Xi'an - China's Legacy

Since arriving in China, we've seen more than a movie or two that featured Xi'an as the backdrop. Even Hollywood movies like Mummy3 and "The Myth" feature the area's popular tourist pull - the Terracotta warriors. We wanted to hear what all the fuss was about and so headed to this inland and historical city.

We first explored the city center which featured a Chinese staple - a Bell and Drum tower. The Drum tower had the added bonus of actually allowing you (for a fee) to beat the drum as hard as possible which I was more than delighted to do.



Within the city center, we also noticed a few oddities:
1) Xi'an was the self-described Christmas capital of China. Not sure why, but I'll admit that nearly every store had either a Christmas tree or at least a picture of Santa on the door.


2) colored cabbage - yes, the city was completely decorated in the stuff pictured side.






3) Muslim district - while most of the Muslims long left the city - think cultural revolution - the people left a lasting impression with Chinese style Mosques (pictured left), ultra tasty peanut and walnut cookies and other traditional foods.



4) Lack of foreigners - actually, this is not that special, but I did notice almost a complete lack of laowai with exception of a Cuban event at our hotel that featured 4 imported Cuban musicians.

We had a very traditional Xi'an dinner featuring local dumplings, Chicken and one of the most curious looking deserts ever. I'm not sure what they're called in English, but these tasty treats pictured on left were made with black bean (sweet)and included a handle for portability

However, our real reason for visiting was to see the much older history. One that dates back 5000BC, but possibly much older. We first visited the Shaanxi History Museum that has to be one of the best Chinese Museums. Not only did it have a cross section dating back to every dynasty, a dozen Terracotta Warriors, and artifacts dating to the bronze age, the entire Museum was...Free. It might have been free due to the off season or the fact that the overwhelming scent of drying paint gave us a contact buzz. Anyhow, one of the features of the Museum was a collection of pottery that included ancient Chinese characters. The real amazing part is that we could actually pick out and see the linkage between the characters we're studying and those on the pottery which are estimated between 5000-7000 years old.

We then took an hour drive to the site of one of the most important discoveries in China. Turns out that the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors was totally by accident. Two farmers in 1974 were drilling a new well when up came a bunch of pieces of pottery. Had they drilled a few feet away, the discovery might never have been made. Years later once the site was partially excavated, they discovered that thousands of clay warriors were standing guard to protect the first emperor of China. The majority of the warriors are still buried since authorities are concerned about decay - many of the warriors once uncovered were brightly colored. In all, it was an amazing sight that I won't soon forget.

Cooking, Climbing & Celebrating!

So Pete's informed me that he refuses to do another update until I catch-up on all the entries I've agreed to ... not that I don't want to, we're just very busy!

To go in chronological order, I'll start with the cooking class we took. Hutong Cuisine is a cooking class led by a local (well now she's local, she's originally from Canton in the south of China). She teaches in the courtyard of the Hutong where she lives. Hutongs are the traditional housing in Beijing. They consist of a series of 1 or 2 level brick homes with courtyards, all in rows running north and south, east and west. A wall runs outside the entire area. Once inside the hutong (which refers not just to a single home, but also to all the homes inside the walls), it's incredibly quiet and peaceful - even though a few blocks away are the crazy Beijing streets! Which explains why this cat was so comfy sleeping in the sun on the eaves of the courtyard.



This is us in action with our cleaver knives. These work great, and are surprisingly versatile. Purchased one of our own that weekend!

We learned recipes using the steaming technique. Which is a healthy way to cook. We made steamed fish w/ ginger, chicken with mushrooms and mapo dofu - which is not steamed, but is a common sichuan dish here and is delicious.


The next weekend (or there abouts) we adventured out of the city to the Great Wall. We started at the Jinshanling section and ended at Simitai. It was a good 10km hike, sometimes more of a climb. We were very lucky and had beautiful weather that day, we could see quite far!






We also managed to check out the Olympic venues on a weekend. We started with the Bird's Nest. It's impressive in person!


Once we got inside, we took a seat in the stands (because everyone else was). We thought maybe there was something on that day. Alas, no, everyone was just there hanging out and eating snacks, enjoying their new stadium :)

After we had our fill of staring at the field, we headed towards the Water Cube (just next door). However, due to the crowds we decided we would skip going inside.


Between all of this and Thanksgiving we visited the states. It was great to see everyone!

So, as Pete mentioned on Thanksgiving night we had KFC out of desperation to get something that resembled western-style poultry. Unfortunately, that night they were out of Original Recipe, so we were stuck with New Orleans Hot Wings - which were more like spicy Asian (tasted of soy). Not that I mind that normally, buy if I'm chowing down on KFC it better at least be Original Recipe ... I'm just saying ;)

To make up for this little mis-adventure, we went to a US diner on Friday and had a turkey dinner (similar to the kind you get in grade school cafeteria, but not bad). In our third attempt to celebrate Thanksgiving, and my birthday dinner, we went to the best Peking Duck restaurant in the world (as far as I'm concerned), Da Dong, with some friends. Cherry and Chris are from Hong Kong, so they refer to themselves as Honky. They've been in Beijing for about a year now, and Cherry works with us at KPMG. They're good people, fun and super helpful (we never would have gotten bank accounts w/o Cherry's help). We had a good time - and we were stuffed Thanksgiving-style after this feast!




We had pretty clear weather when we got back, we could see all the way to the mountains. By the way, those are the mountains that the Great Wall runs along the top of. On clear days we say we're having a "mountain day".




On the not-so-clear days one of us will declare: "No mountains today!". We snapped this over the weekend - definitely no mountains. Today there were even less buildings, we could not see past the blue-roofed building.



This is not fog, it's smog. Luckily, it doesn't really smell, you can sometimes feel the residue on your skin if you're outside for very long, but for quick trips in and out it's surprisingly bearable.

I suppose that puts us up to date :) This weekend we're off to Xi'an (pronounced she-ann) to see the Terracotta Warriors!!

Thanksgiving in China (take 2)

Ok, so just as we were feeling bad for foregoing the Turkey and Pumpkin Pie, we decided to try a small Canadian establishment near home. It was Turkey day all over, but this time, the real deal. I'm not going to lie and say it was anything near as good as home (thanks Ralph) but for being in China, Steak and Eggs cooked a decent Turkey and mighty tasty Pumpkin Pie. They even had the Cranberry sides!

We noticed even more Christmas decorations going up today. The mall closest to us set up a massive tree and lights were hung from every tree (and lamppost). Beijing is starting to feel a bit more friendly and certainly more festive.

Thanksgiving in China

Yes, it's Thanksgiving in China. The Christmas lights are going up and the mall decorations are underway for a festive shopping seasons. Mind you, most people don't really know what Christmas is all about. Tonight Noel and I enjoyed the closest thing we could find to an American Turkey for the holiday. Unfortunately, our KFC meal was less than satisfying.

For us it was just another day at work, but it's hard to forget a holiday that you've celebrated for so many years. I have a feeling that Christmas and New Years Eve will be different this year.

People

Here is an interesting thought; there is something very reassuring to knowing that whenever and wherever you go there are people - lots of people - working, playing, eating, cooking, buying, selling and doing everything else making us an active part of society. Beijing, unlike any other place I have been, is the definition of hyper-active. Last Saturday, after dinner around 11pm, there was an armada of people constructing a new skyscraper. Tonight, at 10pm on Friday, there is a crew of about 100 strong refurbishing the building across the street. You can see the welding almost anytime at night...sparks of a city on the move ;-)


CCTV building under construction - not far from our home

Forbidden city

The forbidden city, once restricted to Chinese royalty and dignitaries, this huge city within a city was absolutely beautiful in autumn. Noel and I explored the main buildings and sights for nearly 3 hours, but only saw about 50% of the entire complex.


The buildings are amazing. It was said that over 1 million people built the city from 1406 to 1420 using only simple tools. Still difficult to see how something so complex could be done back in those days.

Detail on the buildings is second to none. Even inside posts where only a select few could see, were decked out in intricate patterns. We were very fortunate that on the day of our visit, few people and, even better, less pollution was noticeable.



Though difficult to describe, you could really get a sense that this is one of those world cultural heritage sites. Something big and important, a long time ago, was at this massive palace and even now, you still get a feeling of imperial royalty.

Stinky Tofu and $0.40 Beer

So Noel has been very anxious to try some healthy Chinese food (it's more difficult to find that you think). We came across this 'healthy' Taiwanese restaurant called Alexander Creek Park not far from our place.

The restaurant is particularly known for it's stinky tofu (臭豆腐). Now, we knew it would smell, but let me tell you - it smelled not dissimilar to rotting garbage or cow shit. Still, we thought that like strong cheese, maybe it has a unique flavor. Unique it was, Noel couldn't finish one piece and a few hours later, I'm still tasting it.


Even after this adventure, the other dishes were absolutely delicious! If you ever come across it, please do try some spicy lotus root.

Oh, and this is an interesting find. Across from our place is a Russian shop that sells amongst other things lot's of cheap vodka and beer. Thought I found the jackpot when I spotted 3RMB (~$0.40USD) 600ML TsingTao beers. The first two were fine and the last two were flat. I noticed that the bottle tops had minor chips which might have let the combination escape. The following day I saw a ton of crates with empty TsingTao beer bottles next to the store. Recycled or re-bottled? I don't know but all I can tell you that I'm only going to buy bottles with the foil wraps from now on...besides, they're only an extra $0.30.

Qingdao - Tsingtao Beer Festival

Ni hao! I don't know why Pete didn't mention our little expedition over the Golden Week, but if you've been looking at our slide show you may be asking the following questions:

Why is there a beach in Beijing?

Why does it look like Oktoberfest?

Why do Pete and Noel have a giant beer tent full of Chinese friends?

Well the answers are as follows:

It's not Beijing, it's Qingdao (home of Tsingtao Chinese beer).

It's the Qingdao beer fest!

Everyone is very friendly in China, especially at beer festivals!!

Qingdao was about an hour's flight from Beijing. We were expecting a seaside city, perhaps the size of Ft. Lauderdale ... instead it turns out to be a 'small' city of 4 million! Also, since it was the holiday week, there had to be at least 6 million there. The buildings in this picture are not the main business district either - that was about twice the size of this area.

Since Qingdao is on the coast, they have a lot of seafood. We ordered up a selection, and got these guys. If anyone has ever seen prawns like this please let us know the proper way to peel them. We did manage to find a way to eat them (after photographing them thoroughly first) - they were delicious.

Oh, and another Qingdao specialty ... beer in bags (we guessed it was about 1.5 lt's worth for about $1).

The festival was HUGE! With many exotic beers from around the world, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon. Of course there was Tsingtao - as well as a good selection of German brands. We ended up in the Hoffbrau House (HB) tent, where we made many new friends!

Our place and Russia

So first things first, we have a place in Beijing - a serviced apartment near the 2nd ring road. For those unfamiliar, Beijing is laid out in concentric roads around the forbidden city. There are a total of 7 and the smaller the number, the close to the forbidden city.

Our place is small but still has a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. The building caters to expats and locals alike which is a bit reassuring as our Mandarin skills are virtually non-existent.



We've very fortunate in that daily maid service is included with our place. Aside from washing some dishes, everything else is taken care of by our team of not one, but three Ayis. On the dishes part, we must have the smallest dishwasher in the world (yes, one bowl takes up 1/4 of the machine).

From Beijing

The service is wonderful but I'm afraid that we'll get too used to this type of service.

For unknown reasons, we've been put up in the Russian district of Beijing. Nearly every nearby building has Russian lettering and most of our neighbors are Russian. It's quite funny as outside our building, people are more likely to speak to us in Russian rather than English or Mandarin. A block or two away houses what must be the biggest fur coat mall in the world - definitely targeted to Russians. The bottom level of our building even houses a Russian bar, sure to serve up lots of Vodka.

Oh, and every night we get a call asking "you want message?" If I answer, a girl asks, and if Noel answers, a guy asks...there is always a slight delay for them to figure out who should talk. They promise to be very cheap, but I don't think we'll ever take up the offer.

China

So, if you're visiting this blog, you'll notice that we really slacked off the last few months in Australia. Work, fun and the ease of facebook.com got to us.

No more...because we're in Beijing China!

Again we visited the question, "why?" The simple answer is, China is next big thing and before it completely changes, we want to know it as a growing, changing nation. Our time here is limited - the commitment is only six months - but we hope in that time, we'll learn something about the way PRC works and plays. We picked Beijing because it's managed to retain much of the Chinese tradition, while also providing us enough work opportunity to make ourselves useful.

We arrived on September 24 and began work the following day. The first few days were full-on with establishing our residence and obtaining forwarded luggage. Fortunately, (and quite unexpectedly) we arrived just before the big national holiday and what's known as 'Golden Week'. Basically, we worked the weekend and got an entire week off in return. National day and Golden Week is akin to the US 4th of July and people from all the remote provinces make there way to the capital city, Beijing. To put things into perspective, some 380,000 foreigners came to Beijing to see the Olympics in August. During national week, an estimated 7 million came to Beijing.

Our first thoughts is that this place is huge and busy. Beijing is home to an estimated 20 million people (officially only 15 million reside) and it's by far the largest city I have ever lived in. People are out all day and night, traffic never really stops and most businesses are open late (10pm or midnight) while some never close. English is much more prevalent than I expected but that may be a result of the recent Olympics.

Check back soon for more updates.

Backlog catch-up #2 - April 2007 (Easter) - Tasmania - by Pete

Tassie Baby!

As a farewell to fall and warm weather, we recently visited the island state of Tasmania. Many people told us Tasmania was an odd yet enchanting place to visit; we certainly weren’t disappointed.

Tasmania is just south of Victoria, about an hour by plane or eight by boat. I’m not one for choppy water so we choose the flight on Qantas. We arrived in the second largest Tasie city of Launceston; yes it’s that crazy city that first bred seahorses in captivity (seriously). Aside from Cataract Gorge, we didn’t find much to see or do in Launceston.

That night we drove out to Cradle Valley, our home for the next four days. The drive itself was a little never racking as we encountered numerous Wombats and Wallabies along the road. Apparently, these critters are most active right at dusk. What was a 90-mile drive took almost 4 hours. A big thing in Australia is to check the pouch of marsupials if hit on the road.

The drive was well worth it. Cradle Valley and Cradle Mountain are absolutely beautiful and are not unlike the Sierras in northern California or the Rockies. Cradle Mountain marks the beginning of the Overland Track, a semi famous 80K bush walk. Pictured in the background is Cradle Mountain, standing tall at 5,069 feet. We were extremely fortunate in that all four days were perfect – no strong wind, no rain and no fog which are typical of the region.

We set out on our first full day hike around Dove lake, pictured in the foreground. Unbeknownst to us, our camera battery was nearly dead and the charger was left at home. Don’t mind if we borrow a few pictures from the Internet (all very accurate representations of what we saw though, as the weather was lovely). All of the tracks were well defined yet several somewhat steep for casual day walkers. The views were well worth our effort.

That night we set out on a wildlife outing. It’s amazing to see all the marsupials set out around dusk. Not far from our Hotel, we found literally hundreds of Wombats and Wallabies. We also made a stop by Devils@cradle www.devilsatcradle.com for an after dark feeding of Tasmanian Devils. I always wondered why they were called devils, but after hearing their screeches and howling, it became apparent those little buggers are viscous. Even so, we got to pet a two year old devil that was brought up in captivity. More and more devils are being brought up in captivity as a deadly facial tumour disease threatens to kill-off the species.

The next day we embarked on an eight-hour hike that included a scramble to the summit of Cradle Mountain. Noel got a little scared of the height and stayed back part way up.

After a few days of hiking and climbing, we headed out of Cradle Valley to Hobart on the south side of Tasmania. Along the way, we made several stops for local Raspberries, scones and Cheese…mumm tasty.

In Hobart, we did a mad dash to all the famous sights – Cadburry, Cascade Brewery, MontAlto winery, Larke Distillery, Fish and Chips and Mt. Wellington.

Starting early, we visited the gigantic Cadburry factory where their dairy milk chocolates are made. After that, we headed over to Montalto winery where equally fine wine is produced. A short dash to Lark distillery, the only whisky distillery in Australia, and we were on to lunch. Perhaps the best fish and chips, bar none, can be found at Fish Frenzy in Hobart. I’ve never tasted such good fish - it was as if the fish was just pulled from the sea.

Cascade beer is one of the best in Australia. So it was no surprise that Pete was excited to see the production facilities.

Uluru

Hello Friends & Family! So sorry it's been awhile. We're going to try to catch-up the blog and then keep up with it from now on. Unfortunately, the blog enforces integrity and I can't back-date it, so we'll just pop the month and year at the top ... it may go a bit out of order as well, but we'll get up to date!


June 2007 - Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Our first night in the middle of the country we went on a camel-ride to sunset. Upon arriving at the camel centre we read up on the history of camels in Australia. They arrived in numbers for the building of the railroads. Once complete, their handlers were ordered to destroy them, but they couldn't bring themselves to - so, they were released into the wild. Today Australia has the largest population of wild camels of anywhere in the world. In fact, exporting tamed camels is quite big business! Of course, there had to be a first camel, and we've posted the story below:
If the resolution of that isn't clear, I'll sum it up. The lone camel accompanied an exploratory mission. Unfortunately, the camel was put down due to his 'alleged' involvement in the death of the leader.

We thought perhaps this was a misprint, so we asked our tour leader who explained that, in fact, the camel was blamed for the gun going off and the dying man's last words were "the camel did it" ... or something like that.

Anyway, on to the ride!


That night we went to a 'bbq it yourself' place:



The next morning, we got up REALLY early to see the sunrise over Uluru. It was chilly as well, around 3C.


When the sun came up it was worth it.

From there, we went to the Aboriginal cultural centre where we met with our guide, Elsie, and our translator, James. We leaned about life in the bush and spiritual teachings.

After our lessons, we took off on our own to walk around the base of the rock. It's a long 9km around, but there are so many interesting bits to see, and it looks really different up close. This 1/2 'tunnel' is in the base of the rock - and it's HUGE!

Later that night we had what would be one of our most memorable dinners in Australia. It was called the sounds of silence dinner and as you can tell, it was outdoors under the stars. The food was great, the temp a bit cold but the dining room made up for that. The dinner was capped with an astronomy lesson featuring the southern sky. Using a giant spotlight, we were able to identify that elusive southern cross.

The next day we headed out to the Olgas - another rock formation some 70k away. After our short car ride, we made for a day long hike within the Olgas. While the nights were cold, the days were anything but. By early afternoon, we were quite exhausted.

Some friends told us not to miss another feature in the middle of nowhere. We headed our car into the outback brush and after a three hour drive through absolutely nothing, we arrived in Kings Canyon. The canyon, unlike Uluru, is made of sandstone. Over many thousands of years, the sands shifted, settled and created these huge rock formations. Water eroded some of those formations leaving behind deep canyons. We did a day hike over and through the canyons on the lookout for roos and other local wildlife.
I never would have expected the middle of the outback - the middle of nothing - to be so interesting, so beautiful and so memorable.