Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Loire Valley
Not enough time for a real post but we are in the Loire Valley for a few days looking at chateaux (castles).
Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Spending time in Paris
I've spent the last couple of days mostly with may family doing various things in preparation for Christmas. I really love France (and Paris in particular) but there are definitely some things that I like that aren't done the same way either in Australia or China. One is the politeness. Every shop you go into people say "Bonjour monsieur" and they always sound so cheery. Then when you leave it's "Merci monsieur, au revoir, bon journee". I like it, it's great!
The other thing is shopping for food. It really could be a full time job here. You stop at the baker, the butcher, the patissier, the fruit market, the fromagerie (cheese shop), the wine shop and sometimes the supermarket as well. This afternoon my sister and I spent about 3 hours out and only managed to get enough food for the day! We did find these fantastic meringues though.
We'd been looking for a Christmas tree for a few days that was big enough. Most people in Paris have quite small apartments and so quite small trees. The embassy has very big apartments though, so we needed an appropriately sized tree and there weren't very many around. My sister and my mother came home yesterday though with the instructions "put your shoes on, we've bought a tree and you need to carry it". So I head out with my sister to find the man with the tree. It's about 25 minutes walk or so. We get there and the tree is about 2.5m tall with a huge half log on the bottom to keep it stable. I could barely lift it! I managed to get it on my shoulder and carry it about 150m before we gave up and my sister left to get my brother in law. I got a lot of very strange looks along with a few "quelle grand sapin" form people. She finally came back and here's the tree on the streets of Paris.
The shop we bought it from is just out of sight in the background! My dad rocked up and we carried it back to the apartment where we had the unveiling ceremony, National Lampoon's Christmas style
Lucky the apartment is so damn big! So tonight it'll be decorating the tree which should be nice with the family all here (except Jane, hurry up and get here :).
I was out on the Champs-Elysees the other day (as one does!) and ordered a capuccino (because Australia is the only place that understands flat whites) and here's what I got
Yes that is whipped cream on the top. Definitely the weirdest capuccino I've ever had in my life! I was very confused when she gave it to me but she acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe she's never seen a capuccino before? Well she still hasn't!
Weekend tomorrow so the big shops will all be totally packed so I might do some local shopping here then head to the department stores (Le Printemps and Galeries LaFayette) early next week for some more in depth shopping :)
The other thing is shopping for food. It really could be a full time job here. You stop at the baker, the butcher, the patissier, the fruit market, the fromagerie (cheese shop), the wine shop and sometimes the supermarket as well. This afternoon my sister and I spent about 3 hours out and only managed to get enough food for the day! We did find these fantastic meringues though.
I was out on the Champs-Elysees the other day (as one does!) and ordered a capuccino (because Australia is the only place that understands flat whites) and here's what I got
Weekend tomorrow so the big shops will all be totally packed so I might do some local shopping here then head to the department stores (Le Printemps and Galeries LaFayette) early next week for some more in depth shopping :)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
First day in Paris
So I managed to make it to my sister's house without too many issues. I also managed to stay awake until 10:30pm (5:30am Beijing time) which was nice. I then woke up at 8am Beijing time (1am) and a few more times, and finally gave up sleeping about 6:30am. Not too bad an effort. The view from the balcony is straight out at the Eiffel Tower, it's pretty special.
After a slow start with getting Lily ready to go (babies take lots of time), my sister, my mum and I went to Boulevard Haussman to the big department stores, Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. It was nice to get out in Paris again, the clothes, decorations and stuff are great here. I think I will spend a bit of money on clothes and shoes :) Lily was fine, not crying or anything. One problem with little kids is that the metro is really not designed for them. There are very few lifts and the turnstiles won't fit a pram or normal stroller through them and they're built really high to stop people jumping them. They have gates but there's almost never anyone there to open them. So Lily went in the baby carrier but it's not clear how long she'll fit in there, she's getting bigger pretty quickly.
I'm thinking about a few different options for stuff to do over the next week or so before Jane gets here. My parents are talking about going to Amsterdam which might be nice. I haven't been there before and it would be a fairly quick trip on the train. If anyone has any other suggestions for me, let me know!
After a slow start with getting Lily ready to go (babies take lots of time), my sister, my mum and I went to Boulevard Haussman to the big department stores, Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. It was nice to get out in Paris again, the clothes, decorations and stuff are great here. I think I will spend a bit of money on clothes and shoes :) Lily was fine, not crying or anything. One problem with little kids is that the metro is really not designed for them. There are very few lifts and the turnstiles won't fit a pram or normal stroller through them and they're built really high to stop people jumping them. They have gates but there's almost never anyone there to open them. So Lily went in the baby carrier but it's not clear how long she'll fit in there, she's getting bigger pretty quickly.
I'm thinking about a few different options for stuff to do over the next week or so before Jane gets here. My parents are talking about going to Amsterdam which might be nice. I haven't been there before and it would be a fairly quick trip on the train. If anyone has any other suggestions for me, let me know!
Traveling to Paris
It's funny cause all the other international flights I've taken have been with non-Chinese airlines. I can now testify that it makes a REALLY BIG difference. Normally I would plug in my headphones, queue up a bunch of crappy (or ideally not crappy) movies and watch them until I fall asleep for a few minutes. My flight from Beijing to Paris (it was non stop which is ok) was on a littlish sort of plane with no entertainment (aside from the old-style overhead monitors that you can't see). I had a suspicion this would be the case so I brought my laptop etc along. But what happens is that the (mostly) Chinese fliers all stand in the aisles yelling at each other, or they all watch movies on their iPads with the sound up or they all play games (also with the sound up). It's pretty annoying! So the one flight I want to sleep through is also during the day so I really should stay awake. GRRRR!
An interesting thing happened very early in the flight though. If you've been following my blog (and if not WHY NOT?)(also I understand :) you would already know that yesterday Jane and I and her friend from work Jie Xia (Jessie) went skiing at a place just outside Beijing. It was roughly an hour out of town. Well about 5 minutes after we take off, what do we fly over but the ski place. It was easily recognised by the fact that it's all man-made snow in the middle of a brown string of hills. Sort of sticks out a little! And if you've been reading even further back (and you should have been) then you would clearly remember my camping trip on the Great Wall. If not, please take this opportunity to remind yourself. Right, well I flew over the same spot. It looks pretty much the same from up here too. ABout 10 minutes after that though, everything went white and snow covered and it's been that way for the last 5 hours or so. Mongolia and southern (and probably even more so northern) Russia are seriously empty and desolate. There is nothing here but hills, snow and (very few) trees. No roads, railways and certainly no towns. Jessie was saying that last year they went horse riding in Inner Mongolia last year and that maybe we should do it again. It would be interesting but do you think they'll let me swap the horse for a trail bike? I really don't like horses.
I finally watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. I've read the (existing) books a few times but for some reason never quite got around to watching the show. I guess I've slightly avoided them because 1) I know the story isn't finished and 2) the author is producing one book every 5 or so years, one just came out and he seems pretty fed up with the whole thing really. Still, I enjoyed the show, I think I will definitely try to watch the rest of the episodes. Would have been nice if they'd called it "A Song of Ice and Fire" cause Game of Thrones was just the first book. At least I have an advantage of knowing who the many, many, many characters are :)
I should probably also have brought more than a single episode for my 11 hour flight! I also should really invest in more games on my mac than ones I can't run without running the battery down like Oblivion/Minecraft/Terraria and less battery intensive but also less interesting games that I'm not very good at like chess/mahjong. I won 3 chess games in a row against the computer which is a record for me because I don't think I've ever actually won a game before :) At least I how the pieces work.
So I'm kind of running down my battery and hoping that some award- and cash-winning novel idea will come to me (and that I could write it). Nothing so far though.
An interesting thing happened very early in the flight though. If you've been following my blog (and if not WHY NOT?)(also I understand :) you would already know that yesterday Jane and I and her friend from work Jie Xia (Jessie) went skiing at a place just outside Beijing. It was roughly an hour out of town. Well about 5 minutes after we take off, what do we fly over but the ski place. It was easily recognised by the fact that it's all man-made snow in the middle of a brown string of hills. Sort of sticks out a little! And if you've been reading even further back (and you should have been) then you would clearly remember my camping trip on the Great Wall. If not, please take this opportunity to remind yourself. Right, well I flew over the same spot. It looks pretty much the same from up here too. ABout 10 minutes after that though, everything went white and snow covered and it's been that way for the last 5 hours or so. Mongolia and southern (and probably even more so northern) Russia are seriously empty and desolate. There is nothing here but hills, snow and (very few) trees. No roads, railways and certainly no towns. Jessie was saying that last year they went horse riding in Inner Mongolia last year and that maybe we should do it again. It would be interesting but do you think they'll let me swap the horse for a trail bike? I really don't like horses.
I finally watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. I've read the (existing) books a few times but for some reason never quite got around to watching the show. I guess I've slightly avoided them because 1) I know the story isn't finished and 2) the author is producing one book every 5 or so years, one just came out and he seems pretty fed up with the whole thing really. Still, I enjoyed the show, I think I will definitely try to watch the rest of the episodes. Would have been nice if they'd called it "A Song of Ice and Fire" cause Game of Thrones was just the first book. At least I have an advantage of knowing who the many, many, many characters are :)
I should probably also have brought more than a single episode for my 11 hour flight! I also should really invest in more games on my mac than ones I can't run without running the battery down like Oblivion/Minecraft/Terraria and less battery intensive but also less interesting games that I'm not very good at like chess/mahjong. I won 3 chess games in a row against the computer which is a record for me because I don't think I've ever actually won a game before :) At least I how the pieces work.
So I'm kind of running down my battery and hoping that some award- and cash-winning novel idea will come to me (and that I could write it). Nothing so far though.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Traveling once again and skiing!
I'm in the airport again, yay!!
This time at least I'm going on holidays (although my life is sort of a holiday at the moment) which is fantastic. It also means I know how to get around the airport, where stuff is (like free internet) all of which is handy but doesn't totally make up for the fact that I'm in the airport again!
Yesterday we went skiing. The place was about an hour from Beijing, along the same highway as the one we used for our Great Wall trip. When I'd gone on that trip I saw a temple thing on top of a hill in the distance and wondered what it was. Well after some driving, a few wrong turns and some side road trips through tiny villages with a little snow around, it turns out it's actually the top of a chairlift!!
The snow at the place was entirely man made, but it was pretty good snow for all that. Usually in Australia the man-made snow gets really icy cause it gets hot during the day but it wasn't too bad.
Jane and I weren't allowed to go together because they separate the beginner skiers and snowboarders (a good thing as I was to find out later). I'm a reasonable skier though (for an Australian :) so I had a few goes on the beginner slope, a few on the intermediate then went to the top of the mountain for a bit of speed. It had been about 7 years since I went last but I was surprised to find I was actually pretty good which is nice. The only time I fell over was when I was standing in line at the chairlift (the lines got worse and worse through the day, glad we went early) when an errant snowboarder lost control coming down a slope and slammed into the line. I was the third person in and I was still knocked over! The guy he hit was seriously pissed as well, the snowboarder got up then this guy knocked him down again, I thought they were going to have a punch up but it calmed down eventually. I saw him later falling off the pommel, then again at the top falling off the chairlift. Some people just aren't meant to ski!
My only complaint about the day were the queues. By about 1:30, it was 2 minutes down the mountain, 15 minutes in the queue, 5 minutes on the chair then 2 minutes down again.
Because we used this card system, we didn't know how much it was going to cost us all up so we were pretty staggered at the end of the day to find it cost us just over $40 each for lift passes, skis (or board), jacket, pants and gloves. That was for half a day, it went up to $50 for a whole day. Not a bad way to spend a sunday really!
This time at least I'm going on holidays (although my life is sort of a holiday at the moment) which is fantastic. It also means I know how to get around the airport, where stuff is (like free internet) all of which is handy but doesn't totally make up for the fact that I'm in the airport again!
Yesterday we went skiing. The place was about an hour from Beijing, along the same highway as the one we used for our Great Wall trip. When I'd gone on that trip I saw a temple thing on top of a hill in the distance and wondered what it was. Well after some driving, a few wrong turns and some side road trips through tiny villages with a little snow around, it turns out it's actually the top of a chairlift!!
The snow at the place was entirely man made, but it was pretty good snow for all that. Usually in Australia the man-made snow gets really icy cause it gets hot during the day but it wasn't too bad.
Jane and I weren't allowed to go together because they separate the beginner skiers and snowboarders (a good thing as I was to find out later). I'm a reasonable skier though (for an Australian :) so I had a few goes on the beginner slope, a few on the intermediate then went to the top of the mountain for a bit of speed. It had been about 7 years since I went last but I was surprised to find I was actually pretty good which is nice. The only time I fell over was when I was standing in line at the chairlift (the lines got worse and worse through the day, glad we went early) when an errant snowboarder lost control coming down a slope and slammed into the line. I was the third person in and I was still knocked over! The guy he hit was seriously pissed as well, the snowboarder got up then this guy knocked him down again, I thought they were going to have a punch up but it calmed down eventually. I saw him later falling off the pommel, then again at the top falling off the chairlift. Some people just aren't meant to ski!
My only complaint about the day were the queues. By about 1:30, it was 2 minutes down the mountain, 15 minutes in the queue, 5 minutes on the chair then 2 minutes down again.
Because we used this card system, we didn't know how much it was going to cost us all up so we were pretty staggered at the end of the day to find it cost us just over $40 each for lift passes, skis (or board), jacket, pants and gloves. That was for half a day, it went up to $50 for a whole day. Not a bad way to spend a sunday really!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Buying presents
We spent the afternoon out and about today buying presents! It was a little chilly (about -2 when we left) but not too bad.
When we were in Wangfujing St, we saw a huge crowd of westerners dressed as Santas wandering through the pedestrian mall. It wasn't totally clear what they were doing though
They sort of wandered up the street (followed by a police car and vaguely annoying traffic when they crossed the road) and stopped in the park.
We headed around to a few places for presents, reasonably successfully which is nice, then headed back home once it started getting properly cold. I mentioned the other day that children were walking across the pond, but there were about 5 on there when we were coming back. It's weird, but I'm going to walk across before then end of winter :)
When we were in Wangfujing St, we saw a huge crowd of westerners dressed as Santas wandering through the pedestrian mall. It wasn't totally clear what they were doing though
We headed around to a few places for presents, reasonably successfully which is nice, then headed back home once it started getting properly cold. I mentioned the other day that children were walking across the pond, but there were about 5 on there when we were coming back. It's weird, but I'm going to walk across before then end of winter :)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Missing home
It's funny, we've been here for almost 5 months I think but it wasn't until I went back to Australia for a few days that I realised I'd been missing home.
It's coming into summer, people are having Christmas parties, BBQs, evenings out but I'm not getting any of that here. It's not just the weather, which is cold but sort of bearable, it's just not being able to see people when I want to.
Beijing also has a decided lack of (to me anyway) Christmas feeling. There are decorations in a few places (shopping malls, our apartment complex has some lights on trees) but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. At least I know that Paris (where I am going on Monday) will have an excess of Christmas trees, lights, songs, banners, tinsel and all the other things that make it feel like Christmas.
At least I have the benefit of being able to see my parents and my sister (and James and Lily!) for Christmas. It's a shame that Jane won't be able to see her family as well, but I can't imagine what a nightmare organising THAT trip would be. Hopefully we'll see them in the new year.
So, in conclusion (Jane and I have been providing useful feedback on her co-workers' English and they've been writing essays) I've been missing my friends, family, the weather and the sorts of things that summer lets people do (like diving). Still it's not all bad, I'm going skiing on the weekend :)
Not sure if I'll have any internet when we get to Paris so if I don't, Merry Christmas everyone!!
Also check out this fine Tim Minchin Christmas song on the youtubes (grandparents with slow internet and low tolerance for swearing should probably not click on this link!!). Makes me sad being away from Australia but it is a great song.
It's coming into summer, people are having Christmas parties, BBQs, evenings out but I'm not getting any of that here. It's not just the weather, which is cold but sort of bearable, it's just not being able to see people when I want to.
Beijing also has a decided lack of (to me anyway) Christmas feeling. There are decorations in a few places (shopping malls, our apartment complex has some lights on trees) but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. At least I know that Paris (where I am going on Monday) will have an excess of Christmas trees, lights, songs, banners, tinsel and all the other things that make it feel like Christmas.
At least I have the benefit of being able to see my parents and my sister (and James and Lily!) for Christmas. It's a shame that Jane won't be able to see her family as well, but I can't imagine what a nightmare organising THAT trip would be. Hopefully we'll see them in the new year.
So, in conclusion (Jane and I have been providing useful feedback on her co-workers' English and they've been writing essays) I've been missing my friends, family, the weather and the sorts of things that summer lets people do (like diving). Still it's not all bad, I'm going skiing on the weekend :)
Not sure if I'll have any internet when we get to Paris so if I don't, Merry Christmas everyone!!
Also check out this fine Tim Minchin Christmas song on the youtubes (grandparents with slow internet and low tolerance for swearing should probably not click on this link!!). Makes me sad being away from Australia but it is a great song.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Shaolin Monk Show!
On Tuesday last week we went with Jane's friend and colleague Pam to a (and I quote) "Shaolin Kung Fu Monk sort of show". I arrived to pick them up from the office with the words "it's just near the Lama temple" so I thought easy, that's only 20 minutes walk away. It was actually near the Temple of Heaven which is a lot further away. Freezing night (well below 0) and no cabs to be found, we jumped on the train. We had to meet this guy who had our tickets at 7:15 and when 7:25 came around and we were still on the train, things were clearly going wrong. After finding our way from the station to the theatre (in the dark with a very poor map) we got there about 7:45 to find the guy still standing there but very annoyed. He had returned our tickets cause he thought we weren't coming and the show had started at 7:30! We went in anyway, we had great seats, about 3 rows from the front and we hadn't missed much at all. I really enjoyed the show, the acting was terrible and they kept on trying to squeeze in those Shaolin stunts where they break blocks over their heads, but it was still fun. The best part was where the devil's door (or whatever it's called) in the stage opened and the main character and some smoke came out. I presume the smoke is normally a bit less think because it enveloped us, all the rows in front and about 3 rows behind us in a thick dry ice fog. We all we could see were the heads of the people in the front row popping up above the smoke as they stood up to see, it was hilarious!
The show ended as these shows always do ("Yes young one, this was MY story, now you must make your own") and then they made us leave. It was seriously cold outside, the wind had picked up and we then had to walk back to the station to take the train back. I'm not sure that the others had fun, but I enjoyed it. It was exactly like a bad 70s kung fu movie except performed in front of us! Fantastic.
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| From Random China Photos |
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| From Random China Photos |
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Back in China
I'm back in Beijing now after 4 days away in Perth. I'd never been to Perth before, strangely enough it reminds me a lot of Canberra (although the Perth people may not appreciate the comparison!). It's got that same small town feel to it, lots of wide open spaces with no people in them. It was also very nice, if a little dull I guess.
One thing I had clearly been missing without really realising it was blue sky. We hadn't had a clear day in Beijing for a week or so, and even then they're just not the same. When I arrived in Perth I got there at 8am but couldn't check in to my hotel until 2pm so I had some time to kill. I just wandered around for a while and was really struck by the size of the sky and how much I had missed that feeling of space that you can get in Australia.
I had a great time in Perth, I was there for a bunch of workshops with our new client. Happily they went very well, we had a very successful time there and I also had a full day free on Thursday before my plane left at midnight. I elected (having been given some useful advice) to head out to Rottnest Island for the day. It was a really nice place!
The ferry left from Perth at 8:45 in the morning and didn't arrive back until 5:45pm so I was a bit worried about getting a bit bored my myself so I booked a boat tour around the island, lunch at the hotel and a push bike to go for a bit of a ride. When I turned up, the girl at the counter seemed a bit surprised at the number of things I was going to do. I found out why pretty soon, the ferry didn't arrive until 10:45, my tour left at 11 and got back at 1, my lunch started at 1 and went until about 2ish and we had to be back at the ferry about 3:30!
Still, I had a blast, it was a lot like a tropical island, fantastically blue and clear water with clean beaches. Not too many people, really the only unpleasant thing was the flies, there were heaps of them. Apart from that it was great. I even saw some qokkas which surprised me cause I thought they would be less... obvious I guess. I also saw seals on the trip around the island. I have dived with them before but never got so close in a boat before. They looked so relaxed!
I would definitely like to come back and go diving.
I did my very best to not get sunburned and I did pretty well in the end. Most of the people on the ferry back were very burned! It was about 32 or 33 with just a bit of a breeze. Once I got back to Perth, I walked back to the hotel, collected my luggage and headed to the airport.
The flight back to Hong Kong was much less pleasant than the flight there. The plane, food etc were all really nice but the guy sitting next to me was a tool. If you're going to sit in the aisle seat, you will have to get up sometimes. I wanted to get up once (on a 7 hour flight) and this guy didn't want to make room. Oh well. The flight from Hong Kong was good though, no one next to me so I could stretch out a little more.
When I arrived back in Beijing, it was snowing! It was about -2, quite a difference from my 32 degrees the day before. I think I said before, the train to and from the airport is great, except this time is meant I had to walk back to the house in the snow! It wasn't really that bad, I just think I need to get some boots for the snow.
(yes that's snow on the window)
Now I have a week here, then next Monday I'm off to Paris for Christmas! It's a hard life :)
The rest of my photos are here. Sorry they're not that great, I only had my iphone with me.
https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/Perth?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
I did my very best to not get sunburned and I did pretty well in the end. Most of the people on the ferry back were very burned! It was about 32 or 33 with just a bit of a breeze. Once I got back to Perth, I walked back to the hotel, collected my luggage and headed to the airport.
The flight back to Hong Kong was much less pleasant than the flight there. The plane, food etc were all really nice but the guy sitting next to me was a tool. If you're going to sit in the aisle seat, you will have to get up sometimes. I wanted to get up once (on a 7 hour flight) and this guy didn't want to make room. Oh well. The flight from Hong Kong was good though, no one next to me so I could stretch out a little more.
When I arrived back in Beijing, it was snowing! It was about -2, quite a difference from my 32 degrees the day before. I think I said before, the train to and from the airport is great, except this time is meant I had to walk back to the house in the snow! It wasn't really that bad, I just think I need to get some boots for the snow.
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
The rest of my photos are here. Sorry they're not that great, I only had my iphone with me.
https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/Perth?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Back to Aus
I'm on my way back to Australia for the week, work is flying me back. Unfortunately, they're flying me to Perth so I won't actually be able to catch up with many people (other than friends from work who are also coming over). I caught the train to the airport for the first time and I can highly recommend it. It costs 25 yuan (a bit less than $5) as compared with 60 yuan for a cab and it was about 30 minutes from buying my ticket to standing in line to check in, really good and efficient. Unfortunately it on;y runs until about 10pm but if the option is there then definitely take it!
So hanging around the airport is a bit weird, I've got some presents for the colleagues which will I expect have a mixed reception. So I'm just sitting here writing blog entries and listening to the guys on the electric golf carts drive around like nutters, beeping their horns at all the people walking who have the temerity to even slightly get in their way. I've also noticed that unlike normal airports where they drive you around when you're late, here you just give them 10 yuan and they drive you wherever. I'm tempted to pay the 10 yuan and just drive around for a while!
!
While I am a big fan of traveling in general, I'm not a huge fan of traveling on planes. I just don't enjoy the process of being locked in the tube with a bunch of people for 14 hours, I'm not sure that anyone does really. I'm also not a huge fan of traveling for work, but I guess I'm lucky in that someone else is paying for the ticket and all I have to do is make the journey. At least this also gives me another chance to stock up on things from Aus. So I'll be in Perth for about 4 days, then back to Beijing for 10 days, then off to Paris.
Now all I have to do is wait for the crazy stampede that will begin just before they call the flight!
So hanging around the airport is a bit weird, I've got some presents for the colleagues which will I expect have a mixed reception. So I'm just sitting here writing blog entries and listening to the guys on the electric golf carts drive around like nutters, beeping their horns at all the people walking who have the temerity to even slightly get in their way. I've also noticed that unlike normal airports where they drive you around when you're late, here you just give them 10 yuan and they drive you wherever. I'm tempted to pay the 10 yuan and just drive around for a while!
!
While I am a big fan of traveling in general, I'm not a huge fan of traveling on planes. I just don't enjoy the process of being locked in the tube with a bunch of people for 14 hours, I'm not sure that anyone does really. I'm also not a huge fan of traveling for work, but I guess I'm lucky in that someone else is paying for the ticket and all I have to do is make the journey. At least this also gives me another chance to stock up on things from Aus. So I'll be in Perth for about 4 days, then back to Beijing for 10 days, then off to Paris.
Now all I have to do is wait for the crazy stampede that will begin just before they call the flight!
Yonghegong Lama Temple
(I wrote this post just before I was told "you have to go to Perth for a week and work" so me not being too busy is no longer entirely accurate!)
Sorry, I've been really slack in my posting lately! I haven't even been all that busy, just not doing very interesting things!
Last weekend we went to the Yonghegong Lama Temple, which in itself is pretty slack cause it's a really nice place that's about 30 minutes walk (or one train stop) from the house. I have to say, along with the wall, this has been my favourite place to go in China so far. The temple itself is pretty similar to all the other touristy type places we've been (summer palace, forbidden city etc) but I guess the difference for me is that this is still a practicing temple with worshippers, monks, incense and all that stuff. The other places just didn't seem alive to me, it everything was there for the tourists who (like me to an extent I guess) didn't really appreciate it. However, as I said, I really enjoyed the Lama temple, it had a great feeling and people were there for the purpose of either worshipping or just quietly looking.
Please note in the background of the photo above, the monk on the mobile phone :)
It probably also helped that it wasn't too cold that day, the sun was out, no pollution just a gentle breeze.
We were just sort of wandering through the temple and happened to be in the main temple building when all the monks filed in and started (what I assume to be) their daily service. The place was pretty full of people and they just filed in and started chanting, it was really nice. We weren't allowed to take photos in there and normally I don't. But I could resist so I tried to do it without disturbing anyone.
After leaving the temple, we went around the corner to our (so far) favourite normal hot pot place called Little Sheep. We then proceeded to eat for about 90 minutes solid, beef and mushrooms and veges (but mostly been and mushrooms of varying types). So good!
More photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/YonghegongLamaTemple?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Sorry, I've been really slack in my posting lately! I haven't even been all that busy, just not doing very interesting things!
Last weekend we went to the Yonghegong Lama Temple, which in itself is pretty slack cause it's a really nice place that's about 30 minutes walk (or one train stop) from the house. I have to say, along with the wall, this has been my favourite place to go in China so far. The temple itself is pretty similar to all the other touristy type places we've been (summer palace, forbidden city etc) but I guess the difference for me is that this is still a practicing temple with worshippers, monks, incense and all that stuff. The other places just didn't seem alive to me, it everything was there for the tourists who (like me to an extent I guess) didn't really appreciate it. However, as I said, I really enjoyed the Lama temple, it had a great feeling and people were there for the purpose of either worshipping or just quietly looking.
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
It probably also helped that it wasn't too cold that day, the sun was out, no pollution just a gentle breeze.
We were just sort of wandering through the temple and happened to be in the main temple building when all the monks filed in and started (what I assume to be) their daily service. The place was pretty full of people and they just filed in and started chanting, it was really nice. We weren't allowed to take photos in there and normally I don't. But I could resist so I tried to do it without disturbing anyone.
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
More photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/YonghegongLamaTemple?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Hi!
Hi All!
Just so you know, I'm still alive, I have a bunch of posts to make but I'm pretty busy with work travel etc at the moment.
I promise I will post when I get back to China
Just so you know, I'm still alive, I have a bunch of posts to make but I'm pretty busy with work travel etc at the moment.
I promise I will post when I get back to China
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Heating... Part 3
As people suggested might happen, now that the heating has been on for a few days, it's now really hot in the house! Before I was sitting at the desk wearing a jumper, merino jumper, t-shirt, jeans, socks and slippers and sometimes my beanie if it was really cold. I still got cold hands after a while even wearing all that.
I'm now down to jeans and a t-shirt and I wouldn't feel uncomfortable wearing shorts I don't think. The floor is heated too so I don't even need my slippers any more!
It's warm enough that we've now had to open a window, so I guess the Chinese like it warm in their houses (and shops, offices etc)
Bring on the depths of Winter now, I'm ready now that I know I have a nice warm house to come back to.
I'm now down to jeans and a t-shirt and I wouldn't feel uncomfortable wearing shorts I don't think. The floor is heated too so I don't even need my slippers any more!
It's warm enough that we've now had to open a window, so I guess the Chinese like it warm in their houses (and shops, offices etc)
Bring on the depths of Winter now, I'm ready now that I know I have a nice warm house to come back to.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Heating... Part 2
Just a couple of hours after my last post, I realised that it wasn't so cold in the apartment any more. Then I was in the kitchen putting stuff in the bin (which is right in front of one of the wall heaters) and I noticed it was warm!!
So the heating now seems to be on, which is very nice. No one is sure if it's just on for testing or on properly but since it was coming on next Tuesday, I'm hoping they're not going to bother to turn it off.
We have heaters in all the rooms, which is really nice, and it seems like there is under floor heating too. Either that or the apartment downstairs is really warm! So the house is at least a few degrees warmer, I was too warm last night and I definitely don't need thermals and a jumper like I was wearing before.
Now all I have to do is to keep making myself go outside when it gets really cold!
So the heating now seems to be on, which is very nice. No one is sure if it's just on for testing or on properly but since it was coming on next Tuesday, I'm hoping they're not going to bother to turn it off.
We have heaters in all the rooms, which is really nice, and it seems like there is under floor heating too. Either that or the apartment downstairs is really warm! So the house is at least a few degrees warmer, I was too warm last night and I definitely don't need thermals and a jumper like I was wearing before.
Now all I have to do is to keep making myself go outside when it gets really cold!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Heating...
A few people have asked me about the heating (probably because we've been complaining about the cold:)
Some background to this in case it hasn't come up is that most buildings have centrally controlled heating which is in turn controlled by the Beijing government. It turns out that there are some guidelines as to when they turn it on. Basically testing starts around the 7th of November but the heating itself doesn't get turned on until either the 15th of November (next Tuesday) or until they get five days in a row of average temperatures below 5 degrees. Which is pretty cold for early November.
In short, it looks like the heating will come on next Tuesday because although it's getting into the negatives at night, it's still getting up to the mid-teens during the day.
Some background to this in case it hasn't come up is that most buildings have centrally controlled heating which is in turn controlled by the Beijing government. It turns out that there are some guidelines as to when they turn it on. Basically testing starts around the 7th of November but the heating itself doesn't get turned on until either the 15th of November (next Tuesday) or until they get five days in a row of average temperatures below 5 degrees. Which is pretty cold for early November.
In short, it looks like the heating will come on next Tuesday because although it's getting into the negatives at night, it's still getting up to the mid-teens during the day.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
One month of guitar
After a month of learning the guitar (well pretty much) I have come to a few conclusions:
I do have a book to learn some more songs as well but right now I want to finish this section and get to the chords which seems to be where most courses start. I am also hoping that the heating comes on soon (this weekend I think is the plan) because my hands keep getting really cold when I'm playing!
However I am still having fun, even with the boring exercises!
- I have no particular natural talent for music! Maybe no one does, but I certainly don't
- Even though I'm not very good yet, it's still fun
- Apparently children are good at learning this sort of thing but as an adult I have the advantage of knowing how to learn stuff and a lot more willpower than a child which is nice
- Years of studying language and my current Mandarin helps a lot with reasonably abstract things like music notation
I do have a book to learn some more songs as well but right now I want to finish this section and get to the chords which seems to be where most courses start. I am also hoping that the heating comes on soon (this weekend I think is the plan) because my hands keep getting really cold when I'm playing!
However I am still having fun, even with the boring exercises!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
After bedding
Yesterday we decided to make the trek out to Ikea to get a warmer doona as it's pretty cold in our apartment. When we've tried to look at this sort of stuff in Carrefour, we were basically mobbed so in the interests of that not happening and also having a bit more of a look around, we headed out on our bikes.
It had just started raining a tiny bit so Jane went back to grab some rain coats. As we left, a guy came barreling around the corner on his fold up bike going stupidly fast, saw us, slammed on his front brake, instantly locked the wheel and fell on his face right in front of us! We went to help him up, but he jumped up, looked pretty silly then rode off! It's very slippery!
It's chilly in Beijing at the moment, a maximum of about 12 so kind of an Australian winter so far. We headed out past where we buy our fruit and veg to a turn off where google maps said there was a road that would take us there and the Lonely Planet Beijing app said there wasn't. It turns out that Lonely Planet were right (good on them!) and there is as yet no road, just a confusing series of alleys that don't go anywhere. Back to the main road we went then and it meant we had to ride against the traffic on the side of the road which I'm not a big fan of. It wasn't too far fortunately and aside from almost being run over by a taxi when we arrived (the lane marked as a bike lane going in is also marked at the other end as a taxi lane going out), we were there. We'd been told it was ridiculously busy but still nicer than Ikea at home but maybe due to the weather it wasn't too bad.
We went in, eventually found doonas, cover and pillowcases and (most excitingly) some fitted sheets! I also got some fine slipper/boot things that make me look like a Christmas elf so that's all good. Most amazingly, our reasonable winter weight doona cost ... 249 yuan which is a bit less than $40!
Attempting to deal with the crowd (which in true Chinese fashion was about 50% going the wrong way, but they know best of course, not the Ikea architects!) we made our way to the exit and joined the very well labelled "Card Only" line. This is pretty common here. Not common or well marked enough for the people in front of us though who put all their stuff through (about 3 bags full) then pulled out cash to pay :(. The poor checkout girl had to go and find a supervisor and get them to come and sort it out. Then when we went to pay, she took Jane's card, and ran off. We never worked out why, maybe it's because it has a chip or something? We haven't had many issues with it before.
Coming home was much easier, we could go with the traffic and it's pretty straight to get back too.
The new sheets and doona are really nice and warm too!
It had just started raining a tiny bit so Jane went back to grab some rain coats. As we left, a guy came barreling around the corner on his fold up bike going stupidly fast, saw us, slammed on his front brake, instantly locked the wheel and fell on his face right in front of us! We went to help him up, but he jumped up, looked pretty silly then rode off! It's very slippery!
It's chilly in Beijing at the moment, a maximum of about 12 so kind of an Australian winter so far. We headed out past where we buy our fruit and veg to a turn off where google maps said there was a road that would take us there and the Lonely Planet Beijing app said there wasn't. It turns out that Lonely Planet were right (good on them!) and there is as yet no road, just a confusing series of alleys that don't go anywhere. Back to the main road we went then and it meant we had to ride against the traffic on the side of the road which I'm not a big fan of. It wasn't too far fortunately and aside from almost being run over by a taxi when we arrived (the lane marked as a bike lane going in is also marked at the other end as a taxi lane going out), we were there. We'd been told it was ridiculously busy but still nicer than Ikea at home but maybe due to the weather it wasn't too bad.
We went in, eventually found doonas, cover and pillowcases and (most excitingly) some fitted sheets! I also got some fine slipper/boot things that make me look like a Christmas elf so that's all good. Most amazingly, our reasonable winter weight doona cost ... 249 yuan which is a bit less than $40!
Attempting to deal with the crowd (which in true Chinese fashion was about 50% going the wrong way, but they know best of course, not the Ikea architects!) we made our way to the exit and joined the very well labelled "Card Only" line. This is pretty common here. Not common or well marked enough for the people in front of us though who put all their stuff through (about 3 bags full) then pulled out cash to pay :(. The poor checkout girl had to go and find a supervisor and get them to come and sort it out. Then when we went to pay, she took Jane's card, and ran off. We never worked out why, maybe it's because it has a chip or something? We haven't had many issues with it before.
Coming home was much easier, we could go with the traffic and it's pretty straight to get back too.
The new sheets and doona are really nice and warm too!
Monday, October 31, 2011
CCCCCcccooolllllllddddd!
Now, being the final third of Autumn, the temperature is starting to drop in Beijing. Properly now, not like last time when I thought it was dropping! At the moment it's like a nice Canberra Winter day without the sunshine. Not too cold during the day but definitely cooling down at night. Pretty much overnight jackets, scarves, beanies and gloves started appearing on passersby which is a good sign that things are cooling down.
Another good sign is how cold it gets in the apartment. One of the niceties/annoyances of a fairly controlling government is that they decide when the heating comes on and not the people in the buildings themselves. This means that no matter the actual temperature, the heating comes on around the 15th of November and not before. Last year it was apparently absolutely freezing a few weeks before and the powers that be allowed the heating on for "testing" purposes but that's unlikely this year, it's not unseasonably cold. Just cold :)
Another byproduct of the seasonal changes that I'm sure I mentioned before is the leaves falling. We have a pond in our apartment complex surrounded by willow trees which are slowly losing their leaves. This must be the worst time of year for street sweepers, because they don't get any leeway just because the leaves are falling all the time. They're all out there constantly sweeping all the different bits around the city. Lucky there seems to be an army of them!
Anyway, the leaves don't really change colour in Beijing, apparently it's too dry for that but they do fall. They've also cleared away all the water plants from the pond, and as I noticed today, the ducks and swans have disappeared as well. I expect into someones dinner but maybe they just keep them somewhere else during the winter. They need to do this because the pond freezes over completely which is something I'm quite looking forward to.
Anyway, it used to look like this:
and now it looks like this:
Actually it still looks pretty green but trust me, they're thinning out!
Aside from being slightly colder in the apartment than we would like, things are going ok. We're planning trips away, Europe for Christmas and New Year, India for a wedding in early Feb and some other, more local trips too. Still getting along with the Mandarin, it's starting to stick a little more now and we've gotten as far as reading some (simple) paragraphs in Mandarin characters which is also a nice achievement. We're still a little short on useful words but we're managing to get by (we talked our way through getting a new inner on Jane's bike on the weekend, so that was quite nice).
As well as that, there are so many nice places around Beijing. On Saturday we went to a new shopping district just south of Tiananmen Square called Qianmen Avenue (well Big Street). It's much more of a modern take on traditional Chinese architecture than the other main shopping bit called Wangfujing:
It's still a little weird to see vaguely Chinese looking buildings with Swatch and Starbucks plastered on them but it was a nice spot. They also have a night market that only opens during the day so go figure :)
Another good sign is how cold it gets in the apartment. One of the niceties/annoyances of a fairly controlling government is that they decide when the heating comes on and not the people in the buildings themselves. This means that no matter the actual temperature, the heating comes on around the 15th of November and not before. Last year it was apparently absolutely freezing a few weeks before and the powers that be allowed the heating on for "testing" purposes but that's unlikely this year, it's not unseasonably cold. Just cold :)
Another byproduct of the seasonal changes that I'm sure I mentioned before is the leaves falling. We have a pond in our apartment complex surrounded by willow trees which are slowly losing their leaves. This must be the worst time of year for street sweepers, because they don't get any leeway just because the leaves are falling all the time. They're all out there constantly sweeping all the different bits around the city. Lucky there seems to be an army of them!
Anyway, the leaves don't really change colour in Beijing, apparently it's too dry for that but they do fall. They've also cleared away all the water plants from the pond, and as I noticed today, the ducks and swans have disappeared as well. I expect into someones dinner but maybe they just keep them somewhere else during the winter. They need to do this because the pond freezes over completely which is something I'm quite looking forward to.
Anyway, it used to look like this:
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| From Random China Photos |
and now it looks like this:
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| From Random China Photos |
Aside from being slightly colder in the apartment than we would like, things are going ok. We're planning trips away, Europe for Christmas and New Year, India for a wedding in early Feb and some other, more local trips too. Still getting along with the Mandarin, it's starting to stick a little more now and we've gotten as far as reading some (simple) paragraphs in Mandarin characters which is also a nice achievement. We're still a little short on useful words but we're managing to get by (we talked our way through getting a new inner on Jane's bike on the weekend, so that was quite nice).
As well as that, there are so many nice places around Beijing. On Saturday we went to a new shopping district just south of Tiananmen Square called Qianmen Avenue (well Big Street). It's much more of a modern take on traditional Chinese architecture than the other main shopping bit called Wangfujing:
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| From Random China Photos |
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| From Random China Photos |
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Forbidden City
This last weekend (didn't quite get to writing it up until now!) we finally made it to the Forbidden City (or as the Chinese somewhat prosaically call it, the "Palace Museum"). The Forbidden City isn't like the other tourist attractions in Beijing, they're sort of on the outskirts and a little out of the way. It's literally (!) in the middle of the city. All the ring roads run in concentric circles around it, it's definitely the heart of the city.
And as we discovered last time, it's always packed, totally full of mainly Chinese tourists. Still it was a reasonable day (just a little overcast) and we decided we should check it out before it got too cold. On our bikes we jumped and cycled the 25 minutes or so to the front. The main entrance to the palace is on the south side, between it and Tiananmen Square, so you get the tourists for both in the same place. There weren't nearly as many people as there were the last time we tried to get in, and it was about 18 degrees cooler as well so it was a much better day for the purposes of checking it out. Given we're here for another 9 months or so, it's pretty certain we'll be back so there wasn't the pressure to see everything in a single day.
The place is HUGE. It's divided into the front palace (below the steps) and the back, private one (above the steps). The division was so great that one of the Chinese words for important people translates to "above the steps". There are lots of courtyards (for lots of court I guess), heaps of red pillars and marble, lots of decoration. The major architectural parts seem to be from the 17th century (1650s or so) but it was started almost 1000 years before that and changes and updates happened right through to the early 20th century, with the greatest change being getting rid of the "Son of Heaven".
I said in my post about the Summer Palace that the Chinese and I have very different views on historical locations/objects and this was true to an extent about the Forbidden City as well. Most of the buildings were closed and the ones that were open had small windows to look at the inside. This was the case for most of the throne rooms (I think there were at least 4!), there were 3 smallish doorways at the front, opening into darkened rooms. The result was that there was a huge crowd of people outside each one, physically pushing one another aside to look in. I understand that culturally the Chinese have issues with queues and stuff, but it just seems to me to be a weird way to see a priceless historical and cultural relic. It was worse for Jane, at least I could see over people!
Although that part of it was a little frustrating (I cannot even imagine what it would be like on a busy day), I found the Forbidden City to be a much more rewarding place for me than the Summer Palace. There was a little more context behind the various buildings, cauldrons, statues etc and some places with less people where less restoration had been done where I could get a better feel for what it had been like before all the restoration work.
We also took the time to look at the "Treasures" exhibition (but not the clock museum :). It also gave a lot of context to the way that the people in the palace must have lived and how cut off they were from the realities of life outside. There was also a fantastic wall of decorative clay dragons. I think that was my favourite spot in the whole place, it was really fantastic to see.
We made our way out of the Treasures building and were trying to get back to the front where the exit to our bikes was when two soldiers were moving everyone out of the way on that side of the palace. They ended up herding everyone out of that side of the palace (the one we hadn't seen) and pushing them towards the exit. We ended up asking him how we could get back to the front and he just pointed towards the other side. So we made our way that way, against the crowd (not an easy task!) until we got near the front courtyard. All the way the people were just moving together, no one seemed to be concerned or even curious about why, very few other people seemed to have asked why this was happening. Very strange anyway. Once we got to the front, we were just about to go to the exit when we saw it was blocked off. We were walking to the exit on the other side when a guy stopped us (and someone else on a bike) and made us move back so a group of African guys in suits could come through (we'd have made it across well in front of them too). It looked like this was the explanation for why the whole place was shut down, because these 10 or so guys were getting a private showing at 3 in the afternoon. Not very nice for the rest of us really. They also made us leave by a door that added about 2-3km to our walk back to the bikes, also pretty disappointing.
So I did enjoy the Forbidden City, it is a pretty remarkable place with amazing architecture and historical significance. It was a little let down by the presentation part, but definitely worth visiting on a quieter day :)
There are some more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/ForbiddenCity?authuser=0&feat=directlink
And as we discovered last time, it's always packed, totally full of mainly Chinese tourists. Still it was a reasonable day (just a little overcast) and we decided we should check it out before it got too cold. On our bikes we jumped and cycled the 25 minutes or so to the front. The main entrance to the palace is on the south side, between it and Tiananmen Square, so you get the tourists for both in the same place. There weren't nearly as many people as there were the last time we tried to get in, and it was about 18 degrees cooler as well so it was a much better day for the purposes of checking it out. Given we're here for another 9 months or so, it's pretty certain we'll be back so there wasn't the pressure to see everything in a single day.
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| From Forbidden City |
The place is HUGE. It's divided into the front palace (below the steps) and the back, private one (above the steps). The division was so great that one of the Chinese words for important people translates to "above the steps". There are lots of courtyards (for lots of court I guess), heaps of red pillars and marble, lots of decoration. The major architectural parts seem to be from the 17th century (1650s or so) but it was started almost 1000 years before that and changes and updates happened right through to the early 20th century, with the greatest change being getting rid of the "Son of Heaven".
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| From Forbidden City |
I said in my post about the Summer Palace that the Chinese and I have very different views on historical locations/objects and this was true to an extent about the Forbidden City as well. Most of the buildings were closed and the ones that were open had small windows to look at the inside. This was the case for most of the throne rooms (I think there were at least 4!), there were 3 smallish doorways at the front, opening into darkened rooms. The result was that there was a huge crowd of people outside each one, physically pushing one another aside to look in. I understand that culturally the Chinese have issues with queues and stuff, but it just seems to me to be a weird way to see a priceless historical and cultural relic. It was worse for Jane, at least I could see over people!
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From Forbidden City
|
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| From Forbidden City |
Although that part of it was a little frustrating (I cannot even imagine what it would be like on a busy day), I found the Forbidden City to be a much more rewarding place for me than the Summer Palace. There was a little more context behind the various buildings, cauldrons, statues etc and some places with less people where less restoration had been done where I could get a better feel for what it had been like before all the restoration work.
 |
| From Forbidden City |
We also took the time to look at the "Treasures" exhibition (but not the clock museum :). It also gave a lot of context to the way that the people in the palace must have lived and how cut off they were from the realities of life outside. There was also a fantastic wall of decorative clay dragons. I think that was my favourite spot in the whole place, it was really fantastic to see.
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| From Forbidden City |
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| From Forbidden City |
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| From Forbidden City |
We made our way out of the Treasures building and were trying to get back to the front where the exit to our bikes was when two soldiers were moving everyone out of the way on that side of the palace. They ended up herding everyone out of that side of the palace (the one we hadn't seen) and pushing them towards the exit. We ended up asking him how we could get back to the front and he just pointed towards the other side. So we made our way that way, against the crowd (not an easy task!) until we got near the front courtyard. All the way the people were just moving together, no one seemed to be concerned or even curious about why, very few other people seemed to have asked why this was happening. Very strange anyway. Once we got to the front, we were just about to go to the exit when we saw it was blocked off. We were walking to the exit on the other side when a guy stopped us (and someone else on a bike) and made us move back so a group of African guys in suits could come through (we'd have made it across well in front of them too). It looked like this was the explanation for why the whole place was shut down, because these 10 or so guys were getting a private showing at 3 in the afternoon. Not very nice for the rest of us really. They also made us leave by a door that added about 2-3km to our walk back to the bikes, also pretty disappointing.
 |
| From Forbidden City |
So I did enjoy the Forbidden City, it is a pretty remarkable place with amazing architecture and historical significance. It was a little let down by the presentation part, but definitely worth visiting on a quieter day :)
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| From Forbidden City |
There are some more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/ForbiddenCity?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Winter Is Coming....
Well, the summer couldn't last forever, Beijing is starting to cool down!
Last night coming back from Mandarin class was freezing and it's definitely cold in the mornings. When we left for Australia, it was about 26-27 and about 19 at night. When we came back it was about 24 and 15 at night. Now it's 18-19 and about 9 at night. And that's just in a few weeks!
Our Mandarin teacher (and lots of other people) keep saying that Beijing has no Autumn, it goes pretty much from Summer to Winter and I can see what they mean. We're definitely starting to break out the warmer clothes and the 5 weeks I spent wearing shorts may prove to be my record, at least until next year.
One thing I am excited about is the leaves turning. It seems to be a little dry in the city to get too much colour but apparently there are a few places to see the nice leaves on the trees. As soon as they fall, they pretty much get swept up, sweeping the streets and parks is a serious business here, lots of people seem to spend all their time just doing that.
Oh well, bring on the cooler weather I guess. With any luck it should cut down on the (other) tourists around anyway. We might have a bit more of a look around this weekend while we're still interested in going outside!
Bonus points for guessing the quote, Tom is not allowed to participate!
Is definitely missing everyone, but time to start planning Christmas I guess.
Last night coming back from Mandarin class was freezing and it's definitely cold in the mornings. When we left for Australia, it was about 26-27 and about 19 at night. When we came back it was about 24 and 15 at night. Now it's 18-19 and about 9 at night. And that's just in a few weeks!
Our Mandarin teacher (and lots of other people) keep saying that Beijing has no Autumn, it goes pretty much from Summer to Winter and I can see what they mean. We're definitely starting to break out the warmer clothes and the 5 weeks I spent wearing shorts may prove to be my record, at least until next year.
One thing I am excited about is the leaves turning. It seems to be a little dry in the city to get too much colour but apparently there are a few places to see the nice leaves on the trees. As soon as they fall, they pretty much get swept up, sweeping the streets and parks is a serious business here, lots of people seem to spend all their time just doing that.
Oh well, bring on the cooler weather I guess. With any luck it should cut down on the (other) tourists around anyway. We might have a bit more of a look around this weekend while we're still interested in going outside!
Bonus points for guessing the quote, Tom is not allowed to participate!
Is definitely missing everyone, but time to start planning Christmas I guess.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Two interesting things
So, two interesting things happened today. The first is that I bought a guitar. I'd always wanted to learn to play the guitar but never had the time or discipline to really get going. A week or so after we arrived though, we were walking somewhere and I saw a music shop and in the window was a guitar for about 500 yuan. Now in a silly movie, that would be the one I bought, but it was electric and I want to learn on an acoustic!
So I looked around for some lessons and ended up buying a dvd and online lesson set which didn't cost too much, and I may get some lessons with a teacher once we get back to Aus. Anyway, I looked around online for some guitar shops in Beijing with the idea that most of the cheaper types of that sort of thing are made in China anyway. Turns out there's a whole music shop area about 30 minutes from our place on the metro.
So having done some research into what sort of guitar I should buy, Jane and I went out there this morning to check it out. It took us ages to find the street (the directions I read said go south from the station, they should have said go one block east and then south from the station!) but once we were there, pretty much every shop was a music shop selling guitars, organs, pi pa (Chinese one string things) flutes of various configurations, violins by the thousand, saxophones, and those Chinese table harps like in Red Cliff! A huge number of shops to choose from, and cause I can't actually play the guitar, I kind of just went in, looked at some stuff in my price range, ran through the strings etc. After about 5 stores we went into a really small one where the guy was really helpful. He suggested a (reasonably) cheap guitar which sounded ok, and then another one which sounded much better. The better one ended up costing a little less anyway and it was the best sounding one and had decent action (that's what we guitar people call the distance between the strings and the fretboard). When I asked him how much with a bag, I ended up getting one thrown in for free which is nice.
So I now have sore fingers from starting my practice and I'm aware that this is an exercise that will take a long time (weeks for anything resembling a simple song, months for anything more, probably years for something good) but I'm still pretty excited about it :)
The other nice thing today was that we found a new restaurant just near our house that makes nice Chinese BBQ. We'd been talking for a while about the lack of nice, close restaurants and this one is in a different direction than we normally go (North East for those playing on their maps at home). It was packed when we got there but they have English on their menu which is always a plus. We got seated in the "westerner's corner" which is a little strange. When we arrived there was a huge Russian man and his son but soon after we arrived they also seated (I think) a French couple as well. Oh well. The food was great chilli BBQ kebabs of various things (beef, pork and mushroom, just mushroom, chicken, sheep penis if that's your thing etc) of which the ones we had were all really nice. And even better, when we left we found they have a takeaway menu as well. Waimai!!
So I looked around for some lessons and ended up buying a dvd and online lesson set which didn't cost too much, and I may get some lessons with a teacher once we get back to Aus. Anyway, I looked around online for some guitar shops in Beijing with the idea that most of the cheaper types of that sort of thing are made in China anyway. Turns out there's a whole music shop area about 30 minutes from our place on the metro.
So having done some research into what sort of guitar I should buy, Jane and I went out there this morning to check it out. It took us ages to find the street (the directions I read said go south from the station, they should have said go one block east and then south from the station!) but once we were there, pretty much every shop was a music shop selling guitars, organs, pi pa (Chinese one string things) flutes of various configurations, violins by the thousand, saxophones, and those Chinese table harps like in Red Cliff! A huge number of shops to choose from, and cause I can't actually play the guitar, I kind of just went in, looked at some stuff in my price range, ran through the strings etc. After about 5 stores we went into a really small one where the guy was really helpful. He suggested a (reasonably) cheap guitar which sounded ok, and then another one which sounded much better. The better one ended up costing a little less anyway and it was the best sounding one and had decent action (that's what we guitar people call the distance between the strings and the fretboard). When I asked him how much with a bag, I ended up getting one thrown in for free which is nice.
So I now have sore fingers from starting my practice and I'm aware that this is an exercise that will take a long time (weeks for anything resembling a simple song, months for anything more, probably years for something good) but I'm still pretty excited about it :)
The other nice thing today was that we found a new restaurant just near our house that makes nice Chinese BBQ. We'd been talking for a while about the lack of nice, close restaurants and this one is in a different direction than we normally go (North East for those playing on their maps at home). It was packed when we got there but they have English on their menu which is always a plus. We got seated in the "westerner's corner" which is a little strange. When we arrived there was a huge Russian man and his son but soon after we arrived they also seated (I think) a French couple as well. Oh well. The food was great chilli BBQ kebabs of various things (beef, pork and mushroom, just mushroom, chicken, sheep penis if that's your thing etc) of which the ones we had were all really nice. And even better, when we left we found they have a takeaway menu as well. Waimai!!
Friday, October 14, 2011
Slack posting
It's been a little while since I posted anything, mostly because I've pretty much been doing work at home and not much else this week.
I definitely worked the most hours in a week that I've done while we've been here (which isn't saying much really!)
Anyway, Friday afternoon so I thought I'd go for a swim at the pool. I went Monday too so I'm not going too badly. I said hi to the lifeguard (partly cause he was down my end of the pool and partly because that is the most boring job in the world; they always look like they want to kill themselves or they're asleep) and did some laps. Cause the pool is only 25m, the laps rack up pretty quickly but by the time I got to 60 I decided I was feeling ok and that maybe I should try for 100. I haven't been regularly swimming that sort of distance since I was in training for my Divemasters which is a fair time ago now so it was a bit pleasing :). I did make my hundred laps (which sounds a lot further than 2.5km) and when I got out, the lifeguard came over and asked me in pretty broken English how many laps I'd done. Probably because I'd been there for a while and a bunch of people had come and gone since I started. I've rarely been so pleased to not know a word in Mandarin :) I can only count to 99!
Quite pleased it's the weekend though, and the Wallabies game is on Sunday at 4pm (Beijing time). We shall have to get to the bar early for decent seats but it should be a great game!
I definitely worked the most hours in a week that I've done while we've been here (which isn't saying much really!)
Anyway, Friday afternoon so I thought I'd go for a swim at the pool. I went Monday too so I'm not going too badly. I said hi to the lifeguard (partly cause he was down my end of the pool and partly because that is the most boring job in the world; they always look like they want to kill themselves or they're asleep) and did some laps. Cause the pool is only 25m, the laps rack up pretty quickly but by the time I got to 60 I decided I was feeling ok and that maybe I should try for 100. I haven't been regularly swimming that sort of distance since I was in training for my Divemasters which is a fair time ago now so it was a bit pleasing :). I did make my hundred laps (which sounds a lot further than 2.5km) and when I got out, the lifeguard came over and asked me in pretty broken English how many laps I'd done. Probably because I'd been there for a while and a bunch of people had come and gone since I started. I've rarely been so pleased to not know a word in Mandarin :) I can only count to 99!
Quite pleased it's the weekend though, and the Wallabies game is on Sunday at 4pm (Beijing time). We shall have to get to the bar early for decent seats but it should be a great game!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Back into the swing of things
In case you weren't sure, we arrived safely back home and are (attempting) to get back into our routine.
The routine usually involves Jane getting up early to go to work and me sleeping in a bit before getting some work done later. Because yesterday (Sunday) was not a normal weekend but a day to make up for the National Day holiday, our routine involved Jane getting up and me sleeping in and not getting any work done.
Since we were completely out of food, we had some trips to make; one to Carrefour for some groceries and one to the market for fruit and vegetables. We went to Carrefour on Sunday night, vaguely expecting it to be a bit quieter but it wasn't. It's pretty much either really busy or insanely busy based on some variable I haven't yet discovered. Anyway, last night it was just very busy. We picked up the stuff we needed and some other stuff and getting to the registers, we realised that we had quite a lot of stuff, possibly more than were going to fit on our bikes. However, we (mostly I) realigned the laws of physics and got the stuff home :) Although walking around in Aus seemed to mess up my road crossing abilities (I went back to looking the wrong way), my Beijing traffic cycling seems unaffected which is nice.
We then got up early this morning to go to the food market. We discovered that we had about 50 yuan between us (about $8.50) and the bank was not yet open but we persevered anyway. We managed to buy pretty much everything we needed for the next week or so (capsicum, broccoli, peaches, mushrooms, bok choi, cabbage, spinach, noodles, tofu, bananas and other stuff I can't remember) and ended up with half a yuan left (about 8c). Not bad going really :)
Coming out of the markets we went back to our bikes and Jane was accosted by an old woman who just started talking to her. She broke out the old chestnut "bu tai ming bai" - "I don't understand" to which people normally reply "bu tai ming bai? bu tai ming bai?" like she's crazy and get kind of weird but this woman just sort of stopped then kept on talking. Jane looked at me and I did my best "I have no idea what the hell is going on" shrug but that didn't faze the woman either. She just kept on talking and we had no idea what she was talking about. Then she left. Very strange!
This evening was our Mandarin lesson and I was slightly nervous because it's been about 3 weeks since the last lesson and I had forgotten a whole lot of important stuff. It went quite well though, she kind of quizzed us on some stuff which was ok, then we did some conversations and things. She seems to have decided she likes us because she gave Jane a pomegranate. Maybe it's a cultural thing? Then after some hilarious moments at the end of class she was talking about blood types and our characters. Neither of us had any idea what she was talking about but it seemed positive so I'm just going to assume it was good!
The routine usually involves Jane getting up early to go to work and me sleeping in a bit before getting some work done later. Because yesterday (Sunday) was not a normal weekend but a day to make up for the National Day holiday, our routine involved Jane getting up and me sleeping in and not getting any work done.
Since we were completely out of food, we had some trips to make; one to Carrefour for some groceries and one to the market for fruit and vegetables. We went to Carrefour on Sunday night, vaguely expecting it to be a bit quieter but it wasn't. It's pretty much either really busy or insanely busy based on some variable I haven't yet discovered. Anyway, last night it was just very busy. We picked up the stuff we needed and some other stuff and getting to the registers, we realised that we had quite a lot of stuff, possibly more than were going to fit on our bikes. However, we (mostly I) realigned the laws of physics and got the stuff home :) Although walking around in Aus seemed to mess up my road crossing abilities (I went back to looking the wrong way), my Beijing traffic cycling seems unaffected which is nice.
We then got up early this morning to go to the food market. We discovered that we had about 50 yuan between us (about $8.50) and the bank was not yet open but we persevered anyway. We managed to buy pretty much everything we needed for the next week or so (capsicum, broccoli, peaches, mushrooms, bok choi, cabbage, spinach, noodles, tofu, bananas and other stuff I can't remember) and ended up with half a yuan left (about 8c). Not bad going really :)
Coming out of the markets we went back to our bikes and Jane was accosted by an old woman who just started talking to her. She broke out the old chestnut "bu tai ming bai" - "I don't understand" to which people normally reply "bu tai ming bai? bu tai ming bai?" like she's crazy and get kind of weird but this woman just sort of stopped then kept on talking. Jane looked at me and I did my best "I have no idea what the hell is going on" shrug but that didn't faze the woman either. She just kept on talking and we had no idea what she was talking about. Then she left. Very strange!
This evening was our Mandarin lesson and I was slightly nervous because it's been about 3 weeks since the last lesson and I had forgotten a whole lot of important stuff. It went quite well though, she kind of quizzed us on some stuff which was ok, then we did some conversations and things. She seems to have decided she likes us because she gave Jane a pomegranate. Maybe it's a cultural thing? Then after some hilarious moments at the end of class she was talking about blood types and our characters. Neither of us had any idea what she was talking about but it seemed positive so I'm just going to assume it was good!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
China Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
We're back in China!
Not back home yet, we're waiting in Shanghai after a brief but eventful trip back to the fatherland. While in Australia, we:
The flight here isn't nearly as bad as the flight back. Coming here we left in the morning and then arrive about midnight in Beijing, but for some reason it's better for me than leaving in the evening and arriving at the crack of dawn. I'm pretty bad at sleeping on the plane so a day flight seems to suit me better.
Of course our flight from Canberra was delayed (about 45 minutes), this time because of a baggage loader malfunction. Our flight from Sydney was delayed because the plane arrived late (also 45 minutes) then our baggage was delayed coming to the carousel and I was delayed getting through security. The x-ray machine decided to break down as my bags were inside it. So my bags go in and instantly the x-ray guy is freaking out, the other people start grabbing bags and running around. Of course three different people grabbed my three items and all started heading in different directions, each going to another x-ray machine to use. The problem is that they're all separated by big walls so they weren't going to be able to find me again as soon as they disappeared. Not helpful or comforting! We finally got them pointed in the same direction, then as soon as the bags were scanned again they all just disappeared somewhere. Oh well, I guess it adds some drama!
However all the bags and sundries were recovered, and now we're just sitting using the free Shanghai airport internet (take note Sydney!) and waiting for our next flight. Hopefully we won't be delayed like last time.
Also, thanks Nick and Angela for letting us stay in your house and use your wonderful kitchen and generally put you out for about 4 days.
See you soon peoples!
Not back home yet, we're waiting in Shanghai after a brief but eventful trip back to the fatherland. While in Australia, we:
- Met my new niece (her name seems to be Lillian but she doesn't talk much)
- Caught up with parents, grandparents, and uncles, aunts, and cousin on one side (at various occasions including lunching, dinnering and possibly some more)
- Caught up with parents, in-laws and nieces on the other side (cause we were kind of staying in their house, it seems rude not to talk to them)
- Caught up with friends for dinner (mmmmm, nice pizza)
- Had some decent sleep in, then caught up with friends for dinner and drinks (mmmmm Bavarian, shame on you if you didn't come, it was awesome :)
- Went to work (blergh!), had a few meetings, solved some problems, went home and had a nap
- Had more dinner and drinks, then took the dinner on the road (was also awesome, so good to catch up with people)
- Even more breakfast, more catchup with family featuring new niece Lilly (the Lillian thing just isn't going to stick, sorry Melissa and James)
- Dinner with alternate family
- Up early then on the plane
The flight here isn't nearly as bad as the flight back. Coming here we left in the morning and then arrive about midnight in Beijing, but for some reason it's better for me than leaving in the evening and arriving at the crack of dawn. I'm pretty bad at sleeping on the plane so a day flight seems to suit me better.
Of course our flight from Canberra was delayed (about 45 minutes), this time because of a baggage loader malfunction. Our flight from Sydney was delayed because the plane arrived late (also 45 minutes) then our baggage was delayed coming to the carousel and I was delayed getting through security. The x-ray machine decided to break down as my bags were inside it. So my bags go in and instantly the x-ray guy is freaking out, the other people start grabbing bags and running around. Of course three different people grabbed my three items and all started heading in different directions, each going to another x-ray machine to use. The problem is that they're all separated by big walls so they weren't going to be able to find me again as soon as they disappeared. Not helpful or comforting! We finally got them pointed in the same direction, then as soon as the bags were scanned again they all just disappeared somewhere. Oh well, I guess it adds some drama!
However all the bags and sundries were recovered, and now we're just sitting using the free Shanghai airport internet (take note Sydney!) and waiting for our next flight. Hopefully we won't be delayed like last time.
Also, thanks Nick and Angela for letting us stay in your house and use your wonderful kitchen and generally put you out for about 4 days.
See you soon peoples!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
SPECIAL EDITION - Dave has gone HOME!
Being back in Australia, it's kind of like we never left. It's a little weird. I know that we've only been gone for 6 weeks, and we could have just been on a long holiday but because we've done so much in that time I somehow expected that something would be different.
One thing that's different is that my sister and her husband had a baby. Lillian Elizabeth Alsopp (or something :) is still only 3 weeks old and very small. Also very prone to crying so she pretty much stayed wrapped up in the stroller/crib. I don't think she really cried the whole time we saw her which is nice, but she's been keeping them up through the whole night. Maybe it settles down a little soon, no idea.
When we were in Canberra we caught up with pretty much everyone, parents, grandparents, some uncles, aunts and cousins, (obviously) nieces and some friends as well. I hadn't seen them for a while and many of them seem to have had some children since I last saw them which is also a little weird. They're still pretty much the same as before though, at least on the surface!
We're in Sydney now, partly to do some work and also partly to catch up with people while we get the chance. I don't think we'll be back in Aus until mid next year at the earliest so it's nice to see people when we can (thanks Angela and Nick for letting us stay at your house!!!)
We're having a pretty whirlwind trip this time, not too much time to mess about. We were going to try and go for a dive this morning but conditions haven't been great so we elected to not worry about it. I'm definitely missing that part of Sydney life! Also being able to cross the road without someone trying to run me down, being able to talk to people in the shops and some food I've been missing (Oporto's and pizza, check).
So drinks tonight in the city, meetings tomorrow and BBQ tomorrow night, then back to Canberra on Friday for a last glimpse of the families, then we're on the plane at 6:45 Saturday morning and back to Beijing.
Time flies, but does it get frequent flier points like we do?
One thing that's different is that my sister and her husband had a baby. Lillian Elizabeth Alsopp (or something :) is still only 3 weeks old and very small. Also very prone to crying so she pretty much stayed wrapped up in the stroller/crib. I don't think she really cried the whole time we saw her which is nice, but she's been keeping them up through the whole night. Maybe it settles down a little soon, no idea.
When we were in Canberra we caught up with pretty much everyone, parents, grandparents, some uncles, aunts and cousins, (obviously) nieces and some friends as well. I hadn't seen them for a while and many of them seem to have had some children since I last saw them which is also a little weird. They're still pretty much the same as before though, at least on the surface!
We're in Sydney now, partly to do some work and also partly to catch up with people while we get the chance. I don't think we'll be back in Aus until mid next year at the earliest so it's nice to see people when we can (thanks Angela and Nick for letting us stay at your house!!!)
We're having a pretty whirlwind trip this time, not too much time to mess about. We were going to try and go for a dive this morning but conditions haven't been great so we elected to not worry about it. I'm definitely missing that part of Sydney life! Also being able to cross the road without someone trying to run me down, being able to talk to people in the shops and some food I've been missing (Oporto's and pizza, check).
So drinks tonight in the city, meetings tomorrow and BBQ tomorrow night, then back to Canberra on Friday for a last glimpse of the families, then we're on the plane at 6:45 Saturday morning and back to Beijing.
Time flies, but does it get frequent flier points like we do?
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Traveling...
It's a long way to Australia!! We left at 11am on Thursday and arrived at jane's parents place at 12:30 on Friday. Part of the problem is having to change planes in Shanghai and again in Sydney.
We got a cab organised by TW who took us to terminal 3 but our itinerary said terminal 2. So he called someone and we called the office who checked with the travel lady and they all said terminal 3 was right. So we got out, went in, found information and were informed we needed to be at terminal 2. Then the office called and apologised for not actually checking when we asked where we should go, and that we needed to be at terminal 2. Mmmmmmm, thanks a bunch. So fighting through the crowds of people who always try to get in elevators, trains etc. before letting anyone off we made our way to the other terminal. When checking in we ran into two American girls who were flabbergasted that Aus is 14 hours away from china as well as the US. Some people really have no idea about geography.
Upon our arrival in Sydney we discovered that the customs and baggage handling staff were both on strike but they were nice enough to let us know they "regret the delays we were experiencing". Not enough to actually not strike though.
Having slept for somewhere between 5 and 11 minutes on the flight, I was not quite ready to deal with this but we managed to get out having only lost about 45 minutes. We then travelled to the other terminal on a bus which took us all the way around the airport (past an airbus a380) that seemed to be stretching, but we made our flight :)
Then another flight to Canberra and I slept the whole way!! Totally exhausted but we made it back.
We got a cab organised by TW who took us to terminal 3 but our itinerary said terminal 2. So he called someone and we called the office who checked with the travel lady and they all said terminal 3 was right. So we got out, went in, found information and were informed we needed to be at terminal 2. Then the office called and apologised for not actually checking when we asked where we should go, and that we needed to be at terminal 2. Mmmmmmm, thanks a bunch. So fighting through the crowds of people who always try to get in elevators, trains etc. before letting anyone off we made our way to the other terminal. When checking in we ran into two American girls who were flabbergasted that Aus is 14 hours away from china as well as the US. Some people really have no idea about geography.
Upon our arrival in Sydney we discovered that the customs and baggage handling staff were both on strike but they were nice enough to let us know they "regret the delays we were experiencing". Not enough to actually not strike though.
Having slept for somewhere between 5 and 11 minutes on the flight, I was not quite ready to deal with this but we managed to get out having only lost about 45 minutes. We then travelled to the other terminal on a bus which took us all the way around the airport (past an airbus a380) that seemed to be stretching, but we made our flight :)
Then another flight to Canberra and I slept the whole way!! Totally exhausted but we made it back.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Environment
Beijing often gets this misty sort of weather which I'm sure I've mentioned before. It doesn't look like standard smog, and it probably isn't I guess, more of a mix of smog, actual mist, cloud cover, moisture and whatever else. So when you (or I in this case :) go out, it just looks sort of... misty.
So I forget that is is actually really polluted until I go to clean up. We've pretty much left our windows open since we arrived (a mix of it being so nice outside, racking up a huge electricity bill on the A/C the week we arrived and just general niceness) and when I clean up the kitchen after a day or so, you can see the black dust on everything.
We also get a cleaner as part of our "house package" thing, and she's just one of the girls from Jane's office who does cleaning there the other days of the week, then on Fridays she comes to MOMA and cleans all the apartments. The problem is she doesn't like cleaning (and who does really) and so she does a terrible job. All she does for us (because our washing up is always done) is wipe the kitchen and then mop the floors with the largest amount of water you've ever seen (glad they're not my wooden floorboards).
Anyway, I was out when she came on Friday so I figured I should probably do some housework. I swept up the other day, no big deal. Then this evening I mopped in the proper way, using the squeegie thing that the mop comes with. So either she's doing a terrible job or there's an awful lot more dust/grime/crap getting in than I thought because the water was actually black when I poured it out. If you think it sounds disgusting then you're right.
So we shall see when we return whether it's actually just her not knowing how to wash a floor (which I'm hoping) or whether we actually are absorbing so much factory/car output.
Not a pleasant thought really.
So I forget that is is actually really polluted until I go to clean up. We've pretty much left our windows open since we arrived (a mix of it being so nice outside, racking up a huge electricity bill on the A/C the week we arrived and just general niceness) and when I clean up the kitchen after a day or so, you can see the black dust on everything.
We also get a cleaner as part of our "house package" thing, and she's just one of the girls from Jane's office who does cleaning there the other days of the week, then on Fridays she comes to MOMA and cleans all the apartments. The problem is she doesn't like cleaning (and who does really) and so she does a terrible job. All she does for us (because our washing up is always done) is wipe the kitchen and then mop the floors with the largest amount of water you've ever seen (glad they're not my wooden floorboards).
Anyway, I was out when she came on Friday so I figured I should probably do some housework. I swept up the other day, no big deal. Then this evening I mopped in the proper way, using the squeegie thing that the mop comes with. So either she's doing a terrible job or there's an awful lot more dust/grime/crap getting in than I thought because the water was actually black when I poured it out. If you think it sounds disgusting then you're right.
So we shall see when we return whether it's actually just her not knowing how to wash a floor (which I'm hoping) or whether we actually are absorbing so much factory/car output.
Not a pleasant thought really.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Buying water
Since the water in Beijing isn't drinkable by human people (the Museum of Tap Water notwithstanding), I seem to spend a lot of time asking for water. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, we have one of those water cooler machines in the house so once a week or so, I go down to the shop and go through the process of asking for a new giant bottle and telling them where it should be delivered. So far, each time I've gone there's someone else at the till so there's no building on the previous experience. Each time is a new and different struggle.
Usually I buy something else and when she tells me the price I say "也一个水 Nestle 谢谢" which is pronounced "yě yīgè shuǐ Nestle xièxiè" and means "also a Nestle water thanks". I'm pretty sure I say it in much the same way but they either stare blankly at me (which doesn't help) or they reply and say something. Usually I think they're asking me where I live so they can deliver it and I'm happy to say "building 七" and "apartment 三零三" which usually works. But today she asked me to write it down and I wrote #7, apartment 303 and gave it back to her. However, my European schooling drummed into me that a 7 should have a bar on it and that's the way I've always written it. She had clearly never seen such a number and I couldn't work out what the problem was until she asked the lady behind me what it was and handed her the piece of paper. She then asked if I lived in building 7 to which I replied yes, "qi". And all was resolved.
Still it is a little wearing on an off day to have to struggle so much for something so simple.
Usually I buy something else and when she tells me the price I say "也一个水 Nestle 谢谢" which is pronounced "yě yīgè shuǐ Nestle xièxiè" and means "also a Nestle water thanks". I'm pretty sure I say it in much the same way but they either stare blankly at me (which doesn't help) or they reply and say something. Usually I think they're asking me where I live so they can deliver it and I'm happy to say "building 七" and "apartment 三零三" which usually works. But today she asked me to write it down and I wrote #7, apartment 303 and gave it back to her. However, my European schooling drummed into me that a 7 should have a bar on it and that's the way I've always written it. She had clearly never seen such a number and I couldn't work out what the problem was until she asked the lady behind me what it was and handed her the piece of paper. She then asked if I lived in building 7 to which I replied yes, "qi". And all was resolved.
Still it is a little wearing on an off day to have to struggle so much for something so simple.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Great Wall trip day 2
So day 2 of the trip started a number of times, because I woke up a bunch of times because someone was cutting wood with a very blunt chain saw right next to me. He was trying to camouflage it as sleeping but I could tell.
It was chilly in the night but wearing all my clothes (jacket included) and doing up the bag the way they do in on Arctic expeditions, I managed to get through the night reasonably comfortably.
We woke as the sun was starting to come up, about 5:45 I think (that's me on the end, trying to turn the stone floor into my mattress at home)
It was so still and calm, a really nice time to be on the wall. It was also totally freezing as the sun hadn't made it over the hills yet and as we were on the lowest tower, we were also the last to get the sunshine.
Our breakfast was coming at 6:30 so we pretty much just slowly got moving and tried to keep warm. As soon as the sun hit the tower though, it started to warm up a bit and it was fantastic.
A large number of the other campers had gotten up at 3am to head up to the ridge to photograph the sunrise. They're the tiny things on the hill!
We were heading that way anyway though, so after breakfast we kitted up and headed off, leaving our guard tower behind
We were actually walking part of the wall that we'd walked the day before so it took us a little while to get to a part we hadn't visited. Ever get that feeling you're not really getting anywhere? Definitely had that!
That last photo was from on the ridge where the people were for the sunrise. It took a bit of climbing to get there though!
It also wasn't long before we left the carefully restored part of the wall and were back onto the "original".
Also things got a fair bit steeper today, in both the up and down directions
It wasn't long before we were saying "just one more hill, just one more hill" but there was always more than just one more :)
Until finally, (really finally, I don't think I could have walked another step!) there were no more hills and we'd reached the start of the Simatai section.
Incidentally, in that photo, way in the background you can see the valley where we started the trip, just before the wall goes up into the hills.
So Simatai is closed at the moment, and all you will hear from most people is that it's closed and they're not sure of the reason. It turns out that the Simatai section, one of the best preserved and most spectacular parts of the Great Wall, has been sold to a travel company. Not coincidentally, the CEO of the travel company is the wife of the mayor of Beijing and both are high up in the Party. The Simitai section of the wall has been closed for a few months now and will be closed for a few more while it is being "improved" (in the words of our guide) and is being turned into a hot springs resort/hotel/restaurant complex. Having just walked part of this amazing place, I just find it completely bizarre that anyone would sell such an important part of their culture and heritage to make a restaurant. Still, it's clear that the government here has different ideas on preservation than I do.
Anyway, we had reached the end of our journey on the wall, but we weren't home free yet. We still had a 40 minute hike back to the car park (almost all of it down stairs :) before we could have a rest. Also the hills here seem to be infested with giant bee/hornet things which were somewhat disturbing in their giantness and also their willingness to swoop people. The magpie of China I guess, only with a stinger.
Once we got back to the bus, we all piled in and headed back to Beijing. Once again it was a 2 hour drive and I think we all (guide included) fell asleep for most of it. Since Simatai is closed, they had to fill in the extra part of what would have been more hiking with something else, so we stopped off at the Olympic Park to look at the birds nest stadium and the water cube. To be honest, none of us really wanted to get out and walk around any more but we slowly and painfully walked form one side of the park to the other, past the main attractions.
Incidentally, if you're going to call it the water cube, it should really be a cube!
Once we'd made it back to the bus we found a restaurant (the first had a long wait so another one was found for us) and had a huge meal. After that, back home for a well earned rest!
The trip was an incredible one. Seeing the wall this way, being able to hike parts that most people don't get to see, and being able to see the progression between the ruined wall to the repaired and then back to the ruins, really was a special experience for me. I definitely want to come back and do the trip again (maybe I'll bring some more clothes next time) and I highly recommend it to everyone who can get here and do it.
It was chilly in the night but wearing all my clothes (jacket included) and doing up the bag the way they do in on Arctic expeditions, I managed to get through the night reasonably comfortably.
We woke as the sun was starting to come up, about 5:45 I think (that's me on the end, trying to turn the stone floor into my mattress at home)
It was so still and calm, a really nice time to be on the wall. It was also totally freezing as the sun hadn't made it over the hills yet and as we were on the lowest tower, we were also the last to get the sunshine.
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
So Simatai is closed at the moment, and all you will hear from most people is that it's closed and they're not sure of the reason. It turns out that the Simatai section, one of the best preserved and most spectacular parts of the Great Wall, has been sold to a travel company. Not coincidentally, the CEO of the travel company is the wife of the mayor of Beijing and both are high up in the Party. The Simitai section of the wall has been closed for a few months now and will be closed for a few more while it is being "improved" (in the words of our guide) and is being turned into a hot springs resort/hotel/restaurant complex. Having just walked part of this amazing place, I just find it completely bizarre that anyone would sell such an important part of their culture and heritage to make a restaurant. Still, it's clear that the government here has different ideas on preservation than I do.
Anyway, we had reached the end of our journey on the wall, but we weren't home free yet. We still had a 40 minute hike back to the car park (almost all of it down stairs :) before we could have a rest. Also the hills here seem to be infested with giant bee/hornet things which were somewhat disturbing in their giantness and also their willingness to swoop people. The magpie of China I guess, only with a stinger.
 |
| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
 |
| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
 |
| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
Once we'd made it back to the bus we found a restaurant (the first had a long wait so another one was found for us) and had a huge meal. After that, back home for a well earned rest!
The trip was an incredible one. Seeing the wall this way, being able to hike parts that most people don't get to see, and being able to see the progression between the ruined wall to the repaired and then back to the ruins, really was a special experience for me. I definitely want to come back and do the trip again (maybe I'll bring some more clothes next time) and I highly recommend it to everyone who can get here and do it.
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| From Great Wall Trip Day 2 |
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