Don Tai (Canada) Blog

Parking Costs in China's large cities is becoming prohibitive. And so it should. Too many cars in a city reduces the quality of life for everyone.

Anyone who has recently visited China and Beijing knows that there are too many cars on the streets, thus clogging the free flow of traffic. Gone are the days of riding a bicycle. Public transit is the only way to get around, but buses are just as slow as cars. Beijing has started a lottery for potential new car buyers, which helps. The solution may lie in a scarcity of parking spaces. If you have no parking space you have no place to park your car.

Ten bad driving habits, by Chen Xin, People Daily, equally applicable here in Toronto, Canada

As a lifelong resident of Toronto I can attest that many fellow Torontonians wonder out loud why Chinese drivers are so terrible. I am one of them. As I live in Scarborough, a heavily Chinese area of Toronto, there are certain major intersections that I avoid due to a very high proportion of Chinese drivers that approach 100%. As my ethnic background is Chinese, I have ruled out genetics. Moreover I know many Canadian born Chinese, or Huayi, that are excellent drivers. Further, anyone from Hong Kong can attest to the prowess of their local driving skill. So why are Chinese drivers so terrible?

China's 60 mile traffic jam of coal trucks lasted 10 days.

Contrary to popular belief, China is still Communist. There has been no change of political will, only the naive belief of foreigners that as China becomes wealthier that China will abide by its own rules of law. This is not the case, as the Toronto Star’s Asia correspondent Bill Schiller, found out. He traveled a little outside Beijing into the countryside only 3 hours train ride away, only to find out that things are run differently in the countryside. Reporters do get hassled and told in uncertain terms to leave.

Surviving Beijing fengsha: This woman has it right. Cover your whole head with a scarf.

Sandstorms or fengsha are common each spring in Beijing. Of the many things I learned while living there was how to survive the onslaught. The sand is so fine as to permeate every nook and cranny of your clothes, windows and food. The best thing to do is to get a fine scarf and wrap it around your head in order to protect your eyes. If you usually wear contact lenses switch to glasses. Clean and reclean everything. Try to keep your food air tight. Don’t worry, it will be over in about a month.

Air quality is something one personally cannot control. I suppose you could rent an oxygen tank and wear a medical mask 7/24 but realistically, few people could do this. Having lived in Beijing and have recently returned for a visit, the bottom line is that Beijing air is hazardous to all living beings in the area. For me it does not matter that the Chinese government says it’s Ok, and that there are places with worse air quality, some of them in China. All the proof you need will be provided by living in Beijing for only a couple of days.

Chinese Prisons and Legal System: Infamous for human rights violations

One of my deepest fears while on Chinese soil was being arrested and slogging through the morass they call the Chinese legal system. The blog Beijing Haze documents the efforts of an American wife and long term Beijing resident, on extricating her Chinese husband from the wrath of China’s prison system. Her husband was recently arrested in a massage parlour in a Beijing city-wide blitz against prostitution.

Here is her “About Me”:

Can you fit 1 million people into Tiananmen Square?

Some topics are so foreign to Westerners that to encounter something so blatantly different is like running head first into a brick wall. Such is the case for modern Chinese history. I talk specifically about the student movement of May 4 1989 in Tiananmen Square

I am torn by writing because I have contradictory feelings at odds with each other. On one hand there is undisputable proof from eyewitness accounts and news footage that the events did occur and many people were killed. On the other hand, it was 20 years ago, so why bring up such an old and tired topic.

Who has financed all this vacant Beijing Real Estate?

Any cursory examination of Beijing’s skyline in 2008-2009 will reveal that commercial buildings such as general office, retail space and hotels have been sprouting up like weeds. As the Olympics wound down and the Global Financial Crisis deepened, it was clear to all that the vacancy rate for these mamoth buildings is very high. Beijing is oversupplied with commercial real estate by an estimated 14 years of optimistic growth. One needs to wonder who financed these buildings and how will they recoup their investment. It seems like the heard mentality has prevailed.

Pollution almost obscures Beijing's Birdsnest Stadium

We were in Beijing just before the Olympics in August 2008, and upon arrival were greeted by Beijing’s biggest and most violent thunderstorm of the year. I’ve never seen rain in Beijing like that day. It was only after we got into our hotel and watched CCTV Channel 9 news that we found out the thunderstorm was man-made. Man vs Wild, specifically Peking Man. Chinese Peking Man wins this round. We enjoyed clean air for the day. The day after, I knew we had to leave the city. Even with manipulated air quality, Beijing has a real problem with air pollution.

Street vendor selling juzi

I still have vivid memories of Beijing clothing vendors on a street called “Yifu Alley”. After a four year legal battle the vendors from “Silk Market” in Beijing are getting busted for copyright violation from 5 big international firms: Burberry, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Prada. Infuriated, they threaten to beat up the law firm that is forcing them to stop selling these goods.