Not such ‘lucky’ coins

Last week the Chinese media was busy commenting on the case of an elderly woman called Mrs Qiu, 80 years old and with limited mobility, she was going on her first flight accompanied by some family members.

The flight was on China Southern Airlines CZ380 from Shanghai’s Pudong airport to Guangzhou. The plane was on the ‘apron’ at the airport so the 150 passengers were bused to it from the airport buildings, and then had to board by climbing the attached stairway.

Half-way up the stairway, Mrs Qiu threw nine coins towards one of the engines – “to prevent disaster and make it a lucky flight”.  Eight coins fell on the ground but one fell into the engine.

The flight was due to take off at 12.40pm, but Mrs Qiu’s actions meant that the flight had to be delayed as if they had taken off, a coin in one of the jet engines could have caused a catastrophic failure. It took until 4.35pm for the engine to be thoroughly searched and the coin retrieved. The flight finally took off at 6.16 pm.

I would imagine that everyone – passengers, captain and crew, airport officials, etc were totally pissed-off with the situation.  Mrs Qiu was arrested and charged with endangering a flight.

The value of the coins she threw amounted to 1.7 yuan – approximately 19p in British money.

Latest info is that she has been given a suspended sentence, and that China Southern Airlines will not let her fly with them again. Not surprising really.

PANDA PORN

What I do to keep you all up to date with what is going on in China beggars belief.

Recently I read -in the Chinese press –  about the latest initiative in the battle to get panda’s to procreate.  Bare in mind that most adult male pandas like nothing more than sitting around munching on bamboo, and the adult females are much the same.

They are the couch potatoes of the animal world.  The idea of conjugal relations hardly ever enters their heads.

So some bright spark came up with the idea of Panda Pornography!

I kid you not… apparently male pandas when shown video footage of other pandas getting it away, get the idea and become more sexually active.

Yes, that is the plan; actually it is quite an old plan and has been active for a year or two. And it has had some results, but not overwhelmingly good results.

The new twist is that a ‘well known pornography website’ has offered cash rewards to its members if they will dress up as pandas and indulge in some ‘Panda porn’  then post it on-line to help male pandas to get their mojo going and do the biz.

Honestly folks, I am not making this up!

What ever it takes, if it results in more baby pandas, I’m all for it!

 

Sunday roast – haunch of Chinese Water Deer?

Last weekend I was enjoying a skype chat with my old school friend Marj who now lives in Norfolk (UK); she mentioned that her partner had been given a piece of Chinese Water Deer (CWD) to cook by someone who shoots locally. She asked me if I’d eaten it in China.

Well, no I hadn’t, and what is more I’d never heard of it.  Time for some investigating..and very interesting it turned out to be.

Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis inermis) are native to China and some parts of South Korea. They are a small stocky animal fairly similar to the Musk Deer. As their name suggests they live in the tall reeds and grasses of wetlands or marshy areas beside streams and rivers, where they feed on the  rushes, sedges, and coarse grasses which grow in such places.

They are the only type of deer where the male does not produce antlers, but they have something else – tusks  – two long canine teeth which protrude about 2-3 inches below the deer’s mouth.  Because of this they are often referred to as Vampire Deer.

Although they are not an ‘endangered’ species in China, the population is considered vulnerable, therefore they are protected. In fact there are now almost as many CWD in England where the population is increasing as there are in China where they are in decline.

So how is it that they are now living and being hunted in East Anglia?

Back in the 19th Century, Herbrand Russell 11th Duke of Bedford acquired new species for the deer park at his stately home Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. He collected 42 varieties of dear from around the world, and in 1896 some

Chinese Water Deer were added to the park.  At the time several managed to escape and it is from these escapees that the wild population has grown.

Most venison has little if any fat, but the CWD has a thick layer of fat across its back which means that the meat is less dry than venison from other species. Some people claim it tastes more like lamb than venison.  What did you and Nick think Marj?

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Would you allow your kids to do this?

Over the time I have been blogging I have often mentioned the traffic in Beijing.

The city has a population of well over 25 million (the government are trying to cut it back to 22 million as the total number) This number of people has generated a huge number of cars – approximately 5 million!  – not counting  lorries, government cars, vans, bicycles, rickshaws, huge pantechnicons , delivery tri-bikes, etc.etc.

Needless to say, this melange of traffic causes many problems – traffic jams, accidents etc.  When out and about in BJ I am very careful crossing roads because many drivers ignore red lights when turning, and even jump red lights at intersections.

As a pedestrian you have to be on the alert at all times.

Chinese pedestrians who are waiting to cross junctions often pay no heed to the ‘little red man’ warning them not to cross. The traffic situation is dire, and there are many accidents.

So – some bright spark in the Beijing Traffic Department (I assume that is the name of the body) has come up with a whizzo idea.

Dress school kids in red/orange/green outfits, to emulate a traffic light, then teach them a song and dance and send them out to stand in the middle of the six most dangerous road junctions in the city. This will apparently shame drivers into stopping until the light changes in their favour….really?!!

What? WHAT!!!!! are they crazy? do we want to see dead school kids anytime soon?

I think not.

Apparently the kids have been selected from state schools which are located near these junctions. Do their parents even  know what they are doing?

 

The USA has always had a love/hate relationship with China.

 

Next week China’s president, Xi JinPing, is going on a Official Visit to the USA. Many Chinese are shocked that he will not be received at the White House, and that his meetings with President Donald Trump are to be held at Trump’s commercial leisure club in Florida, Mar-a-Largo.

Firstly they think this is disrespectful to President Xi, and secondly, the Chinese know all about government corruption, and they can see it a mile off… Trump’s place in Florida, and his insistence on using it for State business smacks of corruption to them.

Having said that, the Chinese admire America more than almost any other country, and are enamoured of all things American. They have been, and still are, the beneficiaries of much goodwill shown by America and its people; whereas many US citizens fear and distrust China because it is a Communist state, and their knowledge of China is very limited and often distorted.

The complex relationship between America and China goes back many, many years.  When the first Chinese started coming across the Pacific Ocean in the 1800s and found work building America’s railroads, they were deeply resented even though their labour was needed. Hence the passing of the Anti-Coolie Act 1862. ( I wrote a whole blog post about this back in 2012 and you can read it here.)

At more-or-less the same time, American evangelical missionaries were all over China like a rash – trying to convert the Chinese to their various brands of Christianity.  This evangelism was one of the major triggers of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900AD,  where hundreds of foreigners were slaughtered.  The Foreign Concession in Beijing was besieged by the Boxers. The siege subsequently became the subject of a film, ’55 Days at Peking’, starring Ava Gardener and Charlton Heston.                                             Both before and after that episode, Americans were trading with China and making fortunes.

One of those Americans was John D. Rockefeller, who was only 24 years old when did his first deal with the Chinese in 1863, selling them Kerosene. He developed an abiding interest in China.  As a result, in 1916 the Rockefeller Foundation funded the Peking Union Medical College Hospital  which was based on the John Hopkins Hospital in Boston which was leading the field in medical modernisation. PUMCH took over a smaller hospital, provided bigger and better buildings, both for the treatment of patients and for the training of medical students. The very latest in western medicine was taught in English, and the hospital and its teaching role went from strength to strength.  Financially the Rockefeller Foundation continued giving unstinting support.

In 1949 when the 2nd World War had ended and Mao Zedong created the new People’s Republic of China, the hospital was told that it was being re-named ‘The Capital University of Medical Sciences Hospital‘ and that all teaching should henceforth be in Mandarin. Fair enough.  Apart from that, it went on as before. A few years later it had a new name change: ‘The Anti-Imperialist Hospital‘ (!!!)

However when the horrible, violent chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976) happened, the hospital was completely shut down. Some of the renowned doctors, teachers and professors were brutally treated, but on the whole it survived more-or-less intact.

After that ghastly period, the hospital picked itself up and got back to work.  It was now allied to Tsinghua University, so medical students do their first years studying biology, chemistry, physiology etc at the University before moving to the medical school at the hospital. Their medical degrees are now bestowed by Tsinghua University.  That university owes its existence to President Theodore  Roosevelt; because, in 1911 following the Boxer Rebellion, China was forced to pay an indemnity to the USA, it was a huge amount of money. Roosevelt cut the amount expected, on the proviso that the remaining monies would fund a new university in China, and so Tsinghua University came into being.

In 1985 the hospital/medical school decided to reclaim their original, pre-1949, name and so today it is once again called ‘Peking Union Medical College‘. Through all these vicissitudes they have had the backing and advice of the Rockefeller Foundation which founded and mentored them.  Indeed, when you enter one of the old original buildings of the hospital – built in 1916, and now used for administrative offices, archives, libraries and conference rooms – one of the first things you will see in the entrance foyer is a bronze head and shoulders bust of John D.Rockefeller.

So, at the same time that Trump and other factions in the USA are being bellicose about China (its the word Communism that gets them every time!), the TOP western medical hospital in China, which is also China’s pre-eminant medical school, is thriving thanks to its links to the USA.

You may wonder why I have chosen this hospital as my example of how America and Americans have cared for China.

The answer is simple, it is because my bedroom, living room and study all look out onto the old buildings of the 1916 hospital.  I am very lucky.

Many who live in Beijing look out of their windows and only see the new modern city with its glittering skyscrapers, the dreary old Russian influenced buildings of the 50s & 60s, or busy roads. I see a very state-of-the art  building to our extreme right, and contrasting with that, I see the green-glazed traditional tiles and design of the original PUMC buildings (their big modern hospital building is off to one side) surrounded by beautiful trees. And all this within a hop-skip and jump of Tian’anmen Square.

It makes me aware that I am in China.  I love it.

Beansprout salad – so good!

In Chinese cuisine it is not usual to eat food that is raw. So the idea of salads composed of uncooked vegetables is not at all traditional. Of course they DO have salads but most ingredients would have been slightly cooked – or at the very least, blanched.

Being an uncivilized laowai, I love raw salads and here is the recipe for one I make regularly. It is particularly good made here in China because I can buy really fresh, pre-cleaned beansprouts.                                                                                                             The salad goes particularly well with grilled fish or meat.

If you live in the UK you can pick up a bag of beansprouts at most of the big supermarkets or local greengrocers,or in an Asian market; but they are possibly a day or two old, and will need some attention to remove the brown growing tip and any damaged sprouts, then you should soak them for 30mins in cold water and drain well before using.

CRUNCHY FRESH BEANSPROUT SALAD

For 2 greedy people

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                            300g fresh beansprouts.                                                                                                                       1 medium carrot, scraped or peeled and cut into long, fine batons.                                      1 medium red romano pepper, deseeded and cut into long fine batons.                                                                                                                                                                          2 small snacking cucumbers (or one medium sized ordinary cucumber) cut into smallish pieces.                                                                                                                                      3-4 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced, both white and green parts.                            3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves.

    For the dressing:

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar                                                                                                         2 Tablespoons soy sauce                                                                                                                      1 Tablespoon vegetable oil ( sunflower, corn oil etc. NOT olive oil)                                                                                                                                                               1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil (available in all good supermarkets)                                                                                                                                        1 Tablespoon tomato ketchup (I know this seems a weird addition but it makes all thedifference, trust me!).

Whisk all together.

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Prepare all the vegetables for the salad and put into a salad bowl. If you prepare them an hour or so in advance, put the bowl in a cool place with a damp tea-towel over it to stop them drying out.

Add the whisked dressing just before serving, toss well.  Enjoy!

Obviously all the quantities for the veggies are approximate, you can up or down them, or add other stuff. If you want a slight kick in the dressing add half a teaspoon of chilli sauce, or to your taste! The main thing is to have lots of beansprouts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whodunnit? Murder most foul in Chongqing.

In November 2011 the local papers covered the unexpected death of a British expat, Neil Heywood, whose body had been found in a hotel room in Chongqing.  The papers said that Mr Heywood, an Old Harrovian aged 41 who had lived in China for several years and had a Chinese wife and two young children, was thought to have died from a heart attack following a heavy drinking session.

Neil Heywood was well known in the British expat community in Beijing. He was a fairly flamboyant character who drove a Jaguar with a Union Jack GB sticker on the bumper and seemed to have a charmed life. His business was to work for high worth， politically connected Chinese individuals and help them with their business schemes in the UK.

In fact his most important client (only client??) was Gu Kailai the wife of an extremely  senior politician Bo Xilai.

At the time of Heywood’s death, Bo Xilai was Party Secretary of Chongqing (I should explain that Chongqing is one of China’s largest cities with a population of  just over 30 million).   Bo Xilai was a very famous and charismatic neo-Maoist politician with a huge popular following. Like the current President, Xi Jinping, he was what is known as ‘Red Nobility’, ie: his family’s commitment to the Chinese Communist Party went back to the earliest days of the nation. Without a doubt he was in a position where he might eventually be considered as Premier or President, and it seemed to many that that was his ambition.

All in all Heywood was working for/aiding some seriously important individuals.

A few weeks after the announcement of Heywood’s death, cremation and burial (without an autopsy) – to everyone’s amazement –Wang Lijun, who was Bo Xilai’s lieutenant and the Chief of Police in Chongqing, fled under cover of darkness to the American Consulate in the city of Chengdu. There he told American officials that Neil Heywood had been murdered, poison had been forcibly administered. Furthermore he said that the local authorities, police, hotel management etc had been ordered to cover up the situation.

Wow, wow and double wow! what a story…was Wang Lijun speaking the truth, or not?  What had really happened to Neil Heywood and why?

Two nights ago we went to a talk at the Beijing International Society,  which holds regular talks for those who have ‘foreign’ passports. The speaker we went to hear was Carrie Gracie, an old China hand, fluent in Mandarin and the BBC’s China News editor.

Carrie recently created a five part podcast about the murder of Neil Heywood, and as far as I can tell, every expat in Beijing is listening avidly!

Her evening with BIS was a wonderful opportunity, not to hear the story – you can do that by listening to the podcast (and I have carefully avoided any spoilers) – but to tell us why she had felt the urge to go into the story now after almost six years had elapsed; how she had approached the task; what her bosses at the Beeb had felt about her tackling ‘old’ news; how she had managed to get interviews with key players against the odds. It was absolutely fascinating.

We all have a trace of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple within us, so I urge you to download and listen to Carrie’s podcast series (its gripping) and see what conclusion you come to!