Surviving Chinese Vehicles of Doom, I Survivor- Chinese Subways

Today I arrived in one piece and feel somewhat happy. Not happy as in ‘hip hip hooray!” But more like ‘damn I am so happy this huge hunk of tin built with knockoff tech and substandard parts actually made it to its destination’.

And as I reflect on life in China this seems to be a prevalent theme. For instance I thank the heavens for surviving:

– subway rides
-high speed rail rides
-a glass of milk with “chinese characteristics”
-a meal with “chinese characteristics”
-day glo pork
-fake pork which is really bleached beef
-cancer rice
-cardboard jao zi
-fake steamed buns
-drinking the water
-breathing the air with “chinese characteristics”

Consultant’s Observations on China

Interesting comment from Brewskie here

“Interesting thing I saw a while back: some consultant chap remarked about establishing outsourced manufacturing (from guess who? The US) to China in the ’90s, where labor was cheap, and so was construction. But, “You practically had to sleep in bed with the contractors,” he said, referring to overseeing the shops’ construction, “for the moment you took your eye off, they’d slip in cheap material you didn’t want.”

Another interesting comment from the yoke: apparently, he’s still a consultant, he’s in the same business, only this time he’s trying to move factories in China back to the US.

China to Dali- “You Cannot Die”

China has had a running feud with many people some of whom are real Chinese and some of whom are ‘kinda’ Chinese … one of those who is not really Chinese but has pissed off the ccoms to no end is the DL from TB. The saga of TB is pretty sad and you can read about it or maybe and if you really want to be depressed watch…
Now, however, China is telling the DL that he cannot reincarnate himself…wtf… ok let me get this straight or better yet let me tell a story.
How is it that the big bad wolf runs into a den that does not belong to him while telling the little cherubs inside they must be protected from the barbarians when at that time only a grand total of ten barbarians lived in said hut? Then after making several promises, the wolf devours them and their culture while making them little more than slaves…. oh but I digress, I was talking about China.
Here is some interesting news..if you are from China you would say it is 100% right and if you come from civilization you would probably just pray for them…
excerpt from here:
“China is warning the Dalai Lama he does not have the legal right to decide if he should be reincarnated. The statement comes after the 76-year-old said Saturday he plans decide when he is “about 90” whether he should be reincarnated and that China should have no say in the matter.

The Chinese foreign ministry warned the Dalai Lama Monday that only Beijing can approve his successor.”

Shanghai Subway Wreck

China had another mishap involving high speed machines made of steel. The incident was a subway crash that sent 260 people to the hospital and an unknown amount seriously injured. The wreck occurred earlier today and allegedly was caused by a signal failure that caused the trains to be run manually.The impact of this is that people with walkie-talkies had to ‘direct traffic’, a thing at which they failed miserably.
The locals are embarrassed more than anything as they now feel the cold hard reality of their poorly constructed infrastructure and what lies ahead.

( internet photo )

“Killer Chinese Buildings”- Look Out Below!-Crumbling Bricks a Boon/bane for China

China has a penchant for building things. Unfortunately they do not have a penchant for ‘giving a shit’. They would rather see something that is nice and shiny as opposed to a quality good- or so it seems. The sad truth is that Chinese buildings last on average 30 years while those in civilization last more than 70 as is the case in the US or over 100 as in England.
The following excerpt gives another glimpse into the brutal reality of crappy Chinese goods.
excerpt from here:
“The rapid growth of China’s construction sector, combined with government supervision lagging behind technological development, has led to substandard bricks entering the market and threatening the safety of buildings, Outlook Weekly reported.
Cases of bricks breaking up shortly after the completion of buildings or after purchase have been reported in Henan and Hubei provinces as well as Guangxi region, regardless of the type of bricks being used.
Xu Yenming, secretary general of the China Bricks & Tiles Industrial Association, said that if materials used to produce bricks contain high levels of calcium oxide, the bricks will begin to break down after the chemical absorbs moisture in the air.”

Africa and China

Here is what Sir Francis Galton thought of Africa and the Chinese over 100 years ago. The funny thing is that now the Chinese are colonizing Africa..

“On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today’s standards utterly offensive) new method to ‘tame’ and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent.
‘My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,’ wrote Galton.
‘I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036105/How-Chinas-taking-Africa-West-VERY-worried.html#ixzz1ZCUomcml

Checking the Styles of Shanghai

Great article from one of my favs here

“It seemed like some local clothing companies sourced fabrics here, but it also seemed like individuals could also purchase their own fabrics to make their own clothes. This seemed to be the discount bin (minus the bin), and I can understand why from the colors alone…
see more at http://www.chinesepeoplehavenostyle.com

Cool Photo of Beijing

Good photo of Beijing without pollution…