It is not as hard as it was before, a decade ago. I recall the road being in terrible condition because it was a main route to Zhengzhou, so the road was pulverized daily by coal trucks. Now they have expanded to have not one but two highways (gaosulu). Here are the hops: Changzhi’s Dongguan bus station, Licheng, Changning, Longwangmiao, to Quixuiyuan. Two buses. The bus from Changzhi to Licheng is hourly and travels about 48kms and costs 20 RMB. The bus from LiCheng to Changning is hourly on the 15 and costs 5 RMB. The bus from Changning is only twice a day for the last 8 kms.
Ruby Chinese Restaurant is very popular in Scarborough, but recently has sanitation issues.
My uncle’s favourite Chinese restaurant is Ruby Chinese Restaurant, Toronto, Canada, at Finch and McCowan. I have eaten there many times, and had good service and good quality. Mistakes occur in any venture, and restaurants are no exception. This week Ruby was cited for a bad salmonella outbreak that sicked 36 people and was closed by Toronto Public Health. It then failed a second inspection.
Steam engine train rides with the Richmond Hill Live Steamers. The smell of coal, steam, oil, the whistle!
Two weekends a year the Richmond Hill Live Steamers, Toronto, Canada, has an open house, where they show off their scale model steam trains. It is a fascinating world of the mechanical and hand built. There are train rides for the kids and adults, while the old timers work and test their engines. The feeling of the club is very relaxed, leaving their work to speak for itself. We had a great time and was glad we went early. Donations to the club are welcome.
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.
CTV News helicopter buzzes my house at 07:00am. They are LOUD.
Today I woke up at 06:30 to a morning of lovely sunshine and moderate 16°C temperatures. At 07:00 a helicopter begins hovering over my house, and does this for 30-40 minutes. Helicopters in my locale, means there’s trouble in the neighbourhood.
CTV News helicopter buzzes my house at 07:00am. They are LOUD.
Migrant Workers Suddenly Idle in China, Time, Feb 01, 2009
From my web site on Dontai.com I collect news articles published daily around the world from private and corporate bloggers and news agencies that write about China. China Beat put up an article by Robert O’Brien, a graduate of George Washington University and a current Fulbright Scholar in China. His summary: China’s migrant workers are coping. They have savings and land to live off, they won’t revolt and cause a fuss.
There is merit to his claims. With China’s high savings rates and a couple of decades of economic advancement, most families should have much stashed away for the inevitable rainy day.
We are, thankfully, not very close to a Walmart Super Centre, but on the rare occasion, we do visit. The Supercentre is 9 km away. Yesterday, Wednesday midday, was such a day. . In summary, the Super Centre is larger with very slightly more variety, their food section is quite good, but their checkout process tortuous. Store location: Walmart Supercentre, Eglington/Warden, Toronto, Canada.
Dollar Store toys are terrible quality that breaks easily, is unrepairable and disappoints your kids
I have never been a fan of Dollar Store* toys for my kids. They return home with plastic toys of very low quality, even by Chinese standards. The recent Toronto city garbage strike brings home the need to reduce our consumption because the city, temporarily, will not pick up our trash. I continue to press my case to both my parents and my kids that Dollar Store quality is false economy.
Chinese guards are everywhere, but were very strict after 6-4
Life after the 6-4 killings was quite different. While martial law was declared some weeks before 6-4, I really did not see much change in my life. Post 6-4, security was heightened both inside my campus as well as outside on the street. For a couple of months I personally felt the burden of watchful eyes and a sense that you really had to be careful what you did, what you said (outside the campus), where you went and when, and I was not even part of the protest. It was like living under the stereotypical communist regime, in contrast to the freedom of pre 6-4.
I picked these up from a student protester on 6-4 after he was beaten up by soldiers
I have had these two mementos for a long time, 20 years, stashed away in an old box. The day after 6-4 I was at the military’s perimeter of the Square with a friend. A student beside me started chastising the soldiers. The soldiers grabbed him, threw him on the ground, beat him up and dragged him away. These two objects fell out of his pocket and I picked them up. Though I am not at all knowledgeable about guns, I knew these were shell casings.
