Creatures of Habit

Some say we are creatures of habit, some more than others. Some of seem to have developed a certain rhythm or ritual on the weekends when everyone is in town (no market research trips across China or folks travelling back to the US).

It begins with Friday evenings going to a Belgian restaurant which seems to have the best steaks in the city. Often we actually opt for the Beef Stew with french fries and and endive salad. They know us well enough that we seem to get complimentary after dinner drinks out of nowhere. We then will either proceed to a bar, shopping at a market for DVDs or better yet the Foot Massage.
The foot massage is another great social experience. It is a good place to talk and drink (tea or beer) . The actual foot massage is not as I thought it would be. It begins with dipping your feet into a scalding concoction of who knows what type of herbs. Some of us require more cold water to be added to the bucket. Regardless our feet come out more tender and a nice shade of pink. Next the young rural migrant girls begin to "massage" your feet. Part of the massage entails "knuckling" the bottom arches of your feet with great pain. The girls like to see the expression on your face to determine if they are doing it hard enough. The 110 minute experience also includes a massage of each of your legs up to your hip (which is highly ticklish to some) and then a shoulder massage.
On Saturday's it seems that there are two activities to choose from. One is shopping and the other for now is snow skiing. Take your pick.......................

Then on Sundays for lunch we go to an all you can eat Japanese restaurant for $13. We gorge on sashimi, sushi, California rolls, a special fried rice dish, etc. Then it is off to wherever to complete the weekend.

Hot Debate

One of the current hot debates in Beijing is the Starbuck's at the Forbidden City. This has been going on for some time. Here is a synopsis from the People's Daily.

Debate: Should Starbucks be removed from the Forbidden City?
"Why Starbucks Needs to Get Out of the Forbidden City? was title of a blog article written by Rui Chenggang, an anchorman on CCTV's English channel. The article has sparked another round of hot debate on whether the American coffee chain should be removed from one of the most important landmarks of Chinese civilization.

Anchorman: this is trampling on Chinese culture
Perhaps it is acceptable to have a Starbucks outlet near the Forbidden City, Rui wrote in his article, but it is obscene to have it within the City where it will be remembered by visitors as part of this historic Chinese site.

He argues that the coffee shop, a symbol of popular culture in America and western countries as a whole, doesn't blend in at the Forbidden City. He goes so far as to call it "visual pollution?

"It is not globalizing; it is trampling on Chinese culture", he said.

His blog recorded 530,000 hits and comments have flooded the Web. Many have called the outlet a "disgrace" and the Palace Museum, the administrative organ of the Forbidden City, a "slave to money", according to Tuesday's China Daily.

Museum spokesman: we will stick to principles of conservation
The Museum's spokesman Feng Nai'en responded to the accusation in an interview with the Beijing Morning Post. He said that the museum was in discussions with Starbucks to find a proper solution, with the outcome to be decided by mid-year at the very latest.

Rent money from the coffee chain, as from other shops, is part of the museum's business earnings, said Feng, adding that when the commercial benefits clash with conservation the museum gives priority to the latter.

As early as 2005, the museum began to reconsider the layout and appearance of shops within the Forbidden City, wanting them to blend in better with the surroundings, Feng told the reporter.

Liu Rong, director of the Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations under the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said in an interview that certain commercial operation were permitted by cultural relic organizations as they must also cater to tourists. However, priority must given to the proper preservation of cultural relics, including the overall image of each site.

Media: unwise to become slave to profit
Magnificent and imposing, the Forbidden City is a manifestation of traditional Chinese culture at its peak, and a Starbucks outlet from across the Pacific looks simply out of place there, wrote Lin Jinfang, a teacher from Jiangxi University, in an article published by Beijing Youth Daily, on January 17.

Another article on Xinhua Net voiced the opinion that the Forbidden City, as one of the most vivid symbols of the thousands of years of Chinese culture, should not be so insulted, especially not for the sake of making money.

On the same day, however, Beijing Youth Daily ran another article by Zhu Shugu, in which a civil servant from Sichuan argued that tourist facilities and cultural relics should not be lumped together. But, he said, "if we remove all tourist facilities related to western culture for the sake of 'original flavor' then we would certainly have to expel more than Starbucks."

Net voices: looking forward to an intact, harmonious Forbidden City
Most netizens who posted their comments were against commercial facilities in the Forbidden City.

A netizen calling himself JS wrote: "The picture of the Starbucks in the Forbidden City looks really awkward. There can be cultural exchanges. But blending everything together so crudely will only change the original 'flavor.'

Another netizen wrote that "we hope cultural relics will not be confused with business opportunities."

Liuqiu Luwei, a noted anchorwoman with Hong Kong's Phoenix TV, also waded into the debate, voicing her opinion on her blog. Both Chinese and foreign nationals hope for a harmonious, beautiful and intact Forbidden City, rather than a place distorted by commercial boards or shops, she said.

"But who should be the one to ensure that? " she asked. "Even if Starbucks is pressured to relocate, something else inappropriate may appear."
By People's Daily Online

You Have to Laugh

Being in a foreign country you are faced with things that just seem to be strange or just simply odd from our perspectives. There are some really good stories that come out of China that I will share with you occasionally. Our daily English language paper (actual newspaper that I get in the morning and read on the way to work) has a section called "China Scene" that has great local obscure stories.

Sometimes stories end up in the international news services too. The one below is from Reuters:

Chinese Airline Fined for Selling 13 Cent Tickets
Monday , December 18, 2006
Reuters

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have fined a low-cost airline almost $20,000 for selling tickets for 13 U.S. cents in a promotion, saying they broke national pricing rules, a newspaper said on Monday.
Spring Airlines, set up last year by travel agent China Spring International, sold more than 400 tickets on a new route between Shanghai and the northern city of Jinan for just 1 yuan ($0.13), the Beijing Times said.
But that went against a 2004 rule — designed to help carriers' bottom lines after a vicious price war — that the maximum discount an airline can offer is 45 percent off a government-set base price, the report added.
A standard one-way ticket between Shanghai and Jinan costs 760 yuan ($97.10), excluding tax and fuel surcharge.
The Jinan government said it would fine Spring Airlines' local travel agent branch 150,000 yuan ($19,160) as a punishment, though the company denies wrongdoing and will appeal, the newspaper said.
The case underscores the difficulty facing Chinese low-cost airlines, which are trying to model themselves on the likes of Ireland's Ryanair in bringing cheap no-frills travel to the world's most populous nation.
China's airline industry is dominated by three main state-run carriers, with which a clutch of low-cost airlines are trying to compete. ($1=7.827 Yuan)

Then there are stories that we encounter in our everyday life. Here is an interesting sign in the suburbs of Beijing:

The Talk of Weather

Often we talk about the weather and air quality in Beijing. The other day I was saying to someone that I never think about what to wear outside, it never rains or snows. According to article below, not only has it been drier than normal but also warmer. If this is warmer I cannot wait to see a cold winter. It sure seems like it has not been over 35 the whole winter. Turns out I am using the wrong measure and should be measuring the the sanjui days (coldest days). All of this means a potentially good sandstorm year for the spring months.

Beijing Environment Watchdog Warns of Sandstorms

Beijingers can prepare handkerchiefs and face masks for dusty weather this spring because little snow has so far fallen in the dry, grey Chinese capital, a city environmental official said on Monday.

"Beijing is experiencing a warm, dry winter so sands can easily be stirred up. If the present weather continues, then severe sandstorms are likely in the spring," said Shi Hanmin, head of the municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
Beijing has experienced two snowfalls this winter and the temperature on sanjiu days, a traditional term for the coldest days of the year, stood at minus 1.3 degrees Celsius, the warmest for 13 years.

Last year, the city reported 241 so-called "blue sky days", or days with fairly good air quality, when particulate matter in the air is less than 100 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the environmental bureau.

"It is hard for us to improve on 60 percent of blue sky days per year. We don't have many new solutions to combat dusty weather," Shi said.

But he said Beijing will renovate more than 1,100 coal-fuelled boilers and replace 2,580 old buses by the end of the year in further anti-pollution efforts.

"Also, next year, the city will apply Euro IV emission standards to new vehicles to cut automobile pollutants," Shi said. In the event of sandstorms, city authorities will ask roadside stores, companies and other institutions to sweep the dust from streets and roofs so as to prevent further air pollution, he said.

Beijing experienced 17 sandstorms last spring, and the most serious one in April saw some 300,000 tons of sand and dust dumped on the city.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2007)

The picture above is from a sandstorm April 2006 which hit Beijing. Here is more information on that storm:
http://earth.esa.int/ew/special_events/china_sandstorm-apr06/

Experienced Expats

Expat living is an interesting experience especially in a country that is as foreign as China. We continue to meet very interesting people from around the globe who continue to help shape our perspectives. The most interesting are the one’s who have been here for more than a decade.

Last night we had dinner at a very nice hot pot restaurant not far from our home (of course the logistics to get there were a challenge but we did make it). We were invited by a work colleague and his wife who have been of invaluable help to us here in Beijing. They introduced us to three other people who have lived here more than a decade. All of them possess fantastic mandarin skills and also drive in Beijing. These are two skills that we will never possess during our two year visit.

The changes they have seen over the last decade in China are difficult to imagine, especially for expats. They recall when there was only one place that English speaking people would go to socialize, the Beijing Hotel. Today there are so many places to go and so many more resources available to us. They remember when there were virtually no cars on the roads and only a see of bicycles (now that is really hard to imagine).