Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The wise frog

I heard this Chinese fable today..
There was an old frog who spent years of her life on the buttom of the well. The frog had a white and long beard. She would spend hours everyday looking up learning about the sky and the universe. She wrote her observations down, and came up with very predictable theories about when to expect, darkness, blue sky, and even rain. She was very proud of herself, and the frog community respected her achievements.
On one warm spring day, a small white bird peeked on the well, and cheerfully invited the frog out. The bird told her about the trees, the rivers, the lakes, the wind, and the human-made cities.
The frog shrugged about the absurdities of this young bird, and told him: "You just don't get it young boy. I know the truth, look at my exact theories."

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Thoughts from Zhengzhou

I missed the train "again", and I will be late to work tomorrow. I thought to update this blog with my latest thoughts.
This weekend made a symbolic milestone. I survived to travel alone without meeting any Non Chinese speakers to help me on the way. My best friend was an "English to Pinyin" translator device... Anyway, let's me talk a bit about Zhengzhou.
First of all, I have never ever heard of Zhengzhou. When I booked the ticket, I did some reading and found out that it has the population of 7 million people that is similar to the population of Switzerland (a famous European country). My knowledge is shockinly skewed to the West...
If you are serious about connecting the dots between the history and the present of China, do visit Zhengzhou "Henan" museum. ( I will add some details later)...
The city has the stamp of a boring Chinese city "post office next to china bank next to massage place next to big ugly building next to post office ...". But its downtown is quite impressive. The architecture, the lights, the big brand shops, etc.. For some reason, I recalled downtown Zurich (a city in the small Switzerland).
Though, nobody talked English around here, I found some useful vital references: Mc Donalds and KFC.