Ellis Pugh

Last year China took a record from the US that it probably didn’t want to have- the unenviable tag of being the world’s largest Carbon Dioxide emitter. To be fair to China, the subsequent finger wagging it received from the West was largely unjustified. It has a vastly larger population that the US, a burgeoning industrial sector, and as I mentioned in a previous blog a rapidly car-driving society. Even with all this in mind, China emits a ‘mere’ 4 tonnes of CO2 per citizen per year compared with other OECD members whose average comes to about 11 tonnes.

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In probably the weirdest and funniest story I’ve read this year, police in Staffordshire, England are investing the case of a garden that was ‘stolen’ whilst the family was on holiday in Lanzarote. The couple told their neighbours that they would be emigrating, and would be putting their house on the market before heading abroad. When they returned:

‘They found that the shed, the garden path, the rockery, the pot plants and the hanging baskets had all disappeared. Even the flowers had been dug up. The cultivated space behind their house had been transformed into a bare yard of earth and grass’

Funnily enough,

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The Great Wall hah. After living in Beijing for two years I thought I was familiar with the cities most famous landmark. I’ve been myself, with my family and with a veritable mob of other relations and friends. Now, whilst I normally go to Mutianyu for a couple of reasons: 1) it’s quieter than Badaling 2) It’s got stunning views, and all renovated, and 3) It’s got that cool toboggan which you can zoom down pretending to be in the Olympics, with one of my best friends from home out in Beijing I thought we’d do something different.

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Beijing from above, confusing much? (Inside of Beijing Planning Museum)

As a geography student, urban planning consistently pops up during my degree course- it's a (surprisingly) interesting topic, involving big questions about where, why and how we want to live our lives. Which is why perhaps I was drawn to this blog on Chinasmack.com with the title 'Google Earth used by Chinese Netizens to discuss urban planning' in which the author claims that (shown by google earth images) Chinese cities, including Beijing, are chaotic and backward compared to even some African cities. As any family who've spent any time in Beijing knows, getting around this fair city can be very stressful, but is it all bad?

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I love Chinglish. A lot.

In fact i'm not too proud to admit that much of my valuable revision time last year was spent on sites like www.engrish.com, giggling immaturely at accidently funny Chinese and Japanese-English translations. Which is why this current list of 'top ten' embarassing chinglish amuses me greatly, and I thought was well worth sharing:

1) Good good study, day day up (好好学习，天天向上)
Note: Study hard and make progress everyday

2) How are you? How old are you？(怎么是你？怎么老是你？)
Note: Why are you here? Why do I always meet you?

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The footy season is getting into full swing in the English Premier league, but here in Bejing things are just hotting up with the ClubFootball coaching programmes kicking off across the city this September.

"ClubFootball soccer coaching programmes run at 20+ locations in Beijing and Tianjin for boys and girls of all levels aged 4 to 18. Students who wish to join but haven't registered yet can email office@wanguoqunxing.com call 5130 6893/4/5/6. Held after school, at weekends and during holidays, courses are designed and delivered in a fun environment by ClubFootball’s UK English FA-qualified coaching staff. In addition to building a passion for football and developing on-the-pitch skills and knowledge, courses emphasize the principles of teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership. Above all, courses are fun!"

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In 1837 a celebrated young naturalist, fresh back from a five-year long expedition around the Americas and a year of touring England’s leading academic institutions, was scribbling in his notebook- struggling with a puzzle he had come across during his travels. The problem was simultaneously simple and fiendishly complex: Our young scientist had come to recognize that even within a relatively small area such as the Galapagos islands, there existed a significant difference in anatomy between animals of the same species (particularly within the finch family). The animals were all clearly related, but had somehow developed in unique directions. Not being able to put his idea initially into words he scrawled a web like that shown left with the immortal words ‘I think’. The young scientist was of course Charles Darwin, and the scribble the beginnings of his seminal theory, evolution by natural selection, immortalized in the ‘Origin of the Species’.

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If your kid’s a little Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs or even just a Kevin Nolan, then you’ll probably be interested in the upcoming football classes hosted and run by China Clubfootball.

Located at over 20 different venues around Beijing and Tianjin including ISB, IAB, Yew Chung, Zhongguancun, Wangjing and Harrow, the courses are ran by English FA qualified coaches and are designed to be ‘educative… building a passion for football and developing on-the-pitch skills and knowledge… emphasizing the principles of teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership’ all in a fun and enjoyable way.

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Few articles are as simultaneously infuriating and mollifying as this recent article from Xinhuanet.com. It centers around a forum at china.com where 98% of the readers called for lower years English lessons to be dropped. Two reasons for this attitude are shown below:

‘It is very ironic parents and students spend so much time and money learning something they don’t use’

‘My daughter has mixed English with Chinese pinyin, which is pathetic’

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