Lest we slip into thinking everything in China is just the joy of wantons and donkey burgers, here are a few current issues to ponder.

1.  As one headline puts it, "China has world’s most skewed sex ratio at birth – again."

On the mainland, a traditional preference for boys has encouraged selective abortions that resulted in 115 boys born for every 100 girls from 1994.

And this matters:

In terms of gender equality, the nation ranked 99 out of 144 countries, down from 91 last year, the report said. A wide gap also exists in education levels of men and women on the mainland. China was 119 in terms of secondary school attainment, behind countries including Singapore, South Korea and Ghana.

On a different level, this also disrupts the future of families, dating and marriage in China:    

Like India, most of China is patrilocal: in theory, at least, a married woman moves into her husband’s home and looks after his parents. Also like India, China has a deep cultural preference for boys. But whereas India has dowries, China has bride prices. The groom’s parents, not the bride’s, are expected to pay for the wedding and give money and property to the couple. These bride prices have shot up, bending the country’s society and economy out of shape.

and, 

 It is a buyer’s market, complains Qiang Lizhi, a newly married man who runs a café nearby. A 47-year-old man, Deng Xinling, says that men are now considered shopworn if they are unmarried at 25. By contrast, no woman is thought too old to marry; even widows have no difficulty in finding husbands.

One curious new institution seems to be courtship and dating schools for men...time to be sensitive and polite...
                     https://www.economist.com/node/21526350 

2.  The air in Beijing still isn't great.  One sample report, this from the NYTimes in 2013, "Life in a Toxic City."  
                                       (this from 2013)
The Chinese government is unhappy about this, and perhaps a bit sensitive.  It may be rude of me to inhale when I step off the plane and simply collapse.  I'll try to avoid that, but hey, heads up, I have trouble driving into St. Louis with the windows down.
                                        (this from 2015)
Is the air quality improving?  Maybe.  Maybe sometimes,  but not so much other times, depending on weather conditions, like during this recent sandstorm, when the hazard alerts were high.

Well, click here for a real time index of air quality.  We could use more of these!

Sometime, we should talk about solar and wind efforts in China.  Real, though coal is still...emperor.  

3.  And recent disturbing news, which Brian probably knows more about, politics and all--the "indoctrination camps" (I suppose it would be rude to call them concentration camps) for Chinese Muslims over in a western province.  Here's one Washington Post take on the camps:  "Chinese mass-indoctrination camps evoke Cultural Revolution." 

Since last spring, Chinese authorities in the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang have ensnared tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Muslim Chinese — and even foreign citizens — in mass internment camps. This detention campaign has swept across Xinjiang, a territory half the area of India, leading to what a U.S. commission on China last month said is “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.”

and, 

The internment program aims to rewire the political thinking of detainees, erase their Islamic beliefs and reshape their very identities. The camps have expanded rapidly over the past year, with almost no judicial process or legal paperwork. Detainees who most vigorously criticize the people and things they love are rewarded, and those who refuse to do so are punished with solitary confinement, beatings and food deprivation.

Probably not something our guide will talk about.

Now on with our innocent trip to China!

later, bob

Want to experience a trip that helps you grow as a professional, partake in tourist activities, assist a community in need, AND not break the bank all at the same time? The Education Department Jamaica Trip is the trip for you!

During this one week study abroad trip we stayed at a Methodist church's dorm in Falmouth, Jamaica. The staff there cooked three meals a day for us, did all of our laundry, and walked us to and from local places (they were AMAZING). Every day, we went to Falmouth All Age School and taught some kiddos! Each student was paired with a teacher and we got the chance to spend the entire week with them! From the Jamaican teachers, we experienced nothing but respect and open arms - we loved coming to work with them every day! The kids were so great about welcoming us as well. They helped us to better understand Patois (Jamaican slang) and we helped them with their academic studies. The school was right off of the ocean and every single day was filled with beauty! At the end of the week, each CC student packed up a suitcase of donated school supplies that we flew with us from the US. Each suitcase was packed for our own specific teacher. On Friday afternoon, we brought all the goodies to Falmouth All Age and gave them to our classes. There was no better feeling than to be able to help out these teachers/students, who so obviously deserved it!



After school was when our group got to go see some tourist attractions. These attractions included...

• Dunn's Fall River 







• Luminous Lagoon
• (not pictured because only the naked eye can truly perceive the beauty of the glistening waters)
• Martha Brae





The very last day of our trip, we stayed at a Jamaican resort! It was beautiful there and it was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy ourselves after a long, busy week of working! This beautiful country and the people will forever hold a special place in my heart. Going on this study abroad trip was one of the best decisions I've ever made. 




I will end this post with a quote from the teacher I was paired with, Mrs. McLean. 

"You have to make a difference. You cannot just teach to teach. You have to want to change the world. When you help a child, the world is a better place."

So, a big part of every travel and study trip is eating--not just for the obvious reasons, but because so much of a culture is carried in its food.  That said, food is also one of the things that travelers tend to worry about.  When I texted my friend Roz about this summer excursion to China, her immediate response was "Just don't eat the food."  When pressed, she said "avoid the fish eyes."  I would say that's a given, but then, at that pleasant outdoor cafe in Greece, when the guide ordered up the fried whole fish, and said, "just start by biting through the head," well, I did, and was a bit glad I had an ouzo chaser.  And in a Mekong market, the two Australian dudes I was with decided it would be fun to do shots of the rice whiskey liquor in which any number of dead snakes were coiled up, and, eh, I had to go along.  So, fish eyes, maybe.

I have been to Taiwan, and loved the food there, even the mass-quantity, super-crowded, pushy hotel buffet breakfasts, but more, wandering around at night eating "street food" from all the booths.  Often, I would just watch the people and booth, then wander up, say one (holding up one finger), and holding out a handful of change.  Lots of interesting results.  


Here's a slightly long video of street food in Xian.  I want to do this:

So, I'm up for food adventures in China, though I expect surprises.  That is, I don't expect food there to be too much like the food in Chinese-American restaurants here.  Here's one website that surveys the basics.  It sounds like the expected staples of rice, noodles, tofu, with a variety of meats and veggies.  They say that pork is the most popular meat, and there are eggs in quite a few dishes.  Though not all chicken eggs.  I've raised geese and ducks before and eaten those eggs, and yes, some difference, if nothing else, that goose eggs aren't just a bad math score, but are enormous.
Food in China is also strongly regional, so I hope we get to experience the differences in the three cities we will visit (and that we have good enough wi-fi there to report as we go).  I did a quick look for food in Beijing.  Try this site.  Roast duck, Chinese dumplings, "Jing Jiang Rou Si--Shredded Pork in Beijing Sauce"--ummm.  The recommended Donkey Burger?

Originating in the city of Baoding in northern Hebei province, Beijing has adopted the donkey burger (驴肉火烧 lǘròu huǒshāo /lyoo-roh hwor-shaow/) as its own. Restaurants offering this dish serve a number of different donkey meals, however the one to try is the donkey burger. Shredded donkey meat is served in a piping-hot, crunchy bun with a green pepper relish.

This dish isn’t recommended solely for its novelty value. The contrast between the succulent meat, crunchy bun and sweet relish make it incredibly tasty and you are unlikely to stop at one. Look out for a big 驴肉 (donkey meat) sign clearly visible on the front of all restaurants offering this meat.

Well, um, maybe.

One other venue that will surprise my fellow travelers--I'm interested in visiting a KFC in China.  Surprising, because?  Oh, I'm that guy who scorns students and others who get homesick for McDonalds and sneak off for a Big Mac the first chance they get.  I'd have their stomachs pumped immediately, given the authority.  Though when the whining became too loud on a CC trip to Egypt, I did ask the guide to administer some American food, so she lined up a visit to a local TGIF.  Which I innocently boycotted, sitting out in the not pleasant Cairo sun, drinking warm water and eating a stale roll I'd kept from breakfast.  Guilt is a useful tool.

But KFC.  Someone recently told me it was worth the venture into the global corporate estate, since the food choices there would be--unexpected.  I recently had a speaker in a class who talked about similar KFC adaptations in her native Pakistan, so I'm willing to give this credence.  Check this article:  "KFC's Explosive Growth in China."  A lot of business model information, for those of you into that, but then this comment from an executive there:

"One of the lessons I take away from this case is that to do China, you have to do China," says Shelman. "It's a large, complex, and dynamic market that deserves single-minded attention." That attitude extends from the boardroom of Yum! Brands to the menus in KFC restaurants. A small number of items would be familiar to Western visitors—mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fried bone-in chicken—but most would not. The Chinese KFC menu may include fried dough sticks, egg tarts (which Shelman raves are "to die for"), shrimp burgers, and soymilk drinks, as well as foods tailored to the tastes of specific regions within China.

The large selection of menu items is meant to appeal to the Chinese style of eating, in which groups of people share several dishes. But it's also part of the "New Fast Food" initiative Su developed in 2005 in response to concerns about the role of fast-food restaurants in the obesity epidemic—concerns that he shares and takes responsibility for. "We have been too greedy, too shortsighted," Su said, referring to the traditional high- volume, low-choice fast-food model.

Interesting, including the detail that the chicken there will only be dark meat.  Better already.

What of course will not be ok on this trip is if Explorica chooses the most objectionable route and feeds the whiny Americans French fries and burgers for our predetermined meals--something that occasionally happens on these tours.  Something I always noisily and in writing object to...
 

later, bob