China Town Tour

The first thing we saw on our walking tour was the Nine Dragon Wall. Many things on the wall are signifigant to the Chinese Culture. The fact that there are nine dragons on the wall is special because the Chinese feel that the number three is special, so three times three is extra special. The colors on the wall are also signifigant. Colors is the Chinese culture mean things. The color brown symbolizes the Earth and blue symbolizes the sky. The wall is also important in Chinese culture because there are Nine Dragon Walls at the Forbidden City as well as the Summer Palace.

My Zodiac Sign is the Hog. The Hog is studious and gallent, which I agree with. The Hog also does not retreat from goals and is well informed, witch I agree with. One thing that I feel is not completly correct is that the Hog is quiet. This is partilly correct because when you first meet me I am quiet, but when you get to know me more I get louder. Another thing that is not fully correct is that it says Hogs chooses few friends. I do not agree with this because I have many friends, but only a few close ones.

Over all I liked this trip to China Town better, because it fulfilled my expectations. Getting to China Town was the same and fine. Once we were there it wasn't long until we started the tour. The first stop was the Nine Dragon Wall. I was surpised with all the facts about it and how much thought was put into the design of the wall. I was also surprised to learn that it is the largest wall in the USA. The next thing we looked at was the enterance gate into China Town. I thought it was very pretty and ironic that it was built in Taiwan. The building that we went to next was very pretty as well. I was surprised to learn the history of the building and how it was almost lost. I was shocked to learn the China Town use to be Little Italy. I was alittle disappointed when we couldn't see the Buddhist Temple becaue I thought it would cool to see the statues our guide was talking about. Going to the Catholic Church was strange because seeing the lion statues and then seeing the Virgian Mary was just wierd. It was also strange to learn the Al Capones mom went to this church. Going to the see the China Town mural was neat. Just looking at the mural you could see the history of the Chinese American people. The last stop on the tour, the Zodiac Statures, were neat. I have never really liked being the Hog, but after researching it for this blog, I feel that it really describes me.

Dinner was really good. I had Crab Ragoon, a third of a hand Shreded Pancake which was new to me and very tasty, and Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Here and There

I read a news article in the Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribue.com/business/sns-ap-as-china-foreign-business,0,5864254.story. The article is about how the Chinese Government is adding on certain restrictions on foreign business. The restrictions are making American business people feel that the restrictions are unfair because they favor domestic businesses. In the article it stated that the Chinese officials feel that the restricitions are fair and are urging forigners to accept the changes.

When I read an article from a Chinese paper, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-04/01/content_9675081.htm, I was confused becuase I thought that the article would be less open about the things that others are saying about the restrictions, or as the article said trade policy. But then I relized that the article was mostly talking about the positives, which are that people are trying to talk about changing some of the policies to make other countries happy. Unlike how in the American newpaper they talked about the negatives, which were how the companies were unhappy and worried. What they called the changes also changes the mood of the article. The word restriction makes the mood bad and uncomfortable. The word that the Chinese use, trade policies, doesn't sound as bad. It makes the mood feel more open to discussion. The Chinese article did state that forigners were unhappy, but that they planned to talk it out.

But both articles are also stating the same thing: that both countries are at fault. The only reason China is putting up the policies is to strengthen thier domestic businesses and to manipulating the yuan. China feels that to keep in the business game they need to do this. The Americans are not innocent, becuase our governemnt has policies just like the new ones China has. One of our policies, the ARRA, keeps foriegn equiptment out of America.

I think these differences are becuase the Chinese government want things to seem like everything is working and there are no problems, but at the same time want to compete with the other world powers in the business market. While our government, with our Freedom of Speech, can't punish people for saying negative things so we heard about the unhappy businesses, and they want to remain innocent in this problem.