$$$ 6-29-12/ fri/ sunny, warm in LA
Today we leave for Taipei/ I have a week’s meeting at Academia Sinica/ then we go
to Inner Mongolia for a week long tour/ stop by Beijing/ back to Taipei/ stay for a
few days/ then back to LA after 3 weeks. I was elected an Academician at this
meeting two years ago/ One previlege of an Academician is a visit every two years
to the Academy/ They pay for all the expenses, including that of the spouse/
We lived in Tapei for a year during my 1993-1994 sabbatical year. In July it is 90F
(like LA) but with 80% humidity (unlike LA). So it is a punishment to come here in
July. My intended escape was Tibet/ but due to circumstances beyond my control,
the trip was cancelled/ we will go to Inner Mongolia instead, with a 2 day stopover
in Beijing over the weekend of July 14.
Our neighbor drove us to the metro station in the morning/ 25c to Union Station/
$7 to LAX/ 2 hrs from door to door/ it would have been 1.5 hr had we not just
missed the bus at Union/ as long as I work on CO2, I will try to take public
transportation to the airport.
$$$ 6-30-12/ sat/ Taipei/ hot and humid
I finally do a few hours of work on the math paper from Kevin last summer/
augmented by Cameron recently/ caught up with reading papers etc/ I manage to
snatch 6-7 hrs of sleep on the 13 hr flight/ poor Shau May cannot sleep at all/ the
engine makes too much noise/ which never bothers my work or my sleep/
Plane arr on time at 8 pm local time. There is a man waiting for us at the GATE of the
plane (it will become clear later how how could come to the gate). We are taken to
special immigration booth that was marked “Diplomats”/ after a glance/ they wave
us through/ way ahead of the long queues marked “Citizens” and “Non-Citizens”.
Once we are outside a limo is waiting for us and take us to the Activity Center
(which is like our Athaeneum but much bigger).
The Center has everything prepared for us/ A printed page has the dates of our
arrival and departure/ just waiting for my signature/ once inside the room/ I see a
briefcase with my name tag in Chinese/ all the documents for the week long meeting
and a stack of invitation letters/ the most important of which is the dinner with
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan/ formal attire required/ we were probably
studying at Harvard at the same time/ but he was in the law school and I never met
him/
The hottests topics to discuss are competitiveness in higher education and
sustainability. I know nothing of either subject, but am willing to get educated.
$$$ 7-1-12/ sun/ Taipei/ sunny, hot and humid
1
Congratulations to Mike and Adria on their wedding today!
All day meeting (9-4) on advising Academy on competitiveness and interdisciplinary
projects/ harder question on how to translate research into job creation for Taiwan
600 dinner with President of Academy/ 30 tables
800 musical performance by Academy staff (volunteers)
Shau May had lunch in downtown with her Buddhist friends.
$$$ 7-2-12/ mon/ Taipei/ sunny, hot and humid, breeze
morning short walk on hill behind Activity Center.
900 President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan shows up to open the meeting/ 30th
convocation of the Academicians/ followed by speech by President of Academy
keynote talk on sustainability by Academician C H Liu
afternoon/ review of candidates for election to the Academy
700 dinner in downtown hosted by Presdent Ma and VP Wu Deng-Yi.
200 academicians + spouses/ see picture in
find me in upper right corner just below top edge of this picture
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/07/03/2003536863
$$$ 7-3-12/ Tues/ Taipei/ sunny, hot and humid, breeze
800 walk a nice trail/ ¼ mile + 300 ft elevation through shaded woods/
all sweaty after this utterly trivial hike (we alway do 2 miles + 500 ft in the morning)
shau may gets a few bites by bugs
900-500, with 1 hr break, meeting on serious problems confronting Taiwan:
agriculture, education, health care etc. These issues go beyond science into sociology
and politics.
600 Academy takes us to downtown to see show by comedians.
2
Shau May goes to the Palace Museum and the Flower Expo.
$$$ 7-4-12/ Wed/ Taipei/ sunny, hot and humid, breeze
600 up early today/ take walk to hill called Hu Shih (famous scholar, former
President of Beijing University and President of the Academy) Park after breakfast.
His grave is more ornate now/ it was very sparse 20 yrs ago/ 1 hr walk comparable
to that at home/ much hotter/ extremely uncomfortable/ both Shau May and I get a
few insect bites/ twenty years ago this hike used to take just 20-30 min/
advice to my students/ do things while young/ don’t wait/ no energy later
900 meeting continues on selection of new academicians
locked up till 530 pm/ most of the hard work of selecting is done today/ totally
exhausted
700 downtown for dinner with the RCEC group, of which Danie is a staff member
great shanghai food/ one of the 2 best meals in Taipei/ other being President Ma’s
$$$ 7-5-12/ Thur/ Taipei/ sunny, hot and humid, breeze
This is the last day at the Academy/ new members must be announced to the press
at end of today.
900/ all academicians meeting in the morning to review the candidates/ about 3
min each/ including science + math, life science and humanities
200/ voting start in the afternoon/ the quotas for science + math, life science and
humanities are 10, 10 and 7. The most tense moment is when the scores are shown
on the big screen/ anyone who got 2/3 of all votes is elected/ as the numbers
reached threshold values/ there are cheers from the audience
we made a tactical mistake yesterday/ our group had 20 candidates/ with a quota
of 10/ we came up with 10 top candidates/ but # 11 was within a hair of # 10/ so
there was a heated argument and final vote to recommend 10 or 11 candidates. I
voted for 11/ and this was favored by the majority/ it turned out this was a mistake
at end of first voting today/ 8 people get in/ but then we are stuck with 3 candidates
and 2 slots in the second voting/ one gets in ok/ but the last 2 candidates (#10 and
11) split the vote/ both fail to get in. we end up with 9/ had we asked for 10
yesterday/ we would have gotten 10 today
3
finally, we were done/ total od 20 new academicains/ divided as 9, 7, 4 in the
aforementioned groups. Earth science does well/ both of our candidates, Bor-ming
Jahn and Shaw Liu get in.
600 farewell dinner and press conference with President of Academy
I have great admiration for the new academicians who did most of their work here/
with little outside recognition/ the academy recognizes some of these great people/
$$$ 7-6-12/ fri/ Taipei/ cloudy, hot and humid
for 2 mornings I was up at 5 am to do some work before breakfast
take short walk after breakfast
900 see chou chia to discuss global change in precipitation/ he has a paper on rich
get richer/ poor get poorer/ he gave me 2 slides and explained them to me
930 meet danie’s group
1130 lunch with danie’s family/ including 2 daughters, aged 3 and 1
300 go downtown near national Taiwan normal university/ visit bookstores/ shau
may buys pens and paper for her painting/ I buy 3 volumes of song dynasty poetry
700 dinner at Japanese fast food/ tasted like Japanese food in Pasadena/ not an
accident/ because many Japanese restaurants in LA are run by Taiwan people/ I can
confirm that because I hear the people in the kitchen speaking mandarin
900 home/ discuss titan papers with danie by telecom/ tomorrow we lv for
Mongolia for a week.
$$$ 7-7-12/ sat/ manzhouli/ hot/ dry
930 taxi picks us up to go to the airport/
the driver has a daughter studying at LA Long Beach
he voted for KMT/ but is very disappointed in the current president
he tells us/ the worst part of Taiwan is the press/ concentrating on nothing but
scandals/ I ask him about the academicians meeting all week/ he says/ the press
said nothing about all the “serious topics” we discussed/ shau may estimates the
meeting cost to be US$ 2 million/ just to fly in all the overseas academicians and
their spouses and feed them and entertain them well for a week/ I heard some
serious discussions and learned a lot from my distinguished colleagues/ including
4
several Nobel Laureates/ and US President’s medalists/ but the people of Taiwan/
who paid the bill heard nothing/ something is not right
130 plane left Taipei for Beijing/ arr 430/ Beijing was hazy/
630 plane left Beijing for manzhouli/ arr 800
manzhouli is a small town in inner Mongolia/ 8 km from Russia/ people are
Mongolians, Russians and han Chinese/ the word means Manchuria originally/ as it
used to be part of Manchuria/ the Chinese dropped the “a” and so “ria” became “li”/
“chu” became “zhou” in pinyin/ I have never heard of manzhouli before this trip.
town was built by Russians 100 yrs ago/ style of buildings and city planning follow
Russia/ all signs are in both Chinese and Russian/ now an active trading town
between Mangolia (an independent country), Russia and China/ this place has far
more animals than people
930 dinner/ the Chinese food is at the level of my cooking/ edible/ far below shau
may’s/ eatable/ who is below my two children’s/ gourmet/ so you get a sense of the
quality/ but we come here for the tour/ not for the food
we will leave at 8 am in the morning for the countryside/ may not have internet/
this may be last contact with civilization/
$$$ 7-8-12/ sun/ eerguna/ hot/ rainy
up at 5 / shau may goes out shopping at 6 am/ shops open!/ she buys gifts/
manzhouli is a city with fixed population of 180,000/ annual visitors 3 M/ city has 6
main streets/ all Russian style/
700 breakfast
830 go to border gate with Russia / 8 km away/ this is a place of historical interest/
in the pre-revolution era/ Mao and leaders of the Communist Part made secret trips
to Russia to meet with their Russian counterparts
after the revolution Mao rode a train to Russia to meet Stalin/ the train was
preserved here/ Mao had a morbid fear of flying/ he preferred train
1200 lunch in the town/ lv town after lunch for grassland/ 80,000 sq km of it/ full of
cows and sheep
130 start bus ride of 2.5 hr to the eerguna river/ pass wet land
5
love Mongolian songs on the bus/ loud/ romantic/ expressive/ close to nature/
sonorous songs match beautiful sceneries
take river boat ride in rain/ can see Russian village on the other side of the river
this is the area Genghis Khan used to raise horses/ grass famous for quality and
nutrition/ however growing season is only a few months/ have to cut and dry/ save
grass for cattle in winter
600 arr eerguna/ dinner at Chinese-Russian restaurant/ the Russian part is quite
good/ lamb/ beef/ soup/ Chinese part non-existent because they do not have veggie
here/ the greenest stuff is cucumber salad/ with too much mayonnaise/
I have not found a way to re-charge my computer/ the voltage here is 220/ vs 120 in
usa and taiwan/ so this may be my last email/ till I get charged.
$$$ 7-9-12/ mon/ eerguna/ cool/ clear
dead tired last night/ slept from 9 to 5
morning cool and clear after yesterday’s rain
the buildings here often have sky blue tops/ to match the sky/ a fashion here
$$$ 7-10-12/ tues/ genhe/ warm/ partly cloudy
700 breakfast
800 drive ½ hr to wetland/ self-proclaimed the most beautiful wetland in Asia/
take 1 hr hike around the hill overlooking the wetland/ a river zigzags through the
wetland / there is an island in the middle of the river/ known as the horseshoe
island/ legend is it was left by Genghis khan’s horse/ I now remember having seen
this beautiful scenery before in a scenic power point ~5 yrs ago
1100 arr at a birch grove/ 12 sq km of pure birch
130 arr in town of genhe (root river)/ have passed scenic fields of yellow vegetable
flowers/ lunch
300 visit a reservation of aborigines/ this tribe came from Russia/ lives like
eskimos/ about 260 people/ look like native Hawaiians/ there is a shaman gently
beating our backs using a branch with leaves/ to drive away evil spirits / they raise
deer like cattle/ for food and medicine/ the chinese believe in the curing powers of
the deer’s horn/ I have never tried it/ and so I am a skeptic/ the natives give us
6
sample of BBQ deer meat/ it tasted like old dried beef/ they also offered us alcohol/
that is more like chinese white wine (bai jiu)/
400 arr at hotel
600 dinner/ food is from northeastern china/ wholesome food/ but not as tasty as
southern china food/ but then I am from southern china/ a northern chinese may
have the opposite view
700 take stroll in town/ there seems to be a lot of collective activities/ like singing
and exercise / mainly women/ we walk along a branch of the genhe/ shau may said
it looks exactly like a river in Florence/ compete with bridges of the same style /
houses are copied from those in Italy/ again, Florence came to our mind / all the
shops here have signs in chinese and mongolian/ no Russian
everywhere we look/ there is construction going on
800 the hotel features a native dance tonight by the native we visited this
afternoon/ we show up/ but there is no show/ no explanation/ organization is not a
strength of the people here
$$$ 7-11-12/ wed/ genhe/ hulunbeier/ huhehoute/ warm/ cool at night
ride 4 hrs to Mongolian tent/ lunch like Genghis khan/ a big chunk of lamb + 2
carving knives/ cut what you want to eat
shau may states that lunch is a great let down/the place had to entertain 50 tour
groups/the usual greeting ceremony was cancelled/we were fed the worst kind of
food/not even clean/the small chunk of lamb was with lots of fats
ride horse to the river/ from which the cows and sheep drink
afternoon visit a fortress built during the Japanese occupation/ it is a massive
structure 17 m underground/ built in 3 yrs using 30,000 forced Chinese labor/ at
end of which all workers/ who had not died of malnutrition and harsh treatment/
were poisoned to keep the plans of the fortress secret/ however, one was sick on
that day and did not eat the poisoned food/ he escaped to tell the Resistance what
he knew/ the fortress was eventually destroyed completely in ten days at end of
WWII by the Russian army/ all the Japanese soldiers fought to death/ being
ignorant of the fact that the emperor had surrendered to the allies days earlier
there is a little known battle of tanks at the beginning of WWII/ it was fought near
here between the Japanese and the Red Army/ fore taste of WWII tank battles/ 100
Japanese tanks against 400 Russian tanks/ resulting in complete defeat for japan/
after which japan shelved the idea of attacking Russia from the east in concert with
German attack from the west/ otherwise history might have taken a different path
7
dinner in the city of hulunbeier/ construction everywhere
after dinner take plane to huhehoute/ state capital of inner mongolia
plane delayed more than an hour/ get to hotel at 1 am/ dead tired
$$$ 7-12-12/ thur/ huhehoute/ mild in day/ cool at night
yesterday we flew from the northern part of Inner Mongolia to huhehoute, which is
the southern middle part/ northern is green and lush/ grass 60 cm long/ south is
less green/ grass half as tall
ride bus for 3 hrs to grassland/ the road is bumpy/ this is the first generation
highway/ they have no idea how to maintain the road against the winter ice and
snow/ so the bus feels like a horse/ which I experienced yesterday
check into a Mongolian tent after lunch/ the tent is known as wagon tent/ on
wheels/ that Genghis khan used on his legendary military conquests/ but the
amenities are far beyond what was available to Genghis khan/ water/ electricity/
modern toilet/ but no shower/ there is a river nearby / I assume Genghis khan
could take a bath there/ but I later learn that mogolians are not supposed to take a
bath in a river/
food is far better than last few days/ so is the ceremony of welcoming wine and
singing that attends the eating/ Mongolians love to sing/ and are known for
hospitality/ the people here are closer to the center of civilization and have better
concepts of service/ the guide said we must not refuse their wine/ which will be an
insult if we do/ before you drink you must dip your nameless finger into the wine
once and point to heaven/ do same to earth/ do same to your ancestors by touching
your forehead/ you must drink/ or pretend to drink/ or else …../ well, the
descendants of Genghis khan are not people you wish to insult
shau may went to see wresting and horse racing in the afternoon/ she said the way
Mongolians ride is very different from what we did yesterday/ they can gallop/ and
it is quite fast/ the local guide told us that a Mongolian horse is small and ugly/ and
so will never make it to a Hollywood movie/ but it makes up in endurance and
toughness/ can work for 24 hrs without food or water/ I do not need her
salesmanship/ I know the Mongolian horse has proved its worth in the famous
battles of Genghis khan/ who holds the record for the greatest empire in human
history/ in terms of area/ his empire covered 30 million squares km/ about 3 times
that or USA or China/ the Mongolian horse made history in the same as the British
ship did a few hundred years later/
I was tired from the short night last night and long ride this morning/ and catch up
with some rest in the afternoon
8
after dinner shau may goes to see a fire party of singing and dancing/ again I stay in
the very comfortable tent and read my poetry book that I purchased in Taipei.
$$$ 7-13-12/ thur/ huhehoute/ mild in day/ cool at night
after a total of 16 hr of sleep in the Mongolian tent I feel refreshed
3 hr bus ride back from grassland to huhehoute
1100 visit gorgeous museum built in 2003 to celebrate the founding of the state in
1943/ that is 2 year before the end of the WW II/ the Mongolians, with Russian help,
fought and drove out the Japanese before their final surrender in 1945 / that
resulted in the eventual independence of outer Mongolia/ a fact recognized by the
people’s republic of china (mainland) but not the republic of china (Taiwan)
200 visit the museum of Wang Zhao Jun/ one of 4 classic beauties of ancient China/
in 33 BC, she was given by the emperor of China to marry the King of the Huns
(known as xiongnu to the chinese) to foster better relation between the two
kingdoms/ she did her job well/ and eventually the Huns were assimilated/ the
western part of the kingdom of Huns which rejected such overtures was defeated
and they eventually migrated to the West/ and settled in Hungary after causing
considerable damage to the Roman Empire/ for the Chinese this is a brilliant
success story of politics and sex/ and using barbarians (eastern Huns) to control
barbarians (western Huns)/
400 visit the Da Zhao Temple/ a Tibetan temple built about 500 years ago in the
Ming Dynasty/ the Mongolians used to worship Shamanism/ but later convert to
Tibetan Buddhism/ that kind practiced by Dalai Lama of Tibet today/ the temple
has some beautiful sculptures of gods/ but picture taking is forbidden
the Buddhist gods must be absolutely sick and tired of me/ as I always ask them for
money/ to support my research/ which is in science/ as opposed to faith
Early dinner at 530 pm/ on the road for 3 hrs to Bao Tou/ a small town near the
desert/ the road is used for trucks only after 7 pm/ as Mongolia is a major source of
coal to the heartland of China/ it also controls 90% of the rare earths in China/
which controls 90% of all rare earths in the world
1100 arr at Bao Tou hotel/ dead tired
$$$ 7-14-12/ fri/ Ordos/ mild in day/ cloudy/ cool at night
700 lv for desert/ the guide said we must not arr desert in midday/ too hot
9
900 arr desert park/ xiangsawan (bay of singing sand) desert amusement park/
probably the first of its kind in the world/ have fun riding motor cycles and jeeps in
the sand/ perfect day for the desert/ cloudy but not raining
highlight is the camel ride/ we receive infinite number of instructions on how NOT
to irritate a camel/ which is ill-tempered/ e.g., must hide all bottles of water inside a
bag so that the camel cannot see them/ must not make jerky motions/ must not
make loud noise etc/ also, the camel is quite tall/ so you cannot get on on its back
like you do to a horse/ the camel must kneel down for you to get on and off/ also, it
is absolutely no fun to fall off a camel
1100 see musical performance/ the theme is a Mongolian wedding/ in Mongolian
language this time/ we cannot understand a word/ except that it sounds like
Japanese to us/ the music sounds familiar because we have heard the same tune in
Chinese/ the guide says the best Mongolian singers sing in Chinese (which they
learn in school in addition to Mongolian) because of the market force/ there are
only a few millions Mongolians but more than a billion Chinese/ we bought a nice
CD with about 30 popular mongolian songs/ which we would not have done if we
could not understand them
after lunch we go to the mausoleum of Genghis Khan near the city of Ordos/ about
an hour away/ first we are greeted by a gigantic gate/ followed by 99 steps in 11
sets/ so that each set is 9 steps/ shau may tells me it looks like Dr. Sun Yet-sen’s
(Father of the Republic of China) Mausoleum in Nanjing/ to me the gate looks like
the one for Chiang Kai-shek immemorial n Taipei/ but CKS does not have the 99
steps
there is a temple inside with a 4 m high marble statute of Genghis khan/ he looks
too kind and almost like Buddha/ far from what history wrote of him as a
bloodthirsty and ruthless conqueror/ the shrine has been maintained since the time
of his death in 1227 AD about 800 yrs ago/ inside the temple are personal
belongings like his bucket for horse wine/ his bow (from which they estimate his
height to 1.84 m/ pretty big for a Mongolian)/ and murals of his conquests and
family/ his 4 wives + 4 concubines/ sons/ relatives/ his mother figured prominently
in his life and we can identify her in the mural/
he died at about 65 in a campaign against the kingdom of shi xia/ and was buried
secretly (to avoid affecting the morale of his army and emboldening his enemies)/
but here is the permanent memorial to his spirit and accomplishments/ because he
ordered all people of the kingdom of shi xia to be slaughtered/ there was a
conspicuous absence of the history of shi xia in the 24 histories of China/ there was
nothing left/ living or dead/ for the historian/ this is their price for killing Genghis
khan
[back in Taipei/ I heard a startling news/ frank shu told me/ doug lin’s son has just
found Genghis khan’s tomb in china/ stay tuned]
10
the guide tells us that Ordos is the wealthiest city in China/ its GDP per capita is
bigger than that of Hong Kong (which is close to USA)/ the wealth comes mostly
from minerals and coal/ we can see a lot of expensive cars on the street/ and fancy
houses that look those in USA but not in China/ the spirit of Genghis khan has
blessed the city of his final rest.
after dinner shau may goes out to see the city/ she tells me there is nothing to see at
night/ I remain in the hotel to catch up with my journal and reading papers/
today is our last day in Mongolia/ tomorrow morning we fly to Beijing
***/ from doug 7-27-12
National Geographic's "Lost Tomb of Genghi Khan" is here:
http://youtu.be/XnKc2LaCtjM
Dear Yuk, Dear Yungyun,
I don't know if you can access the following website from Beijing.
http://club.kdnet.net/dispbbs.asp?boardid=1&id=8356092&page=7&uid=&usernames=&
userids=&action=
It was shown on the National Geographics channel in Nov. It has been translated into
Chinese. Yuk should be able to access it in Pasadena at least. It seems that they have
found some new leads. Hope you will find it interesting.
Doug
(my son's Chinese name is 林宇民) /***
***/ thanks for the photo site and the attachment. Seems that you had a great time. I am
sorry I was not in Asia to greed you when you were there. I will be back to Beijing in
early August. Perhaps our paths will cross in the not too distant future.
Actually the Genghis Kahn's burial site appears to be controversial. My son Albert thinks
it is in the forbidden zone north of Ulan Bator. I will send you a cd which Nat Geo made
on his attempt to search for it. The English version of my mom's book, In the eye of the
China storm by Paul Lin with Eileen Lin is published by McGill Queen's University
Press and can be ordered from Amazon.com. She is working on the Chinese translation
of it.
With best wishes, Doug / ***
$$$ 7-15-12/ sun/ Beijing/ slightly cloudy/ mild
930 plane lv Ordos/ arr Beijing at 11
11
we stay at a hotel in downtown on wangfujing rd/ within walking distance of
Tiananmen square
afternoon/ visit museum of Chinese art/ which is just round the corner of our hotel/
the feature artist today is li xiao ke/ son of the famous li ke ran/ li junior learned
well from his father/ his landscape of trees and Tibet shows complexity and
creativity/ another feature artist is wang wei zhen/ he painted portraits of famous
scholars and artists/ probably his good friends/ the portraits are accompanied by
exquisite classical poems composed by the artist/ I enjoy the poems as much as the
paintings/ it is hard to do well in one thing/ he did both/ sign of extraordinary
talent
evening/ see classical Beijing opera/ a combination of acting, singing and
acrobatics/ the show consists of three episodes from well known stories/ we could
not follow the words/ fortunately the screen shows both the Chinese characters/
and their English translation / only regret is that the opera is too short/ only 1 hr/
we expect 2 hrs/
on way back from the theater/ we take the subway/ packed like sardine/ all the
people look so young/ dressed in the style of popular movie stars/ some have dyed
hair/ we take a stroll through the famous wangfujung rd/ about 1 km is closed to
traffic/ at 9 pm the road is packed/ all shops are open/ including a big bookstore
$$$ 7-15-12/ sun/ Beijing/ clear/ mild
800 go to beihai park/ near forbidden city/ walk along beautiful lake/ climb small
mountain on top of which is a white pagoda/ drink tea by the lake side/ park seems
full of people who are learning to sing, dance, perform and do aerobic exercise/ an
old man uses a huge brush to write calligraphy on the ground with water as ink/ he
guesses correctly we are from hong kong/ asked whether he overheard our
Cantonese conversation/ he says we look like Cantonese/ he then uses his big brush
to write the words Hong Kong and Kowloon in beautiful calligraphy for us
1100 wish to see Chairman Mao’s memorial/ it closes at 11/ this must be the fifth
time I try unsuccessfully/ every time it was either closed for repair, closed for
holidays, or simply unavailable
afternoon/ take 1.5 hr subway ride to visit prof yuxuan wang of qinghua university/
she gave a seminar to our group in feb/ we have tea in a tea house/ she is preparing
for a trip to Ohio next week/ I notice people in Beijing are even more stressed than
in USA
600 dinner with prof hu at pku and his graduate students/ some whom I met last
year/ prof adam showman (techer) from u ariz and his chinese wife are at the
dinner/ they are visiting for a month/
12
the worse news this year is the economic growth rate of 7.6% / below the magic
threshold of 8% that was sustained for last decade/ there is slowdown everywhere/
except for research/ which is growing at 20%/yr/ good news for all universities
I begin to understand that the plan to hire stars from abroad are not successful/ not
more successful than Taiwan/ as few established scholars wish to relocate here
permanently/ also, they quickly found out they could not do as much as they wish to
do/ the system is based on personal contacts and relations/ like Taiwan a
generation ago/ but young people are returning and they will eventually change the
system
prof hu’s plan as chair of his department is to recruit younger people and let them
grow into positions of leadership/ that is the Caltech model / it has my enthusiastic
support
regrets/
doug lin, yiqin gao and feng tian are all out of town this time
have not had time to visit a nice bookstore/ even though we walk pass them
$$$ 7-16-12/ mon/ Beijing/ muggy/ Taipei/ rain
up early/ take stroll of downtown/ shau may does shopping/ I have to prepare my
talk/ while my ntu talk was done a month ago/ the synchrotron talk has to be
assembled from scratch because I get invited at the meeting in taipei
300 plane lv Beijing/ an hour late
630 arr taipei
after dinner/ we have to wash 2 suitcases of dirty clothes/ while I am struggling to
get my synchrotron talk together/ I have written 5 papers using this synchrotron
data/ so in principle, it is all there/ but trying to pull it all together 7,000 miles from
my office is another matter/ fortunately, most of my papers and my talks are on my
website/ that I can download / Arthur prepared last minute slides for me
$$$ 7-17-12/ tues/ Taipei/ warm/ clear
clear sunny day/ air feels clean after the rain last night
630 take shau may to the bus station to take the subway to the train station to ride
the high speed train to kao hsiung at the southern tip of Taiwan for visit to temple/
she will be back tomorrow night
13
730 hour long working breakfast with danie/ focus on titan chemistry/ isotopic
fractionation and aerosols
morning/ work at the Danie’s Center/ RCEC
lunch with danie and jimmy/ talk about climate papers
afternoon/ prepare talks
dinner with danie
800 talk to shaw / director of RCEC/ desert increases in china but sandstorms
decreases/ big puzzle/ may be due to polar warming
900 discuss titan papers with danie
$$$ 7-18-12/ wed/ Taipei/ warm/ clear
730 working breakfast with danie
900 danie drives me to ntu
930 meet with director of iaa/ paul ho/ and ron tam who is permanently located
here now/ iaa is productive and has high profile/ however, there is a freeze on new
positions/ hard to pump in new blood
1130 danie drives me across campus (ntu campus is huge) to department of
atmospheric sciences/ meet with chairman prof wu and old friend prof Gloria hsu/
who went back from jpl ~25 yrs ago/ she used to be bill demore’s postdoc
1200 dinner with 13 professors in the department/ ann chen / former student of
Seinfeld is just back/ I was here 20 yrs ago/ this is a new generation
200 I give seminar on global change
400 an hour discussion with students (about 8) in prof wu’s group/ one is coming to
ese in the fall/ tell students 3 keys to success in usa/
1.good English at the level of appreciation of literature and philosophy/ 2.culture of
math and science/ not just techniques/ must know the genesis of great ideas/
3.must be bold and imaginative/ the Asian system of education is too conservation
for innovative science
530 back to iaa
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600 dinner with iaa staff/ including frank shu/ paul ho and his wife Elizabeth/ and
typhoon/ table of 12/ authentic southern food/ close to shanghai/ chat about the
great difference between Taiwan and mainland/ in Taiwan/ we have frank shu as a
godfather/ a force of enlightenment as well as moderation/ in mainland/ it is naked
power play with no restoring force/ but it takes a generation for Taiwan to get to
here/ mainland may take the next generation
in earth science/ we have leon as a godfather for a generation
830 back to activity center in nankang
shau may went to kao hsiung yesterday morning/ back 10 pm today/ had a good
time with the Buddhist museum there
$$$ 7-19-12/ thur/ Taipei/ warm/ clear
900 they pick us up to go to the synchrotron in hsin chu/ an hour away from
nankang
1030 meet director/ this is one of the world’s 5 leading synchrotrons/
bin ming cheng and our group wrote 5 papers together/ they provided isotope data
for planets/
1200 seminar on applications of lab data to planets/ well received
100 lunch with director/ bin ming/ academician chen
200 tour of lab/ they have 25 beam lines/ one is dedicated to planetary and space
work/ I see my name on a poster exhibiting planetary work
330 tour of lab of academician chen chien te/ he designed the synchrotron/ working
on new extension to 518 m circumference ring/ has a hobby in extrasensory
perception/ in collaboration with president of ntu/ li shi zhen/ he shows us more
than a decade of experiments of increasing complexity/ using ingenious devices/
which he invented/ impressed but puzzled
600 they drive us back to Taipei to have dinner with venerable lun shin
700 hear Buddhist seminar by lun shin/ the lecture is on the Buddhist class da
zhuang jing/ on how to achieve enlightenment by banishing fear, greed, anger, etc/
800 lv seminar / the seminar is 7-10, 3 hrs/ we are too tired to sit through the
entire three hours in the sultry heat/ without air conditioning/ I think Buddhism
was invented to help people do nothing in the heat/ otherwise they might die
15
900 back to activity center/ dead tired
$$$ 7-20-12/ fri/ Taipei/ warm/ clear
900 see director of institute of earth sciences/ ben chao/ discuss challenges the
institute is facing/ mainly recruitment in face of imminent retirements/ response of
the system is too slow to compete with universities
1200 lunch with ben and lin cheng hung/ seismologist
afternoon/ talk to members of the institute all afternoon
huang po shou/ tan er wo just moved back with his wife ann chen/ both techers, the
two just climbed machu picchu in peru in 5 days/ wang chung ho/ hu chih an/ kuo
ban yuan/ briefly with liu shur yu, lan jing ying, zhao li and liu ching chi/ long chat
with huang about chen wang ping’s collaboration/ huang still remembers my essay
written 1994 after a year-long sabbatical/ I taught young people how to read and
write papers in English/ he learned it well/ and is now an established/ arguably the
leading seismologist of his generation at ies/
615 dinner with prof chiang huey jenn /techer/ and his two students/ hj has
encyclopedic knowledge of history, society and culture/ the observations are broadranged/ analysis insightful/ I think he can be a great writer
830 academy sends a limo to take us to the airport/ in addition to all the 3 suitcases
we brought from LA/ we bought another box of books/ still we cannot bring
everything back/ I have to leave a briefcase with my 3 volumes of Song Dynasty
poetry and other thick documents to danie/ he will bring them to DPS in reno in
oct/
shau may got me a book this afternoon from Taipei by president li shi cheng of ntu/
on paranormal phenomena
1200 midnight/ plane lv Taipei/ we both sleep 5-6 hrs/ I read the entire book/ I
heard 50% of the book from Academician Chen at the synchrotron/ other 50% I
heard from run-lie/ I will show book to run-lie/ who has an old classmate
(physicist) studying this phenomenon/ the one thing I am sure is the double-blind
experiment on recognizing words using fingers/ everything else is not confirmed/
and therefore speculative/ the people who are pioneers have solid credentials/ li is
a distinguished electrical engineer/ chen is a distinguished physicist/ academician
and former director of the synchrotron/ I believe in the soundness of their
experiments/ but perhaps not their explanations and implications
1230 sat/ tapei time/ or 930 pm fri LA time/ arr LAX/ total flight time is 12.5 hrs
1120 pm home/ air feels so good and cool/ immediately take a half hour walk/
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end of 3 week trip
60 pictures from trip in
https://picasaweb.google.com/104889150903231101653/Mong
olia2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCLTrjZDblri4Ag
including pictures of shau may’s recent painting and deer in our front yard
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台北院士會
華夏菁英風雲會 選賢與能拔高材 竭忠盡智獻良策 協力承先開未來
馬蹄島
天地黯鬼神驚 成吉思汗東征 駿駒飛躍根河 馬蹄尚留至今
注： 額爾古納有濕地在根河馬蹄島，形狀如馬蹄，傳說為成吉思汗馬蹄踏印。
遊額爾古納河 （中俄界河）
煙雨朦朧上遊船 青青水草傍小川 遙看俄羅斯村莊 靜穆悠然在天邊
草原頌
塞外風光好 黃花接連天 驃姚應有知 一戰定千年
注：驃姚：漢武帝大將霍去病
白樺林
白樺亭亭立 仰天爭太陽 百仞竿頭上 更有百尺長
落葉松
松葉亦知落 天道豈有常 寒冬且收斂 春來再威揚
注：因冬天太冷，此地松樹皆落葉
呼倫貝爾大草原
天蒼蒼 野茫茫 風吹草低見牛羊 詩人不知原上草 不過四十公分長
注：由此可知詩人（漢人）從未去過草原
木蘭頌
朝辭黃河夕陰山 金戈鐵馬花木蘭 狡酋夜遁黑山頭 窮追不覺月光寒
注：木蘭辭有句：“旦辭黃河去，暮宿黑山頭”，“萬里赴戎機，關山渡若飛，朔氣傳金柝， 寒光照鐵衣”
萬里長征（一）
萬里長征人未還 春風不度玉門關 王師無敵唯仁義 無須踏破賀蘭山
注：王昌齡“出塞”秦時明月漢時關 萬里長征人未還 但使龍城飛將在 不教胡馬渡陰山
注：岳飛“滿江紅”有句：“駕長車踏破賀蘭山缺”
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萬里長征（二）
萬里長征人未還 不教胡馬渡陰山 胡漢恩仇一笑泯 春風吹綠玉門關
注：王之渙“涼州詞”黃河遠上白雲間 一片孤城萬仞山 羌笛何須怨楊柳 春風不度玉門關
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