A Solution to the Difficult Problem of Travelling to...You Know Where...

The Elite Lhasa Guard (VOA photo)

The Yellow River Chronicles returns its haunt on the banks of the Huang Pu this week!
As you may remember, the YRC staff was not able to obtain a permit to visit Tibet this year.  We suspect that some of you may have written ahead to them as a warning, but it turns out that those who have residency visas in China cannot visit...China, but the part that used to be...Tibet.

But, we have an update for you.  New stuff has come to light!  To bring our loyal YRC readers up to speed, while it is extremely difficult for foreigners to get a permit, if you are planning on going and you are not from one of the "restricted countries" (UK, Norway, Korea, Austria, the Philippines and Vietnam) you may have a now have a chance of visiting the Roof of the World.  But don't pack your bags until you read the rest of this missive, please.

Note absence of YRC staff in this photo...(VOA photo)

New Policy Issued on Travel Permits:

Tibet Tourism Bureau issued new policy on issuing Tibet permits at the beginning of May. The new policy stated that Tibet permits will not be issued unless there are at least 4 tourists with the same nationality in the same tour group. Later, it became more harsh. Tibet permits will only be issued to a group with minimum 5, even 6 travelers with the same nationality. The new policy makes many individual travelers find that it is hard to get Tibet permits.

 According to Explore Tibet, the new rules for Tibet travel are as follows: 

Based on the need of specialty of Tibetan nation tradition, historical sites and environmental protection, Government releases new Tibet travel rules for non Chinese citizen; foreigners, Taiwan visitors and overseas Chinese (Chinese who hold foreign passports) must apply for Foreigner Tibet Travel Permit issued by Tibetan Tourist Administration before they enter Tibet. At the same time, foreign journalists, diplomat and government officers can’t go to Tibet with visitor identity. (There is no need for citizens in Hong Kong or Macau to transact Tibet Travel Permit only they have Home Return Permit or Hong Kong/Macau pass)B. According to rules of National Tourism Administration, foreigners, Taiwan visitors and overseas Chinese (except for citizens in Hong Kong/Macau who hold Home Return Permit or Hong Kong/Macau pass) are not allowed to free travel in Tibet.C. The overseas tour group must obtain Tibet Travel Permit from Tibetan Tourism Administration or other local office.

A New Solution to the Problem Emerges:

But, as a wonderful lesson in how things are handled on The Other Side of the World, we YRC staff members were pleased to learn that you can now get...FAKE permits to visit Tibet.  After all, if you are a world premier destination for "artificial" luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, food, software and hairy-crabs (see earlier YRC for explanation  then you would naturally find a solution to the travel problem by provide low-cost and high quality fake permits.  So, an elegant solution to a knotty travel problem.

This from ChinaTibetTrain:

Fake or Real?

Fake TTB Permits: The lucrative tourist business in China is booming and the issuance of fake permits are increasing. As such TTB permits can only be issued by the Lhasa Tibet Tourism Bureau who will mail them out to various cities in China as well as Kathmandu. This policy changes from time to time so double check with your tour company as well as ChinaTibetTrain.com This is why it is important to apply for the Tibet Entry Permit 30 days in advance.

So there is some possibility that if you are planning a trip, you may actually get to go.  But there is an excellent reason you may want to wait a few years before visiting (and the real subject of this week's YRC).



Why Are We Babbling About Visiting Tibet Again?

The Lhasa Palace (Google Earth)

Millions of Chinese visit Lhasa and Tibet every month here on the Other Side.  There are posters everywhere and many of our Chinese colleagues have visited.  No permits, no hassles, just grab your ID card, a pack of smokes and head out.



And when they return, they generally have one comment.  There is NOTHING TO DO in Tibet.  Sure, you see the sights in Lhasa, you ride around and look at the mountains, you go see a few flat spots where a famous, ancient temple used to be, but then what do you do?

The Answer to "What to Do on the Roof of the World?"

The People's Republic has come up with an answer, as they always do.  They are going to put a huge theme park in Tibet (this from the International Business Times):

Chinese authorities hope that a new $4.7 billion theme park will promote ethnic harmony and attract an additional 5 million tourists each year to the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Chinese name for Central Tibet.   The 800-hectare (2,000-acre) cultural park will open just outside of downtown Lhasa, the capital and hub of regional tourism, and tell the story of princess Wencheng, the niece of a Tang dynasty emperor who became a symbol of ethnic friendship when she married Tibet's King Songtsan Gambo. Visitors to the park will view Wencheng-based outdoor performances and explore other educational and entertainment facilities relating to the princess and her adopted home of Tibet.

The Planned "Prayer Wheel" Adventure Ride...(Global Times)

In true YRC fashion, we will not bore you with facts or details,  attached below from a highly reputable source,  The Telegraph.  We will let you browse it and draw your own conclusions, but this is not a joke, people.

 The YRC mind begins to wander when one thinks of the possible attractions at the $4.7 billion amusement park.  The "Everest Climber" frozen custard stand?  The "Catch a Yak" hoop throw?  The "High Altitude" Ferris wheel with oxygen masks and of course, the "Prayer Wheel" roller coaster?  The possibilities are endless.

For our part, we at the YRC can only say (now that we can get a "permit" <wink wink>) we can't wait for the theme park to open!!  It is bound to be....epic.

By Tom Phillips, Shanghai

1:45PM BST 16 Jul 2012

Comments

Plans to build the theme park on the outskirts of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, were unveiled last week and are part of a government drive to attract 15 million tourists to the region by 2015.

Campaigners warn that promotion of mass-tourism could prove ruinous for Tibet's environment and culture and brings few economic benefits for the Tibetans themselves.

But Monday's edition of the Global Times, widely seen as a mouthpiece for the views of China's Communist Party, delivered a strongly worded rebuke to critics.

"Ordinary Tibetans do not want to live in a backwater museum to be exhibited to foreign visitors who can appraise how well their culture is 'preserved'," argued the article, written by commentator Chen Chenchen.

"The latest grand tourist project will further fuel the local economy and provide more opportunities for direct interaction between locals and visitors Economic growth and cultural prosperity are not in opposition."

Mr Chen rejected claims that developing China's western region posed a threat to traditional Tibetan culture.

"If Han [Chinese] culture is a form of invasion what about the intrusion of US culture in China, from Disney to hamburgers? Is this also a form of cultural genocide?"

The announcement of plans for the theme park comes at a time of increasing instability in Tibetan areas of west China, where campaigners say more than 40 Tibetans have self-immolated over the last 18 months.

Last week London-based campaigning group Free Tibet claimed there had been a "heavy security crackdown" in Damshung county, near Lhasa, after a 22-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire in protest against the Chinese government.

Stephanie Brigden, Free Tibet's director, said the "Disneyfication of Tibet" through mass tourism projects would do little to improve the situation.

"We are not opposed to development per se but this type of [large-scale] tourism will not benefit Tibetans and will actually further marginalise [them]. Any kind of development within Tibet has to be inclusive of an informed by the opinions of Tibetans."

"[The government] believes that economic growth is the way to secure harmony [but] economic growth in itself does not bring harmony," she added.

Mr Chen said it was "increasingly impossible that a bulwark can be erected to "protect" the Tibetan culture from external impact." "[Whether] Western observers like it or not, the younger generations in Tibet are already making changes to their traditions. They speak Tibetan, and they also browse web pages in Chinese and English. They join in family religious ceremonies, and they also visit nightclubs.

"Tibetan culture is also evolving along a common road that many cultures have already experienced."

Four Things You Will Not Find in Shanghai...

Hello, hello, HELLO! Welcome to this week's Yellow River Chronicles.  During the staff wanderings of the Great American Midwest last month, we spent some time in Youngstown, Ohio.

The ancestral home of a member of the YRC, Youngstown has the honor of being named by Forbes magazine as the Fourth Best City in America to raise a family (http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eddf45gihi/no-4-youngstown-ohio/).

Former home of the "Youngstown Tuneup", Youngstown is one of the "vanishing American cities" in the Rust Belt that were once dependent on the U.S. steel and automotive industries and are now trying to positively adapt to "de-population".

A brief history back story.  As went the American steel industry, so went Youngstown.  This from www.answers.com:

When the war ended, steelmakers wanted to roll back union gains that the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt had forced the industry to accept, but the USWA had grown too big to destroy. Between 1946 and 1959, the USWA struck five times in an effort to win higher wages and more control over workplace conditions for its members. Each of these strikes shut down the industry. 

As a result of these disputes, America's steelworkers were among the highest paid manufacturing employees in the country. The cost of these wage gains contributed to the collapse of the industry in subsequent decades.
Foreign competition also contributed to the industry's decline. Countries like Japan and Germany first became major players in the international steel market during the 1960s. Later on, countries like Brazil and South Korea would break into the American market.

Youngstown Population digits

Although friends of the American steel industry would often complain of unfair competition from abroad, foreign producers' use of new technology and the failure of American steelmakers to innovate also explain these developments. For example, two Austrian firms developed the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) in 1952. This process, which used pure oxygen as the only fuel in the furnace, was much more efficient than the then-traditional open hearth method. No major American steelmaker adopted this technology until 1957. U.S. Steel, still the largest firm in the industry, did not commission its first BOF unit until 1964. 

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/iron-and-steel-industry#ixzz2B2x6QAhK

Did the Chinese Do it??  And nooooo, the steel industry did NOT move to the People's Republic.  China actually alternates between exporting and importing steel.  The largest exporter of steel in the world is...Japan!

But More About Us:  But enough about dull old global economics.   Your hard-working and far-traveling YRC staff left the banks of the extremely polluted Huang Pu river in the city of Shanghai and wandered to the shores of the mildly polluted Mahoning River in the  city of Youngstown, Ohio.

And there in that city, we found, along with fresh air and blue skies, four things that we would not find in the mega-city of Shanghai, no matter how hard we looked.

The Four Things that You Will Never Find in Shanghai that are in Youngstown, Ohio:

Lots of house for the money

Number One:  Inexpensive real estate!  Housing is nearly the most expensive in the world in Shanghai, while in Youngstown, your housing dollar goes very, very far.

In fact, about 43 percent of Youngstown's land is vacant; and, as of January of last year, Youngstown had 4,500 vacant structures throughout the city.  You get a lot of house for your yuan, there.

A kilo of the ham, please...

Number Two:  Excellent cold cuts.  Let's be honest, people, Chinese cold cuts are an unearthly shade of pink and taste like recycled Barbie Dolls. Youngstown, with its Italian/Polish/German heritage, has an EPIC number of lunch meats.  The legendary (wait for it, Youngstown buddies)  Chipped-Chopped ham is no widely available, but memories remain.

Note the blue skies of Ohio...

Number Three:  Great doughnuts and tasty cop coffee.  Sadly, there are no great donut (see sign) shops in the 24 million strong international powerhouse that is Shanghai. In tiny Youngstown, you can find some of the best 'nuts in the world.  And a cup of java runs 89 cents at the Plaza. Find that in the "Hai...

The lunch special is lasagna

Number Four:  DINERS!!  Because the restaurant scene solidified sometime around the closing of the steel plants, Youngstown has many excellent diners, with all the homemade "cobler" you could want, served by waitresses who call you "honey".  Try and find that in Shanghai, unless...well, let's not go there...  Let's have some of the meatloaf or maybe another Turkey Manhattan, please...

But we do hope you will come back for a second or third helping of the Yellow River Chronicles next week.  See ya then!

We Are Back and We Want to Clear Up a Few Things...

Hello, dear readers and welcome back to the Yellow River Chronicles!   The YRC staff took advantage of the National Holiday here in the People's Republic of China to head due west for travel and visiting in the Homeland, the Midwest of the good old U.S. of A.   Hence, no YRC for the past several weeks.

To start us off again, as may remember, the YRC prides itself in mildly astringent journalism and repartee.  So, in the interest of appearing to be fair-minded and balanced, here is a "gosh, we just got back, better write it down before we forget" series:  Common Understandings about China in the American Midwest that You May Wish to Reconsider.

Understanding the First:   There is nothing to eat in China, so everybody eats weird stuff. 

We YRC staff members are frequently asked, "So what do you eat over there" or, "What is the strangest thing you have eaten".   The answer is, well about the same stuff we graze on in the States, actually. One of us once had deep-fried mountain oysters, but that was in Colorado.

There is a story that our Chinese friends like to tell about their dining habits.  They say that the Chinese will eat everything in the sea except container ships, everything in the sky except airplanes, and everything on the table except the table.  While elements of this adage ring true, there is lots of good fresh food here that is about the same as what you find in markets in the U.S.  Usually.  Generally.  With some...caveats.

However, the most common food that Chinese eat regularly but Americans find unsettling is chicken feet.  Avian toes are extremely popular here and as a side note, are part of a serious trade dispute.

This from the Washington Post:

China began imposing stiff duties — including a tax of more than 100 percent — on those American chicken parts, The move was in response to a request by Chinese chicken farmers and processors, who claimed the U.S. government was unfairly subsidizing the American poultry industry through low feed prices and then selling the 'chicken paws,' as they’re known in industry parlance, into China at below-market cost ...
Since the imposition of the tariffs, American chicken parts exported to China have collapsed 90 percent, and the industry has lost an estimated $1 billion in exports to China, according to the council and other analyses. 

But, back to the YRC staff.  We are happy to report that we have NOT made the jump (get it?) to chicken feet.  The YRC staff is drawing the line, people.  We have eaten crickets, wasps, turtles, frogs, duck tongue and had many a fine dining adventure. We will munch the feets, not!

There is this sad image of a chicken, somewhere in the States, apparently, fluttering around on its wings and unable to land or perch because somebody has shipped its toes to China, and that is just...wrong, people.


Understanding the Second:  Most of China is still moving around in rickshaws wearing the famous conical bamboo hats. 

(As a side note, In mainland China and Taiwan, it is called dǒulì (斗笠; literally, a one-dǒu bamboo hat, 笠帽, 竹笠).

The current situation is this, dear readers: Only elderly tourists from Scandinavia roll around in rickshaws wearing said hats.  The Chinese take the subway, a scooter, a trusty bike, or increasingly, motor around in their Buick.  Yes, dear readers, the best selling vehicle in China is a Buick, your grandmother's car:

Top Ten Best Selling Cars in China (from http://focus2move.com/item/105-china-car-market-volkswagen-at-15-market-share-in-april-2012)

Rank	Model	Q1	Apr	YTD 2012	Q1	Apr	YTD 2012	2011 Ranking
1	Buick Excelle	76.378	23.179	99.557	2,3%	1,9%	2,2%	1
2	Volkswagen Passat	68.750	21.357	90.107	2,0%	1,8%	2,0%	12
3	Chevrolet Sail	62.251	19.860	82.111	1,8%	1,7%	1,8%	6
4	Volkswagen Lavida	57.977	20.000	77.977	1,7%	1,7%	1,7%	2
5	Chevrolet Cruze	62.051	15.914	77.965	1,8%	1,3%	1,7%	3
6	Volkswagen Jetta	53.175	21.909	75.084	1,6%	1,8%	1,6%	4
7	Volkswagen Bora	52.582	19.836	72.418	1,6%	1,7%	1,6%	5
8	Hyundai Verna	48.489	18.786	67.275	1,4%	1,6%	1,5%	21
9	FAW Xiali N3/N5	50.327	15.476	65.803	1,5%	1,3%	1,4%	7
10	VW Tiguan	49.395	14.000	63.395	1,5%	1,2%	1,4%	23

Understanding the Third:  China will soon be the wealthiest country in the world.

Well, there are many ways to look at wealth and the one quoted most in newspapers and business magazines in the Homeland is Gross Domestic Product.  This from the Economic Times is a great example:

HONG KONG: China is expected to overtake Japan as the second wealthiest country in the world by 2015 on the back of rapid economic growth and strong domestic consumption, a report said Friday.  In its inaugural Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse Research Institute predicts total wealth in China will more than double in five years, jumping 111 percent to 35 trillion US dollars.

So it is obvious, right?  The Chinese economy will soon cruise to the number one slot, making the People's Republic the wealthiest in the world.  Hmmm.  Hmmmm.   Yes, when we look out the window here at the PR of C, we see Chinese nationals driving Mercedes and throwing large wads of dollar bills out the window.  They all live in gated communities and live the Don Don Trump lifestyle.  But we must remember, dear readers, that they are the largest economy in the world, because they have the most people. Take a look at GDP per capita:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

To save you the trouble of clicking the link, here's the top ten.  Not many surprises here, except the YRC staff are now planning a move to Luxembourg.  We hear the Gromperekichelcher are outstanding!

World Bank (2005–11)^[3]          [hide]

Rank	Country	Intl. $	Year
1	Luxembourg	89,992	2011
2	Qatar	88,919	2011
—	Macau	77,607	2011
3	Norway	61,882	2011
4	Singapore	61,103	2011
5	Kuwait	54,654	2011
6	Brunei	50,506	2010
—	Hong Kong	49,990	2011
7	Switzerland	49,151	2011
8	United States	48,442	2011
9	United Arab Emirates	48,222	2011
10	Netherlands	42,834	2011

You will notice that the PR of C is not in the top ten.  Nor, if you were to search, is it in the top 25.  Nor is it in the top 50.  No, dear readers, the PR of C is in slot number 94, firmly wedged between Ecuador and Jamaica with a per capital GDP of $8,466 per year.

90	Maldives	8,932	2011
91	Algeria	8,715	2011
92	Thailand	8,703	2011
93	Ecuador	8,486	2011
94	China	8,466	2011
95	Jamaica	8,065	2011
96	Suriname	7,891	2010
97	Ukraine	7,251	2011
98	El Salvador	6,877	2011
99	Namibia	6,826	2011
100	Belize	6,722	2011

However, we hope that we are on YOUR top ten list as the YRC returns to its regular publication date.  See you next Friday and thanks for tuning in!

Vodka Actual, Do You Copy?.

Dear Readers, welcome back to the Yellow River Chronicles and the final part of our cryptic series on Mongolia.  As you know, we live the James Bond lifestyle here at the YRC.  Martinis, exotic locales, expensive tailored clothing, and of course, the sheer adventure of Life on the Other Side of the World.

It can lead to some serious adrenaline addiction, let us tell you.  Sometimes, when life gets a little predictable and domestic here in the Mighty 'Hai, we will do something INSANE to get that rush of adventure.  We may cross the street after only looking twice, or stop for a tasty snack of street food, or indulge in the infallible adventure here in the 'Hai, hold a door open for someone.

So, really, the YRC is a chronicle of what is called "adventure travel".  This, from a YRC solid resource, Wikipedia:

The YRC Staff kayaking in the Sea of Cortez

Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel to remote, exotic and possibly hostile areas. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations. According to the U.S. based Adventure Travel Trade Association, adventure travel may be any tourist activity, including two of the following three components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange or interaction and engagement with nature.
Adventure tourism gains much of its excitement by allowing its participants to step outside of their comfort zone. This may be from experiencing culture shock or through the performance of acts, that require significant effort and involve some degree of risk (real or perceived) and/or physical danger (See extreme sports). This may include activities such as mountaineering,trekking, bungee jumping, mountain biking, rafting, zip-lining, paragliding, and rock climbing. Some obscure forms of adventure travel include disaster and ghetto tourism.^[1] Other rising forms of adventure travel include social and jungle tourism.

The Rascal of the Stars heads for the grocery store

COMFORT ZONE, people.  That is what we are talking about.  And in Mongolia, we had a chance to go SO far from our comfort zone, that we felt we were on a journey with the Rascal of the Stars, "Curiousity", looking back at our comfort zone on earth.

To digress further, we are going to provide a photo, sent from Curiosity on Mars and then we will provide a photo taken by the YRC staff in the Gobi as a way to begin our discussion of, let us be frank here, adventure travel gone...slightly wrong.

Going for It in the Gobi:  Adventure Travel on the Edge

This is a photo from Mars, people, courtesy of Curiosity

Alpha One and Bravo Three compare compass coordinates in the Gobi

Our trip included, along with some excellent camel and horse trekking, the chance to do some hiking in the steppes and in the Gobi desert.   And hike we did.

To keep the story short and to the point (not a YRC strong suit by the way) we shall simply chronologue our first experience with RIDM (more later).  

Our fellow travelers included two extremely fit and motivated hikers, Alpha One and Two. Next were the reasonable and middle path hikers who we will call Bravo Three and Four (a YRC staff member).  Finally, there was the solo YRC staff member who will will call Roadkill Five.  

We shall designate our trip leader and his driver Vodka One and Two, and their elite Russian SUV Vodka Actual.

For a number of reasons, Alpha One and Two decided to introduce our elite Team to some Rage Induced Death Marching (RIDM) on the day of our 12-hour Gobi hike.  They thought it appropriate to lead our somewhat hung over Trip Leader (loonnnnng story....go with it, please) on an extended chase across the vast wasteland that is the Gobi desert.  Our group had no radio contract, but if we had, it would have gone like this:

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, do you copy? <crackle>

B3&B4:  Affirmative, Roadkill Five, we have you four by four.

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, I have you on visual approximately two to three miles to my west.  Do you have visual contact with Alpha One and Two?

B3&B4:   Affirmative, Roadkill Five, they are another two or three miles to the west of us.  They are working their way along the ridge.

Roadkill Five:   <crackle>.  The ridge?  WTF??  Do you have a visual on Vodka Actual?

B3&B4:   Negative, Roadkill Five.

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, we are in the center of a vast barren alluvial plain that terminates in deep desert sand about 12 miles south from here.  The current temperature is around 102 degrees Fahrenheit.  Do you have any idea why Alpha One and Two are mountain goating about four miles off course to the west of here?  We should be heading south.

B3&B4:   Affirmative, Roadkill Five.  They seem to think it is funny.

Roadkill Five:  <crackle>  I've got my binocs out and now have a visual on Vodka Actual.  They seem to be attempting to assault the ridge to corral Alpha One and Two.

B3&B4:   Copy that Roadkill Five.  We wish Vodka Actual lots of luck with that.  We are consuming GORP and are Oscar Mike.  See you at the VodkaEvac site around sunset.  Stay hydrated!

So, you get the idea, well-hydrated YRC readers.  To wrap things up, everyone arrived safe and sound to our camp at the base of some spectacular sand dunes and a fine time was had by all.  And a fine time you shall have as the YRC heads to .....America! for next week's Yellow River Chronicles.  See you on down the trail, partners!

Sunset in the Gobi