For the folks of Chengdu, life was beginning to get back to normal, when the media announced last Monday (19th) that there would be an aftershock of magnitude 6 or 7 in the next few days. This drove the hysteria levels way off the Richter scale! Most of the students in our building opted to sleep outside and the phone networks were jammed with anxious people trying to tell their friends about this news. As I guessed, it never came! However, our classes were cancelled for the whole week, as were a lot of other classes. Chinese paranoia really does drive people crazy! The Dutch students in our school, were send back to Holland by their school at home (1 guy decided to stay in Chengdu), and a group of newly-arrived (some arrived the day before the quake) American exchange students have been flown to Beijing to study in Tsinghua University instead of in ours. I think this is over-reaction on a massive scale. Chengdu is FINE!


Besides those happenings, we have been busy collecting money and buying stuff for our basic hygiene/relief kits (above). We reckon we have pulled in over 30,000 RMB (3000 euro), partly from collections here but mostly from donations from friends at home – thanks to all of you! A week ago, we made 100 kits, the second time, 300 and today we doubled that with 600 kits! I think we have become a lot more efficient with buying stuff and getting the kits prepared. Depending on funds that we are still waiting on, we should be able to do it once more!

A friend of mine, Adam Dean (a photographer who I knew from my time in Dalian), came to Chengdu to take picture of the earthquake. He went to the real disaster zone in Beichuan the first day, but I went with him the second day – to Dujiangyan and Mianyang. What did I notice? Well, the smell of disinfectant was pungent in the air in Dujiangyan. We visited what used to be a Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital – now just a pile of rubble:


We also visited the sites of 2 schools.

Notice in the above picture, the blackboards on the 3 upper floors.


The second of the schools (above) was one in which a lot of students died after the building collapsed. The ground was white with lime powder, maybe used to diffuse the smell of the many dead bodies that were dug from the rubble. When we went there, the salvage work had been done and there were no bodies. However there were some press there; pestering poor kids about what happened that fateful day.

Notice anything in common between the 3 pictures? Well, the schools had completely collapsed, however, surrounding buildings seemed quite ok. Seems like a lot of these buildings were cheaply and badly constructed, more than likely by corrupt government officials. Tofu engineering, as the Chinese call it. It is awful to think that this type of thing can happen. I was talking to some Chinese teachers about it today. They did say that this issue has come out in the media, and that the government will be making investigations. It will be interesting to see the findings.


All that aside, from what I hear from Chinese and foreign media (and my friend, the photographer), and from what I saw in the Refugee Camp in Mianyang stadium (above), the government is doing a very good job in the relief campaign. As some American classmates pointed out, it’s a lot better than the US response to Hurricane Katrina. The conditions in that camp seemed quite good, with lots of facilities including tent schools, toilets, food, and medical facilities. Also, I was watching Chinese TV tonight and saw the huge amounts of money donate by Chinese companies 0 most in the region of 3 to 4 million euro per company – and this was just in Shandong province. Just shows that there is plenty of money in China to support the earthquake victims and rebuild their lives.

Our oral Chinese teacher mentioned this, and I also heard it on TV: they feel that the Chinese government focused too much on the growth of the economy and not on human beings. They feel the earthquake is a huge wake-up call for China. I think it will change a lot of people’s attitudes towards life, including my own. I think one good thing that has come out of this terrible disaster is that people are really showing their care and support for our fellow human beings – a very positive step in the development of society.

The Relief Effort

It has now been 5 days since the earthquake. The death toll is mounting. A huge rescue effort continues in the affected areas.

For people in Chengdu, life appears to be back to normal. However, one noticeable thing is the sheer hard word and goodwill local people are putting into the relief effort. Donation stalls have sprung up all over the city, allowing people to donate money, food, clothes, tents, sleeping bags and more. The Chinese Red Cross said that they have received sufficient blood donations. And still there were queues of people waiting to be put on contact lists for to give blood. My name is down too. The same goes for volunteers. Thousands have signed up as volunteers. I signed up too. We were told that we would be notified if and when we are needed. I hope I can do something.

Most companies are collecting donations from their employees. Our department in uni organised a collection and bought a lot of milk, which we gave to the Red Cross. Also, a former student here, a doctor from England has gone to the disaster area to help out. She is part of an NGO. Today, we raised a lot of money from public donations in the local area in order to buy basic hygiene kits for the earthquake refugees.

The city of Chengdu (and the country of China) has really pulled together to help the victims. People have given a lot, often given what they cannot afford, in order to help people less fortunate than themselves. A lot of Chinese people have praised us (foreigners) for showing such support for the people of Sichuan and doing a lot to help. Well, we are all people. I love Sichuan people and do anything I can to help them.

Aftermath

Well, the aftershocks seem to have subsided. However, the problem of hysteria still prevails. It looks like not much damage has been sustained in Chengdu – a few cracks in some and tiles falling off the outside walls of a few buildings.



We were lucky, unlike the unfortunate people in Wenchuan, Dujangyan and Beichuan, where a lot of lives have been lost.

In Chengdu, people poured onto the streets yesterday in a panicked and frantic fashion. People didn’t know what to do nor did any authority figures know what to do. This sort of disaster has never happened in Sichuan, not in this lifetime anyway. I might guess that if this happened in Ireland, a similar reaction would occur, since we would not be prepared either.



A lot of people stayed outside all day and all night yesterday, and made make-shift camps. A lot of rumours were spreading about aftershocks and also the best thing to do in an earthquake situation, a lot of this info being misleading. A classmate of mine is from New Zealand, where they experience frequent earthquakes and also receive earthquake precaution training as primary school students.

What did we do? Stayed out on the lawn in front of our building, had a few beers and sang a few songs, to get a good atmosphere going. A lot of people are scared; however, since the worst is now over, there is not much to worry about. I heard that Japanese people in Chengdu don’t see why people are getting so hysterical. Since Japan experiences frequent quakes, so this explains their attitude. We should follow their lead.

Our classes have been cancelled for the next two days. Maybe it’s an over-reaction but I guess the management want to play it safe. My heart goes out to the unfortunate people still trapped in other parts of the province, and also to the people who have lost loved ones. I am sure that the army is doing its best to rescue people. If one thing China has in its favour, it’s manpower. Lets hope that they can save a lot of lives.

Earthquake

An earthquake occurred in Chengdu yesterday. I had never experienced anything like this before. I was talking to a friend on skype when the windows started rattling. I thought it may be a big truck or something, but the rumbling didn’t stop, instead it intensified. At that point I went outside. The ground was shaking like some sort of amusement ride. Crazy.

There have been no injuries in our university as far as I know. People were advised not to go to floors above the second floor in our building, s a lot of people started sleeping outside until it started raining, when they came into the main hall.

I didn’t feel many aftershocks sitting on the grass, but others felt them. Chengdu got away pretty lightly, but according to the news on TV, many people have died in other places. Troops are trying to get to mountainous areas to rescue people.

The Current Climate as I See It

I want to write something about the current political climate in China, from my experience and from talking to other foreigners and Chinese people. I am not much of a writer, and my paragraphs may ramble a bit, but bear with me - there is some logic in there somewhere

The issues in Tibet and the resultant fallout have thrown up a lot of dust and brought a lot of sentiments to the forefront, some of these positive, in my point of view, however a lot are negative.

To give some context, I was never terribly interested in politics at home. I did vote, of course, as I think people should exercise that right. Coming to China, and being held back by government policy, however, brings politics to the fore for many foreigners. For example, not being able to access certain websites, or being restricted from going to certain places and saying certain things gets annoying, and as a result, a lot of foreigners like to have a good old whinge about the Chinese government.

Most Chinese people tell me that they are not very political. They don’t care because the government gives them what they need – they can get an education, maybe get a good job, have adequate transport and health care. I can probably say that I was in the same boat at hone. I had what I needed, so was never that much interested in politics. I can understand their logic – why should they care about politics, if, in their eyes, it doesn’t affect them? Also, some of them tell me that they don’t really like the Party here.

Little do they know that a lot of their decisions and actions are however, politically motivated. After the riots in Tibet and parts of Sichuan province, a lot of anti-Tibetan sentiments started spreading. I don’t know who started these rumours, but the rumours took fairly strongly and I think that the effect of these rumours (i.e. to tarnish the name of Tibetans) still remains. I think a lot of people in Chengdu are wary and afraid of Tibetans. Tibetans have taken on a similar reputation to the Travelling community back in Ireland. The Chinese media regularly blasts the Dalai Lama, saying he instigated the violent riots in Tibetan areas and saying that he wants to split Tibet from China. These claims, the Dalai Lama completely refutes. They don’t seem to have produced any evidence to support their claims, but many, maybe most Han Chinese people agree with this view or at least have a very negative view of the Dalai Lama. The media in other countries doesn’t go out of its way to blast the guy, so people don’t have the same, extreme viewpoint. The disruption to the Olympic torch relay in Paris, including the attempt to forcefully snatch the torch from a disabled athlete, and the presentation to the Dalai Lama of the freedom of the city of Paris, prompted “netizens” in China to instigate a boycott of French shops and French goods. Wow, a protest in China. Well, the government said it encourages its citizens not to use these means to express their discontent, but didn’t ban the activities. Last week, I overheard a Chinese person saying, “o, aren’t we supposed to boycott Carrefour this May holiday?” Well, these “non-political” people have suddenly made a political decision based on peer-pressure and patriotism. I know that a lot of people can get swept up in crazes and jump on bandwagons, e.g. the “free Tibet” crowd in the west, who probably don’t even know where Tibet is; however, it seems a lot stronger in China, especially with the widespread use of the internet.

It is a little disturbing in the way that the youth of China are motivated to act in sometimes extreme ways, on the behalf of patriotism. There was a story of a Chinese student in the USA, who took part in a pro-Tibet rally there. Chinese netizens allegedly started a man-hunt for this girl, who ended up needing police protection. It seems that there isn’t a lot of room for straying from the Party line in China. After the “new” finding that some western media had printed biased stories about China emerged, a lot of Chinese who claimed non-interest in politics put Love China in the personal message on their Instant Messengers (MSN, QQ, etc.). Here we go again with the patriotism. I have no problem with expressing love for one’s country, but this sort of snap-behaviour is all too common here.

Well, it’s no real wonder why people here behave like this. It seems to me that the government’s main interest in China is to keep control of its 1.4 billion citizens, by whatever means that seems appropriate to them. The gov tells the people that it need to do it this way, otherwise some groups would cause trouble and break the country apart and so China couldn’t develop. Indeed, there is logic in this point, and I can see why the gov here does it. The thing is, however, that most Han Chinese are blissfully aware of the opinions or plights of some of the people in the country, notably the Tibetans and Xinjiang people. I don’t have any first-hand experience of the feelings of those people, but from talking to other foreigners, it seems that most Tibetans don’t have a favourable opinion about Han Chinese and their government, ditto for Xinjiang people. Why don’t the Hans know? Maybe for 2 reasons: 1, the government wouldn’t publicise this information and 2, these people would be afraid to tell a Han their real feelings. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the people of China did actually know what some of the minority groups thought of the government. People’s opinions have been moulded, and as a result, these types of actions and responses are subconscious.

Since, I am Irish, I am all too aware of the problems in Northern Ireland – Catholics and Protestant kicking the shit out of each other for years. Now, there is peace in NI. Why? Because people talked to each other, and gave something. They might have had to lose some face and settle for something contra to their ideals, but they did it and people seem happier in Northern Ireland now. I talked to a Chinese person yesterday, telling her about NI and my opinion that if the people there are happy, then I am happy, that all this ideology about countries can sometimes be used as a propaganda tool. She said she was confused – all the education that she had received was contra to this, that people should unequivocally love their motherland. She found it hard to grasp that Northern Ireland could actually be left to itself and that people might be happier that way. This is a contrast to the Chinese gov view of its territories and claimed territories – it’s ours so we will take it. Did they ever think of asking the people in Taiwan or Tibet what they actually thought? Allowing the people who actually live there to have a say. The concept sees alien.

People in China have received an education designed by the government (as in all countries), however there isn’t much room for having a different view from the party line, and people are not really encouraged to think, they are not so-much encouraged to look for different sources of information, e.g. foreign news. Well, most people here can’t understand English and a lot of the foreign-run Chinese language news websites are blocked by the government, so it’s increasingly difficult for people here to see another viewpoint on the situation. For the May holiday, I had planned to go to Kangding, a half-Tibetan town for a cycling/camping trip. To cut a long story short, we were told we had to go back since foreigners were not allowed into the area. It is fine for Chinese to go in, but not us foreigners. Why? Some reasons given by our Chinese co-travellers included safety and the fact that foreigners might report some untrue things! As for the safety issue, if it is a genuine concern, than this shows that the Chinese gov doesn’t care so much about the safely of its people. As for the second excuse, it just shows the typical mentality of the government – we will not accept other views and are not open to criticism. Wake up, media ha been writing less than neutral accounts for hundreds of years. To diverge a little, I am happy that Chinese netizens have pointed out biased reporting in foreign media (the BBC often uses loaded statements when reporting about China). However, it is not a new thing. The timing of this slating of the western media by Chinese media seemed to happen at a very convenient time. Just as China was under fire from foreign media, the Chinese tell its people not to trust the foreign media because their reports are distorted. Not just a coincidence methinks. To actually come back to my original point, the people in China have been listening to this type of rhetoric for years, so accept it as fact. I’m not saying we are not influenced by the media – of course we are – our environment makes us who we are. However, a lot of people will actually use their heads and not blindly believe what they see or hear.

As China rises in the world, it has to face the consequence and take a mature standpoint. Countries like the US and Britain have been on the receiving end of criticism for years. They deal with it. Criticism from outside is a new thing for China, and so far they haven’t dealt well with it. A lot of the time, they try and use the same rhetoric to foreigners as they use to their own people – but it just doesn’t work. I hope China and other countries can learn from these recent incidents and co-operate in a more mature manner. This might result in a loss of face for someone, but I think the end result will make more people happier

I hope the Olympics go well for China. It will give Chinese people a lot of pride. They have poured a lot into these games, and I hope when the dust settles after the games, that a lot of positive things will have happened. I welcome the fact that a huge country like China is growing in power; it gives the world another voice apart from the western powers. However, I hope they can grow in a fair and open way.

If any Chinese people read this, I hope they don’t take it to heart. Government and country are separate entities, and I am not merely saying these things just to criticise. I hope it is constructive criticism. I also love China and it’s people, but disagree in some of the ways the government chooses to run the country. In Ireland, people complain about the government every day – in their homes and workplaces as well as in the media. I think its healthier that way.

Cycling Chengdu

After 2 and a half years in China, I have finally found some cycling buddies. I never really thought of looking for people to cycle with, cos I have never seen people cycling for exercise before in China. In Ireland, it’s quite common to see people dressed in their cycling gear of a weekend morning, but it’s a rarity in China. About 4 weeks ago, I was cycling to town, when I noticed that the guy cycling in front of me actually had a rear light on his bike, and was using his gears in a somewhat useful way. I talked to him and asked him if he was a cyclist and if he knew of good places to cycle in Chengdu. He gave me his QQ (online chat program popular in China, akin to MSN, but more cutesy) and added me to their QQ group (cycling chatroom). The following Wednesday, I went out for an evening cycle with a group of about 20. It was a fairly leisurely occasion, with us cycling a few km outside the city to have a hotpot-type dinner and then cycle back. Here and here are some photos of the occasion.

The following weekend, I joined another group for a more challenging trip – a cycle of around 130km outside Chengdu. Pics can be seen here and here.


This group seemed a bit more serious than the cycle-eat-cycle people of the previous Wednesday. Here is our group pictured outside the gate of my Uni, a convenient starting point


We headed out of the city at a leisurely pace. I wasn’t sure of the standard of this group; my own fitness was hardly much to talk about – but it turned out ok. They weren’t really speedsters and enjoyed frequent food and cigarette breaks! Here is the group on the road from Chengdu to the satellite town of Wenjiang:


On we went until we reached the actual countryside – a rare sight for Chengdu city slickers! It was really pleasant cycling through the country in a quasi-peleton. These guys are enthusiastic and know how to do a few tricks with bikes, but lack a bit of discipline for road cycling. Plenty of people in Ireland like that too. In true Sichuan style, we stopped at a restaurant and had a slap-up lunch!


After over-filling our bellies with spicy Sichuan fare, we headed off again. At this stage we hadn’t even got a sniff of a hill – but that was about to change. We turned off the main roads and headed for the hills. Tarmac road turned to concrete county road, which in turn turned into mountain track. Climbed a reasonable slope to a scenic spot where we re-assembled. I thought we would turn back for Chengdu at this stage, but the leader said we were heading into the hills. At this stage it also started to rain. Attempts to cycle along the steep and slippery mountain track failed, so we were reduced to pushing our bikes up the trail. At one stage, our leader seemed lost and asked a farmer the way to the main road. We crossed some fields and came across a river with only a narrow, slippery wooden bridge spanning it. Some braver souls risked the bridge, where as the rest of us, including me, took off our shoes and waded across the freezing cold river:


That was only the start of it. I thought that since there was a house at the other side of the river, that the main road was only around the corner – how wrong could I be! Instead, we had to push our bikes up a mountain – in the pissing rain and along a road long turned to mud!


I think that part knackered most people out, but spirits were still high when we eventually got to the top. The mud-fest continued down the other side of the hill. I was unlucky to get a puncture going down the hill. By the time I walked the bike a mile or so to where the others were, my bike was now brown with mud, with clumps of mud as big as your foot encasing the breaks! Luckily enough, the lads had a spare tube and got the puncture fixed. We headed back to Chengdu, stopping for a well-needed bike-wash on the way! I punctured again on the way back, but got it repaired in a bike shop – seemed the back tyre was nearly bald in one spot. The cycle back was fine, taught the lads the handy, energy-saving concept of group cycling – sticking close behind each other rotating the front rider every so often, Although we made good ground on the way back, it was still after 10pm by the time I got home – that was after leaving the house at 8am!

So, it was a good experience meeting Chinese people interested in cycling. It’s a good way to make friends, see some nice countryside and do some exercise at the same time! Looking forward to more events!