Take me down to the paradise city [47-50+Article]

FIFTY DAYS is a long time to be in a place!

Anyway, the rest of last week was all about friends and fun.

Thursday after work I met up with a fellow Tar Heel and friend, Katherine, who is also interning in Beijing. We met up in Wudoukou, which is near where she works, and she took me to The Bridge Café. The café was cool – three stories, including a coffee shop/hangout area, a fine dining floor, and a rooftop bar and eating area. The food was spectacular – I had fettuccini alfredo with chicken. It was the first time I’ve had pasta in China. We shared apple pie with ice cream for dessert – another first in China.

It was great to catch up with a friend from home, though it felt a little strange to be meeting up in the bustling and foreign city of Beijing. We shared our experiences of working for a Chinese company, living in strange places, and meeting locals and expats. We also shopped around a bit at the night market, where I bought some TV series of DVD and we saw a man giving real tattoos IN THE BACK OF A VAN - gross. We took the bus home, and it turns out she is staying RIGHT across from where I work – small world!



On Friday, Annie’s ASU/Holland Fellows friend, Jesse, came to visit. He is interning in a northern province of China and came for the weekend to do Great Wall Fresh with Annie. We went to the beer garden, where Pang Li joined us for skewers and pijiu. As always at the beer garden, rounds started stacking up, and just as we were about to leave, a few Chinese people (that seemed around our age) came up to us and gave us half of a watermelon! We graciously started eating it, which they took as a sign to bring more watermelon and beer to gambei (read: toast). Knowing they wouldn’t leave us alone until we did, we went over to their table, where it looked like they were celebrating something. Pang Li told us that they all worked together at a restaurant up the street, and it was one of their birthdays. That’s when the photo shoot started. Everyone wanted a picture with the Mei guos (read: Americans) on their camera phones. We chatted the best we could (which mainly stuck to “nice to meet you”s) and even renamed Strawberry and Javi to Stella and Seth, respectively.

As Annie and Jesse fought hangovers the next day hiking the Great Wall, I took it easy and went shopping. My first stop was Panjaiyuan Market, which was described to me as “the mother of all flea markets.” This was a good description. It was so huge, with so many different stalls full of sculptures, antiques, paintings, scrolls, books, and more that I got overwhelmed and left empty-handed.

I decided instead to try my luck at Glasses City, a huge mall solely full of eye glasses stores. It was a success – I bought a pair of prescription eye glasses for $20. They were ready in ten minutes! And now I want more.

Then it was work time. I love that “work time” for me meant going to a six-hour Chinese rock show. I was asked to report on this show late in the afternoon on Friday, so I didn’t have a chance to get a really good camera, but I made due with mine. I walked to the venue from Glasses City, which reminded me of a larger version of Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro or Tremont in Charlotte. It was such a cool experience - seeing Chinese punk kids moshing, running on stage, etc. The bands ranged from folk to screamo, from heavy metal to pop-rock. A couple of them even sang songs in English! However, I was the ONLY white person there, and seemed to be the only English-speaker, so conducting interviews was tricky. In the end, I decided to make my article into more of a slideshow of the event. Please check out the published slideshow here. Below are a few that didn't make the cut.





[Random, but the venue had a cool way to label the bathrooms: ]


During the last performance of the night, a Chinese girl, about my age, came up to me and asked me, in English, if I liked the music. It turned out that her name was Jesse (pattern?) and that she worked with one of the guitarists at a bank near Xizhimen, which is one bus stop away from my office. We exchanged e-mails since her English was rough, and decided to meet up at another point. She even invited me hiking with her!

I was exhausted from the show the following day. I took it easy again and shopped at the Hongqiao Pearl Market. China is known for pearls, silk, and of course, knockoffs, so I was obligated to bring some back home. I felt pressured, accomplished, and ripped off all in the course of this a couple of hours so I devoted the rest of the day to reading and relaxing.

As my Facebook status says right now, there is still so much to do and so little time!

Blame it on the Baijiu [28-29]

Wow, how to start this post?

This weekend was an adventure. It started out with an intern trip with Celine and Dr. Tuggle to the Beijing Zoo and Aquarium. The aquarium was impressive, and the dolphin show made me feel like a kid. The rest of the zoo... not so impressive.



I have wanted all my life to see Giant Pandas in China. It wasn't anything like The Amazing Panda Adventure, one of my all-time-favorite movies from my childhood. The pandas at the zoo were behind fingerprint-blurred glass and seemed hot, dirty, and generally miserable. This was the case with most of the animals at the zoo. It was a depressing sight.



Saturday afternoon was the Great Wall Beach Party, an event that Annie and I heard about from Keith and jumped on immediately. Our tickets in hand, we arrived at WuDauKou to board the bus at 5p.m. on Saturday.

We knew we were in the right place when we saw hordes of 20-something foreigners with bags of pijiu, liquor, and mixers. We overheard someone saying that we could bring anything on the beach once we got there, so we stocked up from the 7-Eleven.

As soon as we got on the bus, a party organizer told us that we could NOT bring any food or drinks on the beach, but encouraged us to drink everything we had on the bus. Questionable advice.

The next four hours included personalities emerging from our bus mates as they became filled with liquid courage. They came from all over – the States, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, etc.

Once we finally got to the Great Wall, the air was filled with loud house music and the scent of the Yellow Sea. I took a dip in the sea, danced, failed at taking pictures, and had a genuinely good time. Annie managed to stay until the sun came up, but I couldn’t last that long.




I slept the whole way home on the bus and was directed back home by a couple of really nice Americans studying at a Beijing university.

The experience was great, and an article is to come.

The rest of Sunday was devoted to catching up on sleep and relaxing with online television. Happy Fourth of July everybody back home!

It just needs a napping kitten! [20-22]

If one phrase describes the past weekend in Beijing, it would have to be “change of plans.” Pretty much nothing worked out the way that I had planned it, but everything worked out for the best.

It started Friday when John, a British employee in our department, invited the UNC interns to get beers after work with a few other guys. I had originally planned on rushing to the gym to work out and shower and then get ready for a night out with Annie. The beer kept flowing and the skewers of “barbecue” piled up. Before we knew it, it was already past 9 p.m. Courtney and I walked back to the house, picking up a bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor) on the way. We had to convince Annie to come out with us since she had given up on us hours ago (we sometimes forget that we have cell phones since they are of little use here). Anyway, I had found a bar online earlier that was holding its opening night with free drinks and appetizers until 1 a.m. We hopped in a taxi and headed toward the Worker’s Stadium.

The bar was called George’s and it was built into the stadium. It was all black marble with small lights and candles and altogether very chic. There were a good mix of Westerners and locals there, so we felt comfortable in our little nook by the bruschetta. A bartender came up to us and said “This is an open party. Help yourself to drinks at the bar.” There were a set of signs with drinks listed on them (Johnnie Walker Black Label, passion fruit mojito, mango mash, Redbull Vodka, Bacardi and Coke, etc.) that were all free! And the food was amazing and FREE too! Satisfied, we took a taxi home, angered our landlord for getting in so late, and rested up for Saturday.

The plan for the UNC interns for Saturday was to go to Summer Palace, a picturesque Beijing tourist attraction, but Courtney and I were not in the sightseeing mood, so we spent some time in the office instead. Eventually, Annie convinced me to go on an adventure with her (she enticed me by bringing me food—she must know me pretty well already). We took the subway to Ghost Street, a street lined with the classic Chinese red paper lanterns and restaurants and shops. Lonely Planet was on our side today as I found a place called “Grandma’s Kitchen” right near the exit from the subway station. It was a cute little restaurant originally opened by an American grandmother living in Beijing. We ate on the porch/sunroom and had American favorites, including chocolate chip cookies. Ghost Street was a little disappointing after eating such delicious food and looking at the live seafood and shellfish in front of restaurants.





Next on the agenda for me was to go to Broadway Cinematheque in the MOMA North Section of China to watch a documentary and review it for China.org.cn. This was a frustrating ordeal since no one there spoke English nor did they know what I was talking about when I said the name of the film. After talking to the editor on the phone, I was left with just as little information as from before, so Courtney and I reached a compromise. I would let her cover this story (if she could figure it out), and I would cover one next weekend. Annie and I walked around MOMA for a while, finding a cute book/coffee shop and some interesting looking buildings surrounding a small lake. China.org.cn gave me a really nice camera to cover this event, so I got something out of it – really nice pictures!




Annie and I decided to take a taxi to Houhai Lake, a place we had been during my first weekend in Beijing. On the way there, we saw the hutong that Keith and Ithzel lived, so we told our driver to “ting,” and got out. We met up with our friends and saw their new apartment. It was literally right off of the busy alleyway and was actually a really cool place, despite having no bathroom and having the shower in the kitchen. They walked us to Houhai, shopping along the way. At the lake, our friends left us (they teach English to Chinese children, even on the weekends) and we found a bar to sit down in. There was a singer at this quaint place that made me change my mind about Chinese singers – they aren’t all awful. He was really good, but didn’t have a CD, unfortunately. There was another change of plans when we decided to take a 3-wheeled motor bike with a small cabin home instead of a taxi. The driver said that it would be 8 kuai, about half the price of a taxi. “OK,” we thought, “we’ll sacrifice comfort and speed for this price. Besides, it’ll be an experience!” An experience it was. We almost crashed into a car, hit severe potholes, and basically got robbed. Turns out he wanted EIGHTY kuai for the ride. We were pissed. Not only had he taken advantage of us, but we didn’t have anywhere near that much money. After plenty of yelling and exchange of bilingual profanity, we all walked away frustrated. Like I said, it was an experience.

Today, Sunday, was supposed to be our make-up trip to Summer Palace, but due to miscommunication, Courtney and I had to reschedule that again (it WILL happen next weekend, dang it!). Instead, we spent the day and reading/napping under the trees of Yuyuan Tan Park. A fair trade for a lazy Sunday, if you ask me.

Yen? Yuan? Let's just say kuai! [Day 4]

Some more observations, while they're fresh on my brain:
-My supervisor, Celine, thinks she's overweight. She is definitely skinny by American standards. Her solution? She doesn't eat. I think her first meal of the day is at around 9 pm. Everyone here is pretty much thin as a rail. I don't understand it - the food is so heavy and greasy, and they PILE that stuff up on their plates. The only fat people I've seen are some old men. And the worst part is, when they get hot, they curl their shirts up like Britney Spears in Hit Me Baby, One More Time. And some of them sit in restaurants shirtless. It's a sight, let me tell ya.
-Chinese people can not sing. I'm not trying to generalize or be rude, but I just don't think it's in their genes. I don't know if it's because their language forces them to use harsh and quick sounds, but their tone is just flat and unappealing. But, somehow, karaoke is a huge pastime here. Go figure.
-Chinese people are pretty simple minded. The IT guy who worked on my computer yesterday and today could not figure out the problem, so his solution was to wipe the hard drive and start over. I felt like I knew more about computers than he did, and it's his job!
-Eight is a lucky number here. At the bowling alley, if you bowled an 88, you won a small gift. If you bowled a 108, you won a small washtowel.
-Everyone knows that prostitution goes on in China. I haven't encountered it, and I hope not to, but apparently there are "hair salons" that only serve men with the blinds closed. If you bowled a 300 at the alley, you won "one card of fun time." I wonder what that is.
-My allergies are so much worse here than in the States. And no one says anything when I sneeze.
-I am still in the habit of nodding my head/waving/saying hello whenever I walk past people. They all just stare at me or look at me in fright. I need to stop being so polite!
-Speaking of politeness or lack thereof, it's perfectly normal to yell "fu wu yuan" ("waiter") across the room at your server in a restaurant. They don't tell you their names. And you don't tip.

My day was complicated when the power on my row of computers randomly shut down. When I powered back up, my internet was also down. As I described above, after a long and mostly pointless duration of clicking around, the IT guy finally just re-installed the default settings on the computer. (Luckily, at this time, I had my laptop also). Starting from scratch ended up working but left me workless for hours. I was happy to finally get an article about different types of Zongzi, a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves that is tradition to eat at the Dragon Boat Festival that is next week in China. It was really interesting to read and edit. I would love to get paid to try out cuisines and write about them.

We had lunch at the cafeteria, which is across the Ring Road. It's buffet style, and in my opinion, pretty good. A fried egg here is still in the shape of an egg, but the outside is fried and covered in some kind of sauce. If all else fails, there's always rice. Always. The Chinese don't seem to drink anything with their meal except occasionally hot water. Which is so not my style. I'm beginning to miss never-ending ice water.

Celine came up to me near the end of the day and said, "So you heard about the seven day work week, right?" … "No," I said. "You will be working through Sunday because of the Dragon Boat Festival next week," she replied. What a way to start a new job! It's all good though. We're getting Monday through Wednesday off and only have to work two days next week. Turns out the festival
occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, commemorating the famous Chinese scholar Qu Yuan. And everyone gets a day off for it - holla!

Courtney and I were feeling restless after work, so we went on a walk to the busier part of the district we live in. We peered into shop after shop all selling the same things - boxes of cigarettes or cleaning supplies. We passed some children sitting on crates playing cards, several hair salons with questionable sanitation (and services? See above), and table after table of working class Chinese people eating things on sticks. We finally went into a couple of shops with clothing. I kind of wanted it all, but a) I knew it was fake, b) I was too chicken to bargain down the high prices, and c) I don't speak Chinese. Next time I see something I really want, I'm gonna go for it. I did, however, find and purchase peanut butter and jelly - THANK GOD!

We picked up PA and Brian from the apartment for dinner at a noodle bar. You could watch the chef hand-pull the noodles, which made them seem even more delicious and satisfying.

One day closer to the end of my seven-day work week!