Olympic Plant People and their Makeshift Equipment

There is a cute row of sculpted plant people engaging in various Olympic sports on display near Baishiqiao. The artists behind the installations must have run out of time or funds by the time they decided to furnish these green creatures with actual sports equipment, to quite an amusing effect:

A green tennis warrior brandishes his weapon

The tennis and badminton players each have a ball and birdie respectively dangling sadly by a wire from their rackets. I'd guess the tennis player is not actually supposed to be holding a tennis racket; he'd look much more comfortable with a kendo sword in his hands. And I think the rifleman is aiming with something that might have been picked off a construction site across the street.

How to Interact with Foreigners, and other Olympics Propaganda

Don't be "excessive" when helping handicapped people. The diagram shows how to say "Beijing Welcomes You" in sign language. Today I happened across a new series of posters on the neighborhood propaganda bulletin boards about etiquette to be observed during the Olympics. Olympics propaganda is not new to Beijing, nor are paternalistic slogans on how to be a "civilized" citizen, but this new series in particular caught my eye because of one poster with a list of rules for how to act around foreigners. Always curious to understand more about Chinese behavior towards us Western folk, I stopped to take a closer look. Most delightful was a list of eight questions Chinese are not to ask us, which if observed, would leave these curious and enthusiastic hosts with essentially nothing with which to make conversation. Following are some translated excerpts along with photos from some of the posters: Smile When Communicating with Foreigners A Smile

Hello world!

I have but few words tonight. I will first share with you a cartoon I drew several years back when I was a fiery little upstart, before I had truly learned to appreciate the glory of the Communist Party:

Back on the road

Today I believe is the first day of Ramadan. All the prayer halls started broadcasting in unison over the loudspeakers at 4:45 this morning. I woke up to the sound with a bit of a cold sweat from something I ate yesterday, and sat on the toilet watching tiny ants march along the crack of the wall. Yesterday I rented a bike and rode south out of town into the rice paddies. I found a few beautiful quiet spots, but mostly it was hard to avoid the roads and motorcycle exhaust. It was good to have a bike in town at least to get away from the becak drivers, who are everywhere and make it impossible to enjoy a quiet moment in town. I was originally thinking of seeing the Dieng Plateau for a day, but I decided I really need a break from tourist destinations, so I'm going to take a bus north to Semarang after I finish this post. I found a couchsurfer who said she'll put me up tonight, and may even be able to give me a ride to Jepara tomorrow since she commutes there for work. This

Peaceful Rise

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