Why I am staying in Shanghai for May Holiday....

Based on this Shanghai resident's experience at Yellow Mountain 3 years ago - I feel confident and happy with my decision to stay in Shanghai this holiday weekend.

http://gunsella.interproit.com/yellow.htm

China's Middle Class

An interesting piece from the National Geographic on the new found opportunities and anxieties of the Chinese Middle Class.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/middle-class/leslie-chang-text

Most Remote School, Hidden in the Clouds

Most Remote School, Hidden in the Clouds



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Follow up...

This a follow up story to something I posted a few weeks ago. Parents in the Dongguan region are experiencing the worst pain imaginable - many children are being kidnapped.

Here's the story posted on Shanghaiist.com:

"Hundreds of parents set to the streets on April 15th in a peaceful march, begging for help in finding their missing children. Originally reported by the New Express (translated by Danwei), the parents claim that about 1,000 children have gone missing from the Dongguan area since 2007. At their wits end, they've set out to draw more attention to the apparent, widespread abduction problem.

Neither the New Express nor the Shanghai Daily piece on these families' plights suggest a reason for the kidnappings, but according to the New York Times, many of the children are being sold off to other Chinese families desperate for a male heir. The children, most of whom are young boys are also suspected of being sold to buyers in Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

"Male heir" is probably one of the better outcome for these children, otherwise they often end up as indentured servants, for-hire beggars, or prostitutes. The lucky ones get sold to orphanages for adoption to wealthy foreigners.

The police at Wednesday's march appeared sympathetic to the parents' ordeal, escorting them peacefully down the street. According to a number of marchers however, the police and government have been mostly unhelpful in tracking down the missing children. In a case cited in the Shanghai Daily article, a child was located and brought to a local police station, but before his parent could claim him, an impersonator took the child as his own.

The Chinese government claims that total abductions number about 2,500 people per year including both women and children, but some non-profit organizations argue that the number might possibly be upwards of 100,000.

Either way, the number is too high. More attention needs to be paid to this issue both here in China and elsewhere in the world where human trafficking is an issue. Both buyers and sellers of other human beings need to be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Read all about my hometown!

The New York Times recently did a travel piece on my hometown/the area I grew up - The fabulous Silicon Valley!

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/travel/escapes/17Amer.html

Interesting China News....

The Unites States is having a hard time finding an Ambassador to China. Interesting, isn't it? I always assumed the Ambassador positions were "highly coveted". But maybe not?

Read more here:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/10/help_wanted_ambassador_to_beijing

Some good news for those of us who own Real Estate in China:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123961738509213209.html#mod=residential_real_estate

Hainan Island - Girls Weekend!

In anticipation of my upcoming girls weekend to Hainan Island, I'm doing research on the island itself. Kinda geeky, yes I realize that, but this is typically what I do prior to any trip. I'm a research geek, I love to wiki, google, and search through travel websites to download information on my next destination.

Basic Stats on Hainan (Hai = Ocean, Nan= South) Island:

Location: Hainan Island is located in the South China Sea, separated from Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula to the north by a shallow and narrow strait. It has an area of 33,920 square kilometers, making China's southernmost province also its smallest. Hainan is comparable in size to Belgium.


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Native Peoples: Hainan first enters written Chinese history in 110 BC, when the Han Dynasty established a military garrison there. Settlement by mainlanders was slow however and from early on the island was considered to be fit only for exiles. It was in this period that the Li people arrived from Guangxi Province and displaced the island's aboriginal Austronesian-speaking peoples.

Tourism: We will be staying in Sanya, a town on the southern tip of the island, Sanya is supposedly the most common tourist-y location with nice beaches, hotels, outdoor activities, etc. We're looking forward to spending a lot of time on the beach, reading and relaxing away from the craziness of Shanghai.

Emotional Pitfalls of Living Abroad

I lost my grandmother yesterday to a long hard battle with alzheimers and old age. She was one of the most incredible people I've ever known, of course I'm not biased or anything. ;-) Living abroad is a blessing and a curse for so many reasons and one of the hardest are these moments when you want so badly to be physically close to your family. Skype and calling cards can only make up for so much distance.

Here is the obituary that ran in her local newspaper, I think my mother did a wonderful job writing it. She will never be far from our hearts and minds.

"Dorothy Roady Wilson, 102, of Bowling Green, died at 9:50 pm on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at a Bowling Green nursing home.

The Alton, Illinois native was born on July 4, 1906, a daughter of the late Charles Henry Roady and Nell Rowena Roady. She was the wife of the late George T. Wilson, Jr., and was also preceded in death by her brother, Paul W. Roady, of Alton, II., and a sister, Blanche Roady Clark, of Woodriver, Illinois.

Mrs. Wilson was a secretary for the Owens Illinois Glass Company and later worked at the Vanderbilt University Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. She was an avid gardener, reader, and bird watcher. She was a graduate of the Alton High School and a member of the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Wilson was a loving mother and grandmother who outlived many of her friends.

A family memorial service will be held at a later date. Johnson-Vaughn-Phelps Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Expressions of sympathy may be made to the following: A Voice for Animals (270-783-9195); Bowling Green/Warren County Animal Adoption Center, 1925 Old Louisville Road, Bowling Green, KY, 42101; Rainhill Equine Facility, 11125 Highway 185, Bowling Green, KY, 42101

Survivors include her daughter, Dorothy Demuth Wilson, of Bowling Green; two grandchildren, Emily Slaten Lopez, of Mountain View, California, and Lilia Roady Lopez, of Washington, D. C.; two nieces, Nell Foster Waltz, of La Jolla, California, and Jane Louise Wilson, of Center Tuftonboro, New Hampshire; two cousins, Judith Schlieper Laronge, of Vancouver, Washington, and Gary Cummins, of Denver, Colorado."

Kidnapping in China on the rise...

I had no idea that this was a problem here in China, nor did I think that people still favored boys over girls to this extent. Perhaps it's because we live in Shanghai that people seem to have more modern ideas but this article moved me and I feel awful for any parent who has to go through the loss of a child, no matter where in the world they are.

From today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/asia/05kidnap.html