Anhui teaser

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More to come about my trip to Anhui later, but here was one of the highlights of my trip:

Mmm...can you smell that yet?

It’s chou doufu (stinky tofu), Anhui-style! Delicious. It’s a distinctive charred black, not the usual deep fried tofu brown color, and it’s actually made with dou gan (dried tofu) instead of regular tofu.

For those people who can’t stomach the smell of normal stinky tofu, Anhui-style stinky tofu is here to help you see what it’s all about. It’s still stinky — but only when you get up close to it. Maybe I’m used to the smell, but I could ignore the stinkiness a lot more easily in Anhui than in Beijing, where I can smell the stinky tofu carts before I even see them.

Beijing: Most livable Chinese city?

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Apparently, that’s what the Economist thinks. According to its annual survey of the living conditions of world cities, Beijing is 72nd out of 140 cities, higher than Tianjin, Suzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and Qingdao, the other Chinese cities on the list.

The rankings are based on 30 indicators in categories of stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. I can understand how smaller cities such as Tianjin and Suzhou (which were actually 73 and 75???), Dalian and Qingdao rank lower than Beijing — based on education and culture, and maybe (super maybe) infrastructure (Beijing has a subway system). Better than Shenzhen and Guangdong, China’s factory capital — sure.

But the most livable city in mainland China? With average commutes of one hour both ways, inconvenient public transportation system, traffic jams, very bad air quality, smokers smoking EVERYWHERE and so much spitting, how in the world is it the best place to live in China? I vote Shanghai.

Then again, Beijing is just 72nd out of 140. So just because it’s the most livable city in China, it’s still pretty mediocre. OK.

More blockage

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In addition to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube, China has blocked LinkedIn, the lamest social networking site. Apparently, the non-protest protests on Wangfujing, the famous pedestrian street in Beijing, last week was organized through LinkedIn.

A LinkedIn user identified as “Jasmine Z” last week set up a discussion group to post opinions on whether the revolutions that brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt should be brought to China.

Search results for Jon Huntsman is also blocked on Sina.com’s microblogs. The U.S. ambassador and presidential candidate was filmed walking by the protest.

I see stars!

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On Jiuhua Mountain right now, one of China’s four Buddhist mountains. (More on that later.) Right now, the sky is clear, the village is dark and everywhere is quiet at 9:30 at night here. Just me and the stars splattered across the sky, a much-missed sight when I’m in Beijing. Nothing else can fill me with so much awe and wonder while exposing my insignificance. Love it.

Beijing air goes crazy again

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But I’m in Anhui now, so I get a reprieve from “worse than hazardous” pollution. “Hazardous” is the highest level on the US Embassy’s pollution rating system, which goes up to 500. The reading for Sunday afternoon, via @BeijingAir:

02-20-2011; 16:00; PM2.5; 526.0; 500; Beyond Index // Ozone; 3.6; 3; Good

That was right after I took off. Most of yesterday (Monday) it was “Beyond Index” in the morning before dropping to the 480s and 490s for the rest of the day. Boyfriend says the sky doesn’t look as bad as it did last October, when the U.S. used its now-famous “crazy bad” description for its off-the-charts reading, but he has trouble breathing just by going outside and the sky is all hazy and stuff. Hope the wind on Thursday will blow it all away before I go home!

USA v. China: Prison edition

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Today’s comparison: Number of prisoners.

You’ll hear a lot about the people China puts in its prisons (mainly because we are morally outraged by these “crimes”). To many unenlightened people, China is a scary place — Big Brother and all that. While, yes, you can get put in jail seemingly on a whim, and your good standing can change faster than you can fork over a hong bao, most of the time, China is freer than love at a hippie camp.

According to the Daily Paul (via NationMaster), the U.S. has 2,019,234 prisoners, enough for first place in the world. China has about half a million fewer prisoners, 1,549,000 prisoners, which is enough for second.

The U.S. — land of the free, as my father is fond of reminding me, sarcastically.

So what, you say? China has about 1 billion more people than the U.S. Per-capita-wise, the U.S. is still first (715 per 100,000 people), while China —

China fell all the way to 71st (119 per 100,000 people). It’s almost as “free” as Canada and Australia, who are tied at 73. Then again, do we trust these numbers?

How to lose (and find) your boyfriend

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  1. Take the only set of keys between the two of you. Make sure his phone is out of battery with a broken screen.
  2. Get into an argument about keeping each other informed of whereabouts right before he leaves his office to come home.
  3. Watch a movie and fail to notice when he allegedly rings doorbell.
  4. Get excited when it’s close to the time he’s supposed to get home.
  5. Realize he never showed up.
  6. 30 minutes after supposed time of arrival (STA), begin to panic. Assure yourself he made a pit stop somewhere.
  7. 1.5 hours after STA, really panic. Fling open door to see if he’s standing outside, waiting.
  8. Devolve into a state of utter fear and alarm. 2.5 hours after STA, run around the neighborhood with nothing but a blanket to keep warm with to see if his dead, lifeless body is lying in the road, blown to bits by New Year fireworks.
  9. No? Go back home, collapse in sobs and pray to God that he’s still alive and unhurt. Start frantically calling and IM’ing friends about what to do.
  10. Advised to calm down and wait to see if he shows up at work tomorrow, 10 whole hours later. Start trying to find out contact information of people who may know his whereabouts.
  11. Try to sleep on couch, but really just praying silently that he’ll come back home. Hear a noise at 2:30 a.m., look outside, but nothing.
  12. Call the British embassy missing persons hotline 8.5 hours after STA. Instructed to call local police.
  13. Tear room apart looking for boyfriend’s phone.
  14. 9.5 hours after STA, open door for one last check. Scream at the lump lying on the doorstep. It’s boyfriend! Immediately dissolve into uncontrollable, convulsing blubbery sobbing and broken sentences: “I thouuuughghghgguthgh … oh Gaaaahhhooooddddd … where haaaavve youuuuuuuu wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”
  15. Put him on a leash.*

I need to move to a place with crime incident and accident reports. It would help a lot in times like this. Thanks to everyone who talked me through my increasing state of hysteria as I let my worst fears take over.

*Not really

The revolution will not come to China

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When the first protests stirred in Tunisia, that was fine. But now that revolution has toppled over into Egypt and threatens to spill into the Middle East, China is clamping down. The river crabs are now censoring harmonizing Twitter-like microblogs by banning searches for Egypt and comments on the few news reports on the unrest.

The WSJ explains:

Internet censors, meanwhile, appear to have been working hard to ensure that China’s army of 457 million Internet users don’t provide any independent commentary on the events in Egypt—or comparisons to China.

Searches on Sunday for “Egypt” on microblog functions of Chinese Web portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com revealed only messages saying either that the results couldn’t be found, or couldn’t be displayed. “In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results could not be displayed,” said the response on Sina.com’s microblogging site, Sina Weibo.