LIFE ON BOARD

The Majestic Princess is a new ship with some wonderful features. We were upgraded to a Deluxe Balcony Cabin towards the stern of the ship. Now, some always opt for mid-ship cabins with the expectation that there will be less ship movement than at the pointy or blunt ends; but I have to say the seas have been so calm that it is difficult to know one is on a ship at all. The trick that increases the possibility of an upgrade is not to request a particular cabin. If you ask for deck 9, cabin 9733, that is what you will get. If you ask for a class of cabin that is guaranteed, you may be ultimately upgraded, or not. Our cabin, as a ‘deluxe’, is marginally larger with a couch but has a balcony twice the usual size, which is M’s favourite feature since she devours books resplendent on deck chair in the sea air. If you enlarge picture four you will see a whale breaching.

On Deck 17 there are the usual swimming pools and spas where well-fed seals in costumes that have clearly shrunk in the salty air lounge lazily on deck chairs watching the midday movie on the big screen up by the funnels. One door on this deck leads into the gymnasium where numerous show-offs pump iron, ride bikes, row boats, or run tread-mills before heading off for a double helping of ice-cream. From the gym there is access to a an indoor swimming pool, spa and lounge area - very impressive under filtered skylight. This top deck also has a large tennis/basketball court, a number of small enclosed areas for table tennis that keep the ball inside rather than over the deck rail, and various deck games.

Deck 16 houses The Marketplace - a fancy name for the Buffet - where you can share tables with passengers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you do not want to dine in two of the restaurants. On this ship, you can choose to reserve tables for early or late dining or you can do as we do for ‘anytime dining’ which has worked quite well. In the restaurants you may choose to dine alone or to share a table. On most occasions we choose to share so we can hear all the complaints! No, it’s not that bad! We have met some interesting people, and that is one of the joys of cruising. But it is a very long walk to the restaurants from the stern to the bow!

There is a very large theatre that possibly seats a thousand guests and a variety of shows are presented every night in two sessions. The ship has its own singing and dancing company who perform two or three times over the voyage. Other presentations have included musicians, singers, comedians, and a mentalist - all very entertaining and usually keeping us up quite late. As we crossed the equator a ceremony was conducted around the pools to initiate new members who had never done that previously. They are covered in excess foodstuffs of various kinds and thrown in the pool by King Neptune. Trivia is conducted daily in one of the lounges and many are addicted to it. 

Selfies are so hard to do!

CRUISING IS CHANGING

SHORE TOURS

This cruise experience has been a little different for us in terms of shore tours which are usually organised for every cruise ship as they call in to the ports they visit. Of course, these shore tours are an added cost and not included in the original cruise fare. Because we had previously visited all of these ports, we elected to book no tours. Now, that raises an issue in which we have identified some significant changes to past cruise practices.

It was once common practice for cruise lines to organise a free shuttle (bus) into the town of ports visited. The shuttle would perhaps take twenty minutes ferrying passengers into the city or township and run return trips every half hour or so. So, those who did not want to do an organised tour, for whatever reason, at least got the opportunity to see a little of the local area and add to its economy. Now, if a shuttle is provided, it is an added cost. A shuttle into Brisbane city will cost a couple $50. Perhaps a taxi into Brisbane from the Grain Terminal Wharf would cost that amount; but the point is that when ships dock in isolated ports, cruise lines have a responsibility not to leave passengers stranded where they cannot walk off to a destination of some interest. Now, I make this criticism within a broader observation that the cruise industry is changing as we have experienced it over twenty years. 

Majestic Princess at Dock

Let me put this in another context. Do you recall a time when taking a plane flight, particularly an overseas flight, was an exciting experience with a sense of romance or adventure? It was relatively expensive and even an occasion where one dressed up in finery with high expectations of good times to come. There was fine dining on board with real cutlery and free alcohol. Today a plane flight is relatively cheap as economies of scale were introduced; but the experience is little better than a bus trip. The seats have been squeezed closer and closer together until those of us of average height and weight feel like being crammed into an egg crate; and as you take your seat with a spare one beside you, you hope that that this 150kg man waddling up the aisle is not your bedfellow for the next sixteen hours. Personally, I find long overseas flights a punishment I didn’t deserve!

SQUEEZING OUT THE DOLLARS

From my observations, the cruise experience is floating in the same direction as air flights . As its popularity has increased, more ships are being built or refurbished, cruise prices are coming down, and the dollars are being squeezed from the passenger in a multitude of ways. The free shuttle bus is one such change and those who are new to cruising accept there will be an additional cost to get to King George Square in Brisbane. But, what is happening here is not that the cost of a shuttle bus is being defrayed but this is another opportunity for the cruise company to add to the profits.

Tendering Passengers Ashore

There are numbers of examples of this kind that we have noted. For example, previously when one left the ship on a shore excursion, a bottle of water was handed to each passenger. Now, you will pay for it at a price that is clearly for profit. At one time, passengers were allowed to bring bottles of wine on board and, while the amount was restricted at each port of call, it is now not allowed to be brought on at all. Of course, this is to encourage you to purchase alcohol on board. We recently got off the water wagon and lashed out for a bottle of Malbec for $42. One can purchase a beverage package for unlimited wine (not spirits) at $87 a day (each). Needless to say we quickly became teetotalers.

Feeding the 3500 passengers on this ship clearly provides an opportunity for the bean-counters to manage costs. Let’s say you came upon a strategy to save an average of $10 per customer over the length of a 20 day cruise; that’s 50 cents a customer per day saving $35,000. Our banks were experts at this strategy - say, 2 million customers, charge bank account fee of $50 twice a year, equals a cool $200 million, for doing nothing other than setting up an electronic bank account! (Charging dead people was another strategy!) For cruise ships, there is a lot of low-hanging fruit to cull 

Now, complaining about the quality and variety of food on a cruise ship is a rather common theme among passengers. Like early aeroplane flights, our first experiences of the evening meal were like regularly attending a Michelin restaurant. It really was a fine dining experience. On today’s cruise ships you pay for fine dining in specialty restaurants as you would on shore and the costs are largely comparable. That is not to say that quality meals are not provided in the regular ship restaurant with silver service and attentive waiters. But if you want lobster-mornay or bomb-Alaska or New York Steak or specialty Asian or French dishes, make a booking at the appropriate restaurant! There is a theory among the passengers that, if they gradually reduce the variety and number of options on the menu, people will gravitate towards the pay-for options. There’s always a conspiracy theory!

A DILEMMA

On the one hand, we are very privileged to enjoy all that a cruise ship has to offer. We are waited on with endless patience by young men and women largely from under-developed countries. We eat large quantities of high quality food that their families could only dream of. And we complain that the menu is limited, the food was not hot, or “you never serve apple strudel” or the price of a bottle of wine is exorbitant. 

On the other hand, the passenger has paid his money, has certain expectations (perhaps based on previous experiences), and feels he is being short-changed. Today we met such an ugly Australian who complained endlessly about the food and the washing machines; and at lunch, we sat with an ugly American from LA who will be angrily writing to Princess Cruises about the quality and variety of food. 

It is a difficult dilemma - to complain or to appreciate the opportunity; or perhaps just to keep your mouth closed, particularly when eating lobster in the Concerto Restaurant!

With a Waiter to Extract the Meat from the Shell

SOME REFLECTIONS ON CHINA

SOME REFLECTIONS ON CHINA

A LAND TOUR 

This land tour of a small section of China from Beijing to Zhongzhou to Suzhou to Hangzhou to Shanghai over ten days will probably be most memorable for the physical effort that was required to complete the tour. It reminded us how much we appreciate the convenience of seeing the world by cruise ship where everything is taken care of, particularly the management of suitcases.

Despite that, we are both pleased to have experienced the highlights of the tour and to have gained a more nuanced view of this emerging superpower and its extensive history. We often say that our indigenous population in Australia is one of the longest continuous isolated cultures of some 60,000 years; but in the long evolution of our species, both Neanderthal Man and Homo sapiens found their way to China many thousands of years earlier. This is an ancient land in terms of habitation of mankind and in terms of its language and culture. In contrast, a distinctly Australian culture, largely based on Western traditions, is only some 230 years old and we are still trying to confirm our real identity.

MASSIVE CHANGE

Historians have documented the enormous change in China over the past few generations; but we have personally witnessed it as well. We recall very early visits to Hong Kong and Shanghai when the streets were filled with rubbish, when outdoor markets were covered with flies, where the popular culture involved spitting on the streets, where very few owned vehicles, when the Govt first began forced reclamation of houses, when the highways to nowhere were being constructed and when the first skyscraper apartments and buildings were mushrooming, when the now world famous Pudong District across from the Bund was being constructed. The change is massive. What is most striking is how orderly and tidy everything is. The traffic is busy and occasionally jammed, but no horns blowing like in Vietnam. We travelled to cities of 24 million and to ‘small’ cities of 10 million. One of our guides indicated that the largest city is not Shanghai but a city in central China with over 30 million. As Australians, we have difficulty comprehending such big numbers; but we should remember there are 240 million Indonesians on our doorstep.

POPULATION GROWTH

Of course, the burgeoning population caused the Govt of China to introduce its one-child policy. This was a radical step for a country with a long history built on the significance of family and respect for parents. Families were typically large and males were valued to work the farms and to support the family. With the advent of the one-child policy, some wealthy individuals ignored it and paid the substantial fines, baby girls might meet an untimely end, and if the prospective parents were advised their foetus was female, they might arrange an abortion. The authorities cracked down on all these issues by increasing fines, charging parents who disposed of girls, and made it illegal for doctors to divulge the sex of the pregnancy. 

However, there is emerging some worrying aspects to the impact of China’s one-child policy. It requires an average birth rate of 2.1 children to replace or maintain a population. (The additional .1 accounts for loss at birth or early childhood) When two parents are replaced by one child the outcome can be dramatic. From the very interesting text: EMPTY PLANET , Australia’s average birth rate is 1.8. If we are to continue to grow our economy we must rely on immigration, permanent and temporary. Like China, Australia is particularly vulnerable to falling birth rates. This text suggests that within 30 years China’s birth rate will plateau and then fall dramatically. Consequently China has relaxed its one-child policy, but as we saw with one of our tour guides, having a second child impacts on the earning capacity of one-child families and many are not responding to the relaxed rules. This will be a tricky area for the Chinese Govt to negotiate.

Current Birthrates: EMPTY PLANET – Bricker and Ibbotson 2019

Sth Korea 1.2

Spain – 1.3 current population 47 million to fall by 5.6 million by 2080.

Japan 1.4 to decline by 25% over 35 years 

Thailand 1.5

China 1.6  (In 1960 – 6.2; 1979 – 2.5) – One Child Policy

Australia – 1.8

Brazil 1.8

US – 1.9

India   2.1

Malaysia 2.1

Mexico 2.3 (Religions may play a role in pushing up fertility rates)

Philippines  2.6

Egypt – 3

Israel - 3.1

Palestine - 3.1

Malawi -4.9

Ghana – 4.2

Afghanistan – 5.3

Iraq – 4.6

Niger – 7.4

.

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE 

Another glaring feature of China is its focus on infrastructure. That began with the first building of canals diverting water to drier areas in the third century CE and later to the building of the Grand Canal to open up a north-south route. Although millions perished in the process of building this infrastructure, the outcome has been transformational in terms of building China’s economy and communication over the centuries. Towns and cities grew up around the Grand Canal and its tributaries. 

Let’s just make a quick comparison with Australia’s efforts to manage its precious water!

The Murray Darling Project now appears to be an unmitigated disaster from which recovery cannot be certain. When you let politicians control difficult decisions of water management and sharing, rather than depend entirely on empirical advice from experts, corruption will follow. When you allow political interference in the building of dams, inferior outcomes follow. If ever a country needed to get its act together on the management of scarce water resources, it was Australia. Successive Govts have failed this test. China’s massive three dams project completed in recent years, is an example of a Govt identifying a problem and resolving it. Yes, it is an authoritarian approach perhaps less encumbered by environmental restrictions and other Govt Legislation; but these are serious matters that should always be governed by independent advice rather than by the political impacts of tough decisions.

VERY FAST TRAINS

The very fast trains infrastructure in China, from what we saw, was impressive. Yes, I know we do not have China’s deep pockets, but decisions about big projects like this are about deciding priorities among presenting choices. Would it matter if we asked the French to build one less submarine, or perhaps purchase three fewer fighter planes from the US, or use the billions given to high income earners in tax cuts for infrastructure instead, or take advantage of historically low interest rates and borrow the funds without the scare tactics of ‘great big debt’. Again, successive Govts have talked about such a project and done nothing. We need a Grand Line for very fast trains running north to south through regional eastern Australia with tributaries into capital cities and coastal towns to open up regional Australia. Where was this vision when we were flush with rivers of gold from the mining boom of the Howard years. Again, this was largely spent on tax cuts for political advantage

THE ENVIRONMENT 

There was no discussion of dangerous climate heating on this tour so I can make no reference to China’s policies on climate change. What we can say is how impressed we were with a clean and green China for the areas in which we travelled. Our two very fast train trips took us over hundreds of kilometres through both farming areas and high rise rise construction and our bus journeys along highways witnessed obvious planning to fringe these roads with thick vegetation. I did pick up a news item where China criticised Australia for its weak policies for reducing carbon emissions. But so much of that could be raw politics following the Pacific Nations Forum and it tells me nothing about China’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions. 

China was known as the land of the bicycle and we did see plenty of those including lines of rental bicycles as we have in Brisbane. But what was interesting were the number of electric scooters - not the ‘Lime Scooter’ types - but the Vespa motor scooter size that were all electric; we never saw a petrol driven motor bike. They were very quiet and came up behind you unexpectedly

I have personally found the ‘debate’ very frustrating over the past decade about the reality of climate change and about its potential to seriously damage life on this planet. We have been warned about its growing threat for more than fifty years by the scientists. In every other field of science we have embraced its research with a scepticism that was rational. Show us your findings empirically, demonstrate how extensively they have been peer reviewed, show us the counter arguments to your findings, define the level of probability that your findings are valid, and what that will mean for life on Earth. And all that evidence has been available to us; and year upon year its predictions from previous years have been found to be conservative as the evidence mounts.

It is right to be sceptical about a theory as serious as this; but it is not rational to dismiss the theory simply by calling it ‘crap’ as Abbott, Kelly, Trump, Bolt, Jones et al have done or to pretend a greater level of scientific knowledge than the scientists by dismissing the theory on the basis that the climate has always had warming and cooling periods over the millennia, we have always experienced heat waves, forest fires, droughts, cyclones and flooding, more CO2 in the air is good for plant vegetation. And a dozen other non-scientific explanations in the sense that the climate scientists have already factored them in to their research models if they would care to examine it. Do they think that climate scientists are unaware of the history of climate change on this planet? Does it need a ten year old to tell them how serious this is?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/18/perhaps-we-need-to-explain-climate-change-to-politicians-as-we-would-to-very-small-children

SUPERPOWER

It won’t be too many years before the Chinese economy will outstrip the US. Currently we continue to hitch our wagon to the US and once again we are sending military assets to support the US in its dispute with Iran as we have done with every dispute/war the US has had on other occasions. We would be ill advised to disregard the significance of this superpower in our region of the South Pacific. The fact that we only seem to be waking up to the reach of its influence says a lot about our complacency as the “US’ Deputy Sheriff” in the region! More than ever, our politicians must develop their diplomatic skills beyond those of the Deputy PM who was unconcerned about the impact of climate heating and sea level rise on the Pacific Islands because “they pick our fruit”.

China is in for the long haul and Hong Kong will ultimately be reclaimed by China. Taiwan will be more problematic given the influence of the US to whom we are so closely aligned. We, in Australia, have some big decisions ahead.

SHANGHAI AT LAST

A final bus ride of two hours and Shanghai looms up ahead at last. It seems much longer than a week since we arrived here from Brisbane waiting for our flight to Beijing. And our first stop is at the Bund, the old British/French area overshadowed now by the impressive buildings of the Pudong District separated by the Huang Po River, the old from the new. The last time we were here off a cruise ship some may recall we were Shanghaied in Shanghai by a lovely young couple who somehow managed to extract some money from us at a tea ceremony we had no intention of attending. But I won’t repeat that story here, only to advise that we are on guard this time.

Some of our tour group are attending a cruise on the Huang Po River tonight to see all the buildings lit up; but again we have done that cruise previously and will make it an early night in preparation for our last day of the tour tomorrow .... which proves something of an anticlimax wandering around shopping areas, markets, and gardens previously visited.

Here's an idea for a wall garden you might like to try on that bare fence!

The Shanghai Museum is one of the world's great museums housing on three floors artifacts thousands of years old.

C 1700 Not as good as mine!

A CUP OF GREEN TEA AND A SMOKE

After that, it is time for a cup of tea, green tea that is, and we travel to Hangzhou, the tea capital of China. (BTW ‘zhou’ at the end of the name of a city means ‘big city’.) We visit the Tea House (famous for Longjing Tea) at Meijiawu Tea Village located in the hinterland of West Lake Park. The hills surrounding the Tea Village are clothed in neat rows of manicured, emerald green tea hedges. Very impressive, but now it is time to be herded into a thankfully air conditioned room to understand the benefits of green tea. 

Our very pretty master of tea ceremonies speaks good English and is introduced as having some medical training - whether Western training or TCM I am not sure. Her very efficient attendants have set out enough glasses for everyone. Green tea leaves curl patiently at the bottom of each glass. With dramatic flourish from a great height, hot water is added continuously to each glass hardly spilling a drop . We are told not to add boiling water but to let it cool two or three minutes before adding to the tea leaves. Now, here’s an interesting tip for those of you who suffer dry-eye syndrome and also for my optometrist and doctor who will be informed of this amazing fact. Cover half the top of the glass with the hand and place your ‘offending’ eye over the remaining space. Allow the steam to drift up into the eye. This will cure dry eye syndrome. Not sure how often it should be repeated but may be worth a try for those who suffer this annoying disability.

Having lifted our eyes from the glass, we are now invited to drink. Obviously, it is not unpleasant and quite refreshing but the health benefits are apparently remarkable. I didn’t quite get clear the scientific constituents that assist with overcoming a wide range of ailments but you might want to Google Polyphenyls. (Might have the spelling wrong.) Green tea prepared and drunk regularly an hour after meals will aid in removing toxins from the body. Of course Longjing green tea from the pristine hills around West Lake Tea Village will be particularly effective. Sealed packages of this Govt approved product can be purchased and flown home and orders can be taken and delivered.

Terry is our tour guide for the next few days. He is Chinese but has excellent English, trained through the University in tourism, and clearly very experienced (14 years). As we board the bus for the first tour with him he is careful to check we have left nothing behind in the hotel. He tells the story of a Malaysian man some years ago. After the bus had gone some distance, he received a phone call from the hotel in which this man had stayed to report they had found some dentures that had been left behind. It was too late to be able to turn around. He asked if they could be posted to the next stop. Terry was not sure that the internal mail system was all that reliable and suggested they be mailed back to Malaysia. He paid the postage and crossed his fingers. A week later Terry got a distressed call from this man’s son in Malaysia who thought his father had died and his only remains were his dentures.

Terry carries a glass jar with green tea which he sips as he conducts our tour; but M caught him smoking and asked how that fitted with drinking green tea for its health benefits. He gave this explanation to the entire bus. It seems that smoking can be excused because it is a critical part of Chinese social culture in the same way when you greet someone in Chinese, you ask, ‘Have you eaten?’ because food is so important to Chinese people. So too with smoking. When you meet someone, it is customary and polite to offer them a cigarette and for that to be reciprocated. It is impolite to refuse a cigarette. If one does not smoke, or does not want to smoke, accept the cigarette and place it behind the ear. Cigarettes come in various brands - some cheap, some expensive. Always have a pack of expensive cigarettes to offer even if one usually smokes the cheap brand. There was no talk of the potential health risks of smoking which suggests that the Govt is reluctant to give up the tax revenue. For all the progress China is making, this is clearly an area of failure to protect its citizens. When M suggested to Terry that sipping green tea or going to the gym yet smoking was a strange thing to do, he said, “You sound like my mother!” 

But let’s not be too quick to judge this artifact of Chinese culture. Let’s not forget the political opposition to plain paper packaging of cigarettes in Australia and to the millions of dollars spent by tobacco companies to fight Govt legislation aimed at curbing this addiction. Let’s not forget Australia’s drinking culture of which many are so proud, or of our gambling culture that ruins the livelihoods of many, or perhaps of a ‘white Australia’ which we once maintained. Cultural norms are devised by communities and emerge over time as being distinctive to a group of people whether they be artifacts of language, dress, cooking, food, drink, dance, religions and so on. Cultural beliefs can be a source of conflict within and among communities but have the capacity to change over time. Let’s just hope that Chinese culture will soon understand that the health costs of smoking far outweigh the tax revenue received.

ROMEO AND JULIET AND LOVELY WEST LAKE

The day begins with a pleasant boat ride on West Lake, a large but not very deep man-made lake whose calm waters shimmer in the misty morning light. A number of small connecting bridges hover in the distance and two Buddhist temples seem to provide a ghostly presence on nearby hills and willow-draped islands. It is a pretty scene as our guide, Terry, relates a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story from centuries past. 

A young girl lives by the lake with her wealthy parents. She is very smart but is not allowed to attend school where education is restricted to males. One day, she cuts her hair short and dresses up as a boy to attend school. Seeing how determined and smart she is, her father allows her to continue with her plan. She spends a lot of time studying with one particular boy and she falls in love with him. Eventually, she decides to tell her friend her story. He now understands his feelings for her but since she is from a wealthy family and he from a poor family they cannot marry. They try to separate by going to either ends of the small bridge over West Lake but their love for each other is too strong and they keep returning to each other. They each cross the bridge 18 times as if to make the small bridge a long bridge; but still they return to each other. 

The boy knows he must be able to raise significant money to pay the girl’s father if he is to marry her and he succeeds in getting a loan from his friends. He approaches the father and offers the money for his daughter. The father rebuffs him and offers the boy a lot of money to go away. Theboy goes but returns to try again. This time two bodyguards of the father take him away and beat him up and he dies from his injuries unbeknown to the daughter. Meanwhile, the father has found a suitable suitor for his daughter and a wedding is arranged. On the night of her wedding she runs away to find the boy she loves only to find the grave where he is buried. She flings herself into the grave to be with him and dies there. This is a famous story of West Lake and a movie has been made of it. Not a dry eye in the house! West Lake is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And later at the Shanghai Museum I found a painting of West Lake completed around 1200 C.E.

SILKY SUZHOU

You will recall from a previous post that from early in Chinese history, the Emperors understood that travel and transport from west to east in this huge country was easily facilitated along the three great rivers; but travelling overland from Beijing to the south of China was very difficult and time consuming. The grand idea of a canal running north to south intersecting with these east-west rivers was devised and ruthlessly implemented. The Grand Canal opened up the land for agriculture, transport and communication and towns developed along its length and breadth. Suzhou was one such small settlement that benefited from this development.

We first visited Suzhou, which dates back to 514 BCE, about twenty years ago on a bus tour out of Shanghai which is only 80 km to the south east. At that time, the highways were just being constructed and were being used only by trucks and taxis. Almost no one owned cars. We visited an operating silk factory, porcelain markets and the site of the burial place of an emperor which was kept secret by slaying all of the workers immediately after they had completed the location. We also visited the Lingering Gardens at that time and once again they are on this itinerary.

Suzhou has grown to a major modern city since that time. A visit to the silk ‘factory’ was similar to our visit to the jade ‘factory’ - more a demonstration of the process and then a hard sell of the products, all of which is standard practice anywhere one travels in the world. Most Aussie kids have had a box of silkworms at one time or another and many homes used to have a mulberry tree. Not sure whether that happens so much today. Silk of course is a wonderful product and very expensive in all its woven forms. M bought some silk socks!

A half hour cruise along one of the many side-canals of the Great Canal took us past the traditional old homes that somehow remain upright on foundations not even the Dodgy Brothers would take credit for. Nevertheless, the Government has allowed people to stay in these homes rent free provided they maintain them in their original condition (sort of ‘heritage listed’). We also take a walk among the streets where the residents sell all manner of merchandise. Still, the weather remains hot and humid. M gives in and buys a large Chinese fan. Finally, we leave Suzhou for our overnight stay in Hangzhou two hours by coach.