Visiting Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese and Indian districts

I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last month and strolled around the city’s Chinese and Indian quarters. Even though I’d been to KL before, I’d never been to some of the streets and temples I stumbled upon this time.

I visited the Hindu temple Sri Mahamariamman, for example. Amazingly colorful. A feast for the eye. The Chinese shrines were somewhat more serene. Strong smell of incense.

All of these places of worship, as well as the streets of Chinatown and Little India were amazing. An exotic mix of smells and sounds. Strange and wonderful to the Western eye.

Strolling through these multi-cultural streets of Kuala Lumpur, you understand the truth in Malaysia’s old tourism slogan: Malaysia, truly Asia.

Music: Last Affair & Gita Lulin Maung Ko Ko with his Studio Ensemble featuring Yadana Oou – Zega Wa (UKoKo) (Film Music 1978 “Popa Phuza”)

Macau’s Venetian Hotel is Venice on steroids

Macau’s Venetian Hotel isn’t your quiet little neighborhood Bed and Breakfast.

With its 40 stories, 3000 suites and 980 000 square meters, it’s the fourth largest building in the world by area.

According to the Venetian website, the hotel is large enough to hold ninety Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

And after having visited the Venetian myself, I think that’s probably not even exaggerated.

This hotel is mind-blowing

Macau’s Venetian Hotel is gigantic. It totally floored me. After a few hours in this huge hotel, casino and shopping complex, I was gasping for air.

Even though I was in many ways fascinated by this artificial, alluring, air conditioned environment, I just wanted to get out and get back in touch with the real world.

At Macau’s Venetian Hotel, everything is on a super-human scale. The hotel corridors are as wide as highways. Walking down these long corridors, I felt dwarfed by the dimensions.

The hotel is so confusingly complex that there are signs everywhere pointing visitors the way. Otherwise the guests would just get lost.

The hotel has to  supply visitors with hotel maps to help them find their way in this super-structure.

As you wander these hallways and look at all the gold plated ornaments and crystal chandeliers, you get an impression of how much money the casinos must generate.

Because, after all, it’s the casino money that pays for all this nouveau riche splendor.

According to Germany’s stern magazine, the Venetian cost more than two billion US dollars to build. That’s a lot. But it may not take the Venetian long to pay off that huge investment.

Another Macau hotel, The Sands, cost some one billion Euros ($ 1.35 billion). And it took The Sands only eleven months to get out of the red, writes Germany’s renowned Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Big casinos mean big money

Macau has surpassed Las Vegas with regard to revenues from the casinos.

Macau’sVenetian boasts the largest casino in the world, with 3400 slot machines and more than 800 gambling tables. And the casino is never empty – it’s one of the busiest places in the whole hotel complex.

Unfortunately, photography isn’t allowed in the casinos, so I couldn’t take any pictures in that part of the hotel.

Shopping in an air-conditioned version of Venice

Unlike the casinos, the shopping mall on the third floor of the Venetian doesn’t seem to generate a lot of revenue.

When I was there, it was virtually deserted. Only a few people strolled around luxurious fashion and jewellery stores.

But it seemed to me that everyone just looked, and no one bought anything. I hardly saw anybody with shopping bags.

The main attractions of the shopping mall at the Venetian are the canals and the gondolas. It’s an indoor Venice with eternal blue skies and air-conditioning.

Some of the gondoliers are really imported from Europe or America, but many are Chinese.

And just like the real Italian gondoliers in Venice, these Chinese copies serenade the tourists with schmaltzy belcanto opera arias.

It’s really pretty absurd if you think about it: Chinese men, costumed as Italian gondoliers, pretending to stoke a motorized gondola through fake canals on the third floor of a hotel complex in Asia.

Does life get any more bizarre?

China’s first sex theme park sparks controvery

China Daily, Friday, May 15, 2009

Usually, the English language China Daily newspaper makes pretty boring reading.

But this morning, I nearly choked on my buttered toast when I read a story in this paper about the first Chinese sex theme park.

Love Land is due to open in Chongqing in South-West China in October.

It will feature giant replicas of genitals, sculptures of naked humans, a photo exhibit about the history of sex and sex technique workshops.

Not bad for a country, where sex is still something that you don’t talk about in public.

So it’s no wonder that this project has sparked a heated debate in China.

Is Love Land vulgar or educational?

China Daily quotes Liu Daiwei, a policewoman from Chongqing, who says that she’ll feel uncomfortable to look at “these things…when other people are around.”

The paper also cites an unidentified netizen as saying “these vulgar sex installments will only make people sick.”

The manager of the sex theme park, Lu Xiaoqing, says was prepared for Love Land to generate controversy.

According to the China Daily Lu says that he’s building the sex theme park for the good of the public.

“Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information,” the China Daily quotes him as saying.

“I have found that the majority of people support my idea but I have to pay attention and not make the park look to vulgar and nasty,” Lu says.

“We hope our Love Land can also become a landmark in Chonqing when it finishes,” Lu goes on.

I wonder what Chairman Mao would say to all this…

UPDATE: On Monday, May 19, 2009, the China Daily reported on its front page: “Sex-theme park closed prematurely … With its adult and explicit themes, the country’s first sex theme park proved to be ‘too hot’ for local authorities, and was torn down over the weekend … ‘Vulgar, ill-minded and misleading’ was the official reaction on the park, which was slated for an October opening.”

Marry in Macau – but bring your own food

Most travel books and travel websites describe Macau as a gourmet’s paradise.

After having been here for a week, I can’t really agree.

And I suspect that all those rave review about the great Portuguese and Chinese food you can find in Macau must somehow have been masterminded by the Macau board of tourism.

Where’s the beef?

For the first couple of days in Macau, we had a hard time even finding restaurants.

In other cities, you come across dozens of decent eateries just by exploring any downtown street.

In Beijing or Shanghai, for instance, locals and tourists love to go out to eat. There are amazing restaurants everywhere. I kind of expected the same from Macau.

But in Macau’s downtown streets, all you see is some neon-lit snack bars or very basic eateries. And these places tend to offer low quality at a high price.

We felt disappointed or even ripped off almost every night.

I guess there must be great restaurants in some of the big hotels – but you’d probably have to win big at the local casinos before you could afford to have dinner there every night.

After our fourth or fifth disappointing dinner here, we finally found some reasonable places in the area behind Avenida Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.

There are Indian, Lebanese, Italian paces that offer pretty good food at moderate prices (I highly recommend the food at “Taste of India“, although the service may be a bit slow there sometimes).

Less restaurants, more wedding outfitters than elsewhere

Macau may have less downtown restaurants, but it definitely has more wedding outfitters than any city I’ve been to recently.

On some commercial streets, the competition is so tight that you wonder how they can all survive.

The wedding dresses and tuxedos displayed in the shop windows are probably best described with words like interesting, daring, different or colorful.

It seems to me that some of those Macau fashion designers have seen too many pictures of Louis XIV and the fashions at the French court of the 17th century.

Their gowns are an extravaganza of frills and rhinestones. The colors range from purple to canary-yellow to turquoise.

Of course they also have white wedding dresses – these are probably the most popular.

At least white dresses are all you see when you see couples at the picturesque places of Macau, posing for the pictures that will make up their wedding albums.

But the wedding outfitters hardly ever dress their store dummies in those elegant white outfits.

They mostly put the other colors and designs on display.

I guess they hope to encourage prospective couples to go for those more colorful version of their Louis XXXII creations.

Here’s to purple, yellow and flamingo-colored brides.

And good luck at trying to find a restaurant for the wedding party in Macau…

Life on the back streets of Beijing

Beijing bric à brac

When grandpa Zhang in Beijng cleans out his attic, he’s likely to find different stuff than grandpa Smith in Smalltown, USA.

No tacky 1950′s coffee pots, no freaky 1960′s hippy outfit, no funky 1970′s rugs.

Instead, your average Chinese might find propaganda pamphlets from the Cultural Revolution, some creaky old chairs that could have belonged to an imperial concubine or blue-and-white pottgery that may just be from the Ming dynasty.

You can find all of these things at Beijing’s Panjiayuan fleamarket. It’s open every weekend and it’s Beijing’s best place to look for antiques and handicrafts.

Some 3000 sellers offer anything from embroydered silk to stone buddhas and from ancient chinese porcellain to Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.

Panjiayuan fleamarket is a treasure trove for collectors of Asian antiques and for souvenir hunters.

But what always amazes me is how different the buying and browsing behavior of the Chinese is from that of the Westerners.

You’ll often see old Chinese men huddled over pottery sherds that look like they were just picked from a trash heap.

Yet these Chinese connoisseurs closely examine the sherds with magnifying glasses, they hold them against the light, weigh them, discuss their artistic value. I guess they’re hoping to find real Ming or Qing Dynasty treasures.

Westerners, on the other hand, are mostly fascinated by the colorful handicrafts from remote Chinese provinces, by Ming-style paintings and revolutionary kitsch from the Mao era.

But beware:  at Panjiayuan not everything that looks antique is really old.

Something tells me that many of the things on offer were definitely made after the revolution.

But who cares – Panjiayuan is a great place to browse, to bargain and to buy.

Talking taxi in Beijing

Taking a taxi in Beijing is fascinating. I’ve never been to another city where all the taxi drivers listen to talk programs on their car radios. None of them has the radio tuned to a music station or is listening to a CD.

Enter any Beijing taxi, and you’ll most likely be catapulted into a Chinese radio play or story.

These stories are told by actors with wonderful voices. Voices that can go from gentle to thunderous within a few seconds. Voices that can express fear, joy, or rage. Voices that you’ll love listening to even if you don’t understand a word of Chinese.

I wonder how many of these radio plays an average Beijing taxi driver will hear during his career.

And I wonder how the Chinese passengers feel who reach their destination just when the story is approaching its climax. Will they pay more so they can hear the end of the story?

Internet censorship and muted athletes in China

China’s internet censorship caused a storm in international media in recent days. Foreign journalists in Beijing were livid that they didn’t have unhindered access to the internet. China had blocked critical websites like Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the Chinese Services of the BBC or Germany’s Deutsche Welle. And this despite official assurances that international journalists would have unhindered access to the internet in Beijing.

The stories the international journalists sent to their media back home were bad press for China. Consequently, the censors unblocked some of the critical websites.

Unfortunately, these sites have only been unblocked for international journalists. Chinese journalists or average Chinese users still can’t access websites that the Chinese leadership considers dangerous (including all of WordPress).

In an interview with Germany’s Deutschlandfunk, the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, picked up on this fact on August 4, 2008.

[Poettering] We must have freedom of information, and not just for non-Chinese journalists, but also for journalists from China itself. I am very happy about the reaction of the international media in recent days. It shows the strength of our pluralistic society, which assesses itself in terms of our values, which also include freedom of the press and freedom of information. If through this publicity we move closer towards China gradually opening up, then we have won a great deal.

[Deutschlandfunk] You say this passage in the Olympic Charter, where the political neutrality of the athletes is stated, must go…

[Poettering] The part of the Olympic Charter where it says that the athletes should not express themselves, that they should not voice any criticism, no longer fits in the world of the 21st century. Today we are a globally connected information society.
The Olympic Games shouldn’t lead to people having to put on a muzzle. We have to talk about human rights. And if the Olympic Charter says that human dignity should be respected, it must also be possible to appropriately express this.

We want to make our contribution to the Beijing Olympics being a success, but not at the price that freedom of information and human dignity are not addressed. We must be consistent. Because if we abandon human dignity, if we abandon freedom of information, we call into question the foundations and values of our own society. We say yes to the people, to human dignity, also to the dignity of the Tibetans and many minorities in China, and yes to freedom of information. We shouldn’t retreat from that position.

I am not calling for anything from the athletes, but I would like to encourage those who would like to speak out on events to do that. This also corresponds to the freedom of individuals to express themselves as they wish. I encourage you if you would like to speak out in appropriate forms, then speak about what bothers you, what is on your mind. And no one can prohibit that, no functionary of any side whatever.

I believe that in a free society we all have the duty to speak out when it comes to the defense of human rights, of human dignity, freedom of information.

What comes after the Olympic fever in China?

Chinese students helping Olympic visitors at the airport

If you arrive at Beijing’s brand new Capital Airport these days, you’re immediately confronted with China’s enthusiasm about the Olympics.

And that feeling of excitement is going to stay with you every step that you take in China.

At the airport, you’re likely to see groups of young Chinese all decked out in blue and white track suits, ready to help the arriving Olympic athletes and guests.

The airport itself is covered with billboards advertising anything and everything with the Olympic logo. Even McDonalds tries to get in on the action, although I can’t imagine any serious athlete sustaining a diet of Big Macs, fries and Cokes…

Driving into Beijing, you’ll see Olympic flags lining the highway. And once you’re in town, the games are even more omni-present.

The Olympic logo is everywhere

In our hotel, the Olympic rings graced the breakfast buffet.

Coffee, tea, or the Olympic rings?

Large flat-screen TVs in the hotel restaurant broadcast a continuous loop of the greatest Chinese triumphs during the 2004 Olympics.

(It seemed to me like I’d seen that same TV footage over and over again when I was in China late in 2004. Long after the Athens games were over, Chinese television was still celebrating every Chinese gold medal and showing every flag-raising.)

Brainwashed or happy to see me?

If you wanted to be mean, you could say that the people in China have been brainwashed. They’ve been subjected to displays of Chinese triumphs, national symbols and Chinese achievements over and over again (e.g. all the spectacular new buildings erected for the Olympic games).

A special Olympic hairstyle

But I think the enthusiasm in China for the games is real. Most Chinese are extremely proud that their country will be hosting the games this year.

They want to be good hosts.They want to make sure that these games will be a success and that the international community will be impressed.

The Chinese want to be liked – and what’s wrong with that.

For decades now, the Chinese have been looking forward to these games. They’ve put years of hard work and incredible sums of money into the preparations. And knowing their talent for machine-like precision when it comes to organising big events, everything should run smoothly once the games begin.

O.K.,  you never know whether some protesters will be successful in making their voices heard during the Olympics (Tibetans? The Uighurs? Falun Gong? Environmentalists? Human Rights activists? Come to think of it: there are a lot of discontented groups in China)

From the point of view of the Chinese government, such demonstrations would, of course, add a nasty dissonance to the desired harmony of the games.

But what I’m really wondering about is what comes after the games?

What effect will it have on the Chinese psychologically, when they realize some time later this fall that the games are over.

Olympic mascots at a souvenir shop

How will they feel when all the international guests and athletes have packed their bags and left? When the stadiums are empty, the swimming pools deserted, the press center dismantled.

Everything the Chinese have been working so hard for will be over. No more fireworks, only the dark night sky.

How will they cope with that emptiness? No one has prepared them for it.

Is there such a thing as post-olympic-depression?

Chinese leaders will have to find some way give those patriotic feelings that they’ve fuelled a new goal. Something new that the Chinese people can strive for.

Otherwise, the big national hangover could turn into more than a headache for the leadership.

WordPress is blocked in China. Therefore I was only able to upload this post after having left the country.

Sorry, we’re out of dog meat

July 12 -13, 2008 edition of China Daily

There will be no dog meat in Beijing restaurants during the Olympics.

According to this weekend’s edition of China Daily (the country’s English language newspaper), the city’s 112 officially designated Olympic restaurants have been banned from selling dog meat during the Olympics.

The paper continues that non-designated restaurants have also been encouraged not to serve the meat.

“Dog meat sales are being suspended as a mark of respect for foreigners and people from ethnic groups,” an anonymous official with the administration was quoted as saying by Beijing Daily on Friday.

Giving up cultural identity to please foreigners

Personally, I think it’s sad that the Chinese are bending over backwards to please their international guests. I wish they were as sensitive about international public opinion when it comes to Zimbabwe or Sudan.

If dog meat is a part of Chinese culture and cuisine, then why pretend that it isn’t to please the foreigners?

Why don’t the Chinese just say “yes, some people in our country do eat dog meat – if you don’t like it, you don’t have to order it.”

After all, restaurants in China serve many other things that are “hard to stomach” for Westerners: jellyfish, camel’s feet, shark fin soup or chicken claws. Yet all of these are considered delicacies in China.

Maybe dog meat touches a sensitive spot in Westerners. I remember that coming across a dog meat butcher in Vietnam definitely came as a mild shock to me when I was there a few weeks ago.

But still: if it’s part of their culture, why should they get rid of it just to please me?

WordPress is blocked in China. Therefore I was only able to upload this post after having left the country.