Hutong Weekend

Usually at this time of the year the weather in Beijing passes through a very short autumn into winter. So it did this weekend. The best place to experience this, is in the Hutongs. We spent the time there staying in an old courtyard and woke up after a night of strong wind in piles of crackling leaves and with clean air and blue sky, exploring the narrow streets and its markets in the morning of Sunday. This is one of the most genuine parts of the city. Now winter will follow very fast. And it will be a cold one I guess. For me personally, it will be also the last one for a long time to come.

Chuandixia Village

Chuandixia Village lies about  hours drive into the mountains West of Beijing. It is a small village of courtyard houses, which was located at an ancient trade route and served as a resting place for traders before they reached the Beijing markets. It was also one of the strongholds and hiding places for Mao's troops in the Anti-Japanese war. After 1949 the village fell into economical hibernation until it was "rediscovered" by photographers, painters and film crews in the 90s. It is a nice day trip into a beautiful mountain landscape. The roads are curvy and it needs a bit attention, as some drivers do risky maneuvers overtaking. But the location is easy to reach. We actually did it in a company outing, driving in a convoy of 6 vehicles. 

Chuandixia village as seen from the hill on the Southern side of the valley.

Trail marked on Google Earth, showing the way up to the viewpoint on the village. 

You may download the GPS track including the driving route by clicking here: in gpx- and tcx-format. The Southern branch of the mountain route leads to an excellent rural restaurant.

General location of the village in relation to Beijing city.

Baojin Shankou Hike

In the South-West of Beijing lies a limestone area resulting in a magnificent karst landscape, North and South of the Baojin Shankou Canyon. There was a bit of haze today, but it clear weather it must be even more beautiful. On the South there are gardens and small farms. In the past all over here food was grown. Now there are just remains left, but they are still active.

Persimmon

Persimmon for sale beside a trail in the mountains. 

 

Persimmon

Persimmon for sale from a vehicle which reminds me of the Vespa Ape.

Persimmon Tree

This fruit is very common and typical in Beijing. You take it off the tree and store it a few days until it turns into sweet jelly.  

You may download here the GPS track in gpx- and tcx-format. We started a bit late today and did not explore the area to the fullest. Given the geology, there must be caves around. We met a teenager with a torch (and an acrobatic throwing knife, which impressed me a lot) who was heading for one of them. But we returned to avoid sunset before reaching clear trails again. To reach the starting point you will have to cross a bit of "Tourism with Chinese characteristics". But no worries, they will all disappear into some sort of park worshipping with their mobile phone cameras some sort of plastic Confucius. This absorbs them all, really.

Here comes position and GPS plot: 

Yangtaishan Sunday Walk

Yangtaishan is in the North-West of Beijing, beyond the heavily tourist contaminated territories, but still close enough to the city for a sunday outing. You might still run into so-called "hiking groups", but they are noisy enough to be avoided from far. There are some "parks" around. But the term "park" means a different thing in Chinese. It is more like: "build a gate and randomly ask for money".  So, don't enter the "parks". Today's walk was about 16 km and elevation gain 1041 m. That's nearly a bit of exercise. You may download the GPS logs in tcx or gpx format by clicking on the links. The first trees are turning yellow and red these days and show us another autumn is coming. 

Development knocking at the door

Before traveling to Europe for about a fortnight, I cycled along some old residential places in Beijing. Actually, they are not old by normal standards. But they have become rare here, while land has become incredible expensive. They are not in good condition either, and would be costly to renovate; not even to think of the "opportunity cost" versus putting a few high rise buildings there. They are not Beijing Hutongs, which have been partly accepted to be a heritage, and they are neither "useful". So, they are neither seen as heritage, nor are they viewed as something of value. Their time has come.

I decided to come back with a camera and take a few snapshots. I was lucky, because when I returned today, some of them were already demolished (the satellite photo underneath still shows the blue roofs which show that this was a more recent development) . They are/were along the canal, outbound the city, beyond the 4th ring. Please refer to the co-ordinates in the grid below for exact location.

Location of the residential area which is still in tact.

- Satellite photo: Google Earth (on the 11th of October, 2013) 

Location of a demolished area. In the East is the railway, which can be seen in one of the photos.

- Satellite photo: Google Earth (on the 11th of October, 2013)  

Phillips' Economic "MONIAC Hydraulic Computer"

In absence of electronic computers William Phillips used a hydraulic system to simulate national economy. Only 14 of such machines have been built, and the original design was meant to be a teaching aid. It was called MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analog Computer), and it is quite fascinating to watch. Even without seeing it operated, but just exhibited in the London Science Museum, it explained to me very well the principles and how the different factors of an economy work together. It is a system of tanks, valves and water represents money. The bottom tank is the National Income. Phillips demonstrated the machine to economists in the London School of Economics (LSE) first in 1949. Have a look by clicking here how it works. 

MONIAC computer exhibited in the Science Museum London (2013). 

Schematic description of the MONIAC.

Changing ways of crossing bridges

Two decades ago, I had my own way of crossing bridges. When I returned to this one in Stoke-on-Trent last week, I figured out that my way of doing it has changed: I keep my tongue in the mouth.

Crossing a bridge over the canal in Stoke-on-Trent (1989).

Crossing a bridge over the canal in Stoke-on-Trent (2013).

"The past is a foreign country"

Most journeys have the purpose of exploring something new. Not so my travels during the last few weeks, which brought me to the parts of the Europe in which I spent my earliest works aboard and learned my first foreign languages, namely English and French - as German is my mother tongue. I was surprised that my French still worked reasonably well after so many years. But more so, I was surprised that more and more French speak English now. 

Though the purpose of this journey was not just personal nostalgia, but also to get an impression of Universities, Colleges and Schools on the way. Specially in England the route went along such sites like London, Oxford, Bath, Bristol, Manchester and Cambridge. I was surprised about Bath, which has developed into quite a campus. But it had the handicap of a place which markets itself with student's satisfaction instead of academic merit - an understandable positioning in the "education business", but not hugely inspiring. All other places, and the small ones in between, were of nice character and some spirit living in the walls. I enjoyed a lot my visit of the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington Grove, which I am a fellow of, and seeing the places where the famous explorers of the world reported about their journeys. I will for sure spend some more time in London and make use of the Society's library for a month or two. In Oxford I was also reminded of my time lecturing there in the School of Geography in the mid 90s. It was one of the last things I did in that field, and it felt like the best place for a farewell to science. The German University and education system back then felt like a waste of time and I did not pursue an academic career, but went out and looked for a "proper job". Ultimately, a lot of this ended up being a waste of time too, but a lucrative one, which still opened me a lot of opportunities. By now, I understood, that "career" is just a way to integrate into society and explain to HR departments and the tax office that what you are doing actually makes sense. 

A nice little stop at a nearly unknown academic location was the one at Keele University in Staffordshire. It is a small University campus, just a bit North of Shakespeare's city Stratford-on-Avon and Birmingham, up the hill of Silverdale in the suburb of Newcastle-under-Lyme. This was the place where I gave my first academic talk at the School of Earth Sciences, while I was working at Wardell-Armstrong in Newcastle. I always liked the messy old office in one of the corners of Keel Hall, which is overlooking the park. No idea whose it is, and what is done there. But back then I though, if somebody gives me an office like this one day and a lot of time, I will be happy. 

Of course, I also dropped by the place where I lived at that time, which was not in Newcastle, but over the hill and just over the border to the neighboring city called Stoke-on-Trent, in Victoria Street. I am not sure whether my former landlady, Frances Griffith, still lives there. It is about 20 years ago. I have been still writing to her a few years after. But finally letters stayed unanswered. Lucy, the old lady living next door must have passed away. Her place looks abandoned. Frances and Lucy always shared their flower seeds and were growing them in their gardens towards the back alley. It was a recession in England. And then there was Pauline, the hippie, which lived next door of Lucy. I think she went to Australia. 

Stoke-on-Trent is a conglomerate of smaller places which once were the heart of the English pottery industry. It is the place of "Bone China" called the Potteries. Most of the old bottle kilns have been converted into museums. What also reminds of that time, are the canals which were a means of transportation for fragile goods and span over large parts of England. Today they are still operational and you can use them with longboats, also called arrow boats, for recreational purposes. From the marinas you see England not from the road side, which is always the more interesting perspective.  

A few miles North-East of the Potteries is the Peak District, and the landscape changes dramatically with steep rocks and moorlands. I often went there on the weekend to go hiking or caving in the karst caves. The caves inspired me in 1990 to try and model the development of them using a Monte-Carlo approach simulating the dissolving processes of the limestone. I discussed later with Tim Burt in Oxford on it. My simulated caves looked really beautiful, but the structures I calculated had nothing to do with reality. My idea to use the model and identify the age of the caves did not work out at all. In the end I scrapped the plan and changed my master thesis topic with Helga Besler at Cologne University to mathematical modeling of particle dispersion, which was related to my work and much easier. In the Peak District, just beside the National Park, is a nice little town called Buxton. It has some springs, and people came here for them in the past. There is still a pretty little opera house and a green house. It is a good base to explore the karst and the moorlands around. 

Stopping over in Manchester re-confirmed that most cities which are proud of their soccer club, have not much more to offer (Madrid and Sao Paulo are obvious exceptions).  

In Cambridge I met a friend and former colleague from Wardell Armstrong. It has been about 20 years and was nice to "catch up" in the way, as if the 20 years actually did not happen. We enjoyed it a lot over dinner in Midsummer House. I rarely mention restaurants, but this one is quite special and should not be missed when staying in town. The University of Cambridge is similar and different to Oxford. I never did anything academically in Cambridge, so I do not really have an insight. But from my impression Cambridge is more lively and connected than Oxford, without compromising on heritage and ability to focus. But this is really just an impression gathered in a few hours. 

Arriving Dover via Canterbury I had a surprise: there are no ferries taking foot passenger to Ostende leaving from here. Also the Hovercrafts are gone. The tunnel really changed the world here. Dover, not long ago the focus point of traffic between England and the continent, has become sleepy. The only ferry went the short way to Calais. On the French side, Syrians were camping and hoping for a chance to go over to the UK. Also Calais changed. It became sleepy too, but it is better not to gaze, but take care of fellows waiting for a chance to hit and run at least for your bag. Good reminder to put the pocket knife back in reach for quick reach and adequate response. The train to Bruxelles leaves every few hours from Calais. The one to Paris more frequently. This time going via Bruxelles was the train to take back "into the continent", as the English sometimes like to call it. 

8bis, rue Saint Hyacinthe

In Paris I walked along my old commute from the Metro Tuilleries to rue Saint Hyacinthe where I lived during my early time working at Bosch. My office was in Louveciennes though and I was commuting against the tide out by Metro and RER in the morning and back in after office hours when most went back out of the city. Most of my landmarks are still the same: my running route along the Seine and around Jardin des Tuelleries, the Opera Garnier, the baker, the market. Most restaurants changed owners. But the patterns stayed. This time, again I could not convince myself to go up the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps I will never make it up there. But I also don't really know why I should. 

Haute Ville

Special geography, making the castle already naturally a defendable stronghold, and clever policies sustained Luxembourg a sovereign state in Europe. Except a vanished steel industry in the South of the country, in Esch-sur-Alzette and Differdange, and agriculture in the North, there are no natural resources to exploit. Still Luxembourg has a GDP per capita around US$ 80 000 which makes it at times the world's "richest" country. Before favorable tax policies and banks which back then still kept their secrets, started to transform Luxembourg initially into what it is today, I spent a big part of my childhood here with my family. Then it was different. With my cousin, I strolled mainly around the mining and processing facilities of the Arbed around Differdange, explored shafts and tunnels and already experienced "open borders" by ignoring checkpoints and making our ways to France through the forest. The city of Luxembourg at that time, in the early 70s, was much less wealthy than today. The "Grund" in the Petrus Valley, just at the foot of the escarpment on which the Haut Ville is positioned, was still one of the town's poorest quarters around the city prison. Arriving the town by train and walking along the streets towards Place d'Armes, was a route through deteriorated streets. Now Luxembourg is a vibrant, international and nearly cosmopolitain city. Now the "Grund" hosts European company head quarters like those of Skype and Amazon, and is a place of entertainment and culture. I liked my recent stop over in Luxembourg a lot. Just one night though and then off on the TGV to Paris. 

Dear Diary, I have to stop writing to you.

Of course every day has nice moments. They appear spontaneously, and so I will note them down or capture them in other ways as they come. But looking out of the window today, seeing another Kafkaesque scene of the city in constant smog, I decided not to keep a diary for the time being. Like that, the time in Beijing will blur into the grey shades that it was. There will be memories, letters, photos, sketches and other artifacts - but no continuos record. 

Morning view from the window. Sun is coming out decomposing the smog into photochemicals. It is 35.3 Celsius outside the window and an AQI of 235 ("very unhealthy").

Yun Meng Shan hike

At 7 in the morning, with humidity above 90 % and an outside temperature reading over 30 Degree Celsius in the morning and a thick layer of clouds above the city of Beijing, it was obvious there will be quite some rain coming down. But we sticked to our plan hiking up the Yun Meng Shan, which is about 85 km North of town. In this weather, every view looks like a Chinese painting. The same hike on a clear day, must have a completely different character. A good reason to come again and exactly take the same paths. It is a very nice route and you may download the GPS log here in gpx- or tcx-format.

View from Yun Meng Shan.

Miyun Jidaowan Canyon

We have been lucky with the weather in recent days and it is always a pleasure to make it out of Beijing on the weekend. For that you can hike from the Yunmeng Mountain up over a saddle North and then follow the crystal clear river through the canyon towards the reservoir. You will see some Watch Towers which have been built there "by accident" off the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty (don't get me going!). 

The trail is bushy and in some sections quite steep. There is only one village left, as all the others have been washed away by a flood about a decade ago. It is unlikely you don't see anybody in the remote places. I recommend to upload the exact log on to your GPS (gpx-format, tcx-format).  

Piano rental in Beijing

In the morning we went to the other side of of the city, to the neighborhood of the Central Music Conservatory, to rent a piano. You can get them from 120 RMB per month, if you sign up for a year. The Yamaha piano sounded softer though, so an upgrade to 150 RMB (18.76 EUR or 24.40 US$) per month was very appropriate. It includes a piano chair and a cloth cover. Delivery is free, tuning (any time needed) included. Let me put this into relation: it's about what I would pay for my mobile phone package per month (if I would pay for it). For the price of an iPhone 5, you can rent a piano for nearly 3 years. Usually iPhones break after one year tough. The economics of happiness is an interesting one. 

Why does the world have Rice Cookers?

After having cooked or steamed rice for decades without any problems in a pot, I recently was surprised that many Chinese I talk to don't know how to do that. They need a rice cooker. These are electric appliances, which do absolutely nothing else, than what you do in a normal cooking pot. Some of them have some digital functions and beep around and flash some LEDs. Mainly they just control temperature and time. Some of them also allow steaming. But still on first sight rice cookers seemed to me as completely obsolete.

But I was wrong. Rice cookers in China reach back to a time in which many people were still cooking on a coal fire - actually, many still do this today. As this was the only fire place which can heat a Wok to cook other things than rice, it was convenient to have a self sustained rice cooker, which could do the job in any corner where there is an electric plug. Also, many more modern electric and gas stoves actually only have 2 fires, and not 4. So, again a rice cooker helps a lot to keep these for cooking other dishes than rice.  

Rice cookers go back to 1937 where they were used for mobile kitchens in the Japanese Army. In 1945 Mitsubishi brought the first civil electric rice cooker to the market and in the 1950s Toshiba followed with the first fully automated rice cookers. 

Interesting. But having a gas stove with 4 fires, I stay with my pot for now. 

Whiteout on Mount Hallasan

It has been more than half a year since I last visited Jeju (the island off shore the Southern tip of Korean Peninsula), back then testing my new hiking boots. This time on Mount Hallasan, no ice was on the summit, and just a normal pair of shoes were enough for the 1600 meter ascent. But this week the peak of the mountain kept itself mostly hidden in clouds. After leaving the forest, you cross a beautiful alpine landscape with a unique fauna and flora - many species indigiounous. Strong winds were driving patches of clouds over it and left a quick change of bright sunlight and whiteout. I was told that this is the environment surrounding immortals in Chinese believes. I always feel high mountains have something immortal, no matter of light. Perhaps, it is because we are closer to the sky.

Jeju is a sizable volcanic island, with Mount Hallasan as the major shield volcano. But there are many more volcanoes, tuff craters and lava tubes. A paradise for volcanologists. The coasts are mainly steep and rocky, and the few natural beaches are black sanded. The water of the natural springs tastes of different minerals, depending on the very specific location. Luckily Chinese tourists are absorbed by the Casino and the shopping malls and other attractions close to the airport, which preserves the rest of the places from their impact.

From Jeju's East coast there is a ferry connection to U-Do island, which takes about 30 minutes. It is a car ferry, which also carries the trucks transporting out the garlic harvest, which is a major crop there, and a fixture in Korean cuisine. Arriving U-Do you can rent a motor cycle and circumcise the island in less than an hour. U-Do is offshore-offshore Korea, and by this reminded me of Lamma Island, which was my home in the South China sea for five years, before I moved to Beijing. I know that for many people "offshore" is mainly related to a special kind of Financial Service industry which is making use of special rules away from major jurisdictions. But for me, "offshore" is a lifestyle away from the buzz of big governments and consumerism. It can be found on islands, in forests, on mountains and even in some cities - probably not in Beijing though. 

Helga Besler (1939-2012)

When I recently visited my Alma Mater in Cologne, I had to learn that Prof. Dr. Helga Besler passed away in spring 2012, aged 73. I knew she was Emeritus, and we still wrote for many years, but the last ones I lost track of her. She did not use e-mails, because she always said, it's bad for her eyes, and the last letters stayed unanswered. I blamed this routinely to the postal service, and did not even think her time could have been over.

​Helga was one of the most influential people in my life and I worked for her as a teaching assistant at the Department for African Research of The University of Cologne, before she encouraged me, even without meeting all requirements of a formal graduation, to go overseas and work as a scientist in the Mining Industry. She supervised first my thesis attempt of using Monte Carlo Models to simulate structures of karst caves and determine their age by that. I choose the topic and approach myself, never had ever tried it, and it was an ultimate failure. Then she supervised my second attempt, in which I validated and refined mathematical models for airborne particulate dispersion, which finally succeeded in 1992 and received the Dr. Prill Prize. I learned from Helga how to conduct research, stay on top of scientific knowledge and how to conduct expeditions to the planet's most remote places. 

There is much more to say about Helga's scientific heritage, expeditions and how she mastered her way as a woman in a domain of men. But this will be the topic of a colloquium in summer at the University of Cologne. Helga was for me more than a Professor, but a mentor in my (very) wild days. And she shaped my view on how Professors should be, and ultimately how I am as a Professor myself. 

​I well remember the last thing we did together in the mid 90s. Based on the experience I gathered during my PhD, we wanted to use radar data to better understand precipitation processes in the Northern Sahara. For that we needed access to the Egyptian air defense radar logs. We never received this (of course), but the negotiation with Egyptian military attaches and high ranking air force officers, was quite an experience. Thinking back to these situations, being surrounded by fierce Arabian men who did not take our "science story", but thought we are Israelian spys, I have to  say that my first real lecture in leadership I received from a woman. 

​Helga Besler in Namibia.

My home is my castle

Last week took the chance to go down the Rhine by boat from Oberwesel and visit the forest I grew up in. The region now became World Cultural Heritage. It is not just the country of castles, knights and witches, but also the setting for many Germanic myths of gods and heroes. I enjoyed the quietness, fresh air and flair and the feeling of being home.

Mango unchained

Like in many other South-East-Asian counties April 13th was the beginning of the traditional New year: Songkran. ​Like the Chinese New Year, it was in the past was based on an astronomical calculation which varied each year. But now it has a fixed date. People go to the temples and it was an interesting tour to Ayutthaya, about 1.5 hours drive North of Bangkok. The most obvious part of the party is though that everybody is throwing water at everybody. Nobody who is not at least equipped with a water gun, bucket or a hose. People roam around on pick up trucks and perform heated water battles in the streets, and it is really great fun. 

​Ayutthaya was the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom which was founded by King Ramathibodi in 1350 AC and destroyed by the Burmese Army in 1767. The ruins are accessible in different sites, but also many relicts are slowly taken by modern life. It is a very impressing place to go to and reminds of Angkor and Siem Reap. You may download the GPX-file by clicking here. Map plots of the way to go there and the main sites to visit, please find below.

Singapore

Willian Gibson traveled to Singapore in 1993, to explore whether the future of technology would be coming the small city state south of Malaysia . He summarized his impressions in the Wired Magazine in an article under the title: "Disneyland with Death Penalty". He starts: "It's like an entire country run by Jeffrey Katzenberg," the producer had said, "under the motto 'Be happy or I'll kill you.'"

Yes, Singapore is a strict place. But perhaps Mr. Gibson, at the time he wrote his article, never really experienced how to live in chaos and corruption. It is definitely not making you more progressive. I admire Singapore for firstly for surviving at all, and for becoming a prosperous place to live for everybody who wants to contribute. On the other hand it has no tolerance to people who do not want to contribute or disturb the system which has proofed to be successful. This is why, I was told, there is a lack of "creative destruction". I know what this term is meant to say. But most destruction I have seen, was simply destructive - and not creative at all. This is why I understand, a place like Singapore is only experimenting carefully with it.

​I enjoyed escaping Beijing for a few days, breathe clean air, eating un-poisoned food and meeting nice people. Like in Hong Kong, most people who come to Singapore have an interesting story to tell and experiences to exchange. And also like in Hong Kong, the local people, are very much occupied by making money - and that's it. Singapore in contrast to Hong Kong, has not beed a refugee for people escaping from Chinese Communism. It has attracted people by the model itself and offering an alternative not just contrasting one big oppressive neighbor. There are many other differences between Singapore and Hong Kong and the closer you look at it that the often made comparison between these two places is comparing apples and oranges.  

I was also looking at Singapore from the perspective of moving there myself one day. And of course, I am just at the beginning of my exploration of terms, but it is definitely on my short list.