Winter in Beijing

Winter is here - it's cold outside but Chinese traditions are oh so warm. There's no better way to spend a cold winter Sunday than by taking part in chair skating...yes, chair skating. We heard about this uniquely Beijing winter event from a few friends who visited years earlier. The basic idea is simple - get a chair, bolt some rails to it, place on ice and go!















People wanting to take the sport a step further decided to re-jig a bike for ice biking. While we didn't try that one - it did look rather fun.



















The most festive part of the year is almost here - Chinese New Year (CNY). Already we can hear people lighting fireworks all around our building. 6am, 11pm - time of day doesn't matter - all times are fare game when it comes to fireworks. Even though it's very urban, Beijing allows fireworks during the during the Spring Festival (15 days after CNY). Mind you, these aren't those fountains and sparklers you might find back home - some of the fireworks we see on the street are full on professional. It's a it crazy, but people will light 2" morter shells on the side of street. CNY and Spring Festival is looking to be a bit crazy.

Holidays in Beijing

Christmas in Beijing is quite unlike Christmas anywhere else. Granted, Christmas trees and lights decorate most buildings (a surprise to us) and Santa also make passes through the shopping malls. But that's about where the traditional similarities end. On Christmas eve, many people in the city head out to one of the hundreds of lavish dinner parties hosted by hotels, halls and fine restaurants. It's not cheap. We dined at a lower cost event at a cost of about $100USD/head. In a city where average take home is not much more than a few hundred/month - it's a lot to spend on one dinner. One of the premier events charged over $550/head just for dinner. Even considering the relative cost, it was a great dinner and a great way to celebrate in Beijing.

We were fortunate to have Christmas day off. In line with most western companies, Christmas day was designated a holiday. We met up with an American friend for a German brunch complete with pretzels and beer.
Later that night we meet up with our Hong Kong friends for a old Beijing Hot Pot dinner.











Then there was New Years. Not quite sure what to expect, we headed for the one place with lot's of expats and plenty of inexpensive celebratory beverages. To end the year, we had an exquisite french inspired, Beijing style, roast duck. This must have been our 5th or 6th duck since arrival and I'll tell you - each is better than the last.

We ended the year a bit cold yet totally inspired by all we had seen and all the places we visited. The best part of New Year in China is that we get two. Look for more details some time after January 26 - the mark of lunar New Year. We'll be escaping the Beijing cold in Hong Kong.

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.