Wanting to buy by the wall....

See below for Mark's overview of the weekend and our very own translation of Changcheng.

Having read many reviews about how to get to the wall (and back) we caught a bus about ten minutes from our flat for 1,40 Euro to Miyun (after one of the 'volunteers' told us that it would be far better for us to spend 60 Euros on a driver). Miyun is a bit of a boring place but the closest you can get from that bus station. There we haggled for a driver to Jinshangling. Afetr several attempts to walk off, we got them down to the guide book price (what would we do without these guiding bibles), the woman drove us all the way up to the wall through some quite remote villages and past the Miyun lake that provides parts of Beijing's drinking water.

We then got our tickets and started climbing up to the Great Wall. What an amazing view!!!! As far as we could see the wall stretches on he mountain summits and used to part Inner Mongolia and China. I took about 90 photos along the way and I don' think a single one can describe the majestic views we encountered yesterday.

We were extremely lucky with the weather too, nothing but sunshine and about 18 degrees, perfect for this walk. After having scared off some of the souvenir sellers (there weren't very many and their selling techniques are very questionable, capitalism has clearly not reached the wall yet), we could enjoy the walk with almost nobody around. One old lady followed us with her souvenir bag and water bottles and wanted to sell us all sorts until she gave up by asking "You walk Simatai, if I walk with you, you buy souvenir?" I would have probably thought about getting something just not to be accompanied by any sellers, but she really put this the wrong way around. Other than that, the sellers were quite cherrful and even wanted to show us shortcuts (that they use to get ahead of tourists).

The beautiful weather lit the wall and landscape in a glorious light and the coloured leaves gave the surroundings a very special feel.

Three hours later we reached Simatai, one of the possible exits. Our hostel was right on the bottom of the mountains and we could see the wall from the terrace. The hostel itself had quite poor reviews and complaints ranging from lying staff to non-English speaking staff and staff eating in teh restaurant that was for tourists. We chanced it and thanks to my colleague at work, Tiantian, had a room reserved in the courtyard. The setting was beautiful and once the girls got the heating going, it was quite cosy (if you didn't look too closely).

We slept for nearly 12 hours (9pm we turned the light off) and the morning was beautiful and sunny again, so we had the remaining biscuits with view of the wall and then walked towards the next town to catch tzhe bus back.

After about 20 minutes, a car stopped next to us and the driver jumped out and showed Mark very enthusiastically his phone. We realised that it was the same car of that took us to Jinshangling and the husband of our driver had just chanced it and went to see if he could pick us up in Simatai. So, for 10 Euros, we were chauffeured back to Miyun, had a walk around town and decided it was a not a place where Westener would have a quiet time living, because people constantly asked it we wanted to go to Simatai. Can you imagine doing your weekly shopping or coming back from work and people asknig if you wanted to go to the Great Wall?! So we got back on the 980 Bus and were back at the flat in an hour.

Becasue the weather was stil lso beautiful (and the upstairs neigbour was practising the piano), we went down to Sanlitun and sat in teh sun, had a little shop and then a drink in the 'Bookworm' (that's another story). Finishing off with some Thai food, we are almost prepared to go back to work. I still have to learn my Chinese vocabulary for the lesson, but other than that this was definitely our most relaxing weekend yet.

And I've been thinking about how we can purchase the hostel and make it carbon neutral and a magnet for hippie tourists and an even greater place to be. Happy for suggestions!

The Long Orange

Learning Chinese is a tricky business.
We're both getting along pretty well, although as you might expect Caroline is learning in an altogether more focused and sensible method than me, which might explain our different A-level/abitur results....

Anyway, we're slowly getting to grips with the tones.
However, on the way to the Great Wall we discovered a confusing fact.
Not only should it strictly be called the Long Wall, according to our phrase book; the word for Wall is also the word for Orange. Same tones and everything.
How confusing.

Anyway, we both have some unbelievably good photographs, it really is one of those places you cannot take a bad picture.

Ben, Mark and Kerry, in memory of our fantastic trip here last time, here is a quick video directed at you three:


I will upload the photographs to Flickr as usual.
So if you're interested, do check them out there.

We actually stayed the night at Simatai, one of the 'scenic spots' next to the Wall. Here is a video of our view from the hostel:


Finally, by way of a thank you to the generous people in room 242 at NCC, here is a piccie of me sporting one of the most useful leaving presents known to man:

Animals we have encountered so far

Beijing is obviously known for being a huge city with bad air, a lot of noise and many many people. What you wouldn't expect is to run into animals at every corner.

Dogs inside the 3rd ring road are not allowed to exceed a certain size (which is tiny, so you see a lot of hairy rats and weird mixes of husky with mouse etc. Dogs are very beloved here, maybe a replacement for family members? Anyway, my favourite dog in the neighbourhood is a slightly oversized grey poodle who always wears the latest fashion (see picture: all in pink for the Saturday out).

Then, on Saturday night we went to the art district (old factories converted into studios, pretty cool). First thing when we passed the gate (we may have already had one or two drinks by that point) was the sight of a huge Bengali rabbit!!!!!!!!!!! It was chilling out on the grass just after midnight, so Mark took a picture with me and a glow stick(don't ask, all I say is Suzie Wong). The next day we came back to have a nice Sunday stroll and the rabbit had hopped away.

Then, as if the rabbit wasn't enough, we entered this big old water tower and between two free glasses of champagne (Andrea, this would have been your favourite party ever)I saw a leopard lounging on one of the sofas. It changed sofas between this and the next glass of champagne and then I saw what it actually was: some weirdo had taken a fluffy toy almost life-size leopard to this party (on a leash). I just had to take a picture and may have also laughed in his face, but I just couldn't help it. That would have been a great accessory for a Friday night in Foundation.

Sounds like a story out of Alice in Wonderland? Believe me, that's how I felt and kept looking out for the mad Hatter all night.

To finish the weekend on an animal note, we went to a Muslim Chinese restaurant with the promise that there would be a lady dancing with a snake whilst we were eating. Instead 3 different types of belly dancers ran the night, no snake in sight!

On Saturday morning, we will go out into the country and spend a night next to the Great Wall (not in a sleeping bag as suggested by my roomy at work, too cold at night now). So, we can report after the weekend, whether it's even worth bothering!

All apologies

We're back.
I hope our absence hasn't lost your interest.

We've been up to loads and I guess something approaching a normal work routine has started. Consequently we have been busy and a little knackered.
So consider this something of a super-update.
Here are five videos I have recently uploaded to Youtube:

This is taken in a Xinjiang Restaurant not far from our apartment.

This video is the skyline of Beijing taken from Beihai Park with an amateur choir singing in the background.

This is the flag lowering ceremony in Tian'anmen Square, short and uneventful, but still good to see.

This is a very short clip of a man writing the character for North on the floor in water at Beihai Park.

Finally this is a short clip of people piling onto a bus, outside of my work.
Which clip leads me nicely into the normal post I had intended to write.

The Best and Worst of Beijing.
Well, it’s neither the best nor the worst actually.
It’s more like a good thing and a bad thing in Beijing, but that just doesn’t make for a snappy title, does it?
I have discovered a new route to and from work, which saves me a bit of time.
I take the 628 bus from the South Gate of the University to Datun Dong Lu.
There I change and take a subway, line 5 south to Yonghegong Lama temple.
At the Lama Temple (no lamas as previously noted) I change onto Line 2, effectively the central Circle line. Then it’s one stop anti-clockwise to Dongzhimen, a 15 minute walk from our apartment. Were buying bikes this weekend, so that should be a 5 minute bike ride.

Anyway, this particular example comes from the 628 bus on Thursday night at about 18:00. The bus is a little full when it picks us up outside uni, no seats left obviously. After a few stops it’s filling up pretty well. Full, in fact by Newcastle standards. Then it stops at Baofang. And approximately 40 people rush the front and middle doors. Often people will be carrying huge unidentifiable packages too.
Each bus has a conductor/trice on too.
However, his/her job is not to regulate the number of people on the bus, merely to sell tickets to the few people that don’t have oyster cards, to duplicate the electronic announcer and shout out each stop before we get there and to stick his/her hand out of the window in a more threatening manner than the mere indicator light to warn errant cyclists and motorists that the bus intends to maneuver.
So the band point is that these buses have absolutely no maximum capacity, the number of people the bus takes is the number of people that want to get on.
I am bigger and sadly bulkier than many of the other passengers which means I suffer less from the crush than most. However it still makes getting off an interesting experience. And that brings me to the good point.

As I have already mentioned, public transport in Beijing is excellent. If you use one of the easily available Oyster-like cards, buses cost 0.04€ and subways cost 0.20€. Ridiculously cheap. Different buses work in different ways, but on the 628 you have to swipe your card on the way off as well as on. However, with so many people on the bus, just getting off is challenge enough without worrying about swiping your card. Anyway, on this particular day I had elbowed my way close to the door and a girl nearby could see I was getting off, but had no chance of swiping my card. As she was closer to the reader, she motioned to offer to do it for me.

Now, under normal circumstances I would never pass my wallet, full of cards, if not money, to an absolute stranger in a new and relatively unfamiliar city. After all, she would only need wait 'til the doors opened and nip off into the crowds leaving me wallet-less. However, this being Beijing I briefly considered it and passed her the wallet. She swiped the card and passed the wallet back to me.
So far my experiences of China in this regard have been great, no-one seems to be out to fleece you directly and certainly not to steal from you. All of the people you speak to on this topic are most worried that when they move back home or to another country they will be so naive from living in China that they will be victims of crime immediately.

So perhaps you think I'm a little bit foolish from this story, but you should also take away from it that Beijing is remarkably safe, especially for a capital city, especially with so many people.

I have also uploaded a load of new photographs to flickr, you can see them all here.
I've organised them all into sets, so check out the latest ones.

A weekend full of warmth

Despite the apparent lack of our stuff from England, we decided to warm the new flat yesterday. Unlike in ‘Spaced’ (thanks for the recommendation Cesca, we bought it here and love it) plenty of people came with gifts and full of enthusiasm to warm the place and to annoy our neighbours. We had left notes in everyone’s letter box last week to warn them about the noise, but this clearly didn’t stop some people phoning compound security at 10pm (!!!!) complaining. The guards themselves looked a bit embarrassed. They should spend a bit of time in Pandongate, that would have taught them, hihi. (Reliable sources have informed me that apart from kebabs in the hallway, our old home is quiet these days.)

The damage materialised itself more inside our fridge, this morning we counted a total of 70 beers having been drunk, at least 4 bottles of wine and a bottle of rum. Not bad for a first party!

The cleanup was fairly quick and we still have a well-stocked drinks cabinet for an emergency party (Andrea, there is even champagne). Because the weather has been so lovely over the last days, we decided to spend the afternoon by the lake, just north of the ForbiddenCity, called Bei Hai (North Lake). The view of the city is spectacular (no pollution problems at all), and we could see the Forbidden City in the distance (we’re keeping this gem for a full day, when we’re ready for it, hihi).

We then walked along the outside walls of the Forbidden City to Tian’anmen Square, where everyday at 6pm the flag is lowered (I think they put it away at night, so it doesn’t get too dirty). A fairly unspectacular affair if you ask me, they had trouble rolling it up, and that was as exciting as it got. After walking past Mao’s Mausoleum (now only open from 8-12, he doesn’t like visitors in the afternoon), we discovered some crazy reconstructed place that even had a tram and lots of pictures of old Beijing. Went into one of the side streets and found ourselves right in the heart of touristy but still very Chinese Beijing. We bought some Chopsticks in cases (to take to restaurants to save the Pandas, but more about this another time) and counted our last kuai for some food and a taxi back (we had to get off early, coz it wasn’t quite enough).

All in all, a lovely weekend and a celebration of us being here more than a month now!!!!!

Korean perm

Here it is, the after-effects:


Can't blog for long, just waiting for Carrefour to deliver 100 beers, wines and spirits for tonights party.
Ganbei.

A Two Parter

This is a video before my first haircut in China.
The commentary tells the story.

I have another video for after too, I'll post that tomorrow.
This is the salon I visited:

Little Sheep

Following me enjoy the time
in Spring
With you appreciate to read it.
Little Sheep, keep company with
me bathing in the beautiful scenery.

(Faithfully transcribed from someone's backpack on the tube last night).

Interactivity zero

Here is a quick and dull post.
You've seen no action from us recently as our new apartment is not yet online.
However, we expect that to change in the next couple of days.

Since moving in last Wednesday we have mainly been:
- Sharpening out bargaining skills in Yashow Market
- Exploring the area around our new apartment
- Eating at the Middle 8th (Yunnanese) Restaurant, the best we've tried so far in Beijing
- Deciding not to pay Y300 each to see Linkin Park at the Worker's Stadium
- Not even contemplating paying more to see Kanye West at the same venue
- Relying on Michael to keep up with news from SJP
- Laughing at dogs in clothes / buggies (pics to follow)
- Visiting the Yonghegong Lama temple (warning, no lamas)
- Going to an underground Internet temple where everyone was playing WoW in little hives
- Booking our Christmas flights to Oman
- Shopping at the Wu Mart to stock up our new apartment
- Buying coats in anticipation of autumn (not bloody Fall as it's refered to here)
- Wearing shorts in October
- Eating what may have been donkey, but was definitely tasty in a Hunan restaurant
- Getting up at six! to trek across town to work
- Learning various ad-hoc phrases such as takeaway and is this sweet?
- Drinking good cocktails on the roof terrace
- Planning a house warming party for next week
- Wiring and re-wiring the DVD player
- Completing the 6th season of 24
- Learning that Yanjing clearly based their style on American beer, therefore it tastes of water


There's much more of course, but I can't remember it all.
Back online regularly soon (hopefully) and we'll keep you in touch.

A word about work

I know that there has been some interest into the actual work I'm doing here in Beijing, so I thought, since it's National Holiday in China today, I reflect on my last weeks in my new job.

The Delegation is fairly large and spread over two buildings and three floors. Nevertheless, we all constantly email and phone each other, so nobody can really hide. Different sections are logically doing different work, so there is Agriculture, Energy and Environment etc. I work in Cooperation, which means that our projects are mostly ran jointly with a Chinese Ministry/ local government or at least with their consent. It's all about cooperation, hence the name really makes sense!

I wish I could tell you in ten words what my job exactly is, but at the moment, I'm still trying to find my way around various computer systems, the scanner, the kitchen and the In- and Out tray. I am partially the assistant to the Head of Section (although I'm not much use yet, apart from asking questions over questions), but also have my own little project, which is very different to the others in the Delegation. It has a set budget of around 6 Million Euro and these are to be spent on activities that are proposed by either sectors of the Delegation or by Chinese civil servants. It's aim is really to support the policy dialogue, for instance one activity in October will be to send Chinese Coal Mine Managers to Europe to see how health and safety can be implemented in the coal mines. China has the highest accident rate in the world (bizarrely the US is second, but much much lower).

Apart from that, there are visits to organise, other projects to be studied (until there is a replacement I am kind of responsible for two environmental projects, at least with processing paper work), to help with interviews and to try and persuade IT to be as interested in my funny ideas as the last people I worked with were.

So far so good. Maybe a word about my colleagues and a normal day? Flexi time kind of exists (the Union is fighting for it) and generally people trust you that you do your work (most people work more than required anyway). Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and I have made several lunch buddies. Lunch is a big affair by the way, we sit down and have a meal every day (unless you hide in the office). Choices are between Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Subway etc. etc. The Italian place does the biggest Ciabatta I have ever seen, it is square and about the size of my head for about 2,50 Euro.

Other than that,I have started my Chinese lessons and am struggling through. Mark and I get very excited when we can try out new knowledge in day-to-day situations. I learnt how to say "How much is it?" and was very proud when people understood. Unfortunately, I keep mixing up the numbers, so the answers becomes less useful.

And today is a special day: We are moving into our flat!!!!!!!!!!! We packed all our bags, a last visit to the gym and off we will be!!!!!!!!

So, the next blog will be from Season's Park!!!!!!!!