An American Family

2012-02-13T05:00:00.002-05:00

The AHC Father-Daughter Dance

A real highlight of the winter and Valentine's weekend!

~Steve

2012-02-09T05:00:00.003-05:00

Duke 85 UNC 84

Austin Rivers!

If, for some inexplicable reason, you don't know what we're talking about, click here for some good, old-fashioned Blue Devil fun!

~Steve, Desi, Julie, and Z

2012-02-07T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Knife

What you are looking at is a picture of the most distinctive gift I have ever been given by a student...the bayonet of an AK-47, probably Soviet stock dating back to the 1960s or 1970s.

This particular graduate student, Dan Green, has served tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, Dan is in Afghanistan right now, having left for a deployment of eight months something like 48 hours after defending his dissertation. Talk about pivoting from one world (the academy) right into another (where skeptical professors are the least of one's worries)!

Dan recently published a memoir of his previous time in Afghanistan. Click here to check out The Valley's Edge: A Year with the Pashtuns in the Heartland of the Taliban.

As for the bayonet, Dan picked it up at a bazaar in Kabul. Sitting there in my office, Dan showed me how it can be used as a wire cutter. Click here to take a look at a video that walks through the wire-cutting process.

Thanks, Dan, for what is a real piece of the (troubled and violent) history of that part of our world!

~Steve

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Me And My Little Audience

The Social Science Research Network is a website where researchers like myself can disseminate their work, posting paper drafts and published articles in a central clearinghouse where they can be searched and accessed. I did this with an article I recently wrote on the politics of the Chinese Internet, as I had published a blog post about the article and wanted to provide interested readers with a link to the complete paper.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I get an email in my inbox, notifying me that my paper has made a number of top ten lists. Top ten lists!? Yes, apparently, in the past 60 days, my paper is one of the top ten most accessed papers in a number of categories. Read below, from the actual email...

Your paper, "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF CHINESE POLICYMAKING", was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for: Chinese Studies eJournal - Forthcoming, EAS Subject Matter eJournals, ERN: Positive Analysis of Policy-Making & Implementation (Topic), East Asian Studies Research Network and LSN: Legal Information & Government (Sub-Topic).

With a little further research, I discovered my exact ranking in each of the categories...

Chinese Studies eJournal - Forthcoming Top Ten...#1
EAS Subject Matter eJournals Top Ten...#2
ERN: Positive Analysis of Policy-Making & Implementation (Topic) Top Ten...#7
East Asian Studies Research Network Top Ten...#2
LSN: Legal Information & Government (Sub-Topic) Top Ten...#1

Before you get too impressed by all of this top ten activity, continue reading from my email...

As of 01/27/2012, your paper has been downloaded 11 times.

Yes, you read it right...11 times! I wonder how many records Bruce has to sell to make it onto top ten lists. Something tells me it is a tad bit more than 11!

~Steve

2012-02-03T05:00:00.003-05:00

A Panel Discussion About Connecting Democracy

Back in December, I posted about the publication of a volume in which an article I wrote appeared. Well, for anyone up in the vicinity of Harvard Law School, there is going to be, on February 7, a panel discussion of the volume, Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication. Peter Shane, one of the volume's editors, as well as David Lazer, an author of one of the chapters, will be taking part in the panel discussion. There will also be some well-regarded experts in the areas of law, communications, and information technology weighing in on the book.

It looks like a great event!

~Steve

2012-02-02T05:00:00.001-05:00

The Chinese Flag

At the Chinese New Year parade in downtown DC, there were hundreds upon hundreds of flags of the Republic of China, strung from lamp pole to lamp pole on the streets of Chinatown.

And then there were these two wayward guys, with their homemade flags of the People's Republic China.

These were literally the only two PRC flags at the entire event.

We overheard plenty of hushed commentary as we walked by, and one older lady tried to snap our picture, but that was about the extent of it. No open criticism (or praise, for that matter). So, in the end, we have no idea who might have been more in the cross hairs...the native of Guangdong province or the non-Chinese guy.

~Steve

2012-02-01T05:00:00.005-05:00

Outside Communications And OIRA Review Of Agency Regulations

A paper I wrote with Jen Deets and Forrest Maltzman, two GW colleagues, was recently published in a special issue of the Administrative Law Review. (Click here to access the full paper.)

The issue takes stock of the process by the White House reviews significant regulatory actions being proposed by agencies ranging from the Department of Transportation to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The current administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (the White House body in charge of clearing agency regulations) contributed an essay to the issue, as did past OIRA administrators who served under presidents from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush.

As for us three academics, we focused on the role that communications between OIRA personnel and individuals and organizations from outside of the White House play in the shaping of the regulatory review process and the outcomes associated with this all-important process. Here is a brief summary of what we did and what we found...

Although the review of agency regulations by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been a fundamental aspect of the rulemaking process for three decades, there is little empirical evidence regarding the operation and effects of regulatory review. In this research, we examine a longstanding expectation regarding the involvement of outside parties in OIRA review, namely, that participation on the part of regulated entities is tied to reviews that take particularly long to complete and that are especially likely to result in changes to agency rules. Taking advantage of information about outside communications that OIRA discloses via the Internet, we find that although participation was associated with lengthy review times and rule revisions during the period between 2002 and 2006, these delays and amendments were not specifically linked with the involvement of business firms and industry organizations. These results imply that outside communications do not, as a general matter, serve as an institutionalized forum for regulated entities to slow OIRA reviews and alter the content of agency regulations.

OIRA review in practice provides the White House with opportunities to consider with particular care those rules that have proven especially difficult to handle via the ordinary regulatory process. These are regulations where stakeholder involvement has been especially widespread and disagreements between participants have been more pronounced than usual. In such pluralistic stakeholder environments, OIRA review serves as a tool for the White House to evaluate and shape executive branch actions in a more fundamental way than when rulemakings have hewed closely to textbook modes of regulation. In the end, the notion of heightened White House attention to issues and disputes that have frayed bureaucratic routines differs significantly from the idea of business domination as an explanation for the role that outside communications, as a general matter, play in the process and outcomes of OIRA regulatory review.

Enjoy the paper, which relegates the details of the statistical analysis to the appendix...

~Steve

2012-01-31T05:00:00.003-05:00

Blue Has Always Thought Of Herself As A Person!

And we thought our days of sticking our heads through cutouts were over, now that Julie and Z are teenagers...

~Steve

2012-01-30T05:00:00.002-05:00

Snow Geese!

A real treat of our mid-winter jaunt to the beach was catching thousands of snow geese in action. During the day, huge flocks of these beautiful birds were spied in the waters not too far offshore. Then, as dusk came calling, the birds all took to the air and flew over our heads on the Rehoboth boardwalk, heading for their evening destinations...the large, empty fields of the Delmarva Peninsula. It was a spectacular sight to see, one that our pedestrian digital camera cannot do justice to. Click here for a more professional treatment of the subject...

~Steve

2012-01-27T05:00:00.000-05:00

The IB Highlights Show

As the culmination of a great deal of hard work, my fellow students in IB Theatre HL 1 and I performed our one-woman-shows in the IB Highlights show this past Friday! It was a true success for each one of us and it gave us a chance to paint our own personal stories on the stage. The show was a collection of pieces that we each put together, surrounding a theme we wanted to express to the audience. I chose the theme "Happiness is the Road," and ended up performing three monologues (including one from Seinfeld), a mask piece, a song called "Dark Clouds" by Soozie Tyrell, and my own rendition of Goldilocks. I was really pleased with the final product!

As at the end of any major project, though, it is time to reflect on the process of putting the show together and on how well it was received by the audience.

At the beginning, I was clueless. I had no idea how I would be able to put together a show that told a personal story without boring the audience with endless tales about my life. I started out by picking a theme that I think about and talk about all the time. We began writing in class, time which I spent jotting down unfinished stories and ideas that I thought were related to my theme. Slowly but surely, I learned how to piece together a well formulated monologue. The part I had the most difficult time with was learning how to direct a monologue at a particular person. I would find myself just talking for no good reason. However, seeing the other performers in their pieces really helped me identify who I could speak to in each monologue. I eventually ended up with several pieces that I was really happy with.

Another area of my show that took a lot of work was the mask piece. I knew early on what the plot of the piece was and exactly how I would use it to relate to my theme. I had to spend a lot of time, though, working on the details. I had to learn how I could interact with objects that weren't there, for example, the car and the cow that I imagined in my mask piece. For the car, I practiced how I would use the car in the piece by actually getting in and out of my car. I had to make sure that I imagined every detail of the car I was using so that I could interact with the car on stage the same way as I would if I was on the road. The cow was an even more unique situation. I wanted there to be a cow in the middle of the road that interrupted my journey home. I knew I would have a difficult time communicating such a random animal so I worked on creating the idea of some kind of living thing. It ended up being one of the most successful parts of my show as a whole and one of the most well liked.

My song was a particularly scary piece for me because it was the first time I had ever sung alone on stage. When choosing my pieces, though, I felt that the song "Dark Clouds" was essential to the theme and was an opportunity for me to take a chance. I knew the song ahead of time so the process was more about coming out of myself to be able to sing in front of an audience. I am very proud of the results of this piece.

Finally, the Goldilocks piece was unique in and of itself. It was the last piece I wrote but it was one of my favorites because I though it was unique. When my show started coming together, I felt that I needed a piece that stood out and was different from the rest. I talked to my senior director about how I could incorporate the different types of theatre that we had learned about throughout the year in another piece. She told me to look back through my journal and see which kinds of theatre stood out to me personally. The result was the story of Goldilocks that required the audience's curiosity. I decided to make the character I was playing a mystery that the audience could discover details about as I went on Goldilocks' adventure. With some very well placed sound effects and lighting, the story unfolded very nicely.

Ultimately, my favorite part in putting together the show was working with my director. I personally didn't know anything about lighting before the show. However, working with my director, we were able to combine my visions for each piece with her experience and background knowledge. A lot of the details, like the light shift in the mask piece from amber to light blue, at the exact moment that the music started, I could never have come up with on my own. I learned so much in the short amount of time that I spent with my director and I felt that my show improved exponentially because of the suggestions she had.

~Julie

2012-01-26T05:00:00.003-05:00

Dogfish Head And The Making Of Ancient Alcohol

Dogfish Head in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware is not your ordinary brew pub. Sure, there are big TVs, a sports bar menu, and a large selection of home-grown beers. Dogfish Head is also a place where ancient spirits are resurrected, in a fascinating mash-up of brewing, chemistry, and archaeology.

The process starts when an archaeologist from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the world's foremost experts on ancient fermented beverages, examines ancient drinking and storage artifacts for residue samples. These sample are then analyzed, offering up a glimpse into the ingredient profile of drinks that were consumed thousands of years ago.

There is the recipe known as Midas Touch, which was reconstructed from artifacts found in the tomb of King Midas. This wine-mead concoction, in other words, dates back to 700 B.C.

Even older than that is what Smithsonian has described as a "Neolithic grog." Dating back 9,000 years, this drink, Chateau Jiahu, is world's oldest known alcoholic beverage. Chateau Jiahu hails from China's Yellow River region, and has been described as a "citrusy sauvignon."

Both Midas Touch and Chateau Jiahu were fine by me, with Desi giving the nod to the Chinese brew masters. Regardless, this is a pretty cool project that will catch our attention whenever we find our way down to Rehoboth!

~Steve

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

Building A Bigger Sandbox

You always hear about beach replenishment projects, where sand is brought in from somewhere else and used to widen popular strands. But you never get to see these projects in action. You leave the narrow beach one summer, and return a year later to find a much different playground.

And so, this year, during a mid-winter weekend getaway, we got to see what the scene actually looks like, up close and in person.

The vessel that carries a mixture of sand and water to a location a couple hundred yards offshore, where it links up with a pipe anchored in place just for the occasion.

The metal piping that the mix is pumped into, toward the beach, making a right-angle turn once it reaches the shore, then sloshing through to the endpoint.

The endpoint, which, as we watched over the course of several days, moves ever-northward up the coast, as the beach gets wider in segments.

The sand and water gushing out of the pipe, into a cage, where it crashes around and is dispersed, building a beach in all directions.

The guards who make sure no one trespasses into the work zone. Z trespassed once, as I tossed our Georgetown Prep Nerf ball a bit too far. Julie did as well, running along the shoreline, unaware that she was in the wrong, until the guard deployed her air horn, catching my attention and starting me off, gesticulating and screaming at Julie to turn around.

Enjoy the beach in this summer!

~Steve

2012-01-23T05:00:00.006-05:00

Tony Melendez

Back in the 1960s, Tony Melendez's mother was given thalidomide during her pregnancy. Because of this, Tony was born without arms. Tony's father decided to move the family from its home in Nicaragua to the United States, where medical care and the overall environment would be better for his handicapped son.

Encouraged by his parents, Tony taught himself how to use his feet and toes like the rest of us use ours hands and fingers. Tony brushes his teeth, puts on his clothes...you name it, he can do it.

By his teen years, Tony had taught himself to play a guitar specially tuned for his needs. The other night, Tony brought his band to Silver Spring for a show that we had the chance to take in. It was quite an evening, full of sing-a-longs and inspirational stories from Tony and his band mates.

Tony's brother at one point shared the story of how, as a kid, he told his mother that he wanted a "normal" brother. Lurking in the doorway, Tony heard this story, went and grabbed a Frisbee, and showed it to his brother. The boys went outside, Tony's brother threw the disc, which Tony caught between his head and shoulder. Using his feet and toes, Tony winged the Frisbee back at his brother...and hit him square in the nose!

The brothers then re-lived this moment, with Tony catching the Frisbee once again, and then tossing it way out into the amazed audience. A cool moment in an incredible evening...

~Steve

2012-01-19T05:00:00.002-05:00

Bureaucracy And Democracy, Third Edition

As of today, the third edition of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance has been published! Bill Gormley and I have updated the book in a number of central respects, in light of events such as the election of Barack Obama, the BP Gulf oil spill, and the global financial crisis. All of these changes aim to continue to position the book as a main source for making sense of the role of bureaucracy in making public policy in our democratic political system.

Here is how our publisher, CQ Press, is advertising the new edition. Click here to check out the book's website.

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policy implementation, Gormley and Balla assess their performance using four key perspectives—bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory—to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability.

Thoroughly updated, the third edition includes:

new sections on education reform, the response to the financial crisis, and Obama’s support for “evidence-based” decision making at the state level;
new cases of government intervention in crisis, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the 2011 tornadoes in the Midwest;
new material on homeland security, including the successful takedown of Osama bin Laden;
additional ratings of the performance of federal agencies based on public opinion of government employees;
expanded discussion of networks and their increasingly important role in exchanging information and delivering public services; and
a new case study on the BP oil spill that applies the book’s four perspectives.

And here is what the back cover quotations say about the work we have done (thanks to our colleagues for taking the time to read and review our work!)...

"The third edition of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance is a clear and cogent introduction to two problems: administering policy in a democracy, and running a democracy when policy is implemented by bureaucracies. As the best treatment of this topic written specifically for an undergraduate audience, the new edition of this very readable book illustrates the dilemmas and tradeoffs faced by both politicians and bureaucrats when they work together to achieve important policy goals."

- Andy Whitford, University of Georgia

"The book gives students a 360-degree view of bureaucratic involvement in the policy process, premised on the fundamental notion of accountability in the public sector. Then, case studies are used to supplement these perspectives so students can see them in action. Very nice ties are made between theory and practice."

- Casey LaFrance, Western Illinois University

"Bureaucracy and Democracy is more readable and more interesting than other texts, particularly due to its ample use of policymaking examples throughout. As an instructor, I appreciate it when the authors draw our attention to an incident or action involving a particular agency which aids in the understanding of the concept being discussed; and there is one on almost every page."

- Brian M. Harward, Allegheny College

"In Bureaucracy and Democracy, Gormley and Balla take on the hard task of making sense of one of our most complicated political institutions in the United States, and they accomplish this task readily. Students and other readers will find this book insightful and full of real-world examples. This book is a 'must read' for students of political science and public policy."

- Susan Webb Yackee

~Steve

2012-01-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

The Sea Of Black Heads Gets Bigger

In recognition of today's announcement that a majority of the Chinese population, for the first time in history, lives outside of the countryside, here is a picture we snapped a few years ago in the Beijing subway system. (And here is the story we originally attached to the shot.)

~Steve

2012-01-13T13:29:00.003-05:00

What Do You Want To Know About College Students?

Next week, as I normally do at the beginning of the semester, I will survey my big lecture class, asking students about their attitudes toward political figures and the policy issues of the day. I will also ask them for the Super Bowl predictions, to recommend one song I should download, what they think of the current plot thread on Parks and Rec...all sorts of stuff like that.

What else should I ask them?

~Steve

2012-01-09T05:00:00.001-05:00

Two Dogs Lying Down

One of the real joys of working at home is that Cameron and Blue are always underfoot. In Blue's case, this is often literally true, as she likes to curl up under my feet while I am typing away. This is especially welcome in the winter time, when my feet tend to get all cold. Natural space heater, baby!

And then there was this scene the other day. Classic...

~Steve

2012-01-06T05:00:00.006-05:00

Chinatown, Flushing Style

As here in DC, much of the Chinese action in New York City has moved out of the center city. We earlier reported on some fantastic Cantonese dim sum we had the chance to savor over Thanksgiving. That was in Brooklyn. Now, once again thanks to Song Wei, we took a jaunt on one of the last days of 2011 out to Flushing, Queens, where a totally different Chinese enclave has spring up over the years.

The Flushing Chinatown, unlike many such communities, is not Cantonese speaking. Rather, it is a place where Mandarin is the dominant language. As a case in point, we overheard a snippet of a conversation in a small merchant stall, where the prospective buyer was speaking very slowly, explaining to the vendor that he does not speak Mandarin very well...Wo...shi...Guangdongren..."I am Cantonese." A classic north-south encounter.

Happy to have the chance to use our own Mandarin, we were in a bakery checking out when I asked if we could use a credit card to pay for our goodies. The young woman behind the counter raised her head, looked at me and said, keyi. "Sure, you can." She then quickly got a confused look on her face, and corrected herself..."No, you can't use a card. It's cash only." After a bit of laughter, she explained that she got flustered when she saw it was an American speaking such didao (authentic) Chinese. I took that as an indicator not of my own ability, but rather of just how few Americans there are, even in the great melting pot of New York City, who have learned Mandarin.

Our final stop was the best of them all. Down a side street, there was a little restaurant that advertised itself as a hot pot joint. Desi, being our resident hot pot fanatic, gave the go-ahead and what followed was two hours of good, old fashioned dipping, boiling, and chowing down on lamb, mushrooms, noodles, sweet potatoes, and lotus root. Desi called it the best hot pot she has had in the United States. Not that there is much hot pot to be had at all over here, but the point is that the place was very good. As Desi put it, there is a certain danger in knowing there is delicious hot pot only a couple of hours away.

Bolt Bus, here we come...

~Steve

2012-01-05T05:00:00.003-05:00

Sweet Dreams Come True...Kind Of!

During the school year, I am not a big TLC watcher. But for some reason, during the holidays, Z and I tend to watch it a lot. Whether its Say Yes to the Dress, What Not to Wear, or LA Ink, we go on TLC marathons. One of our favorites, though, has to be Cake Boss and its branch show, The Next Great Baker. And since we are always in New Jersey, visiting our grandparents, I'm always trying to drag everyone to Hoboken to visit Carlo's Bakery.

At long last I can say I've been to the Cake Boss shop! But let me emphasize...I've been to it. That doesn't mean in it.

With a two hour line, I resorted to peeking through the shop window to see if I could glimpse Buddy inside with my zoomed camera lens. Although he wasn't there, I did see Buddy's wife, Lisa, the pastry chef, Mauro, and one of Buddy's older sisters.

And so we left, with a New Year's resolution to drag ourselves out of bed early enough to beat the crowds and finally get a famous bite of a Carlo's Bakery cannoli.

~Julie

PS: As a side note, Hoboken itself is a great little town to hang out in, with a pizza place every ten feet!

2012-01-03T05:45:00.002-05:00

RegBlog

A post I have written about online regulatory consultation in China is the featured post today over at RegBlog, a leading site for information about regulation around the world. Click here to check out the post, which reports on my ongoing research on the Internet, political participation, and governance reform in China. The Chinese Internet is more than a battle over censorship and freedom of expression (although it certainly is that). There are online spaces emerging where mutually beneficial exchanges between citizens and government officials can occur. The process of tracking and analyzing these exchanges, as I describe in the post, has just begun. Stay tuned...

~Steve

2011-12-31T05:00:00.001-05:00

There's One Way To Ring In The New Year!

The Songhua River, which runs through the far northern Chinese city of Harbin, is frozen solid all winter long. Three years ago on New Year's Eve, we had the chance to walk across this major river, all dressed up for what was quite a memorable evening jaunt. Having experienced first-hand all of that ridiculous wind and cold, there is no way I would ever even consider joining in with this crazy crew!

~Steve

2011-12-30T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Tom Joad Project

This winter, Julie, Z, and I have taken on what we are calling "The Tom Joad Project." The three of us are all reading The Grapes of Wrath. In this current environment of economic austerity, it will be interesting to take a little trip back to that bleakest time of all. What are some of the key similarities and differences across the decades?

Once we are done with Steinbeck's classic, we are planning to delve into some of the art that has been inspired by the book. At the top of the list, of course, will be the film, starring Henry Fonda, that was based on the novel itself. Having never seen the film, I don't have any sense of how closely it hews to the original story.

Given my Springsteen fanaticism, we will be listening, and checking out the lyrics, to some of the most relevant tracks from the Boss's catalog. These songs will include "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which is an obvious choice, to say the least (along with Woody Guthrie's "The Ballad of Tom Joad"). And I plan on bringing out "Seeds," a little known, but powerful number that just rocks in concert.

What else should we be looking at? Are there any classic paintings? Other types of artwork altogether?

~Steve

2011-12-29T05:00:00.002-05:00

Ping Pong Has Arrived!

The big addition at Casa Balla this Christmas was an outdoor ping pong table, the logical extension of all that time in China, not to mention Z's daily routine at Georgetown Prep.

We are now taking all comers!

~Steve

2011-12-28T05:00:00.003-05:00

The Melting Pot Of Matey Road

On Christmas Eve, we were blessed with the company of friends and family from around the world. From left to right, the respective hometowns are represented (rounded, in some cases, to states or nearby large cities)...Belfast, Northern Ireland...Qufu, China...Xi'an, China...Durham, North Carolina...Nanjing, China...New Jersey...New Jersey...New Jersey.

Plus, there were a number of natives of Silver Spring, MD in attendance, as well as representation from Budapest, Hungary and Germany (by way of Bavaria). And maybe a native Bostonian?

~Steve

2011-12-27T05:00:00.002-05:00

Spooky DC

The intersection of I and 19th, Washington, DC, 8am, the day after Christmas.

Is there anybody out there?

~Steve

2011-12-26T05:00:00.000-05:00

Ching Ching Cha

Our favorite tea house, this side of Shanghai, is undoubtedly Ching Ching Cha. Located in Georgetown, right up from the C&O Canal, Ching Ching Cha is a great place for all things Chinese tea.

For our money, there is no beating the gongfu cha, which is a certain way of preparing, enjoying the fragrance of, and, finally, drinking some of the best tea China has to offer. We especially recommend the Orchid Oolong for your gongfu cha pouring pleasure...so soothing and warming on a cold, busy day!

On top of all of that good news, I don't even have to light up a cigarette when I walk in the door!

~Steve

PS: I know we have posted about Ching Ching Cha before, but it has been a while, and the place really is a gem...

2011-12-23T05:00:00.003-05:00

The Georgetown Prep Christmas Concert

Kudos to the Prep Singers, A Cupola Hoyas, and the String Ensemble for a lovely Christmas concert in the beautiful setting of the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes. While all of the boys did a fantastic job, our favorite moment, of course, was when Z had a solo during a number performed by the freshmen Prep Singers. For everyone who has not heard Z's voice in a while, he sings bass, and really got down there for his moment in the spotlight.

~Steve

2011-12-22T07:08:00.003-05:00

Fishing At The Summer Palace

Today it is Julie's turn to have a picture she took this past summer in Beijing selected as photo of the day over at China Digital Times.

The Summer Palace is a World Heritage Site, one of China's A-list tourist attractions. After living in such close proximity to the site over the years, the four of us have kind of turned the Summer Palace into our local, neighborhood park, going there for a walk on Christmas Day, that sort of thing.

It was during one such outing, to a back area of Kunming Hu, the lake that serves as the centerpiece of this dynastic retreat, that Julie spied a single man standing in the tall grass, throwing his line into the water. Nice picture, Jules!

~Steve

2011-12-22T05:00:00.005-05:00

The Anglo-Saxon Hoard

In the summer of 2009, an amateur metal detector enthusiast made one of the greatest archeological finds of our time. Hidden under the dirt of a farm in central England was a hoard of gold that had been buried there some 1,600 years ago, during the Dark Ages. Valued at more than $5 million, the hoard is likely, over the next couple of decades, to contribute significantly to our understanding of life in that period after the fall of the Roman Empire, as the Anglo-Saxons generally left very little behind in terms of tangible evidence of their communities and ways of living.

For the next couple of months, items from the hoard are on display at the headquarters of National Geographic, down in DC. After checking out the exhibit, we all walked away much more in the know about the Anglo-Saxons and the hoard itself. (It's been a while since Mr. O'Connor's 9th-10th grade Western Civ class, where the year 1066 was forever ingrained in my head!)

One of the key lessons was how a cloisonne style was used to embed garnets (like those in the accompany picture) in metal pieces. These teeny-tiny garnets were crafted with incredible precision, so as to fit snuggly in sword hilts and other war-making items. All of this was done, it has to be emphasized, without the benefit of power tools! Anglo-Saxon scholars still are not quite sure how this craftsmanship was pulled off.

Speaking of pulling things off, it is absolutely crazy to think about ordinary folks uncovering such historically important treasures. Terry Herbert, whose metal detector happened to be in the right place. Those peasants who stumbled upon the Terra Cotta warriors while digging a well. Who needs National Treasure!?

~Steve

2011-12-21T05:51:00.006-05:00

Public Performance Near Panjiayuan, Beijing

The folks over at China Digital Times have, once again, chosen a picture I took as their photo of the day.

This photo, taken this past summer on an early Saturday morning, captures a public performance being put on by a band of school children. The children are wearing their school uniforms, complete with the ubiquitous red scarves. I stood behind their director to catch them playing in a small park on a street neat Panjiayuan, Beijing's famous dirt market, where Z has spent innumerable hours haggling with merchants over treasures that now adorn his room in Silver Spring.

As for me, as I have posted about before, trips to Panjiayuan are exercises in distractions. Not much interested in the trinkets, clothes, metal works, and other items on sale in the rows of small stalls, I spend my time trying to come up with tasks to keep me tuned in while the rest of the gang shops 'til they drop. That morning, I was on the prowl for some street breakfast food (a quest that was ultimately successful), when I came across those young players and their director. I was compelled to watch this little street performance, and inch into position to take a picture that is, for the day, being seen by China watchers from around the world. Pretty cool!

~Steve

2011-12-21T05:00:00.001-05:00

The Silk Road

We had the chance last week, thanks to connections in DC and Beijing, to take in a performance put on at the Kennedy Center by the Gansu Dance Theater. The production was the company's rendition of a story of love and intrigue along that famous trading route that connected Asia, Europe, and points in between for many, many centuries. Here is how the promotional materials described the program...

Inspired by the magnificent Dunhuang frescoes, the award-winning classical Chinese dance drama Silk Road is performed by Gansu Dance Theater. A tale of the friendship forged between the Chinese people and peoples of various countries along the Silk Road in the time of the Tang Dynasty, Silk Road follows master fresco painter Zhang, his daughter Yingniang, and Persian merchant Yunus.

Dunhuang is a city out in Gansu Province, an area in China's desert northwest that is home to some of the most famous frescoes in that part of the world. This past summer, we had the chance to visit the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, a place much closer to Beijing that also is quite an attraction due to its historic caves (click here and here for some of what we wrote about the experience).

After seeing the performance, which we all enjoyed (even if I myself have no idea what really transpired in the story line!), there now is the beginning of a movement to make Dunhuang the next major stop on our ongoing tour of China. Yes, Des, it will be the desert, and it will be summertime...But something tells me Julie and especially Z (our resident northwest China fanatic!) may now be driving the train!

~Steve

2011-12-20T05:00:00.002-05:00

Ping Pong In The George

One of the side benefits of Z going to Georgetown Prep is that the school is like a small college campus, complete with a student center where the boys hang out. And, once in a while, this dad...

Our time in China has whetted our appetites for ping pong (see here, here, and here for some our "ping pong diplomacy"). Thanks to the table in "The George" (as the George Center is affectionately known), Z gets to play ping pong on a daily basis, during lunch and the long break between classes. (Never mind the issue about whether he should be eating better and getting a head start on homework!)

As for me, on those occasions when I swing by campus, for a football game, for a parent meeting, I make a beeline for the table, which, by the way, doesn't have a proper net. (You would think that the boys could secure and maintain a net for their table...I may have to start carrying one in the back of the minivan!)

With all of this practice, just wait until we get back to Yan Bei Yuan...We may actually be able to compete with Chinese retirees!

~Steve

2011-12-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

"The Best Dim Sum Outside of Canton"

That is how Song Wei described this dim sum joint in the Chinese section of Brooklyn. Dude, you are so right! Get out there, Glenn!

~Steve

2011-12-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Where Are Conan O'Brien And The Fake Tina Fey?

Click here for the answer. At least we got to see where the Rangers practice...

~Steve

2011-12-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Julie And The Boy Who Lived

That's Daniel Radcliffe in the background (on the side of the building), plugging "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

~Steve

2011-12-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

Check Out China Digital Times

A picture I took this summer is the photo of the day over at China Digital Times, one of the best places on the Internet for news about the Middle Kingdom. Click here to check out the story behind the photograph.

~Steve

PS: I eventually did get my hair cut by one of the guys...

2011-12-15T05:00:00.006-05:00

"Neighborhood Information Systems as Intermediaries in Democratic Communities"

An article I wrote (together with Sungsoo Hwang of Yeungnam University) has just been published in a book entitled, Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication. This volume, by MIT Press, is the end product of the International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policy Making (about which I have blogged about here, here, and here, among other places). Essentially, a group of researchers from both sides of the Atlantic spent three years meeting in Europe and the United States, working in collaboration on issues in e-democracy, trying to synthesize a theoretically sound and empirically grounded view of technology and politics.

Here is a summary of the book, taken from the volume's web page over at MIT Press...

The global explosion of online activity is steadily transforming the relationship between government and the public. The first wave of change, "e-government," enlisted the Internet to improve management and the delivery of services. More recently, "e-democracy" has aimed to enhance democracy itself using digital information and communication technology. One notable example of e-democratic practice is the government-sponsored (or government-authorized) online forum for public input on policymaking. This book investigates these "online consultations" and their effect on democratic practice in the United States and Europe, examining the potential of Internet-enabled policy forums to enrich democratic citizenship.

The book first situates the online consultation phenomenon in a conceptual framework that takes into account the contemporary media environment and the flow of political communication; then offers a multifaceted look at the experience of online consultation participants in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France; and finally explores the legal architecture of U.S. and E. U. online consultation. As the contributors make clear, online consultations are not simply dialogues between citizens and government but constitute networked communications involving citizens, government, technicians, civil society organizations, and the media. The topics examined are especially relevant today, in light of the Obama administration's innovations in online citizen involvement.

And here is what some experts in the field are saying about the book...

“Online consultation and collaboration are the keys to better communications and government performance. Coleman and Shane have put together a distinguished set of thinkers who propose innovative ways to empower citizens, create digital networks, and promote more meaningful forms of electronic democracy. This is not a futuristic vision, but a model of how government can and should operate.”
—Darrell M. West, Vice President of Governance Studies, Brookings Institution

“Connecting Democracy is a must read for anyone interested in how the Internet has changed the way democracies work. The book makes clear that the Internet can transform governance in much more complex ways than often recognized.”
—James N. Druckman, Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University

“This impressive volume draws on experience from around the globe, and raises fundamental questions about the nature of democratic institutions, as well as whether or how technology makes a difference. This is a book that scholars, students and policymakers cannot afford to ignore, because it offers clear thinking and solid evidence on democratic practice for the future.”
—Karen Mossberger, Professor, Public Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago

“Online consultation has enormous promise for supporting democratic institutions and processes, but the reality seldom approximates the visions of its champions. A stellar, international set of cyber-realists have assembled this multi-disciplinary collection to explain why this is the case, and what can be done to realize its potential. This is must reading for anyone with a serious interest in democracy and the Internet.”
—William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

~Steve

2011-12-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

China Takes Times Square By Storm!

Here's some fodder for all of you out there who are angry about or scared of China's rise, straight from the official news agency of the Chinese Communist Party.

~Steve

2011-12-13T05:00:00.002-05:00

Eating A "Dirty Hot Dog" On 5th Avenue

This one's for you Grampy...Is it any dirtier than what I eat on the street in Beijing (click here, here, and here to review the bidding)?

~Steve

2011-12-12T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Empire Strikes Back

You literally cannot make it back down from the top of the Empire State Building without passing through the gift shop. Luckily, we don't have any skyscraper aficionados in the family...

~Steve

2011-12-09T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Top Of The World

Here are some views from the top of the Empire State Building...a standard shot looking southward and an attempt at being a little artsy. As for the tower shot, note that it costs an extra $15 per person to go up to the 102nd floor, on top of the $22 per person fee for riding up to the 86th floor. We decided a picture would be close enough...

~Steve

2011-12-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

French Korean Bakeries Rock!

Grab a tray and some tongs, and go get it done...

~Steve

2011-12-07T05:00:00.000-05:00

The Best New York City Pizza!

It was great, during our trip north over Thanksgiving, to go by what is Michael Scott's "favorite New York pizza joint"...

~Steve

2011-12-06T05:00:00.001-05:00

24 in Moscow

What do you do when you have a six-hour layover in Moscow, too short to go check out the Kremlin and Red Square, but long enough to be uncomfortable and bored out of your skull?

Jack Bauer to the rescue! Man, watching several episodes of 24 really made the time fly by!

It's just too bad that we happened to be watching a season where Russians weren't the bad guys...

~Steve

2011-12-05T05:00:00.002-05:00

Taylor Meets The Boss

This was the scene backstage in Raleigh, before a recent Taylor Swift concert. Now that's a pair of singer, songwriter performers!

~Steve

PS: Those are lyrics to "No Surrender" written on Taylor's arm on stage later that night. Despite what Bruce says, stay in school, kids...

2011-12-01T05:00:00.004-05:00

"Institutional Design and the Management of Regulatory Governance"

An article I have written has just been published in a volume entitled the Handbook on the Politics of Regulation. You can click here to check the volume out. In the meantime, here is what some readers are saying...

‘Political science has leap-frogged law, economics, and sociology to become the dominant discipline contributing to regulatory studies. David Levi-Faur’s volume taps the rich veins of regulatory scholarship that have made this the case. It brings together the talented new network of politics scholars intrigued by the importance of the changing nature of state and non-state regulation. Their fresh insights complement important new work by established stars of the field. Definitely a book to have on your shelf when in search of exciting theoretical approaches to politics.’
– John Braithwaite, Australian National University

‘“Regulation”, in its manifold forms, is the central process of contemporary governance, as it seeks to blend the dynamism of market economies with responsiveness to political and normative demands for health, safety, environmental protection, and fairness. Understanding regulation’s varieties, vulnerabilities, and virtues has become a significant focus of academic research and theory. This volume provides an extraordinary survey of research in that field – a survey remarkable in its comprehensiveness, outstanding in the quality of the contributions by leading regulatory scholars from different nations and academic disciplines.’
– Robert A. Kagan, University of California, Berkeley, US

‘An authoritative collection by a range of contributors with outstanding reputations in the field.’
– Michael Moran, University of Manchester, UK

‘This is an extraordinarily useful one-stop-shop for a wide range of traditions and approaches to the political aspects of regulation. David Levi-Faur has assembled a fine collection that by reporting on the state of the art also shows the way ahead for a discipline that has to capture and explain dramatic changes in real-world regulatory philosophies and policies.’
– Claudio Radaelli, University of Exeter, UK

‘This is an unusually impressive edited volume. Its contributors include the leading academic experts on government regulation from around the world. Its several clearly-written and informative essays address the most important topics, issues, and debates that have engaged students of regulatory politics. I strongly recommend this volume to anyone interested in understanding the breadth and depth of contemporary scholarship on the political dimensions of regulation.’
– David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, US

~Steve

2011-11-30T05:00:00.006-05:00

Scenes From The Top Of Juyongguan

Yes, it might have taken several hours to get there, but it was most definitely worth the trip!

~Steve

PS: You know I left that piece of the Great Wall behind, right!? I was just pointing out the poor quality of the masonry work...

2011-11-29T05:00:00.003-05:00

Head Over Heels

This is the latest in our occasional series (see here and here) of photos of Chinese women in high heels, negotiating ancient tourist sites.

~Steve

2011-11-28T05:00:00.001-05:00

It Only Took Seven Years!

Yes, Desi was happy to make it back to Juyongguan! I'm sure being subjected to one of our Balla family death marches (see the previous post) only heightened her enthusiasm!

~Steve

2011-11-25T05:00:00.001-05:00

Return To The Juyongguan Great Wall

After a summer of posting about our lives this year in China, the one missing piece was any report about a jaunt out to the Great Wall. In recent years, we have jostled with the crowds at famous Great Wall tourist sites. We have discovered piles of rocks that are the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty version of the Great Wall. But, in the summer of 2011, the Great Wall was conspicuously absent from our itinerary. Absent, that is, until our last full day in China, when we decided that we simply couldn't get on a plane without setting foot somewhere on the collection of towers, walkways, and barriers that has come to be known as the Great Wall.

And so our minds turned to Juyongguan. Juyongguan is the closest section of the Great Wall to Beijing. That sounds promising, given our time constraints. (There was some packing to do, after all!)

And Juyongguan is a kind of special place for us, as it was where we first set eyes on the Great Wall. We'll never forget, back in 2004, turning the corner on that mountain road, and everyone on the tour bus gasping in amazement as our first glimpse of the Great Wall came into view. Seven years later, including many times driving or taking a train right past past Juyongguan, it was high time for a return hike up our Great Wall laojia.

The only problem...There is not an easy way to get out to Juyongguan. As we discovered back in 2008, there are no public buses that go out to Juyongguan from Beijing city. It was during the process of that discovery that I briefly, embarrassingly, lost my temper.

Sure, we could hire a driver...but where is the fun and adventure in that!?

Much stronger in my ability to read Chinese characters now than three years ago, I logged onto bjbus.com, looking for evidence that perhaps there is indeed a bus that goes from the center city out to Juyongguan. Pretty quickly, I hit the jackpot, discovering a route that departs not far from our apartment and goes right out to the Juyongguan Great Wall.

And so, onto a local bus it was, for the ten minute ride out to the island in the middle of a busy Beijing avenue, where we were to get onto the long distance bus of our dreams.

Only problem...Standing there on the island, cars, taxis, and buses whizzing by, it became clear to me that the website had lied. From sign to sign I went, looking for the bus that would deliver us to the Juyongguan Great Wall. But nowhere were the magical characters...居庸关长城...to be found.

In the heat of the moment, thwarted once again in our effort to secure direct passage to Juyongguan, we jumped on a bus heading to Shahe. Shahe is a place way out at the northern edge of Beijing, a kind of small town in its own right. We were now in "make it up as you go along" mode!

At the crowded bus station in Shahe, I managed to keep my temper this time, and located a local bus that promised the Juyongguan Great Wall as its final stop. Of course, that was something like sixty stops later, but we were in full "have fun" mindsets, and so we went with it.

This bus was quite a thrill. Winding its way through the tiny villages that dot the countryside north of Beijing, we found ourselves on paved roads, then rutted dirt roads, then little shopping areas. There was even a place that had a structure that looked suspiciously like a mini US Capitol Building. (This prompted conversation about why we would bother leaving China when Washington, DC was so close...)

Something like two hours later (yes...two hours later!), the bus finally reached the end of the line, a small town called Nankou. With mountains ringing the town, we were close to the Juyongguan, but apparently still had several kilometers to go. (Moral of the story...Take advertised bus routes with a grain of salt...)

Out of options, we hired a driver to take us the rest of the way up. This turned out to be a good call, as our driver was friendly and she knew which bus we should take back from Juyongguan down to Beijing city. Turns out, the 68 Changping bus (not any other 68 bus that might work the streets of Beijing!) goes from Juyongguan itself down to the Longze subway station at the outskirts of Beijing. From there, we could take the subway back to the area of our apartment on Xueyuan Nan Lu. And sure enough, although it took a couple of hours, the return trip worked out just as advertised. All we had to do was walk past a throng of hei che drivers, all of whom were telling us..."No foreigners take that bus! Come on into my car!" That much sure was true...it was just us and our closest Chinese friends on the 68, but that's the way we like it anyways!

As for the drive up to Juyongguan, it only took a few minutes in that hired car, and there we were...at last! We had returned! We would indeed walk on the Great Wall in the summer of 2011...

~Steve

2011-11-24T05:00:00.001-05:00

My Recommendations, Published In The Federal Register

Here's one that got away a few months back. You may recall that I was working this past spring on a series of recommendations regarding how agencies of the federal government might modify the processes by which they consult with the public when crafting regulations (click here, here, and here for a refresher).

Well, the end result of the project was that, while we were on the other side of the world this summer, the Administrative Conference of the United States published my recommendations in the Federal Register, the official daily publication of the United States executive branch.

You can click here to check out the recommendations in their entirety. Unless you are a total regulation nerd, these recommendations, in combination with the tryptophan you are about to eat, will ensure a good afternoon nap on the couch...

~Steve

2011-11-23T05:00:00.005-05:00

903 And Counting

Belated congratulations to Coach K for becoming the all-time winningest Division I Men's Basketball coach.

One of my favorite websites, the Duke Basketball Report, posted an interesting analysis of the prospects for other coaches one day eclipsing Coach K's record. The bottom line...It's not going to be easy...

Click here to see the post, or read on below...

K's Closest Pursuers

By Al Featherston

Claiming the all-time wins record is one thing. Holding it is another.

Sooner or later, another coach will make a run at Coach K’s title.

Just look at his predecessors.

When Phog Allen retired in 1956, his 746 career victories were far and away the most for any major college coach.

He held the record for 10 years.

Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp passed Allen late in the 1966 season – his victory over Duke in the Final Four that year was career win No. 749. He retired in 1972 with a record 876 wins.

Interesting to note that Rupp came very close to adding to that total as Duke’s head coach. When Bucky Waters resigned in September of 1973, athletic director Carl James reached a verbal agreement with the retired Rupp to coach the Blue Devils for one season while he looked for a permanent replacement. At the last minute, the death of Rupp’s farm manager caused him to change his mind and Waters’ assistant Neil McGeachy got the interim job for the 1973-74 season.

As it was, it was a quarter-century after Rupp’s retirement – and 31 years after he secured the record – that the Baron of the Bluegrass gave up his title to North Carolina’s Dean Smith.

Smith, who played for Phog Allen at Kansas, broke the record in the second round of the ’97 NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heel coach added two more wins in the tournament and retired the next fall with 879 wins.

That record stood for 10 years before Bob Knight, who had coached Krzyzewski at Army, took over the all-time victory title in his next-to-the-last season at Texas Tech. Knight returned midway through the 2008 season with 902 wins.

His record didn’t last four years.

Now Krzyzewski owns the title. How long can he hold it?

That’s impossible to answer for the simple reason that Krzyzewski is still coaching and we don’t know how much longer he will continue. Last summer, the Duke coach said emphatically, “if I have my health, I’m going to coach for a number of years.” In an interview last year, former player and K assistant coach Tommy Amaker predicted that Krzyzewski would not stop short of 1,000 wins.

Obviously, the longer he coaches, the harder he’s going to make it on his pursuers. But there’s more to it than simple longevity. The fact is that Krzyzewski is still winning games at a faster rate than anybody else in college basketball. Over the last three years, he’s won 97 games – significantly widening his lead over such pursuers as UConn’s Jim Calhoun (81 wins), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (85 wins) and UNC’s Roy Williams (83 wins).

So in a very real sense, the pursuit of K’s record can’t even begin until he retires – and that day is not yet in sight.

THE CLOSEST CHALLENGERS

Nine other active major college coaches have more than 600 wins, but just two are over 700.

Jim Boeheim, who might be Coach K’s best friend in the coaching profession, is in second place on the active list with 856 victories (starting the 2011-12 season) … one more than UConn coach Jim Calhoun.

All either coach has to do to catch and pass Krzyzewski is to coach two seasons beyond the retirement of the 64-year-old Duke coach.

The problem with that is that both challengers are older than Coach K.

Boeheim (born Nov. 17, 1944) is about to turn 68. Calhoun is even older (born in May of 1942) – he’ll turn 70 this spring and has had some serious health issues in recent years.

Anything is possible – as 84-year-old Joe Paterno proves – but it’s going to be tough for either Boeheim or Calhoun to outlast the Duke coach. And, remember, the longer he coaches, the wider the gap becomes.

The No. 4 active coach on the wins list is West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. He is a mere child of 58, but he’s also more than 200 wins back (691 wins to enter this season). Even at 25 wins a season (and he’s actually averaged 23.8 wins a season for his career), he’ll need more than eight seasons to get where Krzyzewski is now – and by then, he’ll be 66.

The No. 5 coach on the list is an oddity. Rollie Massmino has 658 career wins. He’s currently coach at Northwood University in Florida – an NAIA school.

But NCAA rules allow a coach with 10 seasons at a Division 1 school to add wins attained at a small college and to make this list. Thus, Jim Phelan (830 wins before his retirement in 2003), who coached 34 years at Mount St. Mary’s when it was a Division II school, gets to count all those wins to his total because he also coached 15 more years at Mount St. Mary’s when that school moved up to Division 1.

So Massimino, who won a national title at Villanova, can add to his total with NAIA wins at Northwood. But he’s 77 years old and isn’t going to get the 200-plus wins he needs to catch up to Krzyzewski’s current total.

No. 6 is UNC coach Roy Williams, who has a chance to match or maybe even better Coach K’s rate of wins over the next few years. But the 61-year-old Williams is just three years younger than his Duke rival and with 643 career wins is more than 250 wins off the pace. He simply got started too late.

No. 7 is Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, who came out of retirement in 2004 to resume his tenure at the Indiana school. He has 640 wins, but just turned 67 years old.

No. 8 is Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who has 625 wins (counting 15 years of victories at Division II Wisconsin-Platteville). But he’s the same age as K.

No. 9 is former Clemson coach Cliff Ellis, now at Coastal Carolina. He has 614 wins – but he’s two years older than Krzyzewski.

Mike Montgomery, currently at California, is No. 10 with 611 wins. He’s exactly two weeks younger than the Duke coach – both were born in February of 1947.

Two other coaches are closing in on 600 wins. Louisville’s Rick Pitino (599 wins) is five years younger than Krzyzewski, but more than 300 wins behind. Western Carolina’s Larry Hunter, who spent five years at mid-career as Herb Sendek’s top assistant at N.C. State, also has 599 wins as a head coach. He’s three years older than Pitino and just two years younger than Coach K.

THE BIG GUNS

Rating the challengers is a matter of balancing age and current win totals.

A coach with 600 career wins is still 300 wins behind what Krzyzewski has now. At the best, such a coach would need 10 more seasons of 30-plus wins to get to where Coach K is at age 64. And Coach K is the only coach in America who has sustained a 30-win per season average for more than a decade.

When you look at the coaches short of 500 wins … or 400 wins, it gets even tougher.

But there are some solidly established coaches who are piling up wins at a high rate. Let’s examine the best candidates to challenge Krzyzewski:

1. Bill Self, Kansas: Probably the best positioned to make a run at Coach K. Self has compiled 444 career wins going into this season – and he’s just 48 years old (he turns 49 next month). He’s averaged just under 30 wins a season since going to Kansas in 2003.

Still, he’s not even half way to Krzyzewski’s victory total. If he can sustain a rate of 30 wins a season for the next 15 years, he’ll be at 894 when he’s 64 years old … very close to where K is now. A long shot, but not impossible.

2. Billy Donovan, Florida: He turned 46 years old last spring with 395 career wins. He’s actually slightly ahead of Self’s pace, but has two years farther to go to catch Krzyzewski. His biggest problem is that he’s only topped 30 wins twice (in his back-to-back national title years) and has averaged “just” 26 wins a season since getting Florida to the 2000 Final Four. As good as 26 wins a season is, it’s not enough – he’s going to have to increase his average win total to make a run – or else coach significantly longer than Coach K.

3. John Calipari, Kentucky: The controversial coach won a lot of games in Memphis and has won a lot in his first two seasons at Kentucky, averaging just over 33 wins a year for the last three years. That’s if you count the 38 games he won in 2008 that were subsequently vacated by the NCAA. But he has demonstrated the ability to average 30-plus wins and the way his recruiting will going, he should be able to sustain that. Calipari, who will turn 53 in February, officially has 467 wins (not counting the four he had vacated at UMass and the 38 he had vacated at Memphis). Even if he sustains 30 wins a season, he’ll have right at 800 wins when he’s Krzyzewski’s current age. Even with the 42 vacated wins, he would still be far off Coach K’s pace.

4. Tom Izzo, Michigan State: Only Krzyzewski and maybe UNC’s Roy Williams have had more consistent NCAA success than the 56-year-old Izzo. But with just 383 wins in 16 seasons, he’s not close to coach K’s pace.

5. Thad Matta, Ohio State: He has 292 career wins at age 44 and should win at a high rate for the near future. But it would take 20 more years of 30 wins a season to get close to K’s current total.

Others: Jay Wright, Villanova: He’ll turn 50 in December. With 346 career wins, he’s not in the picture; Ben Howland, UCLA, is in even worse shape – four years older with one less career win; Jamie Dixon, Pitt, is just 46 years old, but has just 216 career wins; Mark Few, Gonzaga, has compiled 315 wins in 12 seasons, but he’ll turn 49 years next month. If he averages 25 wins a season for the next 15 years, he’ll still be short of 800 wins when he reaches Krzyzewski’s age.

THE YOUNG GUNS

The fact is that Krzyzewski’s eventual successor as the all-time wins leader is probably not on the immediate horizon.

It would take an unusual combination of circumstances – a premature end to Coach K’s career, coupled with unusual longevity by a challenger – before any of the current win leaders to catch the Duke Hall of Famer.

That’s not to suggest that any number of young coaches might work themselves into contention, given consistency and staying power. For instance:

– Brad Stevens: After back-to-back Final Fours, the Butler coach is the hottest young coach in the country. He’s off to a fast start with 117 wins in five seasons as head coach. At age 35, he’s certainly got a lot of good years ahead of him. But consider this, if he continues to average 23.4 wins a season for the next 30 years, he’ll have 803 career wins at age 65. He’s got to start winning at a better rate in the future to make a run at Krzyzewski’s record.

– Shaka Smart: A hot property after guiding VCU to the Final Four last season, Smart has won 55 games in his first two years as head coach. But he’s just six months younger than Butler’s Stevens and has less than half as many career wins. He’s facing the same hurdles in mounting a challenge that Butler faces in Indianapolis.

– Josh Pastner, Memphis: Just 34 years old, but just 49 career wins. Still, 30 seasons away from making a run.

– Sean Miller: The 43-year-old Herb Sendek protégé has 166 wins in five seasons at Xavier and two at Arziona. Even 20 straight seasons of 30 wins doesn’t get him close.

– Tony Bennett, Virginia: The youngest ACC coach has 100 career wins at age 42. That’s not going to get it done. Clemson coach Brad Brownell is just six months older and had 189 wins going into this season, but he’s not close to K’s pace either.

Looking at the candidates, it’s hard to see a coach who is well positioned to get to where Krzyzewski is now – 903 wins at age 64 (and he’ll get over 920 by the time he turns 65 in February). His closest challengers are older than he is. The top coaches in the game at the moment can’t match his pace. And the young coaches are too far away to judge at the moment.

So does that mean Krzyzewski will never be caught?

Well, when Muhammad Ali was in his prime, destroying every challenger with ridiculous ease, a reporter asked him if there was anybody in the world who could beat him. The cocky champ said, sure there is – somewhere in the world, he suggested, there is a 12-year-old boy who will grow up and beat an aging version of him.

That might be true for Krzyzewski – his challenger might be a 12-year old boy who hasn’t even reached college yet. It might be a current player or a 22-year-old unknown assistant.

Sooner or later, another coach will top 900 wins and make a viable run at whatever astronomical number of victories Coach K winds up with.

But Krzyzewski should keep the record for a long time – certainly longer than Phog Alle, Dean Smith or Bob Knight held it … and probably at least as long as Rupp’s 31-year tenure at the top.

NOTES

– It’s possible the game will change to allow teams to play significantly more games a season. That’s possible, the rate of games per year has risen slowly over the years. Allen averaged 20.8 games a season for his 498-year career (that started in the first decade of the 20th century). Rupp averaged exactly 26.0 games a season. Smith averaged 31.5 games a season similar to his contemporary, Knight (30.3 games a season). Kryzewski has averaged 32.9 games a season in his 36-year career.

Realistically, the number of games per season peaked in the 1990s and has been slowly squeezed by rulemakers in recent years. The current climate seems to indicate a shorter season and slightly less games. That could change, but it’s hard to see any significant increase.

– It’s important to note that Coach K is the leader in career wins for Division 1 men’s basketball coaches. He’s not the winningest NCAA men’s coach – that honor goes to Don Meyer, who coached 38 seasons at such small colleges as Hamline, Lipscomb and Northern State, winning 923 games before his retirement in 2010. At least Meyer held the record going into the season. Herb McGee, who has coached 44 years at Philadelphia University (formerly Philadelphia Textile) started the season with 922 wins. He’s still active.

There is also Harry Statham, who had 1,022 wins in 44 seasons at McKendree University – an NAIA school – in Lebanon, Ind. He retired in 2009.

Then there’s Pat Summit, who started this season with 1,071 career wins – all at Tennessee.

~Steve

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

The Regimental Ball

Last Friday evening, Julie attended the Regimental Ball that is hosted every year by the ROTC at St. John's College High School. The ball was held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, down in Washington, DC. Hey, any event where there are swords involved has to be a good time!

~Steve

2011-11-21T05:00:00.001-05:00

My Hour In Canada

I had the chance the other day to spend an hour or so in Canada. Located sixteen or so blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from my office, the Canadian Embassy invited me to come by and give a lecture to a group of government officials. These officials were visiting from Ottawa, learning about how Washington works. And so I regaled our visitors (or was I the visitor?) with tales of "The Regulatory System in America: Past, Present, and Future."

Because of the global economic malaise, regulation is actually kind of a hot topic these days, for the first time in like fifteen years. For its part, the Canadian government is interested in harmonizing regulatory regimes on both sides of the border, as a means of facilitating trade and economic exchanges in general. At least there are a few officials up there in Ottawa who know just a little bit more about just how difficult that task is likely to be...

~Steve

PS: I delivered my lecture in the "Canada Room." I don't know...That name just kind of tickled me...

2011-11-15T05:00:00.002-05:00

Homecoming 2011

At the Balla house, Columbia Country Club, and the Academy of the Holy Cross.

~Steve

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

Great Falls In The Fall

Nice work with the camera, Jules!

~Steve

PS: Yes, that's the moon up there...

2011-11-12T05:00:00.002-05:00

Come See The Ballas This Weekend!

We'll be at the St. Andrew Apostle craft fair all weekend. Stop on by!

~Steve

2011-11-11T05:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Pocky Day!

You know what to do, gang...Go out and buy all of your friends some Pocky!

~Steve

2011-11-10T05:00:00.003-05:00

From Hairspray to Sweeney Todd

Right on the heels of Z and Julie's Holy Cross performance as Council Member Brad and Prudy Pingleton, Halloween arrived and so too did Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. In addition to their costumes, they took over decorating the house this year and equipped each room with images from the musical. Fortunately today's version of fake blood is easily removed from windows, and refrigerators, and towels, and...

~Desi

2011-11-09T05:00:00.003-05:00

From The NBA To The Classroom

I did not know that Yao Ming's post-NBA life has included going back to school, let alone attending Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a place where I had the chance to lecture a few years back. And I thought I stood out on campus!

~Steve

PS: That's a chair that the university specially designed for its tallest student...

2011-11-07T05:00:00.004-05:00

On Measurement and Air Pollution

Here is a picture we snapped one day this summer out our living room window. As you can see, it wasn't the clearest of days in Beijing. And, apparently, the air has been at least this soupy in recent weeks.

The US Embassy in Beijing maintains a microwave-sized device on its rooftop. This device measures the amount of particulate matter in the air. If you check out the Twitter feed that is dedicated to reporting these data on an hourly basis, you can get a quick, real-time assessment of conditions on the ground.

Or can you?

(By the way, as I write this, the most common recent reading has been "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.")

The Chinese government has publicly questioned these readings on a number of grounds. One official put it this way..."I'm not clear about their monitoring tools and methods, and how they ensure accuracy." According to the city's own measurements, Beijing has enjoyed record numbers of blue sky days in recent years.

Part of the discrepancy between the American and Chinese stories derives from differences in measurement standards. Chinese public measurements track particles down to 10 micrometers. Due to reforestation and the strategic relocation of coal-burning operations, these types of relatively large particles indeed are less commonly blowing their way into Beijing.

As for the US Embassy, it counts particles as small as 2.5 micrometers. Although such particles can penetrate into the lungs and bloodstream, the Chinese government is not prepared to release its own parallel figures, for the following reason..."The public sees world standards, and they expect China to adopt the most advanced ones. But we must accept that the nation can't reach these standards quickly."

Once again, as I like to point out to my research methodology students, what is at first glance a technical measurement issue, turns out to be derivative of conceptualization. How does one conceive of "air pollution?" What is the conceptual phenomenon that one is trying to describe or explain?

So whose purposes and arguments do you find most relevant and convincing?

~Steve

2011-11-04T05:00:00.002-04:00

Do You Speak Chinese?

As you might imagine, we are asked all the time, when we meet new people and they find out that we spend a lot of time in China, whether we speak Mandarin.

I have found it interesting, over the years, to pay attention to how we (myself included) answer this question.

Oftentimes I just respond, "Yes." And, in most situations, that is enough.

But what about when we are asked more specifically? For example, "How well do you speak?"

Desi, I've noticed, will say things like, "Well, Steve is at an upper intermediate level. As for me, I can order a meal, tell a taxi driver where to go, and find a bathroom when I need it."

It is kind of a mess when you are "in the middle" with a language. What does that mean, to tell a person that you are at an upper intermediate level? How poor can your Chinese be if you can easily get around Beijing on your own?

Deep down, how do we convey our language abilities without downplaying them too much or overselling ourselves?

One thing that none of us would ever do, of course, is make the claim that we are anywhere near fluency. And so I found it interesting to see that presidential candidate John Huntsman, who was most recently the American ambassador to China, is coming under a bit of fire on the campaign trail for letting everyone think that he is a fluent Mandarin speaker.

I myself have no personal insight into the matter, but Slate posted an article the other day on the topic. The article picks through all of the public Mandarin speaking that Huntsman has done, including on programs such as the Colbert Report and Piers Morgan Tonight. Apparently, the bottom line is that Huntsman has not spoken much Mandarin in front of crowds, and when he has, the results have not been all that impressive.

If it really is true that this "fluent" Mandarin-speaking presidential candidate is not so fluent after all, then I for one can certainly identify with him in certain respects. It is quite a language to learn, and there is a long distance between even solid competency and true fluency. Although the truly hard part is bridging that distance, it is also the case that this "upper intermediate" learner finds it pretty tough to communicate to friends, family, and acquaintances just what I can and can't do with the Chinese language.

~Steve

2011-10-31T05:00:00.002-04:00

Four Shows In Three Days

And we enjoyed them all! Good job to Julie, Z, and the rest of the Hairspray cast and crew!

~Steve

PS: That's a few cast and crew members hanging out in the snow after the Saturday matinee...

2011-10-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hairspray!

Here's hoping Julie and Z break a leg this weekend during their four performances of the musical Hairspray.

For Julie, it will be quite a change in character from her award-winning performance this past spring as drunkard Sir Toby Belch. This time around, Julie will play Prudy Pingleton, an anti-dancing, anti-integration mother who has lost touch in a world gone mad.

For Z, it will be lots of singing and dancing (but, alas, no sword fighting!) as Brad, a member of the Corny Collins Council. Not a bad way to start high school!

~Steve

2011-10-26T05:00:00.003-04:00

Marillion North American Tour 2012!

Well, the Balla family knows where it will be on certain dates come next June...Don't we gang!?

MARILLION SET TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2004

The British are coming! Marillion have announced their long awaited return to North America, for a 13-date summer tour. Having maintained a continuous touring schedule through the rest of the world, as well as the high profile Marillion Convention Weekend events, this will be the band’s first visit to the US since 2004. The tour will hit several cities across North America, with 2-consecutive-night events planned in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. To mark the occasion of these special events, Marillion will be performing different set-lists over the consecutive shows in these cities. Fans travelling to these destinations will witness unique sets as the band set-up camp in select markets.

As legions of fans that regularly flock to see the band live or buy their records are all too aware, there really is no other band like Marillion. Hailed as Internet pioneers for their game-changing use of technology to unify and mobilize their global fan community, Marillion have been un-compromising with their music and vision. With their revolutionary presale campaigns, in-house label and their own Racket Records recording studio, Marillion have remained uniquely independent. The overwhelming demand to bring Marillion back to the States once resulted in a fan-sponsored tour fund and a series of legendary dates for rabid fans in 1997. For their 2012 return to North America though, everyone’s invited to experience the unforgettable show that only Marillion can deliver. Currently in the studio, creating their 17th studio album, Marillion look forward to unveil their latest collection in mid 2012 as they hit US shores.

Date	City	Venue	Tickets
10 June Sun	Washington DC USA	9:30 Club	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
12 June Tues	New York City USA	Irving Plaza	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
13 June Weds	New York City USA	Irving Plaza	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
15 June Fri	Philadelphia USA	TLA	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
16 June Sat	Boston USA	Paradise Rock Club	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
18 June Mon	Quebec Canada	Imperial	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
19 June Tues	Montréal Canada	L'Olympia	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
20 June Weds	Toronto Canada	The Opera House	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
22 June Fri	Chicago USA	Park West	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
23 June Sat	Chicago USA	Park West	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
27 June Weds	Los Angeles USA	House Of Blues	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
28 June Thurs	Los Angeles USA	House Of Blues	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November
29 June Fri	San Francisco USA	The Fillmore	Tickets on sale 4th/5th November

~Steve

2011-10-21T05:00:00.001-04:00

Game Over!

Looks like he's got you, Daddy!

~Mommy

2011-10-19T05:00:00.005-04:00

Shooting Pumpkins Out Of A Cannon

What better way to spend a gorgeous fall afternoon than bringing the power and sending pumpkins at high speed crashing into Transformers, trash cans, and other distant targets!?

~Steve

PS: Blow up the pictures and you'll see Desi's handiwork in catching the pumpkins mid flight...

2011-10-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

Great News!

The letter goes something like this...

Dear Friend to wildlife:

We know that you are concerned about the animal you brought to our Center for treatment and care.

Thanks to you, the animal that may have died is now healthy, wild and free. Your Eastern grey squirrel was released on 8 October 2011.

We would like to share our joy with you and thank you for helping us with our successful goal of wildlife rehabilitation.

Second Chance Wildlife Center
7101 Barcellona Drive
Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Go, baby Irene, go! Grow, baby, grow!

Thanks to you, Second Chance, for all the wonderful work you do!

~Desi

2011-10-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Occupy Wall Street, China Style

I have been waiting for weeks to hear reports emanating out of China that there have been public gatherings inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. I have also been wondering just how the Chinese government might react to such mass gatherings. Below are excerpts of some reporting by Asia Times Online that touches on both of these issues. Click here for the full story, which has been covered by other outlets as well.

As the Occupy Wall Street protests targeting corporate greed and political corruption spread from coast to coast in the United States, China's new leftists - socialist critics of the country's capitalist-style economic reforms - are beginning to lend support, declaring the demonstrations as a "great revolution" that sounds the death-knell for capitalism throughout the world.

Supporters of the new leftists have staged street protests in at least two cities of Henan province, Luoyang and Zhengzhou, in the past few days to show their "firm support" for the "Great Wall Street Revolution".

Participants put up a big picture of Mao and displayed a huge banner with the slogan "To Staunchly Support American People's Great 'Wall Street' Revolution!" The wording of the slogan reminds people of Mao's "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution".

Participants in the Luoyang and Zhengzhou gatherings were mostly aged in their 50s or older. People in that age group are more nostalgic for Mao and his era of greater social equality, particularly as gaps in society widen today.

Chinese authorities seem to have closed their eyes to unauthorized public gatherings in Henan.

~Steve

2011-10-13T05:00:00.002-04:00

Bucket List Entry Checked Off

[Editor's note: With the North Carolina State Fair kicking off today in Raleigh, here is a post that Desi penned after last year's road trip. It's one of the ones that got away. And a good one at that.]

Ever since I was a kid, I imagined myself shooting the red star out of one of those cards you see on the midways of fairs and amusement parks. I even planned it in my mind...I'll shoot around the border of the star itself, slowly and deliberately, lining up the shots on each edge.

Did I ever ask my folks for the five bucks it would cost to try it? No, never. It just seemed like too much of a splurge...Even though the prizes always looked so good.

This time, though, I wouldn't be denied, so I nudged Z and told him to join me over at the "Machine Gun" stand. "Really?" he asked. "Actually," I said, "go and ask Daddy for some cash first." (I try not to carry a purse at the fair if I don't have to!)

So with six dollars in hand (three for each of us...a bargain in my mind!), Z and I headed over and wielded our weaponry.

Suffice it to say that it was not as easy as I had imagined. Not by a long "shot." I should have known when the guy behind the counter ducked...just kidding! Seriously though (well, as serious as you can be about a game), it was nothing like I thought. The paper kept blowing backwards as I shot at it. As you can see by the photo, not only did I not shoot out the red star...I didn't even get one shot through the red star! Unfortunately my showing here was not quite as good as our shooting contest a couple of years ago in Texas when I took on all the Ballas and emerged victorious.

While there was no reward in it for me this time (Steve was probably relieved that we didn't have to cart a life-size cheetah back to Maryland anyway!), the real prize was sharing that moment with Z. He wasn't expecting it, which made it all the better!

~Desi

2011-10-06T05:00:00.002-04:00

The Songzhuang Artist Colony

This is the true story of how we went to spend the day with friends of ours who live in a remote village near the border of Hebei Province and ended up eating dinner at the home of a professional artist in a famous art colony we had never heard of.

One of our regular destinations this past summer was a nondescript place called Yanjiao, a small town in Hebei Province just over the river from Beijing. "Just over the river" makes it sound like Yanjiao was no more than a hop, skip, and a jump from our apartment in the middle of Beijing. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. To get to Yanjiao and the nearby village where we have friends, we had to run the following two-plus hour marathon...

Take a bus from our apartment to the Beijing metro system. Take the #2 subway line to the #1 line. Make another transfer from the #1 line to the Batong Line. Take a local bus way out into the middle of endless fields of corn. Along the way, fight with masses of Beijingers trying to ride the same buses and trains and trying to make the same transfers. Oh, and get on the wrong bus going way out into the middle of the wrong cornfields.

At some point kind of late in the afternoon, after hours of good fellowship, I asked a pretty straightforward question. "Hey, what time does the last bus come through here, heading back in the direction of Beijing?" I had a sneaking suspicion that the answer might be something like 8pm, given how remote our location was.

"5:30 or so," came back the answer.

Well, then, we had better get going! Don't want to miss that last bus!

"Nah, don't worry about it. We'll make sure you get to an area where there are later buses."

For some reason, that kind of unverified statement always seems to resonate with us in China, and so we sat tight, continuing our conversations and good times.

And so it was a little while later that a couple of newcomers came walking into the traditional brick-style courtyard home where we were hanging out. It turns out that, unbeknownst to us, we were all heading out to go see some friends of our countryside hosts, some Christian friends who are resident artists in what is apparently one of the hippest artist colonies in all of China.

Here's how the deal went down. There was a man with a sanlunche, the ubiquitous three-wheeled cycles that we are always writing about. Onto the back of the sanlunche climbed Desi and three of our friends. There was also a woman, wearing really cool dark shades, who was riding a motorbike. That was my ride...Nice! As for Julie and Z, it was jump onto an old-fashioned bicycle, with one pedaling and the other riding on the back. And so off we went...

Desi's driver apparently knew where we were going and jetted off, leaving the rest of us in the dust. Although our motorbike could cover some ground, the woman in the dark sunglasses kept the pace slow, so Julie and Z could follow along and not get lost in the middle of the rural Beijing landscape.

As the two of us rode on, I asked questions from my perch in the back. "What's up with this artist colony?" It turns out that artists from all over China, and the rest of the world, flock to this desolate place where the rents are cheap and the camaraderie abundant. In fact, glasses girl herself had migrated to Songzhuang (as I had just discovered our destination was called) from Shanxi Province, just so she could work in an art gallery.

"Do you want to see the gallery?" Well, of course that was going to be the next question! So off our prescribed path we went, with Julie and Z struggling like mad to pedal fast enough and keep up.

Since it was now after normal working hours, the gallery was, predictably, closed for the day. But glasses girl was not to be deterred. Working her cell phone, she contacted a colleague who was still somewhere inside the warehouse-looking structure, a young woman who opened the door and let us in.

I'd like to say that the art was great (and some of it was pretty cool), but the dominant mood inside the gallery was one of impatience. You see, just after we went inside, Desi called, having arrived with the rest of the posse at our originally intended destination, the home of one of the aforementioned Catholic artists. Desi was now on her own, in an unfamiliar place, with no one who speaks English, in a house where there were inexplicably tons of little kids running around wreaking havoc. (It turns out, to cut to the chase, that our artist-dinner host teaches painting to local children as a way of making ends meet.)

Meanwhile, back at the gallery, Julie, Z, and I politely but quickly made our way through room after room, eventually heading back outside and onto our respective bikes. Back onto the streets and within a few minutes we joined up with Desi and the chaos that was going down at the really neatly renovated courtyard home of our new artist friend.

At one point, while the artist was preparing a dinner made solely from ingredients grown by himself on his own property, one of the little kids came running up and exclaimed, "Teacher! One of your chickens has gotten outside of the courtyard!"

You know I had to be a part of that chase scene! Down the narrow alley between the artist's home and the courtyard next door we went. Around the back. Reaching down into vines full of ripening squash, there it was, the chicken, now firmly held in place and carried back inside the big courtyard gate and door.

Strolling through the rooms of the courtyard, there was plenty of art to be seen, some of it finished, some of it still in progress. Much of it, our artist friend told us, is from a current series that he is working on, a series inspired by visions of the Resurrection and the ascension into Heaven of all those souls who were emancipated from Purgatory.

For its part, dinner was spectacular. Freshly picked vegetables, all prepared in that distinctive north China peasant style of cooking. (Old China hands, I would hope, have a strong idea of what I am trying to describe here.)

So this is all good...But, uh, how are we getting home? After all, it was getting to be pretty late in the evening, and we still were far from home and any trace of metropolitan Beijing.

After a phone call from our artist friend, a guy with a small car pulled up, positioned to drive us back to Beijing. "Cool, that should be much faster!" And the price we negotiated was more than fair, actually one of the best bargains I think we have ever had in years of living in China.

The only hitch? The folks who we had originally come all this way to see decided that they would go back to Beijing with us and crash for the night in our apartment. Let's get this straight...Two families of four, plus a driver...All squeezing into a car about the size of a Ford Escort...Sounds good to us! Let's do it!

You can imagine...Desi riding shotgun, with a kid (not one of ours!) on her lap. Us in the back seat, one person sitting and leaning forward, the next person squished in behind. Somehow four of us fell asleep...Not me, though, as my job was to talk with the driver and make sure he knew where he was going (and that he didn't fall asleep!).

Hey, I didn't lie to you, folks!

~Steve

2011-10-05T05:00:00.003-04:00

World Wide Day of Play

Yes, I may be a junior in high school, but I am still obsessed with Nickelodeon. I get extremely excited when there is a new episode of iCarly or Victorious, and love the actors from both shows. Naturally, I follow all of them on Twitter and am always looking for a chance to meet a few of these personal inspirations.

So how do you think I reacted when I found out that practically everyone from Nickelodeon would be here, in DC, attending World Wide Day of Play? Lets just say there was no chance I wasn't going to be there! The entire week leading up to Saturday, September 24, I was completely ecstatic and full of anticipation.

When we first got downtown, everything was crowded. Between the Solar Decathlon, the World Bank Meeting, the National Book Festival, and World Wide Day of Play, the thousands of people and cars adds up pretty quickly. So Mommy and Daddy dropped Z and I off where we could walk to the Ellipse on the National Mall, the location of the World Wide Day of Play events. We started exploring the whole area immediately. It was full of all kinds of sporty activities for little kids including a batting cage, tennis courts, a basketball court, and a giant stage was set up on the east side for the Big Time Rush concert. Our eyes set on meeting some famous people rather than waiting on long lines, we made our way to the stage area and the obstacle course, just in time to hear screaming...

~Julie

2011-10-04T05:00:00.001-04:00

Pad Frenzy

Warning: This post may not be for everyone. If feminine products make you blush, check out some of our other posts instead.

On that note, it has taken me three years to get up the courage to write this one. I can no longer contain myself, because this is a part of Chinese culture that has tickled me since I first stepped into a Chinese grocery store.

We all know that Willie Wonka is the candy king. When he opens those doors to the chocolate factory, even the pessimist cannot help but be delighted. This is the analogy that comes to my mind when I recall walking into our local Beijing Carrefour (kind of like a Chinese Walmart) in search of, well, I think you know. As I turned down the aisle, I felt that Mr. Wonka must have been their stock boy. In this way there seemed to be no end to the types of pads available to Chinese women. The different sizes, shapes, and package colors almost caused my system to overload.

One of the markings on the packages that I can't help but mention is the size of these babies...in centimeters. The 410cm model is particularly impressive...I commented to Steve that it looks more like a landing pad than a maxi pad.

All kidding aside, the marketing of feminine products in China is brilliant. Brightly colored pastel packages with pictures of cartoon bunnies take the sensitivity right out of the equation. In a country where privacy is not something that is highly valued, natural bodily functions are a non-issue. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere!

There...I did it!

~Desi

2011-10-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

We Got TP'ed!

This past week was Spirit Week at Holy Cross. LOTAs going to school in wacky clothes that normally are not part of the uniform. The powder puff game. Decorating hallways.

Oh, and seniors making the rounds, in the middle of the night, to the homes of juniors, where they leave a wake up call of toilet papers, sticky tabs, plastic forks, and other assorted presents.

And so it was quite a wake up call indeed at the Balla house, when Desi roused us shortly after 5am to check out the scene in our front yard.

Nice job, girls!

~Steve

2011-09-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

Chinese Pack and Play

While access to the American version of modern conveniences for child rearing is limited in China, creativity is definitely not. Take this contraption (definitely not approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission!) that was set up by a yeye (grandpa) outside his daughter's tailor shop.

While it's certainly not pretty, it is effective. Both shady and fun, yeye's granddaughter appeared to be very comfortable. She could see her mom through the doorway and entertain herself in apparent "safety."

Not to worry if baby made a peep, though, as yeye was never out of sight. This phenomenon is fairly typical in many Chinese families nowadays as the retirement age for men is 60 and for women, 55. As a result, many grandparents can be seen with their grandchild in parks, courtyards, or other open spaces, especially during the parts to the day that the weather is best (8:00a.m.-10:00a.m. and after 4:00p.m.). The child's parents are, of course, working to support the family.

~Desi

2011-09-27T05:00:00.004-04:00

With Or Without You...Chinese Karaoke Style!

Here's the scene...An American family of four, led by Z through an spot-on (yeah, right!) version of one of U2's greatest hits, in a Beijing karaoke club where pretty much everyone else is a Chinese college student.

Ever since my Beida students introduced us to 17-Mile (the name always makes me think I'm in an Eminem movie or something), a karaoke joint just down the road from the university, the four of us have graduated from singing in the shower to grabbing our own private room and belting out English-language favorites from the Beatles to Taylor Swift. If you think this is weird, you should see the bemused and puzzled looks we get from the staff when we walk in and ask to be set up. (The three-and-a-half hour package deal sounds like way too much time to spend in room singing, but trust us, the time just flies by, especially when I insist on working my way through long songs like "Hotel California.")

We all have to say that the videos (many of them presumably "unofficial") accompanying the songs are really weird, and sometimes downright creepy. There's the girl desperately trying to flag a ride during "Eleanor Rigby." The exaggerated moves of ABBA's "Dancing Queen." And Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and company are nowhere to be found in "We Are the World."

The granddaddy of them all, however, is "With Or Without You." I really can't do it justice with words. (The accompanying still shot at least gives a rough idea of the visual.) A young couple on a mountain covered in snow, sledding, frolicking, acting bizarre...It is the epitome of the indescribable, wacky fun that can be had when an American family walks into a Chinese karaoke club and sings the greatest hits of the West.

~Steve

2011-09-26T05:00:00.004-04:00

Kao Nang On The Street

This is the story of one of the coolest (and tastiest!) street foods we have ever encountered in years of sampling the best Beijing and the rest of China has to offer.

Right across the street from our apartment this summer, there was this strange looking food cart that would appear most every morning. (It took us, by the way, some close up investigation to establish that this was indeed a mobile food shop, as opposed to any number of other kinds of street establishments it might plausibly have been.)

With two guys manning the cart, Z's dreams became reality when we realized that this was a little operation specializing in the production of a single food item...Muslim-style flat bread. For years, Z has been living off this stuff, eating kao nang everywhere from the Muslim Quarter in Xi'an to Xinjiang restaurants across Beijing.

This, however, was taking it to a whole other level...First thing in the morning...On our way back into the apartment after a day of trekking around the capital city...Pretty much any time there was a hole in Z's stomach, it was kao nang to the rescue! (That includes, by the way, on our way to the airport when we were moving back to the US!)

The operation really is simple...One guy works with the dough, pulling it out of a huge ball into small pieces, working it into shape, adding oil and seasonings. His partner, meanwhile, mans this crazy-looking roundish oven that has coals at the bottom. (Click on the attached photo to get a better look at the whole scene.) When the dough is ready, the ovenmaster slaps the bread onto the inside of the contraption. A couple of minutes later, he uses a long metal device to extract the now-cooked bread from its perch, bringing out kao nang that is immediately ready to be eaten and enjoyed.

Man, that's some good stuff!

~Steve

2011-09-23T05:00:00.004-04:00

This Time For Africa

One sea change we have noticed on the streets of Beijing over the past several years is the dramatic increase in the number of people from Africa who are living and working in China's capital city.

During our year-long residence in Beijing, from 2008 to 2009, it was unusual for us to see a person of color. The expat community in Beijing mainly consisted of (besides people from other Asian countries like South Korea) Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and of course...Russians! (Note the lack of emphasis on Americans. Sure, there are plenty of Americans in China, but anecdotally it seems that we are not as present in everyday life as people from these other countries. At least not as present as we ought to be, in my view. Get over there, people!)

This lack of color began to fade when we returned to Beijing during the summer of 2009. On occasion, we bumped into Africans in the vicinity of our apartment, crossing the tian qiao over Zhongguancun Lu, shopping in the marketplace underneath Tianzuo Guoji. We also noticed groups of Africans walking across the campus of the agricultural university adjacent to our high-rise building. These groups were reminiscent of the class of visiting African government officials I had been asked to teach the year before during my posting at Peking University. (I really enjoyed my guest lecture...an American teaching research methodology...in China...to African civil servants!)

Our on-the-ground observations are, of course, one small window into what is a much larger story. As China continues it economic and political emergence around the world, it is increasingly looking to Africa as a place for natural resources such as oil. In one effort to foster closer ties, Chinese universities are increasingly opening their doors to African students. Chinese workers are in turn traveling to Africa to work on things like infrastructure projects.

In fact, the father of Julie's closest Chinese friend in Beijing is any day now going to be getting on a plane, flying to Africa, and working over there for a couple of months. This is a man, it is important to note, who has probably never flown before. I can't imagine he has ever been out of the country. His wife lives in a public toilet facility that it is her job to keep clean. Every fall, the children have to return home to their village, far, far away (fourteen hours by train), to attend school, going half the year or more without seeing their mother. I imagine for a migrant family like this that is so torn apart, the wages of a project in Africa must be well worth the additional separation. So off to Africa Pan Ting's father will go. One small cog in a much larger wheel that is turning faster and faster, right in front of our very eyes...

~Steve

2011-09-22T05:00:00.002-04:00

Our Marillion Playlist

During a recent road trip, we spent a few minutes in the car building a playlist of indispensable Marillion songs. Each one of us got to choose five songs (on our own, without hearing about the others' choices) that we would pick if these were the only Marillion songs we could listen to (a desert island kind of thing). With thirty years of music to choose from, talk about some tough decision making!

Here's what we came up with...

Steve

King of Sunset Town

Easter

Man of a Thousand Faces

This the the 21st Century

Invisible Man

Desi
Easter

The Space

Beautiful

This Strange Engine

Map of the World

Julie
Sugar Mice

Easter

Estonia

Ocean Cloud

Don't Hurt Yourself

Z
The Space

Afraid of Sunlight

Man of a Thousand Faces

Map of the World

Invisible Man

Our resulting playlist consists of the fourteen songs that were listed by at least one of us. A couple of observations...

"Easter " was listed by all of us except for Z. Not surprising that "Easter" got the most votes, as it is generally considered one of the high water marks in Marillion history.

None of us listed "The Great Escape." That's another one that is widely acclaimed to be one of the all-time greats. And it certainly is on the short list of favorites for all of us. Maybe we were all just expecting everyone else to put it on their lists...

"Map of the World" definitely resonates with this family, given our dual lives in Beijing and Washington, DC.

Speaking of Beijing, the accompanying picture was taken last summer at the very place about which the lyrics (from "King of Sunset Town") on Julie and Z's shirt were written..."A pretty sight it seemed to be, An avenue of eternal peace."

~Steve

2011-09-21T05:00:00.000-04:00

I Don't Think American Regulators Would Go For This!

What you are looking at is a man, way up on a ladder, working on a road sign, in the middle of the street, with no protective barrier. And, as far as I could tell, not wearing a harness.

~Steve

PS: And just for good measure, the second picture is a woman we observed, maybe five stories up, washing her apartment windows...be careful up there!

2011-09-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

Nine Dragon Screen

On our last day in Datong, we decided to explore the inside of the new city wall. Nine Dragon Screen is one of the main attractions in that area.

After hopping into a cab and buying our 10 kuai tickets, we went to the tiny alcove reserved for one of the three famous Chinese nine dragon screens. It is the largest of the three (the other two are located in Beijing, at Beihai Park and the Forbidden City, respectively) and is surrounded by a small, shallow pond, winding paths, steles, and, of course, a gift shop.

The wall is bigger and more vibrant than the other two major nine dragon screens. It lacks color in only a few spots, and the size of the dragons is impressive. There are several old steles that have been pushed off to the side.

I found the gift shop to be very strange. I had no idea what product could be sold at such a small place. It turned out that they sold jewelry, paper cutouts, teapots, postcards, and atlases. It may have been the weirdest gift shop I have ever been to.

All in all, the Nine Dragon Screen was impressive and its setting quaint.

~Z

2011-09-19T05:00:00.002-04:00

Old Datong, New Datong

Datong is the second largest city in Shanxi Province, a place (as we've talked about before) that has historically been dominated by coal and is relatively impoverished when compared to coastal Chinese hubs of development. Recently, the city has been trying to diversify and reinvent itself as a domestic Chinese tourist destination. As part of the area known as the cradle of Chinese civilization (the Yellow River basin traces its human history back thousands of years), Datong comes well-equipped with legitimate ancient sites, as made clear by the grottoes and hanging monastery that we have been talking about.

But Datong needs more to attract the sustained attention domestic tourism industry. It needs a place where trinkets can be bought and sold. It needs a place that looks old, but is actually newly built. This, of course, is a formula that has worked well in many other places around China. (See, as prime examples, Beijing's Qianmen and Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai.)

And so Datong is in the midst of rebuilding its city wall. You see, centuries ago, in the Ming Dynasty, Datong was encircled by a 30-foot-high wall with guard towers, not unlike Beijing, Xi'an, and other ancient cities. Go back to Datong in two years, as a cab driver informed us, and the new city wall will be complete and open for business. And inside will be pedestrian streets, new temple complexes, you name it.

Yes, welcome back to 1611!

~Steve

2011-09-16T05:00:00.005-04:00

Starving In Shanxi

There are times when skipping breakfast, the most important meal of the day, might be appropriate. For example, if you are planning to hit a Chinese tourist site extra early, you'll expect that there will be a variety of morning snack choices available all along the way.

But if you also decide that you're going to save up your appetite for a nice, hearty lunch, say Shanxi hot pot, but wait just a bit too long (in other words, you spend a little extra time at the tourist site and are now outside the prescribed Datong lunch hours), you might find yourself in a bit of a quandary.

Take our experience, for example...

After deciding we were all fine to delay our meals in lieu of touring , we arrived back at the area of our hotel around 2:30 pm. In a city of three million people (that's twice the population of Philadelphia, by the way), you would think that there would be plenty of places to choose from for a late lunch...

First choice, hot pot. Door locked...Waitress asleep on two chairs pushed together.

Second choice, dao shao mian. Metal gate pulled down.

Every other place? Locked up tight...Sometimes with workers taking siestas on mats on the ground or in the back of sanlunches!

We learned very quickly that we could walk for blocks and blocks and not find a single open restaurant. The hours of most places were clearly stated on the door...See the accompanying photograph for a very clear statement of operating hours...

So what's a starving family to do? Take their own siestas and head out for an early dinner...

By the way, Shanxi hot pot rocks!

~Desi

2011-09-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

It All Ends: Part 3

So now you know all about the hunt for the Deathly Hallows in China, but what about the movie itself? Well Z and I both thought it was spectacular! As the one who hasn't made it to the seventh book in the series yet, I am normally far more sympathetic to the movies than Z is, but I have no doubt that Z was thrilled with what we saw on the big screen too (big is a relative term!). Here are a few of my favorite highlights...

When Ron, Harry, and Hermione break into Gringotts, particularly the safe of Belatrix, and everything they touch begins to multiply. Well done to the special effects people!

The dragon that the trio rode out of Gringotts was adorable, especially when he couldn't fly at first and crashed through the rooftops!

Professor McDonagall's excitement regarding the upcoming war at Hogwarts. (Z's favorite line in the whole movie was when she said, "BOOM!")

Neville accidentally taking out all of the werewolves and barely surviving.

Ron and Hermione destroying the horrorcrux in the Chamber of Secrets.

When Ron kicked Ravenclaw's Diadem into the Room of Requirement just in the nick of time.

Neville's heroic speech to Voldemort and his killing of Nagini.

Voldemort and the death eaters laughing hysterically moments before they realize Harry Potter is still alive.

Snape's touching memory of Lily Potter.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Malfoy saying goodbye to their kid on the Hogwarts express, looking almost the same as they looked nineteen years earlier.

And many, many more...

~Julie

2011-09-14T05:00:00.002-04:00

It All Ends: Part 2

One morning while walking to a bus stop in Datong, Z and I turned the corner to find that there was a "movie theater" (see the accompanying picture) right around the block from our hotel! Leaving Mommy and Daddy in our dust, we took off to find out the movie times for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--Part 2 in 3D...all of which turned out to be in the middle of the day. Z told me to ask if it was showing in English, but I was afraid of the answer and pretended to forget.

That afternoon, we showed up for the 2:50 p.m. viewing (the latest one of the day), bubbling with anticipation. We made it to the ticket booth with a minute to spare, and found a lobby bustling with the biggest crowd Datong could muster...about 40 people. Before we could enter the theater, we had to leave a 100 kuai deposit for each pair of vibrant red 3D glasses, which were so bulky they almost broke our noses.

Not knowing what a Chinese movie theater could possibly be like, we entered what looked like a grungy theater where one might go to see acrobats. On the stage was a relatively small movie screen that reminded me of the pull-down screen we use at school to show PowerPoint presentations.

And then, all of the sudden, the movie started. Period. There were no advertisements, no warnings to turn your cell phone off. Not even the green screen that tells you what the movie is rated. We were suddenly just staring into the face of Severus Snape, desperately hoping that the movie was in English. But, to our dismay, the Chinese had apparently spent the two months since HP came out in the rest of the world translating and recording like crazy because Luna started speaking in tongues.

Despite our disappointment, Z and I had a great time in the theater. With the Mandarin we have, following along was no problem and Z could fill me in on the topics I hadn't read about yet. We certainly missed the English accents, but getting a taste for the movie theaters of China was worth the sacrifice. That old lady who yelled at me for eating candy when we saw that lion movie in DC would certainly despise all the chatter that echoed through the seemingly empty theater! But it did not at all take away from the spectacular defeat of He Who Must Not Be Named!

~Julie

2011-09-13T05:00:00.005-04:00

It All Ends: Part 1

July 15th, 2011 came and went, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--Part 2 did not...At least not for me. In fact, the most populated country in the world was taking a casual lunch break while practically everyone I know was lined up at midnight outside a movie theater dressed up in robes and scarves for the grand finale of the greatest series since The Lord of the Rings.

"So why was there no sign of Harry in China?", you may ask. Z and I spent months trying to answer this very question. We searched the magazine stands and the subway advertisements, the DVD markets and the Beijing movie theaters, all to no avail. No one seemed to care that Harry had already defeated Voldemort on the big screen and no one in the nation had seen it. We started to worry that HP had been banned from China and were resigned to the fact that we would just have to wait until late August when we returned to the States to catch up with the rest of the world.

Luckily for Mommy and Daddy, we discovered Hermione Granger on the cover of Movie Magazine before Z and I died of anticipation. Beneath her rather weathered face, written in Chinese, was the date August 4th. So, with our fears quenched about Harry's absence in China, we were forced to accept the fact that we would be a month behind the rest of the world while the Chinese translated and recorded the movie for the Harry Potter fans on this side of the world.

We waited patiently for the 4th and occupied our excitement by trying to figure out what scenes the pictures in the magazine showed and looking for a movie theater where we could see it in English. One day, after eating lunch in a local mall, we even saw the movie theater staff building the giant cardboard advertisement of Harry facing You Know Who.

But as the date approached, Z and I realized we would be spending the 4th on a fabulous trip to Datong. Now, while Datong may be the second largest city in the Province of Shanxi, it is no Beijing, so the prospects of finding a movie theater were not looking too good.

But China never ceases to surprise me...

~Julie

2011-09-12T17:00:00.003-04:00

The Holy Cross Mixer

The first dance of the school year went off this past weekend without a hitch. And it was a Balla family affair, with Desi and I chaperoning the event, and Julie and Z among the nearly 1000 high schoolers in attendance. Yes, Z has started high school...More on life at Georgetown Prep to come in future posts...

~Steve

2011-09-12T05:00:00.002-04:00

Sculpture

As you have read in previous posts, one of the main attractions in Datong is the Yungang Grottoes. Like many tourist stops in China, we had to pay a (relatively speaking) huge fee to get into the park (which, by the way, is under renovation).

After buying our tickets, which happened to be a foot long each, we entered the expansive park. We were directed through a newly built temple, suspended above a man-made lake. After crossing an imperial looking bridge, we walked along a long, winding, tree lined path. At the end of the path were the grottoes.

Built into and around the rock face, the grottoes are an impressive sight. The rock face is dotted with windows and doorways leading into the rock statues. However, these historical rooms are so old that the rock around them has suffered wear and tear. One large statue is completely exposed because its walls and roof collapsed. Many of the grottoes have holes in their walls connecting one room to another.

Many of the grottoes are higher up on the rock face and cannot be seen or touched by tourists. One of these untouchable grottoes had a hole in its wall leading into a ground level grotto. I did the natural thing (!) and jumped up and pulled myself in. Inside was a Buddha surrounded by thousands of tiny Buddhas. Many of these Buddhas still had color and were untouched. Seeing these helped me to visualize what the grottoes looked like in their heyday.

~Z

2011-09-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

Don't Be Scared Little Guy...

...Wo bu yao ren! (I don't bite!)

~Steve

2011-09-09T17:00:00.002-04:00

The Mystery of the Mud and Clay

For years now, us Ballas have spent tons of time in ancient temples looking at sculptures built hundreds of years ago and wondering about their poor conditions. Except for such sculptures as the Buddha made out of a single piece of sandalwood at the Lama Temple, there are a relatively small number of ancient sites of worship that remain completely intact. There always seem to be heads missing, crumbling fingers, and worn down toes, and we are always left wondering why.

So when we arrived at the grottoes in Datong, we decided to do a little investigation. You see, with the 50,000 carvings, we figured there had to be some answers buried below the surface of the issue. We were highly skeptical that China would allow their history to simply crumble under the strains of weather and time.

With so many Buddhas of all shapes and sizes, there were a fair number that we could get close enough to touch. Many were merely worn around the edges but tons were barely recognizable as human figures. They had been reduced to lumps in the sides of the mountain with bits of paint still clinging on.

After much detective work, the Ballas discovered the deep dark secret of those ancient Buddhist sculptors. While many of the decorations are actually carved right into the stone and were painted in their day, a great deal more were not made to stand the test of time. Instead, the stones were carved into the basic shape of the Buddhas they represent and then covered with layers of mud mixed with hay until the surface was smooth. Finally, they were coated with paint and were ready to be worshiped by their creators.

Bring it on Hardy Boys!

~Julie

2011-09-09T05:00:00.001-04:00

Touch the Grottoes

Back in 2004, when we first went to Guili n and made a tour stop at a "famous" Chinese cave site (the name now escapes me), I was stunned by the proximity with which I was able to experience such wonders as stalactites and stalagmites. In other words, the tour guide and the guards (were there any?) were not concerned with the oil from my fingertips stopping the growth of these geologic marvels. If you have ever been to a tourist-style cave in the US, you'll probably recall the signs and lectures from the guides about this phenomenon.

Fast forward to this year's excursion to the Yungang Grottoes. These 50,000 Buddhas carved in stone date back 1500 years. Covered with plexiglass and housed in a temperature-controlled airplane hangar to protect them from the harsh elements? Nope. Now, while some of the caves housing the carvings have wooden railings across to protect the really large ones from being climbed on or the well-preserved ones from having their remaining paint rubbed off, there are very few areas that are off-limits. I noted plexiglass over one or two surfaces and signs requesting no photos of the large Buddhas, which is the case in any temple. This left around 49,900 that could be examined very closely. There was no concern about oily fingers!

As for the accompanying picture, that's the tiniest Buddha we found...and touched...carved around 470 A.D.

~Desi

2011-09-08T17:00:00.003-04:00

Chinglish Lives!

We've been down this road before...snarky foreigners bemused at the mangled English on signs throughout China. (Just get a native speaker to do the translation!) Normally, we've moved way past writing about this phenomenon, but there were some great ones on Hengshan, a mountain (in fact, one of China's five sacred Taoist peaks) we hiked up after our visit to the hanging monastery.

Click on these pictures and enjoy a little trip back in time, Chinglish style...

~Steve

2011-09-08T05:00:00.002-04:00

Xuankong Si From Below

Z and I scampered across the rocks (of course we did!) to bring you what I think is an image that pretty effectively gets across the "hanging" nature of the hanging monastery. The temple is perched here something like 200 feet above our heads.

Incredible stuff!

~Steve

2011-09-07T17:00:00.003-04:00

Hanging Around...

...for around 1500 years.

It was "not without danger" (to quote our German friend Andreas) that we toured the Hanging Temple of Mount Heng (Xuankong Si), about 60 km outside of Datong. Ever since I had heard of this place a couple of years ago, I have wanted to see it for myself. Having experienced many temples all around China, most of which have similar layouts and design, this one was absolutely a sight to see.

Supported by stilts, Xuankong Si is uniquely attached to the side of a cliff. From the bottom view, it seems to literally hang. Built initially in 490 AD, it has been renovated a few times, most recently in the early 1900s. Given the amount of time that has passed since those repairs, it is amazing what good shape the temple is in.

The perception that one has when walking along the hallways is one of wonder...and a little fright. The view is spectacular, with beautiful rock faces at every angle. It reminded us a lot of the views we have experienced in the Grand Canyon, in that the sun, depending on time of day, would illuminate the rock or paint shadows, which would alter the appearance. If you stayed long enough, you could view the temple in sunlight and then shade, totally different but both beautiful. Looking down from this perch is not for the faint of heart, as the railings, both rickety and low (definitely not built with a westerner's height in mind!) provide little protection from the 100 meter drop. There are sections of the temple (which is wide but not very deep) where I found myself staying very near to the wall!

A few thoughts that struck me as I sauntered through walkways that, at times, seemed suspended in mid-air...

First of all, who could even dream up such a structure?

Secondly, once planned, how could the construction of a temple planned to dangle so precariously ever be approved or pursued?

Finally, how awesome would it have been to live here as the monks did...before tourism turned this spot into a destination visited by so many. To have been able to pray, study, eat, and sleep with the majesty of these surroundings, in addition to calling one of the most incredible man-made structures your home, must have been nothing short of inspiring.

As for now, it is a steady stream of visitors from all over the world...dragging their jaws on the ground with amazement. For Julie and me at least, you can put it in the "favorite temple" category hands down...or maybe, stilts up!

~Desi

2011-09-07T05:00:00.002-04:00

Civilized Driving?

Even though I suspect many of you would be hanging on for dear life as a taxi driver wings you along the roads of Beijing, the four of us have come to recognize the civilized nature of big city transportation, even in the great driving frontier that is today's China. Just in case we were beginning to take all of this civilization for granted, all we needed to do is head to small city China and experience driving the old school way.

Enter Datong, a wee city of 3.11 million people, a place where dotted lines mean nothing. Hey, even solid lines are no deterrent when one needs to get around slower moving traffic!

As we made our way out to Xuankong Si (a 1500 year old hanging monastery...stay tuned for stories and incredible pictures...), heading up through a mountain pass, the paved road ahead had been rendered impassable by a rock slide. And so onto the dirt it was! Bumping, jostling in our minibus, the same rules of the road applied...

Passing on the right? No problem! Just be sure to honk as you go by!

Somehow, it all works...

~Steve

2011-09-06T17:00:00.005-04:00

Traveling Coach

Datong is a third-tier city, located in Shanxi Province, a relatively undeveloped and poor part of China where coal is king. (It has been called the West Virginia of the Middle Kingdom.) Datong is also home to a number of historical sites that date back 1500 years, sites that Desi has been itching to see for years. (More on these sites in later posts.)

And so, there we were, riding on a big coach bus, a six-hour trip between Datong and Beijing. The other option at our disposal, an overnight train ride on nothing but hard seats, for some reason just didn't seem to cut it!

One of the advantages of buying bus tickets early (Read: A whole four hours prior to departure!) is that we nabbed the first four seats. Seats 1-4 were located right above the driver, at the front window on the upper level.

For Julie and Z, this meant a comfortable first use of the portable DVD player they picked up in the shadow of the Bell and Drum Towers. (After many years of looking for just the right deal.) We also had a bird's eye view of all of the impenetrable highway signs (click on the pictures to take a closer look...).

Such as...

Rear End Collision
Keep Space

And this one...

Rainy or Snowy Day
Bridge, Slow Driving

And, finally, my personal favorite...

Don't Try Fatigue Driving

~Steve

PS: Why would highway signs in China be "translated" into English anyway?

2011-09-06T05:00:00.004-04:00

It's Electric (conjure up that famous line-dance song as you read this title)

Did I say "run out" of electricity?

When you live in a high-rise in Beijing, paying your electric bill is nothing like you might expect. Writing a check to Pepco or PSE&G and mailing it out or taking care of it online is for most people unheard of in China. Instead, you need to buy your electricity as you need it.

In order to purchase electricity in Beijing, you must obtain a card, much like a top-up card for cell phones on a pay-as-you-go plan. Then you can go to almost any bank and add money (and therefore units of electricity) to your card. Once you have figured out this process (just one of those baby steps that foreigners need to learn by doing!), you take your card back to your apartment building and insert it into a slot in a box that has a digital meter on it. Once you insert it, the units are added and you are all set.

Just don't forget to check the box from time to time to see how many units you have left...or you may find yourself in the dark...without air conditioning...taking an icy cold shower.

Been there, done that.

~Desi

PS: If you are still humming that song, I am deeply sorry.

2011-09-02T17:00:00.004-04:00

Water Ways

If you are fortunate enough to have hot water in your home in China, it may be produced in a variety of ways. For some, cold water is the only option. For others hot water is available in their housing unit or dormitory only during certain hours.

In the apartment complexes that we've had the chance to live in, we have always had 24 hour access to hot water, albeit by different methods. At Yan Bei Yuan there was a water heater on the wall which (as long as the batteries were working!) would ignite and heat the water directly when you turned the hot water on in the sink or shower. Last year in Tianzuo Guoji, it was just like back home in that there was no contraption visible. If you turned the hot water knob, hot water came out, any time, day or night.

This year at Xue Yuan Pai, yet again there was a contraption involved. A large tank hung from the bathroom wall. It needed to be switched on around 30 minutes before the water was needed so it could heat up. Given the varied length and heat needed for each of our showers (some of us take long, really hot showers, others quick and cool), timing was everything. As a result, whoever got up in the middle of the night would be charged with pushing the button so it would be ready for the first shower-taker. Then, depending on which family member went next, he or she would have to wait for the temperature indicator to reach the desired number.

This, of course, made for some really fun mornings. Especially the day when our electricity ran out...

~Desi

2011-09-02T05:00:00.000-04:00

Graffiti Comes To The Middle Kingdom

All over Beijing, this funny-looking fellow has suddenly sprouted on walls and other prominent places. No sign as of yet that street artists here will give Borf, Banksy, and Mr. Brainwash a run for their money...

~Steve

2011-09-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

Frodo Lives!

A hobbit hole, right there in the middle of Beijing...Who knew!?

~Steve