Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Scene While Stuck in Traffic
This is a typical scene in Beijing. Note the residential neighborhood, with an ancient pagoda on the left and an industrial complex stuck in the middle. The haze is constant here from the industrial complexes, lack of wind and miles of concrete without enough grass or trees.
Cabs
One of this site’s fans asked for some pictures about the culture and people of Beijing. So, the format and topics will evolve to cover some of these items vs. the daily log. However, you all should know that the daily routine is captured here accurately. The language barrier extends the timing and effort required to get the simplest things accomplished. It is not like a lot of other activities can or are occurring besides sleeping, working and eating.
Since I spend between 2-4 hours a day in a cab, it might be good to share some initial insights. Beijing is more or less laid out in a grid, but it is a large grid with many shortcuts to go from major street to major street. Until recently, there were three levels (and prices) of cabs: older red cabs were the cheapest, green/brown & blue/brown were average, and black was the most expensive. Now, they all have to charge the same rate. Since the change, there has been a mass exodus/retirement of cab drivers and new, younger ones have flocked to the profession. We have some members of our team who will not get in a red cab; others will not get in a black one. I am starting to put more stringent qualifications on the cabs.
A red cab with a more mature gentleman (I have not seen 1 women cab driver, yet), will get my business every time. I have learned most of my shortcuts, some language lessons in broken English, some facts about the city in English and genuine effort to try to get me to where I am going, even with my strong Delaware Mandarin accent. These are typically the older cabs and cab drivers with the most knowledge. They want to learn from me and I from them. They also tend to be the most tolerant and observant on the road --- a good deterrent for near-death experiences.
Now, if a young man is in a red cab, I will not get in. These tend to be the new cab drivers that cannot afford the basic new cab. When you get in, they turn around and ask for the “best route”..uhh, I thought I was getting a cab so I didn’t have to think about the best route.
In the newer cabs (green/blue), older gentlemen again get my business for the same reasons. The younger guys tend to be more aggressive and death defying.
The black cabs (if they will pick us up) tend to have the best English and the most talkative to practice their English. Our biggest challenge is communicating with a cab driver. Usually, the doorman at that hotel translates your destination to the cab driver, gives you a card with directions back to the Hotel in Mandarin and off you go. Once you hit the streets, you are at the mercy of the driver. I have been trying to learn the name of my hotel so I can get a cab anywhere. Grand Hyatt translates to Dong Feng Jun Yue, but you literally have to get the pronunciation of tones correct for anyone to understand. Jun goes down and Yue goes up. Again, with my strong Delaware accent, I have been tonally challenged in my quest to communicate. So I pull out my little card and the driver repeats the name. My usual response is, “That’s exactly what I said!”. Anyway, I finally got a language lesson from our cab driver in the black cab this weekend. He explained to me the Yue means Moon and I need to go up in the tone. And Jun needs to go down. Dong means East, yada yada. Then while I am practicing and he is correcting me and while he is driving down a 4 lane crowded street, he says that he will write out the pronunciation for me. Keep in mind he is driving and swerving while writing this. The attached photo is the pronunciation guide that I got from him to help me get back to my hotel. We have had a good laugh over this.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thu – Aug 24
My day started by being snubbed by the first 3 cabs in line at the hotel, who did not “know” where the office was when asked by the doorman. I jumped in the back of the 4th cab, handed him the direction card and pointed forcefully straight ahead without waiting for the translation by the doorman – it worked. As he started to turn the wrong way out of the hotel, I utilized my newly learned Mandarin words from a colleague of Left, Right and Straight Ahead. I took the cab driver down one of my favorite short cuts between 2 hutongs that is a one-lane road with 2-way traffic. It is a game of chicken with one car/bicycle/pedestrian veering onto the tiny sidewalk at the last minute as the distance closes between the oncoming traffic. This alleyway is about halfway to the office. The cab driver decided to get even with me by doing the Beijing Weave through traffic (basically, passing everything in sight from all sides, accelerating up to red lights, swerving in front of and around bicycles, etc). We made it to the office in 20 minutes and he only corrected my accent on directions 3 times; I did not require any caffeine for the morning since my adrenalin was already pumping full force. I consider this a success for the start of the day.
The morning work was uneventful. It is easy to tell when it is lunchtime, though. The email traffic slowly dies down as the East Coast goes to bed and by noon, the only messages are from our team to each other. It must be Lunchtime!
We are in a brand new building (the paint is still wet), so the café is temporary. As you get off the elevator, you have 3 choices the 10 RMB ($1.25US), the 15 RMB ($1.88US) or the 25 RMB ($3.13US) cafeteria lines. We have been doing the 15 RMB line; the 25 RMB may have pizza or some other western food choice, but that is the only difference we can discern so far. You pay with a stored value card (getting one is a challenge without a translator), but very easy to use. The scene is straight out of Escape From Alcatraz. You get a compartmented tray/plate, you walk down the line and scoop various dishes onto your tray, grab chopsticks and a drink and head for portable tables and stools in an unpainted, uncarpeted room. The food has been very good, but you need to eat around noon. The trays of food start hot, but are not really warmed. The longer you wait to eat, the colder it gets. Each dish is labeled with a Mandarin and English card. Today was especially memorable; the main entrée was “Pig Trotters”. Now, I am the biggest pork fan that ever lived. I will go out of my way to sample and eat good pork ribs. I had a hard time with the Pig Trotters; I could not find a decent amount of meat on them. I had mostly rice and some beans for lunch.
As the workday ended, I headed to the Jennie Lou’s market to get more breakfast foods (cheese and crackers) and dinner foods (crackers and cheese and Nutella).
The other time that is easy to recognize is 8pm. This is like the scene in Trading Places where Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy are preparing for trading to begin on the floor of the stock exchange by combing their hair in the Men’s Room before the frantic day begins. At 7:45pm, usually as we are finishing dinner, the blackberries become active again as the East Coast wakes up. Now, for most of our day (wee hours of the morning on the East Coast), we have been pumping emails and requests into peoples’ inboxes. Between 8 and 8:10pm, every single person usually replies to our sent emails. So in a matter of minutes we end up with 50 or so messages and our “second shift” now begins. Tonight was no different as I had an “8 o’clock” conference call (8am EDT / 8 pm BJ time). The “second shift” ends after 11pm and I call it a night.
The morning work was uneventful. It is easy to tell when it is lunchtime, though. The email traffic slowly dies down as the East Coast goes to bed and by noon, the only messages are from our team to each other. It must be Lunchtime!
We are in a brand new building (the paint is still wet), so the café is temporary. As you get off the elevator, you have 3 choices the 10 RMB ($1.25US), the 15 RMB ($1.88US) or the 25 RMB ($3.13US) cafeteria lines. We have been doing the 15 RMB line; the 25 RMB may have pizza or some other western food choice, but that is the only difference we can discern so far. You pay with a stored value card (getting one is a challenge without a translator), but very easy to use. The scene is straight out of Escape From Alcatraz. You get a compartmented tray/plate, you walk down the line and scoop various dishes onto your tray, grab chopsticks and a drink and head for portable tables and stools in an unpainted, uncarpeted room. The food has been very good, but you need to eat around noon. The trays of food start hot, but are not really warmed. The longer you wait to eat, the colder it gets. Each dish is labeled with a Mandarin and English card. Today was especially memorable; the main entrée was “Pig Trotters”. Now, I am the biggest pork fan that ever lived. I will go out of my way to sample and eat good pork ribs. I had a hard time with the Pig Trotters; I could not find a decent amount of meat on them. I had mostly rice and some beans for lunch.
As the workday ended, I headed to the Jennie Lou’s market to get more breakfast foods (cheese and crackers) and dinner foods (crackers and cheese and Nutella).
The other time that is easy to recognize is 8pm. This is like the scene in Trading Places where Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy are preparing for trading to begin on the floor of the stock exchange by combing their hair in the Men’s Room before the frantic day begins. At 7:45pm, usually as we are finishing dinner, the blackberries become active again as the East Coast wakes up. Now, for most of our day (wee hours of the morning on the East Coast), we have been pumping emails and requests into peoples’ inboxes. Between 8 and 8:10pm, every single person usually replies to our sent emails. So in a matter of minutes we end up with 50 or so messages and our “second shift” now begins. Tonight was no different as I had an “8 o’clock” conference call (8am EDT / 8 pm BJ time). The “second shift” ends after 11pm and I call it a night.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Wed – Aug 23
A warm, hazy day is emerging in bustling Beijing. I got up earlier to see if the commute would be easier. Breakfast is some cheese on saltines and I try some of the juices that I bought. I thought it was strawberry juice, but it tasted more like tomato (not one of my favorites). A closer look at the label revealed tomato, strawberry and carrots. Note to self, NEVER buy that again. I then pulled out a carrot, orange and something-I-didn’t-recognize that was really good.
As I wait in line for a cab at the lobby, I am beginning to put a pattern together of cab life. Most people get in the next cab in line, and are usually heading for the airport. When I ask to go to some other point in the city, most cabbies say they don’t know where it is. It takes me 3-4 cabs to get a driver willing to take me to my destination. That being said, I have now been in the city 5 days and find myself giving the cab drivers directions (via pointing and grunting) on where to go. Today, I had the cab driver re-trace the back route to the office and almost got there in 15 minutes. Unfortunately for me, Beijing’s traffic patterns with jug handles make New Jersey look like kids play and we overshot the building. It took us 30 minutes to double back. Somehow, I think that the cabbies just want the airport runs to get better fares.
As I wait in line for a cab at the lobby, I am beginning to put a pattern together of cab life. Most people get in the next cab in line, and are usually heading for the airport. When I ask to go to some other point in the city, most cabbies say they don’t know where it is. It takes me 3-4 cabs to get a driver willing to take me to my destination. That being said, I have now been in the city 5 days and find myself giving the cab drivers directions (via pointing and grunting) on where to go. Today, I had the cab driver re-trace the back route to the office and almost got there in 15 minutes. Unfortunately for me, Beijing’s traffic patterns with jug handles make New Jersey look like kids play and we overshot the building. It took us 30 minutes to double back. Somehow, I think that the cabbies just want the airport runs to get better fares.
Tue – Aug 22
5:30am – I awake to the honking of a taxicab outside. Go to the gym and come back to try my recently purchased mystery breakfast dishes. I assemble the dried contents and come to the conclusion that one of the packets that I open looks and smells like beef jerky. I make the congee and have it with a cup of oolong tea. It is really pork, not beef. Not a bad meal. I’ll have to get more of the pork bowls.
My trip to the office (only a couple of miles) takes 45 minutes in rush hour traffic. I am going to leave earlier tomorrow. The day is spent setting up our desks, having a planning meeting, meeting with our partner and resolving issues. I leave the office late and need to get back to the hotel for a conference call. Instead of taking the busy thoroughfares, my cab driver takes me through some small back alleys and we burst out near a beautiful park north of the Forbidden City. As we make our way south, we come to the northeast corner of the Forbidden City where dozens of photographers are taking pictures of the sunset behind the walls. It is a beautiful scene that zips by before I can get my camera out. I get to the hotel with 30 minutes to go before a phone call and am trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. I am too tired to deal with communicating what I want to eat. I head back to the room and have peanut butter on saltines for dinner. My conference call ends after 9pm Beijing time. There was an article today in the WSJ about jobs in Asia are really 24/7, based on the East coast time zone and action generated from it. I felt like I was living in the article today.
My trip to the office (only a couple of miles) takes 45 minutes in rush hour traffic. I am going to leave earlier tomorrow. The day is spent setting up our desks, having a planning meeting, meeting with our partner and resolving issues. I leave the office late and need to get back to the hotel for a conference call. Instead of taking the busy thoroughfares, my cab driver takes me through some small back alleys and we burst out near a beautiful park north of the Forbidden City. As we make our way south, we come to the northeast corner of the Forbidden City where dozens of photographers are taking pictures of the sunset behind the walls. It is a beautiful scene that zips by before I can get my camera out. I get to the hotel with 30 minutes to go before a phone call and am trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. I am too tired to deal with communicating what I want to eat. I head back to the room and have peanut butter on saltines for dinner. My conference call ends after 9pm Beijing time. There was an article today in the WSJ about jobs in Asia are really 24/7, based on the East coast time zone and action generated from it. I felt like I was living in the article today.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Mon - Aug 21
5:30am – I am finally over jet lag and wake up refreshed and ready to go.
We were supposed to start work in the firm office today, but the schools where all of the kids go are closed due to a lack of water, so we have postponed our meetings today.
The morning was spent doing some work in the hotel room. The real adventure came in the afternoon: getting a bank account and getting a Chinese mobile phone. I cannot think of a better way to spend my afternoon!
To get my energy up and get out of the hotel on a beautiful, windy day, I decided to wander down the Wangfujing Dajie mall where many tourists come to shop. At the end of the mall, I found a small Chinese Dumpling store packed with people eating lunch. All of them were Asian, so I figured that it must be good. As I sat down to order and the Mandarin menu with no pictures was placed in front of me, I realized why there were no westerners in the restaurant. I proceeded to point to three lines where I recognized the meat symbol and asked for 2 of each. The waitress patiently sat there with her pen poised to her sheet of paper with an unblinking stare. I tried it again. She still stood there unmoving. I shrugged my shoulders and she let loose a barrage of Mandarin. I smiled and shrugged again. A nice man at the next table leaned over and said in English, “the minimum order is 5 dumplings per type. She does not believe that you want 30 dumplings, but she has seen smaller people eat more than 30 dumplings. Do you really want thirty?” He helped me get my 6 dumplings of pork and celery, which cost me $.50US. This is how I learned what “San Shi” means…30. And for those of you counting, 5 dumplings would have been plenty; they should replace the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest with a dumpling eating competition. 30 would have been amazing!
On my stroll back to the hotel, I wandered into a large bookstore and headed for the children’s section. Every kindergarten child learns how to read, so there must be some good books I could use to help me learn Mandarin. I bought 3 literary classics to help me recognize symbols and learn pronunciations. My colleagues were making fun of my choice of “Bugs and Slugs”, but I have an ulterior motive that I will save for later.
I met my Mandarin / English literate host, who is helping me through the banking and cell phone experience and we set off on our excellent adventure. First was the bank account. China is a mostly cash based economy. My main method of getting Renminbi is an ATM withdrawal from my corporate credit card or my personal debit card. Each method has a different fee structure. I could also wire money to an account, which has a different fee structure. At the end of the day, it makes more sense to make fewer, larger withdrawals than more frequent, smaller ones based on the various fees. However, I am not comfortable carrying such large amounts of cash. So, depositing larger withdrawals in a RMB account and accessing via a debit card or Chinese ATM for a tiny fee makes more sense. I go to the ATM machine in the lobby and withdraw RMB from my US account. Now comes the fun part. The bank account setup process form is in Mandarin, my name does not even come close to fitting in the small box on the form, much less my signature. The teller lines at the bank and guards in the lobby make it a much different environment than a US bank lobby. I get my account setup, deposit my newly withdrawn RMB and am handed a debit/ATM card as I leave. It does not have my name on it; I must enter my 6 digit PIN and Sign at the POS every time I use it. Actually, a less painless experience than the US, but it would have been brutal if I had not had a translator with me.
Off we go to get a local cell phone. I will never, ever complain about Verizon or Cingular service ever again. This is would make a great Laurel and Hardy sketch. First, you pick out your cellphone model, and wait in line and buy it. My translator is sticking her SIM card in the phone to make sure it works. Then you need a SIM card to make it work (assign it a number). So you pick and buy the number with 50 minutes on it. Then we test the SIM card and phone (all features: dial, receive, SMS, Voicemail, yada yada yada). Then comes my favorite part…can you switch the menu to English so I can use it?…Now comes the better part. Monthly billing doesn’t exist. You buy prepaid cards and load minutes onto your phone. So I purchase the prepaid card and ask what the next step is? The reply was to follow the directions on the back of the card. I should have seen this coming, but I fell right into the trap…I turned over the card and it was in Mandarin. I was not amused. However, an unmistakable phone number leapt off of the card at me and Option 2 is English after it picks up…I had reloaded my phone with more minutes and was ready to go. 2 hours, 1 bank account and 1 cell phone later, I was a happy camper!
The night only got better as a colleague found a western grocery store that carried peanut butter for $2.50US vs. my $11 previous find. I also got Nutella and sleeve of Ritz crackers for reasonable prices. Now I just need something to put them on besides crackers. Bread is sold in 4 slice packages. It lasts less than 24 hours due to no preservatives. The same store sold DVDs for $1.50US (region 9). So I got 5 to entertain me.
Not a bad Monday…I went to bed sounding out and trying to translate “Bugs and Slugs”…
We were supposed to start work in the firm office today, but the schools where all of the kids go are closed due to a lack of water, so we have postponed our meetings today.
The morning was spent doing some work in the hotel room. The real adventure came in the afternoon: getting a bank account and getting a Chinese mobile phone. I cannot think of a better way to spend my afternoon!
To get my energy up and get out of the hotel on a beautiful, windy day, I decided to wander down the Wangfujing Dajie mall where many tourists come to shop. At the end of the mall, I found a small Chinese Dumpling store packed with people eating lunch. All of them were Asian, so I figured that it must be good. As I sat down to order and the Mandarin menu with no pictures was placed in front of me, I realized why there were no westerners in the restaurant. I proceeded to point to three lines where I recognized the meat symbol and asked for 2 of each. The waitress patiently sat there with her pen poised to her sheet of paper with an unblinking stare. I tried it again. She still stood there unmoving. I shrugged my shoulders and she let loose a barrage of Mandarin. I smiled and shrugged again. A nice man at the next table leaned over and said in English, “the minimum order is 5 dumplings per type. She does not believe that you want 30 dumplings, but she has seen smaller people eat more than 30 dumplings. Do you really want thirty?” He helped me get my 6 dumplings of pork and celery, which cost me $.50US. This is how I learned what “San Shi” means…30. And for those of you counting, 5 dumplings would have been plenty; they should replace the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest with a dumpling eating competition. 30 would have been amazing!
On my stroll back to the hotel, I wandered into a large bookstore and headed for the children’s section. Every kindergarten child learns how to read, so there must be some good books I could use to help me learn Mandarin. I bought 3 literary classics to help me recognize symbols and learn pronunciations. My colleagues were making fun of my choice of “Bugs and Slugs”, but I have an ulterior motive that I will save for later.
I met my Mandarin / English literate host, who is helping me through the banking and cell phone experience and we set off on our excellent adventure. First was the bank account. China is a mostly cash based economy. My main method of getting Renminbi is an ATM withdrawal from my corporate credit card or my personal debit card. Each method has a different fee structure. I could also wire money to an account, which has a different fee structure. At the end of the day, it makes more sense to make fewer, larger withdrawals than more frequent, smaller ones based on the various fees. However, I am not comfortable carrying such large amounts of cash. So, depositing larger withdrawals in a RMB account and accessing via a debit card or Chinese ATM for a tiny fee makes more sense. I go to the ATM machine in the lobby and withdraw RMB from my US account. Now comes the fun part. The bank account setup process form is in Mandarin, my name does not even come close to fitting in the small box on the form, much less my signature. The teller lines at the bank and guards in the lobby make it a much different environment than a US bank lobby. I get my account setup, deposit my newly withdrawn RMB and am handed a debit/ATM card as I leave. It does not have my name on it; I must enter my 6 digit PIN and Sign at the POS every time I use it. Actually, a less painless experience than the US, but it would have been brutal if I had not had a translator with me.
Off we go to get a local cell phone. I will never, ever complain about Verizon or Cingular service ever again. This is would make a great Laurel and Hardy sketch. First, you pick out your cellphone model, and wait in line and buy it. My translator is sticking her SIM card in the phone to make sure it works. Then you need a SIM card to make it work (assign it a number). So you pick and buy the number with 50 minutes on it. Then we test the SIM card and phone (all features: dial, receive, SMS, Voicemail, yada yada yada). Then comes my favorite part…can you switch the menu to English so I can use it?…Now comes the better part. Monthly billing doesn’t exist. You buy prepaid cards and load minutes onto your phone. So I purchase the prepaid card and ask what the next step is? The reply was to follow the directions on the back of the card. I should have seen this coming, but I fell right into the trap…I turned over the card and it was in Mandarin. I was not amused. However, an unmistakable phone number leapt off of the card at me and Option 2 is English after it picks up…I had reloaded my phone with more minutes and was ready to go. 2 hours, 1 bank account and 1 cell phone later, I was a happy camper!
The night only got better as a colleague found a western grocery store that carried peanut butter for $2.50US vs. my $11 previous find. I also got Nutella and sleeve of Ritz crackers for reasonable prices. Now I just need something to put them on besides crackers. Bread is sold in 4 slice packages. It lasts less than 24 hours due to no preservatives. The same store sold DVDs for $1.50US (region 9). So I got 5 to entertain me.
Not a bad Monday…I went to bed sounding out and trying to translate “Bugs and Slugs”…
Sun - Aug 20
4am. I can’t get back to sleep after 6 hours. My cellphone works, but email has now stopped. So I log onto the system and start clearing out email. I want to find a real grocery store today; I got a name from my colleagues. Based on the challenges with directions yesterday, I start the day on the web looking up the locations of the 5 Carrefour stores to see which is closest. This brings up the second major challenge here. When you hit the internet from the hotel room, the ‘net thinks you are in hong kong and defaults everything to Mandarin. So when get to the Carrefour site, it is in Mandarin. They do have an English site, but most English sites are not as robust as the Mandarin sites and this is true for Carrefour. So I use our next most useful tool: Google Language Tools. If the guy who invented this was with me right now, I would buy him dinner and beverages for life! It is wonderful. Anyway, I have google translate the mandarin site for me and I start looking up the addresses and locations. Now, if the google tools could only translate map pictures….
I pull out the best map of Beijing (these are not to scale and do not include all streets or street names) that we can find and start the word search puzzle of matching symbols to streets and vice versa. I am able to plot 4 of the 5 sites in about an hour.
Later, I take the marked up map down to the bell captain and the cabbie and we figure out the closest/fastest one to go to. If I had not done the homework, I would have been stuck again, since no one knew where these stores were.
When I get to Carrefour, I am amazed. It takes up half of a city block and is 4 floors tall. It is like a Target / Walmart, but also has other stores on the bottom level. The coolest part was taking the shopping carts up and down the moving ramps between floors. I traveled through the entire complex looking at prices of everything from socks, pants, clothes, and electronics to food. There really is a big difference between the native and imported goods.
When I got to the food floor, you could hear a commotion in the produce / meat section on the far end..it was more like cheering and bidding. I decided to save that for last and tour the other aisles. The goal was to get breakfast food so I did not have to buy the expensive hotel breakfasts every morning and see what the dinner options might be, in case I get tired of restaurants. Frozen breakfast foods were not at this store, English muffins did not exist and I do not have a toaster. I found the breakfast aisle and the choices were expensive oatmeal ($10), sesame and plum paste, and some instant noodle and congee bowls. I opted for the instant noodle and congee bowls. I have no idea what flavor they are, but they do contain meat (rou) since I know that character.
I also got a case of Diet Coke and seltzer water and then bought a sampling of the various fruit juice choices which are abundant here: orange, carrot/peach, apple, carrot/banana, etc. I will see what is good and what is not.
I then headed to the dinner section and found some instant noodles and soup. The directions will be challenging since they are in Mandarin and I am not quite sure what flavors I got. I have learned the symbol for jellyfish and eel and try to make sure that they are not on the label. And I splurged on $3 Knorr’s corn and chicken soup.
I then head to the produce and meat area to see what is going on. The meat / butcher area is self-serve. The butcher ground up meat, veal, beef, etc and puts it in big tubs. If you want dumpling mix, you grab the trowel and fill your bag your self and hand it to the butcher to weigh and mark.
I get to the seafood area and again amazed. Most of the fish are alive in big fish tanks. There are nets there and a fishmonger. You catch your own fish and put it in a bag and hand it to the fishmonger. He will gut it for you, if desired. I saw people use the nets and then there were some real pros that put a plastic bag over their hands, reached into the tank, snagged a fish and reversed the bag in one motion. It was amazing to watch. There were also live prawn tubs with the prawns jumping out and live crab tubs with crabs escaping. There were boys and girls chasing the escapees down and putting them back in the tubs.
I got to the deli counter and found the commotion. Throughout the store are people preparing different products having you try them to spur sales. At the deli counter, the hawker was auctioning off her stuff as people order similar competing products. It was almost a carnival atmosphere. She inevitably made the sale and everyone was having fun.
I found the roast duck area as well, where the butcher was carving to order. There were 50 or so ducks laid out. You point and tell him what you want, the knife flies and the meat goes one way and the carcass the other. It was interesting to watch.
While I stand out as a minority over here, my case of Diet Coke appeared to get the most attention in my cart today. Every one stared at it. Even the check out clerk was gesturing to make sure that I wanted all 24 bottles.
I met some colleagues for dinner last night in a nice courtyard restaurant. We had mushrooms, fish and tofu, Chinese broccoli, and some really sweet dough. Total bill for 4 of us to eat was $30US. We then went to the Hou Hai area where there is a lake with many nightclubs and patios around the lake. It is more like a European café setting where everyone strolls around the lake listening to the entertainment while there are people trying to get you inside or sit on the patio to charge you for listening.
I then came back in another wild cab ride to the hotel and crashed into bed at 10pm.
I pull out the best map of Beijing (these are not to scale and do not include all streets or street names) that we can find and start the word search puzzle of matching symbols to streets and vice versa. I am able to plot 4 of the 5 sites in about an hour.
Later, I take the marked up map down to the bell captain and the cabbie and we figure out the closest/fastest one to go to. If I had not done the homework, I would have been stuck again, since no one knew where these stores were.
When I get to Carrefour, I am amazed. It takes up half of a city block and is 4 floors tall. It is like a Target / Walmart, but also has other stores on the bottom level. The coolest part was taking the shopping carts up and down the moving ramps between floors. I traveled through the entire complex looking at prices of everything from socks, pants, clothes, and electronics to food. There really is a big difference between the native and imported goods.
When I got to the food floor, you could hear a commotion in the produce / meat section on the far end..it was more like cheering and bidding. I decided to save that for last and tour the other aisles. The goal was to get breakfast food so I did not have to buy the expensive hotel breakfasts every morning and see what the dinner options might be, in case I get tired of restaurants. Frozen breakfast foods were not at this store, English muffins did not exist and I do not have a toaster. I found the breakfast aisle and the choices were expensive oatmeal ($10), sesame and plum paste, and some instant noodle and congee bowls. I opted for the instant noodle and congee bowls. I have no idea what flavor they are, but they do contain meat (rou) since I know that character.
I also got a case of Diet Coke and seltzer water and then bought a sampling of the various fruit juice choices which are abundant here: orange, carrot/peach, apple, carrot/banana, etc. I will see what is good and what is not.
I then headed to the dinner section and found some instant noodles and soup. The directions will be challenging since they are in Mandarin and I am not quite sure what flavors I got. I have learned the symbol for jellyfish and eel and try to make sure that they are not on the label. And I splurged on $3 Knorr’s corn and chicken soup.
I then head to the produce and meat area to see what is going on. The meat / butcher area is self-serve. The butcher ground up meat, veal, beef, etc and puts it in big tubs. If you want dumpling mix, you grab the trowel and fill your bag your self and hand it to the butcher to weigh and mark.
I get to the seafood area and again amazed. Most of the fish are alive in big fish tanks. There are nets there and a fishmonger. You catch your own fish and put it in a bag and hand it to the fishmonger. He will gut it for you, if desired. I saw people use the nets and then there were some real pros that put a plastic bag over their hands, reached into the tank, snagged a fish and reversed the bag in one motion. It was amazing to watch. There were also live prawn tubs with the prawns jumping out and live crab tubs with crabs escaping. There were boys and girls chasing the escapees down and putting them back in the tubs.
I got to the deli counter and found the commotion. Throughout the store are people preparing different products having you try them to spur sales. At the deli counter, the hawker was auctioning off her stuff as people order similar competing products. It was almost a carnival atmosphere. She inevitably made the sale and everyone was having fun.
I found the roast duck area as well, where the butcher was carving to order. There were 50 or so ducks laid out. You point and tell him what you want, the knife flies and the meat goes one way and the carcass the other. It was interesting to watch.
While I stand out as a minority over here, my case of Diet Coke appeared to get the most attention in my cart today. Every one stared at it. Even the check out clerk was gesturing to make sure that I wanted all 24 bottles.
I met some colleagues for dinner last night in a nice courtyard restaurant. We had mushrooms, fish and tofu, Chinese broccoli, and some really sweet dough. Total bill for 4 of us to eat was $30US. We then went to the Hou Hai area where there is a lake with many nightclubs and patios around the lake. It is more like a European café setting where everyone strolls around the lake listening to the entertainment while there are people trying to get you inside or sit on the patio to charge you for listening.
I then came back in another wild cab ride to the hotel and crashed into bed at 10pm.
Sat - Aug 19
3:00am – I wake up and cannot get back to sleep. The TV has Terminator 3, followed by Caddyshack in English with mandarin subtitles. By 5:30am, I am ready to do something else. In the past 24 hours, I have watched 5 movies, read a complete book and numerous magazines. I put on my exercise gear and head outside. The hotel is a couple of blocks from Tian’anmen Square, so I decide to jog over to see the presumed empty square. First, a block in Beijing is deceiving. It is very long, almost akin to 2 long blocks in New York City. When I got to Tian’anmen Square, it was packed with people. It was around 70 degrees and there were tons of kids flying kites, some shaped as eagles, others with multiple kites tied together. There were other groups of people exercising and others picnicking for breakfast. I was truly amazed at the number of people up and out before 6am.
I spent the morning on the phone with Cingular trying to get my cellphone to work and exploring the shops and area around the hotel to find a grocery store and see the different restaurants. A good example of the language barrier came with the hunt for a grocery store. I stopped at the front desk and asked for a “grocery store”. The hotel has a Chinese staff, but everyone is multilingual based on the clientele, if you get a French or German literate staff person, they quickly switch and get an English speaking person. However, the term “grocery” is foreign to them. So I got an interesting stare. I then asked for the nearest market and they pointed down a block to an open air area where people sell goods (not food). So I then asked where I could buy food and drinks and they told me about all of the different restaurants in the hotel. So I asked where I could buy food that I could prepare in my kitchen and they finally understood and gave me directions to a gourmet market in the mall attached to the hotel.
Food prices were interesting – 16 slices of Kraft American cheese $8US, a jar pf peanut butter is $11, a small box of Rice Krispies is $6US, Tsing Tao Beer is $0.40, Budweiser is $3.
I got some candy and sweets as a house warming presents for some colleague's children, who I am going to see in the afternoon. I spent the afternoon at the pool of their housing complex outside of Beijing. Getting there was another interesting challenge. I went to the Hotel bellman and asked if he knew where the community was and to get a cab there. He did not. So I went back to the room, fired up the computer, and looked up the address and wrote it down (in English). I took it back to the bell captain and we translated my address to see if he knew where it was. Abbreviations like “Rd” messed him up. After talking to 2 cab drivers, one volunteered to take me there. The cab driver did not know English. I made sure that I had my mandarin card that can get me back to the hotel and off we went. The cab was very good and got me to the community.
We spent the hot afternoon in the pool, literally, and then had dinner at the onsite Chinese restaurant. For the kids, it was their first Chinese restaurant experience and they were all good sports about it.
I got a cab home after dinner and then again tried to stay up until 10pm to power through the jet lag.
I spent the morning on the phone with Cingular trying to get my cellphone to work and exploring the shops and area around the hotel to find a grocery store and see the different restaurants. A good example of the language barrier came with the hunt for a grocery store. I stopped at the front desk and asked for a “grocery store”. The hotel has a Chinese staff, but everyone is multilingual based on the clientele, if you get a French or German literate staff person, they quickly switch and get an English speaking person. However, the term “grocery” is foreign to them. So I got an interesting stare. I then asked for the nearest market and they pointed down a block to an open air area where people sell goods (not food). So I then asked where I could buy food and drinks and they told me about all of the different restaurants in the hotel. So I asked where I could buy food that I could prepare in my kitchen and they finally understood and gave me directions to a gourmet market in the mall attached to the hotel.
Food prices were interesting – 16 slices of Kraft American cheese $8US, a jar pf peanut butter is $11, a small box of Rice Krispies is $6US, Tsing Tao Beer is $0.40, Budweiser is $3.
I got some candy and sweets as a house warming presents for some colleague's children, who I am going to see in the afternoon. I spent the afternoon at the pool of their housing complex outside of Beijing. Getting there was another interesting challenge. I went to the Hotel bellman and asked if he knew where the community was and to get a cab there. He did not. So I went back to the room, fired up the computer, and looked up the address and wrote it down (in English). I took it back to the bell captain and we translated my address to see if he knew where it was. Abbreviations like “Rd” messed him up. After talking to 2 cab drivers, one volunteered to take me there. The cab driver did not know English. I made sure that I had my mandarin card that can get me back to the hotel and off we went. The cab was very good and got me to the community.
We spent the hot afternoon in the pool, literally, and then had dinner at the onsite Chinese restaurant. For the kids, it was their first Chinese restaurant experience and they were all good sports about it.
I got a cab home after dinner and then again tried to stay up until 10pm to power through the jet lag.
Thu / Fri - Aug 17/18
The day begins at 3am on Thursday morning on a beautiful night in Bethany Beach, DE. Since the bomb scare and extra precautions at the airport, my travel plans had an audible at the line of scrimmage the day before. Instead of taking a train at 8am from Wilmington, I had to meet a car at 6:30 am to take me to New York. We got to Newark Airport by 8:30am and I was through security with luggage checked by 8:45am. My plane leaves at noon. The rest of the morning was spent staying awake and cleaning out emails.
The plane leaves on time and we have a long, uneventful flight to Beijing – flying over Canada, north of Alaska, over Siberia and then down into China. As I passed over Ontario, I was able to see Magentawan and Rhoades Island on Ahmic Lake. We arrive on time in Beijing at 2:30pm Fri – Aug 18 (2:30am Fri Aug 18 in DE). I slept about 4 hours on the plane, so this is a long day. I cleared customs and loaded into a cab with a driver who speaks no English on a hot, hazy and smoggy afternoon. I have a piece of paper with the name of the hotel and we start on our drive at 4pm. Traffic on Friday afternoons is horrific and my cab driver was determined to get me to my hotel quickly – weaving in and out of traffic, blaring his horn, using the shoulder to pass, etc. I was looking out the back window and ignoring my near death experience. I get to the hotel in one piece after a little over an hour in the cab (total bill = $12US).
Now my goal is to stay awake until 10pm to get over jet lag. 5 hours to go – spent unpacking, working out in the gym, having dinner (sushi in the hotel restaurant) and collapsing at 10pm. Elapsed time since leaving Bethany Beach is 31 hours. Number of hours spent sleeping is 4.
The plane leaves on time and we have a long, uneventful flight to Beijing – flying over Canada, north of Alaska, over Siberia and then down into China. As I passed over Ontario, I was able to see Magentawan and Rhoades Island on Ahmic Lake. We arrive on time in Beijing at 2:30pm Fri – Aug 18 (2:30am Fri Aug 18 in DE). I slept about 4 hours on the plane, so this is a long day. I cleared customs and loaded into a cab with a driver who speaks no English on a hot, hazy and smoggy afternoon. I have a piece of paper with the name of the hotel and we start on our drive at 4pm. Traffic on Friday afternoons is horrific and my cab driver was determined to get me to my hotel quickly – weaving in and out of traffic, blaring his horn, using the shoulder to pass, etc. I was looking out the back window and ignoring my near death experience. I get to the hotel in one piece after a little over an hour in the cab (total bill = $12US).
Now my goal is to stay awake until 10pm to get over jet lag. 5 hours to go – spent unpacking, working out in the gym, having dinner (sushi in the hotel restaurant) and collapsing at 10pm. Elapsed time since leaving Bethany Beach is 31 hours. Number of hours spent sleeping is 4.
