In a backstreet filled with small jewellers, food stalls, brothels and fruit sellers, by the crossing of Changfujie and Taipingnanlu, is the Nanjing Military Command eugenics centre. It's lovely to know that these things are practised to this day!
Butterfly in the Ming public park
Huge black butterflies glide across the park for 8 months of the year. They've just come back and are all over campus!
After a good solid meal of ten "lamb-on-a-stick"s and four "duck-heart-on-a-stick"s, something to soak up the meat is often good. This being China, a simple bowl of rice seemed the best and easiest option. So, in search of this basic staple, I went into a nearby restaurant, where a few people were being served food.
The conversation went as follows:
"Could I have a bowl of rice please?"
"Don't have it."
Stunned silence..
"This is a Chinese restaurant, right?"
"Correct."
"I'd really like some rice."
"Don't have it."
By this time, I'd noticed a large bowl of steaming rice on one of the tables. Pointing to it, I ventured:
"Really? I can see the rice on that table. Can I have a bowl of that?"
The owner's look was rather grumpy at this point.
"Takeaway?"
"Fine."
So she stormed off, fetching my food. She didn't offer a single word for the rest of the transaction.
I've come across two possible explanations for this strange behaviour:
1. She was brought up to dislike foreigners ("white devils").
2. She didn't want me to occupy a table in her almost-empty restaurant for such a low fee.
Surely it's rather more important to grant someone a single bowl of rice, though! As for her lying, that's pretty much a part of modern life. Telling a lie - in daily life or as part of business - isn't really so much of a big deal.
Recently, due to a reduced timetable and a little inspiration, I've started working on a charity project.
There's a huuuge poverty gap here, and people in the countryside can't afford good schooling, so they move to the city to do really underpaid hard work, and their kids go to school in the city. The problem is, cos they're from the countryside, workers can't register as residents in the city, making their presence illegal. This social set it often called the "floating population" in local media. As a result of their status, their kids can't go to schools officially.
The Chinese education & employment system is heavily affected by population pressure - there are always ten people to take your place, so everyone gets treated badly. Leaving your job is unheard of. To get to university and out of the fields, the kids have to maintain a squeaky clean record, and get good grades, else they'll spend their lives working in underpaid illegal jobs hoping their kids can get a good education and escape the loop - just as their parents hope now.
People set up budget schools and stuff for them to attend to, without government support, but these are often in oppressive conditions. There were many poor kids on TV during the Spring Festival celebrations, saying how they don't complain that there're holes in their school roof, or that they have to hand-copy out their textbooks, or that they have no windows or food at school.
Well, rather than be apathetic and simply remain irked about the situation, action was taken! I decided to set my students homework, of writing a letter to a foreign company, explaining the problem and asking for a small donation. We're offering press releases and a presence at a trade fair in return for any contribution, as it's fairly trivial to get on TV or in the local media (for a foreigner).
The schools do have some really poor children; there's one girl I met who's mother died and father's in prison, so she lives with her gran who can't work. They're definitely well below the poverty line. A scholarship for this family would only cost £20 a year - cheaper than a single cocktail in London.
Last friday, I visited Pukou Twin Dragon Hope School (Pukou shuanglong xiwang xiaoxue, 双垅希望小学) with some students. Here are the photos from my visit. It's not the worst-off school that I've seen - not by a long way, some of them are unbelievable - but it's the only one I have pictures of so far.
(slideshow opens in a new window)
If you'd like to donate, you can use the link below. I'll take photos of what the money has bought, and show you it in use, as well as write a press release, or pretty much anything you want.
The campus here is filled with tree-lined avenues, that create a warm soft roof to walk under in the evening, and a sunshade for the hot days. Each tree forks into a V-shape, and over the years they've grown leaning toward the sun.
Nanjing's Presidential Palace is a beautiful historic site. Nanjing was the capital of China for a long time, around five dynasties if memory serves, and so of course its seat of power is the location of many historic events. It's also rather plush.
Rulers and residents have included Dr Sun Yat-Sen, the Japanese (when attempting a coup with the puppet Emperor - around the time of the rape of Nanjing), the rebel (and probably insane) Taiping Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, the Kuomintang, and the People's Liberation Army. The site is now the location of China's Modern History Museum.
The entrace across from the main courtyard is supported by tall red pillars. Lanterns hang under the roof.
Many officals' offices are unused, and kept in a traditional layout.
The roofs are fantastically detailed in bright colours.
There are many small courtyards, between rooms and corridors.
A very heavily ornamented seat, in a throne room.
Lamps are inset into the ceilings at regular intervals.
A stone carving of a dragon, mounted in a wall.
Here is another office in traditional style. The furniture here is still manufactured and easy to buy, so it's probably not antique (and maybe not even historically accurate).
An irregularly shaped set of shelves for mounting ornaments. They still make these, too; squares feature heavily in Chinese woodcraft and construction, and this irregular style is moderately easy to find.
In the east garden.
A view from a pier in the east garden, overlooking a pond.
The east garden pond.
A reflection in the east garden pond. Poets describe good water as being "green" in Chinese history (obviously not for drinking!)
Carp in the west pool. Almost every lake at a scenic area in China has carp!
The entrance to the rock garden in the west wing of the palace.
Many things at the presidential palace are extravagant. This wall has a sinuous line with complex tiling on top.
The rock garden in the west wing.
A stone boat, in the west pool. This is a copy of a larger and older stone boat in Beijing. The inside of the boat is furnished for entertaining.
Information at NJAU
Official site
So is the puke blue, or the dragonfly? This is the cover to a deck of playing cards. Note the manufacturer - I've heard of a niche industry but that really takes the biscuit!
Large shiny water tanks litter the roofs of Chinese "suburbia". These great little devices are a side offect of the small size of a residence, which often leaves as much as possible outside the windows or doors or even on the roof, and also a great way of boosting efficiency and keeping bills down. It's hard to buy non-energy saving bulbs, and public transport is always packed, as are the cycle lanes. This may be a polluted country, but the people are often much less damaging to their immediate environments than their western counterparts.
I've been the victim of bicycle theft!
Well, not quite. They opened the lock, and then decided that the most valuable thing they could take wasn't my trusty, solid and speedy bike, but the actual lock (which in fairness did cost £1). So they left the bike. Now I have no bikelock. Buggers.
