The Stage to San Francisco and the Schooner to China

[Green River Powell aka RonC]

Well, that isn't exactly how it went. I took United to San Francisco and another United fight to Shanghai, China. Most of my trip was spend in Anhui Province, and I have been in Beijing the last few days before I leave tomorrow.

This ain't the old China! I can't believe the number of construction cranes that seem to be everywhere. They almost have completely caught up to us in technology. China is now more of a laissez faire, unfettered capitalist society than the USA is. They also pay the price of an unfettered capitalist society. Yesterdays air in Beijing was in the hazardous, stay indoors, do not exert level. But then so was the rating the day before. Visibility is sometimes 50 yards. The readings come from an air quality sensor set up on the roof og the US Embassy, and that has really angered the Chinese government. Small towns of 2.4 million (I did mean to say "small") had raw sewage running into the lakes.

After traveling for several days through some eastern provinces, one recurring theme hit me. Every piece of usable ground is being used. Except for some tiny parks in the city, there is no land really set aside for some activities that we take for granted: no protected streams for fishing - you can fish in rivers grossly polluted from sewage, chemicals from manufacturing, and mercury from the coal in the power plants. Of course there are no national forests where you can hunt or just get away from the crowds - at least in the region I traveled in. There are about 1.4 or 1.5 billion people here, and if land isn't being used for residential purposes, then it is being used for factories or agriculture.

Money is being made in bundles! I see more Rolls Royce, Bentleys, high-end Mercedes here than I see in the USA. A bunch of people are getting very rich as the general working man or woman feels fortunate to have a one room apartment in a high rise with a bathroom down the hall. Still, the money situation is much better now for the little guy than it was just 10 or 15 years ago.

I have never seen so many banks and financial institutions anywhere.Labor is cheap and willing. Taxi drivers are ruder than in NYC, and most times even refuse to pick us up.

No, this is not the old China.

Ron

[Wolfgang]

Very interesting.  Thanks for the report.

[GunClick Rick]

They are on thier way~The next realestate boom,they want this dirt bad and we will sell! Just ask Mitt

Can't outsource bridges?But you can sure insource it and they been building alot of them there and we need alot of them here our infrastructure is bad and they will need a place to live.

Ahh yoo amelycans Yoo inna bad sprot now

[Green River Powell aka RonC]

I was a little off on the air pollution readings. Above 200 is hazardous to health for everyone, and the measurements were not in the high 200s but were in the high 300s.
Here is what it looks like from the airport:

From my Beijing Hotel:


This is typical for the construction skyline in every town. There are clusters of 5, 6 or more 25-30 story apartments all over.


Now, the big question is if I should attach all the Mao pins I bought in a package and attach them to the Mao style hat with the red star and wear it to the shooting range? 

Ron

[GunClick Rick]

The air here kicks my butt when it is bad,i would be dead if i lived there How the heck do they do it.