In the past 3 years, the average age of first-time house buyers in the United Kingdom rose from 33 to 37 years of age. In Japan and Germany, it is 42 years old; while it is 30 years old in the United States. However in a report released by the China Everbright Bank and a real estate research firm, those applying for housing loans in Beijing have an average age of 27 years old which is younger as compared to developed countries.

So that they could own a house, many Chinese do not mind working almost half of their lives just to pay off the bank loans. Owning a house in China is not just for residential purposes. It is now considered a marriage prerequisite and shows one’s financial capability. Other than that, it reflects on the unrealistic urgency of young people agonized by material desire and the shaky housing system in China.

As Li Daokui, professor at Tsinghua University and a member of the Chinese central bank’s monetary policy committee, says, “It is more than [just] a bubble problem,” Li says. “When prices go up, many people, especially young people, become very anxious. It is a social problem.”

Here are the reasons why the Chinese young people rush to buy houses–

Because of marriage? Kids? To take advantage of early housing prices? To feel more secure?

If you cannot buy at the age of 27, then the more you cannot afford by the age of 40.

If the young Beijinger at 27 years old is not able to afford a house, then the more he can not afford one once he reaches the age of 40; because our income will never catch up with the rising house prices. The reason people living in developed countries are only able to buy houses by the time they turned 40 is because their housing prices are very stable. Da Bing, netizen

If you do not have a house, how can your kids get a hukou?

Is there sense to always compare with foreign countries? People from other countries can move locations freely without need of a hukou. In Beijing, if you do not have a house, you do not have a hukou. How can your kids study then? Mama79, netizen

One of the marriage requirements of women is a house.

Even if it says that the average age of people who buy houses is 27, it does mean that those 30 years and above do not need to buy a house. It just shows that the demand is greatest for those 27 years of age. Do you know why? It is because of the pressure of marriage. The women will demand a house to live in. In the United States and Europe, there is no such marriage prerequisite. sun-yuepingso, netizen

If you do not buy a house early on, even renting at a later time might not be affordable anymore.

In China, housing prices double a year. So at 27 if you do not pool your and your parents’ money to buy a house, by the time you reach 72, even with your grandparents’ money you cannot form the down payment. wxy690so, netizen

People abroad have sufficient low-cost housing.

In China, there is none. Moreover, what kind of house can the 27-year-old Chinese buy? One-bedroom-one-living-room can only be considered as an apartment, not a house. 42-year-old Americans who buy villas–that is a house. Majority of Chinese can not afford to buy a house in their lifetime. zhangfengyu, netizen

If you have a house, you would not feel so anxious.

The saying before is “as long as you have food, you would not feel so anxious”. This time, “as long as you have a house, you would not feel so anxious.” Coming from someone like me who is from another province, even having a small house gives me peace of mind. Sisi, netizen

What does this attitude of young people reflect in the society?

An abnormality in the community? Something wrong with their thinking? Flaws in the housing system?

If the husband does not have a house, it is very embarrassing for the wife.

Nowadays, marriage in China has turned into a circus of materialism. This is a huge change in Chinese society. No matter how confident a woman is, if her boyfriend or husband does not have a house, it will cause her to lose face. Shanghai University of Political Science Women’s Studies Center Director Chen Xiaomin

Buying a house for marriage purposes is an abnormal social phenomenon.

Even in high-income communities, most will only consider buying a house after the age of 35. Young people now are impulsive decision-makers. China-ECapital CEO Wang Ran

What is the cost of prematurely buying a house?

Buying a house too early could affect one’s personal development.

Most young people have planned out their careers. But once they buy a house, their plans could change. I have seen many young people turn down a lot of opportunities, because they have tackled the first steps into acquiring a house of their own. Finance commentator Wu Qilun

Getting a housing loan affects not just one generation.

Says the Chief Economist of the National Bureau of Statistics of China–

House prices in Beijing are absolutely ridiculous. When a young couple purchases a house, parents and grandparents from both sides need to help out. The collective effort of four families is required to support a young family’s decision to buy a house. Three generations of savings are thus exhausted in buying a single house.

How can we prevent young people not to worry too much about this?

The government should pay attention to this issue.

By controlling the housing prices, young people would not feel the pressure of buying early on and thus engage in panic-buying. Thus, this would also lead to a healthy development in the Beijing real estate market. Homelink Vice President Lin Qian

Germany provides a good model.

In Germany, 42% of people own their houses; while 58% rent them. 77% of the young Germans live in rented places. The German government also encourage their people to build their own houses so as to break the monopoly engaged by housing developers.  The housing prices in Germany has not changed in 10 years. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Industrial Economics researcher Cao Jianhai

Post from: CN Reviews

On China Housing Crisis: People Buying Houses Getting Younger

Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Yes, once again Denise Chong, that best-selling author and fellow Canuck, stirs the ol’ hot pot again with her latest snipe at Zhongnanhai’s corrupt geriatric set over their handling of the whole so-called “6-4 Incident.” Enter her latest smashing volley, Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship.

Recounted through the heartfelt memories of Lu Decheng, the intellectually dullest of the trio of wayward Liuyangers who one-timed oil paint-filled egg shells from a local jian bing stand at the Forbidden City’s omnipresent portrait of the Great Helmsman, Chong spins a vivid tour-de-force tale depicting the aftermath of their arrest and subsequent incarceration in the dying days of the late-’80s student democracy movement.

During the spring of what would become that fateful ‘89 year, Lu along with his friends Yu Zhijian and Yu Dongyue were caught up in the fervor of ousting the Party leadership once and for all. They became drunk on the idea of setting the People’s Republic’s sails firmly on a course for integration with the West along with the abolition of China’s corrupt glad-handing society.

Heeding the poetic words of student leader, Uighur activist Wu’er Kaixi, the “sun shining off of Mao’s portrait was so bright that the people couldn’t open their eyes to what was going on around them.” Hopping on the overnight choo-choo via Changsha, the three impressionable young cats — caught up in the inexorable flow of thousands from all across the nation descending on Beijing (or Peking as it was still then known in the West, still stuck in Wade-Giles mode) — somehow found themselves in the thick of it at the center of T-Bone Square, rocking it on ’til the break of dawn against the Big Bad Red Machine.

Chong employs a nifty literary technique shifting back and forth between what was and what is, flashbacking to our impressionable ones’ preparations as they eagerly anticipate traveling north to the capital, matched against their deep-seated doubts about what they were monumentally about to do. The portrait vandalizing incident was only an afterthought, can you believe it?

I found the most harrowing portions of this book — quite expectedly — to transpire inside the jail where the three were sentenced to life imprisonment for defacing the People’s Property. A couple of the guards sympathized with their cause, while many others were tasked with the deplorable job of smashing their willful spirits and crushing the resistance out of them via a daily slew of humiliation, physical abuse, and in several cases, unmitigated torture. Their prison authorities somehow remained convinced that they’d succeed in luring the young men, especially the brilliant Zhijian, from of their “counter-revolutionary” paths, by inculcating in them the values of Mao’s Homo Sineticus, the “ideal” modern Chinese super-ego.

Decheng, a bus mechanic and driver by trade, was the least educated of the bunch at the outset. His journey is magnificent because his life changes by 180-degrees by story’s end. Dongyue, youngest and most impressionable, was a mere wet-behind-the-ears type at the crime’s time, a mere teenager. Zhijian was the one with all the bright ideas and coffee house theories, the one who read all the European classics, and the one who became most disillusioned by the end thanks to the students’ perfidy in refusing to come to the three’s aid by secreting them away from the lurking plainclothes PSB goons at the time, instead offering them up like sacrificial lambs.

Given that Decheng was our narrative vessel in Egg On Mao, we came to learn of the harshness of the boys’ prison conditions through his arduous journey in his own words. As he arrived at the stark realization that the West was absolutely powerless (or unwilling?) to convince the PRC’s Party higher-ups to spring him and his mates from the cavernous clink, Decheng set out to improve his skills and brain power while living out the typical prison double life.

Compelled to undergo the routine Maoist ideological indoctrination and daily hammering of Marxist-Leninist Thought, Decheng would mechanically nod his noodle during classes, only to “raid” the prison library later in the evenings to feast his eyes on anything he could get his meat hooks on: well-thumbed, outdated tomes on all manner of Western theory and thought — all in English which the guards couldn’t read — realizing that eventually his salvation would come and he should be prepared for that eventuality. Guards would needle him for his seeming craziness; the mere sight of Decheng reading stuff that looked as if though it could maim, rather than educate, him elicited many giggles. In time, howe3ver, this strategy would prove ultimately successful, confounding the dastardly designs of the prison system.

By 1998, Decheng was a free man — first, gaining asylum in Canada, where Chong learned of his story.

There’s a lovely parallel story in this book, and that’s the love affair between Lu and his young bride Qiuping, a woman he eventually weds prior to performing the fateful deed.

Even before the first yolk is hurled at Mao’s grim, moled likeness, Decheng and Qiuping have birthed their first tot — a XX Chromosomal Child Unit. His subsequent imprisonment, despair, and eventual divorce from his wife who fears her man will never be released for the ignominy caused to the Party’s international image, is a touching counterpoint to the violence taking place within the prison compound’s walls. The brutal and repeated attempts by Decheng’s prison warders to destroy his rebellious soul do nothing to diminish his abiding passion for his wife and their oft-stated commitment to “never accept a divorce, neither in life nor in death.” When news of Qiuping’s request for a divorce trickles through to Decheng via a letter he receives from a guard, it momentarily sidelines him as he struggles to reason out the rationale for her irrational behavior. When she eventually remarries, it nearly slays him, though he soldiers on knowing that in the aftermath of Deng Xioaping’s October 1992 demise — the man responsible for approving the murderous actions by soldiers on the Square against their own citizens — changes may be soon afoot in the “peaceful” People’s Republic.

Author Chong was censured for this book in the PRC. No surprise there. While she doesn’t personally do any of the criticizing about the events which took place on T-Bone Square — nothing is couched in her own words save for her parting caustic remarks in the Epilogue and Acknowledgments — the mere fact that she’s chosen Lu Decheng as the vessel of her apparent disapproval with the septuagenarians inhabiting the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee have now branded her as a PRC persona non grata. She won’t be able to return now, though she likely made her peace with this reality the instant finger touched laptop keypad.

Given that she had a year and a half to contemplate her fate — the duration of all her interview sessions with Lu Decheng in Canada, where he now lives — this was a well-designed goal.

Why you should read this book, friends?

Egg on Mao was likely the first straightforward and direct account about the actions of the perpetrators of the portrait defacement, told in their own words. No third-party stuff here, folks, or PRC spin-meistering for our ravenous Western investigative appetites.

Also, for those of you late-arriving (and young) Western stragglers who are convinced that TAM was a student-lead and directed protest crushed by the heavy-handed Chinese state apparatus, complete organized student hierarchies and chains of command on T-Bone Square itself, you’ll be shocked to discover that chaos was more the order of the day during those fateful two months. Chong does well to highlight this through the authentic recollections of Lu himself. Good job.

At 249pp, your bottom-line cost to purchase this brand new is just a few cents shy of a short paper route (wink, wink). The copy isn’t crafted to wallop you over the noggin from its apparent brilliance, and Chong, for lack of a better term, “keeps it real.”

This is a mean-slugging account of a very unusual time in China, an era when things were still in flux and the regime was deathly afraid of losing its balls years before Hu Jintao’s policy of China’s “harmonious rise” was even promulgated. I polished the book off on the trusty exercise bike over the course of a few days, wagging my head in several spots as I made my way through in astonishment, careful not to permit sweat droplets to damage its pristine acid-free (and lovely-smelling) pages. Cautious, as well, was I to ensure that my neighbors didn’t think I was becoming a closet Maoist, what with the Chairman’s identifiable head on its cover, even if it was smeared in a cocktail of egg and paint goo.

If you’ve already read the book and digged it hard, let us know.

If you haven’t caught it yet, it’s not the sort of “China book” that will make you dizzy-busy (so busy, you’re dizzy) from its girth and heft. ;-) Try it, Mikey, you’ll like it. I promise.

And, oh yeah…my name is Adam Daniel Mezei and thanks again for tuning in.

Love,
ADM

ps I’m in search of a new “China book,” friends, so if you’ve got any suggestions for me — which I promise to subsequently review — kindly let me know.

Post from: CN Reviews

Book Review: Egg On Mao by Denise Chong

Olivier used to live in Beijing, and loved living in China.  It is exciting being in the center of one of the most important stories of our time:  the rise of China.  But there are some downsides.

Peaceful Rise…

But then he decided to change his surroundings, and moved to Phuket.  Unfortunately, he is a bit removed from the center of the China story, but there are some compensatory aspects of living in Phuket.

..or Peaceful life?

photo credit: Shelby PDX under CC

And that, my friends, is the dilemma we all face, isn’t it?

If you are willing to forego the excitement of China for the chance to feed your social media addiction in a place like Phuket, read on:

Social Media Manager/Strategist

Type: Full-time

Experience: Mid level managerial

Functions: Strategy/Planning, Online Marketing, Information Technology, Other

Industries: B2C Online Marketing and Advertising, Travel

Report: Chief Information Officer

Job Description

Before reading any further, you must be able to answer a resounding and confident “yes, I can” to the following questions, and be able to substantiate each:

• Do you eat, sleep and breathe social media?
• Seriously, do you dream in 140 characters?
• Can you think bigger than Facebook and Twitter and put together integrated B2C social media campaigns and solutions that are miles ahead of the competition?
• Can you map out the relationships between B2C social media opportunities, how they fit with one another, what are they respective strengths and weaknesses, and how each could be maximised to enhance our company’s social media campaigns, website and blog?
• Do you have enough sensibility to modulate the tone of your postings/messages according to your audience?
• Are you able to grow revenue streams though social media and in time deliver a positive ROI?
• Do you have the social media inner fire burning in you? The one that gives you your daily torrent of adrenaline, the one that makes you a winner when you pass-smash your targets?
• Can you walk the talk? Anyone can dream up a strategy, what counts is its execution. Can you?

Now,

• If you have been honest with yourself and gave yourself the thumbs up for each the above self-testing questions
• If you firmly believe that you are such a social media innovator and animal
• If you believe you have the passion, energy, innovation, knowledge and skills to be our social media face
• If you can get your hands dirty and execute what you preach
• And if you can prove it all with an impeccable track record of successful past experience

Then, we want to talk to you…

HotelTravel.com has an immediate opening for such an innovative, driven, hands-on Social Media Manager/Strategist.

I’m interested!  How do I apply?

If you’re the right candidate, you’ll know how.  And if you don’t know how, you’re not the right candidate. Hint: @olivierdombey at @hoteltravel.

Post from: CN Reviews

Phuket-based travel site seeks social media addict

Chinese Squat Toilet

This is not a how-to guide to using the toilet in China (though the title might hint otherwise). But in order for a man to live properly (take note–properly and not necessarily comfortably), he needs at least 3 things: food, bed, and toilet.

In any place I go to, I always make it a point to check out the toilet; because toilets are, after all, a necessity of life. And I guess for foreigners visiting China for the first time, one of the most important Chinese terms to learn is 洗手间 (xishoujian) which stands for “washroom”.

Another Chinese term to learn is 厕所 (cesuo) which means “toilet”. However, a tour guide shared with me that the word itself is not exactly the most proper term to use. I guess what she means is for a girl like me to enunciate. How ironic, as I have been using that term since forever with my Chinese teachers in grade school up until high school.

I learned recently that there is another more polite toilet phrase to use. 我要唱歌 (wo yao changge). I want to sing a song.

At first I thought she was pulling my leg, as tour guides normally do. But even people in the Internet are talking about it, so I guess there should be some truth to it.

The story goes  like this–

A little boy and his grandmother are going to a formal dinner party somewhere. In order for the grandson not to embarrass himself, the grandmother taught him to tell her “I want to sing” instead of “I want to pee” if he needs to go. The grandchild behaved as he was told to do so and earned the praise of his grandmother. That same day, in the middle of the night, the little boy suddenly felt the urge to use the toilet. He went to his grandmother and informed her, “Grandma, I want to sing, I want to sing.” Still groggy from her sleep and could not understand why her grandson would want to sing in the middle of the night, she told him, “Ok, well then just do it ever so softly in my ear.”

And well, we all know what happens next.

Another story goes like this–

Way, way before in the mountainous areas, the toilet system is very simple. They just dug a pit with wooden frames above for squatting purposes. There is a curtain covering the area, but of course there is no lock. Since both men and women share the toilet, people using it sing to inform those waiting outside that there is somebody inside. And I guess you could say the tradition stuck.

As the forumer noted, the words 唱歌 (changge) “sing a song” and 歌厅 (geting) “karaoke hall” came from the Yunnan; Guangxi; and Xiangxi provinces. [The tour guide who told me this story came from Guangxi.]

This is interesting as China is a very big country, and I think there are different ways of saying you want to go to the toilet wherever you are in the Mainland. At least in colloquial terms. I have never encountered the phrase in Beijing nor in Shanghai.

But one thing is for sure–another toilet speak I can say everyone in China is familiar with is 拉肚子 (laduzi) or “diarrhea”. I first used this term in Shanghai during my language study. [Ok, not use as in "use". But darn it, everyone dishes this out freely.]

I guess you could say there is something comforting with the term laduzi. The slang isn’t as horrible as it sounds in the English language. I mean, just the thought of saying you have diarrhea out loud is embarrassing enough as it is. However, if you announce to your friends and colleagues you have laduzi, they seem to even sympathize you. It actually sounds…funny, cute, or silly. Now I am left wondering which I like more–”singing a song” or laduzi. With a country that has 5000 years of squatting history, both of them sounds just right.

Do you know of any other useful local toilet slang in China?

Post from: CN Reviews

Going To The Toilet In China (And Toilet Terms You Should Know)

Office of Dr. Abdulhamid Hasan

Here are excerpts of our interview–

CNReviews: What is the theme of the pavilion?

Dr. Abdulhamid Hasan: Ok, the general theme. I’ll let you know. We have our pavilion in the shape of a boat. We call it a moon boat. As you know, a thousand years ago we have this Silk Road, a merchant silk road. It traveled between China and Eastern China to Middle East. And we also have a sea route for the same purpose. So we are taking this moon boat from Saudi Arabia, taking the same old sea route of silk merchant, and embarking here on the banks of Huangpu River to take our Chinese friends and all other visitors to go on visit Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Abdulhamid Hasan

CNR: The Expo talks about having “Better City, Better Life”. How are you connecting your theme with the Expo?

Dr. Hasan: Of course, of course. Our theater—the main show. Well, let me start from the beginning. We have our entrance. We have the Chinese Great Wall and the Saudi Mud Wall at the same time. So that represents the friendship between the 2 countries. And also we have the flower garden. It has the Chinese flowers and also the Saudi Arabian flowers which represents the friendship of the 2 governments and the 2 people. And the main theater that we have, it shows the cities of our great country—how modern it is—all the modern cities, industries, commerce, agriculture; and also we show the people of Saudi Arabia. So we introduce the Chinese people and the rest of our guests to our cities and people.

CNR: I have been reading about the Saudi Arabia Pavilion. It supposedly is the most expensive pavilion at the Expo. Could you confirm this?

Dr. Hasan: I don’t think it is the most expensive one. But we spent good money to represent our country and make this participation one of the most successful in the history of World Expo because of the friendship between our government and China.

One of the prettiest pavilion uniforms--in my opinion

CNR: What is so special about the Saudi Arabia Pavilion? Like why do you think there are so many people lining up outside?

Dr. Hasan: It is because of our show. The high technology we are using in our show. People who go in our theater will have a feeling of riding a magic carpet. So you will actually feel that you are flying with us through the city, through the desert, the landscape, and also the mountains, and the sea of Saudi Arabia. Red Sea, for example.

We also have the corridor of art which when people come in they will see on the walls. We have invited Saudi artists to do some calligraphy because of the connection between the Arabian calligraphy and the Chinese calligraphy. Both of them are very artistic.

Corridor of art

CNR: How long did it take to construct the whole pavilion?

Dr. Hasan: The whole project started from scratch 3 or 4 years ago. But the actual construction took about 9 months. Regarding the design of the pavilion, we chose among 20 countries who submitted proposals. And we chose this one specifically, because it represents our idea more closely.

CNR: So after the Expo, what’s the plan?

Dr. Hasan: We hope this pavilion will stay for a longer time. Because we have a feeling that many of our Chinese friends didn’t have a chance to see it yet. So to close it after the 31^st of October, we feel very sad. We would like to invite more Chinese friends to visit. Our capacity is 5 million, 6 million, 7 million maximum. That’s not even half of Shanghai residents. So what about other Chinese friends in other counties, other cities? The proportion is very small.

CNR: About the oasis on top, are the palm trees directly brought from Saudi? I just read this somewhere. [Here is another source.] People say a lot of stuff about your pavilion.

Dr. Hasan: The palm trees are artificial. The reason for that is the concern of the safety of the people. In Shanghai during summer season, there are typhoons. If you plant a new tree and it is not deeply rooted, it can be blown away and hurt somebody. So we decided to have artificial date trees.

CNR: Have you also heard of the news that people lined up outside for 9 hours?

Dr. Hasan: I heard that. But as I told you, this is not real. The maximum we recorded is about 4, 5 hours maximum. We are trying to improve on that by adopting some new methods. We are talking to the Expo Bureau. And very soon we will apply some other adjustments to make the wait shorter and more enjoyable for people.

CNR: What kind of adjustments?

Dr. Hasan: We may consider advance reservation slots like the China Pavilion. So we will have time slots, so people will only queue for the time slots.

CNR: But the reservation tickets might also be a problem. People will race for them.

Dr. Hasan: No, I think this could be solved; because the China Pavilion has been doing it successfully. In the beginning they have problems, but now they are doing it with no problems at all. We also want to benefit from their experience and how they deal with it. (UPDATE: This has been implemented already.)

CNR: Ok, last question. This is my first time to visit the pavilion. What’s your advice?

Dr. Hasan: First of all you have to relax and be in a good mood. *laughs* Don’t rush and run. Take your time. Look around. Because some of the people I noticed do not pay attention to the artworks on the wall. We have the video screens, the LCDs. We have creative messages, cartoons. We also have a photo competition. We have a lot of activities.

Our goal is to deliver friendship between Saudi Arabia and China. And to show that Saudi Arabia is a diverse country but with unity. So please, enjoy!

Post from: CN Reviews

Interview: Abdulhamid Hasan, Saudi Arabia Pavilion Director

Here’s the US tourism strategy in summary: let’s tax Europeans–who will just end up levying a retaliatory tax–to attract Chinese–who already want to come but suffer visa restrictions and strict requirements to do so.

I just wanted to mouth off about the recently passed and soon to be implemented Travel Promotion Act of 2010.  Industry lobbyist Roger Dow of US Travel Association makes the case for this Act in HuffPo:

The bill is called the Travel Promotion Act, and it was enacted with strong, bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate (78-18) and is on its way to the President for his signature. The Act establishes a new public-private partnership to promote the U.S. as a leading destination for international travelers and educate them about U.S. security procedures. This partnership will be funded by a modest $10 fee on overseas travelers who do not pay $131 for a U.S. visa and matched by the travel industry. …

When it comes to competing for international travelers, in many ways, the U.S. is playing catch up. Other countries have been quicker to recognize and support the role travel plays in their economies. The countries of the European Union, for example, spend a collective $800 million per year promoting travel to their countries. Mexico spends nearly $150 million annually; Australia over $113 million; Canada and China, about $60 million. The United States: $0.

While it may make sense to spend some money on tourism promotion, it’s not clear why we should tax visitors to pay for it.  Let’s see.  Each visitor spends about $4,000.  So let’s tax people (and otherwise create administrative headaches) so they can enjoy the privilege of doing so.  Here’s Gadling’s blunt take:

Of course, because the new law does not require any U.S. taxpayer dollars, it was passed with bipartisan support. Apparently the stupidity of taxing visitors to the U.S. in order to encourage them to visit was lost on most of the U.S. Congress.

The European Union– no surprise– is displeased by the new legislation, and is considering retaliating against it by charging U.S. visitors to Europe a $10 fee.

Meanwhile,  more Chinese go to Paris each year than to the entire United States. (source: some big shot quoted this at World Tourism Summit…need to get source).

Why?

Well, apparently (and I don’t have this confirmed in all cases) Chinese nationals need to come into a US Consulate or Embassy in China for an in-person interview before a visa can be aproved.  Guess what?  There are only 6 consulates in China:  Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Wuhan (source: US State Dept).

Well, this kinda sucks if you don’t live in one of these 6 cities.  According to Wikipedia, there are 160 cities in China with population over 1 mm.  Let me offer a few examples of how ridiculous this is. For example, if you are one of the 32 million people in the Chongqing municipality, you have to travel the 350+ km to Chengdu for your visa interview.  If you are one of the 11.9 million people in the Tianjin municipality, take the new CRH high speed train from Tianjin to Beijing for your visa interview.  Ditto for the other 152 1 million+ population cities in China.

But instead of really helping tap into latent tourism demand from countries like China by either easing visa restrictions or opening up more consulates, let’s tax the Europeans (and other visa-waiver countries) $14 a person.

Do you know any US visa horror stories from your Chinese friends?  Any consular interviews leave a bad impression on prospective visitors with a Chinese passport?  What are the problems Chinese people are facing coming to the US?

And can you think of how taxing Europeans $14 a head will help overcome these problems?

I actually think the $14 is better than doing nothing — but let’s solve some real problems to get the Chinese (and the rest of the world who currently need a visa) to come to to the great US and A and spend some money in doing so!

Photo: source

Post from: CN Reviews

USA tourism strategy: tax Europeans to attract Chinese (but don’t make getting visa easy)

I’ll be attending the annual China Travel Distribution Summit in Beijing September 15-16.  First of all, if you have any interest in online travel in China, this is *the* event of the year to attend.  Charlie Li, founder of TravelDaily.cn the organizer of the event, has put together a great program of global innovators and the most important players in online travel in China.

Special 10% discount for CNReviews readers and friends

As a moderator and media partner of the event, I can access a 10% discount off of the current rate of RMB 3800 from the event.  Use the code “CTS555″ when you register and you should get a $50 discount, or 10% off.  Use this link: http://www.traveldaily.cn/go/74.html

TripIt founder Gregg Brockway

Earlier this year, I discovered that Gregg Brockway, founder of itinerary management Web service TripIt, would be speaking at the event.  TripIt is the travel application I use more than any other, to coordinate on average 1 trip a month.  I highly recommend the service!

With permission from China TravelDaily, below is a excerpt of an article by Maggie Rauch:

What is TripIt?

TripIt, based in the Bay Area and founded in 2006, gives users one place online to organize their travel details. If travel providers are TripIt partners, then users can have their flights and hotel reservations automatically sent to their TripIt account. When they use non-participating travel services, they have to e-mail their reservations to TripIt, which then adds all reservations to an itinerary. Users can also choose to share their plans with others, a function which Brocway says gave rise to TripIt’s corporate offering, TripIt for Business.

How does TripIt make money?

“We saw one of the most common uses of the share function was sharing fellow employees,” he says. “So we created a corporate group function.” For $399 annually, companies can give employees access to TripIt Groups (available for free) and can also create their own subgroups for their travelers. Employees at companies with TripIt for business accounts also can use TripIt Pro services (which would cost $49 if bought separately), including flight-alert notifications, information about alternative flights, frequent flyer mile tracking and hotel rewards point tracking. Its business services and individual subscriptions are key revenue streams, the others being advertising and working with travel agencies to create e-itineraries for their customers.

In its efforts to beef up business offerings, TripIt recently announced a partnership with Orbitz for Business. The deal will allow travelers using Orbitz for Business to seamlessly sync their travel plans via TripIt, and to access additional planning tools like maps and online check-in.

Why is Gregg Brockway coming to China?  Is TripIt expanding to China?

With the Orbitz agreement inked and 300% growth year on year, Brockway’s trip to China comes at a time when the entrepreneur (a co-founder of Hotwire in 1999) has a little more freedom to look at new markets. TripIt is already used internationally, he says.

“With our mobile app, we see people using it pretty much everywhere,” he says. TripIt has mobile apps for Android, Blackberry and iPhone. Brockway emphasizes that it does not seek to be a one-stop travel shop, and has not invested heavily in destination-based content. If the company looks at expansion into a new market, he says that factors it will consider are the maturity of the travel market; e-connectivity for hotel data, and tour and flight information; what is the equivalent of a GDS in a given market; and how much travel activity takes place online.

“I’m very curious to learn more about the state of the travel market there,” Brockway says about his trip to China. He already has some experience in the Far East, having worked in Hong Kong for five years in the mid-90s.

He’s well aware of the pitfalls of charging into a new market without soberly evaluating the opportunity or finding good local support. “Even when I was working in Hong Kong, people would come in with misguided preconceived notions about how they could bring their business model there.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting people doing innovative things in travel, and perhaps help someone as an adviser. That’s not something I had time to do the past couple of years, but now that the company is really up and running, it’s something I would consider.

Please let me know if you’ll be at the event.  I’ll look forward to meeting up!

Post from: CN Reviews

TripIt’s Gregg Brockway coming to China Travel Conference

Forty years.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Feast your spherical peeps on a tightly summarized saga of four decades of delicious China watching, courtesy of retired UCLA scholar and eminent US Sinologist Richard Baum.

That’s essentially what you’re getting in this 296pp cut of around-the-horn PRC goodness, China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom. Oh yes!

For the writer, it’s a veritable walk down memory lane which began right about the end of the chaotic Cult Rev years. Carrying through to Deng’s Reform and Opening years, it continued into the rip-roaring goodness of the Special Economic Zones/SEZ era.

Baum witnessed the Xidan Democracy Wall protests of the late ’70s, the acorn-collecting, squirrel-like saving eighties, the craven PLA turkey shoot on that enormous square in front of the ochre-colored Imperial complex bearing the portrait of that revolutionary dude (the same dude on the book cover above — and no, I’m not taking any sort of position whatsoever on the law-enforcing slaughter of hundreds of unarmed civilians), and Deng’s famous 1992 Southern Tour.

He wraps things up with China’s “in the wilderness” 1990s, its 2001 WTO ascension, the nation’s mid-naughts economic consolidations, the beginning of the Hu Jintao era, the SARS epidemic, the Sanlu milk scandal, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Tibetan and Uighur riots of the same year, the glorious Olympic Games (China’s neo-adolescent “coming out party”), all the way up to the bright harmonious koombayah future — hexie shehui-style.

Baum, moderator of the famous Chinapol listserv, opted to compile a decidedly non-scholarly work of non-fiction this time ’round tailor-made for the Zhongguotong (China Hand) and layman alike. What an impressive piece of work indeed! If Baum doesn’t publish again for the rest of his academic career, China Watcher will have been a fitting cap on a marvelous career dash. Still, if he’s not into the whole swan song thing, rest assured the author can publish again and I’ll be right back here with yet another snappy review.

The book is organized chronologically and reads for the most part like an autobiography.

While not clinging rigidly to the autobio genre nor being doctrinaire about time lines and similar nonsense, Baum leapfrogs across history, embellishing on lesser-known phases of China’s magical development story for the benefit of readers who aren’t as well-versed in Sinology, writ large .

While you’ll likely have heard of the bulk of events Baum faithfully transcribes, I was grateful for his “five sides of the coin” elaboration on stuff that’s now become lore in the Western contemporary historical canon. Examples? The aftermath of the Shanghai Communique of 1972, the on-again, off-again China-Taiwan kerfuffle, not to mention the months, weeks, and days leading up to that human cull which took place in that square in a certain northern capital on that certain summer day back in 1990 less one year. ;-)

What Baum does excellently in China Watcher is supply a wide-angle lens treatment to the major events of the past four decades, the sorts of things only a person who was actually on the ground at the time can write about credibly. Imagine getting the fly-on-the-wall play-by-play half-an-hour before the recording of the Zapruder film, and you’ll readily realize what I mean.

Rather than replicate Angilee Shah’s stellar June 2010 review at China Beat, I thought I’d do another one of my famous chapter-by-chapter breakdowns for what’s quickly becoming a twenty-ten must-read.

CHAPTER LISTING:

1) The Occidental Tourist: Nice play on words here about the famous 1988 film. Baum describes in this chapter how he actually “fell” into China studies, rather than actively pursuing career Sinology. It all began as a dare to prove to his father wrong that the Chairman wasn’t anything like Stalin, that Mao was up to something better with his new movement. Like a good movie script, this was the inciting incident of Baum’s fateful meeting with noted UC Berkley China experts Bob Scalapino and Chalmers Johnson. Baum would never look back…

2) A Dissertation Is Not a Dinner Party: In 1966, Baum boarded a trans-Pacific flight with his then-wife Carolyn and infant son Matthew in tow, landing on the rainswept island of Taiwan, or what was then referred to as the Republic of China/ROC. As part of his dissertational studies, Baum was obliged to undergo intensive Mandarin training in Taipei as he boned up on his research methodologies. Basically, his writ was to glean as much information as possible about the PRC in the days before free visits to China were restricted only to “friends of China.” Lots of Hong Kong stuff features in this chapter. Baum got close to the People’s Republic, but didn’t get the PRC cigar. Peering over into the fishing village of Shumchun (then-Shenzhen), he longed to see the Chinese up close and personal though it wasn’t to be. For those keen on reading what Taiwan was like under dictatorship (and a KMT/GMD intelligence dragnet), this is your chapter!

3) Confessions of a Peking Tom: A key chapter colored by the backdrop of the higher-level political machinations which took place at the chaotic end of the Mao era. China opens itself to the world with the official exchange of diplomats between the US and China. The Kissinger-Nixon-Mao confabs, the changing of the Zhongnanhai guard, the trial of the Gang of Four (boo!), the Hua/Deng rivalry (yay!), and finally, Baum’s heartfelt admission about his bitter academic rivalries fomented around this time that would dog him for the rest of his academic career. We track with Baum as his renown swells within “China watching” circles, and he peppers us for the first time with his limerick-spinning abilities that were used like poison-tipped projectiles to offend his most stalwart detractors back in the day. Funny!

4) Through the Looking Glass: Baum enters China for the first time, crossing over the Friendship Bridge (HK’s Lowu crossing) in May 1975 along with a delegation of “95 of the world’s fastest, strongest athletes.” Just like that, he was suddenly inside. The delegation visited three large Chinese cities: Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing during the competitions, and it was great to read what those places looked and sounded like back in the late seventies. Communist Party (CCP) political machinations reverberate behind-the-scenes as Baum visits various scenes of past Chinese Cult Rev crimes. There are banquets, social customs, and Maoist political doggerel galore!

5) Democracy Deferred: The death of Mao. The rise of Hua, then Deng. China closes the books on 1966-1976’s Cultural Revolution. The Xidan (Democracy) wall. Democracy posters and placards. Civil unrest. Baum’s second and third trips to China, this time as a full-fledged accredited academic. The arrest of democracy advocates Wei Jingsheng and Fu Yuehua, foreshadowing the more brutal clampdowns that are to come a decade later on that large square at the center of Beijing where students and academics went on long hunger strikes and then built this tall statue thingy to commemorate a certain non-existent aspirational Chinese political ideology and then “taken away.” You know the place I’m talking about, right?

6) Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics: From ‘84 to the late 1990s, Baum lectured aboard a Chinese cruise ship that would ply the country’s eastern seaboard. He was in China often to witness first-hand its workforce’s rapid evolution from a gaggle of faceless employees at state-owned factories (SOEs) to the nascent getihu entrepreneurs. Baum tells of the rabble-rousing CCP reformers Fang Lizhi and Hu Yaobang, and the CCP’s desire to avoid a catastrophic meltdown as had been steadily affecting the USSR. Then…the early days of those fateful big square demonstrations by Chinese students during that year’s spring. You know what I’m talking about, right?

7) The Road to Tiananmen: In February 1989, Baum is hastily flown to Camp David along with several prominent US Sinologists to debrief then-President Bush (I) about the latter’s upcoming China visit. He’s asked about the wisdom of inviting dissident Fang Lizhi to the US Embassy’s sponsored banquet. Baum vociferously advises against it — Fang’s a marked man, he tells the President’s handlers. But to no avail. The White House invites Fang anyways, but he’s prevented from attending the dinner by the Sinostapo. Later in May of that year, Chinese student protests commence in earnest in the Square, heralding worse things to come. Soviet Premier Mihail Gorbachev’s visit to Beijing is a pretext for students to clamor for greater political freedoms. The poop is almost ready to hit the Chinese fan. D’oh!

8) After the Deluge: The human cull happens. Fish in a barrel. Blood everywhere. International censure. Hell breaks loose in the PRC. Baum is bravely back in China by August 1989 and the country is under total dissident lockdown. Baum-er can’t get an honest word in edgewise about the spring’s events nor from any of the Chinese academics or CCP members who agree to meet him. They feel compelled to senselessly blather the government line, doing so for the “benefit” of their prominent foreign academic guest. It frustrates him, especially the faux-exhibits to the glory of the PLA he’s taken to during this trip. Excellent p152 breakdown of the various stages of Chinese “friendship or enmity” (friend, friendly personage/youhao renshi, “those who really love China but know all the vices of Chinese communism/not easily fooled,” “those people who love China but hate Chinese communism,” and lastly, “those who either didn’t know or didn’t care much about China”).

9) China Rising: Explosive growth of the Chinese economy in the wake of the month after May on the day after the 3rd, er…Incident (wink, wink). The fall of Soviet and Eastern European “Communism” for all-time. The Velvet Revolution and the bloodless handover of power in in the Eastern Bloc nations. China makes a Faustian bargain with its citizens: we continue to pump through strong economic growth and a life of wealth and privilege for you and your families, but you leave the governing and statesmanship to crooked us. The handover of British HK to China in 1997. Former HK Governor Chris Patten flipping the bird to Beijing. The NATO/US bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, 1990. W.’s first Presidential term, and what that suddenly means for Sino-US relations.

10) God in the Machine: The rapidly improving state of the Chinese telecommunication network — especially mobile — and the origins of the Great Firewall of China. Pernicious Internet censorship and the more than 100,000 cops who monitor the Chinese internet daily. Forbidden search phrases, taboo web pages, and restricted foreign sites. Jing Jing and Cha Cha reminding Chinese netizens that certain material is potentially objectionable. The origins of Richard Baum’s Chinapol news group, with more than 900 subscribers in twenty-five countries throughout the Americans, Europe, Asia, and Australasia (and I quote from p178: 397 scholars, 262 journalists, 98 NGO and think tank analysts, 96 diplomats and government analysts, and a scattering of independent consultants, international lawyers, and others). Internet activism, Chinese-style!

11) The Wild, Wild West: In July 2001, Baum casts off for his first trip to Western China. He meets up with Kevin Stuart, who teaches English to a group of upwardly-mobile Tibetans out of his Xining, Qinghai apartment. Stuart is organizing a school for local kids who are game to improve their English speaking skills. Baum returns the following July 2002 “to visit five western Chinese provinces by air, train, bus, boat, taxi, and on foot,” toting along eight UCLA undergraduates, three graduate students, plus three faculty members to man the school in Xining where Stuart has set up shop. Baum witnesses first-hand China’s Great Western Development and how slow the process has been taking to get western Chinese incomes to rise to the level of those in its eastern cities. He’s warmly welcomed by the various Tibetan communities he meets along the way and is dismayed to witness how condescending the Han majority — specifically Beijing — is with its Naxi, Tibetan, and Mangghuer minorities, likening them to “little children needing the guidance of their Han parent.” The first rumblings of the riots which will soon rock Tibet and Xinjiang throughout most of 2008.

12) Beijing Revisited: Baum is back in Beijing during the fall of 2005 to collaborate in the establishment and running of the Joint Center for International Studies (JCIS) at Beijing’s Beida (Peking University) along with Professor Jing Qingguo. He inspires his Chinese students to read material that challenges the CCP line and inspires several of his students — which Baum discovers years later — to think divergently about the events that transpired at the end of the previous century. Baum also witnesses the massive changes which have taken place in Beijing since his last visit during the mid-’90s: the construction boom, the astronomical price of real estate, the hazardous pollution and atrocious air quality, and the manner in which the Party deals with annoying citizens standing in the way of its bold economic plans. The construction campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is now in full swing.

13) China Watching, Then and Now: Admittedly, this was the most boring chapter of Baum’s entire work. Baum goes over the history of “China watching” as a career activity, recalling the centers where China watchers once reviewed the best material on offer about the PRC before free travel to China commenced in the 1970s. He talks about how some former hardcore Maoist ideologues have now recanted their ostensibly erroneous ways and the ramifications it has had for their academic careers and lives. Baum also complains about the current crop of China watching recruits, how they differ from his day and why. He maintains an undecided opinion about the state of contemporary Sinology. You decide.

14) The Gini in the Jar: This penultimate chapter was, conversely, the most interesting of the entire book. In it, Baum discusses the financial and societal costs of China’s sudden explosive growth during Reform and Opening, and selects Shenzhen as a ready example of what he means. Baum also reviews the state of you know what kind of rights legislation in China, and about the legacy of the human cull in that Square from a couple of decades back — you know which one I’m talking about. Bolstering his argument are a range of different statistics which point to the storm clouds gathering on the PRC’s horizon, and what could occur if the economy suddenly tanks and Beijing can no longer fulfill its promises to constituents about their collective future security. Will the whole edifice come crashing down? Will there be massive civil unrest? Baum’s views are worth a read.

15) Loose Ends: Anything which somehow wasn’t resolved in any the previous chapters is dealt with — just as the chapter’s name indicates — here. In case you were wondering what befell some of his colleagues, comrades, and fellow academics over the intervening years, Baum hammers through the list of notable personages we’d read about in previous sections, tying things up nicely. There was the divorce with Carolyn, the arrival of his grandchildren, and his future prospects.

The book’s final paragraph is a fitting bookend to this exquisite chronicle. I’ll quote it here in its entirety in closing (p291):

Blessed with an inquisitive nature, outstanding role models, rich opportunities, and abundant good fortune, as a young man I became powerfully drawn to the lure of contemporary China. Almost from my first classroom encounter with Arthur Steiner, China has been my passion, my calling, my own personal Shangri-la and Chimera rolled into one. Although three decades of economic reform and global engagement have made China’s political and social reality far more accessible — and far less bizarre — then they were in Mao’s time, the People’s Republic remains for me a profound puzzle. Ever changing, ever fascinating, and ever frustrating, it compels my attention even as it stubbornly defies comprehension. I cannot look away.

So what do you say? Will you be acquiring your copy of China Watcher today?

Post from: CN Reviews

Review of Richard Baum’s China Watcher

On the 3rd of August in Hebei Province, at the Shijiazhuang Ring Road Bus No. 1, a 70-year old grandfather with a cane stepped inside to take the public transport. At that time, the bus is already full of people. Many were already standing.

Two youngsters in front stood up to give their sit to the elderly. Who would have thought–the old man just waved no thanks to them and walked straight to the back. He saw a seat which was occupied by a little girl and requested her to let him sit instead. The girl was wearing headphones and apparently was listening to music.

Seeing the girl made no response whatsoever, the old man pushed the girl and reacted loudly, “What bad manners! An old person is in front of you, and you do not automatically understand that you should give up your seat. What kind of upbringing is this?!”

After being pushed, the girl removed her headphones and realized what just happened. “What did you push me for?! Can you not say it a nice and proper way? Besides, were there not some people who gave up their seats for you in front?”

Unnerved at the girl’s tough attitude, the old man sat down on the girls legs instead. The girl was taken aback that she pushed the old man away angrily and took out her cellphone ready to dial 110.

Fortunately, the passenger beside her was able to hold on to the old man; so he did not fall to the ground. At that point, the driver stopped the bus at the curb while many of the passengers scurried out. Then that was the time the argument between the old man and the young girl stopped.

Reactions online–

The old man did not mean what he did. But this is just plain exaggerated!

Obviously they are a bunch of rogues. The Public Security Bureau should punish this sort of people.

Don’t know what they’re thinking–it’s all very silly.

So far, it seems that many agree that the old man was wrong–

Little Girl vs Old Man

But it does get a little frustrating when people do not give up their seat to those in need. The rule is (as it is repeatedly reminded in the bus and metro) to let those in need seat first. By “in need”, it means the elderly, the weak, and the pregnant.

Not wanting to sound self-righteous, admittedly, it is not in China that I “learned” that sometimes you should be “selfish” when it comes to taking the public transport. Though it is in China that I first used the phrase “fight for your seat”. So childish of me, I know. People really push you around, so I justify “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

What are your views on this?

Post from: CN Reviews

Old Man Or Little Girl: Who Is More Shameless?

The UK Pavilion is one of the most unique pavilions at the Expo or most weird (can I say it?). But in this case, weird is good. My first impression when I saw it was that it looked so soft!

UK Pavilion

But of course it is not really all spongy and squishy. [I have to agree with Glen on LostLaowai--the UK Pavilion looks like "some sort of alien spore coming to take over the planet".]

Curious on the design of the Seed Cathedral? Why is it called Seed Cathedral in the first place? Let’s hear it from the British themselves.

CNReviews: Hey Katherine. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Let’s get to the point. Could you explain the theme of the UK Pavilion? How is it related to the Shanghai World Expo’s theme of “Better City, Better Life”?

Katherine Dixon: So the theme of the UK Pavilion is “Building on the past, Shaping our future”. You may know that in 1851 , the UK held the world’s first Expo . Nothing like it has ever been done before.

Crystal Palace simply stunned six million visitors with its incredible, creative design. So over 150 years later at the world’s largest Expo, a major focus of the UK was to deliver a design just as startling and cutting-edge as its ancestor.

Crystal Palace

About the design…well, we wanted to recognize the important role innovation, creativity, and nature has played and continues to play in the UK’s development. Many people in China are aware of the UK’s role as the heart of the industrial revolution: The first World Expo at Crystal Palace was held at a time of rapid urbanization and industrialization in the UK – this was a time when the UK was facing similar challenges to those in China today.

The response in the UK was the innovation of many of the technologies and inventions we take for granted today: such as the underground train (1863), the telephone (1873), and the electric light (1878).

One simple yet powerful innovation was the first public park. This transformed the lives of the urban population and was the inspiration behind the UK Pavilion’s “Urban Park” and the walkways into the Seed Cathedral. UK cities are some of the greenest cities of their size in the world, and nature, light and space have played an important role in making UK cities pleasant places to live.

Derby Arboretum--first public park in England

But the UK has never stood still. Over the last century the UK has turned trains into hybrid engines, telephones into the internet, and electric lights into lunar power. We wanted to reflect this too. The Seed Cathedral is a dramatic demonstration of the UK’s continuing power to innovate and create. Trains, telephones, and even the internet may be world’s technologies of today, but they are the UK’s inventions of yesterday.

The UK Pavilion points to a different vision of the future; one which is in harmony with nature, yet enriched by technological innovation – this is the message of the future plants in the final installation.

CNR: How did you gather the seeds for the Seed Cathedral? Where did they come from?

Seeds encased inside the Seed Cathedral

Dixon: The Seed Cathedral is a representation of of the Millennium Seed Bank. 60.000 acrylic rods, gently swaying in the breeze, pierce the seed cathedral of the UK Pavilion.

Each contains seeds that have been sourced from the Kunming Institute of Botany, a partner in the UK’s Royal Botanic Garden, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project. It is the largest international project of its kind that has now conserved seeds from 10% of the world’s plant species.

The purpose is to use a wide range of plant diversity to enable human adaptation, innovation and resilience in the face of climate change. We wanted to highlight that seeds, carefully harvested and protected, are the route to a sustainable future and through our planet’s biodiversity we can inspire the innovations of the future.

CNR: I saw this group of girls performing something called the “Human Animal”. Can you share something about them?

Dixon: They are just one of many groups that have and will be performing in the the Urban Park. Many different troupes of UK performers will bring the urban park to life throughout Expo.

The ideas was to demonstrate the UK’s strong heritage in the tradition of performing arts, from Shakespeare to more contemporary performances like the Human Animals and street theater. Through this we hoped visitors would experience a taste of the UK cultural scene right in the center of Expo.

CNR: What can you say about the UK and China relations?

Dixon: The Shanghai Expo is the biggest and most ambitious World Expo ever . We have responded accordingly against the backdrop of a strong bilateral relationship. Both governments are committed to a step change in our trade and investment relationship. Our unique and exciting UK presence at Shanghai Expo as a key platform to showcase what the UK has to offer.

CNR: Oh, and anything else we can expect from the UK Pavilion (now that we are halfway through)?

Dixon: Yes, of course, definitely. We’re excited about the program of events: the UK has so much to offer. The challenge was doing this justice in 6000 square metres – the size of the UK Pavilion site. From our cultural heritage and education, to global businesses and cutting edge technologies, we knew the UK couldn’t be housed in an area the size of a football pitch. That’s why our approach to Expo had to be as unique and different as the Pavilion design itself.

The program of events is ambitious, showcasing the very best the UK has to offer in partnership with China. We have over 150 business events going on throughout the six months, demonstrating the strength and breadth of the UK-China trade and investment relationship, including events with a low carbon and science and innovation focus. We also have a major arts, culture and education events program, with highlights including the English National Ballet and the London Symphony Orchestra.

CNR: That’s about it! Thanks, Katherine, once again for your time.

Post from: CN Reviews

UK Political-Econ Consul Dixon On Seed Cathedral & First Expo