Your Government, Now On The Web

I happened to be poking around the City of Raleigh‘s website today and was happy to discover the Raleigh City Council meetings are now available as streaming media. These streams are designed for Windows Media Player, which not exactly an open format but can indeed be played using the open-source mplayer if one decodes the various URLs.

Being the political junkie (and, well, hopeless geek) that I am, I considered subscribing to cable just to view these meetings. Now not only do I get to view them, I can also skip through them easily to see only what I want.

Also today I learned that C-SPAN will be offering its content with a Creative Commons-type license allowing for non-commercial use. That makes the meetings of my federal and local governments freely available online, joining my state government which was already available online.

If there’s a better way to begin national Sunshine Week promoting open government, I haven’t seen it. Its also another great victory for the Creative Commons, which includes everyone. Go on: pat yourself on the back!

(On a related note, I find it ironic that many of the News and Observer’s open records stories are locked behind its paywall).

Destinated!

I’m back home this morning having flown 10,000 miles yesterday. Boy, are my arms tired! Heh.

My flight from Newark wasn’t without its snafus, either. We boarded 20 minutes late, finally pushed back and taxied about 10 feet before waiting another 20 minutes to get “sequenced” into the takeoff line. You can imagine my joy when the captain announced we were “30th for takeoff.” Man, you just gotta love Newark. Another 45 minutes and finally we left the ground, spending what I thought was an unusual amount of time rolling before pointing skyward.

A Continental pilot was catching a ride back to Raleigh. Since the plane was full, he rode in the jumpseat in the cockpit. I heard laughter from the cockpit more than once while we were waiting to take off.

When we landed at RDU we took runway 5R: the preferred one for Continental as its closest to Terminal A. The plane touched down and decelerated nicely but then the pilot did something unusual. We rolled gently right past the first available taxiway back to the very next one, for no apparent reason. The pilot then turned onto this taxiway, did a big circle and then proceeded to use the first taxiway to roll right back onto the active runway!

Yes, our ace pilot actually used an active runway as a taxiway, rolling down 5R in the wrong direction! I was freaking out when I saw the landing stripes roll by my window. I don’t think the pilot asked the tower’s permission because he never paused at all between rolling off the runway and rolling back on. I think he was just distracted by the extra pilot in the cockpit. I’ve never had a pilot pull that kind of stunt before. I was glad it was after 11 PM and the airport wasn’t busy.

Moral to this story: if its late and you see a pilot catching a ride in the cockpit, pack a parachute.

Anyway, I feel surprisingly rested and ready to go, so I’ll try working from home today. Its good to be back.

Back In The USSA

I’m on American soil once again after my flight from Beijing landed about 90 minutes ago. Going through customs was a relative breeze, though the luggage carousel stalled for about 10 minutes, boosting my blood pressure in the process. By the time I’d gotten my bags the earlier flight to Raleigh had already boarded. Its a good thing I opted in advance to take the 8:50 flight.

The flight was smooth and mostly uneventful. We were 30 minutes outside of Newark when I was absent-mindedly gazing out at the hills of upstate New York. I caught myself thinking – with no explanation – that now if anything happened to the plane at least I’d be on American soil.

The next thing out of my mouth was “oh shit!” The plane had just began banking toward Newark when a small corporate jet passed right in front of us! I’d guess there was less than two miles between us. If it weren’t for altitude separation rules we may have collided. I don’t know if our pilot saw the approaching plane since we were in the middle of a turn.

We took a more westerly route back to America, passing west until Korea before we headed north. Once we had crossed the International Date Line, I popped open the window shade and was treated to a nice surprise. The arora borealis was active on the left side of the plane, painting the dark sky with a glowing green curtain. It was my first ever glimpse of this eerily beautiful phenomenon.

I’ve got an hour before my plane boards so I’ll have some time to check up on email and the like before finally getting home around 11. Yay!

Homecoming Day!

Today I start the long journey home, and I couldn’t be more psyched. Its been fun being here, as you can probably tell, but I really miss my family. If we were all it would be far more fun to explore. Right now I’m missing my hugs and kisses.

Its time for breakfast, followed by a reluctant journey to the markets. I’m so not looking forward to the noisy, high-pressure hawking found there. I’ve been putting it off but I still need to get some gifts.

My flight leaves 4 PM Beijing time (4 AM EDT), trackable here once we’ve crossed the Arctic ocean. Perhaps after breakfast Sunday it’ll be working.

I’ve posted yesterday’s pictures to the gallery. It shows the Jinmao Tower in the Podong (east river) side of Shangjai. The Jinmao Tower is 88 floors tall and commands a spectacular view of Shanghai on days where there’s no air pollution. In other words, rarely. It was worth a look, though.
I couldn’t help but think of the missing World Trade Center towers while I was up there. I hope that crime is solved someday.

I found it funny that an even taller building was going up next door. It’s never enough. Incidentally, the whole Podong side was nothing but farmland in 1990. All those towering skyscrapers are relatively new.

Also included are a few shots of the lobby of the Shanghai hotel where I stayed, just for reference.

Now, time for breakfast. The hours are counting down!

Even More China Quick Hits

Its after midnight here but I can’t sleep without posting a few more quick hits.

  • During breakfast I looked up at the TV to see one of the most bizarre sporting competitions I think I’ve ever seen. A stock car was swerving through a snow-filled, winding, single-lane country road at breakneck speed, narrowly missing trees, farms, fences (and apparently judges) along the way. I expect crazy stuff like this from Japan, but there it was. Then I remembered how stock-car racing comes from the days of running moonshine over mountain roads just like these. Things really do come full circle, don’t they?
  • Earlier this week I walked into one of the busiest bookstores I’ve ever seen. Six floors of books, filled with people browsing. The Chinese have a thirst for knowledge.
  • Chinese are crazy about their mobile phones. Everywhere I looked someone was either talking or texting. Bored guards at tourists sites would look away from the “ancient relics” they were supposed to be protecting to sneak a little texting in. Even the hotel receptionist had to be chided by her manager when the receptionist eagerly reached for her ringing mobile phone while checking me in.
  • My flight from Shanghai was on a Boeing 777-200, one of the few Boeings I’ve seen here. Airbus has this market locked up.
  • The seats of a Boeing 777 are far more comfortable than the equivalent Airbus A330. I couldn’t wait to get off the plane I took to Shanghai.
  • There is no such thing as boarding groups in Chinese airports. There is no such concept of “lines” or “queues” here, either. Everything is one mad rush after another.
  • People really do bound out of their seats as soon as the plane touches down.
  • Air China shows video in the cabin of the plane’s takeoff and landing, shot from two cameras on the plane’s nose. It’s fun to watch from this perspective.
  • Shanghai is adding parks in an effort to clear the polluted air.
  • Shanghai is gonna need a lot of parks.
  • There are no open fields in Shanghai or Beijing for ordinary citizens to use. There are no public soccer fields. I saw two basketball courts during my whole visit and they were both in front of army barracks.
  • Advertisements are everywhere. At the airport, you’ll find ads covering the jetway, headrests, tray tables, even the baggage carousels. I think airlines wait to put the bags on the carousel to make you look at the ads longer.
  • Even the toll booths have ads. For a while I thought we were paying tolls to Sinochem.
  • You’re more likely see monuments to the UPS delivery guy than to Chairman Mao, though I did see a bust or two of Mr. Mao in some restaurants.
  • His countrymen still hold Mr. Mao in high regard.
  • I always pack far more for a trip than I need.
  • A tourist map is essential for getting around any city where you don’t speak the language. Pointing at a picture can be a real lifesaver.
  • One hears horns here so often that they become background noise. The other day I almost stepped in front of a bus because of this.
  • Most taxis I’ve taken have small microphones on both sides of the dashboard. Their purpose is still unclear. No microphones are visible in the back, where customers are most likely to sit.
  • People cough a lot here, and for good reason.
  • I wonder if the respiratory illnesses caused by China’s air pollution makes the Chinese more vulnerable to catching whatever Respiratory Pandemic Du Jour may be going around at any particular time.
  • My eyes were red for over four days when I arrived in Beijing. At first I thought it was due to lack of sleep from my long flight. When it persisted, I was beginning to wonder if I’d contracted hepititis. Now I chalk it up to China’s horrendous air pollution.
  • The air here turns your mucous black. Honestly. Like you work in a coal mine or something.
  • China’s electricity, like America’s, is primarily generated from coal.
  • I’ve seen so many dazzling buildings that they begin to look alike. One building tonight turned my head, however. It was a ten story building that was nothing more than a crumbling shell. With gleaming buildings going up on seemingly every piece of land I was frankly amazed to see a pile of rubble left standing.
  • China has an insatiable appetite for concrete and steel.
  • There is no such thing in China as too many people on an elevator. Or subway. Or bus.
  • The word “license” was always spoken in English during my training, leading me to wonder if there is no Chinese equivalent.
  • Shanghai is tall but Beijing is wide.
  • Foreigners here don’t seem fully accepted. Though my Chinese colleagues were generally friendly in our business settings, few seemed to want to sit next to us Westerners at lunches or dinners. Partners who didn’t know Gary and I would move to other tables when we sat down. Maybe we’re reading too much into it but I did get a hint of that vibe.

    I can’t fault them if its true. It may be that it will take a little time for the Chinese to be comfortable with non-Chinese. Most Chinese have never traveled outside their borders and some have never left their own village. Diversity takes time.

  • As I was wandering today around a popular tourist spot in Shanghai, an adorable little girl – maybe two years old – smiled and cheerfully pointed at me. I took her and her family as being tourists in Shanghai, too. While her mother explained who (or what) I was (and I can only in polite terms), I fished out a photo of my kids. While she studied her American counterparts her mother pointed at the picture and told her “baby … baby.” It was a nice little international sharing moment.
  • The only black people I’ve met here were my South African friends at the hotel. The only ones I’ve seen in public are Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Tiger Woods and a few other American athletes who adorn huge ads around town. I got the impression from watching in restaurants that Indians here may not be highly regarded.
  • One Chinese I spoke with made note of a Chinese ethnic group’s darker skin when describing another province. He gave no explanation.
  • China changes so quickly that any insights I may have gotten right are already wrong.

More China Quick Hits

More China Quick Hits

  • VW is the most popular brand of car here. The reason is that VW was the first foreign carmaker to arrive, setting up a jointly-owned factory here as early as 1982.
  • It takes time to crack the Chinese market. If a company is willing to invest the time it can be richly rewarded.
  • For nearly everything there’s the tourist price and there’s the Chinese price. The final price is usually even lower.
  • Recent pics on the Internets show the People’s Congress delagates all snoring in their seats: China’s government at work.
  • At my Beijing hotel I met a group of very friendly South African civil engineers here gathering resources and knowledge for building a hydroelectric plant in South Africa. I shall have to visit Cape Town some day.
  • I’m confused about how employment works here. I’m told there’s full employment here, yet I saw more than one beggar near the tourist sights of Shanghai (and none in Bejing, I might add). If you’re a firm, are you forced to hire someone simply to give them a job? If they’re incompetent or lazy or not a good fit for the firm, can you fire them? Does the worker have rights?
  • Why are Wal-Mart’s Chinese workers the only ones allowed to have labor unions?
  • Marco Polo was a blogger.
  • There is a curious definition of precision here. Telephone cables are haphazardly strung in some parts of Beijing, while my colleagues freaked out when in the middle of a dull spot of training I suggested we take an impromptu break. I think in general the Chinese value punctuality.
  • In an effort to control traffic, Shanghai charges $6,000 USD to license a car. Thus the license alone is often 30% of the car’s cost. One can license a moped here for a mere $1,000. Beijing has free licenses and chokes on the resulting traffic.
  • Though cars are becoming more popular here, the horrendous traffic and high license fees make it usually faster to bike, walk, or take the subway.
  • Subways are fast and efficient, yet very crowded. Few Westerners appear to take them, though most signs and announcements include English. Fares are 4 RMB in Shanghai and 3 RMB in Beijing, or roughly $0.40 and $0.50 USD, respectively.
  • Smoking is allowed everywhere here, leading some Chinese to ignore no-smoking signs. Even so it seems smoking isn’t widespread. Only one of my dozen Chinese colleagues is a smoker.
  • I heard a deep Southern accent in my Beijing hotel: a nice Mississippi man was making his third trip to China to adopt a child. Hearing him speak make me think of home. I even slipped some Southern back into my speech for the first time in months.
  • My company has long used this atrocious cartoon for marketing our product. I’ve derided it equally as long. To my astonishment I gained some respect for it when I saw how easily it conveyed our product’s features to a non-English-speaking crowd.
  • Most Chinese I’ve met love to laugh. They appreciate a good joke, but only as long as its not at the expense of another. The Chinese greatly value ‘face’ and how they’re perceived by their peers. Awkward situations are to be avoided at all times.
  • Few Chinese wear jewelry. I never saw one wedding ring the whole time, and during my entire trip only saw two women wearing earrings. I find this ironic considering all the pearl necklaces and jade jewelry made here.
  • The show of wealth is discouraged here. Word never got to Hong Kong.
  • Some Chinese are not shy about bodily functions. I’ve seen more spitting and nose-picking here than I care to.
  • Smiles are multilingual.
  • In spite of my feeling very safe here, the Chinese are very protective of their belongings.
  • NBA basketball star Yao Ming is China’s biggest celebrity by far, and not just in height. My Chinese friends watch NBA games. Most hold the local CBA teams in low regard.
  • Women in many ways are considered equals here, in spite of stories of baby girls being put up for adoption. China has a history of powerful women, being on once ruled by an empress for many years. Some Chinese men will tell you that women are far better equipped than men for success in China.
  • Never, ever tangle with a Chinese woman.
  • In the past, Chinese couples may have regretted having a boy instead of a girl. This attitude is quickly changing, though. Couples now are happy to raise daughters as well as sons.
  • Due to its one-child policy, China’s streets will never be filled with minivans. Nor will baby supply stores and the like catch on.
  • Some Chinese looked wistful whenever I mentioned having two kids.
  • Though cars are becoming more popular here, the horrendous traffic and high license fees make it frequently better to bike, walk, or take the subway.
  • Beijing rush hour traffic was so bad it once took almost an hour to go 10km.
  • As cars become more prevalent here, so will overweight Chinese.
  • Business in China begins with the relationship. Always. Business grows from that. The Chinese invest heavily on courting their partners. They are not above getting them tanked in order to forge these friendships.
  • Virtually no business in China is conducted over the phone. This is an insult to business partners. If it can’t happen face-to-face, it frequently doesn’t happen. Since China is a vast country this can pose some logistical problems.
  • Chinese cities, and Shanghai in particular, has many tall buildings. The ones I’ve seen have modern fire-fighting measures like automatic sprinklers and plenty of fire extinguishers. All buildings have clearly-marked exit signs.
  • I’ve not seen any fire trucks, or any ladder trucks, though I’m told they exist.
  • Satellite dishes are everywhere. Their use makes the “great firewall of China” somewhat moot.
  • Some internet sites here resolve to incorrect IP addresses. Wikipedia mirrors and dyndns.org sites seem to do this.
  • In China, port forwarding is your friend.
  • The horn is as important to taxi drivers as the steering wheel and stick shift. Frequently moreso.
  • Taxi rides provide good, frightening entertainment. You must be especially brave to ride in the front seat: the best view to all this chaos.
  • In Shanghai, any buildings shorter than 20 stories are endangered species. There are over 3,000 tall buildings here and cranes are everywhere putting up more.

Back From Shanghai Tour

I’m back from my Shanghai tour and I am hugely disappointed in the tour itself. It was a big waste of time. We went to some nice places but the issue was the tour guide. The pamphlet promises a “smiling, English-speaking tour guide,” but our guide, named Sheila, smiled only in the way that a dragon smiles before cooking you with a puff of fiery breath. What’s more, her employer is Jin Jiang Optional Tours Center a government-owned tour company, so she was a bit of a commie true believer.

Our first destination was an active buddhist temple. Right off the bat Sheila spouted a ridiculous line about China recognizing religious freedom in its constitution. Yeah, tell that to the Tibetans or followers of Falun Gong. That’s when I began smirking and waiting for the tour to be over.

I’m meeting my colleagues for one last dinner together. Once I return I’ll post pictures from today and describe more of the sights.

(I’m sure its just coincidence that my usually excellent connection to The Google died right after I searched for a link to Falun Gong. Yep.)

Shanghai Delights!

Wow. Just wow.

I’ve been to a lot of places in my life but Shanghai simply takes my breath away. Looking around, I just couldn’t believe all of this is here.

The training went much better than the Beijing one, in the opinion of most of us. Thirty-two partners attended, some from very far away. I skipped the stupid slide show and did my specialty – live demos and training. This let me cover more ground than Beijing’s session and the flow seemed to connect better with the attendees. It didn’t hurt that this hotel’s Internet connection is 3-4 times faster than the Beijing hotel’s.

We met at the hotel restaurant for lunch. With no grasp of the Chinese language, Gary and I fumbled our way through last night’s dinner and wound up with a good, but not great, dinner. I was frankly not looking forward to another bland dinner – and certainly not bland hotel food. What I got, though, knocked my socks off. It was top-shelf, amazingly flavorful Chinese food. I kept eating and eating until I couldn’t eat any more. What I thought was Chinese food – the stuff in America – didn’t come anywhere near the taste of this food. I was blown away! It’s certainly the best hotel meal I’ve ever had and the best lunch I’ve had in a long, long while.

In the middle of lunch I became the recipient of a spontaneous toast from my colleagues and the attendees at my table, for which I was surprised as well as deeply honored. Outside of my wedding day I’ve never been the recipient of a toast before (and those I shared with my lovely bride). How does it happen that people I’ve only just met would offer me a toast? I find it hard to fathom. Wow.

The rest of the training went smoothly. Everyone did well on the exam I give at the end of the course. As Gary thanked each one of us who put the session together, I told everyone that it was my great pleasure to have been with them today (and I meant it). I think they appreciated hearing that.

My colleague Jenny then helped me book a tour of Shanghai for tomorrow. Following that I had a brief chance to blog the previous post before we all headed out to dinner.

Our dinner tonight was for traditional Shanghai food at the famous Xiao Nan Guo restaurant. We feasted on roast duck; pork leg; roast lamb; beef; white radishes; seafood including sea cucumber, a succulent grouper-like whitefish, and even raw (!) shrimp; and bottle upon bottle of red wine!

Everyone was psyched about today’s training and the mood was festive. I made the mistake of sharing what my tour guide told me back on Saturday. He asked if my Chinese colleagues had taken me out for a big dinner. When I said not yet he told me to expect it. It is a Chinese tradition to treat guests to a big meal and massive amounts of alcohol. Once the alcohol loosens you up your true character shines through, you see. I shared this with my friends and immediately “cheers” became “bottoms up” (or “gala” in Chinese)! We began to down multiple full glasses of wine! I soon begged we “pace ourselves” in order to “make it a long night,” just to inject a little sanity back into things (though the wine was outstanding and I would’ve been willing, if not able, to drink them under the table).

Midway through the dinner, I looked around the table at these friends who were all, with the exception of Gary, total strangers just one week ago. I was enjoying myself so much that right then and there I began to memorize as many details of the scene as I could. I didn’t want it to end, and I never want to forget it.

We had the waiter take a picture of our group. From left to right are Tony, Alex, Jasper, Ja Ja, Dork Boy, John, Gary, George, and Jenny.

Dinner did end, though, at which point Jenny and George volunteered to take Gary and me on a quick tour of the riverside of downtown Shanghai, better known as the Bund. It was skyscraper after eye-popping skyscraper. Neon everywhere. And a good smattering of colonial-era buildings were thrown in for spice, too. If it weren’t for a chilly wind blowing in from the coast we may have walked down the boardwalk for an hour or more.

George is Chinese and on the younger side. He was in awe of my history of travel. I’d mention someplace I’d been and he would hang on my every word, a faraway gleam in his eye. One day, I told him, he may have the same opportunity to see the world as I have. I think he will.

Now I’m back at the hotel with so much to write about and so little time. I’ve been smiling so much today I think my face is permanently stuck. It’s been a fantastic day on so many levels. Already I’m making plans to return here some day.

Tomorrow starts early again as I hop a taxi to meet the day’s tour group at another hotel. I’ll have eight sights to see on my day-long tour. After that I’ll meet my colleages once again for another dinner, and this time it won’t be Chinese food but Italian for a change. Its all been so very fun that if it weren’t for my family being so far away I’d find it hard to leave!

Oh, and see shots of this amazing day in the gallery, of course.