Xin Nian Kuai Le(Mandarin)! Kung Hei Fat Choy(Cantonese) means Happy New year. Yes, it is Chinese New year time in the Middle Kingdom and everything around the city of Five Rams(Guangzhou) have adorned a vibrant red and gold tinge. This is the time of for grand celebrations, spending time with family and loved ones and a time for sharing good cheer. It is certainly the most beautiful time to be in this wonderful country in the land of the Dragon.
The Chinese celebrate the Chinese New Year (will be referred as CNY henceforth) as if there is no tomorrow. Supermarkets and wayside stores go equally bersek promoting their wares and buyers go totally over the top in a buying frenzy. One wonders if there was ever a recession in this kingdom in the recent times. I was in a queue for one whole hour at a leading dept store in Guangzhou awaiting my turn to get to the payment counter! There are simply a billion and a few million more people! And people just want to buy!!.
Wayside stores have beautiful Chinese lanterns in Red and gold and a zillion other hanging stuff in red and gold for people to indulge in and share with fellow revelers. Shopping season never really ends in China but becomes a feverish frenzied peak just before CNY. This is the time of the year when the Chinese are ringing in the year of the tiger. This time around and supposed to be a good year compared to the last year which was the year of the rat. Last year was bad indeed for most people across the globe and hope it is the opposite this year. People have started believing so and that is quite evident in the way they spend!
This is also the time for the Great Chinese People Movement. The large industrial cities that drive the world’s second largest economy houses people from all over the Middle Kingdom to feed its assembly lines. This mammoth human population travels back to their home towns in remote parts of China just before the CNY thus jamming all means of transportation across the country for weeks. This is probably the worse time to travel in China and the worst time to get caught amidst this travel frenzy if one lands up in China during this time. The picture posted is an example of the Guanzghou Railway station during the time of the CNY last year.
Everything in China comes to a total standstill well before CNY and the wheels start grinding again a few weeks past the CNY. Then once it picks up speed, it roars through the year, hurtling away towards infinity till it is time for the next big break later during the year in October for the Moon festival (which I will post in a different post later). During this time, the roads have less people as the city empties out with the residents travelling back to their hometowns to spend the New Year with their families. Offices are almost empty with just a few skeleton staff pretending to keep the business going and not having to shutdown completely lest clients start worrying of a closure.
I will miss this CNY this year which I enjoyed and celeberated with my Chinese colleagues and friends in Guangzhou for the last two years. I will be away from the Middle kingdom, but my soul will remain here and welcome the Chinese New year of the Tiger with renewed vigour, hope and expectations.This is the year of the tiger and I have a feeling that it sure will be a tiger of a year.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
How are you?
Image 
Courtesy: lostlaowai.com
So , I pull my shirt sleeves back on and manage to wear few of the buttons before I get to the door in order to open it and avoid my door from caving inwards.
There I see a beaming gentleman outside my door flanked by two women trying to pull my door frame apart to get me to open the door. I open the door and let them in. They edge past me with their shoulder (remember soccer?). Then they stand still and look back and forth at me and the couch a few times. I got the message and politely offered them a seat at my straight backed dining table chair which they took, I guess regretfully but pretentiously gracefully!
My wife heard all this from within the bedroom and blissfully left me to deal with our visitors. She has seen me play this part to perfection many times and did not want to see a repeat lest she has to clap and hand me the Oscars again! She stayed inside the bedroom pretending to rearrange her wardrobe a bit. She knew that such matters don’t don’t need her attention and that she can rely on the husband to manage this at least! I digress again.
I am familiar with this ritual. All too familiar. Played my part in this drama many times. Burnt my hands once and won applauses almost all other times. I feign ignorance and asked them , Ni hao ma? For which they answer with a curt reply in English – passpot? (yeah, thas right, he meant passport!). I show recognition of that word and ask them to wait while I spend good time trying to dish it out of my bag from where I exactly I know I can get it in a second. I finally do and hand it over to them. They flick through it. I think – “lots of pages huh!”( almost finishing my second booklet now). They cant find the most important document they want. They are excited, they flick through again. Can’t find it. They look at me and then do not want to ask (and it wasn’t the language barrier!), so they try once again. I wait for the ritual to finish and then when they look at me again I ask innocently – is there anything I can do for you? He doesn’t understand – as expected, and the lady nearby replies. “Where is visa?”(yes, my grammar isn’t that good!) . I say – oh! Let me show it to you and in a nano second find it for them. All three grin and pour over the document as if they haven’t seen anything more controversial and dangerous, then look at me. I gathered they were trying to match the appearance on the pic with the face of the real me in front of them. Not convinced, so they look up at me and down at the passport few times and then make notes very vigorously. I have seen that also happen many times in the past and stayed calm. According my history teacher in school, “lots of notes always don’t mean lots of information, my dear”. I was a good history student, I remembered those famous words. I calmly assure myself that I’ll be fine.
Then they ask for “Another member in house? “ This is when my wife makes an entry into the scene, acknowledges their presence and walks away. I quietly hand over her passport to them. I wait. The same ritual of rigorous page flicking and note making repeats and then after final assessment of my real face with the mugshot in the passport , they hand over both the documents to me. Then they go on to ask me “where is registration certificate”. I know exactly where it is and dish it out for their detailed examination again. I realize that three heads (one with a hat) can actually come so close together to examine a document! Then one of them says “ go to police station” ! I say “ For what” . “registration !“ , he says. I say “that is what you are holding – the registration!” he is confused, and so are the women. They all ponder over the document, take our passports back from us and bunch their heads together to look at it again.3 long minutes later and after doing the ritual of juggling looks between notes, passport and registration certificate many times, they uniformly and together look up at me smiling while handing over all the documents and say Veli good, veli veli good (yes,Very!). I say “Xie Xie”(Thankyou!) and smile. Peace has been made once again between Indians and Chinese! The visitors remind both my wife and me to carry the original passport, the registration certificate and the work permit on our person all the time when we go out of the house. We nod and make polite noises in understanding. We know it too well. They meant it.
Flashback. One month ago. My wife and I were stepping out of the elevator of our apartment block for a stroll by the river side. Our apartment is by the riverside, which means technically we were inside the apartment block but not inside our flat/apartment. We walk straight into a group of armed(read guns and batons) visitors to the apartment who were outside the elevator waiting for lesser mortals like us to step out. They size us up suspiciously.Intimidation techniques – my mind says aloud. Evidently so – the guns and baton et al!!
A lady steps forward and authoritatively demands for our ‘passpots’ and I reply enthusiastically say , “sure”, its at home, why don’t you come along and take a look” . My wife is aghast at being questioned for a passport inside the premises of our apartment and even more so on my response! If I could put words together to describe how she looked – she looked like – “what is this ya!! And look at you!”. So we step right back into the elevator along with wife, our visitors, a golden retriever and an old lady and I sheepishly grin without looking at anyone in particular. My wife isn’t a bit amused and lets me know.
The lift races towards the sky as if there was no tomorrow to do that again!(ya right!!)I open the door and let the group with their guns and batons in and offer them a seat on my couch this time. After examining the passports that I dished out, the leader of the group pulls out a book and writes me a challan for 500 RMB(Yuan)! That is Rs.3500 boss! I feign ignorance and ask what it was for and am curtly told to pay fine for not carrying our passports on person. My arguments that we are within the premises and not outside meant that technically we are at home were met with curt responses with a hand clasped over the baton stating “You no inside house. You outside!!. I try to reason (yeah, I tried, can you imagine!!). Wife is glaring now! I can hear the flames flick my skin! I said “You expect us to carry these documents everywhere outside all the time, what if we lose it.?” To which I get a response. “Be careful!!” Well I asked for it , dint I ?!!. Then I say , “ you mean to say, I need to carry it even when I go out for lunch from work , or going to the ATM down stairs?!” the response was , “ we can check you anytime, anywhere, pay the fine!!. Then while writing and handing me the challan she said the most beautiful and the most familiar thing that their counterparts in Bangalore always say “This time OK, just pay 50RMB, next time full payment, OK!” Wow! That almost sounded like a negotiation. I smiled agreement and we both knew we had a deal. I knew this too well to wait further. I promptly made the “payment”. The visitors wished me a good day and went away smoothly the way the 100 RMB (50 each for me and wife) found its way into her coat pocket. Well, Good day?!! Maybe, it was. I was just poorer by a 100 quid. It could have been a lot worse.
Courtesy: lostlaowai.com “Ni Hao Ma?” means a very friendly “How are you?” in Putonghua (Mandarin).That was a very friendly visitor at my door last evening saying that after rattling my door for five minutes. I had just returned from work and was halfway out of my shirtsleeves when the “friendly” rattle came from my front door. The rattle was familiar. This wasn’t the first time .In fact I had lost count of how many times it has happened in the last two and a half years I have spent in China. It happens almost certainly every time I renew my work permit and residence visas or travel overseas and return which is reasonably atleast once a quarter or once every quarter on an average except for 2009 which was a year of cut travel budgets and flights traded for video conferences. ( I had travelled to India and Thailand each once ). I digress.
So , I pull my shirt sleeves back on and manage to wear few of the buttons before I get to the door in order to open it and avoid my door from caving inwards.
There I see a beaming gentleman outside my door flanked by two women trying to pull my door frame apart to get me to open the door. I open the door and let them in. They edge past me with their shoulder (remember soccer?). Then they stand still and look back and forth at me and the couch a few times. I got the message and politely offered them a seat at my straight backed dining table chair which they took, I guess regretfully but pretentiously gracefully!
My wife heard all this from within the bedroom and blissfully left me to deal with our visitors. She has seen me play this part to perfection many times and did not want to see a repeat lest she has to clap and hand me the Oscars again! She stayed inside the bedroom pretending to rearrange her wardrobe a bit. She knew that such matters don’t don’t need her attention and that she can rely on the husband to manage this at least! I digress again.
I am familiar with this ritual. All too familiar. Played my part in this drama many times. Burnt my hands once and won applauses almost all other times. I feign ignorance and asked them , Ni hao ma? For which they answer with a curt reply in English – passpot? (yeah, thas right, he meant passport!). I show recognition of that word and ask them to wait while I spend good time trying to dish it out of my bag from where I exactly I know I can get it in a second. I finally do and hand it over to them. They flick through it. I think – “lots of pages huh!”( almost finishing my second booklet now). They cant find the most important document they want. They are excited, they flick through again. Can’t find it. They look at me and then do not want to ask (and it wasn’t the language barrier!), so they try once again. I wait for the ritual to finish and then when they look at me again I ask innocently – is there anything I can do for you? He doesn’t understand – as expected, and the lady nearby replies. “Where is visa?”(yes, my grammar isn’t that good!) . I say – oh! Let me show it to you and in a nano second find it for them. All three grin and pour over the document as if they haven’t seen anything more controversial and dangerous, then look at me. I gathered they were trying to match the appearance on the pic with the face of the real me in front of them. Not convinced, so they look up at me and down at the passport few times and then make notes very vigorously. I have seen that also happen many times in the past and stayed calm. According my history teacher in school, “lots of notes always don’t mean lots of information, my dear”. I was a good history student, I remembered those famous words. I calmly assure myself that I’ll be fine.
Then they ask for “Another member in house? “ This is when my wife makes an entry into the scene, acknowledges their presence and walks away. I quietly hand over her passport to them. I wait. The same ritual of rigorous page flicking and note making repeats and then after final assessment of my real face with the mugshot in the passport , they hand over both the documents to me. Then they go on to ask me “where is registration certificate”. I know exactly where it is and dish it out for their detailed examination again. I realize that three heads (one with a hat) can actually come so close together to examine a document! Then one of them says “ go to police station” ! I say “ For what” . “registration !“ , he says. I say “that is what you are holding – the registration!” he is confused, and so are the women. They all ponder over the document, take our passports back from us and bunch their heads together to look at it again.3 long minutes later and after doing the ritual of juggling looks between notes, passport and registration certificate many times, they uniformly and together look up at me smiling while handing over all the documents and say Veli good, veli veli good (yes,Very!). I say “Xie Xie”(Thankyou!) and smile. Peace has been made once again between Indians and Chinese! The visitors remind both my wife and me to carry the original passport, the registration certificate and the work permit on our person all the time when we go out of the house. We nod and make polite noises in understanding. We know it too well. They meant it.
Flashback. One month ago. My wife and I were stepping out of the elevator of our apartment block for a stroll by the river side. Our apartment is by the riverside, which means technically we were inside the apartment block but not inside our flat/apartment. We walk straight into a group of armed(read guns and batons) visitors to the apartment who were outside the elevator waiting for lesser mortals like us to step out. They size us up suspiciously.Intimidation techniques – my mind says aloud. Evidently so – the guns and baton et al!!
A lady steps forward and authoritatively demands for our ‘passpots’ and I reply enthusiastically say , “sure”, its at home, why don’t you come along and take a look” . My wife is aghast at being questioned for a passport inside the premises of our apartment and even more so on my response! If I could put words together to describe how she looked – she looked like – “what is this ya!! And look at you!”. So we step right back into the elevator along with wife, our visitors, a golden retriever and an old lady and I sheepishly grin without looking at anyone in particular. My wife isn’t a bit amused and lets me know.
The lift races towards the sky as if there was no tomorrow to do that again!(ya right!!)I open the door and let the group with their guns and batons in and offer them a seat on my couch this time. After examining the passports that I dished out, the leader of the group pulls out a book and writes me a challan for 500 RMB(Yuan)! That is Rs.3500 boss! I feign ignorance and ask what it was for and am curtly told to pay fine for not carrying our passports on person. My arguments that we are within the premises and not outside meant that technically we are at home were met with curt responses with a hand clasped over the baton stating “You no inside house. You outside!!. I try to reason (yeah, I tried, can you imagine!!). Wife is glaring now! I can hear the flames flick my skin! I said “You expect us to carry these documents everywhere outside all the time, what if we lose it.?” To which I get a response. “Be careful!!” Well I asked for it , dint I ?!!. Then I say , “ you mean to say, I need to carry it even when I go out for lunch from work , or going to the ATM down stairs?!” the response was , “ we can check you anytime, anywhere, pay the fine!!. Then while writing and handing me the challan she said the most beautiful and the most familiar thing that their counterparts in Bangalore always say “This time OK, just pay 50RMB, next time full payment, OK!” Wow! That almost sounded like a negotiation. I smiled agreement and we both knew we had a deal. I knew this too well to wait further. I promptly made the “payment”. The visitors wished me a good day and went away smoothly the way the 100 RMB (50 each for me and wife) found its way into her coat pocket. Well, Good day?!! Maybe, it was. I was just poorer by a 100 quid. It could have been a lot worse.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Size does matter!
Anyone who discusses scale in any forum is invariably talking about China or India. Most likely, it is China than the other alternative.
Here is some perspective , the obvious ones being :
The world’s most populated country. The most spoken language in the world(obviously!). The biggest manufacturing industry – the world’s factory. The fastest and the largest emerging nation. The largest Communist Country. The second largest economy. The worlds fastest train – Guangzhou to Wuhan. The world’s biggest square – Tiananmen. The G2.And many more.
Here are some examples that are testimonies to the largesse of China, both historically and in modern times :
Courtesy:Web 2.0
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during various successive dynasties against foreign invasion from the Mongolians and the Manchurians. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km of sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
Courtesy:Web 2.0
The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China are figures, dating from 210 BC, discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China. The pits contain terracotta statues of over 8,000 life sized soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. The Terracotta statues are spread across the underbelly of the city of Modern day Xian for 53 square kilometers! That is a massive city under a city with life
sized palaces, cavalry, horses, armaments and infantrymen made of terracotta with no single horse , soldier or general resembling another, buried under the city as a takeaway for the emperor to be reborn with in his after life. Only 1 % of this h as been excavated and less than half of it has been made open to the public.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is also the world's largest political party. The party was small at first, but grew intermittently through the 1920s. Twelve voting delegates were seated at the 1st National Party Congress in 1921. The total membership in the party had grown to a staggering 60 million by 2000!
Courtesy:Web 2.0
Courtesy:Web 2.0
The Three Gorges dam is the world biggest man made dam built ever. This is China’s Mega dam across the mighty Yangtze river or the Chang Jiang as the Zhongguoren, the people of the Middle kingdom call it , is the 3rd biggest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile! The dam wall is made of concrete and is about 2,309 metres (7,575 ft) long, and 101 metres (331 ft) high. The wall is 115 metres (380 ft) thick on the bottom and 40 metres (131.2 ft) thick on top. The project used 27,200,000 cubic metres (35,600,000 cu yd) of concrete, 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres (134,200,000 cu yd) of earth. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW. The reservoir flooded a total area of 632 km² of land, enough to cover Singapore. This dam provides 10% of the power needs of the powerhouse that is China!
There are many more examples and every one of them clearly of magnificent proportions. These are not rare to find but on the contrary, are too common and too many to list in this blog. These are manifestations of the Chinese phsyche. This is a reflection of their superiority and largesse. This is a reflection of their intent to be the biggest and the most dominating force in the world. The canvas in China is very tall and wide. The writing on the canvas is loud and clear. China is big, getting bigger and bigger in all realms. And size does matter.
Here is some perspective , the obvious ones being :
The world’s most populated country. The most spoken language in the world(obviously!). The biggest manufacturing industry – the world’s factory. The fastest and the largest emerging nation. The largest Communist Country. The second largest economy. The worlds fastest train – Guangzhou to Wuhan. The world’s biggest square – Tiananmen. The G2.And many more.
Here are some examples that are testimonies to the largesse of China, both historically and in modern times :
Courtesy:Web 2.0
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during various successive dynasties against foreign invasion from the Mongolians and the Manchurians. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km of sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
Courtesy:Web 2.0
sized palaces, cavalry, horses, armaments and infantrymen made of terracotta with no single horse , soldier or general resembling another, buried under the city as a takeaway for the emperor to be reborn with in his after life. Only 1 % of this h as been excavated and less than half of it has been made open to the public.
Courtesy:Web 2.0
Courtesy:Web 2.0
The Three Gorges dam is the world biggest man made dam built ever. This is China’s Mega dam across the mighty Yangtze river or the Chang Jiang as the Zhongguoren, the people of the Middle kingdom call it , is the 3rd biggest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile! The dam wall is made of concrete and is about 2,309 metres (7,575 ft) long, and 101 metres (331 ft) high. The wall is 115 metres (380 ft) thick on the bottom and 40 metres (131.2 ft) thick on top. The project used 27,200,000 cubic metres (35,600,000 cu yd) of concrete, 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres (134,200,000 cu yd) of earth. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW. The reservoir flooded a total area of 632 km² of land, enough to cover Singapore. This dam provides 10% of the power needs of the powerhouse that is China!
There are many more examples and every one of them clearly of magnificent proportions. These are not rare to find but on the contrary, are too common and too many to list in this blog. These are manifestations of the Chinese phsyche. This is a reflection of their superiority and largesse. This is a reflection of their intent to be the biggest and the most dominating force in the world. The canvas in China is very tall and wide. The writing on the canvas is loud and clear. China is big, getting bigger and bigger in all realms. And size does matter.
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