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We traveled yesterday to the city of Bao Ding which is, apparently, a WWF certified low-carbon city. While that is all well and good, seeing the solar panel factory of Ying Li was more about the juxtaposition of the 1920’s steel mill and the modern factory, than the actual production of solar cells.
While both factories produce a needed commodity, the refined nature of the Ying Li plant and its robot arms and computer screens is drastically different from the large furnaces and billowing smoke stacks that we saw in the mill. The mill seemed primitive and dangerous, while the Ying Li plant was more alienating and mind numbing. I can’t imagine working at either facility, yet I think the steel mill would be more interesting (albeit dangerous). In reality, I guess, this all goes back to my last post about the value of “stuff,” so I’ll stop here.
Our free day today was interesting. After trying to find the Underground City for two days, Rachael, Jess and I finally got to the right location only to discover that it has been closed for the last 18 months. It was fun meeting a fellow American
while walking down the street, and she was kind enough to walk us to the entrance. I will admit that the area, the door, and the sign were really sketchy. So being turned away by a cold Chinese woman, who seemed to live in the office, fed into a likely conspiracy theory. I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the Underground City, but at the same time we now have a unique story to tell our friends and family back home.
We also went to Bei Hai park. The park was unique because there didn’t seem to be many foreign tourists. We saw the White Pagoda and did some shopping, but alas no bargaining.
Dinner tonight with the Chinese students was an awesome experience. I often complain, hypocritically, that students on our campus seem apathetic to make any solid social change. We may get together, drink, and complain; but organizing and pushing for change seems to fall apart. Meeting Shane and his friends was fantastic because I realize that all hope is not lost. Shane is 21 and traveled to Copenhagen for the environmental conferences last year. It would be cool to host him at SVSU and have some small group talks with him to see how we could organize SVSU students to make small changes in the community.
Discussing the effectiveness of boycotting brands or companies was fascinating. Rather than boycotting alone, organization and pushing for legislation is significantly more effective than say, taking five minute showers (stole the example from Brian). With a little organization, Michigan college students could have a gigantic impact on our state governments’ decisions. But is it laziness or a lack of direction that is the real culprit?
Traveling to Rui Jin in the next few days is going to be fun. I’m excited to see the difference between Beijing and rural China. I wonder how much culture shock I am going to experience even going from a modern Chinese city to the countryside. My friends in Hohhot always talked about the country folks and how backward they were. And in the spirit of being right, I look forward to seeing how inaccurate their stereotypes are.
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