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Saturday we were planning on meeting with Penny and riding the bumper cars at People's Square. She was still worn out from playing Wii. Later on that morning, Penny called to tell us that she felt alright enough to go climbing instead. We arranged to meet at the climbing wall. When Eric and I got there, we saw sections of the wall lying outside the stadium. Sure enough, when we arrived at the gate, the guard informed us that the climbing gym was closed. There is an ice skating rink nearby and we decided to do that instead.
50 RMB (6.25 USD) per person got us admission (2 hours on the ice), skate rental, and a pair of gloves. This was Penny's first time ice skating. Here Penny and I are skating together. I'm holding her up as she learns how to skate. We skated together for about half an hour and then I let Penny go. She was very determined and concentrated hard as she skated nonstop for the remaining hour and a half we had. Penny had forgotten socks and she had a couple of hot spots on her feet when we were finished. I'm going to put together a 'Penny 911' kit that contains socks, bandages, wet wipes, and ointment.
We went to IKEA and bought a wardrobe to store the rest of our clothes. Our apartment doesn't have much closet space (especially compared to the house we moved from). Delivery from IKEA is 30 RMB (3.75 USD) and assembly is about 40 RMB (5 USD). Not bad at all. I am reminded of the time when I bought our dining table set from Pier 1 about 4-5 years ago. We lived close enough to Pier 1 that we could easily walk there under 10 minutes. They wanted $50 for delivery. I just brought the table and chairs home in my car. May 1 is a holiday here in China -- Labor Day. Which means that things are a bit messed up. Delivery was late. I propped the door open to allow the delivery men to bring everything inside. This was a sign to the cat that it was prison break time. The door at the end of the hall was also propped open and Mugs was making a beeline for it. I caught him before he could go far and he promptly made for the door. But it was the wrong door. Fortunately, that door was firmly closed and I managed to catch the cat and stuff him in the office.
Tomorrow someone is coming to assemble the wardrobe. The primary reason we are having our IKEA furniture assembled (aside from the fact that it's just $5) is that the doors require a drill in order for the handles to be attached. And we don't have a drill.
We've done amazingly well for having had the bulk of our stuff delivered on Friday. We down to about 5 boxes. 2 have Eric's clothes, 1 has coats, and the remaining 2 have bedding. The new wardrobe should resolve most, if not all, of this.
Yes! Christmas has come! Our air shipment arrived on Wednesday evening -- 14 boxes. Most of which contained clothes. The ocean shipment arrived on this (Friday) morning. Knowing that the ocean shipment was going to come, I had called the front desk to have the couch, chair, and a bedroom console removed on Thursday. I think the management thought I was a bit nuts.
Now we are reunited with our red couch, a well-travelled piece of furniture. We bought it in Albuquerque, NM from a 'modern' furniture store. They didn't have any in stock, so they had to order one from Denmark and had it delivered to our apartment. From Denmark to Albuquerque, next to Indianapolis and then to Atlanta. Now, it has come to China. We also got Eric's leather recliner, my porch rocking chair, our 2-drawer file cabinet, the barn-timber coffee table, 3 20-lb bags of cat food, and several other boxes containing kitchen stuff and the remainder of our clothes.
Both Eric and the cat had fun playing with the packing paper. Mugsy was shredding it with his teeth and claws. Eric was making 'paper angels'.
I spent much of the day washing clothes (much of our things smells like a forgotten shipment in a damp Goodwill storage closet) and washing dishes (it seemed that everything was covered with a thin film of grime). Now the kitchen is nearly in order. The office is chaotic as are the bedrooms and living room. Not surprisingly, some of the things we unpacked left us scratching our heads. In one box, I found Mugsy's cardboard cat scratchers. I thought I had thrown those out. Another box was full of salt since the movers had packed a salt shaker full of salt without sealing the top (I should have learned my lesson the last 2 times). Also found: Halloween treat bags from 4 years ago, a bottle of Elmer's glue (likely from Eric's Calvin days), and road atlases of the U.S. We still have a few more boxes to unpack. It's nearing bedtime for me. Tomorrow we are going to ride the bumper cars at People's Square with Penny.
Oh, Eric's G.I. Joes make it safe and sound. I think we can all sleep easier with that knowledge.
I think I found a couple of cats that are sleepier than my cat. One cat was napping right outside its owner's magazine stand. I did a double take because I wasn't sure what I had really seen. This is a supremely relaxed cat.
I walked on to the metro station on my way to Xintiandi. Xintiandi is one of Shanghai's new trendy hotspots. Nice restaurants and little shops. Near Xintiandi is one of World Link clinic's medical facilities. I have an appointment coming up and I wanted to see how close the clinic is to the metro station. As it turns out, not very far at all. I don't really find Xintiandi to be all that exciting. I did take some pictures of the Cisco banners hanging there for Eric.
Not very exciting. I walked on further on Huangpi Road to see what I could see. Getting off the main thoroughfare is always more interesting to me. I bought some fruit, including lychees. I was peeling and eating them as I walked along, periodically tossing handfuls of the skin and seeds in any convenient trash can. On one intersection, I saw people carrying bundles of shoe boxes and then I saw stacks of shoe boxes on the street. I walked into a nearby building and discovered a shoe bonanza. Nothing but shoes. Stacks and stacks of shoe boxes on the street, in the alleys, in doorways, in stair wells, on bicycles, everywhere.
I nabbed a couple of business cards from the shoe stalls inside in case I want to come back. There were 2 buildings, one on either side of the street and both were full of shoes. I have never seen so many shoes in my life.
On the way back to the metro station, I bought a couple of small bonsai. One of them is a ginkgo. I don't know what the the other one is. I'll have to take a picture of them later. At another stall, I saw a white cat wearing a bamboo collar sleeping on a table.
I petted it and then got out my camera to take a picture. The old woman sitting next to the cat tried to coax her cat to wake up a bit for a picture. It obliged briefly before falling back to sleep. We were laughing at the cat. I imagine she was scolding it gently for being so lazy.
Now I'm back home, waiting for our air shipment. We were told that it would be delivered this afternoon around 5:30p. The ocean shipment will likely come on Friday. It seems that we are going from famine to feast. I really don't remember what we all packed. I'm sure we'll have some adjustment before the apartment absorbs everything. I don't think I need to say how much we are looking forward to getting our things.
Last night, we were invited to Wu Jin's for dinner along with some other people from the office. Wu Jin is one of Eric's co-workers and they now share an office space. She lives in Pudong with her husband and daughter. Penny came by and we took the metro together to Wu Jin's.
Eric decided to bring along our Wii game console, which was a brilliant idea. We set it up and put in Wii Sports, which was an immediate hit with everyone. Penny was playing tennis so energetically, I thought she would surely end up embedded in the television, the coffee table, or a wall. She even hit Eric on the head (not hard) with one of her enthusiastic serves. Here, QQ (Wu Jin's 8-year old daughter) and Wu Jin's father are bowling. The best was when we started the boxing and got people to box each other. QQ fought the computer. I fought Penny. Eric fought me. Wu Jin fought her husband. Grandfather fought Grandmother. I have some video of the boxing, which everyone found to be hilarious. You don't realize how silly you look. I know I look absolutely ridiculous and I make weird noises to boot.
In between bouts, QQ played a song on the guqin. Wu Jin has two guqins. One is the more traditional instrument and has a 5-note scale (do, re, me, fa, so) and the other has the more modern 7-note scale (do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti).
Dinner was excellent. There were 6 different dishes and then tons of dumplings. I peeked in the kitchen earlier and took a picture of the army of dumplings on the counter top.
I swear that this must have been only a third of the total number of dumplings. The rest must have been stashed in another part of the kitchen. We were served bowl after bowl of dumplings, vegetable ones and meat ones. Then, when you couldn't possibly eat more, the meal was concluded with sweet soup. We rolled ourselves back into the living room and sang some karaoke.
We headed home at around 9:30p. I'm surprised the metro didn't measurably slow down with all the dumplings in our bellies.
The Cao Jia Du Flower Market is located across town from us, near Zhongshan Park and Jing'An Temple. I went there anyway. I took the metro to Zhongshan Park and walked from there to the flower market. I really should start wearing a pedometer because I don't really know how far I walked from the station to the flower market and I'd like to know so I can give better directions to people. It is a straight shot from the metro station; you just exit onto Changning Road and keep walking until you're there.
The flower market is in a building set back from the street behind a Friendship Store located on Changshou and Wanghangdu. It's easy to miss if you're not looking, though you know you're at the right place almost immediately because the air suddenly smells fresher, of flowers and greenery. I believe that the building has 3 floors, though I only went up to the second floor via a back stair way clogged with boxes. The building houses many vendors, each with an individual stall, selling potted plants, cut flowers, and bouquets.
I loved walking in the flower market. Every building, alley, and crevice in this city is a smoking zone despite signs that say otherwise. The flower market also has no smoking signs, but here, people actually seem to abide by them. The place smelled so green and fresh that I wanted to lie down in the middle of the floor. Don't worry, I didn't.
The first floor is all fresh flowers with a few places selling teddy bear bouquets. The second floor is all artificial flowers. I don't know what there is on the third floor. I stayed mostly on the first floor.
One stall had only orchids. They had pots of plants on shelves lining the outside of the stall. Inside, the floor was littered with brilliant purple blooms that the vendors were making into bouquets. I bought an aloe plant (or something similar) and some cut peonies for myself. I also bought a couple of potted daisy plants with orange and red striped blooms for a couple of women in Eric's office. I carefully tied the aloe plant in its bag and tucked it into my backpack. I carried the other plants since they seemed too fragile to put into my pack.
On the way out, I passed a rubble field of crumbling buildings standing knee-deep in debris from what must only have been other buildings in the neighborhood.
What struck me was that there were still people living there amidst the rubble and ruin. You have to wonder what the story is there. Where did the other people go? Where will these people go? What does the city have planned for this location? The landscape of Shanghai, like that of other cities in China, can change so rapidly. Out with the old, in with the new. The flower market I had just left had its old location torn down a couple of years ago to make way for a new venue. It migrated over here.
On the way back home, I bought some DVDs from a street vendor. Eric wanted to watch 'The Fantastic Four' movie and I found it. I got a good deal since the woman charged 5 kuai per movie (all the other vendors we've encountered want at least 10). It must be my winning smile. Once back in the metro station, I stood next to a woman who was carrying two small plastic shopping bags. The bags were wiggling and cheeping. I couldn't help but stare.
She allowed me to take some pictures. Each bag had either 3 or 4 chicks. They were wiggling too much for me to count. Needless to say, a cheeping bag draws a lot of stares on the metro.
I managed to get home with all my plants intact. That afternoon, we watched the new TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) movie that I had just bought. As for 'The Fantastic Four', it was worth 5 kuai, but probably not 10.
I was planning on going to the gym this morning but instead I'm sitting here writing while a herd of 'engineers' are fixing something in my bathroom. The call I got from the front desk stated something cryptic and vague, like "The engineers are going to replace the light bulbs in your table. O.K.? Thank-you madam." Okay. I think my table is alright. I let in 3 engineers, who in turn let in 4 more engineers, 2 of which were bearing ladders. The cat is sleeping behind the couch and can't be bothered to investigate what is going on. Now, 2 more engineers are here, one with a metal suitcase and the other with some tubing. The living room has all the countertop contents of the master bath on the floor. I hear a great deal of generic noise, water running, some rapid Chinese chatter, and the sound of tools on pipes. I don't know what exactly they're doing -- routine maintenance I suppose, but it sounds like they're breaking something from the wall. Now all the engineers have left, leaving behind a tremendous mess. Thankfully the maids have just arrived.
Yesterday, I went to People's Square. I have a professional women's group event this evening and I don't want to spoil things by getting lost like I did on Monday. So, I thought I'd do some reconnaissance and see where exactly this place was. The event was going to take place at a the Radisson New World and the hotel's website stated that it was right by the People's Square metro stop. Indeed, they weren't lying. It certainly helped that the hotel is easy to spot because it's topped by a space ship (go look it up -- it really looks like a flying saucer landed permanently on top of the hotel). Next to the Radisson is the New World Shopping Center. When I got there, there was a crowd gathering outside the shopping center. In the middle of the crowd were dancers. Music was playing from a speaker system and then it stopped as a band stepped out onto a stage. I don't know what event this was or whether this is something done routinely. On stage were 3 men, one on drums, one on saxophone, and one on a keyboard.
People dancing in pairs and singly. The solo dancers seemed oblivious to the world, immersed in their own enjoyment. One older gentleman was dressed in a suit and reminded me of the Fatboy Slim's music video 'Weapon of Choice". Watch it if you have the chance. It's one of my favorite videos. I took a few short videos of the dancers, which I hope to put up on Youtube sometime. I love it. In America, if something like this happened, it would likely be with young, professional dancers and everyone in the crowd would be too embarrassed to join in, me included. I prefer to watch, though if the hoofer in the suit had asked me to dance, I don't think I could've refuse.
After a crappy day, it was wonderful to find you've received a package from America. With sponges inside! I had a hard time finding decent sponges here. They were poor quality. It is odd the sorts of things you crave when you can't have them. My beloved mother-in-law include a couple of sponges in the last Fedex she sent. We also got pictures of our new nephew, Wesley. Believe me, he's adorable. Better looking than sponges from America.
Other things I want besides sponges is Mexican food. I like Mexican food but it has never been my favorite cuisine. Now that I'm here, I so want a burrito and guacamole. Some women here have margarita nights so I might join them and see if there is decent food to go with those margaritas.
Another new thing I love (besides my sponges -- I might never unwrap them) is green tea. I bought a small baggie at Carrefour and I'm really enjoying it. Most of the green tea I've had has been pretty bitter and grassy. This stuff is much more subtle. It may be that I just like watching the leaves unfold in my cup.
Before and After. I didn't realize how much the leaves expand and dumped a lot of tea in my cup the first time.
Last night Mugsy and I stayed up late watching movies. Okay, just me since Mugsy was sound asleep under the covers. Today it is raining. In the dream I had last night, I was going to make chili for a friend. That sounds like an excellent idea for a rainy day. I'm going to scrounge around and see if I can't find all the ingredients.
Usually, I can't read my blog on its front page nor can I read any other blogs hosted on the same site. Sometimes though, I'll try to open it anyway. And sometimes, it actually comes through. It's such a pleasant surprise. When the window cracks open, I oftentimes rush to read my favorite blogs before it slams back shut.
This past weekend and extending to today, I've been having what I refer to as "China Days". Days when I get so utterly frustrated living in China and having to deal with everything that entails. And I've only been here a month!
Shanghai has a population of about 20 million people. I think all 20 million of those people decided to follow and congregate around me all weekend. Xu Jia Hui, the part of Shanghai where we live, is one of the city's biggest shopping districts. The malls here are packed on weekends. Usually I can take this in stride, but this past weekend, it was driving me absolutely nuts. People pushing and shoving and elbowing their way in front of you for the cashier, the elevator, the escalator, the metro, taxis. People casually lighting up cigarettes anywhere and everywhere. People hawking up phlegm. Shopping for a 12RMB (1.50 USD) item and having to walk halfway across the mall floor to find a cashier (why can't each shop have their own cashier?). Fighting for space on the sidewalks with mopeds, bicycles, and cars. Dodging cars, buses, mopeds, trucks, bicycles and everything else with wheels when trying to cross the street. It's all been driving me crazy.
Today, I was going to meet with a bunch of other American women to tour a silk factory. The map made it look really straightforward. You take metro line 4, get off, walk along the street for a bit, then make a right turn, walk a bit, and make another right turn and you should be there. Not so easy. I got to the part where you get off the metro and walk along the street, but this metro station, unlike the others I had been to, has no English on its maps. You kind of have to guess what is where. After walking up and down that street for about an hour and a half, I gave up on finding the street I needed and simply got back on the metro. Even looking at the map, I still am not clear how I missed the street.
This evening, Eric is off on a business trip. I don't know when he'll be back and neither does he. He is scheduled to go to Taiwan. Today he just found out that he may also need to go to Dubai. We don't know yet. Two couriers stopped by, one about 3 hours before his flight left with his ticket to Taiwan, the other about an hour later with his passport. I don't think I need to say that we are both starting to lose our minds.
As if things couldn't get crazier, our household shipments are not coming this week as we had thought. The shipping company had not made the government deadline with the proper documents. Which isn't surprising since we keep getting different information about what documents are needed and then when we think we have submitted everything, they ask for something else. This has been going on for the past week and a half. Just today, we were asked for a letter confirming that we had an employment offer here. Then 3 hours later, we got the message that it was too late and we needed to try again later when Eric (and his passport) are back. I wonder if the officials here are just making stuff up as they go along. I better find my 4th grade school report on the planet Neptune in case they want that, too.
So, I don't think I need to say that I'm tired. Although it's only 6p, I'm feeling ready for bed. A better plan would be to go to the gym and then go to bed. I think I'll try for that one.
This is what happens:
He snapped a nice picture of himself with the phone's camera and left it as the phone's background image. I think everyone should have the opportunity to have Eric's mug on their mobile phones.
Last night, we were invited to Penny's for dinner. Penny is one of Eric's coworkers. She is a Chinese woman who in addition to speaking Mandarin and Shanghainese (the local Shanghai dialect) is also fluent in English. A coworker from the U.S. had been in Shanghai for a business trip last year and he had been invited to Penny's for dinner. She had made a microwave steamed fish that he raved about. Penny lives in Hong Qiao in an apartment she purchased a couple of years ago. Her place is warm and inviting. She has blond wood floors and blond wood furniture, which gives the place a spacious and airy feel. Here Penny is wearing her apron and preparing the dinner. The entire meal was prepared in about 30 minutes, including the rice. She prepared several dishes, including cooked greens (something similar to baby bok choy), chopped cucumber salad, scrambled eggs with tomato and scallion, barbecued chicken, and of course, steamed fish. The ingredients were simple: soy sauce, vinegar, salt, oil. She did most of the cooking in a wok or in the microwave.
It's amazing that such simple ingredients could produce such delicious results. Partly too, food prepared by other hands seems to always taste better. Haochi (delicious)! I feel inspired to try my hand at cooking fish. Penny has a market near her place where she buys fresh fish. The grocery near us has tanks of fish, too. I'll have to get my nerve up and my dictionary ready. Once when we were at Carrefour, we saw an especially lively fish jump out of the tank and flop on the floor.
I went to the April meet and greet for the American Women's Club of Shanghai (AWCS). Pretty self-explanatory, but it is a group for and by American expat women. According to one woman, there are about 500 members in Shanghai. It is rare to see all 500 members at any single event. The newcomers are put into Huan Ying groups (huan ying is mandarin for 'welcome'), which are sort of peer cohorts of women who arrive in Shanghai around the same time. These groups arrange to meet 3-4 times during the following month and is a way for people to figure out Shanghai. You have a group to commiserate with when things seem overwhelming and people who can help you learn how to cope in China. I'm looking forward to meeting more with these women.
The meeting place for the AWCS was at a place in the French concession area of Shanghai. Briefly, in the 1800's, the British established a settlement in Shanghai after the Opium War. The French, Americans, and Japanese each established their own concession areas. In the concession areas, the law of the occupying country took precedence over Chinese law. Foreign occupation of Shanghai endured until the early 1900's (1930's? 1940's?). Discussing Shanghai history in the depth it deserves is a topic for another day and another blog entry.
Anyway, this was the former French concession area. The French concession was, and still is, known for its beautiful tree-lined avenues. I had taken the metro to Changsu Road and walked down Huaihai Road and then turned down Xiangyang Road. Along Xiangyang Road, as with many smaller side streets, are stalls selling a variety of goods and services. Restaurants, bicycle repair, fruits, vegetables, shoes, shirts. I saw a stall with styrofoam boxes filled with water and panting fish next to a woman selling shrimp on a tray. On one street corner, someone was getting fresh chicken for dinner. It appeared that there were live chickens in a metal cages attached to a bicycle. (Living in Shanghai, you learn quickly that you can buy nearly anything from the back of a bicycle -- plants, fruit, shoes, chickens.)
You would pick out your favorite chicken and the woman would butcher it for you on the spot. The pictures I managed to take are a bit rushed since I snapped them as I was crossing the street. You don't want to lose concentration when you're crossing the street as you an be easily taken out by an impatient and / or distracted moped. I don't know what that feels like nor do I want to learn. I've had enough close encounters with illegally turning buses and taxis and kamikaze bicyclists.
Further on the street, I saw a man calming riding his bicycle while reading. Maybe they're directions. I don't know. I suppose that it probably isn't as worrisome as it seems since most people on the road don't seem to be paying
close attention to the road. Many are talking on their mobile phones. It doesn't matter how hyper vigilant you are, someone else will be distracted. Some things are true the world over.
Tonight I'm going to cook chicken (packaged from Carrefour -- not fresh from the street). Tomorrow, or the next day, I'm going to try my hand at buying a live fish. I'm going to find the proper phrases for 'No, I don't want to carry it home in a bucket' and 'Please clean this fish'. I hope it isn't still blinking when I'm eating it, like the fish Kevin ate in Japan. Right now, I am off to Watsons Pharmacy to buy hand sanitizer. I thought I'd share that bit of excitement with all of you.
Smile Kevin! (Happy Belated Birthday!)
Shanghai counts its blue sky days, days where the air and sky is clear enough to see blue. It's one way they measure the success of their anti-pollution campaign. I don't know how many blue sky days Shanghai has had up until now, but this weekend was all blue sky. We had an enjoyable weekend. On Saturday, we went wall-climbing with our friend Penny. We love Penny because she is so laid-back and easy-going. Very little fazes her and she's game for just about anything. We invited her to go climbing with us and she agreed to join us though she's never done it before. It's been nearly 10 years since Eric and I last went climbing, so we had to relearn how to do it all over again. Eric found a climbing gym at Shanghai Stadium, which is only 1 metro stop away from us. Easy peasy.
Penny came dressed on khaki slacks and a short-sleeve blouse with low heels, which didn't deter her from joining in. The shoes didn't matter since we all rented climbing shoes.
We all tried climbing the same wall 3 times. Eric made it to the top all 3 times and Penny and I made it about half way. Eric then attempted a more advanced wall that was taller with smaller handholds and made it about a third of the way up. There's Penny on the left. Can you tell who has the camera most of the time? Eric and I plan to return to the gym and climb again, even if Penny can't join us.
On Friday, I took the metro to Zhongshan Park. I like to visit Carrefour at least once a week to replenish our kitchen and other household supplies. During the week, I shop at whatever fruit stands I come upon to buy more fruit and vegetables as I need them or I go to the market downstairs to get a few items. I'm trying to see if how many places I can get to via the metro. Supposedly there's a Carrefour by Zhongshan Park since that is an expat haven. I didn't find the Carrefour then, but I did find a wet market and watched dancers at the park.
A wet market is what people here call a street market where you can buy meat. These places usually sell produce as well. Some of these wet markets have live chickens that they will butcher on the spot for you. I have yet to find a live chicken place. This place I found had tables of seafood, poultry, pork, and beef. I walked around it and simply decided to buy baking potatoes and sweet potatoes. Food bought at street markets is cheaper than at places like Carrefour, though you can't be as sure of the cleanliness of the place. If I'm not planning on peeling the food, I give it a quick soak in a bleach solution. As for meat, I am not yet comfortable with buying meat from a wet market. On a slightly related note, I did find dried beans at an expat-oriented grocery store.
I knew Carrefour was not far from the metro stop, but I had neglected to write down anything specific, like an address or a cross street (what's new). I ended up wandering around until I got lost (again, what's new). I then asked a traffic officer where Zhongshan Park was. Zhongshan Park is sizable and an easily recognized landmark and it's right by the metro station. I know just enough Chinese to ask where someplace is. My pronunciation must be suspect because the officer asked me to write out where I wanted to go. The only written Chinese I am capable of are the number '1', '2', and '3'. I'll teach you right now. Grab a pen or a pencil and a sheet of paper. Go ahead; I can wait. Now, make a short horizontal line: 
Beautiful. You're a fast learner. O.K. Looks like you have the technique down. Here's how you make number '3'. Make 3 horizontal lines, again, one on top of the other.
Then, I spent about 5 minutes being schooled by the traffic officer on the proper way to say 'park'.
me: "Zhongshan Gongyuan zai nar?" (Where is Zhongshan park?)
traffic officer (TO): "Gong yuan"
me: "Gong yuan"
TO: "Gong yuan"
me: "Gong yuan"
TO: "Gong yuan"
Repeat a few more times. He did point me in the right direction and even followed me across the street to make sure I knew.
While at the park, I decided to walk through and see what there was to see before boarding the metro back home. All over Shanghai, and especially in the parks, you see people participating in all sorts of activities. Tai chi with a group or solo, people walking alternately forwards and backwards, and on that day in Zhongshan Park, dancing. There was music playing over the P.A. system. The park even has these coat tree poles. There was
a crowd gathered there to watch the people dancing. I took a short movie. People were dancing in pairs and a few were dancing solo. I don't mind getting lost. I don't have any appointments to keep and there's always something interesting you find that make getting lost something to look forward to. I never did find that Carrefour. I'll have to go back again and look. With the address this time.
This past weekend, Eric had a trade show he needed to attend in Beijing. I decided to tag along. Once one of the women at Eric's office learned that I planned to visit Beijing, she kindly organized a driver for us and a brief sightseeing tour. (Thank-you Wu Jin!)
We left Shanghai Thursday morning and landed early afternoon in Beijing. Beijing is about 900 miles north of Shanghai. We had a driver pick us up from the airport and bring us to our hotel. The driver then took us to the Forbidden City. He dropped us off and (we thought) agreed to pick us up there when we called him. Unfortunately, the Palace Museum ticket booth was closed (they have summer hours and winter hours -- we are still on winter hours) and we weren't able to go inside the Forbidden City. We instead walked down to Tian'Anmen Square. We walked a circuit around the square. We couldn't see Mao's tomb as it was closed
for renovations. When we returned to the drop-off point, we called our driver, who, for some unknown reason, couldn't or wouldn't return to pick us up. Between the two of us, we remembered enough landmarks to walk back to the hotel. The walk was short and enjoyable.
When I was a child, I would drop pebbles into a pond and watch the water radiating outward in a series of concentric circles. Beijing is organized like that, with the Forbidden City the pebble at the heart of the city. There are now (I think) 7 ring roads extending out from the Forbidden City. Our hotel is located within the inner ring and is quite close to the Forbidden City. Walking back to the hotel was actually a blessing as it helped me orient myself on the streets for the walks I was planning on taking the next day.
Friday, Eric needed to work, so I spent the day wandering Beijing. I walked to back to the Forbidden City, planning on visiting the Palace Museum. I took a circuitous way there, though not on purpose. I saw a beautiful Catholic church I would have otherwise missed.
Once at the Palace Museum, I could understand why their ticket office closed so early. The place is enormous and you could easily spend a good 2-3 hours wandering the place. I took a ton of pictures, too many to post here, but I put them on my Flickr. Not surprisingly, the place was full of tourists. There were parts of the Forbidden City that were under renovation, also not surprising, since Beijing is getting ready for the 2008 Olympics. Despite that, I really enjoyed walking around. There wasn't a map available (aside from the one you could buy in the gift shop) so I got lost a bit. Nothing unusual there for me. As I was wandering through, I thought about all the people who built the place, the artisans who painted the roof arches, the craftsmen who carved the rail posts, and the people who lived there. All
around Beijing you see similar curved and painted rooflines. Even the toll booth roof has it.
Once I was finished walking through the Forbidden City, I walked back to the hotel and took a brief break. I then headed back to the streets and walked down to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market. Walking through Beijing makes me appreciate Shanghai all the more. Beijing is a gritty, working class city. A sort of Chicago to Shanghai's Los Angeles. Every few yards (or meters -- China is metric), I would hear someone hawking up phlegm and then spit on the ground. Every Few Yards. I see / hear less of that in Shanghai. Do I need to say how nasty that is? Same thing when we visited the Great Wall. I actually caught some spit on my coat collar on the Great Wall. I didn't notice it until Eric told me and then he tried to ease my disgust by trying to convince me that he was the one who spit on me (this is why I love him so much). I'm glad I had my head and face wrapped in a scarf. I have no idea how Beijing will be ready for the Olympics next year. Everyone spits, the subway stations I saw were poorly lit and small, and the street vendors are hyper-aggressive to foreigners.
The Hong Qiao Market is 5 floors of all sorts of crap. Electronics, clothes, shoes, purses, tchotchkes, and pearls. I enjoy browsing. After walking through the market, I took a taxi back to the hotel, ready for a rest.
The next day, we went to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Badaling section, which is well-preserved and a popular drop-off spot for tourists (read: crowded). It was extremely windy. We fought the wind and walked up and down the Great Wall. We took the 'sliding cars' down, which dumped us near a small
bazaar, where people were selling snacks and souvenirs. Further down was a man with a camel that you could have your picture taken with. Then we were in the bear park. There were a few enclosures with black bears, who were obviously accustomed to tourists. You could buy a dish of cut up apples or tofu for 5 RMB and feed the bears. We were scheduled to see the Ming Tombs after the Great Wall, but we decided to skip that and go on to the airport. We were tired and ready to go. After walking all over Beijing, I had had my fill of Chinese antique architecture. I'm sure I could spend days around the Beijing area looking at museums and tombs and other points of interest. I would like to see the Great Wall at some of the other, more remote, access points. Perhaps when it is warmer. I hear that further in the spring, the Great Wall is beautiful. One part is known for the profusion of yellow flowers that bloom on the mountain. Now, it is still winter and the place looks barren and forbidding. I can't imagine what life must have been like for the soldiers who had to patrol the wall when it was an active border.
What struck us the most about this trip were not the things we had seen, though they were remarkable, but the fact that it didn't seem odd or unusual that we were going to the Great Wall or that we were going to the Forbidden City. It seemed as normal of a thing to do as visiting the Lincoln Memorial on a trip to Washington, D.C. It's probably all part of the expat experience.
Today is coming to a close and I am ready for bed. We had thunder showers today. I wasn't sure at first whether we had thunder or fireworks. We saw fireworks going off as we were landing in Shanghai last night. I think I am coming down with a cold. I'm going to hunt for some Zicam in the medicine chest and head for bed.
Saturday we were planning on meeting with Penny and riding the bumper cars at People's Square. She was still worn out from playing Wii. Later on that morning, Penny called to tell us that she felt alright enough to go climbing instead. We arranged to meet at the climbing wall. When Eric and I got there, we saw sections of the wall lying outside the stadium. Sure enough, when we arrived at the gate, the guard informed us that the climbing gym was closed. There is an ice skating rink nearby and we decided to do that instead. 
