Got the great news this morning – I’m going to volunteer with Green Watershed, an environmental NGO based in Kunming, Yunnan province. This has been the point of anxiety for me – it’s almost May, and I still haven’t had much lined up; in fact, all I had were my plane tickets and the visa. Now that I got the confirmation from the NGO, I can start making larger plans, such as accommodations, budget, transportation within China, and free time fun. I’m even thinking of getting Burmese or Vietnamese visa and taking a weekend to travel to one of the countries… or maybe both? Budgeting is an issue of course but I’ve been saving up for the trip and I think I can afford to cover extra travel expenses on my own.
I will be in Kunming only for about three weeks which won’t give me much time so I will have to use all the time I have to figure out the lives of environmental NGOs in the PRC. I have been told that Yunnan has a large international presence and that the rules are more relaxed due to the distance from Beijing, as well as other factors such as local government friendliness so to speak. This is already very far off my original proposal and basically I will be focusing on the legal and financial side of environmental NGOs but also on activism tools they use.
Are any of you going to be in the area? Or in Shanghai/Beijing at the end of June? Let me know, if yes, we can explore China together :)