Showing posts with label china's loch ness monster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china's loch ness monster. Show all posts

Oct 4, 2007

Special Olympics in China

Thursday, October 04, 2007
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Next year, China will host the summer Olympics which, in addition to its importance as an international sporting event, will also be a spectacular showcase for China to the rest of the world. However, there's been a lot of news coverage lately about the Special Olympics currently being held in Shanghai, China (see this article or this one for example). This year's Special Olympics will involve 7,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities, including 1200 Chinese athletes (the largest national team in Special Olympics history).


The importance of this occurrence can't be underestimated for many reasons. For one, this is the first time the Special Olympics has been held in Asia where people with disabilities haven't generally received the same degree of support that they get in the U.S. and other Western nations. China, with its 1.3 billion population, obviously has a large number of disabled citizens - its estimated that there are over 60 million people with disabilities in China. Historically, the disabled were mostly hidden away at home in China and received little government support. Since the 1990's, that's started to change gradually with the enactment of laws protecting people with disabilities, government support programs and aid from private organizations.

Last Summer, while co-teaching a study abroad course from Belmont University, we visited a school for the disabled in Nanjing (see accompanying photos). Out of the many exciting things we saw in China, this was one of the experiences that seemed to stand out the most for the students. While the school was nothing special by American standards in terms of its facilities, it was clear from the dedication of the staff and the attitudes of the students that they were getting education, training and attention that could help them lead better lives. One of the teachers told us that some of these students were barely functional before coming to the school, whereas with the training and support they received, they could communicate and express themselves reasonably well, despite their disabilities. Hopefully, the publicity from the Special Olympics in China will lead to increased attention being focused on helping the disabled in China and elsewhere.

Sep 10, 2007

China's Loch Ness Monster

Monday, September 10, 2007
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As a child, I was fascinated by legends of the Loch Ness Monster, affectionately known as Nessie. While reading the China Daily newspaper today, I came across an article about China's Nessie (although they don't call it that so I'll dub it "Tessie"). It turns out that for over 100 years, there have been occasional Tessie sightings in Lake Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) which is located in northeast China's Jilin Province, bordering North Korean.

A Chinese TV reporter claims to have seen some of Lake Tianchi's alleged inhabitants a few days ago and shot a 20-minute video as well as some photos of 6 loch ness type animals. One photo supposedly shows the creatures swimming in 3 parallel pairs. There have been over 30 reported sightings by Chinese and foreign tourists in the past 20 years, some of which took photos and videos although apparently none are clear enough to determine exactly what has been photographed or recorded. Tessie has been described as a blackish green dinosaur-like creature with a round, black head with horns and scales on its back.

Lake Tianchi is a 1,243 feet deep, volcanic crater lake located at the foot of the Changbai Mountain. Rumors that the 373 m lake is the home of some kind of monster have existed for over a century although scientists claim the lake is too cold for large creatures to survive and that the lake's volcanic activity would not be too hospitable. Nevertheless, whether Tessie exists or not, like Nessie, the legendary monster is sure to attract tourists curious enough to want to get a look for themselves.

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