Letters from China No 3

This letter was lost during the Chinese Totalitarian Dictatorship's censoring of my blog.

Letters from China No 4

6^th July 2008

With the upcoming Olympics on everyone’s mind (and I don’t mean just the Chinese), the World’s attention is focusing on Beijing and the other two cities where events will take place, Qingdao and Hong Kong. Beijing is a capital city that is rapidly running out of water, not solely to the games, but to things like the 30 or so new golf courses that have sprung up around the place. There’s even talk that the centre of government will be moved to another city as a result. It hasn’t taken long for this shortage to occur, less than five years. When we lived there 6 years ago there was one golf course, but with the burgeoning middle-classes the demand for things like this are booming in a city that is nearly in the Gobi desert. Beijing is a huge sprawling city expanding faster than you could imagine, but without the water resources to accompany this expansion. Visitors to the Games, including the athletes, are being advised to bring their own supplies of drinking water! The schemes to divert water to temporarily green the city are surrounded by all sorts of controversy. Here are some of them courtesy of Reuters –

Olympic city's water in state of crisis-report

Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:06am EDT

By Chris Buckley

BAODING, China, June 26 (Reuters) - China's ambitious hopes for a "green" Beijing Olympics have magnified, not relieved, the city's reckless dependence on water from strained underground supplies and a mammoth canal project, a critical report says.

Beijing has promoted its 2008 Games as a nature-friendly festival of sport, but water for the expanses of greenery and sparkling waterways greeting visitors in August will be pumped from sources already battered by over-use and over-engineering, says Probe International, a Canada-based conservation group.

"With each new project to tap water somewhere else, demand for water only increases, and at an ever greater cost to China's environment and economy," says the group's report given to reporters on Thursday.

"Whether diverting surface water or digging ever-deeper for groundwater, the underlying solution is like trying to quench thirst by drinking poison."

The Beijing Games have been beset by worries that air pollution will impair athletes. Yet Probe International's study suggests the Games' thirst for cheap and plentiful water will also leave an environmental burden.

Strained underground sources supply over two thirds of Beijing municipality's needs, and since 2004 the city has also begun drawing on "karst" groundwater supplies 1 km (0.62 miles) or deeper below the surface.

These deep underground sources, stored in porous rock, were originally set aside for use only in times of war and emergency, the report says.

Beijing's thirst for water for the Games has also piled pressure on Hebei, the largely rural province next to the capital that supplies much of its water.

To ensure there was no risk of Beijing running short for the Games, officials ordered a 309-km (192-mile) northern section of the larger South-North Water Transfer Project first be completed to pump more water, if needed, from Hebei.

Hebei is already one of the country's most water-short provinces after a decade-long drought, but nonetheless supplies Beijing with about 80 percent of its water.

A visit there this week showed the canal project has been completed, but only barely, and many farmers have been left weighing the costs of giving up land, water and crops for the sake of presenting a verdant Olympic city.

"We've been lucky with the rains this year, but we still don't have enough water," said Liu Xiuge, a middle-aged farmer in Gaochang Village, who said farmers had planted corn, rather than wheat, because not enough water was available.

Other villagers there said wells were running low because engineers had pumped away groundwater to make way for the canal, about 100 metres across, now cutting through the fields.

"If you dig a well now, you hit rock before there's any water. It was never like that before," said Wang Guiju, a 55-year-old grandmother.

"We've had good fortune with the rain this year. But what happens next year when we have another drought? I don't think they'll be rushing to help us."

Such complaints reflect a much broader water crisis facing northern China and the national capital, where industrialisation and population growth have overwhelmed conservation concerns, says the Probe International report, written by Chinese experts who requested anonymity.

"Long distance diversion is extraordinarily expensive and environmentally damaging," says the report, which calls for reforms to water pricing and economic policy so consumers are encouraged to save water.

Quingdao is currently trying to clean up its waterfront and in-shore sea from an invasion of green algae. The PLA (army) have been moved in en masse to clear the hair/wool-like stuff by hand. Thousands of soldiers are on the beach stuffing the algae into yellow plastic bags which are then trucked off to be dumped somewhere well away from sight. The run-off of salt water from that lot will no doubt cause the local farmers some grief.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong doesn’t seem to be having any problems in the run-up to hosting the equestrian events. I wonder if this tells us anything?

Letters From China No 5

Saturday night took us, with some friends, to the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra 2007-2008 Finale Gala (sic) and Mahler’s Symphony No 3. My understanding of classical music was tried to its extreme to get a handle on the opening movement. Discordance and very loud climactic brass and timpani did very little to prepare me for the beauty of the remaining 5 movements. Written around 1896 it seemed to be a harbinger of the horrors of World War one. What relevance might you ask has this to do with a “Letter from China”? Well, the situation in China today in the lead up to the Olympic Games leaves me with similar feelings. There is not the feeling of euphoria one would normally expect with little over three weeks to go. The security precautions in Beijing have been upped to such an extent that you would think a “Great War” was about to happen. Ground-to-air missiles deployed around the main sites and 200,000 paramilitary personnel tells a lot. The New York Times’ David Barboza notes, Beijing appears to be "less concerned about hosting a global party and more concerned with making sure no one spoils it." Seems about right!

Needless to say, we, being well away from the epicenter of all this fuss, see nothing of this security build-up except for the fact that any luggage we carry must be X-rayed before we can board the train to Hong Kong. The people in Beijing are being subjected to X-rays, metal detector walk-through doors just to get on the subway!

Last week saw us taxiing our way back out to our college to pick up our passports, newly stamped with our new residence permits a relief to us both in the current climate of deportations for any infringement of the immigration laws. On the way we saw more evidence of the recent flooding in the from of landslides in places we thought very stable. Just tells us how heavy the rainfall has been. The fields were almost back to normal with the farmers trying to pick up the pieces and salvage whatever they could. I’m just hoping that we have had the worst of the rainy season and that the rest of the summer will be blue skies (a rarity here because of the pollution) and sunshine. Talking of pollution, recent TV pictures of Beijing show it is just as bad as it’s ever been. It will be interesting to see both what the authorities do about it and how the athletes who have to perform in it react when they get here.

We’ll see……..

Letters from China No 6

24th July 2008

We’re well and truly into the hot part of the year with the day’s highs reaching the high 30’sC or around 100F for my American friends. Two years ago it hit 45C or 113F and that was HOT HOT HOT. With 15 days to go to the Olympic games, I’m getting a bit concerned for the athletes, not to say I wasn’t concerned before now. BUT, when we were in Beijing six years ago it was 47C (116F) in August, very dry and dusty as the winds blow down from the Gobi Desert bringing it nearer and nearer to the city. Dust would settle everywhere and seep into just about everything. So it’s not only the pollution that people should be worried about, think about running a Marathon in that temperature whilst wearing a surgical mask to keep out the dust!

A few days ago three new subway lines were opened in Beijing for the sole use of officials, participants and contestants at the Olympics. The Beijing population has accepted this state of affairs until after the games, as would any people who had been told “it’s for the good of China”. Special “Olympic lanes” have been made in the main roads for the use of “officialdom” and and odd/even system has been introduced for cars. That means that cars with an odd numbered registration plate can drive today, even ones tomorrow etc. The last time I saw that in practice was in Rome many years ago. The rich just went out and bought another car with a number plate with the opposite numerical attributes – no driving problem for them. I can well imagine that the same will apply in Beijing. Now there are about 3.3 million cars in Beijing. The odd/even system now means that the public transport system will have to cope with an added 4 million passengers – we saw the catastrophic results on the news last night.

Talking about the subway lines in Beijing! Six years ago there were three, today there are eight. Not bad in five years, and all the latest technology. How do the build a subway line in Beijing? They do it from the top down. In other words they blast a channel through the city, houses, factories, shops, everything demolished, then they dig a huge hole, put in the subway line, stations etc and finally fill it all in, level it off and plant trees. Simplified version, of course. But what happens to all the people who have been displaced when their homes were demolished? Questions like that do not arise too often here. Totalitarianism has a way for everything…….

Letters from China No 7

24th July 2008

Well, today’s the big day. Tonight sees the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing. It’s a public holiday here in China as it is also in Hong Kong. The “mist” still hangs over Beijing, whether it is really mist or the unfailing dust particles that come down from the Gobi Desert is another matter. The pollution indicators have been at 98 with 100 being the safe limit within Chinese Standards. The WHO (World Health Organisation) consider a reading of 50 to be nearer the mark. But as with any indicator, what it really means is open to interpretation, so, do we consider single day or long-term readings. Now if you take the long-term readings for Beijing, it would be declared a disaster zone from a pollution point of view. Swimming, Gymnastics, weightlifting etc and all other indoor events will not be affected by outdoor conditions as they’re in air-conditioned environments, BUT, the athletes do have to live in the outside world for the most part of their stay, so how that will affect them and their performances remains to be seen.

When we lived in Beijing for one year, we lived for part in one of the villages on the outskirts of the city. I believe that village has been consumed now by the city’s huge expansion. But six years ago, just about all the villages in and around Beijing were using a form of compressed coal dust/charcoal as a form of heating and cooking fuel. Anyone who remembers the smog of the UK cities in the pre Clean Air Act era will know what I’m talking about. A few feet visibility and acrid smog in your lungs is a very vivid memory for me. Well, BJ was just like that and, as far as I know, hasn’t got much better for the normal everyday times of the year, i.e. non-Olympic Games. I do believe that the use of gas in households has been increased immensely, but the number of households and of those living in squatter-like accommodation has increased enormously too.

We have to remember just how much this means to the Chinese who are a very proud people and enormously nationalistic. What they have achieved in the last ten or twenty years would leave most, if not all, countries standing breathless, so the coming of the Games is their due reward. I only hope that they will see it as one observer said –

"I think this will mean a lot for the perception of China. On the one hand for the rest of the world to discover China will be to discover a country that is for most of the world a bit mysterious. But they will find a country with 5,000 years of history, a fascinating country. I believe the spotlight on China will help the world to understand China, and it will also help China to understand the world."

We’ll just have to wait and see…..

Letters from China No 8

14th August 2008

The “Games” are well and truly underway now and no complaints about pollution levels. Mind you the Marathon is traditionally the final event, so perhaps we’ll just have to wait until then to get the full picture. The complaints I’ve seen so far could very easily be relegated to the “usual” things about ticket touts, scalpers or whatever you might call them, police dragging away protestors – well that happens just as much in London, New York or any major city where there’s some international goings-on going on. Apart from the fact that they are shouting about Tibet, the Falung Gong etc, there’s no real difference from the millions who marched in the UK against the Iraq invasion and had a very cool “blind eye” turned to them by Mr. Blair, who, by the way, happened to be here just before the games started and presumably stayed for the opening ceremony.. He’s not exactly shunning China when it comes to his $500,000 fee for a three-hour trip last November. I’m not really a political person at all; I just can’t stand the hypocrisy. So why was he here? More money presumably, he does have his staff in his London office to pay after all.

We did notice at the opening ceremony that all the world leaders and the heads of state etc, including a few royals, were herded into a block whereas the Chinese official party had very nice seating with serving wenches pouring them tea as they kept cool by wafting their gold souvenir fans. The world leaders had to be content with waving their programmes.

We were talking with a Chinese friend this morning and she was delighted at the whole thing, but declared the walk-on of the teams to be “velly boring” and took too long. The Chinese can have a very short attention span when it comes to things non-Chinese.

Today, at last, we received our digital TV box and had it fitted. It just took about 8 months or more of haggling our landlord and eventually a ten-day rent strike before we finally got what has been a legal requirement for the last 6 months. Our landlord seems to roam the world and is currently in the USA meaning that the TV Company would not give the box to his representative until a little “commission” had been paid. This is the curse of China. So now I’ll go and watch the swimming from the Water Cube in Beijing, quite a remarkable building. By the way, one of the main designers of the Bird’s Nest stadium, Mr. Ai Weiwei, didn’t attend the opening ceremony. He is a very strong critic of the government.

Apart from all that, it’s sunny and getting very hot again…..

Letters from China No 9

16th August 2008

Yesterday was the Chinese Ghost Festival, the 15^th day of the 7^th lunar month. Known locally as the “Hungry Ghost Festival”, it is a time when people burn incense and joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of their ancestors. Elaborate meals are served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living and food is left outside front doors as offerings to the “ghosts”. So it’s not unusual to see a large plate full of chicken, vegetables and bowls of rice sitting outside our neighbours’ doors, even in a high-rise apartment block - the “ghosts” come anyway. It is also a day when children should respect their parents, parents of past lives and even parents of future lives. So it should really be "The Season of Filial Piety". It is celebrated in various forms in India, China Japan, Vietnam and all countries with a Buddhist population.

It’s all very different from celebrating Christmas and Easter! I’d better go and light the incense at our kitchen God’s little shrine!

We were given a picture of “Guang Yu” to hang facing our front door in order to frighten away nasty people. He is rather intimidating.

It’s not unusual that local hillsides are set afire by people visiting their ancestors’ tombs on “Tomb Sweeping Day” or Qingming as it’s known. Another day of ancestor worship - a day when people flock to the cemeteries, usually on hillsides as the hill gives easier access to the heavens, to clear their ancestors’ graves of weeds etc. Sometimes they will open the caskets and re-arrange the bones. At the same time incense will be burned and offerings made, usually burnt. So you can imagine what might happen - and it does. The local fire departments are out in force here and in Hong Kong

And this all happening in a country that is officially atheist, even though there is religious freedom, of a sort. In fact, China is a very spiritual country regardless of the official dogma.