Movin' and Shakin'

Well, we're all moved in to our new apartment. After a few hiccups and finally having to agree to having a rent increase after six months (I knew that 1,000 yuan thing was too good to be true), we moved in Thursday. Last night shortly before meeting Cam and Maeve for some dinner in our new neighbourhood we finished cleaning. My gawd, who knew four years of no habitation (and no sweeping) could lead to a thick layer of dirt on everything.


The other thing is that because there were no tennents previous to us for nearly half a decade, the landlord didn't bother to pay the heating this year, and so we've only got the heater/air conditioner units to keep us warm - it's barely enough. But well, heat's going off for the rest of the suckers (I mean paying customers) in two weeks anyway. Still, makes for some shivery mornings...

I don't have photos yet, nor do I have Internet (posting this with limited time at my old place), but expect some soon.

Meanwhile, it's been a whole lot of goodbyes lately. This "goodbyes" thing is getting old on me. I'm tired of seeing my friends move away. Cam, Maeve, Adria, James, Corey & Helen, and Chris are all leaving this coming week. As such this week is playing host to a lot of "goodbye" gatherings.





We all met last Sunday for a party at The Box, many met again for a "jam" at the Tinwhistle and tomorrow I think we're doing Brazilian BBQ and KTV to "officially" send everyone off with good memories of what China's all about: copious amounts of good food and bad singing.


I will post all the "goodbye" photos at the same time, but right now all I've got time for is a few from our party at Future 4 last Sunday. It was a suprising blast and a good pre-cursor for the night to come at The Box.

Anyway... will write again soon, but if it's an extended delay, I do apologize - blame the Chinese Telecommunications Bureau for making it unneededly complicated to change residence with your ADSL high speed account.


and here I spent six months thinking no one could pull off the fake plastic flower look...

Corporate Responsibility: Again

Continuing the conversation of an earlier post about cheap labour in developing countries, I wanted to post a video I found on my friend Rick's (highly improved!) site - Panda Passport.



Essentially the video shows how employees are exploited by a factory in Shenzhen, China, that produce goods for more developed nations - in this case, Disney books that appear to be going to Japan.

It was long my opinion that a company like Disney is responsible for where it's products come from, and therefore are responsible for the working conditions of the laborers who make said products.

Now it's easy to just lump the responsibility on the big bad demon that is the Disney Corporation. But to get a clear picture of what really happens, you must first realize the deceit that most "sweat shop" managers are capable of. I am willing to bet that when the top honchos from Japan, the US, the EU or where-have-you, come and visit their manufacturers they are presented with a shining factory with more than suitable conditions. The company heads likely leave feeling that they are doing a great service to these workers.

Fifty years ago there was a movement in China called The Great Leap Forward, whereby then leader Mao Zedong set overly ambitious goals for the country and funnelled the responsibility of these goals down to regional politicians. When these goals could not be met, out of fear of losing their positions (often the only thing keeping them and their families safe from the chaos sweeping the nation) the local leaders lied to visiting dignitaries checking up on progress. Due to this, Beijing had no clear idea of the actual status of things, and quietly closed their eyes in contentment of progress as about 30,000,000 people starved to death.

Now, though not likely starving to death, much the same thing is happening in today's blue collar workplace in China. When the money comes to visit, the management fears job loss, scrubs up the factory and makes things look good ("Would all amputees please take the day off - without pay") while also promising to meet unrealistic targets that the foreign buyers ask for based on previous meeting of unrealistic targets - read: forcing people to work grueling amounts of overtime for no extra pay. The brass leaves, and keeps the money coming none the wiser to the plight of the common worker.

I'm not going to say that the foreign money is completely naive to the situation - but I am willing to bet that it's not overtly obvious to them, any more so than it is apparent to the average consumer where their produce comes from (it's not grown in the back of the supermarket?).

There is a chain in the retail business. Manufacturer --> Wholesaler --> Retailer --> Customer. If you can blame one part of the chain, you can blame them all - and that means you and I.

But what I will suggest (as I did before), that it is not 100%, or even 50% the chain's job to fix this. Business makes money like people survive. It's its nature, its only true function, everything else is just for looks. We can't expect businesses to have self-impossed ethics, any more than we can assume that without society, a human would have them. As such, we need 3rd party intervention for these things, and that's only going to come from governments that actually care about their people.

Governments aren't supposed to be businesses. Governments are supposed to be responsible citizens. Responsible citizens should have ethics, and in turn so should governments. Somewhere this got lost in most countries. I make the (not so) humble suggestion that our pressures be put not on guilting souless multi-national corporations but in working to assure that governments have the power to protect their people. We can't blame the wolf for abusing the sheep, that's its need for survival, but we can fault the shepherd for not being vigilant.

No Press For The Wicked

It is never far from my mind that I should perhaps watch what I say on my site about China. When I first arrived in this country little more than a year ago and befriended Mask of China blogger Derrick, I had him instill a bit of fear about who might be watching me. Though he's since moved to the safer-shores of Hong Kong, I'm still on the Mainland, and as such I've tried to keep the extremely critical comments to myself.

Sometimes they slip through, as is my nature I guess, but by and by I really would rather not end up with a site that's blocked. It's not likely, as things are rarely shut down on a site by site basis. However, if you are in China and try to access the mirror of my site at Blogspot (or any site at Blogspot), you'll have a troubled time doing so without Tor. In the end, I'm not sure what the "real" risks are for a foreigner speaking out about politics, policy, culture, etc.

That said, I've always a deep internal conflict not telling it how it is (or at least how my perspective views it). I am a journalist. Perhaps not currently in practice, but by education, experience and general attitude towards information, it is what I am. I guess this makes me particularly sensitive towards the punishment that other journalists have received for doing their job, and ethical duty. Below is a list of all the journalists currently imprisoned by the Chinese government as compiled by The Guardian Unlimited.

In my daily travels online I read a copious amount of information. More than I could ever hope to remember. I am consumed by it. I read, sometimes, for hours and hours on end. Clicking one link after another, leading from a news site, to a blog, back to a news site, to a summery of a referred to documentary, back to a blog, to Wikipedia to figure out what the hell "dhimmitude" means, and then I start all over again. It's endless, not very productive, I'm not really that much more educated because of it, and man doesn't it all give me a headache. But well, like any habit, I guess there need not be a real "purpose" for it.

The biggest things on my mind lately are the events surrounding all the talk about journalistic rights and freedom of press in China. We, in the free-er nations, sometimes forget how important that can be to an open and accountable society. Anyone can make the argument that the press in the West is just a corrupt and propaganda spreding institution with no morals or ethics left and that journalists are just pawns on the media conglamorates' chessboard. And that does them a disservice as I really believe that most of them are soldiers of information - the most valuable thing our planet is producing these days. Without them, we'd know nothing. We trust them to deliver the most relevant and topical information to us in a concise enough format as to not test our rather limited attention spans.

News outlets are often criticized for being vultures of bad news, focusing entirely too much on the bad shit going down. Sadly though, I think that's more a condition of the world we live in rather than the news' fault. My Current Events professor in college once illustrated collecting the news as being in huge, dark room with nothing but a penlight. It is impossible to illuminate everything all the time, so journalists just have to get damn good at that penlight and guessing where they should point it.

But I digress... with the China issue, I really believe that things are leaning to change. Who knows, the closing of The Freezing Point, and the hooplah about Microsoft, Yahoo and Google may just all fade away - but I think it's attrition, and ever so slowly the concept of freedom of thoughts and ideas is seeping into this otherwise "told what to do" nation.

Many had hoped for a loosening of controls when Hu Jintao became president three years ago. The early signs were good. During that year's Sars crisis, journalists enjoyed wide freedoms to expose cover-ups and contributed to the sacking of the health minister and the Beijing mayor. It did not last. MediaGuardian has learned that former president Jiang Zemin wrote a letter to the politburo that summer warning that the media were running out of control. Since then, China has gone through a prolonged tightening. Prominent journalists have been arrested, publications closed, websites blocked, blogs shut down. Internet cafes are supposed to register all users and monitor which sites they visit. New filtering software has been introduced to limit access to "spiritually impure" information, which includes positive references to the Dalai Lama, Taiwanese independence or the Falun Gong spiritual movement. - Jonathan Watts, "War of the Words", The Guardian

The Chinese journalists in prison
Compiled by Matt Keating with information from the Committee to Protect Journalists (www.cpj.org)
Monday February 20, 2006

Guardian

Shi Tao The former editor of Dangdai Shang Bao is serving a 10-year sentence for an email he sent to an overseas website in 2004 in which he described the Chinese government's instructions on how his newspaper should cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Yahoo helped the Chinese authorities identify Shi through his email account.

Yang Tongyan He has been held without contact since December on the grounds that the case involves "state secrets". He had previously spent 10 years in prison on "counter-revolution" charges for condemning the Tiananmen massacre.

Huang Jingao Sentenced to life in prison in November on corruption charges after he publicly exposed official misconduct in a letter to the People's Daily.

Li Changqing Sentenced to three years' imprisonment in January in connection with an article on the banned Boxun News website exposing an outbreak of dengue fever in Fujian province before the authorities officially announced it.

Zhu Wanxiang and Wu Zhengyou Detained in August 2005 after reporting on land disputes and rural unrest in China's southeast province of Zhejiang. Sentenced to 10 years and six years respectively.

Ching Cheong A correspondent for the Singapore-based daily the Straits Times, Ching was detained last April while seeking transcripts of interviews with ousted former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang.

Zheng Yichun Imprisoned in December 2004 after criticising the Communist party and China's political leaders in online publications including the banned US-based dissident website Dajiyuan.

Zhao Yan The New York Times researcher faces 10 years in prison for "providing state secrets to foreigners". Zhao was detained in September 2004 after the Times printed an article correctly predicting the retirement of Jiang Zemin as chairman of the central military commission.

Zhang Lin A political essayist, who wrote regularly for overseas online news sites, he was sentenced to five years in July on allegations of inciting subversion.

Zheng Yichun The former professor and regular contributor to Dajiyuan was sentenced last September to seven years.

Yu Huafeng and Li Minying The editor-in-chief and former editor of Nanfang Dushi Bao are serving eight years and six years in prison for corruption and bribery. In December 2003, their paper reported the first suspected Sars case in China since the epidemic died out in July that year.

Kong Youping The essayist and poet has written online articles supporting democratic reforms. Arrested in 2003, Kong was sentence to 15 years.

Huang Jinqiu The Boxun News columnist was detained in 2003 and sentenced to 12 years for "subversion of state power".

Luo Yongzhong Due to be released in June after a three-year sentence for writing a series of articles for online forums.

Luo Changfu Sentenced to three years in November 2003 on subversion charges.

Cai Lujun Jailed for three years in 2003 for subversion for numerous essays distributed online calling for reforms.

Abdulghani Memetemin Sentenced to nine years in 2003 on charges of "leaking state secrets".

Zhang Wei Sentenced in 2002 to six years in prison and fined 100,000 yuan (£7,000) for publishing illegal underground newspapers.

Tao Haidong The internet essayist and pro-democracy activist was given seven years in prison in 2003.

Yang Zili, Xu Wei, Jin Haike and Zhang Honghai Detained in 2001 and then sentenced in 2003 to a total of 36 years.

Jiang Weiping Arrested in 2000, serving six years in prison.

Xu Zerong Sentenced to 10 years on charges of "leaking state secrets".

Wu Yilong, Mao Qingxiang and Zhu Yufu Sentenced to 25 years in 1999.

Gao Qinrong Jailed in 1998 for 12 years after reporting on a corrupt irrigation scheme.

Hua Di Charged with revealing state secrets. Serving a 10-year sentence.

Fan Yingshang Serving a 15-year prison sentence.

Chen Renjie and Lin Youping Chen was sentenced to life in 1983 and Lin was sentenced to death, later reprieved, for publishing a counter-revolutionary pamphlet. Executed

Chen Biling The co-producer of Ziyou Bao was sentenced to death in 1983.

Lower The Red Lantern

So I was just reading my buddy Chris' blog and realized it's all stopped. The maddening fireworks going off every five minutes have finally ceased. I won't say that I'll miss their fight-or-flight instinct inducing bangs, but I do have a bit of that sense you get as a really great party is dying down.

It all officially ended with the 15th Day of the new Lunar Year - also known as Lantern Festival - actually an English name given to it, that has nothing to do with the Chinese name of 元宵节 (yuan xiao jie).

To celebrate the group of us from Jin San Jiao went down to the crazily stuffed Xinghai Square to watch the fireworks. The display was impressive, if not a bit more systematic than the skyfull of explosions two weeks ago. After the show we tried hopelessly to get a cab to Labour Park, but it was a no-go. Eventually, after walking about 3 kilometers (nearly all the way to Olympic Sq. - trust me, it's far), we got one and managed to catch the last hour of the Lantern display at the park in the centre of Dalian.

The park was loaded with displays of various kinds, but mostly we focused on eating. There was everything sort of food stand you could think of and we stuffed ourselves. I finally broke down and tried Chou Doufu 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu), which despite it's unappetizing name, is quite good. The other unique cuisine that I gave a go to was Ostrich kababs... a bit tastier than the standard mutton ones.

From the park we headed to my new favorite haunt, Xi Xia Bang Ma 西夏邦玛 (commonly referred to as "The Tibetan Bar" or "The Nepalese Bar") on the corner of WuSi Rd. 五四路 and Wan Sui St. 万岁街. It is just damn cool. Totally chilled atmosphere, good music, cheap beer... what else do you want in a place - oh, and they've got a (rapidly shrinking) Jenga game.

FFWDing to the present. Been apartment hunting like a fiend lately and was starting to get nervous that I might not have a place to live come next week when I get booted from the Future School provided apartment I've called home for the past 6 months.

Hope shone when Cam mentioned that no one was moving into her place after they moved out, so Maggie and I might be able to get that. This suited me just fine, as I've been comparing all the apartments I've been looking at to theirs. I've not so quietly envied them getting the better apartment for the past half a year and I was tickled to think I might finally get it.

Long story short... the landlord seemed hesitant, and though I might have been able to sort it out in the next couple of days, I got home from work today and Maggie had spoken to my new boss who had found us a couple places to check out. We short-listed it to one, but weren't hopeful as everything we've looked at thus far had been absolute shite.

The place turned out to be quite amazing, though lit only by a flashlight as no one's lived there for like four years (start of a scary movie or what?) and there's no power. Aparently the landlord (and a headmaster at a school my new boss also farms foreigners to) got it shortly after getting married, but quickly moved onward and upward and hasn't wanted "just anyone" to live there.

It's a beautiful place, bigger than the apartment I'm currently in. Two bedrooms (one master, one guestroom); a dining room; a full kitchen; a study/office area with a big desk; and a livingroom with a large, COMFORTABLE leather sofa and two matching armchairs.

The place is sans TV, so I'm going to spring for a nice new one. For less than 2,000 RMB ($250) I can get a nice big one and enjoy my DVD fetish in style. It's also on the 7th floor, which is a helluva hike, but the exercise isn't bad for me. Speaking of which, it also comes equiped with a new-looking treadmill.

We will be moving stuff in as soon as they get the place cleaned up a bit, which means by the end of the week. I can't wait. I'm giddy. Not thrilled about moving all my crap, but it should only amount to a couple of suitcases and a box or two, so, that's no too bad.

Anyway, recently got hooked on HBO's Rome... gotta go catch an episode before bed.

Google Woes

Right... so I FINALLY get off my ass and write Google Adsense an e-mail about why my Google Ads haven't been working, they sort it out and I suddenly realize that I was contemplating boycotting Google for its giving in to the truth editing, 'masses protecting' Chinese government.

THEN I realize that Blogger, the site that I use to post my entries, is also owned by Google and well... I'm still posting this, so I guess my decision can be extrapolated from that.

S.O.B., I hate when function conflicts with ethics. Why can't Google not sensor information, why can't Nike not run sweatshops, why can't McDonalds quit cutting down rainforests ... life would be so much simpler and straight forward if global corporate responsibility was the rule, not the exception.

Bah.
Please go click on my ads.

Baby, Baby

Welcome to the world Dakota Justice Wright (the smaller pinkish thing in the picture), born February 3rd to my bestfriend CJ (the larger pinkish thing in the picture). I generally don't like reading about other people's friends having babies, so I'm going to assume you all don't particularlly care about his - unless you know him.

However, it has got me pondering about the whole fatherhood thing. I use to scoff at the idea of a paternal clock (new age mumbo jumbo!), but lately I've been hearing ticking and I'm going to assume that it's not the bomb drawn into Mohammed's turban in those controversial cartoons that are all over the news - nor the retaliatory real ones the Muslim world is setting off in protest (that's balanced eh?).

I really think a lot of my grown affection to the idea of fatherhood comes from two things. 1) Having met a woman that I could see having a family with and 2) Having a job that has dispelled some of my fears about being around children. I admit, I was just downright scared of the little buggers before coming to China. I mean, I know they're smaller than me, but bees are smaller than me too and I'm fuckin' fearful of them as well.

Working with, entertaining and trying to relate to kids is my day-to-day here, and it's shown me that they're rather a lot like me, but smaller of course. They're just as clumsy, have both moments of brilliance and moments of complete stupidity, like goofing around, have rather short attention spans, and enjoy saying horribly inappropriate things at the most inopportune moments. And most of them share my dislike for vegetables.

Kids are great. I never would have said it a year and a half ago, but I can't wait to be a father. This isn't to say that I'm in a rush to put a bun in the oven or anything. I do see the limits starting a family creates in life, and there are a few things I want to do first (school, marriage, South American travels, better job - in roughly that order), but when the time comes (whether it comes when I expect it or when I don't) I think I'll really dig being a father.

Congratz CJ.

Ciao Entry

Well, I've been a bit shit at posting, and I hate that I'm now a blogger that is posting that statement. I mean, like it's your problem I've been verbally constipated. Hell, I should be thanking you for even making this part of your day.

Thank you.

I guess it's not so much a lack of words, just a lack of new. And that is changing rather quickly, but it seems pre-emptive to go on and on about things that have yet to happen. So, things that HAVE happened: 1) I've finally had opportunity to repay my debt to GlobalFreeLoaders.com and I've got a really cool Italian guy 意大利人 staying with me waiting for his motorbike to clear customs. Gionata, or John, originally requested a place to stay just before I left for Haerbin, so I manage to hook him up with some friends (thanks Victoria and Adria) in town for a week before bringing him up to my neck of Dalian.

We get along really well, and it's not been a burden at all to have him around. Quite the contrary, it's like having any guest, I get to revisit all the stuff about China that has become commonplace in my day-to-day, but is really pretty cool (mostly food).

He's on this amazing multi-year trek around the globe on his bike. You can check out more about him at his site. He's having a hell of a time getting his bike through customs after arriving here from Korea, but hopefully it all works out quickly (and inexpensively) for him, not because I don't want him around, but because I imagine Dalian will lose its charm, here in the depths of winter, in short time.

The other thing that's been keeping me away from posting is that I've picked up my love for photography again and have been trying to dust off my knowledge about the subject. I'm gradually accepting the limits of my new camera - it might be new, but it's still not an SLR - and am beginning to see what I can do with it and what I can do in Photoshop. I should have galleries up on the flip-side of this weekend.

Other than that, I've been sorting out The Great Next Step (I was going to call it The Great Leap Forward, but turns out someone had used that previously). This past week I finally met up with Danni, the woman I'm contracted through for my new job. I signed my contract with her and then went on a bit of a mad scavenger hunt for the things I needed to get to her so she could go to Shenyang and sort out my new - much more legit - visa.

I'm learning more and more just how "dangerous" it's been working on an F Visa (for the authorities reading this, please regard all this as a joke). Future School makes it all seem rather common, and simple. Even make it seem like it's your idea to come here on it. But well. See, an 'F' visa is a Business Visa, designed for those foreigners looking to come to China to work out some business deals, to (for some strange reason) intern at a Chinese company, or to lecture. You are very much NOT supposed to teach with one. That said, near everyone I've met who works at Future School has an 'F' visa, for the simple reason that they're much easier to get (no health check, and half the processing time). Thanks to what I must assume is a fair amount of Guanxi and a system more corrupt than a food critic, the whole process works smoothly. I've never been hassleed by customs agents, PSB officials, nor police officiers. Though I wouldn't want to put it to the test.

Anyway, as of a couple weeks, it'll be all copasetic and I'll have my 'Z' visa and officially be a Foreign Expert. Nice title eh? It took me finally breaking down and having blood tests here for the health check. It's not that I was really scared of giving blood in China, but well.. I've seen the standards of everything else... and I like being blood-disease free.

I've signed my 1-year contract with Danni, and Maggie's spending her free-time apartment shopping. Oh, she's got a lot more free time since she quit her job (they kept dicking her around about pay and it wasn't enough pay to be dicked around about.. so...).

To recount my new job. What I'll be doing is working at a local primary school teaching 35 minute lessons to classes of 30-40 kids. I work Monday to Friday for a total of about 16.5 hours a week, and get paid double what I'm making now at Future School for 15 hours a week. However, I do have to pay for my own apartment, but that's a blessing as it allows Maggie and I to get our own place.

I can't believe that I've only three more weeks at Future School. I will be sad to leave it behind, as for all my gripes and whatnot, they've treated me right and I don't have a problem recommending them to other foreigners that are considering coming to China for the ESL experience.

Haerbin There, Done That

Well, the party's over folks. For us Future School peoples anyway. We're all back at school today, making up for Christmas Day. It went quickly though, and I'm home now trying desperately to post about my trip to Haerbin 哈尔滨, also known as the coldest place I've ever experienced.

All my thoughts of "Hey, I'm Canadian, how cold can it be?" and "Ah, these Chinese people are such reactionists. It can't be THAT cold" did nothing to warm me. Fortunately my newly purchased coat and hat did. I've never worn so many name brand clothes ... fake or not. That's a Puma logo leaping on my jacket and a Nike swoosh adorning my 15 yuan toque.

The Lunar New Year started with my visit to Maggie's parent's house. Being the first time I've met her parents, I was a little nervous. Not so much nervous about anything in particular, but more just worried I would do something culturally insensitive that they would not forget for generations upon generations to come. Or more likely, just do something that would support the rather twisted view much of China’s population has about foreigners. I think I was able to make it through the afternoon without doing either. Mostly we just sat around and ate a load of food that Maggie's father cooked for us. The food was familiar, as most of it was dishes Maggie had made for me previously - it also helped that Maggie prepped them not to cook me any "gross food". I was spared the numerous dishes that contain parts of animals I didn't know existed, never mind were editable.

After Maggie's parent's, we returned home with just enough time to pack and eat some dinner before catching our overnight train to Haerbin (Dalian-Haerbin, 9.5h, 224 RMB for a middle bunk hard sleeper). Having now weathered a round-trip to Beijing 北京 and a day-long journey to Shanghai 上海 on overnight trains (as well as a plethora of them in various other countries), train journeys are a bit old-hat for me, but Maggie was like a kid at Christmas with her excitement. As previously mentioned, the number of places Maggie's been can easily be counted on one hand, with a couple fingers not getting much use. Her excitement was infectious and it helped me get excited about sleeping in the crappy little beds north-bound.

Day One

We arrived in the chilly Heilongjiang 黑龙江 city early in the morning, and went immediately to the booking hall to secure our train tickets home. No such luck - the only tickets that were left were standing tickets in the smoky, noisy hard-seat cars. In the end we settled on the cushy, if not as comfortable, seats of a 12 hour long-distance coach. Saved ourselves a bit too, as the seats were only 180 yuan each.

Checking into our hotel also brought a few complications as the room we thought we had booked turned out to be a room with two single beds - far too Fred and Wilma for my ideas of a romantic vacation. We complained, and despite there being a 20 yuan/night price difference, the hotel gave us the room with a big bed at no extra cost (180 yuan/night).

Only having two and a half days in the city, we wanted to make sure we had some sort of plan - and it, for the most part, went off without too many problems. Monday's itinerary mostly focused on the downtown core. The city centre, directly south of the Songhua River 松花江 (of pollution fame), is bisected by Zhong Yang Da Jie 中央大街, a long pedestrian street full of tourist-geared shops mostly touting Russian Goods.

We started our journey at the Russian-style Church of St. Sophia 圣索菲亚教堂 (pictured left), but balked at the 20 yuan entrance fee (me having seen some of the biggest churches in the world, and Maggie not knowing the difference). From the church we stealthily followed a tour guide to Zhong Yang Da Jie, and leisurely made our way up the length of it towards the river, marked by the large Flood Control Monument recognizing Haerbin's triumphant conquering of the Songhua. By this point I had resigned myself to the unstylish fact of having my face buried beneath a low-pulled hat and my scarf. On the upside I experienced an anonymity I have not felt since landing in China 13 months ago!

From the monument we were able to see the creative use Haerbiners had made of the frozen river - there was everything from tubing to ice bike riding. Too cold to motivate ourselves to partake, we continued east along the river towards Zhaolin Park 兆麟公园 (20 yuan daytime/60 yuan after dark) - one of the cities many collections of ice sculptures. Though we'd been seeing a smattering of them throughout our walk, the park gave us a glimpse at what everyone had been going on and on about back in Dalian. The sculptures were numerous and amazingly detailed. The park had a "Classic Chinese Literature" theme, meaning there was a lot of displays from China's four most famous works of fiction: The Journey West 西游记, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三国演义, Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦, and Outlaws of the Marsh 水浒传. Pictured right is the Monkey King lounging on some peaches, with an ice temple and ice pagoda in the background.

Famished from all the walking we attempted to find some fine Haerbin cuisine to warm our gullets. We were left wanting. After searching a while, we found a small restaurant that specialized in fried, meat-stuffed pancakes 陷儿饼 - the sort that can be purchased at many a fast-food shop, cheaper and better tasting than we were offered there. We also ordered (based on a misleading photo in the menu) a potato and rib dish that had mushy potatoes and a sprinkling of over-cooked, under-meaty ribs all coated in a sickly sweet craptastic sauce. Needless to say, we were not impressed with Haerbin's, so far, over-priced and unsavoury food.

We returned to the hotel in hopes that the next day we could find better food.

Day Two

I don't know what it is about Chinese breakfast; rather I don't know why Chinese people eat it. With a complimentary breakfast included with our room, we headed downstairs bright and early. Aside from some sweet-bean stuffed man tou 馒头 (steamed bread), all that was on offer was a couple of tea eggs 茶蛋 (I mean that count literally) and the completely tasteless slop that has no right calling itself porridge or anything else that could be confused with food (available sugar for seasoning or not).

Again, I was a bit disappointed with the food.

Day two was divided between tigers and more ice sculptures. The tigers bit was first with a quick bus ride to Dong Bei Hu Lin Yuan 东北虎林园 (Northeast Tiger Forest Park), located on the northern side of the Songhua.

For those that don’t know, tigers are the biggest cats in the world, and the Dong Bei Hu, or Manchurian/Siberian Tiger, is the largest in the family. It’s also a threatened animal, and the park touts that it is a breeding and protection centre for the big predators. I can’t really say that I was overly impressed with their conservation efforts, as more focus seemed to be on selling chintzy souvenirs and tiger baijiu (you can buy bottles of baijiu that had sat in a big tank with a full-on tiger skeleton).

A big open-concept zoo (animals are free to roam in big enclosures), the tour began after buying our 50 yuan tickets and boarding large, new, big-windowed minibuses. Along with about 12 other buses, we entered the various enclosures, where tigers were everywhere (more than 300 in the park). We also got to see lions in their very realistic snowy climate, hanging out in seeming harmony (and envy) of the better-coated tigers.

After passing a cage housing a mom and her rather playful litter, and driving through the King Tiger Area 虎王区, we entered a big clearing where all the buses had formed a wide circle around about a half dozen tigers. Not quite sure what was going on, I watched as a well-caged vehicle entered the circle and all the tigers licked their lips in salivating synchronization. The car released a chicken, and faster than I could push the shutter release on my camera it was in the maw of one of the big cats. This was repeated several times before a larger truck entered.

The truck paused for a few moments, giving the predators time to get a whiff of the meal inside, then it slowly began to raise its hold dump truck style, plunging a small cow into the Arena of Death. The bovine’s last moments (and they were brief) were spent staring through the thin glass separating me from the carnage, passed the viewfinder of my anxious camera, directly into my soul. I’ve never seen a big animal killed in person before, and as fast as it was, I doubt I’ll forget it anytime soon. The “wild training” (as it’s dubbed in the flyer) seemed rather a little illegitimate, and left me feeling like the Romans must have two millennia ago while exiting the Coliseum – a bit guilty about being so fascinated by it.

The end result was that I truly have a much broader respect for tigers. I mean, I’ve seen tigers in the Toronto Zoo, continually pacing in their caged existence, and it was nothing compared to watching the power of them doing what every muscle in their body does best – kill.

When the tigers were well into making mince of the cow, the buses started to depart – giving everyone a nice close drive-by of the feeding. From here we were brought back to near the start where we concluded the tour with a walking portion. We walked along a heavily-caged catwalk (pun, unusually, not intended) where you could buy strips of meat to taunt, and eventually feed yearlings with. We also got nice and close to the parks other inhabitants – some snow/white tigers, a rather restless panther, some huddled together (dreaming of savannahs) lions, and a bizarre lion-tiger mix, appropriately called a Liger.

From the zoo we made a brief stop at Tai Yang Dao Gong Yuan 太阳岛公园 (Sun Island Park), where we were told by a taxi driver that paying the 80 yuan to see the park’s ice sculptures was a waste of money if we were later going to go visit the more impressive Bing Xue Da Shi Jie 冰雪大世界 (Ice Snow World), which we were later that evening.

Wanting to wait for nightfall before heading to Ice Snow World, we decided to go back to the hotel, relax and warm up a bit. At around 6:30 we got to the park and immediately felt like we had made the wise choice by the sheer number of people and the rather colossal entrance completely made of ice.


Entering, it was all a bit much to take in at first. Everywhere there were large buildings made of ice, all near-faithful recreations of famous Russian constructions. Everywhere we looked was either ice or lights in ice – from coffee shops to “warm” up in, to a giant castle. The photos likely don’t do it justice, as many of them turned out blurry, no doubt a large part due to the fact I couldn’t really feel my fingers, never mind hold the damn camera steady.

Despite the cold we stayed for a couple hours and explored. As our core temperatures neared that of the architecture around us, we decided to break and head to Zhong Yang Da Jie to see if we couldn’t get a bit of Russian food at a nice looking restaurant we’d seen the day before. The restaurant was open, but wouldn’t accept any more patrons due to the late hour, so we settled on Korean, and finally had a good bite to eat.

Day Three

The third and final day’s primary goals were to see two Buddhist temples, Ji Le Si 极乐寺 and Qiji Futu Ta 七级浮屠塔, on the east side of the city (10 yuan). We took the bus from our hotel, and got off at the required stop, but were a little lost as to where exactly the temples were as we were surrounded by the very un-Enlightened cityscape. Not sure what direction to go, we guessed that the man with the close-cropped haircut and earthy-yellow robes at the stoplight might know. Maggie and I are clever that way.

The temples were surprising serene considering being surrounded by the mid-town bustle just outside their gates. There was a number of people burning incense and asking good ole Siddhartha to assist their wait for Nirvana with a bit of cash, so Maggie and I – with our heathen ways – opted not to mock the institution and kept our peeking inside the places of worship to a minimum. We did manage to get some shots of the complex’s tall golden Buddha and its namesake – the Seven Tier Pagoda. We also picked up some cheap monk-blessed jewelry in the gift shop.

From the temples we made one last stab at having Russian food, something the city is famous for due to its close proximity to Russia. Though we had to wait about a half hour, and were then seated at makeshift tables beside the kitchen, we pulled it off and were not disappointed. The food was fantastic. We had borsch, cabbage rolls, real bread (few and far in China), and some meaty stew.

Before heading to the bus we stopped and grabbed some edible souvenirs (the only souvenirs we bought) in the form of Haerbin sausage, Russian pickles, baijiu candies, and ginseng. The bus ride back to Dalian was mostly uneventful, with the exception of a fight that broke out. It was about an hour after we had stopped for an extended 30 minute break, a man in the back of the bus yelled to the bus driver to stop the bus so he could take a piss. The bus driver explained that wasn’t going to happen. The guy paused, and again requested an immediate stop. The driver said no again. The man, a third time, complained and added that he would piss on the bus if the driver didn’t stop. The driver spotted a sign saying there was a stop in 12 km, and he told the man we would stop in about 4 minutes. This wasn’t good enough, and the man reiterated his threat of in-transit urination. Having enough of it, another passenger stepped up and gave the man (I can only assume, as my Chinese is weak) some advice on how to hold it. This erupted into a small brawl as the bus pulled into the rest stop.

Not in all my bus journeys have I seen such a flurry of people getting off a bus and heading to the washroom. No one wanted to be stuck in a situation that required them to request a stop before we reached home.

We’re back now. I’m back at school. The break was nice and I can’t believe this means that I’ve barely a month before I’m moving to a new apartment and a new job.

*Note: If you've got some goofy characters after the Chinese spellings it's because I've included the Chinese characters and you've still not installed the East Asian Language Pack for Microsoft Windows. Get on it man! Also, I technically posted this on February 4th because my computer crashed just before posting it last night, and I had to write it all over again. Yeah, I was pissed. But I'm passed it and if not for this note you wouldn't know, so I think you should move on too.