First Advisory Board Meeting

We held our inaugural credit card advisory board meeting between JPM and our partner on January 30, 2008. This was a very special occasion for both organizations. Many resolutions were passed including who the senior management would be. I was appointed the general manager (but for our partner since I am not an employee, I am still a special advisor). This was done with an official offer letter and a presentation by the Chairman of the Advisory Board.
I also gave a presentation on our business plan. The whole meeting was done with simultaneous transalation. The meeting went very well, buy the equipment was a challenge at times. Now lets see how things progress between the two organizations.................

Basket Pick up Huai Rou village Jan 28

A chilly Monday morning. Tom and I had just returned from the ice sculptures at Harbin on Sunday. Nothing seems cold after being there. Leslie said to dress warm but that we would be in and out of the car all day; no hiking.


In October Leslie hiked in this area and found a basketmaker in the village of Huai Rou. If I understand correctly there are 6 communes in this village. This gentleman is the only basketmaker in the village. He is 80 years old. Today we were on our way to pick up this basket order and then scout some other villages for possible hiking routes into the mountains. Leslie always asks the villagers as they know the paths and the mountains.

This sign lets us know that we are outside of Beijing. All of the signs that are incorrect have been changed in the city and the outlying areas in readiness for the Olympics. We traveled north about an hour and a half outside of the city.

Now the adventure begins. It happens right at the begining of the day this trip. We arrive at the entrance to the village and encounter a gate. We are asked to pay 20 Yuan each to enter the village. I know to these 10 ladies, the man in charge, and his deputy we looked like a bunch of louwai (foreigners) with a Chinese driver probably wanting to hike to the great wall from there. One should never assume. This gate was not here in October and on principle we refused to pay. Much discussion ensued including suggesting that the basketmaker carry the 22 baskets outside of the gate himself. Eventually, we decided to let our driver in to retrieve the baskets.

We mulled around awhile and watched a truck go in (after paying), and another car who almost ran through the gate because they were watching us. All was well and good until the tea salesman came through and didn't have to pay to pass. We were newly riled.





We had waited almost an hour and were wondering what was taking him so long to get the baskets loaded on top of the car. No cell phone could get through so we decided to walk through the gate.


Mr. Shiney Shoes followed us. He was the man in charge. He wasn't happy. More discussion ensued. He didn't ever anticipate that the most foreign looking women speak the best Chinese. I wish I could remember what was said. We walked 20 minutes to the basketmakers home. We passed several villagers and asked them the way. It was always "right around the corner", but we finally arrived.

The car was loaded and ready to go. What a sight. What a haul! The baskets were either 25 yuan (about 2 dollars) or 35 yuan ( a little less than 3 dollars).




Leslie has such a way with people. Ever the journalist, she knows what is important and how to ask about it. Here she is asking about the tools he uses to make his baskets. He is showing her the tools and explaining each one. The long one that looks like you would use it to plant bulbs, he made the whole thing himself. He uses it to poke between the sticks to weave. He was a very delightful guy and was interested in the goings ons at the gate. His ten year old grand daughter and his wife hovered around and watched.

This is a basket in progress and the field for planting with piles of sticks for baskets behind him.

This is the more expensive basket. It is used for night soil. I believe dirt is scooped up in it and human waste placed it with more dirt over the top. It is taken out in the morning. It is a cool looking basket. I remember the men who were shopping with me at the Dirt Market (Panjiyuan) when I bought a bunch of rustic wooden bowls and a rice bucket. At the time they all laughed at our driver/shopper extroidinare Shen for carrying the rice bucket. They all thought it was a toilet. Mr. Shen had no idea what we were laughing at, I am sure he knew what he had, he just wondered why I wanted one. I did send one of these to work with Tom to deliver to my friend. Her husband works with Tom and walks to work. He walked home carrying this lovely basket. We as foreigners do try to provide entertainment when we can.

This is the basketmakers corn crib. He had several on the property. Nice weaving.

At the end of our visit and we had declined lunch we went into the basketmakers home to look up the phone number of the party secretary to call and complain about the gate and fees. This is a picture of the phone book, more aptly named phone "list". It consisted of three pages of typed names and numbers. We decided to stop at the village "office" on the way out. We did consider a plan the basketmaker offered and that was to hike out over the mountain. He offered to guide us but in the end we would be seen and sneaking implies that we were wrong.

We stopped at the office and the old party secretary was there. Inquiring after the "new" secretary garnered a look at their watches and the information that it was noon, he was probably drinking now. On the way down the road to the gate we were stopped by a village woman. The story had spread quickly. She told us that we were right. She said we shouldn't pay the fee. We learned that much money was collected the year before last and only a small amount was given to the villagers. This new man in charge bribed the people to vote for him. She called him a "black heart".

At the gate much talking occurred. We knew we had to pay and so scraped together the smallest in change and small bills we could find. One of our members called the newspaper with the story. I am sure she will follow up. The funny thing is ... they charge because there are people who do hike to the wall from this village, but, this part of the wall is off limits now.

And so, now off to the next village:

We saw the pig on the road. We walked up to the village set a ways off the road. A woman was calling the pig. He came and was reluctant to walk past us, all strangers. The woman said the pig was not long for this world. He was cute though.

This is the home of the woman who owns the pig. What is in those baskets on the ledge? It is corn that is ground for the animals.

Much to Leslies delight there were many stone impliments in this village. It backed up to beautiful stone boulders. She has been long looking for a stone cutter.

We encountered this man (love the knitted sweater) and Leslie asked if there was anyone in the village who could cut stone. He looked at her kinda funny and said "we all can".

He told us that a house we were admiring (mostly because there were 4 young men standing by it) was just built to be used as a schoolhouse in a movie. He said it was cheaper to build a new one that use someone's home and possibly encounter problems.

Leslie was looking for a home to enter to talk to the people. This was my favorite home in the village. I wonder if those larger stones in the side are from the great wall or an old city wall.

This is a beautiful door in the village. No one was home or no one lived there because it was closed.

This is the home we did enter. We tried another interesting one but when one very drunk man came right at Raquel, and another followed, we decided against that one. This is the bed in the house. And this is housework, grinding the corn meal and making dumpling racks.

There was a very interesting clay vestle sitting near the bed. It had ashes in it and was keeping the room warm. We thought it was cut from stone but the woman explained it was made of clay and fired. Leslie promptly ordered 10. They use bricks to deliniate the inside and the rectangle size urn has four round squat feet. Cool!

I of course, asked if I could buy the dumpling racks. They are two layers thick and are made of sorgum reeds. They are sewn together with a needle and thread begining in the middle and going in a swirl pattern. I don't know how she keeps the reeds from moving all over the place. The top reeds are perpendicular to the bottom reeds. She was making them for her two sons for new year presents. I paid 20 yuan each (1.5 dollars). She was happy to sell them to me.

Leslie asked her if she will be visiting her sons for New Year. She told us that they will come and take their father to their home. He was there with her but is not quite right. He needs alot of care. She said she will be happy to be alone.

We saw this sight many times along the roads. I think someone once asked how heavy this load is and the answer was a surprising 80 pounds. Hardy people.

The last stop of the day was to a village that had a basketmaker whom Leslie had contracted for baskets with. When she went to collect them, he had sold them all to foreigners. As we were driving by the village she commented on this and I said I thought it would be funny to let him see the car with all the baskets on top (we were an unusual sight). We did a u-turn and found him (it was our second u-turn of the day, the first being to take a picture of the "on drunken driving". Mr. Zhao is amazing). He looked the baskets over and commented on how well they were made. He was happy when Leslie placed another order with him.

One last note. The next day the basketmaker from the first village called Leslie to see how it all went at the gate. His first concern was whether we had gotten hurt.

Harbin 2008 Ice-Lantern Snow Festival

BF and TF went to Harbin China on January 25th with a work collegue and his wife for a weekend trip to visit the world famous ice and snow sculptures. We traveled from Beijing to Harbin in around two hours by plane.

Harbin is another one of those populous Chinese cities I had never heard of before living in China. The population is anywhere from 5MM to 10MM people depending on the definition. Harbin is the capital of the Heilongjiang province near the Russian border in northeast China. The city has some Russian influences which make it quite unique.

We stayed at the Milky Way Hotel (not the hotel we were hoping for but again we had logistic issues). It was a decent 4 star Chinese hotel. The suite was very nice and included an automatic shuffling mahjong table. I had never heard of such a thing. If you are interested check this video out: mahjong.

First on our itinerary was the 2oth annual Harbin Snow Sculpture Expo on Sun Island Park. The theme of the expo was France and China. The entrance began with a replica of the Arc de Triomphe. There were many huge snow sculptures along this theme. There was also a competition between international college students. There was a nice ice ice house complete with bed. There were all sorts of recreational activities at this exhibit including dog sled rides, tubing, ice sleds, 4-wheelers, etc. BF and CC took a snow tube ride on the steps of a replica of the Forbidden City. BF and TF took a ride inside a large ball down a snow chute.

We then went to the Polar Land (which was inside, nice relief from the cold) to see polar bears, whales, penguins, artic fox, etc.

Next we visited St. Sophia Church built in 1907. It is the largest eastern orthodox church in the far east. It no longer has services and is now a museum. St Sophia

Then it was off to the Siberian Tiger Park to see hundreds of tigers. On the way to the park we saw hundreds of army soldiers clearning the road of snow and ice. Once at the park you pay to ride a bus through the gated preserve. You can also buy chickens, goats, and/or a cow to feed to the tigers. We met up with a group who bought 3 chickens. On the bus we watched as a 4x4 came up to us, the driver opened the window slightly and through a live chicken up on the roof of the truck. The next thing you knew there was a tiger leaping on top of the truck to snatch the chicken.Then it was off to see the 9th Annual Harbin Ice and Snow World Festival. The theme was olympics. It was really too incredible to describe all of these extremely large ice models of different building and monuments from Olympic cities (Beijing, Athens, London to name a few). The lights turned on around 4:30pm and we stayed for about 2 hours. It was quite an experience.The third ice sculpture exhibit we visited was a classic one that dates back to 1968. It is called the Ice Lantern Festival and is held in Zhaolin Park in the city. It was the 34th (the math does not work because it was terminated during the Cultural Revolution and then restarted). This exhibit had ice buildings as well as classic ice sculptures. Countries competed at this exhibit as well.

On Sunday we took a quick tour of the city on a van, went to the Harbin Winter Swim Club for a bizarre swim show in the icy water. We visited the Russian section of town for shopping. Harbin is known for furs, ginseng tea, dried mushrooms for soup, Russian cholocate, etc. Oh and we went into an ice bar for some vodka in an ice shot glass.

I never mentioned all the great meals we had like dumplings and Russian cuisine.

We were delayed returning back to Beijing for a couple hours and got home after midnight. After watching all the winter storms in the south of China it is amazing that we were only delayed 2 hours given the choas in all the closed airports. Getting equipment around the country is a big challenge right now.

Half Wall Spot Jan 23 Hike

On this beautiful freezing cold Wednesday morning January 23 we followed our intrepid leader Leslie; it is always an adventure hiking with Leslie and today was no different. The day began normal as one would expect. We drove past a village into an area where rock mining was taking place. This particular valley known ignimatically as Half Wall Spot is known for its beautiful rock formations.



This is our group for the day minus the photographer, Rachel. I am in the back on the right. It looks cold because it is. It is 9:30 in the morning. We all warm up as we wind our way up and up.


The hiking route is a loop that winds its way up to the top of this pass and around to the left before decending to the bottom where we began.


Along the way we look for a rock that marks a pathway up to a ridge on the left. From where we stand it seems impossible to reach that ridge. There is a hidden cave in the mountain where the Japs are perported to have bunked (the hidden path was marked by a secret rock in this valley of rocks), we couldn't find the path even with no undergrowth hidding the ground.









We encounter a farm about half way up the mountain that Leslie tells us was run by a man who had 6 children. There are many feildstone walls that leveled the ground for planting crops.





This is a series of troughs the highest one is sitting on the edge of the well. There was heavy frost in the well and a stone dropped in let us know there was ice down below.




This beautiful picture above was inside an area where animals were kept. The basket is used for "night soil".


This is the home of the farmer. There is a kong inside that takes up half of the room. Above the bed is a string that has the bedding hanging from it as a clothes line would hang. There are vegetables hanging in plastic bags from the rafters and wood piled up near the door.

Look closely and you will see the stove to the left of me. My foot is pointing to where one would put wood in. The top is where the wok would sit. A device allows for the warmth from the fire to divert into the home for heating.
It is a small one place to have raised 6 children.

It seems like someone is using the home and maybe herding sheep. It is locked up tight today.



From the top of the path we can see down into the plain where Beijing lies. A shroud of pollution covers the city.









On our way down we came across a temple ruin. It was once a large temple and there are many large rocks nearby where we imagined contemplation took place. This is picture of a peice of a column.

The temple was situated along a once beautiful but now dry riverbed that fell over large boulders into the valley. We found more feildstone walls and the path was sometimes supported by hand stacked rock walls.












A picture for you Em.


















This beauty was Leslie's favorite rock on the trip. She did manage to find another smaller rock to carry home. There were three of us walking together and we all took turns carrying her treasure to the car.

Our adventure for the day occured at the end. There were 10 hikers to begin with and just over the top and after lunch Leslie wanted to take a path she thought might lead us the the secret cave. Five of the hikers went on to the car and left for home. We knew there was only 1.5 hours to the car and it was early yet, so off we went through what seemed to be a rabbit path. It lead nowhere, so we backtracked and took another "path". We wound our way to a ridge and still had no luck figuring where the cave was. We reluctantly headed down the path into the valley. Leslie found her prize rock and we
were just about 5 minutes from the car when Mr. Zhao came driving around the corner. He was in a hurry. He was also relieved he found us in time. The dynamite men were there and ready to blast. They were going to go ahead and we would just have to wait until the dust settled. A close call and another adventure.

200 Day Countdown

The official 2008 Beijing Olympic Countdown clock is now at 200 days. Time is flying by quickly.

The uniforms of Beijing Olympics' workers, technical staff and volunteers were unveiled last night to mark the 200-day countdown to the Games.

The uniforms have the key element of the lucky clouds and will be in three colors: red for Beijing Olympic Games Committee (BOCOG) staff, blue for the volunteers and gray for the technical staff.

Red signifies passion and action Blue as a refreshing color, is suitable for the large number of volunteers;
Gray represents calm, which is what the technical staff need the most.

An official stated "We hope the uniforms make everybody look healthy and passionate"