Asia Ecopreneur

Exploring China: Guilin/Yangshuo Adventure

2010-12-16T16:53:00.001-08:00

It was time to once again make the most of our multiple entry visa into China before expiry in April, so we headed off on a weekend adventure to the limestone karst area around Guilin.

Louise was voted number one travel agent, so it was up to her to research where to go, and how to get there! She decided on Guilin, as she knew about the magnificent karst landscape and had been hankering to get there for a while. Overnight trains run from Shenzhen to Guilin (train # T38) so we decided to try out China Rails’ sleeper trains. For the outward journey we bought tickets via China Travel Service, who of course charge you an extra HKD$100 for privilege, but as we were booking overnight sleepers we decided to be safe rather than sorry.

After catching separate MTR trains to the border (Merrin could not leave work too early) Louise was tasked with securing tickets for the overnight train back on Sunday evening from Guilin to Guangzhou. She was very proud of being persistent in the face of severe provocation. The ticket office lady trying to book the late train, (T40 leaving at 21:23 that actually goes through to Shenzhen) but Louise had done her homework and knew there was an earlier train, the K38, departing Guilin at 18:28 arriving Guangzhou at 6am, which Louise insisted on booking. From Guangzhou we could catch a fast intercity train to Shenzhen (but not all the way to Hung Hom as trains direct to Hong Kong leave from Guangzhou East railway station and we were at Guangzhou Railway Station). This would then allow Merrin to be at work at a reasonable hour on Monday morning. The moral of this story is that it is easy to book your own tickets in spite of a total lack of Putonghua and the ticket office staff having very little English! But, it is best that you do know in advance the train number and departure time!

There are two types of sleeper carriages on Chinese trains. We had booked the “soft sleepers”, which are four berth cabins shared with whoever. We were lucky that the train was not full so had no other people in our cabin. We have to say that we would hate to know what the hard sleepers are like. These so-called soft sleepers were hard enough! The hard sleepers are 6 berth cabins with no cabin doors. They all open directly to the carriage corridor and they certainly look to have very thin beds! We spoke to an English couple on our way back who had taken the plunge and traveled on the hard sleepers. They said they got absolutely no sleep, as their four other cabin mates were up and down the beds, holding loud conversations, with lights going on and off all night! They were certainly a good advertisement for not taking the hard sleepers as they looked absolutely shattered!!

We arrived in Guilin after a reasonable sleep on Friday 3 Dec. Well, Merrin, who can sleep anywhere of course had a wonderful nights rest. Louise found sleeping on the train rather like camping … every time there was a need to roll over she woke with a stiff back that was hauled into a new position, which was potentially meant to be more comfy, but the reality was, it wasn’t! It was also absolutely freezing in our cabin so even as we sat and ate our railway meal consisting of rice and a variety of pickled and stir-fried dishes, we were totally wrapped in the bedding.

It was a lovely crisp morning in Guilin. The front of the railway station was buzzing with food hawker stalls and travel touts. We were immediately approached by several touts all offering a ride in “their” bus to Yangshuo. We decided to take up an offer of 18 RMB and set off after a few minutes. With the distance of 67km between Guilin and Yangshuo we estimated it would take just over an hour to get there! What we didn’t bank on was that we would do a slow crawl through town with the “conductor” hanging out the door touting for more business. At the first stop (still outside the station) as we waited for about 15 minutes for prospective passengers, we watched a lady making some sort of egg pancake. Merrin decided to get off and buy one … it was delicious – a pancake filled with egg and a pickled cabbage mixture. We limped our way out of the city continuing to stop for more passengers and in one instance, for the driver to buy his lunch to eat while driving. It eventually took us an hour just to get to the outskirts of Guilin and just under two hours to Yangshuo!!!

Along the way we passed between the limestone hills marching off into the distance and along side the road, an ever-ending procession of white tree trunks. Instead of road markers the lower trunks of the trees were all painted white! Once in Yangshuo, we decided that we would walk the 5kms to our accommodation – The Giggling Tree, run by a young Dutch couple and nestled in the Yangshuo countryside. Armed with a computer printout map (not to scale) from The Giggling Tree’s website and a small town map photocopied from an old Lonely Planet guide we set off. In the wrong direction! Yes, the surveyor and the cartographer could not find their way. In our defense, it was a bit silly trying to navigate by two entirely different “not to scale” maps. After getting some guidance from locals (about 5kms out of town in the wrong direction) we turned back and found a cab!

The detour did offer a few gems, like the table on the side of the road laid out with false teeth and orthodontic aids, complete with customers having their dental work attended to on the footpath, and outside the doctors surgery 3 patients happily sitting on chairs attached to a drip to their hands or feet (goodness knows what for)! Also passed an ancient shed where a man and woman were making noodles using a hand roller through which they were feeding the “wet” dough then adding the dry dough as they went. The resulting noodles were hanging on bamboo poles in the yard with a fan blowing at them to dry them off.

The Giggling Tree (http://www.gigglingtree.com/) is in the Yangshuo countryside surrounded by the famous karst landscape - everywhere you look. The guesthouse is in converted old traditional farm buildings built of yellow clay bricks. We stayed in an upstairs room overlooking the sunny courtyard costing only 210 Yuan per night (off peak season). Once we had settled in we went out to the courtyard to order lunch and sit and enjoy the afternoon sun. (Both of us were a little tired after our wee walk in the countryside on the other side of town). After our snooze in the sun we set off on foot to explore the village and surrounding area.

We wandered towards the Yulong River. As we neared the river we could her chatter and commotion. It turned out that this was one of the main areas for launching the bamboo rafts, which you can hire to take you down river with bikes on the back, so that you can cycle back up the valley. Naturally the locals were very keen for us to go for a jaunt. We declined and sat with a beer to watch them going about their daily business which seemed to feature a lot of laughter over gambling games etc as there are not too many tourists around because the high season has finished. We then wandered off up the river and watched a man wash his buffalo in the river, and another plowing his field with his buffalo. It is a very simple way of life here and it was really great to be staying in the countryside rather than in the busy touristy town to witness the Chinese lifestyle of old. Like when we stopped for a cold drink at a roadside shop which had the butcher next to it cutting up “things”, across the street was a fish farmer chopping up fish as people ordered them and kids riding and walking home from school.

That night we had cocktails on the terrace overlooking the stunning Yangshuo countryside followed by a lovely dinner in the restaurant. Although the day temperatures were in the early twenties at night it was quite cool so we adjourned to the common room for a very yummy Dutch Apple Pie dessert by the fire and chatted to other travelers.

The next morning we set off early (7am) on hired bikes in order to take in the early morning scenery. Great idea, but boy was it cold out and about at this time of the morning. Our hands were absolutely freezing as we cycled along. The scenery was magnificent, in the early morning misty light though. We cycled along rough tracks between rice paddies, through villages, one of which had a funeral procession complete with firecrackers and on to the Dragon Bridge to cross the river and cycle back the other side. It was a great ride and because we left early there were very few other tourists about.

Back at the Giggling Tree we tucked into some breaky before heading off on the bikes along the river in the other direction. We made it back to civilization aka the main road and cycled along to Moon Hill. This is one of the few limestone hills that you can climb in the area (for a fee of course) and despite all the tourist information saying that climbing to the top was not allowed there was a 69 year old lady pointing you up the side track to the top, hoping that that you will buy a cold drink from her on the way back down. It is an arch shape (hence the name) and the views from top were wonderful.

From there we cycled along the main road and into Yangshuo town for a late lunch. Cycling along the city streets avoiding other bikes, 3 wheeler taxi bikes, cars and buses was fun, as was experiencing the tourist chaos that is Xi Lu or West St – a cobbled street full of restaurants and shops that is the main tourist part of town.

We cycled back to the Giggling Tree and met up with a British couple, Karen and Paul with whom we planned to go the famous Li River Light Show near Yangshuo town. We all jumped in a taxi and headed off to the show. It is on every night (sometimes twice a night) and was absolutely packed when we got there. The show is set on the Li River and has 600 locals as part of the cast. It is a re-enactment of village life in the area with lights popping up around the vast stage that comprises of the river bank and boats or platforms on the river. The show was choreographed by the guy who produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. It was pretty amazing, especially with the back drop of karst mountains lit up as part of the show.

After the hour long show we headed to town for dinner. Chose a BBQ restaurant where you get to choose your ingredients from a table at the front. Not easy when none of the bamboo skewers of meat are recognizable! We chose a plateful of prawn, meat, tofu and veggie skewers and off they went to the BBQ out back to be cooked with a spicy marinade. The result was not bad although the meat we thought was chicken did not taste or resemble chicken on the plate. Who knows what it was!

The next day (Sunday) we chilled out at the Giggling Tree for the morning and then as something different ordered one of the 3 wheeled taxi bikes to take us to the bus station to go back to Guilin. It was fun bouncing along in the open cab over the rough dirt road then whizzing along the paved roads into the town. He dropped us off at Xi Lu and we wandered off to find some lunch. Had some very yummy fried pork balls served around a plate of omelet and another fried dish that we thought was veggie but turned out to be pork based as well. Sat on a street corner table and watched the restaurant owner’s wee boy playing with a bubble maker in the street. Actually Louise was watching and photographing while Merrin was joining in the game!

We set off to the bus stop and in a repeat of the in ward journey, it took about an hour to leave town, which was a surprise as when we left the bus station all the seats were already full. But where there is money to be made by carrying more people it will be! We cruised the streets heading out of town picking up more and more people who were given small plastic stools to sit on in the isle, so that by the time we were heading up the highway there was more than a full load on the bus and a very happy bus conductor counting his stash of Yuan! The other amusing part of this bus journey was that while Merrin happily occupied the front seat next to the driver, Louise, sitting a couple of rows back got to watch King Kong on the video screen. Very bizarre , the Chinese guy in the next seat and Louise chuckling away in tandem at the ridiculous antics that had been filmed in NZ but with the white actors speaking Chinese!

We had an hour and half to spare once we got to Guilin so we wandered the streets briefly taking in some of the sights of this city of 1.3 million people. Rather than eat the train food we bought hawker food from outside the station and beers to take on the train with us. Once again we were reacquainted with the hard “soft” sleepers. Actually the sleeper trains are really not that bad and a good way to travel long distances in China. This time we had one other cabin mate get in at a station down the line to sleep on the top bunk. At 5:30am we had the wake up call from the guard to ensure we were ready to leave the train in Guangzhou. Bought our tickets for the next train to Shenzhen (which might actually be the first one of the day at 7am) then had a brief walk around outside the station before boarding for the just over one hour long journey to Shenzhen which gets up to 200 kph. At Shenzhen we walked straight across the border and on to the MTR in Hong Kong, for Merrin to head to work and for Louise to head to Fuel Espresso in IFC for a coffee fix before heading home on the Lantau Ferry.

Global Environmental Crisis

2010-05-06T04:19:00.001-07:00

Got asked the other day the following question:

What is/are the root cause/s of the Global Environmental Crisis?
How can they be addressed?

Here are my thoughts. I would love to hear yours either here or on facebook via
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=743408854#!/note.php?note_id=418673911003

The root causes of the global environmental crisis stem from the disconnect of people from acknowledging they are part of nature and environmental cycles rather than being separate from or able to control nature.

In the business world there is a growing discussion that measuring a business’s success in terms of profit and shareholder dividends alone is no longer good enough. When assessing the sustainability of the business and the risks it faces, investors can take into account more the impact the operation has on the local communities and the natural resources it is dependent on. Countries continue to use the measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to show the health of the country and how well it is progressing. GDP does not take into account what is being produced (money spent on recovering from natural disasters and building more military arsenal adds to GDP just as providing housing and producing food does) or what effect it has on nature (clear felling forests for the timber adds to GDP however no account is taken for the loss of biodiversity or ecosystem services that the forest provides, such as producing oxygen).

It is measures like GDP that have driven the growth in consumerism where more goods are being purchased and hence need to be produced,therefore raising the GDP of an economy. Marketing leads people to believe that more “things” will make them happy and show them to be successful in their communities, however this does not necessarily lead to a healthy and happy community. People need to appreciate those “things” from a perspective of what has been utilised to produce them.

We can address this disconnect by raising awareness of the interconnectedness and reliance we as the human species have on a healthy planet. Educating people in what is involved in producing food and goods so that they choose options that have a lower embedded energy, along with a lower social and environmental cost, will help reconnect people to their place in nature. This will lead to more meaningful measures of success being adopted such as Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) or Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) rather than GDP, thus allowing a further break from the current connection between consuming more “things” as measures of success.

Looking at our planning and design requirements in all aspects of life is another way to address the crisis. By giving more consideration to the production processes of products to enable them to be reused and recycled can reduce our environmental impact. Moving back to producing products that have longer design life expectancy rather than adhering to a replacement system and finally, by designing products so that the output from one process becomes the input in another process while utilising nature to assist the cycles and hence reduce the energy required in the production process, are all solutions to addressing the global environmental crisis.

Overall we need to think more strategically around sustainability issues taking into account in our management of the 5 major types of capital being: human capital, financial capital, natural capital, produced and social capital.

In conclusion, the key to addressing the global environmental crisis is having a longer term perspective that revitalises the role humans play in generating sustainable growth that does not disproportionately disadvantage ecosystems or human cultures.

ANZAC Day

2010-04-25T19:49:00.001-07:00

Memorial Walk of Goodwin Escape Route
In memory of Lt Cmdr R B Goodwin RNZNVR

Lt Commander Ralph Goodwin, of the Royal New Zealand Navy Volunteer Reserve, was a patient in Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital on Christmas Day in 1941 recuperating from a leg wound sustained in action while in defence of Hong Kong, when the surrender of Hong Kong to the Japanese made him a Prisoner of War.

Escape was always on his mind, but he had to wait for nearly two and a half years until July 1944, before he was able to break out from Sham Shui Po Camp where he had been interned. The story of his incredible trek to friendly forces in China, and his four month journey home to New Zealand reads like something out of the Boys Own Paper! His story is well told in his [now out-of-print] book “Hong Kong Escape”.

“ … New Zealander, a lieutenant in the RNZNVR (R. B. Goodwin), had been wounded in the defence of Hong Kong and was unable to attempt escape in the early period when the Japanese hold on the territory was comparatively loose. His escape in July 1944 was a supreme feat of nerve and endurance. Lieutenant Goodwin has himself graphically described his adventure in his book Hongkong Escape. This was one of the few escapes made with virtually no co-operation from fellow prisoners and no prearranged help from outside, indeed, the escaper felt he had more to fear from some fellow prisoners than from the Japanese”. (New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington)

[Walk Leader Gordon Andreassend 3rd from left - photo of walkers by Grace Cheung]

On ANZAC Day 2010 (Sunday 25 April 2010) a walk by 14 Kiwi and Ozzie “escapees” retraced the approximate route he took during the first four days of his escape. The walk was about 11km and took five hours, started near the Water Treatment Works on Cheung Yuen Road (below Kowloon Reception Reservoir) and finished at Tai Wai, near Shatin. The walk leader was long time Hong Kong Kiwi Gordon Andreassend.

Here is a map of the route we walked that gives great views of Hong Kong harbour and the surrounding high peaks.

You can look at the route on Google Maps for better quality information

View Goodwin Escape Route in Hong Kong in a larger map

The Goodwin Escape – July, 1944.
Lt. Commander Ralph Goodwin was a NZ naval officer, serving on a Motor Torpedo Boat in Hong Kong when he was wounded in December 1941. He was in Queen Mary Hospital on Christmas Day when the British forces surrendered to the Japanese. As a P.O.W. he endured 30 months in captivity, but escape was always in his mind. In May, 1944 he was transferred to Sham Shui Po Camp, and he realized that this camp provided his best opportunity to make an escape. He quickly made his preparations, and on July 16, taking advantage of a moonless, wet night, he made his break. Here are the details of his first 4 nights and days on the run. He had to wait for midnight, when the perimeter lights were switched off.

July 17 – Midnight to Dawn.
Risking death in climbing the electrified perimeter fence, he reached the sea and swam to Castle Peak Road at Lai Chi Kok. He climbed up into the Kowloon foothills and made his way through rugged terrain until he had to take shelter in a clump of trees as dawn approached.

July 17 - Dawn to dusk (Day 1)
He spent a most uncomfortable day on the slope of a hill, wet and exhausted. He ate some of his limited food and remained hidden throughout the day.

July 17 and 18 – Dusk to Dawn.
At sunset he continued inland, through ravines and hills in what he assumed to be the general direction of Shatin. Japanese patrols were searching the hills, and he moved as quickly as possible over ridges and gullies until a break in the clouds enabled him to see an inlet of HK Harbour - probably Gin Drinkers Bay.
He had travelled too far west, as his goal was Tolo Harbour at Shatin. He changed direction and headed on a more easterly course, until the approach of dawn forced him to seek shelter for the day.

July 18 - Dawn to Dusk (Day 2)
Shelter was difficult to find as dawn approached, and he spent the day in a water course listening to the sound of searchers nearby. During the day he decided to abandon his original plan to swim to freedom via Tolo Harbour – and threw away life jackets and other items to lighten his pack. He would walk to China.

July 18 and 19 - Dusk to Dawn.
As darkness fell, he made for higher ground and continued towards the east as the rain fell heavily. He sighted two buildings and moved away from them through a swampy area until he found a well-used track that led to a rough area something like a worksite. He continued on in a direction he assumed would lead to Shatin, and daylight found him on a ridge with very little cover. He quickly looked for a hiding place, and settled on a shallow excavation where he could lie for the day.

July 19 - Dawn to Dusk (Day 3)
Increasing daylight showed that his hiding place was not well-concealed, but did command a good view – so he decided to remain there. His vantage point was perfect in that he could see the length of the Shing Mun River from the Shing Mun Dam to the road and railway near Shatin. He was able to plan his route down the Shing Mun Valley. Intending to move slightly to get a better view, he was startled by a rifle shot being fired at a bird by a Japanese soldier he had not seen, standing just above his hiding place. He hid deeper in his shallow pit and reflected on the prophecy of a fortune-teller who had told him that his life would be saved by a bird. His gratitude to that winged saviour, was matched only by his gratefulness that the soldier’s shot had missed its mark, a fate that he, as a larger and closer target would not have enjoyed.

July 19 and 20 – Dusk to Dawn.
At nightfall he set off briskly down the slope towards the Shing Mun River, heading toward a track he had seen on the opposite side. He waded over the river and headed downstream. He made good progress, and eventually arrived at a clump of bamboo at the lower reaches of the river. There were houses nearby and as daylight was fast approaching, he pushed as far as possible into the bamboo, to find a rather uncomfortable resting place for the day. A woman cutting bamboo could have ended his flight right there.

July 20 – Dawn to Dusk (Day 4)
He was delighted to see as the light improved that he was very close to Tai Po Road – the route he had decided to take for his escape over the Chinese border. The walk by night to safety took another 7 days.

“There would be a definite route to follow after the heart-breaking cross-country struggle, in which I had maintained little sense of direction, and throughout which, even in the daytime, I had little idea of my exact location.”
Goodwin’s words taken from his book “Hongkong Escape”, which was used as the basis for retracing his escape route, sums up the situation most precisely. This book, now about 50 years out of print is a most enthralling read, and gives full details of his 4 month journey from Hong Kong to New Zealand.

Throwim Way Leg

2010-03-14T06:44:00.001-07:00

This book review of Tim Flannery’s “Throwim Way Leg” was written for The Sustainable Future Institute (http://www.sustainablefuture.info/) which is an independent think tank specialising in research and policy analysis that is based in Wellington, New Zealand.

What an intriguing and enlightening adventure that Tim Flannery takes you on in “Throwim Way Leg”. While Tim’s personal experiences covered in the book are during the 1980’s and 1990’s New Guinea, the pace of change he saw during that period is similar to what other countries have experienced over much longer periods, if not centuries.

The finding of new species almost daily makes great reading, however it is particularly poignant to note that the local helpers just want to eat these new wonders, even if it has taken days or months to find just one specimen. During his travels, Flannery is introduced to new concepts of viewing the relationships between people and the planet. The different groups of people that Tim lived with while working in both the Papua and Irian Jaya parts of New Guinea could well be teaching the people of the “developed” world how the “modern” world could live.

From reading one gets a sense of how little we actually still know of our fellow planet’s inhabitants, whether they be flora or fauna. The grandeur of the Papuan landscape with towering cliffs, glacial capped mountain (at the equator) and raging rivers that disappear down what Tim describes as possibly the largest “plug hole on earth” are all part of a wonderfully wet and forest clad landscape. This landscape is slowly being removed through “modern progress” such as forestry and mining. Tim encounters very different approaches to the way locals are involved and treated by the large corporations.

The Tree Kangaroos are a strong part of the story, as they were the focus of the 15 trips Tim made primarily to research them. Tim’s discoveries are amazing. No wonder these tree dwelling Kangaroos are on the verge of extinction, some being so friendly that they would walk up to people! A very easy meal they then become.

Those fortunate to experience the forests and highlands of New Guinea obviously obtain new perspectives on the sustainability of our planet, as fellow writer-scientist and thinker Jared Diamond also explored the this region of the world. So enjoy another perspective on the great writing talent that Tim is. While having only read The Weather Makers before Throwim Way Leg I am now off to explore more of Tim’s writings!

My thanks to Robert Gibson in Hong Kong for bringing this wonderful book to my attention.

The publisher details of the book can be found at http://textpublishing.com.au/books-and-authors/book/throwim-way-leg/

The Top 50 Sustainability Books

2010-03-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Discovered this interesting book that I am yet to read, certainly would like to read the books it reviews.

As described on Amazon:

This title draws together in one volume some of the best thinking to date on the pressing social and environmental challenges we face as a society.

It includes profiles of the Top 50 Sustainability Books, as voted for by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry's alumni network of over 2,000 senior leaders from around the world. In addition, many of the authors share their most recent reflections on the state of the world and the ongoing attempts by business, government and civil society to create a more sustainable future.

Many of these authors have become household names in the environmental, social and economic justice movements - from Rachel Carson, Ralph Nader and E.F. Schumacher to Vandana Shiva, Muhammad Yunus and Al Gore. Others, such as Aldo Leopold, Thomas Berry and Manfred Max-Neef, are relatively undiscovered gems, whose work should be much more widely known. The profiled books tackle our most vexing global challenges, including globalisation ("Globalization and Its Discontents", "No Logo"), climate change ("Heat", "The Economics of Climate Change") and poverty ("The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid", "Development as Freedom").

Some of these featured thought-leaders are highly critical of the status quo (e.g. David Korten, Eric Schlosser and Joel Bakan), while others suggest evolutionary ways forward (e.g. Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, Paul Hawken and Jonathon Porritt). Some place their faith in technological solutions (e.g. Janine Benyus, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker), while others are upbeat about the potential of business to be a force for good (e.g. John Elkington, Ricardo Semler, William McDonough and Michael Braungart).

By featuring these and other seminal thinkers, "The Top 50 Sustainability Books" distils a remarkable collective intelligence - one that provides devastating evidence of the problems we face as a global society, yet also inspiring examples of innovative solutions; it explores our deepest fears and our highest hopes for the future.

It is a must-read for anyone who wants to tap into the wisdom of our age.

Contents

Introduction

Polly Courtice, Director, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

THE TOP 50 SUSTAINABILITY BOOKS

1 A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold (1949)

2 Silent Spring Rachel Carson (1962)

3 Unsafe At Any Speed Ralph Nader (1965)

4 The Population Bomb Paul L. Ehrlich (1968)

5 Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth R. Buckminster Fuller (1969)

6 The Limits to Growth Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers and William W. Behrens III (1972)

7 Small Is Beautiful E.F. Schumacher (1973)

8 Gaia James Lovelock (1979)

9 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra (1982)

10 Our Common Future (‘The Brundtland Report’) World Commission onEnvironment and Development (1987)

11 The Dream of the Earth Thomas Berry (1988)

12 A Fate Worse Than Debt Susan George (1988)

13 Staying Alive Vandana Shiva (1989)

14 Blueprint for a Green Economy David Pearce, Anil Markandya and Edward B. Barbier (1989)

15 For the Common Good Herman Daly and John B. Cobb Jr (1989)

16 Human Scale Development Manfred Max-Neef (1989)

17 Changing Course Stephan Schmidheiny and Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) (1992)

18 The Ecology of Commerce Paul Hawken (1993)

19 Maverick Ricardo Semler (1993)

20 When Corporations Rule the World David C. Korten (1995)

21 Biomimicry Janine M. Benyus (1997)

22 Cannibals with Forks John Elkington (1997)

23 The Hungry Spirit Charles Handy (1997)

24 Banker to the Poor Muhammad Yunus (1998)

25 The Crisis of Global Capitalism George Soros (1998)

26 Factor Four Ernst von Weizsäcker, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins (1998)

27 False Dawn John Gray (1998)

28 Development as Freedom Amartya Sen (1999)

29 No Logo Naomi Klein (1999)

30 Natural Capitalism Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins (1999)

31 Business as Unusual Anita Roddick (2000)

32 The Mystery of Capital Hernando de Soto (2000)

33 The Civil Corporation Simon Zadek (2001)

34 Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser (2001)

35 The Skeptical Environmentalist Bjørn Lomborg (2001)

36 Cradle to Cradle William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002)

37 Globalization and its Discontents Joseph E. Stiglitz (2002)

38 The Corporation Joel Bakan (2004)

39 Presence Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers (2004)

40 The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid C.K. Prahalad (2004)

41 The River Runs Black Elizabeth C. Economy (2004)

42 Capitalism as if the World Matters Jonathon Porritt (2005)

43 Capitalism at the Crossroads Stuart L. Hart (2005)

44 Collapse Jared Diamond (2005)

45 The End of Poverty Jeffrey D. Sachs (2005)

46 The Chaos Point Ervin Laszlo (2006)

47 Heat George Monbiot (2006)

48 An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore (2006)

49 When the Rivers Run Dry Fred Pearce (2006)

50 The Economics of Climate Change Nicholas Stern (2007)

Conclusion

Mike Peirce, Deputy Director, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

About the author

About CPSL

Walking the Dog (How it could be)

2010-02-19T16:34:00.001-08:00

I love animals and I love helping people out when they are going away on holidays by giving their pets a great time. Louise and I have helped many friends of ours by offering house sitting and pet minding services. Yes we look after dogs and cats (and plants). It is while taking dogs for walks around Hong Kong that I really got frustrated at the type of walk that most dogs get.

For those of you not from Hong Kong picture this. The dog spends most of its day in an apartment, which if the dog is lucky has a balcony to get out on. The exercise for the dog will probably consist of being lead down the road by the domestic helper until the dog goes to the toilet and then home again. This may happen 3 or more times per day though very rarely do the dogs get the chance to go for a run. I thought this was sad until…

One day when walking a friend’s dog up the trail to The Peak we passed a couple pushing a pram/pushchair/buggy. Once in front, I turned to look at the child which turned out to be an overweight dog! Yes this dog did not even have to walk during its exercise outings. Then I noticed its paws, well actually I could not see them, as it had shoes on!!! So even when little precious was let out of the pram it was not even going to get the joy of feeling the earth below its paws. At that point I realised that a real dog days out (like running along a path, jumping in some water or rolling in the mud) was so foreign to many dogs in Hong Kong. When I think of what our farms dogs got up to then I can now appreciate why so many dogs here in Hong Kong are so snappy – they are very frustrated.

I love seeing dogs exploring and playing along with getting dirty. For the few minutes it takes to clean the dog down once you get back from a walk it makes for a very happy dog (the wash is another way to have fun and play with the dog).

If you want to see what some of the dogs get up to when we go to the beach then check out Lulu, a 1 year old Labrador we looked after for 4 months while her owners we back in Japan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3cfjpI1Sc)

So if you know of anyone looking for someone to take a dog for a walk, a run or even a swim then get let them know their dogs will have superb day out with Louise and I.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

P.S. There is a whole different story to be told about cats though in short if you need someone to entertain your cat then lets meet!

Tiger Year Wish List

2010-02-15T20:38:00.001-08:00

I discovered this great little item in the newsletter from
Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum (HKSEF) http://www.hksef.org/
It certainly applies to all businesses not just those in Hong Kong!

Learning from social enterprises from all over the world,
what HK business can do
Tiger Year Wish List

• Profit making is a legitimate goal for all business enterprises; maximizing profit is not.
• Fulfilling Corporate Social Responsibility is not an option; it is a must.
• Every business should have a social mission; otherwise it does not deserve to exist.
• Every business should have a policy of buying from social enterprises -- as long as their products and services are competitive in quality and price.
• Every business should ‘adopt’ a social enterprise and do whatever it takes to enhance its social impact.
• Every business should start a business unit addressing a major social issue.
• Every business should make its employees proud of its contribution in making the world a better place to live.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

How to increase your brand exposure in Hong Kong & China

2010-01-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

If you

- already have a brand presence in New Zealand and

- are now wanting to expand your organisation into Hong Kong, Macau and China

then

- advertise in Connectionz

Connectionz is the leading business chamber publication in Hong Kong promoting trade between New Zealand and Southern China.

The next publication of Connectionz is coming out in March 2010 to coincide with the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement signing between Hong Kong and New Zealand. So this edition will receive a great deal of media and market attention.

Contact me today (mpearse@coordinate4u.co.nz definitely before mid-Feb 2010) to find out about this great opportunity for your company to expand it presence in the ever expanding China market.

Merrin

A Kiwi based in Hong Kong

Environmental Films

2009-11-18T23:10:00.001-08:00

I am sure you are one of the thousands of people who have watched the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth (http://www.climatecrisis.net/an-inconvenient-truth.php). If not check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAK8Cd4t0WA

It is movies like “An Inconvenient Truth” that get people excited and probably scared. Scared to a point of not being able to see how they can take action that will make a difference.

So I was really excited when friends started saying to me that I must watch the movie Home. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject as it has some superb scenery.

Though when I was half way through the movie I got this concern that the movie was going to leave me once again in a place of being paralysed to take action. Thank goodness it did finish with some positive news and ways people are making a difference. However, after the 1h30m I was left thinking what are really positive movies I could be sharing with people to give them the courage and inspiration to know that we all can make a real positive difference to our climate.

Well a good friend of mine said check out the 22 minute film called “Hope in a changing climate” (http://hopeinachangingclimate.org/). Well I did and I was very impressed. It is about ecological restoration projects of huge scale happening across China and Africa that are producing superb results for their communities in terms of food and water security.

If you are looking for a boost on what you can do then I do encourage you to watch this short movie at http://hopeinachangingclimate.org/.

The programme documents the remarkably successful efforts of local people to restore denuded, degraded ecosystems – transforming them into verdant, life-sustaining environments which enable people to break free from entrenched poverty. The film contains breathtaking before and after footage of large-scale restoration projects. Presented by John D. Liu, founder of the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP) and creator of the film Lessons of the Loess Plateau, the new programme is directed by Jeremy Bristow from the BBC, the award-winning producer of the acclaimed David Attenborough series The Truth about Climate Change.

The area of restoration on the Loess Plateau in China is the size of Belgium and thousands of years of subsistence farming had made it barren and unfertile. In 1995 The Chinese Government, with support from The World Bank, took drastic action to rehabilitate the plateau, and local people – seen as both perpetuators and victims of the devastation – became part of the solution.

Looking forward to hearing about similar films that give us solutions not just problems.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Climate Change and Blogging

2009-10-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

I love communicating with people especially when it involves great ways to help us all understand better the sustainability of the human population on planet earth.

I am regularly involved with community awareness raising projects whether they be online using social media or personal events where people really get their “hands dirty” by being connected. Whether that is planting trees, making compost or picking vegetables at places like Ark Eden (www.arkedenonlantau.com) on Lantau Island or a beach clean up with say DB Green in Discovery Bay (www.dbgreen.org). Hong Kong has amazing choices.

To me taking action is far more important than talking about it. However communicating the message so that more people become aware of the issues is really an important step so hence I am involved with groups such as Green Drinks (www.greendrinks.org), Earth Champions (www.earthchampions.org) and Clean Air Network Hong Kong (www.hongkongcan.org) which give people the ideas and support to take the action they are most comfortable with. A superb format for getting to know what issues you are passionate about is the Pachamama Alliances – Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. Check out where a symposium is near you at www.awakeningthedreamer.org

Now that you are sitting in front of your computer reading this, how about responding to this blog with your thoughts or start your own blog and help more people understand what climate change means to us all.

I wrote this posting on Blog Action Day ’09 Climate Change (www.blogactionday.org). Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. I hope my contribution to Blog Action Day 2009 will help it be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web.

Check out this suggested list of Ways to get Involved from www.blogactionday.org

Sign the Tck Tck Tck campaign's "I am ready" pledge supporting an ambitious, fair and binding climate agreement in Copenhagen this fall: tcktcktck.org/people/i-am-ready
Register for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action October 24: www.350.org
Join the UK Government's "Act on Copenhagen" effort to promote a global deal on climate change: www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/en
Learn and act with The Nature Conservancy's Planet Change site: change.nature.org
Watch and help promote Current TV's green-themed video journalism at: current.com/green
Support strong climate legislation in the US by making calls to your Senators with 1Sky: www.1sky.org/call
Put yourself on the Vote Earth map and upload your photos, pictures and weblinks to show the world future you want to see: www.earthhour.org/home
It was a repeat of Number 7 so I suggest you stop and take a break with either a nice fresh juice or an organic beer!
Join the Greenpeace cool IT challenge campaign to turn IT industry leaders into climate advocates and solution providers: www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it-challenge
Add your personal story and tell the world what you will miss the most when you lose it to climate change with the United Nations Foundation Climate Board: www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/climate-and-energy/its-getting-personal
Find the latest and most popular climate change actions online at globalwarming.change.org
Join the Causecast community and find new ways to get involved with organizations working to end climate change. Watch videos, read news and support one of the many environmental nonprofits on Causcast. www.causecast.org/environment
Post to your blog or Twitter account about the impact of climate change on the world's poorest, and then take action with Oxfam International: www.oxfam.org.uk/climate

Enjoy your day of blogging and taking action on climate change everyday.

Grow well

Dr Merrin Pearse

P.S. who said blogging cannot take place with your mates!

Growing our ECOnomy

2009-09-07T01:59:00.001-07:00

We all felt the chills of those winter days in late 2008 while the “financial storms” swept the world. Many people were locked inside their own business world just making sure they survived the impact of these financial storms on their business. In the middle of the storm the business reality set in and some people could not be supported any longer by their companies. As a result they were “put outside” to weather the storm themselves.

We are now able to look back over those wintry days from a place where we are beginning to feel the warmth of spring days. New ideas are emerging and many people are looking for new business seeds to grow, that will provide sufficient resources before the end of the next autumn, so as to ensure they are better prepared for the next winter cycle. Yes the business cycles keep happening just like the seasons.

Some parts of the world weathered the financial storm relatively better than others. For example Singapore and Hong Kong survived quite well (maybe like their weather the seasons are not too varied or perhaps they just were more prepared for the storms). Meanwhile the Banking and Automobile sectors in the USA were almost putout to weather the storms all by themselves. The most important factor in any cycle is to look for ways of developing and growing so as to be stronger and more effective in the future.

What has really been highlighted during this latest financial storm is the importance of business looking even more closely at its role in a truly global economy. By global economy, I mean the impact that people have on the sustainability of the planet. We have all heard the messages from the likes of Al Gore through the film “The Inconvenient Truth” however this latest storm shifted the way in which many organisations conduct their business.

Many businesses have changed, well it is actually the people operating those businesses that have changed. Though the real question is have enough people changed? Asking that in a more direct way, have you changed? The changes you may have made are to now look at your business choices by taking into account equally the considerations of:

Is this a good choice for me (myself and my business),
for you (my suppliers and customers) and
the planet (my home)?

Lets look at each of these 3 questions in turn.

Is it good for me? Of course you need to look after yourself and your business. You need to consider both the short term and long term impacts of your decisions. For example, if you make a product by cutting costs and lowering the quality, then your brand may become know as an inferior one that does not last.

Is it good for you? Making products that may give you great financial short term gains while compromising the health or safety of your suppliers or customers is not likely to lead to them continuing to use your products. Think about the examples of the Melamine in Milk or the Lead in the paint of children’s toys.

Is it good for the planet? As you know, we only have one world to live on and keeping that healthy is important for us all. Using production processes that pollute the water we need to drink or the air we need to breathe can be a significant problem for all people and creatures. Look at the example of how plastic is not degrading in the environment, it is accumulating in our waterways and being ingested by fish and animals where it stays in their stomachs and eventually feeds back into our own food.

Do you have defined systems in place to actually assess opportunities against these three questions? As you know having systems in place helps ensure consistency between different meetings and workshops. However, having the system in place is only one step. The second step is ensuring that the system is followed. Do you ensure your meeting and workshop facilitators know how your system works?

When facilitating workshops and meetings I like to remind people that it is the quality of the people’s input that creates great products, which in turn allows integrity of those products to have a great perception in the market place. This leads to your increased market share and hence increased profit. It does however not stop there. The way the company shares their profits creates even greater loyalty with people both inside the organisation and of course this also follows on to the wider community.

So how do you share your company’s profits with your suppliers, customers and the community? Are you creating a win-win-win situation in terms of the three areas of looking after me and you and the planet?

This leads companies to look at their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives and their Philanthropic Initiatives. No longer is just good enough to give away money to causes. Knowing those causes and actually participating with those causes through staff programmes is becoming the norm. Partnering with these causes gives a new meaning or purpose to making profits for the company.

Now where do you hold your team meetings and workshops? Are they always in the same meeting room? Why not vary the venue so you get to see different people shine. You could even use the venues that your CSR cause has available. I particularly like walking meetings in the outdoors. Have you tried a picnic at the botanic gardens, walking along the waterfront or heading out on a boat cruise? Naturally people will behave in different ways outside the meeting room and therefore their thinking will also change. When outside take note of what is going on with the different seasons and how the different plants and animals adapt. You may even see a natural example of an issue you are facing in your own business and can take that approach “back to work”. It may be to do with your waste products and you see that there is a natural way to decompose or reuse it as part of an additional product line. As you know, ideally in business (just as in nature) there should be no waste that can not be used by another business (organism) to support its niche in the market place (environment).

So rather than considering how you can grow your economy again with only a main stream approach why not start with an eco-logical perspective as you can not have an ECOnomy without an eco start!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

(written for http://www.walkyourtalk.asia/)

20 years of GPS for Dr Merrin

2009-07-29T19:51:00.001-07:00

Wow,
I have been using GPS technology to support survey and mapping activities since 1989. How the technology has changed and the range of applications expanded!!!

During a meeting in Hong Kong with WONG Chung-hang (Deputy Director of Survey and Mapping Office), Gordon ANDREASSEND (Former Head of Survey and Mapping Office) and Simon Chi-wo KWOK (Chief Land Surveyor) on 29 July 2009 it came up in discussions that I had been using the GPS technology now for 20 years. I was amazed. So decided to write about it to capture some of those 20 years.

(Mr Kwok, Mr Wong, Mr Andreassend and Mr Pearse)

So, where has GPS taken me? Further than I ever thought.

Initially in New Zealand the technology took me via with the Government survey department (DOSLI) from one end of the country to the other teaching people to use the equipment and undertaking surveys. I either drove, walked, flew (yeah in helicopters) or sailed to forests, mountain tops, farms and to out to sea. Then into a research and application role which included:

my PhD studies in Australia
implementing the new geodetic datum in New Zealand (NZDG2000)
investigating GPS height modelling with the use of geoid models, and
undertaking audits of surveying and engineering consultancy firms.

Globally I have been involved in projects and events that utilise GPS technology in the following countries:

Australia
Fiji
Iraq
Kuwait
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Nigeria
Cameroon
Canada
Brazil and
Antarctica

(South Pole Jan 2000 - fixing cables in -52DegC)

That is pretty amazing. Let me highlight these projects.

Australia – Processing data to help establish the new Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA)
Fiji – Terrain surveys for a new coastal resort involving 4wd quad motorbikes and boats all mounted with GPS receivers
Africa – Quality Assurance of boundary surveys between countries for the United Nations
Brazil – Geoid modeling workshop with other global experts
Antarctica – Tracking ice flows at South Pole and Earth Deformation Monitoring in Trans-Antarctic Mountains including the Dry Valleys.

What a journey so far! Now back to that meeting in Hong Kong, it finished with a tour of Hong Kong’s Satellite Positioning Reference Station Network Control Room. This is where they monitor via 12 GPS receivers the status of the GPS satellite signals in the Hong Kong region.

And to think that after 20 years I finally bought my own GPS receiver. Yeah, now I walk around with a GPS unit in my pocket disguised as a phone (Love my Nokia E71).

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Professional Speaker

2009-07-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

Looking for a Professional Speaker that can motivate your staff and inspire them to perform nearer to their full potential, well there are many choices.

However, if you want to have an environmental and sustainability focus from someone that has been out there connecting with nature and the business community your options are more select.

This may be why you are looking at this site. Thanks for visiting. Here is a little more about myself, Dr Merrin Pearse, the Professional Speaker.

I specializes in connecting businesses with their environment, in particular the natural environment. As an Ecoprenuer, I am an ecologically-focused entrepreneur. Raised on a New Zealand dairy farm and with a PhD in Geodesy (read expert in GPS Technology and Mapping) my career has connected me with all the continents of the world, from surveying at the South Pole to nature conservation projects in the tropics. I have been recognised with the Award of Merit for my work on the International Border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, voted the best conference presentation (topic: quality assurance) and is active on numerous business sustainability committees.

Through my surveying experiences I have witnessed the destruction of unique natural environments which could have be avoided with more sustainable design and build options. These experiences have focused me on this journey of speaking to others about the beauty of nature and how we can all live and work in harmony with our natural environment. I have lived in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong and travelled extensively. I have spoken with groups such as Land Surveyors, Property Owners/Developers, Rotarians, Entrepreneurs and School Classes.

If you are looking for a dynamic and passionate speaker that can bring together the realities of business with the desire for staff and colleagues to perform at their full potential then I am your speaker.

To find out if I am available then contact one of my preferred Speaker Bureaus:
- in Hong Kong - Speakers Connect http://www.speakersconnect.com
- in Singapore - SpeakerStation.asia http://www.speakerstation.asia

Of course once the date is confirmed we can discuss the format for the Keynote Presentation that will be serve your requirements and the audience. Here are some of my presentation topics:

A Path Towards to Sustainability - An inspirational personal storey of my own journey from a land surveying career to being an Ecopreneur.
Living with Eggs - Explores how people’s passions can be hidden within an organization and if not hatched then their full potential is not being utilized.
GPS - Getting People Smiling - Delivered as Dr GPS the presentation provides people the chance to reveal their creative abilities while reducing their barriers to communication, resulting in stimulated and supportive staff.
Awakening the Dreamer – Changing the Dream Symposium - A half-day guided interactive video workshop developed by the Pachamama Alliance (http://awakeningthedreamer.org/) designed to awaken and inspire people to take action in the pursuit of a fair, peaceful and sustainable future.

Looking forward to speaking to you soon!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

P.S. - I also provide MC services, check those out at
http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2008/12/hong-kong-mc.html

I am ready to travel to your event!

An eco week in London

2009-07-05T04:27:00.001-07:00

I have had a great time connecting with such inspiring people that are making an incredible difference to the way we are living on this planet. Thanks to you all so much for sharing your time.

I thought that it would be quite interesting to let you know who I have met up with as I am sure there are some exciting opportunities to work together.

So here is a list of the people I met in the order I caught up with them. Having said that I am going to start with one of the people that I did not catch up with though who was instrumental in my introductions to many people. Thanks Gina.

Gina Lazenby - http://ginalazenby.wordpress.com/ is inspiring women for success in business & at home.

Katie Young - www.katieyoungdesign.com is pioneering ethical and eco design & product development, and has recently produced stylish raincoats from fabric made from plastic bottles.

Chris Le Breton is part of a team of people promoting The Awakening the Dreamer Symposium in London. He is active with the Transition Towns initiative. He is also planning a bicycle tour from New Zealand to London via Asia in 2010.

Mike Southon - http://www.beermat.biz/mike_southon.php Thanks for sharing the wonderful space at the Adam Street Club and your wonderful insights into business via your knowledge of the Wealth Dynamics profiling. If you really want to experience the energy of Mike then check out Mike Fab-Gere (www.fabgere.com) and book him for an extremely entertaining and educational event.

Joining Mike and I at the Adam Street Club were:
- Shaylesh Patel - www.healthyplanet.org - Healthy Planet enables you to support conservation by adopting plots in protected parks throughout the world and helping to map the parks, monitor the parks and fund conservation actions in the parks.
- John Grant - http://greenormal.blogspot.com/ - is a green marketing expert.
- Al Tepper - http://www.linkedin.com/in/altepper - who is an integral part of Natural Collection (www.naturalcollection.com) the UK's leading green amazon.com type etailer
- Susan Mills and Adam Pattantyus who are driving forces in the Resilient Cities Initiative which is model for swift, aligned action for climate and other social issues. They are yet to have details online about this initiative. They both work for www.merrimackmanagementassociates.com

Catching up with Oliver Tickell was going to be in Oxford and then we discovered he was going to be in London at the Sustainable Development Commissions Break Through event. So as his Kyoto2 (www.kyoto2.org) proposal was one of the 20 projects being presented.

At the SDC event I got to meet the following great people
- Maria Adebowale from Capacity Global (www.capacity.org.uk) was talking about cultural diversity. Loved her approach. Their mission statement is "A fair and equitable society can only exist if everyone has a right to participate in the major decisions that affect their lives. Only with full public participation can effective strategies for social justice, eradication of poverty and a healthy environment be found."
- Lesley Lambert from Compassion in world farming (www.ciwf.org.uk) which certainly struck an accord with my upbringing on a farm and the various situations animals can be raised.
- Mark Shearer from ProjectDirt.com (www.ProjectDirt.com) who are providing a wonderful online platform for groups and business to let people know via maps where they are making a difference in their community.
- Duncan Kay from the Sustainable Development Commission (www.sd-commission.org.uk) where he is a Transport Policy Analyst. Duncan turned up at the conference wearing a suit and riding a bike! Sounds like my travel to work in HK.
- Chris Church from Mapping for Change (www.mappingforchange.org.uk) who specialise in providing participatory mapping services to communities, voluntary sector organisations, local authorities and developers using a suite of innovative tools for communication.

A day around Charing Cross was had meeting up with:
- Jon Ralls who is a leading part of the Be The Change Initiative (www.bethechange.org.uk). One of the components of the Be The Change Initiative is hosting the Pachamama Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums.
- Leon Aarts who is a Social Innovator and the founder of Extraordinary Ones (www.extraordinaryones.com) which is helping individuals make a difference with every purchase they make.
- Jeff and Julie Wicks who are superb couple that base themselves between Hong Kong and Australia (yes they were in London). They support a number of social causes as well as providing great mentoring.
- Ashley Blackmore who I had not seen since being in Bali together in 2005. Ashley provides guidance & stimulus to organisations with sustainable environment & healthy living agendas. http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=65773
- Cyrille Jegu from www.naturalstep.org. The Natural Step is an international not-for-profit organisation dedicated to education, advisory work and research in sustainable development.

The Triumphant Events Team - http://www.triumphantevents.co.uk/
Michael Clarke offered me the chance to crew at Topher Morrison (www.tophermorrison.com) The Winning the Game of Wealth 3 day seminar. What a great event and thanks to Daniel Priestley and the TE Team. Daniel looking forward to hosting your social media seminar in Hong Kong. For those of you in London check out when the next seminar is at http://www.triumphantevents.co.uk/events?access=social-media-affiliate-marketing

Other crew members at the TE Event were:
- Janay Alexander is doing wonderful work helping mothers to keep the child birthing process simple www.thebirthspecialists.com (The website should be active by the end of July)
- John Hancock is giving pets an eco bed option. Check out www.petlifeonline.co.uk
- Justine Clare is doing great things assisting people to utilize Social Media tools. For ideas head to http://Triumphantmedia.wordpress.com

Final thanks must go to Christine and Steve for allowing us the use of their car and house. The house did come with Christine’s mother and sister, which was superb. Thanks Kath and Katy for your hospitality. Katy is a UK immigration specialist and her company is www.definitive-is.com

So a superb week was had and I look forward to hearing the successes of your respective projects.

For those of you who have not met me you might like to check out the view from our place in Hong Kong at http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2008/02/magic-of-mui-wo-lantau-island-hong-kong.html

Grow well
Dr Merrin

HK websites

2009-06-25T06:41:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my friend Adrienne who sent me through this list of "useful" Hong Kong Websites. I asked her how you find out where the buses and mini-buses run. Got this response so thought that I should share this with others as I found it useful.

Happy public commuting!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Information:

http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/homepage/cust_index.html very good at public transportation- can put point to point and will tell you route,time and cost for MTR/KCR

http://www.ypmap.com/en/viewer.asp?mapService=LocationMap map to locate building, villages, streets etc.

http://www.nwfb.com.hk/opening.asp bus routes – does point to point and timing

http://www.nwfb.com.hk/chi/index.htm bus routes – does point to point and timing

http://www.td.gov.hk/transport_in_hong_kong/public_transport/minibuses/index.htm Mini bus routes

http://www.asiaxpat.com/ ***expat site with information on just about everything include buy/sell, amahs, movies

http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm Hong Kong gov’t

http://parks.afcd.gov.hk/newparks/eng/index.htm HK parks

http://www.underground.org.hk/ **** weather

http://www.td.gov.hk/publications_and_press_releases/publications/free_publications/annual_transport_digest_2000__/franchised_ferries/index.htm Ferry

http://www.hkkf.com.hk/en/ferry/index.html ferry

http://www.starferry.com.hk/new/en/index.asp ferry

Events Cultural and movies:

http://www.hksingers.com/ musicals

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/CityHall/index1.html cultural events

http://www.hkculturalcentre.gov.hk/index_e.htm cultural events

http://www.hkculturalcentre.gov.hk/eindex.html cultural events

http://www.hkac.org.hk/ art centre

http://www.operahongkong.org/ Opera

http://www.hongkongplayers.com/ Plays

Clubs

http://www.rgshk.org.hk/ --***club

http://www.asiasociety.com/ club

http://www.awa.org.hk/ woman’s club

http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org.hk/ ****club

http://www.textilesocietyofhk.org/default.asp club

http://www.cathaycameraclub.com/ Photo club

http://www.hongkongphotoclub.com/ Photo club

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaturdayHikers/ great hiking club

http://www.hkadventurer.com/ hiking club

http://hkwaterfall.net/hk_falls/hkwf_mnp.htm hiking club

http://www.hkcrystal.com/hiking/ hiking sunday

http://hktrampers.com/ hiking club

http://www.gthhh.com/database/counsrch.asp?srchcoun=Hong%20Kong%20SAR

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saturdayhikers/ ****hiking

http://home.netvigator.com/~hasher/ hash club of hk

Look at the chambers—USA, AUZ,British they have cocktail mixers all the time.

My 40th birthday

2009-06-21T18:07:00.001-07:00

What a great day I had on my 40th Birthday. The morning started with an awesome thunder and lightening show. Over 230 lightening strikes were record in Hong Kong between 4am to 5am. See and hear some of those flashes in this video.

Headed off to the beach while it was still raining. With over 90mm of rain in the hour the water at the beach was very muddy so we (Lulu and I) decided a splash rather than a swim.

I wrote a list of 40 things I wanted to do for my fortieth and so some of them were certainly completed early that day. For the full list check out http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2009/06/21-days-till-i-am-turning.html

For my day I was with fellow Pachamama Facilitators experiencing the 2 day of the deeper facilitator training. It was superb and they also created a birthday atmosphere for me. A glimpse of the fun can be viewed in this video clip.

For the evening I met up with friends on top of the Central Star Ferry Pier building at Pier 7 Café. Great spot to share some drinks with friends!

21 days till I am turning ...

2009-06-01T07:35:00.001-07:00

4T
(yeah it looks better than as a word (Forty) or a number (40), and Yes it is one of those big round numbers!)

So I thought, how can I make this another memorable birthday.

I would love to be with you all on my birthday.

Then I realised it is possible! You may be asking how.

Well I have decided to write down 40 things that I would like to do for my fortieth birthday. They are listed below. Once you have looked at them I am sure there is at least one you might like to consider partaking in with me.

So on the 21st June I look forward to being with you all in this special way.

So here we go

1) Have Friends For Tea (both over a cup of tea or a meal)
2) Share 40secs of Laughter Yoga
3) Wash windows on the 40th floor (preferable from the outside)
4) Smile at 40 strangers
5) Listen to “It is a beautiful day” by U2
6) Listen to “The Gambler” and “The Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers
7) Donate $480 ($1 for every month of my life)
8) Hug Louise
9) Hug a dog
10) Hug a tree
11) Eat 40 pieces of wonderful fruit
12) Hug 40 friends
13) Drink a nice cold beer with friends
14) Watch the sunrise
15) Hear a bird sing
16) Drink fresh clean water
17) Go for a swim
18) Draw a Mandela
19) Plant a tree
20) Have 1 minute silence to acknowledge those who have touched my life
21) Talk to my mother
22) Talk to my father
23) Talk to my sister
24) Talk to Louise’s family (affectionately know as the outlaws)
25) Record a video of my day
26) Watch the stars (I mean the ones outside in the night sky)
27) Learn 40 new ideas or concepts
28) Dance to some great music
29) Write a new quote to capture the day
30) Blog my experience of the day
31) Share one things about myself that others probably do not know about me
32) Do 40 press ups
33) Do 40 sit ups
34) Share my vision of free access to nature parks
35) Donate 40 pieces of clothing
36) Drink 42 Below Vodka
37) Pick up 40 pieces of rubbish
38) Eat chocolate that is at least 40% Cocoa
39) Take 40 deep breaths
40) Acknowledge the wonder of my first 40 years

So I am really looking forward to my fortieth birthday.

As you will see, number 30 is to Blog my experiences of the day. So it would be great if you could post your comments on what you did on 21 June on this blog that would be superb.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

The World According To Monsanto

2009-05-24T04:36:00.001-07:00

What is happening to our food?

Having been bought up on a diary farm, I certainly have seen some of the farming practices.

This film does give you something to think about (well I hope it does).

Having the 10 minute sections does give you extra time to absorb the contents!

Enjoy or at least hear about another world (here in our world)!

Keith Vincent on Tourism and Conservation

2009-05-05T08:40:00.001-07:00

Had a great and inspiring night listening to Keith Vincent. When you hear so much about the trouble travelling is causing in this world it is certainly worth remembering that there are great stories too! Thanks Keith

Info about the Safari's can be found at www.wilderness-safaris.com and bookings in Hong Kong can be made through www.atoasafaris.com.
Here is what the RGS (www.rgshk.org.hk) said to promote the event.

The Royal Geographical Society is pleased to welcome to Hong Kong at short notice Keith Vincent, Vice Chairman of the Botswana Tourism Board, which is tasked with developing the tourism industry and setting the tourism policies for the country's legendary wildlife reserves. Mr Vincent is a world expert on developing sustainable tourism in the environments of Africa. With a passion for conservation, his vision, which he is able to achieve and implement through his position, is to conserve and increase Africa's wildlife areas for future generations.

Mr. Vincent's wealth of expertise on conservation on the great plains of Africa comes from over 20 years experience running "Wilderness Safaris", a conservation organisation and ecotourism company promoting responsible tourism throughout the areas in which it operates in southern Africa. Its goal is to share these wild areas with guests, while at the same time helping to ensure the future preservation and regeneration of Africa's spectacular wildlife heritage.

Mr. Vincent runs camps and safaris in Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Seychelles with a group of like minded wildlife enthusiasts who came together to ensure that southern Africa's pristine wilderness areas remain sustainably preserved. They operate privately on 6.5 million acres of southern Africa's finest wildlife reserves in some 60 lodges and camps from Hwange National Park to the great Okavango.

They have been nominated for and won numerous international awards for their work.

Mr. Vincent explained how to run tourism sustainably, with eco-friendly practices. This involves the methods of construction of the camps, the reduction of waste, the use of solar power, ensuring the elimination of damage to the local environment. He also speaks of the right ways to conduct safari tours to ensure game viewing with minimum damage to local environments, while allowing animals to be watched without disturbance. Mr. Vincent argues that it is essential to preserve pristine wilderness areas and the flora and fauna, or biodiversity, that they support. Preserving these areas is essential for Africa and ultimately the world's great wilderness areas.

Mr. Vincent was educated in Zimbabwe. During this time he developed a love for the outdoors and natural history of the country and became a professional guide, working for various safari companies throughout the country, before settling in Victoria Falls in 1984. He joined Wilderness Safaris in 1993, becoming the Managing Director of the Company in 1996. In March 2001 he moved to Maun in Botswana and became the Managing Director of both Wilderness Safaris and Okavango Wilderness Safaris. He is presently the Vice Chairman of the Botswana Tourism Board, which is tasked with developing the tourism industry and setting the tourism policies for the country.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Speakers Boot Camp

2009-04-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

John Shackleton’s Speakers Boot Camp is all set to happen for the first time in Asia!

Let me outline a couple of the benefits of attending the Speakers Boot Camp here in this blog.

Would you like to:
· Fast Track your Speaking Business?
· Earn a 6 figure income from speaking?
· Rise to the top of the best profession in the world?
· Learn the secrets of successful speakers?
· Get more bookings from the Speakers Bureaus?
· Avoid the pitfalls that many speakers make, early in their career?
· Know what promotional materials you must have to succeed?
· Have more control over your audience and get standing ovations?

Do check out the attached flyer, watch the video and visit John’s Website to get a more complete picture of what you will gain by participating.

John Shackleton (http://www.johnshack.com/) is Australasia’s number one performance expert, with more than 25 years experience in the speaking industry throughout Europe and the USA. John emigrated to New Zealand in 2003 and built a 6 figure speaking business from scratch in his first year! He went on to achieve his CSP qualification from NSAA in only 3 ½ years. This qualification is only awarded to the top 5% of speakers worldwide and usually requires 5-7 years to complete. On this Boot Camp John will share exactly how he achieved this phenomenal success in such a short period of time.

Watch John’s video about the Boot Camp and view testimonials from boot camp attendees (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3KGcmb6wog)

I look forward to joining you on this Speakers Boot Camp on 5th, 6th and 7th June.

To book check out the contact details in the flyer.

Yes I will personally be participating as I have been attempting to attend this Boot Camp myself for the last 3 years in New Zealand and Australia, so instead I have convinced John to come to Hong Kong!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

A Weekend in Zhaoqing

2009-04-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Louise and I had an exciting adventure, heading off from Hong Kong at 6pm on Friday 17 April and returning 6pm on Sunday 19 April.

Here is Louise's account of the trip...enjoy!

With a visa for a trip across the border to China soon to expire we checked out the option of traveling beyond Shenzhen but only within a few hours travel of Hong Kong. After an hour or so research of guide books in Dymocks and Bookazine we settled on Zhaoqing, which is about 120km west of Guangzhou. We read that it had a limestone landscape similar to Guilin so we thought we’d give it a go. Our research showed that one could either catch a ferry from the China ferry terminal or a train from Hung Hom, however neither of these options were suitable as they left in the middle of the day and we could not leave Hong Kong until around 6pm.

We therefore decided to travel by local trains…MTR to Lo Wu, walk across the border and then a train direct to Zhaoqing. Well, that was the plan however when we got to Shenzhen we found out that there were no trains to direct to Zhaoqing so the only option was to jump on a train to Guangzhou and then change for Zhaoqing.

We arrived at Guangzhou Main station and followed the crowd off the platform, finding ourselves outside the station and part of a substantial Friday evening crowd. We then had a bit of drama trying to locate the ticket booth for our onward journey to Zhaoqing. Thought we had to go back inside so we got in a queue and ended up “breaking” through security by vaguely waving our used train tickets from Shenzhen, only to find ourselves inside the concourse walking around in circles at various departure gates, where only onward ticket holders were supposed to be. We finally located the ticket office outside the station building.

We then had a bit of drama trying to locate the ticket booth for our onward journey to Zhaoqing. Thought we had to go back inside so we got in a queue and ended up “breaking” through security by vaguely waving our used train tickets from Shenzhen, only to find ourselves inside the concourse walking around in circles at various departure gates, where only onward ticket holders were supposed to be. We finally located the ticket office outside the station building.

With the help of props such as the very handy ‘used Shenzhen train ticket’ and a printout of Google Map in Chinese from the internet showing the Guangzhou – Zhaoqing) area, we managed to communicate where we wanted to go, only to find that there were no trains available till the next day. Plan B find a hotel (wondered how easy this would be on Canton Fair weekend). It proved not that difficult. Found a basic hotel just around the corner from the station. Here the reception staff spoke good English and were very helpful, so we were able to get advice about traveling to Zhaoqing the next day.

The advice was to catch a bus and not the train, so off we set the next day in search of the bus station. We had been pointed to the other end of the plaza in front of the railway station so we quite simply followed the crowds (including those with chickens in boxes) until we happened upon the intercity bus terminal, actually just around the corner from the station. Managed to secure a ticket and find the right bus (no chickens on this bus). Half an hour later we were on our way. First traveling though Guangzhou city then through the countryside beyond. It was a grey day made even greyer by the pall of smog in this, the industrial south of China.

It seems that every spare square inch in China is cultivated. There certainly are not many areas that are under utilized with the edges of the fields all planted with crops where in NZ there would just be grass and weeds. As we got deeper into the countryside the landscape along the plains of the Pearl River formed a patchwork of farmland interspersed with small ponds of geese or duck farms. Closer to Zhaoqing we started to run alongside the limestone hills that are a feature of the area and soon we arrived in the city.

On entering Zhaoqing the bus skirted Xinghu Lake (Star Lake), which surrounds the Seven Star Crags for which the city has become famous. Not that we could see the Seven Star Crags as the “haze” was rather thick, and rain was threatening so the resulting visibility was very low. The Seven Star Crags are limestone crags arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper and are one of the main tourist attractions of the city.

On arrival I was desperate to find a loo so followed my nose (literally) to the Ladies toilet at bus station where I was horrified to find that none of the toilet stalls had doors! You had to walk down the row (about 6 stalls) past ladies squatting inside, to find a vacant space. When you got to go, you got to go!

We had lunch at a street cafe where we had a great view of the comings and goings of the locals. Many motorcycles raced by, most motorcyclists “protected” by plastic helmets perched on the top of their heads with undone straps flapping in the wind. Local rickshaw drivers touted for business to take us around the sights however we chose to head for the hills instead of staying in the city over night.

Just 18km northeast of Zhaoqing is Mount Dinghu (Dinghu Shan). Dinghu Shan is renown for its beautiful mountain and forest scenery with tumbling waterfalls and ancient temples. The region has been named a World Nature Protection Association and is one of UNESCO’s ecology research centres. Dinghu has various accommodation options but we were more interested in finding a room within the park. We again used our trusty map as a prop to find out which bus to catch (local bus #21). Once the bus was sussed we went for a bit of a wander on the promenade by the lake. The rain was now setting in, so we ducked into a shopping mall to escape the deluge.

Outside motorcyclists had now all donned their poncho raincoats with even pillion passengers catered for with ponchos with double head holes! I decided that I needed a poncho (single) to wear on my mountain bike to dodge the downpours when heading from our house to the ferry terminal in Mui Wo, so we set about hunting for them in the mall. While riding an escalator in the mall 3 teenage boys decided to start a conversation to practice their English. They asked if they could help us, so we engaged them in showing us where to buy said ponchos…at the super market of course! I bought my single and I must say that I was very temped to buy a double one for my sister Ange and brother in law Glenn so that they could use it when riding with the HOG crowd on Harley Davidson rallies! The boys enjoyed the interaction with us and confessed that it was the first time any of them had ever spoken to a foreigner.

We then headed to a bus stop and waited and waited watching every number bus come and go but no #21. Finally after about one hour a very rickety local bus 21 came along complete with metal tubular bar seats – very comfortable - NOT. We rattled along for the 30 minute journey stopping at every bus stop, as one would expect of a local bus. Arrived at Dinghu and were deposited at the end of the line just by the park entrance. We tried to find out about the park accommodation options from one of the local tourist operators but language difficulties put paid to that idea. Then a friendly American “local” told us that as well as the main hotel in the park there were a couple of monasteries that also offered accommodation.

We each paid our 50yuan for park entry then inside each bought a 15yuan ticket to ride the local transport to the top of the mountain. On the way up we were lucky enough to capture glimpses of the plains below. On a clear day it would have been a really cool view out over the Xijiang River plains.

The park itself is well worth a visit. Really nice bush and some cool pagodas and garden areas. At the top of the hill there were temples and lookout points set in gardens. It was pretty packed with local tourists but we were the only white faces in the crowd. Got talking to a group of university students who were of course keen to practice their English and all either individually or in groups of one or two wanted to have photos taken with us. We managed to escape the photo taking frenzy and headed off on foot down the other side of the mountain. About half way down we came upon a Buddhist monastery and temple with a hotel attached.

After taking a look at the rooms we decided to check in for the night. Not a bad deal – 380yuan for a spacious bedroom with adjoining small lounge area. It soon became obvious that we were the only guests for the night. By 6pm, after the monks drumming session on a huge gong outside the temple, all the other tourists had left and the place became airily silent. We were now the only non-monastery people there. It was a pretty cool atmosphere wandering around the temple in the pleasantly drizzling rain. Fragrant joss sticks and candles burning with their smoke diffusing in the low light and fog.

As we checked in we had arranged to go to dinner in the restaurant at 7pm, but upon arrival, the restaurant was completely dark with not a sole in sight. We went back and quizzed reception and they managed to find the one guy who spoke English who roused the chefs and helped us to order…vegetarian food duly cooked and delivered to our room.

The beds at this hotel lived up to the usual Chinese standard (our experience to date in 3/4 star hotels has been rock hard beds). At 3am the monks let loose on the gong again (we had been warned about this). It was not too loud and actually quite soothing in a weird sort of way. At 8am we checked out and started our wander down the valley. It was very pretty wandering through the bush and especially nice that we were the only tourists in the park at this early hour. We walked down the trail to the accompaniment of piped Chinese music eventually coming to a very pretty waterfall, which was famous for being where Sun Yat Sen used to swim in the cool waters.

Got back to Dinghu and wandered the streets before the #21 bus turned up to take us on the bone jarring trip back to Zhaoqing. Back in Zhaoqing we again found someone who could speak English (in Walmart no less) to tell us how to get to the railway station. This entailed catching the #1 bus, which being a “town” bus this was not quite as rickety as the #21. This bus seemed to circumnavigate the town so we had a local and very cheap tour where we got to drive alongside the river and see the Yuejiang Lu Tower and city walls built during the Song Dynasty.

We arrived at the station on the outskirts of the city and ascertained that the train to Guangzhou would leave in about an hour and a half. Not enough time to head back into the city for further sightseeing so we bought our tickets and wandered off to find food. First stop was a street fried dumpling vendor. These dumplings were so delicious we had to go back for seconds. Then found a local sidewalk café and had soup noodles before heading back to the station to wait for the train. Time for another toilet stop before our journey! When Merrin saw me walking back towards him grinning from ear to ear he knew he was in for another toilet story. This time not only were the stalls open, but instead of individual porcelain squat toilets there was one central chute that you squatted above. If you were lucky enough to be at the end of the row, you got to watch everyone else’s business floating on by!!!

Finally there was an announcement that the train was due to arrive. As soon as the announcement was made everyone jumped up to queue at the gate. As usual we did not bother trying to be at the front of the queue, but in retrospect this was a mistake. Everyone had their tickets checked at the gate and were then herded out to line up at the appropriate mark on the platform according to ticket number. Of course as soon as the train appeared the lines meant nothing…it was a free for all, everyone running and elbowing to get on to the train first at whichever carriage they were nearest to. Naturally we were about the last ones on the train and it was only at this point that we realised that we had no seat numbers allocated. This of course meant no seats! So we spent the first hour of the journey standing in the vestibule, which oh joy also doubled as the smoking area! After a couple of stops where more people got off than got on, Merrin managed to secure one seat next to a small boy (his mum was sitting opposite). When I took my turn sitting the kid obviously thought I was a scary monster and moved to squeeze in with his mum, so Merrin and I ended up having a seat each for the rest of the journey.

We arrived in Guangzhou and duly caught the fast “fancy” commuter train, back to Shenzhen (with allocated seats of course). We walked across the border and jumped on the MTR back to Hong Kong from Lo Wu then ferried back to our island.

It was a great weekend trip! There are of course easier ways to get to Zhaoqing from Hong Kong including the ferry from the China ferry terminal or a train directly from Hung Hom, but hey, our way was way more fun!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Earth Hour Every Hour

2009-03-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

What a pleasure it was to see a major change to Hong Kong's waterfront skyline!

Great that so many organisations did turn off their lights. Must say it was easier to see the difference along the waterfront than in the shopping areas of Causeway Bay.

Here are a before and during images taken from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club at Causeway Bay.

Before the lights went off.

During Earth Hour

Now the really important part is for people to make a difference of every hour of the day and year. Seems sad that you may only do something for 1 of the 8760 hours in a year!

8 hours a day
To make a difference everyday for around 8 hours you can simply make sure you turn off appliances while you sleep. How hard could it be to turn the TV and computer off at the wall each night?

For other tips head to http://www.earthhour.org.hk/eng/hkeveryday.html

Island Caretaker

2009-03-03T05:30:00.001-08:00

Yes, the best job in the world just got better and more real!

You know how I applied for The Caretaker role on the Great Barrier Reef based at Hamilton Island in Australia. Well I did not make the shortlist of 50 people.

So for all of you who were looking forward to the chance to come and visit us, you will have to change your tickets from Hamilton Island to Lantau Island. Yes we still have our Island Caretaker role here on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.

It was great to realise that I actually already have the best job in the world and you all are part of it too. I will expand on that further though before that I would like to share with you the learning experiences I have got through applying for the job. They include:

receiving great words of support, thanks
learning more about making videos that are informative and entertaining (must have some more to do to be able to appeal to Tourism Queensland)
assessing my outdoor and tour guide skills
appreciating more the role we still play as Island Caretakers around the world through nature conservation projects
seeing new opportunities for both Louise and I to assist eco-initiatives with our skills
using video clips to promote our skills and services
lastly and probably the most important is that it highlighted to me that we all are Island Caretakers, yes you probably guessed which little island I am talking about, Planet Earth.

So thanks for being an Island Caretaker with Louise and I of Planet Earth.

This 1min video clip summarises nicely for me the role of an Island Caretaker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyH3MPgZDo

(no it is not mine though if you want to see my application for the Island Job then head to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWL8lWvtHCA&eurl=http://www.islandreefjob.com/en).

So thanks again for all your support.

Does anyone know any of the 50 shortlisted applicants?

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Making Business Easier between Hong Kong and New Zealand

2009-02-24T16:43:00.001-08:00

Hong Kong-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership

This is your chance to put forward ideas and experiences which can help formulate agreements to make doing business between the countries more effective and efficient.

I have been asked to attend a roundtable discussion with the New Zealand Negotiation team on Mon 2 March.

If you are reading this after that date still let me know your ideas as there will be other opportunities to feed into the negotiations.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas on what barriers, difficulties or frustrations you have had or heard about in providing products or services in Hong Kong.

Here is a little more background.

New Zealand commenced a 'Closer Economic Partnership' (CEP) negotiation with Hong Kong in 2001. Talks were suspended in late 2002 after five rounds of negotiation. The two countries maintained a constructive relationship over the intervening years, supported by close business, educational and other ties. Following informal discussions, both Parties have agreed to resume negotiations towards a CEP and they are hopeful that it will be possible to find a way through the difficulties which led to the suspension.

Officials will meet in Hong Kong in early March 2009 for preparatory discussions with the first full round of resumed negotiations planned to take place in New Zealand in late April/early May.

Businesses and stakeholders with an interest in Hong Kong are encouraged to provide feedback on their areas of particular interest. This feedback will be taken into account as the mandate for resumed negotiations is determined.

If you prefer you can also direct your suggestions to MFAT directly and get additional information via http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/Trade-Agreements/Hong-Kong/index.php

Now if you are a Hong Kong person who has had difficulties doing business in New Zealand then the NZ government is keen to hear your stories so that they can make things easier for you.

Looking forward to reading your comments and taking them to the discussions.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Pachamama

2009-02-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked at how you make decisions?

Of course you have.

Have you ever reviewed the rules you use to make the decisions. I discovered a group called the Pachamama Alliance (http://www.pachamama.org/) who utilise the following three “criteria” together to consider how you are ensuring that we are creating a World that is:
- Environmentally Sustainable
- Spiritually Fulfilling, and
- Socially Just

They ask the questions:
- Where are we?
- How did we get here?
- What is possible for the future?
- Where do we go from here?

They run a really engaging and enlightening symposium called "Awaken the Dreamer". You have the chance of being part of one of the upcomiing symposiums, check where via http://www.triumphantevents.com/worldtour

Here is a trailer about the symposium.

Back in October I attended the symposium and became a trained facilitator of the program along with some other wonderful Hong Kong people. Check us out with Jon Symes!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

A great experience with the locals

2009-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

What a pleasure it was to return to the Eastern Bay of Plenty from Hong Kong last week. The blue skies and the blue water were certainly part of the joy, though even more impressive was the friendliness of the locals. Having been born in Edgecumbe and with parents still living in EBOP it is not like I am not familiar with the locals.

What motivated me to write this email was a particularly great experience at the Thornton river bar last week. The kahawai were running and there were folks there reeling them in with great smiles. I was standing there amongst them watching the fish in the waves wishing I had come down with the rod. All of a sudden, one of the guys as he was carrying another fish to his stash asked me if I liked fish. I said yeah and with that he handed me the fish! Wow you can imagine the size of my smile and the amazement on my mother’s face. We got chatting to the guy and he said his name was “Tired” which seemed a strange name, especially when his wife was waist deep in the waves catching the fish!!! Next minute he was passing me another two fish. Here I was now standing amongst the fisher folk with 3 fish and no rod!

Thanking him and saying we were leaving he said something looks wrong, you need two fish in each hand so with that the next fish from his wife’s rod was passed to us. That has got to be one of my greatest moments of sharing I have experienced with a stranger. You should have seen the look on my wife’s face when we got back to the car!!!

So a big thanks to “Tired”, the smoked kahawai tasted superb.

Grow well
Merrin

Planning for 2014

2009-01-29T01:04:00.001-08:00

After looking at my goals for 2009 I thought that I really should articulate what I would like to achieve not just in the next year though also the next 5 years and actually for my life time. So Louise and I sat down and set out what are our life time vision and goals which you can see at http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2009/01/vision-and-goals.html.

So with the big picture in place and my 1 year set of goals listed at http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2009/01/goals-for-2009.html we both looked at our 5 years goals that take us to 2014 and here they are.

Merrin will:

Be a successful international speaker providing key note addresses to business and community groups.
Have financial freedom in terms of having income to support both Louise and himself .
Be a published author of at least 5 books on motivation, taking action, extraordinary wildlife and travel that will have amazing co-authors and contributors.
Have his own multimedia show (TV, Radio, Internet) that promotes individuals and businesses that are existing in a sustainable way with the worlds flora and fauna.
Have “home bases” in New Zealand, Asia, Europe and Africa that we can travel to at any time. One will be near the ocean, another near lakes and mountains, another in a central cosmopolitan area and the other in a wildlife reserve.
Be part of forest/wilderness restoration projects in 10 countries that have helped sustain / protect critically endangered species.
Be a sort after facilitator in the environmental and surveying fields.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Vision and Goals

2009-01-10T04:30:00.001-08:00

Merrin Pearse and Louise Taylor
Their Lifetime Goals and Vision

Passion Statement
We love being outdoors amongst nature, experiencing its marvels, learning from its examples and sharing these experiences and learning’s with others.

Purpose Statement
To connect people with the natural environment through providing opportunities to experience the wonders of nature first hand and how their daily lives (both work and private) can help support nature.

Personal Vision/Mission
To ensure that there is a worldwide network of nature reserves freely available for all people to visit. Imagine if you could not get to a park to hear birds singing happily from trees or to watch water cascading over rocks with fish swimming in the pools?

Why be involved initially in Asia?
As the world’s largest population centre, the mindset and respect for nature by people in Asia will have a significant influence over the health of our planet. The more sustainable that Asia is the more sustainable the world is. With the level of resources available in Hong Kong and with the right mindset we would love to see Hong Kong become Asia’s leading Eco-city.

What do we need to do?
Inspire and assist more people of the Asian region to be an active part of ending poverty and environmental degradation, while creating results in their personal and business lives that are fulfilling and environmentally sustainable.

Who do we need to connect with?
Positive people inspired by the purpose and vision.

When do we need to do this?
Now!

How do we continue to achieve the purpose and vision?

Determining and implementing business models that provide cashflow to look after Merrin and Louise so they can share this vision with even more people.
Ensuring Merrin is living as a “Star” and Louise as a “Lord”, or put another way, that they are doing what they are best at and enjoy doing.
Sharing our New Zealand and international experiences with others (particularly across Asia) so that more people can see how the actions of a few can make a real difference.
Connecting environmentally conscious business owners with organisations active in making an on the ground difference.
By being open to opportunities and ideas presented to us.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Goals for 2009

2009-01-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Since 1998 I have been writing down my goals. I must admit that even after what is now 10 years I am still amazed at how if you write them down you do achieve many of them.

Once you write them down you do need to refer to them again and have them in a prominent place. For the first few years I wrote them down and they stayed in a file hidden on my desk out of sight. More recently I have had them in my diary that I carry every day though on a page that I was not looking at regularly. So this year I have decided to put them in many places including in my diary, as part of the wallpaper on my computer desktop and here on my blog so I see them every day. The reason for them going on the blog is so that the world, well really the human internet users that find this page, do know what my goals are. So I am looking forward to seeing how this helps me achieve more of my goals and also hopefully to help others achieve their goals.

So here are some of my goals for 2009:

Be fit and healthy and really feel fit and healthy
Generate income of at least US$80,000 so that I can support Louise, cover our financial commitments and help promote and solve environmental, conservation and animal welfare issues around the world
Plant trees in at least 5 different countries
Meet Jackie Chan and work with him on environmental initiatives
Give motivational and educational presentations in at least 5 different countries with at least one of them being as a paid keynote speaker
Visit a bear sanctuary in Vietnam or China (oh yes I also can write this as a second one by replacing “bear” with “beer”)
Climb the 10 highest peaks in the Hong Kong SAR plus the highest peak on Lamma and Po Toi Islands
Have at least one brand sponsorship deal
Establish ourselves more formally in Hong Kong
Have a staring role in a movie
Live in a more comfortable house
Work on an international project that calls upon my surveying, geodesy, mapping and quality assurance skills.

You know the other interesting part about writing your goals down, is how clearly and precisely you write them.. What I mean is that the opportunities to achieve those goals as written can appear in ways that you do not expect though they do meet your goals.

So I look forward to experiencing how this year’s goals become reality.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

PS: If you have got this far through this posting then do let me know what your goals are so I may assist you to achieve them!

Top 3 people who made a global difference to the environment in 2008

2009-01-03T03:48:00.000-08:00

I would love to hear who are your top 3 people that made a real difference to raise environmental awareness globally in 2008.

Personally I think the following three people had the biggest impact on me.

Al Gore - continues to promote awareness about climate change. I really liked his challenge to America to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources within 10 years. What a target for America and actually all countries. I have just finished reading his booking titled "An Assault on Reason" and it highlighted to me again how it can be difficult to get a balanced view from mainstream media. http://www.algore.com/

Paul Coleman - Earthwalker – has now walked over 47,500 km through 39 nations, planting trees and encouraging people to preserve the natural environment, delivering the environmental message to all aspects of society, from the jungles of the Amazon to the highlands of Zimbabwe, and even into war zones. The simple action of walking and keeping focused on the goal despite the challenges of the physical and political environments he travels through amazes me. This year Paul and Konomi finished a walk from Hong Kong to Beijing (another 3140 km) and Louise and I had the pleasure of joining them for a mere 180 km (check out our adventures at http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com)
http://www.earthwalker.com/

Jill Robinson – The founder of Animals Asia continues to promote and take action towards ending cruelty and restoring respect for animals in Asia. Her organisations work to reduce the cruelty to bears farmed for their bile (in Vietnam , China and Korea) and killing methods for cats and dogs in the misguided belief that "torture equals taste"! http://www.animalsasia.org/

I am looking forward to hearing of other amazing people making a real difference to improve our environment.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

A.B.See Art

2008-12-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

Enjoying the variety of life is something I really like to try and explore.

My formal training has certainly taken me well into the left brain world. Then opportunities like this help me to explore the right brain world.

In this interview I explore with the artist A.B. See, who Melodious Olympics requested to get in touch with the energies of ancient Chinese origins particularly that surrounding the Emperor Fuxi, and see what would emerge in her art.

The resultant works are a fascinating study in how the Beijing Olympics in 2008 were a beginning, the planting of a seed for eventual union between East and West as well as a demonstration of how right brain art and can link us to higher realms through intuition and sentient knowing.

So enjoy the interview that is split into two parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsZ4sxAr57I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyj7eCLNigI

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Computer Gaming for the Ecopreneur

2008-12-19T16:38:00.001-08:00

You know I love of the outdoors, if not check out a few of the other blogs I have written to get the idea. Anyhow, I had the opportunity to capture on video the experiences people were having at the Asia Gaming Show 2008 in Hong Kong. I was videoing for www.NewsGroup247.com, Yeah it is in the Exhibition Centre where there are no windows and lots of very alien looking people dressed as their favourite game characters.

So why would I want to explore what may be described as the darker corners of the gaming world? To know what is there and try to better understand how I could help introduce a “greener” more “eco” experience to those gamers.

Yes the bulk of the games and accessories are shoot em up and kill them quick games though there were some very bright green corners. Lets start with Sony’s stall. I saw this game where some one was out on the plains of Africa stalking Zebra. Looking for the gun I was pleasantly surprised when they pulled out a camera and shot a superb picture. The collection grew and when they returned to the campsite after the day they got to see the score for their photos. I liked it (Hakuna Matata the games name is also is a Swahili phrase that is literally translated as "There are no worries"). A similar one was for discovering new fish.

I did take the chance to talk with Sackboy as we are all on a LittleBigPlanet!

Getting gamers to exercise more would be one of the things I would love to see. Not many of the games seemed to exercise more than the fingers. A reality golf game called OnGolf (www.ongolf.com) currently uses only the mouse though they are working on a version that will have motion sensor devices to get you more into the swing! There was a drumming game that almost got people into a sweat with the pace of drumming required. Looking forward to see the gaming industry merge more with the fitness industry to get people exercising and then outdoors to explore the real worl rather than living in the virtual world.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Christmas Carolling

2008-12-19T15:43:00.001-08:00

Have you ever tried Christmas Carolling in the streets? I had not until last year, so when the opportunity came up again this year to spread the joy of sharing Louise and I were there. Jami Gong from the Take Out Comedy Club in Hong Kong (http://www.takeoutcomedy.com/) put out the word and about 50 people wandered the street of SoHo and Lang Kai Fong on Thu 18 Dec 2008.

Along with sharing some wonderful Christmas tunes (okay some of them were really not that tuneful) we got to meet new friends and share a smile or two with those who wondered by. It does remind me how simple and meaningful Christmas can be. A few people on the street raising the spirits of others can make a real difference. When you are next in the mall buying for a festive season try stopping for a moment to thank the shop assistant, your fellow shopper and put a smile on their face. You will be surprised at how long your smile will last.

If you are brave then listen to one of our great carol's -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOupwBErDQc

Then when I came back to see our video online I spotted this posting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-lPLaaGhV4

You just never know who is wacthing you!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

When do you think about an Ultra Future World?

2008-12-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

I guess that you often do.

I thought I did until I attended the Ultra Future Conference (http://www.ultrafutureworld.com/) at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (http://www.hkstp.org/) on Sat 13 Dec.

Seeing presentations of:
- Energy Islands by David Harris of floating platforms that use the difference in sea water temperature, solar power and wave power generators to produce electricity, hydrogen and fresh water,
- new graphics for use in "chat rooms" where you change the shape of the Avatar's face that looked so real. Taehoon Kim had everyone amazed at the realistic facial expressions that this new product by Nurien was able to create,
- Web 3.0 by Adam Khemeri of NewsGroup247 demonstrating "chat rooms" with the great abilty to add in video clips and graphics from other website quickly to the chats, and
- James Law showing some of his latest Cybertecture designs (http://www.jameslawcybertecture.com/). As a surveyor I really was impressed on how James was modelling the real world to generate building designs that are basically whole cities in themselves.

Above you have seen a sketch of what James saw a key design components of Earth that he is replicating in his Technosphere. Below you can see that "progression" from looking at the Earth and creating the design.

One of the real interesting discussions was on how this modern technology that utilises the internet and computing power which is available to only 1/6th of the worlds population can be used to assist those without the technology. Suggestions were every time people by clothes for their Avatar they donate to a charity to provide real clothes to people who really need them. James spoke of how the external lighting on one of his building design would change based on the forecast for the upcoming weather. This way everyone who can see the building would know what the weather would.

Love to hear your Ultra World thoughts.

From my surveying and mapping experience I am amazed at what you can do with Google maps. Here is the location of some of the people I met at the conference.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Hong Kong MC

2008-12-11T21:42:00.001-08:00

The joy of sharing people stories with others is one of my major buzzes in life.

Through being a MC (Master of Ceremonies) at events, an interviewer on radio or an outdoors education facilitator I have had some amazing experiences and opportunities.

It was the other night at a Royal Geographical Society meeting when I was reminded of how you shine when you do what you enjoy. It all came about from a simple request by the Director of RGS in Hong Kong, Rupert McCowan, asking me to give the words of thanks to Professor Zhang Hemin, referred to as "China’s father of Giant Pandas". With the talk starting in 2 minutes time I said why did you ask me? Rupert replied I saw you on Sunday do a wonderful job of interviewing the Hong Kong Earth Champions during the community day at Cyberport. You were able to help them share their stories and I am sure you can do a superb job of thanking Prof Zhang. Wow I thought that is nice to hear as I was having fun that day. From the audience response at RGS I did provide suitable note of thanks to Prof Zhang.

On the ferry ride home that night I started to recall other times that I have had the opportunity to be a MC, Presenter or Interviewer. I started to list some of them down and they include:
- MC at the Earth Champions Celebration Event with over 200 guests, including Edward Yau (HK Secretary for the Environment), Sir Crispin Tickell (Climate Change Expert) and Christine Loh (CEO of Civic Exchange)
- MC at the farewell dinner for the Consul General Julian Ludbrook organised by the NZ Society of Hong Kong.
- Interviewing people for Radio
- Showing school children, their parents and helpers the wonders of nature on Lantau Island as a green guide
- MC at the 50^th Anniversary Ball for the New Zealand Society of Hong Kong

If you happen to know of someone needing a MC or speaker for an event then let them know that I am keen to help make their night a memorable one!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

P.S. Looking for a Keynote Speaker at your next event, then check out my Professional Speaker info at
http://asia-ecopreneur.blogspot.com/2009/07/professional-speaker.html

Looking forward to being part of your successful event.

Hong Kong Earth Champions 2008

2008-11-09T19:56:00.001-08:00

As I spoke about in an earlier blog I came across a group called Earth Champions.

Well I became part of the local team running the Hong Kong Quest as the Project Manager. What an experience it was. It was certainly a great way to get to know so many exceptional people in Hong Kong.

Check out those people who were acknowledged as Earth Champions on the website http://www.earthchampions.com/.

You can also read an article originally printed in Positive News that has been reprinted on Holistic Asia's website.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Free Electricity for Clean Air?

2008-10-08T19:05:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had free Electricity for a year - I have not – and I certainly did not think it would happen in Hong Kong!

It has come true with our latest Electricity Power Bill.

For the last two months we used HK$250 and that is really cheap, being US$30 or US$15 for a month! Then we get a government subsidy as part of their initiative to help reduce inflationary pressures to households. The end result is that we do not have to pay for electricity for the last 2 months and are unlikely to have to pay for the rest of the year!

This all came about through the latest budget wanting to help low income households. Happy with that though all households get this subsidy at a time when the government and community is also running programmes to promote consuming less energy to help reduce the impacts of electricity generation on the environment, through the likes of burning coal which contributes to a significant portion of the HK generated air pollution.

Surely the subsidy for the heavier Electricity users could be going to the installation of better energy generation technology rather than the pockets of these people who will probably start to use more electricity and therefore just adding to the air quality issue

I must thank the HK Government for this subsidy as it does allow a number of people to use the subsidy to promote and take action in helping

You can read the Budget item at http://www.budget.gov.hk/2008/eng/budget65.html

And the implementation of the item at http://www.fstb.gov.hk/tb/eng/info/electricitychargesubsidy.html

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Cleaning the Beach

2008-10-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

Well after a Sunday helping clean the Silvermine Beach in Mui Wo and the following Saturday morning cleaning the Nim Shue Wan Beach at Discovery Bay I thought I had seen rubbish on beaches.

Caught the ferry back from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo and could not believe what used to be lovely sandy beaches were now dumping grounds for polystyrene (that is the first thing you see as it is the lightest and so is on top) and everything else you can only just imagine.

This is the Wang Tong River though it gives you an idea of the other beaches.

No this was not directly put there by humans, rather it was Typhoon Hagiput showing us how much is floating around the Hong Kong waters. Hagiput on 23 September kindly delivered it to prominent beaches to remind us all that we should be looking after our waterways more than we are. It also reminded us of the power of the sea when combined with a high tide and a storm surge. Check out http://www.kinzie.com/renovations.htm for an idea.

So together with some Hong Kong XL Life Members and the dedicated team from DB Green (http://dbgreen.org/) Louise and I headed off to Nim Shue Wan Beach at Discovery Bay to take away another layer of rubbish.

There was everything from Fridges to Boats to Washing Machines to Shoes and of course other rubbish. It is incredible what has washed up and this is only one of Hong Kong’s beaches.

We even had the local Chinese lady directing us not to take things to the bin but instead to her place. What a laugh when she turned up with her sledge hammer and pliers to recover the best bits!!!

The photos tell the story and of course the cleanup ended with a snack at the beach.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Global Warming - A great Animation on the topic

2008-10-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a great 11 minute clip that I think outlines some of the major issues to consider around Global Warming. What are the options and what we can do to keep the tipping point beyond where we get to.

Also read the script at http://wakeupfreakout.org/wakeup.html and there are references to go even further.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Looking for Earth Champions in Hong Kong

2008-10-05T06:00:00.001-07:00

As you know there are many great people in this world who are really making a difference to the environment.

I have come across an organisation called Earth Champions Foundation
(http://www.earthchampions.org/) who are helping communities to discover (or as I like to say - Unearth) their location environmental champions.

Nominate your Earth Champion or read about those from previous Quests online at http://www.earthchampions.org/

Grow well
Dr Merrin

What were you doing on 20 Aug 2008?

2008-08-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Actually at 8 minutes past 8pm on that day?

Why that time you may be asking. It will reveal itself.

Since investing more time in Asia and in particular in China I have become even more aware of the importance of numbers to cultures.

To Cantonese speakers the number 4 sounds similar to the word for death or to die. So that is not so lucky as other numbers such as 8 which is I understand the number for good luck.

I have had it explained to me that the year 2008 is very lucky. Why because it has two eights in it. Yes the one at the end and the one in the middle lying on its side (00).

So if 2008 is double lucky then what about the 20th of August 2008? That can be written as 20 08 2008 - yeah that would be double double lucky. If you were to have that much luck you would probably be happy.

So on the 20/08/2008 I took particular notice of where I was at 8 minutes past 8 in the evening. You got why now?

20:08 on 20/08/2008

And guess where I was?

Outside a restaurant in Soho called Double Happiness Cafe!

We were hungry and looking for a place to eat.

It seemed like the place to go though it was full.

I wonder if everyone in there knew where they were at that time?

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog20 - Back to Hong Kong

2008-07-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Day 14 – Jinan – Hong Kong - 2 July 08

Had our last Chinese buffet breakfast and set off for the 40 minute ride to the airport in the hotel car. Jinan airport is a new looking large steel and glass structure. I did really like this sign on the doors into the airport.

I wonder what the inbound flights do?

The check in and boarding procedures went without a hitch, as did take off and the rest of the flight…unlike our inward journey.

We had a good view of the urban sprawl as we were coming in to land at Shenzhen.

Were going to catch the airport bus to Lo Wu and then catch the train back to Central but spied a coach service so decided to take that all the way to Kowloon Station, which is just a one stop on the MTR to Hong Kong Station, which is in turn very close to the ferry terminal. It was a stunningly clear day. Possibly the clearest we have seen since we moved to Hong Kong. The views from the ferry back to the city and to outlying islands were amazing.

In Mui Wo we jumped on our bikes and trundled up the valley to our little home on the mountainside. We had missed a lot of rain and a typhoon so had to undertake a bit of a clean up operation. Sweeping the twigs and leaves that had blown from the trees surrounding the house and washing or airing out clothing and leather jackets where the mould process had taken hold…this being a constant hazard during the wet and humid summer months of Hong Kong. And so, it was back to reality.

Stay tuned for the next enthralling tale of Louise and Merrin’s Asian adventures…

By the way here is our travel note that we used to expalin what we were up to...

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog19 - Qufu to Jinan

2008-07-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Day 13 – Qufu - Jinan - 1 July 08 (0km walk, 150km by bus)

Today it was time to say goodbye to our China walking guides…Paul “Earthwalker”, who has walked an amazing number of kilometres around the planet spreading the environmental message, Yuji, “Earthman” with a mission to continue Paul’s legacy and Konomi, the unsung heroine of the “Greening the Olympics” walk from Hong Kong to Beijing. At the start of the journey in September 2007 Konomi took it upon herself to learn to write Putonghua to communicate to the local Chinese along the way. She has done a superb job communicating in writing and now with an ever increasing amount of verbal communication. She is the quiet strength behind her man who remains unfazed when faced with challenges in the daily planning routine that is a large part of the journey. Our thanks go to all three companions and especially to Konomi for her strength of character and caring nature.

We taxied to the bus station and found out that the busses ran approx every half hour (unlike the trains which run once a day in spite of being told the day before that they run every half an hour). We had just missed the express so rather than wait 40mins we decided to catch the slower bus. All of about 1min into our journey the bus stopped for its first new passengers!!! The bus driver proceeded to get off the bus and sit at a table outside a local restaurant. The “new” passengers turned out to be the bus drivers 2IC and “conductor”. After about 5mins they all piled back on to the bus with plastic bags of food which Mr 2IC and Mr Conductor proceeded to share. At the next stop Mr 2IC and bus driver swapped so that Mr Bus Driver could eat his food.

Mr Bus Driver duly got back into the drivers seat and set off down the highway. We were fortunate that he was not a hooting tooting type…however his main vice was hoiking out the window. We were sitting right behind him in the front row so our view was often marred by the residue spit slowly drying in streams on the window. We were also horrified when at the end of the lunch session the driver proceeded to biff the plastic bag of lunch rubbish out the window in the middle of the highway. It is no wonder that as we walked through the countryside the piles of rubbish seemed ever increasing.

We eventually arrived in the middle of Jinan city at a large intercity bus station. It was easy enough to find someone at the bus station who spoke some English to help us understand how to get to where we wanted to go in the city. Two lovely ladies were very helpful in directing us to a taxi and informing the taxi driver where we wanted to go. Having bought a city map we were able to track the journey (in spite of the map only being in Chinese).

The taxi driver delivered us to the Crown Plaza…which was supposed to be next door to the hotel we were aiming for, however that hotel no longer existed. The Crown Plaza reception team were very keen to check us in but sadly our budget did not extend to their establishment on this occasion. The staff were however extremely helpful in recommending three alternatives within walking distance and we ended up staying at the first one on the list.

We set off on foot to explore the city and adjacent parks. Wandered through a street market just as they were setting up for the evenings trade and through the piazza where families were out enjoying kite flying in the early evening. At the edge of another park we stumbled upon a lady and man in their white coats doing outdoor massage for people heading home from work. We both enjoyed half hour neck/back massages for the princely sum of 10Yuan each…about NZD$4!!

After our massage we wandered off to find food and stumbled across a local outdoor food market alongside a small canal. First we discovered some wonderful garlic and vege dumplings thrown on a cast iron plate then transferred into a coal oven and baked. They were delicious and tasted like a cross between naan and chapattis.

We decided to order some vege food from one of the restaurants and found an empty table to eat at. There were three guys sitting eating and drinking copious quantities of beer at the next table. They invited us to join them so we moved on across and had a hilarious time eating, drinking and trying to communicate, us with no Putonghua and them with no English. We eventually managed to escape but not before they had refilled the half pint beer glasses, in Merrin’s case too many times and insisted on paying for our meal. We really do love to have these up close and personal experiences when we travel.

They are great moments to savour!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog18 - Home of Confucius

2008-07-02T18:59:00.001-07:00

Day 12 – Qufu; Home of Confucius - 30 June 08 (2km walk)

We all had a lazy morning trying to catch up on some sleep and to rest our weary bones. We went off to reception to try and get them to organise our flights out of Jinan. Yuji was phoned to come and interpret then we also managed to collar a person who was actually a Japanese guest who happened to speak fluent Putonghua. With his help we organised our e-tickets and decided we would catch the train to Jinan the next afternoon and stay one night there before flying out at lunch time the following day.

At 3pm we all set off on the final leg of our walk, through the old town to Confucius tomb…total distance 2km. It was great to have a leisurely wander through this ancient town. There are many modern shops but these are housed inside the old buildings so it really gave us a view of old China.

Outside the walls of the old town we walked the gauntlet of the souvenir sellers set up on both sides of the road to the cemetery. The cemetery is also walled off and is set in a forest that boasts some 20,000 trees – Cypresses, Chinese Junipers, Elms, Chinese Scholar Trees, etc. -- and occupies some 200 hectares of land. We had deliberately left our visit to late afternoon as we wanted to avoid the large tour groups of locals being lead around by megaphone wielding tour guides.

We made it to the tomb just before one such group and waited out their loud commentaries to then have some quiet time beside the large mound that is Confucius grave. Then we wandered through the forest which is dotted with tall concrete grave stones as this is the cemetery for all of Kong family, with over 100,000 Confucius descendants buried there. It really was a peaceful wander as most of the locals are driven around the roads in the cemetery park on electric cars and would not think of walking around the tracks between the graves. Did you know that the name for Confucius in Chinese is Kong Fu Zi? When we said Confucius to most Chinese they did not know who we meant though they certainly knew the name Kong Fu Zi.

We left the cemetery and had a superb dinner at a Korean restaurant. This was a welcome change from the Chinese food that we have been eating in local restaurants over the past 12 days. We have been sticking to a mainly vegetarian diet as the meat options look a little dodgy to say the least. Most restaurants have a selection of vegetables on display that we can go and choose from. Depending on the restaurant you either get exactly what you see i.e. sliced cucumber with no condiments or veges served with various condiments such as vinegar and copious amounts of garlic added. Our staple while travelling has been cucumber vinegar and garlic, small beans that you chew off the pods, and other bean sprout type dishes. These are served cold and are then accompanied with a variety of veges cooked in copious amounts of low grade oil.

After dinner we parted ways with Paul, Konomi and Yuji and went off to a performance in an outdoor stadium entitled “Confucius Dream”. This is a nightly performance in a purpose built out door theatre. The large cast perform a dance and acrobatic routine telling a story of how Confucius’ vision was of a world where all peoples live in harmony. It is a very visual performance with fantastic costumes set off by a great light show. We enjoyed it as did the other 100 or so attendees in the 1000+ seat auditorium.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog17 - Road Walking

2008-07-01T17:14:00.001-07:00

Day 10 – Road Walking to Zoucheng - 28 June 08 (24km walk)

The day dawned bright and clear. We started it with a great breakfast in the hotel. Packed our bags and had an uneventful taxi ride to the hotel in the next town of Zoucheng. The taxi drove along the road we would be walking. It seemed a long way! Arrived at a standard government hotel on a hill to the north of town, settled in to rest for an hour or so and then taxied back to the end point of yesterdays walk.

It was a long walk!!!

Road walking is not pleasant in any country but in China it can be a very noisy experience. Not only were the cars honking at each other but they of course wanted us to acknowledge them too, so would honk at us. There were some great sites though.

The walk became like a forced march with the pace set at 6km per hour with only two breaks of approx 10 minutes. We walked from 4.10pm to 8.40pm and straight into a restaurant for dinner. On our way into the town of Zoucheng (population about 190,000) near the river there were 100’s of people eating and at an open market. Great to see.

After dinner our only thoughts were to hail a taxi back to the hotel, jump in the shower (where we were careful not to burn ourselves in the “bathe of scald” as per the translated warning sign) and hop straight to bed to rest our weary bones.

Day 11 – Road Walking Zoucheng to Qufu- 29 June 08 (22km walk)

Paul and Konomi got up early to travel to Qufu to try and sort out a hotel. We stayed behind with Yuji to follow on once the technical details had been sorted. Arrived in Qufu at about 11am and settled into an okay hotel called “My Hotel”. Qufu is the home of Confucius so is quite a touristy town (population about 85,000). Our hotel was in a quiet area in the southern part of the city. Spent the morning resting up for this our last day of walking….which was going to be another long one.

The cloud cover of the morning had burnt off by the time we set off promising a long hot walk. After an uneventful taxi ride we arrived at the walking start point at exactly the same start time as the day before of 4.10pm. Thankfully the pace was not as much of a gallop as yesterdays.

The scenery was much the same as the day before. We were fortunate that one half of the road was closed to traffic for repairs for most of the journey, so we did not have to walk on the road edge thus creating even more horn honking from the traffic.

After 1.5 hours we had our first and only decent break. Stopped at a roadside stall for ice blocks and cold water; a quick method of cooling the body down.

Soon it was up and at it again. Paul picked up the pace and on we trudged. After 10 straight days of walking the effects on the body were definitely taking their toll, with sore hip and ankle joints for Louise and painful feet for Merrin. On the positive side a couple of kilos of lard from the hips and thighs has melted away with all this good fat burning exercise in the 29+deg temps.

We crossed the bridge to enter the city of Qufu and had a pleasant kilometre walk through a park and into a restaurant across the road from the hotel for dinner. After the dinner break we all had enough energy to walk an additional kilometre into the old walled part of the town.

Every day we seem to have at least one story of locals trying to earn more money than they should from us. Today’s story is around a Rikshaw ride that we decided to take from the walled city back to the hotel. Rather than squashing into a taxi yet again for 10Yuan, we decided to take a ride in three separate Rikshaws, each costing 5Yuan….or so we thought.

On arrival at the hotel the drivers changed their story and said it was 5Yuan each person! Needless to say a heated discussion ensued with all of us walking off having only paid 5Yuan per vehicle. Funnily enough the drivers did not seem too perturbed about the final payment!!!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog16 - Plant a Tree in China

2008-06-29T19:40:00.001-07:00

Day 9 – Plant a Tree in China - 27 June 08 (19km walk)

This morning our friend Andrew, the HanYuan Hotel Assistant Manager had organised local TV coverage and a tree planting in the hotel grounds. This was great publicity for Paul’s Greening the Olympics walk and for the hotel, which is very new. The interview took place in the hotel gardens. We all took part in planting a Gingko tree (which Andrew, who at very short notice had to find a tree, had donated from his own garden) and were all filmed doing so.

Then the hotel wanted some pictures of us taken at the front of the hotel so we all lined up with the hotel owner and all the department heads – chefs, bell boys, reception staff and housekeeping etc to smile for the camera in front of the hotel. It was great…everyone was happy.

Also check out Paul Coleman’s blog about the tree planting on 27 June at http://blog.myspace.com/earthwalker_paul_coleman

Said our goodbyes to Andrew (who has become a good friend) and headed to the next town to check into a new hotel before beginning today’s walk. Had organised two taxis so travelled in a bit more comfort! The traffic jam at the start of the bridges was even worse than the day before. On our side we were five vehicles wide taking up the whole width of the road all facing the on coming traffic leaving no space for it to pass. The Chinese solution to this problem is to turn off the car and sit and wait. As soon as someone moves all the engines burst into life again and everyone vies to move into any available gap and so the problem continues. There is absolutely no logic and certainly no-one wants to be the mug who gives way. He would probably still be waiting to get back into the traffic flow the next day as no-one would let him in! Finally as we made it on to the bridge the police were turning up to try to sort out the mess. During this time I had got talking to the local powerline boys. They invited me into their van, which had great air-conditioning. The others were amazed to see me wave at them from inside another vehicle. Rode across the canal bridges with them until they stopped to pick up their fellow workers who got a shock when I jumped out of the van.

We finally arrived at our new hotel for one night which was an older government hotel on the outskirts of Tengxian. After checking out the room price on the internet and having it confirmed by reception the price suddenly went up when we went to look at the rooms. The price we are paying is not much less than the HanYuan however this hotel is very tired and quite grubby really. Having said that the service is very good and the meal we had at the end of the day was also very good.

Today’s transport options worked very smoothly and did not create any more adventure for the day. Hailed a cab and showed him a picture of where we wanted to go and were delivered directly there. At the end of the walk a taxi driver pulled up behind us and delivered us straight back to the hotel. It was all too simple!!

The walk was long and hot. We are walking due north and apart from a slight deviation to the west to cross a bridge were able to follow roads alongside the fields (only sometimes having to walk through the fields) in a direct north/south line. We have walked out of the coal mining area so did not feel as grimy as yesterday. We passed many farming communities and the few times we stopped were able to converse with the locals. As always we draw a crowd. We passed mothers with toddlers in their bottomless daks (no need for nappies in the countryside), old ladies passing the time of day sitting on the street outside their homes and many, many people working in the fields.

Finally reached the journey end for the day – the junction with the main road, which we will be walking along for the last two days of the walking part of our intrepid Chinese adventure!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog15 - Corn and Coal

2008-06-28T07:31:00.001-07:00

Day 8 – Corn ‘n Coal - 26 June 08 (18km walk)

The driver that we had organised to pick us up the evening before did not turn up so we phoned our friendly taxi driver and he was there in a shot. Off we set on a longish journey complicated by a traffic jam at the bridge where drivers try to sneak through the wrong side of the bollards and everyone ends up sitting facing one another! Made it to our destination and off we walked…..and walked and walked. Through the communes down back lanes past and through fields of corn/maize. Every bit of the land is being used. The corn fields are edged by different crops sown right up to the road edges.

The land is very flat so as we walked along we could see either coal fired power stations or the coal mines to feed them. We walked closely past a coal mine through the village next to it. All the trucks transporting the coal are piled high with the low quality coal dug from under the village and corn fields. It has a sludgy look and is patted down on the trucks so that it does not fall off as they are bouncing along the roads.

All the fields had been double cropped. Before the corn wheat or barley was the main crop. Along the village lanes we came across farmers drying the wheat on the road. They lay the stems out on the road and force vehicles to drive over it to break it down eventually to just the grain. Old men and women sweep it into piles to grade as it is broken down by the traffic. Finally shovelling the grain into the air to get rid of the last of the husks and pouring it into bags.

As always getting back to the hotel was more of an adventure than the walking. Today after negotiations fell through with someone with a van we jumped on a bus to the nearest city. Here we were shown by the (friendly) lady conductor the bus going to Peixian and told it left at 6:40. There was one slight hitch…the bus did not leave until the next morning. Probably just as well because if there had been a bus it would have complicated things as we had left our Peixian taxi driver waiting for us at the start point of the days walk! We then found a local taxi to take us back to the start point. This guy was an absolute maniac. He spent most of the journey either on or over the yellow centre line leaning on his horn passing all and sundry at great speed. There appear to be very different road rules in China. It is every man for himself! Everyone wants to get there first and no-one will give in or give way. We made it back to our Peixian cabbie in one piece and set off on the final leg of the journey to the hotel.

Headed into a local restaurant opposite the hotel for a meal. Once again the best way to determine what you wanted to eat was to head into the kitchen.

Had a chance to catch up with Andrew that evening and he was very keen to hear our suggestions for improving the service at the hotel. Nice to be asked. He also told us that the local TV station was keen to interview Paul. We suggested that the hotel try and do a tree planting. So Andrew put his creative talents to work and also got the approval of the Hotel’s General Manager. What would happen tomorrow we thought as we began another wonderful night of rest.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog14 - To Market to Market

2008-06-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Day 7 – To Market to Market and Over the Bridges – 25 June 08 (15km walk)

A very quiet start to the day with time to catch up on emails etc. We left for our walk at 2.30pm having negotiated a fare of 40Yuan with the latest friendly taxi driver. He delivered us to the spot at the end of the bridge that the bus had dropped us off in the middle of, so we re-traced our steps across this first bridge. There are a series of five bridges forming floodgates or canal locks all dividing a large lake and wetland area. The journey across the bridges was noisy and dusty. The bridges were pretty potholed and there was no foot path. We just shared the side of the road with the various motorised vehicles crossing.

The bridges were linking islands. The road surface on these islands disintegrated into seriously pot holed thoroughfares. It was quite unpleasant walking in the dust swept up by the vehicles whose drivers continued to honk loudly for reasons only known to them. Sometimes to encourage other vehicles out of the way, other times to let us know that they were there…right beside us! Having said that, there were a lot of trucks (most carrying coal) that didn’t honk so the horn honking could have been a lot worse!

Just before the final bridge which was actually over a canal lock, we came across a colourful market. This consisted of a row of trucks with colourful umbrellas selling caged live ducks, geese and pheasants. There were also buckets of live fish, eels, and turtles for sale along with many different varieties of eggs, either in their shells or buried in mud.

We also saw on two separate occasions small trucks passing with live dogs caged together in three tiers of cages. It was quite obvious where these poor guys were off to!!!

It was a relief to get off this road and wander alongside the bank of another canal. Great to have the peace and tranquillity of the countryside once again! We soon came to a deviation in the track where a family had a cotton-bleaching enterprise underway. The smell of the chemicals they were using was very strong and they were certainly not keen on any photos being snapped of their operation. Also came across a Chicken farm in this area. At first we couldn’t work out what the stench was and then we spied the hens in their pens!

The vehicle track became a small path meandering along the ever diminishing embankment whose sides were being constantly eroded by the farmers alongside the canal taking the soil. One wonders what would happen if the canal system flooded…serious loss of housing as the farm houses funnily enough were very close to the eroded banks. We came to a bridge and crossed to the other side of the canal as the path seemed more travelled on that side…until that is, we came to a perpendicular canal that we could not cross. Detoured down this a few hundred metres and low and behold came to a railway line that we could use to cross over the side waterways. We followed the railway for a bit and then went back to following the canal which was slowly dwindling to a small creek. After a while the track ran out and we found ourselves walking literally through the planted crops. Finally made it to a commune where once again we were instant celebrities. Konomi managed to negotiate a 15Yuan ride in a tuk tuk like vehicle (three wheel motorbike with a box for passengers on the back) down to the junction of the road straight back to the bridges so that we could negotiate a taxi or bus ride back to Peixian.

We arrived here at about 7.30pm right in the middle of dinner time for the locals. The road junction was crowded with trucks, bikes, cycles and outdoor “restaurants” in the middle of the road and of course people, people and more people. Merrin and I provided the decoy so that Paul, Yuji and Konomi could try to find someone to negotiate a fare with. They finally found someone who was willing to drive us across 4 of the bridges for 50Yuan. He drove us to the shop where had ended yesterday’s walk and here we convinced one of the family members to drive us back to Peixian for a further 50Yuan.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog13 - The 30 Second Bus Ride

2008-06-24T17:15:00.001-07:00

Day 6 – The 30 Second Bus Ride - 24 June 08 (15km walk)

Good start to the morning with the hotel buffet breakfast and the discovery that they have an espresso machine – yum very good coffee! We then asked at reception for the location of a pharmacy to buy some plasters for the blisters that we were both coping with. One of the “Pront Desk” ladies (yes that is the spelling on the sign at reception) offered to guide us. Firstly a slight miscommunication had us in the local doctor’s surgery. Finally got the message through and off we walked to the local pharmacy. Merrin bought the required goods while Lou wandered around looking at the Western and Chinese medicines on display and snapping off a couple of pictures. A lady holding a child was buying a range of Chinese medicines. Lou took a photo and then went to say hi to the kid at which point all hell broke loose! One screaming child…obviously found it all too much having this blond blue eyed monster leering at it! Time to make a hasty retreat much to the amusement of the locals in the pharmacy (including to mother of the child)!

We decided on a later start to the walk today as it was a very warm day. Set off with two taxi driver friends of the Bell Boy – sheer luxury…two cabs instead of all five of us jammed into one. Off we went down the straight road to the north of the city sailing past the turn off that yesterdays rogue of a taxi driver had turned off for our wild goose chase, with the total journey time all of 15mins at a cost of less than 15Yuan each taxi!!!

Back at the clock tower restaurant we tried to no avail, to get them to organise a boat to cross the side canal to continue on our journey. Set off hoping to hail someone with a small boat to take us across, or heaven forbid walk an extra 5kms down the road to cross the canal then back to the point opposite on the other side of the canal. Time to project all our positive thoughts into manifesting a boat to take us across, as we were really not keen to walk extra kilometres. Within 5mins we had hailed a passing barge tempting them with 20Yuan. The wife unhooks the row boat and rows over to us and takes us across the canal. We are all happy! We have saved our feet. She has made 20Yuan and now only has to row herself back to the barge…that had motored off upstream without her!

The walk was fairly uneventful. Continued along the embankment alongside brick works for about 10kms with the view then changing to coal dumps (the coal is loaded onto barges and taken down the Grand Canal). Walked 14kms in total ending up at the road bridge across the lake that we want to walk across tomorrow. We stopped for a beer and a chat to the locals before heading back to Peixian. We could have phoned this morning’s cab driver to come and pick us up but decided to wait for the local bus. Thus began our next big adventure…

Bus eventually pulls up and the conductor lady gets off to ask the locals who we were. On she hops and off we trundle. Konomi asked for the price and first she says 15Yuan – Which we thought was the total for all five of us and would be a good price. But oh, no, no…it was 15Yuan each, which then escalated to 100Yuan for all of us. Once again daylight robbery!!! Paul spat the dummy and insisted the bus stop…which it did in the middle of a long bridge. As Paul was trying to leave the bus the woman conductor was manhandling him trying desperately with Yuan signs in her eyes, to make us stay on the bus. We eventually all managed to get off the bus with her following continuing to yell and try to force us back on the bus. Konomi was doing written translations and finally showed her the word “thief” at which point she hastily got back on the bus and off it went leaving us in the middle of the bridge. We walked to the other side and a helpful chap on a motorcycle phoned our cab driver and explained where to pick us up from. Cab turned up in about 20mins and we paid 40Yuan to get back to Peixian!!!

Todays lesson… Some people actually really believe that it is ok to try to embezzle money from foreigners. They think we have a lot of money. Greed takes over and they try to extract as much of it as they can. There is no conception that this is theft. One really needs to be fully aware of the value of the endeavour that is being undertaken at any one time when travelling off the beaten track in China. Thankfully for us we are in the back blocks with Paul and Konomi, who after 10 months of walking from Hong Kong en-route to Beijing, know very well cost of the various forms of transport and accommodation etc!

We went out for a meal with Andrew that night as a way to thank him for his efforts the night before. Paul, Konomi and Yuji had headed for another restaurant. Had a great meal with Andrew while learning more about the local area.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog12 - Taxi Tours

2008-06-23T21:38:00.001-07:00

Day 5 – Taxi Tours – The Good the Bad and the…? - 23 June 08 (15km walk)

Today was moving day from Xuzhou to Peixian. Konomi negotiated a good deal with our friendly taxi driver and a mate to drive us to Peixian in two cabs. The hotel staff in Xuzhou to recommend a hotel in Peixian…but unfortunately when we got to it it was an over priced Karaoke or KTV Hotel. They wanted to charge us 280Yuan for substandard rooms and the very real chance that we would be treated to the boom, boom, boom of many Karaoke revellers till the wee hours!!! We decided to go looking for another hotel….and oh what a find! With the help of a friendly staff member at the Karaoke Hotel we stumbled across the newest hotel in Peixian, which looked from the outside like a palace.

The HanYuan has only been open for two months. It is huge and sits on the edge of a lake looking across at a temple and park. The staff went out of their way to look after us and we quickly made friends with Andrew, the Assistant Manager, whose English was very good. Andrew gave us his card and said to phone him if we needed any help. Little did we (or he know) that he would be of great assistance to us later in the evening!!

We set off for a late walking start at about 4pm. Standing at the gate Paul say’s “let’s choose a friendly looking taxi driver” so, of the four or five drivers who pulled up we chose a chap with a big smile on his face and showed him the hand drawn “map” of where we wanted to go. After a bit of concern when he headed north instead of south, we got him on the right track and without too much hassle arrived at our end point of the day before. He seemed to be an honest type with a little bit of English and lots of laughter so we got his number saying we would call him to pick us up after our walk for the day. No 1 warning sign…this guy did not want us to pay the fare?? This felt very odd but we all just thought, hey what a lovely guy (and proceeded to pay him)!!

The start of the walk was along a re-formed part of embankment so instead of walking on fine gravel we were walking on hard packed mud. It was a very pleasant afternoon – actually early evening as we set off walking at 5pm. It was not too hot and we could see the surrounding countryside as there were no trees along this new part of the embankment. We made good progress and finally came to a side canal which we needed to cross but could see no bridge. After asking someone we found the transport across, which was a little lady who hauled us across on a small barge - very quaint and peaceful. On the other side the road was gravelled again and after a short break we set off at a good pace. The plan was to walk until about 8pm and phone the taxi driver to pick us up. Darkness was falling. We were walking in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden we hear, and finally spot a well lit up clock tower striking 8pm with Westminster Chimes. It was very surreal!!!

There seemed to be no-one about so Merrin headed off down to the clock tower and found a floating restaurant - as you do, with people who could help tell our friendly taxi driver where we were. They proceeded to offer us tea and beer (warm) and a meal if we wanted it (which we didn’t as they specialised in local game, birds and fish from the local potentially polluted waters). They were lovely people who looked after us well until our taxi driver turned up about 30mins later – note the time - warning sign No 2! Off we set waving happily to our restaurant family for what we thought (and what the family had told us) was a ten to fifteen minute journey back to Peixian. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a restaurant when we got to Peixian but he informed us that all restaurants closed at 9pm. He then offered to phone the hotel to arrange a meal for us, but we declined saying we would sort it when we got there.

After about 20 minutes we started questioning the driver as to where we were as the kilometres and taxi metre were ticking by and there was no city in sight! At this stage we were driving on back country lanes through muddy potholes and past small villages. He rambled something in Chinese that Konomi (who has self taught herself written Chinese and a small amount of spoken Mandarin) thought he said another 4-5kms but then he changes his tack and said another 20kms!!! We happened to be passing a police outpost so we insisted he stop so that we could get some help. There were no police so we phoned up Andrew the Hotel Assistant Manager for help in translation.

Andrew is a very cool person. He acted as the go between negotiating between us and the taxi driver over the amount we should have paid (about 20Yuan max). The meter was now sitting on 50Yuan still with 20kms to go). Taxi driver was pleading innocence saying he couldn’t go the “quick” way because his car would bottom out (not sure what he thought it was doing as we were bouncing through the muddy pot holes to get where we currently were?). Then…low and behold a Police car turns up. Now began a very interesting series of dynamics between us - the tourists, taxi driver, Andrew as translator on the phone and the Police!!! The Police were extremely casual. They immediately ‘got’ that he was trying to rip us off by taking us on a circumnavigation (haven’t we heard that word before) of the whole area but they did not want to do anything about it except shake a finger at him when they thought we were not watching!!! Eventually they offered to escort us back to the hotel with one of us in the Police car. We immediately volunteered to go in the squad car which proved far more comfy than five up in a taxi (plus this added another dimension to our story of travel in China).

Now we witnessed a maniac for a taxi driver. Firstly driving up the bum of the police car and then once we hit the highway (a very long way south of the city!) passing at speed and proceeding to speed off into the distance. The police were laughing away at his antics (as were Merrin and Louise) but it was all very odd. They didn’t seem to give a hoot about his petty lawlessness and seemed to be content to casually observe the dynamics between us and the taxi driver.

We finally made it to the hotel with the metre reading 70Yuan (more than we had paid to get to where we started walking that day) and our watches reading 11pm!! Discussions continued. By now Andrew who had been at home when we called was at the hotel to help us conclude the situation. Police just stood around waiting for us all to come to an agreement then buggered off and left us to it. We eventually agreed to pay 60Yuan. Then the most amazing thing happened…the taxi driver shakes Paul’s hand and says give me a call tomorrow and I will take you out to the clock tower restaurant!!! We all just about fell over laughing and couldn’t believe the audacity of the guy.

You would think that this would be a logical place to end the story for the day…but oh no, no!!!

Remember the taxi driver ‘offering’ to organise dinner for us, which we all declined!!! Well, we were very surprised when Andrew asked us to follow him to have the dinner that the hotel had specially prepared for us. It turned out that the dirty rascal had ordered the most expensive banquet in the house to be served in a private dining room. More negotiations and Andrew offered to drop the price to 60Yuan and provide vegetarian food for Konomi and Paul instead of the very meaty menu that had been ordered. We did enjoy a most sumptuous meal, waited on hand and foot by the many staff. We also enjoyed Andrew’s company because he insisted on staying with us until we retired for the day, walking with us to our rooms (in spite of the fact that he was actually off duty after the previous shift being nightshift!!!)

Thus ends day 5 of our adventure in China, having met friends and foe…which we are beginning to understand is the essence of China!!!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog11 - China’s Imperial Way

2008-06-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

Day 4 – China’s Imperial Way - A.K.A. The Long March - 22 June 08 (20km walk)

Today was all about endurance rather than enjoyment. For starters the newly developed blisters were a bit of a worry. But the blisters turned out the least of our worries. We walked for 20km along a stop bank serving as a gravel road between The Grand Canal (part of a major canal system that is known as China’s Imperial Way) and a lesser canal. This embankment was lined with poplar like trees so there wasn’t too much to see apart from occasional glimpses of ferries chugging across the Grand Canal and the odd bridge leading to the communes across the lesser canal.

The great part was the trees provided wonderful shade. There were a few dilapidated farmhouses alongside the embankment with either chooks ranging around or herds of goats being closely monitored by their bamboo and whip wielding herder. On the wildlife front we saw what looked like woody woodpecker and cuckoos, which was rather cool.

The end of today’s walk was a cross roads connecting a ferry crossing the Grand Canal and a bridge crossing the lesser canal leading to a large commune, judging by the amount of traffic passing us by at the end of the working day. This was about 6pm. We sat beside the road intersection of the lane up and over the embankment and waited for a likely looking vehicle that could take us back the 50 odd km to Xuzhou.

We tried haggling with one guy deciding his price was too high at which point he decided ours was too low and drove off. A local chap was helping us and insisted that he could get us a good price with his mate. Well….it was a good price, but was it worth it we asked ourselves 1.75 hours later as we finally pulled up outside the hotel. After driving all the back country lanes, through communes and past rice paddies we ended up circumnavigating the city and coming in from the total opposite side from the hotel. The time that it took however, was not our main worry. This guy was a real horn hog. Every 10 seconds or so he was leaning on it…until that, is it got dark. Then it was a flickering light show from low to high beam….not as one in the western world would expect, dipping your lights as you come towards traffic. Oh no!!! On to high beam as cars come towards you so that they know that you are coming…and of course they are retuning the favour. So here we are blatting along weaving in and out of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and various other two or three wheeled farm vehicles (mostly with no lights on) flashing and if we were really lucky tooting as well. Then he packed a sad on the outskirts of the city, pulled to a stop and insisted we catch a taxi from there! We finally convinced him that we could show him the way to the hotel, which we did, safely arriving after another eventful day in China!

Made it to the restaurant before it closed at 9pm. We discovered that most restaurants close at that time.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog10 - Rice Paddies and Mud

2008-06-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Day 3 – More Rice Paddies and Even More Thick Mud - 21 June 08 (16km walk)

Today started with another attempt to exchange New Zealand dollars. After two banks both saying no we got the impression that New Zealand may have a free trade agreement with China but someone has forgotten to tell them that we have our own currency.

The “walk” started with a taxi ride back to where we finished up yesterday. Konomi had negotiated the journey with a friendly taxi driver whom she and Paul had used before, so we set off all hoping that he had understood the written notes from the end of yesterdays walk. Off he shot down a different way from which Paul expected which caused a little bit of concern. We soon recognised that he was getting on a major road which was going to be quicker than the way Paul had planned, so we all relaxed and let him get on with it. Made it to said road intersection and off we walked. It was a very muggy day although plenty of cloud (and pollution) cover. Didn’t take long before we were all sweating away! The roads’ today (when we were on them) seemed to be long and straight. From the start point we were following a large pipeline along the road. We eventually we got to its source which was a very large coal fired power station with five cooling towers which they were also generating steam and pumping it off down the road to goodness knows where and for what.

We left the roads soon after the power station and walked along a track alongside the rice paddies. It was such a relief to get off the road away from the constant horns. We are walking on the Yangzi flood plain so the land is very flat with wheat fields now being converted into rice paddies. Walking along the rice paddies is very peaceful. We passed duck farms on the edges of canals between the paddies plus many, many people working on the farms planting out the rice and throwing fertiliser and weed killer out of woven baskets. As people see us going past they all look up at these strange apparitions walking through their communal land sometimes laughing mostly just staring in awe.

Paul had navigated the route that showed a small bridge across a narrow stream between the paddies. Unfortunately it was no longer there, so rather than wade through not knowing quite how deep it was, we set off to find another bridge. Thus began the theme for the day - mud, mud and more mud!

This detour took us almost half a kilometre off our planned course. We were right in the middle of the farms. Either walking across the burnt stalks of wheat fields waiting to be flooded to become rice paddies or along the slightly raised mud banks along side the rice paddies. Eventually we came to a shop at one of the communes and sat having ice blocks and watermelon on the side of the road. Very much appreciated in the heat.

We finally made it to The Grand Canal. The original plan was to carry along it for 4- 5kms but we all decided to call it a day here. At this point on the canal a ferry hauls people from one side to another. We jumped on thinking we could get a ride back to Xuzhou on the other side but that was not the case. We then had to wait on the ferry before we were allowed to cross back when a vehicle wanted to cross.

The driver of the vehicle that eventually came gave us a ride to the nearest town amazingly for free. (This was the first free ride that Paul and Konomi have had during the 10 months that they have been in China). In this town we once again became celebrities with quite a large crowd forming. Eventually negotiated a ride back to Xuzhou for 150Yuan which was a little over the top but it was becoming clear that the options weren’t going to get any better so we took it.

Back in the city and we went straight to dinner at a Japanese restaurant (Chinese style) with even more mud on our boots than the night before.

Walking back to the hotel from the restaurant we came across groups of children having outdoor rote English lessons so we joined in …although the teacher did not seem too amused. Was also tempted to join an outdoor Tai Chi class but it was only with old ladies and men…ha, ha maybe should have joined in.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog09 - Xuzhou to Crossroad

2008-06-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - Xuzhou to Muddy Tracks between Rice Paddies - 20 June 08 (13km walk)

Needless to say after a very late night it was a bit of a slow start to the morning. Breakfast finished at 9am so we headed to the 26th floor dining room just before 9 to partake in a rather sumptuous buffet with Paul, Konomi and Yuji, a young Japanese guy who had been walking with them since February this year (http://yoyoyuji.spaces.live.com/). The view from the restaurant would be stunning on a clear day. What we could see were the many solar hot water heaters on the roof of the apartments. There are more per building than we have seen anywhere else in the world. The plan was to start walking at 1pm…which was good as we were still a little tired due to late several late nights. Had a bit of a kip after breaky and then we all set off from the hotel at 1.30 – in the pouring rain!

The first part of the walk was through the northern part of Xuzhou city along the main road and then a smaller more ‘local’ road with small doorways opening to one room home/work areas or small local cafes with woks and BBQ burners outside under awnings, glass cases filled with delicacies of your choice…including a dog’s head striped of its skin waiting to be boiled or deep fried. The first thought was oh, this is a pigs head but then the cogs of the brain registered that this pig did not have a snout!

We got to the river and crossed a rather pretty bridge with a covered walkway, with many people sheltering from the rain and fishing from the sides. Of course, here again we were celebs.

Stopped for a while to take in the view and also shelter from the rain, watching people trying to cross the road at the end of the bridge getting soaked by vehicles speeding by and sending up a curtain of spray, always honking, honking, honking their horns. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPUxyzzrv0

As with many Asian countries horn honking to tell people “get out of the way, I am coming through” is the norm. Even here sitting in our hotel room on the 13th floor writing this, one can hear constant horn honking in spite of the double glazing that is dulling the noise.

We walked along the river for a bit then headed north literally walking to the end of the road. A nice surprise along this road was a temple built long before the road about 600AD. The tiled footpath suddenly stopped and we walked around the corner of the very old building jutting out into the road which turned out to be the entrance to the temple.

We also saw signs of how the change by nurseries from clay pots to plastic pots is impacting on the environment.

We reached a T junction in the road and to save about 40kms instead of following the road we headed off into the unknown. Paul had planned each days walk using Google Earth. He could see that a path traversed the fields and ended at a commune and then back on to local roads. The going was pretty reasonable then we reached a point where Paul had planned to go right but the straight ahead road still looked ok so I voted we keep following it. Well this track eventually became stepping stones between flooded fields and then a rather wider muddy embankment. This was when things turned a little bit to custard…or should one say mud. Giggling as we all tried to navigate our way down the sticky path soon changed to slightly hysterical laughter as Louise literally got stuck in the mud. We all made it to firmer ground none the worse for the experience except for an extra few kilos of China stuck to our boots.

On we walked through the rice paddies and eventually found a road through a commune. The brick buildings all had vegetable patches outside them with the most exquisite looking aubergines, peppers, beans etc growing. We eventually came to a cross roads which looked to be a likely place to finish for the day. Konomi can read but not speak Chinese so she wrote down the name of the streets we were at and we took photos of road signs so that we could get a taxi back out to this point to start walking tomorrow.

Next we figured out that we could catch a local bus back to town. This was an experience in itself. This gave us first hand experience of an angry driver honking VERY loudly for anything in our path to get out of the way. The horn was so loud it blasted your eardrums each time he honked. Then a passenger down the back of the bus decided to have a very loud conversation on his mobile phone. Paul is convinced that most of the population is deaf from the constant cacophony that they have to put up with. After one day in China have to say that he may have a point!! The bus took the long way home and we ended up in a part of the city that required a taxi ride back to the hotel. It was raining heavily by this stage and we finally hailed one with four of us piled in the back and Konomi in the front next to the driver in his caged off area giving directions.

We went straight to a local restaurant for an early dinner. Yes still muddy and wet, though this did not appear to upset the owners. Great experience! Got to choose the food (stuck to mainly vegetarian). The restaurant was very popular. A noisy smoky atmosphere but good to experience! A meal for five meal including beer only cost US$15.

Back to a very nice shower to wash the mud off the body.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog08 - Hong Kong to Xuzhou

2008-06-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

Day 1 - Hong Kong to Xuzhou - 19 June 08

We left Mui Wo at 12. 50 setting off to meet Konomi and Paul at Exchange Square in Central. Merrin attired in shorts t-shirt and tevas, Louise in town clothes! Cycled down the valley – Merrin with a 20kg pack on his back, Louise with two small backpacks carrying important things like passports, computer, makeup etc in the bike baskets.

It sure was a, planes, trains, automobiles (and ferries) day. From Central we caught the MTR to Kowloon Tong, changed to the KCR to the Lo Wu border crossing from Hong Kong SAR to Mainland China. In Shenzhen, the bus terminal for the airport bus was next to the station with the bus stop in the middle of the road. The only indication a number marked on the road. Travelled through the busy streets of Shenzhen then pulled up at another bus stop where it soon became obvious that we all had to pile off the bus and buy tickets to get on the “real” airport bus. From here about a 45 min journey to the airport. Check in was exceedingly simple but things became a tad more complicated after that! Firstly the boarding gate we were given had been changed….but that was the least of our worries. We found the correct gate and after experiencing our first photo as the celebrities we are (a local Chinese man wanting a photo of his wife with us) we boarded on time. Got the take off spiel and then….nothing! Next a message telling us takeoff would be delayed for one hour…so they proceeded to feed us. Finished our meal (and all the beer on the plane) and strapped in for takeoff accelerating down the runway only to abort about halfway down! Taxied back to sit and wait while the pilot figured out what to do, which included walking from the cockpit to the back of the plane a few times. Finally took off about 2. 5 hours late and made it to Xuzhou by mid night…thankfully. Piled on the bus at the airport and set off on an hour long journey to our hotel.

Paul and Konomi had been staying at this hotel before they went back to Hong Kong for their visa run and had assured us it was very nice…which it was indeed – a five star hotel called Bayview Holiday Hotel (http://www.xzhtjr-hotel.com/) with very nice rooms but…rock hard beds, which we finally fell into at about 2am.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Lantau Island in 2026

2008-06-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

It is not very often you stop and think 20 years into the future and imagine what a place will be like.

Lantau Map 2026 is just that.

It is written by a good friend, Gordon Andreassend.

The comments shown below were prepared in January 2006 in a project where writers gave their views of development in Lantau in 20 years time. Here is what Gordon wrote at that time.

I have known Lantau’s tracks and trails for about 40 years, and as a surveyor and a mapper had almost 30 years to look at Lantau in greater detail on Lands Department aerial photos and maps.

If I may, please let me do some crystal ball gazing, and optimistically give my views as a surveyor, as I open up the January 2026 edition of a brand new map :-

LANTAU ISLAND, JANUARY 2026

The first thing I notice is the amount of Country Park on the island. Approximately 75% of the total area ! Hong Kong is indeed fortunate that so much of Lantau’s hinterland and scenic coastal areas have been preserved this way.

The network of major roads has been developed, but not extended over the past 20 years. The most prominent route is the Expressway from the Airport and Tung Chung along the NE coast to the Tsing- Ma Bridge. The major route on the southern side of Lantau is the road from Mui Wo to Tai O, now widened to provide 3 lanes for most of its route. The link road to Ngong Ping is two lanes with passing lanes that adequately handle tourist traffic fed by the Cable Car.

The Tung Chung Road to Cheung Sha Beach is a two to three lane road, that is sufficient to handle the tourist and local traffic. All minor roads providing access to village areas are well developed.

Vehicle access on most Lantau roads is still controlled to allow use to permit holders only, and a speed-limit of 50 kph on all roads other than the expressway, has made the roads safer.

Tai O, one of the oldest settlements on the island, has expanded slightly and has been cleaned up to fit in better with its title of “the Venice of the East”. It has a flourishing cultural complex, and its harbour is well served by high-speed ferries from Hong Kong and Tuen Mun.

Mui Wo has been developed to cater for local residents, many of who work in Hong Kong and Kowloon, and as a tourist area - and locals and visitors keep the restaurants and beachfront areas busy. The face-lift given to Mui Wo beach about 10 years ago has improved this asset considerably. Part of the area has been developed with low-rise blocks, so that some areas resemble part of Discovery Bay. The improved ferry services to Central and Tsim Sha Tsui make access easy. The upgraded walking path from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo has proved to be a most popular hiking route.

Discovery Bay reached its full capacity 15 years ago and has concentrated on improvements within its allocated area. The beach area and watersport facilities have been improved to cater for locals and visitors alike. The Central ferry service, and bus routes to Tung Chung and Sunny Bay function well.

Nearby Disneyland has been extended to occupy all the Government land allocated for its use and its Disney Marineland facility is most popular. The road past Disneyland to Pa Tau Kwu gives access to the 36 hole Disney Golf Course, and is popular with local and visiting golfers. The five hotels and resorts managed by Disneyland are operating at almost full capacity.
The Lantau North Country Park and Marine Park to the north of DisneyLand, and adjacent to the golf course is well-used by visitors.

The area adjacent to the Sunny Bay MTR Station has also been developed as a recreational and waters sports area. The old buildings and jetty at Luk Keng in Yam O Wan, have been preserved as part of a heritage area, with other fishing village artifacts also on display. The log pond areas have been removed except for one log-filled display stand near the heritage area. The company hiring boats to visitors wishing to fish in the Cheung Sok area is doing well.

The CLK Airport has been expanded with the opening of the new X-terminal to the west of the old Y-shaped terminal, and the twin runways are probably running at their full capacity. The throughput of passengers has more than doubled in the post 20 years, and the use of the Conference facilities and the nearby CLK Sky City are bringing in a good return. The Heliport facility and the Business Aviation centre are functioning well.

The New Town of Tung Chung, which recently celebrated its 25th birthday, has been developed to capacity, without the reclamation that was proposed 20 years age. Its shopping malls, and its hotels are doing good business and many of the residents are employed at CLK in the airline industry, or at Disneyland. Tung Chung promises to be one of the best of the new town developments, and it is pleasing to note that the additional reclamation mooted in the past has not eventuated. The retention of the waterfront and some buildings near the old Tung Chung wharf, is a fine example of historical preservation.

The Ngong Ping 360 Cableway stands out prominently on the map, and this facility which is to feature its 20 years of existence on a Hong Kong stamp issue this year, has also helped to put Tung Chung on the map. Ngong Ping development also features on the map, and this tourist drawcard is something that Hong Kong can be proud of, while the Big Buddha still sits and smiles benignly at all he sees before him.

Cheung Sha Beach with its adjacent resort development is doing well and is popular as a tourist destination. The other resort built on the site of the former Ma Po Ping and Tong Fuk Prisons is most popular with those seeking access to the higher ground along the Lantau Trail. It is indeed fortunate that the SAR Govt was able to negotiate the repatriation of Mainland prisoners back to the PRC, to serve their prison terms. The reduction in inmate numbers has cut back on expansion, and other prisons may also be phased out soon.

Hei Ling Chau also gained a new lease of life as a resort and windsurfing centre once the prisons there were cleared.

On the northern coast, the Tai Wan Ho basin with its surrounding development of recreational and watersport facilities, has proved to be extremely popular.

The coastal walking trail from Tai O to Tung Chung has been upgraded for its entire length, and is an increasingly popular hiking route.

Following the improvements made to the Lantau Trail and other major tracks, and to the provision of designated trail bike tracks and nature trails, there has been a phenomenal increase in the use of the trails, and this has pushed Lantau ahead of the Sai Kung area as Hong Kong’s most popular recreational area. The Lantau Island Countryside Map is now the best seller of all 5 maps in the Countryside Series.

The walk from Shek Pik via Fan Lau to Tai O is very popular following the construction of the Fan Lau Historical Centre. The development of the Fitness Centre at Yi O, and construction of the fitness trail through Shui Lo Cho up to Man Cheung Po has also made this walk more popular.

I note that the map still shows in the sea above Tai O a dotted proposal for the Zhuhai - Lantau Bridge. It is indeed fortunate that the construction of more northerly connections from the PRC to the N.T., coupled with the considerable opposition from concern groups and the residents of Tung Chung, has put this project almost permanently on hold. Let’s hope that it stays that way.

Gordon Andreassend
January 2006

Thanks Gordon for those thoughts. It is interesting to see what develops in only 2 years!

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Coordinating the Environmental Message

2008-06-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

I love to spread the message of protecting and respecting our planet!

Many of my friends do too and as you know, you can do more as a team than as an individual.

So, I continue to team up with people. If you want assistance in spreading your environmental message then feel free to contact me. I can connect you with people or even present your message, as I love public speaking.

One of the great persons I have teamed up with is Paul Coleman – Earthwalker (http://www.earthwalker.com/). Paul has been walking around this planet since 1990 and has covered over 46,000 kilometres through more than 40 nations.

Since meeting Paul on 20 Sep 2007 we have shared many ideas via the internet while he and his wife Konomi have been on their walk from Hong Kong to Beijing (Check out the journey via http://blog.myspace.com/earthwalker_paul_coleman). I was pleasantly surprised when one day Paul asked if I would be an advisor to him. I said of course and then I looked at his other advisors.
· Charlene Hewat: Executive Director of Environment Africa, Zimbabwe
· Tadashi Inamoto: President of Oak Village, Japan
· Chikashi Kinjo: Lawyer, Political/Peace Activist, Okinawa
· Avon Mattison: President of Pathways of Peace, United States
· Koichi Nakatani: Environmental Activist, Japan
· Akihiko Ozeki: President of Real Produce, Japan
· Jeunesse Park: CEO of Food and Trees for Africa, South Africa
· Kiyoshi Shikita: Chaiman of Earthday Tokyo, President of BeGood Cafe, Japan
· Genichiro Shiosaka: Member, Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly, Japan
· Paul Sihon: Musician, Composer, United States
· Charles Spencer: General Manager of Spencer Global Consulting, Chile
· Joan Walley, MP: Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
· Rob Wheeler: UN Representative of Global Eco Village Network, United States
· Zandra Valenzuela Delgado: Lawyer, Chile

Wow I thought, they look like superb people.

On Paul’s latest trip to Hong Kong I wanted to leverage his message while minimising the effort required on his behalf, to get the greatest exposure. Little did we know the story we would have to tell.

I called on my fellow environmental team mates and organisations to see what opportunities we could create for Paul.

One of the reasons for Paul’s return trip to Hong Kong was to receive an award from Supreme Master Television. Urania had been following Paul’s story since meeting Paul 4 months earlier at the event I helped organised at Life Café (http://www.lifecafe.com.hk/).

As a member of the Royal Geographic Society in Hong Kong (http://www.rgshk.org.hk/) I contacted Rupert, the Director, and they were very keen to have Paul speaking to their members. Great place and people for Paul to connect with.

I then re-connected with Andrew Dembina at RTHK Radio 3 (http://www.rthk.org.hk/channel/radio3/), he and Morning Brew host Phil Whelan were very keen to have an update on how the walk was going.

Superb. That was three different opportunities for Paul.

At the end of his presentation to RGS members and guests, Paul announced a major change in his plans to walk to Beijing. He told the audience that he could not continue as he could not get a visa to go back. The crowd was shocked. Offers to help came flooding in. Offers of contacts to discuss the situation with officials, media people to talk to, places to stay while stuck in Hong Kong and most importantly huge encouragement to continue.

Paul got some superb media coverage. The SCMP (South China Morning Post) did an article on how the red tape was stopping a major effort to help engage people into Greening the Olympics. RTHK Radio 3 had a live interview during the evening news.

While having Paul and Konomi to stay at our wonderful bush retreat Louise and I decided it was time to experience “earthwalking”.

So now we were very keen for Paul’s visa situation to be resolved. Which it was.

Thanks to everyone who helped Paul and Konomi get their visa and return to their walk.

We will be flying to Xuzhou (550km northwest of Shanghai) and walking from there north to Qufu (The home of Confucius), which is about 150 kilometres in a straight line (of course we will be walking further). We will probably flying back from Jinan.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Tips for a more environmentally friendly workplace

2008-06-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Did you know that June 5th every year is World Environment Day?

The theme for 2008 is: CO2 – Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy.

The main international celebrations of World Environment Day 2008 will be held in New Zealand. As a New Zealander I am very proud that my old home city of Wellington will be hosting this United Nations day.

Below is a range of ideas on how you and your work colleagues can improve the sustainability of day-to-day activities at work. The ideas are based on a guide put together by the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment which I have modified to better reflect the Hong Kong situation.

Enjoy sharing the ideas in the guide with your work colleagues and Lets make every day, World Environment Day!!!

Easy things to do – most are free (and may even save you money)

Involve staff, family and your community when looking for ways to improve your environmental sustainability.
Turn off all lights and electrical equipment (at the wall is best) when not in use. Unplug any chargers since they are still draining power. Look in the boardroom and kitchen for equipment to turn off.
Print things only when absolutely necessary, use the double-sided or booklet printing option and recycle all paper.
Use stationery and office paper with at least 50 percent recycled content and FSC accreditation.
Eliminate, minimise or recycle packaging when making purchasing decisions – check if the product can be recycled.
Look for accepted environmental accreditation such as ISO 14000 or HK Green Label Scheme.
Remove individual staff rubbish bins, or promote waste reduction and recycling by providing only a paper box and a small bin.
Reduce/increase air conditioning temperatures in winter/summer. Moving your thermostat up 2°C in summer or down 2°C in winter can save hundred of kilograms of CO2 emissions.
Reduce your use of plastic bags instead use cloth bags or reuse plastic bags.

Moderate things to do – minor cost / effort

Change light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) – they last much longer and use 20-30 percent less energy. Where possible use LED lights.
Recycle as much waste as practicable.
Don’t provide disposable crockery or cutlery, and discourage the use of takeaway containers.
Print business cards on recycled paper and do not laminate.
Encourage public transport for journeys to and from work and during work hours.
When purchasing appliances, consider their water and energy efficiency ratings. Select the design that does not need power (a good example is water dispensers that are gravity fed though why not consider using filtered tap water).
Use 100 percent recycled and chlorine-free paper, non-toxic printing inks, and recyclable toner cartridges for printing and publishing.
Provide eco-friendly cleaning products, hand soaps and toilet paper.
Provide Fair Trade or organic tea and coffee products.
Conserve water by installing water-saving urinals and dual-flush toilets.
Have real plants instead of plastic plants. Real ones give of great fumes – oxygen.

Significant actions – a bit more cost or effort

Consider whether you really need to fly to that face-to-face meeting. Take land or sea based transport instead or better still have a teleconference.
Provide organic food when catering for functions.
Install lighting occupancy sensors that automatically turn lights on or off, depending on occupancy. These sensors work well in areas such as conference rooms, break rooms or individual offices that are not occupied continuously.
Make company uniforms from eco-friendly textiles.
Provide printers with ‘follow-me’ capability to minimise wasted office printing.
Write environmental criteria into tendering documents, contracts, policies and procurement guidelines – include sustainability of products over their lifetime and end-of-life disposal clauses.
Recognise, reward and publicise good performance and innovation in sustainable practice.
In new and refitted building projects, give preference to sustainable building materials, practices and design.
Select replacement furniture that is made from eco-friendly materials.
Measure, track and report on progress – what gets measured gets managed.

I am sure a couple of these tips made you stop and think about what you can change in your workplace. Why not now go and see how you can implement one of those tips in your workplace.

If you would like assistance in :

developing a plan for making your workplace more environmentally friendly
greening your corporate events

then contact Ecovision Asia (http://www.ecovisionasia.com/)

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog07 - Hong Kong Cultural Experiences

2008-05-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

The hills around Mui Wo are dotted with concrete grave sites. Twice a year around the grave clearing festivals of Ching Ming at the beginning of April and Chung Yueng in early September, the Chinese people visit the grave sites of their ancestors. They burn incense and offerings of paper models of things that the dead relatives liked having around them…all sorts of things including paper computers, microwaves, mobile phones, hell bank notes etc. Invariably these burnings sometimes get out of hand. The hills around are scarred from many fires. There were two particularly bad fires in Mui Wo this year. One started on the lower slope of Lin Fa Shan mountain early one afternoon. The one helicopter they employed to dump water on the fire was totally ineffective and this fire burned up to and over the top of this 750m mountain, eventually burning itself out a couple of days later. The second fire was a little closer to home. I joined other locals and the fire brigade with fire beaters to put this one out. The result of this fire is a rather scarred hill top just on the edge of our valley. We have been involved with tree planting on these former fire sites both locally on the hills above our home with the school children who come to Ark Eden programmes and in Discovery Bay with the DB Green Group.

We are members of the Royal Geographical Society of Hong Kong. As well as this enabling us to go to some superb lectures our membership has given us the opportunity to attend RGS day trips. The last one we went on proved a little more ‘exciting’ than we anticipated. It was meant to be a walk up the Tai Mo Shan, the highest mountain in Hong Kong to study the geological formations of the mountain. It turned into a wild walk on Hong Kong’s highest mountain during a T3, with winds gusting at 100k+ and driving rain. Typhoon Naguri was closer than the RGS organisers realised!

We do like to take the opportunity to house sit for friends generally as animal sitters. The week after we came back from NZ we stayed at Kate and Gary’s to look after Rosie the dog and also Theo the teenager. We were doing quite well caring for both of them until one day we went out for the evening locking the door as we left. Unbeknown to us Theo, who had taken Rosie for a walk had gone out without his key or his phone. We got home a couple of hours later to find a sorry looking pair waiting for us on the doorstep. Talk about feel bad – although probably not as bad as Theo felt! He was very civil about it though…even cooking our dinner as he had originally planned to do while we were out.

We also stay in Soho, the restaurant district of Central, looking after Mister Goodcat a possum look a like friend. His owner Nissa, is a model who travels quite a bit so she is often looking for people to look after her very affectionate apartment moggie. He was very pleased to see us when we arrived the second stay and promptly settled down inside my briefcase. He spent most of the day smooching next to us, which later became a problem because he decided that it was appropriate after a day of sleeping to play all night. Mister Goodcat became Mister Badcat….but he is so cute that one cannot stay cross with him for long!

We seem to have had many opportunities for cultural outings over the past couple of months. Through our association with the Kiwi Society we were invited to help out at a NZ Art Exhibition as care takers of the work during the day. Being volunteers enabled us to attend a talk about the works by the artists as well as the exhibition opening.

We also had invitations to see Te Vaka, a great Polynesian dance group. On another evening Louise went to a reception for Raewyn Hill, a NZ resident choreographer who choreographed a dance based on photos of rugby players taken at the 2007 Rugby 7’s. As well as performing, dancers had their photos taken in the same athletic poses of the rugby players and these photos were placed side by side with the rugby photos. It was very clever! On the same evening I went to a reception with the NZ Rugby 10’s team.

We had not planned to go to the Hong Kong Rugby 7’s this year but by chance on the day itself we managed to score a couple of tickets to the Friday night session. It was great to have had the chance to experience the Hong Kong 7’s and to watch the Kiwi’s playing who of course eventually went on to be the winners of the tournament.

Witi Ihimaera was also in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Literary Festival and according to Louise gave the most wonderful talk and readings at a function at the New Zealand Consular Generals home on The Peak.

We had a day trip to Macau where we experienced the fake opulence of The Venetian Casino (for about an hour as we wandered through NOT stopping in the smoky gambling halls filled with Chinese mainlanders). We then taxied to the small village of Coloane to lunch at a local Chinese/Portuguese café and experience the more traditional side of Macau.

Well by the length of this update I can see that I really need to write them more often! There are many other experiences that I would like to share but I will save these for the next instalment.

We would love to welcome visitors to our Valley to experience a little of ‘our’ Hong Kong, so family and friends, don’t be shy! In any case we also look forward to hearing all about what YOU are doing wherever in the world you are.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

Thanks Mothers

2008-05-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to all the Mothers! I am sure you had a great day!

A special thank you to my mother!

Parts of the world celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday 11 May. I say parts of the world for a couple of reasons.

Mother's Day is not the same day all around the world. Different cultures or countries have chosen to celebrate on different days. Some people also realise that celebrating mothers on only one day is no where near as powerful as celebrating them every day.

Now, have you taken time to celebrate ALL Mother's?

When was the last time that you paused and acknowledged:
- Mother Earth?
- Mother Birds?
- Mother Dogs and Mother Cats?
- Mother Whales, Mother Cows and Mother Lions?
- Mother ... the list goes on ...

So lets pause and acknowledge ALL Mothers whenever we can on any day.

Grow well Mothers!
Dr Merrin

EcoLog06 - From Winter we Spring

2008-05-01T18:50:00.001-07:00

My last update on a ‘green’ life in Hong Kong was written in early February just when it was starting to get a little cool in Hong Kong. Actually it was bloody cold! Little did we know that most of February was to herald the coldest and longest winter in Hong Kong for about 20 years!! As you can imagine our little house at the top of the valley is not built for the cold (or the hot weather for that matter). We spent most of February huddled over a heater, wearing ski jackets and practically all the warm clothes that we’d brought to Hong Kong (which we never thought we would need). We were actually very lucky to have a heater as the cold snap caught many by surprise and all of the shops in HK had sold out of all the heaters that they had ordered for the whole season in a matter of days.

On some days the top temperature was 10°C …and that was inside our house. We needed to stop the gales blowing in through the cracks in the windows so you guessed it we had to rely on a little Kiwi ingenuity. .This amounted to buying a roll of bubble wrap and covering all of the windows and/or stuffing the gaps with newspaper to increase the warmth factor. I’m sure this approach did make some difference but it really was hard to tell some days.

Needless to say during this cold snap we still did not have a hot water system installed for a shower. As you can imagine this resulted in a few tears of frustration and stamping of feet from Louise, who was beginning to wonder why the hell we had left our lovely home on the hill in Wellington with all its mod cons. Thankfully I can now report that we do indeed have a hot shower in our little abode. With the help of a friend who spoke Cantonese we managed to enlist the services of a local electrician/plumber. Up the valley he cycled initially to install the electrical wiring. A few Cantonese phone calls to and fro and we established that he could also install the plumbing. So Sunday 2 March became a very auspicious day indeed! Voila….we now had a shower… There was one heart stopping moment a few weeks after installation when the water pressure (such that it is) dwindled to nothing. More tears from Louise! Being a good keen Kiwi man I managed to find the source of the problem (this being an air bubble in the pipe from the water supply) and soon all was good again. So for all of you, our friends and family who have been waiting for this modern convenience before you came to stay, I can now report that there is no excuse anymore. Oh course the 30 minute walk up the valley may still faze some of you but just think of the exercise value.

Now that there is a shower in the bathroom, Louise was of course on a mission to ‘decorate’ said bathroom. Actually ‘decorate’ seems a little far fetched. What she was actually trying to do was ‘create’ a bathroom. Off she went on many a reconnaissance mission to source the relevant accessories. The result is not the most stylish bathroom in the world but pretty good under the circumstances. She managed to source a shower caddy, trolley, wooden hooks, shelf, toilet roll holder and a mirror and two rather cool bamboo floor mats, which prevent one from getting ones wet feet as you walk ‘through’ the shower to get to the toilet. The mats were found in the Causeway Bay big GOD store…yes ‘Goods of Desire’ a great place to go if you want to add a touch of flair to…well any room in the house actually!

Actually the addition of a shower caddy suspended off the wall was a bonus in other ways! Prior to installation we had been having some problems with a visiting soap eating rodent. We thought that we had sufficiently covered all of the holes in the wet area (kitchen/bathroom) but a sneaky rodent was coming in and gnawing away at my soap! Not to mention rifle-ling through the rubbish bucket looking for other tasty morsels. Eventually a stop was put to his visitations by covering all small entry spots to the kitchen/bathroom outhouse with metal gauze.

As the cold winter period drew to a close I really started to notice nature changing in the valley. The pomelos in our garden finished soon after our return from NZ. They were replaced by some lovely large grapefruit on the tree growing next to the steps up to the house. The flesh of these is quite orange in colour but they are definitely on the sour side of the spectrum. Lovely to be able to pluck fresh citrus fruit for breakfast for several months of the year though! We had planted tomatoes and basil interspersed with marigolds as companion plants, prior to our NZ holiday. The cold slowed down the tomato crop but once it warmed up again we were able to continue to pick tomatoes right up till now. Have just pulled the last plants out and have replanted more tomatoes and basil, plus aubergines, parsley, lettuce chives etc. Just call us Tom and Barbara Good - aka Merrin and Lou living ‘The Good Life’ Hong Kong style. Actually I do love to head off into the wilderness that is our garden armed with a slasher and hoe, clearing paths and creating viewing platforms.

The valley is a wondrous place to be at times. To be woken up in the morning by the dawn chorus is quite special. There are also the ‘night birds’ who seem to spend all night calling to their mate and the owls hooting to theirs in their roosts near the house. As the temperatures got warmer I also noticed the return of the insects with different varieties taking it in turns to make their presence felt. When all the fruit trees in the garden were flowering a few weeks ago, the drone of bees was the most prevalent sound during the day. Now it is the drone or should I say high pitched screech of the cicadas. Wasps, hornets and beetles are also flying about but fortunately these do tend to mind their own business. The large and small snails and slugs are also about now and the other day there was a rather large worm trying to share my shower. I did however manage to encourage it out through the drainage hole in the floor. The butterflies are also many and varied around our home. They come in all shapes and sizes from really big brightly coloured ones to small white cabbage and common yellow butterflies. We also had an influx of brightly coloured tiger moths….actually hundreds of these flying around and settling in the trees around our home.

Last week we saw our first snakes of the season near the house. First we saw a Red Necked Keelback slithering up the bank near our vege garden. Later that same day another Red Necked Keelback (it may have been the same one) decided to curl up in the little drain hole of our patio next to where Louise was washing the dishes (outside in the basin filled with water boiled from the kettle – as you do). She noticed it when she went to place a bucket practically on top of it. Now this one was a little too close for comfort! Mind you, when it realised that this large thing next to it was trying to squash it with a bucket off it went down the wall. Lou then walked to what she thought was a better viewing spot only to disturb another snake also less than a metre from where she now stood! Talk about palpitations! Not sure what variety this one was but we did manage to take a photograph of it to try and identify it in the snake book.

A few days later when I was leaving to go to an early morning meeting. He opened the front door to find another snake similar to the brown one curled up on our doorstep! Needles to say out came the camera again (for identification purposes). As I was in a rush to catch a ferry into Central I left Louise to usher it off the threshold. This she managed to do by giving it a gentle poke with a ‘long’ stick of bamboo. We haven’t seen any more snakes quite as close to the house lately, just a few down the valley as we are walking home! Not so keen on the fact that the snakes come quite so close to the house but really there is not a lot that we can do about it. One just has to keep a wary eye out and ‘believe’ that they are more fearful of us than we are of them!

Of course, the most unwelcome critter at the moment (and one which definitely makes their presence felt) are mosquitos. We currently have daily competitions to see who can kill the most. It really is unwise to leave the door open on the damper days…especially in the early evening. One of our most useful Christmas presents was a mossie net for the bed. When we first started using it we did have a problem with rogue mossies sneaking in through the gap. Once inside they would have a feast! These little blighters even know how to bite you through the sheet! After a few nights of having to turn the lights on in the middle of the night to act as the great white mosquito catcher Louise fixed the problem by sewing up the gap!

We haven’t got any resident animals of the domestic variety (apart from our resident geckos). Stumpy the gecko (tailless due to some trauma) was one of our favourites for a while, but he eventually went to the big gecko place in the sky. Over the last couple of days the flying ants (these winged ants come in waves at certain times of the year) have been making a nuisance of themselves by coming into the house through every crack and cranny (of which there are many). The only good thing about this event was that we could watch gecko TV…i.e. watch the geckos scurry up the walls catching and munching on the winged ants. The bad thing about these nuisance insects (those not caught and munched by geckos) is that they drop their wings overnight and then you end up with a colony of ants inside!

If we feel the need to get close and personal to domestic animals we can go to Jenny’s and say hello to Charlie the pig, Cherry the cat, the 2 turtles and 5 dogs that make up her menagerie. We sometimes volunteer to take the five girls for a walk (Jenny’s dogs – Radar, a collie bitser, afghans Yuki and Carmen, Pepper a small fluffy something?? and ‘Belle the Beautiful’ - a pug who is the smallest dog but makes her presence felt the most). Belle is the self acclaimed star of the family!

We also always stop and talk to the self styled guardians of the Valley. These are the seven cats that reside around the ‘pink gates’ at the entrance to the valley (which is also where our letter box is - about 10 minutes walk from the house). They are wild cats but all have been caught by the cat’s protection society, taken away to be de-sexed and brought back to their ‘home’. They do not belong to anyone in particular but are fed by many people. All are a tad timid except for Mama and Boy (the names we have given them). My guess is that Mama is actually Boy’s mother (they are very similar in colouring and natures). She is the most gorgeous moggie who always stops for a chat and a roll. She sees us coming and runs up the path and jumps on the 1.5m high concrete pad for her chat and pat. Boy has also become more confident and he too is often hanging out with his mum lolling in the sun and waiting for our attention as we cycle by.

On that note of cycling – bye

Grow Well
Dr Merrin

Earth Day - Yes it is another one today!

2008-04-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day to you!

Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970. Find out more about Earth Day and the Earth Day Network at http://www.earthday.net/

Now this one day may be called Earth Day however I make every day an Earth Day – why not join me?

If every day we chose to take on one new way of supporting a sustainable Earth then by the end of the year that is an amazing difference you have made. I have focused on changing one thing I do a week, so that is 52 things by the end of the year. That is a very good outcome for us all.

Choices are simple and I would encourage you to take on at least one new item in your daily life today and then to tell others about what you are doing.

· Business cards – printed on paper not plastic, non-laminated using recycled paper with vegetable based inks. Well… that is 4 things all just in your choice of business card printing.
· Electronic Invoices – Send invoices out electronically, pay online and store the receipts electronically.
· Lights – turn on only those that you need, replace bulbs with more energy efficient ones.
· Appliances – Turn them off when not using them. Not just on standby – flick the switch.
· Air-conditioning – In summer set the temperature a degree or two higher (you can cope being warm – just take off another piece of clothing). Better still turn off the unit and put on a fan. Even better open the window and let the breeze blow through.
· Painting – If you are repainting your apartment then choose an eco paint. We used a clay based paint and it went on easily and did not smell at all.
· Cleaning – For your clothes, the dishes and the bathroom look for the eco options. They work just as well, are less harmful for you or your helper to use and they do not pollute the water with chemicals.
· Transport – Reduce the use of your own car. Take a bus or train when you can rather than a taxi. You can even try walking those shorter distances. It keeps you fit and you may meet a friend along the path.
· 3 R’s - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. There are thousands of things you can do here. Separate out the recyclables from your rubbish and take them to the recycling station.
· Purchases - Choose to buy items with less packaging. Your oranges and banana’s do not need to be wrapped they come in a perfectly natural wrapper!
· Food – Eat less meat and become more vegetarian. I love a good steak though have stopped eating meat everyday. If you just choose to have one meal a day that contains meat rather than 3 meals containing meat then you have made a significant difference to how many methane generating animals have to be grown.
· Air travel – only travel by plane when you have to. Have a teleconference instead. Offset your travel with a carbon programme (http://www.plant-a-tree-today.org/)
· Take time to look at the natural beauty around you. Yes take time to talk to the animals and smell the flowers. It is Earth Day so say hi to you fellow planet mates!!!

Make every day an Earth Day

Grow Well
Dr Merrin

The Walking Tree Man in Hong Kong

2008-04-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Well you know how much I love trees

(oh you do not - then you have a read of a couple of the other posts here)

Today I have had the pleasure of seeing a tree that walks!

Then being hugged by a tree (see the photo of me with Cliff in costume)

Yes Cliff Spenger is The Walking Tree Man and he has walked for the first time in China. It happened as part of the Earth Day celebrations going on at Cyberport in Hong Kong. What a buzz for me to be able to arrange for Cliff to be part of it. He was in the opening ceremony with top Hong Kong models.

If you want to see what Cliff really is about then check out his website http://www.walkingtreeman.com/video.htm

Cliff is on his way to join another great friend of mine, Paul Coleman - The Earth Walker (http://www.earthwalker.com/), in China. Paul has walked more than 45,000 around the planet and helped inspire the planting of millions of trees.

Together they are going to make an interesting combination in China.

It is such a pleasure to be able to spread the environmental message with guys like Cliff and Paul.

If you know of some one else that would love to share their environmental message in Hong Kong then please connect them with me.

Grow well

Dr Merrin

The Power of an email signature - What is yours?

2008-03-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

You know the Power of Words … so

Have you ever looked at how you sign your emails or letters?

I am not talking about offers, promotions, give-aways, etc I am looking at the intention you put into the simple part of signing off with your name.

(The offers, promotions and call to action are very important too and there are many sites talking about the marketing space in your email signature thought that is not the focus of this article)

For many years I signed my emails like probably many people with
“Regards Merrin”.

That sounded a little regular for me. So I changed my signature to
“Cheers Merrin”
back in 2001.

It made me feel a lot more happy about sending the email to the person. You know I do like a good beer so with each email sent I knew I was closer to another celebration.

In 2006 I got an email from a friend and he signed it
“Go well, Alan Stewart”.

I thought that is really cool. It both says to the recipient and to Alan to Go Well.

As you have noticed I love nature and personal development. My wealth dynamics profile is a STAR. When I learned that Stars like to stand out from the crowd I realised why I liked my email signature to be different. (Learn more about Wealth Dynamics Profiling and the STAR profile)

So in 2006 I started signing my emails as
“Grow well, Dr Merrin”.

It has been amazing to watch the change.

One is the personal power it gives you every time you sign your email. I am reminding myself to develop personally and also to appreciate and promote the health of the world’s natural environment. All that in my Signature.

Oh, by the way I put the Dr part in there to remind me of where I have come from in terms of my formal training as a land surveyor and geodesist.

The second area that I did not expect is the way it engages the email recipients to ask you questions. I have had why “grow well”?, what are you a Dr of?, can I use your signature too?, and love the signature!

So how about taking a little time to think about how you sign your emails and you too could be surprised by the difference it makes.

As the saying goes "Your wealth is in your words".

Grow well
Dr Merrin

The Joy of Spring

2008-03-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Take time to go and look closely at the plants in your garden or your nearest park.

Look closely at those plants that look just like dead branches. I mean get up really close to them and look for signs of green buds on the ends of the branches.

What you will find is the amazing transition from a twig to a leaf or a flower.

Walking the valleys and hills around Mui Wo we were amazed by the variety of the blossom and flowers that are emerging at the moment.

Spring reminds me that you can not judge a plant by its looks at one time of the year and expect to know all its glory. That twig can later provide you with wonderful fruits!

How clean is the water?

2008-02-27T19:17:00.001-08:00

Sitting next to the Silver River, in Mui Wo on Lantau Island, I saw some people walk down to the waters edge and take a mouthful of water. This is at the rivers mouth with Silver Mine Bay.

This is in an area where people do go swimming and shellfish is collected.

What is interesting is that these people must have perceived that the water was clean enough looking to taste.

I wonder where else in Hong Kong they would be brave enough to drink the sea or river water?

The last 10 years records show that Silver Mine Beach has a fair water quality (http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/water/beach_quality/bwq_current_i_sil.html).

You might like to look at the EPD website before heading to your favourite Hong Kong beach for a swim!(http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/water/beach_quality/bwq_home.html)

Swim well