Poll: Fog or Pollution

This is the view we woke up to this morning when we looked out the window of our hotel room.  But is it fog or smog? 

We want to know what you think, so post your guess in the comment section below, and later today I’ll post an update with the answer.

A trip to a market in Shanghai

Although we are already in Beijing here a little video on something from Shanghai. On my search for soybean farmers I went to a food market in Shanghai. The market is more than 6 football field large. Thousands of farmers and traders are trying to sell their produce to shop owners and local people. And it you can get almost anything on this market from a banana to live frogs. See the video by clicking on the link below.

Get a glimpse from the Shanghai market - just follow the link:

A Visit To Tsinghua University

Today I checked out Tsinghua University to interview athletes and students. Toby, my guide, biked around the University with me riding on the back of his bike, which was quite the adventure. I got the chance to interview two Olympic hopefuls, including a member of the Chinese National Shooting Team. I even went to a shooting range today...but I’ll save that for my story. The University, one of the most prestigious in all of China, as Toby explained, is quite large, with numerous athletic facilities where athletes can train. Numerous classes were outside today, because the weather was so temperate. That includes the martial arts class, hopefully which you can see in the video below.

Students practice Martial Arts at Tsinghua University:

Illinois Business Growing in China

The number of Illinois based companies doing business in China has nearly tripled in the last five years.  The head of the Illinois Trade office in Shanghai, Zachary Zhao, told me there are now 300 Illinois companies operating in China.  In 2002, that number was slightly more than 100.  Zhao says it’s more than low labor cost that entices Illinois companies to move to China.  He says the opportunity to market their product to China’s 1.3 billion population is hard to pass up. 

One of those companies operating in China is Littelfuse, based in Des Plaines.  I visited Littelfuse’s biggest and first Chinese facility in Suzhou this week and spoke with the head of Asian Operations.  Dan Onken is a UIUC graduate who grew up in Piper City.  Littelfuse makes a variety of circuit protection products in Suzhou, west of Shanghai.  The fuses go into cars, trucks, consumer electronics, cell phones, and just about everything electronic.  Littelfuse makes one billion fuses a year in Suzhou.  Plant manager Galen Song says there are more than 10,000 western companies with facilities in the Suzhou area alone. 

Peoria-based Caterpillar is another company that’s been in China since the middle 1970s.  CAT has 18 facilities in China and just broke ground on a new one in Wuxi.  CAT’s CEO says China and its other Asian facilities are an important component in the company’s ability to produce profits.  China now accounts for about 2.5% of the company’s total sales.  By 2010, the head of CAT’s Asian operations says China will make up 10% of corporate sales.  CAT’s domestic sales have been sluggish lately.  China’s fast growing economy--at an average 10% GDP per year--and improvements in infrastructure have increased demand for Caterpillar’s earth moving equipment and diesel engines.  CAT is so big on China, it moved its Asian headquarters from Tokyo to Beijing this past fall. 

Caterpillar Building in downtown Shanghai

The Fixers

Here’s to the Fixers…the hard-working locals who bend over backwards to make journalism happen in foreign areas.  We had a fantastic team of people from Taizhou #1 High School showing us where to go and what to do in order to gather the necessary elements for the e-waste story.  They booked our hotel, bargained with drivers, got us access to a scrapping facility, translated, and took several hours out of their busy work-days to make all this happen.  I wasn’t sure how successful my Taizhou excursion would be, given the logistical challenges.  Our guides made this an incredibly productive experience.  Thank you to the Fixers of Taizhou, China.