In the past three month I have visited a total of 8 Chinese provinces/multiplicities. My original motive for this travel was to see as much as possible of my home country before I suddenly find myself no longer a student. Unlike many kiwis, I don't like to do OEs as travel isn't really on my favourite list.

However, people, have become another important attraction for me. I was warmly welcomed by my friends online, especially those from twitter in every stage of my travel; some even kindly offered me free accommodations. They come from a variety of background: university students, white-collar workers, social activists whom have spent time in Chinese jails and government officers who are living in a very affluent life.

China is a land full of opportunities. The country is like a giant construction site and everything is played in fast-forward motion - I experienced this in Shanghai, literally. I was circling around Shanghai for about 2 weeks, visiting surrounding cities. Two weeks later, when I get back to Shanghai, I nearly got lost as I was troubling to find the very same accommodation I lived two weeks ago - everything around has changed, business were closed for some kind of redevelopment.

However, this incredible speed comes at a hefty price. Every person I have met, regardless of whether they are pro communist party or not, admit that this country cannot continue on this road forever, both socially and economically. Chinese society has become a kind of jungle, where the strongest survive and become affluent in every way, leaving very little physical and social resources for the poor and less fortunate ones.

This itself isn't wrong, however, relative strength of a person isn't decided he or her ability and skills, but money, power, and guanxi. This left the socially and economically disadvantage group very little opportunity to succeed, making the gaps bigger and bigger as time goes by.

Anyway, enough for the political side.  If you have a few thousand NZ$ floating around, China is a good place to go. It offers you pretty much everything you can imagine at a very modest price. My budget was about #3,000. The only problem is time, China is huge - I was only able to experience a slice of China - Panda, Great Wall, Terracotta Army and Shanghai in three month's time, there are a lot of place I want to go but couldn't find enough time and money.

I'm planning to stay in the country for about 3 month.For most of the time I'll be staying in my hometown , however, I'm also planning to visit number of Chinese cities including Shanghai and Beijing.

I'll be arriving in Shanghai sometime tomorrow morning (2oth) and visiting  cities like Nanjing and Hangzhou in the surrouding area for two weeks before I get to my hometown, Chengdu. So, anyone who would like to buy me a meal, the time to contact me is now :)

I don't think I'll be able to access the Internet for quite a while, I don't have a laptop, and I heard that the Great Firewall of China is now more capable than any other internet censorship system existed in this world. However, I can assure you that this is not the last post of 2009, if I have time and access  then I may update while on the go.

If anyone wants to find me, just leave a message to my email or here, I'll get back to you as soon as possible, but do expect delays.

See you in China:)

But before I go, there are still exams I have to do.

So, the plan is I'll be leaving on 20th November. Before I get home I'll be having a stopover in Shanghai for about 2 weeks. During the period I'll be visiting cities around the area, most likely Hangzhou and Nanjing. Schedule for Beijing is still not yet decided, I'm trying to arrange a trip to North Korea, if it is possible to get into Kim's Realm , Beijing would be part of that trip.

There are several other places like Xinjiang and Taiwan on my list but not planned yet. I highly doubt I'll be able to go as my wallet would unlikely to allow me to do so.

I'll be on my own for most of the time in China, so anyone who would like to buy me a lunch or dinner  will be  much appreciated :)

I 'm only interested in the Resource Management Act part, so here's what the briefing said.

• Devolved RMA decision-making has exacerbated capacity issues in local government and led to variability in planning controls and consent processing. It is often difficult (both practically and politically) for councils to factor national benefits, priorities and strategies into planning and decision making when the costs of decisions fall locally.
• Central government is now making more use of the RMA instruments that offer greater national direction, involvement and guidance. Because there is no overall strategy for use of these powers, there is a lack of certainty about when and how central government will intervene.
• Under current RMA practice, effective and efficient resource allocation is not occurring, and new or expanding high-value uses are not being provided for. Problems are most keenly felt where resources are approaching or at full allocation in some areas: fresh water, coastal space, and air-sheds.
• The current ‘first-come-first-served’ system evolved from case law in the absence of central government direction, in a period of less resource competition.

Another thing worth to notice is that MfE stressed that "Meeting New Zealand’s international climate change obligations" as part of critical issues for environmental sustainability - bit harder for Rodney Hide to explain why he wants to dump the carbon credit system.

The problem is, it's New Year's Eve today. In Chinese tradition, tonight is the night of family union. When I was young, Chinese New Year Holiday was always the happiest time, you get lots of good food, presents (most time this means Cash in the Red envelope), just like the importance of Christmas for youngsters here.

But now it seems a lot of people may not able to make it on time and see their child's happy face.

The word "home" has a very special place in the hearts of Chinese People, especially for the migrant workers. In most cases you only get to see your family, your wife or your husband and your children once a year, and now is a time.

In rest of the year, they work long hours for low pay, they save every hard earned cent - never spend more than housing and food cost, so they can bring more money home and hope to get their child a better life, and we can cheaper goods from China.

They are the powerhouse of the booming Chinese economy and yet they received a lot of unfair treatment. When they lived in the tents outside train stations in sub-zero temperature, I saw no one in the local government ever considered somethine like "maybe we should open covered stadiums, schools and get all the empty hotel rooms for them".

Another news says a train was running without air conditioning, food, and water. When the train finally stopped for waterfor more than ten hours, while the trainmen can get off the train and have their food, passengers were prohibited from leaving the train.

It's such a shame for the Chinese authority, what a poor management.

My best wishes are with the people still on their way home, hope them could have a peaceful, and joyful Chinese New Year of Rat with the warmth of their home.

I don't want say which suburb is, that's for you to guess ... it's in Auckland though. Abundance of greens, nice terraced houses, but very unfriendly people. I was stopped by at least three peoplein one hour, they questioned and treated me like a thief or a foreign spy who got their personal secretes in the camera.

I think I'd better own a UoA shirt so next time when people start to think that they have captured a foreign spy, instead of endless explanations, I may just point them the university insignia on the shirt .

Apart from that spy thing, I quite like the style of houses there. Some terraced houses look really even you know that they are at least 30 years old.

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There seems to be a lot of photos from this suburb on Wikipedia, so I didn't upload below ones there. Regular cc-by-nc-nd copyright still applies.

So this break to Avondale today is very precious to me - possibly the last before the exams at 19 June. It sounds a long way away but don't forget I now again have 3 assaignments need to be done simultaneously.

Photos below are just for one of my assaignments, which is an insight investigation on Avondale. As other contents in this blog, they are available under Creative common license by-nc-nd.

Heron Park - Avondale/Waterview

Avondale College - luckiest school with that luckiest fire....

Oakley Walkway

Oakley Walkway

Northwestern Motorway - Rosebank Road onramp

关于成都的更多资料，请参考中文维基百科：成都。（在某些地区也许被封锁）

For you people that have no idea about China, Chengdu is a major city and capital of Sichuan Province in south-west China, and my hometown. For more information, see Chengdu in English Wikipedia.

为纪念三国时期蜀汉丞相诸葛亮而兴建的武候祠。现存武候祠为惠陵、汉昭烈庙、武侯祠合并而来，上图中所示则为纪念刘关张结义的三义庙。

The Wuhou Shrine is the place to sacrifices Zhuge Liang, the Premier of Han of three kingdoms period, and one of the greatest Chinese strategists, statesman, engineer, scholar, and inventor.

武候祠里的出师表。

Chinese Calligraphy in Wuhou Shrine. For more information on the history behind this calligraphy, see Wikipedia article: Chu Shi Biao.

锦里，在武候祠旁新发展的一片仿古建筑，至少我没搞清楚，这些东西除了骗骗游客的钱，还能干什么。

Jingli, an newly developed tourists attraction consists of buildings in old chinese style. Inside are mostly shops.

青羊宫，中国最著名的道教宫观之一，也是成都市内现存建筑年代最久远、规模最大的一座道教宫观。

The Qingyang Taoist Temple, one of the most famours taoist temples in China and possibly the oldest in Chengdu.

杜甫草堂，这个不用多介绍了吧？

Dufu Thatched Cottage， the residence of a well-known Chinese poemist Du Fu(712-770).

成都电视塔正在庆祝成为“全国最佳旅游城市”：虽然我实在没感觉到这个城市对游客有什么特殊的地方。

Chengdu Television Tower is celebrating that City just been awarded the title "Best cities for tourism in China".

who said that Kiwi can't fly?

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 The full post is in Bear's Blog China in both Chinese and English, for more details,visit:

http://arctosia.blog.sohu.com/34299124.html

 You all should seen picture like this some time before, Shanghai's CBD. The tower is called Oriental Pearl, and if you look the picture closely you could there are two ''globals', that's conference centre.

Opposite to CBD, this riverside street is called something like 'international buildings museum. As the result of foreign occupation past, you could see buildings with different style in one street.

The Tomb of Xu Guangqi, Chinese agricultural scientist and mathematician born in Shanghai, and possibly the first mainland Chinese Catholic, influenced by Matteo Ricci.

The tomb of Lu Xun, considered as the most influential Chinese write in 20th century. Chinese people are still studying his writing style; some of his writings are now in Chinese textbook from elementary school right up to university.

A corner of Shanghai's metro system. It consists of four lines right across the whole city, and there are still 4-5 more lines in building process. I was amazed by its convenience as it was my only type of transport, through it may get very overcrowded in peak time.

The birthplace of Chinese Communist Party.  It is now a museum and has things that you would expect to see in any Chinese history textbook(Like the official always claim that Chinese people chosen the communism themselves) 

It's a holy place for some people however I was the only tourist inside that building either because its non tourists peak time or just no one would like to spend their money to places like this one?

Photo is not allowed inside the building and I got at least two guards constantly follow me as they don't have other people to follow.

The exhibition was quite boring but I remember one thing very clearly.  That's when I was in the restroom and I noticed, from basin to hand drier, the communists love only one brand: American Standard.
 

Thank you, Torpark!

That's the reason I cannot update this blog in last few days.

As you may know I was in Shanghai for last week. I've never been to that city before so it’s the first time for me.

My first impression of my 'motherland' is neither high rise buildings nor the overall size of this city, but ... let's say a feeling while I was clearing the custom.

 I said hello and handed my passport to the official, then strange thing happened. That guy, let's say that guy, used a very indescribable way, a very strange way to just looking at my face. That process continued for about a minute and he just keep looking at my face and that really makes me feel bad.

I thought the photo on that passport didn't take long time ago and I should look similar as the passport shown, but because his strange behaviour I didn't say a word, neither did he.

And for god's sake he finally handed my passport to me, and still not a word.

Shanghai is generally a very modern city. The thing I desire about this city the most is its very convenient public transport. The tube or the underground railway can take to me anywhere in this city and I don't have to walk more than 30 minutes, and it is terribly faster than any other ways of transport, though the Line 1-3 may get overcrowded in peak hours.

You don't have to bring any cash to use Shanghai's public transport. The city has a 'public transportation card', which is bit like a prepay card, once you added money into that card you can use them to ride any of city's public transport, from taxi to bus, and so the tube.

I think Auckland City should really consider about building the underground railway.

Another thing worth to mention is Shanghai's house price. In Auckland we are paying more and more to get your castle. And the situation is even worse in Shanghai: 6000 - 7000 Yuan per square metre (approx NZ$1200 per square) metre can only insure yourself an apartment more than 40 km away from the city centre.

How about in the city? My friend told me that one of her classmate's grandparents just sold their old, poorly maintained apartment in the City, which was about 50,000 Yuan per square metre(approx NZ$10,000 per square metre), if my memory serves my right, but its close to that.

For your information, an ordinary middle class in Shanghai earns about 6,000 – 10,000 Yuan per month. How about poor people?

And remember all houses I was talking about are apartments.

Shanghai is a commercial city so there are not many attractions you can look at. Shanghai got a tower which is similar to some said 'nasty tower' in Auckland. It is called Dong Fang Ming Zhu or oriental pearl. It's bit higher than the Sky Tower but once you get on that you could feel totally different. It's green you see on the Sky Tower, but on that oriental pearl, everywhere I was looking was grey, high rise buildings, smokes, just the grey colour.

Other attractions? I don't think you people will have interest on that, I also visited the tomb of first Chinese Christian in mainland China, the place where the Communist party of China was born.

Because the way I am accessing this blog the connection is very very slow, I'll try to upload some of the photos in Shanghai in another blog post, and more comments there. Keep watching.