Thursday, August 31, 2006

California passes strictest environmental law in the U.S.

This morning, I heard a very encouraging news piece about the environment. NPR (National Public Radio) and numerous other sources reported that our CA state legistlature and the governor... yes, that governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) had passed one of the strictest laws in the country to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of about 25 percent. This is incredibly encouraging for the direction of the country since California has always been a leader in environment laws and other states have historically followed California's lead. It's quite incredible to realize that California would be the 8th largest country in the world if it was a separate country. Thus, it's impact can be substantial not only for the US but the rest of the world.

Now, some of you may ask why I am writing about this in a 'travel' blog. Good question. The answer actually has a lot to do with my experiences while living abroad in Beijing. Earlier this week, I recounted the amusing story of how a sandstorm almost sidetracked a trip I took on the Old Silk Road (see here). Although at the time, we were near the edge of one of China's biggest deserts, sandstorms are a perennial problem in many western parts of China. Because of years of unchecked deforestation in those parts, sandstorms have become signficant problems even for cities much further east, especially in Beijing. When I lived there in 2002, there were quite a few days when a sandstorm would envelope the city in a gray-yellowish haze of sand and smog. Although the Chinese government has finally acknowledged the problem, fixing it is still years away. Given the continuing mad rush to grow its economy, it's hard to believe that China will be environmentally responsible any time soon. Last month, I heard scientists tested air particles on a mountain top near San Francisco and discovered traces of sand, coal, and sulfur that originated from China!! If that doesn't prove that our environment is in danger and that global warming is real, I don't know what will... for those of you who hasn't seen the film, An Inconvenient Truth, I strongly urge you to see it. It is a very non-partisan, fact-based documentary... the pictures of a rapidly receding snow line in Kilimanjaro (Africa) and melting glaciers in Antartica are startling.

As for traveling to Beijing, I would recommend checking with your travel agent about sandstorm risk for the period you plan to be there.
If I recall correctly, sandstorms occurred around late Spring.

Sometimes, you have to leave the present to find your future.

Tonight, I had a long chat with one of my best friends, Frank (not his real name), about the challenges, frustrations, and politics of his current job which I can strongly sympathize. Although our chat was not specifically related to traveling, it later reminded me of a chat I had with another friend, Shawn (again not his real name) about a month or so ago. We both credit traveling for bringing fresh perspectives into our lives when we were facing some daunting life challenges.

The year was 2002. It was a pivotal year for me, as I was wrapping up my last year of business school with the prospect of no job in the near future, high rent, and increasing amounts of debt (the tech bubble infamously bursted in 2001, obliterating the job landscape for new graduates). As a result, I made the almost unfathomable decision to leave 'the present' situation and move to China. This was against all of my MBA learnings - the risks and costs were inordinately high - I practically knew no one there, had no job lined up in China, didn't speak the language, and the return was definitely uncertain. Yet, three years later now, and back in the US, I would have to emphatically say that it was probably one of my best decisions to date... In hindsight, I gained immeasurably in personal growth (picked up Mandarin fluency, had some indelible personal experiences, and most importantly, learned more about myself than sitting behind a desk for 3 years). While in China, I networked myself into a job where I led the creation of Bank of China's first Western-style mutual fund, started a popular cooking club in Shanghai, and consulted on numerous start-up projects - enterprising experiences far beyond what any 'office' job would have given me here in the US.

Now, I am not telling this story to toot my own horn but rather it illustrates the fact that changes and challenges in life can result in amazingly rewarding experiences. For me, living abroad and traveling around some of the poorest areas of China helped put so many things into a humbling perspective. For Frank, I hope over the next month he will take on a positive spin of the situation and allow himself to believe that change can be good and rewarding.

Any of you had similar experiences?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

People you meet on the road... like Jenn, Cary, and the craziest cabbie in China!

For some of you who've traveled quite a bit, especially as backpackers, you can probably relate to what I'm about to write here today. Last night, I went to Hermosa Beach to help Daniel celebrate his 26th birthday - a guy I've gotten to know over the past year through Jenn, one of the girls I met in 2000 while backpacking in Switzerland. Daniel is Jenn's long-time boyfriend. When I first met Jenn and one of her best friends, Haley, at a hostel in Interlaken, I almost instinctually knew that both she and Haley were some really amazing people. Little did I know that only after just two days of hanging out in Interlaken hiking and ice-climbing a private glacier in the hills, we would stay in touch and be friends all these years... and yesterday was a HUGE surprise when I found out that Daniel had proposed to Jenn while they were on vacation together in Egypt (they just LANDED yesterday afternoon). (Jenn - if you're reading this, I hope you don't mind me posting this news but I am SO very excited and happy to find out that you got engaged!) Yes, I was geniunely and incredibly happy for both Jenn and Daniel - two really amazing people. Maybe some of you may have read the book, The Celestine Prophecy, a bestseller a number of years ago where in it, the author talks about how there are just some people you meet in life that radiate positive energy all around as if in a halo... Jenn is very much like one of those people. And Daniel too - a great guy and one of the most insanely optimistic and positive person I know. If there was a more fitting couple that deserves the cliche label of 'made for each other'... these two would be it. They love to travel and have probably seen more places both as a couple and as individuals than anyone else I know. Jenn's probably seen well over 50+ countries, lived abroad in Japan AND in the African country of Niger for a short while, and did an entire Semester at Sea in college. Daniel's also lived abroad in Japan and at one time, road biked across the country from Boston all the way out here to California! Last year, their big adventure was biking across Ireland. This year, Egypt! Wow! Congrats you two! I am insanely happy for you both (and definitely jealous) :D

Thinking back, it is meeting people like Jenn that have been one of the best reasons for traveling and 'hitting the road'. I was never one to shy away from just 'winging it' or striking up conversations with complete strangers in a foreign place... and it has been more than rewarding, even more so than the many famous sights and sounds of noted places in guidebooks or 'hot spots'.

Another indelible memory is one of meeting Cary, an University of Maryland student and his female Israeli exchange student friend (Effret's her name I think). It wa
s such a surreal experience having a 2 hour debate with Cary about US politics while his Israeli friend and my German ex-girlfriend were sitting beside us, chimming in occassionally. Cary is an ex-Army officer who went back to school after his service and is now, from what I last heard, serving somewhere in Jordan or the middle east with a 'US Strategic Relations consulting firm'. At the time, back in the US, the 2002 presidential campaigns were just starting to ramp up. I won't say which side I was on since this is not a political blog but let's just say it was 'surprisingly intelligent and civil' as Effret later remarked... imagine that an Israeli, a German, an ex-Army officer, and a US immigrant sitting together discussing politics on the old Silk Road. When Cary returned to the states last year and came out to Los Angeles to visit another friend last fall, we sat down and reminisced about that crazy day of how we met... it was definitely another memorable travel tale...

How I met Cary and Effret... It was part of the
May holiday vacation period and my ex-gf and I were visiting this tiny town called Turpan, about 2 hrs east of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Province in far western China. Turpan is one of the small towns along the ancient Silk Road. Turpan and it's neighboring village, Tuyugou, are like oasisses in China's vast, parched western desert landscape. Tuyugou is a beneficiary of a thousands-year-old underground irrigation system. It is one of the largest raisin producing areas in the country where summer daily temperatures routinely rose above 110+F... in May, when we were there, the temp was probably near 95F. At the end of our 2nd day in Turpan and Tuyugou, my ex-gf and I had wanted to head back to Urumqi, the provincial capital, in order for her to catch a flight back to Shanghai to return to work. It just so happened that a sandstorm was coming into town threatening to shut down all road transport out of Turpan - all buses were declared non-operational until the following morning. As we waited around the crowded, hot bus station wondering what we can do, I caught sight of Cary and his friend (one of the few Western faces amongst the worried crowd). They seemed both as distraught as we were and just as desperate to get back to Urumqi so they can move forward with their trips. We quickly struck up a conversation, with our mutual predicament serving as our bond. So, as is often the case when traveling in China, we had to improvise a solution and proceeded to negotiate with any cabbie that would risk taking us out to the nearest train depot (about 45 minutes from the tiny town... now why the Chinese never connected the train line directly into town, I will never be able to figure out...)... We probably flagged down at least 5 cabbies on the street and all of them thought we were nuts to risk driving into the sandstorm (realistically, the sandstorm was still about an hour away but the official news was that the government had shut down the main freeway connecting Turpan to Urumqi (about a 2.5 hr drive) so the only way to 'get out' was by taking the train. In the end, we found an enterprising cabbie (or some would say delusional) who was willing to drive us to the train depot. En route, about 20 minutes out of town, we got stopped on the main freeway by cops at the highway blockade and were told to turn back. So our cabbie drove back a few minutes and stopped at a nearby gas station/rest stop to debate the options... We saw many cars reluctantly return to Turpan... but no, not our cabbie - as so happens we truly lucked out because he was not going to take no for an answer (and he seemed to geniunely sympathize with my ex-gf's plight of missing the plane if she didn't get back to Urumqi that night)... so, as crazy as it sounds, our cabbie took the four of us in his tiny, beat-up, 4-door hatchback the size of a VW rabbit on for one insanely bizzare ride to get to the station for the last ride out of town... from the rest stop, he vierred off into the bumpy desert away from the main freeway and roadblock... at times, I thought we were doomed - what if the car breaks down? what if the sandstorm rolls in earlier than we thought, side-swipes the cab, and turns us over like a tumbleweed? what if the cabbie was truly criminally insane and doing this for his own enjoyment?... but... for 30 minutes, the cab sped down at no less than 50 mph over pebbled-stewn dry creek beds and rocky roads where flash floods had sporadically washed away their outlines... I wonder aloud a number of times as to whether our cabbie really knew where he was going... in the distant was a sandstorm and as far as we could see, there didn't seem to be anything but the lifeless, barren, rocky Chinese desert ahead... all the while, there wasn't a moment where we weren't desperately holding onto the car frame for dear life... and that's how I met Cary and Effret.... oh btw, the cabbie did make it to the station with 5 minutes to spare... the best cabbie ever! (too bad I don't have a picture of him!) For more pictures of Switzerland, China, or other places, click on the 'My Travel Pictures Map' icon on the top-left corner.

Have you met people on the road that you still keep in touch with?

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Travel Tips: Beijing and Shanghai, China - Places to See, Things to Do

Recently, I've been asked by two different friends about where to go, what to see, and what to do in Beijing and Shanghai. Below is a summary of some of the best things to do in these cities if you only have a few days (some of the 'insider tips' after having lived in China for 3 years). Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Beijing (besides the usual Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen, Summer Place):
1. try to get to one of the many big public parks very early in the morning, say 7am or so to see old people practicing tai-chi.
2. go on a 'Hutong' tour - when I was living in BJ, there used to be guides offering tourists tricycle rides around the Houhai area. (see pic to the left) They'll take you around the 'Hutongs' or alleyway houses in the area - the traditional Beijing courtyard houses. Sadly, like much of China's real culture, many have been razed to make way for new developments. See them before only a few sanitized ones remain. A really nice pitstop is the Passby Bar (it's also a café with both Chinese and western food) - a hip backpacker favorite inside a Hutong.
3. not sure if the Beijing Dragonboating club is still active but it was when I was there - they practice Saturday mornings from 8am-11am on Houhai. The club is composed of both expats and local Chinese.
4. definitely have the famous Beijing duck - one of the best places is on the corner of Gongti Bei Lu and the 3rd ring road. Unfortunately don't remember the name but the restaurant is very popular with both tourists and locals alike.

Shanghai:
1. visit the museum in Xiantiandi that gives a history on Shanghai's shikumen - Shanghai's traditional stone-gated alley houses: architecturally, very different than Beijing's Hutong's. Xiantiandi is also one of the hippest and most expensive retail/dining areas in Shanghai.
2. take a boat tour down the Huangpu - the boats have English narration giving the history of the Bund from colonial days to present (but you have to stay close to the speaker to hear what they are saying) - (The Bund - see picture to the left)
3. take the Maglev to the airport - it's the world's first and boy, did the Chinese did a good job at milking the Germans for their technology and investment dollars!... Sadly, like so much of China's shoddy construction, the Maglev track is actually sinking... it's still operational... for now.
4. visit one of the nearby watertowns - Zhouzhuang is very touristy, others include Wu Zhen, Luzhi, Tongli, and Xitang (picture to the left). They're China's version of Venice. Except for Zhouzhuang, I think all the rest are actual living watertowns. Xitang was the site where one of the scenes for Mission Impossible 3 was shot.
5. visit Xi Hu, in Hangzhou or 'West Lake' - about 2-3 hrs by train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. This is probably one of the more scenic spots near Shanghai.

New pictures added to My Travel Pictures Map

Added over the weekend:
- my Europe 2000 backpacking trip that covered the following cities: London, Paris, Normandy Coast (France), Chamonix (France), Pamplona (Spain), Madrid, Barcelona,
Genoa (Italy), Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Saltzburg, Interlaken (Switzerland), Munich, Prague.
- Kiev and Yalta, Ukraine
- Tokyo, Japan
- Whistler and Vancouver, Canada
- Antwerp, Belgium

Past uploads:
- California: San Francisco, Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite, Santa Monica, Joshua Tree
- Montreal, Canada: International Jazz Festival
- China: Kashgar, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Kaili (near Zunyi), Yanshou, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Jiangsu Province
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Boracay, Philippines (near Kalibo)
- Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia

Friday, August 25, 2006

Stumble Upon... FAT American travelers?

As has been my habit of late, I was browsing around Flickr in the evening and ended up in the company blog where I discovered a few interesting websites including the O'Reilly Radar blog (not to be confused the infamous O'Reilly Factor of Fox News). From the O'Reilly Radar's blog article discussing Flickr's Interestingness algorithm and the corresponding comment thread, I discovered one commentators reference to a website he could not live without... namely http://www.StumbleUpon.com - it turns out to be one of the coolest Web2.0 app's out there, randomly giving you highly rated 'interesting' websites to browse... YES! finally, for those of us who relish the inexplicable attraction of channel-surfing the TV, http://www.StumbleUpon.com is a God-send for the internet! Hooray!!

And yes, as luck would have it, I 'StumbleUpon' this hilarious manifesto entitled 'Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel' at http://www.strangeplaces.net/weirdthings/travel.html - a compilation of actual stories from travel agents. This is one of the many little gems:

A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know who's luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I "looked into it" (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.


For those of you that know me, Fresno is practically my hometown so, yes, I was ROTFLMAO when I read it...
Alright.. one more that makes you wonder... "Is this the best that American business can send to China?

A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express."

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Finally got this blog set up... whew!

After a few nights of tinkering with this blog's template - I was first inspired by the amazing Flickr website and it's many 3rd party tools like Flickrmap.com in particular - I finally got the basic template re-worked to my liking. I have uploaded over 160+ public pictures, had them indexed by Flickrmap and finally got the html codes to work properly within the template. I haven't worked with html since I set up my cooking club website over 2 years ago in Shanghai. I must say, so far, I am pretty happy with the outcome here.

Click on the 'My Travel Pictures Map' to the left to get a pop-up flash window where you can see many of my travel pictures that I've taken over the years. More pics to be posted over the next week or two!

Let me know what you think. Cheers.