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.
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