Play the Game of Life
Ryan Petersen's Blog

A spontaneous, chaotic rebellion is playing out daily on more than a thousand urban battlegrounds across the nation. It is a fierce battle raging between unevely matched foes: seething mobs, though lacking effective tactics, far outnumber the highly disciplined forces of the foreign invaders. At first glance, this war's casualties appear distinctly one-sided as legions of uniformed troops mow down the barbaric mobs from defensive positions behind the counters at KFCs nationwide.

Under the banner of their Colonel, well-trained formations of cashiers hold the enemy at bay using the latest in point-of-sale technology. These infantrymen appear unfazed by the numerical superiority of their attackers calmly dispensing of each successive wave with finger lickin' good combinations of weaponry.

Meanwhile, safely out of reach of enemy fire, company commanders deliver inspirational words to the front line troops. From these tactical positions in the rear, the managers skillfully redeploy their forces each time the tide of barbarians appears poised to break through. Yet as each onrushing attacker gets served, two more starving savages from the agitated mob push forward to face the line of registers.

And so the melee rages on with each side stubbornly refusing to admit defeat. The only identifiable losers emerging from the fog of war are those hapless chickens caught in the crossfire.

Labels: business, china, my favorite posts

Ingredients:

Gigantic Frozen Tuna
Wasabi
Rice
Seeweed

Directions:

Step 1.) Cut gigantic frozen tuna to pieces with industrial strength bandsaw.
Step 2.) Not sure, we only learned step one.

Labels: food, japan, my favorite posts, video

Ostentatious. It's the only word to describe the Guangzhou Regal Riviera, a new development on the south bank of the Pearl River. The palace of Versailles seems to have been the model for this ridiculous show of wealth.

Next door the city has embarked on construction of the world's largest sight-seeing tower, a 600 meter monster that will take you some 200 stories above the city for a view of, um, smog and construction probably. The base of this tower is the circular structure on the right side of the panorama photo. Click on the picture for a better view.

Old communists are rolling in their graves as the new bourgeousie of China demonstrate's its complete lack of concern for equality and public perception. The new condos inside are selling for 15,000 RMB ($2,000+) per square meter. Video tour of one of these units coming soon.

Labels: business, china

Ou Wen, a young kid on Sha Mian Dao, is a real master of finger painting. This one took him about an hour to paint. And sold it to a passing American massage chair dealer without even having to negotiate.

Labels: china

You gotta just love some of these Chinese vehicles...

Labels: china, China traffic

The China International Furniture Fair was held this weekend in Guangzhou. The building itself is always the most impressive thing about fairs in Guangzhou. It's got display space about the size of 12 football fields, maybe bigger. Architecturally it can only be compared to an airport. And during furniture fairs the inside looks like a huge city, as all the manufacturer's displays are built like little homes so that the furniture will be shown in its natural setting.

Labels: business, china, hong kong

From the outset of the European age of discovery, Guangzhou's merchant class rightfully perceived the arrival of explorers and subsequent stream of traders as a threat to their business interests. Recognizing that possible benefits from trade did exist as long as the trade was conducted on terms favorable to the Chinese, the city restricted Europeans to the Pearl River island of Sha Mian. Isolated from the rest of Guangzhou society, the Westerners set up residences, churches and prosperous trading houses on the sandy outcrop. In the ensuing centuries, the colonial-style buildings survived Opium wars, revolutions, communist purges and the ravages of industrialization.

Still relatively isolated from Guangzhou's bustling activity, Sha Mian Dao continues to provide a haven for western tourists. Most of those staying on the tiny island are Americans who've come to get paperwork for their newly adopted Chinese babies at the U.S. consulate, located on the Sha Mian's southwestern edge. Babies are picked up by their new American parents from orphanages across China and brought to this office, which as it turns out, is the only branch that processes adoption applications.



The result of this steady flow of new American failies is a bustling crafts and souvenir industry on the island, centered around the luxurious White Swan hotel. Indeed, in the two years since my first visit I've noticed that a half dozen of the island's restaurants have gone out of business, replaced by even more little shops hawking the same cheesy gifts. All business on the island, including that of the massive White Swan hotel, rests precariously on American imigration policies regarding adoptions. A temporary disruption in this flow would surely result in severe hardship for hundreds of people here in Sha Mian. In the meantime, business is as good as ever.

Over the past few centuries in which China has undergone several earth-shifting transformations, Sha Mian has managed to transition from a center of the opium trade to China's main center for the export of babies blessed with the opportunity for a new life.

Labels: china

Not all of Deng Xiao Ping's decisions can be cast in a positive light, but certainly the man deserves this tremendous statue in Shenzhen, the golden child of his 'open door' policies. The primary architect of China's economic reform, from the top of this hill in Shenzhen, Deng can see clearly the remarkable achievements made by a people given the freedom to work to improve their own well-being.

Labels: china

Labels: china

Unlike some of the previous posts comparing the two countries, these two reflections lean in favor of China.

First, Chinese people appear far more active than their Japanese counterparts. Parks are filled from sunrise till well after sunset with people of all ages doing all manner of strange exercises. Meanwhile on a Sunday afternoon during a three day weekend the most gorgeous parks in Tokyo were found completely abandoned. While temples and museums attract many Japanese tourists, I hardly saw anybody out and about just for the sake of pure physical exercise. Could this be a factor in the prevalence of gray hair among elderly Japanese?

The next small victory for China is the simple fact that there are more trash cans here--by several orders of magnitude. Japan has almost no trash cans on its streets, though recycling bins are everywhere. However, every single small business in China has their own little track bucket for use by passersby on the street. When you think about it, this is an amazing display of communal spirit in a country that is often criticized for lacking respect for the commons. If some critical mass of those shops were to remove their trash cans spontaneously, those remaining would see that they were now cleaning up everybody's trash, and promptly remove theirs as well. The fact that so many Chinese people display this civic-minded attitude is often overlooked and certainly something to be commended and built upon as the Chinese try to develop a more civilized and harmonious society.

Labels: china

What does it take to make a dramatic difference in the quality of your garden? Start by treating your moss like the VIP it is.

Labels: my favorite posts

There's a great deal of hype in the news surrounding the avian flu. Until the virus mutates into a form that can spread from human to human, there is absolutely nothing to worry about as a foreigner in China. How can I make such a bold statement? Because I have seen exactly 3 wild birds in 2 years living in China. Caged birds are, well, in cages where you aren't going to come into contact with them if you're smart. There simply are no wild birds in most of this country, something that hadn't really occurred to me till I made it to Japan where the sound of chirping birds fills the forests.

So the real question is, where are all the birds? Some say that the Chinese ate them all, which seems like a good explanation until you realize how hard it is to catch a wild bird, much less ALL of them. More plausible is that habitat destruction and especially the overuse of pesticides has killed them.

Any other insights? You won't see much about this in the news over here, but if you find an article related to the dearth of birds, please post a link in the comments section.

Labels: china

Shenzhen's Dong Hu (East Lake) Hotel bears an eerie resemblence to what the Godfather's house on Lake Tahoe would look like if it hadn't been maintained at all until today, thirty years later. Damp, moldy air permeates the once luxurious hotel's mazelike corridors, providing a poignant reminder of the don's downfall.

Government officials, police officers and other powerful people retreat to the hidden offices and tucked-away gambling parlors deep in her belly, where watchful eyes cannot wander. Red envelopes glide gently across mahjong tables while young mistresses wait by the pool. Clouds of dew take shelter from the oppressive humidity on hallway mirrors, where even your own reflection is distorted.


Throughout the hotel grounds, evidence of a bygone age of elegance appears like memories of a dream that you try desperately to hold onto as you drift helplessly into the demanding arms of the next one. Could such a gilted age really have existed in the distant past? It seems unlikely in this, China's most infamous boom town. Shenzhen was just a fishing village when the Godfather ruled the roost. So what could be passed off as a charming version of faded luxury, must instead be characterized as a poorly maintained, scuzzy hotel.

Labels: china, my favorite posts

Labels: hong kong

Labels: hong kong, video

Japan's bullet trains are fast and reliable; running every 5 minutes to anywhere you want to go in the country, they are easily the best way to get around.

Labels: japan

Japanese people have far more gray hair than Chinese people. In fact, as I take note of the number of men with gray hair on the subway in Tokyo, it suddenly dawned on me that almost nobody in China has gray hair. Upon my return to China I will have to investigate this to see if this is really true, or if I just wasn't paying enough attention.

Labels: japan

The biggest fish market in the world doesn't smell like fish. It's so clean--and the fish so fresh--that there is no odor at all!

Labels: japan

Labels: china, Kunming, photos, yunnan

 

 

 

 

Labels: china, hong kong, photos

Japan actually has subway ticket dispensers that give change for up to 10,000 yen (about $90 USD) in notes. What is this so difficult in the United States? Why do our vending machines have to return dozens of quarters? We have had ATM machines, so the technology for dispensing notes has been there for some time.

Labels: japan

Can never get enough of the bowing.



Shot at the Shinkansen station in Tokyo, Japan.

Labels: japan, video

Thinking of Japan usually conjures images of high-tech electronics, massive cities, ultra-modern design and great automobiles. Yet there is a part of Japan that we don't usually think about--bountiful nature. As a result of forward thinking 19th century imperial policy, incredibly dense forests envelop every major city. All elevated terrain seems to be blanketed in lush greenery. Often these forests appears as little islands floating atop a sea of vast urban development, but more frequently its the cities that appear submerged beneath an ocean of green. Venturing away from the major cities you are quickly rewarded with the awe-inspiring scenery of some of the world's finest national parks. These pictures are from Nikko National Park, north of Tokyo.

Labels: japan

A dance troupe takes to the streets in honor of the Hemeji Castle Festival, an annual celebration of the heritage of the town of Hemeji in Kansai prefecture.

Labels: japan, video

Just west of Osaka, Hemeji boasts one of the country's finest castles. A massive structure built during the Tokugawa Shogunate in the late 16th century, Hemeji Castle seems to have been more of a palace than a defensive structure. The main tower and many of the auxilary buildings were built entirely of wood, and in an era of gunpowder (which the Japanese were already using at the time of its construction) it wouldn't have offered much in the way of defense. However, just outside the building were the homes of hundreds or thousands of fiercely loyal samurai warriors, so you would have had a hard time getting close enough to take a shot.

Labels: japan

Labels: japan

So this is how they do it...




Filmed at a garden in Kyoto, Japan

Labels: japan, video

Surrounded by a ring of splendid forests on all sides, the town has struck the perfect balance between thoughtful, modern design and a perfectly preserved historical legacy. Peaceful temples, impressive museums, wild nightlife, wonderful alleyways, quiet back streets and an ultra-modern train station blend seamlessly. Kyoto was one of the only major Japanese cities to escape bombing in World War II, so it preserves more of the country's ancient forms than other areas. And the forests that blanket its many hills serve as a constant reminder of Japan's progressive, conservationist mentality.

Labels: japan

I knew I was going to like Japan while still in the airport in Shanghai and the attendant at All Nippon Airlines asked me if I would like a window or an aisle seat. In two years living in China, no Chinese airline has ever asked me this simple question.

The lady then pointed me in the direction of the gate with a smile. At Chinese airline counters I've noticed that you are not generally told where to walk after you finish checking in. And if you ask you are likely to get an extremely surly response that may or may not result in you understanding where to go.

When I arrived at Kansai airport in Osaka, all the passengers stood on the left side of the escalator, allowing others to walk up the right side. What a concept! Yet completely foreign in mainland China.

Two major scores for Japan before even setting foot on its soil. Not bad!

Labels: japan