Me Ol' China, another week gone

China is no longer the same after the earthquake. More than 60 thousand people have lost their lives, just the rubber stamp missing doesn't allow us to say that more than 80,000 people have died. 20 thousand are still under rubble. More than 5 million people have lost their homes and 4,000 children are now orphans. I do not even want to think at the pain of the parents for the loss of their children... When we will have the breakdown of the victims age, we will discover that some towns have lost a full generation of kids.

Generosity has brought a lot of money to those people, the same amount it needs to rebuild the region has been collected, so far, by charities and private individuals or companies. Nearly 9 billion dollars.


The three days of national mourning have been the first I have seen in my entire life. What I mean is that it is the first time that a national mourning has been felt and noticed. Not only the flags at half mast but TV shows completely canceled replaced by a static message, white on black screen, announcing the days of respect towards the victims while a few TV were just showing Live images from the areas and broadcasting special news bulletins from the earthquake areas. Same for CCTV9, the English language channel, that has been 24 hours a day concentrated on the rescuing operations and keeping the non Chinese speaker informed about the rescues attempts, the tally of the victims and the reactions from leaders worldwide. Even in the street big big adverts showing candles, and messages of condolences to the victim's families. most people were dressing black during those three days and the whole country stopped for three minutes on Monday to remember this tragedy. And while the blog was published I am feeling another shock, here in Beijing, and I wonder what is happening in Sichuan now.

This is where I stop with the earthquake and I go back to Me Ol' China.

My Chinese is getting worse and I really got no energy to study. I even stopped going to the gym. I got a terrible cough and a constant pain in the chest. I put on so much weight on and still cannot lose it. Work is currently pressurising me a lot... Jeez! What a period!

Last weekend I went to see the Ming Tombs with an organised tour: avoid them! Same day we visited the Great Wall at Badaling: the wall is nice but the crowd... AVOID IT! Cancel these two journeys from your plans if you come to China, unless you want to enjoy the extras that come with the tour.

Food was fantastic and the guide who knew nothing at all about the history and geography of China, Marco Polo and the City of Beijing was one of the most entertaining things in a long time.

Let's start with the history of China. Draw a Table and put on one column Dynasty, another Emperor and in the last one achievements.
Write all the names of the emperors you know, all dynasties you know and all the achievements and you will discover that the emperor Qin unified the 7 Chinese States under one State with Capital Beijing that was chosen because it was the centre of the empire after he conquered Japan. Or you an find out that the Mongolians moved the capital from Xian to Beijing after the unification of China and called it Peking. The capital was moved for the same reason: it was closer to Mongolia. Or, if you prefer you can say that the Capitals of Nanking (now Nanjing) and Peking (Beijing) added to Xian have been the capital of China at the same time for a long time until Genghis Khan decided to move it to Peking. And Chairman Mao in 1961 decided that the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing and a few more had to change names because the "Great people of China" cannot accept that their cities names are expressed in Mongolian!


Another thing that is really important to know about China history and animal life is the existence of the Chinese Lions... Well, yes, even Marco Polo knew about the Chinese Lions and he mentioned them, in fact, the Marco Polo Bridge has many lions on it and probably placed all in honour of the Italian guest.

I don't want to influence your minds but I can guarantee that things are not exactly that way but, I tell you, I loved the lesson of history that reminds me a lot of a story I used to tell my friends about my childhood when with my uncle Moses we used to go on holidays in Egypt to visit our friend Ramses II that was building a big triangular house for the family and two more for his friends, just outside of Cairo... You know what I mean...

Geography... Beijing is 1700 meters above sea level while Shanghai is extremely low at 200 meters ASL... well 1700 meters above sea level... I was going to inform the National Geographic Channel to fix their documentaries that list Beijing amongst the cities that despite the considerable distance from the sea could still be one of the first cities to be flooded in case of melting of the ice in the North Pole area...

How about Marco Polo? Everybody knows that Marco Polo was Italian. Well, apparently he was born in an island off the coasts of Dalmatia but at the time this island was Venetian, so this makes him Italian. However there are still doubts about his place of birth and, believe it or not, on such idiotic thing there are people that argue. I wish some people could get a proper job and a proper life with so many things to worry about! But this is not the point because according to my guide, Messer Marco Polo was born in Rome actually in a nearby city called Venice...
Mr. Polo's presence in China is also in doubt but my guide said something that it is really food for thoughts: If he was never in China, how come we have a Marco Polo bridge in Beijing? Good point! All the Robin hood pubs in Britain and the mythological names given to places and human buildings are then a proof that they do or did exist. How about the Devil's peak or, why not, God's Hand... they are a good proof of the existence of God.

How about the conquest of Japan by the hand of Chinese Emperor X (I do not remember the name, sorry) ... Funny enough I cannot recall it but I can tell you that according to my guide, China invaded japan a few times, last time during WWII and that's how they got the Chinese characters in their alphabet... Excellent!

But, the cake is Marco Polo most important notes that were about 3 things that really shocked him:

1. the Tea
2. the Jade carving
3. the Silk carving

Well well, let me tell you the program of the day...

1. Ming Tomb
2. Jade factory
3. Badaling Great Wall
4. Lunch
5. Silk factory
6. Tea House
7. Birds Nest and Olympic Village.

Funny enough, Marco Polo was impressed by the same things we would have been during this day-long trip! It's like saying that Lord Byron during his 2 year stay in Italy while he was writing the Lament of Tasso was impressed by the set of pots and pans and the Amway products and, by pure luck, the organised tour would have been selling... pots, pans and products from Amway to clen them! Wow!

In The Million, the book of the Italian nobleman, it is never mentioned the tea and this seems to be, by itself, the biggest reason of such controversy about the venetian in China.

You think of being in China 17 years and not noticing these: tea drinking, calligraphy, the binding of women's feet to keep them small, and, most glaring, the Great Wall of China. Add to this that Chinese history ignores him completely. There are no historical records about him being there.

However the importance of Marco Polo's digest was and is still remarkable considering all the information he supplied about what, many reckon, he was told by travellers in China. I leave to those who are experts and get the living out of controversies to discuss if it is true or not that Marco Polo was in China or not, but for sure, now we know what he liked most!

As I mentioned, just the guide, by himself was worth the cheap cost of the whole tour.

The weather has been crazy... when I came back from Europe, two weeks ago, it was extremely cold, these days we are above 30 degrees and getting hotter. Few things have changed around the city except that Visa are becoming more difficult to get, people are learning how to cross the roads in a more mannerly way, there are more people in yellow uniforms telling people that first you let people out of the carriage and then you enter, there are evening tests going on with the new automatic system to regulate people flow in and out all subway stations in Beijing. in Bank of China main office they introduced some displays telling you where to go when your number is called and there are no more men walking around to give information, just girls that stop every 5 minutes asking you in English if you are OK. The Olympics are closer!!!

I am really worried about August. Worried about my work and the way I will get here and the restrictions in place, but then I think of my tour guide telling us about the Bird's Nest stadium and I feel happy again. the Birds Nest has the shape of a bird nest, that's why it is called Birds Nest. It is all made of steel. The whole Olympic area will be sealed to the public except those with special passes can go through. This is due to increased security measures. China fears bombings by terrorists (Tibetans, Muslims and anti communist plotters). That's why they closed the whole Olympic area.

In the meantime something else is changed: the way the elevators go and I have to get used to it again... The canteen food is getting worse but the price has gone up by a mere 20%.

Not much more to report from Sunny Beijing, I am afraid except for something that made me very happy this week.

I was invited out by a client that wanted to thank me personally for the work I am doing here in China and he told me that "it will be a very sad for all of us, when you Lao Lu, will leave us to go back to Europe". I was touched by the comments because, you know, at our age it is not so common that people open their heart so easily, especially when doing business together. But it was a continuous list of appreciation for the professional and the person. This has made my day, my week and my month. It is nice to be liked by those you like and I found out to have a new name: Lao Lu. Lao is a form of particle used to show respect and Lu was taken as the first two letters of my name. Another person sitting at the table told me "this is how everybody calls you in our company and if this is OK for you we will continue calling you like this". I was really emotional and I gladly accepted my new, second, Chinese name.

Qui pro quo, misunderstandings... One of the sourest neighbours is doing some refurbishing work and while I was in Europe I was informed that my apartment was under an inch of dust and rubble coming from next door. Add to this a strong smell of paint and here it goes my apartment.... By the time I was back it was still a mess. I had asked the owner to talk to the management to send the cleaners before my arrival. NO, this was the answer. apparently they do not let cleaners in the apartments without the owner being around. It is 3 months that they go to clean my apartment without me being around. Anyway, during the 3 weeks I was away plus another week they have never cleaned the place because I told them not to do it. Today I got given the bill for the past month and I was told that it was due because the fact that the apartment wasn't cleaned for a month would have required more work than usual! Can you believe this? So I spoke to the owner, a Chinese American man, and he told the management company that I am very unhappy about the cleaners and I didn't want them anymore... ME? Who said that? He decided to cancel my contract with the cleaners and touching points that I didn't mention at all and deciding on my behalf that I had to clean the apartment by myself from now on, as if he was paying! Amazing... Language...


Anyway, this week coming will be the start of a new old life. I decided to lose weight again. Gym twice a day again!


Wish me luck! with this kind of temperature eating less is easy but moving more is a real tragedy...