Planetarium

O.K., the closing ceremony was across the street from our hotel in the Planetarium. The Old planetarium is quite nice, the architecture is reminiscent of the Palace of Fine Arts in SF, but much smaller. They have the actual old planetariums on display in the new Planetarium much like I think they will do in SF when they are finished renovating the Cal Academy of Sciences. The new Planetarium opened early this year and while the building is impressive, the content is nil. There are two high-tech planetarium domes that show “Dinosaur Attacks” style shows. But it is popular with the kids. Phil says out exhibit increases the content by 95à They did a nice job of moving the displays from the Exhibition to the planetarium and I think Mike and Joe, who are staying the week, will have their hands full.

The ceremony stage had two fake bonfires at each corners: red crepe paper flames, lights and fans. There was bubble machine and a smoke machine. They gave us glow sticks and plastic clapper hands. It was surreal. There were girls in red dresses with flowing skirts that did dances twirling their skirts to introduce two opera singers and then they danced around the singers. Then there was a Justin-Timberlake-like singer, then a female counterpart. Then there was another opera singer, and then three guys with clicking bamboo sticks who did the Chinese version of rap. Finally Phil and Jon and Jenni went up to the stage to present the Dignitary and a boy with the THEMIS images that they had targeted the week before at the exhibition.

Oh, this is interesting: the woman who targeted the THEMIS image is a high up with the Science and technology group. She was interviewed by a newspaper this week and told the reported that she doesn’t believe that the Martian meteorites we brought are actually form Mars because Newton’s second law says that large objects attract small objects and there is no was to get the rocks off of the surface of Mars. This made a large headline in the newspaper. So now Phil has to give an interview to the same reporter to explain how these rocks overcame the pull of Mars.

Back to the ceremony. After our bit, which was kind of a media frenzy, I couldn’t see the stage, there was a woman who sang about loving China, then a pair of comedians that no one laughed at: us because we couldn’t understand them and everyone else because they just weren’t funny, and then a pair of poets. The jest of the poem was that Chinese students should go abroad to get their degree and then come back to make china a great country. This ticked Irene off, because she feels she can give as much to China by staying here as going away and coming back, but I’m not sure I really understand the full reason for her annoyance. After the poem there was another opera singer, three dancers in basketball uniforms and ballet shoes (this was cool) and finally a Chinese version of Rush Limbaugh who spouted Nationalistic propaganda for 20minutes. I was getting a little concerned because all of the kids in front of us kept looking back at us during his speech and I have no idea what this guy is saying, he could be telling them to “jump the stupid Americans in the back row” for all I know. It turns out that all of the songs and dances had something to do with science and technology and making China a bigger power in the world.

Phil has been telling us all week that we are witnessing the rise of another super-power an several years from now we will look back and be able to say that we were there when it happened. Beijing will be a totally different place in ’08 for the Olympics. It is already starting to change. By that time it will have been completely taken over by commercialism. There are something like 14 million people here now and 1.4 million privately owned cars. Most people still ride bicycles. By 2008 there are supposed to be 100 million cars. The traffic here is scary and crazy enough as it is. There is definitely a cast system on the road. If you are in a car you are somebody, if you are on a bike or on foot you are nobody. There have been several times these past weeks that I was sure we were going to crash or get run over by a bus. I am completely surprised by the lack of accidents.

I am supposed to write an article for ASU’s insight magazine by Monday. They want a first person perspective. I think I have plenty of material to work with, but I want to put a somewhat positive spin on it and I have been asked not to talk about the Taiwan issue. I’ll send a copy out when it is published.

Today is the opening at the Planetarium and then we are done with work, hooray! So the plan for this afternoon is go on a walking tour of the hutong and then go to a teahouse with Irene on the lake. We will probably go out to dinner as a group tonight to celebrate, possibly back to Café Sambal. Tomorrow we go to the Dirt market to shop and then Monday we are taking a picnic to the Summer Palace. And then home. I am looking forward to a soft bed and my morning cereal and chai. Not that I haven’t enjoyed the Chinese cuisine, but it will be nice to get back to some food that my stomach can handle.