Boosting China's Economy

We returned from Beijing and it had been refreshing to see how much the kids were happy to be "home" - how quickly this apartment has become just that. The only low point had been the discovery of Brett's bike having been stolen from outside his work. This meant that we needed to go bike shopping - and more importantly, shopping for an Alex bike.

The way shops appear to be allocated in China is interesting, there will be a row of similar shops followed by a row of a different type of store. For example, there will often be 5-10 hardware shops next to each other followed by 5-10 sports stores and then 5-10 convenience "everything you might need" kind of stores. Not everywhere, but in enough places to make me wonder if there was ever a weird kind of city development plan. But enough of that. Brett returned to the same bike shop where he'd bought his original bike. Being a laowai has it's difficulties as his height requires a larger-than-usual frame to the bike...not that he's all that tall (though taller than me) and he'd finally managed to find a store that stocked a few such bikes during his last bike search.

We are still unused to the colder weather - actually to the breeze which picks up in the afternoon and cuts through to the bone even though the day is beautiful.

Here are the few bikes that are large-framed enough for Brett. In the front you can see the typical Chinese-style stand that is used.Alex was more interested in the Chinese soap-opera unfolding on the television. The bikeshop owner even got her a small chair. Televisions are ubiquitous in most stores for the staff, and sometimes customers, to watch during the day and night. Stores seem to be open from early (some before 8am) until late (many after 9pm).

Eventually Brett had selected his bike and we were waiting for the child seat to be attached to the back so we moved on to finding a bike for Alex - this had been a Christmas present promise for her - previously she has had a trike in America and it was time to move up to a bike with training wheels. She was so excited that once she was on the bike, she wouldn't get off - and was very upset to learn that she wouldn't be able to ride it home all by herself (no photos of the ensuing meltdown, suffice to say that it matched in intensity her reaction to Brett's price negotiation with the bikeshop owner which involved saying we weren't buying the bikes).But in the end, Daddy and Alex rode home on his new bike whilst Mummy and Sebastien took a taxi (with Alex's bike in the boot/trunk). We're still getting used to the "look Mum, no strap!" idea with the children's bikeseat in China...fine for someone of Alex's age but I shudder to think of Sebastien sitting on the back unstrapped. Sebastien wanted to have a ride before Daddy locked up the new purchase so out came Alex's old helmet. Alex's bike now lives on one of our balconies when not in use.

Beijing Holiday - II

The next day was clear and just as cold as the previous day - but we were heading for our destination (the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China) 70 km awa in a heated minivan. This section of wall is 7.8m high and 5m wide. From the car on the way there we caught occasional glimpses of the Wall, run down in part, which was exciting...but not as exciting as seeing the snow lying on the ground! Yes, it was really that cold - though in truth it was only patches here and there.

The Badaling section of the Wall is the most touristy as it is close to Beijing - but it was winter so the tourist numbers were very low. And boy was it cold! The shock to our system's upon getting out of our warm minvan was great - Alex was in tears as was Sebastien and we'd only climbed up the steps to be on the top of the Wall, we still had an hour and a half of walking around to do. So Mummy bravely decided that she could see the rest of the Wall on another visit and took Sebastien down the stairs to the tea house tourist shop to entertain the staff while Brett enticed Alex to enjoy a sedate stroll along the Wall with Kat, Goran and Beano.It did help that Kat and Alex were best friends - and derided Goran as a nincompoop (thanks Aunty Chelle) whilst he took delight in calling Alex a coconut, later a melonhead - friends all round! The end result was a happy Alex who was excited to have done the walk at the end of the hour and a half. And we were all happy to get back into the minivan for the trip back to Beijing!

This photo looks down to where they started - and where Sebastien and Mummy were entertaining the tourists and staff of the (expensive) teashop.On the way back to Beijing, we passed relatively close to the Bird's nest and Water cube - but couldn't stop for photos. Maybe on our next visit. Goran had his work cut out for us keeping our driver awake - we were driving at prime "siesta" time and several times we were aware of our driver closing his eyes long enough to jolt back into the lane on opening them. Not a pleasant experience and one we hope not to repeat! Our guide, true to form, offered to take us to a cloinonee factory. We were hesitant after the previous day's efforts, but convinced of our ability to resist a hard sell thought we'd like to see the process anyway. It was very interesting to see the intricacies of making various items, especially jugs and vases and it was nice to see a real workshop rather than the pseudo one we saw the previous day. Following that we went to lunch and then home. We wanted to recuperate from the cold and prepare ourselves for the piece de resistence - a dinner of Beijing Duck!

After all, when in Rome, er Beijing....right?!

We went to one of the restaurants that are famous for this dish. Although it may have been a tourist restaurant, it plainly wasn't for foreign laowai as the menu was strictly chinese. Here we are trying to work out 1) whether one duck would be enough for the table, and 2) how to order a duck ie whether we had to order the pancakes etc seperately or if they came with the duck.We didn't do too badly as our duck came to our table and was carved in front of us. Here is the chef slicing the meat in preparation for the pancakes.
Being such novices (and so obviously laowai) the waitress not only made our first pancakse for us (usually she makes one per person to show you how then leaves you to it) but made almost all of them! This photo is from Wikipedia and shows the pancake makings.
Although Mummy was certain that the meal utilised the entire duck (skin, meat and bones) her chinese was insufficient to ask where the broth was. Ah well, the crispy skin and meat pancakes were delicious enough. Plus, the lack of broth meant we had room for...

Haagan Daz icecream for dessert!!! Alex was ecstatic - life couldn't be better. Haagan Daz is a cute little restaurant in Beijing - nice for a date - and not the fast, kiosk style we have seen in Australia. We sat down and ordered a couple of extravagent desserts to share between us - although Alex made short work of a couple of scoops of chocolate icecream! Then it was a short walk back to the hotel and farewell as our friends were to leave very early the next morning and we were to leave not too long after that. We had a great time and hope that they did too.

The final note to our Beijing stay was that on the way to the airport, Alex threw up in the taxi several times. Not great for anyone. We managed to clean up most of it (funnily enough she hadn't really wanted to eat breakfast so it was less, um chunky than it otherwise might have been) and gave the taxi driver some extra money to cover cleaning the cab - which begs the questions of how much you give a chinese taxi driver for such a thing? I mean, in Australia it is spelt out on stickers in the taxi that AUD50 is the going rate - I guess as a result of too many "big nights" but I have seen and read nothing about China. We then managed to strip her off and redress her in something else (although clean clothing options were limited as we were on our way home. Here we are waiting to board the plane home. Ahh, there's nothing more exciting that the endless vehicles and action of an airport. More than enough action for both children.

Beijing Holiday - I

We had a huge four day weekend planned for Beijing: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Beijing duck...maybe this will take several posts!

We had tried to pack for the cold - way up north there - and having spent the past few years in Illinois we thought we knew cold. But we hadn't really packed our Illinois winter gear because, well, we were going to be living in the tropics, right?!

We had a direct flight to Beijing and whilst some of us were doing research on the activities of the next few days (we had organized an english speaking guide and driver for each day) others were happy just to be on a plane again (boy do I need to pay more attention to Sebastien's ears in the shower!)We arrived and couldn't find a taxi that would fit the four adults and two children plus all the baggage until Goran found us a van!

Hmm, looks like that taxi sign just comes right off once you negotiate the price to the city...He had his tea ready for the day - like many drivers we see - but Alex thought it was seaweed!So Goran was riding shotgun, Alex was next to her new best friend, Kat (and made sure Koala got a good look at this new place), and Sebastien was just pleased that Daddy let him play with the boarding passes.After checking into the hotel, we had some time left and decided to check out the Silk Market that sells lots of really cheap goods plus knock-offs of international brands. Brett and Sebastien caused quite a stir and Alex got a work out with her "Bu Yao!" We did end up buying a wallet and a pair of shoes each for Sebastien and Alex. Sebastien's shoes squeaked, which he loved, and Alex was very taken with some orange silk shoes - not quite appropriate winter shoes but much loved - as you will see!Let's just say that Brett rather enjoyed the back and forth of bargaining - a little too much perhaps!!

Then we went home to bed - we were to meet our guide and driver at 8am the next morning to drive to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

The day was clear but cold - very cold. We were all bundled up and still cold! Tiananmen Square is huge (around 100 acres) - and having seen the June 4th massacre/incident (depending on whether you are not chinese or chinese) on television, it was quietening to be there in person. I ventured to ask our guide (who was perhaps a little older than us, but not by much) whether he was able (or allowed) to discuss what happened in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989 and he seemed a little hesitant but readily told us that he'd been in middle school then (grade5-9) so his recollection is from that perspective. He was adamant that there were no deaths and that the media beat it up. I felt that he was a little uncomfortable with the conversation so let it drop at that.

We walked through the square, with our toes starting to freeze, and saw the flag complete with it's military guard (standing on a box) who had just relieved the previous guard. There are at least three guards on three sides of the flag area. They looked a lot warmer than us! We then turned to the entrance gate of the Forbidden City (UNESCO and World Heritage Site) which has several archways - the central one is part of the Imperial Way and was for the Emperor only (excpet for the Empress on her wedding day), his wives and high-level officials entered through the ones immediately to the left and right whilst the lower officials and others entered through the outside ones. You can tell if a building is for royalty as the roofing tiles are golden rather than green or red. Here are Brett and Sebastien outside the main gate known as the Meridian Gate.Although winter, we were but a few of the very many tourists thronging the area - and we wouldn't like to visit in peak tourist season! We were very interested to see how the chinese parents carried their young babies in the cold weather. The pink scarf lay on top of the infant who had been strapped with a cloth to the back of the mother. Not one square inch of that child was visible and I'm not sure how much air it was getting - but probably just enough!

We walked through the main gate to find...another gate - the Gate of Supreme Harmony! Yes, the Forbidden City is huge, over 70 hectares, and has some 980 rooms according to Tony our guide. The doors of the gates are decorated by nine rows of nine nails as 9x9 was said to be the number of the Emperor. The second level of the gate had an actor playing the part of the Emperor (wearing yellow) and demonstrated that only the Emperor was allowed to be on the upper level of this gate, though soldiers were stationed on the upper wall throughout the Palace.
Here is Tony explaining some of the finer details of the Palace arrangements to our group.We made our way into the outer court which had a large square with a river flowing through it with about five stone bridges.In spite of the cold, Alex took some convincing to wear her beanie and gloves... It looked towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the Emperor conducted public business. It has stone stairs leading up to it and an intricate stone carving path in the centre pathway that only the Emperor was able to be carried over - not walk on as he was always carried on a sedan of sorts. Even today tourists are not allowed to walk on it. Here Brett and Sebastien are posing in front of it and you can clearly see the golden terracotta roof tiles.
We have come across these statues - the guardian lions - throughout China and know that they are traditional and come as a pair. The male plays with a ball (representing the flower of life), and the female with a cub (representing the cycle of life).Many of the ones we've come across (especially in temples and outside restaurants) have a ball representing a pearl in the mouths that rolls around but is too large to remove from the mouth without breaking some teeth. They are a traditional display of a family's wealth or social status because they were expensive to make.

And then, a problem. Not only did Alex need to go to the bathroom...now! But our camera ran out of battery power. A crisis on two fronts! After checking 2 other bathrooms, we eventually came across one that was open. But the search for batteries was fruitless. So we will get some photos from our guests (eventually). I will save the rest of our tour until then.

After our tour (half a day) and with our toes freezing we went to a lovely lunch organized by the tourguide - but not until after we'd seen a "Silk Factory". Dubious though we were we still went and our suspicions were correct. We had been taken to a workshop of sorts that demonstrated to us how silkworms made their cocoons, were killed and then the silk unravelled and made into various items including bedspreads and doonas/comforters. The pressure to buy was subtle but there - and we had two hungry kids with us - so we said enough and went on to lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out the Silk Market and making purchases including silk sheets and a bone/bamboo mahjong set for Mummy. We had to have a good night's sleep as the next day we were heading off to see the Great Wall!

Visitors from America - Gu Lang Yu

The following day Brett had organized another couple of students to come with us to Gu Lang Yu - the island our apartment looks at.

We decided to get there just before lunch, have a McDonalds lunch (our first time in china and a treat for the students) and tour the island. The ferry over is very crowded and gives a good example of how the chinese are all push and elbows when it comes to getting somewhere. You don't pay for the ferry over, but you pay for it coming back - 8 kuai or a little more than a dollar. There is an admission ticket that allows you a ride on the skyway, entry to the aquarium and other museums plus the aviary - I think it was about 30 kuai but I'll check on that when I find the ticket!

Many of the buildings are dilapidated - they used to be the embassy enclave of Xiamen - but some are in the process of being rehabilitated. A few have been turned into museums so you can see what it used to be like. We walked through another temple and up a long path to the skyway where we went over to the other peak of the island. Brett, Goran, Kat and Sebastien hiked up to the very top of Sunlight Rock to see the view - Alex and Mummy went back to the temple to sit in the shade, drink some cool water and eat a snack. Here is Xiamen (part of the downtown business/financial district) in the background and the island in the foreground.There we saw the piano museum (the island is not just well-known because it bans cars, but also because of the number of pianos there) and headed on to the aviary. Although extensive, the aviary was a bit ho-hum - the cages were quite small and the parrots that were out, chained to their perches, were showing telltale signs of stress (plucked chest feathers etc) which took away from it. I did find an interesting sign though- not your typical western anti-littering sign.We then walked up to the large statue on Fuding Rock that we see from our apartment building - it is a statue of Zheng Cheng Gong who defeated the Dutch in taking Taiwan in 1662 and is 15.7m high. We easily found our apartment building across the water - it is pink and white striped after all!We walked along the stone boadwalk and then headed back to the ferry - here is the group minus Alex who insisted on standing next to me while I took the photo.
On the way back to the ferry we passed some more sculpture (Driving away the Invaders by the Cane Shield Army - 13m long bronze sculpture) and Alex enjoyed trying to pick up the sword of the great hero.There are many other things to do on the island - for example an aquarium - but we know that we'll be going there often so we took it very slow and concentrated on stuff we thought our guests would like to see.

We took a taxi home and this is a shot of the back seat of the cab. There is a seatbelt in this one, but the seat covers (purple) are such that the buckle on the seat is under the cover and the belt hasn't got anything to snap into then. Alex enjoyed sitting on Goran's lap - we squeezed in the four adults and two children - I'm in the front seat which thankfully has a seatbelt and Brett is holding Sebastien next to Kat.Our apartment complex was in the mood for New Year and had celebratory lanterns and signs up and we knew it must have been special because......the fountain was playing!We had to go and pack because the next day we were flying to Beijing for four days.