Posts Tagged ‘Beijing’

And ... I'm back.

I was hoped I could be able to update everything while on the go, but as one of the problems of travelling alone is that I have to plan everything myself, there was very little time for me to actually take care of this blog. So my apology for my laziness and not updating this blog for more than 3 month.

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.

Ministry of Truth on Fire!

My deepest condolences to the family of the firefighter who died on his duty, but it's also extremely fortunate that Mandarin Oriental Hotel (owned by cctv) is not completed yet so it's likely that nobody was actually inside the building.

But no sympathy for CCTV though, it deserves this, and with little bit of guilt, I was kind of hoping that  the main building also catches the fire.

And I was amazed on how fast the social network like Twitter responded to this news. Pictures of the building on fire were already widely circulated less than half an hour after the fire, and official media were busy reporting another fire in Australia ... another prove to show that even the State thinks foreign lives are more valuable than Chinese.

About ... Beijing Olympics

Although some people always say that sports games should not to be politicised, but let's face it, it's impossible to separate two apart - people mix sports and politics all the time.

I can throw you a dozen of examples to prove this: 1936 "Hitler" summer Olympics, 1980 winter and summer Olympics, which America boycotted the games, Munich massacre and to NZers, the recent visa restrictions that stopped number of Fiji sport teams ... and much more.

Whenever there's a protest broke out, the Chinese official's stand is "any attempt to politicise the Olympic games will ultimately fail because it againsts the will of sports-loving people."

However, what I saw is, if there was anyone attempting to politicise Olympic Games, the first one must be Chinese government itself - this game is far more than a game for Chinese Government, it's a event where it attempts to buy global respectability.

The games was also used in propaganda campaign inside China and excuses to force ordinary people to sacrifice their freedom of speech or property.

It is so politicised that the government won't allow any flaws of this game to get exposed to the World, just like this accident most of you probably have never heard about it until now.

The point is, just like commercialisation of Olympic Games, it will also get politicised from time to time. Every one has the right, the freedom to express their opinion and execise what they think like boycott the game or praise it, so I don't think it's wrong to get politics involved in the Olympic Games, and I am very disappointed on New Zealand's attempt to stop kiwi athletes from commenting on political issues.

The choice of whether to comment on the game and/or related political issues should up to each athlete's individual conscience, the last thing we need is a nanny state telling Kiwi Olympians what is right or wrong.

However, I'm not saying which side in this highly disputed game is right: only the time would tell who stands on the moral high ground.