Absurdity, Allegory and China

China vs. the University of Calgary (UC), the latest chapter in the Chinese passion play, is a Chinese foreign policy trial balloon let loose (prematurely?) on the western Canadian plains. This began last week when it was reported that China had removed UC from its list of accredited universities a move school officials are concerned [...]

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A trip between Beijing and Tianjin on the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Rail is one that gets quite a lot of Twitter attention, especially on the weekends. The trip from Beijing South Railway Station to Tianjin Railway Station (aka Tianjin East) on the Hai He (River) in the city center takes 30 minutes.
A recent samplings of tweets [...]

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The May 5, 2009 Boston Globe’s editorial A talk with the Dalai Lama comments on a meeting between the Dalai Lama and “100 scholars from China” at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge organized by Lobsang Sangay of the Harvard Law School. By this account it sounds as if a civil time was had by all. [...]

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I have taken to reading Ben Schott’s column in the NYT called Schott’s Vocab, “a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy.” It is hard not to love our words, since they are at the center of how we tell our stories. How they evolve is always [...]

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On March 10, 2008  the following article appeared in the China Daily: Five-star Beijing-Tibet train to run after Games.
Luxury passenger train service from Beijing to the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region will be launched on Sept. 1 [2008].
The tickets were gaggingly expensive – $5600 USD per person – and the projected departure schedule was brisk, to [...]

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Here’s the latest on spring tourism opportunities in large and beautiful areas of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces: Official: Tibetan areas closed to foreigners
An official at the tourism office of northwestern Gansu province’s Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, home to a major monastery and large Tibetan communities, said the region was closed to foreigners and would [...]

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Just when I was wondering what had happened to the world’s most expensive train, this shows up. (h/t to Danwei). And at a great deal, too – 50% off. Twenty-one days as an extravagantly pampered tourist in one of the world’s most fragile environments on a train that is “normally reserved for celebrities and government [...]

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I’ve been trying my best to follow a particular story since its initial announcement on March 10, 2008. And now finally some word about the world’s most expensive train: the proposed luxury line from Beijing to Lhasa, single ticket price – a mere 40,000 RMB (today, $5,849 USD; 4,000 Euros). No, there is not an [...]

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