blogbus locked

Something strange and unbelievable happened two days ago, when the blog hosting webs, blogbus.com and yo2.cn are both locked suddenly.
So both of my blogs are blocked again.
What's wrong?!

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it's summer now

Hangzhou, Whose Paradise Is It?

Tan Zhuo, male, born in 1984, hometown Ningxiang (Hunan province), only child. In 2002, he entered the Department of Information Science and Electrical Engineering (Zhejiang University) to major in Communications Engineering. In 2006, he graduated and stayed in Hangzhou to work as an employee of ECI Telecom. He was about to get married.

At 20:50pm on May 7, 2009, he bought a ticket for the movie "City of Life and Death" (aka ). This is the sixth year that he has been in Hangzhou, so he was walking around a city that he was familiar with. Perhaps he might have heard the low roar of three modified cars approaching from afar. But why was that unusual? He was in his city and he can hear that kind of noise every evening.

Consequently, he was totally unprepared when he was rammed by a red modified Mitsubishi race car the next second. His head hit the front window glass which immediately shattered to pieces. He was catapulted into the air by the force of the collision, even spun a few times in the air, before he dropped to the ground. Blood began to ooze slowly from his mouth and nose. According to eyewitnesses, he "was launched into the air higher than a public bus." When the ambulance arrived, the crew determined that Tan Zhuo's heart had already stopped beating. On Wener Road, the speed limit was 50 kilometers per hour. That red Mitsubishi was racing at more than 70 kilometers per hour.

A Mitsubishi race car; a modified vehicle; a rich young man. These three factors would have been enough to arouse the wrath of the people. Some day, the driver Hu Bin's biggest regret may be that he hit a Zhejiang University graduate. Tan Zhuo is a typical new migrant in Hangzhou. He was born in the 1980's and grew up in a small town in inland China. He studied hard for 12 years and beat out several hundred thousand other students to gain admission into a first-class national science/technology university to major in engineering science. After graduation, he joined a local company, earned a salary and got into a romance. He was prepared to develop slowly, saving a bit of money at a time to eventually buy an apartment, get married and settle down. This kind of life is neither lofty nor lowly, neither good nor bad. But for many other students, it would be their Hangzhou dream too to get a job there and settle down. But now a speeding car driven by a rich young man has destroyed that Hangzhou dream. When the people read in the news report that "the person who caused the accident had a bad attitude," they were enraged. The BBS at Zhejiang University boiled over with rage.

Within 48 hours, this news item appeared at all the major BBS and portals across China. Young students flooded the forums repeatedly and left comments at the major blogs to call for media and Internet attention on this case. The relevant authorities in Hangzhou seemed to have noticed this and they issued the routine orders to control and guide public opinion. They felt that it was embarrassing to have this headline story and they can make the matter go away through appropriate controls. But Hangzhou is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China. In Hangzhou, there is a real-name registration system, but no such thing exists at the other Chinese BBS's. The Hangzhou media may be forced to use only the officially designated reports, but the other media in China do not have to do so. In Hangzhou, the media reporters may not be able to write in their media, but they continued to speak out in their blogs. Reporters are people too and therefore they have to earn a living. At the same time, reporters know how to speak because they are people too.

Citizens of Hangzhou went to the scene to pay tribute to Tan Zhuo. Clearly, they are unhappy with the car racing that has been going on in this city. For them, the matter is not just pity for a deceased young man. His death symbolizes a certain chronic illness that threatens the lives of everybody in this city. Tan Zhuo is dead, and he could be any citizen. Everybody can face his fate -- to walk in your own city, get hit by a young car racer, tossed into the air, spun around, dropped into the ground and then be dead. What happens after the death of Tan Zhuo is not just a matter for his family, but it is everybody's business. This time, Tan Zhuo died for all the people of Hangzhou. What happens next? The people need to understand just what kind of city they are living in. Is Hangzhou "the paradise on earth" with the all the singing and dancing in ancient lore? Or it is a city where rich young man can speed in cars and kill people?

Human flesh search began immediately on the driver. A traffic violation record from December 7, 2008 was truly astounding:

This record showed that on December 7, 2008, the driver was speeding at 210 kilometers/hour on the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expresswway (which had a speed limit of 120 kilometers/hour). According to , anyone who speeds at more than 50% higher than the speed limit should have his/her driver's license taken away. The incident on May 7, 2009 showed that this law is a joke. So everybody began to ask: If this driver had his license taken away in accordance with the law, would Tan Zhuo be still alive? Once this question got started, the next ones came naturally: Why did this driver get extra consideration from the law? Where did things go wrong? Who authorized this extralegal move? And why aren't street racing being restricted effectively?

If there is true justice and fairness in this world, then there must be an explanation to those for whom the deceased was a son, an employee or a fiancé. An explanation must be given to all those citizens who walk in the streets. Those who enable this driver to have a license to kill must stand up and give an explanation. Hangzhou has always been known as paradise. So the citizens should know whose paradise is this and whose hell is this.

Tan Zhuo, May 7, 2009

Related Link: Car racing incident Oiwan Lam, Global Voices Online; Street Racing Rich Kid Kills Pedestrian, Netizens Outraged ChinaSMACK

Laughing and joking after the incident

day 7 going home

Last day and it was a long day flying home. First bus to airport, then flight to Hong Kong, then to Shanghai, then bus home.

When we arrived at Hong Kong airport, it was about 1:30 pm. As usual so many people here there were, and we didn't realize special things there. But later we got to know the first confirmed swine flu case was just discovered from here, about half an hour before us. Fortunately we only felt a little tired after all and none of us reported high fever.

Compared to swine flu, I experienced once again 'cat flu', put by friend I. When we landed at Shanghai, I reminded again, beside the first time on the bus in the morning, that we should all queue up in the same order as on our group visa. But they walked so fast that I couldn't keep pace with us no matter how hard I tried. When I was fighting for breath across Pu dong airport's big terminal 2, they already clotted together in front of immigration counter. The officer then scolded me for the mess and even in front of him my group hesitated to follow the order. I felt so embarrassed all the way, especially when the officer finally gave me the receipt of the group visa smiling sympathetically.

Around 9:30 I got home. Thank god, a long day was over. I didn't get swine flu and immunized, the cat flu was away from me too, finally.

day 6, Taipei

Our first stop was the Museum, with over 700,000 pieces of most valuable and exquisite artifacts from China's palace's collection brought over by Chiang, as well as enormous amount of gold and other jewelry in 1949 when he had to flee the mainland and settle on Taiwan island.

The architecture, compared to the palace complex is honestly not impressive at all. When it was laid out, the designer shouldn't have planned for such large number of visitors from other side of the straits. Most local guides would lead groups directly through crowds to three must-sees: a jade cabbage, a meat-like stone and a bronze tripod before some little time for shopping at a gift shop or taking some photograph outside.

I didn't join my group this time but instead, I avoided by staying on the first floor with lesser popular galleries. I like the ancient painting and calligraphy as well as the furniture, where some Japanese groups were around.( I felt a little guilty though for them, because of the noise we created but also unbearable queue time to those must-sees.)

We were privileged to have lunch inside the museum, just steps away from the main building. And we left for the Memorial to Sun Yat-sen, which is located in the center of the city. Many complained about too much time left to them there and also, about the 'commie villains' remarks of our party addressed by the exhibition.

Right out of the memorial we had great view of the 101 tower, one of the tallest in the world. And a recent accident of three mainland visitors' killing by a construction crane around the site didn't prevent us from going there. Around the tower, Xinyi commercial district has lots of the hippest shopping mall, pubs, cafes and book stores. At page one, inside the tower, I got some books for myself, 'war trash', 'wolf totem', 'the kite runner'.

We then were arranged to a bakery store ' Weige' for some cakes souvenirs before we went to a Shanghai style restaurant for a early dinner. After we returned to our hotel, I went out to take a metro and explore a little bit more about here.

day 5 Yeliu and Taipei

Today's highlight were Yeliu national park and Free square in Taipei. However the view of the eastern coastline of Taiwan along the drive was very picturesque. In the morning we had kinda singing competition between guides and group members before a movie was aired. However, it was obvious wrong selection. When the movie was on, some of my group revolted,since in this America -produced documentary about Mao, our Mao was depicted as a 'womanizer and dictator'. One sentence from it impressing me the most was, by his private doctor, Mao had strong influence from his countryside background and the only entertainment he enjoyed the most was fucking women, especially young women.

After a whole morning's drive and early lunch, we arrived at Yeliu around 1:30 pm. In bright sunshine and under blue sky, we lingered around enjoying all these fantastically weird rock sculptures created naturally by the sea and wind erosion.


At 3 pm we set off on the way to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. We stopped at one duty-free store, where my group craved much cigarette and local wines before we arrived very cautiously at Free Square, used to be a monumental square to Chiang Kai-shek. Due to reasons of minimizing political influence, groups from the mainland are not encouraged from our side to pay visits to similar places as well as former residences of Chiang, although we see not strong points in doing so. However many groups are doing it secretly as our tour representative requested me strongly too to take this group here, since his former groups did it recently. The local guide cautioned us that we should all keep in mind that we come here not for sightseeing but instead using the free toilet facility in case when any security or tour police approached us to carry out possible check.

It was sunset time when we got there after the bus drove past his presidential palace. And DiBao ( emperor's treasure) tower, the most deluxe residence in Taipei, and it's here my icon Dee Hsiu lives. The driver carefully parked at its side gate and we walked then to its southern end of the square. The pinkish and blue sky made nice light there and we took quick snaps before we were attracted to the middle where the flag-lowering ceremony was to take place. Great timing. Besides us there were another two groups and lots of locals. We didn't feel any tense atmosphere there though, as the locals were jogging, chatting and dancing even all through the ceremony with two twin toddlers were playing and laughing right under the flag pole.

There on the norther end of the square was the monument to Chiang. Although the local guide was ready to take us out of here, one man didn't obey though and began running up the stairs into it, who was soon followed by others. The door was being closed down just when we finished looking around inside. Funnily, some really 'special souvenirs' our group left there were that three men couldn't control their call from the nature and thus peed in public and in front of the bushes and flowers. How ironical!

The dinner restaurant was located on Zhongxiao street east, where we eye witnessed the night view of the modern aspect of this city. And after here, we drove to the Shilin night market, which turned out to be dirty and very boring. We hit the road for our hotel ambassador only 15 minutes later.

day 4, Taroko gorge

Towering marble cliffs - formed millions of years ago - soar up to 3,000 feet along Taiwan’s Taroko Gorge. One of Asia’s natural wonders and the most popular scenic attraction on this island nation, the gorge - with the Liwu River rushing through it - continues for about 12 miles through deep canyons with lush vegetation, hiking trails and an extensive variety of animal and plant life. Taroko, or tailuge in the Ami dialect, means “beautiful” and the Taroko National Park, in the central East Coast area, certainly offers the visitor some spectacular vistas along with 27 of the island’s highest peaks.

A Ming Dynasty-style arch marks the entrance to Taroko Gorge. Only two miles down the road, the Eternal Spring Shrine sits high on a cliff commemorating the hundreds who lost their lives building the Central Cross-Island Highway from 1956 to 1960. A plume of water flows from under the shrine down the cliff face. Behind the shrine stone steps lead up to Guanyin Cave and Changuang Temple. The highway twists and turns for miles with various stops along the way. Home to the Atayal people, the area, now the Puluowan Recreation Area, offers a number of hiking trails for active travelers. Some of the most dramatic scenery can be found in the Swallows’ Grotto of this “marble valley.” A gigantic grotto of karst, it has towering cliffs frequented by thousands of swallows depending on the season. A little further on, visitors can stroll for about a mile through a remarkable feat of engineering, the “Tunnel of Nine Turns” Trail - a road of short tunnels and overhanging rock carved out of the marble cliffs. The stone walls of the valley stand so close, they only allow a few rays of sunlight to filter down to the floor of the gorge. Waterfalls cascade off the cliffs and trees cling to the vertical surfaces. The scene could come from a Chinese brush painting.

The guide had been repeating to our group that we shouldn't overpass him and lag behind me the tour leader. However, as soon as possible my disobedient group kinda evaporated and lost themselves in front of us among the crowds. Finally the local guide reunited with me and another lady who joked about her weight prevented her from joining those fast pacers.

We enjoyed the canyon or gorge here. And then we paid a visit to a local handicraft and jewelry store for marble and cat's eye gemstone. The group, especially ladies liked it here and after bargaining they seemed happy with their final deals. Our dinner restaurant was located near a military airport. Chiang selected its location out of security concerns, which was easy to understand as well as other power plants in Taroko gorge designed inside caves too.

We checked in a nice hotel before we were joined by another tour by the same Hangzhou tour company. Compared to them, we were more fortunate because their group were not happy with other two hotels before the local tour manager finally agreed to settle them down in our hotel. But funny thing was, I'd overheard the dialogue between my guide and his tour operator that for my group, another hotel beside this current one was booked for us. Super Vip status.

I went to see my new colleague in his room where he shared it with his guide and driver, while I had a whole room to my own. A young and energetic man, he had been Taiwan several times, and even more experienced than his local guide, for the first time guiding mainland tour groups and actually a pitch hand, because the first guide was so fired by acting crazily rude and openly criticizing the group for shopping zero in first several shops.