1. The Chinese phrase "Ren shan, ren hai" meaning "mountains and seas of people" is completely applicable. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in my life. Tiananmen and outside of the Forbidden City was just a mass of people. It's almost indescribable. Try and think of the most crowded place you've ever been and multiply by 4 or 5.
2. The Beijing subway - most of it new for the Olympics - is ridiculous. First, in the subway tunnels they have screens of some sort that flash advertisements as you go down the tunnel, and you see the advertisements lit up in the subway's windows. Also, the subway has digital tv's, and had a light-up map with tiny lights that lit up to show you where you were and where you were going within the subway line.
3. The parts of Beijing that I have seen have giant bike lanes on either sides of the street - blocked off from the main street by grass and plants. I think its pretty awesome that they planned for the bike lanes.
4. Most Chinese people don't try to hide their curiosity of others like we do in America. While at Tiananmen and in the Forbidden City our group had more than a few Chinese people come up to us and stare, like, "what are they going to do next?"
5. The exchange rate is awesome.
6. The Forbidden City is massive and really amazing. You could do day trips there for a week or two and not see it all. Its definitely worth the time.
7. I don't want to be pessimistic, but I foresee problems during the Olympics. First of all, Westerners are not used to being stared/gawked at, and it probably won't make them too happy. Second of all, the language and the characters - more than difficult. Even though they have tried to put labels in Chinese characters and in pinyin, there are going to be some very confused and lost people. We got lost-ish trying to find the bus stop and we have four people who speak varying levels of Chinese.
When I have my camera cord I will add pictures that I took from this trip :)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Allergic to Beijing.
I've been here about 3 and 1/2 days so far, and I'm already allergic to Beijing's pollution :( it's terrible, I feel like I have a cold - or a sinus infection. The pollution is TERRIBLE, and we are in the suburby area of the city, I hope downtown Beijing is not as bad. The pollution is so bad that you can never see the sun, its just like a grey hazy, smog thats always there. The sky gets brighter and darker variations of grey depending on the time of day. One of the older China Care kids told another intern that when the sun comes out sometimes, it hurts everyone's eyes because it's too bright. SAD :(
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Orphans in China
An introduction to orphanages in China:
There are state-run orphanages, which are the only official orphanages in China. Only children who have papers from these state-run orphanages can be adopted, the Chinese government does not allow any other type of orphanage to facilitate adoption.
China Care fits into the pieces of this, because China Care runs a medical program which through the USA helps to provide needed surgeries for children in the Chinese state-run orphanages that otherwise would not be able to have life-saving surgeries. So, the orphanages send children to China Care. However, China Care is not a Chinese government recognized entity. Which means it technically does not have permission to reside in China. But, its basically accepted because the orphanages, and the govt., understand that the organization helps.
After most China Care children receive medical attention, they are sent back to the orphanage where they originally came from, and then can hopefully be given papers and the chance to be adopted.
And then, similar to China Care are other not-recognized orphanages, such as Catholic-run orphanages. While these orphanages help the children - they are not recognized, and therefore according to Chinese law, the children there can never be adopted - and then live in the orphanage until the age of 18.
Even within the state-run orphanage system, there are many children that will never make it to adoption. The only way a child can be adopted, internationally or nationally, is if the orphanage he/she is at provides a state-org (CCAA) with that child's papers. So if the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) asks an orphanage to provide it with the papers of 10 newborns, then perhaps 20 other infants are left out. As they become older, the same cycle may happen over and over again and the child will simply never make the papers-cut and thus, never make it into the adoption pool.
Its pretty sad to think about so many kids who just never even have the chance to get adopted, even if they have no physical or mental disabilities.
Also, in China it is illegal by law to abandon your child. But as everyone already knows, the one-child policy complicates that for many families. But another reason, of special interest to China Care, is that many Chinese families do not have the monetary means to care for a disabled child. So left with no other options, and no help from the government, many families abandon their disabled child in the hopes that it will receive care as an orphan, and a ward of the state. There is also a very real stigma in China against disabled people- mentally and physically disabled. Apparently, at this point in China, disabled young adults are even barred from applying to college. And many families will complain when they hear of a disabled child attending their own child's elementary/middle school and will sometimes not stop until the disabled child is removed from the school.
So China Care faces a lot of battles, first in staying active despite not being recognized by the government, taking care of these children who all need help, and also in providing education for these children who are essentially banned from main-stream, public education.
I'm sure that I'll find out a lot more as time goes on.
There are state-run orphanages, which are the only official orphanages in China. Only children who have papers from these state-run orphanages can be adopted, the Chinese government does not allow any other type of orphanage to facilitate adoption.
China Care fits into the pieces of this, because China Care runs a medical program which through the USA helps to provide needed surgeries for children in the Chinese state-run orphanages that otherwise would not be able to have life-saving surgeries. So, the orphanages send children to China Care. However, China Care is not a Chinese government recognized entity. Which means it technically does not have permission to reside in China. But, its basically accepted because the orphanages, and the govt., understand that the organization helps.
After most China Care children receive medical attention, they are sent back to the orphanage where they originally came from, and then can hopefully be given papers and the chance to be adopted.
And then, similar to China Care are other not-recognized orphanages, such as Catholic-run orphanages. While these orphanages help the children - they are not recognized, and therefore according to Chinese law, the children there can never be adopted - and then live in the orphanage until the age of 18.
Even within the state-run orphanage system, there are many children that will never make it to adoption. The only way a child can be adopted, internationally or nationally, is if the orphanage he/she is at provides a state-org (CCAA) with that child's papers. So if the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) asks an orphanage to provide it with the papers of 10 newborns, then perhaps 20 other infants are left out. As they become older, the same cycle may happen over and over again and the child will simply never make the papers-cut and thus, never make it into the adoption pool.
Its pretty sad to think about so many kids who just never even have the chance to get adopted, even if they have no physical or mental disabilities.
Also, in China it is illegal by law to abandon your child. But as everyone already knows, the one-child policy complicates that for many families. But another reason, of special interest to China Care, is that many Chinese families do not have the monetary means to care for a disabled child. So left with no other options, and no help from the government, many families abandon their disabled child in the hopes that it will receive care as an orphan, and a ward of the state. There is also a very real stigma in China against disabled people- mentally and physically disabled. Apparently, at this point in China, disabled young adults are even barred from applying to college. And many families will complain when they hear of a disabled child attending their own child's elementary/middle school and will sometimes not stop until the disabled child is removed from the school.
So China Care faces a lot of battles, first in staying active despite not being recognized by the government, taking care of these children who all need help, and also in providing education for these children who are essentially banned from main-stream, public education.
I'm sure that I'll find out a lot more as time goes on.
chopsticks
I don't have much time to write right now, but hopefully tonight I will. At lunch and dinner, in the place where the workers and interns eat, there are plates and chopsticks for people without these items to use. However, all the Chinese who live here have their own lunchboxes they bring and their own silverware. Yes, silverware. So the American interns sit there and use chopsticks and the Chinese use their spoons. Its alittle ridiculous. One of the office workers who speaks some english told me I needed to go buy a spoon. And I whole heartedly agree.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
China
So far I haven't seen too much of China other than the airport and the apartment complex that we are in. But I wanted to get the blog started!
The plane ride was ridiculously long. Although it was exciting to look out and to see the North Pole :D
The plane ride was ridiculously long. Although it was exciting to look out and to see the North Pole :D
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