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yaycheese · 5 years ago

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China & Myanmar 2019

Nov 12 - Tianjin - Breakfast in Ritz - Walked around Dagu road - Century Park - Porcelain House - Nitro matcha at Starbucks Reserve Heping - Walked down Heping road took picture with Babiboy sign - Muji at mall - Nanshi food Street - Guobao lunch snack at Xibei 西贝 - Mall with Coca-Cola store and bought Keith Harding hat - Guwenhuajie (bought spicy sauces) - Dinner with family Nov 13 - Tianjin - Breakfast at Ritz - Saw technicolor Tesla - Butterscotch and truffle lattes at Starbucks Reserve Heping - Shopping at Cos (bought a sweater) - Supermarket in basement of mall - Took a photo with the I❤️TJ cat - Guwenhuajie (got free tea at the metal work and jewelry store) - Walked along river - Sichuan dinner with cousins (Er Jie / Shao Chung / shauishaui, Da Jie / Qi Tao / bei bei) - Met Simon at the hotel lobby Nov 14 - Beijing - Breakfast at Ritz - High speed train to Beijing - Dropped bags at 161 Lenai - Walked down Nanluoguxiang: bought ceramics, stabbed a yoghurt, saw ptfo babies and “eat chicken tonight” waffles - Lunch at Kanpai Sanlitun - Taxi to airport, saw a lady doing donuts - Met Tun on airplane - Taxi from RGN to Pan Pacific Hotel at midnight Nov 15 - Yangon - Did laundry at wash n dry (very nice people, left a google review) - Tried Lucky Sevens teahouse (closed for renovations) - Lunch at Thai 47: fried chicken salad, pad thai, >, thai coffee - Picked up laundry and it was neatly folded! - Walked around Secretariat: saw art exhibition and the Facebook pop up - Took pictures at St Mary’s Cathedral - Attempted to enter Pegu club: denied - Walked through Bogyoke market: bought sheer shirt and four faced Buddha heads - Lounged, drank watermelon juice and napped during sunset at the Pan Pacific infinity pool - Dinner at Shan Kitchen (wasn’t great) - Pegu Club cocktail at Blind Tiger Nov 16 - Yangon - Breakfast at Rangoon Teahouse: chai, milk tea, milk tea with skin (custard), paratha, curry noodles, samosas (some of the best!). Purchased enamel bowls and tote bags - Went shopping at HLA, bought pants and 2 shirts - Walked to Bagan Book House and saw the Pandosa Burmese Brasserie on the way - Sule Pagoda and Independence Square - Refreshments and AC at the Strand Cafe - Chinatown: walked through the markets, saw the banana vendors, bought a Java apple - Rested at the Pan Pacific - Went to City Market and bought fruits, yoghurts and chips - Went to Shwedagon Pagoda for golden hour and sunset: saw the 4 Buddhas, bathed our birthday Buddha’s (Mouse for Thursday, Naga for Saturday), saw the sacred bodhi tree - Taxi into town (our driver knew sheise and gracias amigo — said the military government was bullshit and their environment is being destroyed) - dinner at 999 Shan Noodle House (arrived 2min before closing): dry fat fried noodles, garlicky chayote leaves, spicy basil ‘curry’, Hawthorne berry juice, passion fruit juice - Walked back to Pan Pacific Hotel to pack Nov 17 - Inle - Yoghurt and juice breakfast in taxi - 8a flight to Heho - Drive to Tuanggyi to pick up our local Pa’O guide, July-Thun - Walk through Kakku with July-Thun - Lunch at Hlaing Konn Pa’O National Restaurant (tried the local “guacamole”) - Arrival at Inle Princess Hotel (walked the grounds, found one of their Buremese cats) - Drinks and dinner at the hotel restaurant - Sauna and massages at hotel spa Nov 18 – Inle - 630a breakfast at the hotel - 715a boat tour departure - Market near Phaung Daw Do pagoda (bought bell 40k kyat and a metal spatula 3k kyat) - Silver workshop, saw Acacia nuts being used to polish silver and touchstone - Paper and umbrella-working workshop with long-necked women from Karen - Coconut water from Mr. Soe’s coconut boat (2k kyat) - Indein Temples (long hall with many vendors, saw puppies, took panoramas) - Road bikes to Bamboo Hut restaurant (had ginger salad, pork curry, fried noodles, lime juice, watermelon juice = 12k kyat) - Purchased teak hands, closed out with hotel) - 5:40pm flight from Heho to Nyaung U - Sorted Bagan itinerary with hotel concierge - Puppet show over dinner at Bagan Thande Hotel Nov 19 – Bagan - Sunrise and watching balloons at Nyaung Lat Phet Viewing Mound (with brief visit to Tha Beik Hmauk Gu Hpaya) - Breakfast at hotel - Tuktuk temple tour begins! - Shwezigon Pagonda (washed Buddhas, peered into reflection well, took photos through sunglass reflections, rang bells/gongs) - Htilominlo Temple (purchased bowl hand holder, bells, ogre puppet/ornament) - Shwegu Gyi Phaya (saw good views of Thatbyinnyu Phaya, got thannaka face paint, purchased sand paintings and lacquerware cups) - Gubyaukgyi Temple (saw old frescos on temple interior, washed buddhas, pet a small cat) - Lacquerware workshop - Lunch (had chicken curry, nasturtium/pennywort salad, lemongrass juice, coffee) - Rested at hotel - Ananda Temple (4 large golden Buddhas) - Thatbinnyu Phaya - Brief pit stop at Dhammayan Gyi Temple (saw field of cows on the way) - Sunset at Dhammayazaka Pagoda - Dinner at The Moon Vegetarian #2 (New Bagan) – watched ginger salad being made in kitchen, tasted tamarind candy Nov 20 - Mandalay - Started sunrise at Shwesandaw Pagoda, watched sunrise at 3 small temples ~300m directly south - Breakfast at hotel - 3.5hr drive to Mandalay - Lunch at Shan Ma Ma - Picked up coffee beans at Goffy Coffee (oddly the entire staff was Chinese) - Tuktuk to Shwenandaw Teak Monastery (took a photo with a monk drinking Coca-Cola) - Kuthodaw Pagoda (world’s largest “book”) - Mandalay Hill + Su Taung Pyi Pagoda (washed buddhas, drank holy water, watched sunset) - Tuktuk to Shwe Pyi Win Restaurant to try Spirulina Beer - Walked across street and purchased milky popsicle for 100 kyat ($0.066 !!!) - Burbit Beer at Tropical Bar (not very good) - Joy BBQ for dinner Nov 21 – Mandalay - Breakfast at hotel - Drive to Min Kun (saw a wedding and parade of decorated oxen for a monk ceremony) - Mya Thein Tan Pagoda (top room smelled deeply of fresh lilies, kid took our photos) - Min Kun Bell (at on time the largest in the world) - Min Kun Lions of Stone - Mingun Pahtodawgyi - Casting workshop + marble workshops (from the van) - Quick stop at Zay Cho Market (not much other than a ton of raw textiles) - Snack at Shwe Pyi Moe Café (Dosa, Samosas, Burmese banh beo, Chai with malai ‘milk skin’, strong tea) – all for ~3900 kyat - Shopping in Ocean Supercenter for local goodies - Quick stop at Nova Café (coffee was soso, not local but also a poor attempt at ‘Western style’) - Lunch at Mangalabar (salad, spicy and sour chicken curry) - One last souvenier run back at Shwenandaw Monastery! (bell, door knockers, puppets/ornaments, jade necklace) - Drive to MDL, layover in RGN, redeye to PEK Nov 22- Beijing - 5:55am arrival in PEK - 2 hour nap at 161 LeNai - Spa + Cat Café - Jianbings + watching the talking Hill Myna say Chi Bao Zi, Piao Liang, Gong Xi Fa Cai - 798 Art District // Voyage Coffee - Great Leap Brewing (got 2 flights, and on the way got a FAT persimmon and some Beijing LaoNai) - Pit stop at hotel - Dinner at Zhang Mama Jiaodaokou with Henry and Sophie (ordered the entire menu including delicious peanut milk drink) - Rice wine tasting at Nuoyan Rice wine - Bought Er Guo Tou on the walk back Nov 23 - Beijing 0.5 - Breakfast at Wiggly Jiggly’s Café - Walked to and around Guozijian - Browsed designer furniture at FNJI - Oolong tea at 月溪香林 - Walked around Wudaoying Hutong - Lunch at Xian Lao Man 馅老满 (pork and cabbage dumplings, cabbage salad, gong bao ji ding) - Wangfujing COS + supermarket - Hotel to grab bags - Didi to PEK

#cities

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whittlebaggett8 · 6 years ago

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Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam Dilemma | The Diplomat

China’s expanding pressure above the suspended Myitsone dam in ethnic Kachin state has highlighted Myanmar’s predicament in deciding upon between environmental security and safeguarding the wonderful Irrawaddy River, and its political and economic dependence on Beijing.

The $3.6 billion dam, ranked as a single of the greatest hydropower initiatives in the area, was suspended by previous President Thein Sein in 2011, producing shock and consternation to Beijing’s Point out Electric power Investment Company (SPIC), the key investor in the controversial dam.

It is a somewhat exceptional event for a significant Chinese abroad dam task to be blocked by a well known protest. The world’s amount one dam builder, China, by one count, has a portfolio of 334 hydropower projects in 74 countries, and only a couple of have been suspended or cancelled as a end result of community opposition. In Myanmar, the protests united all ethnic groups residing together the river and nationwide.

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Pitted in opposition to the wounded ego of Beijing and the anger of Chinese hydropower buyers are incredibly large stakes on Myanmar’s facet of the fence: nationwide satisfaction, self-dedication, and the protection of its richly varied ecosystem.

This dam, if at any time built, would inundate the ancestral birthplace of the ethnic Kachin men and women. Khon Ja, the coordinator of the Kachin Peace Community, instructed The Diplomat that “the dam would erode the lifeblood of the nation that sustains agriculture, fisheries, and livelihoods for tens of millions.”

Anti-dam leaders, the two Kachin and Burmese, ponder what would remain of Myanmar’s claim to independence and sovereignty around its all-natural assets if the stream and fate of their most crucial river ended up to be consigned into the domineering palms of the rising dragon perched along on the nation’s northeast frontier. The implications, according to the archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Maung Bo, would be so disastrous that “it would be a dying sentence for the men and women of Myanmar.”

Most Chinese teachers see matters in a pretty distinctive context. Admirer Hongwei, an expert on Myanmar at Xiamen University, informed the World Periods, “The abrupt suspension of these types of a sizeable venture has blurred political have confidence in involving China and Myanmar.”

“Whether the concern could be tackled correctly considerations the Myanmar government’s reliability and its capacity to provide a sound ecosystem for foreign traders amid challenges” said Lover, without having addressing the flood of criticism and considerations that brought on the dam’s suspension.

Not so lengthy back, most observers in Myanmar had concluded that a person of the world’s most hated dam initiatives experienced minor or no chance of ever having the inexperienced gentle, in spite of China’s far-achieving affect as a important trader and buying and selling spouse, not to point out taking part in an significantly assertive job in the country’s peace talks with armed ethnic groups.

Without or without the need of this dam, China is positive to continue to be the most significant foreign investor in Myanmar, with more than $15 billion of immediate investment decision in 126 small business projects in 2018.

China has also reaped diplomatic gains by starting to be Myanmar’s most trusted ally inside of the UN Security Council, as a outcome of disaffection from Western governments over human legal rights issues and the Rohingya challenge.

Nevertheless, numerous observers had thought that the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) commissioned by the Myanmar governing administration to examine hydropower impacts on Myanmar’s rivers would be the clinching issue in persuading the Nationwide League for Democracy (NLD) govt to eventually terminate the dam.

The launch of the SEA report in 2018, with its remaining draft introduced by the Intercontinental Finance Corporation, a money arm of the Earth Bank, strongly suggests from creating the Myitsone Dam and all other hydropower projects on the mainstream of Myanmar’s five major rivers.

This scientific overview carried out by independent experts warned that “if produced, Myitsone dam would split river connectivity, entice sediment, and change the river flow on a large scale. The plan for five massive dams on the key stems of Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) and Thanlwin (Salween) rivers would entirely alter the river system’s hydrologic, sediment transportation, and geomorphic functioning.”

The investigate was performed by ICEM, an Australian environmental evaluation group, and approved by the government’s Ministry of Purely natural Sources and Environmental Conservation as nicely as the Ministry of Energy and Power (MOEE).

But Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD leader and condition counsellor, continue to did not crack her extensive silence. She has also refused to make community the report of the 20-member commission, led by Speaker of the Parliament U T Khun Myat, on the all dam projects on the Irrawaddy River, which submitted its final report to the President’s Place of work in November past 12 months.

Significantly considerably less conspicuous than China’s leverage more than Myanmar in other sectors is its developing influence of its hydropower advisers inside the MOEE.

U Win Khaing, the energy minister, outlined previous 12 months that the ministry was quietly performing on a new hydropower coverage and making ready a white paper, but gave no aspects. The ministry has very long had shut back links with China’s National Energy Administration and the China Renewable Electricity Engineering Institute — a consider tank under the NEA, now operating with closely with the MOEEon the white paper.

It can barely be a coincidence that the same ministry that experienced the moment authorized the SEA environmental report and accepted the summary “that no dams should really be constructed on the five important rivers of Myanmar” has given that mysteriously removed its symbol of endorsement from the entrance web page of the last SEA publication.

It is reported that Chinese hydropower is fervently opposed to the SEA’s conclusions. The Chinese advisory group’s contribution to the MOEE white paper will virtually surely dilute or delete key SEA tips that would stand in the way of their billion-greenback expense options for damming not only the Irrawaddy and but also the Salween River.

Joerg Kristensen, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Integrated Progress, commented that the new white paper will have to be working to undermine the SEA, “otherwise they could go with the SEA, which is a very reliable paper, and not from hydropower.”

Numerous panic that if China last but not least provides up on the Myitsone, it will harness the long term MOEE white paper on hydropower to press all the more durable on dams on other mainstream rivers, primarily the similarly controversial Mong Ton dam on the Salween, the last undammed river among the big waterways in Asia.

The Chinese ambassador fulfills with ethnic Kachin leaders in December 2018. Impression from Fb.

A different attempt at lobbying to restart the Myitsone was carried out by Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang in his go to very last December to Myitkyina, the Kachin state money.

The ambassador ‘s mission to tension ethnic Kachin leaders to occur about to the Chinese way of imagining about supporting the Myitsone dam was fulfilled with a business rejection. But a absolutely opposite spin appeared on the Chinese embassy web page a couple of days later, which claimed that “Kachin political leaders and social organisations experienced a ‘positive attitude’ in direction of the 6000-megawatt Myitsone Dam. Community folks of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower job.”

Powerful denials have been issued by many Kachin leaders who experienced achieved with the ambassador, like Reverend Hkalam Samson, chair of the Kachin Baptist Conference.

Khon Ja, coordinator of the Kachin Peace Community, informed The Diplomat that this was a campaign to sow discord and confusion. “The Chinese Embassy has described the opposite of what was claimed by all those leaders who have publicly opposed the challenge,” she reported. “This is perilous. I consider it is worse than a divide-and-rule tactic.”

There is minimal question that if a referendum have been to be held, the dam would be overwhelmingly rejected. Two industry experts on Myanmar, Julian Kirchherr and Mathew Walton, co-authored an op-ed on the Myitsone dam in which they concluded, “We simply cannot imagine of a single infrastructure venture globally which faces a additional sweeping opposition.” They cited a Yangon School of Political Science (YSPS) poll that an estimated 85 p.c of people today in Myanmar opposed the Myitsone dam in 2017.

In spite of the big excess weight of public viewpoint towards the dam, cancellation and a high-priced compensation offer of many hundred million pounds is not the most possible outcome.

U Thaung Tun, minister of expense and foreign financial relations, who has conceded the deep unpopularity of the job, not too long ago told an financial commitment conference that “Negotiations are underway to alter the dimension, scale, or area of the Myitsone dam project in Kachin condition.”

Nonetheless, resources within the NLD confess that if they concede much too much ground to China, then the Myitsone dam dilemma could inflict severe injury on their credibility with voters and any opportunity of a convincing victory in the 2020 election. Which is one particular extra purpose among the many for Myanmar leaders’ prolonged silence on the dam, which keeps the nation guessing.

Ironically, even with no this troublesome dam, China has a string of assignments lined up in Myanmar, place ahead in just the framework of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor agreement and all part of China’s Belt and Street Initiative.

In fact, the Myitsone dam is not this sort of a big concern for China, in the view of Myanmar analyst Tom Kramer, Yangon coordinator for the Trans-Countrywide Institute dependent in Amsterdam. Kramer advised The Diplomat that “for Chinese pursuits, Myitsone is a ‘win-win’ due to the fact it could possibly get designed, there could be compensation, there might be an alternative undertaking, or it may advance Chinese geopolitical interests.

“In conditions of China-Myanmar relations. there are so quite a few other much more urgent and central issues to inter-progress in between the two nations around the world.”

Tom Fawthrop is a freelance journalist and film-maker centered in Southeast Asia.

The post Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam Dilemma | The Diplomat appeared first on Defence Online.

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#China dams #China-Myanmar relations #Chinese investment in Myanmar #Features #Myanmar dams #Myanmar

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