The smile was so genuine.

Foreigners in the parade.

Two LED boards with “happy” and “sad” smileys were fixed on 10 bus stations in Beijing. Over 460 thousand Beijingers voted “happy” among the 820 thousand participants, a 56.06% ratio. Dengshi Xikou Station is the happiest spot among the 10 because of its closeness to Dongdan shopping malls and tourist attractions. Children’s Hospital Station is the saddest spot for obvious reasons.

Shanghai is awarded the second happiest city, the rest are Kunming, Xi’an, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.

“It is not a scientific and detailed statistic evaluation, but the result reflects certain facts”, according to “experts”.

Are you currently living in Beijing? Or have you been to Beijing? If yes, please share your experience by posting comments.

Be happy!

The old man’s head was hit on the car window.

There was blood on his head, one of his shoes was on the other side of the road.

He was in severe pain.

His right ankle was broken.

The police officer was asking for information, but he was still in trauma. All I heard was he’s only got his wife at home, whom is disabled from illness.

Finally the ambulance came, and he was being treated.

It was during rush hour. Automobiles still occupying the pedestrian crosswalk.

Pedestrian watching while crossing the street on the crosswalk squeezed by cars.

The ambulance took the injured old man and the trembling taxi driver away.

Car accident fatality rate in Japan–0.5%;

In the UK–1%;

In the United States–2%;

In China: 18% and increasing.

Call for all drivers: pedestrians need better road safety!!

According to State Statistics Bureau, there were 225,420,000 migrant workers across the country till the end of December 2008. Over 60% of them are working away from home, as waiters, construction workers, security guards, etc.

Most of the migrant workers are under-paid, have no proper insurance,  and are often asked to work overtime on a regular basis.

And the most difficult decision for them to make is whether they should take their family with them or just leave them behind.

It seems neither option is good enough, especially for their kids. Due to lack of support, fund, and general public awareness, the migrant and left-behind rural youths are having serious difficulties in receiving proper education. For those who came to the big cities with their parents, no proper schools are willing to accept them without paying an extra fee, and they have to move with their parents whenever they switch jobs.  They find it hard to make friends because they never stay at one place for long enough. For those who are left behind with their grand parents, the lack of parenthood also brings serious problems to their mental health. They generally have low self-esteem and are more vulnerable to harms. According to statistics, the number of juvenile crimes in recent years is increasing by 13% each year.

Established by Judy Shen in 2005, CAI is an organization that helps the migrant and left-behind youth in China restoring their confidence through various arts and sports programs. Sponsored in the media by CityWeekend, CAI recently launched the Meals that Matter campaign – a fundraising campaign intended to generate proceeds for the benefit of the character-building, arts and athletics programs CAI runs for the many migrant and displaced rural youth in the Beijing area. They have teamed with many selected restaurants all over the city in launching initiatives encouraging awareness of not just good dining, but also the empowerment of children in need.

At customers’ requests, our ¥5 initiative adds donations of ¥5 to their restaurant bills. In appreciation of this simple gesture of support, we offer bookmarks designed by the children in CAI’s Arts Programs. Our newly-created Voucher Booklet Initiative assembles a hefty collection of discount vouchers, donated by roughly fifty of the city’s top dining establishments. With the proceeds of these voucher booklets (sold for 299 RMB apiece) and the ¥5 initiative, CAI hopes to be able to purchase program sports equipment and art supplies, fund teacher-training programs in rural China, and support the establishment of our Promise School for gifted, rural students.

So when you go out dinning next time in Beijing, please demonstrate your charitable efforts through supporting the Meals that Matter campaign. Every penny you help to raise strengthens the awareness and thus effectiveness of CAI’s campaigns, helping them to improve young lives in China.

Be a part of the Beijing community for the good cause!

Photos courtesy of DonDomingo, stelzer, dongdawei, Chen Xuanyi,and CAI.

Usually this kind of interview consists of 3 steps: a self introduction in English, a demo lecture, and a private conversation with the employer.  Because more than often there are lots of applicants going through the first 2 steps together. I thought why don’t I make use of this?

Not like others starting with their names etc, the first thing I did was to put “RecordingBeijing.com” on the black board before rambling about my experiences, interests, methodology, etc.

Just imagine that, nearly a hundred English speaking Beijing inhabitants who will teach a hundred students each… What kind of marketing is more targetted and viral than that? And I do notice an increase in the number of visitors these days.

And the cost? RMB 1.6 bus fare.

What about your job you may ask. Well, I guess the employers didn’t like my blatant advertising very much… That’s the only reason I can think of.

Looking outside my window in the next morning, only the river is still covered with snow. No trace of it can be found on the streets due to heavy morning traffic.

These 2 were taken the next day when the snow became a little heavier.

Taken from above the river.

Some say the snow was man-made using rockets fired up to the sky. I don’t know for sure. But it does look like the effect of global warming is getting serious. I guess it wouldn’t be long when we have only one season on earth, a hot, sweaty summer. Or, extreme cold in some places and extreme hot in others.

But no need to worry, we intelligent humans are always capable of alter the nature using freaky machinery, equipments, techniques, technologies… We will have whatever season we want using rockets, a beam of laser light, a bunch of fire crackers, or just a simple click on the keyboard. We are the lord, if nature refuses to act in our favor, we’ll simply make it!

Until, until one day, everything looks like nature on this planet is actually man-made. You see why there must be a God? We humans can create a fake earth, why can’t God create a universe?

Maybe everything around us is actually created on purpose, with precise and complex design in mind.

God doesn’t need to be all divine, godly, and intangible, he maybe right now comfortably sitting in his armchair, clicking on keyboards, watching us little plastic toys running around in a computer screen, and laughing.

A little off topic. All I wanna say is climate change may takes decades or centuries to be evident for us living in it. But look from the perspective of the whole course of human history (from the 1st Homo Erectus to the day we die out), it will be just a blink of an eye, and a couple of pages in the Nature text books for the next batch of intellectual beings on earth (cockroaches or rats?).

There’s a famous ancient poem in China pretty sums up my feelings: “You don’t see the real Mount Lu, only because you are in it”.

According to official statistics, over 20 million migrant workers have returned home due to unemployment caused by the financial crisis. The number of new college graduates across the country is also estimated to reach 6.1 million, another record high.

If you are still complaining about your 9 to 5 rat race, unsatisfactory pay, over time, traffic, and all that “waste of life” theory, you might wanna have a look at the following snapshots and start feeling lucky.

In front of the main entrance.

Small companies that cannot afford the rental inside the center recruiting outside.

Security personnel near the gate.

Before entering the hall:

And after:

A journalist, or a just guy with similar hobby, using a whole lot better gear.

There were exhaustion,

frustration,

confusion,

pain,

but also laughter.

A stage play, where everybody play their own roles.

Life could still be confusing even when you are in your mid-40. Or does it actually become more confusing when you grow older?

Nomatter young or old, everyone needs to find a spot in life,

become another brick in the wall,

get used to it,

put your life in it,

even fall in love with it,

before you are thrown back to the wild again,

with less hair on your head, and 1 more page on your resume.

Hmm… time to feel grateful to my boss I guess, and start working on that @#$* assignment!

For Chinese, 2009, the year of ox, has some special meanings, especially after the earth quake, snow storm, financial crisis, and other hardships in the past year.

The word “ox” in Chinese is pronounced similar to “new”, but with a slight upward tone. People always attach their hope for the new year with the key characteristics of the animal. Being robust, bold, hard working, and faithful is naturally this year’s people’s hope for themselves and those around them.

Apart from the animal, “Niu” (“ox” in Chinese) also has a meaning of being great, and is used to praise somebody or something. For instance, you could say:”Huibo is so niu! He dared to quit his job in this declining economy!”

Therefore, the year of ox has been given really special meanings for all Chinese people. Have a look at snapshots of new year celebration at my parents’ place.

First thing in the morning, put on a pair of red socks with an image of a little man at the bottom and three words “cai xiao ren”, meaning the bad people will be under our feet and won’t do harm.

Visa, my sister’s doggy is just too cute not to show up here.

Then we pasted Spring Festival couplets on the door.

I was in charge of the fire crackers.

Then we had lunch with pork and lamb ribs as main dishes (a Mongolian tradition).

Then we went to the cinema and watched Red Cliff II. It was GREAT!

Before supper, we burnt some “paper money” and kowtow to our ancestors.

We had some Nian Gao (new year cake) for supper. “Nian Gao” has a meaning of being greater year after year.

And some yu (fish), which has a meaning of having more to spare every year.

Then we watched CCTV’s new year’s show. Xiao shenyang in the picture was hilarious.

Close to mid night, we fired up more fire crackers.

Then we had some delicious jiaozi (dumplings) at the beginning of 2009.

That’s it for the new year’s eve. With the Spring Festival lasts for 15 days, there’s more fun to come!

Happy Niu Year!

So they came to the train stations hours or even days earlier in order to get a good spot in the queue. But sometimes the chance of getting a ticket is still slim.

A cardboard left at a ticket office at Beijing Railway Station, it says “I’m the first, I came here yesterday”.

People waiting in the queue was not as many as I imagined. But some were still reluctant to leave before the next batch of tickets was released.

Chun Yun (Transport during the Spring Festival period) in China is one of the biggest movements of people on earth. It is estimated to be 2.32 billion person-time travel around the country by various means during this year’s Spring Festival.

Thanks to the Internet, complaints regarding the difficulties of buying train tickets have brought the attention of the central government. Mr. Hu Jintao issued a special order to solve the problems.

Then, Deputy Director of the State Railway Department, Wang Zhiguo, made a public apology on TV.

Regarding the Ticket Office Scandal video (a video showing a railway personnel suspicious of selling bulk tickets to ticket scalpers), he said “there was a misunderstanding, but it has hurt our passengers’ feelings”.

According to Southern Daily, one of the few newspapers that have some independent journalistic spirit, a Real Name System can fundamentally solve the problem. But the Railway Department refuses to implement such a system because of technical difficulties. Whereas our neighbor India has already done that 70 years ago.

]]> http://www.recordingbeijing.com/home-home-im-coming-home/feed/ 4 http://www.recordingbeijing.com/aids-in-china/ http://www.recordingbeijing.com/aids-in-china/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:20:42 +0000 huibo http://www.recordingbeijing.com/?p=733 Well, everyone knows whatever figures the Chinese government releases, they don’t really reflect any reality. But still, I was amazed at the “official” figure of the number of infected AIDS patients. 44,389 people are being reported to be infected with the deadly disease from January to September this year, among which 6,897 people were killed (according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health).

According to the official data, the number of patients in Yunnan, Guangxi, Henan, Xinjiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan provinces represent 80% of the total infected.

“Currently we are performing pharmacentical tests among some 7,000 patients from 15 provinces. One of the drugs was approved by the state, and the others are still undergoing experiments”, said Wang Weizhen, Deputy Manager of the AIDS Prevention and Treatment Department of the Ministry of Health.

According to another research conducted by China Preventive Medicine Association and Beijing Chaoyang District Disease Control Center, till the end of 2008, the chance of male homosexual partners being infected with the disease will reach 9.31%.

To be honest, I don’t have a clear idea what the above numbers mean to me. But I know what the people infected with the disease are facing in their daily life.

I remember 2 years ago when I was watching an underground documentary (please refer to the picture below) telling the story of a rural family in Henan Province where the wife died from AIDS because of medical misplay during her blood transfusion. A great number of villagers trade their blood for money at disqualified medical institutions at the time. The story of the family in the documentary are just a fraction of the whole picture. I still recall the moment when the father wept at her dying wife while kept whipping off flys on her face…

I don’t mean to be negative about what the government and the public is trying to deal with the problem. I’m just trying to be perfectly honest about my perception of it. The media is not open and impartial (though improving) as you may have imagined ( and it’s not perfect in any country), I’m just emphasizing that the real situation is way more dangerous than what the official figures indicate. One tip, the real population in China is higher than the official figure due to the “Hukou” policy. You may live as a human being in this country, but you may not be recorded as one if you don’t have “Hukou”…

We just have more to deal with than what we have imagined!