Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

What is your travel plan for the new year?
I will be checking out a few new countries in South America - Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Beauty Trends in China

The definition of beauty can very different world wide. Here in North America, thin body frame and tan skin are symbols of beauty and health. However, in some African countries, being voluptuous is the lusted-after shape. In China, there are many beauty trends that are totally unheard of in here.

Chinese women are obsessed with their eyes. Forget coloured contact lenses, what about lenses to make you look like a Japanese anime character. These are contacts with a black circle that when popped into your eyes will add onto the circumference of the pupil. They are suppose to create the illusion of giant doey eyes that take up half of your face.

The most popular plastic surgery procedure in China is not the lipo suction, it is the double eye lid surgery. Never heard of it? That is not surprising. Not too many non-Asians need to have this surgery. About half of the Asian population does not have an upper-eyelid crease. For those who do, the crease falls about 7 mm above the lash-line, whereas for Caucasians, the crease falls about 11 mm above it. The procedure involves cutting away small amounts of fat, tissue and skin to form a higher or new crease.

In China, you will be very hard pressed to find a tanning salon or self-tanner products. In fact, I don't even think there is a Chinese phase for the activity of tanning unless you are referring to leather making. Being tanned in China has a terrible and old stigma associated with it. It means one worked outside as a labour or farmer and not of upper class. There is an old Chinese saying "Being paler will cover 3 ugly spots" (一白遮三丑). No wonder Chinese women, even some men go through great length to stay fair skinned. Expensive cream, powder, pills and dermatological treatments are all part of the estimated $18 billion dollar skin whitening market. More than 60 global companies like Dior and Clinque are competing for a share.

(photo courtesy of www.yinyangskinscience.com)

Internet Culture in China

Internet is probably one of the most important inventions since slice of bread (or steam rice in my case). I got my first 386 PC in 1992. In 1997, I went back to China for the first time after moving to Canada. No one in China has ever heard of or have seem the Internet, even though China was already online since 1994 which also was the same year I registered for my very own hotmail account and became addicted to chat rooms (before it was a dangerous and creepy internet corner for a 15 year old).

During my visit in 2003, although people knew what internet was, it was still not wildly used. Only 68 million users. That is about 5% of the population. And then it seems like it just explored over night. Today China has well over 420 million internet users (32% of the population) and it is growing at an almost double digit rate annually. Every half of a block you can easily find an Internet cafe. The cafes are usually not just a couple of rows of computers instead they are at least 10 by 10 rows and dozens of private rooms you can book at a sight higher rate. In the evenings, they will be full of students and young people playing online games, watching movies and chatting away. (photo courtesy of www.msn.com)

Chinese Internet community is obsessed with "Human Flesh Search" which is an internet phenomenon of massive researching using blogs and forums for the purpose of identifying and exposing individuals to the public. The search can be about passing around pictures of beautiful people with ordinary lives, expressing Chinese nationalistic sentiment, or breaking the Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China. Stars can be born over night and lives can be destroyed in an instant in the Chinese cyber world. A young woman was caught on camera taking off her red jacket during one of President Obama's town hall meetings in Shanghai. More than 6.9 million results showed up on the Internet search engine Google over the "Obama Girl in the Red Coat", with countless other discussion forums on the woman. She was offered many opportunities for commercials and modeling gigs through her crazy 15 minute of fame.

Can't talk about China's internet world without the mention of the "Great Fire Wall" of China. Internet censorship is very real, very much alive and thriving. The central government has a very tight control over the flow of information on the internet and they are not apologizing for it. In fact, no one in China can read this blog! And if Chinese net citizens are allowed to access Facebook, its users would double to almost 1 billion users. Most popular social network websites are banned in China. Instead they cloned their own facebook called xiaonei.com or Chinese Twitter called fanfou.com.

In general, the Chinese is still very reserved or even guarded due to its culture and political climate. Even with censorship, Internet still gives them a certain amount of freedom to speak their mind and blow off steam with anonymity more than ever. It is no wonder Internet has gain tremendous popularity in China in a such short period of time that is reminiscent of the dot com bubble era. But I think this bubble is not bursting anytime soon.

Travel vs Vacation

Most people think travel and vacation are two of the same activities. People may use their "vacation" time to travel. But you are not vacationing when you are traveling. So I always argue (usually the only one) they are very different. Here are the dictionary definitions:

Vacation: Leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure
Travel: The act of going from one place to another

Vacation to me means I am staying in one spot like a beach and doing as little as possible. Travel on the other hand is very exciting with constant motion which can be tiring and even stressful. My mind and body are constant simulated by history, stories, culture, ruins, hikes, churches, temples and conversations. One of my favourite things is taking a mini vacation in the middle of my travels. I highly recommend doing that when planning your travels. In South East Asia, I made sure to fit in some R&R under the Phuket sun; in East Africa, it was a few days on the beaches of Zanzibar.

To me, travel is a lot more than just about going from one place to another. Travel is about learning and gaining perspectives. Growing up, my parents told me this old Chinese fable about a frog in the well (井底之蛙).

There was once a frog who lived in a well. It was happy and grateful with the spacious well he called home. One day an old turtle who lived by the sea passed by the well and chatted up with the frog who lived in the well. The turtle told the stories of the ocean's vastness and wonders. But the frog couldn't believe such a place could exist. How could there possibly anything be better than the well?

The rain had came down hard this year and raised the water level of the well. The frog took the opportunity to finally leap out of the well. Moved by curiosity, the first thing the frog did was to visit the sea. It was awestruck by endless openness of it all. When it returned to the well, it was still a happy frog & grateful for its home, but a bit uneasy now it knew how much larger reality was than its tiny precious well.

Chinese Food Culture

Anyone who knows me knows I am a big foodie. After all, loving food is part of my culture and is part of who I am. Chinese food culture is over 5000 year old and is laced into every facet of Chinese person's life.

Every dish served at a Chinese dinner table has to have good symbolism. Instead of a birthday cake, the Chinese eat birthday noodles on their birthdays. The long strands symbolize longevity. For Chinese New Year feast fish is a must since the word sounds like the homophonic word for abundance. The Chinese also love to give their dishes very poetic names (but sometimes really confusing when translated into English directly). Chicken forms part of the a good luck symbol of the phoenix, so the well known dim sum dish Chicken's feet is actually referred to as "Phoenix feet".

Meatballs are referred to as "Lion head". A Sichuan dish called "Ants Climbing a Tree" is just minced beef with bean thread noodles.

The Chinese believes the main meat ingredient of the dish will help you improve particular parts of your body. For example: eating pig's liver will make your liver healthier. In Beijing, there is a very famous restaurant named Guolizhuang (锅里壮) which can be directly translated as "Manliness in a pot". It specialises in animal penises. Yes, you read correctly. You can imagine what this body part is suppose to help you with. This is very popular with the gentleman customers.

(deer penis on a gold platter garnished with lettuce!)

When cooking an animal is important to the Chinese not to waste anything that is edible. Keeping the body of the animal whole is also very crucial. You will see fish, chicken and duck heads and feet all make it to the table along with its body. The head is not only believe to be the tastiest, but also often reserved for the eldest or most honoured guest at the table.

We even greet in terms of food. The phrase "你吃了吗？" which means "Have you eaten yet?" is equivalent of asking someone "how are you?". Instead the reply of "I am fine", you say "I have eaten." no matter what time of the day.

When I hosted my wedding rehearsal dinner last year, we had prepared just enough food for everyone. However, this was to my mother's horror: no leftover meant the guest did not have enough to eat. Having plenty of food is showing respect for your guests. Here are other dinner table etiquette/culture such as:

• must try everything (even just a little bit) on the table
• never take more than 1 item at a time
• sometimes Chinese diners will slurp their soup or burp after a meal. You can too.
• when offered the last piece in the dish, you should always decline at least 2 or 3 times before accepting it
• it is ok to answer the phone during dinner
• it is ok to stand up and reach for food
• never stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl (actually don't play with your chopsticks at all including air drumming)

(Photo courtesy of Xinhua)

10 Things I Love About China

Photos from my personal collection.

10. Fishing for your own lunch in rural Beijing

9. KFC the Chinese Version.

8. Outdoor Dancing (by the Bund in Shanghai)



7. Star Rated Public Toilets (this one in the Forbidden Palace is rated 4 stars)



6. Not Obeying Funny Chingrish Signs
(`Stop Climbing the Cliff`from Yellow Mountain and `Relic Protected, No Scratch`in the Forbidden Palace)



5. Roadside Fine Dining
(Best meal I ever had! Seafood District in Pudong, Shanghai)



4. Food, Food, Food and Food. All the yummy food!
(on the left are Hairy Legged Crabs and on the right is a Peking Duck Feast)



3. and food you didn`t think is edible.
(Star Fish on the left and scorpion on the right. All deliciously presented in stick format)



2. Tobogganing down the Great Wall



1. China, you are simply beautiful.

UNESCO List = My New Bucket List

Through my travels, the term "UNESCO World Heritage Site" is heard a lot. UNESCO stands for United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization. An UNESCO World Heritage Site is a man-made or natural place listed by UNESCO that significantly contributes to world culture. The list consists of 911 sites around the world. Italy might be a small country by area. With 45 listed, it is home to the greatest number of world heritage sites. Followed by Spain with 42 sites, China is in third with 40 sites. As one of the 4 ancient cultures, China's well knowns such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Sichuan Panda Sanctuaries made the list. Lesser known sites such as the Longmen Grottoes, Danxia, Ancient village of Hongcun and etc are usually the domestic favourite spots.

(Grottoe, Danxia and Hongcun Photos courtesy of http://www.unesco.org/)

Although a long list, I have made it my new bucket list. I even made myself an excel sheet to help me keep track where and when I have been. I will upload a copy on my website in a couple of weeks; so check back. The world is truly a wondrous place and life is too short not to explore it as much as I can.

For a complete list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites click here.

The Poverty behind the Neon Lights

Recently China just surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, behind United States. There are more millionaires in China than the entire population of Canada. But behind all the neon lights of progress, 468 million people still lives on below the $2 per day poverty line (PPP). PPP refers to people whose income is less than the $2 per day set by the World Bank.

The persistent level of poverty is especially evident in remote rural areas of China. Urban incomes are now more than three times higher than rural incomes. The income gap is also very wide between eatern and western China. Recent disasters in the western regions are not helping with the matter. Sichuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake, Gansu landslide and Guizhou flood have left many homeless.

Another alarming poverty trend is children, especially girls, are more likely to be poor than the elderly. According to China Real Time report: Overall, poverty rates for male and female adults and the elderly population is very close – between 12% and 13%. But poverty rates are higher among children under 16 years old: 16% of boys and 17% of girls are poor. Girls are also more at risk than boys of becoming poor.

Why is China so invested in Africa?

Leaving or arriving at the Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta Airport, you will come across an archway that is erect by the Chinese to symbolize the friendship between Kenya and China. The archway is not the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world. In fact, it is falling apart. In Africa, the general feeling about things made in China is poor quality. I wonder why?

After my trip to East Africa, I was really surprised by China’s presence here. Driving through very rural parts of northern Ethiopia, we saw large trucks with “XXXXX Construction Company” in Chinese painted on the side and not too far away, Chinese engineers working on the road. We would often see groups of Chinese workers (very obviously not on vacation) transit in and out of airports. I even came across a large paint store named Jiangsu (a Southern province near Shanghai) and very authentic Chongqing hotpot restaurant which had a sign that was all in Chinese expect for the words “Chinese Restaurant”. I chatted with a man who was working as a mobile communications salesman in Rwanda. He was waiting for his flight back to China in the Nairobi airport. He was surprised I was on holidays in Africa and asked “what is there to see here?”

China actually invests a lot in Africa. The China-Africa Development Fund has invested nearly US$540 million to support 27 projects in Africa, which will likely lead to investment of about US$3.6 billion in the continent by Chinese companies, China's Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

Why is China so invested in Africa? There are two major reasons. First, Africa has a lot of natural resources. From copper to diamonds, China not only wants them, but she wants first dibs on them. China is helping Africa build roads and other infrastructures to excavate faster and better transport these resources. A third of Chinese oil is now imported from Africa.

Reason number 2, Africa is a huge market for cheap Chinese goods. In recent years, Chinese goods have been flooding the African markets. Even African souvenir t-shirts came from China which made me wonder if the zebra-head chopsticks I bought were also made in China…
Here is a good blog for you can read more on China-Africa relations: China-African the Real Story

Goodbye East Africa

East Africa is treasured with bountiful natural resources, majestic wide life, colourful culture and history. Our 3.5 weeks here has come to an end. I feel like I have seem, heard and felt so much, yet there are so much more left to be seem, heard and felt. I can't say it has been one of the easiest trip for me and must admit at times, the experience was rougher than I have originally anticipated. But this is one of reasons why we travel, to challenge and test our expectations. I can't wait to explore rest of Africa in the near future.

Sunset Massacre - A Safari Adventure!

We decided to save the best for last! East Africa is forever linked with its wild life such as lions, zebras, wildebeests, cheetahs, leopards and rhinos. After some much needed R&R in Zanzibar, we were recharged and headed out for our 4 day in the Masai Mara Game Reserve on the northern border of Kenya.

We spotted a herd of elephants less than 10 minutes after we entered the reserve.

There were countless zebras, gazelles, topis and wildebeests roaming the vast Mara grassland. We even came by the curtest baby giraffe who normally is hidden out of our sight by its mother. By the Mara River, we didn't see the great migration. However, we did see the after math. One poor wildebeest didn't make it over river and became a feast for the crocodiles and vultures.

Down the stream, we also spotted hippos napping in the sun.

Morning of our last day in Masai Mara, we visited a Masai village. The Masai are semi-nomadic people who don very colourful clothing and jewelries. Their unique lifestyle has caught the curious eyes of the world. Despite education, civilization and western cultural influences, the Masai people very much have clung to their traditional way of life, making them a symbol of Kenyan culture. Our guide Samson said the lions will not come near a Masai since tradintionally, a Masai boy becomes a man after he kills a lion. These days no more lion can be killed on the reserve, but I guess the fear still lingered.

Before coming to the Mara, we were warn that leopard was very rarely spotted during the day. Leopard catches its prey by jumping out of the trees that they sleep all day in and drags the prey as big as a Thompson gazelle into the tree. With a great digestive system, Leopard can even process meat that has rotten; so this means they will always have plenty to eat. We couldn't believe our luck when we came across this majestic spotted predator hanging out in a tree in the late afternoon hour of our last game drive.

Shortly after we left the leopard, we came across an interesting scene that looked like it was right out one of those animal kingdom documentaries. It was a pride of lions (including 4 or 5 cubs) stalking a buffalo. Samson told us normally lions would not dare to challenge a buffalo, however, it looked very old and was alone. The lions would most likely make a move after dark since the playing field would be more leveled. We watched this intense stare down for about 1 hour and had to head back since the reserve did not allow night game drive. Now we will never know what happened...

Although we didn't spot any rhinos or witness a kill, we did score very well by seeing a leopard and baby giraffe.

Beach, Sun and Much Needed R&R

After a short, but delayed (again) morning flight from Addis, we only had one night back in Nairobi to re-pack and be ready to be "shipped" out to Zanzibar, Tanzania. I must say when we landed in Nairobi again, it felt very different than the first time we landed here. Compared to Ethiopia, this capital now seemed so modern and metropolitan.

Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. Zanibar is an archipelago made up of Zanzibar, Pemba Islands, and several islets and 6° south of the equator. We landed in Zanzibar mid afternoon and took an one hour taxi ride to the resort. As we drove through the street, I was trying to take in the sights and sounds as much as can. The lines of palm trees reminded me of any beach town. Children sat in front of their mud brick houses and waved at cars going by.

The next day we hung out on the white sandy beach, swam in the crisp blue Indian ocean and worked on evening out our spotty farmer's tan. As much as I love trekking through mountain and learning new culture, but sometimes doing nothing is oh-so blissful. We also arranged a snorkling day trip to Mnewba Island area reef. Unfortunately, it was very windy and water was a bit rough, we had to cut our trip short. On the way back, we spotted several dolphins leaping around. I have never seem dolphins in the wild and this more than made up for having to deal with the rough sea.

Zanzibar's other must see is the magic of historic Stone Town. It is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. Needless to say, I didn't mind cutting my lazy days a little short to check out this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first place we wanted to check out was the Anglican Cathedral. The church's altar stood on the location of the whipping post from the former slave market. Next to the Cathedral was a hostel and orphanage and the cellars below had been slave chambers. The dark and creepy space that one can barely stand up in use to hold up to 75 people at one time. It was unimaginable to fathom once upon a time, human beings were kept and sold like animals.

Stone Town made up of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and fancy brass-studded wooden doors. We spend the rest of the day just wandering (or getting lost) through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.

As a big fan of street food, I had to check out the Forodhani Gardens night market. It was hard to decide between skewers of tuna, calamari or even baby shark (really?) or fried plantain, samosa and wash everything down with a glass of sugar cane juice. I finally decided on a Zanzibar pizza, a greasy pancake stuffed with carrots, pepper, onion, minced meat, topped with spices and other unknown ingredients. It was really good and filling.