greetings from beijing! hope all is well with you.
tuesday evening, my roomate the russian tech & i stayed up very late saying goodbye to our head tech, the notorious spider redgold of pegasus, australia. the next day as we toured the forbidden city, we kept on saying, "ooh, spider would have loved this" or while i shopped, i would mentally tick-off spider's advice on how to shop in silk alley.
being a very clever woman, the russian tech had thoroughly studied my lonely planet guide book & maps, and was able to tell the cab driver exactly where we wanted to go. her strategy: deliver us at the north gate so we could tour forward to tiamen square & proceed onto shopping (me) & the heavenly temple (her).
upon arrival, we immediately headed to one of the many open air food stalls. we pointed to two plates of vegetable (young yard long beens & mixed peppers), they took them back to their kitchen, & almost immediately they were brought back--FULL OF BEEF!!! in america, i would have made a scene, but here i picked through the dish the best i could (& vowed to show every waiter the page in the lonely planet phrase book "i am a buddhist. i am a vegetarian. i don't eat meat.") also sitting at our table was a woman & her boyfriend, a chinese software programer from a water company whose job consisted of creating computer models of environmental impact reports--often, he said, his programs run for days on compac 486 before they completed.
fortified (actually i was a bit queesy) we started through the forbidden city. never in the history of humankind has so much rock been used not only for construction, but for decoration: the walls of the great all were wider than the surrounding streets; everything was paved in greay stone bricks; no stone was too large or small to be carved or layed in a decorative way; in the garden & along walking paths, there were boarders of polished inlaid stones fashioned swirls & geometric patters; large volcanic boulders & fantastical sand-blasted rocks were featured along with gnarled trees instead of statues & flower beds; highly painted & carved gazebos offered respite from the sun & a place to drink tea; long cooridors lead off to separate pavilions which now housed museums composed of the imperial collections of jade, clocks, toys, etc; people strained to peak into the imperial wedding chamber; one courtyard would open upon on another larger courtyard large enough to house sports complexes or whole villages; in fact, it would have taken a village & armies of servants, artisans, and stone masons to keep-up the complex; outside a village of souvineer shops, restraunts, and stores surrounded the forbidden city; the place was filled with chinese on holiday, followed by japanese on tour with the occasion un/ngo wcw visitor.
and discreet view: film kiosks--i am surprised that the forbidden city isn't underwritten by kodak/fuji.
we met up with some othe computer techs & then reorganized into differnt parties. the tech from the philipines & i went to silk alley. this place had more cotton & leather cgoods than several large american malls squeezed into a alley the lenght of a kilometer. in long tin sheds were squeezed rows of stalls filled with every imaginable clothing item. i even found a computer store reminicent of "weird stuff computer store" in sunnyvalle (give me your tired motherboards & transitors). after looking twice through all the stalls for the other half of our party, we settled down to shop: i bought two hand-stiched cotton patchwork quilts, one single & the other full size, for 260 yuan (about $15 each). both were made in traditional american folk patterns from green & pink calico, but would cost 10 times more in america. the philipine tech after looking at all the clothes, decided on a watch & a luggage carrier.
the we climbed back into the cab & went back to work. we were both off duty, but immediately began helping users as soon as we walked through the door. after a bit, i went to the clinic upstairs (my cough is stronger than ever). standing in line were several african delegates all with a cough similar to mine. they handed weach of us a small back of crumbly, dark pills which spelled like strong herbs. immediately my cough got better.
after spending a couple of hours with users in the ngo lounge (four macs & a very uncooperative pc & printer), i decided to take the long way back to the computer room. on every floor there are document centers stacked high with un & prepratory documents; on every flat surface are precariously stacked ngo flyers & docuents--by the end of the day it is an awful mess. some of the documents are amazing--full colored glossy books about everything from women's health & to the status of women in various countries are left scattered about--free for the taking. it is very reminicent of a bargain table at a fashionable dept store. you hear the clicking of heals on highly polished floors, the swishing of fabrics of expensive suits, the low mumble of tvs broadcasting un proceedings. the only clue that i am at a women's conference & not at a computer show in silicon valley is the literature & the african-style dress of some of the delegates.
the differences between un conf in beijing & the ngo conf in huairou are several: in huairou, 95% of the participants were women, in beijing the genders are evenly mixed; the plumbing & hotels are better in beijing, but there were many more food & shopping options in huairou (more vegetarian choices & everyone had something to sell/share); the atmosphere seemed much more participatory in huairou (workshops & tent mtgs), & in beijing the process seems spectatorial &/or behind closed doors; the chinese volunteers seemed much friendlier in huairou, in beijing our interaction with the local population has been mostly limited to cab drivers, hotel staff, & merchants (seems like un brought in their own staff & beijing police); i think we just had a lot more fun in huairou (could it be because we had a better computer setup?), but you can't beat beijing for sight-seeing.
late in the evening after work, i came home & experienced the pure joy of negotiating a local telephone carrier & logging on from our hotel into our server. from there i was able to telnet into my home acct & able to process more email.
to bed late, up late. after several cups of instant coffee (the chinese bring our thermoses of hot water early), we were able to face another two kilometer ride to the un site. two lanes are painted on the road, the cab drivers negotiate the defacto 3 1/2 lane road with motorcycles, buses, pedestrians, bicycle carts piled high with giant cabbages. instead of bringind us down the new road, the drives brinfg us the back way: past a kilometer long farmers market (grapes, apples, eggplant, giant carrots, potatos, cabbages) & makeshift restraunts) to the beijing internalinal convention center. we are always dropped of several blocks from the center because some cabs are not allowed passed a certain point.
a bit more about the farmers market: people say that china's economy is in transition moving from communism to a mixed-economy. i have seen no real evidence of communism except for the dozen small slips of paper filled out anytime one wants anything to happen. but looking at the markets stalls are well-stocked & people are doing busines everywhere they can. invisible to my eye is the loss of social services as china moves to a mixed economy or the crack down on free speach. the beijing man who organizes the local gay/lesbian disco was arrested at the close of the huairou conference (a sizable lesbian caucus had gone to visit the disco which was filled with security with cameras)--who knows who else will be picked up after we go home? but still business flourishes.
did another shift in the computer room--it is difficult with so few computers & so much info. we try to limit everyone to 15 min, but sometimes it is hard to negotiate the different applications, convert the files, & upload the info. a crancky printer doesn't help, but it worked as hard as it could. and doesn't help the line outside when you take mercy on a hapless user & try to teach & help at the same time. hopefully everyone is satisified. after work we walked through the puring rain for one final dinner together--nine courses & a lot of chinese beer. most of us have come back to work some more.
i can't believe tomorrow the conference closes. people are are working furiously to get their info uploaded & last minute shopping done. i'm going home with almost no presents, two quilts, three braclets from africa, & a lot of posters, and alot of great memories working with the all women apc team.
more soon!
jennifer jennifer@wcw.apc.org gagliajn@netcom.com
