Eric's Beijing Diary

Oh, how quickly go the seasons! They say Beijing has a very short autumn, but I don't agree. Actually, it depends on what kind of summer you have and what kind of winter you have. If the summer fever breaks the first part of September, and the coming winter is reasonably mild, then the fall season at least seems like it drags on for almost four months. But easily three months. But if September is a hot month and winter comes a little early, then autumn can seem pretty short.

The real problem is that there are four seasons in a year, and only twelve months. So simple math tells you that the average length of a season is going to be three months. That's not very long. Goes pretty fast. Late fall seems a little depressing until you get used to it, and especially as you begin to appreciate the beauty of winter, which you could never have if autumn lasted forever. I guess this is why I like a four-season climate.

As you may know if you are familiar with China, one of the left over practices from the Maoist era is the assumption that public buildings in the northern part of China should be equipped with hot water radiators. So winter in Beijing is quite comfortable (inside). South China is very different. Cold outside and cold inside. In the far south, it is actually warmer outside than inside. But in Beijing, the inside temperature is usually quite pleasant. The only time of the year that is a little uncomfortable is the first part of November, because the tradition says that the heat doesn't need to come on until the middle of November, and sometimes the first part of the month can be a little chilly. But once the heat comes on, most places keep the boiler stoked with plenty of coal.

Just got back from Hainan Island, the "Hawaii" of China. One of those last minute faculty outings. I was skeptical about trying to do Hainan in a weekend, but it actually worked out quite well.

We flew down to Hainan on Friday evening. Maofu had reserved rooms at a place with a pretty nice breakfast buffet. I guess they have both a Chinese buffet and a western buffet. I didn't see the Chinese one, because, although I really do like Chinese food, I have never been a big fan of Chinese breakfast. The western buffet was an essential, because there are so many Russian tourists. You turn on the TV and see old Russian movies. And many signs are in both Chinese and Russian.

There are three major beaches in Sanya. Our hotel was right above Dadonghai, but Maofu had arranged for us to go to Yalong Bay, which was a good thing, because the swimming beach at Yalong Bay is really nice. I was surprised how warm the water was. I don't mean like a hot tub or something, but really nice.

In the afternoon, we took a boat to Wuzhizhou Island. My Lonely Planet Guide shows this island on the map of Hainan, but there's nothing written about it in the book. The tour of the island is guided--you can't just walk around. But it is really very pretty. Just toward the end of the walk,we came upon a large swimming pool fed by a spring or springs. It as completely unattended, and there was no fence or anything, so we took advantage of it and jumped in. Really refreshing water, and not cold at all.

Yesterday, we took a tour of the tropical rain forest. This place had a lot of tourists, but if you've never seen a tropical rain forest before, it is quite informative.

I am really not one for rushed vacations--I would never think to take a trip to Hainan for a weekend. But this trip went really well.

Got a call yesterday from a company in Hong Kong that does incorporation. It was in response to an inquiry I had sent them some time ago. They guy who called me said he had sent me two emails. I didn't get either of them, and he was thinking perhaps they ended up in my spam folder. I told him to send me another one, and, sure enough, I found it in the spam folder. Not sure why--It was not a group message. There could possibly be some problem with his company's ISP. But that's only a guess. Just when I think I have a handle on what causes an email to be regarded as spam, something like this comes along and throws me for a loop.

But it was a good thing he called me, because he told me that we could not get non-profit status in Hong Kong unless we could prove that the primary beneficiaries of our work were in Hong Kong. That will not be the case, because we will be bringing young people from Asia to work with children in Afghanistan, so our primary beneficiaries would be the children we would be teaching. Not sure what I am going to do about this, but I am thinking now about the possibility of just setting up an NGO in Afghanistan itself. Afghanistan's NGO law is pretty straightforward. I actually do like it, and it would probably be a good bit simpler than setting up in Hong Kong. The one major issue there, though, is that at least one person would have to be a resident of Afghanistan. I don't know any Afghan residents. I guess I just have to take a trip there first and see what I can discover.

Anne Marie and Tom were here for Jordan and Lily's wedding feast Saturday. It was a rushed trip, but we did get a chance to spend some time Thursday at Fragrant Hills. I don't usually go anywhere near the park during the day time, so even I was a bit taken aback by all the hubbub, but it was still nice, because the weather was good, and if you have never seen it before, then I guess it feels somewhat normal to be there with the tourist hordes.

The wedding banquet was at a really nice restaurant near Haidian Church. I have been around that area for years, now, but I don't recall being in that place. Anyway, it was a pretty good place for a group occasion.