Like Shadow

Just came back from Beijing. Cold as it always was in winter. Wind
blows sharply over my hands, like a knife hurts.

I was in XiDan, a shopping district of this metropolis. I was there a
lot when studied in this city. It was downtown and so far from my uni
so that I almost spend 1 -1.5 hrs to travel from uni to this place.
But it was good. It was a favourite to young ppl.

I was exhausted after a long walk in the science and technology museum
and a half hour standing in crowded subway, with three transits. So I
went to starbucks only to find the coffee and cookies there were
overpriced and the ppl there never shut up.

Neither did I. I received a call from Melbourne and my mobile service
was suspended because there was no credit. I had to recharge grrrrrr.
It was not a good memory.

----------------

My 22 birthday is approaching and I am spending it in Melbourne. I am
still a bloody bachelor and I have no idea how to get rid of this
title. It is like a shadow. I don't know what's wrong with me and
don't know what to do. What the hell!

Anyway bless everyone who can read this message coz I will not be able
to read this note before I go out of China.

Stuck in China

As I perhaps have predicted, the journey to China is about to be
extended and I am very likely to spend the Chinese New Year with my
family.

This is the most important festival to Chinese communities all around
the world, I personally feel obliged to spend this moments with my
family, which I am not actually willing to. I can't wait to embrace
summer and sunshine rather than coldness and dusts.

But this is my home after all. I shall love it and spend more time
here, especially on this special occasion. And the expenses here is
far less than that in Melbourne for sure.

Anyone wants to sent me a message plz don't do it through facebook as
I can't access it in China behind the Great Fire Wall. Email is more
than welcomed and msn is checked everyday. chesterli@msn.com

Wish everyone a happy feb. I haven't decided yet and may change my
mind any time.

All the best.

Malaysia Now

Here I am in Chinatown of Penang, Malaysia. The weather is hot and humid．Even though the fans are swirling at their top rates, the room is still full of sweaty people sitting uneasily in front of computers getting here and away.

It is such a lovely trip that I found most of the food on street are affordable compared to their counterparts in Melbourne. Today seems to be an Indian food day for us.

Now we realized how common Chinese is used in Malaysia. As the approaching of Chinese new year, Penang is full of sales and new year musics which made me reluctant to realize that I have to go back to Melbourne for Chinese new year. Anyway this would be my first time of having new year without family so could be novel or painful.

Tomorrow a friend will accompany us to the sites around Penang. I will take a lot of photes of course and upload them to facebook or/and flickr.

Applause to Google

The sensational news in China yesterday was baidu.com, the biggest search engine of that country, was hacked by an organization claimed themselves as Iranians. Comments and observers, however, doubted this claims based on the fact that there were no major conflicts between the two countries.

While the only time I used baidu.com was when I wanted to input some Chinese characters on a computer without Chinese input programs. What I did was input pinyin into baidu and copy the Chinese characters it prompted. However baidu.com still became the largest search engine of China, partly because the illegal piracy mp3 links it provides and other secret ingredients appealing to the massive Chinese netizens. Though I don't use baidu.com that much, I still feel sorry for its being hacked. On this particular occasion, it seems to be innocent based on the information I am concerned.

The sensational news in China today is, Google, after struggling from censorship scandals and high pressures from Chinese authority, is thinking about to quit Chinese market. (A New Approach to China, Official Google Blog)

According to the author David Drummond, a high level official in Google, the company is 'no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn'. Besides, he suggests that Google has been investigating several cases of Gmail accounts being hacked, most of which belong to Chinese human right activists.

Someday, Google will return in glory.

Everybody loves Air China

Air China is famous for its bad customer services. I've heard dozens of complaints from friends about how this company encouraged its customers to its competitors.

However the fares from this company are reasonably low compared to other operators. And you can even purchase tickets online, though the system is one of the worst, which is better than China Southern Airlines (on whose website you can't change your departure dates once you have proceeded to the fare page) and China Eastern Airlines (on its local website you can't even select any international departures; on its international website you can't even proceed).

As you probably have been aware of, I am planning a trip to SE Asia. Well at first I was thinking about going to Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, or at least any combination of them. Then it turned out I have to go back to China for a week so I cut the journey to only Malaysia. I've booked return tickets to and from MEL/KL but I had difficulties in finding the right one to China. At first I wanted to go through Tianjin by Air Asia however the flight has been suspended due to weather conditions and therefore I had to land on some southern China city if I want to go by Air Asia. At this moment, Air China caught my eyes. It offered a price directly from KL to BJ at only A$240. What a bargain!

However, after I booked my ticket, and received my confirmation letter, something strange happened. I found that my family name and given name were reversed. How come? So I went back to its website and Geeeeeeeeeeee….. It was the first airline website in English I've seen that put last name before given name…..

I am afraid this might be a problem. Then I called Air China Melbourne. After three minutes of busy tones, the call was disconnected automatically. Then I called Air China customer service in China and enjoyed five minutes of classic Chinese music. Then a girl picked up the phone and forwarded me to the website department because I ordered online. And then the staff at website department who has such a strong Beijing accent told me in deep sorrow that they were only in charge of Chinese website, not international website.

So I had to dial Air China Melbourne again because I ordered through airchina.com.au. A lady picked the phone and said there was nothing she could do unless I pay $100 to change the name. Then she realized I was not flying from Australia so she suggested me to call Air China Kuala Lumper to find out whether Malaysian people have a different position.

So I did. Unluckily it was morning in KL so I waited for half an hour for them to have a breakfast and a cup of tea and gossip times. Then the phone was picked up and girl, once again, forwarded me to their website department.

'So are you Chen Li?' asked the lady from website department. 'No I am not I am Li Chen' I answered for the fifth time. 'Alright if this is the case, I am sure you will be all right based on your passport information provided.'

Should I be happy? Should you love Air China?

The Gambler – a novelette

I read The Gambler from the latest issue of Science Fiction World Translations brought for me by Li Meng during his last trip home. It was a special issue for the Hugo Award nominates 2009. The Gambler was nominated as a best novelette but unluckily did not receive the award.

It was a story about a young Lao journalist in LA who fled to US after unrest in his country and arrest of his farther. He struggles in keeping himself as a responsible writer to the environment and society, whereas the journalists were judged by the clicks of his blog received.

The government in that story just reminds me of what I saw in the movie Persepolis. Same fear, same darkness. I sometimes question myself, will I have the courage to do what they do when confront the same scenario. Probably not. But I certainly will go abroad, infinitely.

But at this stage, I'd rather take my responsibility doing something for the environment. Yes, I did study Environmental Sciences while I was in China and about to choose something similar in my honours study. Maybe I will be an environmentalist rather than an agricultural scientist. But anyway I will never choose a career which may turn out as a threatening to the earth.

If I can't make a difference myself, at least I can help those people by subscribing their blogs, buying their books, even donating them. If more and more people are concerning, there will be some changes.

Zoo is cruel, people are sad

It's hard to decide where to post a new blog entry when you have a dozen of them. That's exactly my case. When I signed up the blogs I was thinking each one for different purpose. Some for Chinese, some for English, some for both. And for none.

But keeping on the tracks seems beyond my current level. Therefore I just random post anything on any blog I own. Hope one day they will be discovered and attract some comments.

The thing I love most about renren.com (commonly known xiaonei.com or The Chinese Facebook), is that the atmosphere of comments and reply. I love this interaction and hope the trend may continue on my other blogs.

Yesterday saw the last report of the final semester of this degree. I was so happy that when I finished it in 3:00 in the morning I couldn't sleep until 5:00. And I caught up with so many friends yesterday and almost walked all over the city.

But when night came I still couldn't sleep. I don't like such a long holiday with everything uncertain.

The ETS (emission trading scheme) was rejected again earlier this week. I am then a little uncertain that did I talked too little about 'disadvantage' when asked about ETS in the exam. Or maybe the guest speaker talked more on 'pro' rather than 'con' and he was too confident about the future of ETS.

I am not at the position to comment on the decision of the parliament. What I do hope then is there would be something coming out in Copenhagen. Or the air tickets and accommodation and other costs paid entirely by tax payers would be in vain.