Jonah Horowitz

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Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, I'm not totally okay with the blind patriotic overtones and the "god bless our troops" message that some of these cards have, but I believe that the men and women in Iraq deserve our support, particularly from those of us who were duped into supporting this war. Someone forwarded me the text below. I sent a card, and I think Xerox is doing something pretty cool with this.

Something cool that Xerox is doing

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.

Please send a card.

It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them...

Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This entry.

Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These seem pretty cool.

Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've finally uploaded most of my pictures to Flickr. I really do need to edit them down a bit to a nice 25 picture slideshow, but I haven't had a chance yet.

Beijing and the Great Wall

The Three Gorges

Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Smoking
One thing I did not read in any of the guide books is how much smoking there is in China. I think china is at least 20 years behind the United States in regards to smoking behavior. Coming from California, this was a real shock for me. They smoke in bars, they smoke in restaurants, they smoke everywhere. On my tour to the Three Gorges, the bus driver smoked while he was driving us. There were a couple of funny things people said to me about it. One girl said, as she lit up a cigarette, "We smoke so much because we have too many people, and we're trying to kill them off." I thought at one point, maybe people smoke in china because filtered cigarette smoke isn't much worse than the air the people there breathe every day. It is common knowledge that the air quality in China is terrible. My last few days there it was really getting to me. I felt almost like I did leaving Burning Man - it hurt to breathe deeply.

Beijing
After all the time I spent in Wuhan, I got to spend my last weekend in Beijing. I decided to totally treat myself and stay at the St. Regis instead of a cheaper hotel. As it worked out, the St. Regis cost about $100/night more than it would have cost to say somewhere else, and it was well worth it. The St. Regis was easily the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. I think the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas had as nice a room, or at least almost as nice, but the service at the Venetian did not come close to the outstanding service at the St. Regis. The weekend I was in Beijing, it was hosting a Asia-Africa summit. Since the St. Regis is the best hotel in Beijing, all of the highest level diplomats were staying there. Because of this, the security was extremely tight. I had to pass through something resembling airport security every time I entered the hotel. There were police and military soldiers stationed everywhere, and every now and then they would even close the street in front of the hotel. This would mean that I would have to walk to a different street to catch a taxi. I know it sounds like it was a huge headache, but really it was more interesting that inconvenient.

While in Beijing I was able to see a few of the many sights there. The first thing I did after arriving at the hotel was head over to the Forbidden City. Honestly I was a little disappointed - The Hall of Supreme Harmony was closed for renovation, as was one of the other major buildings. I had to content myself with the smaller buildings around the Forbidden City. That's not to say that these buildings were not impressive, it just would have been cool to see everything. I hope that next time I go to Beijing I will be able to see more of the Forbidden City. Across from the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. Because of the summit, the square was closed. I wasn't able to walk across it, but I was able to walk around it. It's pretty impressive, and actually, it was pretty neat to see it devoid of people.

I didn't end up going out Saturday night because, one, I had a huge amount of work to catch up on, and two, I was going for a tour of the Great Wall at 8am on Sunday.

The Great Wall tour was really spectacular. I was the only tour I took while in China where the tour guide spoke English. This had positive and negative points. On the positive side, I could understand what he was saying, and the tour was more interesting and informative. On the negative side, a tour in English meant a tour with Americans, and unfortunately, not the 20-something just out of college, liberals I'm used to from San Francisco. In spite of that we all got along, and had a nice time. The tour was very small, only 7 people.

The tour started with a visit to the Ming Tombs. We visited the tomb of the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He was regarded as one of the best emperors China has ever had, even though his reign only lasted for about 20 years. The tour guide told me that in general, the emperors that ruled at the beginning of a dynasty were generally the best because as time went on the later emperors would get corrupt and lazy. I'm not going to write a Chinese history lesson here because that information is readily available elsewhere.

After visiting the tomb we visited a Jade carving factory. This was cool, but also kind of a tangent, and it was clear that the tour operators are rewarded if their "tour-ees" purchase things. I did end up buying a very nice present for someone back in the states, and the tour was interesting and informative. I know a lot more about Jade than I did before the tour.

We left the Jade factory and went to a "Friendship Store" where we were treated to a complimentary lunch. The store offers this with the hope that people will buy things after eating. The quality of the food was pretty terrible, but I think that I was really spoiled. When we were in Wuhan we ate out at some of the finest restaurants there. We could do this because good food in China is dirt cheap. On average our dinner bill, for four people, would come to about 500 R.M.B, which is about $63. Anyway, I didn't buy anything there, but I did see something that I had bought earlier for about twice the price. It made me feel like I might have gotten an okay deal.

Following the "Friendship Store" lunch we continued on to the highlight of the trip, the Badaling section of the Great Wall. This is one of four sections of the Great Wall that tourists can visit near Beijing. Because it is the closest, it is the one where all the tour operators go, it is very crowded. To some extent we were helped by the fact that it was only 40 degrees outside, with strong winds. This meant significantly fewer people. At this section of the wall there are two choices. After climbing up to the top of the wall, if you walk along the wall to the right, you climb up a not as steep, but very crowded section. If you go to the left, you are faced with an extremely steep climb, but there are very few tourists, particularly after you pass the first turret. Of course, I chose the path less traveled, and I think it was the right choice. It took us about an hour to get to the end of the restored section of the wall. I can't say enough how amazing it was. The wall is so huge, and it is mind-blowing how much work it must have taken to build.

Anyway, I'm now on the final flight of my journey home. I really can't wait to be back in San Francisco. The trip has been a lot of fun, and I've gotten a lot of work done, but I'm ready to have my own bed and a more normal life.

I'm not looking forward to the jet lag. I'll post pictures once I have a moment to catch my breath.

Posted by Jonah Horowitz at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)