Hong Kong prepares for its Olympic moment
Tuesday, 24th June 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Another day at the office
The 2008 Olympics have already focused global attention on Beijing, but other cities will also host selected competitions. Regatta events will take place in Qingdao and soccer/football matches will be held in Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin and Shanghai. Even Hong Kong – technically an 'international' flight from mainland China – will host the Olympic equestrian competition this year.
The decision to hold equestrian events in Hong Kong is tacit acknowledgment that the equestrian facilities and traditions in the former British colony are superior to its mainland counterparts. Despite the existing world-class facilities, organizers of the equestrian events in Hong Kong are addressing even seemingly minute details.
A prime example of this attention to detail is the hiring of Kunming-based arboricultural consultancy Asia Tree Preservation (ATP) to ensure that tree shade at the Hong Kong Golf Club complements equestrian events rather than interferes with the events and their broadcast.
ATP was established in Kunming last year by the father-son team of Don and Jon Picker plus longtime friend Jeff Legue, all certified arborists and Kunming residents. Don Picker has 25 years of experience as an arborist, a profession he says the average person has some difficulty understanding.
"Usually I'll tell people we're 'tree doctors'," said Picker, adding that despite the lack of general knowledge of arboriculture in Asia, the profession is quickly taking a foothold in this part of the world due to the training work done in Singapore by Dr Bill Fountain of the University of Kentucky.
"In Singapore, there's been about two or three hundred arborists certified in the last six years," Picker said. "Malaysia and Hong Kong have become increasingly interested in arboriculture in recent years too."
What is arboriculture? In a nutshell, it is the selection, management and removal of shrubs and trees with the aim of reducing hazards and promoting harmony with an area's needs. Arboriculture has been recognized as a profession for about 40 years.
In the remaining weeks leading up to Olympic competition, ATP will be helping the 122-year-old Hong Kong Golf Club with the management of its banyan trees and eucalypts, some of which are as high as 30 meters and require climbing and pruning by trained professionals. ATP was initially hired to help the golf club prepare for the Hong Kong Open golf tournament, after which they were asked to assist with the maintenance of the grounds for the Olympic events this summer.
Despite acceptance in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, arboriculture has yet to catch on in mainland China, said Don Picker, who is Chairman of the International Safety Committee of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). Picker is also an ISA-certified arborist. Last year he helped with the translation of the organization's Tree Climber's Guide into traditional Chinese – he said he hopes to help with a simplified Chinese version for the mainland soon.
According to both father and son, China could use the advice of a professional arborist, particularly with regard to the practices of 'topping' trees (cutting off the tree tops to encourage horizontal growth) and painting the lower portions of trees white.
"We'd like to see the elimination of 'topping' in China," Jon Picker said. "Topping exposes the trunk of the tree to rain, which leads to core rot, and the branches that grow after topping are susceptible to breaking in the future, which creates a hazard."
Chinese cities have a penchant for 'topping' trees
Strolling virtually anywhere in Kunming or other large cities in China one is able to see trees that have been topped. Most trees have also had their lower portions painted white, a practice that the Pickers cite as a major peeve in tree maintenance on the mainland.
"Historically, a lime base paint was used to repel insects and there has also been an illumination element to the white paint on trees," Don Picker explained, "But now it seems that the practice exists primarily because people think it looks beautiful."
After finishing their work in Hong Kong, ATP hopes to focus on cooperation with local universities in Kunming. However, as Don Picker acknowledges, few people appreciate the work of arborists as the aim of their work is generally subtle and unobtrusive.
"The challenge in our industry is that the average person doesn't really look at trees until something grabs their attention, which usually happens after some kind of environmental damage occurs or a tree has been pruned," the elder Picker said. "Arboriculture is both a science and an art - we prune in a way that doesn't alter the tree's appearance."
Tags: arboriculture, Asia Tree Preservation, Don Picker, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Golf Club, Olympics
Joe Alexander to play with Yi?
Tuesday, 24th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
When we first mentioned basketball player Joe Alexander here, he was projected by ESPN's Chad Ford as the 13th pick in the NBA Draft, going to the Portland Trailblazers. One month and six mock drafts later, Ford has Alexander going eighth to the Milwaukee Bucks. What are they so excited about? Among other things, dunks like this one:The 6'8" small forward from West Virginia University spent most of his early basketball years in Beijing, Taiwan and Hong Kong before moving to the Maryland to finish high school. If he ends up playing with the Milwaukee Bucks, it would mean that Chinese player Yi Jianlian has a teammate with whom he can share more cultural common ground. And if rumors about Alexander's language skills are true, he'd also have a fellow Mandarin speaker on the team.
It would also mean huge endorsement potential for Alexander in China, should he begin to put together a solid NBA career. If Houston Rockets role player and non-Mandarin speaker Shane Battier can get a shoe deal here, what's the potential for an explosive young player who knows the country and the language?
As his draft prospects improve, Alexander is getting more media attention, and that attention is looking a little more closely at his years in China.
In an article on U.S. college sports Web site Rivals.com, Adrian Wojnarowski looks at what motivated Alexander in high school and college.
Of his habit of spending so much time in the WVU gym that he would sleep in the locker room, Alexander gave a response that would make any Chinese model worker proud:
"It wasn't like I was putting in 12 hours a day there," he said. "But it was really a product of my mentality toward what I'm doing in life. Why do I need to go home? What am I going to do there? Watch TV? I had nothing else going in my life. Nothing else mattered. At night, I just need someplace soft to sleep. And the couch in the locker room was fine."
He also said several things that indicated how different his perspective was from his American teammates', including this:
"I always felt over there that the idea wasn't to be good when you started, but work hard and become good eventually. Here, I get the sense that it's too much of, 'I'm not good at basketball, so that means I'm not going to be good.' That shouldn't be the mentality."
We can't wait to see how his nickname, "Vanilla Sky," translates into Mandarin. How about 香草天堂？
Tags: basketball, Joe Alexander, NBA, Yi Jianlian
The Ping Pong Diplomats
Tuesday, 24th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The following was contributed by Beijing resident Michael Pigott. Want to share something going on in your corner of China? Go to our contribute page.Beijing—Foreign diplomats living in Beijing received a taste of China's national sport when they participated in the 2008 Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament
The Serbian Embassy made it to the semi-finals.
The winner of the women's singles competition was Poland's Beata Sudar and the runner-up was the Philippines' Myca Magnolia Fischer. The team competition was taken out by Indonesia, who defeated the tournament's surprise packet Iran in the hard-fought final. The winning Indonesian team comprised two players, Bambang Purstyadi and Firdaus Amir.
The tournament's draw and its referees were organised by the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA), which gave the tournament a professional touch. The holding of the tournament, which carried the theme 'Rally for friendship and harmony', coincided with the 50th day before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Tags: Chinese Table Tennis Association, Diplomats' Table Tennis Tournament, ping pong, recreation, table tennis