Man Executed in China but story is censored

This story is blocked in China but the headline sounds disturbing.

Where's the Old Bond?

We went to see the new British-franchise James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, today at the UME Theatre at Xintiandi and while the movie is first rate and action-packed much of it troubled me. Most of all was the often senseless violence perpetrated by the Bond character and the anti-American tone of the movie. I prefer the old Bonds, the sophisticated spy that killed only when necessary. This new Bond is just a street smart killer that knows how to drive.

I was particularly irritated by the negative portrayal of Americans as unprincipled jerks interested only in what's good for corporations. Sure, we've done some things in recent years that I'm not proud of and that feed this sort of negative view of the US but this movie will outlive our over-reaction to 911 and our subsequent move back to principled behavior. I hated seeing my country portrayed this way to a Chinese audience - maybe that's why the Chinese authorities allowed this movie to be one of the few they let in. Anyway, no more Bond for me.

Thanksgiving in Shanghai

It's Thanksgiving but this American holiday hasn't caught on in China yet. The only evidence of Thanksgiving I can find in Shanghai are the hotel and expat restaurants that are stepping in to supply the turkey needs of expat Americans in the city. With 16,000 Americans in Shanghai there's got to be enough to fill a few buffet lines.

Even the "American" school in Shanghai doesn't observe Thanksgiving - or any other American holidays for that matter. The only offices that shut down for Thanksgiving are those of the U.S. Consulate. Too bad, China could really use a day that's dedicated to giving thanks or at least counting blessings. Now I should note that Canadians also have their own Thanksgiving which is observed on the second Monday of October but their holiday doesn't have the gravitas of the U.S. holiday - although it's the thought that counts, right?

Then there's the lack of football (real football, North American football, that is) on tv to gather around while everyone digests their tofurky. In earlier years it was a pleasure to watch Peavine U. play Platte U. on Thanksgiving but can't do that in China - even if Platte U. was still half the team it used to be.

UPDATE: We did the Marriott Thanksgiving Dinner deal which turned out to be quite good. For 388 rmb each of us had all the food we could eat - which was vast quantities for some of us. Marriott provided the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and dressing plus some not-so-traditional sushi and crab. Those of us who don't eat things that had mamas had all the potatoes, carrots, ice cream and pies we could hold. The only thing missing was of course the extended family and football - two very important ingredients of Thanksgiving.

One thing we did have that was unexpected was Santa Claus. He made the rounds of the tables handing out cookies. Santa was Chinese so we should cut him some slack for showing up at the wrong holiday. He had a hard time with English as well so I think some of the expat children that told him what they wanted for Christmas may be a bit surprised with what Santa leaves for them.

In Steel Town

I'm in Pittsburgh for a couple of days of business before I head back to Shanghai. This was the first time I took the Delta flight from Shanghai to Atlanta enroute to Pittsburgh. The service was better than United's but the seating in economy was more cramped. So cramped and crowded that it was a miserable trip. I couldn't sleep at all.

I've only been in Pittsburgh a few hours but it's much more attractive than I anticipated. The fall foliage on the mountains that crowd the city have turned the city yellow and red. Christmas decorations are going up downtown and snow is expected tomorrow. On the way in from the airport the taxi driver asked me what it was like to live in Shanghai. Looking at the orderly traffic and the clear sky I told him to be thankful he lives in Pittsburgh.

Pile Up

I always wondered how those 50 or 100 car pile-ups could happen on expressways. Today I found out. The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside the house at 6 am this morning was the smell of burning grass and the soupy air over Shanghai. This is the worst pollution I've seen yet in Shanghai, I thought to myself. Maybe the farmers are burning their rice husks?

I was on my way to Yancheng in Jiangsu Province this morning. A van was taking me and four other people to this coastal city for a trade show. I was asleep in the second row when I was awakened by the noise of screeching brakes and the inertia of being thrown sideways and quickly realized there was a fuel truck looming out of the smog in front of us. Our driver couldn't stop in time so he veered left and we missed the back of the truck by inches and skidded to a sideways halt just feet from another stationery semitrailer in the left lane. I looked behind us and could see another semi skidding up on us from behind. Fortunately for us it caught on the guardrail and lodged between it and the fuel truck to our side. Then a black Audi slammed into the back of the fuel truck and went under its bumper, tearing part of the Audi's roof off.

We unhooked our seat belts and got out of our van and hunkered down behind a concrete barrier. We could hear other vehicles slamming brakes and popping noises as they hit the cars and trailers in front of them. This went on for some minutes as the pile up stretched back as far as we could see into the ground-hugging smog.

Cars and vans were engulfed in flames, bloodied people were sitting around the highway dazed in the spots where they landed when they were flung out of their car windows. Cars and trailers were strewn haphazardly across the highway - caught between guardrails on both sides of the two lane highway. It was over an hour before the first ambulance arrived. I stopped counting vehicles when I reached 100. We were stuck there for two hours and didn't see a single police car or policeman the entire time. Everyone was just walking around looking at the destruction and helping the injured.

People at the front of the pile-up pushed cars aside and made a path through the mayhem and those that could still drive started inching out of the mess. We drove between two burning cars as we began to clear the wreckage and I noticed the body of a man dressed in farmers clothes stretched out in the road in front of a semi that had jackknifed. He was quite dead and had apparently been laying there for a couple of hours uncovered. I wondered if he had been crossing the road in the thick smog and been hit by the trailer - thus starting this whole chain reaction.

The rest of the day all I could think about was whether the farmer had any children and tonight I worry about them grieving the loss of their father.

Every day in China at least 300 people are killed in traffic accidents, which ranks China top in the world for both the death toll and the death rate. And the figure is accelerating by 10 per cent every year. Half of Chinese drivers don't wear seat belts.

806

Almost two years ago I found Taikang Lu in Shanghai. Today I found bus route 806 which takes me from my home to Taikang Lu. If you've been with me for awhile you'll know that Taikang Lu is an artsy neighborhood buried in an area of back alleys in south Shanghai. I had been spending as much as 50 rmb to get there by taxi but now that I can get there for 3 rmb I'm happy. The bus is really just as fast as the taxi and much more reliable on a rainy day like today.

Why did it take me so long to find this route? Well, partly because there are no maps of bus routes in Shanghai - just published lists of routes and stops along the route - and only in Chinese. Trying to piece this information together into a spatial sense of how to get from point A to point B is really challenging. Why Shanghai doesn't have an online site with maps of routes or anything available in English for tourists and expats is beyond me.

Having solved this particular problem of getting to Taikang Lu we had a couple of slices of cheese pizza at New York Pizza and wandered around the alleys and shops for a couple of hours. This area is very popular with Shanghai's amateur photographers who seem to spare no expense when it comes to getting the best and latest equipment. The alleys become impromptu photo shoots - almost invariably photographers taking pictures of young models or model wannabes while an assistant stands by with a large aluminum reflector - blocking the tiny alleys. It's next to impossible to walk the alleys and not be constantly in the crossfire between dueling photographers shooting this way and that.

Having disrupted enough photo shoots we walked north to Huaihai Lu ("lu" means road) and had an early dinner at Vegetarian Lifestyle.