Tidbits From the World

In the Christmas Season, in downtown Xi’an, lights are everywhere: on fake trees, real trees, on buildings,…

These two pictures are not particularly spectacular, but they are the only ones I have of the lights downtown… my batteries went dead right after I took those two pics. Too bad, one particular scenery around the Bell Tower would have made for a very nice picture.

Of course, I could go back there and take those pictures of the beautiful night scene and post them here for you all to enjoy… but this is not an option, and unless you know what China (or any other chaotic country) is on rush hour, you might find it difficult to understand the reason. I was there on Christmas day. And what do the Chinese do on Christmas day in Xi’an? They go downtown, and they walk… So the place was packed with people. Getting on a bus packed to maximum capacity is possible, but undesirable; getting on a taxi is impossible and if, by any chance, there is finally one that stops near you, your place WILL be taken by someone else who thinks he wants the ride more than you, and that we are living in a jungle where the survival of the fittest is the only rule. On that day, it took us nearly two hours to get out of this place, at that pace it would have been faster to walk all the way home. Sorry, you won’t see photos of the beautiful sceneries from Downtown Xi’an on Christmas day.

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Here are some of the pictures that I took during my journey in Sichuan province (also written as “Szechuan”).

The purpose of my journey was to take part in activities for a summer camp organized by an NGO whose main activity consists in building libraries in high schools in the Chinese countryside.

This library was built just a few months earlier in an empty building belonging to the school.

Before the start of the summer camp (on Monday), I was asked to give speeches in front of some classrooms. In total I gave 8 speeches about travel and foreign countries. (I spoke English and Ying translated into Chinese).

Group photo.

One of the many movies that were shown during the summer camp.

A physical education student. Every night, he and his classmates train outside. Their goal is to be admitted to the physical education program at the University. If they get admitted, they will have good prospects for the future. These guys might, one day, get a gold medal at the Olympics Games!

Ping Pong. (乒乓球 [ping pang qiu])

In the library, these very old books caught my attention… Lenin’s Whole Collection and Marx and Engels’ Whole Collection.

Marx and Engels.

“To our Mother School” – July 14 1974.

One of the favorite activities of most Chinese: 爬山 [pashan] climb the mountain!

Two old men wearing the “Mao suit”.

We met very nice people.

This man is writing his home address so that we can send him his photo.

This woman used to work in a factory in Xi’an, but she decided to come back to the countryside and set up a poultry farm. She told us that her job at the factory paid very little, while selling chickens is a very profitable business!

I stayed at the “best hotel” in town.

I’m not quite sure what this is… from what I understand, you can get a new name there…

This is something that would be unthinkable in Quebec, where all the names of the students would be replaced by secret codes only known by the students themselves and the teachers: the list of the students who passed the tests and were admitted to the University.

Power failures were quite common there, but they would never last very long.

After the summer camp, we went to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan.

A dog and his master.

A bar.

Here are some pictures from Xi’an taken in the vicinity of where I live.

The open-air porcelain market, located between two tower houses, that I featured in a previous article.

The most expensive article would probably cost around 元1000 (US$150). But there is always some way to bargain in China, especially in these informal markets.

Heavy traffic on an avenue, and a traffic police officer is standing in the middle, making sure that everybody gets their turn to pass. The cyclist waiting by the side of the policeman is riding an electric bicycle. Notice the crowded bus. If you hate rush hour in your country, it’s probably because you haven’t experienced Chinese rush hours yet! (This bus is not so bad compared to others).

Some cyclists are waiting their turn to cross the avenue.

A food stand on the sidewalk of an important arterial street (Chang’an South Street). You can also see a double decker bus which is part of Xi’an’s mass transit system. Its route crosses the whole city, travelling 28 km each way.

“[Commercial Space] For Rent”. In China, businesses come and go at a terrific rate. While one business goes bankrupt, two others are getting into the market, and vice versa. Last September, I took a picture of the woman working there and her child. In March, I was shocked to see that she was gone. Her sandwiches were very good, but she was working against a very tough competition, with many other people selling the same product for cheaper. Being the second business from the sidewalk, she had to pay a higher rent than her competitors. Also, she would bake the bread for her sandwiches herself, while her competitors would buy bread from the supermarket, which apparently is a cheaper way. And also, she would bake her bread in a coal over, while her competitors prefer so fry them in oil, which is cheaper but very disgusting and unhealthy.

I still don’t know much about the subject yet, so I won’t go too deep in my speculations, but I read somewhere that China is using Japan’s model for its economic growth. And in Japanese companies, there is a mentality where one has to put all his or her energies for the benefit of the company he or she works for. On the street, in China, in front of businesses, one can often see employees dancing or singing in front of their boss. Is it to prove their allegeance to the company? Pictured above: new employees of a business that will be opening soon, dancing in front of their boss, who is wearing a beige jacket.

One of the most complex Chinese characters. It is pronounced “biang” in a rising tone and is made up of 57 strokes in its traditional form and 42 strokes in its simplified form. One kind of noodles is called “biang biang mian” (=noodles biang biang). It is a specialty from Shaanxi province and it is part of what is elegantly called 陝西十大怪 (the ten great strange wonders from Shaanxi).

Construction of a fence in front of a tower house under the supervision of a suit.

Very impressive.

A panoramic view of this area under construction. A few months ago, all there was here were houses and small streets. Click here to see a bigger picture.

From these two holes will rise two great towers…

In six months, it will be difficult to imagine how this place was today.

A worker is climbing or installing the scaffolding.

An elevator to transport people and/or object to the higher floors of the building.

Some workers are also building the sidewalks for the new district.

These clients are choosing the color for the floors of their future apartment.

One last house is standing in the middle of the newly built towers. On the banner is it written: “I strongly want to say to the government…” the rest of the message is unreadable because the banner is folded in the middle.

The same house, from a different angle. Taking this picture was a little bit too much for the tolerance of the people working there. When I took the picture, I heard a car honking. Two people wearing black suits and black sun glasses inside a black car with black tinted windows were staring at me. By looking at the license plate, I could tell that they were not government officials, but probably real estate investors. But they probably have good “connections” to the government. So, they “escorted” me to the exit, slowly driving behind me, while I walked my way to the nearest exit.