful lot louder when they are let off in residential gardens and the explosion reverberates between the buildings. They were hung on trees, lampposts, climbing frames or just dropped on the floor. It was slightly unnerving, but not a touch on people letting off rockets between houses. Maybe I'm too nervous, but having seen what happens when fireworks fly horizontally towards people, I figure I've got a right to be.  The next morning was unbelievable - debris literally everywhere. I'm not sure who cleaned it up. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203347940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203347940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1203347940/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 22:20:26 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Sometimes in the midst of a journey or a hectic schedule, you find a moment of peace with which comes clarity; or perhaps it is the clarity that brings the peace and calm. I'm not sure which way around it works. Whatever the source and sequence, I was visited by just such a moment today. In Hong Kong, one might expect to be inspired by the towering buildings or frantic fusion of cultures, but I found my moment beneath the Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal where the shiny commercial empire above gives way to the grime, dirt, splashes of paint and oil and billows of engine smoke of a dockside. I watched it all through the gently rocking, salt splashed window of my ferry back to China.  As the boat moved, I would lose sight of the bottom of the ferry moored alongside us, and suddenly the splashes of salt and the bottom of the boat were all I was aware of right in the middle of this huge, vibrant, rocking city.  It was as if the world was taking a new focus, and through these new eyes I really understood that I was leaving Hong Kong and Southern China behind - probably for a long time, and maybe forever. Until that moment, I hadn't really understood how fond I was of what I'd never really accepted as anything more than a temporary home, but at that moment I knew and understood. I wasn't sad to be going, just glad to understand what it had all come to mean to me. It's just weird how this kind of thing creeps up on you in the most mundane of surroundings like when you're rocking on a boat in Hong Kong Harbour.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1202156220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1202156220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1202156220/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 22:17:54 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Shenzhen, China

If you are in a hurry, don't go to a bank in Shenzhen any time before the Chinese Spring Festival. You will be waiting for a long time! At the best of times, China is a cash society, albeit one which is seeing a rapidly increasing popularity of credit cards. The thing is that come the national holiday, huge numbers of people head home from Guangdong's cities to their rural homes where credit cards and debit cards are about as useful as a bar of soap in a desert.  Cash rules, and as a result people quite literally withdraw piles of cash from the bank to take home with them. So, as I'm not a mugger waiting to steal a few cash laden bags, all I could do was wait, and wait, and....wait. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1201533240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1201533240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robjstaples/next_of_my_life/1201533240/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 22:14:48 -0400 First to China and then Chance knows where else. A language to learn, a culture to study, and a break from being non-conformist like everyone else.

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Shenzhen, China

As a foreigner living in China I'm used to being discriminated against or treated as being a bit different. I'd rather it wasn't thus, but gripe as I may, I accept that this is just the way it is if I want to choose to live in China.  Day to day unfamiliarity with foreigners and racial stereotyping are one thing, but institutionalised prejudice is a bit more disconcerting. Nonetheless, I just have to accept it.  My wife, Michelle has listened to my grumbles about her own country and often sympathises with me. However, it was a bit of a shock for her to find out that she is suddenly a second-class Chinese citizen, deprived of her normal rights and subject to institutional discrimination because she has married me, a foreigner. All newly married Chinese citizens are entitled to a free sexual health check to prepare them for the instant procreation which is typically expected within 12 months of marriage. When we were married we were given a voucher entitling us to the check up at our local hospital The check up also includes a sexual education lecture to make up for something which I gather is not part of the High School curriculum. I wasn't exactly doing somersaults at going through a day of tests at a hospital and the lecture, but why not? We'd got ourselves checked in and were lined up for blood tests when there was a big commotion and a doctor rushed us out of the room and almost bundled us out of the front door with the news that foreigners weren't allowed to have the test. It was pretty unpleasantly done but I wasn't too bothered until we were told that Michelle couldn't have the test either because I was here husband. It's not the not getting the test, but the reason for not getting it which sticks in the throat. She's married a foreigner, so now she is going to be treated as one in China. I tried to imagine how I'd feel if it happened to me in the UK, and I can only imagine disillusionment and alienation. After all, whatever we may or may not think about nations and our own nationalities they do make up an integral part of our identity. Rejection by your own state must come as a bit of a blow.
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