BenPadnos.com

Historic Day!

Whether you support the health care reform passed in the US House of Representatives this evening, or you’re passionately against it, today is a memorable day in American history.

I have mixed feelings about the expanding role of government, and I doubt the health care bill in its current form is the best possible piece of legislation. But on both a human level, and thinking purely pragmatically, I believe the country needs to make some changes in how we approach and pay for health care. And the vote taken tonight is the first step.

The current health care system is not sustainable and it just doesn’t work for too many Americans. I recognize it’s very difficult for the 80-90% of Americans who have coverage to make sacrifices, but I’ve come to believe we have a moral imperative to look out for the 10-20% who aren’t so fortunate. In the United State of America, we need to take care of our own because it’s the right thing to do.

Those are my values, and I’m going to bed tonight with a smile on my face.

The Great Wall

What an amazing experience to walk a couple of miles up The Great Wall on Saturday…

As we joined thousands of others walking up the steps, Steve and I were stopped from time to time by locals who asked to get their picture taken with us….There were some Westerners, but a substantial majority of the tourists were Chinese folks of all ages — from babies to elderly individuals….

You’ll notice in the pics above the funny hats we were wearing — it couldn’t have been more than 20 degrees, so Steve and I each purchased a fur hat (~$7) so we could enjoy our visit despite the cold air and breezes.

To read more about the history of the Great Wall, click here.

I Love Beijing

The poor Chinese girl who sold me the shirt was absolutely horrified when I explained why I was buying it. Seriously. There is no double entendre there as there would be in the US with such a shirt!

Mao’s Revenge

I woke up Saturday morning feel some after-effects from the spicy Sichuan food from last night. I’ll note that I thought I was being clever with the title of this post, but turns out “Chairman Mao’s Revenge” is already defined on Urban Dictionary. I’ll power through – we’re heading out to see the Great Wall and then heading to the airport for a 9pm flight home.

It’s been an absolutely phenomenal trip, which I’m sure you can sense from my posts over the past week. I’ll be putting some additional thoughts together in the coming days about my overall experience. I scheduled my trip to Beijing to explore business opportunities, and although I think China may be a tough nut to crack business-wise, I’m very excited about my adventures and experience here!

Friday Night in Beijing

I arranged to meet for dinner with a friend of a friend for Friday night dinner. When my friend heard I was in Beijing, he made an email introduction and Bill (not his real name…more on that later) agreed to meet me and Steve at our hotel @ 7:30pm. He wanted to take us to “a great Sichuan restuarant called Chuan Ban“. The restaurant is owned by the Sichuan Provincial Government — they run it, and it’s staffed by Sichuan locals.

Chuan Ban was about a half an our walk from our hotel, tucked behind a series of alleys in a residential area that included various local shops — convenience stores, hair salons, etc. — and there was a pretty good-sized crowd waiting to get a table when we arrived. The promised 10-15 minute wait was more like 45 minutes, but we drank a beer and Bill told us about his experiences living in Beijing for the past 10 years.

Chinese food aficionados know that Sichuan food is extremely spicy. In writing this post, I did some research and reviews include such expressions as “tongue-numbing” and “lip-tingling”, so you get the idea. My mouth was numb within minutes of digging in — one plate was particularly memorable: it was a giant bowl of chili peppers with peanuts and the occasional piece of chicken called “lazi jiding”. Each little bit required an immediate swig of beer to cool down my mouth!

Throughout the past week, Steve and I have said a number of times to each other how surprised we were at how “normal” day-to-day life feels here. I guess the propaganda we grow up with about “Communist China” set our expectations that we’d see an active governmental role in daily life. Many things, including the explosion of the Internet, have led to China opening opening up over the past decade or two. In fact Bill mentioned the Western influence he’s witnessed — Chinese people love American pop culture (music, movies and TV shows), NBA basketball (Yao Ming is idolized), and seem to have adopted an American level of consumption.

One thing that hasn’t truly opened up is the Chinese attitude toward homosexuality. Bill confided in us that he’s gay and has a long-term partner. However he’s not “out” at work, and although he thinks some people know, it’s not something he’d ever openly discuss for fear of creating controversy that could pose a risk to his annual visa renewal.

There is an active gay community, Bill told us, but it’s primarily closeted, and many Chinese people don’t even tell their parents as such an admission could post great shame on a family. Instead, some gay men look for lesbian women to “marry” — they go through the entire charade in the name of family honor.

While the US still has a ways to go on true levels of equality and civil rights for gay Americans, it’s leaps and bounds better than in China. From what I took away from Bill’s comments, there’s no “penalty” for discrimination against gay people here.

After dinner took the subway over to an area of the city called Sanlitun. It’s a very modern part of Beijing known especially for its bars and nightlife. We saw more Westerners walking around in Sanlitun than anywhere else during our trip. Some bars played live music while others rocked American hip hop.

Steve and I decided not to push it too hard so we’d be rested for our trip to the Great Wall on our last day. The plan is to pack up and hire a car for the day and head out to Badaling — can’t wait!

Air Pollution

It’s the real deal here.

There’s literally a greyish/brownish/yellowish haze that sets over the city. I woke up this morning (it’s Friday 3/12 here, while only Thursday afternoon back home) to blue skies, but the sky is not truly clear as this ugly film coats the sky.

People who know me have heard my opinion that I’m a believer in the science that aspects of “climate change” are real and have been expedited by man rather than purely from nature. However I’m also a believer that the earth has been through a lot over it’s 4.55 billion years, and have confidence in the Earth’s resilience — things will work themselves out. Of course I have zero scientific credibility to have an opinion on these types of matters, but I tend not to worry about things so deeply out of my control.

With that said, I don’t have a problem with environmental consciousness, and the least we all should do is be aware and responsible about our actions.

Placebo Effect?

Even if it’s just a placebo effect, I’m feeling good about the Airborne tablets I’ve been taking every day during my trip. Ellen included them in a mini care package, along with some chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies from Isabella’s Cookie Company, and a box of Clif Bars.

Between the time difference — Beijing is 16 hours ahead of California — messed up sleeping schedules, foods and spices my digestive system isn’t accustomed to, and the mix of all sorts of different germs my immune system has never been exposed to, plus a couple of late nights, I’m very glad to be taking some extra precaution about staying healthy.

I don’t know if there’s any any actual medical thanks I need to pass along to the folks @ Airborne, but the psychological boost has been worth it in itself!