Archive for the 'China' Category

Excuses

Published by
Steve
at October 7, 2008 in Blogging, China and news. 4 Comments

I know, it’s been real quiet around here at stevewebel.com, there are a few reasons for this.  Besides being extremely busy, I just haven’t been able to get motivated to post anything here.  This is mostly due to the issue that my last post cryptically refers to… milk in China.  It’s depressing.
Toxic?

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Cabinet vowed a complete overhaul of the scandal-ridden dairy industry Monday, pledging to inspect every link from the farm to the dinner table to try to restore public trust in Chinese-made food products. 

In its strongest action yet, China’s highest level of government called the industry “chaotic” and acknowledged there was a lack of oversight.

为什么?

Published by
Steve
at September 19, 2008 in China, Food, Health and news. 6 Comments

 

(ABC News)

Some Assembly Required

Published by
Steve
at September 14, 2008 in China, Family and Webel. 3 Comments

Okay, I finally managed to get Erica’s birthday present.  (I know, her birthday was July 20th!  Trust me, I’ve been trying!)

In order to get it, I had to go to Changsha about a two hour drive away.  Because we’ve been so busy lately, the only time I could go was last night.  Long story short, I got home last night around 11:30.

Unfortunately Erica was not able to use it right away - there was some assembly required…

I finally figured it out.  Thankfully there was a manual in English!  (Although I sometimes wonder about the engineers who write manuals - do they really know English all that well themselves…)

Side note:  There were ELEVEN manuals that came with our elliptical machine!  Yes, the box contained, along with about a million parts, eleven manuals, each in a different language!

I don’t read Chinese too well, but something interesting I noticed.  There was a discrepancy between the English and the Chinese under the ‘Tools Required’ section.  In the English manual, it said I would need a rubber mallet, an adjustable wrench, a phillips head screwdriver, and a set of hex wrenches.

The Chinese manual suggested a blunt object, a pair of chopsticks, a toothpick, and a bag of concrete.  Don’t ask…

The “Redeem Team!”

Published by
Steve
at August 11, 2008 in China, Olympics, Sports and USA. 1 Comment

I just finished watching the USA basketball team (aka The Redeem Team) finish off Yao Ming and the rest of China’s team by the score of 101 to 70.

Despite this being China’s ‘home crowd’, the cheering seemed enthusiastic for both teams. China put up a spirited fight in the first half, but just couldn’t keep up in the second half.

I was personally impressed by how ‘clean’ everyone played, I’ve been so turned off by the NBA, because of all of the “thugs” who seem to do whatever they want with little or no consequences, that I was very pleasantly surprised by the sportsmanship shown by both teams.

08.08.08

Published by
Steve
at August 8, 2008 in China, Olympics and news. 3 Comments

Well, the big day has arrived…  The day of the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

I feel like I should tell my Chinese friends, “Ok, everyone can breathe now.”  This day has been so highly anticipated for so long, I’m afraid there is going to be some let-down when things don’t live up to the unrealistic expectations many have manufactured for the 2008 Summer Games.

     With the Olympics finally coming to China, tens of thousands of young people have rushed to marry or deliver babies.

    The Games are due to open on Friday, or 08/08/08. “Eight” is a lucky number among the Chinese, and many couples plan to tie the knot on the “triple 8 day.” Civil affairs authorities have predicted that Friday could set a one-day record for marriages since 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded.

As a lucky day, 08/08/08 is also a favorite for many pregnant women. In central Chinese city of Changsha, Hunan Province, several hospitals have increased the number of beds for expectant mothers.

    ”I want to have an Olympics baby on Aug. 8. It is such a special day worth remembering,” said a 38-year-old woman surnamed Xie at the Hunan Provincial Maternal and Children Health Hospital.

    At the request of Xie and several other expectant mothers, doctors will help them undergo Caesarean births on Friday, said a head nurse surnamed Li at the hospital.

    ”We advised them that natural births are better, but they are eager to have Olympic babies,” Li said.

If all of this strikes you as a bit over the top, well it may be, but it’s also exactly the way the Chinese want it to be.

It appears that the Chinese are not the only ones taking advantage of “triple 8 day”, President George Bush attended the dedication of the 600,000-square-foot US embassy in Beijing with his father, former President George H.W. Bush. The elder Bush once served as U.S. ambassador to China.

As many of you know, thanks in part to the 2008 Olympics, I am in Hong Kong right now working on getting visas for my family and I to live in China.  What would have normally been a simple process, has become a bit of a red-tape nightmare.

It’s not all bad though.  I LOVE Hong Kong, so if I have to be ’stuck’ somewhere, this is the place!

Oh, and there is a bit of Olympic spirit here, nearly 1,000 miles south of Beijing, as the equestrian events of the Olympic games are all being held here in Hong Kong.

Internet Addiction

Published by
Steve
at August 4, 2008 in China, Culture, Health, Internet and news. 2 Comments

Medill News Service reports that the Internet has become an out-of-control habit for more and more people. In fact, experts say that Internet addiction is a growing psychological and behavioral problem.

It’s estimated that 5% to 10% of Americans may be addicted to the Internet – that could mean as many as 30 million people. And, it’s an even bigger problem in other parts of the world. As many as 30% of the people living in China, Korea and Taiwan may be hooked.

Rubber DuckieSounds like ‘quackery‘ to me. An additional revenue source for psychologist who make their living convincing wealthy people they are sick in one way or the other and that they can get better by coughing up some cash and sitting through some ’sessions.’

I don’t deny that some folks may have issues, my guess though is that it’s a problem that goes deeper than “the internet.”  

The percentages don’t even make sense.  The report from ‘experts’ say that “30% of the people in China” are suffering from internet addiction…  Based on the number of people in China who use the internet (38% according to the Pew Research Center), that would mean just about every person who uses the internet in China is also addicted to it…  I don’t think so.

I guess with $4 dollar gas, everyone has to find new ways to get by.  Airlines do this by charging for things you thought you already had paid for, it seems psychologists do this by inventing new ‘illnesses.’

Starbucks in Hunan - Sorry, No Listing

Published by
Steve
at July 25, 2008 in China, Coffee and Starbucks. 3 Comments

Oh Starbucks, when will you come to Hunan?  I would love it if you would come to Yueyang, but I realize that’s not realistic, so Changsha will do.

After all, you have about 2 billion Starbucks in the rest of the coffee drinking world, so why not come to Hunan?  There are 65 million people here who don’t even know yet that they love coffee.  You need to do your humanitarian service and open a coffee shop or two.

Oh, don’t misunderstand me, there IS coffee in Hunan already.  But by-and-large, it’s gross and overpriced.  The beans are usually burnt and stale, then when they brew it, they murder the taste.  After all that, they want $4+ for a thimble sized cup.  It’s sad, very sad when the best cup of coffee in town, at the best value (outside of my personal kitchen,) is obtained at McDonalds…

In the spirit of full disclosure, I also have to tell you, a couple of weeks ago,shortly after I returned to China from several months in Texas, I was making my way through one of the three grocery stores here in Yueyang that sometimes have ‘imported’ goods and I saw the logo that my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, can spot even in the most crowded of strip malls in Texas or shopping centers in Hong Kong.  It was the round and green STARBUCKS logo on a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino.

The price was high, very, very high.  It didn’t matter, I was in shock - I bought two.  (One for me, one for my wife Erica who actually likes Frappuccinos more than me.)  Could this be true, Starbucks in Yueyang?  Who cares if it comes in a bottle and was made three months ago… it’s Starbucks in Hunan!

Starbucks on the Great WallHowever, since that fateful day, there has not been a Frappuccino in sight, nowhere.  (I wonder who in the world bought all of those other bottles in just two short weeks?  Did I mention earlier that they were EXPENSIVE?)

There are places I can go within the vast borders of China to obtain a Grande Peppermint Latte or sometimes a Hazelnut Latte.  In the picture on the left, you can see me enjoying a beautiful cup of coffee on the Great Wall of China!

However, there is nothing nearby.  Not even close.  So I call out to Starbucks…

Please open a Starbucks in Changsha!

What I Did Today

Published by
Steve
at July 23, 2008 in China, Health and Travel. 6 Comments

I spent the better part of my day today getting this;

This is my “Certificate of Health Examination for International Traveller”

It all started with a phone call on Monday saying that I had to have my “Health Exam” done before the University could move forward with preparing the documents I need to process our family’s work visas for China.

This is important, and time is of the essence, so I moved on it immediately.  As I was sorting out the details, it turned out Erica needed to get this “Health Exam” too.  She was not thrilled.

One of the reasons this was ‘inconvenient’ for us is that we couldn’t get this exam done in the city we lived.  We had to go to Changsha, the provincial capital that is about 2 hours away.  Thankfully, we have some friends in town who could watch the kids for us (bringing them on this trip would have been quite the ordeal!)

We left at 7:30am and returned home around 5:45pm - with our certificates in hand.  Whew!

China’s First ‘Official’ Apple Store

Published by
Steve
at July 21, 2008 in Apple and China. 3 Comments

 

Over the weekend, something exciting happened… well, at least it was exciting for me.  Apple opened it’s first ‘official’ Apple Store in China.  (Beijing of course.)

 

Beijing, China

The two-level store store opened July 19th in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district at 10 a.m., Apple’s 219th worldwide. 

“This is the first of many stores we will open in China,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, in remarks at the store. He later added that Apple will open stores “in Beijing, in Shanghai and beyond,” and confirmed that another store will open in Beijing’s Qianmen area, a shopping street south of Tiananmen Square that has been renovated ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin next month.

The store will offer Genius Bar services in Chinese and English, said John Ford, the store’s manager, with support in some other languages available, including German.

Yao Ming is back, sorta

Published by
Steve
at July 19, 2008 in China, Olympics and Sports. 2 Comments

 

Yao Ming played his first game in almost five months after a foot surgery, helping China beat Serbia 96-72 at the Stankovic Continental Cup here on Thursday.

The game was Yao’s first since a stress fracture in his left foot ended his NBA season in February and threatened his return as part of China’s team.

Yao returned to light training late last month after X-rays and an MRI scan taken in Houston showed his recovery was on schedule, at about 80 percent healed. Such injuries usually take a year to fully heal.

The injury has caused major concern among China’s Olympic organizers expecting him to become the face of the games and his return was certain to help them sleep easier. Yao is considered a leading candidate to carry the Olympic torch on its final leg into Beijing’s grandiose new National Stadium.