Tag: sichuan

Taking off today on a Western Adventure

November 24, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve been traveling a bit and also preparing for an adventure that starts today.  I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join a group of Chinese environmental journalists on an info-gathering mission through Yunnan and Sichuan.  The focus of the Yunnan portion is the aftereffects of the recent drought, and the focus of the Sichuan portion is to check out the progress of hydroelectric dam construction on the wild western rivers of China.

I hope to explore further the actual implementation of environmental impact assessment (EIA)  procedures in China and eventually develop some insight into how the EIA system can be improved.

Here’s a web page about this mission from a previous year.  It’s all in Chinese but there are some cool photos.

…and Happy Thanksgiving!!!  Pour out some gravy for me.

Solar (and wind) power in rural China – Danba, Sichuan

November 3, 2010 / / 7 Comments

I visited Sichuan recently and was fortunate enough to spend a few days in a mountainous Tibetan region called Danba (丹巴), aka the Valley of Beauties (美人谷）.  Good looking people of both sexes did appear at an unusual rate in this area.  I think it has something to do with the clean water, clean air, abundant food resources, and generally positive outlook on life enjoyed by these people.  But that’s just a gut feeling.  I’m sure there are scientific and historical explanations.

I saw several different types of solar and wind power usage in Danba.  The county seat, a typical (though relatively clean), uninteresting, modern little town with cars and paved roads, had some interesting light posts:

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