Tag travel in china

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.

shoerepair

CHINESE SHOE REPAIR

I celebrated “National Day” by going over to a local Kunming flea market. They sell everything from soup to nuts. And yes….. I found the iPhone there as well. Strange as it seems this is the real deal (not fake copy). So much for the Apple’s position of only having this phone in the US through AT&T. The function and interface was exactly the same as the US version, except it ONLY has Chinese language. But of course it is unlocked and works anywhere. They are selling it for 4200 RMB ( $559.85). I’ll just wait and pick one up in the US, take it to Bangkok, and get it unlocked for $10. However China does make 2 copies of the iPhone as well. One is very good and even has some better features, the other (CECT) is a lame attempt, as it has some buttons. For about $150.00, who cares?

I also came across this fellow selling the miracle shoe repair glue. He was quite the character as he demonstrates this stuff. Check out the video. You get 3 tubes for 5 RMB ( $0.66). I can’t resist a bargain, so I whipped off my python boot and threw it at him for a “hands on” demo. A crowd gathered and off he went with his glue on my boot. A minute later he had indeed fixed my ripped boot! I was sold! Gimme 6, handing him 10 RMB. He handed me 2 bottles and refused take my money! I guess the Lao Wei advertisement factor was payment enough for him. Still I wanted more, but I couldn’t get him to understand, so I walked away with only two. As I left, another person was taking off her shoe to get it fixed!

I think next week I’ll repackage this stuff and sell it as a nylon hose repair miracle. Demo videos to follow………………hehe………………………

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.


hobby


MY NEW HOBBY

If there is one thing the Chinese know well…. it’s kites. I mean after all they invented them a few thousand years ago!

Kunming is the perfect place for this activity. Nice weather and windy! So I decided to get set up and start flying! I found a kite shop near Dauguan Park where they make their kites. I bought a 1 meter nylon job and a kite line reel. Check out the pic and you can see my rig. I’m at Fujian Lake launching my kite here. This rig is stainless steel loaded with 1500 meters of special line. This machine is unlike anything around. I’ve looked all over the web and nobody makes these, but they seem to be a standard design here in China. I paid $22.00 for it, and another $3.75 for the hand made kite.

On any day the sky is filled with kites here. It’s a lot of fun that involves more skill than I first thought. You’ve got to pay attention to keep it flying and slowly get to altitude. I’m able to get all 1500 meters of line out most of the time. It turns out that you end up getting some good exercise out of this as well.

I bought another kite thats a parafoil design. Much bigger at about 1.5 meters across and total of about 5 meters long. This one almost goes into the power kite category. It has some serious pull flying this baby. After you get this one back down, your arms feel like they are going to fall off!

Anyway, it’s a fun sport that requires little investment, plus I can load up my little moto and take it anywhere. Every year the world’s famous kite city in Eastern China (Weifang) holds it’s kite exhibition. Competitors from all over the world come here to take part. I’m planning to go next year.