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: