Monday, December 31, 2007
How to bypass Chinese censorship
One not cheap way to access blocked internet sites is to use my blackberry.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Peking University hotel
We're staying in the Shao Yuan Hotel on the Peking University campus. It's perfectly nice, but to be honest somewhat downscale from the hotel we stayed in Shanghai. There are some awkward aspects.
First, we cannot connect our laptops to the internet. I am using a computer provided in the hotel room. It manages to serve most of our needs but is somewhat inconvenient to use. But since I cannot reconfigure the machine, I have lost the ability to view this blog again. I find it ironic that the most restrictive conditions are found on a university campus here.
Second, we are finding it difficult to sync ourselves with the hotel restaurant hours. Yesterday morning we tried to get breakfast but discovered that they stopped serving at 9am. Luckily, there is also a coffee shop that serves food later. Then we tried to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant around 7pm, which seemed safe since the listed hours are until 9pm. But the waitresses with embarrassed expressions on their faces told us that the kitchen was having trouble serving all the existing clients and was very slow. I told them we were happy to wait but eventually they explained that the restaurant would close before we would get served. So we were forced to find something else.
We asked the hotel front desk if there was a hot pot place nearby, and it turned out that the restaurant directly across from the university gate is a (very raucous) hot pot place, where I suspect very few foreigners or young children go. For whatever reason, we were stared at (just like in 1979!) when we went in. The menu was completely in Chinese, but luckily we got a waitress who was very patient and helpful. Eventually, we learned to walk around the restaurant and point to what others were eating. We had lots of lamb, fake crab legs (the waitress chose this for us), spinach, another leafy vegetable, sliced potatoes, flat clear noodles, wood ears, lotus root. Unlike other hot pot places, the sauce is given to you premade and was not to the taste of my family. So we asked for soy sauce, and everybody improvised a bit. The hot pot itself was the traditional metal one with a chimney in the center containing hot burning wood charcoal. We drank lots of beer, coconut juice, and I also had jujube juice (whatever that is). I thought we had ordered way too much food (3 large plates of sliced lamb!) but managed to finish all of it. It wasn't the best food we've had but it was quite an experience.
Lastly, the hotel is somewhat far away from the center of the city, so it is less convenient for sightseeing and meeting people. But it's not a big deal, and we are having a blast here, despite the cold weather.
First, we cannot connect our laptops to the internet. I am using a computer provided in the hotel room. It manages to serve most of our needs but is somewhat inconvenient to use. But since I cannot reconfigure the machine, I have lost the ability to view this blog again. I find it ironic that the most restrictive conditions are found on a university campus here.
Second, we are finding it difficult to sync ourselves with the hotel restaurant hours. Yesterday morning we tried to get breakfast but discovered that they stopped serving at 9am. Luckily, there is also a coffee shop that serves food later. Then we tried to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant around 7pm, which seemed safe since the listed hours are until 9pm. But the waitresses with embarrassed expressions on their faces told us that the kitchen was having trouble serving all the existing clients and was very slow. I told them we were happy to wait but eventually they explained that the restaurant would close before we would get served. So we were forced to find something else.
We asked the hotel front desk if there was a hot pot place nearby, and it turned out that the restaurant directly across from the university gate is a (very raucous) hot pot place, where I suspect very few foreigners or young children go. For whatever reason, we were stared at (just like in 1979!) when we went in. The menu was completely in Chinese, but luckily we got a waitress who was very patient and helpful. Eventually, we learned to walk around the restaurant and point to what others were eating. We had lots of lamb, fake crab legs (the waitress chose this for us), spinach, another leafy vegetable, sliced potatoes, flat clear noodles, wood ears, lotus root. Unlike other hot pot places, the sauce is given to you premade and was not to the taste of my family. So we asked for soy sauce, and everybody improvised a bit. The hot pot itself was the traditional metal one with a chimney in the center containing hot burning wood charcoal. We drank lots of beer, coconut juice, and I also had jujube juice (whatever that is). I thought we had ordered way too much food (3 large plates of sliced lamb!) but managed to finish all of it. It wasn't the best food we've had but it was quite an experience.
Lastly, the hotel is somewhat far away from the center of the city, so it is less convenient for sightseeing and meeting people. But it's not a big deal, and we are having a blast here, despite the cold weather.
Summer Palace
After the Olympic Park, we found a taxi and headed for the Summer Palace.
Here, we're standing by a "ding", which is what my Chinese first name is.
We bought a fake fur-lined soldier hat. We bargained the poor guy selling them from 50 yuan down to 15. I think he was desperate to get rid of his stuff and out of the cold weather. Later, we were told that he probably made only about 2 yuan on the sale.
Unfortunately, all of the tourist sites in China are now overrun by people peddling all sorts of souvenir items, many who seem rather desperate. Some of them will follow you for quite a distance trying to harangue you into buying something. Later, we bought two more but paid 20 yuan, which is the more normal price.
Here, we're standing by a "ding", which is what my Chinese first name is.
We bought a fake fur-lined soldier hat. We bargained the poor guy selling them from 50 yuan down to 15. I think he was desperate to get rid of his stuff and out of the cold weather. Later, we were told that he probably made only about 2 yuan on the sale.Unfortunately, all of the tourist sites in China are now overrun by people peddling all sorts of souvenir items, many who seem rather desperate. Some of them will follow you for quite a distance trying to harangue you into buying something. Later, we bought two more but paid 20 yuan, which is the more normal price.
Olympic Park
On our first full day in Beijing, we decided to go see the Olympic Park, especially since Stephen's company played a role in designing and constructing the Water Cube, which is the venue for the swimming events. I figured that the Olympic Park construction should be nearing completion, so it would not be difficult to go there and see the new facilities. Boy, was I wrong.
The taxi dropped us quite far from the facilities. We tried to enter the Olympic Park through a gate, but the guard refused to let us in, even after Stephen tried to show him his work id. So we started to walk around the area. We soon discovered that although the gate was well guarded, nothing else was. The fence surrounding all the construction was full of gaps, and lots of Chinese were blithely walking through them into the construction area. So we did, too. So despite the security we soon found ourselves walking through an active and rather dangerous construction site. Most of the workers appeared to be from the countryside and unwilling to tell us to leave. The few security guards we saw seemed to be more interested in preventing people from entering than ejecting people who were already inside.
Here, we're looking at the main stadium, which is meant to look like a bird's nest.
The four gray slab buildings on the left were a bit of a mystery, since the middle two slabs would obviously get virtually no sunlight. When we got closer, they appeared to be housing, perhaps for the athletes?
This is the Water Cube. The exterior appears to be made of a plastic membrane that has been stretched over a network of curved frames. From some angles, it looks flat and rather uninteresting. From others, it looks like a wall of bulging glistening bubbles. Weirdly, it looks better in photos than live.
The taxi dropped us quite far from the facilities. We tried to enter the Olympic Park through a gate, but the guard refused to let us in, even after Stephen tried to show him his work id. So we started to walk around the area. We soon discovered that although the gate was well guarded, nothing else was. The fence surrounding all the construction was full of gaps, and lots of Chinese were blithely walking through them into the construction area. So we did, too. So despite the security we soon found ourselves walking through an active and rather dangerous construction site. Most of the workers appeared to be from the countryside and unwilling to tell us to leave. The few security guards we saw seemed to be more interested in preventing people from entering than ejecting people who were already inside.
Here, we're looking at the main stadium, which is meant to look like a bird's nest.
The four gray slab buildings on the left were a bit of a mystery, since the middle two slabs would obviously get virtually no sunlight. When we got closer, they appeared to be housing, perhaps for the athletes?
This is the Water Cube. The exterior appears to be made of a plastic membrane that has been stretched over a network of curved frames. From some angles, it looks flat and rather uninteresting. From others, it looks like a wall of bulging glistening bubbles. Weirdly, it looks better in photos than live.
In the middle of the Olympic Park was this small traditional Chinese complex of buildings. We have no idea what it is.
Pu Dong
The edge of Shanghai used to be the Huangpu River. Along the river is the Bund, which is a wide walkway with large 19th century European style buildings (probably built by Europeans) all along it. Across the river was just farmland. This has now been developed into a district called Pu Dong with big office buildings, shopping malls, and a television tower called the Oriental Pearl. The pictures above show Pu Dong from the Bund. Pu Dong looks, well, unreal. It looks like a futuristic computer generated graphic image from a movie like Spykids 3. The colors and shapes of the buildings and structures are just so outlandish.
Old Acquaintances from Shanghai
Unfortunately, this is not a very good photo taken using my Blackberry. Last Thursday, I was scheduled to give a talk at East China Normal University, which was arranged by Ben Chow who is on the faculty there. I was picked up by Zheng Yu (rightmost standing) and Shen Chun-Li (second from left standing). I met Shen in 1979, when he was still a graduate student at Fudan. He was one of the more outgoing and friendly people in the department, so I remembered him quite well.When I met Shen at our hotel, he asked me if I would like to see Gu Chao-Hao and his wife Hu He-Sheng (sitting in front). I immediately said yes. Gu has been a friend of my father since high school. He and his wife were math professors at Fudan for many years. I also first met them in 1979; I think I might have seen them one more time at my parents' house. Gu had broken his hip recently, so he has been recuperating in a hospital. I was delighted to see that both Gu and Hu seem to be in rather good shape. I was also delighted to see Xu Wen-Hao (leftmost standing) there, too. Xu was, as I recall, the Party representative in the Fudan math department in 1979, and he was assigned to accompany my father and me when we traveled around China. As I recall, we went to Beijing, Kunming, Guilin together. He might have even come with us to Wenzhou and my father's village. He's very friendly easygoing guy and helped us a lot during that time.
These four people (Gu, Hu, Shen, Xu) were the four people from my visit in 1979 that I most wanted to see again. So it was wonderful when this really happened, almost by accident.
It is cold in Beijing
Yes, we were warned. Those who did were right. It was very very cold today. We froze today walking through the forbidden city and the temple of heaven park.
I am behind in my blogging. Lots more to report on both shanghai and Beijing.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sim cards again
So we learned why some sim cards cost more than others. Lauren's, which we "overpaid" for at the airport has worked consistently everywhere. On the other hand, stephen's and mine worked only in hangzhou and shanghai but not in Beijing. So beware! Stephen and I had to buy new sim cards in Beijing.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Friday, December 28, 2007
Yongfoo Elite
We visited Stephen at his office today. He works for China Construction and Design, Inc.
We took some of his co-workers out to lunch. It was, I think, the only time I have been successful in paying for someone else's meal.
In the evening, his boss took us out to dinner. Another architect was also invited. Since both had spent a lot of time studying and working in the US, both were completely fluent in English. Their English was orders of magnitude better than any of the Chinese mathematicians here and better even than some Chinese mathematicians who live and work in the US. I never had the slightest temptation to speak any Chinese with them.
Dinner was a real experience. It was at Yongfoo Elite, which is an old western style villa that was once the British consulate. Within the walls there is a large garden and a mansion decorated with old art deco furniture from Shanghai and Europe. The dinner was kind of a modern fusion Chinese cuisine served Western style, meaning in individual servings for each person. I didn't take any pictures (as I was leaving I saw a sign forbidding photos), but I recommend checking out the web site to get an idea of what it is like.
We took some of his co-workers out to lunch. It was, I think, the only time I have been successful in paying for someone else's meal.
In the evening, his boss took us out to dinner. Another architect was also invited. Since both had spent a lot of time studying and working in the US, both were completely fluent in English. Their English was orders of magnitude better than any of the Chinese mathematicians here and better even than some Chinese mathematicians who live and work in the US. I never had the slightest temptation to speak any Chinese with them.
Dinner was a real experience. It was at Yongfoo Elite, which is an old western style villa that was once the British consulate. Within the walls there is a large garden and a mansion decorated with old art deco furniture from Shanghai and Europe. The dinner was kind of a modern fusion Chinese cuisine served Western style, meaning in individual servings for each person. I didn't take any pictures (as I was leaving I saw a sign forbidding photos), but I recommend checking out the web site to get an idea of what it is like.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Traffic
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas in China
Last night we went to a hot pot place. Hot pot restaurants, where you cook your food yourself in small pots of boiling broth, are extremely popular. When Stephen tried to make a reservation, he was told there was at least a 2 hour wait. So we decided to go elsewhere but Stephen gave them my cell phone number in case a table opened up. We went to another restaurant that served both Chinese and Western cuisine and had just ordered some steaks (with some apprehension) when I received a text message from the hot pot restaurant saying that we could come now. We sheepishly abandoned the steaks and ran to the hot pot restaurant.
We had a great but not too heavy meal with slices of lamb and beef, various types of seafood and vegetables, cellophone noodles and rice cakes, and the long-stemmed skinny mushrooms that we have often eaten. And several bottles of Suntory beer. The waitresses were very friendly and helpful. I continue to be impressed by the customer service we are getting everywhere, despite our limited ability to communicate in Chinese. Stephen seems very comfortable here, even though he still speaks a microscopic amount of Chinese.
The only thing that marred the meal was that the restaurant played nonstop Christmas carols. It was as if we were eating inside some American shopping mall. If you can't escape the cheesy American Christmas carols in China, where can you? China seems to have adopted the American secular and commercial version of Christmas. There are decorated Christmas trees and poinsettias everywhere. Lots of waitresses and store clerks wearing Santa hats. But absolutely no sign of the original religious meaning of Christmas.
We had a great but not too heavy meal with slices of lamb and beef, various types of seafood and vegetables, cellophone noodles and rice cakes, and the long-stemmed skinny mushrooms that we have often eaten. And several bottles of Suntory beer. The waitresses were very friendly and helpful. I continue to be impressed by the customer service we are getting everywhere, despite our limited ability to communicate in Chinese. Stephen seems very comfortable here, even though he still speaks a microscopic amount of Chinese.
The only thing that marred the meal was that the restaurant played nonstop Christmas carols. It was as if we were eating inside some American shopping mall. If you can't escape the cheesy American Christmas carols in China, where can you? China seems to have adopted the American secular and commercial version of Christmas. There are decorated Christmas trees and poinsettias everywhere. Lots of waitresses and store clerks wearing Santa hats. But absolutely no sign of the original religious meaning of Christmas.
Shanghai University
Today I went to Shanghai University to visit Leng Gangsong, He Binwu, and their group in convex geometry. The university was relocated to a huge campus north of Shanghai around 1995. All of the buildings were built around then. There is not much else near the university. All of the professors live nearby.
I took a taxi from my hotel. It took about half an hour and cost about 80 RMB. Leng and the others were waiting for me at the front gate. When I saw Leng running towards me, I realized that he was going to pay for the taxi. So I hurriedly handed a 100 RMB to the driver and got out of the cab. Even then, Leng ran to the driver's side, collected the change, and then proceeded to force me to take his 100 RMB note. We Americans are ill-equipped to defend ourselves against such aggressiveness, and I was eventually forced to take the money.
I gave a short talk discussing some connections between information theory and convex geometry. It was a relatively short talk, and I spoke as clearly and slowly as I could. But, except for Leng, the audience looked completely bewildered and lost the entire time. But afterwards there were one or two students who asked me some good questions, so I didn't think it was a total loss.
Afterwards, 7 of us had lunch together at a university restaurant. Leng kept telling me that the food in Shanghai was not as good as in Hangzhou and that the food at the university was not as good as elsewhere. I kept replying that it was still better than anything I could get in the US. It really was a delicious meal. We also drank "Shanghai Lao Jiu", which means literally "Old Shanghai wine". It is a Chinese wine that tastes somewhat like sherry. Following Chinese custom (which Stephen had to explain to me), I drank only when toasted or when I toasted someone else. Luckily, I had come prepared and swallowed a Pepcid AC before the meal. This reduces the effect of the alcohol.
After lunch, Leng suggested that we go hang out in his office. I said OK. Then he had a better idea. How about we go get a "foot washing"? I said, "Sure!" So He, Leng, and I took a taxi to a foot washing place. So here you lie back in a comfortable lounge chair, while an attractive young woman takes off your shoes and socks and puts your feet in a wooden tub filled with piping hot water. After a while, she comes back and carefully washes your feet. After that, she gives you a very thorough and enjoyable massage of your feet and lower legs. The whole thing takes 60 minutes. During that time, He, Leng, the girls, and I chatted. They are regular patrons, so they knew the girls. Leng told me that he often goes in the evening with his wife.
I also asked Leng which of his other past visitors he had taken to the foot washing place but to protect the guilty I will not reveal his answer. Another amusing thing he said was that in general the local Shanghai population did not frequent such places and viewed them as a waste of money but in Hunan where Leng, He, and Mao Tse-tung are from such places are quite popular.
I find it difficult to imagine how non-Chinese speaking visitors communicate with Leng and his group. No one seems to understand or speak English well at all. I asked how Richard Gardner communicated, and it appears that he would write things down. I had to do the same thing when I asked Leng about the Math Olympiad which he coaches the Chinese team for. When I said "Olympiad", neither he nor He had a clue to what I was saying. So I wrote the word on the blackboard, and they understood.
I also found being able to speak only a little Chinese almost more of a handicap than speaking none at all, because Leng would speak freely to me in Chinese, and his Chinese is so heavily accented that I could barely understand anything he said. He (the other guy, not Leng), on the other hand, spoke clear unaccented Chinese.
I took a taxi from my hotel. It took about half an hour and cost about 80 RMB. Leng and the others were waiting for me at the front gate. When I saw Leng running towards me, I realized that he was going to pay for the taxi. So I hurriedly handed a 100 RMB to the driver and got out of the cab. Even then, Leng ran to the driver's side, collected the change, and then proceeded to force me to take his 100 RMB note. We Americans are ill-equipped to defend ourselves against such aggressiveness, and I was eventually forced to take the money.
I gave a short talk discussing some connections between information theory and convex geometry. It was a relatively short talk, and I spoke as clearly and slowly as I could. But, except for Leng, the audience looked completely bewildered and lost the entire time. But afterwards there were one or two students who asked me some good questions, so I didn't think it was a total loss.
Afterwards, 7 of us had lunch together at a university restaurant. Leng kept telling me that the food in Shanghai was not as good as in Hangzhou and that the food at the university was not as good as elsewhere. I kept replying that it was still better than anything I could get in the US. It really was a delicious meal. We also drank "Shanghai Lao Jiu", which means literally "Old Shanghai wine". It is a Chinese wine that tastes somewhat like sherry. Following Chinese custom (which Stephen had to explain to me), I drank only when toasted or when I toasted someone else. Luckily, I had come prepared and swallowed a Pepcid AC before the meal. This reduces the effect of the alcohol.
After lunch, Leng suggested that we go hang out in his office. I said OK. Then he had a better idea. How about we go get a "foot washing"? I said, "Sure!" So He, Leng, and I took a taxi to a foot washing place. So here you lie back in a comfortable lounge chair, while an attractive young woman takes off your shoes and socks and puts your feet in a wooden tub filled with piping hot water. After a while, she comes back and carefully washes your feet. After that, she gives you a very thorough and enjoyable massage of your feet and lower legs. The whole thing takes 60 minutes. During that time, He, Leng, the girls, and I chatted. They are regular patrons, so they knew the girls. Leng told me that he often goes in the evening with his wife.
I also asked Leng which of his other past visitors he had taken to the foot washing place but to protect the guilty I will not reveal his answer. Another amusing thing he said was that in general the local Shanghai population did not frequent such places and viewed them as a waste of money but in Hunan where Leng, He, and Mao Tse-tung are from such places are quite popular.
I find it difficult to imagine how non-Chinese speaking visitors communicate with Leng and his group. No one seems to understand or speak English well at all. I asked how Richard Gardner communicated, and it appears that he would write things down. I had to do the same thing when I asked Leng about the Math Olympiad which he coaches the Chinese team for. When I said "Olympiad", neither he nor He had a clue to what I was saying. So I wrote the word on the blackboard, and they understood.
I also found being able to speak only a little Chinese almost more of a handicap than speaking none at all, because Leng would speak freely to me in Chinese, and his Chinese is so heavily accented that I could barely understand anything he said. He (the other guy, not Leng), on the other hand, spoke clear unaccented Chinese.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Impossible is nothing
Today while visiting shanghai university (much more about that later) I saw lots of Adidas ads for the Olympics that said "Impossible is nothing". Then I noticed that I could read the version in Chinese:
没有不可能
It seems to me that the right translation is "nothing is impossible". The word-for-word translation is "there is no not possible". I guess someone thought "impossible is nothing" sounded more poetic?
没有不可能
It seems to me that the right translation is "nothing is impossible". The word-for-word translation is "there is no not possible". I guess someone thought "impossible is nothing" sounded more poetic?
Older section of shanghai
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Szechuan food in Shanghai
Tonight we invited some of Stephen's friends to dinner at a big fancy Szechuan restaurant. We had our own private room. I let Stephen's friend Jason do most of the ordering. We ended up with about 2 or 3 times as much food as we could possibly eat. It was all very tasty. The final cost was about 830 RMB, which translates to less than $120.
We drank Tsingtao beer throughout. We started with some cold dishes. Some of the hot dishes that followed are shown below.
This is a spicy duck blood stew.
The brown bowl contains a spicy frog leg stew, and the white bowl contains long-stemmed mushrooms (not really seen much in the US) with some unknown green herb-like vegetable.
This is one of the cold dishes. I think it is duck meat with a (quail?) egg yolk inside.
Here is Stephen with his friends. We all first met Jason when we were in Wuhan in 2004; he was a university student who acted as an interpreter and guide for the "distinguished foreign mathematicians". Stephen kept his email, so it was a lucky coincidence when Stephen discovered that Jason was also living in Shanghai and had the same job as Stephen but in an American instead of Chinese architecture firm! Jason has provided invaluable assistance helping Stephen acclimate to life in Shanghai. The young women, two from Germany and one from Malaysia, are all studying business and/or Chinese at Tongji University.
We drank Tsingtao beer throughout. We started with some cold dishes. Some of the hot dishes that followed are shown below.
This was a gigantic fish stew. The fish was extremely fresh and delicate.
Here is Stephen with his friends. We all first met Jason when we were in Wuhan in 2004; he was a university student who acted as an interpreter and guide for the "distinguished foreign mathematicians". Stephen kept his email, so it was a lucky coincidence when Stephen discovered that Jason was also living in Shanghai and had the same job as Stephen but in an American instead of Chinese architecture firm! Jason has provided invaluable assistance helping Stephen acclimate to life in Shanghai. The young women, two from Germany and one from Malaysia, are all studying business and/or Chinese at Tongji University.Saturday, December 22, 2007
Magic
We found a really cool little magic shop in the Xujiahui mall. They sell stuff but mostly they seem to teach magic tricks. Mainly to kids. And they are even willing to teach in English. So we signed Nicholas up for lessons. He'll do it 2 or 3 times this week.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Shopping in Shanghai
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Friday, December 21, 2007
Overcooked broccoli
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)