Another Olympic Test

We have been hearing over the last month or so rumors that government officials were going to pull cars off the roads in Beijing during August to see the effects on pollution. There were lots of variations on how this was going to be done. The decision has been made and implemented. I am glad I am not in Beijing right now.

Olympics: Beijing bans over a million cars to cut pollution
by Charles Whelan Fri Aug 17, 2:17 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing banned more than one million cars from its roads on Friday in a test run to improve air quality for the Olympics, easing notorious gridlock although a thick smog still hung over the city.

More than 6,500 traffic police were on duty across the city to ensure car owners observed the ban, while an extra two million more trips were expected to be taken on subways and buses during the day, officials said.

The four-day test is expected to be a prelude for a similar ban to be put in place for the duration of the August 2008 Olympics, as part of a range of measures to temporarily improve air quality for athletes and visitors.

Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities, and poor air quality, blamed partly on the city's three million cars -- a number growing by 1,200 a day -- has long been a top concern for athletes and officials.

Those worries were exacerbated as a weeks-long smoggy haze that reduced visibility to just a few hundred metres (yards) on occasions marred the build-up to last week's August 8 one-year countdown to the Games.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, in Beijing for the countdown, said then some events could be postponed if pollution was extremely bad, in what would be an unprecedented move to protect athletes' health.

The ban received a mixed reaction from commuters in Beijing on Friday morning, with many being forced to jam into crowded subway lines. Others did not believe it would have much of an impact on air quality.

"I cannot believe it is so crowded, two trains have just passed and I just could not squeeze myself on," said businessman Wang Xindong, who normally drives to work but found himself stuck at an inner-city subway station.

"As for the pollution emissions, I don't think taking cars off the road for just four days will have an immediate effect."

With taxis exempt from the ban, cab driver Jia Jinrong was up early on Friday and expecting a good day of business. However he was surprised that the traffic had eased only marginally.

"The traffic is okay, but not as good as I expected," he said. "We all know this car ban is just a show for the Olympics, a superficial phenomenon."

Of the city's 2.4 million private cars, those with licence plates ending in an even number are banned on Friday and Sunday, while those with an odd number must remain off the roads on Saturday and Monday.

Commuters who drive on the wrong day face fines of 100 yuan (13 dollars), according to the state-run press.

A fleet of government-owned vehicles were also taken off the roads, with the total number of cars remaining at home each day expected to be around 1.3 million, according to city officials.

During the test, scientists will monitor pollution levels at 27 stations throughout the city to gauge how effective the scheme will be for the Games.

Beijing city transport commission deputy head Liu Xiaoming said last week the ban was expected cut vehicle emissions by 40 percent.

He said vehicle emissions were responsible for a quarter of particulate matter and more than 50 percent of three other major pollutants -- sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Chinese Authorities Delay Probe

Uncertainty still exists into the cause of death of the S.Korean diplomat who ate a sandwich in Beijing.

BEHIND THE NEWS / Envoy's death still unexplained / Chinese authorities delay probe into S. Korean diplomat's demise
Takuji Kawata

The Yomiuri Shimbun's city news section carried a small story in its Aug. 2 issue reporting on the death of a South Korean envoy at a Beijing hospital. Whang Joung Il, minister for political affairs at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing, suffered a stomachache after eating a sandwich he bought at a shop on July 28. Whang, second in command at the embassy, died suddenly the following day after being put on an intravenous drip at the hospital.

His body remained in Beijing for two weeks before being transferred to the South Korean Embassy for a funeral service there Tuesday. Whang's body was flown back to South Korea later that day.

The slow pace of China's probe into the cause of Whang's death was behind the delay in the return of the body.

A South Korean official said: "If we send the body home without identifying the cause of death, the matter may remain unresolved. For this reason, we transferred the body to another hospital in Beijing." But the Chinese side has yet to submit a report on the results of its probe capable of satisfying the South Korean side. So the bereaved family decided to have the body sent home.
With the cause of Whang's death yet to be determined, I have no intention of criticizing the Chinese side without careful deliberation.

But, judging from the words of those involved and reports by South Korean newspapers, it seems the Chinese response to Whang's mishap was shoddy, no matter the cause of his death. For those of us living in Beijing, what happened to the South Korean envoy cannot be shrugged off as an unrelated affair. Therefore I would like to raise a few problematic points.

"The hospital staff recognized something was wrong with Whang 20 minutes after administering the intravenous drip. He stopped breathing, and there was no pulse. But the hospital wasn't equipped with artificial respiration equipment," a South Korean official said. The doctor reportedly made an emergency phone call by dialing 120 (the equivalent of 110 in Japan) but it took 40 minutes for an emergency squad to arrive. During this period, the only treatment given to Whang seems to have been cardiac massage.

The hospital in question is located in central Beijing and is used often by non-Chinese.
The South Korean authorities are taking a serious view of the drugs used to treat Whang. According to their independent investigation, the Chinese doctor inserted intravenous drips--containing Ringer's solution--into Whang's hand and leg after deciding the envoy was dehydrated. The doctor also administered an antibiotic at the same time.

The antibiotic given to Whang is not allowed to be used in conjunction with any medical substance containing calcium, as simultaneous administration causes blood clots, thereby threatening to block the arteries. Ringer's solution contains calcium, and many blood clots were said to have been found in Whang's body. If this proves to be true, his death likely was caused by a medical error.

"The Chinese authorities were confused [by Whang's sudden death]," a South Korean official said. Both police and public health authorities initially denied the incident fell within their jurisdiction. However, on the evening of Whang's death, it was decided that the public health authorities should take charge of the matter. Thus, the autopsy was postponed until the following day. The public health authorities reportedly said the results of the autopsy might not be known for a month, as it would take a long time to cultivate the bacteria.

I was concerned at how little coverage the incident received from the Chinese media. Although some Chinese newspapers reported the incident, it was treated as a small story. As a result, many Beijing citizens and non-Chinese residents do not know about the incident at all.

The Chinese media, which are under the direct control of the Communist Party government, do not run news that is considered unfavorable to the government. This makes me wonder whether this had any bearing on the coverage of Whang's case.

The safety of food and drugs is closely linked to human life. Therefore, it is an iron rule to publicize information on problems relating to food and drugs immediately and determine the cause of the incident as soon as possible, or similar incidents may occur.

About 600,000 people are expected to visit Beijing from overseas for the Summer Olympics next year. If the Chinese authorities continue to approach food safety in the same lax way it dealt with Whang's case, people will not even be able to consume a sandwich without concern.
Whang is said to have been the most conversant with Chinese affairs among South Korean diplomats and loved China very much. To ensure his regrettable death was not in vain, the Chinese authorities must clarify the cause of his death in a convincing way and draw up measures for improvements.

Kawata is head of The Yomiuri Shimbun's Chinese General Bureau in Beijing.
(Aug. 16, 2007)

Vacation?

We are finding out what it means to take vacation back home as an expatriate.

It turns out it is mostly chores like taking care of the medical, eye care, and dentistry that you don't take care of in China.

Then there is the maintenance updates and registration of the autos.

The house always requires something on each visit. It is uncanny that things wait for us to come home to break down and need repairing (better than the alternative while we are in China). The last time we were having a septic problem and BF was home and able to take care of it. This time we had our A/C unit go out and a new one is on order.

Lastly there is the buying of clothing and accessories that you just cannot seem get or like in China.

Good to be in the US Again

BF and I arrived in the US on August 10th to be with the rest of the family. MF ends his internship with Chase today and the girls have been home for the last week or so winding down their summer and getting ready for college.

We had heard that the weather was extremely hot, recently. It turns out when we go to the airport it was in the 60's. It was a nice reprieve from Beijing heat and humidity.

The first thing that I enjoyed the most was the fresh outdoor air and beautiful rural scenery. I do not miss the the overcrowding of bicycles, pedestrians, motor vehicle traffic with the honking horns.

It was nice to see our dog Lester and to drive a car again. It has been 8 months since I have driven a car, I am crossing my fingers on no accidents while driving.

Censored News

Well here is some censored news that did not make its way to us in Beijing. I can't wait to hear the outcome of the autopsy; bad food, bad drugs, malpractice.............

Whang Joung-il, 52, a high-ranking diplomat at the Korean Embassy in China, died while being treated in a clinic in downtown Beijing Sunday morning.
On Saturday evening Whang ate a sandwich from a nearby shop while working in his office at the embassy. He then experienced diarrhea and severe abdominal pain and went home.

The next morning Whang suffered shortness of breath and died while being given an injection of Ringer’s solution at a clinic in the Chaoyang district of downtown Beijing.

According to Korean Ambassador to China Kim Ha-joong, Whang continued to suffer from stomachache and diarrhea after he returned home from his office.

Around 8:30 in the morning Whang drove his car to the clinic, which is popular with foreigners. He died about 20 minutes after he began receiving the intravenous solution.

The clinic had prescribed Ringer’s solution to prevent dehydration. Just after he began receiving the solution, he began having difficulty breathing.

The clinic dialed the emergency number 911, the equivalent to Korea’s 119, and began performing CPR. But when emergency medical responders arrived 20 minutes later, Whang had stopped breathing. The clinic confirmed his death at 11:30 a.m.

Witnessed by an embassy official, Chinese police and officials from China’s Ministry of Health seized the remaining solution for investigation.

With the consent of the embassy and Whang’s family, Chinese police performed an autopsy on his body Monday afternoon.

The exact cause of Whang’s death will likely be known after the results of the autopsy are released. Chinese authorities promised the embassy they would deliver the results as soon as possible.

The embassy believes Whang’s death may be linked to the sandwich he ate the previous evening, or to the intravenous solution. The solution may have been fake or improperly administered.

China has been plagued by serious health issues in recent days, including an uproar over steamed dumplings allegedly stuffed with chemical-laced cardboard instead of pork, and the distribution of bogus foods and medicines including phony blood for transfusions.

The One Year Anniversary Countdown

There are big celebrations throughout Beijing and other Olympic venue cities for the one year anniversary until the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 2008 Olympics Landscape Sculpture was opened on August 5th. The main event was a big ceremony held in Tiananmen Square at 7pm.

There is an Olympics Landscape Sculpture Traveling Exhibition from Aug 5 to 11 at the China Millennium Monument at Yuyuantan Park in Beijing in honor of the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

As one of the activities organized by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), the exhibition displays over three hundred pieces and sets of landscape sculpture, as well as photos of the worldwide roving exhibition, which was launched on August 8, 2005.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/bocog/bocognews/headlines/n214120822.shtml

http://www.shraybronze.com/shray-olympics2008.html

The exhibits, made of bronze, iron, aluminium, stainless steel and other raw materials, were selected from 2,450 entries submitted by artists from 82 countries.

Until now they have been displayed in nearly twenty cities at home and abroad, such as Tianjin, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Macao, London, Los Angeles and Seoul.

Additional pictures can be found at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/560195278bxZiVG

Karaoke

One of the events we hosted for CB's going away was a Karaoke event with our new friends from Beijing. The event was also for SL as he will leave us at the end of the month, but we will have more time to celebrate with him.

The event was very much appreciated by our Chinese friends. They really enjoyed the evening and their were some excellent singers in the group.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/560188915iYCoPv

Barcelona in Beijing

A group of us went to a friendly soccer match between FC Barcelona and Beijing Guo’an. There were about 30,000+ people at the smallish Fengtai Stadium. It took some time to get there as there are no good roads that connect the ring roads. So unfortunately we did not have as much time to tail gate with buckets of KFC chicken and Heineken as we would have liked.
Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o started for Barcelona and then Ronaldinho replaced Henry in the second half. Lionel Messi did not play as he was still recovering from the Boca Cup. FC won 3-0.






The crowd was very energetic. It was amazing how many Barca supporters there were from Beijing. Some of the local fans were not happy and occasionally booed.


The air was very thick with pollution, not sure what the Barcelona players thought of that. The game was somewhat of a dry run for next year's Beijing Olympics, with the countdown at one year on Wednesday. The security was in high force.
Beijing Olympics officials are very concerned about the image the city projects next year and have been campaigning to get people to curtail bad habits like spitting, jumping ahead in line and reckless driving. The only reckless thing I saw was the launching of plastic square shaped fans that made great Frisbees after each goal scored by Barcelona.

Funny article from China Daily:

Beijing police out in force to limit Barcelona abuse(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-08-04 11:35
In their latest effort to tackle crude behavior ahead of the Olympics, Beijing police say they will punish or even detain football fans who yell out the "F-Word" (the Chinese equivalent) at Sunday's friendly between Beijing Guo'an FC and Barcelona.
"Those who initiate swearing or goad the crowd into mass cursing at the game will be ejected from the stadium or even face detention and a 12-month ban from attending football matches," Liu Chunjiang, a spokesman with Beijing police's Fengtai District Branch told Xinhua on Friday.
Fengtai police, responsible for security at Sunday's game between Beijing Guo'an FC and Barcelona, will treat the international friendly expected to attract more than 30,000 fans as a "drill for next year's Olympics", Liu said.
"It is just way out of line to have 30,000 people shouting and swearing en masse," Liu said.
"There will be a police officer in each stand videoing the crowd during the match in order to collect evidence of fans' bad behavior, from cursing and fighting to throwing litter or running onto the field. We will keep records of all violations," he said.
"What we are trying to do is to give the right guidance in how to view a football match, not to impose anything on the spectator, " Liu said.
Beijing Fengtai Stadium, where the game will be held, is the home stadium of Guo'an FC and a notorious cussing venue for Beijingers who enjoy letting fly with tirades of abuse.
A seasoned curser surnamed Hao was detained for seven days in July for "violating the order of a public event". The man set up a website in March called "Beijing Curse Union", aimed at promoting a "curse culture" and goading Beijing football fans before each match to swear at the visiting team. He was banned from the stadium for 12 months.
Another five members of the "Union" were fined or given warnings. Sunday's game will be the first match after the banning of the "Union", said Liu, who refused to say how many police officers will be present.

Politics in China

Politics in China are as rough and tumble as anywhere else. Looks like Hu Jintao is cleaning house before the big congress meeting in Ocotober that will create the leadership through 2012. It could b3 a very interesting Fall here, then followed by the US election process.........

China arrest takes scandal into politburo
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: August 3 2007 18:01 Last updated: August 3 2007 18:01
The former political secretary to a member of China’s politburo has been detained in a widening probe over misuse of Shanghai’s pension funds, elevating the scandal for the first time into the inner-circle of the Chinese leadership.

The detention of Wang Weigong, reported by a Chinese financial magazine on Friday, comes ahead of the five-yearly Communist party congress in October, which will choose the country’s senior leadership until 2012.

Mr Wang had headed the office in Beijing of Huang Ju, who until his death earlier this year was the fifth-ranked member of the nine-member politburo standing committee, China’s elite leadership group.

Before moving to Beijing in 2002, Mr Huang was the mayor and then party secretary of Shanghai. Mr Wang worked for him in both capacities.

The scandal has already led to the arrest and expulsion from the party of Chen Liangyu, the former Shanghai party secretary and the highest ranking official to be toppled for corruption in a decade.

In line with disciplinary practices, the party investigates and passes judgment on officials detained for corruption before handing them over to the criminal justice system, which ritually tries and then sentences them.

The latest arrest gives further weight to the conventional explanation of the unfolding scandal, which is regarded as an effort by Hu Jintao, the president, to take down the once dominant “Shanghai gang”.
Jiang Zemin, Mr Hu’s predecessor, hailed from Shanghai and surrounded himself in Beijing with officials trained in the city. Mr Hu has an entirely different power base.

Shanghai officials have sought to play down the implications of the purge of more than a dozen former top officials from the city over the past year. A retired senior Shanghai official said that the central government had singled out the city only because Mr Chen’s behaviour had been so blatant.

“This is not about Shanghai, but about sending a message to other cities, where there are similar problems,” said the official. He said that Mr Jiang had helped to initiate the investigation into Mr Chen.

The party congress will usher in a new leadership team, both in the politburo and also among the four vice-premiers, which are key day-to-day policymaking posts for the economy.

Although there are a number of favored candidates for promotion into the new leadership group, the outlines of Mr Hu’s new team are not yet clear.

The scandal, plus the leaking to a Beijing-backed newspaper in Hong Kong last week of details of Mr Chen’s crimes, is a sign that the struggle over the new line-up is intensifying.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Another good article (but it was blocked so I had to use "SurfonSteroids" and anonymous web surfing site. Only way we can get to wikipedia site and our own blog site).

Can Hu Jintao Go Beyond The Politics Of 'Winners Are Kings, Losers Are Bandits'? - Liang Jing
Posted by Xiao Qiang :: 2007-08-04, 10:38 AM :: Politics
Dr. David Kelly translated following essay from overseas Chinese political commentator Liang Jing, the Chinese text is here:

Last week, the Communist Party announced the expulsion of Chen Liangyu from Party and public posts, and handed him over to the processes of law. This development is understood by all, both domestically and abroad, in terms of the needs of the power struggle over the 17th National Party Conference. However, in a recent interview with reporters, Xia Zanzhong, deputy secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, went so far as to say that "Chen Liangyu's serious breach of discipline was quite covert, deceptive and harmful," implying that Chen had now become his prisoner of war, not because he was Hu Jintao's political opponent, but because he was so clever and subtle.

It was out of the question that Xia Zanzhong himself believed what he said. It has long been public knowledge that, protected by Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai Gang, including Huang Ju, Chen Liangyu, and Jiang's princeling son Jiang Mianheng, did bad things for many years in Shanghai, and were even so bold as to openly confront the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Group. Why then did Xia Zanzhong give such a performance of "no 300 taels of silver here"? It only shows that Hu Jintao and his supp­orters in the party are aware that attacking their political opponents in the name of pun­ishing corruption is drawing censure.

Why did Hu and his supporters take this step, if they felt it was bound to be criticized? Hu's sympathizers may say that Chen Liangyu, a lackey fed by Jiang, was an un­reasoning thug who had repeatedly challenged Hu's authority under Jiang's protection, so this heavy-handed move of Hu's was a last resort. Moreover, Chen Liangyu was actually guilty of many crimes. Hu's detractors may quite legitimately claim that, if investigated with the same methods and punished according to the same yardstick, not only would a large number of CPC officials have to step down, but Jiang himself would be purged. Hu Jintao's political trick of, on the one hand, lauding Jiang Zemin to the skies, while on the other taking Chen Liangyu down, is less than con­vin­cing.

Hu Jintao may in fact have had no choice but to take neutral stand and praise Jiang Zemin on the one hand while eliminating Chen Liangyu on the other. After all, the rules of the political game are often not chosen by a single party. Jiang Zemin is someone without a moral baseline, is it not asking Hu Jintao to commit political suicide to demand, while his own political strength is wanting, that he act as a "great," not a "mean" man?

So what is Hu's political philosophy in his heart of hearts? When his position is sufficiently consolidated will it be possible for him to transcend the traditional political culture of "winners are kings, losers are bandits" and introduce modern political civilization into China's power game? Unfortunately, Hu's record over the past five years, especially toward civil dissidents and human rights defenders, gives us no cause for optimism.The regime has recently launched a new round of suppression of non-governmental organizations. Founding editor of the China Development Brief, Nick Young, who has always dealt with the Chinese government in good faith and advocated cooperation with it, became a target of this suppression.

Although China Development Brief was banned on the charges of "violating China's law on statistics and carrying out illegal investigations," it is clear to all that this was a tech­nical excuse. The case that best displays the gangster political ideas pf the regime is the "illegal publishing crimes" of Guo Feixiong. China's security departments, which have adopted all manner of illegal means to persecute rights-protection crusader Guo, arrested him 10 months ago on "illegal publication" charges, and tortured him; according to his revela­tions, 90% of the questions and matters said to be related had nothing to do with him, but were connected with his involvement in the "Taishi Village" rights-protection case. Despite 10 months of detention and use of heinous, despicable interrogation methods, when the case came on earlier this month it could not continue for need of "supplementary evidence."

Such cases of "ruling the land through the law" have not diminished but gained in intensity over Hu's five years in power. What reason have people to believe that after purging his political opponents he will bring in civilized politics? Moreover, how can he not be making more enemies for himself with his stale political code?

A Day in the Park

One of our new Sunday activities over the last month has been going to Ritan Park, "Temple of the Sun". The park originally was a 16th century altar site where the emperor made sacrificial offerings to the sun god. It is located by the south embassy area.

We ride our bikes down to have breakfast at Grandma's Kitchen (not quite Hank's Place but still a good American breakfast). We then head over to Ritan for a nice walk and to see everything Chinese. This park is really popular and has a little bit of everything for everyone. There are the badminton players, table tennis players, card players, the musicians (vocal and instrumental), the gymnast on the parallel bars / high bar, the dancers, exercisers, martial art practitioners, hacky sack players, fishermen (including gold fishing!!), children amusement park, rock climbers, miniature golfers, the bird men with their twin cages of various song birds, story tellers, parents and children just playing, walkers, joggers, but no dog walking.

I ran across a nice article where the writer obviously was a more active participant at the park than we have been. Also much better writing.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-park4aug04,1,545318.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

New Hobby

BF has been busy learning so many things in Beijing. One of her new hobbies is Chinese watercolor. She took lessons at the apartment building (from a German friend if you can believe it). She is really doing well with it and has turned it into a practical art form by painting different styles of Chinese fans.