Looking for new linkages between Europe and Asia

For all the thinking I'm doing about China, another pair of countries often enough enter my focus on Pelting Out. Namely, Denmark and the Netherlands. I'd love to consider myself rather well qualified to freely associate random places and concepts - I'm using the pop psychology understand of the term, but I know there are many others. Still, these three countries present a lit'l brain teaser I've not yet detangled. I've got (for my purposes) one way in which Denmark, the Netherlands and China finish 1-2-3 in a manner of tabulation, just ahead of the United States. Are there others? Can there be others or is that free association just too random? Surely in a world this big and complex, there must be a way of crunching some esoteric numbers that will allow me to spin a yarn of connectivity between these three nations. So I throw it out there into the ether for a Labor Day. As I marvel at the sight of a table of snoozing Santa Barbarians in decidedly fresh surfer fashion (there's your oxymoronic sign for our nation's celebration of this holiday) - anyone got a clever, similar ranking for me of these global citizens?

Until the next page turns...may your flights be on time and all your fun family photos duly uploaded for sharing.

Prepping for a trip to China, tracking the roots of the ginseng trade

I'm preparing for a big trip in less than two weeks. I've known about it for the past few months and the timing is fortuitous given my writing plans. I'm still largely unsure of what I'll see along the way. No withheld mystery here - I'm going to China. 10 days, a chance for a big drink from a wide open firehose. I'm being afforded the chance to briefly explore Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Call it a trade mission, because I'm going with a group of Americans and Canadians whose purpose and interest in visiting China has a specific business implication. But I have plans to be personally adventurous (within safe bounds - hello, unseen all-knowing Internet sniffers) along the way. As a matter of educating myself, I've been reading a fair amount online, flipping through maps and guides, and asking questions of some well-placed friends and friends-of-friends. I'm also finishing off a book this weekend that just came out in August by Tom Scocca - titled Beijing Welcomes You. One direction he pointed me is to mention a travel guide titled Beijing By Foot that is made up of set of 40 maps (printed on cards) that itemize walks around the city. I noticed that journalist James Fallows wrote one of the blurbs on their website. Not bad. I contacted the publisher and they can send a copy to my hotel after I pay by PayPal. Call it the ultra-modern equivalent of getting a TripTic from AAA. Costs more, pays off much much more. I hope.

For today's clue about why I'm here, doing what I'm doing as the sun struggles to burn off the Santa Barbara fog a handful of hours earlier than most recent days. A tangent got me wondering about the Trans-Pacific (if that's what you can call the connection between China and the USA) trade of ginseng. I've always been struck by how little truth in labeling there is on any teas or Whole Foods-y things that feature ginseng. It's rather like trying to find out what part of the moon your moon rocks come from - complete lack of specificity. I suspect this has always been the case with ginseng. And the crazy part is that ginseng from the USA has been making its way to China for centuries. When the trade with Korea (the traditional source of most of the ginseng consumed in China) collapsed, American wild ginseng entered the breach. Eventually, cultivated ginseng became a new trade opportunity. The degree to which that continues, I'm now exactly up to date. But this is something I'm thinking about, for the time being. We'll see if I learn more during my visit.

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Until the next page turns...may you have a chance to go to the beach and eat pancakes after a workout.