Blocked Blogs

What's a blogger to do??

A few months ago I saw that my readership within country (China) suddenly went down. What a disappointment as my purpose is to help those seeking adventure in travel, shopping, and people in Beijing and Asia. Well, my VPN allows me to see blocked websites and post to blogspot.com without problem, but those who didn't have this "backdoor" could not. Soon I'll be moving to a new, hopefully problem-free (who am I kidding!) site. In the meantime, here are a few tips from Amanda Fazani from Blogger Buster, Posted on May 25th, 2009 and filed under Around The Blogosphere, Blogger, to access sites within China.

To read Blogger powered blogs from within China

For those wishing to read their favourite Blogger powered blogs from within China, here are a couple of possible solutions:

Translate Blogger blogs

Using Google Translate or Babelfish, you can circumvent the restrictions by viewing Blogger blogs in a translated page. This ensures that the URL of the site you are reading is based on a different server.

Choose to translate from Chinese to English (or whichever translation you prefer) and paste the complete URL of the blog you wish to read. The blog will then be accessible for you to browse recent posts or archives with ease:

Unfortunately this does not appear to work when attempting to access the Blogger home page, so this workaround will not enable you to post from the Blogger dashboard.

Subscribe to “banned” blogs using an RSS reader

It is also possible to read updates from your favourite sites by reading in an RSS reader. Sign up to use Google Reader, BlogLines or Newsgator (none of which appear to be banned in China) and add the URL of the default feed for the Blogger blog you wish to read. This will be in the following format: http://your-favourite-blog.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

You will then be able to read the latest updates from your favourite blogs, though unfortunately it may be impossible to comment on these posts since this requires access to Blogger servers.

Digital Inspiration also offers some interesting techniques to access banned sites from within China in this post.

茶! Glorious Chinese Tea!

Just as there exist fresh wines like Beaujoulais as well as finely aged wines, just as there are famous wine production sites around the world each with individual characteristics, so I recently learned there exist similar complexities of type, location, and production in Chinese tea. A group of international women descended upon the TenFu Tea and Culture House near Wangfujing in Beijing last week to learn about the different teas and sample them as well. What an eye-opening occasion! So many types: green, yellow, red, black (aka ‘fermented’), white and flower/scented. And so many types within types!

(from left to right: Pu'er, red, green and Oolong teas)

The TenFu Tea and Culture House is located next to the Novotel Peace Hotel on JinBao Jie, within walking distance of Wangfujing and the Hyatt, the Peninsula and Hong Kong Jockey Club, to name a few places. (The address in Chinese is 天福茗茶，王府井金鱼胡同3号， tel. 6526-3266, Chinese only.) The ground floor, in addition to product sales, has an exhibit of various art and ordinary teapots as well as tasting tables where you can sample different types of tea. Upstairs, on the second floor, is not only a start-of-the-art conference room but a FABULOUS display of the production methods of the main types of tea I describe below. Signs are in both Chinese and English.

I am so excited that I want to share my new basic knowledge.

Green Tea 录茶

Green tea is the most natural of Chinese teas. It is picked, naturally dried, and then “fried”briefly (think quick dry wok fry) to get rid of its initial grassy smell. According to Chinese, it has the most healthful/medicinal value and the least caffeine of the various types of tea.

West Lake Dragon Well tea (龙井茶) from Zhejiang Province （浙江省）is a famous green tea. The leaves of green tea should be green and you should check expiry dates on tea packages as these are freshly picked. The tea color should also be a light green color.

The story of another famous green tea Bi Luo Chun（碧螺春）,or Green Snail Spring tea as it is translated, illustrates this early harvest. I learnt it in a Chinese language lesson and every small child learns this in China!

It is said that in the Tang Dynasty a village was terrorized by a dragon in the lake. Every year the dragon demanded a male and female virgin, and one year he demanded the beautiful young maiden Bi Luo Chun, who had a beautiful singing voice. A strong youth secretly in love with her, upon hearing the dragon’s demand, went to battle the dragon and after 7 days defeated the dragon. Alas, he was also mortally wounded. Bi Luo Chun, having realized his love, tended to his wounds. In desperation, she came upon a small hillside shrub bearing new leaves. She put the new leaves in her mouth to melt the springtime frost and brought them back to stew in water and feed to the village’s savior. The youth recovered, but not Bi Luo Chun, who died. The village and youth, in her honor, protected the shrub and planted more and named it after her. (See http://tea.timzhao.com/ctcom/LITER/biluochu.html for a more complete rendition of this story.)

Fermented and/or Compressed Tea (黑茶)

I love this type of tea, and even though it has been, at time, the most expensive tea due to its long aging process, it is not as widely popular in China as some of the other teas like green or Oolong tea.

Pu ‘er (普洱) tea is from Yunnan (云南) Province and is like a fine bottle of aged wine. The tea leaves are withered, or dried, then fermented a long time, then roasted. By fermentation, think of a bit of natural composting going on! Pu’er is both loose leaf and compressed into “cakes”, as shown in the photo below. When brewed, it has a deep, dark color.

It is well-known as a digestive for over-stuffed stomachs, which explains why it is the tea of CHOICE for many dim sum restaurants! But I learned from a tea expert last week two more uses:

1) as a “hangover” restorative; and
2) as a sleep-aide when combined with a few dried lavendar leaves, chrysanthemum flowers and a whole preserved kumquat (which TenFu sells – yummy!) or the peel of a kumquat.

I can now attest to the latter from personal experience. ☺

[Note: In translation, confusion reigns. This tea in Chinese translates as “black tea”. Read on below about “Red Tea” and you’ll learn why this gets so confusing!]

Oolong (乌龙) Tea

Oolong, also known as Ching Cha (青茶), is halfway between green and fermented tea because it is half-fermented. The tea leaves are withered and spread before a short fermentation process. The leaves are then fried (remember, wok-dry), rolled and roasted. The tea is not quite green, but not quite dark.

Tie Guan Yin （铁观音）from Fujian Province(福建省) is a famous Oolong tea. In addition to having a delightful fragrance, “a month-long experiment by a Japanese doctor showed the (Oolong) tea reduces body fat and rejuvenates internal organs, because it contains a large amount of polyphenol” (see the entire article at
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Oolong-tea-fights-fat-and-cholesterol).

Red (红) Tea

Here is where translation gets goofy. Red Chinese tea is what we in the West know as “black” tea. Think Lipton tea! That’s what we are talking about here. Freshly brewed, it does have a red color.

Flower or Scented （花） Tea

Chrysanthemum tea is a great example of this type. Also, the famous Jasmine tea is this type as well. These are not really leaves, but portions of a flower that are picked, dried and then steeped in hot water to make a brew. Fine Jasmine teas have a perfume that is out of this world. Tea houses also combine flower teas with other types of tea, for example, Oolong and Osmanthus （归花）tea （good for reducing coughs).

When???

We foreigners asked, at what time of the day do people drink these different types of tea? Grandly oversimplifying, I know, but helpful to those of us with no background was the following response: Green tea in the morning or mid-afternoon for pure relaxation and enjoyment; Oolong tea after lunch to help digest; Pu’er in the evening, before bed. Others, whenever!

Uncle Lee’s Tea is the TenFu U.S. market brand. TenFu also opened tea houses in California called “Cha for Tea”. (See the websites www.unclelee.com and www.chafortea.com for more information.)

By the way, I do not WORK for them or KNOW them. I just had a great experience with their place here in Beijing! Gotta go for a cuppa – enjoy yours.

Living High and Low in China

I've recently had a another peek into the "high life" of China and living in "low" conditions in China.

On Friday I attended the 2009 China International Jewelry Fair and saw gobs and gobs of bling. (And hordes of people buying it.) You name it: diamonds, pearls, gold, precious and semi-precious gems were all on display. There were booths from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and all parts of China. Tourmalines (both watermelon and different colors) were popular, as were sapphires, rubies, gold and GIA diamonds. The most curious items? Pure gold busts of famous Chinese leaders and war craft! More delicate were the pure gold Song Dynasty dancers and musicians.


In contrast, I and a Swedish friend revisited the Three Shadows Photography Center and saw a moving exhibit by Zhuang Hui and Dan'er called "Yumen 2006-2009: A Photography Exhibit". Zhuang Hui grew up in Yumen (玉门）in Gansu Province. Originally a boom town built on the discovery of oil, when oil started drying up, so did the town services and population. In 2006 Zhuang Hui and his colleague Dan'er opened up an ordinary photo shop supplying inhabitants of Yumen with basic services: identification photos, family photos, individual portrait photos, etc. At the same time, they documented the insidious decay of a former boom town left on its own. The exhibit first barrages the viewer with the various portrait and i.d. photos of Yumen civilians. Photo after photo engage one with the individual or family and their dreams; one background echoes a Hawaiian beach scene, another a Mediterranean villa. Solemn face after solemn face march along identity card after identify card photo. Then, down a short flight of stairs, mixed overhead screens illustrate the reality of the Yumen these people live in. It is a Yumen in decline, filled with decaying apartment complexes, roads in disrepair and abandoned oil wells.

This is not just a Chinese phenomenon, but a world-wide occurrence: What happens when a town dries up?

Here is a personal and poignant example at the Three Photography Art Center (三影堂摄影术中心）in Caochangdi (草场地). Check it out at www.threeshadows.cn. I highly recommend it.

China, A Rockhound's Delight

China is a cornucopia of natural minerals and fossils for the collector. Anyone visiting international gem and mineral shows will attest to the exponential growth in the numbers of participating dealers from China and their increasing savvy in the world market. Enterprising websites advertising both sales and mineral “tours” in China such as those offered by both AAA Minerals (www.aaaminerals.com) and by Mr. Chen Xiaojun (www.chinaruff.com) are also becoming more common.

I am an amateur collector, a true rock hound. Put me on the Hetian River bed in Xinjiang and I’ll spend pleasurable hours searching for the elusive white jade (明玉）which for centuries was carved and given as tribute to Chinese emperors. I’m not picky; in fact, those of you who truly collect will laugh at me; what is meaningful for me is a piece which captures a place’s memory. I’ve haggled over a manticoceras (or something similar) on the Tibetan plateau, crossing into the Everest National Parkland. I’ve bought roadside some interesting black crystals on feldspar while travelling on the Karakorum Highway leading from NW China to Pakistan. I’ve rummaged through dusty store shelves in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, for petrified wood gathered from the Gobi Desert. My favorite piece is not quite amber, but still a type of resin, found by an old couple in Hebei Province high in the mountains which ring Beijing. (They literally used it for fuel!) (see photo at right)

Two weeks ago I had the incredible pleasure and privilege to visit the private mineral and fossil museum of Dr. George Liu of AAA Minerals—Geopal Institute. Dr. Liu is a respected mineralogist who has published articles in the Mineralogical Record (Minerals of China), Extralapis (Fluorite, Beryl, Tourmaline), and Rocks and Minerals China. He has also published “Mineral Dealing in China” in the Mineral Record Carrier (5/1/09) and divides his time between Beijing and Tubingen, Germany. In fact, my interest in AAA Minerals’ mine tours and correspondence with them in English and Chinese had earned my invitation, and I fortuitously stumbled upon a gathering of Chinese from all over the country united by their enthusiasm for minerals and fossils. After the private viewing of specimens from all over the world (as well as from each Chinese province), they gathered to discuss how to launch the first mineral & fossil society of China. Geologists and mining experts and university professors and the director of the Beijing Geological Museum, amateurs and dealers all came to share ideas and information.

While the majority of these people had interest in minerals, fossil interests were also exhibited, and again, word from the Tucson show was that “Chinese dealers offered plants, insects, fish and occasionally amphibians and reptiles primarily from the from Liaoning Province deposits. This year there were literally thousands of Sinohydrosaurus, the reptilian otter of the cretaceous, along with a few of their larger kin from China. Chinese dinosaur eggs are much less commonly offered for sale than they were a few years ago but can still be found.” Last month I heard a lecture by Dr. Damien Leloup, the French-born director of the Yizhou Geological Park and Dinosaur Museum of Liaoning give a talk. He explained why Liaoning was so rich in fossil deposits and how the farmers in the area often know more than the visiting “experts” in where and how to find the fossil remains. Yizhou is not too far away from Beijing and certainly worth a train ride visit. (*See www.liaoningdinosaurpark.com for more information.)

Ancient (?!) Buddhist Carvings in Pinggu

Our intrepid hiker Raquel read in a local Chinese newspaper (yes, this laowai grew up in Beijing and attended local schools, learning fluent Mandarin) that the village of Diao Wo (刁窝) in Pinggu (平古) in greater Beijing’s outer suburbs had discovered a valley filled with ancient Buddhist carvings. The story went that in trying to clean up and develop a park trail, the villagers started pulling down eons of natural overgrowth only to discover the carvings.

Our hiking group was intrigued. With so many ancient sites in and around Beijing, often at risk of disappearing due to the monetary attraction of development, we wanted to both see these ancient carvings and support this park.

True, when we arrived and bought our tickets, it was disconcerting to discover that the Chinese pop music blaring over the loudspeaker in the parking lot continued along the path via various hidden speakers shaped as rocks. Loud Chinese Techno-pop is not what you’d like while communing with Nature presenting itself as waterfalls (turned out to be fake, run by a hose!), steep ravines, cliffs and rockfalls.

After a lovely lunch munching cliffside on the other side of the valley, we started to descend - blessedly without music!- and Lo! And Behold, spied the first of numerous carvings.

Yet, strangely, as we approached and saw these beautiful visages at close quarters, we asked, Why were they not roughened by centuries of erosion? And, What is this, a line drawing where a carving should be? And, oh dear! Is that a chisel left behind?!

It turns out that stone engravers have been working on these carvings over the past year. We did not grumble or argue to get the truth (and the drawings, incomplete carvings, sanding discs and chisels left behind gave us a good idea). Instead, we returned to the parking lot and engaged one of the attendants in conversation; we only complimented the lovely park and its beautiful carvings. Innocently we asked how long they’d been there, and the attendant rather proudly explained that the stonecutters had been working hard on them this past year for the park to open.

Ah well. The collusion of the (so-called) newspaper journalist and the park leaders reminds me of the altogether charming book The Banquet Bug by Geling Yan. Of all the books I’ve read on China, this is the first and ONLY book that has not only made me laugh out loud BUT has also captured modern life in Beijing perfectly. Publishers Weekly, in its review, described it as

A multifaceted mistaken-identity farce, Yan's novel chronicles the adventures of Dan Dong, a laid-off factory worker who wanders into a lavish banquet where journalists are wined and dined and receive "money for your troubles" fees for listening to—and hopefully reporting on—the presentations of corporations and charities. Dan quickly orders business cards that "said he was a reporter from some Internet news site," and hops aboard the banquet gravy train. Yan revels in the absurdity of her premise, and her over-the-top descriptions of banquet fare underscore her outrage at the few who gorge themselves on "animals from remote mountains and forests" while millions starve. The story changes gears, though, when Dan's reportage leads him into a dangerous, far-reaching scandal and he is arrested during a crackdown on "banquet bugs."

Read The Banquet Bug. And dream of newly ancient Buddhist carvings in a distant valley. (Pictures of our hike are shown in the blog slideshow.)

Ceramics Gallery in Beijing

East of the Third Ring Road near the Shilihe Bridge is a busy area filled with warehouses selling household building supplies: stores devoted to all things electric, including lamps; plumbing supplies; ceramic sinks, toilets, tiles and the like. Tucked amongst all the huge warehouse buildings is an unprepossessing building which houses an interesting set of ceramics galleries and a museum on the second floor.

The location in Chinese: 北京朝阳区东三环南路十里河桥东周家庄陶瓷艺术馆。

It’s a simple two-story building. On the first floor are a few ceramics companies from Jingdezhen, Tangshan and Guangzhou showing fancy dinnerware and tea sets. But at both the end of the long corridor and upstairs, there are ceramics art galleries as well as a museum. The galleries include works by teachers and students of the Jingdezhen Ceramics Art School and the Tsinghua University Art School as well as by established ceramicists from all over the country. Both modern and traditional art forms are exhibited. The museum is small and has reproductions of famous pottery shapes and glazes from China’s dynasties and regions, but it provides a good introduction to China’s ceramics history IF you have someone who can translate and explain the displays.

Bonus? On the weekends, on the 2nd floor, there are three pottery wheels and anyone can rent them for a small fee.

Beijing Basics: An Orientation primer

I've spent all morning in an "orientation" to Beijing and to the new organization to which we now belong. Aaaarrrggh! Since when is Watson's the only trustworthy bottled water to drink via dispensers? Since when are people not instructed about Chinese procedures when involved in traffic accidents?

First and foremost, if you haven't caught on from reading this blog, Beijing is a truly remarkable place to live. It's a unique time in history in China, similar to the 1920s in the United States, when hundreds of thousands of farmers are leaving their traditional farmlands and moving to larger cities to find new work in construction or factories. It's a vibrant, ever-changing place.

It's not to say that life is not difficult if you don't speak Mandarin. It's not to say the weather and pollution can't be abysmal in Beijing. But still.....

What you should be told is to explore, explore, explore!!!

My basic "tools" for newcomers to Beijing:

1) Have a copy of the current Insider's Guide to Beijing (published by Immersion Guides). This is the Bible, the Yellow Pages, the most complete guide to EVERYTHING one might wish to know: restaurants, housing, spas, schools, sports teams, clubs, shops, etc. (Yes, I know it's not truly complete, but it gets pretty close!)

2) Have one set of Beijing by Foot cards by Eric Abrahamsen (also Immersion Guides). Learn about Beijing through useful and amusing and educational map cards depicting short walks through different parts of Beijing's neighborhoods and the interesting and/or historical sites, current or former, that exist along that route.

3) Fill blank business card holders, purchased at stationary stores, department stores, Carrefours, Au Chan, etc. Grab 2-3 business cards from everywhere you go; make notes on the back and keep them so you can return and to share with a friend. Everyone and everyplace has them. Create your own personal yellow pages this way.

4) Grab expat magazines. Monthlies The Beijinger and Time Out Beijing and bi-monthly City Weekend are all geared to helping you get to know China and, more specifically, Beijing, with current reviews and discoveries and places and people and events to know. Each also has its own website: www.TheBeijinger.com; www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/ ; www.timeout.com/cn/en/beijing/.

5) Join chats on these websites or at the BeijingCafe, a Yahoo group. (You must be invited by someone for the latter.) Ask a question and someone will have an answer.

6) Visit the International Newcomers Network (INN). Monthly meetings are designed to help newcomers adjust to life in Beijing with topics like medicine, what are those veggies in the market? and traveling around China. Website: www.innbeijing.org

7) Enjoy the talks and events put on by the Beijing International Society (BIS). See website: www.beijinginternationalsociety.com.

8) If you've kids in school, volunteer there. Most of the international schools wish to expose not only their students, but their larger school "family" to various aspects of Chinese culture and will have events you should check out. You'll make friends. :)

9) If you are new to the language, sign up for a beginner's class with a small number of students (about 5). Linguistically, it's helpful to hear not only your teacher's Mandarin, but others' as well, so your ear can have more "input" and process what sounds good/right, what doesn't, etc. You'll make friends and, hopefully, support each other in your studies.


Finally, BE OPEN TO EXPERIENCES! Yes, we all go through culture shock, but Beijing is relatively safe when compared to much of the rest of the entire world, and if you are logical and courteous and have the attitude that you might learn something new, you'll have a great adventure.

Good luck, and welcome!!