Happy Mother’s Day to all mommas around the world. China celebrates it as well.
Today, Lisa, Maddy and I went to the Kempinski Hotel for an amazing champagne brunch with 2 other families. It was excellent.
Archive for the ‘Living in Beijing’ Category
The view from our window
I just wanted to say that I’m safe and sound after a night of serious pyromania. In all, the night was amazing. The amalgamation of millions of fireworks created an odd acoustic phenomena where all you could hear was an endless humming rumble 360 degrees around you.
A highlight (depending on how you look at it) was when a bad mortar shell blew my launch tube into pieces, setting off every car alarm within 500 meters and drawing unfavorable attention from the firemen. Fortunately some Germans arrived with a new tube and we sent a couple more large-scale balls into the sky to add to the thunder. Suprisingly, the smaller, self-contained, show-in-a-boxes did an admirable job but there was just something awesome about the deep, powerful thud of the big ones launching.
So at about 10 pm, the Germans picked up their launch tube and I asked where they were going…”we go drink now…we come back at 12″. I took a break to and went to a firework dealer to buy a case of 10 “da das” (big ones) for about $40. At midnight, the Germans returned a little tipsy and we successfully waged a blitzkrieg of 5 shots before they blew up their own launch tube. We shared some beers and they went home.
Lisa said I wasn’t allowed to keep these “bombs” in the house, so I traced the source of some other “big ones” going off outside the compound and drove out to take advantage of their in-tact launch tube. When I arrived, I found an affluent, english-speaking asian family who happily let me join in the fun and within 30 minutes, we had emptied our stash of commercial-grade fireworks.
By law, I’m supposed to say “Spring Festival” to describe Chinese New Year but let’s not be so politically correct and call it what it really is. The tradition of Chinese New Year is that you chase bad spirits away with fireworks. Beijing has lifted a 12 year ban on fireworks within the 5th ring road which means that Beijing is going to seem like a war zone as revelers unleash 12 years of pent-up pyromaniacal frustration.
For the past 2 weeks, the firework stands have been sprouting to life and their inventories have seem to grow way outside the bounds of their little tents. At first passing, I was stunned at the size of the packages you could purchase. They have battery’s of 36″ mortar tubes that weigh 60lbs and can fire an impressive 18 shots of flowering starbursts that would rival your local country club’s Fourth of July.
So as the big dumpling drops tomorrow at midnight, the men of Capital Paradise (including myself ) will unleash a form of armageddon that only Bush and his troops could rival. The management of Capital Paradise has kindly arranged to clear out a parking lot, set up launch tubes and hire a fire brigade to extinguish all the secondary fires that (apparently) happen.
Note: Last year, a resident left his car in the parking lot while traveling outside the country. In an attempt to keep dust off, he covered it with a canvas cover which caught fire and scorched the paint on the roof and hood of his car. A few minutes later, a row of bushes went up in flames. With skill and precision which can only be attained from countless Chinese fire drills, the firefighters extinguished the flames.
Below is a photo of my current stash. It contains all the basics…firecrackers, roman candles, fountain, screaming rockets, large bottle rockets, a small battery of mortars, and some sparklers for Madeline. But there’s also something else in the box behind it…shhh…read on.
This is China…and I figured that if I ever had an opportunity to buy something not typically available in the US, it would be in the form of fireworks. So while negotiating a giant, $75 mortar box, I asked another shopper (fluent in Chinese and English) to ask the stand owner if he had anything “special” that wasn’t on display. He took me to the back of his tent and uncovered boxes of the holy grail of all fireworks…commercial mortar balls! He reached in and grabbed a small one along with a 25″ steel launch tube and we walked across the street. He lit the ball, dropped it in the tube and I was treated to that low, gut wrenching thud as the charge propelled it a hundred feet into the sky. A second later, it filled the entire sky with a bloom of purple and gold.
We walked back to his stash and I asked for “surga jayga”, “sooga nayga”, and “arga nayga hen dada” which translates to some pretty serious pyrotechnics. I got ten of the ones he demonstrated, four frighteningly large 6″ diameter ones, and two really “big ones”. In the photo below, I placed one of each next to some familiar items to show their massive scale…and yes, they scare the bajeezus out of me.
In 48 hours or so, I will either be posting about an awesome Chinese New Year’s eve or else I will be posting about the quality of medical care available in Beijing. Most likely, I’ll ask someone with a bit more experience to light these while I stand 100 feet away as my eyes and hands are crucial to my profession.
After a brutally long flight on Thursday, we arrived back in Beijing. It’s a process that begins with hitting the snooze on the alarm clock a few times around 3am.
3am-ish EST - Wake up and get dressed
4am EST - Load car and head to airport
6am EST - Flight leaves for Toronto
8am EST - Arrive in Toronto, clear customs. 2 shuttle busses and 1/2 mile of walking puts us into the departure gate.
8:45 am EST - Board the plane and whine to the flight attendant about our un-retractable armrests.
9:45 am EST - Depart for Beijing
10:30 am EST - Discover that we accidently packed the Ambiens in a checked suitcase…damn!
11:30 pm EST (12:30 pm Beijing time) - Land
1:00 am EST - Drive to our Beijing house
3 am EST (4 pm Beijing) - Eat an early dinner of Chinese take-out (I guess it’s just callled take-out here).
4:30 am EST (5:30 pm Beijing) - Get Lisa and Madeline who are both asleep on the couch into their beds…I follow close behind.
2:30 am (Beijing) - Wake up refreshed and ready to start the d..uh…oh damn. Take an Ambien go back to sleep.
Packing the Contraband
The game is called “maximizing your luggage allowance” and you are limited to the following requirements…
Each person can check two (2) 50lb suitcases and carry on a 22″ case along with a “smaller” type of handbag on the plane. With 3 of us traveling, we can check 300 lbs of luggage and by maximizing our carry-on allowance, we can probably add about another 150 lbs.
During any trip back to the US, the first stop(s) are to Costco, Target, and CVS for vitamins, Clif Bars, skin care products, and various other health and beauty aids. We bought close 80 Clif bars, 6 boxes of Emergen-C vitamin packs, 6 bottles of Neutrogena skin wash, 2 large bottles of Cetaphil moisturizer, and other items. I used a scale (available at Mori luggage) designed for weighing suitcases in order to pack each bag to it’s 50 lb. limit.
Here’s what we took to the airport with us…
2 Ballistic nylon suitcases
4 Inexpensive Ricardo (from Costco) rolling duffles
1 Tumi rolling carry-on suitcase
1 Tumi shoulder bag
1 Swiss Army rolling carry-on suitcase
1 North Face day-backpack
Madeline has an American Girl carry-on rolling suitcase which was cute for about 5 minutes until she wanted Lisa or me to carry it. Now we only take 2 rolling carry-ons and her books go into a backpack.
Getting to the Airport
With 400 lbs of bulky luggage and a 6 am departure, our options are limited.
- MARTA - We drive 2 loads of lugguge to our MARTA station 5 minutes away. Pros: Cheap. Dependable. Cons: Major hassle at 3:30 am. Car would need to be picked up and taken back to the house. Doesn’t run until 6 am.
- Taxi - Pros: reasonably cheap compared to a limo or van. Cons: Unreliable. Luggage won’t fit unless it’s a van.
- Limo - Pros: Conspicuous bling. Luggage fits. Cons: Expensive. Can’t make it up the driveway.
- Van - Pros: Lugguage fits. Cons: More expensive than limo. Wasted space = wasted $$$. Uncomfortable. Ugly.
- Friend - Pros: Free. Cons: Not at 3:30 am.
After looking at these options, we were scratching our heads. I called some limo companies to book a van but found an excellent comprimise. Starlight Limousines has a nice, comfy Chevy Suburban. This turned out to be the perfect solution. It was less expensive than the van and a only about $20 more than a Taxi. It was comfortable as a limo and could ascend our driveway. Problem solved.
Checking In
Air Canada doesn’t have curb-side check-in and I was too cheap to use a skycap. Lisa took a couple bags and lined up at the counter while I made a couple trips to and from the car. Once checked in, the rest of the trip was a piece of cake.
Beijing
Unlike every other airport in the US with $3 carts, Beijing has free carts; so getting our giant pile of lugge into a transportable form was no problem at all. But getting it home would be. While waiting for the baggage, I called Mr. Lu and asked him to bring another driver for the luggage. Within 20 minutes he arrived with his friend, we loaded both cars and headed home for about 1/8th the cost of the Suburban in Atlanta…I guess in some ways, I’m really happy to be back.
While the spirit of Christmas is alive and well here, it’s devoid of something that I don’t miss at all…commercialism. Lisa and realized this when my sister-in-law mentioned some toys that are being advertised “all over TV” right now. The only consumer products advertised on ANY of *our* stations are cameras from Sony. The other commercials are gorgeous ads from the tourism boards of India, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. This weekend there was even an infomercial which combined travel to India with the Sony Cybershot. As a parent, I’m thrilled that she’s not being blasted with commercials for My Glittery Glamorous Pink Potty Training Pony. As a matter of fact, if she wanted a trip to Sri Lanka and a Sony Cybershot, I don’t think I could resist.
Today we awoke to a snow-dusted Beijing. Madeline was thrilled until she discovered that the snow melts with a black residue on her hands. At any rate, it was a beautiful day despite the frigid temperatures.
After making our saturday morning calls to friends and family in the US, we went to a breakfast party at a neighbor’s house. Afterwards, we headed to the Laitai Flower Market to start shopping for Xmas gifts. We didn’t have great luck so we headed down to Silk Street which is always a great place to shop in Beijing. These are all a haggler’s paradise.
A huge contingency of Europeans were shopping there. Apparently, they fly to China to shop because they can almost offset the price of the trip with the savings. Their first stop is always the luggage area to buy big rolling suitcases. Then they work their way through the market, filling up the suitcase with clothes, pearl jewelry, and other gifts.
Afterwards, we headed to the Kempinski for desert and a stroll through the Lufthansa shopping center which is a modern mall with very high-end merchandise - the real versions of the stuff we were shopping for at Silk Street. This is the nutty dichotomy of China - it’s either the crazy-cheap bazaars OR it’s high-end shopping malls with stores we can’t afford.
In 20 minutes, I am going to step out of 6832 Capital Paradise for the last time, ride my bike to the new house and go to bed. I’m here using the internet connection because the service hasn’t been activated in the new house yet. We’ve moved all of our things to the new house and Lisa has done a great job putting the new home together.
I will always have fond memories of this place because it was home to the extreme joy of our early victories along with the tears of frustration as we made the painful adaptation to life here. Looking at our life now, everything seems really normal and similar to our life in the US. Everything is much less foreign. Are we really back to life-as-usual? Or have we experienced growth that we won’t realize until we return to the US?
It’s very hard to know exactly where you are until you look at where you came from.
Take a moment to study this photo. I shot this from outside of Mrs. Shannen’s cafe in Shunyi. I love this photo because it seems to summarize China. The brand new BMW, the 3 wheel taxi and the sheep grazing in between. If I tried, I could probably get a more artistic shot in Beijing with a mule cart next to a convertible S-class Mercedes with the urban landscape in the background but the fact that this just happened in front of us while having dinner makes it more special.
China seems to be undergoing something akin to the 80s in the US. Conspicuous consumption seems to be alive and well. The housing development next door to this area markets itself with “Live Amongst the World’s Elite” and charges about $9000 / mo. for rent. Imports from Germany cost twice as much here as they do in the US and you rarely see expats driving much more than a Mini-van or an old Jeep Cherokee. A lot of Chinese businessmen are making some serious cash these days. By simple virtue of the population numbers here, a 1% representation of the upper class could represent a million millionaires.