Went to Beijing without your condoms? Buy a bus card

by Josh Lew on

Safe sex is going high-tech in Beijing. The old, bright yellow coin-operated condom dispensers were finally ditched by the city’s authorities. They will be replaced by state of the art vending machines that look more like touch screen ATMs than the final stop for those who are about to get their naughty on. The government has installed 411 of the machines already. thousand’s more will be popping up over the coming months. They will be located near bars, nightclubs, in hotels, and adjacent to construction sites.

The Beijing AIDS Prevention Committee has made a deal with the city’s public transportation arm. All you have to do is swipe your OneCard (used for bus and subway fares) and out comes your prophylactic (which costs 5 yuan). And it talks too. (No, not the rubber, the machine). The brightly lit LCD screens will broadcast safe sex and anti-AIDS messages throughout the day.

[via Danwei]

Travel read: Around the Bloc

by Brenda Yun on

I stumbled upon Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s writing on a stopover in New York City. She was reading from her third and most recent travel-related book, Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, at Book Culture near Columbia University. I was immediately struck by her engaging use of language and her savvy presence. It’s a pleasant sight to behold a young, female traveler and writer who is curious about the world and daring in her attempts to understand it.

Her reading finished, I bought her debut book, Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, and when I asked her to sign my book I told her I too was an aspiring travel writer, working on a memoir of my own. “Can’t wait to read about your travels someday,” she wrote in curly script on the title page. I have since been in correspondence with Griest, who has agreed to have me interview her in early January. Until then, I plan to review her three books for Gadling. Here is the first review, of her debut book on her travels around the Communist bloc of Russia, China, and Cuba.
Griest’s three-part memoir documents her experiences in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana during the late 1990’s, and it does so with humor and humility. It took nearly three months for me to make my way through Around the Bloc — not because it was a slow read, but because I wanted to gain an understanding of the three places she writes about in her memoir. Russia, China, and Cuba have long intrigued me as culturally rich places with politically backward power struggles.

Similar to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, where the traveler’s experiences are summarized by culturally specific activities, Griest’s journey around the bloc are punctuated by drinking, dining, and dancing:”…while Russians bonded over drink and Chinese over dinner, Cubans connected through dance.” Griest’s youthfulness and occasional naiveté captures just how eye-opening one’s travels abroad can be. It is clear by the end of the memoir just how much her experiences in these countries reshaped her values and shook the foundation upon which her life had been seemingly secure.

The tragic Russian Mafiya, Chinese propaganda, and Cuban Revolution stories swirling in Griest’s memoir make her self-discovery that much more palpable. Griest navigates the socialist and political struggle of being in the bloc, and walks away not at all unscathed. Rather, she sets her original assumptions straight again, allowing herself to understand her place in the world that much better.

Of the three parts presented in her debut novel, I must say the most enlightening was the first on her experiences in Russia. It seemed that here, in Moscow, Griest experiences the most profound awakening. I sense these early times, fresh from her undergraduate studies in Austin, that Griest transforms from a hippie wannabe to a truth-seeking, life-living journalist and hearty traveler.

If the popular Eat, Pray, Love is any comparison, I feel Griest’s Around the Bloc far surpasses Gilbert in all the categories I hold dearest to a literary travel writer. Griest masters the art of language and humor; she is finely atuned to her youthful innocence (and, at times, ignorance); just as in life, Griest does not tie her three parts together into a perfect red bow. Instead, there is an imperfection that permeates through her memoir that is raw and real — not just real, but realistic. If Gilbert’s travel memoir satisfied you just enough, then Griest’s will take your breath away. It will teach you things you didn’t know before, but more than this, it will make you get off your couch and out into the wide world, experiencing things you once dreamed of but now can see with your own two eyes.

My review of Griest guidebook, 100 Places Every Woman Should Go, is forthcoming in about a week. Should you pick up any of Griest’s three offerings during the holidays and have a question you’d like me to ask her during my interview with her in early January, feel free to shoot me an email (brendayun@gmail.com).

North Korea border disorder and other trivia

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s surprising; I know. There are competing accounts of how open North Korea is to outside tourists right now. Koryo Tours, as usual, is cutting through the rumor and gossip to give travelers as real a sense of possible of how, where and when you can go to North Korea.

Border Closings?
Stories have circulated that at least parts of the borders that North Korea shares with China and South Korea have been closed. According to Koryo Tours, the “facts that appear to be established now include [I hate caveats but understand why they need to do it]” Hyundai Asan’s day trips from South to North have been suspended, and the Mount Kumgang resort is still closed. Movement to and from the Kaesong industrial park is limited-hardly surprising since the daily train was canceled.

No Trains for China
On the North Korea/China border, travel by Chinese tour groups into North Korea by train has been restricted. Koryo Tours reports, “this is an easier one for us to clear up.” Apparently, this happens every year in mid-November. The authorities don’t give a reason for this annual decision. The only implication is that tourists from China need to travel by air. For non-Chinese tourists traveling by train … business as usual.

Egyptian to Finish North Korean Pyramid
The Ryugyong Hotel, which was left in disarray 16 years ago, is back under construction. Construction efforts resumed back in May, with Orascom (an Egypt-based company) engaged to finish the 105-storey structure. The property is expected to open on April 15, 2012-the day on which the current (and not exactly alive) president, Kim Il Sung, will not be around to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Hotels and Cell Phones?
Cellular News reports that, in addition to finishing the never-ending hotel, Orascom is developing a 3G network for North Korea-a country famous for limiting communication both within its borders and with outsiders. The network is expected to be finished sometime before the end of the year (if it isn’t already) with an initial cost of US$200 million.

Scatch your itch for North Korea

Tim Patterson on the Kachin struggle for freedom in Myanmar

by Brenda Yun on

My travel writing buddy Tim Patterson has been traveling around Southeast Asia for six months now doing a bunch of things, but when I learned of his latest project in Myanmar, my eyes and ears perked up and I hope yours will too. He and his friend Ryan Libre have been working with the Pulitzer Center to provide crisis reporting in the Kachin state of northern Myanmar. Their first report came in December 13, and certainly brought to my attention a frightening situation that many are not aware of.

Tim and Ryan had been invited to Kachin by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to lead journalism workshops to young writers. Upon arrival, however, the two were quickly ushered into their hotel room, where they were kept protected from the watchful eyes of the country’s reigning military junta, which has long opposed foreign journalism coverage of any activities taking place in Myanmar.

Instead of telling you, second hand, what transpired during their precarious stay in Myanmar, I thought it would be more worthwhile to hear some of the story straight from Tim. I prepared these questions for him by email, and he graciously and promptly responded.
BY: How did you and Ryan decide on this particular project, through this particular non-profit (the Pulitzer Center)?

TP: Ryan and I had been talking about a trip to Myanmar for several years. He lives in Thailand, where many Kachins go for various training workshops, and met a KIO operative at an ashram near Bangkok. When Ryan asked if I wanted to make the trip it took me about .8 seconds to say YES!

It’s been an immense privilege to work with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and I’m incredibly grateful to Jon Sawyer, Janeen Heath and the rest of the Pulitzer staff who decided to take a chance on this project.

There are a lot of terrific young journalists supported by the Pulitzer Center, like the folks at the Common Language Project, and it’s intimidating to see my name alongside those of more accomplished journalists. Ryan and I have a big responsibility to turn in quality work.

BY: Had you traveled to Myanmar before, and what were your impressions of the country upon arrival this time?

TP: Nope, I had never been to Myanmar before, and now that news of this project is plastered across the web I doubt the junta will ever give me a visa. It’s hard to talk about impressions of the country in general terms, because we were limited to small strips of territory controlled by the KIO.

My overall impression is of a rich and fertile land populated by deeply sincere, ambitious, learned people who – tragically – have almost no opportunity to pursue their dreams. The perpetual rule of the Myanmar military government is a travesty and countries who continue to deal with the junta, notably China and the ASEAN member nations, should be ashamed.

I should also mention that although what Ryan and I did sounds like hardcore journalism, our time in Kachin was quite relaxed. The Kachins were gracious hosts and we spent a lot of time drinking tea in front of a space heater and watching the BBC.

BY: What do you and Ryan hope to accomplish by telling about your experience in Myanmar?

TP: It’s shocking to see how little information on Kachin is available. Our main goal is to get the word out however we can, to make people aware that such a place exists. We’ll do this by hitting up as many forms of media as possible – online, newspaper, magazine, radio and even a short documentary film that we hope will air on the PBS program “Foreign Exchange.”

Our biggest challenge is to make our work accessible and entertaining to a general audience while doing justice to the complexities of the situation on the ground. There’s nothing black and white about politics in Myanmar, and that’s especially true when talking about the ethnic minority areas like Kachin, where the central government doesn’t have total control.

We’ll try to let the Kachins speak for themselves when possible through interviews and personal portraits, but it’s also important for journalists to be skeptical and try to capture the many facets of a given issue.

I’m more comfortable with the sort of personal travel writing where exaggeration isn’t a big deal. With serious journalism, there’s a much greater imperative to stick to the facts.

BY: How many more “Untold Stories” can we hope to read from you, and can you give us a little hint as to what to expect in future dispatches?

TP: A lot! Ryan and I are holed up in a teeny-tiny room in Hong Kong now, living on instant ramen and cheap beer and sorting through stacks of notes, thousands of photos and hours of video. We hope to publish dozens of stories across a range of media.

I’m working on a feature article that gives an overview of the political situation in Kachin, along with a more personal piece for BraveNewTraveler.com about the power of the Kachin’s Christian faith. We’re also putting together a piece for the Kyoto Journal’s special issue on War and Peace.

Going to Kachin was the easy part. Now the real work begins.

BY: Back in September, you had hinted about growing roots in Vermont. Is this still the plan, or have your plans changed after what you’ve experienced on your extended trip in Southeast Asia?

TP: I still want to settle down in Craftsbury, Vermont, and plan to break ground on my cabin this summer. There are lots of opportunities opening up in Asia, however, and I’ll be shuttling back and forth across the Pacific for a few years to come.

Next week I fly home to the States, where I’ll be recruiting students for Where There Be Dragons educational travel programs. In March I go back to Laos to finish scouting the new Dragon’s Mekong River semester program, then home again for cabin building, then back to Asia to lead a Dragon’s trip, and then maybe back to Kachin….

As much as I want to live a simple, low-impact life, the travel opportunities are difficult to turn down.

Tim continues to be an inspiration for me as a travel writer. He seeks the truth in every experience, no matter how heartbreaking or difficult the story is to tell. He and Ryan’s journey to Myanmar is living proof that stories are worth telling, no matter how dangerous or dire the consequences.

To read recent stories from Pulitzer Center writers, visit their Untold Stories blog site. You can also read up on Tim and Ryan’s project (as well as other Pulitzer Center projects) here.

All photos are courtesy of Ryan Libre. More images taken during the Myanmar project are viewable through his Idioimagers site.

Direct flights between China and Taiwan resume

by Jamie Rhein on

The miles between Taiwan and mainland China are not many. But, in history the distance across the Taiwan Strait has been huge.

When I lived in Taiwan in the late 1990s, travel to cities in mainland China from Taiwan meant heading to another country or through Hong Kong first. There weren’t any direct flights otherwise. This meant a vacation that might have been an inexpensive and easy trip involved more time and money. As a result, we traveled in Taiwan or headed to Thailand instead.

Today the tides have changed. According to this article, the first direct passenger plane between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (China) happened early this morning. The last such flight was in 1949 after China’s civil war when Chiang Kai-shek headed to Taiwan to set up another government. Along with this first flight will be 16 others over the course of today and several more throughout the week. Recently, there have been special tourist charter flights, but today air traffic has been normalized for the regular traveler who is not part of a special group.

This is big news indeed. It does indicate a more normalized relationship between Taiwan and the mainland, for one thing, and points to the power of the tourist dollar. Tourism between these two countries will economically benefit both. It’s estimated that by 2010 the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan could triple, according to the president of Taiwan’s China Airlines.

I’m wondering where they will all fit on a weekend? Seriously, there are some places in Taiwan that are already absolutely packed on a holiday.