ahhhhh, sorry...

That's the sound of all the countries apologizing for annexing parts of Beijing, back in the day. No hard feelings, I guess, since the Chinese returned the favor economically (zing!). Anyway, those annexed parts were called the Legation Quarter (history), and they led to an interesting little out-of-context group of walled neighborhoods. Lena and I went for a little tour of the Legation Quarter, and ended up strolling through Tiananmen for a bit.

This building wasn't part of the tour, but it was visible from the subway exit and fit the theme of the tour.

On our way from the subway to the Legation Quarter, we passed a little park in the style of traditional Chinese gardens, with their rocks and stairs and fancy gazebos. This one didn't have a pond, but it was nice anyway.

It also had an informational area: China's technological history! Here's the nuclear bomb. Apparently the invention of rockets was preceded by radio by only 3 or 4 years. Sounds dangerous to me...

Continuing the tour, we passed our first oddly-Western-looking building. Lena was a big fan of the wrought-iron.

Saint Michael's Cathedral wasn't open today, but it was nice looking from the outside. I particularly liked the angel statue out front. You know what WAS open, though? The convenience store between the church and the street.

Classy AND respectful.

Next up was the old French post office. What is it now? A Sichuan Restaurant, of course!

After that was the former Yokohama Specie Bank. Now it is some kind of private establishment, with guards and such. I really liked the way this building looked on the corner, so I took way too many photos. This is the best of them.

The Yokohama Bank is on the corner of a wide, tree-lined street with a park in the middle. It's a lot like Portland's park blocks, so Lena and I really enjoyed walking up and down.

So here is the first Legation, and it's British (those jerks, always Legating). It took us a while to figure out that "Legation" mostly referred to the walls themselves. That is to say, it's not so much about specific buildings (as many are no longer original) as it is about the demarcated territory. The British Legation was pretty big, and included this monster:

That's the Ministry of State Security. I didn't ask any questions, and I suggest you do the same.

This cool building used to be the National Bank of New York, but now it is the Beijing Municipal Police Museum. It didn't seem free or interesting, so we passed on it. Sweet building, though.

Seeing the bank clued us in that we were approaching the American Legation, but we only really knew we'd arrived when we spotted all the red brick with white trim.

it reminded me of Jamestown.

Minus all the glass buildings and cars, this is apparently a pretty faithfully maintained historical compound.

There are a lot more miscellaneous photos from our walk, and they'll be on my facebook page. Til next time!

CBD, nbd

that's Central Business District, no big deal... btw.

Lena and I are making it a point to walk around Beijing to get to know the city a little better. The first of our many jaunts was a little stroll around the Central Business District. It doesn't sound very interesting, and I'm sure there are more beautiful or historical areas in the city, but we were already planning on being in the area, and there are definitely some things to see.

When we got out of the Guomao subway stop, we spotted the CCTV tower almost immediately. It's hard to miss. I really like the design, but I've always been a sucker for Moebius strips. Apparently Chinese folks aren't fond of it because they think it looks like underpants.

As we got closer, it became harder to see the building, because it is completely surrounded by an enormous banner. This is a pretty normal phenomenon here; lots of tourist/historical sites are partially or entirely blocked by large photos of the very same site.

The other notable building in the immediate vicinity was the World Trade Center tower, but it's really only notable for being the tallest building in the city. Actually, I thought it was more interesting that 330m is all it takes to be top dog in Beijing. Small pond, apparently. We walked around a bit more, and only when we were several blocks away did I notice the giant building right next to the CCTV moebius building. This other CCTV building looked to be under construction but, upon closer inspection...

That's right, it's a burned-out husk. This is a big inside joke here, because everyone saw it burn up, but it was never reported in the news. (Riddle me this: if CCTV is the only news here, who would be available to report on the CCTV building fire?) I'm not sure what the official status of the building is, but it's certainly not a very well-kept secret.

Our next stop was one of the countless "SOHO"s here in Beijing. I'm assuming that the simplest explanation is best, so I think that they're just named after the famous NYC neighborhood in order to seem a little more respectable, but it seems like that would lose its appeal after the 50th development named SOHO popped up. Nevertheless, if I was a particularly homesickness-prone Westerner, I would totally want to work/live here.

As you can see, huge modern art installations are pretty much ubiquitous when it comes to urban greenspace. It really did seem like a nice place to be, if not a cheap one. After this stop, we strolled through "the Place," which is an unbelievably opulent outdoor shopping mall. The pictures I took don't do it justice, so I'll just leave it up to your imagination.

On our way back to the subway, we hit up a couple more SOHOs, and here's a picture of the most interesting one. Until next time!

working out... BEIJING STYLE!!!

It has been too long since the last blog post, but I wasn't sure what I wanted this blog to be about, anyway. I have really enjoyed Jenny's blog about her stay in Seoul (the ever entertaining Not Just Kimchi), and I thought Beijing deserved the same treatment. There is a lot here that I'm getting used to, but it's fun to enjoy the novelty of it all, too. So here is part one:

Just about every neighborhood in Beijing has an exercise yard. They're part gym, part playground. I'm certain that a playground equipment manufacturer got the exclusive contract to outfit all of Beijing, since they're all the same colorful plastic and metal apparati, no matter where you are in the city.



If you thought we weren't dressed to work out, you'd be wrong. Street clothes all the way. We were doing one thing wrong, though: trying. Effort is frowned upon in these yards. Par for the course is mostly wandering around the open space and, if you meander too close to one of the machines, you're obliged to half-assedly fiddle around on it for a minute or two. Afterwards, have a chat with a friend as a reward; you earned it.

798 Arts District

Lena and I went to the 798 Arts District this weekend, took some photos, and had an all around good day. Here is a slideshow of some of the art we saw:

It was a little bit of an adventure finding the place, as the bus number was different in each of our guidebooks, as well as the website of a gallery (it's the 401 from DongZhiMen, fyi).

Weekend Chalupas and the Zoo Market

This is a weekend Chalupa, as I call it. It's basically the Chinese Gordita plus a crispy rice center, and just a little bit more of all the ingredients, so it's bigger, crunchy, takes longer to make, and costs 3rmb instead of 2. I like the Chalupa better; Lena prefers the Gordita.
Also, here is an interesting find at the Zoo market: a Portland State "parkb and service" shirt. Way to make it international, PDX!

China's answer to the Gordita

I really do need to figure out what these are called, because they are my breakfast every morning. It's basically a crepe/pancake, brushed with egg + amazing mystery sauce + hot pepper, then folded and filled with diced onions and lettuce. It's insanely tasty and filling, and it's only 2rmb (~ 30 cents). It's going to be an eggy year for me.

…and sometimes you need spaghetti.

TAFI for the win! Fixed-price set menus let you put together a 5-course italian meal for 50rmb and pick the food you want. The wine is more like fruit juice, but tasty nonetheless, and the desserts are delicious! This is a must for anyone in the WDK area jonesin' for some pasta.
Next door is the intriguing and most excellently-named tasty-taste cake factory. Had we not just eaten cake and panna cotta, we would've tried this ourselves.


Also, here's some pictures of the oddly-mod street that leads to our apartment. It's kinda blurry, so it's hard to tell, but there is a traditional victory gate at the end there.

Because sometimes you need coffee...

Helen's Cafe is our favorite coffee spot. Their coffee is good (in Beijing terms, it's spectacular), cheap (10rmb), and you get a refill. It's free on Mondays, actually. It's pretty western, but that's good sometimes, especially for Beijing newcomers like us.
We also went to the Dazhongsi market today, which was a lot of fun, and we got a lot of the stuff we need. Highlights: extra-thick mattress pad (no more springs, yay!) and portable tea steepers. Lena also got some pretty excellent boots for 200rmb.

太poisonous了！

We made the obligatory trip to Wangfujing and Tiananmen square, but it was mega-crowded, so we didn't bother with the security checkpoint to get into the square. My big successes of the day were finding a tea shop, trying a lot of tea, and buying two cheap bags of tea we liked. Also, the sugar-glazed fruit on a stick is my favorite stick food. That opinion is pending my sampling the scorpions, but I think it will stand.


Visitor's note: you'll find a good variety of stuff at the Wangfujing snack street (pictures above), but it's all at least 3x overpriced. It's cheaper everywhere else in the city.

Chahlie, moy baaaaiiiby nooooooooar!

This is my favorite freebie that came with our apartment: a plate featuring a red panda, terrified that some butterflies are going to take his open bottle of wine. Reminds me of Uncle Dubs.

Confucius never wears black without the blue.

I went for a nice stroll through my campus today and learned a few things:
1) If you're a Chinese University, and you're going to erect a statue, you have to avoid one thing: anyone but Confucius. It'd be like building a statue in your Beatles fan clubhouse and making it Paul, John, or Ringo. (much love, George)
2) Being a scholarship student makes me, at least in the eyes of BLCU, a king amongst men. Queues? Not for this guy.
3) When your school's athletic facilities hosted the Paralympic Games, don't expect them to be free for students. Being a scholarship student won't help. Neither will having a super-famous Chinese name. Money might, but that's like paying a membership fee, and that's for suckers.
4) If the exercise yards (with their playground-like equipment) are good enough for the old comrades, they're good enough for me. When I get some pictures of this, you'll understand why I come back to the United States terribly out-of-shape.

t-plus one week

So I’ve been in China for about a week now (writing this sunday night), and I figure it’s about time I start putting some thoughts down. Currently, it sounds like Beijing is under siege, but that’s just the Lantern Festival – the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. People here love fireworks something fierce. You’d think, having invented them centuries (millennia?) ago, they’d be sick of them by now, but you’d be wrong; there have been smatterings of fireworks every day since we’ve been here, and it’s been pretty constant today since 8am. I’m not talking about bottle rockets, either – many of them set off nearby car alarms, and it seems like every few blocks there’s a kid with an arsenal that would put the DC July 4th show to shame. Fortunately, this all ends tonight. In the meanwhile, I’m just waiting for the climax.

Last Sunday: Flew out of Dulles, and really appreciated United’s service there. You know what I didn’t appreciate? JFK airport. Short for Just-Fucking-Kill me. In order to catch a connecting flight, you have to leave the terminal, board a train to another terminal, and go through security AGAIN. When I have to take off my belt in two airports in three hours, the terrorists have already won. “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of” indeed, Alicia Keys. Your airport is as busted as your grammar. Air China was fine, and the 13+ hour flight just zipped by. Oh, then it was Monday.

Monday: Arrived at 7pm-ish. Lena’s co-worker picked us up at the airport, brought us to our hostel and helped us buy cellphones. That was a nice touch, and I'm not ashamed to say that having a cellphone makes me feel a lot more comfortable here.

Tuesday: Lena was gone much of the day doing work stuff, so I had two goals: 1) Get an IC card (transit farecard), and 2) Find an apartment. #1 was easy, #2 was not. I got spooked by the first place I went, because it was very sketchy and I had all my valuables on me.

Wednesday: Found an apartment that I actually liked, showed it to Lena and she liked it, too. (Side note: When I say "found," I mean "was shown" and I also mean that I walked around for about 12 hours today. Lower back massacre. We ate lunch at a pretty solid Japanese place - big lunch for 60rmb (~$9). Still aiming cheaper.

Thursday: Lena had her demo lesson at her school today, and did great! They gave her the job on the spot. Also, we signed our lease and moved in. Slept on a bare mattress because stores aren't open very late here.

Friday: Registered at school, which was really quick and easy. Thanks to the scholarship, I got to skip most of the hours-long lines. Stipend won't be disbursed until later, of course. Went to La Bamba for dinner - 10rmb burritos and 5rmb beers until 7pm! Jackpot. Also, Wal-Mart was an odd little trip, but we outfitted pretty much our whole place for 700 rmb.

Saturday: Actually got to relax today. Helen's cafe had good coffee (with one free refill) and free wi-fi. Ran a couple errands after that and watched Julie&Julia. Charming movie, good night.

Sunday: All I got done was buying a 5-gallon jug of water. Tap water here is "safe" to drink but really heavy on the chemicals, so everyone drinks bottled water. I found a guy who will trade you a full one for an empty one AND deliver it, all for 12rmb. Since our apartment came with a 5g-jug-dispenser (with hot AND cold taps), I figured this was a no-brainer. Lots of ramen in the coming year, I think.

***END RECAP***

Thanks for reading the long first post! Further posts shouldn't be this long or dry, but people have been asking what I've been doing here and this is the short version.