h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having postponed my visit to see the s at the zoo on Friday, this is where we decided to go yesterday morning.

We took a taxi right across the north side of the city, going about 12km from east to west. Even on a Saturday, the traffic is help-murder-polis. It occurred to me that, given the speed these guys drive at and the weaving in and out of lanes while on the phone etc, it's amazing that there aren't more Chinese Grand Prix drivers.
The above factors, plus the fact that most taxis don't have operational seat belts, make for an interesting ride

The zoo was extremely busy. It's a special weekend here, Sunday 01 June being Children's Day in China, and there were a lot of extended-family outings underway.
The animals outside the cages and enclosures were almost as interesting as those on the inside ¨C and a lot happier. When I say animals, I mean homo sapiens in general, ourselves included; J was certainly getting a lot of attention, still being leg-braced and on crutches.
Cultural differences are fascinating. In Europe, certainly in the UK, it's not done to be caught staring at anyone but over here it's quite normal to have a really good goggle until your curiosity is satisfied. Having said that, local people have been very solicitous of J's current special needs and are generally very kind-hearted.

Another thing the Chinese do a bit differently is to have the retail opporchancities located before you actually see the attraction rather than on the way out, hence there were a thousand-and-one panda related offerings just inside the entrance to the house.
Said s were, apart from one large chap in an outside enclosure, all totally bored with life and dozing with their backs to the audience, several of whom were knocking on the glass to try and rouse their attention.
I know they're there for the good of their species, and we wanted to see them in the flesh, but it seemed like no kind of life for them
The large cat enclosures were similarly poignant and had their own unique fragrance.

Around the zoo there were numerous wee shops and stalls selling all sorts of things ¨C from the usual animal related cuddly toys and games to ¡®jade¡¯ and calligraphy pens, bottled water and cigarettes.
Some of the food items were unusual to western eyes. There were large sausages on sticks ¨C just like lollipops ¨C which were being enjoyed by locals of all ages and seemed to be a particular treat for small children. There was also something which translated as squid and octopus ¨C which looked like a large dod of seafood pate on a stick. Not too many people were eating those.
I mentioned cigarettes being on sales. A smoking ban has recently been enacted over here but doesn't apply to open air spaces, restaurants or pubs.

Our other planned destination yesterday was The Summer Palace. There are actually two of these ¨C an old and a new, the former of which was largely destroyed by Anglo-French troops in the late 1800s. The Palaces were built so the Imperial Court could escape the heat of the city during the hottest months and were basically playgrounds for the privileged few. Such places have been open to the general populace since 1925 and are popularly enjoyed by both locals and tourists alike.

We underwent further immersion into Beijing life by taking the boat from the zoo to the Summer Palace and experienced more kindness from local people who gave us directions and helped J on and off the boats. The person in charge of loading passengers onto the boat and keeping us all in order was a tiny, young Chinese woman ¨C with the loudest voice I've heard from someone so diminutive. She even used a loudhailer at some points, though we weren't sure this was absolutely necessary; local people also had their ears covered when she was in full flow.
The journey along the canal system took more than an hour and involved changing boats at one point. The second part of the trip was along a wide canal which was lined by beautiful balustrading, built for the Imperials. We passed many old men fishing and young men swimming in the rather murky water.

The grounds of the Summer Palace are most attractive, with beautiful vistas along paths and across the lake and waterways. Kunming Lake itself is large enough to run its own wee ferry service for people who don't want to walk all the way round. There were also pedalos and what seemed to be peddle-less pedalos, powered by electricity. We decided that a return visit would be in order so as to hire one of these and have a picnic on the water under the striped canopy.

The paths were well maintained and an easy-ish walk for J. Every so often there'd be an arched bridge to negotiate. There are several of these in the park, each with a wonderful name and its own pavilion perched atop.
We spent so much time enjoying the birdsong, the balmy breezes and sunshine, walking around the south and western sides of the lake, that we ran out of time and energy to deal with the northern and eastern sides, which is where most of the Palace buildings are situated. The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, The Long Corridor and The Cloud Dispelling Hall will have to be explored another time.

At one point we wished we'd had a guidebook for Chinese birds. There's one which looks similar to our magpie ¨C except it's grey, rather than black and white, has more of a swooping and gliding flight and its noise is less harsh. We were sure we could hear cuckoos all over the park and there were some sounds we couldn't identify at all. Where's Bill Oddie when he's needed?

Although the zoo was full of larger family groups, the Summer Palace seemed to have smaller groups and there were also a lot of single-sex groups of younger men and women whose main occupation seemed to be taking photos of each other in trees and against floral displays. In one pavilion we saw middle-aged people ballroom dancing. It's quite common to see people doing taichi in parks and plazas earlier in the day. Most people here live in apartments without their own gardens so make the most of any chance of enjoying greenery and open spaces.
We saw many grandparents having an afternoon out with their sole grandchild, both Grandma and Grandpa being very hands-on and obviously enthralled with their wee one.

The children are delightful and behave well in public. Most of the wee boys have No1 haircuts and I was having to put my hands in my pockets to resist the temptation of running my hands across their lovely wee skulls. For special outings the girls wear elaborate party-type frocks and dainty little shoes. They tend to have either a ponytail or a pageboy hairstyle.

Something else which made us smile was what I call the bare-botty trousers, which almost all babies and small children wear, prior to being potty trained. These garments are basically trousers or dungarees where the crotch seam is left open from the waistband at the back, round to the waistband at the front. It must make learning to walk quite a bit easier than when a child's encumbered by nappies ¨C and, of course, with the nether regions being open to the air, there's no danger of diaper-rash. The adults in charge are adept at knowing when junior needs to ¡®go¡¯ and quietly hold the child over a convenient spot. Of course the hotter temperatures over here facilitate this arrangement but I think it's a very sound ecological practice. In a country of 1.29 billion people, imagine the amount of landfill that would be used up if everyone used disposable diapers, even if most families are restricted to one child.

So ¨C we had a lovely afternoon, out in the open air, and J coped well with the walking and isn't suffering any ill effects today.
I have a lot of photos to sort through when I get back to the UK and will try to put some up online where they can be accessed.

That sounds beautiful. I'm awfully torn about zoos - sometimes I think we should just let the pandas die...

Still right behind you.

I've just seen some heart-rending coverage on BBC World. It being National Child's Day here, parents who've lost their only children in the earthquake are feeling their grief even more intensely today.

There's growing anger that so many schools collapsed even though other surrounding buildings remained whole.

I heard a discussion on the radio about the press coverage.

It is the second time journalists from all the press - and not only the trusted papers and stations - are allowed to cover a huge tragedy. And the anger about why schools are not built to withstand an earthquake is spread throughout the local news media.

The 'experts' were sure, though, that this did NOT constitute an opening to a free press in China.

unfortunately it sounds to me like the sort of thing that used to happen in the USSR prior to some poor sap engineers being carted off to the Gulag.



But I do feel so badly for the people who lost their children - firstly because that is just the worst thing that can ever happen to someone. But also because they were restricted to one child - they don't even have the joy and comfort of another.

It seems, tartaronne, that China is a lot more open in recent years than it was previously. We were talking to a Canadian guy this evening who's lived here for over twenty years and he's seen big changes everywhere, including how the country relates to the rest of the world.

J learned from another engineer last week that the only building in the country which has been designed for Richter Force 10 earthquakes is Mao Zedong's mausoleum in Tian'anmen Square. Most buildings are designed to cope with Force 8.

I agree that losing a child has to be the ultimate tragedy for anyone. Perhaps those young enough to still have babies, assuming they haven't been permanently sterilised, will be allowed to have another child. Not that that will ever replace a lost child, of course.
In the more remote rural areas it's sometimes permitted for families to have a second child because the extra pair of hands is needed for work on the land.

Yesterday another 200,000 people were moved in case a dam burst. So much loss and disruption to people's lives

The little Chinese boy who lives in our village was fully toilet trained before he was a year old because he had gone to China to visit his grandparents and came home without nappies because hed got used to the bare botty trousers.

Its a great idea but I can't imagine anticipating a little babies toilet needs-I find it hard enough with a 3year

I understand that women wore 'bare botty' underwear in Victorian times because it's very difficult to hitch up a crinoline when one needs to go. With that style of underwear, ladies just positioned themselves over the chamber pot (or whatever).

It's not always hot in Beijing. I once went up the Great Wall when much of it was covered in ice. My Chinese friends are divided on whether wearing bare botty trousers in such weather increases or decreases fertility later in life

I'm just viewing these postings of mine from a UK pc and am bemused by all the strange typographical intrusions. They definitely weren't on the screen when I posted at the other end. Something to do with me writing in MS wo*d on a Chinese laptop and then copy/pasting onto Hootoo?

I don't think I'd have managed that particular stretch of The Wall in the wet, never mind with ice underfoot, Wand'rin Star
It wasn't that hot the day we visited Badaling - but I was still in a lathering sweat by the time I'd climbed to the end of the section.
Which section would you recommend for a visit?
I keep reading about people doing sponsored cycles along the wall but they'd have been carrying their bikes further than riding them on the section I saw.
I've also read that The Wall is wide enough to have five horses abreast - but that's seen as a reference to the width of the thing, rather than something that ever been done in practice.

The general concensus in the West is that keeping the male equipment cool is better for fertility.
I've read that the reason fertility is declining is down to men wearing tighter pants and trousers and keeping everything a bit too warm
This may turn out to be a generational thing . Most men of my husband's age seem to be welded to their Y-fronts (not literally ) while my son very much prefers his boxers - as did my Dad actually, come to think of it.

MS Word is nasty that way - even on European computers you'll sometimes find the odd #:? or some other mysterious combinations sneaking in when copying and pasting from Word to a browser.

I think it depends on which versions you are using, though - haven't seen that specific problem much lately, it was more common a couple of years back.

I find Notepad is a much safter tool to use.

Back to kiddies in China learning to use the potty faster - a colleague of mine who's been there, told me that the kids will just stop wherever they are and open their legs and go. Is this an urban myth or is it still the practice and, if so, do the parents have to clean up after them?

Also, it's hardly potty "training" that way, is it? They are just going when they need to and not learning to control it in any way. And at what age would you then stop someone doing that and how and at what age do they learn that it's not generally the done thing in public?

The only piddling kids I saw were those being held over a patch of grass or a gutter by a parent/grandparent.

I remember my mother-in-law being aghast that I wasn't potty training my eldest when she was a three month old baby. She used to breastfeed her babies with them perched on top of a special wee china potty. Kind of negates the snuggly closeness I always enjoyed when mine were wee.

My experience suggests it's an urban myth.Toddlers young enough to be "untrained" are never without at least one adult, who holds them over the gutter or a drain. In more than twenty years I have never seen a Chinese child "go' anywhere else. It IS possible to recognise when a child wants to go (if you're not doing much else). My mother claimed to have done it with me and was most scathing about the late age that my sons were still wearing nappies.
Even when kids are speaking etc they are still not on their own. Especially in towns. Far too dangerous. So it isn't obvious when they've stopped going on demand and are controlling themselves. Seems to happen before kindergarten, though.
Perhaps we won't go into the awfulness of public loos in China until very, very recently.
I am occasionally offered a Chinese baby to hold - often the parents want a foreign granny in a photo. I have never had the slightest qualm about picking up the youngest child

All the public loos I used in China were spotlessly clean - in fact I was astonished at the quality of the facilities in the large shopping malls. They were far superior to those found in similar situations in the UK.
Thankfully, I always have a packet of tissues in my handbag and this came in very handy for the times I forgot to collect my bog paper before I went into the cubicle.

I'd forgotten the joys of French style loos. Is it just me - or do other people find their ankles tend to get a bit damp

But did they have colored toilet paper?

No - it was all white. Mind you, I never thought to look at what was available in the supermarket.
Don't think I've ever seen a public loo anywhere in the world that had coloured paper.

Every loo had a waste bin beside it where you were supposed to put the used paper, rather than flushing it away.

There's one in Hyde Park that had colored paper when I was there.

oh that putting the paper in the bin instead of flushing is a hard habit to get into.

And I hate those Squat-&-aim loos - in Korea they were very happy to point me at the western stylee ones.