Tag living in china

Swimming with the Fishes

SWIMMING WITH THE FISHES

Last Tuesday night the rains rolled in on Kunming. It was dumping rain with no let up for several hours. The water was so heavy that the noise kept me awake all night. By the next day, Kunming was completely flooded. Major streets were under a foot of water, and much of the area was 3 feet deep. The ap photo is a good shot of downtown. I found this China news release….

“Downtown areas in the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, were almost all flooded with up to a meter of water in places after a six-hour rainstorm over Tuesday night.

The city’s traffic was seriously disrupted and many people complained they were late for work as the major avenues were all under water.

More seriously, some junior high students were late for the annual entrance examination to senior high school, which began on Wednesday, but local education authorities allowed latecomers to be given extra time.

The city’s international airport was also closed on Tuesday morning as the runways were waist-deep in water. As of 7 p.m., more than 150 flights were delayed and more than 3,500 passengers were stranded.

More than 20 flights to Kunming had to land in the neighboring municipality of Chongqing instead.

The airport reopened at 5 p.m. and flights to Beijing and Shanghai took off. However, at 8 p.m., more than 1,000 passengers waiting still stranded.

More rain was forecast in the next two days and the China Meteorological Administration asked local governments to prepare.

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-04 08:06
Since Monday, heavy rains in Yunnan province have killed five people and affected more than 60,000 others, local authorities said Thursday.

The provincial civil affairs department said that as of 4 pm yesterday, more than 2,100 houses had collapsed, 14,200 others had been damaged, and about 2,500 people had been evacuated.

Kunming, the provincial capital, on Tuesday recorded its third-highest rainfall since records began in 1951. Up to a meter of water fell in the city center during a six-hour storm that inundated major roads and buildings, the department said.”

I had to drive across town at 1am that night. It was raining so hard I could barely see to drive. I haven’t seen this much rain since coming here 3 years ago! But all’s well on the home front. I managed to keep my powder dry….

Wait a week…… it will all change

WAIT A WEEK…IT WILL ALL CHANGE

Kunming, like all over China is changing faster than anyplace I have ever seen. In some of my past posts I referred to this as well. Much of this desire by the government to renew China is quickly wiping out it’s own cultural history. Hutongs in Beijing are almost extinct now. Historic villages and cities are torn down and rebuilt with modern condos.

Here in Kunming alone, thousands of condos have been torn down in just the last year. The old city center with buildings several hundred years old, is all gone save for about a 2 block strip. I think it is also earmarked for destruction. I was just through there and noticed the brick walls going up down the street. Soon after that they usually begin knocking down the buildings behind the walls.

These pictures show the destruction of two condo buildings downtown. 1 week later this park appears. Kunming seems to be replacing most of the old condo spaces with large parks, which really is a great improvement. All the people displaced by removing the condos, are given brand new condos that are being built SW of the city center. I must say that the new ones are quite impressive and a big step up for the people getting them. When a condo is ready for these people, they hold a lottery where they draw a number to see what condo you get. Seems like a fair enough system to me.

Still it is sad to see many historic buildings taken away to make room for high rise glass office buildings. Preservation of these buildings take a back seat to progress in China. I hope this attitude will change before China evolves into a place showcased by modern steel and glass cities. Time will tell.

stinkin horse!

I DON’T NEED NO STINKIN HORSE!

My car insurance agent just told me a story about one of his clients. I had taken my car to him for my free engine cleaning, a benefit this company provides to their customers. He says how nice it is to have me as a customer because we are good to take care of our car. Still, his job is hard because of so much trouble many customers make for him.

Then he told me of one customer that is a farmer who just came into some $$$ because they found iron ore on his property near Kunming. So this guy goes out and buys a new “E’ class Mercedes. It cost him over 1 million RMB.

I’m sure you all have seen pictures of the horse driven stone grinders used to make corn flour. This farmer dude decided to retire his horse, and rig up his new Benz for the task. He enjoys driving it in circles, day after day making his corn meal! I hope to go get some pics of this later.

Another farmer, who also bought a Benz, uses his on the farm as well. He’s a pig farmer! He actually crams pigs in his car to take them to the market. Now he doesn’t need a special license to bring animals into the city. This guys a thinker! No kidding, this stuff happens here.

LET EM EAT…CHICKEN

Slowly but surely China succumbs to western decadence. Hooters has just recently opened a branch in Shanghai. Actually they have 3 locations in Shanghai now! My friend Chris sent me this camera phone pic while he was there just last night. While Hooters is certainly no “strip joint”, it does symbolize the epitome of an establishment dedicated to eye candy. I don’t think you go to Hooters for the fine cuisine.

I was surprised to see that China would allow such a venue, even for Shanghai. China is quite conservative when it comes to the “nightclub” scene. Of course there are plenty of nightclub shows featuring scantily clothed girls, but these are produced like a stage show so they pass as “art”, making them allowable in China. These shows are not intended to titillate the audience in the manner of a traditional girl show like in a go-go bar. Frankly these productions are a lot more entertaining than just watching some girls shaking it on stage.

Hooters by definition is a family restaurant, but it’s real purpose is showcasing young girls dressed to show their assets. I mean you can’t possibly want to go there just to eat greasy chicken wings! I think this is why a Hooters in China earmarks a big change in Chinese attitudes toward “entertainment”. Maybe you have to live in China to really appreciate what a big deal this is for China. As for me, I guess I will have to go there and see for myself………. for the chicken I mean.

No-car Day

September 22 was a banner day throughout China. It marks China’s first participation in the International No Car Day where everyone is supposed to leave their car at home. China ordered 108 cities here to ban cars and use only public transport. This is a big deal for modern China to do. First, there are more cars being produced in China than anywhere in the world. The Chinese in just recent years have become the largest consumers of cars. It is a sign of wealth and success to throw away the bike and buy a car. The sad fact is that the Chinese have little idea how to actually use cars. They still think bike rules apply for driving a car. As a result, China has the highest fatality rate in the world through car accidents. Last year over 100,000 deaths attributed to car accidents here. Couple this with the explosive growth rate of car ownership in China, and this will only get worse.Kunming is a city about the same size as Seattle metro area. Seattle has about 1 million people and typical major car congestion problems. Kunming has over 5 million people AND over 400 new cars a day are added to it’s streets! You can see the problems with cars here are out of control compared to Seattle. Beijing is adding 1000 new cars a day to their city. Growth like this is not found anywhere else in the world. Needless to say, driving in China is both dangerous and not at all pleasant. My car generally stays in the garage unless we are going out of town. I use my moto everywhere, which is fast and easy.So today all cars were banned from Kunming. I went into town and still found the streets very busy, but nothing like it normally is here. The only thing driving was the busses and taxi’s. It was strange to see the roads full of only taxi’s everywhere. You should see the video I did. I still can’t believe how many taxi’s there are in Kunming!

UPDATE 10/19/07………

Kunming newspaper Dushi Shibao is reporting that beginning on the 27th of this month, “Kunming will be the first city in China to have monthly ‘No-car days'”. After this month, private cars will be banned from entering the city’s ring road between the hours of 9:00 am and 7:00 pm on the fourth Saturday of each month.

On September 22 Kunming was one of more than 100 Chinese cities to ban private cars downtown during the day. For twelve hours, downtown Kunming’s streets were primarily occupied by buses, taxis, electric scooters and bicycles. The city’s effort was one of the most successful in the country, while Beijing and Shanghai’s no-car days received lukewarm reviews.

According to municipal government statistics, September’s no-car day had a significant effect on air quality. Carbon monoxide levels dropped 32.9 percent, nitrogen dioxide levels dropped 45.1 percent, ozone was down 39.5 percent, carbon dioxide was down 15.4 percent and airborne particulate matter was reduced by more than one-fifth.