Scenes from a Communist Nuclear Power

It is said that history is written by the victors of war but what happens when that war just happens to result in a stalemate on the 38^th Parallel? Two opposing accounts of history it appears, as I discovered during a recent trip with Senia and Sydney friend Francois to Dandong; China’s closest point to North Korea.

Dalian’s proximity to historical strategic points continues to amaze. Last year I wrote about Lushun, known in the west as Port Arthur, the natural deep sea harbour that guards the entrance into the Bohai Sea and its direct passage to Tianjin and Beijing. About an hour and a half from downtown Dalian, this was the site of the Sino – Japanese and Russo – Japanese wars as well as being the point from where the Japanese launched their entire offensive into China and the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Just 3 and a half hours from downtown Dalian is the city of Dandong, the border town where the Chinese “Volunteer Army” crossed over into Korea to go head to head with American and UN troops during the Korean War.

The trip to Dandong was pleasant enough. Frequent schedules to the town from Dalian enabled us to get a new bus with plenty of leg room for all and a reprise from the usually packed like sardines feeling you get on China’s public transport system. Some advice from friends who had visited earlier paid dividends as we quickly located a suitably priced hotel and then the adventure began. Wasting no time we hit the infamous 抗美援朝纪念馆 which I believe roughly translates into “Memorial museum commemorating assistance to Korea in resisting US aggression”.

It is perhaps wise at this point to provide some context. My extremely scant knowledge of the Korean War was learnt during Year 12 lessons on the “Cold War” where we were taught anything Red and Russian was bad and that our nuclear saviour was the emergently victorious US of A thanks largely in part to a perestroika focused Gorbachev. From memory and recent western literature, the Chinese with the help of their Russian military backers made first moves into Korean civil war which then “forced” a retaliation from the American led UN forces. Fighting went to and fro and ended in an armistice on the 38^th parallel which to this day separates the vibrant South Korean and its capital Seoul from the testy Kim Jong Il and his capital Pyongyang.

As such, you can imagine our surprise when arriving at this museum and spending a good 2 hours browsing its walls we found tales of Chinese heroics against an imperialistic force hellbent on destroying the stability of the recently formed People’s Republic of China.

Among the highlights which have been captured and attached in digital detail:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/Dandong2007

• Reference to the imperialist Americans as ‘running dogs’ by Mao Ze Dong;
• Statements of fact that it was indeed America that provoked the war by encroaching upon the territory of the peace loving Chinese forcing them into retaliation in the interests of national security;
• Pictures of the volunteer army crossing the bridge at Dandong into North Korea;
• Evidence of American plans to use biological / bacteriological warfare that were thwarted by the Chinese;
  
• Plentiful remnants of the antiquated machinery that the Chinese had to rely onto to eventually ‘defeat’ their more numerous and technologically advanced imperialist oppressors; and
• An awesome exhibition hall that had been turned into a multimedia battlefield scene. Fantastically realistic and one of the best done museum war recreations that I have seen anywhere in the world.

The rest of this quick 2 day trip involved:-

• Eating Korean cuisine whilst being hosted by North Korean exchange students who duly danced and sang for our entertainment;
• Visiting 虎山长城 (Tiger Mountain Great Wall) which is one end of the Great Wall that extends all across China;
• Walking along the Yalu river which separates Dandong from North Korea and hitting a point called 一步跨 (One step across) where you could probably cross in 2 jumps if you were not afraid of patrolling North Koreans;
• Actually coming across and witnessing the time old practice of tying up cormorant’s necks and using them to fish; and
• Spending some much needed catch up time with Francois, swapping stories from his pediatrician background with my China business experiences as well as the last 6 months of Sydney gossip =).

The bus trip home, prior to taking Francois for his last meal in Dalian of goat hot pot, was time for reflection. Indeed who really knows what is fact and what is propaganda? As young students, the lens through which we interpret our impressions of those foreign to us is unconsciously shaped by which side of the fence we are on. An American / Australian will be able to put a case forward on the need at the time to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars to prevent the spread of an inferior ideology. In the same way, there are those in China who will quote modern examples of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the portrayals of modern media in both China and Korea to argue that history has shown America’s desire to fight first and negotiate peace later.

The truth it can be argued, is probably somewhere in the middle. If this is true; if one believes that we can indeed learn from history and that that history does in fact repeat itself, perhaps we should all make an effort to get as balanced as possible a view so that the so called “successes” of the past don’t become the “mistakes” of the future. Food for thought regardless ;-)

Visit Malaysia Year 2007!

Every so often, the Malaysian government feels the desire to remind its citizens those past and present as well as ones that those global citizens that we all like to consider ourselves, that the country of Malaysia is indeed worth a visit.

This year is one such a year. Being a past citizen, I felt it only my duty to make use of the cheaper air flights and tourist attractions to pay a visit to my grandparents and relatives alike, take a much needed holiday break from China and introduce a Greek to the pleasures of the Msian eating factory.

Having once had to travel frequently from London to Sydney, the "short" Beijing to KL leg was welcome relief expecially when accompanied with the mandatory eating of late night wanton noodles at 2am in the morning. It was good to be back and great to see Dad as well ;-).

Senia arrived the next night, on the god blessed Air Asia cheap flights system. Unfortunately with her Greece bound luggage (she was leaving Australia) the overweight luggage fee made it very much a full price affair.. Despite that, spirits held high we had another late night supper serving of Hokkien mee at the good old SS2. Ah 2 from 2, Msia was looking good especially since the Bah Kut Teh had been ticked off earlier that day as well.

Next morning after more meatball noodles and Kway Teow washed down with Kopi Ais, we proceeded on the very untouristy journey to visit the graves of my grandparents. Morbid as this may sound there is a definite cultural funny side to this! Chinese as you know are really into 'feng shui'. So much so that they are also into it once they have departed life as they know it. We discovered that one very entreprenuerial Chinese gentlemen had played on this desire and had decided to go into the business of graveyards.

Bit of feng shui "Dragon"

On prime plots of land hemmed in by mountains on one side and sea on the other, coupled with a few dragons drinking from flowing streams, a business has been made of selling mini plots of land to older people as their graveyard.

This all inclusive service includes, the design and construction of your gravestone of choice, engraving as well as lifelong maintenance and care for your belovedly chosen plot. These depending whether you are facing mountain sea or the breath of a dragon all differ in price. You can even design graves with furniture to have your after life cup of tea and even those shaped as piano's so that you can listen to the dulcet tones of Shanghai singers to relax your departed soul.

Music for your soul anyone?

Now one may laugh at this concept but business was no laughing matter, they were talking about expanding their grave management services to Taiwan, China and the rest of SE Asia. Who needs shopping centres when one can sell plots of land to the baby boomer millions for higher than the price of a shop! You gotta see the attached photos..

The rest of the time in KL was relatively normal so to speak. Lots of eating, yong tau fu, chicken rice, roti canai and late night mamak stalls were all ticked off. Old friends Alvin Bol and Adrian Chua were caught up with and Senia was showed the grand tours of the embassies and the occasional very cool jazz club / bistro that KL has to offer. All that was left was to partake in the very Msian young person pastime of movies and shopping. Of course we did the occasional starbucks and watched several movies including transformers and Harry Potter twice but the shopping was a stand out this time. And boy did we shop!

For those of you that know me, you are aware that I am the quintessential male, I only shop to buy and do so very quickly. So it was also to my surprise that I spent 3 whole days walking around shopping with Senia. Dalian was a dry pit for clothing so I was determined to make up for lost time. Sungei Wang, Times Square, Mega Mall, KLCC, One Utama were all walked explored and bought out. Mid year sales and up to 80% off brands that fit me were too much fun. Tshirts, jeans, jackets, bags and shoes later, it took a whole new suitcase to take home what Senia and I mustered up. I am glad that sales only come 2wice a year! Having worked in the shopping mall industry for over a year now there were many things that could have improved in Malaysian malls but prices were not one of them!

Senia of course did the mandatory sight seeing, Twin towers, Merdeka Square, various Mosques, Railway station, the muddy confluence where Kuala Lumpur got its name. Even a trip to Genting Highlands, the casino and our old regularly frequented country club Awana was paid a visit. However nothing was more spectacular I thought then the Putrajaya development.

As a bit of a background, the old Prime Minister Mahathir had a dream to create a parliamentary city that would show the world the wonder of Malaysia. We were shown around the project by my uncle Nick who was able to give us the inside goss seeing that he helped design and build some of the housing developments. The dream of Putrajaya involved building housing, courts, government offices on a previous rubber estate. Modelled on Canberra to certain extents I was told stories of how bridges were built prior to man made rivers and lakes being dug and filled. No expense was spared for this project, grand architecture, glamorous palaces, invitations to the best restaurants in the world to open up branches here. However whilst the project has cost billions, made millionaires of many rubber estate owners and construction companies and probably made a significant dent in Petronas the National oil company, the place is still relatively deserted and housing only a fraction of the people that the plans originally intended. Another example of developing governments getting a bit too full of themselves in my opinion and making the rich richer and draining the national reserves for those very much needed funds of the future. But hey it looks magnificent!

The second part of the trip was a very relaxing and nature indulging trip to Redang island on the East coast of West Malaysia. 4 days which included lying on the beach, snorkelling, reading and not much else. Will let the photos do the talking here.

So all in all, visit Msia year was quite a trip and will go down as another fantastic experience in Msia. Sights, sounds, shops and food were pretty much the words of the trip as they always are but hey one still does need these experiences from time to time. Bring on Visit Malaysia year 2010! haha For all the other photos check out the posted website. http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/MalaysiaJuly07

Big Difference in Little China's Hospitals

It is rare that I find something that boils my blood so much to the extent that I will write about an experience only 6 hours after it has occurred and that 6 hours having been spent sleeping to recover from the ordeal. Indeed I am talking about the state of this one hospital that I attended in Dalian last night. The silver lining, is that the patient (who is not me thankfully) survived and is now well cared for in a different hospital which I am happy to say actually exceeded expectations but the night itself is a tale worth telling and news worth sharing.

It started with a call during a friend's birthday where we were just about to head off home after a night of beers, shots and guitars, what one would call a rather normal Sat existence in Dalian. Suddenly my Chinese mate Jason's expression clouded over as he beckoned me to go with him to the accident site of a friend that I had just met earlier that evening and had left about 15 minutes prior to go home on his motorbike. Whilst I used to have grandiose images of myself one day riding a solid race bike round the hills of Australia with a buxom young lass tightly draped around my back, these were totally laid to rest when we arrived at the crash scene. The unfortunate recipient was an American bloke named Jamie, he had only arrived in Dalian 3 months earlier, spoke no Chinese, had practically no friends and had come like many others to seek the relative lucrative position of English teacher at one of Dalian's many Universities.

Having come to a cross road intersection, he had gone straight on the green only to have a car turn into him. The front of the car was smashed, his bike in tatters with oil spilling out on the road and we found Jamie sitting some 10 metres from the site where he had obviously been flung from his bike, sitting with his head in his hands. Lady Luck had resulted in his phone not being broken and in his pocket enabling him to call Jason, practically his only Chinese friend in Dalian who was but just an acquaintance. The crash site was a mix of curious by standers and Dalian Taxi drivers who had stopped to watch the ordeal. The lack of language had meant that no one was able to talk to Jamie until we got there. At this stage, the police had arrived and what we thought initially as heaven sent the ambulance to the nearest hospital.

To speed up proceedings, I accompanied Jamie to the hospital in the ambulance and Jason stayed behind to answer the police questions on the crash site which were now starting to get heated because it was realised at that point that the crash was between Jamie and American and a government official. It was 1am, suspicion of alcohol involved and a bureaucratic nightmare for the police who I was informed later on had to go to several levels of authority to decide what to do with the situation probably for fear of a public relations scandal. To end on the crash site before moving to the real story in the hospital, I was told by Jason that one of the more "humourous" sights whilst waiting for things to get sorted was that of taxi drivers casually chatting to shabbily dressed policeman about the accident, inspecting and commenting on the quality of the smashed bike, cigarettes in hand whilst petrol and oil was leaked all over the road.

You would think a ride in an ambulance would be an efficient affair, after all it has the same trimmings, stretcher bed, paramedics in the back and flashing lights. However as we were trying to leave the crash site, one of the curious taxi drivers had parked us in to the crash site. A few beeps and cuss words later, the taxi had moved slightly to the side to allow the ambulance to get through, the driver of which promptly leaning out and obviously telling the taxi what he thought of his mother. 2 minutes later at a traffic light (in times of emergency they seem to heed the traffic rules!) we had discovered that the taxi driver had followed us and was now parked alongside the ambulance and had got out of the car to abuse the ambulance driver. What ensued was the incredible scene of swearing where the ambulance and taxi driver started getting into a fist fight and the two paramedics sitting at the back with me got out to force the taxi driver to get back into his car. On top of that the nurse next to me started flinging abuse through the window. Now if I could understand the local Dalian lingo I would probably have increased my swear word vocabulary 100 fold at that moment but what was not so funny was that Jamie was still in the ambulance bleeding, and finding it extraordinarily hard to breathe due to the what was later found to be 3 broken ribs. But the men of DongBei (North East China) decided that their mothers face was more important at this particular time.

That was to prove to be just the start. You really get to find out how much Chinese you have learnt when you have to try and comfort someone you don't really know and there is a group of doctors and administrators flinging questions at you and expecting you to translate to the bleeding American. Fortunately it was good enough to get him registered and to tell the doctors that he couldn't lie down and where he was hurting. However fearing more medical type questions soon enough I called another Chinese friend of mine Harry and he and another Chinese speaking Russian mate of his came over to lend a hand. When they arrived I thought well this could be the end of an exciting night. Little did I know it was to be just the beginning.

The next 5 hours brought a number of occurences that I believe will forever be etched in my mind and endear me forever grateful for having access to an Australian health care system.

- We found out that procedures meant that before anything could be done ie cleaning, stitching, disinfecting, a CCT scan had to be done first but this could not be done until money was parted with. Considering this was 1500RMB a considerable amount, none of us had this money on us at that time. China is different in the sense that even in an emergency, you have to pay before the doctors will do anything. So 20 min of running around filling in forms and finding alternative ways to promise funds at a later time had to be done before a scan was done and all this time Jamie was lying bleeding in the corner.

- He was'nt the only one bleeding, the floor was littered with cigarette buts and dried blood of which no one cleaned in the 4 hours I was there and Jamie informed me that during the CCT scan, the scanner itself was splattered with blood.

- Things got worse after the scan when we found out that Jamie had no real license to ride motorbikes in Dalian and didn't have health insurance. To his credit though the government official that hit him did come to the hospital and gave us some initial money to get things started.

- Post scan they finally patched him up to stop the bleeding but then decided that the two open wounds in his leg needed surgery so we had to get more money for that. Hence began a 1 hour trip around outside to try and withdraw enough cash from Jamie's credit card to pay for the next step in the treatment process. In the meantime he was made to wait not in a room but in the main walkway of the emergency centre. In that time we managed to witness a couple of gangsters bringing in girls that they had obviously beat up.

- Having come back with the 1,000 or so Aussie dollars that was needed, we were then informed that they needed to do another X ray to check on his leg. Approximately 2 hours had passed since we had been in the hospital, no cleaning of wounds, antiseptic or patient care had been administered at this stage. After money was paid, only then did the treatment begin which ironically was to have a blood test to see if the wound was infected and a shot in the ass to prevent infection. Whilst doing this, I witnessed to my horror the doctor pull out an old pair of rusted scissors to cut away the bandages whilst calmly reasurring Jamie that its OK the scissors are no where near your wound.

- Upon all the tests coming back OK, we are then told that there are no doctors available so you will have to wait in the corridor for 2-3 hours until they can operate on you. In the meantime they still can't patch you up, clean you, give you painkillers or find you a quiet place to rest cause you can't get any of these until the doctors see you, its procedure!

- After waiting 2 hours, it hit 6am and we were told it would be at least another 2 hours before the doctor's were available. By this time Jamie bless his soul was an absolute wreck. He had come down from shock so was feeling the pain for real, every breath hurt, his legs although bandaged were still bleeding profusely and he wasn't able to lie down so was exhausted from having to suppport himself on his hands cause his body hurt too much to relax. This was the last straw for us and we decided to look for another hospital.

This is where the story gets better. In short, we found a hospital that had a wing for foreigners in Dalian, they sent an ambulance to the other hospital to pick him up, hooked him straight up to a drip and monitoring equipment, prior to anything else got 2 doctors on him to clean him up and stitch up his leg wounds, got another Xray done to actually find the 3 broken ribs and had him in a private room propped up on a mattressed bed with pillows, all this in about 2 hours. The place smelt like a hospital, the doctors were professional, the nurses smartly dressed and caring and their patient care was excellent although limited by Jamie's lack of Chinese.

The night ended at 11am this morning when after a short breakfast stop I finally got home and crawled into bed. It was my second all nighter in a hospital and one really hopes that there wont be too many more.

Jamie although now settled is in for a rough week until his ribs start to heal a bit. He has no real friends in China so I will go and visit him probably tonight later on and during the week. The financial and legal consequences of not having a license or insurance will probably come into affect later on. But he is alive and well looked after now I think. Although I didn't go through what he did, it was a bit of a smack in the face that I am indeed not living in a developed country any more and as usual it is times like this that makes one appreciate all the more what one has.

Whats the Story Morning Glory?

Well there have been a number of new developments that have happened with respect to my business prospects in China and so I thought I would give everyone a quick update seeing that I have some time at the moment. Have just got back from a great 2 week trip in Msia, the details and photos of which will have to wait until another time ;-)

As many of you will know, I am representing an Australian company, The Tomlik Group who is attempting to set up a shopping centre development and management company within China with the intention to build regional shopping malls within the growing suburbs of China. We started this off with our first project at Dalian Peace Plaza which was a consultancy project to try and improve the design and management of the centre.

We have just come to the end of our one year contract and some changes have been made mainly in the design of the 3rd Floor, the increase of tenant occupancy from about 60% to now around 98% and also a small improvement in the overall feel of the centre. If one is being honest, whilst a lot was achieved, perhaps a lot more should have been achieved in one year however cultural differences of opinion, company politics and perhaps misunderstanding on key objectives with respect to management of shopping centres have made progress steady but slow.

Realising that there is a limit to what you can achieve as consultants which has never been our end but purely our means to learn about China we felt it was time to put our money where our mouth is to speak and ask for a new contract that provides us with management license over the centre along with incentives and penalties should our methods not prove effective. We are now waiting on the outcome of our talks. It is with bated breath that I await a decision that could mean a very short or prolonged stay in Dalian depending on the outcome.

Not wishing to put all my eggs in one basket especially when it comes to matters of money, we have endeavoured to start looking for alternative projects and have talked to various other shopping centre bodies, universities and developers alike to see what the market might have in store. Further to this, I have partnered somewhat with an Irish English teacher here in Dalian attempt to put together a business english training service that incorporates some of the hard and soft skills we take for granted in the west such as email communication, conference calling, team work and team management. Seeing that there is an abundance of MNC here in Dalian and China is very keen to start to make inroads into some of the English speaking BPO market, we have felt that this might be something to tap into.

However there is the very real possibility that all projects fall through and I am left back at the drawing board with no cash to play with =) I guess these are the risks or attempting to be somewhat entrepreneurial and trail blazing. As such considering that I will have a very lovely Senia Kalfa joining me in Dalian in September, one must take into consideration the financial needs of PhD students haha so should cash flow not be obtainable, a move back to the MNC world would not be unfathomable. Hopefully it will not get to this and should it, I will have done enough work in the last year to secure a role still within China and my chosen industry of shopping centre development and management. The personal deadline is December as it is at that point that funds run out, so wish me all the best of luck in securing what I hope will be some stability to my career come the start of 2008.

Thanks to all of you who have taken an active interest in my efforts in China to date and until more clarity arrives, I will be continuing to concentrate on getting my spoken and written Chinese to as high a level as I can through the Chinese University system haha.

The coming alive of the Dalian party scene

Some of you may remember my first email from China with its swashbuckling tales or leaking sinks, difficulties of not speaking Chinese in China and landlords from hell. If you have joined facebook and have browsed my photos there you will have no doubt by now realized that things are slightly different =) As one friend Chad pointed out, as the majority of my pictures feature the familiar red faced TKoo, Dalian is more reminiscent now of my times in London than the difficult stomping ground it was upon first arrival.

A lot of this has been due to a recent very good friendship struck up with an American Taiwanese friend, Wayne Hou. Having grown up in Chicago and Seattle, he is a DJ with a passion for bringing something different to the Dalian scene of music and parties. From cheap drinks at the Shangrila hotel, raves at up and coming bars to infamous house parties, Wayne along with my housemate Paris have contributed more to the decline of my liver in the last 3 months than in the last 3 years in Sydney. Also being a connoisseur or all that is food in Dalian as well as a wanna be cook who is looking to open his bar / bistro in Dalian, my association with him hasn’t done my belly any good either! But when you know the party man in town, cheap drinks, good food and beautiful girls are in abundance so not much to complain about here ;-) A recent visit from a good friend Troy from Australia will I am sure further testify to the party town that Dalian has become recently. Whether it be drinking vodka at Dave’s bar, beer at the Nepalese or Bavarian Beer House, smoking hookah’s at Hopscotch, playing poker at the Tin Whistle, dancing at a beach rave, eating goat on a stick outside JD’s, or fine dining at the Tapas Spanish restaurant, life has indeed picked up.

Life in Dalian has been further enhanced by a number of other networks mainly the playing of Gaelic football, the start of jamming again with some fellow Chinese musicians and the introduction to some other ethic groups such as Mongolians and Japanese. Amazing what a difference some good friends and a basic understanding of the Chinese language makes! With the infamous Dalian Beer Festival and Fashion parade just around the corner as well, who knows what the next 6 months will bring.

Beijing on a Qantas Package

My very good friend Ivy Yap from Uni decided to make use of her low paying but high flyer points job in Qantas to come and visit me for a few days in the capital of the Middle Kingdom. Being the young professionals that we are, we decided to splurge a bit for a 4 day 3 night package which included all the accommodation, most meals and all the necessary tourist attractions. If I was slightly dillusioned about the package tours before, this trip more than sealed my belief that I will never do one ever again =) Whilst the normal Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Sq, Temple of Heaven, Ming tombs etc etc were all good to go and see, the crappy Chinese food, lack of an air conditioned car and Beijing’s highly polluted air left much to be desired. Touristy photos are attached =)

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/Beijing2007

The trip came much more alive at night when we were joined by my friend Adrian Chua and I duly introduced both of them to the joys of the AIESEC alumni network which does indeed reach to every part of the world =) Nights out with good food ended with a spectacular Saturday night with cheap drinks, lots of singing to U2 and suddenly finding ourselves in a very dodgy bar called Suzy Wong’s. Very memorable haha. Thanks to Tzzy, Da and co for the warm welcome to their home city. And very good to get some quality time with V who had to use earplugs for a week to drown out by dulcet tones at night =).

End of 2006, New Years and Bday in Oz and Chinese New Year in Middle China

Well its been a long time coming, but I have finally learnt to use some technology to get the hundreds of photos that I have been taking whilst on this Chinese adventure onto the web! So for those of you that were hanging out for my thousand words of prose, you now will have to put up with photos to get a sense of what this bloke has been up to recently. For those that are interested in past photos, do check out the India entry for those pics and my earlier Dalian entries for all the picture and colour of Dalian 2006.

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/Dalian2006

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/IndiaSept2006AlinaSWedding

As the title would suggest, the last 2 months has been eventful as usual but I will attempt to capture it as succinctly as possible and leave the pictures do the rest of the talking. Broken into 2 parts Oz and Middle China

Back in Oz and HOW GOOD was it! Highlights included

• Missing the last week of exams to get a flight to land on the morning of New Years Eve. Quick catch up with the folks and family and off back to the heavenly Beattie St of Balmain to celebrate New Years with old friends in familiar surroundings. Amy Low had put on a great show and there was food, alcohol (Thanks to Fosters), fireworks and even random action on various balconies ah it was good to be home. Unfortunately Senia was still away in Greece so I had to play the viewing gallery that night

• An all dayer spent at the Exchange Hotel starting at 1pm and ending at 12am where many a beer was drunk and many a catch up had. Thanks to those who turned up
• The day at the cricket to see Warnie, McGrath and Langer's last test match, all the better cause it was in the Fosters Corporate Box! - Thanks Doves
• Giving formal notice and handing back my laptop to PwC - Despite all that can be said, I really had a blast at PwC. It was my first real job and I made some great friends, did a lot of travelling and learnt an awful lot. Will be forever grateful for the experience and especially to those that mentored me on the way. You all know who you are so thanks again!
• The several nights of beer, pizza, poker and cards, always appreciated as special friend and family time, even better when you win money haha
• Catching up with old Pommy friends Ash Kumar and Paul Hawkins on a trip to the Blue Mountains, both of whom very gracefully looked for all the silver lining they could find in their 5-0 whitewash in the test series.
• The great Koo family dinners which included a number of great Balmain and Leichhardt Italian restaurants and the celebration of the 29th bday at home which was indeed special after 6 months in China
• Spending for the first time in my life quality time with my grandmother where thanks to my newly acquired language skills I was able to converse for hours and not minutes. Learning about the real feelings, emotions and opinions of a relative you have known your whole life but was never able to properly communicate with is one of those life changing experiences and made the last 6 months of language training worth the effort in one encounter
• And finally of course the reuniting with the lovely Greek Goddess who is silly enough to put up with me for nearly 4 years now. For those of you who know me well, you all know by well who special she is to be able to last this long =) Nuff said..

Off to the middle of the Middle Kingdom

The end of January saw me back on a plane to good ole Dalian where Sydney shennanigans turned once again into gruelling 8 hour days of work combined with the study of the great Chinese language. Thankfully 2 weeks of that and I was off again this time to spend 2 weeks travelling with Chinese friends to the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou to visit the cities of Kunming and Guiyang respectively. Fortunate enough to be invited to spend Chinese New Year with Chinese I saw this as too good an opportunity to give up so booked the flights. Lets just say it was an interestingly memorable 2 weeks! Highlights included

• Flower gardens and villages of the minority groups of China. I have never seen people so excited about seagulls (mind you these provinces are inland) or dressing up in funny costumes to take shots. Nevertheless educational about some parts of Chinese culture that you just dont find out about in Malaysia or Australia.
• Having to learn to wash again from buckets and pans (Halooo Jalan Imbi). You should have seen my face the first day when my friend brought me out a pan of hot water to wash my feet in! I guess of all places on my body, my feet are probably what needs it the most =)
• Learning to make Chinese dumplings from scratch which I have decided is a terribly laborious process for not a lot of result especially when you are like me and make dumplings that look more like .. well lets not say any more here.
• Catching my first ever Chinese train and realising that you do indeed need security guards with megaphones to keep people in line. On the 10 hour train ride from Kunming to Guiyang I also decided that their beds are definitely not made for Koo males as seeing that once I was squeezed into my bunk, I was unable to move for the rest of the night
• Arriving in Guiyang to find that the jokes that my friend came from the country were not entirely untrue =) When upon arrival I was greeted by a fruit market and 2 chickens in the front doorway I thought oh yeah its camping time.
• Further discovering that my training as a Malaysian boy in the squat toilet was not put to waste as I didnt see another sit down toilet for the next 8 days till I hit the airport. When you combine this with Guiyang food which probably rivals Sichuan for chilli content, it made for some very interesting times above that hole in the ground!
• Seeing my first ever automatic Mahjong table, yes this thing shuffles and builds your blocks automatically. All you got to do is push and play!
• You know how in Australia you never saw you can play a sport unless you are extraordinarily good? Well you dont say you can play Mahjong or any sort of cards for that matter in China unless you are world champion. I found out the hard way several dollars later. Put it this way, my hosts may have been in a village that had 2 rooms but even then they managed to fit in 2 automatic mahjong tables =)
• Hitting various temples, minority group villages and eating Msian style ie 6-7 meals a day whilst taking a bucket load of pictures. Will let these do the talking for now..

http://picasaweb.google.com/terence.koo/CNY2007

One the work front, the Dalian Peace Plaza is coming along slowly but surely and we now have done the 3rd Floor of the centre and they seem interested in keeping us on longer which is good news for my pocket ;-) Other than that, the aim is till to continue with the Chinese until July this year and then lets see how things go from there. Have a quick trip back to Oz in April so might see some of you then. Until next post!

Happy Year of the Pig and all the best for the New Year

我衷心地祝福你们身体健康，万事如意，并且我希望你们猪年幸福快乐!

大连的爱尔兰团体 - Dalian's Irish Community

Over the last week I have been reading what I consider an excellent book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Amongst things it has totally challenged my concepts of whether I am skilled enough to handle the next 10-15 years of my career, what i can do to make use of the latest information technology that has come along in streams, changed my views on sustainable development and challenged me as to how I will educate any future children. Not bad for one book! READ IT!

Another aspect of this book that I found of interest was that it mentioned Dalian and Ireland amongst other places as shining examples of cities / countries that have embraced the latest technological revolutions and globalisation forces to surge ahead as competitive economies. In fact it helped clarify something that I noticed pretty early on in my stint in Dalian ie that of all the "western" foreigners that are in Dalian, I would say that it would be fair to say that the Irish make up one of the biggest subgroups. What was also surprising for me was that whilst the name "Dalian" rarely registers any form of recognition from Australian friends, it is a well known Chinese city for Irishmen and there seems to have historically been some sort of city to city relationships that has developed this.

My run in with the Irish community here was purely accidental, an Irish classmate did the meet a friend of a friend thing and I ended up meeting a great Irish guy who had lived in Dalian for a number of years, married a local and amongst other things was the captain of the Dalian Wolfhounds Gaelic Football team! Finding out that I had 2 hands 2 feet and could run I was duly invited to a training session to test the water. Although I must admit it wasnt my first preference to play an Irish sport in a Chinese city, the guys were great and allowed me to make up for my two left feet by allowing me to prop up the goals =) My first game out with them saw us play a Shanghai team and we even ended up on TV for a short stint haha. There is apparently an Asian Championship in May next year (yes there are Irish everywhere!!) so that might be something worth getting stuck into for a bit of a laugh.

When I first arrived in China I made a mental note not to make too many English speaking friends as I felt that this might affect how quickly I was able develop my Chinese. However the warmth of this group which has led to other than football, poker nights, Irish bar parties, numerous dinners and the start of a friendship group in Dalian was been an absolute godsend. The latest benefit has been a contact that has enabled us to start looking for a new house. New cities, in new countries with new languages are blardy hard work and yours truly has been truly grateful for what can only be described as a totally random introduction to this great group of people.

上个星期我看完了一本叫《世界是平的》的书。作者是美国人，内容是关于信息技术发展的结果的。随着信息技术的广泛利用，我们的地球越来越‘平’的。发达的信息技术让更多人更容易联系。这本书里面讨论了很重要的话题但是我觉得最有意思的部分是关于大连和爱尔兰的。这本是美国去年的最畅销的书所以当我看到大连的话题我吃了一惊。

因为大连和爱尔兰很重视他们的信息技术，并且这方面也得到了快速的发展，结果这本书关于这个方面写了很多。到大连的时候我也发现大连和爱尔兰的城市有关系。

我偶然间发现了大连的爱尔兰团体。我在大外学习的时候我的爱尔兰同学介绍我和他住在大连的爱尔兰朋友。这个朋友已经住在大连很久了，而且跟本地女孩结婚了。他曾邀请我跟他的爱尔兰足球队一起踢球。那时，我看到了大连的爱尔兰团体。

其实我不太喜欢踢足， 但是因为我原来没有很多朋友，所以当他们邀请我的时候我就接受了。并且，同意跟他们来一场爱尔兰足球比赛。因为我踢球不太好，所以他们让我当守门员。我玩儿得不错，所以比赛以后他们邀请我一起去大连唯一爱尔兰酒吧。

到现在我跟我的爱尔兰的朋友做了很多事情，所以我跟他们越来越熟。他们经常邀请我参加很多活动，比如去踢足球，打牌，聚会，吃饭什么的。而且他们介绍中国朋友帮助我找新的房子。

虽然我没打算找到那么多的外国朋友，但是这个又友好又热情的爱热兰团体让我很感谢。

大连与日本之间的历史－Dalian's History with Japan

I came across a book on the 'Rape of Nanking' during my first week in China. The more I travel the more disillusioned I get with the Australian history curriculum. My reading of this book further emphasised this as despite being overseas Chinese I really had no idea of the details of such an atrocity that has been brought to life with recent news reports of Japanese Prime Ministers refusing to not visit the graves of apparent war criminals and the altering of Japanese history text books to emit this incident from their national history. This stimulated a greater interest in finding out more about Sino Japanese history and ironically I discovered that Dalian is a perfect place to start.

The first truly historical experience came about from Dad and I took a day trip to see the historical city of Lushun which is about an hour from Dalian. Lushun is one of the worlds few natural deep water harbours and its position on the Liaoning peninsula makes it one of great strategic importance. As such at the moment it plays home to a major Chinese naval base. Trusting Dad to brush up on his history he also revealed to me its historic significance.

North Eastern China was granted to the Russians after the Opium Wars. The Japanese had other ideas and after first taking over Korea, first attacked the Chinese at Lushun just before the turn of the century to gain control of the area. They won but the Russians not being happy used international pressure to force the Japanese to give this back.

In 1904 the Japanese had had enough and then attacked the Russians in a Pearl Harbour dress rehearsal where they pre-emptively took out the Russian Navy at Lushun and then proceeded to storm the city. They won in a pretty bloody campaign.

From Lushun, the Japanese then planned their entire offensive into North Eastern China where the end result was the overthrowing of the last emperor and the establishment of the puppet government of Manchukuo of which Dalian was a part of. Dad and I spent a good hour in the old Japanese house that served as this headquarters. It blew my mind that the entire campaign of the Japanese occupation of China during the 20th Century was planned from a small town just an hour from where I lived (although don’t go saying this to any Chinese from the area). This continued up until the end of the Second World War with the Japanese surrender.

What was sad to see was that an area of such historical significance to both China, Japanese and Russia, is mainly sealed off to foreigners (Dad and I got in cause of our Chinese looks haha another bonus) and the museums and historical sites are badly preserved and exhibited. In fact the significance of the area remains unknown to most despite the fact that it is only 1 hour from Dalian. However once again, the complexity of history comes into play cause it depends very much on who you talk to and the perspective changes whether you talk to Japanese or Chinese. It does provide an insight however into the nature of the relations between these countries.

The ironic thing about Dalian is that despite their distrust of the Japanese, there is a very significant legacy in Dalian from those times. Japanese architecture, shops, restaurants and companies are abundant and you could be forgiven in some areas for thinking that you were in a Japanese town. However whilst the Chinese here understand the reliance on Japan (a significant number of university students here speak Japanese or study it) whilst they may accept their existence here in Dalian, in many cases there is no forgiveness of the pain that past relations brought.

当我刚来大连的时候，我买了一本书叫《南京大屠杀》。尽管我是华侨，但是直到现在我都还没听说过这件事，所以我感到很意外。我越来越明白为什么那么多中国人不喜欢日本人。看了这本书以后，我对中国的历史有了广泛的兴趣。

我的爸爸告诉我，大连的附近有一个县级市叫旅顺。他说这个地区也有很多中国历史。所以他来大连的时候我安排我们一起一次去旅顺旅行。旅游以前我研究了一下旅顺的历史。我发现旅顺的很多地方经常不让外国人进去看. 但是我的中国朋友告诉我，因为我们的样子都像中国人如果我们不说话的话他们肯定不知道我们是外国人。

如果你开车的话，从大连到旅顺只需要两个小时。尽管旅顺离大连很近，但是我发现很多外国人没有去过。因为他们不知道旅顺有什么地方值得他们去看。去旅游的时候我们发现这个地方拥有很多关于战争的回忆。

十九世纪末的时候中国东北有俄罗斯来治理。但是日本不喜欢这个情况所以在1904跟俄罗斯发生战争。因为旅顺的重要地位，所以日本率先攻占了旅顺。日本赢了但是却有很多人死了。

日本计划将旅顺做为它进一步攻占中国东北的基地。所以去旅顺的时候我和我的爸爸看到很多有中国和日本历史的地方。因为旅顺是日本第一治理的地方，所以旅顺在中国历史中非常重要占有的城市。大连也是。

直到今天大连仍然有日本的影响。在大连市内，日本的建筑，商店，饭店和公司都有。而且很多大连的大学生会说日语或者要学日语。不过当我跟我的中国朋友聊天儿的时候，他们告诉我，虽然中国人接受日本人存在于一个城市但是大部分中国人不会忘记那么可怕的历史。因为他们的家人曾经被深深地伤害过。

我觉得如果你出生在和平的国家，你不能全部明白这样的情感。我也是这样。可是我相信中国政府需要让别人知道这个历史。我不理解为什么他们不让外国人看看像旅顺一样非常重要的地方。我认为，如果更多人能知道和明白这样的历史，可能我们的世界会变得更好的地方。