Hello, Yangshuo

There’s a special way to greet the young people in Yangshuo, Guangxi, and the surprising thing is that it doesn’t take Westerners much effort to master. The word to use is easy-to-pronounce, two syllables, and will sound familiar to anyone whose been using the English language in the last few centuries: “Hello!”

By bike, by foot, by boat — no matter how you do Yangshuo, you can’t avoid this word. This spectacularly beautiful region of Southern China, known for its dramatic and mist-shrouded karsts, attracts hordes of both domestic and foreign tourists, and the narrow streets of the main town are perfect for the coming together of tourists and eager language students wanting to test their English skills on the unsuspecting. For a start, it’s novel. After about two impromptu, unpaid language lessons, it suddenly becomes tiring. But that doesn’t excuse you from smiling — a necessity in these parts.

So far I haven’t had cause to stop smiling anyway. From the comfortable overnight train from Shenzhen to Guilin, to the early morning trip up the Li River, to the outstanding and improbable vistas of the Yangshuo area, taken in from the seat of a bicycle, my China trip is off to a fast start.

Of course, food is a vital part of any excursion, and I’ve been careful to consume it in abundance. Yesterday we took a Chinese cooking class with a highly recommended school by the river.  Not only do I now know how to wield a cleaver, but I can also say I had a strong hand in contributing to a meal of chicken and cashews; pork-stuffed steamed tofu, pumpkin flower, and eggplant; fried water spinach with salty tofu; delicious fried eggplant; and a local specialty: beer fish. 

It was almost enough to negate the sour taste left in my mouth after earlier seeing a skinned dog hanging on a hook in the market. 

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Poubelle so swell

My friend Ben is the lead singer and songwriter in a quality Hong Kong rock band called Poubelle International. A designer with an eye for aesthetics and a quirky imagination to match, he promises to be a creative force to keep an eye on.

His band’s first music video caught international attention by appearing on NotCot. Featuring Hong Kong’s ubiquitous tai chi uncles and aunties, it is a humorous and delightful piece of work. Big kudos to director Nicholas Wakeham.

Direct all your eyeholes here:

On the road again

I’m finding it a little difficult to concentrate in the office today. It’s the last day I’ll spend in this seat for a good three months. On Monday, I head off on a trip across China, Mongolia, Tibet (all going well), and Nepal. To say that I’m excited by this proposition is an understatement.

And so, I’m going to do one of those things I hate other people doing: I’m going to brag about the places I’m about to visit. (Hey, just be thankful it’s not one of those ‘Places I’ve Been’ maps on Facebook.)

Well, I guess this is just as much a sharing of my itinerary, so people like my parents can keep track of me (and others can hunt me down). I don’t expect to stick rigidly to this plan, but here are the places in which you might be able to find me between now and the middle of August.

Goodbye for now, Hong Kong summer.

View Larger Map

Blogging by email, travelling by train

I just learned today that I can now post to WordPress by email. I find this very exciting, because I’m about to embark on a train trip across China, where WordPress is apparently blocked. Hopefully posting by email will allow me to get around that restriction. I think it also makes it easier to post pictures, video, and music (I’ll tell you after this post).

Another thing I’m very excited about is that after China, I’ll be spending a month in Nepal. I’ve stolen some photos from the internet that will help explain my excitement. (It will also help me test the post-photos-by-email function.) I’m not expecting as great weather in Nepal as is shown in those photos — I’ll be there in monsoon season. But still. Awesome.

While I’m in Nepal, I’ll be interviewing one of its leading rock stars, Robin Tamang, for a story I’m working on. Last Sunday, I went to see him play at a Nepali Rock Concert in Wan Chai. He was great, and the concert was… interesting. It was more a variety show, really, with comedians, dancers, a couple of local Nepalese bands, and a pop star also in tow. Holding the concert at Queen Elizabeth Stadium was probably a mistake, because only about 300-400 people showed up to a 1,500-seat venue. Apparently the after-party at Club Cixi was better attended (lots of Nepalis in Hong Kong work in bars that keep them late). Anyway, here’s a video of one of Robin’s most popular songs:

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Let’s all take a deep breath

The massive headline on the South China Morning Post’s front page today is that there has been a confirmed case of Swine Flu in Hong Kong. A Mexican guy is in quarantine, and they’ve shut the down the hotel he was staying at — the Metropark in Wan Chai — for a week (with guests inside). The story takes up all of the front page, complete with stricken Mexican man being taken away on a stretcher by an ambulance.

That is big news, but, at this stage, the alarm and the reaction seemdisproportionate to the threat. Last night, Chief Executive Donald Tsang gave an emergency press conference under the heavy fire of flash bulbs from press cameras. Already today there are many people wearing face masks, especially people working in shops. On the train, I sat beside a family of three who were all wearing the masks.

While I think it’s an overaction — especially because the flu has killed only one person outside of Mexico and actually appears to be relatively mild — I do have sympathy for Hongkongers and understand why they might be a bit gun-shy when it comes to infectious disease. 

Hong Kong was the epicentre for Sars, which killed nearly 300 people here, put others in hospital, and, most cripplingly, put massive breaks on the economy. That outbreak bred fear. 

The New York Times has pointed out that Hong Kong’s quick and heavy-handed response can be seen as a result of the Sars experience. Meanwhile, in my home country New Zealand, there are four confirmed cases, 12 probable cases, and 116 suspected cases all over the country. Alert is high there, too, but from a distance the response there seems to be more measured and sedate, with healthy doses of skepticism about the threat the flu poses. (At the same time, I’m aware Hong Kong’s hyper-dense population is perfect for the fast spread of disease.)

In general, I think the media have actually done a pretty good job of covering the flu outbreak. While there have been mild bouts of hysteria, coverage has on the whole been in line with the sense of calm urgency promulgated by the WHO and other health experts.

I was also very interested to read that the Centre for Disease Control has suggested the flu strain might actually be common but very mild. The CDC has suggested the flu could be rife throughout Mexico but that only the most severe cases have killed people. That could explain why no one — with the exception of a Mexican child in Texas — outside the country has died from the flu.

At the bottom of that story, too, it is pointed out that 250,000 to 500,000 people around the world die from garden-variety flu every year. That’s not to dismiss the significance of this new, previously unknown, strain that in one country has proven to kill the young and healthy, but it should be a reminder to Hongkongers that if they’re going to break out the masks on account of one case of Swine Flu, they might just as well have them on all the time.

After all, the carcinogenic crap that passes for the breahting supply in this city is still much more damaging than Swine Flu, contributing to 1,600 deaths a year. Let’s see Hong Kong go into a state of emergency because of that.