Top ten: things that are common in the US, but are rare in China

 Friends, family, and colleages,

In an effort to make a few shorter posts for those who don't have all day to read my ramblings on China, I have a series of top-ten lists.

1. Social media: the Chinese government has blocked most social media, including Facebook, twitter and Instagram. I think it has something to do with cutting down on dissention/organized protests. I use the VPN to get around this.
2. Google: all things google are blocked. Which makes it difficult, since my default email is powered by google. Again, the VPN is useful in this regard.
3. Cheese: In the US, we smother a lot of dishes in cheese. Here, I’ve had one or two dishes with cheese (one of which was a pizza shop). Cheese in the markets are very expensive as well.
4. Water fountains: If you drink water all day like most Americans, you’ll have a hard time adjusting to China. Though nearly every office has a water boiler for tea.
5. Wifi: In my office, the only way I can get WiFi is to plug in a little device into my laptop and it turns computer into a mini-router. There are no dedicated routers in my office, though there are routers in the mall
6. Refrigerators: In the US, there’s one in nearly all the student offices, plus one in the break room. Refrigeration is rare except for essential activities. I don’t know about individual apartments.
7. Soda: It’s available in some stores, but it isn’t nearly as ubiquitous as it is in the US. It’s rarely served in restaurants here.
8. Gasoline-powered scooters: Both at UF and China, there are plenty of scooters, but most of the scooters here are electric (and subsequently very stealthy, look both ways before crossing the street!)
9. Silverware: chopsticks for days!
10. Coffee: In China, green tea is much more popular. As a result, I haven’t had a cup of coffee in several weeks. There are a few coffee-shops in the mall, but the prices are about the same as a starbucks in the US.

In China, they eat pizza with their hands, but they wear gloves to keep their hands clean.

Mason

Energy and Development

Friends, family, and colleagues,

First, let me apologize for not posting in a bit. To say I've been busy is an understatement. I've been making a lot of progress with the research, which is good. After all, that's the primary reason I'm here.

For this post, I want to share my observations on two topics that go hand in hand; energy and development.

Energy:

Energy is used slightly differently in China compared to the US. The resource isn’t scarce, but there are a lot of people. Air conditioning is rarely used. Refrigeration is used for essential functions. We have two coolers in the three labs we share here. There are no mini-fridges in the offices. Water is served hot (for safety) and they don’t see a need to cool it down afterwards. Public transportation is encouraged and is very affordable. I took the bus the other day for 2 RMB (about 33 cents American).

Green/alternative/renewable energy is a big topic both here and in the US. However, the questions they ask are entirely different. In the US, the typical question is “How can we use renewable energy to make more electricity?” In China, however, the questions are often “How can we use renewable energy to use less electricity?” In China, energy conservation is heavily encouraged. From what I could gather from the energy conservation is also pitched to the people as good citizenship/patriotism. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though I don’t know how that would be received in western cultures. Most of the energy conservation is pitched as a saving money on bills.

Take for example hot water. In both the US and China, each home typically has a water heater, the purpose of this device is to heat water and make showers bearable (among other uses). In my household growing up, this was in the basement. I’m guessing it was placed there to be close to the water pump. In the US, you can typically buy an electric or a gas powered heater. Now, in China, the hot water situation is a bit different. It is much more common to find a solar heater, which uses the power of the sun to heat the water. These are found on the roof of buildings in nearly every household. I have a photo of one posted below. (Note: These are broad observations and I’m sure there are exceptions in both cases.)

A typical solar heater in China.
While these are available in the US, they're not nearly as prevalent as they are here.

Development:

China is growing fast. When I say fast, I mean as fast as possible. Large cranes are a common sight in every city. When a building is completed, move-in is immediate. The institute is in a brand new building, and there is still construction dust on the door frames and wrappers on the door handles. My dorm room just got the screens last night and the guy installed them in seconds and quickly left to install the next ones. The packing tape was still attached. There is an intense demand for building space and housing, which contributes to the boom in construction.

It’s not uncommon to see multiple cranes going in a building complex. I have probably seen over 200 cranes since I’ve been here. I’m told that large trucks are not allowed to deliver materials during the day. At night, however, numerous trucks can be seen on the city streets (and even more so on the city’s highways). I’ve also been reading reports that Chinese development is slumping as of late.

From what I can ascertain, a lot of the buildings being erected are apartment complexes. Housing is in extremely short supply. This shortage has resulted in very high housing prices. An older flat in Nanjing is priced around $400,000. As a result, a lot of the people rent, which, at 3,000RMB a month, it isn’t cheap either.

Even in the slump, the growth rate of China is astronomical!

Hope all is well. I will be home soon! The Wi-Fi at the mall is really buggy, so I apologize for not posting more photos. I'll try to post tomorrow when there are fewer people on the routers.

Mason

Culture Shock: Chicken fingers?

Friends, family, and colleagues, 

These posts titled "Culture shock" will include items that are starkly different from something we would see in the US. While I'm not necessarily shocked by them, I notice that they are very unusual compared to what we would normally see in everyday America. I hope you find these amusing and entertaining.

So, one of the students offered me a snack today. Not wanting to be rude, I accepted it without hesitating. I bit into it and noticed that it was salty, yet spicy. Only then did I look down to see what I was eating. 

It still has the claw. I guess so you can pick your teeth afterwards.

When I was a little kid, we used to slaughter the extra roosters and eat them. When I was 8 years old, I thought it would be so cool to keep all the chicken feet. So, my father being the loving man he is, gave me all the feet, which I kept in a paper bag for well over 2 months. Looking back, that was really gross. Even then, I would never think about eating them. 

So, not being rude, I kept eating it. The texture is about what you'd expect, rubbery and chewy. I didn't eat it whole, rather I just gnawed on it for a while. At least it was seasoned well. 

Comfort zones are overrated anyway.

Mason

Cooperative Extension Part 2

Friends, family, and colleagues,

This is the continuation of our outing in Dongtai. You can find part 1 on a previous post.

After we talked to the grower at Dongtai, we traveled to another operation with a “new disease” in their operation. As extension folks, we love disease, but to really get an extension pathologist excited, use the words “new disease”. The symptoms were described as a swelling at the base of the rootstock plant and wilting of the scion plant. This was a problem only on the grafted watermelon, though his nongrafted melons had wilting as well. While we drove to the field, Dr. Paret and I speculated on what we might find. Is it a bacterium? A virus? Herbicide damage?

Typical operation in Dongtai, Jiangsu Province. Melons are grown under protected structures.

Grafting vegetables

As I mentioned in an earlier post, nearly all the watermelon in China is grafted. To graft a watermelon, the seedling is cut and then reattached onto a closely related species (gourd or pumpkin usually). The top portion (the watermelon) is called the scion while the bottom portion is called the rootstock. This is very popular in the US for tree fruit production to dwarf the plants to make harvesting easier. There is a lot of utility in grafting one plant onto another. You may find more information here.

The purpose of grafting in this context is to maintain resistance to a pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. This is a soilborne pathogen that infects the roots and colonizes the vascular tissue. The fungus, coupled with the host response, wilts the plant. The disease is appropriately called Fusarium wilt. However, Fusarium wilt is very host specific. Each species can be broken down further by forma speciales, which is latin for form species. This explains what the host of the pathogen is. For example, the forma speciales that goes to watermelon (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum) cannot infect closely related species, such as pumpkin or squash. So, if you have a problem with Fusarium wilt in your watermelon field, one solution is to graft your watermelon onto a pumpkin, gourd, or squash.

A grafted melon with the graft union in blue.
There was also some gummy exudation (red), which is a classic symptom of my disease

Now here is where it gets (disease) complex

However, Fusarium oxysporum often has help in infecting plants. A small roundworm, called a nematode lives in the soil and feeds on the root of plants. These create wounds which are exploited by the Fusarium to cause infection. This is known in my field as a disease complex, where the disease is more severe in the presence of another pathogen. Unlike the Fusarium, nematodes have very broad host ranges. They are not picky eaters. They can attack the roots of squash, pumpkin, gourd, watermelon and many more. By itself, nematodes can cause a lot of damage to crop roots resulting in wilting and stunted plants.

Investigative plant pathology! Crop Scene Investigation

I think you know where this is going. We get to the field and the grower points to one of the symptomatic plants. The rootstock is fat, but the scion is wilted and dying. Dr. Paret pulls up the plant and the first thing I notice are galls on the root. We have found our first clue. The roots are sparse and covered in swollen galls, which are characteristic of nematodes. When the nematodes feed, the roots respond by dividing their cells rapidly and expanding the cells they already have (known as hyperplasia and hypertrophy respectively). 

Courtesy: http://www.expert-nutrition.com/muscle-hypertrophy.html

Looking for more clues

The next step to a diagnosis is to cut the stem open with a knife to check the vascular tissue. We find that the grafted plants are clean. There is no visible discoloration which we would see if there was Fusarium wilt. The swelling was caused by the few roots left trying to push the water up, but not being able to make it past the graft union. The scion wilted while the rootstock swelled. How cool is that?!

Galling caused by root knot nematode

Stem swelling. Note the tiny amount of roots.
Notice that there is no discoloration in the vascular tissue.
This plant is not infected with Fusarium wilt.

The second “crime scene”

Next, the grower takes us to some non-grafted plants. He thought that maybe the rootstocks were defective, but the same thing was happening. We pull one up, with only a few roots (lots of nematode damage). We cut open the stem to be met by a brilliant orange discoloration! You have Fusarium wilt! Ok, we weren’t THAT excited, but it was close.

Classical symptoms of Fusarium wilt. Note the orange discoloration along the vascular tissue.

Delivering the news

We explain (though a translator, I don’t know the word for nematode in Chinese) about the problems this grower has and some possible solutions. He peppers us with many questions about rotating fields, what this means for his production, et cetera. The cool part about cooperative extension is because the grower is a captive audience, he is truly listening to what we have to say. What’s even cooler is his 17-year-old son is listening even more intently (and taking LOTS of photos of the symptoms), probably because he will someday inherit this farm and wants to know what problems he will face.

It is experiences like this one that make it so rewarding to work in the applied sciences. I think all sciences have merit and every finding benefits mankind in some way, shape, or form. The extension work we do isn’t simply cataloged in a journal that only a few academics will read. It’s disseminated into real world situations. So while we didn’t find any new disease, we did help a grower solve some problems and educated him (and his son) on possible solutions. That’s what I love about my job!

Dr. Paret explaining the symptoms which is then translated via Dr. Ren (grey shirt).

I also think it's amazing that you can travel thousands of miles to find the exact same problems that you see in your own home. Experiences like this one are extremely rewarding. Who knew two guys from Florida would find the same pathogens a world away?

Mason

Cooperative Extension Part 1

Friends, family, and colleagues,

Last week, we had the opportunity to do some collecting and that involved going out in the field. In academia, a lot of time is spent in an office answering phone calls, responding to email, and other boring office tasks. However, there are times when they do let us out to play. This is an extension specialist’s favorite activity (or at it’s least my favorite activity anyway). Field visits are an opportunity to take what we have seen in a book or in a presentation and apply it to a grower’s situation. 

"A pathologist is the only person who is excited to see a disease in the field"-Mathews L. Paret

What is Cooperative Extension?

Cooperative extension is a unique wing of academic research. It is an integral component of any college of agriculture in the US. The overall purpose of extension is to take the information gained at academic institutions and to disseminate said information to the public. For my field, that means taking the knowledge I gain from my research and applying it to watermelon growers’ operations. Cooperative extension was established over 100 years ago with the Smith-Lever act of 1914. 

Office Visit

This day, we were out in Dongtai, Jiangsu province. We started out talking to some staff at the ministry of agriculture. From what I could gather, they appeared to be a provincial level governmental office. (think Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services-FDACS or the Delaware Department of Agriculture-DDA). Their job was mostly policy and grower support from what I gathered. None of them spoke English, so we got most of our information through a translator. 

Ministry of Agriculture building. There were three more buildings surrounding it.

Field Visit

The grower was harvesting one of the institute's varieties "Sumi #8", it's a sweet melon weighing about 4 kilograms with yellow flesh.

After a lengthy meeting at the ministry of agriculture, we drove out to the first operation. They were spraying fungicide, insecticide, miticide, and what appeared to be a foliar fertilizer in a 55-gallon cocktail mix. Their philosophy was to spray for everything just in case. This is not only wasteful and environmentally harmful, but fungicide resistance can develop if products aren’t rotated properly.

Here's the tank-mix of all the chemicals.
Not quite as advanced as the sprayers we use at the university.

This is a copper compound used for control of bacteria and fungi.
Many bacteria are tolerant/resistant to copper

What is Fungicide Resistance?

One phenomena of the diseases I work on is that repeated exposure to the same fungicide time and time again can select for resistance. This means that the sensitive isolates are controlled, but the resistant isolates keep growing without any inhibition. If you’re a fungus that is resistant, this means that you will continue to grow and reproduce. This is problematic for the grower since 1) it’s expensive to use something that doesn’t control the disease and 2) it can cause problems for other growers or the same grower in other years. The collective term is fungicide resistance or fungicide insensitivity. This is a serious problem in hospitals with “superbugs” and insect pests, which is caused by the same phenomena. 

This is Imidacloprid, an insecticide, mixed with another insecticide.
It is the compound often blamed for honeybee decline in the US.
Some species of insects are also reported to be resistant.

Extension in action: Delivering Recommendations and Sampling the Goods

We talked to the grower for a bit about what he was using and we discussed the importance of rotating fungicides and to use only fungicides for control of gummy stem blight. He was also using some antibiotics, which we explained won’t control gummy at all and could cause problems down the production line. He was very grateful for the advice and we ate lots of watermelon in his make-shift home.

Dr. Paret with the grower and some ministry of agriculture officials. Notice the table, that's the remains of two watermelons and one cantaloupe after we ate. They were sweet as candy!

I’m making this a 2 part series, since this day was really neat with a lot of extension opportunities. I’ll post the second part soon.

Mason

Small World: Coca-Cola

Friends, family, and colleagues,

In this series "small world", I will attempt to bridge the massive cultural and geographic divide readers see in the "culture shock" series with facets that can be used to relate to one another. I will post similarities we share that can be used to show that even a world away, some things are still familiar to us.

On Saturday, we went to the Nanjing Museum. Some of the students missed breakfast, so we stopped at the supermarket to grab a bit to eat. One of them bought me a coke. It was a welcome sight!

The bottle has the trademark Coca-Cola signature sketched into the plastic. The characteristic red label was written almost completely in Chinese. The bottle itself was a bit taller than the typical US bottle. The volume was comparable to the US at 600ml (20.29 fl oz). The flavor was very similar, though the sugar content seemed to be a bit lower than in the US, which is typical of most things found in China. I wasn't able to read the calorie content, since the energy was measured in KiloJoules (KJ) instead of calories.

Mason

Top Ten: Tips for traveling to China

Friends, family, and colleages,

In an effort to make a few shorter posts for those who don't have all day to read my ramblings on China, I have a series of top-ten lists.

1. Be patient-The flights over here totaled about 26 hours from Gainesville, Florida. Make sure to bring a book (or 2 or 3) and a podcast or two.
2. Try new food- This is not the time to be a picky eater. In addition to lots of rice, there's a lot of meat and fish dishes to try. I was never a big fan of fish, but I got over that very quickly, mainly out of necessity. 
3. Don't be a germaphobe- Your chopsticks will likely pick food out of the same bowl as everyone else. Just make sure you're up to date on your Hepatitis B vaccinations and you'll be fine.
4. Have an English-speaking friend-This makes traveling and going to the market easier.
5. Bring plenty of deodorant- In the summer, you will sweat a lot and deodorant isn't very common in markets.
6. Bring cash to exchange-Even if your credit card is cleared for international travel, it doesn't necessarily mean that banks will accept it. Cash is still king in China.
7. Make sure you're vaccinated-Check the CDC website before you go and make sure you have all the vaccinations. One preventable disease is enough to side-line your entire trip and put you in real danger.
8. Learn a few phrases in Chinese-Even though a lot of Chinese people speak a little English, a few phrases will be helpful (and at the very least, make the locals chuckle).
9. Set up a VPN-This will allow you to connect to a virtual private network in the US. The great firewall is a thing, and it blocks a lot of sites including this blog and Facebook. The VPN allows you to tunnel though the firewall and connect to "blocked" sites.
10. Have Fun-Take lots of photos and explore a lot. There's a lot of amazing things just in the city where I am staying. 

I found some English-speaking friends quickly at JAAS. They are very welcoming.

I hope these tips will be interesting and useful to anyone planning on traveling abroad. Generally, speaking, I think these tips could be applied to any country for any trip. 

Mason

First impressions; safety, spitting, and selfies

 Friends, family, and colleagues,

So, I’ve been here over a week and I’ve had some time to make more observations on my experience so far in China.

Safety.

I have felt completely safe during my time here. As I mentioned in an earlier post. Security is overt but not overbearing. They are there to keep everyone safe, especially foreigners. The campus also has a gate-keeper and a series of guards at the front gate. They aren't there to intimidate people, just to keep everyone safe. They’re always friendly to me when I enter or exit. Some of them have tried to practice English with me. Probably the most dangerous part of the day is crossing the street. Vehicle lanes are largely suggestions in the city and even more so in the rural parts. To add to the complexity, the city also has moped scooters and bicycles in separate lanes (which don’t always stop at stop-lights). I've found that following the locals is the best way to go. Even with the crazy driving, there are surprisingly few accidents. I've been here 10 days and I've seen 1 accident (a small fender bender between two cars) even with the hundreds of kilometers traveled.

Not sure if you'll make the light, they'll let you know how long you have...

...And how long that light is going to be red

For every car in the city, there are about 2 or 3 scooters

Spitting

Spitting is fairly common in the city streets. I’ve also seen my fair share of nose blowing (see snot-rockets). That’s about as much time as I’m comfortable spending on this topic (I needed another S-word for the alliteriation). Closed-toe shoes and staying off the grass are good advice.

Selfies

Selfies are very popular in the US and are even more popular in China. I've seen more selfie sticks than I can count in the first week I've been here. I don’t know where all these photos are going (remember that social media is blocked), but they love taking photos. I was afraid that I would look like a tourist taking all these photos, but then I realized that everyone else was doing the same thing. I've also seen several folks with spare battery packs on their phones for added power.

We saw this girl at the Mausoleum.
She must have taken over 200 photos of herself

Just like people, selfie sticks come in all shapes and sizes

So, for those of you who want the cliff-notes version:

1. China is incredibly safe. 
2. People like to spit in China, watch your step!
3. Chinese love taking selfies.

Mason

The party is over, get back to work!

Friends, family, and colleagues,

Dr. Paret has gone back to the US and I've moved from the hotel to the dorm room. It’s a step down from all the showcasing that I saw last week with the flashy meals and excessive amounts of food. I expected this much, this isn't exactly a vacation!

Dr. Paret showing one of the scientists classical symptoms of root knot nematode (RKN) on a watermelon rootstock

The dorm room is nice, especially when compared to some of the older apartments in the area. It’s mostly furnished. It does have a bed frame (no mattress), and a cabinet dresser. From the sound of it, mattresses really aren't a thing here. There is also a stool and a desk along with a bathroom (with a sit-down toilet thankfully!). It was a bit dusty when I moved in, which is a symptom of being brand new and no one living in it for a while. I tried mopping, which helped a little bit. The room itself is very quiet and has that strange echo sound you get whenever you move into or out of a completely empty apartment.

The dorm was built in 2012, and is one of the nicest housing options available to students at JAAS.

There's a lot of little sitting areas outside on the campus

Some students live in the old apartments across the pond. Due to housing shortages, to buy even an old apartment is very expensive

The academy itself is a very large campus, it houses about 2300 employees. Most of the graduate students and faculty live on site. The main road is lined with what I think are sycamore trees. Lunch which used to be never-ending has now been replaced by three meals from the academy’s cafeteria. It’s nothing close to the food I had a week ago, but it will have to make due. You cannot beat the price though. I ate breakfast for 2 Yuan, about 33 cents American. They had these Chinese onion pancakes that are pretty good for institutionalized food. Lunch and dinner run about 8 to 10 Yuan ($1.30-$1.60).

The labs are well stocked by Chinese standards. We definitely produce a lot of waste compared to the Chinese labs.  The sizes of the Chinese and the size of this American are comically incompatible. I had on a pair of small gloves and a medium lab-coat and Dr. Li couldn't stop laughing. I’m pretty sure this is what a T-Rex would feel like if they worked in a lab. Labeling items is a challenge, as they don’t have any of those tape dispensers in all of our labs. Fortunately, the sharpie marks come off with ethanol. They have a very small autoclave in the lab. It works well enough for bottles and small items. It's also nice to have my own little autoclave in the lab.

In addition to the dorm and the labs, they also have a graduate student lounge and pingpong table. I’m sure I’ll eventually get roped into a game. The students here are very welcoming. Just as in the US, there’s a lot of young women in the field of STEM. They spend most of their waking hours either in the laboratory or in the fifth floor reading center. 

All in all, I'm settling in and meeting people. I’ll try to explore the area. So far, the only place I've been is the forest mall across the street. It’s a modern mall with a lot of free WiFi which lets me use the VPN and talk to you!

Mason

Culture shock: Food stares back

Friends, family, and colleagues,

These posts titled "Culture shock" will include items that are starkly different from something we would see in the US. While I'm not necessarily shocked by them, I notice that they are very unusual compared to what we would normally see in everyday America. I hope you find these amusing and entertaining.

While the fish was delicious, some people may be put off by the head still staring back at them.

One thing I have noticed during our meals is that some of the usually have the head and the eyes still attached. It’s a minor adjustment, but the first time is a bit surprising. This goes beyond the fish in the picture, it’s not uncommon to be served a whole chicken including the head and beak. Shrimp is often served whole as well.

I will eventually do a post covering the etiquette and some of the more appetizing dishes. But for now, I'll leave you with the staring fish dish.

Mason

The great firewall; limited connectivity

Friends family and colleagues,

I wanted to get a quick post out to let everyone know that I’m now moved into the institute dorm and contact will be limited. Currently, there is no internet available in the dorm. Additionally, the firewalls at the institute are much more stringent than they were in the hotel. I have to connect to a physical network, which renders the VPN useless. Sites that I've found to be blocked include: all things google (though Dr. Yao did say that google scholar was allowed), Facebook, and all UF websites. That includes my email. Normally, I would just use my old Cornell email (but that’s powered by google as well). My blog is also blocked. It appears that Skype still works, as well as Whatsapp on my phone. One solution is to go across the street to the forest mall where they have decent WiFi. I had the chance to talk to Myriam last night, which was nice.

I have a local sim card which allows me to make phone calls and texts to people in China. This makes it useful for contacting my boss here if there is something I need. The mobile network doesn’t seem to be working properly, which I’ve found is a common problem with American phones in China. So I’m paying for a gig of data that I won’t use. It’s just like Verizon.

WiFi here is spotty usually. There are a lot of hotspots, but most of them are secured (especially at the institute). The range on most of the routers is about 3-5 meters, which isn't bad if you’re right underneath one. The speed fluctuates depending on how many people are on the network. This is something I realized at the hotel. I had great speeds at 5:00 am and midnight. Generally speaking, the speed is much slower than American networks.

Regardless of the connectivity situation. I will do my best to post as often as I can. I want to thank you all for supporting me and being patient with the connectivity issues. (Especially you Myriam, I love you). 

Small world: Plant Pathology by George N. Agrios

Friends, family, and colleagues,

In this series "small world", I will attempt to bridge the massive cultural and geographic divide readers see in the "culture shock" series with facets that can be used to relate to one another. I will post similarities we share that can be used to show that even a world away, some things are still familiar to us.

First, let's go to the beginning. No, not when I was born. My parents torment me enough about my conception and stories of how much fun they had before children. We're only going back 5 years (has it really been 5 years already?!). Fall 2010, I'm a bright young student at Cornell and I'm sitting in PLPA 3010, introductory plant pathology taught by Dr. Bill Fry. He's a passionate man who loves teaching and is considered a world-renowned expert on Phytophthora infestans. One of the required texts in "Plant Pathology" by George N. Agrios. To anyone who is in this field or anyone who has taken an introductory plant pathology course, you know that this becomes like a Bible to you (especially during exam time). It's comprehensive (nearly exhaustive) and it's a great reference for anyone in the field of agriculture.

Bonus points if you can identify the pathogen on the cover

After graduation, I spent a few years working at various institutions including University of Delaware and the University of Maryland. I know several of my colleagues had it on their shelf for reference. I remember referring to this same book for reference. Fast forward to two years ago (have I seriously been in graduate school for two years?!), that book still lives on my office shelf and has been an important citation in my literature review. Interesting fact, Dr. Agrios was a professor at UF and started the plant medicine program, which has connected me with so many wonderful people that I would otherwise never interact with (yes, even though I give certain DPM students crap, they're still wonderful).

During my tour of JAAS today, I was orienting myself to where everyone's office is. This will become useful for the first week of actual lab-work. I need to know where my English-speaking labmates are so I can bug them when I can't find something. I'm sitting in Dr. Ren's office chatting with him and I notice all these books on the desk behind his. He mentioned that they were Dr. Yang's, and since he's now moved into an administrative position, he hasn't had a chance to clean them out.

One book catches my eye. Not because I can read the name in Chinese, but rather the English title.

The Gator nation really is everywhere.

Mason

Culture shock: how do I use it?

Friends, family, and colleagues, 

These posts titled "Culture shock" will include items that are starkly different from something we would see in the US. While I'm not necessarily shocked by them, I notice that they are very unusual compared to what we would normally see in everyday America. I hope you find these amusing and entertaining.

A few nights ago, Dr. Paret went to ask the front desk for an iron, and with a couple hand gestures, we both realized we are terrible at the game "charades":. I whipped out my mandarin phrasebook and pointed to the word for "iron". 10 minutes later, one of the attendants arrives with this item.

He stared at it for a second and asked "how do I use it?" She calmly demonstrated how you iron a shirt with it. Once he knew, it made a bit more sense. Neither he nor I had ever seen an iron like this one. Water goes in the bottom unit where it is heated and soon steam begins pouring out of the hose.

In the US, we are used to a hand iron with an ironing board (which I personally cannot stand). I might have to invest in one of these to make my ironing chore a bit more bearable.

Mason

Zhejiang University and surrounding Hangzhou

Friends, family, and colleagues,

Yesterday, we drove down to Hangzhou, and we met faculty at Zhejiang University.  The region is home to about 100,000 hectares of watermelon production with about 10% being an open system. No surprise, these open systems have the most amount of disease.

We met with Dr. Song, who is a plant pathologist at Zhejiang University. The university consists of several campuses, with the largest and newest one being in the Zijin'gang campus, which we visited. The department has 37 faculty, all of which were on this campus. Most of the faculty are young professors, which is similar to the department at UF. The department is in a massive building which houses several departments. 

Dr. Song is a vegetable pathologist who focuses on gummy stem blight, Fusarium wilt, and powdery mildew. Additionally, he has research in tomatoes, rice, and some Arabidopsis work. We also met briefly with the department chair of the program, who was very welcoming. We sat and had tea with him for a while and discussed possible collaborations. Unfortunately, he had to run to another meeting right after the talk. Department chairs are busy over here just as they are in the US.

This is the building where the department of plant pathology was located. It consists of 15 floors, 3 of which are occupied by the plant pathology department.

And I though Library West was nice. 

We had a large lunch in a private room at the hotel on campus. Dr. Song insisted I try some rice wine, which is famous in the region. It had a nice burnt auburn tint to it and tasted almost like a brandy. We had food until we were sick. After lunch, we toured his lab space, which was impressive. His main lab was 100 square meters, which is 2.5 times larger than our molecular lab at the University of Florida. He has seven students in total, which is considered small by Chinese standards. In addition to the laboratory, his lab team had a growth chamber room which consisted of three chamber built into the wall and was used for looking at rice varieties in different stress situations. He also had another growth chamber room with housed all his tomatoes and watermelon seedlings. We met a few of his students, and discussed some of the various projects. Dr. Song was very welcoming and recommended I apply for a fellowship for young scientists at his institution once I graduate (the pay is about 200,000 RMB per year, which about the same as a post-doc in the US would get, but the cost of living is much less in China compared the US). He also invited me back to drink with him, which I didn't know how to respond. All in all, he is a very nice professor and is certainly passionate about his work.

This was the hotel where we had lunch with Dr. Song. Needless to say, it was equally as nice on the inside.

We then took a forty minute drive to the countryside to visit a grower. The farm manager invited us down and we had tea, watermelon, and muskmelon. The muskmelon was some of the sweetest melon I have ever had. I’m a bit disappointed, since this will probably ruin my impression on melons in the US entirely. The system they are using for growing melons is something that you would see at Disney’s “behind the seeds tour" with all those quirky “futuristic” growing systems. The area was under protected high tunnels connected to one another via gutters. However, once inside, there was another hoop structure covered in a net. At each side of the hoop, watermelon was planted (grafted of course) and climbed up the net. The melons would then hang down from the vines on the inside. I have never seen watermelons grown like this before. I've seen cucumbers trellised, but I would expect watermelons to be too heavy. To address this problem, they tie the melons once they are larger than a grapefruit to provide additional support. With this system, they also are able to harvest more melons in a longer season. Each plant will yield 6 melons per plant, which they keep growing for about 6 months. In the US, we aim for a 90-105 day crop with three melons per plant. We weren't able to figure out what they are doing to get those sort of yields, since the spacing is much tighter since they grow up and not out. This facility did use fungicides, though he mentioned that is was an older chemistry. It turned out to be a fungicide that has been around for 30+ years in the US, so the chances of finding fungicide resistance are good. 

There are many advantages of using this system. The first is that the fruit aren't sitting in the dirt. The second is that it saves your back; picking at eye or waist level is much easier than bending all the way over. For this system, the rotate between strawberry or Brassicas in the winter followed by watermelon or muskmelon in the spring.

This is one of the most unique growing systems I've ever seen

The inner structure itself was about 8 feet in height. They intercrop with Brassicas to make use of the open space inside. 

Dr. Paret was all excited that we found Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis in another greeenhouse.

After we left the facility, we had a “light” dinner (only seven dishes instead of the usual 250+) and we retired for the night. We made plans to take the lab out to an “American” restaurant the last night Dr. Paret is here. I’m curious to see how this turns out since none of them have been to the US. 

Tomorrow, we are going to Dongtai, which is the southern-most area of Jiangsu. We are meeting with some provincial level officials about watermelon production in the area. They’re the equivalent of the state level regulatory agency (think DPI in Florida). 

I'll stop traveling soon and start to get some work done, I promise.

Mason

Culture Shock: The Squat-Pot

Friends, family, and colleagues, 

These posts titled "Culture shock" will include items that are starkly different from something we would see in the US. While I'm not necessarily shocked by them, I notice that they are very unusual compared to what we would normally see in everyday America. I hope you find these amusing and entertaining.

So, we were in this small village near Hengxi, and I went to use some guy's bathroom and I opened the door to find this. My first thought was, "huh that's a strange urinal". Then I noticed up top, that it had the same dual-flush function as the hotel toilet. It slowly dawned on me that this wasn't just a urinal. I guess you just kind of squat if you have to use it the other way? Needless to say, I wasn't feeling THAT adventurous. 

Mason

Little melons in big China

Friends, family, and colleagues,

On Sunday, we had the chance to tour the facility at JAAS. The facility is located in the heart of Nanjing, China. The entire facility employs about 2300 people, 500 of which are scientists with 1400 support staff and the remainder being administration. Within the Academy, we are stationed in the Institute of Vegetable Crops (IVC). Within the institute, we are working with the Cucurbit breeding research group. Cucurbits include any species found in the family "Cucurbitaceae". Some famous family members include the watermelon, pumpkin, cantaloupe, muskmelon, gourd, squash, luffa, and of course, cucumber. The research group includes 7 lab members, 5 of which are scientists. Their major crops are watermelon (西瓜) and muskmelon (甜瓜). Their objectives include breeding for resistance to gummy stem blight (my pathogen), Fusarium wilt, and powdery mildew. They also seek to preserve the high quality of flavor within each new variety.

Dr. Paret and Dr. Li are looking at a resistance screening for gummy stem blight on muskmelon.

Dr. Paret (left) and Dr. Li (right) discussing all the work they are going to make me do while I'm over here.

Yesterday, we had the chance to visit Henxi, a major watermelon production area in the province. The area produces around 1300 hectares or about 3200 acres in American measurements. The area was about 90 minutes drive from the research center. We met up with some extension agents in the area and walked through one guy's operation. The crazy thing is that he rotates with Barley and Rice, so each one of those houses is taken down every year.

Watermelon production in Hengxi

One interesting note about watermelon production in China is that most fresh market production is grown under "protected agriculture". That is, they are grown in hoop houses. This is important since it prevents rain from splashing on the plants. You may not think that is a big deal, but since the pathogen I work on is spread through splashing, removing that factor significantly reduces the spread of disease. As a result, the amount of fungicides used is much lower than would be used in an open system. This system is not without drawbacks. In order to get any fruit early in the season, you need pollenation. If your whole production is a semi-closed system, you can't exactly get bees in (Not to mention a closed house full of bees seems like something out of a horror movie). Most regular season growers will use bees to pollinate, but early plantings are always pollinated by hand.

Skeleton structure of the protective structure

Dr. Paret and one of the extension agents

Contrast that with the United States, where watermelon production is in an open system. Plants are usually planted with a mechanical transplanter, pollinated by bees, sprayed weekly, and only handled by human hands at harvest. The yields are similar, about 3 fruit per plant. However, the vines are rarely trained in this system, rather, they are allowed to grow beyond the plastic mulch, which creates a thick canopy, allowing for weed control.

The major factor between an intensive operation like China and an efficient one like the US is labor. In the US, even migrant labor is expensive compared to Chinese labor. The costs to erect a structure, train the vines, potentially pollinate, then harvest would be too great for an American system. This is part of the reason why we have these issues to deal with in the US.

Tomorrow, we're visiting Zhejiang University to meet with another plant pathology department. I will keep you all posted!

Mason

Food, food, and more food. Part I

Friends, family, and colleagues,

As promised, I give you a glimpse into what our meals look like for the first week here.

Breakfast
Since we're in the hotel, we have a continental-style breakfast served every morning. There's an impressive spread of food which ranges from breakfast meats like the ones found in the US to fried rice, sauteed rice noodles, fried eggs, steamed rolls. I typically wash this down with coffee and milk. I couldn't find sugar anywhere, maybe I'll come back without a sugar addiction! There's also an assortment of fruit juices, including watermelon juice. This has since become my go-to fruit juice.

Lunch and Dinner

For lunch yesterday, we ate in one of the back-rooms at this showcase building for JAAS. It reminded me of the Philadelphia flower show set-up with a lot of greenery, flowers, and neat walkways. Dr. Li mentioned that it was a popular spot for weddings. This was a massive convention center which had a translucent roof to let in natural light. I snapped a couple of photos of the area. This facility was much larger than it looks.

The center had their own brewery!

Nearly all the large meals are served in the back of the building in a large, private room with a private bathroom. We sit at a large round table with a giant turntable or "Lazy Susan" in the middle. Below, there's a photo of the typical setup. That food is placed on the glass platform that can then be rotated around until the desired food is in front of you. Every place we have eaten uses chopsticks, though someone often comes over with a fork and knife for me. I'm proud to say I haven't needed either of them yet.

It is uncommon to drink alcohol during lunch, but we had the chance to try some "black beer" which had the flavor of a stout with the consistency of a lager. It was very tasty. I'm fairly certain that it was made in the on-site brewery, but I didn't ask. Additionally, we had green tea, which is served at nearly every meal. We also had this juice which is made out of corn, and it tastes just like liquid cornmeal. I wasn't a huge fan of it, so I stuck with my beer (黑啤酒).

Typical spread of food
I want to start out by saying that at every meal, there is a lot of food. I haven't eaten this much since my first year at Cornell. Seriously, there's a lot of food at every meal. I might skip a meal just so my body knows what hungry feels like again.

There is typically a rice dish at every meal, whether it's white rice, fried rice, or even a rice noodle. The fried rice here is very flavorful, and isn't coated in salt like what'd you'd get at an American Chinese restaurant. I was told that in southern China, it's common to have rice at every meal whereas northern Chinese eat more wheat. At every dinner, a typical dish is fish soup, which is made from a fish that we think is called the pufferfish in English. We're still ironing out the details with the language barrier. I'm not a huge fan of fish, but the soup is very good. One note about the food is that it is flavored with a lot of spices, so instead of relying on salt or sugar, they impart flavors which are complex and satisfying.

Fish soup

Additionally, there's always a beef dish of some sort. There's also a pork dish. Often, there are multiple dishes of each, either served cold or hot. There's also a lot of vegetables available. At each meal there are no fewer than 5 different vegetable dishes. These can range from string beans, bok choy, potatoes, corn on the cob, soybeans, to greens. Yams are also very popular here. I'd be hard-pressed to cook a meal half as large as they do here. Another popular dish is black fungus. This is a black jelly fungus which is served spicy and is a bit rubbery. Overall, the texture is a bit different, but the flavor is excellent.

Dessert is usually consists of fresh fruit. This includes watermelon, muskmelon (commonly called cantaloupe), kiwi, and cherry or grape tomatoes. Both Dr. Paret and I are impressed with how sweet the fruit is, especially the melon. That's what the breeding institute prides itself on; the quality of varieties it puts out is much more important than the yield that we emphasize in the US.


Given that we've only been here a few days, I'm sure I'll have more to write on the subject. I apologize in advance for not having more photos of the food itself. As someone who finds it annoying when people photograph their food, it's difficult for me to bring myself to do the same. But, for the sake of the blog and my readers, I'll make an effort to include more pictures.

Mason