Wednesday, July 15, 2009
July 14 Lijiang Fourth Narrative
From my last post, I went into a lot of details. I will try not to go into such much triviality. For this post on, I promised myself I would try to primarily give the highlights of my life here at the Green Youth School, actually now called ‘The Green Education Center.’ This simply states what Sam and I have created. The tour itself is also described in this post. I want to first want to give you some very basic points about the GEC.
Green Education Center (GEC)
Audience – Foreign Visitors
Services -
∑ Tour of Lashihai, Exhibition Center, Biogas,
∑ Housing and meals
∑ Meet with local farmers, hikes, and sapling
Donations and fees for different services
Supported Projects
∑ Supports rural education, monitoring, and alternative energy projects like energy efficient stoves and biogas
Before I go into the GEC, many of you are probably wondering by now – what’s happened since July 4th in China? Great question, so let’s get started!
July 4th, 2009
Saturday morning, Sam received an email from Jill and Brian that they had to cancel their forth of July party in Gucheng due to some difficulty in arrangements. In other words, our schedule suddenly was wide open. Xuanyang and Sam talked over going to Hook Up Street (æ∆∞ÀΩ÷)in Gucheng (The Old City of Lijiang) for both dancing and beer. From what little I understood, it was a hotspot for nightlife. Supposedly when Sam’s Chinese Yale Professor heard that he was going to Lijiang, Hook Up Street was one of the suggested places to visit.
Later in the morning, Mr. Chen drove into the school with two South Korean graduate students. They had just arrived from Kunming, and joined us for lunch. They were creating a video project about environmental Chinese NGOs to get a glimpse of the type of projects being pursued. Besides Korean, they spoke fluent English and Mandarin. After lunch prepared by Xuanyang’s relatives, Sam and I gave them a tour of Lashihai, the exhibition center, and the biogas tank in the garden. I can remember being a little anxious as they filmed us through the course of the tour. Overall the tour went very well and they were impressed with our knowledge of the area. In truth, there was still much work to be done, but this was a donation-free test round of our new tour.
In the evening, we invited the two graduates to dinner in Gucheng. We originally planned to go to K’s Kitchen, which is a Western restaurant with pizza of course. We thought that was most appropriate for the American holiday. As it turned out, when we arrived it was closed. We improvised and went to a Tibetan restaurant. They also had pizza J and milk shakes. I ordered two cheese pizzas; they tasted great. I didn’t realize how much I missed a classic American meal.
We split after dinner. The two graduates had a paper to write up for a human & cosmology class (whatever that means). Xuanyang, Sam and I stayed in Gucheng to celebrate the Fourth of July and headed over to Hookup Street. The night was still early so we walked along and checked out all the various bar lounges. Once it was dark, we bounced around 4 lively bars. They were all highly energetic and loud with pop and D.J music. It was a wonderful experience. We just let free and had a good time moving to the music. The bars even attracted many young foreigners who knew who to take it up a notch with some western dancing moves. I’ll end it here.
Sunday July 5th, 2009
Mr. Chen has advised early in the afternoon that two American professors would be visiting the Green Education Center tomorrow morning at 9:30 A.M. Sam and I thought this was a great opportunity to do a real run of the GEC as well as ask for a suggested donation; however, we realized there was not a lot of time to finish all the details. We quickly got to work on our own separate projects. I began by writing out my notes for the tour of Lashihai on notepad paper. I had the document typed out, but not printed. As I wrote it out, I realized how much extra content I could speak about. I rehearsed the notes several time as if I was practicing for a large class presentation (I realized later that I couldn’t not treat a tour as a class lecture). In prior test runs, I had given the tour from memory with the help of Sam, so this was a big step forward. Sam and I also swept the exhibition center floor, and dusted the pictures down. Afterwards, Sam and I spent the night in the office. Sam did a final review of the captions, set an appropriate font, size, etc. and printed them out. On the other side of the office, I used the paper cutter and laminated the captions (all 40 + I lost count). This went on until about 11:30 P.M. It was as if we were in a small print shop in the early 19th century. Mr. Chen was impressed by the effort and took some pictures to post on the YEN website. Before the night was over, Mr. Chen realized the amount of work still to be done. He explained that he was going to pick up the visitors and offered to drive them around Lijiang and Lashihai until 11:30 A.M to give us an extra two hours to set up. He took him up on his offer immediately.
Monday July 6th, 2009
The early morning hours served as time to finish up the last details of organizing. We actually were ready to go about 10:30 A.M. They arrived a little before noon. We started off by inviting them to join us for lunch. The two professors were Kevin and Jenny. Kevin was an Environmental Studies Professor at the University of Utah, which seemed right down my alley of interests. Jenny was Kevin’s assistant professor. They were in the process of making a film also related to NGOs in China to help reshape the image of Americans have of China as a threat. I recall Kevin highlighting a small research project they did on American newspapers, primarily the NY Times, on the percentage of positive to negative articles related to China. He told me in the last 2-3 years, about 90% were negative. In contrast, the NY Time has initially written encouraging, positive articles about the Iraq war for the first several years due to completely depending upon the presidential administration for information rather than investigating for themselves on the ground. The conversation was all very intriguing to me. After a delicious meal from Xuan Yang’s relatives, we explained the layout of the guided tour as well as a suggested donation of 30 RMB for each person. They brought their camcorder, and I started my lecture:
As you may know, China has had unprecedented economic growth at 8-9% over the last 20 years. It has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of the rural setting into more affluent, urban lifestyles, and this type of growth has come at a great environmental cost. Most people associate it with air pollution, sometimes water pollution, but there is another cost less frequently discussed: the loss of habitat. The rapid urbanization has destroyed many of China’s wetlands and in the next 11 years, another 400 million people will be moving into newly created cities putting immense pressure on wetlands. What we are about to experience on this walk to Lashi Lake, a protected wetland, which is a rare sight in China. In this tour I will explain the significance of this region in Northwest Yunnan as a biodiversity hotspot as well as focusing more locally both biologically and culturally. I will end by exploring the environmental problems currently facing Lashi Lake.
I wish I could say I had I had it all memorized and was interactive, but I was honestly was just too nervous. The majority of the time I had my head facing down [like the stuffed birds in the exhibition center] reading from my notes. I would reflect on this heavily after the tour was over for personal improvements. Once we arrived back at the Green Education Center, we gave the tour of the exhibition hall. Kevin was very engaging with several questions as we went through picture by picture. They commented several times on the English captions, which helped clarify the purpose of each picture. After the tour finished, they wanted to interview both Sam and I about how we got connected to the Yunnan EcoNetwork, what type of work are we doing, how did working for a Chinese NGO compare to an American one, etc. I went first. By the end of their visit, they donated not 60 RMB but 100 RMB. It was our first donation. It brought a sense of satisfaction to all our hard effort. The South Korean graduate students had also been staying at the GEC, and we introduced them to each other especially since they had such similar film projects. This was another sense of accomplishment because it was connecting two completely separate groups together with a common interest.
Since they had arrived in Lijiang today, they had brought along their luggage to GEC. Mr. Chen suggested a hotel, which he had connections at, near the Old City. During the car ride, I had an insightful conversation with Kevin. As I explained my interest in working in the policy arena related to environmental issues in China, he suggested researching one of Beijing’s universities on environmental policy or political science graduate programs. Perhaps, in this way, I could build up the networks, language fluency, and education to put myself in a viable and competitive position in terms of policy. This will be something I personally stuck an interest and will be researching.
On a change of topic, I explained about my severe allergies to nuts and some of the challenges it presents me in China. This led into an inquiry about why millions of Americans have food allergies and asthma compared to China. One hypothesis was that everyone who had deadly nut allergies in China died at a relatively young age. The other hypothesis was ‘germ sharing.’ In China, dishes upon dishes are served in the middle of the table, where everyone dips their chopsticks in. It is a feast of germs. This is just a small example of it. In the U.S, there is a high emphasis on cleanliness with cleaning products, which leads to an artificial environment in which our immunity decreases (don’t quote me on this – I should have written down his comments when I had the chance). I am writing this all from memory. In simple terms, it is like we have created an environmental to protect children from germs, but in turn it has only made us more susceptible to more health problems. I’ll end it here so I don’t write anything I regret. I am by no means I qualified practitioner. The moral of the story is that there is a reason we don’t live a bacteria-free world.
Tuesday July 7th, 2009
One of the improvements I felt was crucial to improving the tour was gathering concrete facts about the environmental problems facing Lashi Lake. I gave Lilly Zhang at Xintuo Ecotourism a call to see if she had any time to meet during the day to do an interview about biogas, environmental problems, and biodiversity. She said was available this afternoon after 3:00 P.M. Based on that, I also scheduled to go visit The Nature Conservancy in the Old City of Lijiang. The two South Korean graduates wanted to join me and videotape an intern with an environmental NGO in action. I felt a little like a movie star, which put the pressure on. The interview with Lilly Zhang actually did not turn out the information that I was looking for. She shared about her personal experience growing up around Lashi Lake, but she had no factual reports to share. That doesn’t mean to take away from her wonderfully kind personality and her willingness to help. The next stop was TNC. It was expedition just to find their office. After asking about 10 different people and a service help desk, we located it. We went upstairs to their main office. Down stairs was TNC’s exhibition hall (take the GEC’s exhibition hall and put it on steroids) on biodiversity and environmental problems of Northwest Yunnan over the last 100 years. Once I stepped into the office, I saw to employees. I explained that I was an intern with Yunnan EcoNetwork, and I wanted to now if there was someone I could talk to about environmental problems in Lijiang. The women told that their supervisor was out sick, but she took my contact information and said he would get back to me in the next few days. Afterwards, I check on their exhibition hall downstairs and got some basic information about endangered or threatened species of Northwest Yunnan.
Late on Tuesday night at the GEC, I was doing some research work. Mr. Chen received an email from Professor Robert Erird about a CNN article titled, “Green Revolution Under Way in Rural China” posted on July 5th, 2009. Interestingly, the article was done on Lashihai farmer on biogas and other renewable energies such as solar water heater. The Nature Conservancy was the main authority in providing information on this article. Mr. Chen browsed through the three images attached to the article. One of them depicting the overflow tank of the biogas digester used for organic fertilizer; however, the slurry appeared to be transparent (in other words, it looked like water). This made Mr. Chen very skeptical about whether that biogas tank by the farmer was ever used and how could it if it was just water? It also became obvious how much Mr. Chen pays close attention to detail of these matters. The article also presented the success of micro finances to this farmer, which Mr. Chen was not in accordance with. I researched up micro finances because I had originally had a positive connation with it. I found an article from Stanford’s Grudate School of Business titled, “Microfinance Misses its Mark,” which argued for large factories because they more effectively lift people out of poverty rather than microloan. I would personally recommend anyone who is unfamiliar on this subject to read up on it. Anyway, we decided to visit the farmer the following day.
Wednesday July 8th, 2009
Mr. Chen is an active part of the community here in Lijiang and specifically around Lashi Lake, but today I got to see the extent of that involvement. In the early afternoon, I helped Mr. Chen take down a few prompts in the exhibition center such as pictures and the biogas demonstration model. Sam and I loaded up the car, and joined Mr. Chen. As we traveled to a village on the west side of the lake, Mr. Chen asked both Sam and I if we were ready to give another tour tomorrow to 16 students from WhereThereBeDragons Program as well as met the new intern from the U.S, Chris. I replied, “Sure, I am ready.” I was not completely sure what I was agreeing to. My attention was focused elsewhere with the beautiful scenery and our destination to a local NGO called Green Watershed in Yunnan that acted like the village community center on sustainable practices. Once the prompts were placed and organized, we waited for about half an hour and had a turn out of about 70 Naxi farmers; most of which were women. Mr. Chen gave an impassioned lecture about the usage of biogas digesters and its various functions. As I watched him describe the different parts of the biogas tanks in an interesting and fun manner, I felt I was watching the beginning of the China environment movement under way by inspiring Chinese leaders who saw sustainability as not only protecting biodiversity but also sustaining and improving the lives of these people. It was a powerful experience observing the fascination of those 70 farmers.
We also traveled to the farmer published in the CNN article to verify if he used his biogas reactor. He name was Zhang Chengui and lived in Meiquan village. We asked around the village and found out that he was the leader of the village. The locals informed us that he was in his large agricultural garden (not to compare to American backyard styled gardens). His wife invited us to come in and gave us dozens of lizi (plums) to take with us. They also showed us their extravagant grape greenhouse. It was very similar to that of my travels last year to the outskirts of Shanghai to a huge grape field. You can see pictures of that adventure and description at kevinsosborne.blogspot.com. He then showed Mr. Chen and I his biogas setup. It turned out it was also working in proper condition. Besides two restrooms, they also had three pigs in stall that provided plenty of biogas for their kitchen. The pressure of biogas supplied enough for two biogas stoves and a rice cooker. They were very friendly, and we ended by offering them to come and visit our Green Education Center.
During the course of the day, I had felt exhausted due to the late night yesterday. When we got back, I immediately went back to my room and collapsed on the bad for the rest of the night.
Thursday July 9th, 2009
I slept most of the night very uncomfortably. I woke up with several symptoms such as a running nose, feeling weak and exhausted, and lightheaded. I realized I had overdone it here at the Green Education Center. I had not given myself enough rest. It was obvious I had come down with a cold. I woke up late that morning around 10 A.M, and immediately met the new intern from Wheretherebedragons program, Chris. He was from Washington D.C and graduated from high school last spring. He was spending his gap year traveling. He had traveled around most of Europe such as France, England, Switzerland, and Morocco. The first question I asked him was if he could speak Mandarin. He replied, “No, just hello – ƒ„∫√.” After Sam and I introduced ourselves, Mr. Chen held a meeting in which we discussed the projects Sam and I had been working together on, our goals, and suggested intern projects for Chris.
By early afternoon, we were expecting 16 students from Wheretherebedrangons. Although I was still feeling under the weather, I made a commitment to do my best. That is all anyone could really ask of me. Sam, Chris, and I stood in the exhibition hall mingling and over looking the courtyard for when the visitors arrive. Sam pointed out some important points for me to pounder before the students come such as what is biodiversity, why should we care if one species goes instinct especially if I live half a world away. Soon afterwards, we noticed two large vans park up on the side of the road. We opened the gate to let them in. There was a parade of students. It was almost overwhelming at first to see one student after another coming into the courtyard. I had become familiar with two, sometime six visitors coming to the GEC, but sixteen was a completely different story. Once we shook hands, we got right into it. Sam, Chris, and I introduced ourselves, and then Sam gave an introduction to the Green Education Center and its mission. I went second as my part was to give the tour of Lashi Lake. I was nervous and bouncing with excitement all at once. I viewed this as a great opportunity to improve my prior experiences. The first change I had made was how to increase the amount of engagement and participation rather then to lecture. As the students got ready to leave the GEC, I began by asking them ‘When you think of environmental problems in China, what comes to mind?’ Many said, “air pollution of course, water pollution, oh, and what about littering and garbage.” With these remarks, I went into my introduction of the tour about the rapid pace of China’s economic growth and the loss of habitat, especially wetlands. As we continued to the other street, the group began to widen making it practically impossible to speak at level in which everyone could hear me. I yelled to Sam who was at the front of the group, and I asked if they could stop. At this point, I spoke about the geography, climate, and rivers that make Yunnan, specifically Northwest Yunnan as a biodiversity hotspot. I also spoke about Yunnan and it is significant role as the first province to allow foreign NGOs into China, and the major hub for domestic and foreign NGOs due to its richness in the diversity of species. I won’t go into detail about every stop, but the lesson of picking a few stops to speak at was something that I learned to do with large groups. Sam and I stopped a two other times to speak in depth about the ethnic minorities, the lake, and the environmental problems. Along the way, Sam gave me some encouraging feedback. I remember Sam distinctly saying, “Kevin, have fun with it, just relax!” Know where have I heard this before? Hum..
Back at the GEC, we decided to break off into two groups. One group would check out the exhibition hall, the second would go into the garden to examine the biogas digester setup. I led the guided tour on the biogas digester. This was my first try at giving the explanation of the biogas digester with no practice. However, I had been around Mr. Chen enough to have a sufficient amount of knowledge on the subject. I recall first giving the students a chance to examine the old outhouse (not a pretty sight) to get a feel for what some rural farmers used to depend on as well as to compare with the new outhouse connected to the biogas digester. The students were all very intrigued and enjoyed the hands-on approach. At the end, they had some great inquiries. For example, one student asked, “If biogas produces energy for cooking and lighting, won’t that interfere with a local electricity company profits? I had to restrain myself from cracking up, but I have never considered it and probably would not have since the demand for energy in China is so enormous.
After the two groups had a complete run through, Chris asked for everyone to fill out a piece of paper with personal comments of their experience and any suggestions for improvements. We also had them fill out the guest book. In addition, we requested a group picture. By the end, the bus drivers were waiting patiently to pick them up and take them back to Meiquan village (each student was staying at separate Naxi farmer’s house). Many of the students shook our hands and expressing how much they enjoyed it and found it very interesting and informative. The three student guides at the end shook out hands and complemented us a job well done for a very educational experience. Sam and I didn’t bring up the 30 RMB per person at the beginning of the tour because they had no advance notice. We did let them know about the suggested donation at the end, and said we would ask next time. However, they insisted on giving us 300 RMB for our time and the excellent tour. We informed that it would go directly to financing the field trip at the end of July for 80 local, primary school children, which the GEC is hosting. Once they left, I felt ecstatic! We had done it! We had just given a 2 and half hour tour. We had created something that didn’t exist 3 weeks ago, and it was a complete success. That doesn’t take away for the need of improvements, but I saw this day as a big milestone as part of our journey creating the Green Education Center.
Soon afterwards, I went to sleep sniffling but with a large smile glowing across my face.
Friday July 10th, 2009
Friday was relatively calm. Mr. Chen gave us an example of scoping out the slurry from the output of the biogas digester (nutrient-rich fertilizer – high in nitrogen) onto the garden, perhaps so we could do it ourselves some time soon. We also had a group meeting in the middle of the courtyard to discuss future plans of how the collected donations should be spent. Mr. Chen explained we need to make the Green Education Center financially sustainable first, promotion, and then education, monitoring, and renewable energy projects such as biogas and energy efficient stoves. I asked Mr. Chen if we could get a fiscal report on the Green Education Center that would show the total costs of running this place. Mr. Chen had previously told me the Yunnan EcoNetwork had donors that support the GEC, therefore I asked him if he could share with me the amount of these grants, so I could calculate the difference to meet the basic costs of operating the GEC. Mr. Chen said we get the information when he travels to Kunming the following day.
The latter half of the day I did the cutting and laminating the Chinese bird captions and researching bird databases in which I could find the equivalent information in English for the exhibition center
Saturday July 11th, 2009
Early Saturday morning, Mr. Chen left for Kunming before I had woken up. When I got up around 11:00 A.M, my symptoms appeared to be getting worse. I went across the street to the local community store of An Shang village and purchased a few more water bottles (not environmentally sound choices) and went back to my room to rest for the rest of the afternoon.
The story worth sharing about here is Saturday night. Mr. Chen received 4 tickets for a singing concert from a governmental official who had come back twice three weeks ago. Apparently, she loved the GEC because each ticket was 560 RMB. To put this in contrast, living expenses at the GEC is only 60 RMB a night; therefore this was a big deal.
Sam spent the afternoon packing his luggage. He planned to leave to Kunming tomorrow morning where he would be working out of the Yunnan EcoNetwork main office. Sam planned on staying at Jill’s house Saturday night in the Old City because the bus station was in the surround area. Anyway, we decided to have dinner in the Old City since Sam want to drop off his luggage first at Jill’s place. We arrived at the Old City of Lijiang around 6:00 P.M and decided to split off into two groups. Xuanyang and Sam went to drop off his stuff and came back to eat at the Chinese version of KFC. Chris and I wanted to skip the fast food option. We went to a tradition Naxi restaurant. This was an interesting experience because for the first time in several weeks I was without Sam. I have nothing against Sam but realize his language skills are nearly perfect sometime limits my ability to speak up. Therefore, this experience relayed completely on my own language skills, perfect or imperfect. It was very empowering. I didn’t understand everything she said, but I still managed very well.
We meet back at Shui Che (it is two water wheels at the entrance of Gucheng) an hour later at 7:00 P.M. The singing concert was scheduled to begin at 7:30. We took a taxi over to middle of Lijiang City and began searching for the entrance line. The weather was not looking too promising. I was wearing only a yellow T-shirt that was given with the tickets. I had no coat or jacket. It began to rain, and everyone pulled out his or her umbrella. Once in line, we waited for about 30 minutes to go through the gate. One person at a time would go through. As I entered through, there were gates set like a maze to make sure every person’s ticket was checked thoroughly by what appeared to be the local police. One man examined my ticket and didn’t give it back, and I moved along with anytime to respond. I didn’t make a fuss because I really had no clue how the procedure went. As it turned out, we had to walk through the park to another entrance where they tickets were to be checked again. I had nothing to show for. I tried to hide behind Sam, and play along as if I had a ticket, but that only got me so far. When asked for my ticket, Sam bailed me out with his Mandarin skills.
At the time, it was beginning to pour cats and dogs. I had nothing to wear, but I reminded myself I am a Seattleite. When we got to our small, plastic stool styled seats, there was a bag underneath each one with a cheap, plastic poncho. Sam left early when he heard that the bus station office would close at 9:00. He never returned. We assumed he went back to Jill’s place for the night. The story goes that all 4 thousand high anticipating fans including us waited in the torrential downpour for around 1 and a half hours. The rain never let up. It was continuous. I think the stage crew finally realized they would have to improvise and start with out a band. The artist was Tanweiwei for anyone who is familiar with her. The singing was excellent. As people went on the stages, many slipped and fell on the wet surface. As the singing continued, the rain came down heavier and heavier until it was like falling bullets. That was the point when we decided to leave, and we felt we had seen enough. This was probably the craziest part of the experience. We ran out shooting and shivering in shock by the weather. We were soaked and went in search of a taxi cap. When we usually leave Lijiang, Xuanyang only accept fares below 35 RMB, otherwise no deal! I told him tonight was an exception. I would host and pay 50 RMB. Chris was freezing and willing to pay 100 RMB to get the hell out of here and get back home. One problem when a massive down pour happens is that everyone wants to stay dry or go back home all at once. Hence, most of the taxis we were looking for were filled with people. It was about 15 minutes later when we found a taxi dropping off passengers and we hitched a ride home. Back at the GEC, we took turns (wanted to say stormed in) using the solar water heater shower steaming up the outhouse to warm up. Xuanyang also cooked us a warm meal of soup to finish the process of heating up the surface and the soul.
Sunday July 12th, 2009
Sunday is the easiest day to describe. I slept most of it and pleasure read. And I needed it!
Monday July 13th, 2009
Chris and I created a to-do list of items we wanted to purchase in Lijiang. One of those items was picture frames for the exhibition center, which will provide a major, needed uplift in professionalism. This was also the first time I would travel down to Lijiang and back without the help of Sam or Xuanyang. Chris would join me on this trip, but wouldn’t be able to help linguistically. Xuanyang gave me some basic information about where and what Bread Vans to switch onto (it basically a van that serves the purpose of a taxi more cheaply). As we were in the second van driving towards the Old City, Chris spotted a picture frame store in the corner of his eye. I immediately asked the driver to stop. The store didn’t have the frames were interested in. It was styled for luxurious portraits. We were in search for cheap, simple designed frame. I asked the clerk (probably not the right name), the only person there, if he there were other stores in surround area that had used ones or different kinds of frames. His response was that any frame store in Lijiang would have very similar setup to his: small and upscale in design. And so we left empty handed.
I will highlight that we went to The Nature Conservancy office in the old city to follow up from previous encounter. From my last visit, I was informed that the supervisor would contact me, but that never happened. At the TNC office, I met the same women as last time, and came to realize that there had been some miscommunication. Last time, I came with the two Korean graduate students. She thought we were all together. When I explained to her the questions I had again in terms of being an intern with the Yunnan EcoNetwork, I got some very helpful information. My questions were in regard to biodiversity, environment problems, and biogas projects of Lashi Lake. She informed that for the first two inquires, I would be better off going to the local government bureau (she gave me a list) for the best information. The last inquiry, she gave me a TNC contact that manages projects on alternative energy including biogas in China. This was all information that I hope to gather to enhance the credibility of the tour.
One last thing worth noting for the day was Chris and my shopping spree. Since the weather had been reasonable cold, we wanted to purchase some warmer clothing. We went across from a supermarket and found an alley with dozens of family owned garment and clothing shops. What made this the most exciting part of the day was that I really got to utilize my language skills. I was visiting stores, bargaining; it was the perfect learning environment. This felt like a real, authentic Chinese course.
I said that was the last comment, but I just recalled one more hilarious point for the reader, not so much for myself. We were in the middle of Lijiang looking for a Bread Van specifically to south Lashihai. It was late in the afternoon, probably about 6:20 P.M. We had waited for almost half an hour with no luck. I saw a van that said Nankou (south mouth if you translate it directly). I quickly ran up to the driver and asked if you she goes to Lashi Lake. I asked specifically if she went to An Shang village in the south. I have to admit a lot of what she was saying was ambiguous to me, but I heard her say she could go. One large mistake was that I didn’t ask what she charged per person before we left. Once we were in Lashihai, she took a right towards the west village. I told her this is not the right direction. An Shang is behind us to the right. Something started to become peculiar in the sense that she didn’t know where An Shang village was. Obviously, this was not her normal route, and that came at a heavy, unexpected price tag. When we arrived, I asked his how much it was. Initially, I could believe what I heard. She said 20 RMB each, 40 RMB together. That was outrageous considering a week ago considering Sam and I rode the exact same transport to An Shang for only 5 RMB each. We were being ripped off. I explained to her that was what a taxi costs from Gucheng (the Old City of Lijiang) to An Shang. I tried to bring it down, but she would not budge. Chris had offered to pay for the ride before we have come to a stop, and I am sure was not to pleased to hear he had just offered to pay 40 RMB for what was to be a 10 RMB ride. Nainai (Mr. Chen’s mother) summed up our experience in a sentence. “ÚŒ™ƒ„√« «Õ‚π˙»À£¨¥©∫‹∫√µƒ“¬∑˛£¨À˘“‘æıµ√ «”–«Æ»À.The point here from Nainai is that we basically looked like rich, ignorant foreigners who would be willing to spend a large amount of RMB. A lesson well learned.
Tuesday July 14th, 2009
I can best sum of today with bullet points
∑ Finished Green Education Center brochure – Chris and I condensed it into two pages
∑ Exhibition Center - Rearranged children drawing on energy use, pollution, world collaboration, seasons, and biogas from the housing beam to a unused wall.
∑ Headings – I wrote up the headings for the exhibition center and kitchen, printed, and laminated. I then nailed them in the appropriate places.
∑ Lashi Lake Tour – Chris went over my the tour and made edits
∑ Chris and I generated questions for Mr. Chen such as his relationship with the TNC
∑ Picture Frames – Got in contact with Sam and found out that the Yunnan EcoNetwork has 80 picture frames we can use, more than plenty.
∑ Greenliang.org – we purchase the new website and Xuanyang is the beginning stages of developing it with a sweet design.
There was one event in the morning across the street that Chris and I joined in on. Frank, the son of the leader of An Shang village came over this morning, literally a few minutes after I had woken up. We had actually met the day before. He told us that Jill, a Harvard Student, was over at his house doing a study on in door air pollution. At this point, I didn’t know if this was the same Jill who I had met three weeks ago or someone completely different. I was not sure what to expect. It turn out that there is only one Jill in the city of Lijiang. It is a small world after all. We watched Jill and Frank put together instruments that could measure minute particles that had directly and adverse health effects. She was handing out fanny packs for the women of An Shang village to wear for 24 hours. This was part of her full bright scholarship project. It was very fascinating to observe one person arranging all of this and all the effort that went into it. She had explained to me that many of the women here have an education of a 4th grader. It was an eye opening experience to see the true extent of foreign fieldwork. The success of it depended on the volunteers to help carry out many of the tasks. I asked her once she finishes collecting the filters, does she plan to research the different air pollutants. She said at this time, she only plans to calculate their individual weight. If she gets further grants, she will pursue that all a latter date. I commended her for her research, care, and concern for these people’s lives in very remote part of China. At the same time, I thought it was a half filled glass type project with a positive connotation. I just couldn’t help but think that the impressing global environmental issues that our planet faces cannot be handled in the same manner of incrementalism (big side note).
I apologize for the long week and a half delay for an update, but I think I have done well recapturing the events of the time period and giving an accurate reflection of life her on site in beautiful Lashihai.
Best Regards,
Kevin Osborne
Green Education Center (GEC)
Audience – Foreign Visitors
Services -
∑ Tour of Lashihai, Exhibition Center, Biogas,
∑ Housing and meals
∑ Meet with local farmers, hikes, and sapling
Donations and fees for different services
Supported Projects
∑ Supports rural education, monitoring, and alternative energy projects like energy efficient stoves and biogas
Before I go into the GEC, many of you are probably wondering by now – what’s happened since July 4th in China? Great question, so let’s get started!
July 4th, 2009
Saturday morning, Sam received an email from Jill and Brian that they had to cancel their forth of July party in Gucheng due to some difficulty in arrangements. In other words, our schedule suddenly was wide open. Xuanyang and Sam talked over going to Hook Up Street (æ∆∞ÀΩ÷)in Gucheng (The Old City of Lijiang) for both dancing and beer. From what little I understood, it was a hotspot for nightlife. Supposedly when Sam’s Chinese Yale Professor heard that he was going to Lijiang, Hook Up Street was one of the suggested places to visit.
Later in the morning, Mr. Chen drove into the school with two South Korean graduate students. They had just arrived from Kunming, and joined us for lunch. They were creating a video project about environmental Chinese NGOs to get a glimpse of the type of projects being pursued. Besides Korean, they spoke fluent English and Mandarin. After lunch prepared by Xuanyang’s relatives, Sam and I gave them a tour of Lashihai, the exhibition center, and the biogas tank in the garden. I can remember being a little anxious as they filmed us through the course of the tour. Overall the tour went very well and they were impressed with our knowledge of the area. In truth, there was still much work to be done, but this was a donation-free test round of our new tour.
In the evening, we invited the two graduates to dinner in Gucheng. We originally planned to go to K’s Kitchen, which is a Western restaurant with pizza of course. We thought that was most appropriate for the American holiday. As it turned out, when we arrived it was closed. We improvised and went to a Tibetan restaurant. They also had pizza J and milk shakes. I ordered two cheese pizzas; they tasted great. I didn’t realize how much I missed a classic American meal.
We split after dinner. The two graduates had a paper to write up for a human & cosmology class (whatever that means). Xuanyang, Sam and I stayed in Gucheng to celebrate the Fourth of July and headed over to Hookup Street. The night was still early so we walked along and checked out all the various bar lounges. Once it was dark, we bounced around 4 lively bars. They were all highly energetic and loud with pop and D.J music. It was a wonderful experience. We just let free and had a good time moving to the music. The bars even attracted many young foreigners who knew who to take it up a notch with some western dancing moves. I’ll end it here.
Sunday July 5th, 2009
Mr. Chen has advised early in the afternoon that two American professors would be visiting the Green Education Center tomorrow morning at 9:30 A.M. Sam and I thought this was a great opportunity to do a real run of the GEC as well as ask for a suggested donation; however, we realized there was not a lot of time to finish all the details. We quickly got to work on our own separate projects. I began by writing out my notes for the tour of Lashihai on notepad paper. I had the document typed out, but not printed. As I wrote it out, I realized how much extra content I could speak about. I rehearsed the notes several time as if I was practicing for a large class presentation (I realized later that I couldn’t not treat a tour as a class lecture). In prior test runs, I had given the tour from memory with the help of Sam, so this was a big step forward. Sam and I also swept the exhibition center floor, and dusted the pictures down. Afterwards, Sam and I spent the night in the office. Sam did a final review of the captions, set an appropriate font, size, etc. and printed them out. On the other side of the office, I used the paper cutter and laminated the captions (all 40 + I lost count). This went on until about 11:30 P.M. It was as if we were in a small print shop in the early 19th century. Mr. Chen was impressed by the effort and took some pictures to post on the YEN website. Before the night was over, Mr. Chen realized the amount of work still to be done. He explained that he was going to pick up the visitors and offered to drive them around Lijiang and Lashihai until 11:30 A.M to give us an extra two hours to set up. He took him up on his offer immediately.
Monday July 6th, 2009
The early morning hours served as time to finish up the last details of organizing. We actually were ready to go about 10:30 A.M. They arrived a little before noon. We started off by inviting them to join us for lunch. The two professors were Kevin and Jenny. Kevin was an Environmental Studies Professor at the University of Utah, which seemed right down my alley of interests. Jenny was Kevin’s assistant professor. They were in the process of making a film also related to NGOs in China to help reshape the image of Americans have of China as a threat. I recall Kevin highlighting a small research project they did on American newspapers, primarily the NY Times, on the percentage of positive to negative articles related to China. He told me in the last 2-3 years, about 90% were negative. In contrast, the NY Time has initially written encouraging, positive articles about the Iraq war for the first several years due to completely depending upon the presidential administration for information rather than investigating for themselves on the ground. The conversation was all very intriguing to me. After a delicious meal from Xuan Yang’s relatives, we explained the layout of the guided tour as well as a suggested donation of 30 RMB for each person. They brought their camcorder, and I started my lecture:
As you may know, China has had unprecedented economic growth at 8-9% over the last 20 years. It has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of the rural setting into more affluent, urban lifestyles, and this type of growth has come at a great environmental cost. Most people associate it with air pollution, sometimes water pollution, but there is another cost less frequently discussed: the loss of habitat. The rapid urbanization has destroyed many of China’s wetlands and in the next 11 years, another 400 million people will be moving into newly created cities putting immense pressure on wetlands. What we are about to experience on this walk to Lashi Lake, a protected wetland, which is a rare sight in China. In this tour I will explain the significance of this region in Northwest Yunnan as a biodiversity hotspot as well as focusing more locally both biologically and culturally. I will end by exploring the environmental problems currently facing Lashi Lake.
I wish I could say I had I had it all memorized and was interactive, but I was honestly was just too nervous. The majority of the time I had my head facing down [like the stuffed birds in the exhibition center] reading from my notes. I would reflect on this heavily after the tour was over for personal improvements. Once we arrived back at the Green Education Center, we gave the tour of the exhibition hall. Kevin was very engaging with several questions as we went through picture by picture. They commented several times on the English captions, which helped clarify the purpose of each picture. After the tour finished, they wanted to interview both Sam and I about how we got connected to the Yunnan EcoNetwork, what type of work are we doing, how did working for a Chinese NGO compare to an American one, etc. I went first. By the end of their visit, they donated not 60 RMB but 100 RMB. It was our first donation. It brought a sense of satisfaction to all our hard effort. The South Korean graduate students had also been staying at the GEC, and we introduced them to each other especially since they had such similar film projects. This was another sense of accomplishment because it was connecting two completely separate groups together with a common interest.
Since they had arrived in Lijiang today, they had brought along their luggage to GEC. Mr. Chen suggested a hotel, which he had connections at, near the Old City. During the car ride, I had an insightful conversation with Kevin. As I explained my interest in working in the policy arena related to environmental issues in China, he suggested researching one of Beijing’s universities on environmental policy or political science graduate programs. Perhaps, in this way, I could build up the networks, language fluency, and education to put myself in a viable and competitive position in terms of policy. This will be something I personally stuck an interest and will be researching.
On a change of topic, I explained about my severe allergies to nuts and some of the challenges it presents me in China. This led into an inquiry about why millions of Americans have food allergies and asthma compared to China. One hypothesis was that everyone who had deadly nut allergies in China died at a relatively young age. The other hypothesis was ‘germ sharing.’ In China, dishes upon dishes are served in the middle of the table, where everyone dips their chopsticks in. It is a feast of germs. This is just a small example of it. In the U.S, there is a high emphasis on cleanliness with cleaning products, which leads to an artificial environment in which our immunity decreases (don’t quote me on this – I should have written down his comments when I had the chance). I am writing this all from memory. In simple terms, it is like we have created an environmental to protect children from germs, but in turn it has only made us more susceptible to more health problems. I’ll end it here so I don’t write anything I regret. I am by no means I qualified practitioner. The moral of the story is that there is a reason we don’t live a bacteria-free world.
Tuesday July 7th, 2009
One of the improvements I felt was crucial to improving the tour was gathering concrete facts about the environmental problems facing Lashi Lake. I gave Lilly Zhang at Xintuo Ecotourism a call to see if she had any time to meet during the day to do an interview about biogas, environmental problems, and biodiversity. She said was available this afternoon after 3:00 P.M. Based on that, I also scheduled to go visit The Nature Conservancy in the Old City of Lijiang. The two South Korean graduates wanted to join me and videotape an intern with an environmental NGO in action. I felt a little like a movie star, which put the pressure on. The interview with Lilly Zhang actually did not turn out the information that I was looking for. She shared about her personal experience growing up around Lashi Lake, but she had no factual reports to share. That doesn’t mean to take away from her wonderfully kind personality and her willingness to help. The next stop was TNC. It was expedition just to find their office. After asking about 10 different people and a service help desk, we located it. We went upstairs to their main office. Down stairs was TNC’s exhibition hall (take the GEC’s exhibition hall and put it on steroids) on biodiversity and environmental problems of Northwest Yunnan over the last 100 years. Once I stepped into the office, I saw to employees. I explained that I was an intern with Yunnan EcoNetwork, and I wanted to now if there was someone I could talk to about environmental problems in Lijiang. The women told that their supervisor was out sick, but she took my contact information and said he would get back to me in the next few days. Afterwards, I check on their exhibition hall downstairs and got some basic information about endangered or threatened species of Northwest Yunnan.
Late on Tuesday night at the GEC, I was doing some research work. Mr. Chen received an email from Professor Robert Erird about a CNN article titled, “Green Revolution Under Way in Rural China” posted on July 5th, 2009. Interestingly, the article was done on Lashihai farmer on biogas and other renewable energies such as solar water heater. The Nature Conservancy was the main authority in providing information on this article. Mr. Chen browsed through the three images attached to the article. One of them depicting the overflow tank of the biogas digester used for organic fertilizer; however, the slurry appeared to be transparent (in other words, it looked like water). This made Mr. Chen very skeptical about whether that biogas tank by the farmer was ever used and how could it if it was just water? It also became obvious how much Mr. Chen pays close attention to detail of these matters. The article also presented the success of micro finances to this farmer, which Mr. Chen was not in accordance with. I researched up micro finances because I had originally had a positive connation with it. I found an article from Stanford’s Grudate School of Business titled, “Microfinance Misses its Mark,” which argued for large factories because they more effectively lift people out of poverty rather than microloan. I would personally recommend anyone who is unfamiliar on this subject to read up on it. Anyway, we decided to visit the farmer the following day.
Wednesday July 8th, 2009
Mr. Chen is an active part of the community here in Lijiang and specifically around Lashi Lake, but today I got to see the extent of that involvement. In the early afternoon, I helped Mr. Chen take down a few prompts in the exhibition center such as pictures and the biogas demonstration model. Sam and I loaded up the car, and joined Mr. Chen. As we traveled to a village on the west side of the lake, Mr. Chen asked both Sam and I if we were ready to give another tour tomorrow to 16 students from WhereThereBeDragons Program as well as met the new intern from the U.S, Chris. I replied, “Sure, I am ready.” I was not completely sure what I was agreeing to. My attention was focused elsewhere with the beautiful scenery and our destination to a local NGO called Green Watershed in Yunnan that acted like the village community center on sustainable practices. Once the prompts were placed and organized, we waited for about half an hour and had a turn out of about 70 Naxi farmers; most of which were women. Mr. Chen gave an impassioned lecture about the usage of biogas digesters and its various functions. As I watched him describe the different parts of the biogas tanks in an interesting and fun manner, I felt I was watching the beginning of the China environment movement under way by inspiring Chinese leaders who saw sustainability as not only protecting biodiversity but also sustaining and improving the lives of these people. It was a powerful experience observing the fascination of those 70 farmers.
We also traveled to the farmer published in the CNN article to verify if he used his biogas reactor. He name was Zhang Chengui and lived in Meiquan village. We asked around the village and found out that he was the leader of the village. The locals informed us that he was in his large agricultural garden (not to compare to American backyard styled gardens). His wife invited us to come in and gave us dozens of lizi (plums) to take with us. They also showed us their extravagant grape greenhouse. It was very similar to that of my travels last year to the outskirts of Shanghai to a huge grape field. You can see pictures of that adventure and description at kevinsosborne.blogspot.com. He then showed Mr. Chen and I his biogas setup. It turned out it was also working in proper condition. Besides two restrooms, they also had three pigs in stall that provided plenty of biogas for their kitchen. The pressure of biogas supplied enough for two biogas stoves and a rice cooker. They were very friendly, and we ended by offering them to come and visit our Green Education Center.
During the course of the day, I had felt exhausted due to the late night yesterday. When we got back, I immediately went back to my room and collapsed on the bad for the rest of the night.
Thursday July 9th, 2009
I slept most of the night very uncomfortably. I woke up with several symptoms such as a running nose, feeling weak and exhausted, and lightheaded. I realized I had overdone it here at the Green Education Center. I had not given myself enough rest. It was obvious I had come down with a cold. I woke up late that morning around 10 A.M, and immediately met the new intern from Wheretherebedragons program, Chris. He was from Washington D.C and graduated from high school last spring. He was spending his gap year traveling. He had traveled around most of Europe such as France, England, Switzerland, and Morocco. The first question I asked him was if he could speak Mandarin. He replied, “No, just hello – ƒ„∫√.” After Sam and I introduced ourselves, Mr. Chen held a meeting in which we discussed the projects Sam and I had been working together on, our goals, and suggested intern projects for Chris.
By early afternoon, we were expecting 16 students from Wheretherebedrangons. Although I was still feeling under the weather, I made a commitment to do my best. That is all anyone could really ask of me. Sam, Chris, and I stood in the exhibition hall mingling and over looking the courtyard for when the visitors arrive. Sam pointed out some important points for me to pounder before the students come such as what is biodiversity, why should we care if one species goes instinct especially if I live half a world away. Soon afterwards, we noticed two large vans park up on the side of the road. We opened the gate to let them in. There was a parade of students. It was almost overwhelming at first to see one student after another coming into the courtyard. I had become familiar with two, sometime six visitors coming to the GEC, but sixteen was a completely different story. Once we shook hands, we got right into it. Sam, Chris, and I introduced ourselves, and then Sam gave an introduction to the Green Education Center and its mission. I went second as my part was to give the tour of Lashi Lake. I was nervous and bouncing with excitement all at once. I viewed this as a great opportunity to improve my prior experiences. The first change I had made was how to increase the amount of engagement and participation rather then to lecture. As the students got ready to leave the GEC, I began by asking them ‘When you think of environmental problems in China, what comes to mind?’ Many said, “air pollution of course, water pollution, oh, and what about littering and garbage.” With these remarks, I went into my introduction of the tour about the rapid pace of China’s economic growth and the loss of habitat, especially wetlands. As we continued to the other street, the group began to widen making it practically impossible to speak at level in which everyone could hear me. I yelled to Sam who was at the front of the group, and I asked if they could stop. At this point, I spoke about the geography, climate, and rivers that make Yunnan, specifically Northwest Yunnan as a biodiversity hotspot. I also spoke about Yunnan and it is significant role as the first province to allow foreign NGOs into China, and the major hub for domestic and foreign NGOs due to its richness in the diversity of species. I won’t go into detail about every stop, but the lesson of picking a few stops to speak at was something that I learned to do with large groups. Sam and I stopped a two other times to speak in depth about the ethnic minorities, the lake, and the environmental problems. Along the way, Sam gave me some encouraging feedback. I remember Sam distinctly saying, “Kevin, have fun with it, just relax!” Know where have I heard this before? Hum..
Back at the GEC, we decided to break off into two groups. One group would check out the exhibition hall, the second would go into the garden to examine the biogas digester setup. I led the guided tour on the biogas digester. This was my first try at giving the explanation of the biogas digester with no practice. However, I had been around Mr. Chen enough to have a sufficient amount of knowledge on the subject. I recall first giving the students a chance to examine the old outhouse (not a pretty sight) to get a feel for what some rural farmers used to depend on as well as to compare with the new outhouse connected to the biogas digester. The students were all very intrigued and enjoyed the hands-on approach. At the end, they had some great inquiries. For example, one student asked, “If biogas produces energy for cooking and lighting, won’t that interfere with a local electricity company profits? I had to restrain myself from cracking up, but I have never considered it and probably would not have since the demand for energy in China is so enormous.
After the two groups had a complete run through, Chris asked for everyone to fill out a piece of paper with personal comments of their experience and any suggestions for improvements. We also had them fill out the guest book. In addition, we requested a group picture. By the end, the bus drivers were waiting patiently to pick them up and take them back to Meiquan village (each student was staying at separate Naxi farmer’s house). Many of the students shook our hands and expressing how much they enjoyed it and found it very interesting and informative. The three student guides at the end shook out hands and complemented us a job well done for a very educational experience. Sam and I didn’t bring up the 30 RMB per person at the beginning of the tour because they had no advance notice. We did let them know about the suggested donation at the end, and said we would ask next time. However, they insisted on giving us 300 RMB for our time and the excellent tour. We informed that it would go directly to financing the field trip at the end of July for 80 local, primary school children, which the GEC is hosting. Once they left, I felt ecstatic! We had done it! We had just given a 2 and half hour tour. We had created something that didn’t exist 3 weeks ago, and it was a complete success. That doesn’t take away for the need of improvements, but I saw this day as a big milestone as part of our journey creating the Green Education Center.
Soon afterwards, I went to sleep sniffling but with a large smile glowing across my face.
Friday July 10th, 2009
Friday was relatively calm. Mr. Chen gave us an example of scoping out the slurry from the output of the biogas digester (nutrient-rich fertilizer – high in nitrogen) onto the garden, perhaps so we could do it ourselves some time soon. We also had a group meeting in the middle of the courtyard to discuss future plans of how the collected donations should be spent. Mr. Chen explained we need to make the Green Education Center financially sustainable first, promotion, and then education, monitoring, and renewable energy projects such as biogas and energy efficient stoves. I asked Mr. Chen if we could get a fiscal report on the Green Education Center that would show the total costs of running this place. Mr. Chen had previously told me the Yunnan EcoNetwork had donors that support the GEC, therefore I asked him if he could share with me the amount of these grants, so I could calculate the difference to meet the basic costs of operating the GEC. Mr. Chen said we get the information when he travels to Kunming the following day.
The latter half of the day I did the cutting and laminating the Chinese bird captions and researching bird databases in which I could find the equivalent information in English for the exhibition center
Saturday July 11th, 2009
Early Saturday morning, Mr. Chen left for Kunming before I had woken up. When I got up around 11:00 A.M, my symptoms appeared to be getting worse. I went across the street to the local community store of An Shang village and purchased a few more water bottles (not environmentally sound choices) and went back to my room to rest for the rest of the afternoon.
The story worth sharing about here is Saturday night. Mr. Chen received 4 tickets for a singing concert from a governmental official who had come back twice three weeks ago. Apparently, she loved the GEC because each ticket was 560 RMB. To put this in contrast, living expenses at the GEC is only 60 RMB a night; therefore this was a big deal.
Sam spent the afternoon packing his luggage. He planned to leave to Kunming tomorrow morning where he would be working out of the Yunnan EcoNetwork main office. Sam planned on staying at Jill’s house Saturday night in the Old City because the bus station was in the surround area. Anyway, we decided to have dinner in the Old City since Sam want to drop off his luggage first at Jill’s place. We arrived at the Old City of Lijiang around 6:00 P.M and decided to split off into two groups. Xuanyang and Sam went to drop off his stuff and came back to eat at the Chinese version of KFC. Chris and I wanted to skip the fast food option. We went to a tradition Naxi restaurant. This was an interesting experience because for the first time in several weeks I was without Sam. I have nothing against Sam but realize his language skills are nearly perfect sometime limits my ability to speak up. Therefore, this experience relayed completely on my own language skills, perfect or imperfect. It was very empowering. I didn’t understand everything she said, but I still managed very well.
We meet back at Shui Che (it is two water wheels at the entrance of Gucheng) an hour later at 7:00 P.M. The singing concert was scheduled to begin at 7:30. We took a taxi over to middle of Lijiang City and began searching for the entrance line. The weather was not looking too promising. I was wearing only a yellow T-shirt that was given with the tickets. I had no coat or jacket. It began to rain, and everyone pulled out his or her umbrella. Once in line, we waited for about 30 minutes to go through the gate. One person at a time would go through. As I entered through, there were gates set like a maze to make sure every person’s ticket was checked thoroughly by what appeared to be the local police. One man examined my ticket and didn’t give it back, and I moved along with anytime to respond. I didn’t make a fuss because I really had no clue how the procedure went. As it turned out, we had to walk through the park to another entrance where they tickets were to be checked again. I had nothing to show for. I tried to hide behind Sam, and play along as if I had a ticket, but that only got me so far. When asked for my ticket, Sam bailed me out with his Mandarin skills.
At the time, it was beginning to pour cats and dogs. I had nothing to wear, but I reminded myself I am a Seattleite. When we got to our small, plastic stool styled seats, there was a bag underneath each one with a cheap, plastic poncho. Sam left early when he heard that the bus station office would close at 9:00. He never returned. We assumed he went back to Jill’s place for the night. The story goes that all 4 thousand high anticipating fans including us waited in the torrential downpour for around 1 and a half hours. The rain never let up. It was continuous. I think the stage crew finally realized they would have to improvise and start with out a band. The artist was Tanweiwei for anyone who is familiar with her. The singing was excellent. As people went on the stages, many slipped and fell on the wet surface. As the singing continued, the rain came down heavier and heavier until it was like falling bullets. That was the point when we decided to leave, and we felt we had seen enough. This was probably the craziest part of the experience. We ran out shooting and shivering in shock by the weather. We were soaked and went in search of a taxi cap. When we usually leave Lijiang, Xuanyang only accept fares below 35 RMB, otherwise no deal! I told him tonight was an exception. I would host and pay 50 RMB. Chris was freezing and willing to pay 100 RMB to get the hell out of here and get back home. One problem when a massive down pour happens is that everyone wants to stay dry or go back home all at once. Hence, most of the taxis we were looking for were filled with people. It was about 15 minutes later when we found a taxi dropping off passengers and we hitched a ride home. Back at the GEC, we took turns (wanted to say stormed in) using the solar water heater shower steaming up the outhouse to warm up. Xuanyang also cooked us a warm meal of soup to finish the process of heating up the surface and the soul.
Sunday July 12th, 2009
Sunday is the easiest day to describe. I slept most of it and pleasure read. And I needed it!
Monday July 13th, 2009
Chris and I created a to-do list of items we wanted to purchase in Lijiang. One of those items was picture frames for the exhibition center, which will provide a major, needed uplift in professionalism. This was also the first time I would travel down to Lijiang and back without the help of Sam or Xuanyang. Chris would join me on this trip, but wouldn’t be able to help linguistically. Xuanyang gave me some basic information about where and what Bread Vans to switch onto (it basically a van that serves the purpose of a taxi more cheaply). As we were in the second van driving towards the Old City, Chris spotted a picture frame store in the corner of his eye. I immediately asked the driver to stop. The store didn’t have the frames were interested in. It was styled for luxurious portraits. We were in search for cheap, simple designed frame. I asked the clerk (probably not the right name), the only person there, if he there were other stores in surround area that had used ones or different kinds of frames. His response was that any frame store in Lijiang would have very similar setup to his: small and upscale in design. And so we left empty handed.
I will highlight that we went to The Nature Conservancy office in the old city to follow up from previous encounter. From my last visit, I was informed that the supervisor would contact me, but that never happened. At the TNC office, I met the same women as last time, and came to realize that there had been some miscommunication. Last time, I came with the two Korean graduate students. She thought we were all together. When I explained to her the questions I had again in terms of being an intern with the Yunnan EcoNetwork, I got some very helpful information. My questions were in regard to biodiversity, environment problems, and biogas projects of Lashi Lake. She informed that for the first two inquires, I would be better off going to the local government bureau (she gave me a list) for the best information. The last inquiry, she gave me a TNC contact that manages projects on alternative energy including biogas in China. This was all information that I hope to gather to enhance the credibility of the tour.
One last thing worth noting for the day was Chris and my shopping spree. Since the weather had been reasonable cold, we wanted to purchase some warmer clothing. We went across from a supermarket and found an alley with dozens of family owned garment and clothing shops. What made this the most exciting part of the day was that I really got to utilize my language skills. I was visiting stores, bargaining; it was the perfect learning environment. This felt like a real, authentic Chinese course.
I said that was the last comment, but I just recalled one more hilarious point for the reader, not so much for myself. We were in the middle of Lijiang looking for a Bread Van specifically to south Lashihai. It was late in the afternoon, probably about 6:20 P.M. We had waited for almost half an hour with no luck. I saw a van that said Nankou (south mouth if you translate it directly). I quickly ran up to the driver and asked if you she goes to Lashi Lake. I asked specifically if she went to An Shang village in the south. I have to admit a lot of what she was saying was ambiguous to me, but I heard her say she could go. One large mistake was that I didn’t ask what she charged per person before we left. Once we were in Lashihai, she took a right towards the west village. I told her this is not the right direction. An Shang is behind us to the right. Something started to become peculiar in the sense that she didn’t know where An Shang village was. Obviously, this was not her normal route, and that came at a heavy, unexpected price tag. When we arrived, I asked his how much it was. Initially, I could believe what I heard. She said 20 RMB each, 40 RMB together. That was outrageous considering a week ago considering Sam and I rode the exact same transport to An Shang for only 5 RMB each. We were being ripped off. I explained to her that was what a taxi costs from Gucheng (the Old City of Lijiang) to An Shang. I tried to bring it down, but she would not budge. Chris had offered to pay for the ride before we have come to a stop, and I am sure was not to pleased to hear he had just offered to pay 40 RMB for what was to be a 10 RMB ride. Nainai (Mr. Chen’s mother) summed up our experience in a sentence. “ÚŒ™ƒ„√« «Õ‚π˙»À£¨¥©∫‹∫√µƒ“¬∑˛£¨À˘“‘æıµ√ «”–«Æ»À.The point here from Nainai is that we basically looked like rich, ignorant foreigners who would be willing to spend a large amount of RMB. A lesson well learned.
Tuesday July 14th, 2009
I can best sum of today with bullet points
∑ Finished Green Education Center brochure – Chris and I condensed it into two pages
∑ Exhibition Center - Rearranged children drawing on energy use, pollution, world collaboration, seasons, and biogas from the housing beam to a unused wall.
∑ Headings – I wrote up the headings for the exhibition center and kitchen, printed, and laminated. I then nailed them in the appropriate places.
∑ Lashi Lake Tour – Chris went over my the tour and made edits
∑ Chris and I generated questions for Mr. Chen such as his relationship with the TNC
∑ Picture Frames – Got in contact with Sam and found out that the Yunnan EcoNetwork has 80 picture frames we can use, more than plenty.
∑ Greenliang.org – we purchase the new website and Xuanyang is the beginning stages of developing it with a sweet design.
There was one event in the morning across the street that Chris and I joined in on. Frank, the son of the leader of An Shang village came over this morning, literally a few minutes after I had woken up. We had actually met the day before. He told us that Jill, a Harvard Student, was over at his house doing a study on in door air pollution. At this point, I didn’t know if this was the same Jill who I had met three weeks ago or someone completely different. I was not sure what to expect. It turn out that there is only one Jill in the city of Lijiang. It is a small world after all. We watched Jill and Frank put together instruments that could measure minute particles that had directly and adverse health effects. She was handing out fanny packs for the women of An Shang village to wear for 24 hours. This was part of her full bright scholarship project. It was very fascinating to observe one person arranging all of this and all the effort that went into it. She had explained to me that many of the women here have an education of a 4th grader. It was an eye opening experience to see the true extent of foreign fieldwork. The success of it depended on the volunteers to help carry out many of the tasks. I asked her once she finishes collecting the filters, does she plan to research the different air pollutants. She said at this time, she only plans to calculate their individual weight. If she gets further grants, she will pursue that all a latter date. I commended her for her research, care, and concern for these people’s lives in very remote part of China. At the same time, I thought it was a half filled glass type project with a positive connotation. I just couldn’t help but think that the impressing global environmental issues that our planet faces cannot be handled in the same manner of incrementalism (big side note).
I apologize for the long week and a half delay for an update, but I think I have done well recapturing the events of the time period and giving an accurate reflection of life her on site in beautiful Lashihai.
Best Regards,
Kevin Osborne
Friday, July 3, 2009
July 3 Lijiang Third Narrative
Happy Forth of July!
Kevin
June 29, 2009
Sam and I collaborated and created a comprehensive To-Do list to help sort out our duties. I would have more on the day’s events, but I can’t quiet recall what did for the rest of the day to be honest.
June 30th, 2009
One of the tasks that I have taken up here at the GYS is to update exhibition center. The center is directly above the office room. The exhibition center is broken into two sections: renewable energy and biodiversity. The walls are filled with pictures and poster boards written in Mandarin. There are also two demonstration tables used to get a hands-up understanding of the functions of biogas and traditional ways of cooking such as coal. Mr. Chen would give tours with a suggested donation of 10 Yuan. Sam and I thought this center could be greatly improved and our goal has been to make it update it to the point it is worth 30 Yuan. How do you make it worth 3X as much? The first step is to add headings and captions in both English and Mandarin. As I stated before, there were only pictures and demonstration tables. Mr. Chen would usually explain the content to the visitors. I wanted to have that content available like at a museum that answered the questions of the four Ws: what, why, who, and when. Therefore, I committed the entire day to taking every single picture (total 43) off the wall and took it to Mr. Chen. I had him explain to me the significance of each photo. Afterwards I would return to the exhibition center and type out the captions and the headings. I was at it from 10:00 A.M to 9 P.M. I was basically trying to find out everything Mr. Chen know about these photos and typed it out. Again this was only the first step of a large overhaul project for the exhibition center. I had big plans for it by taking out unnecessary content, reorganizing photos, adding new content, purchasing picture frames to replace the old poster boards, etc. This makes me think of that TLC television show – Clean Sweep!
July 1st, 2009
Both Sam and I woke up late Wednesday morning from the late night of sorting and typing out descriptions of the exhibition center upstairs. After an early lunch, he had the whole afternoon and evening planned out. We had created a To-Do list of the different items we needed for the Green Education Center that we are trying to develop. Items included garbage cans, paper, lamination materials, markers, etc. We also had plans to meet Julie’s sister (Ester) at 4:00 P.M. Julie is the girl who attends a Swiss University and whose boyfriends is also Swiss. Mr. Chen gave us ride down to the city and dropped us off at a local crafts store. It worked out perfectly. We found about 60 percent of our marked items at this one location. The exciting part was directly afterwards. We walked across the street to a market. This was far from any tourist destination. The next items we were looking for was garbage bins that we could use for separating plastic, glass, paper, compost and garbage. The ones at the school are cardboard boxes. We thought we could do better. In the market, we initially saw Naxi baskets by one vendor. He was willing to give us 4 for 60 Yuan, which was an absolute deal. However, Sam shook his head, and we walked away. We decided to check out some other vendors to compare prices. Another woman was willing to give us the same baskets for 20 Yuan each. We continued to tour the market as we enjoyed the music and authentic feel of the locals. We thought this is what it must have been like decades or centuries ago. After browsing some shops, we thought that the first vendor made us the best deal, and went back to see him. As it turned out, 60 Yuan was for only three baskets, not four. We also decided we not only wanted four baskets, but also the larger sized ones. The total price he gave us was 200 Yuan. We told him that the vendor a few shops away offered us 20 Yuan each for the same baskets. As it turned out that is exactly the price we got for the larger baskets. We paid 80 Yuan rather than 200 Yuan. The strategy of barging here was five steps. First - get an initial price tag. Second - walk away. Third - come back and see the new price offered. Forth – check out other vendors. Firth – come back and use the information from other vendors to push down the price. Sam walked out of that market with four Naxi baskets on his back. It was a hilarious picture. If he had a blue Naxi hat on, I am sure he could have disguised himself as an older, native Naxi woman.
I will not go through all the errands, but we took a bus over to a supermarket to get the last of items as well as some cash. We met Chester at 4:00 P.M in the old city of Lijiang (a hot tourist destination crowded with foreigners and visiting Chinese). Neither Sam nor I had met Ester before. We had heard from her mother that she was planning to attend high school in Montana. She is 14 years old and had been accepted by a host family in Montana to attend a high school for the next four years. I honestly can’t explain why Montana was chosen of all places in the United States. On the bright side, I can image that her English will improve greatly especially since there are probably very few Chinese speaking people there unlike Seattle, Los Angles and New York. She was very shy as we spoke to her in English. She mentioned that she had been learning English for three years, but this was probably her first time having foreigners come over and asking question and making comments all in English to her. As we approached her house, it was right next to a transmission line. To my surprise, there was a large peacock behind the entrance gate. There were also two dogs in a small cage barking up a storm. They reminded me of the dogs from the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ that came aboard the vacant/abandoned in New York City. In other words, I didn’t want to get close to that cage. I just hoped that lock would hold until I left.
The house was upscale on all almost every level imaginable. As we first entered the living room, I felt like we had entered a Montanan like household, not Chinese. For instance, the furniture such as the chairs and table were all extravagant woodcarvings. At the Green Youth School, we had talked a lot about deforestation. As soon as I saw the furniture, deforestation with an exclamation mark spun around my head. I had done a project on deforestation in Southeast Asia from China’s large appetite, and I thought this was a prime example of it. There was also a deer head hanging above the fireplace. In addition, they had a huge, stuffed deer along side an Anglo Jesus portrait. The mother and the younger sister said they became Christians four years ago. I don’t know the religion of the other family members, but they told me they have friends that come to their house to worship. It appears there must not be a church in the city of Lijiang.
After sitting on those enormous, probably illegally, unsustainable, chairs, and talking with Ernest in English and Vincent, Julie’s Swiss boyfriend, we walked to the kitchen. Julie and Ernest made us some deliciously sweet coffee. The father, mother, and Julie prepared dinner. The dishes were a treat. I like the food at the GYS, but the food does get repetitive. For drinks, it was not the American style in the sense you go to the grocery store to purchase your favorite wine. Instead, the father and Ernest had designed their wine. Sam and I both decided to give it a try. It was a very small quantity, and I assure you it was enough! It was not about quantity, but quality. It actually wasn’t wine. The taste was so strong I would have to say it was liquor. After one sip, my nasals cleared up; no need for allergy medicine. This did the job better. J The father offered us men cigarettes. Sam did not hesitant. He is not a smoker, but came to realize if he really wants to connect with the men in China, accepting a cigarette is a great ice breaker. The interesting part is that I almost accepted a cigarette, but I politely said no thanks. I held my ground for now. Towards the end of dinner, Julie and Ernest gave us three options for what we could do after dinner: karaoke, see traditional dancing by the Naxi in the old city of Lijiang, or go to swimming in the hot springs. It was an obvious vote – HOT SPRINGS! We took a taxi to what seemed out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road.
Now I had not brought a swimsuit with me. I was advised I could buy one there. The swim trunks were not a Speedo, but they were tight. The hot spring pool felt absolutely wonderful – temperature right between that of a pool and hot tub. It was soothing, relaxing, all the above. It felt great. There were also some smaller pools with minnow-type fish that feed off on your dead skin for an extra fee. The men’s locker room also had shower stalls. That was a blessing! It was nice to now I could post-pone my use of the outhouse shower for a few more days. J
I almost forget to mention that Ernest’s father invited us to have dinner with them once every week until we depart Lijiang at the end of July.
July 2nd, 2009
I don’t think I going to be as detailed as I did for July 1st. There were basically two events that happed today. The fist was that Sam looked over and began editing my descriptions of the pictures from the exhibition center. He did not finish it today primarily because of the second activity that I will explain here, but also because I had a lot written down. You must remember it took me a whole day to write up all the information. Besides editing, he also included questions for me ask Mr. Chen so it is not so generic or abstract.
The second activity was hiking. On Sunday, Sam and I had gone for a hike only up about 20 minutes to a rest stop with benches because there was an approaching thunderstorm at that time. We had recalled the trail had not ended there. This time, we wanted to find out where that specific trail led to and we also want to climb to top of the peaks (somehow/someway). The experience was a lot of luck. We realized early on that there was not one continuous trail to stay on early on. As one trail began heading down the mountain, we had to find another way leading up. Some were not trails at all. It was really a hit and miss type of hiking experience. Even if it was a trail, it was difficult to follow because it had not been trek frequently therefore there were a lot of bushes and branches that we had to crawl through. Fast-forward two or so hours, we traversed along a mountain into an open field. We saw one path that may lead up to the peak and within a few minutes it was obvious an ambiguous trailhead. We turned around, and I saw another path. This was more carved out. As we hiked the step slop, we ran into a few Naxi men with walking sticks. They said they had just come from the peak of the above mountain with an amazing view of Lijiang and Lashihai. One man gave me his walking stick. I knew I was in for it. The hike was tough on the lungs. I was asking for breaks every 5 or so minutes. I was out of breath, partly due to the elevation. Once we reached the ridge, it was still shaded by trees. The path continued along some large boulders. I have to say this was nothing less than 40 percent slope done if I fell either way. Each step was taken with precaution. I think I was more scared that when I had that allergic reaction. Perhaps I could this was a little dare-devilish. Sam warmed me to take it show because he had no plans of calling in an emergency helicopter. The pictures on the blog should be able to do the rest of the talking. There are a couple pictures of Lashihai (the large lake). That is on the west side of the mountain. On the east side is Lashihai, a city of 1,000,000 + people. It was a spectacular view and well worth it from 11,000 ft looking down 3,000 ft. And now our 5 hours of sweet and effort are free to show for via those pictures. J. Pictures are great, but the experience was far better. Sam and I will be journey back to the mountain peak for another round when the Yale students come at the end of July.
July 3rd, 2009
Today was back to work. Sam and I went through our today list. Sam finished editing my captions and heading, which I will go through one more time with Mr. Chen tomorrow. In addition, I wanted to get in contact with the The Nature Conservatory (TNC) to ask some questions such as –
· What has been the history of TNC's involvement with the promotion of renewable energy such as biogas tanks in Lashihai? What have been the challenges of advancing the use of biogas technology?
· Does the TNC have any detailed reports or information about the local environmental problems of Lashihai? If so, would you be willing to share that information with YEN?
· Lastly, do you have any information about the biodiversity hotspot of Lashihai?
I had sent TNC an email with the above the questions to Jiang Xiaotang, but I had not heard back. I decided to give her a call. I used my Skype account to make the cheap phone call. The funny part was that when I called and asked for Jiang Xiaotang, no one knew who I was asking for. I explained that I was an intern with the Yunnan EcoNetwork, but that only made the woman even more confused. I asked if anyone could speak English. She replied ‘No.’ I gave up and hung up. Sam was across the table listening to the entire conservation laughing. He offered to call back for me to find out what was going on. It turned out I had called a random Kunming hotel. No wonder I was frazzled. It also turned out that I miss dialed the last 2 digits. I redialed and called Jiang Xiaotang cell. She informed me to call Lili with Ecotourism in Lijiang. Sam and I had actually met Lili the week before. I could have completely bypassed this little blunder. J
Most of my day was spent in the exhibition center. Since I had the captions and heading almost finished, I took down most of the pictures in the ecology section. It terms of the layout, it was disorganized. There was no flow. Pictures were hung wherever there was space. I sorted them out and went to work. I got a hammer and a box of nails, which became my friends for the rest of the afternoon. It looks more like museum now, but that only leads to the next project. For example, within the ecology part is a dozen stuffed native or migratory birds to Lashi Lake. However, the way they are set up has their heads facing towards the ground with water down Mandarin captions (new layout and new captions in English and Mandarin needed obviously). I will post pictures to show the before and after results. Perhaps you can give me feedback and suggestions about the layout.
I should also note that Xuanyang’s relatives just arrived this afternoon from Guangdong. They were Xiaoyen, zhangrui, Fangfang, dangdang, and Huyueying. If you are familiar with Hong Kong, it is not to far from there. They speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. As guests, they prepared a delicious feast for us. One helping was enough for me and that is saying a lot since my appetite has been compared to an elephant. J
Well, it has been another busy week here at GYS and tomorrow is July 4th. I want to wish every one of you a very happy forth of July weekend. We also have plans here. I will have an explanation about that in the coming day along with everything else.
All the best,
Kevin
Kevin
June 29, 2009
Sam and I collaborated and created a comprehensive To-Do list to help sort out our duties. I would have more on the day’s events, but I can’t quiet recall what did for the rest of the day to be honest.
June 30th, 2009
One of the tasks that I have taken up here at the GYS is to update exhibition center. The center is directly above the office room. The exhibition center is broken into two sections: renewable energy and biodiversity. The walls are filled with pictures and poster boards written in Mandarin. There are also two demonstration tables used to get a hands-up understanding of the functions of biogas and traditional ways of cooking such as coal. Mr. Chen would give tours with a suggested donation of 10 Yuan. Sam and I thought this center could be greatly improved and our goal has been to make it update it to the point it is worth 30 Yuan. How do you make it worth 3X as much? The first step is to add headings and captions in both English and Mandarin. As I stated before, there were only pictures and demonstration tables. Mr. Chen would usually explain the content to the visitors. I wanted to have that content available like at a museum that answered the questions of the four Ws: what, why, who, and when. Therefore, I committed the entire day to taking every single picture (total 43) off the wall and took it to Mr. Chen. I had him explain to me the significance of each photo. Afterwards I would return to the exhibition center and type out the captions and the headings. I was at it from 10:00 A.M to 9 P.M. I was basically trying to find out everything Mr. Chen know about these photos and typed it out. Again this was only the first step of a large overhaul project for the exhibition center. I had big plans for it by taking out unnecessary content, reorganizing photos, adding new content, purchasing picture frames to replace the old poster boards, etc. This makes me think of that TLC television show – Clean Sweep!
July 1st, 2009
Both Sam and I woke up late Wednesday morning from the late night of sorting and typing out descriptions of the exhibition center upstairs. After an early lunch, he had the whole afternoon and evening planned out. We had created a To-Do list of the different items we needed for the Green Education Center that we are trying to develop. Items included garbage cans, paper, lamination materials, markers, etc. We also had plans to meet Julie’s sister (Ester) at 4:00 P.M. Julie is the girl who attends a Swiss University and whose boyfriends is also Swiss. Mr. Chen gave us ride down to the city and dropped us off at a local crafts store. It worked out perfectly. We found about 60 percent of our marked items at this one location. The exciting part was directly afterwards. We walked across the street to a market. This was far from any tourist destination. The next items we were looking for was garbage bins that we could use for separating plastic, glass, paper, compost and garbage. The ones at the school are cardboard boxes. We thought we could do better. In the market, we initially saw Naxi baskets by one vendor. He was willing to give us 4 for 60 Yuan, which was an absolute deal. However, Sam shook his head, and we walked away. We decided to check out some other vendors to compare prices. Another woman was willing to give us the same baskets for 20 Yuan each. We continued to tour the market as we enjoyed the music and authentic feel of the locals. We thought this is what it must have been like decades or centuries ago. After browsing some shops, we thought that the first vendor made us the best deal, and went back to see him. As it turned out, 60 Yuan was for only three baskets, not four. We also decided we not only wanted four baskets, but also the larger sized ones. The total price he gave us was 200 Yuan. We told him that the vendor a few shops away offered us 20 Yuan each for the same baskets. As it turned out that is exactly the price we got for the larger baskets. We paid 80 Yuan rather than 200 Yuan. The strategy of barging here was five steps. First - get an initial price tag. Second - walk away. Third - come back and see the new price offered. Forth – check out other vendors. Firth – come back and use the information from other vendors to push down the price. Sam walked out of that market with four Naxi baskets on his back. It was a hilarious picture. If he had a blue Naxi hat on, I am sure he could have disguised himself as an older, native Naxi woman.
I will not go through all the errands, but we took a bus over to a supermarket to get the last of items as well as some cash. We met Chester at 4:00 P.M in the old city of Lijiang (a hot tourist destination crowded with foreigners and visiting Chinese). Neither Sam nor I had met Ester before. We had heard from her mother that she was planning to attend high school in Montana. She is 14 years old and had been accepted by a host family in Montana to attend a high school for the next four years. I honestly can’t explain why Montana was chosen of all places in the United States. On the bright side, I can image that her English will improve greatly especially since there are probably very few Chinese speaking people there unlike Seattle, Los Angles and New York. She was very shy as we spoke to her in English. She mentioned that she had been learning English for three years, but this was probably her first time having foreigners come over and asking question and making comments all in English to her. As we approached her house, it was right next to a transmission line. To my surprise, there was a large peacock behind the entrance gate. There were also two dogs in a small cage barking up a storm. They reminded me of the dogs from the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ that came aboard the vacant/abandoned in New York City. In other words, I didn’t want to get close to that cage. I just hoped that lock would hold until I left.
The house was upscale on all almost every level imaginable. As we first entered the living room, I felt like we had entered a Montanan like household, not Chinese. For instance, the furniture such as the chairs and table were all extravagant woodcarvings. At the Green Youth School, we had talked a lot about deforestation. As soon as I saw the furniture, deforestation with an exclamation mark spun around my head. I had done a project on deforestation in Southeast Asia from China’s large appetite, and I thought this was a prime example of it. There was also a deer head hanging above the fireplace. In addition, they had a huge, stuffed deer along side an Anglo Jesus portrait. The mother and the younger sister said they became Christians four years ago. I don’t know the religion of the other family members, but they told me they have friends that come to their house to worship. It appears there must not be a church in the city of Lijiang.
After sitting on those enormous, probably illegally, unsustainable, chairs, and talking with Ernest in English and Vincent, Julie’s Swiss boyfriend, we walked to the kitchen. Julie and Ernest made us some deliciously sweet coffee. The father, mother, and Julie prepared dinner. The dishes were a treat. I like the food at the GYS, but the food does get repetitive. For drinks, it was not the American style in the sense you go to the grocery store to purchase your favorite wine. Instead, the father and Ernest had designed their wine. Sam and I both decided to give it a try. It was a very small quantity, and I assure you it was enough! It was not about quantity, but quality. It actually wasn’t wine. The taste was so strong I would have to say it was liquor. After one sip, my nasals cleared up; no need for allergy medicine. This did the job better. J The father offered us men cigarettes. Sam did not hesitant. He is not a smoker, but came to realize if he really wants to connect with the men in China, accepting a cigarette is a great ice breaker. The interesting part is that I almost accepted a cigarette, but I politely said no thanks. I held my ground for now. Towards the end of dinner, Julie and Ernest gave us three options for what we could do after dinner: karaoke, see traditional dancing by the Naxi in the old city of Lijiang, or go to swimming in the hot springs. It was an obvious vote – HOT SPRINGS! We took a taxi to what seemed out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road.
Now I had not brought a swimsuit with me. I was advised I could buy one there. The swim trunks were not a Speedo, but they were tight. The hot spring pool felt absolutely wonderful – temperature right between that of a pool and hot tub. It was soothing, relaxing, all the above. It felt great. There were also some smaller pools with minnow-type fish that feed off on your dead skin for an extra fee. The men’s locker room also had shower stalls. That was a blessing! It was nice to now I could post-pone my use of the outhouse shower for a few more days. J
I almost forget to mention that Ernest’s father invited us to have dinner with them once every week until we depart Lijiang at the end of July.
July 2nd, 2009
I don’t think I going to be as detailed as I did for July 1st. There were basically two events that happed today. The fist was that Sam looked over and began editing my descriptions of the pictures from the exhibition center. He did not finish it today primarily because of the second activity that I will explain here, but also because I had a lot written down. You must remember it took me a whole day to write up all the information. Besides editing, he also included questions for me ask Mr. Chen so it is not so generic or abstract.
The second activity was hiking. On Sunday, Sam and I had gone for a hike only up about 20 minutes to a rest stop with benches because there was an approaching thunderstorm at that time. We had recalled the trail had not ended there. This time, we wanted to find out where that specific trail led to and we also want to climb to top of the peaks (somehow/someway). The experience was a lot of luck. We realized early on that there was not one continuous trail to stay on early on. As one trail began heading down the mountain, we had to find another way leading up. Some were not trails at all. It was really a hit and miss type of hiking experience. Even if it was a trail, it was difficult to follow because it had not been trek frequently therefore there were a lot of bushes and branches that we had to crawl through. Fast-forward two or so hours, we traversed along a mountain into an open field. We saw one path that may lead up to the peak and within a few minutes it was obvious an ambiguous trailhead. We turned around, and I saw another path. This was more carved out. As we hiked the step slop, we ran into a few Naxi men with walking sticks. They said they had just come from the peak of the above mountain with an amazing view of Lijiang and Lashihai. One man gave me his walking stick. I knew I was in for it. The hike was tough on the lungs. I was asking for breaks every 5 or so minutes. I was out of breath, partly due to the elevation. Once we reached the ridge, it was still shaded by trees. The path continued along some large boulders. I have to say this was nothing less than 40 percent slope done if I fell either way. Each step was taken with precaution. I think I was more scared that when I had that allergic reaction. Perhaps I could this was a little dare-devilish. Sam warmed me to take it show because he had no plans of calling in an emergency helicopter. The pictures on the blog should be able to do the rest of the talking. There are a couple pictures of Lashihai (the large lake). That is on the west side of the mountain. On the east side is Lashihai, a city of 1,000,000 + people. It was a spectacular view and well worth it from 11,000 ft looking down 3,000 ft. And now our 5 hours of sweet and effort are free to show for via those pictures. J. Pictures are great, but the experience was far better. Sam and I will be journey back to the mountain peak for another round when the Yale students come at the end of July.
July 3rd, 2009
Today was back to work. Sam and I went through our today list. Sam finished editing my captions and heading, which I will go through one more time with Mr. Chen tomorrow. In addition, I wanted to get in contact with the The Nature Conservatory (TNC) to ask some questions such as –
· What has been the history of TNC's involvement with the promotion of renewable energy such as biogas tanks in Lashihai? What have been the challenges of advancing the use of biogas technology?
· Does the TNC have any detailed reports or information about the local environmental problems of Lashihai? If so, would you be willing to share that information with YEN?
· Lastly, do you have any information about the biodiversity hotspot of Lashihai?
I had sent TNC an email with the above the questions to Jiang Xiaotang, but I had not heard back. I decided to give her a call. I used my Skype account to make the cheap phone call. The funny part was that when I called and asked for Jiang Xiaotang, no one knew who I was asking for. I explained that I was an intern with the Yunnan EcoNetwork, but that only made the woman even more confused. I asked if anyone could speak English. She replied ‘No.’ I gave up and hung up. Sam was across the table listening to the entire conservation laughing. He offered to call back for me to find out what was going on. It turned out I had called a random Kunming hotel. No wonder I was frazzled. It also turned out that I miss dialed the last 2 digits. I redialed and called Jiang Xiaotang cell. She informed me to call Lili with Ecotourism in Lijiang. Sam and I had actually met Lili the week before. I could have completely bypassed this little blunder. J
Most of my day was spent in the exhibition center. Since I had the captions and heading almost finished, I took down most of the pictures in the ecology section. It terms of the layout, it was disorganized. There was no flow. Pictures were hung wherever there was space. I sorted them out and went to work. I got a hammer and a box of nails, which became my friends for the rest of the afternoon. It looks more like museum now, but that only leads to the next project. For example, within the ecology part is a dozen stuffed native or migratory birds to Lashi Lake. However, the way they are set up has their heads facing towards the ground with water down Mandarin captions (new layout and new captions in English and Mandarin needed obviously). I will post pictures to show the before and after results. Perhaps you can give me feedback and suggestions about the layout.
I should also note that Xuanyang’s relatives just arrived this afternoon from Guangdong. They were Xiaoyen, zhangrui, Fangfang, dangdang, and Huyueying. If you are familiar with Hong Kong, it is not to far from there. They speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. As guests, they prepared a delicious feast for us. One helping was enough for me and that is saying a lot since my appetite has been compared to an elephant. J
Well, it has been another busy week here at GYS and tomorrow is July 4th. I want to wish every one of you a very happy forth of July weekend. We also have plans here. I will have an explanation about that in the coming day along with everything else.
All the best,
Kevin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
