Green Acres?
Some people really think Shanghai is a “Garden City”
NOTE: A version of this story appears in the June issue of that’s Shanghai magazine.
by DAN WASHBURN
To most people in Shanghai, green is the color your face turns when the city’s air is at its most acrid. But Shanghai officials hope to force the color from your face and stick it in the ground … tree after tree after tree. They are overseeing a greening of Shanghai’s acres that would make Oliver Wendell Douglas proud. And soon — maybe even late this year — this concrete jungle will officially be known as a “Garden City.” Believe it or not, the Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau claims that at the end of last year Shanghai was 30 percent green space. The goal is to have that figure at 35 percent by the end of this year, which would satisfy one requirement for the Construction Ministry of China’s “Garden City” status. This begs the logical question: Where exactly is all of this green space? Well, you may be standing on some right now and not even know it.
05.30.2003, 4:33 PM · Politics, Stories · Comments (3)
show your love …
… but please don’t spit everywhere!
I got your t-shirts right here! See all the new designs at the online store:
http://www.cafeshops.com/shanghaidiaries
05.29.2003, 8:01 PM · Site News · Comments (3)
fountain power
This lady is going to keep her arm raised until you write a caption for this photo! Don’t make her suffer — click on the comments link below and let your creativity flow.
05.29.2003, 8:53 AM · Humor, Photos · Comments (9)
aloha means hello and goodbye
Not sure what to announce here: the fact that I’m leaving China … or the fact that I’m coming back.
I’m leaving in five days. I’m coming back in three months. I have signed another one-year contract to teach at Shanghai University.
05.28.2003, 3:46 PM · Summer Tour 2003 · Comments (3)
blues in the city
Click here for photos related to this story.
I learned early in my Shanghai stay never to leave home without my camera. If you wait until tomorrow to photograph what you see today, you usually get screwed — because what you saw yesterday very well could have been bulldozed overnight. This city is under construction.
05.28.2003, 2:17 PM · Observations, Politics
Not-so-Easy Riders
NOTE: A version of this story appeared in today’s edition of the South China Morning Post (subscription only).
by DAN WASHBURN
Mark Jardine needed a break. Outside of Lijiang, in the remote northwest corner of China’s Yunnan Province, he and his Harley-Davidson had just rumbled 150 kilometers up a serpentine stretch of hand-laid cobblestone that climbed to an elevation of 4,400 meters. He stopped his motorcycle and looked down. The Yangtze River roared through Tiger Leaping Gorge, and Jardine spoke to his riding partners.
“You guys have got to admit,” he said. “This is the most awesome thing that we have done.”
05.27.2003, 10:58 PM · Stories
class notes: dan’s “lesson plans”
Conversational English
Six classes, freshman and sophomore English majors
Third Semester
* Field Day: In response to the students’ campus quarantine, we headed outdoors and played a avriety of games … including American football. One student actually broke her ankle. (Not kidding.)
* Iraq and SARS, SARS and Iraq: Talked a lot about the two main news stories in the world.
* Just talking: After two semesters with me, students seem more comfortable. So, often no lesson plans are necessary. I go into class and ask, “What do you guys want to talk about today?” And the rest of the class is spent talking … which is what a Conversational English class is all about.
* Two days in Shanghai: Students proposed an itinerary for foreigners with only two days to tour Shanghai.
* Anti-war songs: We listened to and talked about the following songs: “War” by Edwin Starr, “I-feel-like-I’m-fixin’-to-die rag” by Country Joe McDonald, “For what it’s worth” by Buffalo Springfield and “Nuclear War” by Yo La Tengo. (I taught my students many words and phrases that I probably shouldn’t have.)
* Second-grade pen pals: Two classes have corresponded by mail with Miss Cornell’s second graders at Shaker Road Elementary School in Albany, New York. I will post some of the letters soon. (Miss Cornell is a fellow Elizabethtown College grad.)
05.26.2003, 12:43 AM · School
sth about SARS
yeah, i didn’t know that sth was an abbreviation for something, either — until i moved to china. it’s just one of the many bits of “english” that chinese students use for years thinking it sounds perfectly natural until a native speaker stops them with “what?” the problem is that most of their english teachers are chinese. and those teachers learned from other chinese english teachers and so on and so on. it’s an insular english community, one that assumes all americans sign e-mails with the salutation “wish you happy every day.” really, my students were perplexed when i told them stuff like that, while cute, doesn’t cut it in the english-speaking world. “we were actually taught that,” one of my students gasped.
anyway, i’ve gotten off topic. i just wanted to share a SARS-related e-mail i received from one of my students. it refers to some stuff i mentioned in my 4.29 blog entitled don’t sneeze at others.
05.22.2003, 11:49 PM · Observations, Politics, School · Comments (3)
Who the f - - k is Deslee?
And other thoughts about dive bars
NOTE: A version of this story appears in that’s Shanghai magazine’s bar guide, due out later this month.
by DAN WASHBURN
meet the winners in the dives,
where the people are the real stars,
all the rest of their lives.
— Neil Young, “Sail Away”
It was one of those bar bathrooms where you make sure to breathe through your mouth. I didn’t want to find out if it smelled as bad as it looked. The entire night was a game of bladder roulette: Can I hold it until I get home? The answer was no — 10 kuai beers tend to go right through me. And after they all did, I went to wash my hands, but quickly thought better of it. The puke in the sink was piled too high. (It made me feel better about the beer I would spill later in the night.). As I walked to where I could breath through my nose again, I came upon a well-dressed man sitting on the floor, using the wall as a pillow. He was mumbling something, but I couldn’t understand him. Not sure if he was speaking Chinese or Chivas Regal.
05.22.2003, 11:03 PM · Stories