A little advice: When in Shenyang, better avoid parking under bank branch signs on a windy day..... or else:
Montag, 11. Juni 2012
Freitag, 8. Juni 2012
If the world would come to an end, it would probably be wet.
Last weekend we had one of the worst thunderstorms in years or even ever - at least that`s what several colleagues and students told us, and they should now, as some of them live here their whole life already.
It really had the darkest sky, the strongest winds and the heaviest rains I´ve ever experienced in China so far that day. Of course we stayed home, but could see the road from our window, people being unable to hold their umbrellas up or keep on their scooters or bicycles due to the wind, and wade or drive through knee-deep water on the road.
On some underpasses the water level obviously was far more critical, as you can see on the picture, taken by a friend not that far away from our apartment and put on weibo. We even heard a person drowned during the rain. Our condolences.
Maybe a good thing we could take out of this - the following day we had a BBQ on our rooftop and it started raining. And everybody was just happy it wasn`t as heavy a storm as the day before.....
Dienstag, 22. Mai 2012
Saving Inner Mongolia. At least a little bit.
Until about 60 years ago, Ke´erqin 科尔沁 in Inner Mongolia was covered with grass plains and smaller forests. Mongolian nomads were roaming through this area every now and then with their herds. Then they were forced (or "encouraged" ) to settle down by the Chinese government. China`s northeast has arid climate and strong winds, bringing in sand from the nearby Gobi desert, especially in spring. As the Mongolians (and Chinese) settled down, built villages, cultivated the land and raised and increased their herds, they used up too much of the scarce water, too many trees were cut down for firewood and construction, and the thin layers of fertile soil got blown away by the the desert winds and replaced by sand.
The result is the Ke´erqin "sandy land".
In fact a deforested (or "deplained" ) spot of land, but unlike a real desert it`s not too late yet to do something about it.
That`s where we came in - a group of about 40 people consisting of students of the Japanese language department and a handful of foreign teachers, spending a weekend for a, well, kind of a "infotainment action tour" to try to reverse the ongoing desertification of parts of Inner Mongolia at least a tiny little bit. And have fun while doing it.
Ke´erqin desert and the neighbouring town of Ganqika (甘旗卡) are about 300 km northwest from Shenyang, in the border region of the provinces Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. After a four hour busride
and "lunch on the bus" (see the following picture), we arrived at a section where for a couple of years now reforestation action is taken.
Every year a little more terrain is conquered back from the desert by planting long rows of young trees and ensuring the water supply for the dryest months of the year in spring. The coming year then more trees are planted in the neighbouring area.
So we had to walk through already reforested terrain for a while to get to the spot where we were supposed to plant new trees:
And then it`s just three more simple steps:
1. Take shovel, dig hole.
2. Put young tree in the hole, put soil back in the hole.
3. Give the little fella a good start by pouring a bucket of water over him.
Do this with a bunch of people and in about an hour you get already about 300 trees planted:
If these measures will do any good long-term and stop desertification in the area, I guess only time will tell. At least we tried. A little.
To get a feeling for how fertile the soil and the whole region once was and hopefully one day can be again, we made a stop at the only one hour away Daqinggou (大青沟) primeval forest, a habitat that could be preserved:
The next day it was time for the fun part - horse riding in the sandiest part of Ke´erqin desert. We were each equipped with a horse and a Mongolian guide and then took off for a one hour "stroll" through the dunes:
And for the atmospheric finish of this post, a single mongolian rider in the dunes:
The result is the Ke´erqin "sandy land".
In fact a deforested (or "deplained" ) spot of land, but unlike a real desert it`s not too late yet to do something about it.
That`s where we came in - a group of about 40 people consisting of students of the Japanese language department and a handful of foreign teachers, spending a weekend for a, well, kind of a "infotainment action tour" to try to reverse the ongoing desertification of parts of Inner Mongolia at least a tiny little bit. And have fun while doing it.
Ke´erqin desert and the neighbouring town of Ganqika (甘旗卡) are about 300 km northwest from Shenyang, in the border region of the provinces Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. After a four hour busride
and "lunch on the bus" (see the following picture), we arrived at a section where for a couple of years now reforestation action is taken.
Every year a little more terrain is conquered back from the desert by planting long rows of young trees and ensuring the water supply for the dryest months of the year in spring. The coming year then more trees are planted in the neighbouring area.
So we had to walk through already reforested terrain for a while to get to the spot where we were supposed to plant new trees:
And then it`s just three more simple steps:
1. Take shovel, dig hole.
2. Put young tree in the hole, put soil back in the hole.
3. Give the little fella a good start by pouring a bucket of water over him.
Do this with a bunch of people and in about an hour you get already about 300 trees planted:
If these measures will do any good long-term and stop desertification in the area, I guess only time will tell. At least we tried. A little.
To get a feeling for how fertile the soil and the whole region once was and hopefully one day can be again, we made a stop at the only one hour away Daqinggou (大青沟) primeval forest, a habitat that could be preserved:
The next day it was time for the fun part - horse riding in the sandiest part of Ke´erqin desert. We were each equipped with a horse and a Mongolian guide and then took off for a one hour "stroll" through the dunes:
And for the atmospheric finish of this post, a single mongolian rider in the dunes:
Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012
How spring is made in Shenyang.
At the end of March we had the last snow here, and as I asked my students what they would call the season we are in right now last week, most of them answered "summer". And yes, they know the difference between "summer" ,"spring" and the other seasons in English (or German).
I`ve already heard a couple of times before from local Chinese that here there are only two "real" seasons here in Shenyang, summer and winter, with spring and fall beeing short four-week appendixes of the two former.
Well, I must admit temperatures rose quickly in April and since three weeks hit almost constantly 20 degrees and more during daytime, but still I´d call that spring. What astonished me at first was how fast all trees, plants and bushes in the city started to bud and blossom - about one week after the last snow falls the cherry trees were already in full bloom:
And about one week later the whole city was a lot greener - even at spots where I couldn`t remember having realized trees or something else nature-like standing there before.
Well, a couple of days later I solved this mystery - while passing a gang planting new, already green trees delivered by a huge truck on the roadside of a big alley:
The trees are brought in from forests and green houses outside of town or from further south in China, where spring isn`t just a four week season. And where winter doesn`t end at the end of March.
Well, we did our best to contribute to Shenyang getting greener with buying heaps of plants for our rooftop garden in the last couple of weeks - it has become a wonderful place to enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather these days - be it spring or summer.....
I`ve already heard a couple of times before from local Chinese that here there are only two "real" seasons here in Shenyang, summer and winter, with spring and fall beeing short four-week appendixes of the two former.
Well, I must admit temperatures rose quickly in April and since three weeks hit almost constantly 20 degrees and more during daytime, but still I´d call that spring. What astonished me at first was how fast all trees, plants and bushes in the city started to bud and blossom - about one week after the last snow falls the cherry trees were already in full bloom:
And about one week later the whole city was a lot greener - even at spots where I couldn`t remember having realized trees or something else nature-like standing there before.
Well, a couple of days later I solved this mystery - while passing a gang planting new, already green trees delivered by a huge truck on the roadside of a big alley:
The trees are brought in from forests and green houses outside of town or from further south in China, where spring isn`t just a four week season. And where winter doesn`t end at the end of March.
Well, we did our best to contribute to Shenyang getting greener with buying heaps of plants for our rooftop garden in the last couple of weeks - it has become a wonderful place to enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather these days - be it spring or summer.....
Dienstag, 24. April 2012
China`s view is slightly different.
As there are a lot of maritime military maneuvers going on in east asian water these days, with all East and South East Asian nations, the USA and Russia involved, and China until today having 16 unresolved territorial disputes over islands and ressources in the west pacific with virtual every neighbouring country, I present you two interesting links to this topic, one in german, one in english, for further reading:
aus der Zeit: "Maritimer Machtkampf in Ostasien" (german newspaper article, 2 pages)
and from the "International Crisis Group": "Stirring up the South China Sea" (english report, 50+ pages)
And as a teaser, China`s view of itself - as seen by everybody opening and using the "Google maps" of China, "baidu": Notice how far the dotted frontier line goes south `till close to the border of the Phillipines, Vietnam and Malaysia. And Taiwan, as goes without saying, naturally is shown as part of Chinese territory....
aus der Zeit: "Maritimer Machtkampf in Ostasien" (german newspaper article, 2 pages)
and from the "International Crisis Group": "Stirring up the South China Sea" (english report, 50+ pages)
And as a teaser, China`s view of itself - as seen by everybody opening and using the "Google maps" of China, "baidu": Notice how far the dotted frontier line goes south `till close to the border of the Phillipines, Vietnam and Malaysia. And Taiwan, as goes without saying, naturally is shown as part of Chinese territory....
(click on pictures to enlarge them)
Montag, 16. April 2012
North Koreans celebrate their "Great Leader"`s birthday everywhere.
Kim Il Sung ruled North Korea from its foundation 1948 until he died in 1994, first as prime minister, from 1972 as its president. The cult that he created about his persona and his family lasts until today - even though he`s dead for almost 20 years now he officially still is head of the country as "Eternal President" and "Great Leader".
His birthday is a national holiday in North Korea - and as he would have turned 100 this year, the celebrations last three days - not only in North Korea....
....but also everywhere else in the world, I suppose. As we are in Shenyang only about 300 km away from the border, naturally a big amount of exchange students at my university here come from North Korea - and each and everyone of them came to their class today in a black suit and original Kim Il Sung - pin on their lapel. As you can see in the picture with three of my class mates official celebration protocol even allowed a personal touch by leaving individual choice for a suitable tie to themselves. Or maybe they all only have one, don`t know.
I didn´t dare to ask if they really were doing it out of free will (as e.g. most Irish do with wearing green on St.Patrick`s Day allover the world) or if there`s at least one member of the notorius North Korean secret police among the exchange students who would notice if anyone wouldn`t obey. But they really got a little upset as one other student asked who Kim Il Sung was again - in their opinion it was impossible how someone could not know of him.
Well, happy birthday, Great Leader, and so long, I guess.....
His birthday is a national holiday in North Korea - and as he would have turned 100 this year, the celebrations last three days - not only in North Korea....
....but also everywhere else in the world, I suppose. As we are in Shenyang only about 300 km away from the border, naturally a big amount of exchange students at my university here come from North Korea - and each and everyone of them came to their class today in a black suit and original Kim Il Sung - pin on their lapel. As you can see in the picture with three of my class mates official celebration protocol even allowed a personal touch by leaving individual choice for a suitable tie to themselves. Or maybe they all only have one, don`t know.
I didn´t dare to ask if they really were doing it out of free will (as e.g. most Irish do with wearing green on St.Patrick`s Day allover the world) or if there`s at least one member of the notorius North Korean secret police among the exchange students who would notice if anyone wouldn`t obey. But they really got a little upset as one other student asked who Kim Il Sung was again - in their opinion it was impossible how someone could not know of him.
Well, happy birthday, Great Leader, and so long, I guess.....
Montag, 2. April 2012
Smoking in the car allowed? No. Pets? Of course.
Had a rather unusual encounter at a cab ride yesterday: The driver had his pets, two loudly chirping finches, in a small cage cramped into the middle compartment between driver and front passenger seat:
Birds are still a quite popular pet here in China, especially singing birds - whenever you cross a big square or stroll a park you´re likely to see (mostly) a retiree sitting beside one or several cages with a singing bird in it, hung in a tree in the afternoon sun to let the birds enjoy some fresh air (or at least what counts as that here in Chinese cities...) and get them to chirp and sing.
For me it`s always a little strange to see those finches, titmice and whatnot else in cages, as those are mostly birds considered "wild animals" in my home country. But then, there it`s popular to have budgies, parrots and canaries as pets in cages, and I doubt they would enjoy their freedom less than any other bird....
The two finches in the picture had food and water in the cage but seemed a little frightened by their home moving along with the car all the time. I consider letting your pets live in your car a rather stupid idea....
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