This is China, after all

Wednesday, July 7 If you imagine that your worst fear is losing your passport while traveling in China, think again. Neddi Heller, a teacher at Poly Prep who arrived yesterday in Beijing with a group of teachers similar to my group, lost her passport in transit -- most likely it was stolen in Narita Airport in Japan between flights. She discovered the problem while on the flight to Beijing, but there was nothing that could be done. Without a passport and visa she was taken by the immigration police to a hotel near the airport for the night, and despite all our valiant efforts on her behalf, was put on a United Airlines plane back to Japan this morning. We are not sure at this point whether she will be able to rectify the problem in Japan -- no visa required, but still no passport -- or whether she will find herself back in New York. Louise, another colleague from Poly, and I headed to the hotel (4 star) where she spent the night. We were not allowed in her room, but talked with her briefly before she and her two police woman guards got in one taxi, with us following in a second, and headed for the airport. Clearly the guards were not happy at having to spend a night on the job, even if it was a four-star hotel, and wanted to get her through customs and away from us. Despite calls to the States last night (which was daylight hours on the East Coast) and conversations with the American embassy here in Beijing this morning, there was nothing that could be done. For a brief period we had a ray of hope when the United Airlines personnel (who were very nice in contrast to the immigration people) suggested that if we could get someone from the university to vouch for her, we could get her released long enough to get her a new passport. Alas, in the end, since United had only one flight a day, and immigration was determined she was going to be on that flight if we could not produce a passport, and with a 10:00 am boarding time, we had to resign ourselves to saying good-bye. For the record we had a photocopy of the face page of the passport and the visa application-- but that did no good. We did not have photos, but in the end, it turned out that didn't matter. Had we had until four o'clock, we might have been able to courier papers to and from the embassy. Oh well, maybe they will put her in first class. So that's today's excitement. Yesterday I went to the Beijing Aquarium to meet a friend of my friend at the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn. Jackson got his first exposure to marine life there when he was a teenager, later working at the Central Park Zoo and the Bronx Zoo. He is now part of an international team which was brought here to design the care and training of marine mammals at this state-of-the art facility. To give you an idea of the scale of the project, he came here three years ago, even before the ground breaking. The facility opened just three months ago. Everything about the space says "joint venture." It is a beautiful building, creatively designed, with wonderful, colorful graphics, interactive areas for school groups, and huge tanks for the seals, whales, dolphins and sea lions. At night, when the gates between the smaller tanks and the large presentation pool are open, the animals have a swimming space of over 120 yards -- more than a football field. Jackson's job is to train the Chinese staff in the care and training of the animals and to help design the educational programs. During my visit there were more adults than children in the space, but it seems like a happy experience. This is a joint venture between a Hong Kong investment firm and the Chinese government which intends to maintain the facility but, like everything else in China these days, make it pay its own way. The large open presentation space must hold 1000 people or more and probably looks like Sea World in Florida (though have never seen that...). I asked Jackson how the audience responded to having so many westerners involved with the training and feeding of the animals, and he said that there was no negative reaction-- that when the different handlers are introduced to the crowd, the applause is about the same for all of them. Jackson lives in a huge apartment which he shares with other members of the team. They have three bedrooms, a livingroom, diningroom, kitchen and den (used for guests). It is in an all-Chinese area, but has a western scale to it -- it was a building built for returning Chinese diplomats in the seventies who were lured back to China with promises of larger, western style apartments of the type they had grown accustomed. Now, of course, there are much fancier high rises all over the place-- so many, in fact, that even the China Daily has talked about the glut of the real estate market for office space, and Jackson says prices are coming down considerably. His apartment costs 1,000 US$ per month, but he knows of someone working for ATT paying 9000 US$ -- higher than Manhattan prices. What do you get for that kind of money? Security, English speaking concierge service, indoor parking garage, swimming pool, and cable TV with western stations. Jackson took me to a rather hokey "ethnic Chinese" restaurant where there were some pretty silly dancers and a loud MC offering prizes throughout the evening. The food was good, but not cheap -- my first full meal now that I am paying the bills... Dinner for the two of us was about $20 with one beer and one coke. Jackson said it might be an insult if I left a tip. That's not what I found elsewhere -- everyone grovels for tips. Were it not for the language, you could think you were in Istanbul or Acapulco. Now I am sitting in an Internet CafÈ next to Beida (Peking University), heading off to lunch with a professor I met on my earlier visit here. Louise is joining me, and we will raise our glasses to Neddi who is, we hope, being treated with tender loving care on her flight to Japan...