Commute to Work in China

Chinese Driving to Work

Chinese Street

To Fear the Chinese Economy or Not, Thats the Question

here is an excerpt from a great article on teh Chinese economy.

“excerpt”
” According to Goldman Sachs (GS), the U.S. stock market has outperformed the MSCI-CHINA index since 1993 by 8 percentage points per year, in spite of the tech bubble burst in 2000, the 9/11 attack, and the credit market implosion in 2007-2008.

That’s amazing. The popular perception that China is the great investment story is overhyped. The reason is that many of the largest companies are owned by the government. If the real estate bubble bursts, it may produce a rerun of 2008, when the Shanghai stock market plunged about 60%.

Is China the next great superpower? It could happen. In fact, many analysts predict that this may happen over the next 20 years. But we remember the late 1980’s when the same was said about Japan. At that time, Japan was 18% of world GDP and predictions were that Japan would become the world’s largest economy. Today, Japan and China combined are about 8% of world GDP. Japan’s economy today is the same size as 20 years ago, while the U.S. GDP has doubled.

A lot of things can happen on the path to greatness. China still has to make the transition from communism to a more democratic system. Will that happen without turmoil? Not in my opinion.”

http://blogs.forbes.com/investor/2010/12/20/chinas-coming-inflation-nightmare/

Beijing is Ranked as Having the World’s Shittiest Traffic

From IBM “(Beijing)The city, ranked as having the world’s worst traffic in a survey by International Business Machine Corp., has proposed offering public bicycles, building tunnels and possibly imposing fees for driving in parts of the Chinese capital to ease congested roads.”

Chinese History

More from my Kindle “The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) – Highlight Loc. 319-23 | Added on Saturday, October 16, 2010, 08:50 AM There are many other striking features of the Penal Code. No marriage, for instance, may be contracted during the period of mourning for parents, which in theory extends to three full years, but in practice is reckoned at twenty-seven months; neither may musical instruments be played by near relatives of the dead. During the same period, no mandarin may hold office, but must retire into private life; though the observance of this rule is often dispensed with in the case of high officials whose presence at their posts may be of considerable importance. In such cases, by special grace of the emperor, the period of retirement is cut down to three months, or even to one. ========== The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) – Highlight Loc. 324-28 | Added on Saturday, October 16, 2010, 08:51 AM The death of an emperor is followed by a long spell of national tribulation. For one hundred days no man may have his head shaved, and no woman may wear head ornaments. For twelve months there may be no marrying or giving in marriage among the official classes, a term which is reduced to one hundred days for the public at large. The theatres are supposed to remain closed for a year, but in practice they shut only for one hundred days. Even thus great hardships are entailed upon many classes of the community, especially upon actors and barbers, who might be in danger of actual starvation but for the common-sense of their rulers coupled with the common rice-pot at home. ========== [ delay +4 hours}

On Chinese law

Here are excerpts from my Kindle, the book is “The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles)” and written 100 years ago. excerpts: “Mention is made in the code of the so-called “lingering death,” according to which first one arm is chopped off, then the other; the two legs follow in the same way; two slits are made on the breast, and the heart is torn out; decapitation finishes the proceedings. ========== The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) – Highlight Loc. 307-8 | The ordinary Chinaman is not a fiend; he does not gloat in his peaceful moments, when not under the influence of extreme excitement, over bloodshed and cruelty. ========== The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) – Highlight Loc. 308-14 | The generally lenient spirit in which the Penal Code of China was conceived is either widely unknown, or very often ignored. For instance, during the excessive summer heats certain punishments are mitigated, and others remitted altogether. Prompt surrender and acknowledgment of an offence, before it is otherwise discovered, entitles the offender, with some exceptions, to a full and free pardon; as also does restitution of stolen property to its owner by a repentant thief; while a criminal guilty of two or more offences can be punished only to the extent of the principal charge. Neither are the near relatives, nor even the servants, of a guilty man, punishable for concealing his crime and assisting him to escape. Immense allowances are made for the weakness of human nature, in all of which may be detected the tempering doctrines of the great Sage. ==========

Chinese Customer Service at its Best

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Another Point of View on China’s Charitable Giving

I am going to paste a reply I got to the China’s Charitable giving piece I did. The author of the post is from this site, (.IlookChina.net). Typically I would let the comment lie in the appropriate section, but have been kicking China’s butt lately and thus wish to post some positivity, or the other side of the coin.

comment about giving by L Lofthouse
“Historically, charity isn’t something that played a large role in Chinese culture. Under Confucianism, it was the Emperor’s responsibility to feed the people if there was a famine and provide security against invasion and insurrection. Emperors and Dynasties that didn’t do that had short life spans and often were replaced after a successful rebellion.

If there was any charity, it came from the government without giving any money. There is an example of this different form of Confucian responsibility in the October 1912 issue of the National Geographic Magazine. When a cholera epidemic broke out in Tibet, the Emperor sent a medical expedition there in 1907. In 1912, the doctor in charge, who stayed in Tibet tending to the needy and ill, wrote the piece for NGM. He also took many photos.

In addition, if you pay attention, you will see that when an earthquake happens in China or a flood, the military arrives quickly in the thousands and sometimes more. Even though China’s military appears huge, several hundred thousand are put to work building roads and being sent where needed when there is a catastrophe. I understand this segement of the Chinese military numbers about half a million.

However, since the big 2008 earthquake, charity has started to slowly appear in China. I don’t recall his name, but the famous Chinese basketball player in the US started a charity that serves the needy in China. He says he “learned” about charity from a fellow basketball player in the US. Then, with help, he started a charitable foundation to improve education in rural China and there is a Website.

Recently, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet traveled to China to meet with China’s new super wealthy and encourage them to donate to charity. China’s government also attempted to encourage the newly minted super wealthy to give. The turnout wasn’t big but a few did show up to have lunch with two of America’s wealthiest men and promised to give.

Since the Western concept of charity and giving is new to China, there is still a lot of distrust this could be a way to steal money from hard working people. It will take time to see if this concept is adopted by Chinese culture. After all, Buddhism came to China and became part of the culture and is the largest religion in China today.

In fact, prosperous private companies in the major cities have been encouraged by the government to help rural villages improve their lifestyles, which led to these companies raising money to build underground cisterns to store water in remote Western China where there is a drought and shortage of water. I wrote a post about this and at least a million villages have received underground water storage so villages don’t run out of water during the dry season.

I suspect for Western style charity to catch on, word of mouth will have to spread how it helps so others will give and trust that their donation will do some good.”

Real Rabies, Fake Vaccine in China

Sad story about some bad meds from China.

Check out the end where it says that the Chinese pharma industry is lucrative but poorly regulated. No shit, selling salt water instead of a vaccine for the same price can be quite lucrative.

The Associated Press Monday, December 20, 2010; 8:00 AM

BEIJING — China’s state news agency says eight people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to two-and-a-half years for selling fake rabies vaccines that contributed to the death of one boy.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday a court in southwestern Guangxi region sentenced Zhang Dazhi to 30 months’ jail while seven others were handed one-year prison terms.

Xinhua says the eight defendants sold more than 530 doses of fake rabies vaccines between August and December last year. It says the vaccines were made of mostly just water.

Police started investigations after a 5-year-old boy died of rabies in December last year despite receiving six vaccine injections. China’s pharmaceutical industry is lucrative but often poorly regulated.”