China time II - now with pics!

[Lt. Killer M]

So I am visiting China for the second time. Instead of looking after my wife and kid, finishing various important things around the house such as mowing the lawn, hooking up electricity in the kitchen, cajouling the Telekom into finally (after over 6 weeks!!!) hooking up our DSL (which includes the phone), and, before I forget, instead of actually getting some work stuff done, too, I tour around Central Asia for a whole month. Not that I really wanted to, which does not help put me in a good mood - and some of the stuff I am going to post here may come across as nearly insulting to Chinese readers, so if you are easily annoyed by rantings about China, please stop reading now.

Essentially, my last (and first) stay in China, for my research project on the anatomy, systematics and functional morphology of Liaoning psittacosaurs (a small dinosaur) was a complete washout. Reasons are various, but I must lay the blame mostly on the incompetence of Chinese scientists. It is really a pity, and I think the cultural revolution is to blame, but there are extremely few capable scientists here. My project failed because those in office were not capable to organize an opportunity for the promised field work, as they simply do not know what field work is, are not capable of distinguishing between real and fake fossils, have no knwoledge of standard scientific practices and, I sometimes feel, simply do not give a flying piece of feces. There was only one tangible result: a fossil that in all likelihood is not fake turned out to be an as yet undescribed species of Psittacosaurus, stored in the Jilin University museum in Changchun. Sadly, it was badly prepared.
Additionally, as is the custom in China, the skull openings were filled with cement, in order to 'tidy up' the skull and stabilize it. This means that I can not describe it in its present state, since many of the important charachters are hidden by the remaining sdeiment and the cement.

A colleague of mine has a project running in China, too, which also saw some quite weird and stupid things happening, e.g. the Chinese acquiring excavation permits for him which then turned out not to exist. He was placed under house arrest and the fossils confiscated. Dumb - and now he wanted to salvage at least something from this fiasco. So he decided to go prospecting in a different location. This time, the permits exist, although I must say it is surprising how stupid the Chinese scientific leader is: he got the permission for the wrong place this time. No matter, it is as good as the orignially desired one, but still you have to wonder how you can send him a map with the area marked on it and he gets a permit for a neighbouring place instead. Oh well. Oliver was going to China and needed people to help prosepcting, the Chinese were going tpo pay for the flight and accomodation, and I saw a (slim) chance of salvaging something from my project by making a short detour to Changchun to finally be able to describe my Psittacosaurus.


The setup for the trip was the same as it usually is for the SinoGerman cooperation: a 2 day conference, a few days for field trips, and then an extended stay for those involved in the cooperation that need time for museum visits and field work.

I emailed the Chinese scientist, asking him to bring the fossil to the conference. To my joy and surprise, he instead suggested he pay for my coming to Changchun instead! I was officially invited to the conference, which meant that I would have to give a presentation, and I would not be able to participate in the field work for Oliver for the full time, but hey, I'd finally get my Psittacosaurus described!


So the plan was thus:

August 30: fly to Beijing, and on to Urumqi (arrival on August 31)
September 1: attend conference
September 2: attend conference, give talk
September 3-7: field trip
September 8-11: finish up some field work for Oliver, wait for last member of field team
September 9-22: prospect for fossils, especially dinosaurs near Turpan
September 23: fly to Changchun via Beijing
September 24-29: visit Changchun and Shenyang museums to work on psittacosaurs

sounds fine?


well, not so - read below.....

[Lt. Killer M]

The flight to China went well, and by the time we reached Urumqi in the Uygur Autonomous Region (a tribal village turned trade center by settling 4.6 million Han Chinese) I felt pretty good, despite the chaos I left Rita with (no power in kitchen, no phone, no internet, Silja not well and crying all the time and so on). The town is a typical Chinese modern town: cheaply built sky scrapers, cheaply built small buildings, noise (people think it normal to operate an industrial-sized power drill at 1 a.m.), dirt (dustbins? why, the riverbed is a good replacement!).

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7518/urumqiviewxj6.jpg


Some of it is fascinating, such as the markets, which essentially preserve the good old guilds tradition of having all people selling the same goods set up shop (or stall) in one place, or the local patois - street vedors selling Uygur food and trinkets. Some of it is quite annoying, such as the constant fag smoking directly under signs saying 'no smoking', the constant yelling (it seems most Chinese are nearly deaf), the constant spitting and coughing, preferably in your face. And some of it is simply hilarious, such as the English (Chenglish) you encounter left and right.

The conference hotel turned out to be pretty nice. It is probably the best house in town, and certainly not cheap by Chinese stadrards. The rooms are clean, everthing works (more or less, the PC they provided turned out to be an example of the 'less' part in most rooms), the staff is friendly, and the food OK. They have a big buffet for all meals, and I have had better food in cheaper hotels in China, but it was really OK.
So was the conference, although these things in China tend to be somewhat tedious compared to Western standards. It is best summed up by saying that there was an abundance of welcoming speeches, little time for the true purpose (planning the future of the research cooperation), no time at all for discussing the latter, and by relating an anectode I overheard a US scientist telling the German leader of the cooperation.

'I was at this conference in China and they had a Chinese guy give a 2 hour talk. He weas droning on and on with ever more boring slides about ever more boring stuff. Next to me sat an elderly Chinese man who seemed quite thralled and to be enjoying himself. I cautiously asked him after a while whether the talk was not horribly boring to him. He replied: 'ah, is only boring when you listen!''

Says it all.....

On to the field trip. If you look at a map of western China the first thing you will NOT note is that you have the wrong scale. Only after a while will it dawn on you that what looks like regions of closely spaced small cities, some mountain chains and mid-sized deserts is really 10 times larger than it first seems. 'closely spaced' means it is a 2 hour drive, 'mountain chain' means 5000er peaks galore, and the deserts turn out to be all part of the Taklamakan! Urumqi is a town of 5 million, but I missed it completely when first looking at sattelite images, simply because it is tiny compared to the Junggar Basin as a whole. Thus, the field trip turned into a long drive, a 5 minute stay somewhere, another long drive, another 5 minute stay, lunch, a long drive..... you get the pattern!

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/5551/firststoprl4.jpg

A 5-min-stop at a place with quarternary boring stuff, after driving through a valley transsecting the Ian Shan mountains with wonderfull geology (that we did NOT stop to see)

[Lt. Killer M]

http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/7324/firststopauh3.jpg
We were well supplied with vehicles: Jeeps and two Toyota busses. One Jeep for the Chinese boss and the most distinguished German, another for the second tier, and one bus for the German foot soldiers, and one bus for the Chinese. I was glad that there was no 'mixed' bus, as the Chinese tend to have very bad breath - brushing your teeth seems not to be a favorite pastime in China, and the constant sipping of green tea may also contribute. Whatever the reason: sitting between Chinese people will quickly have me taking very shallow breaths through my mouth.

The busses were quite comfy, and the new autobahn leading from urumqi to Kuqa (or Kuche, pronounced almost like the German 'Kutsche') was in excellent condition. It was also nearly empty, making for a pleasant ride. The geology along the route is fascinationg, including great visatas of the TianShan and Bogda Shan, rough and steep forhills with all types of rock formations, and occasional camel herds, which drove our German boss'es wife into a frenzy of delight and photography every time. it is interesting to note that the boss himself had already departed for Germany, ostensibly because of work. I simply think he had had it already with these trips.

So doesn't this sound like I was a happy camper?
It may sound so, but all hte wonderful landscape and geology just flew past me at 100kph! We rarely stopped - in fact we stopped to seldom that all started NOT to drink water iun sufficient quantities. We were simply afarid of having to go but the Chinese leader driving ahead in the Jeep not stopping. Since the Chinese seem incapable of telling the drivers anything but 'follow me' it was of paramount importance that we not lose the Jeep - after all the bus driver might have taken the wrong road! Forget the fact that there is only ONE raod to take, he still might have taken the wrong one. So we were all a bit dehydrated and dejected when we did not see the geology properly. And then, when we did stop, it was a 5 minute stop with the Chinese leader telling us 'ah, this is Jurassic, this we consider Cretaceous, but maybe not, so please go!' and off we went again to the bus. Field trip??????? That was not even Geological Tourism(tm), this was just driving us around like cattle. Aargh!

[Shabbaman]

quote:Originally posted by Lt. Killer M

So I am visiting China for the second time. Instead of looking after my wife and kid, finishing various important things around the house such as moving the lawn, hooking up electricity in the kitchen, cajouling the Telekom into finally (after over 6 weeks!!!) hooking up our DSL (which incloudes the phone), and, before I forget, instead of actually getting some work stuff done, too, I tour around Central Asia for a whole month. Not that I really wanted to, which does not help put me in a good mood - and some of the stuff I am going to post here may come across as nearly insulting to Chinese readers, so if you are easily annoyed by rantings about China, please stop reading now.

Stop, why? Your rants are always pretty entertaining. Where do you want to move your lawn to btw? [estwing]

[grahamiam]

My favorite Changlish I've personally seen was a kid's fall jacket. On the back, there was a very friendly looking bear with the following words: "Imposing Bear IS the best friend". Cracks me up everytime I think about it :)

[Lt. Killer M]

The first day we went all the way from Urumqi to Kuche, arriving at 10 p.m. The Kuche Hotel, as opposed to the Tu Ha Hotel in Urumqi, proved to be a treasure trove of Chenglish. It started with a promising sign in the elevator, telling the guest what was to be found on what level. It's been over a week since we left there, but we still have not managed to work out what the 'Labby Bay' on the ground floor really is, and why there are 'Muslim boxes' in the building.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/505/kuchehotelzz0.jpg


hope the funny dots are gone now. yep, they are....me hate chinese keyboard

I was hoping to put in some pics but this computer does not allow me to install any program, and has none running that can downsize them. pity, will add them later!

EDIT: pics are here :)

The Changlish got better and better as I worked my way through the hotel.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4898/scatieringkr0.jpg



and then there were the 'personal items' in the hotel bathroom.....


http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3489/sayagainwr0.jpg

[Lt. Killer M]

shabba: I want to move it from the unmowed to the mowed state ;)

[Lt. Killer M]

So, the next day saw a field trip from Kuche to the north. During the trip to Kuche I had managed to sleep a bit after it got dark, only to be repeatedly jolted awake - and rather roughly jolted - by potholes on the road. The autobahn ends some 300 km before Kuche, and the country road - while tarred and pretty new - is not the best. I was seated in the very back of the bus, wheere there are four seats next to each other. Two had luggage piled on them, two were free. I was lucky to have so much room, as I had the two seat for myself - or so I thought! in the end it proved a nightmare, one that I experienced because the Chinese top scientist had, as he loves to do, commanded me around and physically shoved me when I tried to occupy a seat further to hte front. I will have to physically harm him one day, methinks. He loves to treat me like a student, despite knowing that I have my doctorate by now. Bad Chinese manners, bad Western manners. I decided that the next time he shoves me I will confront him. Very bad Chinese manners, but he asks for it.

The field trip took us into a tight valley, nearly a gorge. Quite interesting tertiary rocks, mostly sandstones, were piled high on both sides, tilted by 60 oir 70 degrees and showing large-scale wind erosion. A wonderful sight!

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3113/tertiaryzo7.jpg


We actually stopped to be told it was 'tertiary, see, now please, go, please'. Herded back into the bus in a hurry, we drove on, only to find us in a construction site 250 km long. Long stretches of the road were being rebuilt, on a much straighter course. Anywhere where a new bridge was being built in the path of the old road we went off road onto gravel. Anywhere where we stayed on the old road it was in shitty condition. Why repair something that's going to be disused in 5 years anyways? Since our driver thought that driving does not require the use of breaks, ever, I was thrown around the bus violently. Average potholes and bumps made me bump into the side or the luggage (or made the luggage slide and bump into me), big ones lifted me off the seat, bumping my knees into the seat in front of me. My seat was the worst placed, too, as it was behind the rear wheels. I estimate the highest throw to have been 40 cm, the worst was a triple bump of 30, 30 and 15 cm. By the last and least I was off my seat, as the first two had shoved a large 20 kg bag into my side. AARGH!

some more views from the trip:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4540/camelyj5.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9336/mountainscm3.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9456/rocksrt1.jpg


We stopped maybe 5 times during the morning, driving roughly 300 km for in all 20 minutes of looking at the geology. A proper trip of this valley would take at least 2 days for one direction - time that would be well spent! But for that you'd need someone who knows the area as the tour guide, not some party animal and paleobotanist. We had lunch,


http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/6242/lunchek3.jpg


drove on a bit, then turned back. By that time an argument had broken out between the Chinese top guy and one of our top guys. So the Chinese stopped every few kilometers to repeat his mantra. After a while our guy simply gave up and agreed to the nonsense (it was obvious even to me, who was busy fighting the luggage and not looking at the rocks). This further infuriated the Chinese, so we stopped more and more often, but never in good photo places, or long enough to really see the rocks properly. AARGH again. By the time we got back the hotel staff was - again! remember we arrived late the day before already - not really enthused to serve us dinner.

[Lt. Killer M]

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7505/mountainstwotz7.jpg


http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6167/landscapenr2.jpg


As for the food: on the trips, Ipreferred not to eat. I simply did not even begin to want to know what water the noodles were cooked in, much less what cold(!) water they were cooled in before serving. it was blue.

This heartening plate finally turned my appetite to zero - I had not had an apple in a week ;)

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8195/keepdoctw6.jpg










well, China may be fairly modern in some regards, and that may be great - but constant internet breakdowns are not great. Oh well, it works again now :)

I'll skip the boring drive to Turpan, except to mention that we drove a 200km detour to see the Talimu (Tarim) river. That is, we drove that detour so that the Chinese could take pics of each other next to the commemorative plaque and on the river's shore. We arrived at our destination, a hotel in Turpan (Turfan) close to 11 p.m. Have I said before that I hate the way the CHinese top guy organized all this?

Turpan is THE grape place in China - and accordingly touristy. It is all cheap dumb stuff, and plastic grapes, but hey, the Chinese love that! We had another bad field day the next day, then returned to Urumqi. There, we had the official Closing Banquet of the 'conference' - lotsa speeches and lotsa schnaps. UGH! The evening turned relly ugly when a Chinese guy of some importants started making me compliments, like how handsome I am etc. I knew what was coming and tried to get him too drunk too fast, so that he would not get around to make any passes. It worked, but it got me pretty drunk, too, especially as the food was not quite to my liking. I ended up calling my wife and talking for 15 minutes, I thought - turned out it was 40! That's gonna cost a fortune.

THe next day the group split up into various parties, some went home, others stayed to do field work. The team I am in was from this day on stuck with the most incompetent interpetor you can imagine. We have a guy attached who is supposed to oprganize everything - sadly he does not speak any English. So one might suppose that the interpreter just has to translate. Not so - he figures that he IS the tour organizer, nad that results in chaos. He does not think, he does not listen, he does not inform us of important things going on, he is too passive or stupid to actually go shopping! I mean, how difficult is it to lead a longnose to a store, tell the shopkeeper what the foreigner wants, tell the foreigner the price, relay his counteroffer etc.? Shoulodn't be too hard - but he talks to the shop owner, then wanders off to pick his nose! Hello????????

Ah, I start getting angry. More later.

[Shabbaman]

quote:Originally posted by Lt. Killer M

I knew what was coming and tried to get him too drunk too fast, so that he would not get around to make any passes.


[lol]

[Pastorius]

It's that irresistible German charm, really

or his killer looks

[failedreality]

Just curious what the guy was chopping up next to the hanging bones.. :)

[Lt. Killer M]

quote:Originally posted by failedreality

Just curious what the guy was chopping up next to the hanging bones.. :)


another sheep - our lunch! They prepare a kebab type thingy that is composed of the fattest meat they can find (occasionally pure fat) and enough spices to make your butt burn for days.

[Banzai]

Sounds delicious [xx(]

btw.. what can you tell us about the new megadino "Futalognkosaurus dukei" that has been found in Argentina?

[Lt. Killer M]

quote:Originally posted by Banzai

Sounds delicious [xx(]

btw.. what can you tell us about the new megadino "Futalognkosaurus dukei" that has been found in Argentina?


it was named for an oil company - ugh!

F. is the most complete titanosaur so far, but I have not read the publication yet, so please be patient!

[Beam]

[morepics]

[Lt. Killer M]

quote:Originally posted by Beam

[morepics]


you're a tad late, don't you think? ;)[assw]

[Pastorius]

Lt. Killer M to Chinese locals: "Hi. I am selling these fine leather jackets..."