http://www.lostmeridian.com Time for Risk Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:19:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The current situation on the ground: Today, a new Olympic-centric rule goes into effect that effectively removes half of the vehicles from Beijing's roads by prohibiting cars with even and odd numbered license plates from driving on the same day. (Hint: More people are pissed off about this than you read in ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/07/20/18-days-until-d-day/ The eye-soar in Sanlitun known as "The Village" — under perpetual construction since my arrival — is starting to look done. And much to my surprise, lo and behold, an Apple store! This is mainland China's first official Apple retail outlet. The store is two stories — ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/07/20/finally-some-civilization/ As I've touched on once or twice, China is still a very much developing country. A hyperactive developing country, but a developing country all the same. Nowhere is this more apparent than Bejing's animal control policy. There are no shelters. Strays, when rounded up, are usually ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/07/11/the-dogs-of-beijing/ Word coming out of Chengdu of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. Initial reports had a few dead. Hours later the number exploded. The number is just going to get higher. Here in Beijing we felt only a brief tremor -- rattling. I thought it was the crazy old woman who ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/05/14/sichuan-earthquake/ Words to describe: Loud, bright, loud, overwhelming, very loud. Did I mention loud? It's a literal war zone and an impressive one at that. The Chinese don't have any elite or exotic fireworks — ironic given this country originally invented them — but what they lack in creativity they ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/02/08/chinese-lunar-new-year/ Apartment hunting in Beijing has been an intriguing experience. For the last month, I've split my time between staying with friends who out of the goodness of their hearts can tolerate my presence in their homes. Being something of a prideful individual, this unadulterated exploiting of their generosity has been ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2007/10/18/unforseen-negotiations/ Given that learning Chinese is my primary focus while studying abroad, I felt keen to comment on my progression. Simply put, Mandarin is a completely new way of communicating. Unlike English, vowels receive the most enunciation focus. The basic A-E-I-O-U sounds are different requiring tongue to be strategically place ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2007/10/18/on-chinese/ I was trying to think of the most stereotypical way to open this post and was mulling either "Ni Hao" or "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto" or even maybe "Holy *$%ing *&^% I'm in China!!!!" (note the use of 3 exclamation marks). Ultimately, I went with ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2007/09/20/ni-hao/ On a quiet morning in March, I journeyed deeper into the templates near Siem Reap and intentionally avoided the more grandiose structures that attract throngs of Japanese and Korean tourists — whom I despise. In traveling Cambodia, there was worse than the anguished feeling of finding a moment of solitude at ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2007/08/15/collapse/ One of the definitive photos taken during my wanderings in Siem Reap on my fourth day. Discontent from being caught up in the tourist district, I set out on foot along the waterfront and came to a little park area with nice benches. It was there I met ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2007/08/14/if-you-only-knew/