How to thwart a pickpocket attempt
Dramatic reenactment
Rule #1: Watch your shadow.
Bridget: 2 3*, Pickpockets: 1
*EDIT: Just prevented another one from happening today.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Joint Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day decorations in Hong Kong.
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, kicked off this Sunday, February 14. Valentine’s Day has taken a backseat as “Year of the Tiger” decorations flood Asia*. Meanwhile, millions of people returned to their hometowns last week to celebrate with their families. It’s China’s biggest holiday.
Officially, the holiday lasts 15 days. But in practice, most workers return to their jobs within a week of the First Day celebrations.
Compared to most Chinese workers, I lucked out with my Spring Festival break — I stopped teaching early last month and won’t start up again until March 1. The extended holiday gave me a chance to visit more of Southeast Asia (which I intend to blog about once I organize the 950-some photos I took during my three-week trip!).
What did I do to celebrate on February 14? I went to Disneyland, of course!
*People are still aware of Valentine’s Day, and advertisers aren’t completely ignorning it. For instance, I saw a commercial in Hong Kong that talked about how this year’s holiday is special because it mixes love and fortune. The ad also mentioned that the next Chinese New Year/Valentine’s Day joint holiday will occur 38 years from now.
Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos bound!
Starting tomorrow, I’ll be in this general area …
… through the end of February for my Chinese New Year break. I won’t be bringing my laptop, but if I happen to find an Internet cafe I’ll try to post photos.
Alligator: it’s what’s for dinner
Alligators (or are they crocodiles?) on sale in the seafood section of Walmart. In China, obviously.
The 7 websites China could live without
In light of the latest Google/China drama that unfolded Tuesday, I bring you the 7 websites that China wouldn’t really miss if the Great Firewall blocked them completely starting tomorrow. That is, if it hasn’t already.
Why: By now, you’ve probably heard the stats: state-sponsored Baidu owns around 60-70% of the Chinese market. Google only owns 20 or 30%. Google’s threat — whatever its true motive may be — is just a bleep on the radar for Internet users in China. True, 30% of the estimated 225,000,000 people online is still a pretty big number. But consider Google’s growth in the US: in 2005 it accounted for just 35% of all search queries; by November 2009 it was at 66%. If Google could grow that quickly in the US, imagine how Baidu would fare in China with its biggest competitor out of the picture. Plus: does Google have a section on the site solely dedicated to searching for MP3s? Thought not.
2. Youtube
Replacement: Youku, Tudou
Why: Go ahead, laugh at their goofy names. (The former is a blatant ripoff of Youtube’s name and has no literal translation. The latter literally means “potato.”) But when it comes to video sharing sites, Youku and Tudou reign supreme in China. And both sites have what the currently blocked Youtube lacks — a download button.
3. Twitter
Replacement: Sina Micro-Bo
Why: Mircoblogging is a popular trend that won’t go away soon. Neither will the Great Firewall’s block on Twitter, especially with the havoc it wreaked on Iran and Moldova last year.
4. Facebook
Replacement: Renren
Why: Formerly Xiaonei, the website Mashable once referred to as a “blatant Facebook rip-off” has around 22 million active users, most of them college-aged. That’s more than the total number of people enrolled in college in the United States. It’s not nearly as popular as its — ahem — inspiration (which coincidentally is blocked), but give it time.
Why: No, Yahoo and MSN aren’t blocked here. And these two sites are both actually fairly popular. Meanwhile, QQ has everything both portals have: news feeds, a search engine and free email accounts. But where Yahoo and MSN failed in instant messaging (to AIM, no less), QQ succeeded. And now, it’s by far the most popular IM service in the country, with nearly 300 million users. That’s almost, but not quite, equal to the size of the US population.
Why: eBay isn’t blocked either, but Taobao is said to account for an estimated three quarters of the market share.
Why: Unlimited storage? Check. Connection to a mobile network bigger than the population of the US? Check. Even though it’s currently unblocked, can GMail do that?
So Internet companies, there’s nothing wrong with pulling out of China for ethical reasons. But just remember: China has allowed blantant rip-offs of yours to dominate their market shares. And the number of Internet users in China only continues to grow.
Nowism: “Your holiday break actually starts today”
To quote myself...
Oh, nowism. It’s a dirty little aspect of Chinese culture that will drive expats up the wall.
Today nowism struck again, this time to completely mess around with my Chinese New Year break plans. Read more »
Do they know it’s Christmas?
I went a little crazy with the Christmas decorations in my dorm room. Note the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Question: Do people in China know about Christmas?
Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: Yes, but China has a funny way of dealing with the holiday season …
PICTURES OF CUTE CHINESE KIDS!!!1!
Did that grab your attention?
Here are some photos of my first graders. Yeah, yeah, they’re cute or whatever. But we all know better — just because a kid is cute doesn’t mean he or she is an angel.
Sidenote: After my first week of teaching these demon children — 16 classes of them to be exact — my contact teacher at Luoling could see I was stressed. So she tried to relieve me. “They are very naughty, but at least they are cute,” she said.
As if that’s any consolation.
Class 8, Section 1. My favorite in this class is Bobby — he's sitting in the front. The collective amount of cuteness in this class outweighs that of all the other 15 classes.
Boulders, bees and excessive media attention — just some things you can expect as a foreigner running a race in China
The start of the half marathon — a mess. Much like most of the race.
Last month, I saw an advertisement for a 10k in the Shenzhen subway. I’d recently gotten back into running, and I needed the prospect of a competition to motivate me to run longer distances. So, I decided to sign up. Races are especially fun when you do them with friends, so I convinced 13 other people from CTLC to do the race with me.
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
The competition — the “Run for Love” — took place on Sunday, and it was held on, to put it lightly, the worst course I’ve ever run.
About
Bridget O'Donnell, 22, is a visual journalist experienced in multiple platforms. She recently graduated from the University of Michigan and currently resides in Shenzhen, China. More »Where am I?
Flickr Photostream
