tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post8645441458522863481..comments2024-03-29T08:40:42.918-07:00Comments on Flogging Babel: Beijing Xi'an Guilin Shanghai.Michael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-25067220706888801022012-05-10T06:42:39.537-07:002012-05-10T06:42:39.537-07:00Make your choice, adventurous stranger.
Strike the...Make your choice, adventurous stranger.<br />Strike the bell and bide the danger.<br />Or wonder 'til it drives you mad,<br />What would have followed, if you had. <a href="http://www.seabreezetravels.com/flights-to-beijing-capital" rel="nofollow">Cheap flights to Beijing</a>Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18003095042774627222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-51288171210845397062012-03-27T11:06:51.327-07:002012-03-27T11:06:51.327-07:00I think that farmers in a lot of places are a lot ...I think that farmers in a lot of places are a lot better off than they were 10 years ago. There have been reforms or an relaxing of enforcement involving the hukou system (which determines where people can live and receive social services) and price controls on crops and so on which have benefitted rural residents.<br /><br />Lately the big problem in China has been massive inflation especially involving food and other fixed expensive items, but I the flip side to this is that more money is flowing to people who produce food. Which is not to say there aren't still a lot of poor people, of course.David Stonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09983230505509685792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-8622655056797693452012-03-27T07:29:35.959-07:002012-03-27T07:29:35.959-07:00My contacts in Beijing took me on a five hour driv...My contacts in Beijing took me on a five hour drive to Taiyuan. I was told I'd be stared at a lot there. It's not a tourist city and I was told it was 'small', about five million. En route to Taiyuan, I saw hundreds of cinder block house surrounded by yellow earth and wondered what people could possibly grow to eat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-64180295519813572362012-03-26T19:40:33.119-07:002012-03-26T19:40:33.119-07:00On my first trip to China, I was struck by the ver...On my first trip to China, I was struck by the very poor people I saw in passing. They clearly knew how to be poor, the shifts and stratagems it took to get along well, and were able to retain their dignity in the circumstances they found themselves.<br /><br />Lord, thought I, let me have the same grace in whatever comes as these people now display.<br /><br />A little sentimental on my part, I grant you. But honestly meant.Michael Swanwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-80356469138386112792012-03-26T19:24:23.694-07:002012-03-26T19:24:23.694-07:00My wife and I visited China in 2000 to bring home ...My wife and I visited China in 2000 to bring home our 1st daughter. We took her back in 2002 to get her a sister. We visited Beijing, Nanchang, Nanjing and Guangzhou.<br /><br />The most instructive part was a visit to the type of family farm that the girls would have lived on had they stayed there. Imagine a two-room cinder block house with no glass in the windows and a live chicken roosting on the kitchen table.<br /><br />Quite typical, I'm told.Joe Stillmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04967010101974872521noreply@blogger.com