@Peter: "3-4 years ago you had whole society suddenly wake up to massive pollution, beijing skies black, urbanization had demolished all hometowns and cities full of zombies. On top of that one corruption scandal after another. One fake scandal after another. Food safety, vaccine safety and whatnot safety issues."
Hard to imagine this would be blamed on foreigners, and I don't remember that it was.
Well, I'm sorry you had to go so far before you could take a calm can of juice. As for your success/failure rate as a prophet, it has yet to affect anybody I know around here personally, and as for badshit down the road, there's a limit to just how much I'm going to get excited about it today. You get your nerve up, drop by sometime & I'll take you on a walk around my neighborhood. I don't know where on the planet you happen to be, but I hope it's safe. Best wishes.
Somehow the hypothetical Hump/Obama/punch nexus doesn't give me any new reason to worry about the balloon going up, and I feel free to enjoy my usual calm little 6PM glass of wine. Suggest you might do well to have one too, Peter.
The owner/managers of Salvador's are in touch with a school in Kunming that provides education for local kids whose hukou is outside of Kunming and so find it hard to get registered in ordinary schools. Their parents are largely migrants to the city from the countryside and get by with very menial jobs. I suggest you ask at Salvador's.
There is also a sort of charity kitchen affair that the manager/entrepreneur, who I think is American, who runs Lighthouse (essentially an English-language school), has raised money for - anyway, his contact is through the Lighthouse website (www.lighthouse-edu.com). Guy's name is Murphy.
I think that "volunteering", in the sense that you seem to mean it, is largely an American concept that has arisen over the past few decades and has spread somewhat to a few other countries. Organized programs of such are fine, with certificates and so forth, but if you are serious there are actually quite a lot of things that need to be done, with nobody to provide much of a salary, here and elsewhere; and there are a lot of things for which you can be paid quite well that shouldn't be done at all. In that sense, 'taking a year', or a decade or so, 'off' from Maggie's Farm after university graduation can be worth consideration too.
Excellent idea, but I think charging 15 rmb a day is not so good, as those just wanting to get home from the bus stop in the evening will have to pay 0.5rmb for the bike while it sits in front of their flat and then return it in the morning. There's a system in place in Berlin that, I think, is free - just return the bikes.
@ Dan: Possibly this is more of a problem today than in the past, but I'm sure people have been climbing trees for honey & larvae here for a very long time, so I doubt this is currently the major problem.
Strikes me a warranted attention to a serious problem (the general lack of concern for practicing environmental responsibility, not the specific incident), not a lynch mob. I think this is a plus, whether or not the hairwashers in question are found.
Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
Kunming to put 45,000 public use bikes on roads
发布者The way I understand it, in Berlin you can pick up the bicycle at any bike station and return it to any other.
Kunming to put 45,000 public use bikes on roads
发布者Excellent idea, but I think charging 15 rmb a day is not so good, as those just wanting to get home from the bus stop in the evening will have to pay 0.5rmb for the bike while it sits in front of their flat and then return it in the morning. There's a system in place in Berlin that, I think, is free - just return the bikes.
Report: China's native bees at risk
发布者@ Dan: Possibly this is more of a problem today than in the past, but I'm sure people have been climbing trees for honey & larvae here for a very long time, so I doubt this is currently the major problem.
Fuxian shampoo incident becomes national topic
发布者Strikes me a warranted attention to a serious problem (the general lack of concern for practicing environmental responsibility, not the specific incident), not a lynch mob. I think this is a plus, whether or not the hairwashers in question are found.
Fuxian shampoo incident becomes national topic
发布者@ nnoble: I don't see any lynch mob mentality here.