Shanghai Takes The Stage - Expo 2010

The big "world's fair" called Expo 2010 kicks off in Shanghai, China on Saturday, May 1.

Diane and I visited the city as part of our trip to China in the spring of 2008 and were blown away in many ways.

Whether it was the historic old quarter that is quickly disappearing, the modern new Pudong section, the colonial British Bund or tree lined French Concession, the pollution, the super fast maglev train, the hustle and bustle or the food...Shanghai really delivered a major impression. If Beijing serves as "the Washington, DC" of China, Shanghai is clearly "the New York" of the country.

At any rate, the Expo starts this weekend, and I've heard it reported that 95 percent of all attendees will be Chinese. While world's fairs seemed to have lost their world appeal in about 1962, there is still something about this one that is interesting. Perhaps its just the spectacle of it all and "the next big thing" China is doing to establish itself on the world stage following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Shanghai is full of visual treats, and I'm sure all the visitors will get an eyeful not only from the splashy national pavilions, but also the normal city itself.

For those interested in a glimpse of Shanghai, below are four pictures I took when we were there, but you can see some more I captured by clicking HERE. More pictures of other parts of China that I took are HERE, HERE and HERE.

Additionally, because the pollution in Shanghai is so prevalent, I wrote a few thoughts about that upon returning from our trip. You can read those entries HERE and HERE.

Photos: View through the pollution of Pudong from the Bund, one of the remaining alleyways in Old Shanghai, the grandeur of The Bund at night and a psychedelic experience inside The Shanghai Tourist Tunnel underneath the Huangpu river.

My Top 10 Viewed Pictures + Observations

Now that we're in Q4 of 2009, here's an update on the most viewed pictures on my Flickr Photostream and some observations on what might be driving the traffic to these pictures.

Before getting started, you can click on the above link to see my full Photostream or you can click here to see the Top 10 set...or click here to access all my photo sets.

OK, first up, the Top 10...

• Overtaking the #1 position as most looked at is my picture Close Up of the Taj Mahal Detail with 410 views.





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• The #2 most viewed is the Beijing "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium. Another very similar picture I took of the stadium clocks in at #10. If combined, views of these pictures would make the Bird's Nest the #1 viewed picture.


• #3 and #8 are pictures of participants from the 2009 Seattle Gay Pride parade. Below is the one that came in at #3.

#4 is a picture of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown that I took in Charleston, SC.

• #5, #6 and #9 are pictures of places in Ho Chi Mihn City - the modern skyline, the former Republic of Vietnam presidential residence and US military vehicles.


• #7 is a picture of a "Don't Tread on Me" flag I took in Charleston, SC.

Here are a few observations about the top 10...

• Although it's only been on my Photostream since May, the picture I took of a "Don't Tread On Me" flag in Charleston, SC has shot up and into 7th place with 261 views. While I'm sure there are any number of reasons for this, one that I'm pondering is that this iconic Revolutionary War symbol and saying have been adopted by right wing "tea-baggers" as part of their real?/fake?/ignorant? protest against all things Obama and all things to the left of Glenn Beck. Hence, perhaps there are people out online looking for examples of this symbol.

• Six of my top ten most viewed pictures are from Asia - specifically Vietnam, China and India. So, people are interested in that area of the world it would seem.

• Two of the top ten are from a set of shots I took at the 2009 Seattle Gay Pride Parade. Diane and I went to the parade, I took pictures and posted them later that day. Well, over the next 48 hours I got thousands of views - in fact, my #1 most views in one day occurred as a result of that set with 2,954 views on one single day. The fact that two of these made the overall top ten is just a testament to how many people viewed the pictures.

• The fact that the the Bird's Nest stadium is still clocking in at #2 and #10 on this list a year after the 2008 Games concluded certainly speaks to how popular the Beijing Olympics were and how many people wanted to see a picture of this magnificent structure.

OK, that's it for now. I'll be back right at the end of December to report on a full year 2009 Top 10 Most Viewed list and observations associated with them.

My Photos - Top 10 Most Viewed

It's time for my quarterly look at the ten most viewed pictures on my Flickr Photostream. You can see my Top 10 Viewed set here.

All the data and info is kinda cool to see for personal reasons, but with 824 pictures to choose from, I also think that what people are looking at provide fodder for some interesting observations.

So, here goes...

The most viewed picture on my Photostream is still the shot I took of the "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium in Beijing when Diane and I visited China in May 2008. See the picture I took at left. That just shows you the interest in China that arose around the time of the Games.

Breaking into the top ten and sitting as the second-most viewed picture is a close-up shot of the detail of the Taj Mahal that I took when Diane and I visited India in 1999. See the picture below. Not sure why, but I've noticed that while there are a lot of pictures online of the Taj generally, there are not too many of the very close up details of the building. So, maybe people are see something with my picture that they're not getting enough of elsewhere.

Other new entries into the top 10 include two pictures of marchers I took recently when Diane and I met up with some friends to view the 2009 Seattle Gay Pride parade. You can see that complete set here.

In fact, my overall views to my Photostream hit an all time high of 2,000+ the day after I posted my set of pictures from the parade, so I think the simple explanation is that there were a lot of people (presumably from Seattle) who wanted to see pictures of their parade.

Also of interest, five of the top 10 most viewed pictures continue to be of Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) from our trip to Vietnam in 2006. To me this suggests that there are a lot of interest in the nation of Vietnam, but in particular of Saigon and perhaps the Vietnam war.

Finally, a black-and-white version of a picture I took at the Auschwitz II concentration camp when we visited Poland in 2002 rounds out the top 10 most viewed pictures I've taken. While this one is a top 10 most viewed, I can report that a number of the other pictures I took at the camp are squarely in the, say, top 30 most viewed. This suggest an enduring interest in the Holocaust I think.

Dropping out of the top 10 is a picture of the Shanghai skyline, an old Shanghai alleyway and another shot of Saigon.

Is beach volleyball the most popular sport in the world?

OK, so the Olympic Games in Beijing, China are about half over. See my China preview here.

The two major conclusions I have come to from tuning in to GE TV (NBC) so far are:

• Michael Phelps is an unbelievable Olympic athlete the likes of which we won't see again in a long time if ever
  
• Beach volleyball must be the most important, popular and entertaining sport in the entire world

On this second point, how else can you explain that every time you turn on a broadcast of the Games day or night huge chunks of time are filled up showing beach volleyball matches like Austria vs. Latvia, Australia vs. China and...most often of all, oh how painfully often...the US women's team vs. anybody?

Is it really just as simple as NBC feels that the American masses want to see scantily clad men and women (especially scantily clad women) athletes bouncing around on the sand? Or, similarly, do they KNOW that's what Americans want to watch and can charge the highest advertising rates for adverts during that coverage?

Hey, I think volleyball is a cool sport, and clearly the athletes involved in beach volleyball deserve all the credit for doing so well. But come on. Instead of the incessant beach volleyball coverage, lets see some other stuff - ping pong, shooting, more track and field, diving, soccer, regular volleyball, water polo, etc.

In the end, it's a shame that NBC feel coverage needs to be calibrated to continually meet the most base instincts of humanity (sex) rather than the higher minded beliefs (competition) that the Olympics are supposed to be about.

Olympics Primer on China

The China Reports

The Olympic Games in Beijing, China have kicked off and are now in full swing.

To help others get in the mood and find out more about the host country, I've brought together all my recent posts on China here in one spot for those of you who might want an alternate view of China than what you're going to get from NBC.

Having just visited extensively in China this past May, these first-hand reports, photos and observations are an assessment of what my wife Diane and I saw, experienced and thought about while touring the country. So, settle in, click on the headlines to read more, look at pictures, and learn from...

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***THE CHINA REPORTS***

China Report #1 - The Forbidden City
Entryway to the Past is Also a Connection to Today's China

China Report #2 - Mt. Hua Shan
Hike on Sacred Mountain Becomes Script for Cheap Hollywood Horror Flick

China Report #3 - Terracotta Warriors
History's Army Raises Questions About Today's Government

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China Photo Feature
Check Out My Photos from China this May at Flickr - See "Sets" on Right Side of the Flickr
The Seattle Times Runs One of My Pictures
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China Report #4 - The Great Wall
Two Hikes On Unrestored Sections Offer More Adventure Than the Tourist Zone

China Report #5 - Xi'an
The Largest, Most Important City You've Never Heard Of

China Report #6 - Shanghai
China's New York City

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Pollution & Sports Extra
What You Can't See in Shanghai Is What You Can See at Wall Mart and On Wall Street
Is Pollution An Olympic Sport?
The Algae Olympics
Pollution Threatens Olympic Games
All-Oregon 800K team for USA in Olympics
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All Oregon 800 meter team for Beijing Olympics

Just a note to let anyone who cares that athletes from the state of Oregon swept the top three spots in the finals of the men's 800 meter US Olympic team finals yesterday. The track and field finals for the US team are being held at legendary Hayward Field in Track Town, USA...aka Eugene, OR this week.

As a grad of the University of Oregon in Eugene, I was extremely pleased that three Eugene based runners finished 1-2-3 to secure spots on the team for Beijing:

• First place finisher was Willamete University grad Nick Symmonds.


• Second place finisher was Andrew Wheating, current University of Oregon (go Ducks!) sophomore.


• Third place finisher was Christian Smith who dived across the finish line to nab third place and a spot on the team.

So, later this summer when you're watching the Olympics, you'll know that the entire US team for that event is from the good old Northwest.

Thought you should know.

NOTE: The picture in this post was NOT taken by me.

Is Pollution an Olympic Sport?

Or, how will the media cover the pollution during the Beijing Olympics?

China is polluted. If pumping smog into the air was an Olympic event, China would be the hands down gold medal champion...by a long shot. They do it faster, with more volume over a sustained period of time than any nation on earth. With the Beijing Olympics coming up this summer, they have the addition of home court advantage.

Seriously, China produces enough smog to block out the mid-day sun. I was just there last month and at mid-day you could see maybe a mile with skyscrapers disappearing into a haze that looked like fog but wasn't. Beijing was one of the worst cities for this...trumped only by Shanghai.

That got me and some of my fellow China travelers wondering how the international media will cover that angle of Beijing during the games. Will they cover it like glamour events such as basketball, gymnastics and track? Or, will they minimize coverage like they do with sports like shooting, kayaking and badminton?

Clearly, the massive air pollution has the potential to inhibit performance for outdoor events. If this occurs, the Beijing Olympics will not be remembered as the big coming out party for China, but the "smog Olympics" with times/finishes including an asterisk.

The government is trying to minimize the Beijing pollution by shutting down factories in the lead up to the games, reducing car traffic and other measures. We even met a Westerner while hiking on the Great Wall who said he was in China to help them "seed" the clouds right before the games so it will rain and clear out the air. Good luck.

OK, the US media. NBC is the broadcaster of the Olympics for the U.S. They, like other mainstream media, are prone to puffery and letting the bigger story slide by without much comment in favor of sensation, celebrity or a good sex scandal. So, not much confidence they'll be seriously looking into how the smog may be impacting the games or the greater world.

But, here's the other thing. NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world's biggest manufacturers with big time operations in China. A polluter for profit. Guess who is also a major sponsor of the Beijing Olympics? You guessed it. GE. In fact, you can see their logo everywhere in public places associated with the games - starting when you arrive in China with placements in all Olympic advertisements in the huge new Beijing international airport.

GE will not be interested in anything other than a perceived spectacular success to these games. That includes minimal negative talk about anything - including pollution. Happy talk, happy talk.

So, predictions for NBC (sports and news) coverage of pollution in Beijing:
1) They barely touch it
2) When they do, they acknowledge "that the Chinese recognize that its a problem" but they are working on cleaning things up - queue the set piece on what the government has done to clear the air for the games
3) You won't hear about it again once the games are over

The only deviation from this I think will be if there is a major epidemic of poor performances or celebrity athletes pull out of competition...and even then, the games will go on and someone will win. You know, "overcoming the odds" of the pollution to win that gold medal.

I also predict that the foreign media - UK, Canada, France, Germany - will likely do more critical reporting on the pollution and how it is effecting the games and the world. But, we here in the US will not see that coverage - essentially, unless you go out of your way to look for it online. Something most people don't do.

So, in the end, I think the US media will report on pollution in Beijing like they will women's field hockey. They won't do it in any meaningful way.

If it comes to pass like this, it'll be a shame because China is the Olympic champion polluter and the games should be an opportunity to point that out...not to mention connecting the dots back to the US by talking about how a lot of the pollution there is generated by US companies making products that US citizens buy for cheap at Wal-Mart and similar stores.

We'll see. I hope I'm wrong.

China Report #1 - The Forbidden City

Entryway to the Past Is Also Connection to Today’s China

As you may have read below, my wife Diane and I recently visited China. Because that nation is increasingly having an impact on the world and the US economy, it's a country and a people worth knowing more about. Having experienced some of China's most famous sites, as well as back roads, I thought I’d offer a few posts on what we saw and what insights it might suggest - as well as my traveler rankings and other info.

China is a massive nation of 1.3 billion people, melding regional differences, dialects, religions, rich, poor, urban, rural and much more. And, a lot is changing there as the country modernizes, diversifies its economy and grows. However, one thing that has literally brought the Chinese together over the centuries were its Imperial Dynasties. Ming, Qing, Tang, Qin and other houses ruled over the area of the world called China for centuries. This was done mostly through force, but in the end - even through difficult times - this bound the country together. During these times, the primary symbol for this power...of the nation really...has been the palace where the emperors lived - The Forbidden City in Beijing.




As a testament to that symbol’s enduring power to bring people together and offer them a sense of nation, the entrance to The Forbidden City at Tienanmen Square continues to be a gathering place even in today's Communist Party run People's Republic of China - and despite big changes in economic classes. For example, while we were in China, this place served as a gathering ground for thousands of Chinese to meet and mourn following the massive 7.9 earthquake that shook western China on May 31. These were not staged events, and certainly the Chinese government gets nervous when large numbers of people gather in Tienanmen Square. But it still happened.

Another example was the 1989 protest when students gathered in Tienanmen Square just in front of The Forbidden City in a massive sit-in to express their desire for a more open and free society. Did they do this in coffee houses? Did they stage a march? No, they instinctively gathered - and stayed as long as possible despite soldiers and tanks - in front of the oldest, most grand example of their nation's past glory.

As we toured the city this May on an overcast and windy day, it started me thinking about the power of symbols in a society - Chinese society.

One thing you'll notice when you go to The Forbidden city is that it's a seemingly endless succession of courtyards and buildings as you make your way from the outer walls to the inner sanctum. Each of these barriers has entryways. Some big, some small, some gilded and decorated, some restored, some showing the resignation of the ages.

This evolved my musing on symbols into thinking of The Forbidden City as a metaphor - as one big entryway. An entryway to understand the essence of what Chinese feel about being Chinese. To walk through the city and see the huge parade grounds, to see the massive throne room, armory, canals and building after colorful building, you could see why Chinese take pride in their history and traditional culture. With all that wealth and power concentrated into one place and enjoyed by so few people, you could also see why a nationwide Communist revolution happened there in 1950. So, two sides of the Chinese psyche laid clear simply by strolling through the entryways and passing over the grounds.

Another thing about the Forbidden City - the emperor could never leave the premises. So, in the end, the entryways are one-way passages. As grand and opulent as The Forbidden City is, and as unlimited as his powers were, the emperor was trapped...by his lineage, by history and by tradition. There was no way to truly get out except death.

That graduated my thinking again...are the Chinese today trapped by their history? Clearly they are trying to break out of their isolationist past by opening their economy, hosting the Olympics, slowing their population growth and becoming a bigger player on the world stage. But the drag of history is heavy. The truth is that the country is still reliant on others for natural resources, still has a huge population in poverty, is still relatively weak military compared to the other major powers, still has major human rights problems and still operates a top-down, authoritarian government. Will they be able to overcome these barriers and escape the trap of history?

By the time we finished our tour, I concluded that The Forbidden City was not only a symbol of the nation, a metaphor for the Chinese psyche and a proxy for a society perhaps trapped by history, but that it was all those things and much more. In short, The Forbidden City and the surrounding Tienanmen Square are China. Sure, there are a lot of diversity in the country of more than a billion people, but I think day well spent at The Forbidden City educates a person on the essence of China's past, helps explain its present and offers a connection to its future. For those of you who have or will someday be in Beijing, go see it.

Site Ratings:

• Historical importance: 10
• Thought provoking: 9
• Architecture: 8
• Physical workout: 4 (just walking, mostly flat)
• People watching: 6 (people from all over China and adventerous westerners)
• Cool factor: 7 (not cool like The Fonz, but cool that you're there)
• Food on site: 7 (surprisingly good - cookies, sandwiches, espresso, cold beverages and more on offer)
• Toilets: 5 (not great, but plentiful)
• Interest for kids: 3 (just my guess, we don't have kids, but we didn't see many and those we did looked bored)
  

Movie to watch to see this site:

• The Last Emperor