腾龙洞 – Teng Long Dong
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 in: News, Travel
Get your mind out of the gutter, Dong means CAVE.
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always enjoyed spelunking. Caves are more than just holes in the ground, they’re a gateway to a whole other world lurking just below the surface. You don’t have to go too deep to discover it. Round a corner and you’re in a cavern that never sees natural light, a whole new ecosystem just out of the sun’s reach. Turn off your flashlight and let your eyes adjust to the darkness and quiet, and when you turn it back on, you’re rewarded with little details and rock formations that slipped by unnoticed before. Even today, the Lava Beds National Monument is a favorite camping destination for my weird family. A desolate desert to the uninitiated, the Lava Beds is home to an amazing variety of wildlife and a spectacular volcanic cave system, not to mention the area’s rich human history. Some of the caves there are a pretty cozy squeeze, being solidified lava tubes. Most of the larger tubes have collapsed or partially collapsed into craters filled with massive chunks of basalt, breaking up the spelunking with some really fun scrambles. There are only a handful of caves in the National Monument I haven’t yet visited, but I intend to see them all.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTOYAlrBpQ
Outside of the Lava Beds, the most impressive cave I’ve been to was the Moaning Caverns near Angel’s Camp, CA. I went with my friend Hans on our way to Yosemite, and we rappelled 60-90ft down into the massive limestone cavern. We also got to explore the cave system below the main chamber, although we didn’t get to descend to the bottom-most chamber where rich patrons used to ice skate in the 1920’s; the dirt tracked in by visitors has severely damaged the cave so it’s since been closed.
But neither the Lava Beds nor Moaning Caverns has anything that compares in sheer size to Teng Long Dong, the Soaring Dragon Cave, near Enshi in Hubei province.
The cave is about a 2 hour drive from Enshi in the opposite direction of the valley we visited the day before, but it is run by the same company. Despite this fact, they haven’t yet figured out a good scheme for actually transporting people TO the cave, so we had to hire a cab to drive us in. Our driver, Ms. Liu, told us about her numerous American pen pals, including the one who offered her a large sum of money to come visit him in LA; she was waiting for her son to graduate from High School first. I discovered a new motivation to learn Chinese: cab drivers can provide some pretty interesting conversation if you’re able to keep up with them.
When we went to the valley the day before, we bought tickets to both places for a discount, but when we arrived, they said I had purchased two tickets to the valley, and that I’ll have to buy a ticket to the cave at full price. Balking at the bullshit, I lost my temper a little bit because I had deliberately pointed at the combo ticket and paid the exact amount for it. At first they tried to console me by saying I could go BACK to the valley to use my ticket again, even though we were leaving Enshi the following morning. Ben talked some sense into them and they let me use my second ticket.
Across a nice bridge and along a well-groomed path, the cave wasn’t more than half a kilometer from where we parked. We rounded a corner and there loomed a massive gash in the earth. Just the entrance to this cave could fit the entire moaning cavern into it. I looked down at my ticket, and see a photo of the cave with a helicopter flying into it. Words don’t even begin to describe this thing.
Just before the corner rounded into the darkness, a fleet of shuttle carts came into view. The cavern runs back so far they actually have a shuttle service inside the cave. Grandpa almost overdid it the day before, so we took the ride and arrived five minutes later at the indoor arena they had built for their twice-daily singing/dancing/laser show. 
We caught the very end of the show, enough to know there wasn’t much point in sticking around for the next one. Grandpa opted to head back to the entrance, but Jim, Ben and I decided to walk the well-lit mile-long path deeper into the cave. There were several fascinating rock formations along the path, and the soaring ceilings never stooped very low. I realized just how developed the cave was when I walked by a group of tourists chatting away on their cell phones. We reached the deepest developed part of the cave, and Ben told me that this cave actually went on for another 40 miles, and connected with the valley we were at the other day. I peered longingly into the darkness, imagining what an adventure it would be to explore the entire length. I signed as I turned back towards the halogen and tungsten lamps and chattering tourists. Some other time, maybe.
We got back to the entrance to meet up with Grandpa, and they told me to check around the corner. I walked out of the cave and down a little path. The faint whisper of moving water faded into a roaring waterfall pouring itself into the mouth of a second cave alongside the first. I’ll let the video I took speak for itself. That is… when I finally get to post it! Thanks China.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnrdmj97kkU
Quite an amazing site, I wondered if all our destinations would be like this.
Enshi Grand Canyon
Sunday, May 16th, 2010 in: News, Travel
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEMdJ15dqqg
Up until now, I’ve spent most of my time in China in the cities; a relatively unvarying landscape of buildings, shops, people and smog. They’re interesting in their own right, but it’s a far cry from the Chinese countryside I imagined. From my first day driving through through one of Wuhan’s five thousand construction sites to flying over the endless urban sprawl of Shanghai, I began to wonder if China had been swallowed up by one metropolis after another, creeping over the landscape and blanketing everything in the same grey haze. I would get my answer on the bus ride to what’s known as “China’s Grand Canyon.” (more…)
Enshi
Saturday, May 8th, 2010 in: News, Travel
Third flight in as many days. We arrived at the small airport in Enshi, the only plane on the strip. Walked down the stairs and up to the one-room terminal, and watched our luggage get carted to the baggage claim. Enshi is a city of about 100,000, the smallest kind of “city” in China. The beautiful weather went well with the sudden break from the dusty haze of the big cities. (more…)
The Stars, How I’ve Missed Them
Thursday, May 6th, 2010 in: News, Travel
Flying is a strange feeling for me. There’s something about being so far removed from the Earth that makes me feel disconnected from everything. Being on a plane is like being in stasis, where your only job is to occupy yourself en route. Some sleep, some read, others watch videos or try to get some work done. We’re all in this together, yet everyone is absorbed in their own little stasis pod, segregated by headphones as we all watch the same in-flight movies. Sometimes my time aboard leads to reflection of the events happening 30,000 feet below, but rarely do I concern myself worrying about such things. I might as well be in space, all that’s left to cut is the umbilical cord of gravity and I’m completely free to float away.
We’ve broken through the layer of clouds blanketing the landscape. It was dusk when we took off, so the last bits of reflected sunlight are glowing in the distance, but soon enough it’s complete darkness outside the plane. I cup my hands to the sides of my head and press my face against the window like a child making faces at the sky. In a moment my eyes adjust and the darkness comes into focus. The clouds don’t seem too far below us, forming a silver landscape floating just beneath the plane. I peer off on the horizon and see the blinking lights of other planes, full of people encapsulated in their own stasis pods, reading SkyMall in Chinese and listening to pop music.
And then I catch a glint of it. At first I think it’s another plane, but it’s fainter and steadier. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the stars; with the haze and light pollution of the city, it’s easy to forget the beauty of the night sky. I keep my face pressed against the window, marveling at the beauty that is always overhead whether we see it or not. Every time I see a sky like this, I think of the midnight canoe rides on Loon Lake where my dad first taught me the names of the constellations; getting stranded at a rest stop in the middle of Idaho, lying on the roof of the van gazing at the uninhibited heavens; reclining in the middle of the road in the Lava Beds, drinking in a meteor shower with my family shouting each time they catch sight of a shooting star. I’d never put it to words before, but the night sky has a lot of strong familial associations for me. A lot of warm memories are tied up in those twinkling lights.
We begin our descent into the clouds. It’s as if we’re touching down on the silver landscape, but we instead sink through into the mist, the strobing lights on the wingtips highlight water droplets hanging in the air as white horizontal lines, emphasizing the plane’s speed. Mounds of cumulous begin to pass by my window like mountains in the distance. The starry sky begins to fade and creep towards the top of my field of view. Right before the cloud engulfs everything, I see the faint trail of a shooting star. No one else saw, this one belongs to me.
Time well spent in Wuhan
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 in: News, Travel
During my time here, Ben has taken really good care of me, making sure I have an escort most of the time. I’m not used to being in a country where I don’t speak the language, so my usual boldness is hampered by a sizeable language barrier and unfamiliarity with the area. But there’s only one way to overcome those barriers, and that’s to face them. (more…)
Where I am now
Thursday, April 29th, 2010 in: News, Travel
Way out of order, but I thought I’d give you a peek at where I am now, hanging out on the river at Fenghuang ancient city. Couldn’t hope for nicer weather.
China Observations – Drainage Oil
Friday, April 23rd, 2010 in: Current Events, Travel
The other day I was on my own in Wuhan and decided to go take advantage of the Pizza Hut evening tea time. When I stepped out of the restaurant, the crowds had dissipated, leaving the streets eerily empty. It wasn’t even 11, so I was left wondering where everyone had gone off to. Most of the people still out and about were working. Just in front of the the Pizza Hut and the KFC next door, there was a couple of guys with a cart full of barrels standing over an open manhole, scooping some slop out out of the sewer. I didn’t know what was going on, so I made a mental note and stepped past them.
Back at the hotel, I started looking for websites in China to give me some more insight into the country in which I find myself, and stumbled across China Hush. I didn’t intend to find an explanation for the guys at the manhole, but there it was. They were collecting waste oil from the restaurants, and there’s more: that slop doesn’t isn’t just collected to clean the sewers, it’s recycled.
But recycling is good, right? Well, a lot of it is recycled back into the food supply, making its way back into the fryers and pans of street vendors and restaurants alike. Recycled drainage oil looks like regular oil, and it’s a third the cost, so there’s little stopping less scrupulous food vendors from choosing it over clean oil. Keep this in mind the next time you think about buying something fried on the street…
I might not mind so much if there weren’t oil in everything… now I can’t help but wonder what’s in my food, and where it’s been.
Dennis Hong and his secrets to success
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 in: Current Events
If you’ve known me for any length of time, I’ve probably mentioned the TED conference or one of its talks. Whenever I’m bored with the internet or feel the emptiness of not having something worth thinking about, I go to www.TED.com to scare up some inspiration. TED is like a lightning rod for good ideas and compelling stories; I always learn something when I watch one of their videos, either directly from the speaker, or inferred through my own interpretation of the materials.
This is a particularly interesting video to me, and not just because of the cool robots Dennis showcases in the first half. What struck me was the second half of the video, where he divulged his secrets of success. I too suffer from an overactive brain in the wee hours of the morning, and I also try to keep a notebook handy just in case a worthy thought flies by, but I realized I need to make it a ritual in order to maximize my output. I also really liked how he took his ideas and archived them on the computer, so he could categorize them for future reference, which comes in handy because he actually gets funding for his ideas.
But it’s not enough to have great ideas, or even work on great projects. I need to have fun doing it. Fun is rocket fuel for life; fun is what moves mountains.
Are you having any fun?
Cost and Value
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 in: News, Travel
Ben has an interesting theory about the cost-value of things. I’ve been too wrapped up in the perceived value of things, which leads me to think “oh, this room is too big, I can get a cheaper room,” but while I might be saving a few bucks, I’m also losing a lot more value. The 7 Day Inn here focuses on only two things: the bed and the shower, because those are the most important thing to ensure their guests sleep well and are refreshed. Their rooms are small by China standards but still bigger than a business hotel in Tokyo, for less than $20 a night. Instead of thinking “oh I can make do with a cheaper room,” I should just be thankful for the extra value I’m getting out of my money. Ben says he wouldn’t travel to Japan, because he can stay 5 star hotels in China for about the same amount as it would cost to sleep on the streets in Japan. Value is relative.
It’s not that I don’t believe him, but I feel like I need to experience the differences in value so I’m better prepared to travel on my own. For a short while, $20 per night isn’t over my budget, but it does add up, and will eventually put a strain on my bank account if I’m not bringing any new cash in… I’m seeing things from the Japanese standard; I need to shift my perspective or I’ll never adjust to things here.
Willing to indulge my little experiment, Ben helped me check out from hotel #2. We were going to the new cultural museum, so I encased my bags in my pacsafe mesh and handed them to the reception desk for safe-keeping. We hopped on a bus and crossed the Yangtze. (more…)
Ping – Gesture-aware clothing for the social media butterfly?
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 in: Current Events, News
I’m tired of writing about myself. Let’s talk about something interesting!
This pretty model is showing off Ping, a clothing concept that incorporates the Arduino Lilypad platform to make automatic twitter updates based on your motions. Sensors are woven into the fabric to detect certain gestures, and can also mimic the sensation of being tapped on the shoulder when someone is trying to contact you.
From the creator’s blurb:
Ping is a garment that connects to your Facebook account wirelessly and from anywhere. It allows you to stay connected to your friends and groups of friends simply by performing natural gestures that are built into the mechanics of the garments we wear. Lift up a hood, tie a bow, zip, button, and simply move, bend and swing to ping your friends naturally and automatically. No phone, no laptop, no hardware. Simply go about your day, look good and stay connected.
Very few wearable technology projects successfully target consumers outside of the sports, medical and military fields. We are just not there yet. The project aims to generate market desirability for a wide variety of people to use in everyday life.
Wait a second… technology that can not only detect and identify specific gestures, but also provide tactile response… and you’re trying to market it as an automatic twitter updater? Talk about a lack of imagination. Something tells me this was a fashion designer’s school project. The focus is purely on concept and aesthetic, form and function with such a limited vision for application! So much more could be done with this technology than give emaciated models the ability to tweet “I’m putting my hood on now.”
If I were a prison warden, I would put all my inmates in this stuff. Gesture-aware clothing could tell me when inmates are doing naughty things they shouldn’t, like fighting, taking drugs, fashioning a shiv or shoving things up their rectum. This kind of thing serves an Orwellian system very nicely. A private school headmaster’s wet dream.
It could help rescue operations for things like earthquakes, letting them know who is trapped where and whether they’re moving or not. Stick a GPS beacon into them and it’s a great accessory for backwoods snowboarders or mountain climbers in case they get lost.
That’s just the steam that came off my brain when I thought of the words “gesture-aware clothing,” Give me a million dollars and 3 months and I could make this into something real. The creator is onto something, they just don’t know what it is yet.
