Australian animals in the wild (of the ACT)

Last weekend, we took up Reece and Amy's kind offer and went and spent the weekend down in Canberra.  When they asked us what we wanted to do on the weekend, there were two things on our mind.

"Molly really wants to see Australian animals in the wild"

Sure! There's definitely emus around..

and there's plenty of black swans on the lake..

if we are really lucky we'll see a platypus.

(You could see it better in person, but its right on the other side of the lake, slightly right of centre)

We'll have to watch out for snakes..

(Brown snake - 2nd most venomous land snake)

but what is really amazing is seeing kangaroos hopping through the bush.

"That was great fun, thanks. How about we play some games like in the old Beijing times?"

Sure!

Amy starred on the darts, but Reece had an awesome moment, racking up a PB with 3 triple-19's - 171.

Amy mid-throw at Molkky.

Thanks for a great weekend Reece, Amy, and Maddy!

Wine tasting party

To celebrate our one year anniversary, Molldrew decided to hold a blind wine tasting, an idea borrowed from our friends in the Agriculture Department at the Australian Embassy. Everyone was asked to bring a bottle of wine. We then covered up the names of the wines and went around tasting them!

The evening was great fun, aided by our friends bringing along a diverse selection of wines. It was great chatting with friends and acting like we were wine experts!

The results were:

In the red wines category:

1. #20 Smithbrook Pemberton (AUS) - Cab Sav 2008 (Average Rating: 2.67 out of 5)
2. #14 Pirramimma (AUS) – McLaren Vale Petit Verdot Vintage 2008 (2.58)
3. #12 Trapiche Varietals (ARG) – Malbec 2010 (2.27)
4. #8 Windy Peak (AUS) - Pinot Noir 2011 (2.17)
5. #17 Georges Dubduef (FRA) – Merlot Pays D'oc 2009 (1.73)
6. #11 Chateau Mrjosse (FRA) – Bordeaux (1.36)

The French reds took a pounding. And the top rating red was provided by... surprise, surprise, Anita!

In the white wines category:

1. #15 Fiorella (AUS) - Moscato 2011 (3.88)
2. #16 Lindemans (AUS) - Porphyry Blanc (3.43)
3. #6 Arrogant Frog (FRA) - Sav Blanc 2011 (2.83)
4. #9 British American Tobacco (ANZ) – Pinoy Chardonnay 2009 (2.70)
5. #2 Stoneleigh (NZ) – Sav Blanc 2011 (2.63)
6. #21 Olvine (AUS) - Little Wine Company - Viognier 2006 (2.14)

Nice to see the French make a good recovery there! However, if you want to keep most people happy, choose Moscato.

In the other wines category:

1. #3 Fresita (CHI) – Sparkling wine with handpicked Strawberries (3.27)
2. #1 Stone's (AUS) Original Green Ginger Wine (3.12)
3. #13 Golden Drop Mango Wine (AUS) - Sweet (2.50)
4. #5 Golden Drop Mango Wine (AUS) - Medium (2.31)
5. #7 Egervin (HUN) - Debroi Harslevelu – Med Sweet white (1.28)

The Fresita was a crowd favourite. It was the only wine fully consumed on the night.

The Green Ginger Wine was a nice pick by Catherine, as it was the most divisive wine of the night. Most people either loved the ginger flavour (and gave it 5 stars), or hated it (and gave it practically nothing).

The big disappointment of the evening was the Hungarian wine, the notorious #7. Hungarian wines stormed the Australian Embassy wine tasting, but this one really didn't make the grade.

In the others category:

#4 Wildbrumby Schnapps - Pink Lady Apple Liqueur (3.91)

Very tasty and a nice way to end the night.

Which then led us to an interesting question.. Did people like more expensive wines? To this we turned to statistics..

It seems that spending more money on wines did not have much of an effect on the average person's enjoyment. Our group seemed to prefer the cheaper white wines to the more expensive red ones.

Thanks everyone for coming, it was a really great time!

China’s housing bubble: moving towards logic

It begins as it always does. With someone getting a little extra money.

So they think, what do they do with it?

Well in China, they could put it in the bank, but interest rates are lower than inflation.

They could put it in the stock market, but the only people who make money there are insider traders.

Sending it overseas to invest is difficult to say the least, due to China’s control of the capital account.

Well, it would be nice to upgrade to a better apartment they say, so they decide to buy a new house to live in.

Marvellous! So they buy a house, and their similarly rich friends also buy houses. Suddenly house prices are rising and the market is looking good.

And China's rapidly growing economy means people are making more money! But what should they do with that?

How about investing in property? Don’t worry about renting it out, rents are low, and renters will just spoil the place. Buy property and hold onto it purely for price gain.

Well prices are still rising, and there’s a great apartment deal across town. Luxury apartments (expensive, but high returns expected), 20 minutes from town, right next to the subway station. It looks a steal. They buy in.

It is a steal. Prices keep rising and they quickly amass a fortune.

Up and coming families then get jealous of others' wealth. The luxury apartments 20 minutes from town are very expensive now, but there’s some nice ones 40 minutes from town, a 20 minute bus ride to the subway.

So they pool their money together, take out a loan for the other 50% of the property value and buy in.

And they make money too! The loan is quickly paid off, and the family is rejoicing in riches.

People are making more and more money. And there are still no good investment options other than property.

So they keep pouring more money into luxury apartments. They take out a 50% loan and buy a luxury apartment where? Oh who cares where! They all make money. Some even buy properties in the middle of the desert... (http://molldrew.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/lost-city-of-ordos.html)

Ordos, housing for 1.5 million people, Population: not that many

And so, China builds a property bubble where the richest buy luxury apartments built purely for capital gain.

So the bubble continues on and on. But what happens if the dream ends? What happens if people start getting scared that luxury property prices are going to fall?

Well that's where we are now. The central government saw the bubble emerging and instigated a slowdown. This pricked the confidence of the housing market. And the impacts are noticeable, with the Real Estate Climate Index in China now at a lower level than during the Global Financial Crisis.

But is this a bad thing? Well strangely enough, probably not.

For starters, this housing downturn is unlikely to trigger a financial collapse like the US one did. Most housing loans are only for 50% of the house value, so house prices would need to drop at least 50% for most buyers to be tempted to default on the loan. This would only occur in the worst type cases.

Some developers will likely go bankrupt and owe banks money. But, with China's big 5 banks making combined profits of around US$100 billion over the past year, they can afford to lose out on some loans.

The advantage of the downturn is that it helps people think logically. A downturn reminds investors that they can lose money on housing. This will make people think less about luxury apartments and more about what to invest in to make a solid return in the future.

So, do good housing projects still exist?

Yes. The interesting thing about this housing bubble is that there is still strong demand for Chinese housing, as this recent paper by the Reserve Bank of Australia ascertains. (http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2012/pdf/rdp2012-04.pdf) However, demand is coming from middle-income families who want a house to live in. These people can't afford the already-built luxury apartments, but are interested in smaller, cheaper apartments with reasonable access to utilities.

Previously developers shunned middle-income housing because it didn't make the same profits as the luxury apartment bubble. However, with profits in luxury apartments disappearing, their best source of revenue will become medium-cost housing.

So strangely, by aligning what developers build with where the owner-occupier demand is, this housing slowdown could be the best thing that could have happened in China.

Disclaimer: This blog reflects my personal views and does not reflect those of any organisation I am associated with.

Exploring in Oz: Southern Highlands

Molly and I first met through our mutual interest in exploring Beijing. As we have detailed in previous blog posts, we would like nothing more than going out to the middle of nowhere in Beijing and seeing what was there.

Such trips were a wonderful way to get away from it all, and to get a good feel for where we lived. So when we came to Australia, we thought, why not try to keep up a similar exploring spirit here?

So far we've been urban exploring (more on that at another time), and hosted a Sydney version of the Amazing Adventure Race.

What we are trying to do now is to explore more of New South Wales on short trips. This is an account of our trip to the Southern Highlands.

Map showing location of Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains (Blue Mountains to be discussed in later post)

Getting to the Southern Highlands by public transport is a surreal experience. They haven't electrified the rail line, so from Campbelltown onwards you catch a diesel single-decker train.

The journey down was gorgeous as the wattle trees were in full bloom. I wasn't aware how common wattle trees are in the Southern Highlands until this journey but they are dotted all along the train line.

Our first stop-off point was the quaint town of Bowral.  Bowral is famous for its historic buildings, cafes and its cricket museum.

The town was cosy and sitting in cafes was a lovely way to wind away a few hours.

The cricket museum was full of historical facts and some fun exhibits..

Trying out a cricket training technique used by Australia's best batsman. 

A few more interactive exhibits would definitely add to the museum.  I would love to see a bowling machine so you can face cricket balls sent down at the same pace as the bowling greats.

After the museum, we climbed the nearest hill to get a look at the town. The small country town setting really stood out from up above.

On the Sunday we went up to Trainworks, the Rail Transport Museum in Thirlmere.  Amusingly the rail museum is not at an active train station (We had to walk 3.5km from Tahmoor train station to get there). Trains now use a alternate track that is less hilly.

As we went on a Sunday we were able to take a 50 minute steam train ride, which was good fun!

The museum was very interesting. A wide variety of trains and train maps..

Sydneysiders, what's going on with the yellow line? All those extra stations!

The most interesting fact we learned was that steam engines rarely shut down between trips.  If turned off, steam engines will need several hours to 'boot up' to be ready.

Definitely worth a look, and overall it was a great weekend away!

Favourite cheapish hotels in China

This is a rough guide of our favourite hotels from our travels around China.

Firstly I should start with we are not that picky. We like hotels that are cheap, clean, well located, and have easy internet access. Anything else is a bonus.

We have only included hotels we liked. If we thought they were okay, we left them out, thinking you would be better off trying a random one on CTRIP or ELONG.

Take our advice as trying to help, but at your own risk.

Beijing

Home Inn Dongzhimen

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/beijing-hotel-detail-15701/home-inn-dongzhimen

Location, location, location. Right next to major subway station, bus terminals (to the Great Wall etc). Sanlitun and some tasty restaurants (our Sanlitun food guide) are just a walk away.

Chengde, Hebei

Bifeng Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/chengde-hotel-detail-26028/bifeng-hotel-chengde-city

Short walk to the glorious Chengde Mountain Resort, our room had mirrors on the ceilings. Tip: Don’t be late with your time of arrival. We were 30 mins late and the receptionist seriously considered cancelling our booking! Note: the entrance is around the side/back from where you would expect.

Chengdu, Sichuan

Home Inn People’s Park

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/chengdu-hotel-detail-25389/home-inn-people-park-branch

Next to the charming People’s Park that is lovely for a sit-down for a pot of Sichuanese tea. The café in the hotel does a good beef noodles.

Dongsheng, Inner Mongolia

Hongye Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/ordos-hotel-detail-67559/hongye-hotel

A great stop-off point for viewing the wonders of Ordos.  The hotel has close bus connections to Ordos, and if you walk east, you can find the heart of the city, with charming restaurants and a big public square.

Guangzhou, Guangdong

Guang Dong Bai Yun City Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/guangzhou-hotel-map-21179/guangdong-baiyun-city-hotel

A little noisy next to the train station, but near the wonderful Yuexiu Park, which I can walk around for days.

Hong Kong

Silka West Kowloon

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/hong-kong-hotel-detail-22613/silka-west-kowloon-hotel

If you want a step up from Chungking Mansions, this is the place. Cheap (for HK), close to the subway, and a moderate walk to sites including the Temple Street Night Markets. Great breakfast.

Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan

Youu Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/jiuzhaigou-hotel-detail-76483/youu-hotel

This quirky hotel/hostel is pretty, with interesting furnishings, friendly English speaking staff. Short taxi ride to Jiuzhaigou.

Kashgar, Xinjiang

Seman Hotel

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1152622-d505759-Reviews-Seman_Hotel-Kashi_Xinjiang_Uygur.html

This oddly named hotel has some great qualities. Nicely located, a wonderful restaurant with healthy safe-to-eat food, and they organise trips to the Himalayas and bordering countries.

HOWEVER, nearby is a Pakistani restaurant that is recommended in some guidebooks. As seasoned Chinese travellers, we went there, had the meat dish and were VIOLENTLY ill for 2-3 days, and remained sick for a week.

Qingdao, Shandong

Starway Hotel Qingdao Beer Museum

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/qingdao-hotel-detail-44002/starway-hotel-qingdao-beer-street

Well located for the Beer Museum, an extensive street market and vendors who will happily sell you beer in a bag, this hotel is cheap and has great service.

Sanya, Hainan

Huaxin Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/sanya-hotel-detail-46323/huaxin-hotel

5 minute walk to beach, fresh fruit in the room each day. Yum! Note: Staff very inexperienced about registering foreigners to stay.

Shanghai

Starway Jiaxin Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/shanghai-hotel-detail-43903/starway-jiaxin-hotel-shanghai

This isn’t a hotel for someone who wants to be in the centre of Shanghai. It is about 15 minutes from the centre, right next to two train lines. What I particularly like about this hotel is its surroundings. Walking around nearby will take you to a wide variety of restaurants. (Fast food close by, Chinese different cuisine if you go further) Avoid hotel breakfast.

Turpan, Xinjiang

Name unknown

Go to the Turpan bus station, and on Lao Cheng Xi Lu go west 100 metres. The hotel is on the north side of the street, roughly opposite the market entrance.

Good air conditioning (a must for Turpan’s 45C summer), cheap (RMB150/night for 2 rooms shared by 5 people), and well located opposite the main markets.

Xiamen, Fujian

Gulang Villa Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/xiamen-hotel-detail-2337/gulang-villa-hotel

Relatively expensive yes, but Gulang Villa Hotel is located on an island with a lovely European village-feel. Surrounded by fish restaurants, it is a great place to get away from people (in winter at least, it’s probably packed in summer!)

Yangshuo, Guangxi

Yangshuo Regency Holiday Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/yangshuo-hotel-detail-19950/yangshuo-regency-holiday-hotel

Well located, stunning views out your window and a solid breakfast.

The Amazing Adventure Race - Sydney 2012 Photos and Tasks!

Molldrew have both had a growing fascination with the Amazing Race adventure series. The prospect of dashing around the world solving clues seems an amazing challenge, considering all the logistical issues and strange challenges that you need to take part in.

From this idea, Molldrew and the Guihots decided to get together and create the Amazing Adventure Race. The rules of the event were based on the Polaris series in Australia, where teams would have six hours to go to various checkpoints around the city and complete tasks worth varying levels of points. Taxis were not allowed, but biking or using public transport was.

In 2011, three teams took part in the inaugural race in Beijing, Molldrew, the Guihots, and Kristen and Cait. A recount on that Amazing Race can be found here. http://molldrew.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/amazing-beijing-adventure-race-round-1.html

By 2012, we and the Guihots had left China for Australia. So Molldrew decided why not do it again here? 

This time NINE teams took part in the Adventure Race around Sydney. Some of our favourite photos (including those of teams doing checkpoints), are shown below.

Preparation

Teams hurriedly using their half hour to prepare.

Luna Park - Take a picture of a teammate under the teeth

Four teams go straight from the start to Luna Park

Filiz makes friends at Luna Park

David Jones - Take a picture of a price tag for an item that costs over $1,000

Some teams went into this task wanting to just quickly find something over $1,000 and get out of there. Sam and Rufina however, wanted to smash the $1,000 barrier.

 Ralph Lauren make tables? 

To quote Sam "Yes it was a nice table. But I couldn't imagine spending more than $5K on it."

Colindia Reserve - Walk the entire length of the beach

This clue was meant as a trick. While teams may have read the clue and envisioned a 2K walk, in reality the beach is about 20 metres long!

Some teams took the quick approach..

Willem halfway in his wide paced 'trek' across Colindia Reserve Beach

While Reece took a longer staggering version that was hilarious. When I get hold of the video, I'll post it below.

Flora and Knight Reserve - Climb the small climbing wall

With playgrounds becoming more safe these days, it is great to see a playground come up with an uber cool climbing wall!

Molly and Deb show different styles on the climbing wall

Food glorious food!

It appears teams love the food tasks, but only one team ended up taking all three food tasks: gelato at Leichardt, cream puffs at Chinatown, and portugese tarts in Petersham.

Careful planning by hosts ensured food kept coming

IKEA - Take a picture of a team member trying out the beds

Harking back to our Beijing days, this task asks teams to recreate the China IKEA experience, where families go to IKEA stores and let their kids sleep in the beds, and hold dinner parties around the dining tables.

 Brita takes a very dignified lie-down

  Sam and Rufina ran hard all day. Rufina takes a moment to have a micro-sleep.

Sydney Park - Find the human sundial exhibit and use it to tell the time.

Mental note: Don't rely on it being sunny when coming up with tasks!

Pete consults his watch to tell the time after clouds render the sundial useless.

Darling Harbour - Divert a small stream

This cryptic clue lead teams to do a variety of things. What we (and Deb and Willem) did is head for the kids playground, where they have water flowing down a hill. Kids can change which way the water flows by moving a gate.

We like teams doing tasks their own way - Willem and Sam show different ways to divert a small stream in Darling Harbour

Paddy's Markets - Buy Andrew a quirky birthday present. Maximum spend: A$10. Most quirky present gets 20 bonus points

Boy did this ensure we recieve a remarkable selection of gifts. Everything from Chinese lanterns, boxing kangaroo pens to ice cream sunglasses.

The winner however, came from Anton and Dee, with their 3 x 3 x 4 Rubik's cube.

Art Gallery of NSW - Take a picture of an artwork with a dog in it

Very cute and fluffy!

Afterwards, dinner gave teams a chance to exchange stories of the day

The winners with their trophies

 Well done to Sam and Rufina! Worthy winners.

A Hong Kong pictoral: Whitening fetish, public voting and taking photos

Advertisers: Stop the whitening fetish!

Cathay Pacific magazine: Halfway down – “fair face is the best canvas for any style”

The whitening craze in HK has hooked advertisers, with products offering whitening this and whitening that.  I can let this go up to a point, but when Estee Lauder have a Chinese supermodel say a “fair face is the best canvas for any style”, I question the company’s ethics.  Asian women should not feel that a natural darker skinned face cannot be a beautiful canvas.

Public voting

In Hong Kong, only a selected minority (1,200 HK residents) get to vote in the Chief Executive election held on Sunday.  However, some citizens are pushing for HK to move towards democracy.  To further their cause, enterprising HK democrats have set up a website where HK residents can vote for one of the three choices (shown in the picture above).  The website is secure, ensuring a fair voting process.  Website operators hope that 50,000 HKers will vote, but judging by their advertising, the vote may be considerably higher.  In typical China bluntness, the mainland bureau in HK has complained that the public vote makes a mockery of the actual non-representative election.

Taking photos

This storefront refers to a recent HK scandal where a shop allowed rich mainlanders to take pictures of a shop’s storefront, but banned local HKers from doing so.  Mainlanders have been coming to HK in recent numbers (28 million in 2011) largely to take advantage of the zero sales tax rate.  The number of mainlanders has caused concerns in HK due to cultural differences, perceived unequal treatment, and mainlanders seeking HK social benefits.