Markets and Media in 21st Century China

I've recently taken an (admittedly very amateur) interest in model photography, and China gave me no shortage of samples to work with. With new, giant architectural marvels springing up everywhere, China is eager to show them off. Both Shanghai and Beijing have urban development museums with massive basketball court-sized city models that take up entire floors of the respective buildings. (Ted Fishman described the burgeoning Shanghai model in detail in his book China, Inc.) Not to mention, many of the companies we visited had their own campus models in their in-house museums or lobbies.

So with that, here are some of the better results. I will probably put many of these on Flickr later in high resolution, so I'll post the link for that when I do. Update: Photo set now on Flickr!

Beijing urban development museum:

Geely Automotive headquarters:

Hangzhou Steel:

Three Gorges Dam:

-Alex Kraus

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Most of us didn’t know each other before this trip. Actually, a lot of us haven’t even seen each other before this trip, which is rather lame considering the size of the campus. Yet, now we have become family. Our memories belong to a family album!

The Family Album of the TIC group:

The confused looks of Chinese receptionist when faced by the Issue of Prof. Pirkle and Prof. Luecke. They travel together, they eat together, they take care of kids together, but they each have a separate room? One of those receptionists tried to set our professors straight by offering them the honeymoon suite…
Jess outrunning her new Chinese friends at 6:30 in the morning! While eating almonds!
Alisha’s unbelievable bargaining skills she manages to pull even when her hair is “out of control”!
Thomas’s Shanghai dancing moves!
Bryce’s constant use of almost perfect Chinese!
Amanda being the absolute player on the dance floor!
Kristen’s crazy basketball skills on the Chinese courts!
Christina’s sketchy meetings with “friends” outside our group, in China! Yeah right;)
Alex K.’s supa-dupa cool dancing on a moving ship!
Melissa’s unrequited love with conditioners and her odd desire to wash her hair 3 times with different shampoos!
Sarah’s “first class” in the morning and “L.O.V.E.” in the evening! She was only singing:)
Taylor’s intense concentration on the spinning meat dishes.
Ryan’s unmatched skills in preparing dumplings and throwing girls over his shoulder!
Matt’s incomprehensible for the Chinese American accent!
Katie’s walks in her bathrobe!
Caroline’s delightful loudness and (surprising;) victory in Linda’s musical chairs!
Cami’s really real barking on the Great Wall.
Alex W’s desire to stay true to the international experience even when he has to chose the animal the restaurant will “prepare” for his meal...
Maggie’s wonderful days with the best China group in the world!

Margarita Antonova

Posted by China Traveller at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The big Chinese cities, just like big cities anywhere else in the world, look kind of the same: wide avenues, public buses, green parks and laundry out of the balconies are all part of the typical view. One certain way to distinguish between cities, however, is to pay attention to the cars people drive. An especially vivid example of how specific some cars are to some cities and thus to how decentralized the country actually is, is the differences between the taxis.

In Shanghai all the cabs were VW Santana, in Wuhan – Citroën Elysee, in Beijing - Hyundai Elantra. Actually that trend reflected the fact that each model was produced by the factories of that city.

The most interesting fact about the streets of China, however, is that you can see as many American cars as European. Nowhere in the world have I seen a Peugeot right next to a Buick. Peugeot and Citroën don’t even sell in the US – an understandable but also an increasingly unwise decision since the States have a higher demand for small cars, a demand mostly Japanese owned brands satisfy. And seeing a Chrysler or a Chevy in Europe is quite an event since it is almost impossible.

It’s kind of funny – China has been trying to isolate itself from the world for years. Now it brings the world together!

Margarita Antonvoa

Posted by China Traveller at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Chinese are a rather shy nation, except when they have cheap colorful things to sell you. Then they forget all inhibitions and approach you fearlessly, even when you are moving at 15 miles an hour!

We were enjoying our rickshaw ride through the Hutong area of old houses in Beijing when the tour guide made us stop and get together to hear a short history of the place. The streets in the Hutong are very narrow and there is hardly any room between the houses. Nevertheless we were immediately surrounded by an army of sellers. They were all equipped with big bags full of everything they thought we might want to buy: bags, bags for the bags, purses, chopsticks…

Saying “no, I don’t want” or “bu yao” didn’t help. We thought we were safe once we got on the rickshaws again and our riders sped away. Suddenly, as if they were hiding them in their huge bags, the sellers got on bicycles and started chasing after us. China definitely makes you feel like a star!

When they caught up with my rickshaw, the Chinese lady pulled out two sets of 10 pairs of chopsticks. “Eighty!” she said. Was she mad? We were moving! She hardly had her hands on the bike! “Lady, lady,” she said again, “fifty!” I looked ahead. The tall brick fences were closing up making the street probably 3 feet wide. The lady disappeared, so I thought she had given up. The moment the fences opened up some more space she appeared again “Twenty, lady, twenty!”

Someone in the group said once that in China you buy even the things you don’t want just because they give a price you can’t refuse. Twenty Yuan for twenty sets of chopsticks was my price. My fear of collision between our rickshaw and the bicycle also contributed to my decision to take the deal. I only had a fifty though. So there we were moving through the narrow street along with the seller on her bike. I gave her my fifty, she gave me the chopsticks and somehow without losing her balance on the bike or anything, reached into her pocket and gave me my change.

It was the most intense purchase I have ever done!

Margarita Antonova

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