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:

From Random China Photos

and now it looks like this:

From Random China Photos

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:

From Random China Photos

From Random China Photos

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 :)

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.

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".

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!

From Forbidden City From Forbidden City

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.

From Forbidden City

From Forbidden City

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 :)

From Forbidden City

There are some more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/ForbiddenCity?authuser=0&feat=directlink

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.

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!!

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!

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!

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:

• 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)

Incidentally, a slight interruption for all of those people who don't think that I'm suitably lovable and cuddly, my second youngest niece Keiralli has taken quite the shine to Unc' Dave and likes to spend time with and talk to him at every opportunity. Anyway...

• 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

So all in all, it's been quite a visit to Aus. It was fantastic to catch up with all the people, we missed out on seeing some but I guess that's what happens with such a short visit. Hopefully we'll see everyone (that means YOU!) over in our spare bedroom cause we're not back to Aus until probably mid next year at the earliest. The first China milestone of the trip back is now over, time to knuckle down, learn some more Mandarin and see some more China.

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!

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?

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.