Shanghai'd

Zhongyu Hui Jia le 终于会家了

2008-12-03T03:36:00.002+08:00

Finally back home.

This is it. Our final post. A tearful 再见 (zaijian, goodbye) to all of our blog followers, and a big 谢谢 (xiexie, thank you) for your support and comments along the way. Keeping this blog and sharing our experience has been really fun for us. As you have seen, we traveled and had the great opportunity to explore the Chinese language and culture. We loved our three years in Shanghai, and wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

We are in Austin now, with the feeling we have zhongyu hui jia le. The air is crisp, cool and autumn like. Adding to that feeling, there are red and yellow leaves falling from the trees (how did I forget leaves changed in Austin too?). It has been clear and each night we have been able to see the stars and moon. Our first week back will be spent trying to get our stuff in order, but we are on our way as we found a cute Hyde Park house to rent starting January.

This blog and our Shanghai story have a very happy ending. :-)

The End.

Leaving Thoughts

2008-11-23T06:51:00.004+08:00

It's our last day in Shanghai, and although outside is rainy and foggy, our dimsum plans may be foiled by a stomach bug that first afflicted me, and now Tim. We just want to stay home on our BRATT diet, and finish watching our DVD collection, which was mostly ransacked yesterday during our estate giveaway.

The past days have been filled with packing, meals, tearful goodbyes, and that nagging question - are we doing the right thing? Right now, those of you at home are saying "yes!", while our Shanghai friends are slowly shaking their heads and wondering "why would they want to go?". In the months leading up to our departure, we have found it difficult to explain our reasons for wanting to leave to those expats who are staying on. It is true - we have had a great situation here. Great friends; wonderful career advancement and opportunity; exciting metropolitan living; beautiful, comfortable apartment; and three years of experience which have made living somewhere different, well, not so dauntingly different anymore.

Maybe it's that last point. I can't argue, who would leave for the other reasons? But for us, I don't think Shanghai is the place we need to get comfortable in. For three years, we have lived without access to the great outdoors. There is no open, public space; the air quality is questionable at best. Although I can see for miles from our 25 story balcony sometimes (today definitely NOT), claustrophobia has set in. I fantasize about pushing up a rise on my road bike in the hill country under bluebonnet skies with only the sound of cicadas in my ears. Diving into Barton Springs on one of those Sunday afternoons. Saturday morning circling Town Lake with friends, or just exchanging smiles with strangers. Unrealistically idyllic? Probably.

For me, there is also the luring attractiveness of change. I thrive on it. It was probably the main reason I wanted to come to China in the first place. Something different, totally different. Challenging, stressful, exciting, and unknown - and my infatuation with change gave me the energy to face everything head on, mostly with a smile, and always with determination. So now that the different is not so different, I guess I am feeling a little... bored? No, maybe just jaded.

jaded, adj.

1. Worn out, wearied, or lacking enthusiasm; exhausted.
2. Cynically insensitive; made callous by experience.

I am again looking forward to the upcoming change. And trying my best to prepare for the reverse shock of going somewhere different, but not new. And I am wondering what to do about this blog. Let it die tomorrow? Or continue to chronicle the after effects of being Shanghai'd? I fear the latter would turn into a whine-fest and lead to a slow, bleeding, painful death of this journal. But can our Shanghai experience end tomorrow, when we get on our flight? I suppose that once we are in the air, we will have to face the fact that it will really be over.

Last Ride

2008-11-21T09:11:00.002+08:00

Today, Tim and I took our last ride to work in Shanghai. On our bikes and not in a taxi! We were quiet as we rode along the creek path, past the man with his 4-pole bamboo fishing net, past the guards to the park who would never need to try and chase us out again, as we were passed by a government-plated, tint windowed, black Mercedes. The cool autumn air pinked our cheeks, while the sun shone through enough haze to remind us we were in Shanghai. I was riding my Giant cruiser with the basket on front and held onto Tim's backpack to keep up to his single speed. The mood was somber as we struggled with mixed feelings, exhaustion, and possible oncoming colds. We parked the bikes at NI, and I handed over the keys to Tim. He had sold them to work colleagues.

Our house now has, if you can believe it, zero bikes. Don't worry, there are still 4 in Austin.

Eleven things we won't [../get/have] to do

2008-11-18T18:55:00.005+08:00

Today, as the movers were packing our boxes and getting them ready for the slow boat from China to Austin, I was staring out the window contemplating all the things I won't do/won't get to/won't have to do once we move home.

Stare out a 25 story window. I doubt I will live in a 25 story building in Austin. Although now it is possible.
(related) Check the air quality by staring out a 25 story window and checking how far you can see.
(related) Take an elevator. Every day.
Take a taxi to work. Woohoo!
Speak Chinese. Every day. As much as I want it to, I know it won't happen.
Leave my dishes in the sink/laundry on the floor/bed unmade. Who am I kidding... I won't do this?
Dream about Mexican food, unrealized.
Eat lunch for $2.
Drink exclusively bottled water. I am really looking forward to the Austin tap. Fluoride, bring it on!
Do laundry outside. I am going to miss our little service balcony. So convenient...
Speak our secret language, English! Now it will become Chinese.

Incomplete list, I am sure. But on day 6 of our countdown, these are the things that occured to me.

Proud Flying Pigeon Owner

2008-11-18T18:45:00.000+08:00

In case you hadn't already noticed from our recent adventures or previous posts, I am a huge bicycle fan. If it has two wheels and is human-powered, I'm sold. This (at times unhealthy) fascination with the bicycle led to a situation ealier this year where Laurel and I owned no less than nine bikes (and zero cars) between the two of us. We have since started divesting our collection: Laurel sold her trusty Giant mountain bike to Dipak, one of the Nepalese sherpas on our Tibet trip. I have fixed up and given away to friends a few beaters that had been left to die a dusty, boring life in an apartment complex underground garage. Today I sold our two cruisers to colleagues at work. It's amazing they managed to avoid the thieves, trucks and rust of Shanghai long enough to be sold back at the end of our three years.

But the bike count is not entirely decreasing. Ever since coming to China I have been obsessed with the iconic all-steel bikes of China's post revolutionary era. These are the machines that powered millions of workers to and from the factory every day for a lifetime. Along with a watch and a sewing machine, a Flying Pigeon bike was one of the "must-haves" for every citizen. I don't wear a watch, and can't sew, so my only chance to redeem some communist credibility was to buy a Pigeon. I can't wait to show all those lame fixies in Austin what a bike with real style looks like.

Food-Life Adaptation in Shanghai

2008-11-14T13:04:00.003+08:00

I love my food. Although maybe this picture Tim lovingly reminded me of last night suggests there were times in my life when I loved it more, that was just beer, and my love of food has been fueled by the international offerings in Shanghai these past few years, and now I am a self-proclaimed foodie. I love to go out to eat, but I especially enjoy cooking for myself and Tim, and especially enjoy inviting friends over for dinner.

A recent visitor to Shanghai asked how living here has changed the way we eat. Only now, as we are heading home, do I realize the changes we have made. Here are some of changes we have made I plan to take back to Austin with us:

Starting from Scratch. In the US, we are so used to the conveniences of prepackaged, processed food. If you think about it, processed only means that we did something to it after we grew it and harvested it, so pretty much everything in a can, bag, box or frozen counts as processed food. After moving to Shanghai, I found the cost and availability of processed food to be a major deterrent in cooking in the ways I was used to. Whereas we used to buy bottled tomato sauce at home, I found myself without even canned tomatoes to make it from "scratch". When we wanted spaghetti, I had to start with fresh tomatoes. No canned beans, Jiffy mix, jam, Campbell's soup, dressing packets, gravy starter, nothing that I grew up with. Luckily I had the time and the tutelage of my favorite cookbook Laurel's Kitchen (Thank you Dave!) to start from fresh and really learn how to cook. I find it relaxing to spend a Sunday in front of the stove, simmering and chopping.
Smaller Portions. My stoneware dinner plates at home are 12" in diameter. I have one size bowl - big. Even my forks and knives are huge. When I bought dishes at our local grocery store our first week in China, I left with 6" saucers and rice bowls. We have been eating off them for the past 3 years. I think it is easier to clear your plate than get up for seconds. Although our chipped, pastel blue, fish design dinnerware won't make the trip home, I am thinking of heading out to the restaurant supply store to pick up some Chinese-y rice bowls to put in our shipment home.
Reduced intake of Meat and Dairy. After some early attempts at cooking meat, the pork poisoning, fears about the lack of hormone control for livestock, and reading Michael Pollan's book, Tim and I drastically reduced our consumption of all animal products in China, way before the whole melamine thing. Hopefully this means we avoided kidney stones and other long-term diseases. But I also think it has made us healthier in general. I am at least going to seek out grass-fed, non-GMO, organic, hormone free products at home.
Seasonal and Local. In China, there is no choice but to eat what is in season. After reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, I became even more aware of our offerings and choices, and was glad to note that not everything is available all the time. We looked forward to and savored the fruit seasons, greens season and the nightshade season (especially those tomatoes!). We even got into a CSA for a while, although due to our insane travel schedule we had to cancel. Good news is I am committed to carrying this on at home, I made it off the waiting list, onto the share holder list of this popular Austin CSA! First pick-up is 12/6.

Foodie that I am, I am still counting down the meals (29!) until we are back in the land of chips and salsa. I am looking forward to a few simmering Sundays in my new kitchen* as well.

*Location TBD, but if you know someone with a Hyde Park house/duplex for rent, please send us a note. We are looking for 3-2 BR, 1-2 BA with December/January move in.

A Note to Our Visitors

2008-11-14T09:30:00.001+08:00

To all our visitors we have had in China,

As you know, three years have gone by unbelievably fast and Tim and I are planning to leave Shanghai and move back to Austin in less than two weeks. We wanted to thank you for coming to visit us over here. We understand it is a challenge to get on a plane to a country you have only heard of at the end of "Made in", where you don't speak the language, and spend your hard earned vacation time there. We appreciated your gifts from home, and your company and conversation while you were here.

But most of all, we loved seeing the country we came to call home through your eyes. It offered a fun and unique perspective on places that we had overlooked or came to know as commonplace. You reminded us of the rich culture here, and how lucky we were to be living in the fastest growing place on earth. The part I enjoyed most was hearing your travel stories (you were all so adventurous!), and being amazed how two people could have a completely different experience in the exact same place.

Some memories...Jay and Michelle tired us out walking Shanghai to death...Kim and Steve thoroughly enjoyed having a cup of tea and got us a sweet hangout in the Honeymoon sweet on the cruise ship...Shawn was our visitor who taught us Chinese...Angel braved the winter, and met us on a beachfront balcony in Hainan with a Pina Colada...Will was the village idiot on his trip with Tim to Zhouzhaigou...Mom and Dad, you were so open minded and brave, I gained a whole new level of respect...Mariel exposed a gift for language and learned more Chinese in 4 weeks than I ever thought possible...Linda and Wally, we motored down the Li River with cold ones and rode the rice terraces together (go Linda!)...Sam, Elaine, and Shannon, we had a blast (and a leg-blasting workout!) hiking the Great Wall...Katie proved getting a PhD also allowed for some sweet vacations...Mike Jablin showed us the Great Wall hike was nothing, try Hua Shan...and Joe, Irene and Audrey showed us China through a 2-year-old's eyes, Irene:"And why is the Chinese flag red?" Audrey:"It represents the revolution!"

Thank you all so much, we truly enjoyed sharing our China experience with you. Good luck in your future travels!

Love,
Laurel and Tim

Lhasa 拉萨

2008-11-13T20:43:00.003+08:00

For a while there, we never thought we were going to make it to Lhasa at all given our visa troubles, but eventually we succeeded. Man, was it worth it. Lhasa is an incredible city: part traditional Tibetan village, part Chinese metropolis. There was an unmistakeable Chinese military presence everywhere, but surprisingly few tourists, either Chinese or foreigners. The paranoid Tibet Travel Permit process for foreigners undoubtedly has something to do with that, and I think many people are still (rightfully)hesitant to invest vacation time and money into such a schizophrenic destination (we want foreign investment and tourism ... no, we want isolation and privacy).

I digress. Lhasa is a beautiful, photogenic city that I can only attempt to do justice with these photos.

From the "It's About Time" Deptartment ...

2008-11-13T20:11:00.002+08:00

... comes the first (of several) Tibet bike trip photo sets. I've decided to post these piecemeal in a few categories in an attempt to keep each group to a dozen or fewer choice photos. The first set is shots from the actual ride. I'll post more in the coming days of the interesting people we met and some of the magnificent scenery encountered. It was quite a challenge to narrow the 7GB of photos I took over 4 weeks down to the best few, but hopefully you appreciate the selectivity.

The picture above is the requisite pre-trip group photo in front of the Potala Palace, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. This is where we zero'd our odometers and embarked on the 1100 km journey that lay ahead. If you look closely, you'll notice the guy second from the left has a different looking bike than everyone else. More on him later.

See more Tibet bike trip pictures on my Flickr page.

Summit!

2008-11-12T13:52:00.002+08:00

Tim and I seem to have a fascination with conquering the places we visit. We discussed this as we were climbing up the jungle track to the top of Penang Hill last weekend in Penang. The track was muddy and packed in by dense tropical growth on both sides. We were passed twice by downhill bikers in full face covering helmets. We saw a millipede that was easily 8 inches long and had a trillion legs. Having been warned about the monkeys, I was glad when we didn't run into any. Anyway, at 890m above sea level, Penang Hill is the highest point in Penang. Reaching the top, we got a stunning view of the east coast of the island, which was densely populated in areas and jungle hills in other, and over to the mainland.

Maybe it is this perspective that drives us UP everywhere we go. Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, the massive Tai 大 in Kyoto, Qi Xing Feng in Taipei, Tongariro Pass in New Zealand, and of course all the passes on the way to Everest Base Camp in Tibet. Not all of them are the highest point around, but they all offer fantastic views and a sense of accomplishment. Heading back down the other side, wind rushing by if you are on a bike or trolley, we feel we left our flag at the top.

Having conquered Penang, we hitched a ride down in the bed of a strange Mitsubishi car-truck. The wind rushed by, and we finally felt we had the perspective to know what this island was all about.

38 meals in Shanghai

2008-11-11T14:08:00.002+08:00

Still on my countdown. And this time counting food.

Last weekend we spent 10 (Tim - 13) meals in Penang, Malaysia, at least the rival food capital of Asia, if not the world. A mixture of Thai, Chinese, Indian, Malay with a sprinkling of British influence, to experience the food is why people go to Penang. Or to open a manufacturing facility. Last weekend, we got a chance to experience the former. Most of Penang's eateries are absolutely no-frills. We had Penang's famous laksa and Hoikken Mee in a tented open air eatery with clusters of stalls that sell hawker food from 10am till late at night. We sat on plastic chairs and ate incredibly fresh authentic Thai food off plastic plates in a dilapitated colonial mansion down a quiet lane. We had South Indian food served on Banana leaves where most of the diners scooped the spicy-sour curry into their rice with their (right) hand. A local expat explained that if an eatery opens and the food is no good, it is gone in a month. On the other end of the spectrum, breakfast at our hotel was past elaborate, and each morning I would load up my plate with fresh local fruit with a side of walnuts and goat cheese.

Just when it is time to go on a diet, Tim reminded me yesterday that we have 42 meals left in Shanghai. Although I have spent the better part of 3 years with a hankering for Matt's El Rancho's chili relleno, I am really going to miss the food of Shanghai. Not just the restaurant food, where we eat family style and always finish it with soup. But also the produce, especially the fruit, and the local seasonal eating we participate in. Yesterday lunch, Tim and I went to the Taiwanese restaurant across from the office and each had a huge bowl of noodles with flavorful broth. Last night I cooked, but made a stop at the local fruit stand and bought one of the fruits we are definitely going to miss: hamigua. It is a cross between a cantelope (sweet) and a honeydew (crisp) melon and is the shape of a large football. Today, I convinced my lunchtime girlfriends to go out for hotpot, and we spent an hour cooking lamb, mushrooms, tofu and all the veggies I can't get at home in a spicy, salty soup.

38 meals to go (I really shouldn't be counting breakfast, we always eat at home!)... For the meals out, I should take some pictures for you. :-)

Malaysia is #1 for #2

2008-11-10T14:29:00.007+08:00

Every seasoned traveler has been there before. The tom yam soup and chicken curry lunch from the street side hawker stall is serving unmistakable notice somewhere deep inside your small intestine that you need to get yourself to a toilet ASAP. Your hostel is an impossibly bumpy 20 minute bus ride away and there is no 5-star hotel lobby bathroom reprieve in this neighborhood of $1.20 local lunch specials. What's a regrettably adventurous globetrotter to do?

You could be fortunate enough to find yourself in Singapore, but more likely your are in any of the other countries in southeast Asia not known for their cane-enforced sanitation. One of those countries where toilet paper is a luxury not often afforded the public stall. It is with good reason that Indian's strictly eat with their right hand, you know.

In my personal travels, I have had the pleasurable opportunity to experience just about every style and grade of public toilet in Asia. From the Cambodian open trough to the time-honored Chinese squatter. In fact, I thought I had seen them all. That is until last week's trip to Malaysia.

The Malaysians have come up with what I consider the ultimate solution to a messy problem: a squat toilet with attached water hose bidet. The brilliance of this WC ingenuity is that it combines the best features of many world styles into one: squat toilet means no undesirable cheek-to-seat contact is made; hose bidet obviates the need to carry around your own tissues everywhere you go, and hence no unsightly 3rd-world sewer clogging tp, either. It's easy for you and easy on the environment too.

So next time the "hot pot trot" strikes unexpectedly, I hope you find yourself lucky enough to be on Malaysian soil. If not, remember, save the right hand for the roti.

Picture of Malaysian squat toilet from AmaylaMalaysia's Flickr page

Three Weeks and ...

2008-11-03T11:26:00.003+08:00

Counting Down.

Our flight is almost exactly 21 days from right now, and the past week went by in a flurry of getting sick and recovering, unpacking from Tibet (including unpacking the 7G of pictures Tim took - posted soon), Halloween and some social activities. I expect the next few weeks to be equally busy, hopefully not with getting sick, but definitely with packing and social activities.

First off, some comments about Halloween. We had a party at work, where I witnessed 150 Chinese colleagues' first Halloween . Everyone was really excited, it was a very fun day. Everyone dressed up, with probably 25% dressing as pirates. I went as bamboo, a complement's to my friend's panda suit, but was asked if I was a green pirate (must have been the bandana). I met one pirate who upon seeing me held up his plastic right hand and exclaimed, "I'm a hooker!". I tried to explain the difference between that and Capatin Hook, but it wasn't well understood (perhaps I wasn't being graphic enough), and he still insisted on his self-title. We had trick or treating, pumpkin carving and a party. That night, Tim and I went to a party with some US hiphop music and we danced (Tim went as a guy from the ipod commercial), which was the first exercise I'd had since riding in Tibet.

We are thinking about getting our stuff packed up. Some of the electronics are helping themselves out the door. Our soymilk machine spewed grey electrical smoke before blowing a fuse and being relegated to the trash. I murdered my laptop. I swear the oven is on its way out the door; my recent banana bread, corn bread and cookies were terrible (maybe its because I just can't bake... but we can blame it on the oven). And my straightening iron didn't seem as hot as I remember it. Well, that's OK - 220V electronics won't be of too much use at home.

This week I expect to fly by. We are going to see Kanye West tonight, tomorrow is Tim's birthday and we are going out of town for a long weekend tacked onto the end of a business trip for Tim. I guess we will start packing next week...

I am still feeling really strange about leaving. Today, I ran into someone from the US office who was one of the first people I worked with in Shanghai. He was reminiscing on that time, and recalled the "fire and passion" I had for China and learning the language and the culture. And as I stood there, telling him how I was ready to pack it up (I am), I got this weird feeing of somehow being jaded. I have a bit of a lame duck feeling at work, having transitioned many responsibilities to my replacement. But under all that is the excitement about going home, and starting a new job (still at AMD for me). I guess that is what they call bitter-sweet. :-)

Home

2008-10-28T10:14:00.002+08:00

We are back home now.

It's strange to call Shanghai 'home'. It sure feels like home, falling into our bed in our immaculately clean house (will I ever have a maid again? or be able to live without one?) Saturday night after a very long trip back, which included three connections - back over the Himalaya (more views of spectacular Everest and surrounding mountains) to Lhasa, then through the fated Chengdu airport before arriving on time in Pudong. Waking up to normal at home breakfast. Running around Century Park. Avoiding Carrefour on Sunday like the plague, and making due with bread store, veg market, and fruit truck stops. A delicious dimsum lunch. But all of this with the backdrop of knowing Shanghai will only be home for the next 4 weeks exactly.

Our tickets are booked, and November 24 is the day, we are flying home home. Austin, TX via Redmond, OR (for T-day with E&E, C&B) on a one-way United flight out of China. It will probably not be the last time we make that flight, at least we like to hope so now. I don't think I could live the rest of my life without xiaolongbao, or naicha, or hotpot. Which is why, starting now, we are on a quest to savour all those favorite things one more time, and store a little memory of them deep inside, to dig out later and overpower the taxi memories and weather memories and air quality memories as we are booking another trip out here sometime in the future.

That next ticket, most likely, will not be one-way. And so, with the knowledge that this is our last time to live here, we start on our list; while we are counting down the seconds until the trip home home, we will try to make every second count.

36 more hours in Kathmandu

2008-10-23T21:59:00.002+08:00

We just got back from our 2 day rafting trip (safe and sound, mom-in-law). The natural beauty of Nepal managed to further amaze us. On the parts between the rapids, I found myself breathing deeply and drinking in the deep blue sky, puffy clouds, steep green valleys and wildlife, which included monkeys today! During the rapids, I marveled at the power of nature in the rushing river over huge boulders.

I was thinking about what it will be like to wake up in our apartment Sunday morning, Irene, to 60s and rain, horns and traffic. Back from vacation for sure! But a rainy Sunday morning sounds like dimsum brunch to me... As for leaving Shanghai, we have set a date, and its about 4 weeks off. That is another thing to think about all together. There will be lists of must-do-one-more-times, probably more must-eats, or must-buys. Its going to be a busy end to the year!

In the meantime, we have 2 nights and a day left in Kathmandu, and honestly I am really looking forward to spending it shopping. I think I deserve some souvenirs from this trip! We will also need to get one more good Nepali meal, which will no doubt include some dal (curried lentils), rice and naan bread. I could eat this stuff forever, I love it! After a little impromptu cooking class in our cook tent at Everest base camp, I now have the know-how to do so. ;-)

We made it!

2008-10-22T08:27:00.002+08:00

We made it back to the crazy, polluted streets of Kathmandu yseterday afternoon, officially ending our 3 week biking trip in Tibet. We both made the whole ride with no mechanical issues, and in fact no major issues at all! It was a bit sad pulling into the city, but we are glad to have completed the challenge. Can't wait to post pictures!

We are up early to meet our next group for a 2-day rafting trip on a crazy river we biked past! Now we will travel all the Nepal miles by car and raft. Should be fun! Friday we will be back in Kathmandu, and then Saturday we are back to Shanghai.

Day 16 - Longest Downhill in the World

2008-10-19T11:47:00.002+08:00

Yesterday we rode over the Himalayas (two 5000m+ passes) and started the descent into Nepal, which is below 1000m, making this stretch of road the longest downhill in the world. Today we will cross the border and our time in Tibet will be over. That part is sad, but the trip has been amazing! We have been on the bike for 16 of the past 17 days (with two and a half more to go) and the landscape, road and challenges have been diverse enough to keep us from getting bored. The last 5 days have been 95% off road, and we are completely dusty and dirty. But smiling and having a blast!

We can't wait to post the pictures... All I can say is this experience has surpassed all my expectations. Gorgeous!

On the being the only girl note: I wasn't the first one in the sag wagon! One guy got in the other day on some tough off road. In fact, I haven't been in the 4x4 at all, and with 2.5 downhill days coming up, I am feeling good that i won't have to use it. I was worried about all the off-road, since I didn't have any experience. But I have found it really fun to ride over rocks uphill and even through sand and water crossings! I am starting to rethink selling my mountain bike - I guess I will just have to get one in Austin!

Time to go now, we'll get all updated when we get to Shanghai. Hope all is well at home, we are so far removed from any news or updates!

Day 5 - Resting in Shigatse

2008-10-08T20:09:00.001+08:00

We arrived in Shigatse today, the second biggest city in Tibet. We have a rest day here tomorrow, which the group desperately needs. Everyone is tired and feeling the effects of the altitude. It is also probably the last time we will have internet, unless they also put up an internet cafe along with he cell phone tower at Everest (seriously.).

The ride so far has been diverse and the landscape has surpassed my every expectation. Tibet is gorgeous. The first day took us about 80 km outside of Lhasa. We did the ride past the airport again, which was as beautiful as I remembered it. That first day was flat and autumn-like, with the Ginkos (like an aspen) that lined the streets changing to a golden yellow. We camped at the base of the mountain we would climb the next day. Day 2 started with climbing this mountain, gaining 1200m and being rewarded at the top with panoramic views of a deep blue holy Tibetan lake with snowy peaks behind it. We cycled down the other side of the peak and along the lake until we came to our second camp site. Day 3 took us up to our highest altitude yet - 5000m! It was cold, windy and hailing by the time we reached the top and I was not in the best of spirits. We were meters from a huge glacier, but we quickly took the downhill (which still took work with the headwind!) and got to a third wonderful campsite on a river. I was feeling the altitude pretty bad - headaches and fatigue - while we slept at 4400m. Luckily I woke up ready for yesterday's day 4, rolling hills next to another gorgeous lake with city ruins along both sides of the road. Tons of great photo ops - we took it slow and took advantage of those! We got a hotel last night in Gyantse, the third biggest town in Tibet. Today was a flat 95km through the agricultural heartland (think: Iowa with mountains in every direction), where the local people were harvesting hay or barley or some grain/straw thing. Very autumnal feeling while we were again in the Ginkos (back down below the treeline) and got caught in several tractor/horse&wagon traffic jams. We are now in Shigatse, for a much needed rest day before heading to Everest base came (and 5 more 5000m+ peaks!) over the next 2 weeks.

The support on the trip has been amazing, our tents are ready for us when we pull into camp and with the large contingency of British, so is 4pm tea. The cook is awesome, both in his cooking ability and as a person. The whole crew rocks! This is my first tour, and I have to say it is pretty posh and worth the money. We are woken each morning with hot tea and washing water... I am going to stop now or else you will think we are not 'roughing it' out here! The people continue to be cool, but the group has kind of split into the "Photo Tour" and the "Tour de France". Guess which one we are on! I guess people are just out here for different reasons. :-)

Notes on being the only girl: Including the crew, there are 16 men to one me. I think if anything, Tim gets the most different treatment, as all the boys tease him about his wife! I am keeping up on the rides, and only peeing along the side of the road takes some imagination (especially in the case of cliffs, where I had to go behind the wheel of the land cruiser). I am not worried about getting in the 4x4 if things get tough (read: at Everest!), but it might be a little worse for the bloke that has to take the support vehicle before me!

So, all is well. Tim is dying to post some pictures, but that will have to wait. You will have to use your imagination (or search engine) with my descriptions. This is probably it for us until Nepal. Keep following Tim's Twitter posts until then. We update by text message, and there is always service, even at Everest!

P.S. Thank you for the concern about the earthquake. We haven't felt anything, and I think the biggest danger would be landslide. I will make sure we are clear for the campsites!

Day 1 - Lhasa to Chusul

2008-10-04T08:06:00.002+08:00

Just a few days ago I didn't think it possible, but this morning we finally begin our overland Tibet cycling tour. After all the stress and hassle to get to this point, the ride itself is seeming downright anticlimatic. I'm sure once we get in the saddle and start climbing our first pass my mindset will change.

Today is a relatively easy 97km on a flat, paved road from Lhasa to the campsite at Chusul. Day 2 is when the real fun begins - our first big climb - 23km long gaining about 1000m of elevation.

As we will be camping most nights and away from internet access, don't expect too many posts from here on out. I will try to update my Twitter feed periodically, China Mobile service permitting.

I would love to post some of the pictures I've taken, but when I tried to plug my camera into this sketchy PC, the whole system hung and I really don't want to risk losing the shots I already have, or worse yet, hosing my camera on Day 1!

Wish us luck!

How NOT To Enter Tibet From China - Part 1

2008-10-02T08:35:00.002+08:00

The entire saga of our first 48 hours in Shanghai/Chengdu/Lhasa/Kathmandu/Lhasa will take much more time to tell than I have at the moment, but for now here is the summary. I promise the rest will follow later, maybe over a beer. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

So, for the summary version ...

How NOT To Enter Tibet From China:

Step 1 - trust your local tour agency in Nepal to understand Chinese immigration policy.

Step 2 - try to enter Lhasa from Kathmandu with a Chinese work permit in the first place.

Step 3 - go to Chinese embassy in Kathmandu and consider cancelling your work permit in exchange for a temporary 30 day China tourist visa (this would be a really bad idea).

Step 4 - choose the week that the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu is shutting for 5 days for the National Holiday.

Step 5 - trust your local agent when he says it will be no problem boarding the Kathmandu to Lhasa flight with the rest of the group, despite the fact you have a Chinese work permit.

Step 6 - don't buy the transit flight through Lhasa to Chengdu from where you could legally enter Tibet.

Step 7 - realize at the Kathmandu airport that you are totally screwed and not getting on any flight at all.

Step 8 - panic, freak out, beg, plead with Kathmandu airport officials to let you on the plane.

Step 9 - learn that there are exactly 2 flights per week out of Kathmandu and they are booked solid.

Step 10 - get amazingly lucky and get on Chengdu flight (which stops over in Lhasa) via standby miracle.

Step 11 - have to rummage up $740 in 5 minutes to buy said standby flight.

Step 12 - freak out again and sprint out of airport to ATM machine, passing security guards packing intimidating heat.

Step 13 - board flight with rest of group bound for Lhasa (and then carrying on to Chengdu).

Step 14 - arrive at Lhasa airport and consider talking your way in then instead of having to do completely ridiculous, wasteful Lhasa-Chengdu-Lhasa round trip just to satisfy immigration policy.

Step 15 - play confused, pitiful, Tibet travel permit-less Americans with Chinese customs/immigration officers in Lhasa airport.

Step 16 - when all reasoning and logic fails, beg, plead, ass-kick your way into having them consider your case.

Step 17 - go in secret elevator up to second floor of airport to talk to "the boss man"

Step 18 - get the ok from "boss man" to enter Lhasa with rest of group.

Step 19 - wait for the most nerve-racking 30 minutes of your life while the rest of the group collects luggage to actually walk out the door.

Step 20 - take 2 steps outside the airport into Tibet.

Step 21 - be called back inside when Air China officials try to track down 2 Americans that are supposed to be on continuation flight to Chengdu.

Step 22 - stand back while Air China, Chinese immigration, Chinese customs and "boss man" argue your fate.

Step 23 - suffer minor heart attack (not really)

Step 24 - watch as Air China flight leaves without us. Feel pretty confident at this point.

Step 25 - rest of group finally arrives.

Step 26 - witness moment of truth ... "boss man" with passports and Tibet travel permits in hand ... gives the final ok.

Step 27 - grab closest luggage cart and sprint through doors (again) into Tibet (again).

Step 28 - breathe HUGE sigh of relief and swear never to try this again.

Good news is... I am writing this from Lhasa

2008-10-01T17:20:00.003+08:00

It was NOT easy to get here. But I am going to save the whole story for Tim to tell you, as most of the negotiating, running, and sweating were on him.

I can start from the point when we left the airport together yesterday (at one point, Tim left before me) and boarded the bus with our bikes and our group and drove into Lhasa, which typical to Chinese airports, is located 75km outside of the city.

Tibet is gorgeous. The skies are the blue you only see when you are at altitude - deep, rich, clear. There are mountains on all sides everywhere we have been. The rivers are clear blue. Colorful, intricate Tibetan style motifs surround the doors and windows of white washed buildings, and the clear air intensifies the reds, blues and golds. The people are colorful too, their long black braids have beads and colorful string woven through and their rosy cheeks still show through their dark skin. We saw all this through the windows of the bus on our way into Lhasa.

Lhasa itself has been Chineseified, big time. Beijing Lu is the main thuroughfare through town, and all other streetsigns show chinese privince names in three languages (Jiangsu Rd, in Tibetan, Chinese and English). The city center seems to be Potala Palace, built by the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century. We visited this morning and found it fantastic - by far the best preserved sight we have been to in China. Totally better than the forbidden city, but don't tell Beijing. ;-) We also visited a monestary, also colorful, intricate and gorgeous. Tim is worried about his 9G limit on photos!

These 3 days in Lhasa are to be spent acclimatizing, which our group definitely needs. I was sick last night, probably a combination of stress, exhaustion, and the altitude, but after a good 10 hours night sleep I feel much better. I am not ready to hop on my bike yet, though! Other guys are sick today. Give it a few more days. Our bikes seem to have made it here in one piece. Well, 95% - Tim's front disk for his brakes is slightly bent and he is working on that now.

It is such a relief to be here, after all the drama. We are looking forward to the rest of our trip - hopefully we have been through the worst of it, and all that are left are the challenges we signed up for!

Boarding a Flight to Lhasa, Hopefully

2008-09-30T08:43:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was an emotionally draining and stressful day, full of decision-tree flowcharts and risk assessments of our options (hey, we are engineers here). It was so draining, in fact, that when it was announced at 6:45 last night that the group visas were being approved and we would be going to Lhasa and continuing with the original, planned itinerary that we all signed up for months ago, there was hardly a resounding cheer.

Was this for real? Where are the visas? Show me the visa! I think we are still at a 99.9% confidence rate.

The guide went on to explain about the workings of the flight today and the whole trip. We sat and asked questions about the next thing on our to-be-stressed-about list: riding our bikes in Tibet! More on that later :)

Tim and I are still screwed and may be going back to (non-Tibet) China today for a stamp to get back into Lhasa, but we will first go to Lhasa with the group and try to finagle our way out of the airport, with our bikes. We'll see how it goes. This little breach of immigration is definitely the next thing on our to-be-stressed-about list. On a good note, things are working out as best as they possibly can, given the situation we were in yesterday. Something definitely to be thankful for!

Visa Update: We're Screwed

2008-09-29T20:14:00.002+08:00

Turns out things are worse than I even knew. Not only is the entire group visa in jeopardy, but Laurel and I are in an even worse lot than the rest. For some incomprehensible reason, it is forbidden to enter Tibet from Kathmandu with a Chinese work permit, like Laurel and I currently possess. Where does this leave us? Infuriatingly, our only options are:

1) Cancel our work permits and get issued a temporary tourist visa to enter Tibet. This is unacceptable since there is no guarantee we could regain our work permission status at a later date without significant time and financial loss.

2) Return to Chengdu (where we started 2 days ago as you may remember), re-apply for a separate Tibet travel permit, and re-enter Lhasa from Chengdu with our work permits.

As absurd as it sounds, option 2 is looking like our only hope. It would be like putting our life on rewind 2 days, backtracking several thousand miles and starting over. TIC. This Is China.

To add to the complexity of the situation, we still have no indication of the visa status of the rest of the group. We may all fly to Lhasa tomorrow as planned (Laurel and I sidetrip to Chengdu and meet up with the group in a few days). We also may not obtain the rest of the group's China visa until Oct. 10!

Bottow line: our Tibet trip is in serious jeopardy (double jeopardy?). We should know more at our group meeting in 20 minutes. Wish us luck, as we could really use some good news about now.

Praying to the Chinese visa gods

2008-09-29T11:15:00.003+08:00

Most of the 11 person group has now arrived in Kathmandu and we are only missing one bike. The goup dynamic seem pretty good so far - much more on that later, I am sure. It would be nice to have some ~~more~~ fewer Y chromosomes, but I guess cycling across the worlds highest plateau doesn't appeal to your average hockey mom.

The crisis of the moment is the Chinese visa situation. Things are tense these days at the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. As there are lots of ethnic Tibetan refugees in Nepal, there have been daily protests about freeing the people of a certain western Chinese automomous region. What was once a slam dunk 1-day visa application process has now turned into a 5-day guessing game of Chinese diplomacy. On top of that, the embassy is rumored to shut for several days starting tomorrow in celebration of the Chinese national day holiday. Today is our window to try to miraculously pull off a rush visa for the group and make our scheduled Tuesday morning flight. Miss this opportunity, and it will be days (if not weeks) before we have another chance (if at all). I haven't been sleeping well.

I can't even describe the anxiety/frustration/anger at seeing literally months of prepartion, hours of training and thousands of dollars slipping out of my control and into the hands of a Chinese paper-pushing bureaucrat. We should know one way or the other later today ...

Kathmandu

2008-09-29T09:11:00.002+08:00

I wanted to add to Tim's post a bit.

One exciting thing he forgot to mention is that we flew over Everest on the way from Lhasa to Kathmandu! The flight attendants announced that Oomalangma Feng (Chinese for Everest) was visible on the right side of the plane. Immediately everyone jumped out of their seats and into the laps of those on the right side. I could see this being a weight-balance challenge for the pilots, so as I was on my way to the bathroom, I chose the one on the left. Tim got some pictures of the massively tall peak coming out of the clouds, and I got a glimpse of it after my bathroom break. Really beautiful. We get to make the trip past it at least once, possibly 3 more times (pending the visa!) this trip.

The guys on the tour seem really nice. All either from the UK or Australia, I know I will be using words like "loo" and "mossies", "fantastic" and "literally" way too much by the end of this thing, and last night I almost tried to get someone's attention with an "Oy!" which I haven't done since my days in blue-collar Wollongong. I don't know if I mentioned that I am the only woman on the trip (unless some of the sherpas are female... not likely). Instead of being intimidated, Tim has assured me that I will be the princess. So I am on my best behavior to get that treatment. But then, probably everyone is on their best behaviour (see - those Brits are getting to me!), so we'll see how "cool" everyone is at 5000m altitude...

Visa update later by Tim. I am really trying to stay out of this one. :-/

Day 1 - Shanghai to Kathmandu

2008-09-28T19:55:00.002+08:00

We have arrived safely in Kathmandu, where the power goes off intermittently throughout the day. Makes you appreciate the Chinese infrastructure. First impression is that Kathmandu is much closer to India (culturally as well as geographically) than China. The narrow, unmarked streets are lined with kashmir scarf shops, trekking companies and backpacker cafes.

The trip so far has, as expected, not been without it's ... shall we say, challenges? First, the taxi van that was supposed to take us and our bikes to the Shanghai airport didn't show. We hurridly stuff our bike boxes in the trunk of two regular cabs and were on our way. Since you cannot fly from Shanghai directly to Nepal, our route took us first to an overnight in Chengdu than morning flight to Lhasa, Tibet, and finally Kathmandu.

Troubling trip update: our local guide team is less than confident about our prospects of securing China visa for the rest of the group. Laurel and I all obviously already covered, but they dont' seem to understand that. In addition, there is worrying news that the Chinese embassy in Nepal may be closed for the October holiday. Best case, we head to Tibet as planned on Tuesday. Worst case, our Tibetan adventure turns into a Nepalese one. Fingers crossed for now. Hopefully more to come soon.

西藏 Xizang

2008-09-27T11:33:00.004+08:00

Tibet.

Tonight, after months of planning, training, and stressing (over flights to Nepal, over changes in itinerary, over what bikes to bring), we will be on our way to Xizang. If all goes according to plan (Plan C now ... or is it Plan D???) we will hopefully be riding our bikes over 1000 kms of gorgeous Himalayan vistas; Lhasa to Kathmandu, including an approach to Everest base camp.

I hope to post some updates to Twitter but who knows what China Mobile access will be like at 5000 m elevation. Plenty of photos to come soon, but for now, signing off for a while.

Finally, you may be wondering what one brings on such a trip. Wonder no longer:

Bike Equipment
Bike
Bike boxes
Bike pedals
Tires
Spare tires
Spare tubes
Multi tool
Chain lube
Tire levers
Pump
Spokes (5 x 256mm/260mm)
Spare breakpads
Spare chain links
Spare break/shifter cables
Helmet
Camelback
Bike Computer

Clothes
Jacket
Fleece top
Fleece pants
Warm hat
Warm gloves
Cycling gloves
Cycling shorts
Cycling pants
Cycling shoes
Crocs / sandals
Hiking boots
Long sleeve thermal tops
Bike jersey
T-shirt
Shorts
Lightweight travel pants
Socks
Underwear
Bandana

Miscellaneous
Backpacks
Thermarest
Sleeping bag
Sunglasses
Sun screen
Lip balm
Travel towel
Eye drops
Extra contacts
Soap, hand sanitizer
Ziplocs / zipties
First aid kit
Leatherman knife
Headlamp
Camera (SLR and point and shoot)
2 spare camera batteries
9 GB compact flash
Watch/altimeter?/GPS?
Compass
Passport photos
ID and photocopies
Airline tickets
Credit cards, ATM cards, USD
Journal and pencil
Water bottles
Clif bars
Small cable lock / padlock

Incidentally, Google docs rocks for tracking this stuff, along with training plans.

Moganshan 莫干山 II

2008-09-25T09:06:00.007+08:00

Back to Moganshan.

Our Tibet training calendar has always had a weekend in September blocked off to a return trip to Moganshan to get in some hills. Serendipitously, a perfect opportunity came along. An email about the Potjie Triathlon hosted by Naked Retreats in Moganshan. Perfect because it was where we wanted to be when we wanted to be there, and we had been meaning to try out Naked (check out the website and you'll know why its called that; it's not any reason that will be blocked by your firewall at work). We had a fantastic weekend - met some awesome people, completed the triathlon, ate wonderful farmer-style Zhejiang food, and got in a bonus ride on Sunday before heading back to Shanghai. We highly recommend Naked, it was the best run hotel we have been at in China, in one of the best locations. Some pictures say it better...

Shān 山

2008-09-17T11:40:00.004+08:00

Mountain. Hill.

Today, Tim and I headed out early for another training ride before work. The wind was coming from the east, which is good for several reasons:

1. As we always ride east, it means a tailwind on the way back :)
2. The air is cleaner with easterlies blowing through. Must be that the air over the (highly polluted) East China sea is actually cleaner than the air coming from the (highly polluting) factories in the north, west and south of Shanghai.

Thanks to those easterlies, we set of to high puffy clouds with blue sky in between. Where to ride? Tim asked, "Where is the biggest shān in Shanghai?" Naturally, that would be the overpass. We rode it 8 times, up and back. By the last one, I was feeling a little burn. Did I mention there was no need to downshift going up this hill?

Ah, well. A good morning none the less. This weekend we really have a chance for some hills. We are heading to Moganshan for a mountain triathlon with a local triathlon group. The race is Saturday, and we hope for the energy and time to get more hills in on Sunday before coming back to Shanghai. It should be fun, I'll write all about it after the weekend. Our life right now is a lot of biking, preparing for Tibet and getting really really excited!

Today's ride stats (Tim reminded me we are not done yet - we still need to ride home from work!): 26.5km, avg. 23.4 km/h, elevation change: 10m.

Century Club

2008-09-16T12:52:00.002+08:00

No, not the game you play at frat parties...

Yesterday, I joined the metric century club on my bicycle when we rode 143 km! At ~90 miles, it was the longest ride I had ever done (I think my second runner up was about 55 miles, also in China). It was a long day, but we finished strong and feel we are as prepared as possible for our Tibet Adventure.

We left the house yesterday around 8:30, rode through some serious mud out past the airport, then hopped on a N-S "highway" (a gorgeous road, lined on both sides by tall skinny pines, no traffic and no stoplights) to the tip of Shanghai where they are building a uber-urban planned city called Luchao Harbor, slated to open 2020. That was our destination, and soon after catching sight of the lake, huge raindrops started falling so we turned around and headed home, with no rain the rest of the ride. We made 2 pitstops for food - one at a tiny restaurant where we had delicious spicy tofu and "pure energy" chicken soup; and the second at our friends' barbeque where we had to clean up in the kiddy pool and change shirts before sitting at their table (I told you - the mud!).

The highlight of the ride for me was when the sun blasted down for about 10 minutes around 35km into the ride and Tim said, "I would really like some watermelon." About 2 minutes later, on a desolate road near the airport, a man pulling a cart of personal sized watermelons rolled by. We zoomed past him, looked at each other, stopped and simultaneously started yelling the Chinese for watermelon: Xigua, xigua! He stopped and we each ate half a 2RMB (30 cents) sun-warmed watermelon right on the side of the road. I wish I had had a camera to show yesterday's clear skies and Tim with a quarter watermelon in each hand, his mouth full, and the juice running down his chin.

It was a good day, and I am not even sore today :)

Stats: 143km, avg 21.6 km/hr, odo: 1830km

That's why...

2008-09-06T07:19:00.002+08:00

Thursday morning I had to be reminded of why we decided to go home. Friday morning provided the reminder. It was raining, and we struggled to find a taxi to work in morning rush hour. We finally got in a light blue Da Zhong taxi, which should have been a good thing.

See, Shanghai has many cab companies and they are further recognizable by the color of the car. Light blue, yellow, white and light green are in the top half, meaning generally clean with careful, non-smoking drivers. They have rules posted on the stabber cage around the driver (rules such as "The driver has the right to refuse to accept service to drunks and schizophrenics), they almost always take the transportation card, and most cars have all 4 hubcaps. The bottom half of the companies drive dark blue or red cabs. The rules seem to be a bit more lax, and these are the guys who will rip you off, not take the card, and who may decide to take the sidewalk at 10pm, jumping a curb at 35 miles an hour to get up there while you are in the back seat with your pregnant friend and no seatbelts. No cabs have seatbelts. If you see a red cab with no hubcaps, run in the other direction and look for another cab. It's not worth it. Unless of course it is a Friday morning, its raining, rush hour and you both have 8:30 conference calls.

So, you can imagine how lucky we felt to score a light blue cab. But then, a cab driver is a cab driver, there are still no seatbelts, and the guy yesterday decided to test our patience by driving like an a**hole on the way to work yesterday. I will spare you the details of accellerating into the stoplights, crossing the double yellow in a construction zone to make a pass on the left, and vying with a large white van about who can have the line spot at every red light, regardless of where we started to stop (7 cars back, just go around on the left!). Tim put it well when he said: "Let's take a cab every day for our last month in China, just so we are thoroughly convinced we are ready to go home." With my plans to sell my bike in Nepal at the end of our Tibet trip, that just might happen.

Note: All this talk of going home, I bet you are wondering... we have almost set a date. We'll be home before December 1. Going back to Austin.

Jīntiān de Zǎoshɑng 今天的早上

2008-09-04T09:04:00.004+08:00

This morning.

I thought it might be interesting for all you folks at home to hear about our jīntiān de zǎoshɑng.

We are in the thick of training for Tibet, as we are leaving in 3.5 weeks. Yikes! One part of our training regimen is to get in some kms (kms, we are on the metric scale here. FYI 1mile=1.6km) early in the morning before work. The sun comes up around 5:30, and we try to be up at 6 and out the door around 6:15. We were a bit late today, and Tim had to get to work a bit early for his busy morning (this is how I am spending my busy morning), so we had about 90 minutes to ride.

Out the door we headed east. We always head east. Away from the city, on a route that takes you back 20 years every 5km. We jumped on a "no motor vehicles" path along the river that we normally take to work. The same path leads all the way out to the East China Sea (aka Pacific Ocean) about 20km east. Foot, bike and motorcycle (and yes, motor vehicle) traffic can be thick at times, but the atmosphere along the river is generally quiet and relaxed. We followed this path out under the highway and got on what will one day be a 6 lane thoroughfare, but is now blocked to all but construction vehicle traffic. Here we can take the center lane and really put the hammer down. We ride past groups of workers sweeping this street, shoveling up the mud left by the construction vehicles, in what seems to us a pointlessly endless task. But this is their danwei (government posted position). Next we drop into the main street of a tiny town. Main street store front is full of industrial supply and chain grocery stores, while the road has a mix of dump trucks with air horns, cement mixers, and heavy construction equipment. In Shanghai, there is construction everywhere. Heading through the narrow back alleys, we find the quiet river again. After a few more kilometers, we aren't sure of the way (should we turn left at the cactus farm?) and end up around the back of some industrial plant. Even though the buildings are spewing smoke and producing some kind of "necessity" of modern life, just beyond the whitewashed wall, a farmer is working the tiny strip of land between the factory drive and yet another river (we are so close to the ocean, canals crisscross most areas). Almost all green space is used for growing food, there is very little decorative landscape. Front yards are rice paddies, and the tall green stalks look a lot better than the brown lawns of Austin! Time to turn around, we end up back on the main highway and cut back through the closed off 6 laner (still sweeping...), back onto the river path, past the outdoor pool table and the hangers drying 10 ft (that's 3 meter, if you are still on the metric scale) noodle strands, to a baozi shop we found the other morning to grab some breakfast. Baozi are basically large dumplings with a thicker bread-like skin. We each ordered 2 (7 cents USD each) - 1 red bean, 1 cabbage, and 2 spicy rice noodle filled. The guy behind the counter wanted to know how much baozi are in the US. We told him there are no baozi in the US. He stared back, astonished! At this point, I realize there are no baozi in the US. And yet we are planning to come home. On nice mornings like today, we sometimes have to remind ourselves why. We pedaled into work in time to clean up, cool down and have our baozi before starting another day.

Today's ride stats: 31.9 km, avg. 23.3 km/hr (and broke 1500 km on my odo, which I installed in June)

The Nike Human Race

2008-08-31T10:55:00.002+08:00

Today, Tim and I participated in a 10k called the Human Race. It was the second race we could walk to from our apartment and the second race Tim bandited due to waiting too long to register. Between us we had a timing chip and one race bib (which was screen printed on a Nike drifit women's small shirt), these we got from Tim's coworker who couldn't make it to the race. I took the chip and left Tim the women's small shirt. Seriously.

It was my first race in China! And my first 10k. It started at Century Park, did a lap outside the park and then a lap inside. We woke up after a late night an hour before the gun, and it poured on our warm-up to the starting line. We jumped over the guard rails to get in the pack just as the gun was going off (no standing around in the rain), and we were off! I know it happens in the states too, but there seemed to be an abundance of sprinting at the start and inappropriate running wear (jeans?). But then, this is China. The kilometer markers were erratically spaced, and our splits varied significantly. Even at the 5k point, I had no idea about my pace! My favorite was all the guards along the path, who seemed a bit perturbed at the added work of watching thousands of runners go through their post on a rainy day when they could have just been sitting under the protection of their guard stands. The scowls on their faces were classic! Around the 6km mark, I had some guards nonchalantly strolling three abreast on the path, and I needed to dodge around them. There was also a good laladui contingency along the route, including some cheerleaders pomming to "Hey Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind!". Some smooth jazz at 7km reminded us to take it easy. It was so much fun!

And now to enjoy the rest of our Sunday. ;-)

The Olympics

2008-08-22T17:01:00.004+08:00

Tim and I spent 3 days at the Beijing Olympic Games this past week, and had a fantastic time.

Day 0, Sunday, we arrived into Beijing's massive new international airport terminal (largest building in the world, we're told). We easily found our way to the train to take us into the city. It was cheap, easy to find and the place was swarming with volunteers. "Excuse me, can I help you?" It was obvious right away that Beijing was putting it ON. We continued to be impressed by the level of friendliness and helpfulness, there would be a volunteer in a 2008 Beijing shirt on literally every corner for the rest of our stay. That night we checked into our hostel, upgraded to a double room on the 3rd floor (hotel occupancy rates were far below expectation, leaving many open rooms), and headed out for a delicious local hotpot restaurant. A pile of sheep vertibrae simmering in a Sichuan spicy (mala) broth provided the energy we would need for the next 3 days.

Day 1, Monday. We were headed first for the women's triathlon. This was the furthest venue from the city. We allowed 3 hours to get there and used all of it, arriving in the stands as the gun went off for the swim. The volunteers were eager and friendly, but we learned their advise was maybe not the most helpful. Anyway, we made it! The location was gorgeous. The swim was held in the Ming Tombs reservoir, which had an island with a pagoda in the center. The water and air was clear, and all the news articles about pollution were forgotten. The race took the women past the stands a total of 11 times before the finish, plus there were huge television screens to watch what was going on throughout the race, including a bike crash which took 3 or so athletes out of the race. It was so much fun to see the athletes up close, we were looking forward to the men's race the next day! After the race, we headed back to Beijing (2 hours to get back), had a nice long lunch and went by the drum and bell towers. They were both closed after the events of the previous week, where there was a stabbing of an American by a Chinese followed by suicide of said Chinese. We walked through a nearby hutong, or alleyway, and there were even volunteers on those corners! Finally it was time to head to the much-anticipated Athletics events, at the main Olympic Green with the water cube and bird's nest. We went by subway a few hours early. Good thing too, since security was super tight (multiple ticket checks, scanning bags, patdowns and metal detectors) and we had to do a lot of walking to get there. We took some pictures around these venues then headed up to our nosebleed seats, which still offered a decent view of the stadium. The highlight of the track and field was when Russian female pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own world record at the end of the night, vaulting 5.05m. She is kind of a celebrity in China, and everyone was going crazy! It was pretty amazing. It was late now, and all the lights were on so we walked around taking pictures of the blue watercube and the red bird's nest, just long enough to miss the subway and the bus home. So we walked until we grabbed a taxi back to our hostel. Long day, we finally went to bed and prepared to do it all again the next day.

Day 2, Tuesday. We got up and headed for the Ming Tombs reservoir again, this time for the Men's triathlon. This time we were a bit wiser on which bus to take, and we arrived in 2 hours. Many of the women who had competed the day before were there to watch, and I got my picture taken with 2 of the American women we had seen place in the top 20! The men's race was also amazing to watch, they didn't have the very clear skies of the day before, it was hot and humid, but the race ended in an exciting sprint finish. After the race, we headed back to Beijing and had lunch and headed for a nap. The Olympics were tiring! That night we didn't have tickets to any events, but were hoping to make it down to the baseball stadium to see US vs. Taiwan. We had some tickets for the next day's US vs. Japan game, but our flight was in the afternoon and we were going to miss it. Hoping for a trade, we brought the Wednesday tickets down to the stadium. There were TONS of scalpers there. It was shocking. Nearby signs said something like: Scalping tickets is not in accordance with Olympics guidelines and should be punished according to appropriate rules and guidelines. Finally, we found a guy who seemed reputable and we successfully traded our tickets, no need to pay any extra :) Inside the stadium, the Taiwanese baseball fans were going crazy! I talked to the guy sitting next to us, this Olympic team was made up of all the best ballers in Taiwan. Contrastly, we didn't recognize anyone on the US team. The US ended up winning the pool-play round 4-2. I was so glad we made it to the game! Afterwards, we were exhausted but headed out to Beijing's "ghost street", a line of 24-hour eateries with hundreds of red lanterns lining the streets. After a $1 bowl of noodles, we were ready for bed.

Day 3, Wednesday. We had 9am tickets to beach volleyball. Beach volleyball is an interesting sport for the Olympics. The pressure and intensity from swimming, gymnastics and diving is not present at all - instead we had a DJ and an MC, and bikini-clad beach babes who came out and danced to the hiphop songs between sets. Not to say the athletes weren't amazing - we saw the semi finals for men's and they were fantastic athletes. The first game was between US and Georgia (whose last names were coincidentally Geor and Gia) where the US won and then between two Brazilian teams. We managed to sneak up to some pretty amazing seats right at the net line. The Chinese photographers in the stands seemed more interested in catching both the beach babes and the decked-out Brazilian fans in the crowd than the athletes. Tim pointed out that the cheering section in China is pretty important, though. They even call it a team - la la dui, the cheering team. After these 2 matches, it was time to head for the airport, get home and get some rest!

Back in Shanghai now, and mostly rested up. Tim posted the photos on Flickr (check it out: www.flickr.com/photos/stelzert). The closing ceremony was last night; the Olympics are over. China's debut was successful, gorgeous and executed wonderfully - with 51 gold medals! What now, we wonder. In Shanghai, at least, we expect attention to be focused on the upcoming 2010 World Expo. Just 2 years to go...

Live Microblogging the Olympics ...

2008-08-19T07:16:00.003+08:00

... via this admittedly ridiculous new media.

àoyùnhuì 奥运会

2008-08-17T09:23:00.002+08:00

Olympics!

Its finally here! We are off today for Beijing and the àoyùnhuì。 I feel like we have been waiting for this for a long time. Very exciting! We will try and post from Beijing to let you all know how its going. Look for us on TV ;-)

Tibet Training

2008-07-19T17:50:00.003+08:00

As many of you may know already, we are planning a trip to Tibet. This will be our last harrah in China, a kind of go out with a bang, save the best for last, final chance to see something majestic that is at our doorstep right now. Tibet recently re-opened to tourists. As the torch relay went up Everest, and China wasn't taking any chances and it was closed for months. We were a bit nervous for a while, but now we are almost sure we will be making the trip this October.

We will be joining a tour group for this one. We signed up for a 3-week trip, starting in Lhasa, and mountain biking over the Tibetan Plateau up to Everest base camp, descending into and ending in Kathmandu, Nepal. It will be 16 days on the bike, averaging 65km/day, camping out along the Friendship highway, with time at each end in the cities (in hotels with beds!). See below for the altitude map:

Yes, those altitudes are in meters. (1m=3.25ft) Riding starts on day 6. Yes, this is our idea of fun - check out the downhills on the last few days! Needless to say, we are going to need to do some training to be ready for this one. Now let me show an altitude map of Shanghai:

0m _____________________________________

Yes, that is also in meters. But it could be feet, or inches. Shanghai is at sea level. Pudong, where we live, is sinking. How, you ask, can we train to ride in the Himalayan Mountains, at altitude, in arid desert conditions of the Tibetan Plateau, for October temperatures (close to freezing at night) this summer? Shanghai is flat as a pancake, at sea level, 90+% humidity, and 85 degrees at 6am through September. This is the challenge. The one point that will feel will be comparable is the oxygen level; Tibet will have oxygen deprivation due to altitude, in Shanghai we get it through pollution.

We are getting in a lot of saddle time, riding to and from work, and using weekends and at least one morning during the week to get in some extra kms. At least we won't be saddle sore. The biggest lacking component will be the hill training, but I think we figured out something that might help us prepare, and we tried it this morning.

Simulated Hill Training in Shanghai, How to:
1. Wait for a Typhoon to strike Taiwan. The winds will pick up.
2. Check a flag or laundry hanging from neighboring apartment to confirm the direction of the wind. Most likely it will be coming from the south.
3. Head south. Preferably a road with a lot of overpasses or bridges (provide a few inclines).
4. You are now riding "up hill". Turn around. "Down hill".

We trained in today's typhoon. Not only the the unfortunate weather make for good training, it also makes for very clear skies. While Taiwan was getting walloped, our skies were pollution-free, with big puffy clouds. The humidity dropped. Last night's full moon was so bright, crisp and clear, it rivaled the sun's showing most days (sad, but true). It's now Saturday afternoon, and while the wind remains, the clear skies are gone. It's starting to sprinkle, and the Typhoon Kalmaegi will hit us soon. We don't expect more than some wind and rain. Hopefully nothing to prevent us from riding Monday :-)

Wuyi Shan - More Pictures, More Harmonious Society

2008-07-19T12:13:00.005+08:00

Laurel already wrote about our recent Wuyi Shan trip, but I thought a pictorial account might give everyone a greater appreciation for the quintessentially Chinese "famous destination" trip.

Don't get me wrong, Laurel and I love traveling in China (though we usually try to get a little more off the beaten track than Wuyi Shan). Some things are just, shall we say, culturally different. And some things just plainly absurd and demand mocking no matter where you're from. Such as:

Lines, which are not necessarily proportional to the impressiveness of the destination.

Megaphones. Unnecessary at a peaceful tea tasting you say? WRONG!

Bamboo rafting. Actually quite enjoyable as Laurel previously noted.

Completely inappropriate hiking clothing/footwear.

Here's Laurel eying her surprisingly popular choice of spandex ass pants and heels.

Ridiculous Chinglish signage. I almost feel guilty about posting this one because it's like shooting fish in a barrel. And this sign isn't really THAT terrible compared to many.

The "hard sleeper" train. 6 bunks to a room, no door. Actually much more comfortable than it sounds/looks.

And finally, one adorable picture of us. Ahhh.

Wǔyí Shān 武夷山

2008-07-17T14:41:00.004+08:00

Mount Wuyi.

Last weekend was the NI group trip to Wǔyí Shān, a very popular tourist destination in China. Natural beauty is combined with millions of Chinese tourists and attractions to make a memorable experience. Our 36-person group was met after the overnight train by our local tour guide, or dǎoyóu, and the next 36 hours provided everything to our expectations. And more...

Noise. Dǎoyóu had a microphone on the bus, providing us with constant updates, tidbits of information, and schedule plans. When off the bus, there was a megaphone to do the same. That man could talk. And who can enjoy any kind of nature without blasting the lastest pop songs on your MP3 player?
Flags. We had 2 of them to follow where ever we went. Dǎoyóu: "Over here NI" while waving said flag.
Lines. Climbing the mountain. Maybe 2 steps every 5 minutes. Someone puking into a bag (altitude sickness at 600m?). Umbrellas poking you in the eye. No, it was not raining.
Bamboo Raft. What trip to a river would be worth anything without a bamboo raft? This one was awesome. Really. The water was clear and cool, and you could put your feet in.
Farmer food. This is quite possibly the best food you can get in China, and it is only to be found outside of the cities. Our first lunch was wild pork, local mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and firey peppers. And the rice, oh, the rice is GOOOOOD.
Obligatory visits to the state-run souvenir shops. First they show you how to make tea or snake oil. Then they sell it to you. You better not even think about leaving until someone buys some freaking wulong. Weaving through the souvenir shop at the end of the tour, this is the only time the bus will be late.
Chinese hotel breakfast. Let's just say I would prefer pancakes. At least there is lunch at the farmer's house.
Unabashed, heartbreaking, horrible, disgusting waste. At dinner, before getting on the train, of pre-cooked, unidentifiable meats and morsels. This is when you are glad for the ...
Local Fruit! Those ladies with the carts will come to YOU with their juicy lychees at 20 cents a pound. Load me up!
Great memories, and a good notion to never do this again, as we roll into the Shanghai Station at 5:45am Monday morning. And we won't. Until next time, that is...

àoyùnhuì de piào 奥运会的票

2008-07-17T14:19:00.003+08:00

Olympic Tickets.

We have them. Physically. We entered the first of 3 'lotteries' well over a year ago, selecting our top 10 Olympic events and dates and requesting tickets. I secretly think the lotteries were marketing research schemes to figure out how to price the tickets. Anyway, we were chosen for 5 events. Woohoo! That was 12 months ago. Then we waited to get our tickets. All the while wondering if we were really going. Was the online system reliable? The credit card we used had been charged, but since then canceled, could we still pick up the tickets? Characteristically, the website offered little condolance, other than that the tickets would be available around June 2008, and we would receive an email letting us know when to retrieve them. We started making plans, even booking and paying in full for our hostel during the games (3 bed dorm in 9 dragon's hostel, comes with a 5x mark-up). Still no tickets. Finally the email arrived. They were ready to be picked up.

Even at that point, I was only 50/50 that we were really going. Horror stories were posted on local blogs, if your name on your passport and credit card didn't match completely (including middle name) you were out of luck. And then there was the question of picking them up at the bank. Bank lines in China are notoriously insane, you can spend 4 hours changing currency. We planned a Tuesday over (long) lunch to go pick up the tickets.

The bank ended up being our local bank of China, about a mile from home. We entered around lunch time, and were pointed to a back table laden with Olympic pamphlets and maps. No line. We presented Tim's passport. A scan was taken and 2 minutes later we had an envelope of 10 heavy card stock tickets, for all the right events and days. Five minutes later, we were back in the glaring sun, hot summer day, slightly dumbstruck. That was IT? By far the best bank experience ever. AND.... we are going to the Olympics :)

Here are the events we will attend, look for us on TV. We'll be in the nosebleed section. Market research showed that people won't pay too much for those àoyùnhuì de piào.

18 August, 10:00 - 12:45 Women's Triathlon
18 August, 19:00 - 22:10 Athletics
19 August, 10:00 - 12:35 Men's Triathlon
20 August, 09:00 - 10:50 Beach Volleyball - men's/women's? we don't know, hope for women's
20 August, 19:00 - 22:00 Baseball - unfortunately, we can't go to this one!

Ba huo guan 拔火罐

2008-07-10T13:34:00.006+08:00

Cupping.

I've been compiling a list of crazy things I need to try before leaving China. Things like eating a durian fruit (check), trying stinky tofu (done and done) and other things that don't involve eating foul smelling food. Things like acupuncture (yet to be crossed off the list) and ba huo guan, another form of traditional Chinese medicine. For those not turned on to the wonders of TCM, fire cupping basically involves using a small flame to create a vacuum inside of a circular glass cup that is then attached to the skin. The vacuum causes the skin to be sucked up into the cup, along with all the toxins and bad chi in your body. Or so the acupressure theory goes at least.

I first became aware of cupping our first summer in Shanghai when we made a trip to the local water park and spotted tons (dozens?) of people with the characteristic round bruises down both sides of the spine. At first I thought it must be one of those famous Chinese torture treatments we all grow up fearing - like bamboo shoots under the fingernails or Jackie Chan movie marathons on TNT.

In fact, many Chinese swear by cupping, especially to help fight off a cold. Feeling the telltale gan mao tingle in the back of my throat this week, I couldn't resist the opportunity to give it a try myself. First, I was a bit disappointed to find that most places now use a pump instead of the traditional small fire to create the vacuum. Something about being less "dangerous". Honestly the element of danger was half the appeal for me, but after a few minutes of having all 17 of those puppies sucking my backside as tight as a drum, I quickly dismissed the idea that this was somehow less adventurous.

The results? Besides the obvious:

I must say my cold felt a bit better the next day and I woke up invigorated. Maybe more to do with the hour long preparatory oil massage than the 15 minutes of cupping, but who am I to argue with thousands of years of TCM. All in all, much better than your standard Guantánamo waterboarding session.

UPDATE: Day 2 the welts are receding a bit but holding on pretty strong.

Sunny Boy

2008-07-03T14:56:00.002+08:00

For those of you that haven't seen Tim recently, he's grown a bit of facial hair. It started after the wedding, just doing weekly trims instead of clean shaving. I like the scruffy look, so this worked. Then, after our last trip to Austin, he was inspired by all the impressive and credibility-delivering beards, and the weekly trimming stopped. For 2 months, he let it go. Now, Tim has many strengths, but sadly growing a full-on beard is not one of them. The 2-month project could have been completed by any Mediterranean man within hours. But when compared to the growing efforts of the Chinese, it was a decent showing. I'm not going to say I loved it, but it was different. And I do love the long shaggy hair on his head. Big improvement over my haircuts.

One night we were taking the subway out after work, and Tim's facial hair came up as a conversation topic. It is so rare in China, and such a change for him, that this was often a conversation topic. A fellow expat started relating a story:

"I was talking to recently, and she asked, 'Do you know what is wrong with Tim?'. 'What do you mean?' I replied. 'Well, he used to be such a sunny boy. Now that he has the beard, he looks more like Robinson Caruso'."

Upon hearing this story, I just about peed my pants. Turns out there were several similar stories out there, and Tim had been getting strange looks. Facial here is not considered "cool", at least not in the way wearing a bike helmet is, it is more associated with "bad people". Not Sunny Boys, for sure.

Several weeks later, we went to Taiwan for Tim to present in a conference. He did a little trimming for the occasion. What do we call this look? Partly Cloudy.

Japan photos

2008-06-30T20:27:00.004+08:00

Ah, Japan. A land steeped in enigmatic ritual and intrigue. A land of miniature electronics, rectangular watermelons and humanoid robots. A land where protocol and procedure reign supreme. A land where the first baseman tips his cap in respect when his pitcher hits a batter. A land where ... okay, enough. Here are the pictures already.

CSA

2008-06-30T12:56:00.003+08:00

Community Supported Agriculture.

I've been getting excited reading online about all the farmer's markets and CSA's starting up in the US, excited to get back for some locally grown organic vegetables. There are farmer's markets here everyday, but not necessarily organic. And then recently, we started getting involved in a local organic farm called BIOFarm. And last week they started a CSA! We received our first seasonal "basket" this week:

Another exciting thing is that they have asked me to help them out: They mentioned BIOFarm has a lot of customers who want to support BIOFarm, but may not know how to prepare the vegetables. So, each week I will cook some dishes from the vegetables that come in the box, then post some pictures and recipes online for other CSA members. I am not too clear where they are posting these yet, but I will update the link when I find out!

Food in Japan

2008-06-15T07:59:00.004+08:00

So, I don't really write about it here too much, but I have definitely joined a subculture of snobby eaters, a self declared "foodie". For a foodie, I try not to be too snobby; I'll eat what is in front of me for sure (I am still a good Midwestern girl), but may experience what Tim and I call "eaters remorse" when I eat something that is maybe not as good as expected, or I waste a meal on something not great, just because of the missed opportunity to have a great experience. So I guess that makes me a food experience maximizer. Anyway, enough of the negative aspect of foodie-dom. The good aspect is that travel offers me a whole level of experience for food. I was dreaming for weeks about the opportunity to experience Japanese food, and I have to say it lived up to my every expectation! With only one or two "food remorse" events :)

So, here is my food blog from Japan. Highlights only. I will try and do more posting about Chinese food, as well as some of the adventures going on in our kitchen at home. Maybe you all will become foodies too...

On our first day, we wanted to eat somewhere authentic. Tim's requirement was: somewhere without an English menu that looks quintessentially Japanese. What we didn't know at this time was there are not too many English menus in Kyoto. The first spot we peeked into had a cool looking sushi bar, but no people (too early?). We pressed on. We tentatively stuck our heads under the linen curtains and slid the paneled doors aside checking out other spots we thought were restaurants. We finally decided on another restaurant that fit the bill, went to sat down, and were questioned by the sushi chef, "You speak Japanese?" We shook our heads. He simply said "No" and pointed to the door. Rejection! yikes! Now our search got desperate. We also didn't want to dine where the menu was in plastic recreations in the window (not technically an English menu, but somehow not so... authentic. And after our severe rejection we were tentative. Finally a back alley lead us to a place with a magazine clipping posted outside of the door showing one of our favorite dishes - rice with sliced sashimi tuna and seaweed flakes on top. Peeking in, we saw a sushi bar with a salary man sitting inside having a beer. We stepped in, pointed to ourselves and said, "No Japanese". The guy behind the counter said, "That's OK, I can speak English." We sat down. The menu he presented was all Japanese, but he helped out. "Do you like... Sashimi?" Our heads bobbed up and down. A plate of thick slices of bonito was presented. The best sashimi of my life (to that point, we still had 4 days in Kyoto to break the record!) We also ordered our favorite rice bowl, some sesame/peanut spinach, and a dish of tempura. Everything was fantastic. The bill? $34, including drinks. Not terrible. And we got exactly what we wanted for our first night in Kyoto.

Day two started out with a leisurely Japanese style breakfast at our hotel. The proprietor took the opportunity to explain the meal. It is based on rice and miso soup, which there was a bowl of each. Then a small dish of vegetables, some baked salmon, sliced egg cake (basically egg seasoned with salt and sugar and cooked into an 1.5" cake) and a packet of thin dried seaweed sheets that are to be dipped in soy sauce and eaten with the rice. That last one is way better than it sounds, and is addictingly salty. I later bought some to take home. This fantastic take on breakfast was artfully served in our quiet zen-ful dining room off the garden. Wonderful start to a leisurely day spent visiting temples in the rain.

Dinner day 2 was also a highlight. We wandered around (Tim and Laurel style) for about 2 hours before poking our heads into a tiny sushi bar. This one was a step up from the "working class" one we had seen the day before. All Japanese menu, but upon sitting down we were presented with a poster size picture menu of all the sushi on offer. We started off pointing to the cuccumber maki roll and sea bream (Tai). We were slightly flustered, but when the first rolls came, we couldn't complain - there it was again, that heavenly, wonderful raw fish. Mmmm. Not knowing what to order next, I tried to ask for water by pointing to the guy's glass next to me. What I didn't know is that that glass was actually full of shochu (a sake-like liquor)! That was enough to start up a conversation with the couple, the man was a university professor with perfect English (who also helped me order my water). Tim decided on a shochu, which he has loved since a trip to a sushi restaurant in San Francisco. We ended up talking to them for the rest of the night. They helped us order a sashimi taster plate with one slice of whatever "the master" recommended. The plate turned out to contain cuttlefish, which we did NOT like, and blowfish, which we didn't know what it was until the next day when we saw it in a market! That we did like. We also got a sushi plate with 8 different fish and found that Tai is definitely our new favorite fish to have raw. Yum! After we had spent a considerable amount of time there talking, eating and drinking shochu, the owners showed off the garden in back. A tiny space about 4' x 3', it was a intricate Japanese garden, apparently designed by a famous guy. Pretty cool. This ended up being our most expensive meal, but was worth it for the company and fantastic sushi, which was now back on the top of our list!

The next days passed allowing us to sample more Japanese food, some wonderful, some not so. No trips to McD on this trip, although we did have some yogurt and granola breakfasts. And a night I would rather not remember where we got denied from at least 20 restaurants (who knew you needed a reservation on a Saturday night??), but ended well at a yakitori restaurant where we did cook it yourself Japanese pizza. I also inadvertently ordered some cold noodles one afternoon covered with "mashed mountain yams", with the yams kind of resembling whipped raw egg whites. Oh, and they also came with a raw egg on top. That was interesting...

The next major food highlight was on our last night in Japan, when we did a cooking class! I will post about that next, since this post is getting long.

Xiaochi 小吃

2008-06-14T16:36:00.003+08:00

Snacks.

When Laurel and I told our friends and colleagues we would be traveling to Taiwan, EVERYONE raved about the xiaochi, particularly at the Shilin night market. A few of our favorites were ...

The infamous "stinky tofu" that absolutely reeks from blocks away but tastes surprisingly less offensive:

Not everything is bigger in Texas:

All varieties of sweet shaved ice desserts:

And my personal favorite picture of Laurel tentatively digging into a fatty, deep-fried hunk of mystery meat. Veganism be damned!:

Cheku 车库

2008-06-14T16:22:00.003+08:00

Garage.

Taipei, unlike suburban America, is a place that knows how to maximize a limited amount of space. This can lead to interesting feats of packaging, like this luxurious 2 car cheku:

Bijiao 比较

2008-06-09T19:22:00.008+08:00

Comparison.

Having visited Beijing, Taipei, Kyoto and of course Shanghai in the past two weeks I find myself naturally drawing some bijiao between the four Asian cities. Here's my admittedly snap judgments:

Waiting in line etiquette:
1 - Taipei
2 - Kyoto
3 - Beijing
4 - Shanghai

It's interesting to see what characteristics of a city one values and notices after a few years in China. And these rankings were a bit of a surprise to me. Japan is stereotypically orderly in a "domo arigoto Mr. Roboto" kind of way. But Taipei was amazingly even more civilized. I was blown away to see people patiently waiting in a single file line to board the subway and public buses. Beijing gets the nod over Shanghai for 3rd place. Seems the monthly "practice waiting in line days" leading up to the Olympics are paying off.

Percentage of women who walk pigeon-toed:
1 - Kyoto
2(tie) - The rest

Not sure why, but tons of Japanese girls are extremely pigeon-toed, particularly favoring the left foot. Weird.

Likelihood of getting scammed as a foreigner in these cities:
1 - Beijing
2 - Shanghai
3 - Taipei
4 - Kyoto

Proud to say mainland China still dominates this category. It was strangely relaxing being able to take our guard down temporarily in Taiwan and Japan. Case in point was our shuttle ride to the airport in Japan where the driver accidentally rung up the wrong price. Without me even saying a word, he was already calling up the shuttle company to correct the mistake, followed by a 10 minute session of bows and apologies. The poor guy was seriously on the verge of pulling out his driver's sword and performing hari kiri in front of me to atone for the egregious error.

Cost of Living / cleanliness / air quality / water quality / etc, etc
1 - Kyoto
2 - Taipei
3 - Shanghai
4 - Beijing

Think these could somehow be related?

Number of temples per square mile:
1 - Kyoto
2 - Taipei
3 - Beijing
4 - Shanghai

Supposedly, the city of Kyoto has over 1,800. Plus 250 shrines. Taiwan puts on a strong showing here, but this one is really no contest. I think Shanghai has two.

Ease of communicating:
1 - Beijing
2 - Shanghai
3 - Taipei
4 - Kyoto

You might think Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei would all be the same (don't they all speak Mandarin Chinese?), but Beijingers speak very slowly with a standard accent that is much easier to understand than the Shanghai accent or completely unintelligible Shanghainese. The spoken Mandarin in Taiwan was no problem, but they use the traditional characters instead of the unfortunately simplified characters of the mainland. This made reading/writing more difficult. I wasn't expecting much native communication in Japan given my approximately 3 word of Japanese, but was actually pleasantly surprised that an understanding of Chinese characters provided a decent ability to navigate maps, bus routes and occasionally menus. Laurel and I even found ourselves communicating by writing characters back and forth.

Friendliness:
1 - Taipei
2 - Beijing
3 - Shanghai
4 - Kyoto

Granted I was probably unknowingly committing cultural faux pas left and right but I have never been rejected so often in my life as when we tried to find a restaurant on Saturday night without a reservation in Kyoto.

Average car height to width ratio:
1 - Kyoto
2 - Taipei
3,4(tie) - Beijing, Shanghai

I guess with such limited area for all those people the Japanese favor tall, narrow cars.

Use of horn:
1 - Shanghai
2 - Beijing
3 - Taipei
4 - Kyoto

Lack of constant honking was eerily peaceful in Taiwan and Japan.

Place I would most want to live:
Hmm, sorry to leave you all hanging, dear readers, but more research is needed on this one.

Taipei in a Day

2008-06-01T21:29:00.002+08:00

Today was our first day in Taipei, and it was effectively Tim's only day since he has to go to work tomorrow. My only responsibility for the next 2 days is to continue site seeing. If there is anything left to see, that is.

We started early, breakfast at the hotel, then out walking around this area. We are on the edge of the shopping district about 4 blocks from Taipei 101. We strolled through a vegetable/fruit/meat/tofu/beans market then circumnavigated the Tower. Taipei 101 is at least 80 stories taller than all the other buildings around. Even with that contrast, our idea of big buildings is so skewed from 2 years in Shanghai that we felt it wasn't such a spectacle. We wanted to go up, but that doesn't start until 10. It was 8:30, and the streets were essentially empty (way different from Shanghai, which gets up to Taichee and construction at 5:30). We went on to explore a little park with 2 temples in it. There are temples everywhere here!

We then took the subway & a bus to Yangming Mountain - a big national park inside Taipei city limits. We climbed to the 1120m 7 stars peak (pinyinized as cisingfeng in Taiwan where we would expect qixingfeng on the mainland - the characters are different too, but it's all said the same, so confusing!). It was a gorgeous hike through thick vegetation until the last 50m or so which were in an open grassy hilly peak. It was also the butterfly festival that day and the flowers were covered with a thick layer of all kinds of butterflies, from small to big. We headed down the back of the mountain towards the bus stop, while a group of school kids tried to guess where we were from by shouting out "Hello!" in as many languages as they could think of: "Hello! NiHao! Bonjour! Sawadeeka!" That last one is Thai, and I can't really believe they thought were were from Thailand, but I guess the others didn't work, and they were desperate!

After the hike we were soaked from the rainforest like humidity there, and stopped in for some lunch and to dry off a bit. Tim ordered the stinky tofu over noodles (when in Taipei...), which really wasn't that gross, but it was the last time we ordered that.

We then headed over to the Gu Gong, or national palace museum, which is noted for having the best of China's national treasures, as the nationalists took them out of China when they left in the early 1900s, and they were not destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The item on prime display was a jadeite carving of a cabbage with a cicada on it, which somehow had some sexual innuendo. The rest of the museum was definitely better than museums in China, but still a museum. We left as they were closing the doors and headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes and a (brief) sit-down. The air conditioning at the museum had turned my soaked t-shirt into a block of ice!

We headed out for dinner at the night market (see Tim's xiaochi post). Unfortunately, it was in a different spot that was indicated on our tourist map, so we walked around for an hour until we hit the undeniable scent of stinky tofu and knew we were there. We browsed the street carts and stands before deciding on a Taiwanese burrito (pickled veg, bean sprouts and tofu in a wrap), that scary deep fried meat thing, a sugary peanut smoothie and a fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. We jumped back on the subway (probably our 6th ride that day) and headed for the hotel.

After this crazy day in Taipei, we crashed in bed around 10:30 pm and fell asleep so deeply and soundly that we didn't even notice the 6.0 earthquake that rocked Taipei at 11pm that night.

Taipei in a day, Tim and Laurel style. Good day.

Lǚyóu 旅游

2008-05-30T15:01:00.002+08:00

Travel!

Tomorrow we take off on our next lǚyóu adventure - this time to Taipei, Taiwan and Kyoto, Japan. We have 10 days total, but Tim has to work for 2 of them in Taipei. We are really looking forward to this trip, these were two of the remaining locations on our travel wish list while we are here in China. I have heard great things about Taipei, and they speak Mandarin there, so we should be set! Except if we have to read... they also use Chinese characters, but the "traditional" form, the mainland uses "simplified". I am actually looking forward to all the traditional parts of Taipei. In Japan we are hoping for a relaxing time, for which Kyoto is perfect with the highest concentration of gardens and temples in Japan. Tim is hoping for some extreme Zen! We'll see how that goes. ;-) Both of these cities are located close to mountains and outdoor stuff, so we hope to get up in a mountain under some trees, or at least some clear skies.

Our upcoming adventures: Beijing Olympics in August, and a 3-week bike trip from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal in October.

As many of you know, our time in China is drawing to a close. We plan for about 5 more months in the Middle Kingdom, coming back to Austin towards late fall this year. No dates yet, but if you have been considering a trip out here - get on it! You are invited to come and stay on our couch and enjoy Shanghai; it's a great jumping off point for the rest of the country. Summer here is pretty rough (hot, humid), but September starts to cool off and is a good time for your own lǚyóu.

Dònghuà 动画

2008-05-30T14:46:00.002+08:00

Cartoons.

Today is a sad day, we had to say goodbye to our good friends the Keeleys since they are headed back to the states today. It was wonderful getting to show Joe, Irene and Andrey around Shanghai. They said Shanghai was their favorite place in China, possibly just to patronize us, but it made us happy anyway :)

Having a 2-year-old around the house is a different experience for us, and today I sat down with her while she watched Chinese dònghuà. I thought it was interesting how she was so engaged in them, but didn't understand what was being said. What was even more interesting, I found while I watched with her, is that this program was all cartoons depicting scenes from the recent earthquake in Sichuan. In one 5-minute clip that played repeatedly, 2 bobble-headed girls are playing in the house when it starts to shake. One of the girls is buried by building debris that falls from the sky while the other watches. Then the lights go out and all you can see are a set of white blinking eyes. Flash to the next scene and the girl who was buried digs out with windmill like arms. Her friend who had been in the dark (the lights are back on) pulls her from the rubble and they hug.

All Chinese stations are still playing earthquake footage 24/7. Seems it is also the case for children. I hope these cartoons can help the children to deal better with the traumatizing experience they went through. I wonder if any children's programming went to this effort after Katrina or some of the tornadoes that hit the midwest. And I wonder if it really helps kids cope.

Asia

2008-05-27T17:59:00.002+08:00

I wanted to share the feeling I just had during my ride home, because everything about it reminds me of Asia, and China, and Shanghai in particular.

I bolted out of work at 5:30, after an hour of watching the skies darken, at what I figured was the last possible moment to make it home without getting dumped on. The air was thick as I rode - smog, smoke from cooking stoves, humidity, exhaust, and the excitement of a impending storm - with a smoky charcoal fragrance. The sky flashed with lightning as one of the year's first plum rain season storms was brewing. Cars and buses slowly started turning on their headlights. As I neared home, I crossed a completely jammed intersection of an 8 lane road that had at least 12 cars across. One side. I weaved in between the taxis, buses and silver minivans as they inched closer and closer to each other, honking their horns. At the final intersection, I watched a crossing guard try and exercise his "authority" (through blowing his whistle) over a man on a scooter who was heading the wrong way down the bike lane. The scooter driver, smiling, refused to heed the instruction to go around, and they settled on him just backing into place in front of all us stopped bikes and scooters. No face was lost for the authority-less crossing guard. As I turned into our complex, the first sprinkles started to fall.

So I successfully avoided getting rained on and had yet another of what will always be in my mind a quintessential Asia experience.

Rèqǐ Láile 热起来了

2008-05-26T13:06:00.003+08:00

Summer's here.

After the longest spell of wonderful spring weather we have witnessed in Shanghai, finally rèqǐ láile. Today is Memorial day in the US, always the unofficial start of summer in Michigan, usually celebrated by installing the dock at the cottage during rain and 55 degree air temps.

So, what marks the start of summer here in Shanghai? Here are the telltale signs that rèqǐ láile:

Umbrellas. Everywhere. And it is NOT raining.
Full-face shields, tie on sleeves, the aforementioned umbrella, any means necessary to keep skin out of the sun and risk losing the pearl white complexion.
A sudden absense of the question that almost becomes a mantra for our coworkers during the winter: "Aren't you cold?" Its replaced by the simple phrase: "Hot!"
In blatent disagreement with #2, the emergence of very short shorts and skirts (mainly by the young female population). I guess the leg complexion is not of top concern.
After dinner, in the street. boxer shorts and a wifebeater pulled up exposing the belly. The relaxed summer outfit of the older male.
The air quality has gone south, fast. Tim describes it as "the inside of a stale balloon". Bottle me up some and you can use it to remind me not to come to Shanghai in June.
Bamboo mats! Get your bamboo sleeping mats! We actually should get one... it gets hot and stuffy at night.
The sun is up before 5am (today-4:53). That's just crazy!
Spring Sleepiness, 春困 (chūnkùn), is replaced by Summer Sleepiness, 歇夏 (xiēxià), which will be followed by Autumn Fatigue, 秋乏 (qiūfá)...
My personal favorite - sweating on the ride to work. Bike or Taxi. Just stepping outside is enough.

Ah, Shanghai Summer.

Ròubāotiě 肉包铁

2008-05-23T11:27:00.004+08:00

Motorcycle.

(Literally: the meat protects/wraps the steel)

So, I am officially now the only one in my immediate family who chooses tiěbāoròu over ròubāotiě when it come to motorized transportation. The only steel this meat protects is that of my made in China Giant bicycle frame.

This pic is my dad on his bike with Grandma on the back. Mom's bike is peeking out in the background. The sisters have theirs down in Texas. The weather here looks so perfect - Michigan spring. It makes my heart break.

Are you getting your fill of blog posts today? Sorry for the feast or famine model here...

Dìzhèn zhīhòu 地震之后

2008-05-23T05:32:00.002+08:00

After the Earthquake.

This week, dìzhèn zhīhòu, China held a national 3 days of mourning to commemorate the earthquake. It started Monday, a week after the initial BIG one. We observed 3 minutes of silence at 2:28, the time of the earthquake. If you have been to Shanghai, you might think silence would be impossible. Well, this one was accompanied by an air raid siren (quite mournful, actually) and every car on the freeway laying on their horn for 3 strait minutes. Silence, China style. Some folks said they remember the last time silence was observed, although the event tied to it is not clear. I guess they were too young. It may have been the 1976 earthquake.

During the three days of mourning that followed the silence, all entertainment was banned. The radio did not play music, the TV was all news. The torch relay was canceled (I had tickets too! Another chance with the torch, this time to watch the relay, lost). Karaoke bars, internet bars, and alcohol bars all closed. Tim and I attended a charity event Wednesday night. Although gathering, having a raffle, drinking free flow beer and eating BBQ were not banned, the packed event lacked any background music or band. It was the strangest experience, and forced us to remember why we stood eating and drinking with just a dim chatter around us.

Our friends, the Keeleys who are visiting China now from the US, did not cancel the leg of their trip that took them to Chengdu, 60 km from the epicenter of the quake. I haven't seen their photos, but they said all people were camping in the streets afraid of the buildings' safety in the wake of aftershocks that have plagued the city for 10 days. Irene said she felt at least one while they slept on the 11th floor in their friends' apartment. Thankfully, they have moved onto Xi'an now and left Chengdu safe. They even got to see some pandas.

The Chinese are certainly banded together following this catastrophe. Horrible photos and goosebump raising stories circulate on intraoffice email. One photo set I saw was a couple taking wedding photos in front of an old building in Sichuan during the time of the quake. The photographer caught images of debris falling from the building midair, as well as before and after of the bride and groom, makeup and hair to dusty and disheveled. Charity has also been a major topic. I have never known the Chinese to give part of their salary to help others, but in the wake of current events, they have opened their wallets and cleaned out their closets. The method is a bit less discreet. News and internet sites publish donation amounts and it becomes almost a contest. People do not hesitate to tell you exactly how much they have donated. While companies do matching, friends and classmates band together and send their money in with the guy whose company is going to match the most. This is a bit disturbing, but maybe its just China getting used to the middle class.

In any case, being in a country while they go through a devastating time such as this is not really the same as being in your own country. My heart goes out to all the people who were hurt, killed or are survivors of those who were. But there is a sense of national togetherness, much like we felt after 9/11, that as a wàiguórén* I just do not feel.

* wàiguórén 外国人 - Literally, outsider. Its the Chinese word for non-chinese people, or foreigner.

Qízìxíngchē shàngbān 骑自行车上班

2008-05-14T17:33:00.005+08:00

Ride yo bike to work!

Last week was National Qízìxíngchē Shàngbān Week. That is every day here. But to make it official for our Chinese colleagues Tim sent out the below invite:

What: NI China Bike to Work Day
When: Friday, May 16, 8:00am
Where: Meet at 世纪公园一号停车场（锦绣路，近民生路）. At 8:30am, we will be at 龙东大道，金科路. We will arrive at NI around 8:50am.
Why: 因为我们代表 NI China, 为了健康，为了环保 <>
Please let me know if you plan to join, and which point you will meet at (世纪公园或者龙东大道）.

Tim

There was a decent showing - 7 people in all. I had to miss it (I had an early meeting). Did anyone in Austin or other cities out there participate in ride your bike to work day?

Dìzhèn 地震

2008-05-12T21:10:00.002+08:00

Earthquake.

You all might have heard about China's 7.6 dìzhèn today. That was out in Sichuan - far, far from Shanghai. A lot of people felt it, and there was the standard pandemonium, including a 5pm early dismissal from work. We didn't notice anything, and we are safe.

Sùshízhě 素食者

2008-05-12T10:23:00.002+08:00

Vegetarian.

We are 3 weeks into visitor season, and currently have our friends Joe, Irene and Audrey staying with us. (Side note about them - their initials JIA spells the pinyin for "family" in Chinese 家. I think that is cute.) Irene is a sùshízhě, which can be a problem in China. It also bring up several points about China and their meat. Not to mention their vegetarian past.

Shanghai is a good place to be vegetarian. Yesterday we went to the Taiwanese run Jujube Tree for lunch. We ordered tofu-pinenut-spinach wraps, potato starch noodles with sesame sauce, ginger "chicken", lettuce wraps, tofu pancake with chili and wonton soup. Everything was fantastic; a meat eater couldn't miss the meat. Especially in the "chicken" we got. It was a tofu product, but had exactly the right texture of chicken breast without the stringiness.

Chinese are good at faking meat. Quite in the same way as they are good at faking Louis Vuitton bags, if you want to make the comparison. With a long history of Buddhist vegetarians and times when meat was not plentiful, the vegetarian menu includes sweet and sour "pork" to Beijing "duck" that would have anyone fooled. Not to mention these fakes come sans bones. Can't say that for the real deal.

The new generation of Chinese are not vegetarian. The generation of the cultural revolution remembers what it was like to not have enough. Today, after the standard of living has risen to an acceptable level, that results in meat at every meal for their children and grandchildren. Similar story for other developing nations, second world countries that discover McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut. The big difference here: China has 1.3 billion meat-eaters.

The environmental cost of this "development" is enormous. Cows are not raised in Shanghai, and all meat is shipped in from up north. Transportation is not even the biggest offender, the process of raising the animals creates up to 7x more pollutants than transportation. The cost of meat is going up (and that generation of Chinese meat-eaters are up in arms). Hopefully that will help to curb their taste for the unsustainable choices of beef and pork.

And if a few more of them would go to Jujube Tree and try out the Hunan "beef", we might make sùshízhě out of some of them afterall. At least for one lunch. :-)

Jízhěnshì 急诊室

2008-04-13T06:56:00.002+08:00

ER.

Unfortunately, our recent trip to Austin also included a trip to the ER. Tim fell off his bike - going 30 miles an hour downhill. He cracked his helmet and banged his shoulder pretty bad, so I met him in the ER for what turned out to be a 6 hour waiting period of x-rays, CT scans and listening to our roommate berate the doctor and demand more pain medication (while calling into his afternoon meetings). Fortunately, Tim walked out with a clear bill of head-health, some gauze on the roadrash and an arm sling for his shoulder injury. The mammoth bill is still in processing, and I hope most of that will be covered by insurance.

The whole situation caused us to recount our very different trip to the Chinese jízhěnshì almost a year ago:

An American colleague was visiting from Austin and ate something bad. This is not uncommon in China, we all get laduzi from the food every once in a while. But this was not a common case, and he needed to get to the hospital. Unfortunately, it was Sunday night at 9pm. In the taxi to pick him up, we tried calling to all the expat hospitals we knew and could only get the prospect of a bed if we paid $500 up front and no promise for drugs for to see a doctor at the nearby expat location. So we're flying through the streets in a red cab, stopping occasionally so the driver could ask directions of people on the side of the road and our patient could ask something of the bushes on the side of the road. We arrive at the local Chinese hospital and help get him checked in. Here's how the visit works:

Check in, telling them your ailments and get an equivalent of a hospital debit card and put 200RMB on it to handle the cost.
Pay to see the doctor.
See the doctor in the portable building out back and explain what is going on. Here is where the Chinese menu studying came in handy. Does your stomach hurt? Liver, Intestines, kidney? Tim and I were well-versed in the various organs. She orders blood tests.
Pay for the blood test.
Go to the window to get your blood drawn. Similar to a drive through, this lab has a little window to put your arm through. The patient puts his arm through the window, blood is drawn and we standby and wait 5 minutes for the result.
Back out to the portable, show the result to the doctor. She orders an IV (in China, most medicine is dispensed through IV. Its the fastest way to the blood stream). Anti-nausea meds and hydration.
Pay for the medicine.
Go to the pharmacy to pick up the meds.
Spend the next 2 hours in the open-air IV room, which is back out in the portable and has 20 chairs with overhead hooks.
Settle up the bill. In all, the experience cost ~120RMB, or $15. We spent about 2.5 hours there, 2 hours of which was doing the IV.

Quite a different experience.

Torch III

2008-04-10T10:11:00.002+08:00

While I appreciate everyone's support on the torch competition that went on last fall, recent events have made me kind of glad I didn't win. I really don't like to put myself in the middle of issues, especially when they become political. In fact, what I write below is pretty out there for me; I normally like to keep my mouth shut. (For those of you who know me well, I know its hard to believe, but I really do like to keep quiet!)

The Olympics is a time when the hosting country's policy is under close scrutiny. This year's Summer games in Beijing (as well as other news) have kept China in the international headlines for the past years. China's stance and struggle on pollution, Tibet, Sudan, food & manufacturing quality standards, a rapidly growing economy and the hot stock market have been pulled front and center into the global radar. Ten years ago, how many people in the US could name the capital of China? Or 3 major cities? After being closed off for many years, both in modern and ancient history, this is a new thing for China.

On our recent trip back to the states the big question was to boycott or not to boycott the games and or the opening ceremony. On NPR I listened to news reports and opinions by former athletes about this subject. After returning to China, I have also asked some Chinese friends about this topic and the general feeling is one of patriotism and support for China, and disdain for those who knock it. I admit the Olympics might not be the best time to take a stand against one nation in particular, there are much better ways (think about the tremendous dollar amount of imports the US gets from China each year). At the same time, if China is going to become a major world power, it must be prepared to be under some degree of scrutiny. Isn't that essentially what hosting the Games is for China? Another step out of the developing world into the first?

Lu you 旅游

2008-03-20T13:14:00.002+08:00

Travel.

Tomorrow, Tim and I will continue our year of jetsetting - this time back to the US for Tim's conference. 2008 has already included a trip to Xiamen (right on the heels of my Christmas trip to Haerbin), US-Canada-US (for me), New Zealand, Moganshan... I know we are lucky to have such opportunities for luyou, but actually it is starting to wear on me.

I'll quit my sob story and say how excited I am to get to visit Washington D.C. this weekend. It's my first trip to the American capital and it will be even more special to visit Tim's grandma and family there, not to mention our good friends (and run home from the subway inspirations) Jay and Michelle. Then to Austin, where we will work. But, my high school friend Sarah will come to visit with her new puppy, and my sisters are there... Then my Chinese co-worker is coming to Austin for the first time so I get to show her all around the town I love. Should be a good trip.

Then, when we come back, its visitor season again. Katie is coming in April and Joe, Irene and Audrey will be here in May. It is always fun to have visitors and get to show them around Shanghai. It is a good reminder to appreciate all the culture here. You can actually get used to it!

And then there is the Olympics, and if we are lucky Tibet off in the distance... OK, now I am excited and not tired any more. Fun times ahead, and I love it!

Huntun & Jiaozi 馄饨&饺子

2008-03-07T13:41:00.006+08:00

Dumplings!

Here is a picure from my team's recent dumpling party. We made 400 dumplings for 20 people.

Dumplings are a part of life in all areas of China, the difference is in the wrappers and the fillers - southern dumplings are small and delicate, northern ones are big and meaty (these descriptions also match the people in those areas!) Even the way you wrap the skin makes a difference. As my team comes from all over China, we had a good mix of huntun (south)and jiaozi (north) and some special shapes from those less skilled :-)

Moganshan 莫干山

2008-03-05T18:07:00.002+08:00

Moganshan, a mountain in China.

Ah, the weekend excursions available from Shanghai. Last weekend we loaded a bus with 14 other cyclists, 16 mountain bikes and a little Shanghai dog to spend some time in Moganshan. Located in Western Zhejiang province, Moganshan is a highly touristed bamboo mountain that used to be the escape for 1930's foreign ambassadors to Shanghai. The top of the mountain (now all standard Chinese hotels) was once full of European houses and churches. I learned all this from a girl on the trip, but didn't really take the chance to look for remnants of that time when we finally made it to the top - it turned out to be a pretty steep climb!

Like I mentioned, we brought our bikes. This was kind of the kick-off training weekend for our planned bike trip in Tibet, and we needed some hills! We stayed at the base of the mountain, and pretty much rode up, down, up, down both days we were there. On the way there, Tim and I discussed our expectations: he dreamed of single track through the woods, I cynically predicted riding up on pavement and then a kamikaze-style descent down the steepest part. Tim will post the pictures soon on our Flickr site.

I also learned something about China that will help me to handle situations like the death descent better in the future. I am reading a book now called "how to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carnegie. It is an old book, but with a lot of useful information, even for living in China. For example, steps to avoiding worry/frustration/anxiety:

1. Think of what is the worst thing that could possibly happen.
2. Accept the worst.
3. Now that you accepted the worst, think of ways to improve the situation. There's nowhere to go but up!

Now, these concepts applied to a real-life Chinese situation:
1. We could end up getting lost, riding 4 times as far as we planned and be out past dark, hungry and tired, even though we are setting out at noon.
2. Accepted (after all this is China)
3. Pack gloves, money, headlamp, extra Clif bars and cell phone.

At least we were warm on the way down the dark side of the mountain at 7pm :-)

We had beautiful weather, and after following steps 1-3 had a great weekend.

Tou piao 投票

2008-02-05T18:21:00.000+08:00

Vote.

Pop quiz for all of you (American) readers out there on "Super Tuesday". Simple show of hands ...

- How many of you voted in your primary election? Good.
- Now, how many of you were able to tou piao in your pajamas over breakfast?

Besides all my unemployed wonkette friends, I'm guessing very few. Sometimes living abroad in a communist country has its perks when it comes to the democratic process. Actually, this may be the only time.

In fact, for the first time ever, Americans expats can vote in the Democrats Abroad overseas primary. And as if avoiding the dreaded geographical disenfranchisement wasn't enough, those crazy Dems even allow you to - get this - vote online! So while my fellow citizens were trudging through snow storms and waiting in lines (yeah, right, lines for a primary!), Laurel and I were casting our ballot electronically from the relative warmth and comfort of our living room.

Combine this with a recent Obama rally in our neighborhood, and I'm feeling downright civic in Shanghai.

Zhonghuale 中化了

2008-02-05T16:57:00.000+08:00

Chinese-ize.

While cooking the other day, I found myself stirring this pot on my stove. I laughed out loud as I made the comparison between this scene and the earlier post, and was quite pleased at how the past 2 years have really affected me - 我 zhonghuale.

(Lots of posts, I am just getting pics off my camera!)

Zang 赃

2008-02-05T16:15:00.000+08:00

Booty. Loot. Spoils.

After my last trip to the US, I came home and unloaded the 80 lbs of zang onto the bed so we could fenzang (divide the spoils). What, you might wonder, would I deem so important that I would personally import it from the US? As a general rule, if I can buy it here, I don't bother carrying it over, even if I need to pay an arm and a leg for it. Here's what I snuck in this time, you bet this one was opened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

From top:
Women's size 10 shoes, Men's size 12 shoes, Almonds, Pecans, Clif Bars, Craisins, Trio Bars, Mobile Hard Drive with image for work (a LOT faster than downloading it), AMD Processor Validation Mug, Thermal Grease, Sensitive Skin Lotion, Pepper Grinder (available here, but unworldly expensive, and not good quality), Walnuts (also available here , but for some reason taste like meat), Trader Joe's Natural Peanut Butter, Michigan U.P. Real Maple Syrup, Cold Eeze, Tofu Tacos, Wheat Germ (used to be available, but I haven't seen it in a while), Quinoa, Fireman's 4 Gingerman Logo Pint, Contact Lens Solution (available, but don't trust it), Saline Solution, Clif Shots, Large Soft Head Toothbrush, Deoderant, Herbal Tea (I know, importing tea to China??), Burt's Bees Facial Wash and Echinacea.

Jiao Tong 交通

2008-02-02T22:45:00.000+08:00

Transportation.

If you have watched CNN or seen any of the international news coverage, you might be aware that China is in the middle of the biggest snowstorm of the past 50 years. It is also the week of Chinese New Year, the time when every displaced Chinese person travels to their hometown to see family.

Chinese New Year + Giant Snowstorm = Jiaotong Nightmare

Millions of people are stranded at bus and train stations, major highways are closed to all vehicles (except cargo trucks carrying precious exports) and flights are canceled to and from everywhere. "Millions" of people is actually roughly 170 million, about 1/6 of China's total population.

We will not be traveling within China for the holiday and just pray our Feb 6 flight to New Zealand is not affected. We have, however, suffered some minor inconveniences during this time, most of which have been our difficulty to find a cab in the sleet and snow. We are totally dependent on cabs, difficulty in hailing one (which is basically on Monday, Friday, rush hour, the witching hour at 1030 pm when Chinese are trying to go home, when its hot, when its cold, when there is a holiday, when it is raining, when we are in a hurry...) is a big part of our life in China. So this week, while the rest of China finds ways around their jiaotong crisis, we have to make due. Here is our contingency plan for those times when there is not a line of drivers waiting to take our fare:

1. Get a personal driver. Not a full time personal driver, that is not really an option, but we do have regular taxi from our house to work. We call him personal driver. This is a great situation. He just won't pick us up to go home. So then we can...
2. Take the subway. Great for getting everywhere except work and home. And it runs until 1030 at night. Ultra-convenient for most people. Not really for us.
3. Take the bus. We have learned some of the buses in Shanghai. One from our house to the subway, which runs super frequently except when it is sleeting and snowing after 10pm.
4. Ride bikes. Most of the time even better than a cab, faster, safer... But not in this weather.
5. Befriend a Chinese with a car. But not in this weather. It's scary enough when
6. Walk. Not a bad option.
7. Run. It's 2 miles from the subway to our house. As coach Servais would say - Long walk/Short Run, with the added bonus that we get all warmed up before getting in bed in our 45 degrees F bedroom. We have resorted to this several times this week.

What a life. Sometimes I love it. Now we are waiting for spring.

Zhou nian 两周年纪念

2008-01-17T21:33:00.000+08:00

2 year anniversary.

Today, Jan 17, 2008 marks our 2 year zhou nian in China. I really do remember our first day here like it was yesterday (and all those other cliches about time flying). Maybe it's the heightened sense of awareness you get when moving into a new environment. Making a concerted effort to focus on everything happening around you and catalog it somewhere in the back of the brain for later recall. Or maybe it's just because the chill of spending that first night in our frozen, heater-less shell of an apartment hasn't left my bones yet. This week's dreary weather has served as sufficient reminder.

In other ways, those two years feel like the longest of my life - in a decidedly good way! We've come a long LONG way from wasting an entire afternoon trying to accomplish the most remedial tasks like buying a mobile phone or ordering a bottle of water for delivery or even trying to iron clothes with a built-for-Chinese height ironing board.

It didn't take long to find someone (much shorter than us) to pay to do these chores.

After two years, the "fish out of water" type blog posts become pretty hackneyed. Honestly I don't feel like that kind of fish much anymore. There's always enough surprises and new things to discover to keep things interesting, you have to look a little harder to find them now. Riding the subway itself doesn't count as entertainment anymore!

Shui Guo 水果

2008-01-13T10:38:00.000+08:00

Fruit.

The coldest days of winter are upon us, and although Shanghai is in a sub-tropical zone (we do get typhoons), Shanghai winters are cold. The concrete shell buildings and cheap doors and windows mean we wear long underwear, clothes and coats indoors, even at work. It rains quite often and other days it is foggy and humid and today it even hailed. The pollution levels are elevated and we hope for cold fronts to clear out the dingy grey-brown cloud that hangs over the city. Its really quite miserable.

But Shanghai winter does have its saving graces. A clear, crisp day or a hint of spring here and there (crocuses at my office this week). And then, in mid-January they come. From where I don't know, but in the stores, every corner you can now buy winter shuiguo. Strawberries, kiwis, pineapple right around the corner... and the star of the show: delectable, sweet, juicy, tender, golden mangoes. All fruit is sold perfectly ripe and ready to eat. This year we even found Organic strawberries.

And so, on this grey and dreary day, as I snuggle on the couch in my fleece and fur-linned Uggs, watching the sleet and hoping my 2pm flight to San Francisco is not delayed, I am quite content eating juicy strawberries next to a French bakery chocolate tart. Maybe it has something to do with knowing I could be standing on the Golden Gate Bridge in 12 hours, but Shanghai winter doesn't seem so bad, after all.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #1

2007-12-31T13:18:00.000+08:00

These rice terraces in Guangxi province of southern China are an incredible feat of agricultural engineering. Capturing this photo was no small feat either, having to tightrope this narrow, slippery mud ridge with my camera. Balancing in place with flooded rice fields awaiting my fall on both sides, I waited for the farmer to plant the end of his row and turn back into frame to eventually get the scene I wanted.

See the complete 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #2

2007-12-30T17:43:00.000+08:00

Down to the last two days of 2007, and I'm realizing it's really hard to pick just 10 favorites! So today I'm cheating a little and picking a picture that was actually from 2006.

Laurel peeking out the Emin minaret, Turpan, Xinjiang. This was an amazing day for taking pictures. We rode our rented bikes out here first thing in the morning and had the entire place to ourselves for over an hour of perfect morning light. Just as we were leaving, the tour buses started rolling in.

See the nearly complete 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #3

2007-12-29T20:27:00.000+08:00

I was really curious what these two Buddhist monks on Putuo Shan could have been discussing. Perhaps they were debating Confucian philosophy or how to realize Zen enlightenment through meditation. Maybe they were just arguing whose robe was longer. Alas, I just settled for this picture of them. I like how the cold tone enhances the serenity of the scene.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #4

2007-12-28T22:25:00.000+08:00

Perhaps the only benefit of Shanghai's abysmal air quality is that the persistent haze affords the photographer some beautiful pollution-induced sunsets such as this one. This is the view of downtown Pudong from my 25th floor apartment. As the hackneyed story goes, 15 years ago none of these skyscrapers were there. It was all farm land. At the far left, you can see the currently under construction Shanghai World Finance tower, which recently surpassed the Jin Mao tower (appropriately in its shadow) to claim "tallest building in mainland China" bragging rights. In the center is the Shanghai landmark Oriental Pearl tower. I think the best thing I can say about it is that it looks best silhouetted like this.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #5

2007-12-27T21:44:00.000+08:00

Our old neighborhood, Hong Kou, provided an abundance of photo opportunities. From bustling outdoor markets, to spry old tai chi nai nais to street food vendors like this guy, who I came to know as the "Duck King". This is (was?) the real China. Tomorrow we'll visit the new China.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #6

2007-12-26T20:43:00.000+08:00

We heard it was possible (though technically forbidden) to stay overnight inside Jiuzhaigou park with one of the local Tibetan families who still live there. Sure enough, after a little asking around, we found our way to this old man's place where we stayed for two nights while exploring the stunning national park scenery. He turned out to be quite a character - splitting his time between habitually spinning his numerous prayer wheels, doing these chores, or hopelessly trying to take my picture.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

Shengdanjie Kuaile! 圣诞节快乐！

2007-12-25T13:53:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas!

Here to wish you Shengdanjie Kuaile!

Being away from home today is not easy, espeically since we are at work! But instead of thinking about all the things we are missing out on by being in China (family, Christmas dinner, the tree, etc etc etc), I will instead note the opportunities we have instead by spending the day in Shanghai:

We are working on Christmas! Seriously, when else am I going to get this chance?
Toaster Oven Classics. I did the cinnamon rolls (from scratch) in the toaster this morning, pork roast is going in for dinner. And the Christmas cookies came out of there last week. I don't think I could do all this with a real oven!
Everything is Open. I remember a few Thanksgivings back not being able to get a bottle of tequila anywhere. Even less is open on Christmas in the states. Here I still might not be able to get a hold of tequila, but I can go to the bank, post office, grocery store, massage place or hair salon.
Team Hotpot Lunch. Mmmmm, Hot pot...
Not a White Christmas, but a hazy one.
Santa came by email. I woke up this morning and instead of running to the tree, opened my inbox to find Santa left us a gift! No fooling me now, mom and dad - your name was on the return address. :-)
Christmas Songs in Chinese. Some of them are translated. Or if they don't have the Chinese version, playing the same one over and over is OK too. We wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas....
Nutcracker Ballet. Didn't have to miss out on this one! We went last Sunday at the Shanghai Grand Theater.
Red Lanterns make GREAT decorations.
Best of all - Sharing the holiday with new friends and introducing them to the Christmas culture from home. (You knew the last one was going to be a cheesy one) :-)

Merry Christmas to all! Now back to work...

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #7

2007-12-25T12:55:00.001+08:00

Lacking a proper Christmas tree here in Shanghai this year, we had to improvise. Here's Laurel putting the finishing touches on the top of our makeshift structure.

Laurel and I wish everyone a wonderfully Merry Christmas!

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #8

2007-12-23T15:52:00.001+08:00

My buddy Will doing an admirable job of keeping a straight face while poking a little good natured fun at one of China's innumerable "security guards". This particular fresh faced young watchman had the national security-critical task of keeping the riffraff like us out of Jiu Zhai Gou park in Sichuan. He obviously could sense we were up to no good, but let us pass through under a watchful eye.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #9

2007-12-23T15:27:00.000+08:00

I first stumbled upon Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong on my first day ever in Asia over 7 years ago. At that time, I remember being overwhelmed by how exotic and quintessentially Asian the experience was - visitors burning joss sticks, old bearded men practicing calligraphy, and of course the aromatic incense-infused air. On a return trip to Hong Kong this March, I returned to the same temple and found it exactly how I remembered.

See the growing 2007 Top 10 set here.

2007: Top 10 photo countdown - #10

2007-12-23T07:07:00.000+08:00

In the spirit of the end of year listmania, I will recount my top 10 favorite pictures from 2007. A new one each day from today until the end of the year. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

The first shot comes from our Chinese New Year trip to Anhui, one of the poorest provinces in China, where our Ayi invited us to spend the new year with her family. There's not much to do in her home town, but we did tour the brick factory where she used to work before coming to Shanghai to clean houses. This family we met lives in the barracks next to the factory, which really don't amount to much but a pile of, well ... bricks. I love the eyebrows on the little guy!

Ma la song 马拉松

2007-11-27T21:02:00.000+08:00

Marathon.

Last weekend, I again ran the Shanghai ma la song. Actually, just the half marathon, but since until recently I didn't know how to say "half marathon" in Chinese, I've gotten in the habit of just telling people "marathon". Amongst a community of mostly non-competitive runners, "marathon" is an immediately recognized event and makes the conversation much easier. Besides, for someone who's never run outside of the occasionally sprint to claim an open taxi on a rainy day in Shanghai, the extra 21.1 km are irrelevant. Apologizes to any runners out there for such blasphemy.

This year I was forced to bandit the race. I had every intention of legitimately registering, but by the time I got around to it, I found the on-line registration was already closed - a full 3 weeks before race day! Not to worry. A few days earlier I had serendipitously come across my race bib from last year and figured it would serve as a passable disguise. Amidst a sea of 20,000 runners, I was confident no one was going to trouble themselves over some foreigner with the wrong color bid.

Perhaps I should consider banditing more often, as this was one of my most enjoyable races ever. With no timing chip, relatively no training, and absolutely no pressure I was completely free to soak in the surroundings, which were a palpable mix of fan-wielding octogenarian tai chi troupes, drummers, and inappropriately shoed competitors. I saw two barefoot runners and one dude running in his soccer cleats. Ouch! The kilometers easily ticked by with such sensory distraction.

The course is a pancake flat east to west stroll through some of the less noteworthy streets in Puxi. Both the full and half marathon courses start and finish at the same points, with the full course splitting off at about km 17 to add the extra distance before joining back up right near the finish line. Aside from the heavily fan-supported start on Nanjing lu, it is a completely unspectacular course. The race organizers could do the event a huge favor by re-routing it through some of the more interesting Shanghai landmarks. My suggestion would be to start in Pudong at Century park, cruise down Century avenue to the Lujiazui CBD, then across one of the bridges into Puxi, down the Bund and through a few old Hong Kou neighborhoods before finishing in People's square. Okay, good for the runners maybe, but bad for the traffic cops.

I digress. Back to the race. At the split off point, I of course took the shorter half marathon route and kicked it up a notch for the last few kms. Nearing the finish line, my little counterfeit bib almost caused some major embarrassment. It turned out the 2006 half bibs quite resembled the 2007 full ones. Approaching the line, I could see the race organizers starting to get very excited presumably thinking I was the full marathon course leader coming down the stretch (in what would have been world-record obliterating time, no less). Sprinting in the last few meters I waved the welcoming party away and convinced them I was merely finishing the half marathon in a rather pedestrian time of 1:33.

Xiao xue 小学

2007-11-27T20:46:00.000+08:00

Elementary school.

Stumbled upon this interesting little blog readability test. As you can see by the xiao xue rating, the test doesn't think much of the compositional sophistication of this blog.

The way I see it, this could be a result of:

1) engineer bloggers
2) the author's intentional pandering to an uneducated readership
3) inherent bias against Chinese words (c'mon, how many Elementary school kids do you know that have the basic Chinese reading skills necessary to understand this blog?)
4) software bug in test script

Huoguo 火锅

2007-11-15T14:35:00.000+08:00

Hot Pot.

You can always tell a huoguo restaurant when you are driving down the road, the steamed up windows give it away. Looking closer, you can see the sweat on the brow and the empty Qingdao bottles lined up on the wall as a group of people fish in the sunken vat in the center of the table. Ah, Hotpot, the great Chinese pasttime. As with all foods, each region in China has their own version of hot pot. From Dimsum-style individual pots in Canton to a weak watery lamb broth in Bejing to the laduzi-causing ma-la of Sichuan, there is one for each day of the week! (In fact, Tim has had 4 styles of hot pot in the past week and a half - Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu and Shanghai)

Today was the day for Shanghai hotpot, which tells more about the weather than the weather report ever could. Someone brought 2 pots to the office and we had a feast over lunch. The pots were filled with a spicy soup. As it boiled, we added the below ingredients - fondue style:

3 types of Mushrooms
2 types of clams
shrimp, squid, octopus
fish balls, shrimp balls, squid balls
super thin sliced beef and lamb
dumplings, mmmm
potatoes, winter melon, bamboo, shanyao (a chinese root veg), cauliflower
Spinach, Cilantro, other greens
Rice Noodles

It was a feast! And now, I know that winter has started. :)

Torch II

2007-11-06T23:58:00.000+08:00

Well, the results are out and it looks like I was passed over for the torch this time around. Seems like the winner from the US is pretty well-deserving, though!

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch_page.html

Thank you for all your comments and support!

Moxige cai 墨西哥菜

2007-11-06T10:49:00.000+08:00

Mexican food.

Turns out there really IS Moxige cai to be had in China. Problem is, you have to go to Beijing to find it in the form of El Fogoncito.

After a long day of recruiting yesterday, I treated myself to some pastor tacos and a margarita on the way out of town. El Fogoncito won't make me forget El Chile or even Polvos anytime soon, but it was enough to get me through a few more long, mole-free months in China.

The waitress, who incidentally had a pretty impressive Spanish accent for a Chinese girl (they must do some language training for the wait staff to practice rolling the rrr's) hinted that they are looking to expand in China. 上海欢迎你.

Zhao pin 招聘

2007-10-21T14:32:00.000+08:00

Recruiting (with Chinese characteristics)

I've been doing a lot of zhao pin for work lately. In fact, I'm in Chengdu (Sichuan province) right now recruiting at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. This past weekend/yesterday, I was in Beijing at Tsinghua University (the "MIT" of China) interviewing more candidates.

As always, recruiting is a grueling, but enjoyable process. A colleague described it as "going to battle". I won't go that far, but suffice to say I'll need a serious rest at the end of this week. I'm not used to being "on" all day like you have to be when you have 8 back-to-back-to-back-to... interviews.

A few observations:

- Chinese students are much hungrier for jobs than their American counterparts. Here's a picture of the info session we did to a capacity crowd of 300+ students at Zhejiang University. Keep in mind these are all Masters of Engineering students hoping for a shot at a job with my company. For reference, when I recruit at my alma mater the University of Colorado we're lucky to get 30 students at our info session, and half of them only show up for the free pizza.

- It doesn't take a genius to figure out the major paradigm shift going on in the high tech world. China is simply graduating much more, much hungrier, highly qualified engineering students than the US. Anyone still clutching to that stereotype that Chinese students lack the creativity to compete in the global marketplace isn't paying attention.

- I had the nerve-racking but rewarding opportunity to present - in Chinese - in front of hundreds of people. I think (hope?) they were so blown away to see a foreigner unexpectedly speaking Chinese they didn't notice my horrible grammar and pronunciation.

- It hits home that you're really in China when you see classes like "Principles of Marxist Philosophy" and "A survey of Deng Xiaoping's thoughts" on all the transcripts.

Xi'An Photos 西安照片

2007-10-21T14:29:00.000+08:00

Here are the Xi'An photos to go along with Laurel's post.

As always, all the good stuff is on my Flickr site.

Beijing Photos 北京照片

2007-10-21T14:26:00.000+08:00

Here are the Beijing photos to go along with Laurel's post.

As always, all the good stuff is on my Flickr site.

Great Wall Photos 长城照片

2007-10-21T14:21:00.000+08:00

Here are the Great Wall photos to go along with Laurel's post.

As always, all the good stuff is on my Flickr site.

Tianqi 天气

2007-10-16T11:33:00.000+08:00

Weather.

For once, I cannot complain. Check out that humidity! Dropped by 50% in the past 2 weeks. Ahhh, autumn... What am I doing at work today (well, updating the blog...), I should be out enjoying these last days before winter.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Xi'an 西安

2007-10-09T16:10:00.001+08:00

Xi'an - Home of the Terracotta Warriors

After 4 days in Beijing, we boarded a train for Xi'an. We had heard mixed reviews about this city. Some people day there is nothing there. Some people love it for hos laid back it is compared to the metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai. I don't know if our day and a half was enough time to come to a solid conclusion. The weather didn't help.

We stepped off our over night train from Beijing at 6am and boarded a public bus directly for the terracotta warriors. An interesting thing was, it was dark at 6am in Xi'an - partly because winter is coming, partly because of its location 1000 miles west of Shanghai in a country with only one timezone. We got to the site an hour later and got in just as the park opened. For those of you who are not familiar with this attraction, please read about it on Wikipedia, it is pretty fascinating (and kind of crazy): Terracotta Warriors. The site itself was fascinating. This was the highlight of Xi'an.

The rest of the trip was food, Tang Dynasty performance (actually cool), and then rain. We really wanted to get to ride bikes up on the wall that surrounds the city, but were prevented by weather. Next time, I suppose. Maybe, though for Xi'an, there won't be a next time.

Language Notes (since this blog is about Chinese language too!):

Xi'an

Maybe you were wondering about why this city name is divided with the apostrophe. Maybe you were also wondering how the heck to pronounce it. Well, for the first question, if you look at the Chinese, there are two characters, they are the characters for "West" and "Peace". Without the apostrophe, "xian" would only be one character, and could have a multitude of meanings, including line, salty or first (all separate characters). Also, the pronunciation is different with and without the ' : Xi'an (Shee Ahnn) vs. xian (she-en)

Shaanxi and Shanxi

There are 2 provinces in China with the same name. Or so it seems. Xi'an is located in Shaanxi. Next door, you have Shanxi. The characters for these provinces are different, but the pinyin is the same (both should be "shanxi"). I guess to avoid confusion for the western world that only uses a 26-character alphabet, they had to add the extra A. All the reason why China will be on the 30,000-character system for a long time.

Beijing 北京

2007-10-09T15:52:00.000+08:00

Beijing - The Capital of China!

We are back from our Guo Qing Jie trip to Beijing. Just like everyone said, it was crowded. But overall, it was a good trip. I can't believe it took us almost 2 years to get there! Beijing has a totally different feel from Shanghai. It's difficult to describe... it felt slower and deeper.

I will spare you all the trip details, since at a thousand words each, I am sure Tim's pictures will tell the whole story. Here are some of the highlights:

Stepping off the plane to low (40%) humidity and Autumn conditions.
Introducing my friends to Chinese Beer, Kung Pao Chicken and their favorite, fish-smelling pork.
Walking the Wall - 10km from Jinshanling to Simatai - under unbelievable blue skies. It was physically challenging, and (mostly) quiet and gorgeous.
Visiting the site pictured on the back of the 100 kuai note - the Beijing Congressional Building next to Tian'anmen.
The Temple of Heaven at sunset
Stumbling upon an opera group in the park of the Summer Palace
The Beijing Attractions - you've gotta see them, and the highlight is probably having them checked off the list: Forbidden City, eating Beijing Duck, Jingju (Beijing Opera), Tian'anmen Square

We really liked it. I think we might need to go back for another visit. We totally missed the underground grunge rock scene.

Guo Qing Jie 国庆节

2007-09-30T10:14:00.000+08:00

Chinese National Holiday.

Guo Qing Jie starts tomorrow, Monday October 1. We have 7 days off work, which is kind of like getting a week off, but we have to work this Saturday and Sunday to make up for Thursday and Friday, which are not really holiday. Its a weekend shift to make it a golden week. I like the arrangement, actually. :)

We are headed to Beijing tomorrow. We have been warned, its going to be crazy! I don't even know what DC is like on our Independence day... maybe this is a bad comparison. To me, the 4th of July means beach, hamburgers and fireworks. We are celebrating July 4, 1776. The national day in China is a little closer to home, October 1, 1949. Although it still means fireworks, perhaps there is a bit more national patriotism as well. We'll see tomorrow at Tianamen Square. Today we get off early, its like the day before Thanksgiving. Sam, Elaine and Elaine's friend Shannon are arriving tonight - I'm getting excited!

Mingzi 名字

2007-09-26T17:25:00.000+08:00

First Name.

After a long discussion about mingzi last night with a friend (what will their neighbors name their baby? Bryson? Mackenzie?) I got a chance to name my own today. Not baby, but Chinese colleague who was looking for an English name to help in communication to the US. Zhang Yan is beautiful, unmistakably mixed with some middle eastern blood, or from Xinjiang, I didn't ask. We checked out some names on the web and I suggested Jasmine. For me, Jasmine is the princess from Aladdin and they have many similar characteristics - the eyes, the hair. I told her this name in Chinese - Moli Hua. There is a beautiful old Chinese song moli hua. I think she is happy with it. And I will never forget it.

Xu Jing went with George.

Popo-Mama 婆婆妈妈

2007-09-24T12:49:00.000+08:00

Chicken Pickin'.

I think I have mentioned how every day at lunch I sit with the girls at the office and popo-mama. An eastern Tennessee friend pointed out that they call this chicken pickin' where she is from, but I can't remember how we would say at home: women sitting around talking about ... well, everything. Its not just gossiping, it rarely is in fact. We talk about anything - clothes, food, men, hair, travel, vacation and weekend plans, sometimes even government, politics and seldom religion. I truly value this time, both for friendship and for a chance to study some Chinese. There is a core group of 5 of us - a fellow validation manager, our business manager, the librarian, and the office ayi. We are sometimes joined by the admin. 3/4 of them are Shanghainese, so if the business manager is not present I get a chance to practice my Shanghai-hua (local dialect), which I cannot understand the words of but mostly get the meeting. It is a completely different language to putonghua (Mandarin).

If anyone remembers how to say this in the midwest, let me know. They want me to translate, but I can't find my own words.

BTW, I got published this weekend :-) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bjweekend/2007-09/21/content_6124077.htm

Yi bai 一百

2007-09-23T14:46:00.000+08:00

One Hundred.

I just noticed this is post number yi bai. If I were a good blogger, the following would contain some sentimental recollection of the dear reader's favorite posts as ranked by most viewed, most commented, blah blah blah. The requisite tag cloud would be displayed. An earnest reassessment of the original motivation for this project and new inspiration for the future direction must be noted.

I am not a good blogger.

In fact, as you probably notice I haven't written much of anything lately. During this apathetic slump, Laurel has fortunately taken up the slack. I'll keep up the photography and look for some creative ways to keep that interesting for you all.

Sorry, not much of a century post.

Putuo Shan Photos 普陀山照片

2007-09-23T14:35:00.000+08:00

Here are the photos to go along with Laurel's post.

As always, all the good stuff is on Flickr.

Torch

2007-09-21T15:17:00.000+08:00

As in the Olympic Torch.

Recently, I entered a Lenovo-sponsored essay competition, coupled with online voting. The prize is a chance to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay, which would be very cool. Please cast your vote for me if you get a chance, and pass it on to your friends.

Thanks for the support!

Vote for Laurel to Carry the Torch
*This seems to work better with IE

Putuo Shan 普陀山

2007-09-19T13:11:00.000+08:00

Putuo Mountain.

Last weekend, we took a trip to Putuo Shan, one of China's 4 famous Buddhist mountains. Putuo Shan is actually a tiny island off the Shanghai coast in the East China Sea, also know as the Pacific Ocean. The trip was organized by Tim's colleagues and we made a group of 23 people, including 3 Americans and one 5 year old boy. I have to give some props to the planning committee, it is not easy to settle the logistics for 23 people, and everything went very smoothly.

We left Friday night by ferry from the north dock on the Yangtze River. The overnight ferry departed at 7:30 pm and arrived at 6:30 the next morning at Putuo Shan. I cannot report anything about the trip, except that I had a bed and promptly fell asleep when I got on the boat. So I guess the trip over was not too bad. We stashed our luggage on arrival and set out on foot, first to the massive golden Guan-Yin statue - goddess of fertility. We then walked through some saffron colored buildings (assumed the housing for the saffron-clad monks) and onto some rocks near the sea. While the color of the buildings was beautiful, the color of the sea was not. The same cappuccino hue found off the coast of Shanghai. The largest temple, Puji temple was next then we hit the beach for some frisbee. The weather was beautiful and the island was well planned for tourists. There were wooden blanked walkways through lush roadside forests that lead over the whole island. The most interesting thing about the temples was to see so many Chinese openly burning incense, kneeling and praying. Its not something I associated with the culture before, and I was forced to open my mind a little more.

That night, we sadly left Putuo Shan for nearby Zhou Shan for cheaper accommodations. Tim and I were worried at first, we saw many things that were "typical China" when we wanted to soak up more of serene Putuo Shan. Fortunately, our fears were calmed by the home-cooked family style meal the hotel owners prepared and served us outdoors on plywood benches. Zhou shan is famous for crab (we could tell by the 6' tall crab statues all over the island) and the crab was magnificent. The next day we headed to a nearby beach for a barefoot soccer game. The beach was gorgeous, and reminded me of a small cove Tim and I hiked down to in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. The water even seemed a little better and Tim went for a swim.

We took a faster way home - bus, boat, and bus and got back to Shanghai Sunday night around 6. It was a wonderful weekend. We vowed to get out of Shanghai more often. I expect Tim will update our photo blog soon: www.flickr.com/photos/stelzert. Be sure to check it out.

UPDATE:
Photos are now up on Flickr.

Taifeng 台风

2007-09-19T06:34:00.000+08:00

Typhoon.

I'll say right off that we are OK, and didn't get anything more than a little rain from the typhoon that was headed here last night.

Last night Taifeng Wipha was scheduled to hit Shanghai. Adrenaline and excitement ran high as everyone scurried out of work early yesterday, it felt like a blizzard or ice storm were coming. Or probably like a tropical storm, but being from Michigan, I can only relate this to natural disasters of the winter variety. AMD finally got an email that work was to be canceled for today (Wednesday).

Tim and I had tickets to the US-Nigeria Women's World Cup Soccer game that is going on in China this year. I was scared and didn't want to go, but the game was still on, so we got our umbrellas, rain jackets and ponchos and headed out to the stadium. It did rain, off and on really hard, but we got seats where we didn't really get wet except when it was windy and enjoyed the game. The score was 1-0 US so now they advance to the quarter finals. Some games for today were moved due to the typhoon.

Anticlimactically, I just woke up to dry streets and relatively clear skies. Wipha, while belting Zhejiang province to our south, hit land and lost speed, never making it to Shanghai. I guess I got a day off out of it, and I am really glad we didn't miss the game. Tim still has to go to work. :-)