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WUHAN, HUBEI — After totality was over on July 22, the clouds moved in, and watching the end of the eclipse was unrewarding. So, we packed up our stuff and set off to explore this sprawling city of 9 million people.
We had an ambitious plan: visit Wuhan University, Hubei Provincial Museum, Huang He Lou (Yellow Crane Tower), Wuhan Botanical Gardens, Mo Shan, maybe go shopping …
We did about half those things, partly because we chose to go to the museum first (it’s really big!) and partly because we took the right bus, going the wrong direction, to visit the tower. We got a cheap (2 yuan) hour’s long tour of Wuhan by taking the long way to Yellow Crane Tower.
The provincial museum is fairly new, and showcases a huge collection of 2200-year-old artifacts unearthed in the late 1970s from sites in the northern part of Hubei. There is also a section highlighting the prehistory of Hubei — including fossils of Homo erectus (Yunxian Man) and contemporary animals.
[Note to creationists: those animals did not include dinosaurs. Dinosaurs did NOT co-exist with humans in China, or anywhere else for that matter. This sign makes that concept very clear.]  Homo erectus and fellow animals Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — Since the Great Firewall of China has inexplicably blocked Picasaweb, where I host most of my photos from China, I have signed up with Flickr. So far, Flickr is not blocked {cross fingers}, so my Chinese friends can see my photos.
I paid for additional storage on Picasaweb, so I can upload most of photos there for posterity, but I am not yet going to shell out $25 to get extra space on Flickr. I’m hoping China’s net nannies will relent, and let Chinese netizens access Picasaweb again.
Flickr allows 100 MB a month for free, so I have uploaded my pix from the July 22 solar eclipse. I’ve included a sample here to pique your curiosity.
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WUHAN, HUBEI — Sometimes flying by the seat of your pants is better than weeks of careful planning.
Originally, my plan was to travel to Chongqing to the west to view the July 22 solar eclipse, but Wuhan became my destination after my friend Elektra and I were invited to Liuyang to attend a friend’s birthday party later the same week. Given the time required to get anywhere in China, being in Chongqing on Wednesday would have made it difficult to get to Liuyang, east of Changsha, two days later.
Both Wuhan and Chongqing turned out to be better choices than Shanghai, where a group of astronomers from around the world set up shop to view the event. Heavy rains ruined any chance of seeing the eclipse there.
There were a few other reasons to choose Wuhan. I learned that there would be viewing sites at Wuhan University and near Dong Lake, and I needed to buy a solar filter to safely watch and photograph the eclipse. I figured some Chinese entrepreneur would be selling them at Wuhan’s prime viewing spots. (I was right.) Also, Wuhan is Hubei’s provincial capital, so we figured there would be many different bus and train departures from Wuhan to Changsha.
A more picturesque location, and one that would have been closer, would have been to head due north of Jishou to Longshan County, just below Hubei’s boundary, or into the rural areas of Hubei past it. But neither of us knew anything about the terrain there. This part of China is mountainous, and I wasn’t sure we could find a good viewing place.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Forget all my complaints about living in Kenticky’s heat. Mid afternoon temperatures here had been consistently in the mid-90s for the last two weeks. Today the mercury hit 100°F.
It’s hotter elsewhere, like 104°F in Wuhan and Changsha, but after a certain point a few extra degrees is irrelevant. It’s hot and humid, and unlike Kentucky, we don’t get afternoon thunderstorms to provide some relief.
But, you know, I’m not complaining. A quarter century of living in Kentucky prepared me for this kind of weather. And my apartment has air conditioning. So, no worries.
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HUANGJIAKOU, HUBEI — Last weekend, I went on a trip with a friend to see her friend get married. Since I haven’t written anything lately about what I’ve been doing, now’s a good time to tell you what I’ve been up since classes ended July 3.
Elektra (her English name) recently graduated from the Jishou Teachers College. Last summer, she worked in Guangzhou with a young man just three years older than she. He was getting married this month, and so invited Elektra to the wedding in Hubei. She knew I was planning on visiting Hubei this summer, and mentioned her trip there. I asked if I could go along. The couple was cool with the idea, so Elektra and I left last Thursday for Hubei.
Quick geography lesson: Hubei 湖北 is the province immediately north of Hunan 湖南. They get their names from proximity to Dongting Lake 洞庭湖, near the city of Yueyang 岳阳. “Hu” 湖 means “lake. “Bei” 北 is “north,” and “nan” 南 is “south.” Jishou is in the western part of Hunan, but we were going to the eastern part of Hubei, near Wuhan, the provincial capital.
In China, as in Wyoming, where I used to live, going anywhere is usually measured in hours. Since we were traveling by bus, the trip would likely be an all-day excursion under the best of circumstances.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — It should not come as a big surprise that the swine flu (H1N1 influenza virus) has spread very quickly. A lot of people fly internationally now.
But epidemiologists in Toronto have found convincing correlation between air travel from Mexico during the early stages of the H1N1 outbreak and the number of reported infections in the destination cities. Their findings are summarized in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine
First, here’s their map showing the destinations of air travelers from Mexico during March and April 2008. [Click on the image to see it full-size.] The vast majority of those destinations were in the USA and Canada.
The researchers tabulated the number of reported cases of H1N1 infections. The USA and Canada lead the list.
China has seen relatively few H1N1 cases, since air travel between China and Mexico is not too common, but reported cases have either involved travelers who had been to Mexico and traveled through the USA, or travelers coming directly from the USA.
By comparison, soldiers returning from World War I apparently spread the so-called Spanish flu around the world, leading to a major pandemic in 1918.
In response to the pandemic, China has curtailed same-day issuance of visas within the USA. Visa applicants now have to wait for their visas. In addition, health inspectors check everyone arriving on international flights before they even leave the plane. Anyone who has an abnormal temperature, or who shows signs of respiratory problems (coughing, sneezing, etc.), are sent to a nearby hotel for a one-week quarantine.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — China’s censors have postponed the deadline by which computer manufacturers must include a net-filtering application called Green Dam Youth Escort.
Green Dam was supposed to be installed on all computers sold in China as of tomorrow.
The requirement — made ostensibly to protect youngsters from pornography — resulted in an avalanche of protests from China’s Internet users, computer manufacturers and the US government. China’s netizens were prepared to boycott the Internet tomorrow as a protest.
[UPDATE July 1: Green Dam has inspired China's wittier netizens to create a manga-style "Green Dam Bitch." A variety of renderings of GDB can be seen here. A link in the accompanying article takes you to an image search for 绿坝娘 (Green Dam Bitch) on www.baidu.com, but the search will fail. Baidu, a homegrown search engine, will instead say, "The search result possibly does not conform to the related laws and regulations and content policies."]
Critics of Green Dam say the application is not only a security risk, allowing external computers access to users’ files and browsing history, but a probable means for Chinese authorities to censor the Internet.
Chinese authorities offered no explanation for the delay.
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