Blue China – A blog about Peter Schindler’s on and off the road encounters with people in China

January 22nd, 2011

Memories of a year traveling in China: 2 steps forward

Posted by peter

“Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breaths away.”

Memory 2

During our first trip with a group of Swiss customers, we heard they would like more opportunities to “come in touch with the locals”. I decided that for the second group in May, we would have to do better. One of the ideas that we came up with was a village visit in the Yuanyang rice terraces (元阳梯田). Zoe Li, one of our best tour guides, and I had befriended the “bell boy” of the hotel we use in Yuanyang. As it turned out, his uncle lived in a small village in the middle of the rice terraces. “I think he can host you next time. Shouldn’t be a problem,” our bell boy friend said. I normally dread Chinese saying “it shouldn’t be a problem (应该没有问题)” because normally it means “I haven’t got a clue” and that most likely there will be a problem.
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2 Responses :

Grace Gallo Says:
January 22nd, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Hi, Peter,
That was wonderful and interesting to read!. More pictures, they are fantastic. Hugs, Grace x
Phyllis Says:
January 23rd, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Hi Peter,

You’re cumulating just another good deed to bridge the west and east !
I’m back to Singapore, hope to meet you and Angie in Hongkong/SEA soon.

Regards, Phyllis

January 3rd, 2011

Memories of a year traveling in China: Alive and kicking

Posted by peter

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” is what John Lennon said.

MEMORY 1

March began with a trip in Yunnan. It wasn’t one with customers. Instead, we decided to spend a week in Yunnan researching more itineraries since at the beginning of 2010 we had only one Yunnan itinerary on offer, and that clearly wasn’t enough given that we wanted to shift our focus away from seasonally challenged Sichuan to climatically clement Yunnan.

Since our first Yunnan itinerary ran south toward its borders with Vietnam, Laos and Burma, it made sense to research Yunnan’s west and northwest with which I had some familiarity, but not enough to design interesting itineraries. Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La were – that much I knew – connected with perfect roads that are frequented by countless tourist buses. Unless we could find some appetising back roads and rarely visited villages and scenic sights, we might just as well not offer any itineraries in this region. Are there such roads, villages and sights, we wondered. A brief glance at our detailed Chinese road map, a little bit of reading of guide books and a google.com.cn search suggested that we should be able to find all that we needed to concoct beautiful On the Road in China-style itineraries.
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May 19th, 2010

Up-sale

Posted by peter

The other day I found myself in Jiangcheng (江城) again. (Where is Jiangcheng?). Jiangcheng is a border town in the south of Yunnan. Its shops and restaurants display their names in Chinese, Laotian and Vietnamese. Jiangcheng feels south-east Asian through and through, with palm trees, soft humidity and warmth, and brown-skinned Dai minority folks. It has also a basic, but very clean hotel that features only suites with giant beds, a generous rain shower and a separate room with a Majiang table.

“You’ve told us about a town that has a great massage place,” one of my Swiss customers asked.

“This isn’t it, but I have seen a foot massage place near the hotel before. I can check it out for you, if you like,” I replied.

“That would be great!”
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One Responses :

王皓、红红 Says:
May 20th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
很抱歉Peter，我不懂英文，来占个沙发的位置。

April 10th, 2010

A prediction

Posted by peter

In 2007, when I drove this bright-eyed yellow sports car

21,000km through China, from the Yangtze’s mouth in China’s glitziest city, Shanghai, to its source in the Tibetan highlands where all that I encountered was a Yak, practically everyone whom I met asked me 3 questions: How fast? How much? What do you do when it rains? Even though very few people I met in China had ever seen a convertible and no one I met had ever seen a Caterham in the flesh, one thing was clear: they all aspired to have a car. That much was obvious from their longing looks and, on occasion, gentle caresses of the car’s body.

Earlier this year the news came that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest automobile market. China really has arrived, I thought to myself, and its ascendency has been as smooth a ride as that in a Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. Will China’s ride continue to be as smooth, I wondered.
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7 Responses :

Salman Bokhari Says:
April 10th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Peter, thanks for sharing this “Predicion”. I continue to be a great admirer of China and things Chinese and am not in the camp which is inherently negative about both. However, one needs to ask teh following questions:

1. How long can an economy continue to deliver growth if such is determined beforhand and achieved by adding to yet more capacity?
2. Can China afford politically to let market forces determine eceomnic growth?
3. Have the fruits of economic growth really filtered down to the masses? True that teh coastal regions have benefitted tremendously, but that has also led to an alarminingly widening gap between the rich and the poor, evoking memories of China as it was in the 1920s-1930s. I think there is growing resentment about this but seldom reported, also since the per capita internet accessibility continues to be among the lowest in the world.

I think that issues such as food, access to clean water, air quality etc will become increasingly important in teh coming years and may become the source of conflict. Nobody in their right minds woudl want to see China declining but history unfortunately does repeat itself. After all, the biggest economy in GDP terms in 1860 was not the UK or Germany, but China. The current leadership is one of the best that China has had in the last 50 years so I hope that measures are taken in time to prevent any major upheavels.

Salman
AM Says:
April 10th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
May be the Zeitgeist Movement also touches deeply China and the future will be bright for all of us …
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/
Andreas Says:
April 11th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Very interesting, thanks for sharing Peter!
I keep wondering if we should not include freedom of thought, speech, and freedom to listen and see any kind of content as relevant parameters to measure the true wealth of a society?
One can have a Bentley in his garage (check some of condos here in BJ) and still be) totally degenerated in a degenerated place…
Paul Noll Says:
April 11th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
“Unless those in the countryside prosper, those in the city can hardly rest easy!”

Paul Noll
Alan Morgan Says:
April 12th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Good piece I also think that perhaps China is growing to quickly, the one thing I see here in Shandong province is the huge growth in property development but no one is living in it, it appears to be just for future investment. Having experienced the quality of building first hand I would not want to invest in it as the predicted life of most of these appartment buildings is only 50 years but may be only 25.
王皓、红红 Says:
April 12th, 2010 at 9:40 am
好怀念小黄啊，不知道他现在怎么样了？
Henry Zhu Says:
May 20th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
In fact the last 30 years have not been all that pretty, either. China is much more integrated into the world economy today. External factors will play a bigger part determining the future parth of China…

February 20th, 2010

“My dad and my mom” – The record of two lives become one…

Posted by peter

In late 2009 I learned about a remarkable story. It is the story of a couple who lived in Shandong province, told by their son Jian Bo, a renowned photographer, who works at China’s State Council News Office where he heads the Art Photo Library. In 1974 he began to record with his camera the life of his parents. In December 1998, a collection of these photos became the subject of an exhibition at the China National Art Gallery. His parents were there to cut the ceremonial ribbon whereby the exhibition was declared open. The exhibition was celebrated by the media as one that “moved the capital and stirred the entire nation”. That year, Jian Bo’s collection of photos was awarded the grand prize in an international competition of photos documenting traditional folk life and customs.

In the spirit of these pages — to tell my cnounters with and the stories of ordinary Chinese people — I’ve decided to publish this story here. I’ve attempted to contact Jian Bo to ask for permission to do so, but have not received a reply. I hope that when he finds out he won’t object to my sharing his story with all of you.

To view the original Chinese version, please follow this link. Jian Bo’s blog site is here. (为了看看原中文版的故事，请点击这个链接.)

And now, here is the story of Jian Bo’s parents….
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12 Responses :

Terry Says:
February 20th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
A most beautiful and touching story and incredible photography as well.. Thank you for sharing this Peter.
Paul Noll Says:
February 20th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
As we reach near to our 55th year of being one and in our 80s we can well relate to this charming story of honest work and love. Thank you Peter for sharing the lives of these two delightful people.
Dana Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 11:59 am
Thank you very much Peter. It would be great to ask this couple how they managed to stay together for so long and be so happy together. In our days when couples seem to break up due to the smallest differing in opinions that would be probably a good advise.
MC Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
So touching that I want to love my wife more!
Andreas Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Thank you for sharing. This story is in such sharp contrast to what we witness in the big cities, greedy business, no spirituality, no long term view, no trust. Will the good values die away with the old generation? Will the (few) idealists be just swept away or converted to the “new way”? Any optimists out there?
王皓 Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 5:20 pm
一段真实中国老百姓的生活和故事，耐人寻味。
Erma King Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 9:05 pm
I admire your website , it has of lot of information. You just got one perennial visitor of this blog.
TC Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Good sharing. Hope there will be more writings about these ordinary people, but touching stories. As you said, we need to value more our common points, instead of criticizing our differences, we need to enjoy more each other company, instead of hating adn killing.
Peter Schindler Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:41 am
Hello my friends, thank you for your comments. I’m very happy that this special story also touches you.

Terry – when are you going to come to South-West China? I don’t think I’m going to make it to Beijing any time soon…

Paul – really hope go meet you and Bernice one day.
All my friends, please visit http://www.paulnoll.com for a wealth of information about China and thoughts about life!

Dana – well, unfortunately this couple has passed away, but thanks to their son, they do live on in a way. Many of the photos speak volumes about how to make relationships work…

MC – oh my, what an incredibly nice thing to say!

Andreas – well, there is one optimist out there right here, my little self!

王皓，红红，我就是希望让人家多理解中国老百姓的生活！

TC – one usually fights what one doesn’t know. The spirit of these pages is to make China more familiar…
Alan Morgan Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:54 am
This almost brought me to tears they remined me so much of my own parents my Mum being a little older than my Dad and worked hard all their lives to support their large family of 7. My wife is also a little older than me she being born in the year of the Ox and me the Rabbit.
Alan
Peter Schindler Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Dear Alan, I’m very happy to hear that this story touched you, too. What’s nice about stories like this is that they remind us that there are many wonderful people in the world, except for we tend to get to know only a few….too few…
Graham Elsom Says:
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:02 am
Wonderful!

January 1st, 2010

A small New Year’s wish…

Posted by peter

If I were a cloud,
I would stop flying high in the sky,
Instead, I would choose to change into rain drops that alight on the world of men.
If you ask me why,
Please look upon the verdant lands of life,
And that would be my answer.

If I were a river,
I would stop rushing toward the ocean,
Instead, I would choose to irrigate the dry wheat fields of Shaan’Xi [province].
If you ask me why,
Please listen to the joyous laughter of my uncles, the farmers,
And that would be my answer.
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8 Responses :

lindawm Says:
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
I’ve always wondered about these slogans and if 1) it may make more sense in chinese…. 2) if anyone actually reads and follows them.
Paul Noll Says:
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:10 am
Peter: Ass usual you hit the right theme. See:
http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Eclipse/Humor-sign-scenes-01.html
and
http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Eclipse/Transportation/Road-signs-scenes-01.html
Peter Schindler Says:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Hello Linda,

while I’m obviously not a native speaker, they don’t seem to make any more sense in Chinese. As to whether anyone reads them, I get the impression not.

Hello Paul,

good to hear from you! Glad you like the theme…how can we possibly imagine what it is like to live in the Chinese countryside?

Peter
Andreas Says:
January 4th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Slogans, poems, sayings, stories, quotes, you name it. Who are we to judge. Is the so-called West really better? May be a bit more sofisticated, we call them “Mission Statements”, “Policies”, etc. but the essence is the same. Cheers.
Peter Schindler Says:
January 5th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Hello Andreas, well, I was thinking about that when I wrote the essay: perhaps it is really just a matter of degree and sophistication? I suppose the main difference is one of respect: the tone of many slogans (标语 biaoyu) in China suggests no respect for those the intended to read and follow them.

By the way, I do not mean to judge what is better and what is worse. In fact, I always read the Chinese slogans with a shrug until one Chinese mentioned that she’s sick of them. Of course, 1 person hardly makes a trend, but it’s what started me thinking…
Phyllis Says:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
To my brother of 8 years younger, I still wonder if I should encourage these unbeaten optimism and faith in the goodness of people, or expose him earlier to the harsh facts of life, thus directing him towards an irreversible loss of innocence. Maybe innocence is an exclusive luxury to those leading or opting for a sheltered life… much to one’s regrets
Peter Schindler Says:
January 6th, 2010 at 8:16 am
Helly Phyllis,

or is it a bit like rain and sun shine? I’m always amazed how my friends in Perth (where the sun so often shines) crave cold weather and rain. And how I, when I used to live in Austria, craved sunshine and heat because it rains and is cold so much of the year. In other words, how can one appreciate innocence if you haven’t experienced the harshness of life?
王皓 Says:
January 25th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Peter您最近好吗？又是新的一年来到了，我们还没有找到合适的机会再见面，很想念您，希望您一切都好，还有嘉敏。

November 29th, 2009

The mountains are steep and forbidding…

Posted by peter

Shan Qiong Shui Jin Yi Wu Lu, Liu An Hua Ming You Yi Cun (山穷水尽已无路，柳暗花明又一村). Thus goes a Chinese saying: “The mountains are steep and forbidding, the rivers deep and ferocious, will I ever get out of here? Suddenly, there are calm willows swaying in the breeze and myriad flowers blooming in fine fields. And look!, there is after all another village.”

And so I felt when I arrived, late on Tuesday afternoon in Kongdang, a hamlet by the Dulong River. Driving for nine hours west in the direction of Burma on a ninety six kilometre long dirt road from Gongshan, a small town in the upper reaches of the Nu River valley, I was wondering all along whether and what kind of dwellings I would find at the other end. Kongdang, the seat of the Dulong River Township government, proved to be not as enchanting as the Chinese poem suggests: there are no forests of peaceful willows and no fields of blooming flowers, only a few sleepy houses, one dilapidated hotel, a police barrack and a handful of ruggedly clad farmers milling about in the village’s only street. But seeing the crystal clear, rapidly flowing waters of the Dulong River that are a kaleidoscope of blue, green and frothy white, and recalling as well the day’s memories of utter remoteness and untouched nature, I was not only delighted to have arrived, but enchanted by the loveliness of this remote corner of China.
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6 Responses :

Blue China - A blog about Peter Schindler's on and off the road … Says:
November 29th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
[...] here: Blue China – A blog about Peter Schindler's on and off the road … [...]
Frances Says:
November 29th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Thanks for sharing this Peter. I agree that driving is a great way to experience life, esp in such beautiful terrains! (I will start my driving lessons in the coming month here in Chengdu, finally!)
Peter Schindler Says:
November 30th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Hello Frances, good to hear from you. A driving license at last…so you can begin to explore the beautiful Sichuan countryside…hope all is well!
Peter
Phyllis Says:
December 1st, 2009 at 3:46 am
Another beautifully written blog, and the opening few paragraphs are very incidentally timely … wanna say thanks for the article

a bumpy journey is a great learning process, the condensation of one’s appreciation however has to wait till the end of the test hopefully without much residual effect from any damage

look forward to sharing my story in future. Merry Christmas and best wishes from your homeland =)
Peter Schindler Says:
December 1st, 2009 at 7:05 am
Hello Phyllis, thanks for the wonderful comment! Will you be going home for Christmas or stay in Europe?
Paul Noll Says:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:39 am
One day China will wake up and find themselves knee deep in trash. I keenly remember some epic trips taken in China by some crazy drivers. One where the speed was 180 KPH. And that was by a policeman not on duty.

October 1st, 2009

Culture crash…

Posted by peter

A recent driving trip of mine to Tibet ended in Yunnan’s Shangri-la. From there I returned to Hong Kong by plane. My flight from Shangri-La to Kunming was scheduled to depart at 8:55am. The driver of the taxi that took me to the airport was a burly Tibetan fellow with a comfortable smile and an infectious laugh. The ride from my hotel to the airport was to take all but 10 minutes.

At the south-end of Shangri-La town there sits a large stupa at the centre of an expansive round-about. As we approached it, I expected the driver to turn right and whirl around it counter-clockwise (as is the custom in right-hand-side driving countries). Instead, he turned left and swung around it clockwise. Even though there was no traffic coming at us, I cried out in alarm, “What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to go the other way round?

“No, in the mornings we’ve got to go around it this way,” he assured me with his warm smile.

As he said it, I recalled that Tibetans circle all holy things, including stupas, clockwise. “From when to when is this rule in effect?” I asked him incredulously.

“No ‘from’. Just before 10am,” he explained.

“And what if an infidel should come the other way round?” I couldn’t resist pursuing the argument to its inevitable conclusion.

“There might be a crash,” he said with a dead-pan face.

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7 Responses :

Alan Morgan Says:
October 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Hi Peter
The standard of driving and rules continue to defeat me here in China if it were me driving I am sure I would have had many accidents but as I use a local driver who I trust emplisitly I feel very safe.
Alan
Ben Says:
October 1st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Peter Schindler Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
Actually, I’ve driven a good 80,000km in China, and I’ve never had a genuinely worrying moment. All that’s required is to think for oneself rather than rely on rules and all is fine…a bit like when driving in Rome. In fact, in many ways I enjoy driving more in countries that don’t blindly rely on rules Perhaps that’s because to me driving is like breathing…the most natural thing ever… breathe…
Phyllis Says:
October 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
the challenge is to discover the un-written and invisible ‘rules’ in cross-cultural exchanges … ;p
hope all is good for you and your loved ones.

greetings from Zurich, Phyllis
Peter Schindler Says:
October 7th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Hello Phyllis, indeed, that’s true…and, in fact, driving in a country is usually a very good way of discovering “the personality” of the people of a country. Swiss traffic feels Swiss because the drivers are (mostly) Swiss; Italian traffice feels Italian for the same reason; and this is true of China as well…
nilbeste leyla didar bekiroglu usta Says:
October 12th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Prof. dr. nazmiye nazan bekiroglu karanis

satış pazarlama teşhir ve afişe sitesi

http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/blog.php?b=343
Paul Noll Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:21 am
I do enjoy so much your blogs, it reminds me of so many similar episodes we have encountered in China. It is so sad that so many visitors to China never see the real China other than their 5-star hotel and made-to-order shows just for touring groups. The rarely get to see the real people of China. But it is the same for many visitors to the USA. They get to see Las Vegas, New York, Miami, and think they saw the USA.

August 30th, 2009

A day lost in Gang Tuo…

Posted by peter

“Alright, let’s go and find a place for lunch. But let’s make it a quick one. We don’t wanna end up way behind in the queue,” I conclude after having considered for thirty minutes or more Jo’s suggestion that a meal would be a good thing by now.

*****************************

We had arrived in Gang Tuo at 9:15 in the morning. (Where is Gang Tuo?). Now it is 12:30. And no one has as yet any idea as to when we will be able to get going again. We had set out from Dege in northwest Sichuan. (Where is Dege?) at 7am on our way to Changdu, our first overnight stop in Tibet. (Where is Changdu?). We had reached the border between Sichuan and Tibet at 8:15 after crossing the Yangtze, already wide and deep here in its upper reaches.

Leading to the border, the valley was wide and the road excellently paved. A few hundred meters after crossing into Tibet, the situation changed dramatically, however.
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August 2nd, 2009

Found in translation…

Posted by peter

My friend couldn’t contain his giggles as he sat down to have dinner with me in a Hong Kong restaurant. “I just bought the funniest of books,” he declared and proceeded to pull it out of his bag. The book is called “More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues” and is a collection of poor English translations of Chinese words and sentences. Even though my friend was born and raised in Hong Kong and therefore must have seen countless such examples, he couldn’t help guffawing over the gems in the book he had just acquired. Here is a particularly funny one:

(You must know that traditionally Chinese was and still is, as in this example, written right to left.)
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2 Responses :

Beijinger Says:
August 5th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I think you have got the conflicting point of Chinese mentality; in one hand they are trying very hard to maintain/promote Chinese tradition or things purely Chinese, in other hand they are crediting the belief “that everything foreign with high quality”.
The practice of “fake it until you make it” is very popular in China.
Paul Noll Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:12 am
Peter: I have made a collection of amusing signs found in China. One in particular is “Toilet’s.”
http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Eclipse/Humor-sign-scenes-01.html

About Peter. Pity the customs official who needs to deal with Peter when…

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