Destination: Asia
China’s Environmental Woes
by Jim Benning | 07.18.06 | 5:27 PM ET
Several years ago I visited China, and I enjoyed just about every minute of it. This photo I shot at a McDonald’s in Xian—Chinese food is great, but a guy needs a break now and again—captures a hint of the juxtaposition between old and new that is becoming such a common sight in the country. But the gorgeous, centuries-old building out the McDonald’s window here looks so gray because in Xian I encountered thick, gray-brown, throat-burning, eye-stinging air, the worst I’d ever seen. It was so bad I bought a cloth cover to wear over my nose and mouth, as many locals do, hoping to filter out some of the pollution. It’s ugly. The World Bank reports that China is home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. This week, the public radio show The World is airing a four-part series on China’s environmental problems, entitled “Paying for Prosperity.” The first report, broadcast yesterday, focused on air quality, among other issues. Listening to it, I almost felt like coughing as I recalled Xian and the kind of air that so many people in China have to breathe daily.
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Yahoo! BuzzBali’s Bargaining Ballet
by Jerry V. Haines | 07.17.06 | 11:44 AM ET
Photo by Terry Ward. On a trip to the Indonesian island, Jerry V. Haines bought a batik shirt, a painting and a flying pig. Along the way, he discovered that haggling is like a dance, and you can't stop dancing until the music is done.
Gere on the China-Tibet Train
by Michael Yessis | 07.15.06 | 10:11 AM ET
Richard Gere, the actor and chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times about the new train from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet and its consequences. “[It] is a staggering engineering achievement and a testimony to the developing greatness of China,” Gere writes. “But it is also the most serious threat by the Chinese yet to the survival of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity. In the words of a well-known Tibetan religious teacher who died after many years in a Chinese prison, the railway heralds ‘a time of emergency and darkness’ for Tibet.”
Vanuatu Tops “Happy Planet Index”
by Michael Yessis | 07.14.06 | 11:42 AM ET
And the nations with the world’s largest economies finished down the 178-nation list. Way down. Germany ranked 81st, Japan 95th and the United States 150th. The New Economics Foundation, which bills itself as a “think-and-do tank,” says its inaugural Happy Planet Index “moves beyond crude ratings of nations according to national income, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” The new index, they say, produces “a more accurate picture of the progress of nations based on the amount of the Earth’s resources they use, and the length and happiness of people’s lives.” A BBC News story quotes Richard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, as saying that the index “was an interesting way to tackle the issue of modern life’s environmental impact.” Layard continues: “Over the last 50 years, living standards in the West have improved enormously but we have become no happier.” So which countries besides the island nation of Vanuatu are happiest? Colombia and Costa Rica round out the top three. Burundi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe finished at the bottom.
Angelina Jolie to Star in Film About Daniel Pearl
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 2:05 PM ET
The Rise of Chinese Car Culture
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.06 | 10:05 AM ET
China’s train to Tibet dominated the headlines this week, so much so that I forgot to post about Ted Conover’s excellent story about Chinese car culture in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. “The figures behind China’s car boom are stunning,” Conover writes. “Total miles of highway in the country: at least 23,000, more than double what existed in 2001, and second now only to the United States. Number of passenger cars on the road: about 6 million in 2000 and about 20 million today. Car sales are up 54 percent in the first three months of 2006, compared with the same period a year ago; every day, 1,000 new cars (and 500 used ones) are sold in Beijing.” Conover signs on for a “self-driving tour” with the Beijing Target Auto Club and explores the economic, environmental and cultural impact of all those automobiles hitting Chinese roads.
Train Completes First Journey to Tibet. But is it Progress or a ‘Second Invasion’?
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 7:30 AM ET
In the final chapter of his terrific 1988 book Riding the Iron Rooster, about riding trains through China, Paul Theroux wrote of the difficulty in traveling from China to Lhasa, Tibet—“six days overland from Xian, or else a long and frightening flight from Chengdu.” Later, he continued, “[T]he main reason Tibet is so undeveloped and un-Chinese—and so thoroughly old-fangled and pleasant—is that it is the one great place in China that the railway has not reached. The Kunlun Range is a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa.” If only it were so. Earlier this week, after years of construction, a train completed the first journey from Beijing to Lhasa along what is now the world’s highest railway, topping out at a breathtaking 16,640 feet. “Laptop computers and digital music players failed because the tiny air bags that cushion their moving parts broke,” the AP reported via the Los Angeles Times. “Some passengers threw up. Others took Tibetan herbs or breathed oxygen through tubes.”
Iron Cross and Scott Carrier “Rock the Junta” in Burma
by Frank Bures | 07.07.06 | 12:30 AM ET
Scott Carrier has a fantastic piece on Burma in the July/August issue of Mother Jones. Carrier, who is known for his stories on This American Life and his book, Running After Antelope, traveled to Burma to look for Buddhist temples, but found himself hanging out with Iron Cross, the band whose spirit, if not its censored lyrics, have resonated with the oppressed population of Rangoon. “Everywhere we went, we were watched,” writes Carrier in Rock the Junta. “Long, intense stares coming from every direction, as if we were out of place and out of time, and it was hard to tell whether the Burmese were wondering if we were ‘external destructive elements’ or some second-rate soap opera stars they’d seen on TV. They did not, however, appear to be very friendly, and some of them laughed at us. Yes, a mockery, seconded by legions of squawking crows in every tree.” It is a fine portrait of modern Burma, and an even finer meditation on freedom and oppression.
Bush, Koizumi and Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches for Everyone*
by Michael Yessis | 06.30.06 | 6:22 AM ET
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is such an Elvis fan he’s got to have a fried PB&J for lunch today, doesn’t he? It’s the day he and President George W. Bush say farewell to each other with a trip to Memphis to visit Graceland. Priscilla and Lisa Marie will be their guides. ABC News, among others, has details.
Tokyo for Under $1,000 a Week, Including Airfare
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 12:20 PM ET
Travel writer Ben Brazil recently accomplished this very feat—nibbling sashimi, enjoying private city tours, wandering through Asakusa’s old temples. Please, he writes in Sunday’s Washington Post, “refrain from envy.” As he discovered, Tokyo is not the world’s most expensive city anymore: “It’s fallen all the way to No. 2.”
Road Tripping Across Bhutan
by Ben Keene | 06.29.06 | 11:07 AM ET
Outside magazine’s June issue features a compelling article on Bhutan, the isolated Asian kingdom short on airports, stoplights, and tourists, but apparently not short on happiness. Senior editor Stephanie Pearson joins Robert Thurman, ordained Buddhist monk and friend of the the Dalai Lama, on a road trip across the landlocked nation in search of her own inner contentment. Following in the footsteps of a Buddhaholic and joined by a gaggle of psychonauts and budding bodhisattvas, she describes a society seeking to find its own sort of peace between ancient traditions and the pull of modernity. For travelers with bigger budgets as well as a hankering for a blend culture, adventure and spirituality, Outside includes several tour operators that arrange Bhutan trips from the United States.
Hanoi Embraces the Colonel
by Terry Ward | 06.26.06 | 6:50 AM ET
Last week, American fast-foot giant KFC opened its first outlet in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. It was a huge hit. “The line was so long Phan Huyen Trang, 26, had to wait 25 minutes for chicken, coleslaw and mashed potato and gravy,” according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur report. “‘You have to wait for a longer time to have a KFC meal than to have pho,’ Trang complained, referring to the Vietnamese national dish of beef soup with rice noodles.”
Thai Monks Succumb to World Cup Hangovers
by Michael Yessis | 06.22.06 | 11:12 AM ET
Oh, those wild monks. The Nation newspaper in Thailand reports that they’ve been staying up all night watching World Cup matches, “causing them to skip their morning walk to beg for alms.” It’s not against the rules, says Phra Kru Sophonkaweewat, deputy abbot of Jedee Lung Wiharn Temple in Chiang Mai. “We allow them to watch some matches but they are prohibited from watching all of them and engaging in noisy cheering,” he said. “And no gambling is allowed.” Even though Thailand doesn’t have a team in the competition, the country is soccer mad and it has several connections to the tournament. All the game balls were made in a factory in Sri Racha, Chonburi province, and one Thai linesman is working the games in Germany. Check out stories in the International Herald Tribune/ThaiDay by World Hum contributor Newley Purnell.
Bush, Koizumi Headed to Graceland
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.06 | 9:09 AM ET
The hair should have tipped me off. Turns out Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a huge Elvis Presley fan. How huge? “The 64-year-old PM is well known as the most serious Elvis disciple of today’s world leaders,” according to the Washington Post’s Reliable Source column. “He shares a birthday (Jan. 8) with the rock icon, and his brother once ran the Presley fan club’s Yokohama chapter. In 1987, he was one of the key players in erecting a bronze statue of Presley in Tokyo. He’s sung Elvis tunes poolside at [President] Bush’s Crawford ranch and dazzled Condi Rice with his knowledge of Elvis trivia at a G8 dinner. And in 2001, he released a 25-song compilation CD called ‘Junichiro Koizumi Presents: My Favorite Elvis Songs.’ It was sold only in Japan, and all proceeds went to charity.”
Anthony Bourdain on Travel, Vietnam and his “Graham Greene Worldview”
by Jim Benning | 06.14.06 | 4:59 PM ET
Bookslut has posted a terrific interview with the Ramones-loving chef, traveler and TV host. Among the highlights, Bourdain talks about his love of travel in Vietnam and what he calls his “Graham Greene worldview.” He said, “To me The Quiet American is a happy book. I read it every year. It nails Vietnam. It’s still there, that Vietnam. It’s a perfect metaphor, he loves a woman who can never fully love him back. It is a perfect metaphor for colonialism and Western adventurism in the East. I don’t care, I just want to be there.” Elsewhere, he remarked, “Vietnam in particular ruined my whole life. My expectations for what I see when I open my eyes in the morning, or even little things like the condiments on the table when I sit down.” Bourdain is the author of the new book, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones.