Harbin(ger) of things to come

There's a tautology for you if ever you were in demand of needing one.

Today is my first day back at work for some considerable time.
I did a couple of days at the turn of the year, but otherwise it's around 2 months since I did anything substantial.

In that time we've been to Oman and I went back to the UK and to Lanzarote.
I've done some Chinese study and some preparation for the coming term.
We've also done some things around the apartment and more preparation for the wedding.

I've added a webcam and a slideshow of our flickr photographs to this blog.
Regarding the webcam, if you're lucky enough to take a look at this page while I'm on-line you might see something exciting like me scratching my nose or having a snack. I suspect it'll be something that runs out of novelty quite quickly and will then be removed. If it's slowing down the site significantly, let me know and I'll dump it.

I don't know whether it's some kind of Protestant work ethic, but I'll be quite happy to be back at work. Not having a specific focus can be a bit dull, especially when Caroline is working so hard. I've had a couple of interesting meetings recently, so perhaps there's some more part-time work for me to come - you'll be the first to know.

Right now I'm working in the office (until recently, Rob's bedroom) while our new ayi pootles round cleaning the house. I confess that having a housekeeper is going to take some getting used to, but we simply don't have the time to keep this place as clean as we'd like. Ironed clothes again will also be nice and it contributes to the local economy, so that works for me.

So that's a basic update for you all. Now onto our weekend in Harbin.
Harbin is 1,285KM from Beijing.
View Larger Map

We bought soft sleeper train tickets. Four bunks to a berth, closable door, control over the lights and no music. There were five of us originally travelling, me and Caroline, Rob (Caroline's former uni mate now here doing an internship), Marijn Booman (Dutchman, also an intern, his complaints at people's pronunciation of his name has led to him being called Boo) and Daphne (French intern).
So we had one whole berth to ourselves and then one bunk in another berth.
The tickets cost around 800RMB (£80) each for a return.
Considering you spend two nights sleeping comfortably on the train and travel 2,500KM, it's really not expensive.
Hard sleeper would be about half the price, but now that we're working here, the soft sleeper makes the Monday back at work a lot easier.

We left at 21:20 on Friday night, arriving in Harbin the next morning at 07:30.
On the train, one of Boo's friend managed to come and find us. He'd decided to come along to Harbin at the last minute. Ryan was the solitary American (and half French) for a change with a group of Europeans. Normally it's the other way around for me and Caroline.

So the six of us arrived in Harbin after varying levels of sleep. However, getting off the train, the extreme cold hit us like a spade in the face and very quickly dispelled any sleepiness. To give you an idea of the necessary clothing, I was wearing:
Normal underwear
Long underwear lined with velour
5 pairs of socks
2 white T shirts
2 merino ice breaker tops from New Zealand
1 Pair of Jeans
A sweater
A fleece
A thick coat
2 pairs of gloves
A scarf
A hat

Everyone was wearing some variation of this outfit.
It has been difficult to get the exact temperature, but for the sake of argument, let's settle on minus 20.
Colder than I have ever come close to experiencing.
And with this kind of outfit on, even though most of it was technologically designed for exactly this temperature. It still took an age to prepare each time you enter or leave a restaurant, bar or hotel room.

Using some great advice from one of my students, we stayed in a hotel near the Songhua river.

I could spend a long time describing our whole weekend as it was generally excellent. We ate some delicious Russian food, crossed the frozen river in a horse-drawn carriage, saw snow and ice sculptures that defied belief,skied with temples churches and mosques as a backdrop, drank vodka to warm up, saw a Russian church with 'onion' domes and visited a park with 300 tigers including a Siberian tiger and a pair of ligers.

Here are a few of the best photographs:
Ice Festival

Snow Festival
Snow dogs
Russian CafeTogging up
Russian Church
Liger
Siberian Tiger
Group of tigers
The rest of the photographs are on flickr.
Check them out.

It was a brilliant weekend and we arrived back in Beijing at about 07:00 on Monday morning full of memories about the great things we'd seen. It was another reminder that there are some fantastic things here in China to see. And if we can keep up the travelling pace we've managed so far, then we should get to see a lot of them over the next two and a half years.

Green T House

We ate haute / fusion cuisine last night.
But with a good excuse.
After trips home and around China / South-East Asia during Christmas and Spring Festival, our friends are starting to return to Beijing. (Term starts on Monday).
Our good friends here have been a big part of why Beijing has been able to feel like home so quickly. Two of those friends, Carol and Erik are from 'the mitten'
To the uninitiated, 'the mitten' is what locals call the lower penninsula of Michigan and this fact has caused us far more interest and enjoyment than it really should.
Anyway, they've both been good friends to us since we moved here. Carol is a colleague of mine from work and always ready to check out the fun parts of Beijing and beyond. Unfortunately we don't get to see as much of Erik as we'd like as he's an absolute workhorse, writing and editing at all hours for the China Daily.

Erik's work ethic does however mean he is well-versed in the local culture, not to mention the language. This however manifests itself in him grabbing the bill every time we go out for food or drinks. That is the deal here, you show respect to friends by paying for their food.

Since Carol's birthday fell while they were away having what sounded like an unbelivable trip to Yunnan Province we decided we should invite them for a belated celebration.

Unfortunately as we might have guessed, Erik was working. So we had to make do with Carol...JK.
The Green T House
Anyway, the restaurant is one of the most feted in Beijing, winner of the local award for most Impressive Restaurant from That's Beijing (Ex-pat listings mag with interesting ownership wrangles).
As you can see from the picture above, the decor is fantastic - straight through the looking glass according to one reviewer.
The service was good enough, with none of the pretensions associated with eating somwhere like this in the UK.
The food was in parts fantastic and in parts simply very good.
Some standouts were the foiegras creme brulee, the orange flavour of the tea-smoked duck and the belly pork, the final being a proper example of fusion cuisine combining Chairman Mao's favourite dish (Mao shi hong shao rou) with blue cheese and apple.

We finished the evening with cocktails and mocktails (Caroline is a little under pressure at work at the moment) in Q Bar. The drinks, music and atmosphere are great there and there is a wonderful view from the terrace - when it's warm enough, not long now...

And speaking of the change in weather, that takes me nicely on to our next trip.
This weekend we're taking the train to Harbin.
Last major city in the north before the Siberian wastelands, highlights include:
- An ice and snow festival
- Siberian Tigers
- Russian architecture and heritage
- Minus 20 degrees centigrade, during the day!
- China's heaviest drinking city!

We'll report back on our return with pictures and videos as ever

Lanzarote and the cactus garden

I've uploaded some photographs of my recent trip to Lanzarote with the folks.
They're here on flickr as usual.

You should take a look.
They may challenge some preconceptions you have about the place.
It's actually quite a beautiful and distinctive island.
Perfect for a week of winter sun in January.
Especially when Britain is disappearing under snow storms and a collective credit crunch craziness. Oh and Beijing is blowing itself up with careless fireworks.

Epic Journey Home

• Epic by Faith No More
• Snow (Hey Oh) by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Stuck In The Middle by Stealers Wheel
• 500 Miles by The Proclaimers
• Long Road To Ruin by Foo Fighters
• Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over by The Charlatans
• Loading Playlist...

If you'd like a musical accompaniment, listen to the above tracks.
They've all got some some relevance to this post.


View Larger Map

You can see here the route I took - you might need to zoom out to see it.

After a great week on Lanzarote (photographs to come), relaxing, catching up with my mam and dad and challenging my preconceptions of the island, we left for home on 1 February.

1 February
We drove from the apartment to the airport in the hire car, which we then dropped off. Unfortunately, things then began to go awry.
Cross-winds at the airport meant our flight was delayed.
The incoming flight from Newcastle was unable to land.
Four hours after our departure time, we learned the flight was cancelled.
As I had to fly to Beijing the next day, I decided to try and keep moving.
I talked my way onto a flight to Manchester.

2 February
We arrived in Manchester at 02:00 in the morning.
After wandering round the airport trying to find a train, or hire car back to Newcastle, I managed to find a 24-hour hire car office. Terminal 1 if any gets caught in the same situation.
By chance, there was also a guy (originally from Louisiana), who had arrived from Cyprus in Manchester and was having trouble getting his hire car for a drive to Hexham.
To help me stay awake and to do him a favour, I agreed to give him a lift.
The drive was basically gruelling.
Heavy snow, no sleep, an unfamiliar car, and a long drive meant I didn't get back to Gosforth until 08:00.
All during the drive home I knew that the snow was a serious threat to my flight, due to leave at 12:15 from Newcastle to Heathrow.
My fears were realised when I checked on-line and saw that the flights to and from Heathrow had been cancelled.
I went to the airport and was rescheduled onto the next flight to Beijing, which didn't leave until Wednesday, instead of Monday.
A quick trip to the shops for a haggis (don't ask) and other provisions to take to Beijing and I was back to the airport to collect the parents off their rescheduled flight from Lanzarote and to return the hire car.

3 February
Something of a day in limbo really.
Packed for the journey, bought a few more provisions.

4 February
Because I had checked flights on the 3rd and some between Newcastle and Heathrow had been cancelled and delayed again, I went to the airport and took the 09:20 flight, instead of the 12:15 that I had been booked on. Arrived at Heathrow at 10:30 and then mooched around terminal 5 for the best part of 6 hours.
Boarded the plane at 16:45 and was very happy to discover I'd been upgraded to Club World, so had a bed as well as really nice food and drinks.
The bed made all the difference and managed to get about 5 hours sleep, instead of drinking half a bottle of whisky, which was the routine on the last flight to China.

5 February
Woke around 08:30 China time, as I say the bed on the plane made all the difference.
We landed at 11:00, half an hour late.
Collected baggage and then took a taxi back to the apartment.

It was a fairly epic journey, but due to some good luck, I was unaffected by jet-lag.
Had a good meal last night, certainly missed the food (after Caroline of course).
Today I'm mainly just tidying and pootling about - looking forward to the coming weekend.