A somewhat biased view on China…
The Highest Railroad of the world has just been completed this week-end. It links Golmud in Qinhai Province to Lhasa in Tibet. The Chinese Government invested more than $3bn and 4 years in this project that is expected to boost the development of Tibet that remains one of the poorest Province of China.
This pan-Himalayan line climbs 5,072m (16,640ft) above sea level and the carriages have to be sealed in order to prevent altitude sickness, just like airplanes. The first passengers are expected to get on board next year.
On a side note, they already expect to have technical issue around 2050 because of a rise in temperature due to global climat changes…
Okay, since some people do not know the place, here is the address of one of the best Russian Restaurant in Beijing, near Ritan Park:
17 Ritan Bei Lu, Chaoyang District
???????17?
And here is the map!
No Google map since the area East of the Second Ring Road is not available… 
Today’s first page of China Daily is quite interesting… It nicely summarizes the situation in China.
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Of course, the most important news is the orbital trip of Nie Haisheng and Fei Junlong. Just another ‘normal’ day in space Everything is going fine in Shenzhou V where Astronaut Nie Haisheng spent his 41th birthday. They continue to conduct scientific experiments and also try to find the remaining defects in the spacecraft design. Shenzhou VII being expected to become almost the definitive version of China-made space vessels, Zhang Bainan - chief designer of China’s spacecraft system, said. |
Then, we have the economic disputes between emerging China and the West with another failure to solve the dispute between US and China on Textiles.
China, US fail to break the impasse in textile talks
While Europe and China succeeded to get an agreement with limiting the annual growth in 10 types of textiles to 8-12.5 per cent till the end of 2007, US would only propose a low rate that is not acceptable by China. After the failure, the Bush administration is expected to even impose restriction on a wider range of textile products.
This may seems to be a good move to protect the US manufacturers but might be a bad thing for retailers and consumers who benefit from the cheap China-made products.
The question now is, will they have to do the same with Indian Textiles in a few months?
Besides economic problems, China is also facing social problems.
Jealous man shoots students; injures 16
An unmarried man, jealous of his peers who have children, went mad and shot students in Guangde County, East China’s Anhui Province. 16 of the pupils are injured, some seriously. Villagers are saying that Liu Shibing, the suspect, is mentally unsound and threatened in the past to kill other people’s kid. But isn’t this one of the consequences of the unbalanced gender proportion in China caused by the family planning, the one family one kid policy to refrain the demographic growth of the Chinese population?
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And then, for sure, we have a news about the Olympic Games! Wushu to be part of Beijing Olympic Games This is good news for a lot of people fond of this martial arts that nicely merge fighting and esthetics. This is the first time that Wushu will be included in the Olympic Game. Medal will be awarded but will count in the official tally of nations like taekwondo and tennis. |
And then, a cultural note for the Nobel Prizes
British playwright wins Nobel literature laurels
Harold Pinter, British playwright and poet, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature awarded by the Swedish Academy. What is interesting in the way China Daily presents this news is that they first emphasize the fact that Harold Pinter in politically engaged, criticizing the United States and its war in Iraq - and the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. And then talks about his artistic works including plays such as “The Room”, “The Birthday Party”, “The Dumb Waitress” and “The Caretaker”.
Aren’t they pushing in first page a British Dissident?
Okay, enough politic for now…
Source
China Daily - Friday October 14, 2005
As Gregory Olsen - a US millionaire scientist and the first Space Tourist - just land in Northern Kazakhstan, two Chinese astronauts are preparing for a 5 days orbital flights in Gansu (??), on board of the new Shenzhou VI (????). This is the second Chinese manned flight after the Yang Liwei’s (???) 21 hours flight two years ago.
China Daily gives us the criteria of selection based on physical and psychological aspects as well as scientific and technical competences:
Ermmm… I think I don’t qualify…
Out of 14 initial candidates, 3 crews of two people were selected. Finally, Fei Junlong (???) and Nie Haisheng (???) - who were already finalist for the previous manned flight - have been chosen..
The main objective of the mission is to study the physical reaction of the crew, to improve the spacecraft as well as to perform some scientific experiments.
Update
Here is what the two atronauts said before they left:
“We have the confidence and ability to fulfil this glorious task. Our only wish is to make the mission a complete success,” Fei said before boarding the craft.
“Life in space is full of mysteries,” Nie added.
“There is nothing to worry about,” the two were quoted as saying before the launch as a light snow fell. “We will accomplish the mission resolutely. See you in Beijing.”
Indeed, see you in Beijing!
Source
China Daily - Wednesday October 12 2005
Xinjiang (新疆) is the biggest province in China for just 19 millions inhabitants. It’s really huge with at its borders: Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and also three chinese provinces: Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu.
I went there with Nicolas, you’ll see him on some pictures. I’ve known Nicolas for more than 15 years now and I hope he enjoyed the trip as much as I did.
You will see in the Gallery that we first travelled from Kashgar (喀什) along the road to Pakistan. We stayed one night in a Yurt near the Karakul Lake and another one in Tashgurgan and its Stone Castle more than 1800 years old.
Then, back to Kashgar, we travelled for three more days along the Southern Silk Road, stopping in Yarkande and Kargilik where we experienced our first Friday Mosque.
I really recommend the trip and might go back there another time. I especially would like to travel further along the road to Pakistan… Anybody wants to join?
Links
The pictures - light version
The pictures - full version
Xinjiang Province on Wikipedia
As most of you know, this week is one of the three week-long vacation in China. This time, it’s for the National Day, October 1st. Of course, a lot of Chinese people continue to work during this week but the figures are amazing, huge compared last year.
The sale of tickets for touristic sites growed more than 75% year-to-year on Saturday 1st of October. 56,100 people visited the Forbidden City that same day while 30,000 visited the Summer Palace.
The Beijing Transportation Management Bureau is expecting the sale of 92 million bus tickets and 15 million subway tickets for this week. The three subway station near the Tian An Men square had to be closed due to overcrowding.
Mu Tian Yu is a touristic portion of the Great Wall, not far from Beijing. It is quite touristic but we had a lot of fun. We had lunch in one of those fish farms along the river where we managed to get 4 fishes in less than two hours! 
After that, we stayed near the river playing freesbee. I really suggest you to look at the full version of the gallery for good, ermmmm crazy, pictures!
By the way, I’m back from my trip in Xinjiang where I spent 10 days with Nicolas, a very good friend with whom I’ve travelled in Spain, France, Vietnam and now China. I’ll put the pictures of our trip on the website really soon!
Links
The pictures - light version
The pictures - full version
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