Style over Class

This morning I flew to Shanghai to celebrate Chinese New Year.

I almost didn't go because of reports that it was inundated with snow and the city was unable to handle the heaviest snowfall it's had in 17 years.

But by the time I arrived, the sun came out and there was hardly any snow on the ground save for some piles here and there on the sidewalk.

My hotel is a short walk to Nanjing Road, the major shopping strip in Shanghai that leads to the Bund.

The place was absolutely packed with holiday shoppers, but apparently it's always busy.

There's also lots of sales too making it a prime time to be here.

However, even though the Shanghainese may claim to be more sophisticated than their northern cousins in Beijing, they certainly aren't as polite.

On the subway platform, they pushed their way into the trains as others were still trying to get off.

And for some reason commuters can't buy transportation cards with stored values in them. Everyone has to line up at the ticket counter to buy one. The line moves smoothly but a man chose to butt in front of me so he could buy seven tickets.

There are automated machines as well but as this was my first time taking the subway I wanted to make sure I was getting the right ticket.

So while Shanghai has all the pizazz and glamour, it isn't quite as efficient as Beijing in some respects.

We can all learn from each other.

Taking Cover

The Year of the Rat is about to begin.

And Beijing is booming. Literally.

All over the city people are setting off millions of firecrackers and fireworks.

As I write, there's a mini fireworks display in front of me. They seem to be the short and stubby kind, hardly rising above 10 storeys, but they're a colourful spectacle to say the least.

However, when you're not in the warm comfort of your own home and out on the street, hearing the loud booms around you can be a scary experience. It almost feels like you're in a war zone, wondering where the next explosion will be.

Firecrackers are like giant sparklers in the night, and their brilliance is soon quickly over. Afterwards streets are littered with tiny pieces of red paper, and one wonders who will be cleaning that up.

People are going mad for these traditional bangs as they're meant to scare away the evil spirits for the new year.

Fireworks and firecrackers were previously banned in the city until everyone was up in arms about it and the municipal government allowed people to set them off again last year.

Now there are make-shift stands on street corners selling everything from small firecrackers to giant boxes that when lit set off fireworks.

The loud booms were already echoing in the sky a few days ago -- both day and night -- and tonight's the big night. I and many other people (and animals) won't have much of a restful sleep.

Perhaps everyone is hoping this the Olympic year will be even more auspicious so they're setting off more fireworks than usual to prevent the evil spirits from even thinking of setting shop in Beijing.

Or perhaps as a sign of their growing wealth, people want to show how much money they can burn. Literally.

Crisis Management

The snowstorm is still grabbing headlines.

But now the veneer of the government praising the people for their hard work is wearing thin.

Many people in central China are living in primitive conditions without any electricity or running water. They are getting tired, cold and hungry, as food shortages are becoming more evident.

Lots of transmission towers are down and foreign media are reporting that these structures couldn't bear the weight of the snow and ice as they were placed so far apart from each other due to economics.

Millions are still stranded at railway stations and after waiting for days they are demanding to go home.

The government is trying to blame the chaos on the weather, but part of the situation was man-made.

The Chinese were grumbling about inflation so the government kept the prices of oil, electricity and water low. In turn it wasn't financially viable for small energy producers to keep going; so they either shut down or reduced output.

As a result there are coal shortages and now miners have to work through the Spring Festival so that people can have heat.

However the government is trying to put its own spin on the situation, saying the unexpected cold weather led to not enough coal meeting demand, and not being able to transport it around quick enough.

While officials are trying to persuade migrant workers not to go home for Spring Festival, some don't even have places to live in. Many of the factories that hired them are closed and didn't expect them to come back.

There's a huge gap in social services where in western countries non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross or Oxfam would step in and provide emergency shelter and food.

But the Chinese government is distrustful of others, or perhaps wants to make sure its people know the hand that feeds them.

With the Lunar New Year coming in a matter of days, all the Chinese want is their loved ones safely at home, enough food to eat and heat to keep them warm. If the government doesn't make significant progress in giving people what they want, they may begin to wonder who really is in charge.

Double Take

I saw this headline on Xinhua's website and then had to read this story twice before realizing it was a sad error the polisher didn't catch:

Most Chinese and their organs in Chad evacuated to Cameroon

BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- All overseas Chinese organs and most Chinese compatriots in Chad were evacuated to the territory of Cameroon, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao here on Sunday.

Chinese embassy in Chad organized the evacuation, he said.

Liu said nine embassy staffs and a few overseas Chinese remained in Chadian capital N'Djamena at present, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry and embassy in Chad would help them evacuate as quickly as possible.

Heavy fighting broke out Friday near the Chadian capital between government soldiers and an allied rebel force hostile to President Idriss Deby in Massaguet, about 50 km to the northeast of the Chadian capital.

For some reason the Chinese like to describe government bodies or organizations as "organs"...

Trying to Go Home

Hundreds of millions of people are attempting to get home for the Lunar New Year which starts on Thursday.

But the heavy snowfalls in the last few weeks have made the journey perilous or near impossible.

Power lines are covered in thick icicles, many transmission towers have collapsed under the weight of the snow, causing power outages and forcing electric trains out of commission.

Roads are icy and dangerous to drive on, and some airports shut down.

Parts of central and eastern China are blanketed with snow, while the south is miserable with relatively cold temperatures and rain.

The images of the hundreds of thousands of people standing at the Guangzhou railway station are amazing. They are mostly migrant workers, many of whom have not gone home to see their families for years. And they are determined to get on a train.

They don't know when their train will start and they don't want to lose their place in the huge crowds.

The authorities are trying to persuade them to stay behind in the southern Chinese city to spend Spring Festival, but at the most important time of the year, traditions are hard to shake off.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made the rounds, trying to show concern for the people.

In some respects it's working, but giving some face time isn't enough to quell the frustrations of ordinary people who just want to get home after standing in line for days.

The People's Liberation Army is feeding people, handing food and water to people stuck on the roads. In one foreign media report, sharp shooters are using sub machine guns to knock ice off power lines.

The police are trying to keep things in check at train stations, but in Guangzhou one person died in the stampede to get onto a train today.

The government has stopped short of declaring a state of emergency; it wants to show it's got the situation under control. They don't want the world to see China falling apart especially seven months before it hosts the Olympics.

Hopefully this natural disaster will be the strongest point yet to the government that climate change is happening right at its doorstep. It needs to take more responsibility for its environment.

It also shows how fragile China's infrastructure is. At the best of times it's barely holding itself together; and now with the biggest snowstorms the country has seen in 50 years, it needs contingency plans and better logistics planning.

It's really the people themselves who are showing the most resilience. Their determination to get home is admirable and I hope they do make it back in the next few days. They deserve the opportunity to see their family, especially after all they've gone through.

An Attempt to Spark Change

Smoking in China is as much a part of the culture as spitting or squatting on the street.

At restaurants, patrons will light up without any regard for his fellow diners. They even puff in hospitals, right under a No Smoking sign.

Once a man got into the elevator with me with a lit cigarette. And then he puffed on it the moment he got off.

It almost seems like smoking is an inalienable right of the Chinese.

But soon that will not be the case anymore in Beijing.

The municipal government is looking into passing a law banning smoking in public places, including restaurants, hotels, hospitals, fitness centers, toilets and schools. Anyone caught violating the law will be fined 50RMB (US$6.90).

This is all part of the government's pledge to have a smoke-free and Green Olympics.

In a report on China Radio International, some smokers were interviewed and said of course they wouldn't smoke in public places. And besides, one added, it's for the good of society.

Where do they find these people?

What's interesting is that China was awarded the Games seven years ago. In its bid, Beijing promised a non-smoking Olympics, and now less than 187 days to August 8, the government is pushing this smoking ban.

How it will be enforced is also questionable. While there are 350 million smokers in China, there's easily several million of them in Beijing.

Either we'll see more smokers butting out, but more likely we'll find more closet smokers itching for a puff anywhere they can get it.

Spinning the Enthusiasm

Yesterday I blogged about my visit to the National Aquatic Center and how the audience seemed more interested in checking out the venue than cheering on the swimmers.

Today's China Daily has a story on page 5 with the headline: "Water Cube draws huge crowds".

But the story doesn't quite match the heading:

It was still an hour before opening time, but that did not stop a large crowd from braving Beijing's freezing temperatures for a glimpse inside one of the city's top Olympic showpieces.

Families, couples and tourists huddled up yesterday afternoon outside the two ticket offices at the Water Cube, hoping to be among the first members of the public to see inside the venue for Olympic watersports.

First in line was a middle-aged woman from Gansu province, who was spending Spring Festival in the capital.

"I've been here for an hour, since 3:30 pm. I just want a ticket for myself. I want to go in there and see for myself," Hua Lijun said.

The ticket offices finally opened and minutes later, a beaming Hua held the ticket and fought her way through an envious crowd.

The opening treat at the Water Cube, officially known as the National Aquatics Center, was the preliminary rounds of the "Good Luck Beijing Swimming China Open" meet held last evening.

Many saw the cheapest tickets - 50 yuan ($7) - as a real steal to get a taste of the bubble-like padding on the walls and ceiling, made of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene plastic pillows, for which the Cube is now famous.

The enthusiasm for yesterday's event comes amid a larger feeling of anticipation as the Olympic Games near.

The online ticketing system buckled under the pressure in October and sales had to be suspended due to the overwhelming number of applications.

Those who failed to get their hands on tickets through a lottery last year have had to settle for a tour during trial events.

The Bird's Nest, or National Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, is scheduled to open its doors next month.

All 26,000 tickets to the opening ceremony were snapped up in the first phase of ticket sales last summer.

Ticketing officials said demand remains very high, and is centered on key events.

As expected, not everyone who stood in line was as lucky as Hua.

Wang Shujuan said she left her home in east Beijing at 9am yesterday for the morning phase of ticket sales for the Water Cube.

She took the subway, the bus and walked some distance before arriving at the swimming venue at 1 pm, only to find the ticket office closed for six hours before opening again in the evening.

"No one told us the office would be closed during the day," the frustrated 63-year-old said.

More than 200 tickets were sold in two hours yesterday morning, Wang Hongjian, a volunteer on morning shift at the ticket office, said.

Shen Ming, another member of the ticket sales team, said: "This is one of the hottest events so far."

No where does the story say exactly how many people attended the event last night and how enthusiastic the crowd was.

It only makes the assumption that the anticipation for the Olympics is creating more enthusiasm.

Did that reporter and I watch the same event?