ArcGIS online

View Larger Map
We begin studying Latin America next week, and our first lesson has students analyzing the relationship between population density and terrain/landforms. I thought I'd try out ArcGIS online. I attended a training session about it at NCGE in Savannah this past September. Turns out it will work well, and I can even embed the map in my website. How cool is that!

Fear and Sanity in DC

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon and Stephen - "I'm More American Than You"
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

I have never been around so many people in my life. CBS estimates the crowd at 215,000. Sounds about right to me.
We saw LOTS of signs, but didn't carry any ourselves - we took a cat on the plane, instead. Really. Kelli carried a Siamese kitten from Austin to DC for the Austin Siamese Rescue folks, and we turned it over to her new owner in DC. Fortunately she was very well behaved.
Then Euni's carry-on bag got taken by mistake (but we found it). Karma works.
Saturday was such a beautiful day - perfect weather, great company. My favorite part of the rally (except for Cat Stevens/Yousef Islam and Jon's closing remarks) was the song in the clip above. We all sang along with the chorus, and other than 4Troops singing the National Anthem, and the O Jays, and everything else, it was my favorite part.
The only downer (except for the part where it took 45 minutes to go 1 block as we were leaving the Mall) was the plane ride home. 1 hour into the flight they decided we should turn around and go back to Dulles. I had been feeling a weird vibrating through the floor, and they announced that it wasn't supposed to be there, and we were heading back. So they got us a new plane and pilots from Rochester, and made it to Austin at 3 pm instead of 11 am. But we made it.
And it was fun.
Signs and pictures:

Been There, Seen That

via New York Times:

It has huge reserves of coal and natural gas, a fast-growing economy and a property market so sizzling hot that virtually every house put up for sale here is immediately snapped up.

There is just one thing largely missing in the city’s extravagant new central district: people.

Ordos proper has 1.5 million residents. But the tomorrowland version of Ordos — built from scratch on a huge plot of empty land 15 miles south of the old city — is all but deserted.

I was there in June - the new city was eerily quiet, but our guide was bubbling with praise for the buildings.
Lots of cranes and new buildings, but no traffic and few people.

Glad I'm Not in China Today!

NASA Image of the Day

In early October 2010, a high-pressure weather system settled in over eastern China, and air pollution began to accumulate locally for nearly a week. By October 9 and 10, China’s National Environmental Monitoring Center declared air quality “poor” to “hazardous” around Beijing and 11 eastern provinces. Citizens were advised to take measures to protect themselves, and visibility was reduced to 100 meters (330 feet) in some areas.

It sounds like it was even worse than when I was there, which I can't imagine. It was incredibly bad in June - all along the eastern part of China the smog was so thick all of my photos look like they were taken in the rain. This is supposed to be even worse.

Hummingbirds

I LOVE hummingbirds. I went out front to feed the fish a few minutes ago and a female black-chinned came up and hovered a foot in front of me. She turned away and fed on the Turk's Cap in the front flower bed, then came to look at me again before flying off.
Of course I didn't have my camera, but the pic above was from last weekend, when another female was guarding "her" backyard against invading migrants. I ran in to get the camera when I saw what I think was a Ruby-throated male, but she had run him off by the time I got back outside.

Squatty Potties

As part of my Fulbright-Hays scholarship, we had to create a "personal narrative" of our trip. Here's mine.

Back in Class

It's the start of the second week of school, and I am still alive and kicking! In fact, although I am worn out, I am pleased with my classes so far. I have 5 Pre-AP geography classes, and 1 regular World Geography class. The 5 PAP ones couldn't be more different. One is full of Gifted/Talented kids who ask a zillion questions, always want to talk about and discuss what's happening around the world, and are ready to learn something new every day. At the other end of the spectrum is a class where getting them to participate in discussions is like pulling teeth. The regular class has a few kids who would be fine in PAP class, so we are able to generate some enthusiasm for the subject in there.
My favorite part of this year so far is the "no zero" policy - if the kid doesn't do their daily work/homework, they are choosing to come after school to Academic Triage to do it. I had 8 students in one PAP class who didn't do the assigned outside reading, so they better show up tomorrow after school or their parents will be getting a call. Hopefully this will put an end to students who fail because they don't do the work (99% of my failing students last year).
If the rest of the year is as good as the first week, I'll be a happy camper.

Iraq, America and hired guns

Iraq, America and hired guns | Analysis & Opinion |

One of the consequences of shrinking our armed forces has been the rise of contractors. Americans don't seem to mind, since we no longer have to fear the draft board, but are citizens really aware of the numbers and costs associated with the rise of "private security"?

Their number is vast — 95,000 in Iraq and 112,000 in Afghanistan according to the latest Pentagon count. This means that there are more civilian contractors than American troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ground Zero Mosque an Issue

Republicans Seek to Make Ground Zero Mosque an Issue in November Elections - Bloomberg

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama said at the dinner. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

I agree, it's an important right for ALL Americans. But apparently some under-educated people don't think so:

Nationally, 68 percent of Americans said they opposed building the mosque two blocks from the target of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in an Aug. 6-10 poll conducted for CNN.

Maybe they are not aware of this:

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said the federal government shouldn’t put any pressure on local officials regarding the mosque. There is a mosque in the Pentagon, also a target of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which hasn’t drawn any criticism, Nadler said.

I worship as I please every Sunday. I want other people to be free to do the same, at whatever place they choose. It's not like only white Christian men were killed on 9/11, so why the opposition? Maybe because of this:

While Republicans may not mention the mosque in campaign ads, they likely will include it as part of a larger narrative that Obama is “outside the mainstream,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and president of the Feehery Group political consulting firm.

It's being used by fear-mongering Republicans to push their candidates. How ugly, how sad, and how disrespectful to the people who lost their lives that day.

Stirring Up Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Nativism is certainly not new. Benjamin Franklin didn't like the Germans in colonial Pennsylvania. The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in 1798, were an attempt to deny immigrants from France and Ireland full political rights, and they became a major political issue in the 1800 election. The Irish, Catholics, and Chinese have all suffered under the hands of Americans. When times are bad economically, the first thing we do is point fingers at the latest group of newcomers and blame them for our problems.
This is the one of the current finger-pointers:


all I can say is - what an idiot.

Guillemot Cove on the Hood Canal

The Kitsap peninsula is beautiful this time of year - cool, relatively dry, and covered with a temperate rain forest. Located between the only 2 fjords in the continental US, it's a great place to take a break from the Texas heat. Plus we get to see the grandbabies.
Today we took a hike down to Stavis Bay through the Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve. We hiked 1 1/2 m down the Sawmill Trail to the beach, then back up the old road to the parking lot. We traveled through a beautiful (although logged over) forest, repleat with ferns and moss growing on the trees. We had to cross a boggy wetland at the head of the cove, and then make our way to the beach. It was quiet and peaceful. The tide was coming in, but plenty of barnacle encrusted rocks were there for the girls to throw in the water. There were also lots of oyster and clam shells.
Tomorrow we were going to take another hike, but son-in-law Travis is receiving a Navy medal of some sort in a ceremony on the Naval base at 1 pm, so that's where we're heading.
stay cool,
rem

pics from the hike

Purgatory Creek

It's been a nice, relaxing weekend for a change - nowhere to go, nothing on the schedule. So yesterday morning we decided to take a hike. Robert had read about the hiking trail on upper Purgatory Creek and we decided to try it out. Easier said than done.
For starters, the loop around San Marcos to connect RR 12 with the Interstate just opened, and its not on any maps. The directions to the trail on the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance website don't take into account the new road, so it took us 1/2 an hour and Google maps on my iPhone to finally find the place. The directions say go to the end of Franklin and take the dirt road, but that's now closed. So we finally figured out where to turn off the new loop.

We really enjoyed the hike - lots of birds, wildflowers, bugs (not the bite-y kind), and trees, and only 3 other people. We even found a Geocache, which I logged. Now that I have an iPhone i can actually do some geocaching and benchmarking. There's an app for that.



The park is part of an effort to encircle fast growing San Marcos with a ring of parks and open spaces. The trail is open to off-road bicycles, and although there were some tracks, we didn't see any bikes. I am sure there are plenty of adrenalin junkies who would love it, but the trail is very rocky in places, and the going would be really rough on a bike. It was hard enough on foot - I had to keep looking down so I wouldn't trip, so whenever I wanted to see the scenery I had to stop. But it was really relaxing and peaceful, and definitely worth the hunt.

Palin's 50 Nifty States

Dontcha just love Jimmy Kimmel?

Download:

FLVMP43GP

Not Only in the Gulf

In this photo released by Greenpeace, a firefighter who was submerged in thick oil during an attempt to fix an underwater pump is brought ashore by his colleagues in Dalian, China on Tuesday.

Growing China oil spill threatens sea life, water

China's largest reported oil spill had more than doubled by Wednesday, closing beaches on the Yellow Sea and prompting an environmental official to warn the sticky black crude posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

Some workers trying to clean up the inky beaches wore little more than rubber gloves, complicating efforts, one official said.

China Central Television reported that 400,000 gallons of thick crude have spilled since a pipeline ruptured in Dalian. The slick covers over 165 square miles, and is washing ashore on beaches around the Yellow Sea. Unlike the US, China does not have adequate equipment or technology to deal with the spill

"We don't have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks," an official with the Jinshitan Golden Beach Administration Committee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper in apparent exasperation. "This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore. ... This stretch of oil is really difficult to clean up in the short term."

The pipeline that ruptured was at a port on the Yellow Sea, and did not involve any drilling activity. However, according to Offshore Magazine (July, 2010), there are a total of 121 deepwater rigs. With the rising middle class in China and India using more and more energy the need for exploration and drilling will only increase.
How will these developing countries cope with the increased number of spills and accidents? Will they be able to adequately respond to any problems? If this article is any indication, there is reason to believe that the environment is at risk, because poorer countries don't have access to the technologies that they need. And as we know since the BP-Deepwater Horizon blowup, even technology can't save us every time.

Bananas and Insurance

While sitting in the chair at the oral surgeon's office today waiting for my mouth to get numb, I finally figured out why I hate bananas. Prior to giving me the Novocaine shots (3), he numbed the spot with some topical anesthetic, and I remembered that the dentist of my childhood, Dr. Worrell, used to do the same thing. Except Worrell's tasted like bananas.
Unfortunately I have lousy teeth with very thin enamel. I was always in the dentist's office when I was a kid getting a cavity filled or having rotten baby teeth pulled. I actually liked Dr. Worrell; he had quarter horses on his ranch (which I'm sure my parents helped pay for) and had great horse magazines in his office waiting room. He was friendly, and I don't remember it ever hurting when I got fillings.
But I do remember that nasty banana tasting topical crap. I have often wondered where my aversion to bananas came from, and now I know.
I had plenty of time to think while sitting in the dentist's chair : I had 2 root canals in the last 2 days. The first one was actually cleaned out 1 1/2 weeks ago, before camp, but they stuffed it with medicine because it was so infected. Yesterday they took the medicine out and filled it in.
Today they did another, non-infected, tooth. I have to get the crowns done before September 1 when our insurance changes. I should say: increases beyond all expectations.
Our district is changing insurance companies once again, this time to TRS. This is the third change in the 3 years I've been here. It's got a large deductible, and it doesn't cover much. It's an irrevocable move, and I'm not sure I like it. Of course, I don't know what our previous insurer was offering, so I can't compare. I went with the level that will cost me $35/mth, as opposed to the 2nd tier, which is $100/mth more. Fortunately I am not on any medications, and have no illnesses/diseases at the moment, so hopefully I will be OK at the lowest level. I am just hoping that it covers my annuals at the dermatologist and eye doctor, which I have to have. At least I have some insurance.
wish me luck,
rem

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 (Minus North Korea’s)

Time Bomb!
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

It's hard to imagine how much damage has been done both to the environment and to people by all these "tests." Fortunately we haven't conducted any tests since they were halted by the first President Bush 2 decades ago. I hope that ban continues.

Camping Out

This is our last day of camp; tomorrow we have the student presentations and closing ceremony, and are done by noon. It has been fast and furious this year. We spent what seemed like days on the road, 7 vans of teachers and students traveling around central Texas in a half-mile long caravan.
My favorite remains Bracken Bat Cave. Our guide this year was outstanding - very knowledgeable, friendly, and able to answer all our questions. We spent about an hour listening and asking questions. Then after hiking back to the cave opening, we waited. We could see the vortex of bats circling near the mouth of the cave, and faintly hear their chirping, and the rustle of millions of wings. All 70 people were relatively quiet as we sat on the rocks at the top edge of the collapsed sinkhole.
And then the vortex slowly expanded into the bowl as the bats began to move out of the cave. Not a person in the crowd spoke for the next 20 minutes as we sat, awestruck at the sight. I can't describe what its like to watch the bats come out and fly away - in the 20 minutes before it got too dark to see them, we saw maybe 500,000 emerge. It takes 5 hours for the 20 million bats who live in the cave to all leave for the night.
We camped by the Blanco River at Wimberley for 4 nights, but fortunately it wasn't as hot as last year. There was also a lot more water in the river. I actually camped in a tent under some pecan trees. It was pretty nice, with a cool breeze at night.


















Some of us went to Jacob's Well, the headwaters of Cypress Creek. It's a hole straight into (or out of) the Trinity Aquifer, and flowing at a pretty good rate this year. During the drought it completely quit, for the first time ever. The kids enjoyed swimming in the ice cold water.

It's time to leave for the BBQ at Rio Vista Park.
be safe
rem

Geography Bee

Several rounds.
1st round
Blue vs. Yellow: Which direction does the world's longest river flow? In what desert would you find a 2-humped camel? Blue wins
Maroon vs. Gray: What is the most populous country in Africa? What mountain range separates Europe and Asia? In what body of water would you find the Loch Ness monster? (no one gets this) Maroon wins
Orange vs White: What is the absolute location of the Tropic of Cancer? What is New Zealand's primary export? What is the world's longest river? Orange wins
Black vs Peach: What is the tilt of the Earth's axis? What is the lowest place on land? Peach wins
Purple vs. Green: Mt Everest is on the border between what 2 countries? When writing coordinates, what is listed first? Green wins

Country/capital death match between Gray and Black for a trip to the quarters. Gray advances.

Quarters:
Blue v Gray: Blue whoops up!
Orange vs Purple: Purple
White vs Green: Green
Maroon vs Peach: Maroon


Semis:

Purple vs Green: Purple pulls out a win on the final question
Blue vs. Maroon: no one gets the first question, Blue takes the next 2 quickly, Maroon answers the monsoon question, then Blue takes the final question.

Championship round:
Purple vs Blue
purple strikes first, blue strikes back, then takes the third question when maroon rings the flyswatter before the question is asked, then takes another one for the win

Way to go Blue team, which included a HHS student!

More Fun

This is the biggest geography camp ever - over 70 participants: about 15 teachers and more than 50 students. We have added some new teachers and schools this year, including Austin High and Frenship.
This morning the students have gone on a scavenger hunt around campus, so I am charging the iPhone and playing in the computer lab. I charged the phone last night, but listened to npr news this morning, and the battery is drained. Maybe it needs a new battery - should it really last just a couple hours with the headphones on?
This morning we get to go to Aquarena Springs and do the glass-bottom boat tour, for the umpteenth time. It's a beautiful place, but after living there, snorkeling in the lake (illegally), and riding the boat a hundred times, I could skip it and be ok. However, I do know the guy that runs the River Systems Institute, based at Aquarena. They do some important work, studying water issues in Texas.
Kids are back from the scavenger hunt, gotta go.
later,
rem

Camp

Time again (it sure goes by quick these days) for Geography Camp at Texas State. This will be my 6th year to attend, and I wouldn't miss it for all the tea in China. A whole week with 3 of my top students, 30 other kids, and about 10 teachers/friends from across Texas.
This year is a sort of "Best of the Best" field trips we've done in the past - Bracken bat cave (my personal fav), Natural Bridge Caverns, religion tour of Austin - Hindu temple and a synagogue, among others - and a bunch of other places. We'll spend a few days in town, at the dorms, and a few days camping at University Camp in Wimberley, on the Blanco River.
I always enjoy visiting with my colleagues, and all the kids are wonderful - the best and brightest that Texas has to offer. Maybe this year our team can win the geography bee, but if the kid from Arlington Seguin is back, I won't be holding my breath. He was great.

Movin' on Up

screen shot of Hays Co.

Forbes has a new map up - migration at the county level. Click on any county in the US, and see in and out migration, along with income levels, destinations, and county of origin. Can't wait to use it during the unit on population.

360 Days

Predictions, based on 8 years of data sets, for spread of the oil from the BP disaster.

Reflections

It's the middle of the afternoon in China, so I am wide awake even though its the middle of the night here in Texas. I am still in China in my head, too.

What comes to mind:

Government –After listening to many lectures and having conversations with Dr. Who and Vivian, I have a better understanding of the government's need to be so "in control" - there are 1.3 billion people here, so it is necessary for safety and stability. Also, the people's standard of living has risen dramatically in recent times, so the government is doing a good job, as far as they are concerned.

Economy – It's growing very fast, evidenced by the building boom in cities. Everything like ditch-digging and street sweeping is still done by hand; cranes do heavy lifting for tall buildings and they are everywhere. There are also tourists everywhere, almost none foreigners, a sign of the growing middle class. They go in groups - do they not have cars? is it not allowed to travel by yourself? - so they are easy to spot.

Transportation – There are still many bicycles/tricycles, but lots of electric scooters, and growing numbers of cars – the Chinese dream. In Beijing there are no semis on the roads - the warehouses are all on the outskirts of town, and I guess everything is delivered to the small shops in vans.

Rural areas – Seem a step back in time, with all labor done by hand. We saw only one tractor in the rural areas we traveled through, and it was old and rusty. However, most of the people working in the fields were middle-age or older; all the young people seem to have gone to the city.

Philosophy- The primary thoughts expressed by all people over 30 were "for the good of the community" and "harmony between heaven and earth is the most important goal." This touches every aspect of life, from personal relationships to designing cities.

Pollution – A purple-brown haze covered all of eastern China, a result of rising energy use; China is opening 1 new coal-fired power plant per week. We asked Vivian if the sky was ever blue, and after thinking for a minute she said "during the Olympics," when China shut down all the plants. The pollution is so thick the sun is an orange ball that you can stare at without damaging your eyes.

I am too tired to try to draw any conclusions; I only have more questions:

What would happen if they had labor-saving machines – where would all the people work?

Will the younger generation continue to excel, since most of them are only children who are spoiled and used to getting their way (I saw lots of little kids having temper tantrums who were just catered to by their parents).

How will the culture keep alive the concept of community first when the current kids grow up?

As more Chinese have contact with foreigners, like our translator Vivian, will they begin to demand more western style democracy and freedoms? How will the government react?

It's 5:30 am here, I should try to get a little sleep.

take care, be safe

rem

Last Post From China

I will NOT miss all this pollution in Eastern China, although I read in the news this morning that Hays County is close to exceeding the EPA standards for ozone pollution.
We spent a day this week wandering around Beijing, shopping, then eating supper at the "lake-walk" at HouHai Lake. Last night we just hung out at the hotel after closing ceremonies for the trip.
I will miss all the new friends I made, and look forward to seeing them at the conference in December.
take care,
be safe
rem

Lijiang to Beijing

I haven't really talked about Lijiang, not because I didn't like it, but because I just wanted to savor the time we spent there. It was really hard to leave - I hope someday I get the chance to return. Of all the places we've been, this was one I'd definitely recommend. The city was the eastern terminus of the Tea Horse road, linking Tibet and southern China, so in parts of the province Tibetan culture is very strong.
The Old Town is a tourist trap, but beautiful. It is known as the "Venice of China" because of all the canals that run through the town, and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The climate is wonderful - it rarely freezes, and because it is so high it is mild during the day. There are some really nice hotels, and miles and miles of shops selling all manner of local handiwork, plus a lot of junk.
The area around the town is beautiful, too. We visited a high meadow, and saw an outdoor show similar to the "Texas" production at Palo Duro Canyon.

After several days in this peaceful place we had to leave. I'm glad this place was peaceful, because I needed that inner peacefulness to survive our flight(s) to Beijing. We took off in the late afternoon, never a good time to fly. After a very bumpy ride (enough that several times everybody in the plane sucked in their breath and went "ooooh" in unison) we were diverted to someplace southwest of Beijing due to the thunderstorms there. We sat on the tarmac for almost 3 hours - at least they left the a/c on. I was not feeling good - toothache- but we made it. Landed in Beijing at 10:30, over 2 1/2 hrs late, and got to our hotel at midnight.
3 more days, and I'll be home.
be safe,
rem

The Monastery in Shangri La

We got up early this morning, checked out of our nice hotel, and headed for the Buddhist monastery in Zhongdian. Built in the late 1600s, it is currently undergoing some renovations. The area is a warren of alleys, housing for monks, temples, and courtyards. When we first arrived there were not many tourists, but by the time we left it was getting crowded. Many of the people who worked there wore traditional clothing, although that may have been for the benefit of the tourists.
The many temples had fires going to burn incense, and all the housing had fires inside, so smoke hung over the whole place. The housing seemed pretty rickety - thin board walls with gaps large enough to put my fist through, and caved in tin or wood-shingled roofs. The temples, however, were in excellent shape. Gold-leaf everywhere, bronze roofs, gilded Buddhas. Picture-taking is not allowed inside, so I don't have any images of the Buddhas, prayer rugs, monks meditating, or people praying.
Outside the temple complex there was an enterprising man with a large yak, and a lean-to with a laser printer - a nice photo-op. Several of our group paid 10y to sit on the yak, while the rest of us took photos. The guy was in traditional dress, and sang as he posed. A large crowd had gathered to watch the crazy foreigners by the time we left.

We drove back down to Lijiang this afternoon, another hair-raising bus ride down mountain roads. We have free time in the morning to shop, take pictures, etc., then fly to Beijing tomorrow afternoon.
Can't believe we're almost through!
be safe,
rem

Shangri La

Well, its been found. After Lost Horizon was published everyone began to look for it, and in 2000 the Chinese government announced they had discovered Shangri La - here in Zhongdian. It was a beautiful drive up - we are over 10,000 ft. Terraced fields, a tributary of the mighty Yangtze, picturesque villages, and a very narrow, if paved, road. The kind of driving that could give you a heart attack - steep drop-offs, passing on curves, lots of honking at slow-moving vehicles. The town itself feels almost like a ghost town - lots of nice hotels, a mini building boom, but not many people. The writing on signs has Tibetan first, Chinese second. We did see a Chinese flag flown upside down on a flagpole, the sole symbol of this area's resistance to Chinese government control of Tibet.
The park up on the mountain is carefully controlled. Our bus parked in a giant (if somewhat empty) parking lot, then we boarded a park bus that took us up to the "hiking trail." The 2 trails, one a little less than 2km, one about 4km, are boardwalks through the trees around a couple lakes. The scenery was wonderful, but you can't strike out on your own. There were azalea/rhododendrons blooming, wild strawberries, a type of tree that looked like dogwood, horses, donkeys, and some Chinese tourists. We spent the night here, and go back to Lijiang after visiting a monastery this morning.
Just a few more days and I'll be home.
be safe,
rem

Kunming

We spent several days in Kunming, and left this afternoon. It's a beautiful place, and reminiscent of Austin - very laid back. Our hotel was on the campus of Yunnan University, and there was a street across from the hotel that reminded me of 6th street - chic clothes shops, bars, and restaurants. I found an Italian restaurant with fast wireless, so I was able upload photos, but I never got around to posting.
We saw lots of temples in Kunming - Taoist, Buddhist, and Muslim (which we didn't end up touring). The Taoist one was in a park-like setting on the edge of town. There were lots of tourists, as usual. I really liked the Buddhist Temple in town. No tourists except us, and a really peaceful place, which I needed. The stress of having people around all the time is starting to get to me. I spent the last evening at the Italian place sitting by myself eating margherita pizza and surfing the web. And then 5 of our group showed up; so much for solitude.
We also went to the Stone Forest. This is an area of weird karst formations, formed when old limestone seafloor was uplifted and eroded. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we didn't get to go wandering around among the huge pillars of rock. I have never seen anything like it, except for some areas in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.
Dianchi Lake is another tourist spot in Kunming. This beautiful place is incredibly polluted by industrial waste, mostly mining activities. Around the far shore of the lake are many industries which used the lake as their dumping ground. The government is trying to clean it up, but it will take many years.
Yunnan Province is home to 26 different ethnic groups, so there is a lot of diversity in town. I am always surprised by how different each area of China has been. I'm not sure why, since not every place in the US is the same - certainly New York City looks much different than Jackson, Mississippi.
We are now in Lijiang, and our plans have been disrupted by mudslides and road construction on the road to Lugu Lake, so we're not sure what we're going to do tomorrow. Today we're visiting a glacier, so I've got to go borrow some long pants.
be safe,
rem
Stone Forest


Temples


The Lake

Expo 2010

We found the 1.3 billion people - they were all at the Expo. We went Friday, and spent all day there. Since NAEA didn't have a bus for us we took the subway, which was an adventure in itself. Chinese people (watch out for the upcoming generalization) are notoriously bad map readers, we have discovered. In Hohhot they couldn't tell us where we were when we pulled out the map, and Friday when Dr. Who and Bob were studying the subway map at the Metro station they had no idea what it meant. The sign told us where we were, and they knew where we wanted to go, but otherwise they were clueless. We had to tell them which trains to take, and how many stops for each; but we made it.

OMG, the place was unbelievably crowded, and the holiday was over. The Saudi Arabia exhibit, which was supposed to be the most spectacular, had a 5 hour wait, so of course we didn't see it. I must have walked 10 miles around the place in the blazing haze/sun. It was Texas week at the USA pavilion, and the Marshall Ford Swing Band played a set. We talked with their manager, and when he found out we were from A&M they played the Fight Song, which they had learned for Gov. Goodhair, but never got the chance to play for him. We didn't go through the US exhibit, as the ladies in our group said it was very disappointing - just 3 little videos.

Nepal, Algeria, Brazil, India.....not much time waiting in those lines. There were some very cool exhibits - Chile was spectacular - they had a whole upside down room; you walked into a blank space, looked up, and there it was. They also had a nice little outside bar. Mexico was sort of disappointing except for some art they had hanging from the wall. Italy, where we waited in line for an hour, was also amazing - a tailor shop with real people working inside a glass box, a symphony hanging from the wall, and lots of fashion-art stuff. Spain was weird - what the heck does the giant robot baby represent?


But what got me were the people. Almost everyone there was Chinese, and the tickets weren't cheap. They were coming on vacation from all over China - the rising middle class. All 1.3 billion of them, shoving and pushing with never an 'excuse me' to be heard. If I slowed down in line to take a picture they would shove right past me into the middle of our group. I guess with that many people, if you wait you'll never get anything.

The whole place closes down at 9 pm - what the ****? In the US it would be open 'til midnight, at least. But this ain't the US, so we took a taxi home, because the group I was with wanted to see the lights of Shanghai at night.


The first few pictures are from the top high school in Nanjing, which we visited Thursday afternoon. 63 kids in the geography class we saw. But then, teachers have what amounts to a college-type schedule, with only 2-3 classes per day, and office hours the rest of the time - with real offices!

Delayed Posting

We are now in Kunming, so much has happened since my last post. They keep us busy.
Suzhou was interesting. We took the bullet train there, and then a bus to a tourist trap called Zhou Zhuang town. Its a very old city that has been sort of restored - very narrow alley/streets, lots of shops and restaurants, and thousands of tourists since it was Dragon Boat holiday. Pushing, shoving, bumping, with nary an "excuse me" or "sorry" to be heard. You should definitely not come here if you don't like crowds. There are some bridges over the canals that date to the Song Dynasty, and a Ming official's house that was jam packed with people, but otherwise was beautiful. Notice most of the shots have people in them - you just can't get a picture of anything without people in it. The stalls had a variety of things for sale, including lots of silk pieces, from clothing to embroidery. The vendors are really pushy, and of course start out with a high price, but then you walk away and they chase you, so you can get a silk blouse for $13 US.
We had lunch in the hotel there, then went back into Suzhou to tour one of the 280 private gardens. Before the Cultural Revolution there were over 1,000 different large gardens, but they were destroyed because they were bourgeois, and not useful to the improvement of the people. Again, packed with tourists, so not nearly as peaceful as it should have been. It was built by a Ming official who got the money through graft and corruption, then was forced out of office.
Not all the pics are captioned = the Internet is slower than dirt here in Kunming - I mean slower than dial-up, almost.

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Nanjing Sightseeing

This is the most beautiful city we've been to. We spent today sight-seeing. In the morning we went to the Zhongshan Mountain National Park, to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and the Ming Tomb. Today is a holiday - the Dragon Boat Festival - so families were thronging the park.
After lunch we visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum, a memorial to the holocaust inflicted on the city by the Japanese. It was pretty gruesome, so I walked through quickly, then sat outside and people-watched.
Shopping for too short of a time, then supper and a walk along the old city wall. Later some of us went to a coffee house near the university. It had very slow Internet connection, so I am back in my room.
Tomorrow we get up at 5 and leave at 6 on the bullet train for a day trip to Suzhou. Should be fun - they have a huge park, with lots of gardens, and we have a small lecture on "the art of gardening." We won't return to the hotel 'til after 9, so I may not get pictures up.
be safe
rem

Maps of the New FAA No-Flight Zone over the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

via Geographic Travels: Maps of the New FAA No-Flight Zone over the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Why can't planes fly over this area?

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Tourist Traps and Culture Clash

Well it wasn't a real ger, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. The whole past 2 days have been sight-seeing at tourist traps, or trapped on a bus. To make matters worse we have an unlikeable guide named Alice. I know she is just as frustrated with us as we are with her, but it doesn't make her much easier to take. We were traveling yesterday, and one of our ladies needed to use the restroom. Alice had the driver stop at an abandoned building and told the woman she could go in there and pee. I guess the usual tourists she shepherds would be ok with that, but we weren't. Of course, when we stopped to use the restroom at the next toll booth, I thought maybe the abandoned building would have been better.


We drove for a long time and ended up at the "Singing Sands" dunes near the Yellow River. This is a big tourist destination, sort of like the Monahans Sandhills, only with lots more stuff. I paid 40y to ride a camel, took a cable car to the top of the dunes, and decided not to slide down, since I've done that a million times at Monahans.
Back in the bus covered with sand, I slept for 2 hours and missed the giant traffic jam at the exit for the yurtel. The driver and Alice were prepared to wait in the traffic, but when Lynne found out we could go a little further and see Genghis Khan's Mausoleum instead of waiting til today, negotiations took place and we went on.
We left the mausoleum, and the bus driver was not sure about the route to the yurtel, so he asked at least 3 people. We ended up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere for a couple hours - it was starting to get dark. I did get to see a lot of rural Inner Mongolia, which looks at lot like New Mexico, but poorer.
We finally got to the yurt tourist trap after dark. The staff met us dressed in traditional clothing, serving the worst tasting rot-gut moonshine I've ever had. We were ushered into the dining hall, where a play was just beginning. It was a sort of dinner theater, with a play on stage and more drama from the drunk Chinese tourists at the next table. One of the men was so drunk he kept going onto the stage. The actors and dancers continued their performance of traditional songs and dances like this was a common occurrence. We explained to Dr. Who, our Chinese host, that in the US the guy would at a minimum have been thrown out, and probably arrested. But not here.
Afterward we checked into our rooms in the fake yurts. There was a kang in each room, so I felt a little better. Several of us went out to star-gaze, and then the loud party started. Over by the dining hall was a giant bonfire and ear-numbing music - hip-hop and modern. Everybody was line dancing around the fire. Some of the performers from earlier were break-dancing... not exactly what we expected to see here. As the fire died down they did the "bunny hop" and then all disappeared. Peace and quiet - we all slept well.
Up early for tea and breakfast. Since nobody wanted to pay 180y to ride a horse we left at 9:30 for a 4 1/2 hour ride home. We got here at 7:15 tonight. We were in an area that has a lot of coal mines, and it seems it is all transported by truck. We got stuck in a traffic jam near Baotou, where there's a Y in the road, with a sort of traffic circle. It was backed up for miles. They said "could be hours, could be days" for it to unjam. All because of the thousands of coal trucks moving China into the 21st century.
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So we are back at the same hotel, but the condoms and underwear are gone from our rooms. We fly out tomorrow for Nanjing. The pictures are on line, but not captioned yet.
be safe, watch out for coal trucks,
rem

More Hohhot

OK, so its not Matamoros. Some parts of it are nice,like the University. And the food is wonderful, so different than Beijing. Tomorrow we go to the grassland tourist trap ger, to spend the night. Here's some pictures from our travels today. Who knew there were Muslims in Hohhot?
click on the pics to see them.

Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China

I get to sleep in a ger! That will be 2 nights from now. That will be one night less we are in this god-forsaken hotel, with condoms available in the bathroom, and men's underwear for sale on the shelf above the tea pot.
We rushed to the airport in Beijing this morning, somehow we thought the plane left an hour later than it did. It took forever to get our tickets, then all but 1 of the guys, and several of the women, got extra searches at security. I was the last person to board the plane before they shut the door. After a one hour flight we had a rough, bumpy, fast landing in Hohhot, and so here we are at the "very nicest hotel" in town, according to our guide. I've really been transported to Matamoros or Reynosa.
This is the bleakest looking place I've been in a long time. I imagine its what Beijing was like before the Olympics. Street-front stores, everyone on bicycles or electric scooters, torn-up roads, just very poor. Block after block of Soviet style apartments going up. Block after block of rubble where the old hutong-type housing was. And still more of the traditional housing, crumbling into piles. Garbage piled everywhere - along fences, behind gates, in rooms that open to the street.
At the same time there is some beauty - parks full of trees and flowers, the old Muslim Mosque, and the Da Zhao Buddhist temple.
No captions yet on the pics - too tired. More tomorrow.

Update: pics are done.

Hohhot, China, June 10

Free Day - Pearls, Scorpions, and a Bus Ride

Our last day in Beijing before leaving for Hohhot. We started out at the Pearl market - 4 floors of shopping! My first stop was the ATM, as I have already spent most of the money I came with. I got enough to last me for at least a couple of weeks, since I am almost through buying all I intended to. The top floor of the Pearl Market is jewelry, but I didn't make it up there until it was almost time to leave; I got distracted on the 2nd floor, by the silk. The bus was leaving at 11:30 for the bookstore downtown, so I had to hurry upstairs to pick up the pearls I ordered a couple days ago from Sandy Pearls. The owner of Sandy Pearls came to the hotel a couple nights ago with a large selection of her wares, and there was a frenzy of ordering from the women on the trip. Both beds and all available desktop space was covered with pearls - necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets, jade of various sorts - way more than I could imagine. I ordered a couple things as gifts. Anyway, I got my stuff and ran for the bus.
Several of us made the trip to the bookstore - 6 floors of every imaginable book in Chinese. They had a small selection of English language books. Jackie found me a Chinese language National Geographic magazine, and I got a couple more gifts for the teachers in my hall. The bookstore is downtown, and this is how I pictured Beijing - lots of people. Where we have been staying there are not so many people walking around, so we kept wondering - where are all the billion Chinese we keep hearing about. There is a pedestrian-type mall down the block, so that's where we headed. Down a side street was this incredible market. Lots of local-looking people, plus some tourists. I ate a fried scorpion.
The scorpions were live, and they fried them up, seasoned them, and then - yummy? Not much taste to the bugs, just crispy, with a sort of seasoned salt on them. A couple of the guys ate snake, then we found a small restaurant and had lunch - rice with stir-fried chicken and veggies.




We wandered around the market awhile, then took cabs to the Lao-She Tea House. The tea was good - I had Jasmine - and there were performances by musicians, juggling, and a shadow play. Here the stork is trying to get the turtle, and finally succeeds. It was pretty good. By then it was almost 5, so Patricia and I decided to head back to the hotel. We are both older, and the 20 somethings wanted to stay out til after dark. We need our sleep, so we thought we'd catch a cab back home. No luck. The one cab who stopped said no, too far - or maybe he didn't know where it was. Our minder had given us business cards with the name of the university, address, and a sort of map, all in Chinese, in case we got lost. About that time the younger folks came out of the tea house, so we hooked back up with them. They were trying to get a rickshaw ride somewhere. It was then that the old Chinese man in the silk jacket came up. Pat showed him the card, and Bethany (the Chinese language teacher in our group) translated for us. He ended up writing some instructions on the card on Chinese, including bus #456. We followed his instructions to go down the block and around the corner into uncharted territory.
Fortunately, each bus stop in Beijing has 2 workers whose job is to keep order. We asked at the first stop by showing them the card, and they indicated "5" and pointed further down the street. After passing a couple hutongs, 2 more bus stops, a lady with a box of baby chicks, and lots of shops, we asked again and were directed to a line with 5 written on it - for bus #5. Shortly thereafter the bus arrived, and we got on with a hundred other people. The helper talked through the window with the conductor (not the driver) and she indicated she would let us know when to get off. We passed the Grand Beijing Hotel, lots of office buildings, and at each stop more people got on, and few got off. We stood holding on to the overhead handrails until a seat finally cleared out. Not much later we were directed to get off.
At this stop some locals waiting for the bus were very helpful. Pat showed them the card, they pointed out the line for #456, then discussed whether or not that was really the right bus. After a few minutes it came, and along with lots more people we got on. Pat showed the card to the conductor and she nodded, so we grabbed the rails and hung on. By the time we got to the freeway the bus was so packed no one could move. We got on the freeway and drove for a long time, and Pat and I began to recognize some buildings. By the time the bus exited we knew we were headed in the right direction - we were in the "suburbs" where all the apartment buildings are located. Our stop ended up being 1/2 block from the NAEA campus. In all, it was exactly the experience I wanted - an hour and a half of real life in Beijing. Each bus cost 1 yuan, about 6.7 cents. We found out after we got home that another couple had taken a taxi back and it cost them 200 RMB, about $30.
So I am packing for Hohhot, and tomorrow morning we take off. It's been great here, I look forward to our return.

Privacy

Our group met this morning to process what we have seen, and to discuss lesson ideas. I thought perhaps we might be being listened to, but wasn't sure. Turns out they are taping everything we say. Unfortunately some people commented on what our young translator had told them privately - thoughts likely to get her into trouble with the government. Nothing big, but still probably not considered appropriate to speak with foreigners about - like looking for information on the Internet about Tienanmen Square and not being able to find anything.
So after the break, when we saw the turning tapes, we decided to talk about how Vivian loves her country, is proud of it, etc. I hope that makes up for our earlier comments.
Pretty scary, though. I have to watch what I say in the classroom, because I don't want to influence the kids one way or the other - my goal is to help them learn to think for themselves. And I could run into trouble with parents and the school board, too. But I don't have to be afraid the government will lock me up or send me to a re-education camp for disagreeing with them. I can speak here, or Facebook, or on the street, and so can anyone else. I feel really lucky.

Random Thoughts on China

Well I've been here several days now, and it is starting to sink in. Several themes are appearing in our interactions with the people and place that is China.
The overarching narrative of the country seems to be its desire to prove it is the equal of the Western world. The rush to modernize, to build, to drive, to move forward, and the urgency with which this is taking place, all suggest that China wants to be seen as a modern nation. I haven't seen this much construction in one place since I was a kid in Houston. Everywhere you turn there are bulldozed hutongs, vacant lots full of rubble, waiting to be transformed into another high-rise apartment building. Cranes hover over the city like some giant orange robots, reminiscent of the old Erector sets. The traffic reminds me of Houston in the early 70's when the freeways were 3 lanes wide; everybody weaved in and out, trying to maintain that break-neck speed of a city on the move.

But what is different than the West is that in the rush to prove they are our equals, they forget to pay attention to the details. Several examples: the beautiful plantings along the freeway - they are gorgeous, and really add a nice touch, but the grass between the plantings is long and weedy. The Ethnic Cultures museum today - wonderfully exquisite clothing and cultural relics, but a floor outlet was shut with tape, and the electrical fuse box in each room had to be used to turn on the lights.

Although the halls of the school we toured a couple of days go were freshly painted, and they had marble window sills and beautiful woodwork, a large streak of paint was not cleaned off of a lampshade on one of the chandeliers in the entry way.
There are myriad other examples I have seen, and I am not sure why it is like this. Are they so used to poor conditions that even a little better is something to be joyful about? I guess the majority have never been to a Western country, and don't realize how seedy China looks in comparison. But as they catch up to us, and more people travel abroad, I am sure that will change.

The other main theme is the extraordinary degree of government control over information. I came face to face with it when my VPN was out and I couldn't get anywhere I wanted to go on the Internet. We also hear it daily in our lectures: the government is always right; they want the best for us, the people. Do these people really believe this? Only one lecturer has been even a little critical of the government, and she was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. But then I remember my Internet experience, and realize - if there is only one source of information, what else would you know? The government controls school textbooks, TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet. If they don't want you to know it, you won't. So when you ask a question in the lecture, you get the government line. It's been frustrating at times - what will happen when there are the 33 million men who can't find wives, because of the preference for male children and sex-selective abortion? "That's a problem but the government will have a plan." Since rural young people are moving to cities, where will China get the labor and food to feed it's people in the coming years? "the government has a plan..."

The lecturers talk about the freedoms the people of China have, including the freedom to worship as they please. And then we see this at the Ethnic Cultures Museum today:






So you had better cooperate with the government, and adapt your religion to their goals, or you're out. But it doesn't seem to sink in with our Chinese friends that this is what the statement means.

That's all the blogging for tonight. It's 10:30, and we have a long day tomorrow. I will try to post pics after I am clean, but it may be tomorrow before I get any up.
be safe,
rem

Up, Up, and Away

Northern China maybe be protected by the Great Wall, but it has not stopped the invasion of the tourists. We climbed it in Badaling with several thousand other people. It's a famous section, the first to be restored, and was climbed by Pres. Nixon when he visited China in 1972.
I can't really see why the Ming emperors built it, other than to provide jobs for thousands of their subjects - the surrounding mountains are pretty rugged, and would seem to be enough protection from invaders. It is a lasting legacy, though, and very impressive feat of construction. I can't imagine how many people it took to build it. Unfortunately the haze is still with us, so the beauty of the mountains is hidden from view. I had to recolor/retouch most of the wall pictures because they look so faded.


This is part of our group.

After our climb we did a bit of shopping, then went for lunch.
I am not sure where the restaurant was, but it is famous for it's Peking duck.

There was a tremendous quantity of food, all very tasty. The vegetable fritters dipped in a curry-type powder were wonderful. That's Dr. Who (Hu) with the chopsticks. He's a professor at NAEA, and our main "minder." We learned at lunch he's a member of the Communist Party - the first I've met.


The NAEA plan was the Wall, lunch, and return to the hotel. After much discussion we convinced them we really needed to go see one of the Ming tombs that dot the area.

We went to the Ding Ling Tomb, and it was a wonderful place - peaceful, not nearly as crowded. It was also planned with Harmony and Balance in mind. The buildings are impressive, but the artifacts have been removed to a museum.
The umbrella I am holding in the picture has it's own story. I bought it for sunshade, and to give to Lizzy, and got scammed out of a $100 yuan note (about $14 US) in the process. I paid with the 100, they wanted smaller bills so I said give me back my hundred, and she gave me a counterfeit note. I knew as soon I walked away, and went and found our minders -Dr. Who and Bob - and took them back to the stand where I bought it. As soon as the lady saw them with me, she knew she was sunk, and when confronted (I have no idea what they said to her) she pulled out her wad of money and gave me a RMB 100. I feel pretty stupid, but that's how she makes a living, and she was good at it, since tourists don't really know what RMB money looks like.
So we're safe back at the hotel, and it's time for bed.
One last note - our hotel has western-style toilets in the rooms, but everything else in Beijing is squatty potties, and you can't flush tp anywhere, it goes in the wastebasket next to the toilet.
This is a fancy squatty potty in the hotel lobby area. It's kinda like camping out.


Pictures for the day (click to go to the website):

OMG

which stands for "oh my goodness" in case any of my church family is reading this. But I admit, I did use stronger language than that when I found out tonight that my VPN was not working, and I couldn't access this site to blog (or most of the sites I read). The NAEA is updating their Internet linkage, so we haven't had access at the hotel since yesterday morning. But sometime before it was out Windows downloaded a "critical update" to my computer which screwed up my VPN. It took me an hour and a half tonight to figure out what was going on (after several 'system restore' attempts). Finally, after trying to search on Google's Hong Kong website-the only one I could access - for my VPN provider, an ad appeared in the sidebar for "bestVPNforAsia." I clicked on it, paid through PayPal, downloaded and installed it, and here I am, for only $13.95 a month. I can hardly believe China's firewall didn't block it. It makes me thankful we have uncensored access in the USA.
Another reason I am up late blogging is that after I got access, I uploaded 214 pictures to Picassa and captioned them -Tienanmen Square, and the school we visited today. So, I am back to blogging, 2 days worth.
Thursday in Beijing, June 3:
We had another lecture and discussion in the morning with a sociologist from Beijing Normal University, Dr. Zhao Mengying. He talked about China's movement toward modernity - a new lifestyle based on industrialization. In 1840 the Opium Wars were the beginning of changes in China. As China's culture suffered under foreign pressures, the Chinese begin to emphasize socialism to protect their way of life. The Sino-Japanese war increased patriotism and feelings of nationalism in the Chinese people. Then in 1949 the Revolution occurred, and a new way of life began in earnest. Dr. Zhao talked about the differences in rural and urban areas, how the government struggles to deal with the differences, and the changing relationship between the two.
I was mostly interested in the migration of rural people to the cities, and the hukou system that restricts movement. In China the government owns all the land. If you live in a rural area you get an allotment to work, and that provides for your economic security. Theoretically, if you move to the city you must give up your land, because city people get a type of social security to provide for their needs. However, in practice, it restricts the movement of people from rural areas to the city so that the cities will not become overcrowded and filled with slums, like Rio or Calcutta. Between 1952 and 1980 China's urban population rose from 11 to 19%, while by 1980 the rest of the world 's urban population was 42%. But in reality many people move to the cities, so although it is not "illegal" for them to do so, their children are not entitled to go to school there as they don't have the proper permits. Recently Beijing decided to allow migrant workers' children to attend school, but those migrant schools are not well funded. The government is working on a new system, sort of like our 'green card', so that if you can prove you've been in the city for several years you can get a permit to live there and be legal.
One other thing I found really interesting about the land ownership is that even in the cities the government owns all the land, so when you buy a house you sign 2 contracts - one for the house, and one with the government to rent the land for 70 years. This is relatively new, so no one has any idea what will happen in 70 years when the rental agreement expires.

After lunch we took the bus with blue-tinted windows to Tienanmen Square and the Imperial Palace Museum. What can I say but OMG.
Acres and acres of beautiful buildings, sculptures, carvings, and history. There are really no words to describe it - how vast the palaces are, how ornately decorated. The whole complex is laid out according to Chinese philosophical ideas of Harmony and Balance - heaven/earth, yin/yang, water/fire. It was explained to me today when we visited the school - one of the students told me that the Chinese symbol for middle is: which represents the balance, and the line is the heart. The Emperor's throne is on the heartline, right in the middle of Beijing. The student told me that when you say someone "has his heart in the middle" it means he's a good guy, who wants to do the right thing and have people like him.
The old city walls are gone, torn down by Mao to make way for modernization, but the idea remains.
Tienanmen Square is across from the palace, and it, too, is enormous. Both the palace and the square were filled with Chinese tourists who were enjoying their national treasure. Families, kids, young and old, savoring the late afternoon sunshine and basking in national pride. Our guide told me 1.3 million people filled the square for celebration recently. It was also sobering to remember another anniversary today, June 5 - that of the Tank Man and the protests in 1989.
By the time we arrived back at the hotel we were exhausted. Since we had no Internet access most of us turned in early.
I'm giving up on blogging tonight - it's 1:30 am, and I have to get up early for our trip to the Great Wall. I'll try to write more tomorrow night.
be safe, enjoy the weekend,
rem