10 Random thoughts from a Starbucks in Nanjing

1. Nanjing 1912 is what all of China would look like if Chiang Kai-shek had won the war.

2. Can’t decide which is turning me off more on the Olympics, CCTV 5 turning over all of the air time to Wang Meng or NBC just plowing the Olympic hockey gold storyline right through the snow and into bedrock.

3. Three things in China that are likely to result in an early demise for your correspondent: 1)  the mixture of stupidity, explosives, and alcohol that comes every Chinese New Year. 2) Being taken out by a driver with less than five months of experience behind the wheel and who had just enough money after purchasing a car to buy off the driving instructor. 3) That McDonald’s and KFC have competing 24-hour delivery services.

4) Vegas has taken the odds for #3 off of the board.

5) Nanjing is a surprisingly livable city. Of course I’ve only been here in the fall and spring, I understand that in the summer it’s like God’s own curling iron.

6) Toshiba laptop batteries suck donkey di

February 28th, 2010

Notes from Hangzhou

We rolled into Hangzhou early, which was kind of a surprise.  My recent experience on T-class trains, shunted aside as the ugly older sister to the vivacious newness of China’s burgeoning high speed network, is that they are forced to wait, silently fuming, as the gleaming bullets of Freudian modernity zip hither and yon, a situation which always causes me to tack on 45 extra minutes to the arrival time when traveling by budget rail.  Not this time.  We were into Hangzhou on the overnight from Beijing a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule which begs the question…just what does one do in Hangzhou at 6:30 in the morning?  Checking into the hotel is of course out of the question, so we hunkered down to a decent breakfast buffet at the modestly famous Zhiweiguan and plotted sites to see.  And see them we have.

A quick visit to the Geely automotive factory headquarters was a refreshing exercise in forced optimism (Volvo deal is coming! Car sales in the Ukraine are up!) and evasiveness (the US market still has “regulatory issues” to be overcome).   I suggested the strategy of a good car at a fair price to be politely quaint,

February 25th, 2010

Happy New Year

We’re in Tianjin for the New Year holiday and the explosions festivities are already underway.  I’m definitely looking forward to our walk back to the hotel tonight when half the city will be drunk out of their minds and either a) lighting off some form of improvised explosive device or b) weaving home in their new Hyundai that they just HAD to show off to the rest of the family during this time of togetherness.

Speaking of holiday sentiments, among the deluge of New Years SMS messages we’ve been wading through today, one of YJ’s acquaintances felt the customary wishes of good health and prosperity in the coming year were…a little too mushy, and so he decided to append a patriotic “ 国强胜英美” to his New Year’s SMS.

See…that’s what our Christmas cards were missing this year, I totally wussed out.  Next year though, I’m going with ”Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men, and GLOBAL DOMINATION in the coming year!” 

Happy New Year!

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Final note: Reading the annual wire service report on 春运 (do they just keep a template in a drawer and dust it off every year?) and I gotta say that at 8:30 this morning the Beijing South Rail Station was a ghost town.  Either everybody who would

February 13th, 2010

Obama’s meeting and the joys of counter scheduling

It was bound to happen, but you gotta love the timing…those of us who either yawped with rage (or at the very least smirked knowingly) when Beijing authorities chose last Christmas to sentence Liu Χiaοbο can at least yawp easier knowing that the Obama crew has decided to call the same play.  Yep, the much anticipated meeting with the DL will take place during the week of the Spring Festival, when the attention of most Chinese is focused on important matters such as family, dumplings, alcohol, and the use of small children and cigarettes to fire off highly unsafe explosive devices.

Proving once again that there is much that “The West” can learn from China.  Don’t believe me? Just ask Canada….

February 12th, 2010

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