Mask of China: Hong Kong Edition

My tax dollars will be subsidising this?

2007-03-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

As the Japanese, Korean and increasingly the Indian film/TV industry dominate the Asian entertainment media, the Hong Kong film and TV market has lagged far behind.

The 80s was the golden era of Hong Kong film and television. Most people under the age of 25 may not remember the days when guys like Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau and the like raced through the dark, mean streets of HK fighting the triads but those days are pretty much over.

However, in its infinite wisdom, the HK government just announced this week that they will be pumping in $300 million HK to aid the revival of the film industry. Let's take a look at what the tax money will be going to. Check out this clip on Youtube.

I don't know about you but this is pretty typical of the crap that shows up on TV. While HK TV isn't as propaganda laced as the mainland stuff, it's still terrible. The Chinese will admit it themselves...yet they still watch it for some reason.

I say let the Japanese, Koreans and Indians take over the film industry. HK's streets are too narrow and crowded to be able to shoot these shows anyway. We can then devote the $300 million to more important long term ventures like education and pollution controls. HK has a huge budget surplus, we need to invest in human capital, not pouring concete and padding fat film and TV moguls' wallets.

Welcome to the Snoozefest

2007-03-05T16:20:00.000-08:00

Chinese Communist Snoozefest
Photo by Reuters

As a resident and a teacher in mainland China and Hong Kong, I have always found it hilarious how students and workers of all ages can fall asleep whenever and wherever they are. Even here in HK, some teachers sleep at their desks during breaktime!

I guess this extends to the annual National People's Congress a meeting of carefully selected pro-CCP delegates from the four corners of China to listen to state leaders boast about their accomplishments (if they really met them is another story) and set targets (that they rarely meet). Speeches, meetings and other important functions in China tend to drag go on and on because leaders extol their own virtues and in true dictatorial style set the rules, regulations and visions of the organisation with no discussion or debate. It would be hard for any eager subordinate to stay awake. No wonder rows and rows of delegates fell asleep at the NPC session yesterday. Apparently, it happens all over the country. Very harmonious society indeed. You probably won't be seeing that photo in mainland newspapers.:)

Published again!

2007-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

Street market butcher

My incredible lucky streak with photography publishing continues with the email announcement I got this morning. The photo on the left has been chosen to be published in JPG Magazine.

For my efforts, I will receive $100 US and a year's subscription to the magazine (bi-monthly). Thanks for all those who voted for the photo. I'm on the verge of buying a very expensive Canon telephoto lens and I think it'll help me improve the quality of my portraits and street photography since I won't have to be so up close to the subjects. I can't wait...

Happy Belated

2007-02-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a short 'business' trip to Beijing. Glad I went too as it was warm and the fireworks were bombarding the city once again. It was my first Spring Festival in the nation's capital and it was very different from Spring Festivals I've spent elsewhere in China. Last year I spent the Spring Festival in quiet Guangzhou which has banned fireworks. I really missed the fireworks action. Of course, I never partake in any of the lighting or purchasing of fireworks. Millions of illegal fireworks are produced and over 100 people in Beijing alone were hurt from playing with fireworks and firecrackers. I'll watch the show and let someone else pay for it and take the risks!

Another highlight was the various temple fairs which are like big bazaars that are put up in parks and temples that many complain are too commercialised now. Think carnivals with a Chinese twist. The food was great albeit overpriced and the Chinese folks were smiling from ear to ear. Take a look at some more photos here.

In other news, one of the reasons I was back in Beijing was to meet with a Chinese publisher who wants me to write a column(s?) in English newspapers she has connections. Details aren't finalised yet so I'll leave it at that until I sign on the dotted line. Happy 'pig' year!

My award winning photo

2007-02-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

Brave foreigner Chengdu

It turns out one of my photos was chosen to be included in Southern Weekly's foreigner's travel photos section in the annual Spring Festival edition.

I wasn't interviewed by a reporter from the paper but instead asked to submit an 800 word explanation on my award winning photo...in Chinese! The editors didn't really fix up my grammar/vocab mistakes either as they thought my writing was 'cute' for a foreigner, whatever that means!

So for any of my Chinese reading friends, take a look at my mini-essay. Don't laugh too hard at my Chinese though...I'd never written this much Chinese at one time in my whole life! I'm just happy my photo appeared in print and will reach a subscriber audience of over 1 million and countless more online!

"Who wants to win a race without competition?"

2007-02-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

Fuzzy election

I was minding my own business shopping for groceries at a Mongkok wet market when in walks Alan Leong, the 'other' candidate in the 'election' for the next chief executive of Hong Kong. He has been on the 'campaign trail' for the past few weeks since he is the only person running against incumbent Donald Tsang. Some would say Leong is campaigning for a losing cause; keep in mind that the leader of Hong Kong aka the Chief Executive, is 'elected' by a panel of 800 members chosen by Beijing. That means that Beijing chooses the folks who (by extension) will choose the Chief Executive and Beijing supports Donald Tsang so there will no surprises as to the outcome of this sham election.

While I know next to nothing about Alan Leong, I do support what he is campaigning for: universal suffrage in 2012. Hong Kong isn't Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen teeming with uneducated migrant workers and nouveau rich corrupt businessmen and police/military and government officials. It's an open society that is governed by the rule of law with residents who travel the globe on accepted HKSAR passports and with educational, cultural and social ties to countries abroad. I don't buy the argument that Hong Kong society is too immature to vote for its leaders. Hong Kong people deserve and have demanded the right to vote.

Upon shaking Leong's hand, one member of the public told him, "I'd support you if I had a vote."

Urgent call for laowai in China photos...

2007-02-06T05:51:00.000-08:00

My journalist friends at Southern Weekly (a famous Chinese newspaper known for pushing the censorship envelope of journalism) are busy doing their final weekly edition prior to Spring Festival. They've asked me to help recruit foreigners living in China to submit interesting photos for their Spring Festival edition. The criteria is pretty open:

1. Photos taken of everyday life in China (not travel photos but photos laowai in China have taken..) and should have an interesting story attached to them.

2. Photos need not look 'artistic' or 'professional'. They'll even accept photos that were shot from mobile phones (yuck!).

3. Needless to say, no nudes or disgusting material wanted!

Of course, if your photo is printed in their Spring Festival edition, you will be paid. No amount was given but I know for a fact that in their regular weekly editions they pay 100RMB per published photo so most probably they would be paying more than that...plus you get bragging rights!

You can email maskofchina(at)gmail.com to submit and I'll forward it to the fine folks at Southern Weekly.

USA still leads the way...for now

2007-01-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

I came across this map on one of the financial websites I read (forgot which one). It's the GDP of individual US states and equivalent foreign countries' GDPs that match them.

I put this up to remind myself and others who invest in China and other developing nations just how big a head start the US has in terms of economic power.

What's going on in China (stock market and real estate bubble) is making me plenty nervous. Thankfully, I'm not directly involved in any of the bubble building..but I will be looking to buy once the bubble bursts.:)

A mixed history

2007-01-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

An American friend of mine is pursuing a master's degree in history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong part time while he works in the NET scheme as an English teacher during the day. I was intrigued upon hearing about this MA program in Comparative and Public history that CUHK offered. It had a very flexible course schedule; classes were schedule during the day for full time MA students as well as evening and weekend courses for part timers. This past weekend I attended an information session on the program and here are a couple of interesting tidbits that I drew from the session.

The session was hosted by the program director, David Faure, who is a native HK person. He doesn't seem to be Chinese in ethnic origin but I have a feeling he is of mixed blood. Nevertheless, he speaks impeccable Chinese and has a British accent. An honest and witty old guy he really did a good job of describing his philosophies on history teaching and 'creating' history. He believes we are all creating history and are a part of it as what we do everyday influences what will happen in the future and it will be recorded by historians at a later date. By understanding history we can use it to analyse how people, governments and societies behave today and in the future. He used the example of how the HK government operates as opposed to the government on the mainland. The colonial British government shaped the way HK government operates today and by understanding the colonial days we can gain an understanding of the nature of the government today and compare it to its counterparts on the mainland. On a personal level, with my understanding of the struggles mainland China has gone through in the last 30-50 years explains a lot about how Chinese today are act, especially the older generations.

Another interesting thing I found about CUHK is the fact that it is a tri-lingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, English), bi-literate (English and Chinese) university. I'm not sure if there are many such universities in the world but it's the first time I've come across such an institution. My PGDE studies (and all programs) at the University of Hong Kong are conducted in English only. The fact HKU is an English-only university probably shuts out a lot of the local and mainland students who would like to study there. However, at CUHK, there are courses offered in all three languages. Students who studied at Chinese-only secondary schools/undergraduate programs need to pass the IELTS or TOEFL English tests to gain acceptance into CUHK. Strangely, students who are native speakers or studied at English secondary schools/universities do not need to pass any kind of Chinese benchmark to study in Cantonese or Mandarin classes at CUHK. Even more interesting, depending on the professor, assignments and tests could also be written in another language from what is taught in the actual class. So for example, if I decided to take a course that used Mandarin as it's language of instruction, I could write the assignments in English. Pretty cool, eh? I doubt I'd ever do this though as my Mandarin and Cantonese skills while good enough for everyday conversation would not stand up to strenuous academic bombardment.

This CUHK arrangement just goes to illustrate the unique position Hong Kong is in; straddling the past colonial days with the burgeoning responsibility of integrating itself with People's Republic of China.

Call me crazy but I will be signing up for the master's program starting in September 2007. I don't really like teaching English and Chinese/Asian politics and history is an interest of mine and I'm hoping to use the degree to get a high school history/politics teaching job in the future.

I'm hoping I have enough time in my schedule come autumn what with working full time, attending HKU classes one night a week and taking another 1-2 night/weekend classes at CUHK as well as tutoring on the side and allowing myself to travel and photograph places during the holidays. Thankfully, I only have one academic year left with the HKU program and the CUHK program allows course selection flexibility with 4 semesters in a year (I only need to take 8 half year courses) and the ability to stretch out the two year part time program to four years.

Why China may not be an Al Qaeda target..

2007-01-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Compliments of the SCMP. It's probably not true..but interesting nonetheless. Another reason why living in China could be a good move...

___
This year's hottest text message tells of an Arabian Nights-like tale of Osama bin Laden. He calls his terrorist brothers together and warns them: "China is the only country in the world which must certainly never be attacked, as the consequences will be devastating for the perpetrators."

Bin Laden's fear, so the tale goes, is not due to the nation's assumed rising military might, but from the "Chinese characteristics" which still befuddle even the most experienced investment adviser from time to time.

Bin Laden warns his guerillas to take heed of lessons from a failed plot by another terrorist organisation. According to the tale, five terrorist missions were sent to China, but only one came back.

The first mission's assignment was to blow up a highway bridge. Unfortunately, the terrorists couldn't carry out the order. China has so many cement bridges that there were just too many targets to choose from after 15 years of state-financed projects.

The second group was instructed to blow up a public bus. But they also failed, as the rude crowds kept pushing them off.

The third mission was to bomb a public shopping area. This failed because the terrorists' device was stolen by a thief in the crowd. This not only caused the mission to be aborted - but their technology was leaked to the world, after the item was mass produced by counterfeiters.

The fourth plot was to bomb a high-rise building. But the group was discovered by the dozens of security guards. They beat up the terrorists, mistaking them for people protesting about being thrown off the land.

Only the fifth mission succeeded. Their job was to blow up a coal mine, which they managed to do. More than 100 people were killed, according to the story. Thinking their mission had been accomplished, the terrorists returned to their base, reported their success, and then returned to their desert caves, where they tuned their satellite TVs into CNN. Days went by and there was still no report, making the leaders suspicious as to whether the mission had ever been carried out. After all, a terrorist act which goes unreported lacks the intended impact.

What they did not realise, of course, is that there are so many coal mine disasters in China, they often go unreported. Moreover, China prefers to suppress such news or downplay it so that the foreign media does not pick up the story.

So, the tale ends a few weeks later. Having still heard no news, the leadership believes the terrorists failed - and has them executed.
__

Trampling in China not a new thing..

2007-01-17T22:10:00.000-08:00

Starbucks, Forbidden City, Beijing

Starbucks China is in the hot seat after a China Central Television host, Rui Chenggang, wrote on his blog that he wanted Starbucks out of the Palace Museum, aka the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Forbidden City was once the seat of power and the palace of numerous emperors during China's dynastic era.

Rui wrote that the Starbucks location in the Forbidden city "undermined the Forbidden City's solemnity and trampled over Chinese culture."

I've traveled extensively throughout China and I'd like to say a few things about this stupid nationalist sentiment. I don't even know where to start, to tell you the truth. Let's forget the fact for a moment that there is another coffee shop in the Forbidden city and its management invited Starbucks to open up shop in the compond. Furthermore, as far as I know coffee came from barbarian lands (ie: outside of China), but it's funny Mr. Rui and his online Chinese supporters don't seem to have a problem with any of these things other than the Starbucks.

As far as I'm concerned solemnity doesn't really exist in Beijing anymore, or for that matter the rest of China. Beijing authorities gleefully raze generations old hutong communities to raise ugly, un(der)used skyscrapers. They have turned the Great Wall into a day at the circus. Sacred mountains that were once only homes to monks and nuns are now paved with roads and teeming with loud, polluting tour groups. Don't forget that this is the country that went through the Cultural Revolution which destroyed countless books, works of art and buildings back in the 1960s-70s. That was a helluva trampling they did back in the day. By the way, people Rui's age would have been the ones engaged in the revolution. They're the same people today who trample the roads of Beijing on their way to 30RMB Starbucks lattes. I haven't even mentioned the corruption, tainted food, pirated goods, etc that all go against Confucian and Buddhist thought, both a part of Chinese culture.

I was taught as a kid that when you point your finger at someone else there are four fingers pointing back at you; I think that applies in this case. Foreigners aren't the only ones trampling Chinese culture, the Chinese are doing a better job of it without our help. It's only when the foreigners are trampling that the Chinese public get touchy about it and raise a stink. Talk about misplaced outrage...

Your photos in a magazine?

2007-01-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

In line with my growing preference to let my photos do more of the talking than my blog these days, I stumbled onto a site called JPG Magazine.

They have a unique photography magazine concept building on the 'user content' driven model (like Youtube or Flickr) whereby the general public submits all content for the magazine. Stories, interviews and photos are submitted by amateur photographers. However, this doesn't mean quality suffers all that much; there are some fantastic photos out there.

The site's rules:

Here's what TO Upload:

* Photos that you took, with minimal photoshopping or other digital alteration (adjusting levels and sharpness is fine).

* Not all your photos - just your best photos. Up to 10 a day.

* Photos must be in JPG format, at least 2200 pixels wide or tall at 72dpi (so they look great in print), and under 10mb each.

What NOT TO Upload

* Photos that you did not take or do not own the copyright to.

* Screenshots, scans of objects, drawings, paintings, or illustrations.

* Photos with anything that was digitally added or removed. That includes text (no signatures or copyright statements), fake borders, partial desaturation (aka cutouts), and wacky filters.

What happens after you submit photos? You get more exposure for your photos, you can view, vote for and 'favourite' other photos and you can submit your photos to their print magazine for consideration. If one of your photos are published, you'll get $100 US and a year's subscription (6 issues) as a prize. Not too shabby. Money and subscription aside, I'd love to see my photos in print. There are three themes under which they are looking for photos: 9 to 5, street photography and "elegance".

So why not sign up for the site, submit your own photos and vote for my photos? :)

Hail to the police chief

2007-01-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

This past Monday, the police commissioner of Hong Kong, Dick Lee Ming Kwai, retired. He was at the post for three years and was on the force for 34 years.

While I have never met him (despite his being an old high school classmate of my father's but have since lost touch since my parents immigrated to Canada) what I've read in the media this past week leading up to his retirement has lead me to admire him from afar. I think it's always a shame when a person's good works and accolades are acknowledged AFTER they have left the stage.

A few things that have been disclosed about him that I really admire:

1. As the commissioner of police, Lee was entitled to live in the commissioner's house on the Peak, home to some of the most expensive properties in the world. I've had a chance to see this house and anyone in their right mind would love to live there; it is massive and very well appointed. However, Lee continued to live in his own home in the western HK island district and allowed his subordinates to use the home as a holiday getaway and to host parties.

2. He was a fine communicator and one of his leadership principles was caring for those under him. As commissioner he would go on marine unit operations in the middle of the night to understand their challenges, stayed with wounded officers at their hospital beside and attended funerals of colleagues. Take a look at highlights of his speech to recent police academy graduates here.

3. Unlike his predecessors who left the commissioner post for the lucrative waters of private business, he has maintained that he is a police officer through and through and will not head to the private sector with its 7 figure salaries, executive yachts and other perks. Instead he will be volunteering for charities and public speaking.

His list of accomplishments are long but the way he and his subordinates handled the WTO demonstrations with class and perserverance have made HK's police force widely respected by the local public and globally.

Thanks for a job well done, Mr. Lee. You're a leader and role model that we can all look up to. Hopefully, I'll have the pleasure to meet you soon.

Another pair of pandas?

2007-01-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

2007 marks the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong returning to mainland China.

To mark this momentous occasion, Beijing has just announced that it will give HK a pair of pandas to add to the our collection of two pandas they already gave us when HK when it returned to the mainland in 1997. Talk about regifting eh? Well not in the typical sense where someone accepts a gift from someone and then gives that same gift to someone else, but what else would you call it when someone gives you the same gift a second time? Couldn't the leaders in Beijing be a bit more creative with their gifts?

How about universal sufferage and full representation in government? How about providing HK with clean water and untainted produce, meats and seafood? Or helping HK fight the pollution that wafts over from Guangdong province? Wouldn't one of these be a better gift than a pair of lazy pandas?

That dirty word...

2007-01-06T00:36:00.000-08:00

There is a word in China that the government loves to use, but I really hate. And to my horror, the Hong Kong government is starting to use it now, too.

That word is harmony or its adjective "harmonious society". This dirty word is seen and heard everywhere in China. It's quoted in speeches by top leaders, propaganda posters and in the Chinese media. Yet in China, in my humble opinion, there is little harmony, if there is any at all. The fact is, most Chinese people do not live in harmony.

Many are unwilling participants in giving face, lying when it suits them and greasing the wheels of corruption and injustice in China. Like it or not, it must be done, 没办法 or "no other way" they say.

When you go shopping there is no harmony. Most stores and malls blast music to attract customers. You have to watch your wallet, mobile phone from being stolen by the unemployed. Fistfights on street corners are common sights that draw curious onlookers that do nothing but gawk.

There is no harmony at the restaurant, supermarket or pharmacy: scandals regarding fake drugs, tainted food and drink occur on almost a daily basis. Who knows if they're the next victim to ingest fake soy sauce, baby formula, carcinogenic fish or vegetables.

Smog shrouds not only the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing but also in remote rural areas. You can't go even go out for a nice country stroll/drive. Thousands of miles of rivers are polluted (dyed red even), farmers watering their crops and animals are killing them, let alone themselves for drinking poisoned water. Millions of people are thrown off their ancestral land due to dam building and development.

Sacred mountains that were quiet, reflective places of solitude are now circus sideshows for tour groups. Natural parks like Jiuzhaigou and Zhangjiajie are overrun with polluting buses and tourists. Chinese tourism is exporting its touristic harmony abroad as well:

Even the open skies aren't harmonious, the government tells infuriated airline passengers to stop complaining about bad service and safety issues.

Will China ever experience harmony? I'm not really sure but at least the powers that be are more optimistic than I am, they keep talking about it.

Hello '07

2007-01-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

IMG_2642

I'm back from Beijing after a rocky start to the new year.

My plane was delayed for 5 hrs then canceled after much bumbling by Shenzhen Airlines ground personnel..what a joke operation they run..

More on that and commentary on the madness that is the nation's capital...Beijing. The traffic jams, pollution and cranes never stop!

Not quite traditional...

2006-12-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

Curry Crab Christmas

Not exactly turkey, but homemade green curry crab can still bring out the Xmas spirit. My first attempt at curry crab was a success!

Holidays are here so I'm outta here

2006-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

little tree, big tree

Christmas holidays have arrived and I'm off to Northern China for the next ten days. I'll be hanging around around Beijing but may venture further away if time permits. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with Michael Manning proprietor of one of my favourite blogs, Opposite End of China based out of Korla, Xinjiang province where I'm hoping to visit at next year.

I'll definitely be taking lots of photos of the snow.

I haven't written many blog entries in the last few months due to visitors, work/school life and general lack of interest in blogging on my part. I can't promise that my interest will be re-ignited in the near future, however. Living in Hong Kong can be rather mundane from a day to day aspect...certainly not as riveting or educational as living in mainland China...but then again a stable, safe, civil and predictable society isn't always a bad place to live.

Happy holidays folks!

Crazy China Gains

2006-12-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

Apologies to those who aren't into investing but I think it's interesting to note that the Hong Kong stock market has been awash in money these past few months from outsiders who are buying Chinese stocks indiscriminately. In the graph on the left are some of the companies I've been following since I jumped into the Hang Seng stock exchange. Look at the gains they have made since their lowest values this year..one company has gained 750%! I've enjoyed (watching) the ride but have not partaken in much of the action for a good reason. Then this morning my reasons were justified in a short article in Lai See's column in the SCMP:

Headline-making moral stand makes sound business sense

Sometimes it takes a lot of willpower not to follow the herd. That certainly applies to the current China IPO frenzy. It must be especially hard for people of substantial financial means to resist the temptation to join in.

We laud the exemplary strength of character of Centaline Property chairman Shih Wing-ching.

In his own newspaper AM730, Mr Shih wrote that by virtue of being a private banking client he had often been awarded IPO shares automatically without making an application. He turned them down - much to the astonishment of account managers who were accustomed to hearing complaints from clients about not getting enough shares.

Here is his justification: If the private banks make you rich today, they can make you broke tomorrow. If you win the first time you buy shares indiscriminately, you will bet even more the second time and run the risk of losing all your gains on a stock you don't understand.

"Therefore, I resist not only the chance of winning but also the chance of losing," the property man said. He insists on following his investor's discipline and reading the prospectus before buying. Investment bankers should get down on their knees and give thanks that people like Mr Shih are so few.

___
Courtesy: The Kirk Report
Wise man, that Mr. Shih. This whole China stock frenzy has the look, feel and smell of the dot com bust in 2000. Look at the chart on the left, those are daily gains for stocks with the name "China" in their company name...daily gains!

There are a couple of good websites to research Chinese companies. My favourite is Seeking Alpha's China report along with local Hong Kong newspapers like SCMP and the Standard.

I'm trying to limit my exposure to solid, dividend paying, money making (dare I say boring?) Hong Kong managed/owned stocks: HK banks, HK utilities, a holding company increasingly focusing on water treatment (growing industry in China!) and a couple of mainland organic produce exporters. I'm not making 750% on any of them (but I'm happy with my progress year to date) but I probably won't be losing 750% either when this bubble bursts. I can't remember where I read it but when it comes to bull markets, the theory goes to 'enjoy the party, don't drink too much and stay close to the exits'.

Are the Beijing Olympics really that important?

2006-12-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Canada last held the summer Olympic games in Montreal in 1976 and it was a controversy from the top down. On the athletic front, it was the first time a host country failed to win a gold medal. From an economic standpoint the games were devastating. The government spent $2 billion a huge sum at the time. Corruption, inefficiency and stupidity on the part of the government were the main culprits: then mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau proudly stated that "the Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby." He was mocked by regular Canadians and the media incessantly.

Back in 2001, with what I knew transpired at the Montreal Olympics, I openly rooted for Beijing to get the Olympic nod over my hometown of Toronto. My Canadian friends thought I was insane. The games would turn Toronto into a true 'global city' and bring fame and prosperity they said. While the former may be true, the latter probably wouldn't materialise. They didn't think about the 6-7 years enduring construction and traffic chaos building the Olympic venues. The huge amounts of tax dollars poured into construction and logistical planning of the games.

I've been to Beijing numerous times in the past few years and I know what they're going through and I'm glad Toronto's not going through it today.

Interestingly, the chief economist at UBS, Jonathan Anderson argues that he and his company "simply don't think the Olympics are important at all for China."

Interviewed by the South China Morning Post, he did research of "every Olympic host city since 1972 with regards to the proportion of the national population of each country that each city represented."

"Beijing only accounts for 1.1% of the Chinese population and under 3% of Chinese GDP; while Athens, Green and Sydney Australia account for 20% and 40% of national population, respectively an even higher share of national income", Anderson said. He hasn't even mentioned the already rampant corruption of the Beijing construction that has claimed a vice-mayor of Beijing or the controversy over the changing of the mascot names after they were used for over a year.

While this may be a fairly simplistic observation, I'd like to take it a bit further. Any new foreign visitor to polluted/traffic snarled Beijing, in hot and humid August no less, will be hard pressed to want to see the rest of the China after the two week Olympic games are over. Summer is probably the worst time to visit 75% of China due to the heat, humidity and dust!

Let's keep the Olympic hype in context folks, it's a two week event. I'd rather Canada pick up the world cup of football (not that that would ever happen...)-at least that's a month long event that incorporates cities around the whole country!

Ironically, after stating all this Olympic negativity, I may have an opportunity to be at the Beijing Olympics. I won't disclose the reason because it's not a sure thing at this point but to give you a hint, my camera will be leading the way. I'm more excited about the potential opportunity than actually attending the chaos.

Presenting China's Chinese food

2006-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

Spicy enough for ya?

I have always contended that the best thing about living in China was the food. No matter how bad things got in my life as an expat in China, I always knew the local restaurants would serve fresh, delicious food with good service to match. The key was to know WHERE to go and WHAT dishes to order. It's no wonder fellow expats like to dine out with me since I can read most of the menus and know what to order.

Whether I'm at a 5 star restaurant in Hong Kong, at an open kitchen hole in the wall in rural Yunnan, eating hot pot from street vendors in Sichuan or eating mounds of lamb kebabs from a Xinjiang man, I know I will be getting good food. If you haven't already noticed quite a bit of these foods are a bit on the spicy side.

Appetisers Dali style

Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan/Chongqing foods are the spicy cuisines in China, which also happen to be favourites.

Here are some of my pleasant gastronomical memories. Of course, eating is a daily occurrence and there are a lot more dishes I haven't tasted so more photos will be added in due course. If you have any questions about any of the dishes, please don't hesitate to give me a shout or leave comments here or on my flickr site.

To make them pay, go the Chinese way

2006-11-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

Bill, please

Hong Kong hospitals are first world standard. All doctors are fully qualified, many (if not most) of them have studied abroad in England, Australia, America, etc. We know this because they post their qualifications and university credentials on the windows outside their store front offices and hang their degrees on the waiting room walls. It's really quite interesting 'shopping' for a doctor. I went to one who graduated from the University of New South Wales medical school and another one that went to my alma mater, the University of Toronto...but I digress. It was obvious that both doctors were fully qualified and knowledgeable and me the first world care and attention that all sick patients deserve.

The same doesn't happen in mainland China however. Most hospitals bear more resemblance to battlefield hospitals (think M*A*S*H) than any hospital we would expect in the west, or Hong Kong for that matter. However, one thing mainland Chinese hospitals do do well is making sure their patients' bills are paid. Yes, when you enter a Chinese hospital, the first thing you do is register at one booth then pay for a little booklet that will be your 'chart' for the attending doctor who will see you. You will have to go from booth to booth, department to department, depending on what kind of illness you have and/or how lazy the person in each booth/department is. Regardless of all this, you have to pay up before you receive any treatment. No money? Too bad, you won't get treatment. It's not a very caring approach but the point is hospitals make money. Of course, this non-caring approach backfires in China, as seen in a recent episode in Sichuan province when people rioted after a boy was allegedly refused urgent medical treatment because his grandfather had to go home to raise money for it.

The hospital authority here in Hong Kong has a lot to learn from mainland Chinese ~~thieves~~ hospital administrators when it comes to making money, or for that matter covering the costs of services/treatment rendered. According to a recent audit report by the Hong Kong government, there are $321 million HK in unpaid hospital bills. The interesting thing about this is that more than 66% of that whopping tally was laid at the hands of non-Hong Kong identity card holders, in effect non-residents. While no statistics were given on the nationality breakdown of the non-HK ID card holders it is pretty safe to say that the vast majority of those unpaid bills were racked up by mainland Chinese visitors who makeup the majority of visitors to HK these days.

Take note at the average unpaid bill balance of each patient, HK ID card holders owed $615 HK while the . That sounds reasonable;while there are quite a few low salary families in HK, a $615 isn't earth shattering to the average HK family's budget while non-HK ID holders owe on average ten times that, $6089 HK which, if you didn't know already is roughly 6 month's wages for an average Chinese person or a decent monthly salary for a highly educated Chinese.

So let's say you're a mainland Chinese woman and you're nine months pregnant . You heard from a friend that medical care in Hong Kong is first rate, doctors are knowledgeable and do not expect ~~bribes~~ red envelopes of money for providing due diligence, you get food in the hospital and nurses actually take care of you. You also hear that you don't need to pay when you first enter the hospital. Knowing this, you weigh the heaven that hospitals in Hong Kong sound like and the shitty conditions you've come to loathe in mainland hospitals. That short trip to Hong Kong within a few days of your expected date for your child's birth doesn't sound like a bad idea does it? After you give birth, you waltz out of the hospital, child in arm with no bills to pay.

Well, what I just described was exactly what many mainland Chinese women have thought and proceeded to do, and the taxpayers of Hong Kong are left to pick up their tabs. I inquired as to how much it actually costs to have a baby in HK hospitals and I was quoted prices anywhere from $5000-100,000. The higher end of the spectrum would be private rooms at private hospitals with all the creature comforts of a five star hotel room.

I still don't understand how hospitals can allow patients to leave without paying their bills, or at least a portion of their bills. Don't they have security guards at the doors? Don't they ask for a credit card, some form of deposit so that they don't run into problems such as fleeing patients? That's why I propose the HK authority learn from their mainland counterparts. Of course, receiving urgent medical treatment should be a human right (and it IS in HK) there has to be a way to recoup these bills racked up by patients. The HK water, electricity and gas utilities ask tenants to pay deposits when they receive new services why can't the hospitals do that?

Tai O: the town on stilts

2006-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Tai O

Last week's hike took me to the interesting little town of Tai O 大澳 on the south western coast of Lantau Island, the largest island in HK. Lantau is home to the Big Buddha, Disneyland, the HK international airport and beaches as nice as Thailand's (I'm told..). The town was even mentioned in the Economist magazine awhile back, so you know that it's definitely worth checking out.

Tai O can be reached by bus from Tung Chung, the satellite town that is the gateway to Lantau island or you can simply hike there from all points of the island. We took the subway to Tung Chung, then a bus to Tai O and hiked our way back to Tai O. When visiting Lantau island you need lots of time as the bus rides on the island are long..from 45 minutes to an hour to get anywhere. The distances are great and the bus must negotiate wide, narrow roads. There is the new cable car that will take you from Tung Chung to the Big Buddha but I haven't taken it and the price ($88 return) is a bit steep for me. The bus ride is just as scenic in my opinion and I usually get a snooze on the bus ride back to Tung Chung.

Back to Tai O, it's a town built on stilts over muddy banks that feed into the sea. You can take an aerial look at the town here at Google maps.

Dried stingray

Walking through the narrow 'streets' of the town, Tai O'ans (?) love to salt and dry their seafood. Fish, abalone, scallops, stingray, shark, squid, you name it and they'll dry it. Some of it tastes alright others are definitely an acquired taste.

Coastal walk back to Tung Chung

After exploring Tai O, I walked from Tai O all the way back to Tung Chung which took about 3 hrs. Along this coastal walk (as seen on my website banner at the top of the page) you meander on the western coast of Lantau and walk along a river that separates you from the HK International Airport runways. It was cool to see the airplanes approaching the airport from over the sea. All in all a good day..I need to explore the Lantau hiking trails a lot more.

China hates Canada and I couldn't be more proud!

2006-11-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Chinese president Hu Jin Tao refused to meet with Canadian Prime Minister, Steven Harper. Apparently, the Chinese government is very upset with Canada over ongoing Canadian criticism of China's poor human rights record. The Chinese government asked to meet with Canadian officials on the sidelines of the APEC economic meetings in Vietnam but have rescinded that offer. However, myself and most other Canadians don't have a problem with that in the least. In fact, we're happy with this development.

First let's recap why China hates Canada:

1. Canadians like the Dalai Lama, the peaceful head of the Tibetan government in exile. We even made him an honourary Canadian. Obviously, Beijing doesn't approve of the Dalai Lama getting valuable media and air time in our country.

2. Canada is the new (if temporary home) of Lai Chang Xing. China believes the Canadian government is harbouring a fugitive. While I agree he's a common criminal thug I don't know if harbouring is an accurate description. Canada wants to extradite him back to China, however, Canada has a law that states we will not extradite anyone to another country to face execution. It's a human rights thing. But Lai Chang Xing is a very interesting character indeed. If you've never heard of him, he's the former peasant worker turned billionaire smuggler in the coastal Chinese province of Fujian. Yes, in most normal countries a peasant with a grade school education would never become a billionaire.

So what happened? He basically built a smuggling empire with the help of China's People's Liberation Army and political figures including, he claims, meeting with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin. He's willing to write a book about his experiences smuggling everything from arms, to cigarettes, even tankers of oil into China and implicating all kinds of top level officials. Now do you see why China's angry at Canada? Lai isn't the only millionaire/billionaire to have fled China to the greener pastures and bluer skies of western countries. Stories abound of state enterprise/bank executives and government officials fleeing China with suitcases full of cash. Some have been caught in the US and extradited back to China already. All of this makes the Chinese government look bad and they don't like it.

3. Earlier this year, a Canadian lawyer and former cabinet minister conducted a two month report alleging mass harvesting of human organs from F@lun Gong practitioners after they have been executed. Canada isn't the only country who has found proof of organ harvesting in China, the British Transplantation Society did as well. As expected, China denies these claims but the proof is out there for all of us to see.

4. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently remarked, "this government ... is very frank about Canada's economic priorities and about our values and about our interests. And we're going to be very frank about those things, and we will not accept any conditions on having discussions."
Harper was commenting on the fact that the Canadian government wouldn't stop or tone down its ongoing criticisms of human rights abuses in China.

Don't worry, Canada does have leverage on China for future economic relations: Canada is a growing natural resources powerhouse with plenty of sustainable forests for lumber, all kinds of minerals in our mines (nickel, uranium, gold, steel etc), heavy agricultural production such as wheat, up to 20% of the world's freshwater water supply and oil reserves that may soon surpass Saudi Arabia's.

While good political relations with China is important to any country in the 21st century, is it really as important as most think? Money talks. If there is money to be made, private enterprise will put aside petty nationalistic differences to make it. Isn't that what is happening with Sino-Japanese economic relations? On the one hand, China's government is roaring mad about Japanese text books whitewashing everything related to World War II Japanese aggression yet on the other hand business relations between the two are at an all time high.

Taiwan is another prime example. Substitute dodgy nationalistic textbooks for independence aspirations and you basically have the same situation with Taiwan whereby the Chinese government doesn't like what the Taiwanese government is doing but business is thriving on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

I think the Canadian government knows this and have decided to make a stand. I stand by my prime minister for doing the right thing and more world leaders should be saying and DOING the same thing. Hopefully then China would get the message.

***Update***

In true Chinese "let's do/decide things at the last minute" business fashion, Hu Jintao will now meet with Stephen Harper at the APEC meeting this weekend. So to recap, China asks for a meeting with Canada, refuses, then says they really do want to meet with them again. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters yesterday, "The meeting has not happened yet. How do you know it won't happen?" Stupidity at work.

One country, different pride

2006-11-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

SCMP chart

There was an interesting article in today's South China Morning Post which discussed a recent survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The survey asked about a thousand members of the public their feelings toward the People's Republic of China. I just want to share my observations on the outcomes of this survey.

Ask most regular Hong Kong people (I refuse to call them Hong Kongnese, I hate it when people add "ese" after every Chinese city name) and chances are they would know very little about Chinese geography or history. The ones that are familiar with Chinese history probably learned a markedly different version of it from their compatriots north of the border.

As you can see in the SCMP, since 1996, the year before Hong Kong rejoined the People's Republic of China, people have been generally warming up to symbols of the country, the flag, the anthem, even the army which has a bad habit of cracking down on peaceful protests...

Earlier this year, the HK government has produced commercials showing patriotic shots of China and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra playing China's national anthem, "the march of the volunteers" which was criticised by some in the local media as being a bit over the top. I found the commercials pretty well done from an artistic aspect but if viewers who have never been to mainland China believe what they say on that commercial to be the real thing, they're going to be disappointed!

Interesting to see that the only Chinese symbol that has fallen in the pride of HK people is the great wall. Mind you the wall is still in high regard at 73.3% but it has fallen since 1996 the year before the handover of HK back to the PRC. I guess HK people who visit the wall are getting sick of the carnival atmosphere and thievery that goes on at the wall these days.

Fortunately, HK people aren't very proud of the mainland public security bureau (aka police) at only 6.7%. I'd like to see the percentage for their fondness of the Hong Kong police force. I'm sure it'd be 80% higher at least.

HK people are more proud of Putonghua, the official language of the PRC but I'm not so sure that they have improved their skills in the language and use it on a regular basis. I'm not really sure why HK people are proud of it actually. Probably the people who would use Putonghua in their daily life would be those who work in the shops that mainland Chinese tourists frequent.

I look forward to the next survey to see how the feelings of HK people change as time goes on. I don't feel much has changed really, aside from the fact that there are more business, social and educational exchanges between HK and the mainland. Aside from these, cultural, legal and philosophical differences between the two remain a chasm apart.