how people live

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Attached is an AFP story on declining use of cave homes in North China. Rising living standards are part of the story, but there are also environmental implications as well.

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Attached is a photo of a Shanghai high rise. Note the tlescope on one balcony.

What portion of China's population now resides in such buildings? How is life there different from the 1-2 story homes they replaced? And how does it differ from life in the village?

How can we communicate these differences to our students?

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Attached is a photo from the kitchen of the Lintong county home we visited outside Xi'an.

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How is globalization affecting diet? What do people eat in contemporary China? How has this changed over the decades? We can readily learn about caloric intake and changing composition of diets. Have people's attitudes about food changed?

One useful resource is the Eugene Anderson (of UC Riverside), The Food of China.

I've attached a photo from the snack shop located on the grounds of the Qin dynasty terracota warriors. Would the first emperor have been amused?

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Attached is a photo of a lama making butter tea. I met this fellow at the Sumtsenling Gompa monastery I joined him and a high school friend of his in his small home for conversation and a bit of tea (excellent) and cheese (awful).

He did not have electricity, but his friend had just delivered a second hand cell phone, instructing the monk to charge it at the office.

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Everyone reading this knows how much I enjoy Chinese food. And certainly you know I eat too much generally. Reporters are starting to notice that some in China are eating a bit too much. Please take a look at this 7/18/04 ap article on the bulge in urban China.

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I did not imagine that Chinese would feel the compulsion to find artifical ways to burn calories. Please take a look at the attached photo, which I took in a Shanghai discount store a few weeks ago.

Who knew there'd be a market for treadmills?

[Anonymous]

Hey, I'm listening to NPR right now. It's the first of a series regarding Route 312 in China. Rob Gifford is spending 14 days traveling 3,000 miles from Shanghai to the Gobi desert. Here is the link:

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/aug/china_road/

At the end of this segment, Rob has to sing in a karaoke bar--The Eagles!! (Desperado)

[Anonymous]

I checked this out, it is pretty cool. I feel so much smarter now that I've been to China and know about some of the things we see in the news, don't you? 😀
Thanks for the info.

Andrea

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I don't need to tell this group about the widespread availability of massage services in China. Here's an LA Times article about the expansion of foot massage shops, work conditions, licensing and so on.

[Author]

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