Pollution

I know I just talked about the pollution problem in Beijing but I just came across this graph. The reason why I entered a piece on smog was it just seemed so bad that day and had to write about it. Here is the proof of just how bad it was.

China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has a pollution rating scale that measures up to 500. A 25 rating is considered safe. A 200 is a bad day for Beijing.

Christmas Decorations

Beijing is in full swing to decorate the city for Christmas. I think it is kind of bizarre since Christmas is intended to be a christian holiday. All the office buildings have trees and lighted decorations up. Here is a scene from a nearby street for decorations:

Smog or Freezing Fog

The last couple have days have been a little rough on visibility and breathing. The smog or smoke as it is sometimes called is bad. Here is a picture from the apartment. You will recall another photo that I showed earlier on a clear day. What a difference.

What I like is the weather terminology that is used to describe the air pollution. Sometimes it is called fog, haze, or smoke. This is the first time I have seen it called Freezing Fog.

Happy Hour

We got to enjoy a happy hour near work with some new friends. The happy hour was staged at The German Beer Restaurant. They had some good draft beer, sausages, cold meats and even Jägermeister.

Good News

I came home late from focus groups last week and was welcomed with a surprise note on the door of the apartment from AF. It was late but I knocked on her bedroom door to see if she was still up. Fortunately she was and told me she was notified by an email from UCAS that she was accepted to University of Edinburgh for the college of English studies. This was one of her top picks besides St. Andrews and Durham. Here is a picture of AF during our visit to Scotland in October to Edinburgh. She sure has been in a good mood this week. I think she is somewhat relieved that one of her choice schools has accepted her. Now the waiting game continues until the end of March to receive other offers (she hopes). Then the real hard decision of where to go for the next four years.

Building Boom

I have mentioned previously that construction is going on around us everywhere. We see it outside our apartment and next to our work location.

What I find amazing is that new buildings are going up everywhere and not focused in one area. Some of the new buildings are amazing and daring in architecture.

Check out this video: http://videobeijing.com/2006/07/23/big-buildings-of-beijing/

Messiah's Challenge

Several of us went to Handell's Messiah which was performed in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. JPM is a title sponsor and we had very good seats.

A few of us first went to a Japanese restaurant near the Oriental Plaza. CB had been there several times as he lives across the way. I know very little about Japanese food and my Chinese is horrendous.

Usually getting cold water is not hard to do as we know the words for that but I guess we were not specific enough as it looked like AF got warm tap water with an ice cube. We tried again and got it right the second time. We had a similar experience with ordering sake. We got 3 bottles of Asahi beer. It took another 3-5 minutes to explain what we were looking for. We seemed to do ok with the food we order since it had pictures and we pointed.

We decided to take a short taxi ride to the concert hall in two taxis. The doorman had no idea where the concert hall was while we had a general idea. Thankfully we ran into a friend from the Investment Bank quite coincidentally and she gave both the taxi driver and doorman instructions. We took a taxi but they could not let us out on the busy street and we had to go up some side street and find our way. We called our friends to see where they were. BF just decided to follow people into the dark Forbidden City grounds through Zhongshan Park (see attached map) to the venue. What a trip.

The production was excellent. They did 2 parts instead of all 3 (thank goodness because it would have been very late). Little did we know our adventure was just beginning. We could not find or get a taxi to save our lives. It was very bitter cold out and the street blocks in China are huge. Around Tiananmen Square there are traffic barriers, etc and it appeared that taxis are not allowed to pick up anyone. We walked and walked not sure what to do and tried to find a side street which was not too desolate but we could get a taxi. We finally got a taxi home, an adventure we won't forget.

BMW Parking Lessons

See if you can do this. I saw some Chinese classes offered in BMW parking.

http://videobeijing.com/2006/07/24/park-bmw/

Miscellaneous Sights

Nothing new and exciting going on. Work is busy, AF preparing for mid-terms, BF finding good tailors and shops. We are winding down and getting ready to come back to the US for the Christmas Holiday.

So here is an interesting view at some of the Beijing sights:

http://videobeijing.com/2006/10/30/beijing-attractions-with-rock-music/

Rural Migrant Construction Workers

Rural migrant workers from the rural areas of China are a big part of the Beijing scene. This is played out all over urban areas in China as well. We see new migrant housing going up all the time near new building work sites. Here is a You Tube video concerning these people that I thought was interesting and wanted to share with you.

http://videobeijing.com/2006/10/31/beijing-construction-workers-life-off-the-clock/

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday evening at the home of a wonderful US family from Portland. We met some fantastic and interesting new people as well. A young doctor from Oman, Jordan; a consultant from the UK and his lovely wife who is a writer with a Beijing magazine from the US; and an electrician from Mississippi who is working on the new US Embassy; and a tennis pro who has lived all over the world and was moving to Desert Springs in CA on Tuesday.

The host family live in a fantastic apartment near Chaoyang Park. Getting there in a taxi was interesting since we had not been there before. It took us a few calls to make sure we were indeed at the right building and how to get into the new building.

The evening started with the journalist informing us that a couple of photographers would be coming over to take some photos for her magazine. They needed some material for an article on wine drinking in Beijing. BF and AF volunteered to be in the shoot. Should be interesting......

The meal was wonderful with all the traditional dishes (turkey, potatoes, cranberry, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple pie and pecan pie). It was a great feast. We all talked a little about what we were thankful for around the dinner table. Being in Beijing and having these new friends to celebrate Thanksgiving was certainly something to be thankful for. The doctor commented on how many of his patients (mostly English speaking expatriates) he has treated who are here alone and have no one to care for them while they are sick and recuperating.

Thanksgiving has so many memories for us. This one is a whole new chapter and will be remembered for years to come.

YouTube

If you have never seen you tube here is an interesting way to convey some of the interesting things we face or see in China. I will try to pick some good ones. Below is a pretty funny one on names. Some things that I can relate to in the video is how approachable the people are, then make sure you check out the very beginning with the man sharpening knives off of a stone on his bike (this is a real business on the street), the trash bike, the nose picker, and the men's summer shirt fashion. All real things we see all the time.

http://videobeijing.com/2006/07/21/sexy-beijing-lost-in-translatin/

Beijing Chocolate Scene

Just in case anyone was wondering if there is good chocolate in China, here is proof. Good Belgian chocolate is available here. So is all the other good stuff M&M and all.

Dining on the River

Bu shi (no in Mandarin)............we did not eat pizza on the "club and pizza boat".

There is a small stream that starts or ends by our apartment, depending on how you see it. You certainly could not tell where it starts by looking at the water flow since there is no moving green ooze. Oh, and people fish in this little stream.

The stream is under repair now and might be impacting this poor boat owners business. Although, we have never seen anyone eat at this boat even with it's beautiful lights on at night. Location is not the problem as it is in a very nice expat restaurant area. :)

Small World

We even get our US local news in the local Beijing newspaper. I guess Babaro is still big news around the world . . . . . . . .

Wedding Anniversary

We are celebrating our silver wedding anniversary in Beijing. BF and I love this time of year as it brings back so many memories. We have a tradition of going back to our home town for Thanksgiving to be with TF's family. We also celebrate our wedding anniversary by going to our favorite local restaurant, Pierce's. The great thing is that the restaurant is still there and we enjoy it so much.

Well this year neither thing happened. Thanksgiving is just another day normal activity. I went to work and AF went to school. BF had a nice chicken dinner for us on Thursday. Our other daughter and son who are in college in the US did make it back to TF's family for Thanksgiving. Boy, do we miss them and wish we could have been there.

We did celebrate our anniversary by going to a very nice restaurant in Beijing, the Astor Grille at the St. Regis. They have a great wine selection at very high prices. Silver Oak is 3000Rmb ($380). Needless to say we had a very nice Beringer for 800Rmb which still seems pricey to me. http://www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis/property/dining/attraction_detail.html?propertyID=110&attractionId=1000661826&back=-1When we arrived at the St. Regis we were pleasantly surprised by all the beautiful decorations. That evening there was even a tree lighting event at the outside courtyard. The hotel looks very beautiful and festive like a NY hotel. It helped us to realize how close the Christmas holiday is. This was the first time that I have seen any decorations this season. It just does not feel the same and you realize some of the familiar things you miss.We were also graced by the presence of our only other family member in Beijing, AF. She really was not looking forward to going. It was very nice to have her there.

Meal Time at Work

We have been doing a lot of exploring for meals at lunch outside the office. I don't know what we would do without our Chinese national co-workers. I suppose, we would probably be eating a lot of KFC or Pizza Hut.

We have a couple of favorite places that are very "down to earth" and boy do we get some looks when we come in (usually 8+ of us). The food is very cheap and usually does not cost more than $3-4 for a full family style sit down meal.

A couple of restaurants are in department stores of all places. I don't know how we actually find these places. So today we ate a Korean fast food restaurant. I just had to order the rice and dog. The dog meat looked and tasted a little like spicy shredded beef.

To top off the meal, I had mentioned that we were close by to a fast-food Chinese hamburger place. I wanted to stop by and pick one up and bring it back to the office for a taste. Below is what it looks like. It was not bad tasting...... a little salty.I had seen this place previously while out doing some bank branch research with a co-worker. The co-worker told me it was donkey meat used for the hamburger. I laughed and told her she must be kidding. She said donkey meat is very good and is highly regarded in China. She thought my reaction was odd. I had her ask the other American co-workers what they thought. As expected they gave the same reaction as I did.

So we had a further conversation with the rest of the team about this and why we thought it would be odd to eat donkey. The Chinese have a saying "eat dragon meat in heaven and donkey meat on earth". I guess it means that donkey meat is as good as it gets on earth. Maybe there are better cuts of donkey than what we ate in this hamburger. I think there were all sorts of parts in the shredded donkey. It did taste ok until I bit into a spicy pepper.

Comraderie

We have a small work group in China. We occassionally get out of the office for some team building. One of our favorite places is the Goose and Duck (a western pub near Chaoyang Park). Friendly competition is important for the type "a" crowd.

Xi'an

AF had a day off from school on Friday the 10th so we all decided to see a little more of Chinese history and culture by going to Xi'an. Xi'an was once the capital of China during the reign of 13 dynasties from 11th century BC to 900 AD. A great website resource for us in China to better educate us on what to see and do: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/xian.htm

BF has found a good travel agent for us in Beijing to help us with destinations. The agency took care of all our travel, accommodations, and local transportation and English speaking guides. The flight is around 2 hours to Xi'an in the Shaanxi province.

The most famous sight is the Museum of Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses. This really put Xi'an on the map and as a major travel attraction. Tourism is really growing in this city and as a result more prosperity and growth. I think they get something like 8 million visitors a year. We visited some very ancient sites over the two days and had a very nice time. Our guide was extremely helpful and I could not imagine doing the trip without one. He was very knowledgeable about each of the places we visited.

We first did a city tour on day 1. We visited the Shaanxi History Museum, the City Wall, the Great Mosque, and the Forest of Stone Steles (tablets). The second day we visited the Terracotta warriors, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and Hua Qing Hot Springs. See webshots for all our photos:

Window Washing

Beijing is a very dirty, dusty, and polluted city. So to keep up with it there is a large work force cleaning streets, planting trees and plants and most important of all are the window washers. It seems like the windows are being washed on our apartment complex at least once a month. It is an amzing sight to see when the washers decend down the side of the 32 story building. I never seem to have my camera ready for this. Yesterday while we were out shopping I did catch this sight:

China clearly does not have th OSHA regulations like the US. Each of these washers is on a simple single rope and they decend while washing the windows like spiders.

Tailors

BF, a co-worker, and I are experimenting with clothing tailors. I went out last week and went for top-end and the low-end to experiment with differences in quality and price for a tailored suit. I went to Hanloon tailor http://www.hanloon.com/ in an expensive hotel to get a suit.

Then I thought I would see what the low-end would be like. So I went to the touristy Yashow Market on the 3rd floor, stall 3066 to get a suit made. I will report later on the results of my experiment as I have not yet gone in for my second and final fittings.

BF learned about 2 other tailors based on suggestions from her friends at the apartment building. One just set up shop in the lower floor of an embassy compound apartment near the St. Regis hotel. I don't know how we ever found the place on a Sunday but we did. The tailor had just started to set up shop so we made contact with her and said we would come back next week when she had some fabric and models to look at.

The other tailor was in a section of the city I had not spent much time in. The tailor was in a large store with fabrics. BF found an English speaking tailor in the back of the store and she helped BF to look at fabrics for a shirt and a pair of slacks. You first buy the fabrics and then get measured by the tailor.

Can't wait to see how this goes. We have hears some stories from expats that they still have not found tailors that they can rely on,

Fall Weather in Beijing

So far November weather in Beijing has been very transient but dry as usual. We are having problems contolling the internal temperature of our office space as the temperatures outside fluctuates. The temperatures have been for the most part on the warm side but there was a week where it cooled off and we could not get warm enough in our apartment or office. When the temperature is in the high 50's or low 60's and sunny we cannot turn on the air conditioning in our office. We resort to opening a few windows and bear the construction noise and pollution.

During the cold spell at the end of October, we found out how the government can influence our living conditions. We discovered that the government controls heat in China. Heating does not come on until November 15th for the northern part of China. People in the south (not sure where the dividing line is) like Shanghai have no heat all year. Trust me, Shanghai can be cold as I witnessed last February.

This rule does not seem to apply to western hotels, shopping centers, or restaurants and can vary by apartment building. I think our heat came on about a week ago and I know some co-workers had their heat on at the end of October and some are still waiting until Nov 15th.

The Chinese say this is why so many people get sick around this time of the year. They really believe in controlling the internal "body heat". Many people in China wear long underwear. Most of the people have the long underwear on already even though the temperatures are still in the 50's.

The leaves are still green for the most part in Beijing. When we do get rain and wind there are leaves everywhere from the trees in our neighborhood. The "street laborers" are out there in force with long rustic looking brooms in the wind trying to sweep up the leaves. It looks like a lost battle as leaves keep blowing in the wind. I guess it keeps the large number of people employed.

Learning Mandarin

So the family is now engaged in mandarin lessons. It is going slow for the Mom and Dad and we are slowing AF down. She is being patient with us and helps with our tones and vocabulary. We have lessons for an hour on Monday and Wednesday nights by a Chinese university student (Annie) who comes to our home. She is being patient with us. We have had 3 lessons so far.

I think the real frustrating part is even if you get the word right, the pronunciation of the tone could change the whole meaning of the word. For example, at work I was asking a person who only speaks Chinese if they wanted some "cha" which is tea. One of my Chinese co-workers chuckled and said it sounded like I was saying "to strangle or choke". There are 5 tones in Mandarin you need to remember.

Trying to pick out words we have learned in a Chinese conversation is also difficult. The only words I seem to pick out are numbers. Another oddity is that people rarely ever use the word "please or excuse me". Thank you and you are welcome are often used.

Maybe one reason for this is the Chinese people don't believe in queuing in a line. There seems to be no sense of order. I have never seen so many people just try and get in front of you in a bank line, a ticket line, or getting on public transportation. Driving on the roads is a whole other experience. Good thing that there is very little road rage in Beijing because the way people drive here certainly would set people off in any US town or city.

Culture Beyond China

It has really been a month since my last update?

I think BF has had more new experiences over the last month than I have. I will work with her to teach her how to blog some great stories she has on this site.

We are experiencing more than just the Chinese culture in Beijing. There have been two recent dates in November that are big to our Brit and Aussie neighbors.

The Brits celebrate Guy Fawkes day on November 5th. People out in the suburbs of China had a big bonfire party to celebrate. Co-workers went but the night was very cold and windy. Because of this celebration we did a little research and found it to be very interesting celebration. I can't imagine having a similar celebration in the US, especially being a Catholic. Check out the attached website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

On November 7th our Aussie friends were watching the Melbourne Cup on November 7th. "A day the nation stops". I was not at the apartment building during the day but BF told me people had planned a lot of celebrations around the event in and out of the apartment complex. When I came home from work people were dancing outside the bar in the apartment complex. They looked to be having a great time. http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/melbournecup/

You can see that our China experience is opening our eyes to other cultures as we share with each other in our multinational expatriate apartment complex. I had not thought about this aspect of living in China, A nice little extra.

Fresh Air

So we left Beijing to get some fresh air in Scotland. With everyone in China celebrating the entire week "Golden Week" for the National Holiday and Mid-Autumn Moon Festival October 2-6, we took the opportunity to do some college searching with AF in Scotland. We went to Edinburgh and St. Andrews from September 29th to October 5th.

We took what we thought was going to be a KLM flight from Beijing to Amsterdam but was really a China Southern airplane. The flight was around 9 hours in some really uncomfortable seats. We got to Amsterdam and thought we might not have seat on the connecting flight, it all worked out. We stayed at a nice apartment/hotel at the east end of the old city of Edinburgh "Holyrood Aparthotel".

We walked everywhere in the cental part of Edinburgh. It was scenic hilly in the old city area. We visited the University of Edinburgh which was beautiful and large. They had a nice open day program that was modularized and could be customized. It was very informative. It is a very large university with a prestigious English program that Abby is interested in.













We then went to St. Andrews which was a much smaller town (3 main streets) that took no more than 10 minutes to walk from end-to-end. We stayed at a very comfortable inn called Ardgowan Hotel. We visited the St Andrews Cathedral which was really just a shell of the old cathedral from the 1500's.

Here is a good reference site for more information: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/standrews/cathedral/index.html

While in St. Andrews the Dunhill Links Championship was being played. We stopped by on Thursday for a Pro-Am round but lesser pros were playing on the St. Andrews Old Course. All the big Ryder Cup names were playing at Kingsbarns Golf Course. Often celebrities are at these events although we did not see Michael Douglas, Hugh Grant, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. http://www.alfreddunhilllinks.com/

Our Lady of China

Our Sunday was spent going to church for 10am mass at Our Lady of China catholic church at the British Embassy visa section on 21st floor of Kerry Center office building. The mass was said by a priest from NY. The church is actually much more full than this. We get to church a little early sometimes since we rely on taxis. It usually costs 15RMB which is about $2 for a 15 minute ride.

Panjiayuan Market

BF, AF, and I went with SL to the Dirt Market "Panjiayuan Market" for a second week. We first stopped off at our favorite noodle restaurant. I have no idea what the name of the place is. We were introduced to this place last week by our driver. It is sometimes visited by tourist since the Pearl Market is close by.

We each order different noodle dishes. BF's is not quite in a broth and she has to add some paste to the dish for more flavoring.
The strange thing is that the meal starts out with some strange sweet concoctions. We did not get the yellow pudding-like dish this time so we asked Shen if he could order it. We could not remember the name (it is something like "sam pu jian"). You can see it at the bottom of the picture. You just scoop it up and eat with chop sticks (we are getting better with these things but picking up slimy things or round objects like nuts are still hard for us).

Next we go off to the Dirt Market. This place is very strange. Getting into the gates and parking is the first challenge, thank goodness we do not have to deal with that. AF bought some very strange chinese locks. BF bought a wooden bowl for knitting supplies. SL bought some jade bobbles and got some pictures to show his wife of ceramic vases so they could make lamps from. We will be back. More pictures can be seen in the following link: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/553747279YWvVPA

Dinner and Dancing on the Great Wall

Tuesday night BF and I got an opportunity to meet up with a group of people from the Embassy House to go for dinner and dancing on the Great Wall. We were invited by a parent we met from AF's volleyball team. A few people from the Australian Embassy arranged the whole thing with Radisson Hotel catering the event.

We took a bus trip from the apartment to Ju Yong Guan section. The one hour trip was complete with champagne. For more information on this section of the Great Wall go to the following link: www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/Beijing/juyongguan.htm.

We did not take our camera (darn). Here is a picture that I took back in February when a group of us went to this very steep section of the Great Wall. This time of the year it is very green and beautiful as opposed to this rather brown drab scenery. If you look just beyond the green flag in the picture, this is where the dinner and dancing took place.

The weather was spectacular. We think another event was happening higher up in the mountain and the entire wall section on both sides were all lit up. It was a beautiful sight.

Everyone was dressed up for the evening which was nice. The whole thing lasted from 5 until midnight. I was a little tired the next morning for work.

Sunday Visitor

I think this was the best night that I have slept in awhile..........Must be that massage from Saturday night.

Sunday was very nice day. The weather was good and could see a little of the blue sky. We had to scurry around to get ready for church before the cleaning ladies came to clean the apartment usually before 9am.

We went to church at the British Embassy as usual. At the mass we got more information on why they moved the service from the Canadian Embassy. It turns out that two years ago a bunch of North Koreans stormed the embassy to gain political asylum. It took Canada several months to resolve the issue. In the meantime, the priest got a text message noting that mass was canceled indefinitely. He was worried about what he could have done to offend the Canadian government.


After mass we walked to Landao Shopping Center (Blue Island). It was a nice 6-story store. We picked up some house things and a Beijing Olympics phone jewelry piece. We then walked quite a ways to Morel's our favorite Belgian beer place. We had a good pepper steak and of course some good beer.

We cabbed it home because we were getting tired of walking all day. We stayed at the house to get some things done. AF called to say she would be getting back into Beijing at 5pm. We asked her if she would mind taking a taxi by herself to the apartment since we had a dinner planned with a surprise visitor from the states. BF had to talk with her coach to make sure that it was ok. AF had no problem and is really finding her way around this city even with the language barrier. I think the best trick we learned was using the Pizza Hut (Bi Shen Ke) as the place to have taxis take us. They all seem to know where the first Pizza Hut in China is located.

I found out last week that a ski buddy and old co-worker from Citibank days was traveling to China with his wife. We arranged to have dinner with them Sunday night. We went to their hotel, He Qiao Ritz (not Ritz Carlton) to meet them and have dinner. It was great to see GD and in Beijing of all places. It had been awhile since we had skied together since we could not make the Telluride trip last winter (does not look like I will be making the next trip either). The hotel was off the beaten path a little bit and was not too easy to find. It looks like a very new hotel that is still working out the kinks. There were not many people in the lobby. The dinner in the hotel was mostly western food. The most eventful thing that happened was when the power went out in the entire hotel towards the end of the meal. Halogen lights and candles came out next.



We left dinner at about 9pm and headed back to the apartment. It was good to see AF again. The apartment has a very strange smell right now coming out of the toilets. I think the sewage system in this city is a big problem. Tha bathrooms always seem to smell wherever you go. The bathrooms of our brand new building at work always smell. It is not from lack of cleaning either. It seems there is always someone cleaning the bathrooms when you want to go, including the cleaning ladies.

Busy Week

What a busy week both work and personally, have not had time to blog........ Let's see how good my memory is on all that took place. From a work perspective, we had executive management in town all week, including my manager to see how the team is doing and what progress we are making. This entailed 3 work dinners starting with a very nice one Monday. I wish I had taken a camera for pictures of the dinners since the venues were so beautiful.

Our first dinner was at a Cantonese restaurant in a beautiful building which was built over Longtan (Dragon Pool) Lake in Longtan Park. The park is just east of the Temple of Heaven (south east part of the city). It took me over an hour with the traffic to get a cross town. I can't remember why I was by myself in the company van but when I got there, the employees of the restaurant knew exactly where to take me which seemed like a 10 minute walk through buildings through the park to a separate building where cocktails were being served on a beautiful spacious patio. The dinner was to welcome the credit card teams to Beijing and to wish everyone great success. There were many toasts throughout the night. I think I got home about 10:30pm.









We had a dinner with my manager, RF on Wednesday night. We decided to go for a meat meal. RF saw a Brazilian restaurant on his way into the office but was not sure what the name was. I looked it up on the internet and figured it had to be called Brazilian Grill and was on Fuxingmennei. We gave the drivers the address. We were all thinking it was on Fuchengmenwai. It took us an hour to go what should have been a 10 minute ride. The funny thing is we gave up on the address and just went with landmarks that RF knew to get to the restaurant. We did not realize until the meal was over by looking at the business card that we were at the address of restaurant we had intended all along. We sure got our fill on meat. They kept bringing out different cuts of pork, beef, sausages. It was a good departure from our other meals.

Thursday night the family went out to get a last minute gift for AF to give to her host family that she is going to stay with in Shanghai. She has a weekend volleyball tournament and is leaving on Friday on East China Air with the team from school. So, we went to Lufthansa Center to pick up some chocolates for a gift. On the way out I was checking out some brochures from HSBC and a woman approached me. AF wanted to know why that woman talked to me. She was shocked when I told her what she asked me.........

Friday night BF and I went out to dinner without our darling daughter to a Thai Restaurant (Serve the People) . We walked and sat outside on the street and had a nice spicy dinner.

On Saturday we went shopping with a work colleague, SL. We went to an antique market, a couple of Tibetan Rug stores, and another shopping area that was non-descript. One of the rug stores we would never have found if it were not for our driver. It was in an apartment in the south part of the city. They really had the best selection at the best price. We left to think about it.



The antique market had unbelievable stuff everywhere. We ended up with 3 framed photographs of the Beijing area that were pretty cool. We did not take home any stone Buddha sculptures, animal parts, wood furniture, or any of the other wild items they had for sale in this bazaar.

For the evening we went to dinner with RW at Nam Nam (a Vietnamese Restaurant). We walked a few blocks in our neighborhood (the second Embassy Area -Sanlitun) on a beautiful warm dry night. Nam Nam looked very small from the outside but it was much larger than we thought with a nice upstairs. It looked Vietnamese with French influence. BF and RW order a bottle of Vietnamese Rice Wine. It looked like a cloudy lemonade. It tasted like s very sweet sake. We had good spring rolls and each ordered a separate dish that were all very good.

The real reason we got together Saturday night was to try out a new upscale foot massage club Liangzi a block away from our apartments. RW and I had done this once before with a sister club near the St. Regis. What an experience. The whole thing took almost 2 hours from the beginning to the end. It began with deciding what treatment we wanted and by who (senior massage specialists, same sex, etc). We were seated in a private room where the 3 of us were seated in comfortable chairs (side-by-side). Young boys came in with wooden buckets of liquid elixir (water and herbs that were extremely hot). BF could not put her feet in the bucket and we needed to ask for more cold water to cool the temperature. The masseuse worked over our feet to the point it hurt at times. They also massaged our legs, the entire leg by rubbing and beating our muscles. We made sure that they did not cut our toe nails this time (last time they did a great job but they were cut so short it felt strange walking for a week or so). Just when you think it is over they take you to an area where you lean over a pillow and men give you a back massage. At times they were taking their elbows and really giving it to me. The only thing I was thinking at the time is I hope this feels good tomorrow and I don't end up with sore muscles and feet.

Eventful Friday

We had a good work day on Friday with some good decisions and directions. In meetings with our co-workers we were given gifts of moon cakes. Moon cakes are given as gifts for the Moon Festival or mid-Autumn Festival. It is celebrated on the day of the full moon somewhere between the middle of September or the middle of October, when the moon is at its brightest during the year. This year it is October 6. This is festival that is celebrated by being with all your relatives and eating moon cakes. If you cannot be with your relatives you send them gifts of moon cakes. There are so many varieties and they are being sold all over China right now. Many are like figs and nuts like plum pudding.


One of our new work colleagues from the JPM Beijing Branch hosted the CCS work team for a beautiful dinner on Friday night. It was an old traditional Chinese courtyard restaurant which served Cantonese food. The restaurant is named Jun Wang Fu (Peninsula Restaurant). We had a private room for the group (10 of us). The host and his wife have been in China for 16 years, so they were very helpful with information for shopping and getting around. I know they will be a good resource to turn to if we need anything.

http://www.jwfbd.com/en/jdjj.asp

together at last

BF arrived yesterday. I met her at the airport with one of our drivers. It sure was good to see her after a month. She showed up in a new pair of cowgirl boots that her friends bought her for her birthday in the US. I took her to the apartment and showed her some of the ropes. I then needed to attend a special dinner in a very nice place in South Beijing, I should have brought my camera. It was a beautiful night in a spectacular park Dingge on Zuanmennei Ave. It was a clear night with a full moon. There was lots of toasting by everyone and beautiful food.

Today BF let AF take the day off from school because there was not much going on with some IB program (AF is not in IB). They did some shopping while I went to work in a new V6 Ford sedan that was provided to us. I met the driver at 7am for the first time, Liu Bin. We made good time driving to work in 35 minutes. There was little conversation since he know virtually no English and I am constrained to right, left, hello, thank you, and goodbye.

My co-workers were talking about what a great restaurant they found yesterday on some side street fro 25 RMB per. They wanted to go out to lunch today and I thought we were going back to the same place or some other Chinese restaurant. I was surprised when everyone headed into a KFC.............. Yuck, I will ask where are we going next time.

The best thing that happened today was AF agreed to go out to dinner. I took AF and BF to Mare a Tapas place that a co-worker took me to on my first day in town, It was really good but a little expensive.

Sharing the Oddities (not necessarily in China)

Ok here is a good one that all you treadmill junkies will love. Looks like a bunch of Napolean Dynamites (my favorite is the white shoes dude!!!!!!!!! >>>>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjSwr7zYtE (thanks DC).

Saturday Volleyball

Last week we were a couple of minutes late for practice so this caused the rest of the team to do an extra suicide sprint. AF mentioned that 7 girls were late to practice and they had to do 7 more but they have not done them yet. Needless to say AF did not want this to happen today. She needed to be at the school suited up for a scrimmage game by 8:20am. We left an hour early and of course we got there just before 8am. It is really hit or miss with the taxis. All the girls were there on time..........














The ISB Dragons played against a 14 year old Chinese Sports School team. The first couple of games the Dragons did not play well but the last 3 were very close but still the ISB team could not get it together and lost close games. It was hard for me to believe these girls were 14 when you saw their size. Here is a team photo:
I met a really nice couple who are parents of one of the girls on the team. They are from Portland and have been here about 18 months. They have gotten to know the area rather well and have actually purchased a place in Chaoyang Park which is not too far from us. The wife has even acquired a Chinese drivers license and owns a car. We talked about all the fun transportation issues in Beijing including when you drive and get in accident (it is a big headache to get resolved). They were kind enough to give us a ride back into the city. I know AF really appreciated that.

A New Week

This week was filled with many new experiences for me at work and not many new happenings in the home front.
We had our entire work team together on Tuesday and had a successful full day meeting. We made a lot of progress and learned much. Our work in China is something that we are not at liberty to discuss much about. So when we encounter new people it is always interesting to keep conversation at a very superficial level. Usually it comes down to the name of the company and where the offices are located. This week we spent much of the time talking with people in the China market and putting together a game plan that we can work from. The best thing that has happened is we are now working in our functional work teams really for the first time.

We met CW who is the COO for JPM Mainland China. He and his staff have been helpful in establishing working space, getting us some ground transportation, and making us feel welcome. He planned a dinner for our team and spouses which with this team is not much different than just inviting the team. There are only two non-employee spouses. (Two spouses did not move, there are three working husband and wife teams, and one should be here in another month or so) out of the 11 employees.

Traffic to work has been ok. We have been trying to sort out the use of the vans between the employees and establishing the best routes. I always take a taxi at 7am and will usually arrive at the office in 30 minutes. Friday seemed much more congested but it still only made a 5 minute difference. The congestion I discovered was due to the first day of school for the Chinese kids in Beijing. Getting home I made the mistake of riding with the team in one of the vans one night. It took well over an hour by dropping off a couple in CBD and then going onto Dongzhimen where 3 other families live within a long block from each other. So the last couple of nights I have shared a taxi with the 3 other employees who live in Dongzhimen. It usually take about 1/2 hour unless the taxi drivers decide to take alternative routes than the second ring road.

CW and I ate at a new restaurant that serves Shanghai traditional foods, called Merryln Restaurant. We were the guest of some Chinese work acquaintances. They introduced us to some of the dishes like "lions head" which is ground pork in the form of a meatball with a hard egg in the middle. There were several dishes that were dumplings. The Shanghai food tends to be a little sweet to the taste. We will need to take the JPM work team there some day since it across the second ring road from work.

Here are a couple of pictures of the the team hard at work: