Journey to Nowhere

If you want to buy air tickets for the Greater China region, check out this website
www.travelzen.com. It claims to be China’s only web-based online travel agency. You can book flights departing from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, with instant booking and confirmation. This looks like a real convenience for travelers to China. Currently, China’s other major travel sites like www.elong.com are not able to provide instant web-based booking and confirmation.

I’ve tried the interface of Travelzen website and I like it so far.

According to its website, the “Travelzen Group Limited is a joint venture between Shanghai Ever Bright Town International Travel Agency Limited (SEBTI), China’s largest private air ticketing wholesaler and a reputable international private equity group”.

China’ most prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced by the court to 11 years in jail on Christmas Day.

This is the fourth time he has been imprisoned because of his political position and his writings. He was researching in the US while the student democratic movement broke out in China in 1989. He rushed back to China and gave support to the students. He was jailed afterwards by the Chinese government.  

But that marked only the first sentencing he, as a dissident, received of a series to follow. Each time he was released, he kept on writing and speaking his mind about how to make China a better and democratic country, and each time he was sentenced to imprisonment or a labour camp.  

How Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, supports him is touching. She married him when he was in the labour camp. She sent him books when he was in prison so that he knew what her thoughts were and it was a way of communication between them, Liu Xia said. They also wrote poems to each other.

After the latest jail sentence was announced, Liu Xia told reporters in a clam voice: “If he (Liu Xiaobo) can persevere in the face of the ordeal, so can I.” Liu will be over 60 years old when he is released, she said.

She has had her head shaved. She is such a strong and steel-willed woman, just like her husband.

If you are now in Beijing, and need to take a taxi, watch out! Every word you say in the taxi will be monitored by the police.

To enhance the security in the run up to National Day on 1 October, a secret machine is now installed in each of the taxis in Beijing to monitor conversation, according to Hong Kong newspaper Mingpao. The machine is connected through satellite and GPS to the police intelligence centre so every word you say will be listened.

Naturally, the authority will not announce this to its people – keeping them in dark so that those needed to be caught can be caught.

Why is it that a country that calls itself People’s Republic can be so afraid of its people and so secretive towards its people?

Three Hong Kong journalists were pinned down to the ground, kicked and punched by police when they reported on the recent unrest in Urumqi, Xinjiang province. The insult and assault were captured on the camera. They were later tied up and taken away to a police station.

But according to the Xinjiang authority, their police had done nothing wrong. To the contrary, it was the fault of the journalists because they were found “giving orders” to protesters. Also the three had refused to present their journalist’s licences to police. So they were detained.

The authority came to the conclusion after conducting an investigation, according to Xinjiang information office head Hou Hanmin.

The TV stations which employ the three journalists protested against the claim and the fabrication, saying all their journalists had valid reporter licenses and in fact they showed them in order not to be beaten and detained. As for the claim of the three “giving order” to the demonstrators, that is plainly fabrication no intelligent mind would believe and only the foolish and the shameless would make.

If you want to have a good understanding about China’s freedom of press, about the standard of governance of local governments, about the true nature of China rising as a global power, about the lack of sense of security living and working in the country, look no further than this case.

Good luck travelling and living in China.

This video in Cantonese reveals the shameless lie told by the Xinjiang authority.

If you plan to travel to mainland China, you’d better avoid the so called golden week in October this year. This year the week stretches from 1 October to 8 October, including the day for Moon Festival which falls on 3 October, making the week slightly longer than usual.

During the golden week, many local Chinese will travel around in the country, making hotel booking and transportation harder to arrange. The major scenic spots will also be packed with visitors. Avoid it.

If you go sightseeing in China, look out for traps like this. 

This small wood bridge is in a park called Lu Hui Tou (meaning Deer Looking Back), a major tourist spot in Sanya, Hainan Province.

On the very top of the wood bridge are Chinese characters “Zou Yun”, meaning “walking luck”. Just for a bit of fun, you may be tempted to walk through the bridge in hopes of getting some luck. You can certainly do that. But after the walk, expect that some one will come up to you to ask you for money. Not much – RMB3 for walking through that one-meter long bridge.

Near the bridge lies a small sign which says RMB3 is charged because it represents harmony of heaven, earth and people.