New Olympic Restrictions

It has been unclear since we have been here what activities would be restricted by the government leading up to the Olympics. There has been a lot of rumors over the months. Here is what we now understand:

• Visa restrictions were imposed a couple of months ago which has made it difficult to enter China. The government says they have only imposed the rules that were already in place.
• The police are stopping foreigners and checking for passports and visas. We have not experienced this but know co-workers and friends who have.
• The police started checking residency permits by going door-to-door to expat communities over a month ago.
• On July 1, half of the government cars were pulled off the road. We were impacted by that at work.
• Also on July 1, trucks with yellow tags (don't pass emission standards) are no longer allowed in the city of Beijing (that impacted our packing and moving schedule).
• Tomorrow the new travel ban takes place for private vehicles. Cars can only travel on odd-even days based on license plate number until Sep 20. As a result I will be riding my bike to work for the next two weeks.
• Heavy industry will shut down factories from July 20 to Sept 20.
• Government office hours have been reduced to 9 to 5 instead of 8:30 to 5:30 until Sep 20.

I sure hope this all works to reduce the pollution for the Olympics. Here are some pictures from Saturday at Jingshan Park, Coal Hill, Gaobeidian:

Another Olympic Test

We have been hearing over the last month or so rumors that government officials were going to pull cars off the roads in Beijing during August to see the effects on pollution. There were lots of variations on how this was going to be done. The decision has been made and implemented. I am glad I am not in Beijing right now.

Olympics: Beijing bans over a million cars to cut pollution
by Charles Whelan Fri Aug 17, 2:17 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing banned more than one million cars from its roads on Friday in a test run to improve air quality for the Olympics, easing notorious gridlock although a thick smog still hung over the city.

More than 6,500 traffic police were on duty across the city to ensure car owners observed the ban, while an extra two million more trips were expected to be taken on subways and buses during the day, officials said.

The four-day test is expected to be a prelude for a similar ban to be put in place for the duration of the August 2008 Olympics, as part of a range of measures to temporarily improve air quality for athletes and visitors.

Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities, and poor air quality, blamed partly on the city's three million cars -- a number growing by 1,200 a day -- has long been a top concern for athletes and officials.

Those worries were exacerbated as a weeks-long smoggy haze that reduced visibility to just a few hundred metres (yards) on occasions marred the build-up to last week's August 8 one-year countdown to the Games.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, in Beijing for the countdown, said then some events could be postponed if pollution was extremely bad, in what would be an unprecedented move to protect athletes' health.

The ban received a mixed reaction from commuters in Beijing on Friday morning, with many being forced to jam into crowded subway lines. Others did not believe it would have much of an impact on air quality.

"I cannot believe it is so crowded, two trains have just passed and I just could not squeeze myself on," said businessman Wang Xindong, who normally drives to work but found himself stuck at an inner-city subway station.

"As for the pollution emissions, I don't think taking cars off the road for just four days will have an immediate effect."

With taxis exempt from the ban, cab driver Jia Jinrong was up early on Friday and expecting a good day of business. However he was surprised that the traffic had eased only marginally.

"The traffic is okay, but not as good as I expected," he said. "We all know this car ban is just a show for the Olympics, a superficial phenomenon."

Of the city's 2.4 million private cars, those with licence plates ending in an even number are banned on Friday and Sunday, while those with an odd number must remain off the roads on Saturday and Monday.

Commuters who drive on the wrong day face fines of 100 yuan (13 dollars), according to the state-run press.

A fleet of government-owned vehicles were also taken off the roads, with the total number of cars remaining at home each day expected to be around 1.3 million, according to city officials.

During the test, scientists will monitor pollution levels at 27 stations throughout the city to gauge how effective the scheme will be for the Games.

Beijing city transport commission deputy head Liu Xiaoming said last week the ban was expected cut vehicle emissions by 40 percent.

He said vehicle emissions were responsible for a quarter of particulate matter and more than 50 percent of three other major pollutants -- sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.

A Visit to Tianjin

BF and I visited Tianjin on Saturday. We were lucky enough to have one of our co-workers (QL who grew up in Tianjin) as a great host and guide.




Picture of QL and TF with Driver Shen.
The city is less than 100km from Beijing. This is another one of those cities that I bet most of you have never heard of yet it is the third largest city in China behind Beijing and Shanghai. The PRC governs China at the following levels: Provinces, Autonomous Regions (like Tibet), Municipalities, and Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Tianjin is one of four self-governed municipalities along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing. Like all the Chinese cities that I have been too there is a lot of building and construction.

We have been here nearly a year and I did not realize how large Tianjin was so it caused me to do some population research. Here are some interesting gacts that I found. First lets look at population by agglomerations (include a central city and neighboring communities linked to it (e.g.) by continuous built-up areas or commute). Th. Brinkhoff: The Principal Agglomerations of the World, http://www.citypopulation.de, 2007-04-21

Chinese cities with world rank and populations size (NY is #4 at 21.8 million and Tokyo is #1):
Shanghai #9 - 17.3 Million
Guangzhou #16 - 14.5
Beijing #20 - 12.7
Shenzhen #28 - 9.0
Wuhan #30 - 8.6
Tianjin #36 - 8.0

For city proper population, according to Wikipedia I found the following:
Shanghai at #8 with population of 9.8MM; Beijing at #16 with 7.4MM and Tianjin at #28 with 5.1MM (with Mumbai being the most populated city and NYC at #13).

We visited an antique furniture store that also can reproduce pieces but decided to wait. We we did a little shopping where BF bought some art supplies for her Chinese watercolor painting (more to come on this in an upcoming blog). We had a nice lunch and picked up some Tianjin local snacks. Then we visited QL's high school. That was really nice and impressive campus. Then we drove around the concession area, drove QL over to his parents home where he stayed the night and then we drove back (horrible highway with lots of accidents which is not unusual). It was a nice short visit.

Another Olympic Test

We actually heard some rumblings about this early last week but now it seems to have been picked up by western news services as well. Beijing used traffic control methods earlier this year for the African Conference but it was not to this scale and this long. I ened up taking the subway to work as a result. I am going to be glad to be back in the US while much of this is going on. Until we hear more about the plans I am not sure how this will impact us getting around the city.

Beijing to ban a million cars in clean air test

Thu, 05 Jul 2007, 11:52AM
BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing is planning to ban a million cars from the city's streets for two weeks next month as a test-run to ensure clean air at next year's Olympics, officials said here Wednesday.

"The plan has been drawn up and is ready to go," said Fan Yinlong, a city government spokesman, referring to a range of measures that will include the ban on one million cars in notoriously polluted Beijing from August 7-20.

That two-week period is crucial to Olympic planners, as it roughly coincides with the time that the Games will be held next year, from August 8-24.

Beijing will also host 11 Olympic test events during the fortnight, including cycling road races, wrestling, hockey and beach volleyball.

Beijing has spent around 15 billion dollars on a massive pollution clean-up in the run-up to the Olympics, according to city officials, but air quality remains a key concern.

Despite assurances from the Chinese government, International Olympic Committee leaders have expressed deep concern about the problem and demanded "contingency measures" to contain the pollution threat.

Beijing Olympic organising committee spokeswoman Zhu Jing also confirmed that the traffic ban was being prepared as part of the one-year countdown test program.
Zhu said the plan to remove one million of Beijing's three million cars was inspired by a similar campaign that proved effective during a China-Africa summit hosted by Beijing last year.

"Air quality was better, and traffic congestion improved," she said.

Zhu said the measures would be officially announced once they are approved by the city's rubber-stamp People's Congress on July 24.

May Labor Day

The Chinese are celebrating a "golden week" for May Labor Day, as a result so are we. We have a whole week off and because AF only had three days off we stayed in Beijing while most of my co-workers left for Malaysia, US, or Taiwan. Traveling in China would be a nightmare with the crowds as we witnessed when we biked near the back of the Forbidden City (it was wall-to-wall buses and mobs of Chinese tourist).

We did spend half a day with a local guide (Tony Chen) that BF met through acquaintances. He had two apprentices with him (Katrina and Penny) as he is trying to build his business http://www.stretchaleg.com. BF and I decided to have him give us a hutong tour as something that kind of interested us to better understand the locals a little more. It was a very nice walking tour.

Below are some of the things that we saw along the way. Any one who wants to visit we know who to hook you up with to show you the town, Tony was great. So here are some of the sights that we saw with a little caption underneath on what you are seeing:
One of the many homes we visited.There is a lot of restoration happening in the hutongs and these courtyard homes. Above a craftsman is hewing a beam to be used in the restoration of a home (while he is using an ax, he did have cross cuts made with a chain saw). Racing Pigeons, now there is a profession............
The Source Courtyard Restaurant, we had heard of it. After looking at the menu we will definitely be back. An old hitching post and millstone.
Time for lunch, so Tony recommended this fusion restaurant (Luogu)
Believe it or not this is the entry way from the downstairs to the roof top for dining. Hi Penny.
Rooftop view from the restaurant.
Check out all the Chinese flags, it is Labor Day and a law that you must display your colors, how cool............
For JPM bikers, Tony used to work for REI here in China to do both road and mountain biking tours in China. Which made the conversation with him even more interesting for me. Then we ran into the local police station standard issued bike........nice blue and white

Queuing Day

The municipal government has dedicated the 11th of each month as queuing day. It is an attempt to improve etiquette in before the Olympics in 2008. Below is an article from the China Daily with more information.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2008/2007-02/12/content_807209.htm

Needless to say most don't pay attention to it ..........................

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/

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.

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:

Ramblings

RW and I have been picked up by driver Shen to work each day. It is a 20-30 minute ride, not too bad. The office is quiet. The intranet speed his horrific. I have trouble getting an external internet site at all. We will have to see if there is anything we can do to fix that. We have settled in on the 15 RMB lunch buffet. Lots of good warm dishes, drinks, fruit. The room needs a lot of work. It is a temporary cafeteria on the 3rd floor. There are nice bright yellow plastic seats for tables of 4 and a cement floor.

We take the taxi back home. Thank goodness the Intercontinental Hotel is next door, otherwise it might be difficult to hail a taxi as the office buildings are set off the busy west 2nd Ring Rd. (think a very slow congested beltway).

Speaking of Intercontinental, RW and I went to lunch at the hotel to see what they had to offer. There were a few options on the 5th floor. We went to a nice Cantonese restaurant called Si Chou Lu. The food was good and had English and Chinese so I knew what I was getting. The service was top rate, but I'm starting to get used to the $1.85 meal. I had to laugh that RW my good Chinese colleague wanted a fork because the nice chopsticks were to slippery.

RW's house shipment is coming today. My immigration papers are being completed today so my shipment can be sent and maybe we will get it sometime next week. AF and I cannot wait for our stuff to come. We are sleeping on the most uncomfortable rock hard beds. BF bought us some featherbedding that I hope will help. These beds are so bad they feel like you are sleeping on the floor. AF says she is getting bruises on her hips and knees.

The last few days have been in the high 80's lots of humidity and of course smog. This is a view from our apartment today looking north (bei).






I think I am up to maybe 5 mandarin words:
ni hao - hello
zaijian - good bye
xie xie - thank you
lu- street
bei - north
non- south

AF has volleyball tryouts tonight. She leaves at 7am and comes back tonight at 7pm, yuck! Seems like all the kids live out by the school in Shunyi. So tryouts dont start until 4:30 so kids have time to go home and then return for practice. PRactice is over before 6pm and AF catches thebus right at 6. It takes an hour to get back to the city because they drop a teacher off in a very conjested area.

CB landed in Beijing today. Will try to see him this weekend to welcome him to the China. He is by himself until SL lands on the 25th and will reside in same building. WL, QL, WW all arrive tomorrow.