Dinosaurs in Zigong, China

Since the theme of this week here has been inspired by my yet to reappear post, it seems to be the perfect moment to share my experience regarding something that has been missing for a much longer time: dinosaurs.

About the same time I was starting to wonder about my missing post, there was an article by Tania Branigan of the Guardian about China's numerous dinosaur discoveries (see here).  She focuses on the discoveries and museum in Zhucheng, Shangdong province and highlights a few species that may not be known to those who aren't dino-experts.

Coincidentally, I happened to be in Zigong, Sichuan province -- very far away from Zhucheng.  It, too, is famous for the numerous fossils in the region and boasts its own museum aptly named the Zigong Dinosaur Museum (not to be confused with another famous museum in Zigong, the Historical Museum of the Salt Industry).  I took a taxi to the outskirts of Zigong to check it out.

On arrival one is faced with the uniquely designed building seen here:

I believe this building is supposed to look a bit like a dinosaur.

At least the building was air-conditioned.  One of the signs for the park claimed:

"Covering an area of 8.7 km2, the Dashanpu Dinosaur Fossil Site Scenic Area, which is a core protected area with the most abundant dinosaur fossils in the geopark has the largest burial site for watching on-spot protected dinosaur fossils in the world.  From the excavated area of 2,800 m2, more than ten thousand specimens belonging to over 200 dinosaurs and other vertebrates have been unearthed, and 23 genera and 27 species, including 12 new genera and 24 new species, have been identified.  This kind of the site with such abundant and completely preserved dinosaur fossil of the Middle Jurassic is rare in the world."

With that in mind I was very excited and upon entering the park a worker guided me in the proper direction.  One of the first things I saw was this:

The models look like they're about to become extinct, too.

OK.  Admittedly this was not what I was expecting.  There were many other similar scenes to be found that included even more decayed examples of miniature dinosaur replicas.  Oh well...  But onward I went to the main museum building which proved to better meet expectations.

It housed several very large fossils, including this trio:

These are 3 wonderful specimens of the Shunosaurus (type species Shunosaurus lii).  In front of the display was a sign which read in part:

"Warm family: Three family members of Shunosaurus lii are walking and feeding leisurely.  What a warm and romantic scene!"

While I appreciated the Shunosaurus fossils I must admit the romanticism wasn't what I first noticed.  Maybe I was being shunned.

Several of the other fossil displays were certainly not romantic and had a strikingly violent tilt to them.  For example:

Dinner time

I question whether such a scene ever played out quite like this but I appreciate the drama it provided.  This one also had a bit of drama to it:

A bigger dinner

While the fossils such as the ones above were impressive and introduced me to several species I had not been previously aware of, what most impressed me was the very large partially excavated fossil pit enclosed in the museum:

Lots of fossils

Close-up view of one section of the fossil site

It was incredible to see so many fossils as they would be found during an excavation.  Both the density and variety were easy to notice.

The other sections of the park were closed for renovation.  Given the condition of the many dinosaur models outside this may be a positive sign and I am hopeful the future holds more promise for the park surrounding the main museum building.  Regardless, the museum in Zigong, like the one in Zhucheng, provides an important picture into a long ago age that captures the minds of so many today.  If one is around Zigong I recommend a quick trip to the museum -- the large fossil pit seals the deal.

And who knows, maybe you'll better appreciate the romance to be found there.

"Fallows was wrong"

As I'm still waiting for my missing post to reappear (or be told by Blogger it has gone to a more heavenly cloud than The Cloud), I think it's appropriate to do a post on something else that is missing (and of interest to me) in another case: data.

James Fallows includes at the end of a recent post a reference to his earlier claim about the impact of President Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate on the ridiculous debate over the President's place of birth:

"As Andrew Sullivan has pointed out, I guessed that even the long-firm birth certificate wouldn't change the minds of many hard-core birthers. I am very glad that real-world results are different and that, on this issue at least, actual evidence seems to have had some effect."

However, a look at Andrew Sullivan's post on The Dish with its charming "Fallows was wrong" suggests to me that Fallows shouldn't give up on his claim just based on that post. [note: I'm not sure if Sullivan's post was the sole piece of information that swayed Fallows.  It doesn't matter for my following points.]  Sullivan shares the following poll:

Apparently, this shows that Obama revealing his long-form birth certificate made an impact in changing people's minds.  As suggested in some opinions of others later shared by Sullivan (see here) the source of the change may be more about the killing of Bin Laden than the release of the long-form birth certificate.  It would be difficult to tease those two possibilities apart given the events were only separated by days.

But even if one disregards the possible influence of Bin Laden's death, it would be easy to be unconvinced by the data above because:

• It's just one poll.  It could be an outlier.
• There is no indication that the differences between the two years are statistically significant.  
• It is possible that opinions on the issue fluctuate greatly over short periods of time so the recent poll may not be an accurate stable measure.
• It compares two time points one year apart.  

It's the last point that really jumps out at me.  It is possible some or all of the above change occurred prior to Obama's releasing his long-form certificate.  One year leaves plenty of time for opinion to change for a variety of reasons and makes it very difficult to pinpoint the cause of any change -- a lot happens in one year.  For example, possibly some simply grew to accept Obama as President because "time can heal" and they became less motivated to believe he was not born in the US.

Polls from multiple time points, especially including one from a "before" time point far more proximate to Obama's announcement, would help address the above issues.  Sure, no matter how close the before and after polls one could argue that there was another cause.  But if there was a sudden and unusual significant change (compared to previous changes in opinion over comparable periods of time) between the days or even weeks before the announcement and those afterward a more solid argument could be made it was the result of Obama releasing his long-form certificate.

I realize in this case the ideal set of polling data might be unavailable.  Regardless, even just finding a more proximate comparison point than 1 year ago would make a big difference.  It appears that Public Policy Polling has such data (a link to a PDF report is provided in the relevant post here).  PPP writes:

"In February we found that 51% of Republican primary voters thought Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Now with the release of his birth certificate only 34% of GOP partisans fall into that camp... "

Again, I'd like to see more data.  But at least this offers a more reasonable point of comparison.  On the side, while PPP's data adds evidence that there was a change of opinion as a result of Obama's announcement, 34% of Republican primary voters still thinking Obama was not born in the United States also suggests there remains a large number of people in a "post-factual world".

So, the release of the the long form birth certificate may indeed have changed some minds of those who were previously convinced Obama was born outside of the US.  However, the data shared by Sullivan in the referenced post doesn't answer the question, even if you disregard the possible impact of Bin Laden's death -- at least another serving of data from The Dish is needed.

Where are you?

I think he has the same question about my missing post as I do:

In Zigong, Sichuan Province

Though, I might stop short of the "funny love".

The Usability of Futility

I want one of these on my desk:

H/T Electronics Lab Blog

Still Waiting for Missing Post

My view while I waited for something else -- lunch in Zhaotong, Yunnan

As before, my post "Mobile Phones in China: A Variety of Options" has still not reappeared after it was taken down by Blogger as part of their response to a problem they were having with "data corruption".  In its most recent update on the incident Blogger wrote:

Update (5/15 10:55PM PST): Blogger should be back to normal for the vast majority of people affected by this issue -- if posts are still missing, please check your drafts (you may need to republish). We are in the process of restoring comments made during the affected period from 7:37am PDT on 5/11 to 1:30pm PDT on 5/12. If you still have other issues, please contact us via the temporary form we’ve set up for this particular issue. Thanks again for bearing with us, we’re deeply sorry for the inconvenience we caused. We’ll share an incident report later this week.

I do now see a draft of the post in my Blogger "Posting - Edit Posts" panel but it is definitely not the final version.

Also, on the same screen I see that I supposedly have a posts label with a rather long name.  I can't get the symbols to appear in text so here is a screen capture:

It appears to represent the combined labels for a draft of yet-to-be-published post that now exists as two different copies in the "Posting - Edit Posts" panel.  While the combining of labels is interesting, I'm most curious about the meaning of the nifty boxes of numbers.  Anyone have some insights?  For more context, I was working on the relevant post when Blogger unexpectedly shut down, and I wasn't able to save the most recent version in Blogger (however, luckily I was able to save it on my computer).

Anyways, at least Blogger is providing a form to report remaining issues (which I have done).

A few readers have kindly noted that the missing post remains in at least some RSS readers and that it could be copied from there.  I will re-post myself if at some point there is information from Blogger indicating it's the best option.

So far, the message seems to be that all will be restored.

Blogger Downtime and Missing Post

I haven't posted for a while due to Blogger's extended downtime.  See here for Blogger's recent comments on the incident.  During that period of time, this blog, like others hosted on Blogger, was viewable but I was unable to write posts, edit posts, etc.  Additionally, to fix the problem Blogger removed a large number of posts.  My piece "Mobile Phones in China: A Variety of Options" apparently fit in that category and is still missing.  Blogger is reporting that most posts have been restored but based on Twitter activity I see I am not the only one waiting for a post to reappear. 

I'll likely wait to post anything substantial until my missing post reappears and can feel at least somewhat confident more fun isn't in store.

And best wishes to what I suspect is now a very stressed Blogger team.

Wondering if my post is still in the Cloud

Islam in China: Religious Beliefs, Political Goals, and Equality

I've done a few posts on religion in China using examples of Christianity (see here and here) and Islam (see here).  One larger issue I've tried to highlight is that while religious expression is repressed and controlled in some ways, in other ways it is practiced openly and without fear.

A video (see below) by Al Jazeera English further highlights how religion, in this case Islam, can be seen as both flourishing and repressed in China.  The video is from a couple years ago just prior to the Olympics in China but I think it's still applicable today.  In particular it draws attention to a distinction of apparent importance to the Chinese Government -- the potential differences between a group's religious beliefs and its political goals.  Claims are made by some that the Chinese Government is primarily concerned about the "politics" of religious groups, in this case the attempt to make a region of China independent.

After watching the video, I could imagine a Chinese diplomat speaking to a group of Americans and trying to defend some of China's actions regarding Muslim groups by saying, "Sure, you allow groups such as Mormons to practice their religion freely.  But how would America respond if a large group of militant Mormons was intent on making Utah an independent country?"

A point made at the end of the video about the limitations Muslims face in China brought to mind some discussions I've had with non-Muslim Chinese.  When I hear the claim that Uyghur people, an ethnic group in China that is predominantly Muslim, are treated as equals in China and have equal opportunities I'll sometimes ask, "Do you think a capable Uyghur would be allowed to become China's leader?".  The discussion on the topic usually ends there with a pensive reply of "no".

On the side...  The video seems reasonably consistent with the stated goals of Qatar-based Al Jazeera English to "provide independent, impartial news for an international audience and to offer a voice to a diversity of perspectives..."  By those standards I've seen worse at times from American news organizations.  But the gap between the Al Jazeera English report and those typical for equivalent Mainland Chinese news organizations is particularly striking.  I would very much welcome a day when they are able to produce and distribute equally impartial reports on issues where their audience or the Chinese Government may already have strong views.

Here's the video -- I think it's well worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch it:

Mother's Day in Zigong, China

I suspect a key question recently on many people's mind recently was "What happens on Mother's Day in China?"

I explored the issue in Zigong, Sichuan Province.  While it doesn't seem to get the attention it does in the US, at least among the younger people I spoke to there was a general consensus on the issue.

Whether it was these college students:

Or these sales people at a clothing shop:

Many were aware it was Mother's Day and said they would be giving their mothers a special call sometime that day.

Although it doesn't seem to get the commercial attention it does in the US, at least one place in Zigong took advantage of the day to have a special Mother's Day fashion show.

What store would hold a special fashion show on Mother's Day?  Some may be thinking "Walmart!".  Well, that would be ridiculous.  This is Zigong, so of course it would be:

Yes, Mall-mart -- a store that is similar in many ways to Chinese Walmarts elsewhere.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Coca-Cola: Not Only on Police Tents in Yunnan

Some recent travel combined with putting together several larger posts at the same time has caused a gap of sorts.

In the meantime, I'll do a very brief follow-up on my piece about Coca-Cola's support of the police in Kunming, China.

As you can see here:

Food carts in a street market

Drink carts in a street market

Coca-cola doesn't limit its advertising in Yunnan Province to police tents and can be found on these large umbrellas in street market in Zhaotong.

More on other topics, such as mobile phones and comparisons of life in the US & China, coming soon.

China Scenes: Zhaotong, Yunnan

I've done several recent posts involving the city Zhaotong, Yunnan (about a Muslim ethnic group, about youth's reactions to Bin Laden's death, and a photo of skateboarders) and I expect to do at least one more related to mobile phones.  To add some more color to the city here is a series of photos capturing some of what the younger people in Zhaotong enjoy doing when they have some free time.  I think several of the photos help capture that parts of China can be both so similar in some ways to the US and yet so different in other ways.  Just depends on how you look at it.

Playing basketball on a college campus

Playing pool along a street

Playing ping-pong on a college campus

Playing volleyball on a college campus

Playing at a lake beach in a city park

More playing at the beach

Hanging out at the park

Hanging out on the sidewalk

Playing at the arcade

Hanging out on a shopping street

Islam in China: Some Scenes from Zhaotong, Yunnan

Previously, I posted some of what I've seen of Christianity in China here and here.

Like my observations of Christianity in China, I was not specifically looking for instances of Islam in China.  However, I've had the opportunity to observe a small slice of of it.  One of China's numerous ethnic groups is the Muslim Hui people.  While Yunnan isn't one of the major regions for the Hui people in China, in Zhaotong it is impossible not to notice their presence.

I'll share a light selection of what I saw in Zhaotong.  Nothing deep here, just providing some color on Muslims in China (see here for more details about the Hui people).

While walking around Zhaotong one day I came across this mosque with a Muslim school and dormitories next to it on the right:

While prayer sessions were ongoing two younger boys invited me into the classroom & dormitory building to chat.  Their dorm room wasn't very different from some college dormitories I've seen in Southwest China:

When the prayers were finished numerous students and teachers came out of the mosque to return to their classrooms and dorms:

Hui people can be seen in many other parts of Zhaotong as well, typically doing the same things as other Chinese -- such as working in stores or attending college.  Here is a scene from a shopping street:

Also, there were numerous Hui people selling food in some street markets.  This lady was selling a tofu snack and an assortment of eggs:

I had several very enjoyable conversations with Hui people.  Probably the most memorable was this lady:

This was the 3rd photo of her trying to make her best face.

She struck me as someone who had no fear of being different and her strong sense of humor readily displayed itself.  She definitely provided an enjoyable change of pace.

Before I came to Zhaotong I was not aware it had any Muslim influence.  Now, I'll definitely never forget it.

Updates to Post About Reaction in China to Bin Laden's Death

I've added 2 significant updates to my previous post "Views on Bin Laden's Death in Zhaotong, China".

You can read them here.