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| February Marie Claire Supplement |
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That driving on the wrong, sorry left, side of the road in Thailand made me wonder how many and which countries do indeed drive on the left and why?
A little google-ing and here’s part of the answer:
About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. Up to the late 1700's, everybody traveled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people. Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.
Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon. The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent.
From then on, any part of the world which was at some time part of the British Empire was thus left hand and any part colonized by the French was right hand.
In America, the French colonized the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec). The Dutch colonized New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portuguese colonized the southern Americas. So the British were a minority in shaping the 'traffic'. The drive-on-the-right policy was adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past.
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Channel Islands changed sides from left to right to conform to German practice during World War II. The last European country to convert to driving on the right was Sweden on September 3rd, 1967. And more recently, the Falkland Islands drove on the right during the period of Argentine occupation in the early 1980s (they are driving on the left side of the roads again!).
China changed to the right in 1946.
FYI: Egypt had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency, and its traffic goes to the right. About Japan, the English minister to Japan achieved the coup of his career in 1859 when he persuaded his hosts to make keep-left the law.
Only 74 countries drive on the left side of the road. If converted to population, 34% (2 billion) drive on the left and 66% (4 billion) drive on the right. Right side wins. Left-side drivers do indeed drive on the WRONG side of the road… and all that because of the French!
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| Pick your side |
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Thailand: 65 millions people, 514,000 km2 (or 198,000 sq mi), about the size of France or larger than the State of California. Capital: Bangkok. Driving on the wrong side of the road and another “weird” way of writing!! And by the way isn’t it terrible when you go to another country and start missing Chinese characters, well when they are not using roman letters at least.
So paradise looks like paradise anywhere. And with an airport as cute as this one, we've probably landed not far from it!
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But here we got a little closer to paradise with our private bungalow right on the beach. And that’s pretty much all we did:
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We did take a break one day and explore a little bit of the island:
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On our way back home (Beijing!) we stopped in Bangkok (so we can cross it off of our list: “Been There, Done That!”) and visited some temples…Isn’t it what tourists are supposed to do?:
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And because it’s Thailand… the traditional chocolate on the pillow in our room had a different flavor:
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So we are back from another trip. Yes it’s only been a month since our last “adventure” but I promise no more exotic trips for a while; next time “exotic” will come to us since my sister and her family will pay us a visit from St Barth (if you don’t know where it is, just open any gossip magazine and you will probably see at least a few celebrities lazing on its beach in the winter when they are tired of skiing in Aspen in the States or Gstaad in Switzerland and waiting to catch some rays in St Tropez in July/August).
Well back to me since it ain’t my sister’s Blog, is it? … While south of China was strangled by heavy snow (they apparently hadn’t seen that in 50 years) and the chaos that followed with the departure of millions of Chinese trying to go back to their home towns and family for the Chinese New Year holiday (a real institution here) we decided to escape the craziness of Chunjie (Spring Festival or Chinese New Year as it is known here) and migrate to Koh Samui in Thailand. Before showing you some pictures I would like to give you a brief geography lesson on the area because I cannot trust CNN and their maps for that*!!
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| In red: china (ie our home for the last 18 months) In green: Vietnam (ie our xmas vacation) In Blue: Thailand!! |
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| In Blue: Bangkok & Phuket (for reference) In Red: Koh Samui |
Next post: The Suiter’s in Koh Samui. Because I’ve already talked wrote too much on this one.
*Europe and France by CNN:
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| What's it NOT supposed to look like |
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| What it's supposed to look like |
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I could have told you 新年快乐 Xin Nian Kuai Le (like last year) but my Chinese is so much better this year (cough, cough) that I prefer to use the very local 您吉祥 Nin2 Ji2 Xiang4, which apparently roughly translates as “wishing you luck and health in the new year”.
Because there is nothing better to wish a Happy Chinese New Year than with the cover of the free English magazine “That’s Beijing” (that every Expat looks for frenetically at the beginning of each month) so here it is just like last year. By the look at it, it seems like it’s the year of the rat… so if you were born 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 or even 96 years ago this is your 本命年 “BenMingNian” (“special year”, you are supposed to wear something red, be your underwear or just a string, for protection and good luck). More about Chinese zodiac here.
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| That’s Beijing Magazine |
* Thai New Year, called Songkran is the ancient New Year's Day and it's celebrated between the 13th and 15th of April. The reference point is Lord Buddha's birth 543 before Jesus Christ.
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Just to keep you informed because you might not have read it last year (shame on you!) but it’s spring time here in China. And since I don’t want to repeat myself, just check last year’s post on the topic.
And because spring starts before the (Chinese) New Year something horrible is supposed to happen… It should have been the same last year but nobody was talking about it in 2007, probably because they were just too happy that the Golden Pig had returned after 60 years!
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Oh no, he’s making the headlines in this newspaper too!!!
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Update: it turns out he did get married the day I was reading the article (02.02.08)… but let’s not go there!
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It’s been a while now (1 month) since we got back from Vietnam and I think we need some vacation again!!!
Chinese New Year is just around the corner and Chinese National Holiday usually means chaos since everybody takes their vacation at the same time and even more during CNY. It’s the time of the year to be with family so millions of people (and especially migrant workers) hit the road. Once again we are not going back to see family (it’s not “our” traditional holiday) but we are hitting the road air and flying to much warmer climate for a week of pure indulgence in Koh Samui, Thailand. See you back in a week all tan!!!
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China’s worst winter weather in five decades will continue over the next three days, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) told a news conference Wednesday.
The heavy snow and sleet has paralyzed transport and coal shipments, and led to travelers cramming railways stations and airports and power supply reductions in almost half of the 31 provinces and regions on the Chinese mainland.
The havoc was chiefly caused by the long-lasting sleet, which resulted from warm and cold air currents clashing over south China, said CMA spokesperson Jiao Haiyan.
The CMA was advising people in affected areas to stay home and reduce energy consumption during the holiday period of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, she said.
Over the next 10 days, southwestern, eastern and southern China will embrace more snow and sleet with freezing temperatures while northern China will stay clear but windy, according to the CMA.
The snow struck as tens of millions of Chinese began to head home to celebrate the major Chinese holiday starting Feb. 7 this year, straining rail, air and road transport services as well as shipping. (Xinhua News Agency)
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Last year we went to northern China, Harbin to be exact to the renowned Ice & Snow Festival. (I should put a link here to the post but I haven’t uploaded any pictures yet so just do a Google search to have an idea of what I’m talking about!!!). We heard about Beijing’s own Harbin kind-of-festival being held in Longqing Gorge so we decided to go and have a look. It’s a good 2-hour drive from downtown Beijing and as we were driving to the mountain there was not a snowflake in sight so we started to wonder how they could hold a Snow and Ice festival with a weather so uncooperative!!
They just build a big tent over the ice sculptures:
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When I wrote the post “What’s In A Name” (about the Olympics) I remembered that I had started a while back to write about Chinese Family names. I think the idea was triggered by the fact that 3 out of 7 of the company’s drivers are called Wang. One being our driver!
So what’s the reality: 85 percent out of China's 1.3 billion people share only 100 surnames even more, 70% of the Chinese population uses the same 45 surnames.
Sources differ but mostly the top ten being:
our name came 41st on the list (it was 36th in 1990) 蘇 苏 Su
Having the same name as other people is an annoying fact of life for many people in China, causing lots of problems in household registration and daily life. To avoid giving their children names that are too common, some parents opt for rare and difficult characters. But this practice also creates problems, because computer input systems often do not recognize rare characters. According to the public security department, more than 40,000 people in Beijing are unable to get their identity cards because the rare characters in their names cannot be keyed into the computer.
Traditionally, the father's family name is the first choice for a Chinese kid's surname, although the use of the mother's name is not uncommon. Under a new draft regulation released by the ministry of public security, parents will be able to combine their surnames for their children, a move that could open up 1.28 million new possibilities.
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I have complained a number of times about how hard not easy it is to learn Chinese (besides yesterday wizard found with almost no help!!). Well of course having 3 hours a week of Chinese and doing NO homework aside doesn’t help improve my level. But I have found a new methodology and I would like to highly recommend it to any of our future visitors:
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It’s been far too long (couple months already) since I’ve told you anything about my beloved Carrefour (Jialefu)!!
Well it appears that Mr Marketing or whoever handles translation made a mistake when they designed the sign with the name Jia Le Fu in Chinese characters.
Here’s how JiaLeFu looks like when written in Chinese Characters:
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Well I bet you don’t see any differences… but my eagle eye saw (with just a tiny tiny little help) that it’s missing a little leg. Just here:
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Thankfully it doesn’t change the meaning from “happiness and prosperity for the family” to something nastier but it will never be the same now between me and Mr Carrefour…. I don’t think I can blindly trust him anymore.
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Pollution days are down.
The magic number was 245, as in 245 sunny days a year. We just got the result and there were 246 sunny days in Beijing in 2007. What count as a sunny day you may ask, well apparently it has more to do with pollution index that the sun.
“These agencies collect data from monitoring stations around the city and calculate an Air Pollution Index (API) indicating the potential harm to human health, with a range of 1-500. An API of 100 or less is a "blue sky" day. Annual targets for the number of "Blue Sky" days are set for Beijing and other major cities in China. On Jan. 1, the government announced "blue sky" days had improved to 246 last year, up from 100 in 1998
What wasn't reported, though, was a change in collection methods. The Beijing API is an average of data from selected monitoring stations. From 1998 to 2005, the same seven stations -- located in the city center -- were used to measure air quality. In 2006, however, just as international scrutiny on China's air quality was increasing, two stations monitoring traffic were dropped from the city API calculations, while three additional stations in less polluted areas were added.
Pollution levels on a typical day in Beijing, some researchers say, are nearly five times above World Health Organization standards for safety”
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| Does it count as a sunny day? |
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They take their former leader very seriously
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| Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's |
Citroen apologizes for scowling Mao ad
BEIJING (Reuters) - French car-maker Citroen has apologized to China for running a full-page advertisement in several Spanish newspapers featuring a poster of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pulling a wry face at a sporty hatch-back.
Under the Biblical quotation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's," the text talked up Citroen's position as a car sales leader in a bombastic tone.
"It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops," the advertisement said.
"We are once more going to put in motion all the machinery of our technological ability, in order to repeat in 2008 the successes obtained in previous years," it added.
The Mao poster is similar to the huge painting of the Great Helmsman gazing out over Beijing's Tiananmen Square, except that it has been distorted to show lips screwed up and eyes squinting.
"The image has been wantonly distorted by the ad's designers. Mao looks very strange," Chinese state newspaper the Global Times observed Tuesday.
The scowling Mao had infuriated Chinese Internet users who saw it as a slight, it said.
"As a Chinese, I felt greatly insulted when seeing this ad," a posting on web portal Tianya (www.tianya.com) said. "It is not only insulting Chairman Mao, but the whole Chinese nation."
"Chairman Mao is the symbol of China, and what Citroen did lacks basic respect to China," another posting said. Many Chinese retain a God-like admiration for Mao, crediting him with uniting the country after the Communist Party's defeat of U.S.-backed Nationalists in the 1945-1949 civil war.
But historians have blamed Mao's tumultuous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution for the deaths of millions through famines caused by disastrous economic policies and the persecution of thousands through politically motivated campaigns.
Citroen had pulled the ad and apologized to China in a letter sent to the Chinese paper, it said.
"Citroen expresses regret for any displeasure caused by the advertisement and apologizes to all who have been hurt by it," the Global Times quoted the letter as saying.
A spokeswoman for Citroen in China confirmed the apology letter.
"Citroen reiterates its friendship with the Chinese people, and highly respects China's representative figures and symbols," the spokeswoman told Reuters by telephone.
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That could totally be one of Jeremy's smart reply. He already told us that he wanted to live at school!
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For the ones who don't know, Jeffrey is a geologist/geophysicist!
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This post has nothing to do with China but I thought it was funny and show with humor the relations between the French and the Brits.
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I received this a while back… and apparently it’s been forwarded even among (some of) the Chinese... I’m fully aware that the following can be offensive.
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| The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games emblem "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing" |
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And since we are on the subject, let’s talk about the mascots: Fuwa. Formerly known as the Friendlies (because they were friends ?) but it appeared that some people whose English is not their first language thought it says… friend lies!!!
The new name Fuwa, which is the pinyin translation of their Chinese name, was adopted in October 2006. So who are the friendly fuwa (福娃).
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Each Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name -a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. There are:
When put together they make up the sentence "Beijing huanying ni" or "Beijing welcomes you" (or Welcome to Beijing)… how clever!
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Just in case you have been living on Mars recently you might not be aware that this year is THE year for China big showcase to the world: the Olympic Games and it will happen the 08.08.08 at 08.08pm (August 8 or 8th of August 2008 at 8 o’clock and 8 minutes) well at least the start of the opening ceremony. The games last a little longer, until the 24th actually.
And no, it’s not by chance that the date and time were chosen: the number 8 happens to be a lucky number in China (see this post for the unlucky number!)
Since I sense I will probably write a lot about the Olympic this year (everything that is happening seems to be somehow connected to the Games) let's once and for all see what’s in the name:
That’s the contraction of a much longer word:
Here you go: 7 months to practice your Chinese spelling (drawing?)
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To know more about the Olympic (in Chinese, English and French)!
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| tong2 yi ge shi4 jie4 tong2 yi ge meng2 xiang3 Un Monde Un Rêve |
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We always liked the movies but it’s at an all new level now!!
Previously to our move we had heard about the pirated DVDs available in China, but what we didn’t imagine before coming here was how easily obtainable they were. We first thought that we would have to go to places we thought we never go to find them… how wrong we were! There are at every street corner (literally) and shops are there in plain view. I can even find them at my local “expat” supermarket!
So after watching more movies we ever thought possible (sometime the day of their release, thanks to copy of the Academy Award or copy of a projection at a movie theater –silhouette non optional!) we are now into television series. A full season (i.e 22-24 episodes) watched in the space of about a week. I am not sure I will ever be able to watch a series which runs over a period of several months (and I not even talking about the reruns!) ever again.
With a tag price of about ¥10 to 15 (€1 to 1.5 or $2) for a movie and ¥100 (€10 or $15) for one season of the series, and that’s because we prefer to splurge and have good copies (ie without shaky image, silhouette or change of language in the middle of the movie), our collection is growing exponentially by the day!
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| Not all master pieces! |
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Winter is coming, the temperatures are dropping… everybody is adding layers of clothing … even the trees are getting their own protection for the cold!
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Back from our holiday in Vietnam but not quite done with vacation yet… one more week of laziness. And since New Year usually rhymes with new resolution… mine for this year will be to keep the posting up to date!!!
Resolution are made to be broken, aren’t they?
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After working this morning (a proper paid job this time), finishing packing our suitcases, we are just hours away before going on our Christmas holiday. This year we decided to skip snow and cold weather whether in France or the States and instead favor sun and next door neighbor country.
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| No it’s not the Chinese flag with some missing stars!! |
Pictures of Hanoi and Halong bay, HoChiMinh/Saigon and the Mekong Delta, Nha Trang…. When we come back… in the meantime: Merry Christmas
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Hot from the press: aah Photoshop…
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| Before…without boots |
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| After… with Boots (wrong one on her right foot by the way!) |
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I had not finished my Christmas shopping so I went back to try to find a bargain:
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| The "being cute" tactic |
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| The "walking away" tactic |
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| The “I lose money” tactic |
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| The “I don’t take no for an answer” tactic |
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| The “I think I didn’t go low enough” dilemma |
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Jeremy made sure they were using the proper language.
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| I might never know what point 8, 9 & 10 mean… maybe it doesn’t apply to foreigners who didn’t make the effort to learn Chinese |
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After almost 10 years of not watching French TV (we even managed to keep our British Cable when we move back to France a couple of years ago –that’s how much we miss it!!) we are finally getting TV5 (French language TV). The management of our complex (with a lot of crying from the growing French community) has decided to add the channel to the basic cable package. Sooooo what’s on tonight…
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| The image is not that bad…is it? |
Update: The image is much better now. But that’s not the only problem…if they could fix the programming too we might start trying watching!
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Here’s what Beijing look like this morning:
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| Blackish snow |
No it’s not white pollution…it’s snow and if I had woken up at my usual time (i.e. later!) I probably wouldn’t have seen it. I don’t think there is even enough to have a snow ball fight let along make a snowman!
Meanwhile in Colorado (Jeff’s dad’s home):
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| Pure white snow |
We don’t compete in the same league that’s for sure!!
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Pekin Accueil the French association which keeps my daily agenda full and my evenings busy throw their Christmas party tonight at Dashanzi…. If this name sounds familiar it’s because I was there 10 days ago and 5 weeks ago. The venue was fantastic even if it might not be the best choice in the dead of winter
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| "Feérique" |
Little recap: It all started innocently 6 months ago… would I like to get involved in the French Association Pekin Accueil (a sort of newcomers welcome group for French speaker)? No thanks, me and the French group sometimes we don’t see eyes to eyes… but after a nice long email from Christie, who will become the president, I somehow ended up vice president and ‘in charge’ of the website… website that will become my new baby and everybody knows that new babies need a lot of attention. So my evenings are busy because our webmaster is in France (ie 7 hours behind Beijing). It does make it easier to have somebody who can reads and writes in French (we’ve got all those weird accents!) and because he’s also the son-in-law of one of our members, he gave us a break on the bill (and that’s not counting the numbers of time I skyped him either when I have a problem) but it does make me work at odd hours. So here’s the before and after shot:
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| Out with the "old" |
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| Make room for the "new" |
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After several months of lack of planning on my part I decided to revive our Let’s Do Lunch Group.
It just happened that it was my friend Jodi’s birthday and one of her first big-person-only outing since the birth of her son Kai Thomas. So Happy Birthday Jodi.
The Girls don't want to be on the picture anymore, they are afraid they'll end up on the blog... and they are right!
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| Some of the LDL Girls |
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| Totally slip my mind that Jodi has Celiac disease… More cake for me!!! |
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| A couple of months ago at his first Starbuck outing |
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After this article about Mr World, a competition which took place 6 months ago also in Sanya and where China came in 3rd place, I’m starting to doubt the voting process of these Mr and Mrs World competition.
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| It's her! |
Zi Lin Zhang, from Beijing, beat the other 105 contestants to become the first Chinese winner and the 57th Miss World in Sanya, China.
Her victory vindicated the decision of the Chinese government to lift its former ban on beauty contests and pay the organisers of the competition to host it for four out of the last five years.
Since it was first held in Sanya in 2003, Miss World has become an invaluable publicity vehicle for the Chinese government. With a global television audience of more than two billion, according to organisers, it is one of the most-watched events on the planet.
This year, contestants helped promote the 2008 Beijing Olympics by singing the official anthem of the Olympic torch relay.
The arrival of Miss World in China has created a craze for beauty pageants, after more than 50 years of being banned by the Communist Party as decadent and demeaning to women.
As recently as 2002, police closed down the Miss China competition, saying it was not officially licensed.
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