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Happenings in a Nutshell



"There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind." - Duke Ellington

In Response…

This post is in response to comments left by "Anonymous" on the post A Clear BBC Bias .

A Little Background

My previous post addresses the BBC’s obvious bias on Beijing/China’s pollution issue. The following exchanges occured:

Anonymous | July 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm eI’m pretty sure those beautiful blue sky are the products of photoshop and such! Beijing is just as dusty and full of pollution as the BBC picture has shown for the majority of times!!! I’d like to hear what you have to say to this.

Eastwood | July 15th, 2008 at 6:49 pm eWow Anonymous, your comment is so biased and full of bull crap! Just look at my latest post and the photo of myself in front of Tiananmen. I’m in Beijing right now, and out of the 3 days that I stayed, we’ve had 2 beautiful, blue-skied, cloudless days. Your ignorance truly amazes me. But hey, why am I complaining? There are, after all, people who are glued to CNN and Fox all day and people who would vote bush. You know what? Stay in your bubble. Ignorance is bliss, my friend.

Anonymous | July 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am eWell, Eastwood, at least I was polite in my argument…If you want to talk about ignorance, then I’d argue that a majority of the Chinese population is the true group of ignorant people — they are content with being fooled by the propaganda the Chinese government puts out, and ignore the real issues lying beneath all the façade! These ignorant people (I sincerely hope you are not one of them, ’cause that would just be VERY unfortunate) do not see how corrupted the situation in China is, nor do they want to spend time reading about voices from different resources… But hey, I don’t blame them, after all, the Chinese government is super good at censoring foreign countries’ news report.

Anonymous | July 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am eP.S. Too bad I’ve actually been to Beijing and other few cities in China a few times. The reality speaks louder than words, my friend.

My Turn

Anonymous, your ignorance was made obvious as a direct result of your comment "I’m pretty sure those beautiful blue sky are the products of photoshop and such". It may or may not necessarily address your "intellectual merit" (though I did mean to poke a stab here and there :P )

Why not? Let’s talk about ignorance. In my opinion, ignorance is the inability to think about and look at things with an objective and open mind. You say that the photos of Beijing’s blue skies are "the products of photoshop and such". Com’on now… haha… that’s waaaay too narrow-sighted and biased. What an extremist comment? You’re right, the reality does speak louder than words. Just look at my photos in front of Tiananmen and the Bird’s Nest. What do you have to say about that? Ohh.. let me guess… I’m a part of a Chinese state-sponsored conspiracy… photoshopping the skies blue!

(No offense of anything, but you do remind me of Bush and his fellow neo-con war-mongers who support the "liberation" — <– sarcasm! aka… booooom! baaam! kabum!! — of Iraq and the rest of the world. Oh.. don’t we all love the American knights in shining armour who seek to protect the freedom of mankind! <— MAJOR SARCASM! yeah I can kinda imagine you chanting up "4 more years!" or "support our troops!"… sigh… no insult meant though; people make different choices :) )

Anyway… where was I? Right. Here is comes. You say that "Beijing is just as dusty and full of pollution as the BBC picture has shown for the majority of times" (with three exclamation marks!!!), yet, you also say that you’ve been to "Beijing and other few cities in China a few times". Well Mister Anonymous! I guess, then, you truly represent the Chinese population of 1.3 billion. After all, you have been to Beijing and other few cities in China a few times. Yes… who’s to argue with you? We can either take your word for it — someone who’s possibly been to Beijing a few times" or… (<– ahhhh… here’s a rehtorical question at work ;) )

Hey, I’m not here to argue that there isn’t a pollution problem in China — that’d simply be ignorant of me. My previous post clearly states that I strongly dislike the BBC’s bias, having chosen that particular photo with the particular captions (out of all the stunning photos of the Beijing stadium) just to especially highlight the pollution problem. I’m not saying that there isn’t a pollution problem, but I am saying that I disagree with the ridiculous bias. Look, your bias is simply laughable (photoshop? bwahahhaah…)

You wanna talk politics? Let’s talk politics.

You blatantly accuse the "majority of the Chinese population" of being ignorant. You say that we are "content" at being "fooled" by Chinese gov’t propaganda. On what grounds are your statements based? Look, hate to break this to you buddy, but it appears that you know not a whole lot (if anything?) about the Chinese culture and the Chinese way of things. There’s really not a huge point in me trying to give you a Chinese history lecture. Go read a few books and browse around Wikipedia. Then read this post by the BBC’s James Reynolds — National Sentiment . There’s not a lot that I can tell you, but I can tell you this: your suggestion that 1.3 billion Chinese people are under the "evil facade" of Chinese propaganda is… naive. China, as a nation, is constantly progressing forward. The Chinese people, as an unity, is constantly advancing at faster paces (I know, I know, the cheese… :P ). With the national economy leaping ever-faster, and China, as nation, becoming increasingly stronger, the Chinese people are finally beginning to feel — after hundreds of years of foreign opression — pride: pride in China, finally becoming an emerging global power, and pride in ourselves, being who we are, and doing what we do. :)

Well… long story short, let me put it this way: you know cow feces (there, better? :P ) about China. Yes, cow feces. :) Did I put it nicely enough?

Hey, I am reading the BBC News and sipping on a mango smoothy here in a Starbucks, Xi Dan (downtown… lights, fancy pazzazz!) Beijing. Gotta run. I’m getting a kick outta this discussion. Cheers!

19.Jul.08 Life Comments (4)

Staying Fit in Beijing

So what I’m I doing these days to stay fit while on the go the Beijing?

Typically, back in Vancouver, I’d hit the gym or hit the seaside. Before I came, I kinda expected that using a gym regularly isn’t gonna be an option, due to numerous reasons, among them chiefly time constraints.

So on the morning of my second day in Beijing, I woke up early — quite early, at 5:30 AM. Well… it’s not that early, really, for Chinese standards. The run rises before 5 AM and the day ends (aka “it turns dark”) at 9 PM. So compared with the Vancouver sunrise time of 6 AM and sunset time of 10 PM, you can imagine the difference. People here wake up e-a-r-l-y. By 5:30, the birds are screaming away. Old folks are in the middle of their early-morning walks by then. 5:30 is when the festivities begin :P

Alright… back to topic. On the second morning of my stay, I got up early and did some body-weight exercises. It looks like this: (bomb-diver pushups + jump squads) x 3, (regular pushups + jump splits) x 3, (crunches + plank) x 3, in sets of 12 - 15.

On the next day, I went for a nice swim. The pool was reasonably quiet, with only about 4 people present. So we each had our own lanes. The swim lasted about 45 minutes, almost none-stop. It was a great workout (haven’t swam in a while).

Yesterday, after walking back from Beijing Normal University (will write about it later), I did a bit of a jump rope session. I didn’t imagine it to be so difficult. It was suppose to last for about 20-minutes, but 5 minutes in, I was already puffing away! Maybe the heat (35 degrees celsius) and low atmospheric pressure had an effect on me as well. In the end, I hang on, and make it out in one piece :D

That’s that… about all for now. Might go for another swim later on today (10:47 AM Beijing time currently).

15.Jul.08 Life Comment (1)

Internet Access at Long Last - Day 3 in Beijing

What an eventful last three days it has been.

I had a hard time finding internet. Now, at long last, after three eventful days of travel, heat, meet & greet, fun, and exhaustion, I’m finally sitting here doing my thing, blogging through the UBC VPN.

Flight

I had a wonderful flight over here to Beijing from Vancouver. I was aboard Air China’s CA991, on an Airbus A300-200. I gotta admit, the flight was the best flying experience I’ve had. To start off with, the plane was nice, new, ‘n shiny. Each person has an individual TV/entertainment system mounted on the back of the seat in front. Did I mention that the food was great? The whole experience and plus the pleasentness factor make the flight quite a quick ‘n smooth sail. After a cat nap and a movie or two, I found myself strolling inside the new Terminal 3 of the Beijing Airport. All I can say is: impressive. Impressive not because of the sheer scale of the buildings and fancy lightrails and all the pazzazz, but impressive because of the facelift of the whole system, the whole nation as a whole.

Oh, and this guy sat beside me :P (do the glasses look familar?)

First Looks of Beijing

It is 2008, and the Olympics are coming here afterall. When I first stepped out of the airport, into the Beijing friday-night-crazy-like-it’s-crazy rush hour, I was simply amazed. Lanes on Beijing roads simply serve no purpose. It’s a constant struggle between cars and pedestrains.

What about the weather… the pollution, you ask? I’ve so far stayed for 4 days. Day 1, after landing through a thick coat of clouds, the sky wasn’t exactly clear. So no, the first day wasn’t the great. But the second and third days, however, were simply terrific. Blue, cloudless skies where one can see miles down. Here are some photos:

@ Tiananmen sqaure. Cops everywhere. Every bloody where. We even had to go through a bag check to enter the square. But hey, I ain’t complaining. I see skies of blue and… traces of white t-shirts here and there :P . Simply beautiful ( <– maybe that didn’t make too much sense gramatically. I’m typing this on the spot… kinda rushed).

@ the National Statium, aka “Bird’s Nest”. Ahh.. see the uh.. blue sky ‘n beautiful sunshine? Happy now, BBC, China-bashers?

More Thoughts

Internet sure was hard to find. Maybe the area I was staying in is somewhat remote (XuanWu District) but there were hardly any wireless connections. I went to WangFuJing — downtown Beijing (where there’s supposedly some sorta wifi) — but could not find a spot to sit! All the cafes and places were swarmed with people. Starbucks was “riduuuuunculus”! Ahh…the sea of people.

Alrighty better pack it in. Will leave you with this:

(Don’t mind the typos in this post!)

14.Jul.08 Life Comments (5)

At the Vancouver International Airport

Here I am, at long last, sitting in the food court of the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), having finished a Japanese beef udon, and sipping on a complementary cup of cold water.

What a frantic couple of hours last night/this morning was! First there was the last-minute packing, then waking up at a not-so-early hour of 9:00 AM… I was hoping for a Toyota Prius on the way to the airport. Guess what? I had myself a nice ‘n shiny Prius waiting for me at the door!

It was quite an interesting cab driver I met. Com’on, how can you not tip him extra when he’s driving a Prius and listening to CBC Radio 2? What an awesome way to start off my day and my trip. I gotta say, the driver I met this morning was the friendliest cab driver I’ve ever met. North-Eastern African guy, works from 3 - 8, got two kids… :P hahaha now that was totally off topic!

Check-in wasn’t that bad; we were here early and managed to avoid the line-ups and get ourselves (my mom and I) two seats next to the window.

Current Vancouver time: 11:13 AM. Beijing time: 2:13 AM.

10.Jul.08 Life Comment (1)

‘Twas the Night Before the Trip…

10:40 PM. Frantically packing.

Now 12:13 AM. Or uh… should I say, 3:13 PM Beijing time? Almost done packing.

@ 1:07 AM Thursday morning. Almost there. I prevail in an epic battle against a gigantic black moth. Wonder if I’ll get any sleep tonight (this morning).

@2:32 AM. The packing’s kinda wrapping up now. Long hours ahead of me.

09.Jul.08 Life Comment (1)