Big Data Comes to Guiyang

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Photo taken the day prior to opening day.

From May 25 to May 29, a Guiyang hosted the China Big Data Industry Summit and China ECommerce Innovation and Develpment Summit. I attended the confernce with two of my students.  Wang Min is a student studying Hospitality Manageent at Guizhou Normal University and Bai Zhong Jun is a student of Software Engineering at Guizhou University.

Sign advertising the event

Sign advertising the event

These signs are everywhere in Guiyang.

These signs are everywhere in Guiyang.

The Big Data Conference in Guiyang brought companies from all over China and from around the world. Companies that were represented include:

  • Amazon
  • AliBaba
  • Huawei
  • Huipu
  • Dell
  • Microsoft
  • Qualcomm
  • Foxcomm
  • Hewett Packard
  • Baidu
  • Tencent
  • Jingdong
  • Tellhow
  • Teamsun
  • Scistor

The Big Data Conference had good attendence by State Owned Businesses which can provide services and financing to companies with interesting projects, projects that can employ Guiyang’s technical labor force. A small stream can grow to a river and an ocean. Guizhou Province of China aspires to become the “Big Data Valley” of China. The private and public comapnies represented here suggest that this is very feasible.

African-American youths see the true China

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African-American youths see the true China
By Yan Dongjie (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-05-22 16:35
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-05/22/content_25410946.htm

It is not often that I reference China Daily because this web site blog (at www.tourguizhou.com) is about foreigners in Guizhou. Guizhou Province of China is magnificent . . . in the friendly people, the beautiful landscape, abundant water resources, clean air, minority cultures and an incredible variety of local foods. So when I read a headline referencing the “true China” it really set off a little bell. In the USA people always ask me,  “What is it like in China?”.  My answer is always the same . . . “China’s a big place. It’s better to ask me what it’s like in Guizhou, or Guiyang.”

I really wanted to read the article because I don’t know how to describe the true China either. My impression is that about half of the country is still quite rural, with a big percentage of people pulling themselves up out of the rubble that was The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. It is a rapidly growing techno society and a sleepy rural place as well. It is on the move, or not. It depends on your bias going in, and what you are shown, and what you choose to see. So I really was curious about what the author and the hosts came up with in describing the trip of “African-American youths”. You have the link now and can read the article yourselves.

So if I wanted to show Chinese people the True America, what would I show them? Perhaps I will try to lead a group to the USA and attempt to show them the “True America”. What will it be? The African American youths were shown Beijing and Shanghai. That would be like showing Washington DC and New York City, only, and calling it the “true America”. What a bastard view that would be.

So the question stands, what would I show them? Well it would be difficult in two weeks to show the true America with any degree of granularity. For sure, I would want to show them New York City and Washington DC. I would also want to show them a pro football game, a college basketball game, a minor league baseball game, Flint, a jazz bar, Harvard, Northwestern Michigan Community College, a small midwest town, some National Parks, an NRA sponsored shooting range, a primary school class, a church service, a medical research hospital, Detroit Recorder’s Court, a township board meeting, a Donald Trump rally, West Point, a Boeing Corporation jet plane factory, … hmmm. Two weeks might not be enough time!

Does anybody else have any ideas about “the true America”?

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Guizhou Telescope

Guizhou now has the biggest radio telescope in the world.  It will be operational soon.

World’s Largest Radio Telescope Nears Completion, And It’s Going To Find ALIENS

Ross McG
May 3, 2016

The world’s largest radio telescope is almost finished – and it’s going to try to make contact with extra-terrestrial life.

This fascinating video and stunning photos show how close the 500m wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or “FAST”, is to completion.

The structure, in China, will be operational by September and key components have already been tested.

Spanning 1,640ft in diameter, the telescope is a £125 million initiative that has been under construction since 2011 in Pingtang County in China’s Guizhou Province.

The structure is being fitted with 4,500 shiny panels following a successful dry run of its hardware last November.

FAST is three miles away from the nearest inhabited town, meaning it will have the perfect radio silence needed to listen to listen to the skies above.

Officials moved some 9,000 from the region to make way for the radio telescope, which will be the biggest of its kind.

 

Living in China – Flag Day Update

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I talked to some kids in a countryside school and offered to help them learn English:

In order to give that talk, I had to drive for three hours on an expressway, stay in a hotel, and then have breakfast (in the hotel). The trip down was fine, and the hotel looked normal.  It was a free breakfast, but I came prepared. When I go to a small countryside place I always take my bottle of instant coffee. I was ready for this trip.

The tea pot had a short cord, so I had to plug the pot in beside the bed, on the bed-stand.  Unfortunately, the TV in the hotel didn’t work, but I got up a couple hours before my little talk and played with my cell phone while laying in bed. When I finally got the coffee done I put it on the bed-stand with the tea pot, cell phone, etc. Sharing the electric for charging phone etc was awkward and as I moved on the bed the pillow fell on the coffee and tipped the cup over, almost drenching the cell phone . . . I moved fast. I avoided the worst of it and, in my stocking feet I went to get a towel from the bathroom. I got the towel wet in the sink, but the sink leaked, and I soon found myself standing in water in my stocking feet. I wrung out the socks, cleaned up the coffee and got out of that funky room and down to breakfast . . .

Fortunately I had plenty of coffee that morning, and together with the annoyance of the wet socks I had no problem waking up. The breakfast was typical cheap, elaborate Chinese breakfast. As expected, no coffee. There were noodles and a sauce with precious little meat. There were eight or ten different shaped pastries, all of which seemed to be made of the same sweet bread dough (yuck). Anyway, the smokers at the next table didn’t bother me much and the hard boiled eggs were done just the way I like them. Breakfast was OK, EXCEPT I kept hearing coughing and sneezing. 

It is my experience that I shouldn’t look at the people coughing or sneezing. Gross. It was very close to me and I decided to look up. I was relieved to see the guy holding a big napkin and I figured that maybe I was safe from air-born germs. WRONG. I looked up and noticed that he was sneezing and coughing without covering his mouth, and then he used the napkin to wipe his nose and mouth after sneezing and coughing. I hurried out of breakfast and went to the school assembly.  I had volunteered to talk to a class or two, but this turned out to be the my biggest group since visiting China. I tried to talk in Chinese, but it was suggested that English would have a better chance of being understood . . . 

https://www.tourguizhou.com/archives/10613

Guiyang Black Taxi Blues

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Recently I got two painful reminders about black taxis. They are not professional and don’t know that moving a seat can hurt people.

The first one was when I was maneuvering my ample buttocks into the front seat of a black taxi.  The seat was pulled all the way up, but I thought I  could get in.  In the middle of the process, the driver pulled the lever which freed the seat to slide back about a 18 inches. I simply fell into the car and got hit in the back of the head by the top of the car. It was a big ouch.

The same week, I got in the back of a black taxi and the driver, again without warning, slid the passenger seat backwards and nailed both of my shins.  Remember. black taxis are driven by amateurs. Be careful of that front passenger seat.  Also, don’t hang your arm out the window. Drivers often close these windows without notice.

Jack

Massage

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One more photo of Chang Mai, Thailand.  I didn’t have time to do all the things I wanted to do while I was there. The price works out to between 5 and 6 dollars for one hour.

dav

dav

China Green Card will be Easier ?

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See Washington Post China Permanent Residency

A current Associated Press report is copyrighted, but is reporting that the government is interested in having more foreigners move to, reside in, and work in China. It is considered a way of improving the economy.  This is extraordinary news.

My British friend and I have both tried to stay in China, with significant resistance from the authorities.  I am only able to remain in China as a tourist, with a ten year tourist visa. It requires me to leave the country every 60 days to avoid violation.

My British friend is only able to get a 30 day visa to accomplish the same goal. It kind of takes any financial incentive out of trying to stay here. So if the government is planning a change, it will have to happen pretty soon to save two of us.

I’ve been supporting Guizhou Province people in my own way for nearly 25 years. I welcomed the students from Guizhou when they attended Oakland University (Michigan) in the 90s. I trained teachers in Guizhou in 2000 under Oakland U’s Summer Institute, and have taught English to Guizhou People for nine of the last fifteen years. After teaching at Guizhou Normal University for four years, my contract ended without renewal last August. I never received a warning of my demise or coherent explanation.

Now at age 65 I can’t get that “Expert Certificate” that  I had received nine prior years as an English Teacher. I don’t regret my service to the Guizhou People. It’s still the poorest province in China, except for Tibet. I am, however, looking forward to seeing this new enlightened policy in action.

Thailand Trip – Elephant Island

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Koh Chang is called Elephant Island in the Gulf of Thailand. It is accessed by modern ferry and has a small townish feeling to it. We went on a snorkel trip with www.scubadawgs.com. I visited my old teacher, Cao Laoshi and we took a couple of his students to this island resort. We stayed Cao and I had one tent and the students had another.