Be glad this is China.

To get to Xian which we visited on Fall break, we caught a plane from Yentai, which is about an hour from Weihai. The train was a possibility, but it would have taken too long. At 1:30 Monday, a taxi picked us up at the university gate. I had made notes about flight departure when the reservation was made weeks ago. My notes said the departure time was 5:00 PM. But in the cab, I looked carefully at the tickets, something I should have done far sooner. According to the tickets, departure time was 14:30. I subtracted 12 from 14. Egad! 14:30 is 2:30. In other words, we were about to miss the plane.

I broke this to Joe. He shrugged, "maybe we'll make it. If not, we'll figure out what to do." Never before have I been so glad about my husband's passive fatalism. We arrived at the airport at 2:35. Obviously, we had missed the plane. You have to be on board 15 minutes before takeoff time. Right?

Wrong! It's China. Here, planes seldom leave when they're supposed to. The flight had been rescheduled to 5:00. I must have been aware of that at some point, and that was why my notebook said 5:00. As I reviewed the crossings out in my notebook, I remembered the flight times had changed several times after the printing of the tickets. But since the trip had been arranged weeks ago, I hadn't remembered this. Well, it worked out. This is China.

Incidentally, Xian is really interesting. Above: detail of wall from emperor's palace. Below: park by the emperor's burial mound.

National Holiday

The "National Holiday" week is one of the two times Chinese people get off work. Another such holiday happens in May. Most people do not have other vacation or holidays. So this week, China abounds in flag waving, and traditional ceremonies and special sales. Tourist spots and restaurants are extremely crowded.

Above: The Chinese flag in prominent display, along with advertizing.

Below: A traditional Chinese dance near the emperor's tomb in Xian.

Vacation!















I have a week off for the national holiday. Joe and I took the opportunity to visit Xian, a city in central China famous for its history and artifacts. Thirty years ago archaeologists discovered a large group of terra cotta warriors dating from the Qing Dynasty-- 200 B.C. Turned out there were over 3000 of these things. The soldiers stand about seven feet tall. They were created to guard the emperor in the after life, and were placed near his tomb. Above: a group of soldiers.
Below: Joe poses with a replica of a soldier.

What's going on here?

Sometimes, when the ex-pats get to talking, people sound a bit paranoid. I know people who think our rooms are bugged. Almost certainly, they are not. But most of us think our difficulty accessing internet sites is not just a problem of infrastructure. The nature of the problems changes-- as though someone is trying to keep us guessing about whether censorship is going on. In Nanjing, I couldn't see my blog. Here, I can see it, but can't post to it. I am only able to keep the blog going with the gracious assistance of Dennis Cope. Currently, I am unable to post comments on the blogs of my friends, though the blogs are visible. From time to time, email is blocked. It happens to all of us. News sites, such as NPR and BBC are periodically blocked, even while other sites come up easily. There is difficulty accessing anything about politics and religion.

I wasn't sure how much of the problem was fantasy. Today, a senior faculty member told me emphatically that my problem was NOT an overactive imagination. Apparently, everyone here deals with information control. "You Americans are used to openness," he said, "so it's upsetting." For people here, information control is an ongoing annoyance, like campus mosquitos. Not something you expect in an excellent university. Above: our beautiful, oceanside campus.

Getting it right

I make every attempt to be accurate in my postings. However, since I go by what I am told, there are some inaccuracies. So, here are a couple of amendations:

Posting of August 1-- I said there was a law requiring cyclists to wear ponchos in rain. This is actually not true, but a friend of ours was stopped by the People's Police and told he must wear one. Chinese officials will often create rules on the spot, when addressing a particular situation. They are much less committed to the rule of law than we.

Posting of 9/25-- The Communist government is not totally responsible for the running of Liquin Market. I gather this venture is a collaboration between the government and a private company. Such arrangments are increasingly common in an economy where private enterprise lives side by side with government collectives.

Small entrepreneurial ventures are now permitted and even encouraged.
Above: a woman shops at a small food stand.