China According to Brad

Everest

2012-06-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Note: This post was not properly published and I didn't notice...for 2 years. It is slightly out of order.

Well, after 2 solid days of trekking, I finally got to see what I had come to see.

I had an early breakfast as usual and sorted out the route I would be taking for the day hike. Funny how much easier it is to wake up at 7:30 to go see Mt. Everest than it is to go sell bags.

The path I took brought me up above Namche from a different angle. It was cool to see how they have really carved this village out of the side of a mountain.

After a short but steep walk, I finally got to look up at the tip of Kangtega, the first of the big peaks. The Yak however was much more interested in looking up at me instead.

And then, after another half an hour of heading up, there it was. My first view (from the ground) of Mt. Everest.

It really is quite stunning. Pictures just can not do it justice. I think the most amazing part is that, first you fly up a few thousand feet, then you walk, then you walk more, then you walk up a steeper slope than you have ever walked up in your life, then you walk up a few thousand feet in elevation again, and then finally you arrive at 12,500 ft above sea level (Higher than the majority of the highest points in the lower US) , and you look up and YOU AREN'T EVEN HALF WAY UP! Mountains much smaller than Everest still TOWER above you. Talk about feeling small.

Then of course we went up a bit more a found the Everest View Hotel. This hotel was built by the Japanese and holds the world record for highest fully functional hotel in the world at 12,468 ft above sea level. It certainly lives up to its name.

The nice Italian women, who was doing the same hike as me, and I stopped to have a cup of tea at the hotel (since everything else cost at a minimum, mortaging the soul of your first born child).

Our trek then took us to a village called Khumjung. It was a quite village settled in a valley surrounded by massive peaks in every direction.

Sir Edmond Hillary and his charity have had quite an impact here. There is a school and hospital run by locals and volunteers from all over the world. We stopped in to say hello and make a little donation, but unfortunately didn't have enough time to participate much.

There is also an impressive monetary who's claim to fame is the possession of a "Genuine Yettie Skull". For a small donation you can take a peak, but no photos are allowed. Yettie or not, the monetary is colorful and beautifully decorated.

After a lovely lunch of Nyak Cheese sandwich and Tomato soup in a beautiful little garden, the clouds rolled in.

The rest of our hike down we were quite literally walking on/in clouds. I did spot a genuine Yak though (not a Yak/Cow Hybrid as is much more common here).

Sailing In Xiamen

2010-11-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

Well, isn't that the way it always works.

The month before I leave Xiamen I find a new western grocery store (with tons of yummy things like whole wheat bread, baking powder, and New Castle Brown Ale!), a rent-able practice room full of instruments for cheap, and a new marina with rent-able sail boats!

Sigh. This would have changed the way I live here! (In good and bad ways I think...)

Oh yeah, PS everyone. This is my last week in Xiamen! Can't believe its been a year! I guess I should do a blog on that later.

At least I made the best out of all of the new fun stuff in the last month of being here. I had a great day of sailing with a french friend of mine the other day. The sun was out, the pollution was at a minimum, and the wind was kicking!

The marina is located on the northern tip of the Island boarding the mainland. There really isn't a whole lot more there. It's actually one of the least developed areas I know of in Xiamen. It does however have a big bridge and a pretty spiffy looking Posiden looking statue that make the Marina look pretty neat.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of boat it was we rented. If any of you sailing people can figure it out form pictures/description let me know. It easily seated 6 and was probably 24 feet long. Should have checked it out more carefully... maybe I'll go one more time and check it out.

It was quite a challenge to scrape off a years worth of rust while only having two people in a tank of a boat, in really heavy wind, and being the only one of the two who knew how to sail.... but it was actually super fun. It pressed my abilities to a comfortable limit and we really got going at some points!

I risked taking my new Camera out on the boat, but it was worth it because Ashleen (my French friend) also got some great action shots out on the boat. Unfortunately I left it on a really low quality setting, so most of them only look half way decent with a fair amount of editing.

Here are a few:

Then I took over the camera while I let Ashleen give sailing a shot.

Unfortunately I will never see the funniest pictures of the day but I can at least tell the story.

On our way in, we noticed a MASSIVE yacht (Wow there is some crazy money in China. Holy income distribution discrepancy Batman!) with 5 or 6 young Chinese women in bikinis being photographed by some very professional looking photographers. We sailed in for a closer look and from the logos on the boat/cameras it was obviously some kind of magazine.

As soon as we got close enough to see, one of the girls jumped up and started smiling and waving at us. This of course got the attention of the photographers who then spun around to look at what she was so excited about.

Before we knew it the boat erupted in flash. My ridiculous pose instincts is now instinctively activated by Chinese camera flash. We struck some silly over the top James Bond-ish poses for them and sailed on.

Whats more exciting than 6 bikini clad 20 somethings on a yacht? In China, apparently its two Vanilla faces on a dinky sail boat.

I really hope I end up in some kind of yachting magazine striking a killer action pose! (To any of my Chinese friends, be on the look out in 中国游艇网 !)

Anyway, the marina was gorgeous. I hope to get out again before I leave since it will be cold back in RI! There were also some little colorful boats that we were hoping to see in the water, but never went in. To bad.

Here they are on land.

Well, that's it for sailing. I guess I'll be doing an entry about leaving here pretty soon.

Stay good.

Khumjung: First Look at the Top of the World

2010-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

I realized that I posted the whole lead up to Everest and then never posted it! Whoops!

Well here it is.

I started the day early on a loop hike to Khumjung. The first part of the climb was straight up the mt. from Namche.

Here is a nice view of the village on a clear morning.

Early in the day I met a nice Italian women (who I though was just a little older then me and ended up being about 40...) and we did most of the hike together. Turns out she has lived in China for 11 years and wants the next place she lives to be Afghanistan. She says China has lost its thrill and she needs something new.

Surprisingly after year, I am starting to understand.

We chatted until the guide told us that we had arrived at the first viewing place of Everest, and sure enough, there it was! Looming up another 17,000 feet after I had already gone up 12,000 in 4 days!

Everest is actually the one directly over my head, even though it doesn't look like the tallest of the 4 from this angle.

We hiked on until a Ukrainian guy stopped us and clued us in on a really good viewing spot right off the path. And what a view it was! No one else was there and nothing was in the way! Thank random Ukrainian guy!

After a few 100 photos and a good half an hour of just sitting there in bewilderment of how fantastic it really looks and babbling about how lucky we were to have such good weather and all kinds of other nonsense, we moved on to the famous "Everest View Hotel"

The Everest View Hotel holds the world record for being the highest operational hotel in the world at 13,500 ft above sea level. It was built by the Japanese with a heli-pad right out side to bring tourist directly up from Kathmandu. Of course almost no one can acclimatize to 5000 ft of elevation gain in one day, so it almost never gets used!

The view however is great! We did find out AFTER being lead in, that you were expected to order something from the menu if you wanted to check out the view (which was annoying since the view was hardly better than the last place we had just sat and enjoyed for free and with out others chatting all around us...). So we got a pot of tea (the only thing that didn't cost mortgaging your first born child) and relaxed for a bit.

This picture is of the reflection of the Mts. off the big mirrored windows that allow guests to see Everest from their rooms (but don't allow guests to see into the rooms).

After an hour or so we moved on to Khumjung, a valley village craddled between some "Smaller" peaks. We ate lunch here and went to see the Sir. Edmund Hillary School and Hospital which have transformed the once desperately poor village into an oasis for the Sherpa people.

This is a monument to him.

This lovely guy watched over us while we ate lunch.

The lunch placealso had nice flowers in the garden.

And they fueled the fire that cooked our lunch with this...

Which are of course made by these guys...

After lunch we also check out the "Yeti Skull" at the local monastery. Legend of the locals is that it used to run around eating Yaks and small children until it was killed and given to the people of the village as a gift from another village. The village took it as an insult and kicked it all the way home. It didn't have any real significance until tourist started showing up and wanted to check it out.

A small donation was enough for them to open the box so that we could see it, but no picture were allowed of the skull it self. The inside of the monastery was quite colorfully decorated though. Here is a shot of all the different prayer books.

On our way back to Namche the fog started to roll in. I was REALLY glad that my guide recommended we do the hike backwards from the way most people normally do it! We would have been arriving at Everest just as the clouds were covering it up!

We spent the rest of the day at the local market who's merchants roll in from miles around every Friday night and Saturday. Our guide said some people hike in as much as 9 days from Tibet just to trade here.

We did also go straight to the bakery in Namche for apple pie since French guy along the trail told us he had had the best pie of his life in Khumjung, but failed to tell us where! But the craving stuck and so we satisfied it with some pretty delicious apple turnovers when we got back!

The next day was just a hike down in a foggy day so I didn't take many pictures. Then of course there was the 3 1/2 days stuck in Lukla. But thats a post for another day.

Namche Bazaar: The coolest little city at 12,000 ft

2010-10-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

I found time for another update. The weather in Lukla is much too cloudy for my flight back to Kathmandu to take off, so I am spending an extra night on the mountain. Strangely (or not strangely, I guess) there is a Starbucks up here, so I am mooching the off the free Wifi. (Really!? There is a Starbucks in LUKLA but not Xiamen?)

Anyway, the second day of trekking was shorter but involved quite a bit more elevation gain. I stayed the night in a tiny village called Laraja Dobhan that was about 8,560 ft above sea level (2610 meters) and the following day hiked to Namche Bazaar which is 11,2000 feet above sea level.

We left at 8 because I was told it would take 3-4 hours to make it to Namche and I wanted to be there by lunch time so I could take an afternoon hike. The the slog to Nmache involved a lot of going straight up rock faces...

crossing bridges...

and negotiating Yak Jams.

Turns out the hike to Namche really only took 2 hours. (Maybe one day I will write "The guide to Hiking in the Himalayas for People Who Aren't Funding their Trip with Money Fresh out of Social Security") so I had an early lunch, checked into the hotel, and headed off again.

This time we were heading for Thamo, a small village where you can see the Tibetan side of the mountains. This hike was much more of an easy day hike. Very little elevation gain with lots of nice flowers

stupas,

and some interesting hydro electric power projects. The projects were set up by Sir Edmund Hillary with the objective of supplying renewable power to the rural villages and Forest Nurserys. A vital boon to local farmers who spend their whole lives trying to grow food sustainably in the last place on earth I would ever try to start a farm.

After 2 hours or so I made it to Thamo. The big peak way in the back ground is in Tibet.

The walk back was about 2 hours as well. I met some nice people on the way and went for a beer at 1 of the 2 local bars. Somewhere in between I took a few shots of Namche at night. Here are a few.

The main street.

The street leading to "The Liquid Bar".

The village form a little ways up.

And a carved and painted prayer rock in the middle of the village.

All in all a great day of hiking and hanging out. Namche is a great little town. The perfect balance between quite, hiking, and things to do at night. I will absolutely come back here, eventually.

Hopefully my flight will leave on time in the AM or I am going to be spending quite a bit more time here then I planned on! (which I wouldn't mind at all except for my flight is non refundable...)

More soon. Stay good.

The Bottom of the Top of the World

2010-10-07T05:22:00.001-07:00

Hey all!

Just checking in from what I am told is Highest Broadband connection in the world!

After 2 days of trekking, I have just arrived in Namche Bazaar in the Nepali Himalayas! Namche is approximately 12,000 feet above sea level (4,000 meters for all you non Americans) with a population of about 1,500.

It is sort of the last major out post before Everest Base camp. Traditionally it is a trading village for Nepalis and Tibetan people.

The hike has been impressively beautiful. Between glacial melt rivers, prayer flags, a huge varity of plant life, and more amazing mountains than you can count the walks have been super enjoyable.

Here are some of the picture of the first day.

On day one I took a Charter flight from Kathmandu (4,000 ft) to Lukla (8,000). The landing strip is "the most dangerous in the world". It is tilted to slow the plans down before they land (in order to prevent you from crashing into the mountain).

From there, I met up with my Sherpa and started my trek from Lukla to just past Monju.

A street in Lukla

The start of the trail to base camp.

One of the many prayer rocks along the trip.

A fancy place to stay along the way.

This way to Namche.

Glacial ice melt river.

My Sherpa's Village

Yaks on a bridge.

A little water fall I discovered.

The altitude hasn't been a problem, and I am hiking faster than I expected! Its been a great trip.

There are just a few pictures I mananged to upload in the 1 hours worth of internet I bought up here. There are TONS more to come!

Stay good.

Swains (and a Turner) In China

2010-09-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

Well, after 4 months of inactivity, I decided it was time to start working on the blog again.

I seem to have stumbled on a bit of a bloggers paradox if you will. That is, when life is busy and interesting enough to be worth writing about, you are too busy being busy and interesting to write about it.

But now I have some free time and some truly great (and some not so great) experiences to document.

This particular post is about the most recent and certainly one of the greatest. This morning I put 3 wonderful family members on a train back to Shanghai where they will start their long journey home after a 2 and 1/2 week whirl wind tour of China.

I met my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Joan in Beijing on September 12th to kick things off.

Here are a few select photos of places around Beijing

The Summer Palace

The Forbidden City

Teinamen Square

The Great Wall

The Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium)

The Night Market

and the Hutong Area

We spent 3 nights here with a great local guide (Johnathon) and National guide (Ling). While the stops were a little short (and the mandatory shopping excursions in the Jade and Pearl "Museums" a little long) We had a fantastic time seeing some of the most impressive parts of Beijing (not to mention China).

For the sake of time and readability I guess I will do a new post on each city we visited. There are certainly enough pictures!

Its good to be back!

What making 168,000 Trolley Bags Looks Like

2010-05-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a damn long time coming, but production of my first big sale is finally under way!

For those interested that don't know, I am working for an export and manufacturing company that focuses primarily on producing bags. This order is for a rolling trolley bag that will end up in the US eventually.

This is actually our biggest sale to date and I am just beginning to see what that means. Until now 168,000 was just a big number in a bunch of emails. Now as the fabric and handles are starting to roll in the ridiculous size is starting to sink in. Going to the factory now is like being awash in a sea of girly colored fabric with the occasional island of zillion handle frames.

Here is what 40,000 disassembled handles looks like in boxes. (You can use Chris for scale)

And here is what they look like what about 1/2 of them are assembled.

This is just one of the dozens of stacks thousands cut bag pieces that line the hallways and floors.
There are about 50 in each bundle.

Here is a stack of 100 or so lovely fake crocodile skin handles. That will eventually be sewn on.

And this is of course where the magic happens 6 days a week 10 hours a day...

Tomorrow there are supposed to be 2,000 done (1.1%!) done for us to go check out and then we really ramp things up. At this rate we need to make 5,000 or so a day to catch the dead line! It's going to be a hell of a month!

More later.

The Peak

2010-04-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hey every one, it has been pointed out by a few people its been a while since I did a post. I've been super busy in Hong Kong hammering out a deal, so I haven't had much time to post. (more details on Hong Kong and the Deal later)

Just thought I would share a video from the top of "The Peak" in Hong Kong. Chris and I took an after noon off from the show and hiked up. Clearest day in both of the times I was there.

The video is taken on top of, from what we could tell, one of the highest points on the island located on the Western most side. Just a little clip of the view from the top.

Enjoy.

Cost of Produce in Xiamen

2010-04-12T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here is just a quick look some more cost of living stuff.

This past Sunday I made Vegetarian Chili and corn bread from scratch at our apartment. I didn't have most of the fresh stuff I needed, so I ran across the street to the market to pick up some things.

Here is what I bought.

In case it it not totally clear from the picture:

1 Bag of White Sugar
1 Bag of Brown Sugar
1 Bunch of Celery
2 Green Bell Peppers
3 Red Chili Peppers
2 Cups Cornmeal
1 Cup Red Beans
2 Cup Kidney Beans
1 Ear of Corn
1 Large Bottle of Drinking Water

How much did all this cost me? 19.00 RMB that is just above $2.75.

Yes I cheated a bit by using real (not powdered) milk, along with cheese and butter from the Metro (not included) in the corn bread.

Adding these almost triples the cost of the meal, since a good block of cheddar, milk, and butter can easily run you 50RMB (still only costing you $10, including the produce) but obviously you then have plenty left over for other stuff.

I also cheated a little and bought canned tomato sauce for around 15 RMB, but this could easily be substituted for real tomatoes that cost about 1-2 RMB a piece.

If you include the garlic we had in the house, this yielded enough Chili and Cornbread for 4 people to eat until they were stuffed.

Some quick division gives us less than $2.85 a meal per person max. (this is omitting the white sugar since it wasn't used in anything)

Omitting the luxury of corn bread, Cheese, and making your own tomato sauce, Chili for this 4 could easily be made for under $2.80 TOTAL or $0.70 a person. (again omitting the white sugar)

Oh, and it came out great BTW.

(Add TingTao for 2.5RMB ($0.38) , slightly better Thai beer for 8 ($1.25) , or drive to the Marco Polo and adding a Sam Adams for 12RMB ($1.75)

Huli Mountian

2010-04-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

Monday was "Chinese Memorial Day", so Chris and I decided we would take a walk up to a Temple we discovered while hiking aimlessly around Huli Mountain a few weeks back. This post doesn't need a whole lot of explanation, it is mostly for the pictures/video of what we saw there.

Huli Mountain is the only place in Xiamen, so far, that I have been able to breath in via my nose, and not only not evoke the gag reflex, but thoroughly enjoy the smell of good old fashioned nature. (More to come on the smells of China once we have them all properly categorized and labeled.)

All around the mountain there are lush forests, cobble stone paths, and some fancy places to stop and rest, like this one.

All the trails are marked by these peculiar signs. What makes them peculiar, you might ask? The fact that to the average non-woodsy American passer-byer, one would assume they are made of wood. But, anyone who has spent more than a week in China (since nothing but tea tables are made of wood here. Not even witches.) or grew up learning about trail markers on the other hand, would know they are not They are in fact solid concrete.

Then out of no where, in stark contrast to the dense dark green sub tropical forest, these building come sharply into view.

We walked a bit further and found the entrance and began to poke around. Here is what we found.

One of the largest and most elaborate Tea tables I have seen so far. (totally bringing one of these home!)

One thing about China is that anywhere there is anything (which is everywhere) there is something under construction. This was no different. This should give you a pretty good idea of the atmosphere.

Bamboo used for scaffolding.

I did not get any clear pictures of the inside of the main building. Ritualistic people en-mass make both Chris and I nervous so we steered clear. Suffice to say there was a big golden Buddha, a bunch of incense, and some candles. (Like most Buddhist shrines.)

There was certainly plenty of cool architecture and art to go around. Here are some examples.

Off to the sides of the main building were a couple small shrines connected with elaborately decorated halls.

At the end of the hallsare separate smaller shrines dedicated to ancient Chinese war lords and the like.

By this time we thought that we had seen all there was to see of the shrine, so we took a minute to appreciate the view of the city.

And spied on some people in a cool hiding place for lunch.

Though I am not sure, something about this smacked of Cultural Revolution a little too much to not take a photo.

I have now used "Spied" and "Cultural Revolution" on the same blog post... If for some reason the blog becomes inactive in the next few weeks... you know why.

Then I saw the weirdest goose I have ever seen. (And some people don't think bird's evolved from Dinosaurs!!)

But, as we were about to leave, we noticed there was a bit more. The bit more had a TON of people walking towards it and was actually a lot more, so we figured we'd check it out.

Along with men selling turtles on a leash,

this where I saw the T-Rex man. I couldn't bring my self to take a picture, but think full grown man with fully functional infant arm. Thank you USA for having an EPA.

It turned out that this was where most people we going to celebrate Chinese Memorial Day. This is a big chimney.

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but from what we were told and what we saw, people burn paper, which they get from here.

Then they go here here to make a wish and burn some incense. (The wish may or may not come up on the ticker screen.)

LOTS of incense.

Lots of really big incense.

Then, if your a foreigner you wander around and get stared at while you take lots of photos of the cool stuff. However, I didn't take to many more photos. (Once again due to "the horde of people bowing, talking to them selves, and burning stuff factor" but here are a few.)

Then I got Chris to smile in front of the whole thing. (This is a challenge in it self after being stared at, shouted at, pushed around, and charged too much for stuff for about 3 hours)

All in all, a very cool place. We might just have to go back when it is a little less crowded.

More later.

Pirates, Strawberries, Pornstars, Human Hamster Balls, Goats, and a Tandem Bike

2010-03-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

About once a month I have an experience in Xiamen, that when I get home, makes me think to myself "Well then, this has been a sufficiently strange experience. Any minute now I should be waking up and this mess of insanity will clear it self right up. I'm sure of it"

Only after an hour or two, do I realize that, I will not be waking up because I am in fact, already quite awake. I am forced to conclude that this has just been another day in the steadily growing number of days that will forever be filed in my brain under "Days in China that were so far out, I couldn't possibly make them up, even if I wanted to".

It started, as many days do, as a pretty average day. (This is redundant isn't it? They wouldn't be average days if most day's didn't start like that, would they?) Anyway, it was Saturday and Chris and I were going to try and go check out the aquarium. No, not the sea food restaurant down the street filled with Sting Rays, Eels, and Crabs. A proper aquarium where you don't eat the displays.

About half an hour before we were about to leave, I received a phone call from my boss Lindon. He wanted to take us to the beach. It was a nice day and when we go out with Lindon usually he pays for everything. So it was decided that the Aquarium would still be there another day. .

After 10 years of summers in Rhode Island, I now have a pretty good idea of what "Going to the beach" means to me. It means, bring a towel, wear sandals with shorts, and play Frisbee. I have grown to like this definition of going to the beach, as do many of my friend (Chris included). It did not dawn on me until I was asked "Why are you wearing that" upon getting into the car, that other people may not have, or enjoy, this definition.

As it turns out, Lindon's personal definition of "Going to the beach" mean "Rent tandem bicycles and parade the two American's around on them like the towering idiots they are".

But before we could do that, we had 20 minutes or so to kill. So naturally we stopped at a historic military site where the largest gun in pre WWII China was kept.

It was a full fledged museum with plaques, movies, and life sized displays about what German colonization and the opium wars were like in the mid to late 1800's.

I, being a student of Chinese History in college, easily could have spent 3 or more hours there with out getting bored. I tried to slow us down a bit by taking lots of pictures,

(I am pretty sure I have an exact lego replica of everything in this picture)

but then my camera died. Plus we had a plan, and we were sticking too it. So 20 minute fast forwarded tour it was!

We then jumped back in the car and 10 minutes later arrived at "the beach". Other wise known as "the massive side walk right next to the beach" (which we never did get a chance to walk on).

On our way to rent the bikes we came across a carnival. At the carnival they had the typical carnival rides: Tea Cups, the Gravatron, human hamster balls, that thing that brings you up in the air and then drops you from some terrifying altitude. Excuse me, what? HUMAN HAMSTER BALL!? Yes, thats right. In China, you can rent a 8 foot by 8 foot plastic sphere, climb in, and then go pretend you are Jesus 30 feet out into the surf. AND NOBODY WANTED TO DO IT WITH ME.

So we walked on.

Until that is, the ride shaped like a pirate ship that swings you back and forth like a pendulum came into view.

Now I have seen one of these before, so it wasn't the idea of people paying money to be thrown up into the sky and then violently jerked back down again by gravity and a few thousand pounds of plastic pirate ship that stopped me in my tracks. It's what was on the SIDE of the few thousand pound pirate ship that froze me mid step like shaven polar bear.

Normally, it is not too uncommon to have a ride at these kinds of places that has a theme. In the USA, if one happened to spot, on the side of a few thousand pound plastic pirate ship, a few characters from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, you might not think twice about it, you might even find it quite odd if you saw someone suddenly shocked into paralysis just by looking at it. But this isn't the USA and these weren't Disney Pirates.

China is pretty famous for knocking off American brands and having horribly translated signs displayed to the public (you can see a few here on an earlier blog post) but this one takes the cake. (and the icing, and the tasty layer of raspberry goodness that I don't know how to make.)

Plastered all over the side of this particular few thousand pound plastic pirate ship, in the middle of a carnival, with tons of little Chinese children running around, was Johny Depp flanked by about a dozen or so of the finest young ladies featured at www.pirates XXX.com (link intentionally not included). That's right, porn stars, in pirate gear, on a carnival ride.

Only-In-China.

Then it was time to make fools of ourselves.

We arrived at the bike stand to find you could only rent 2,3, and 4 person bicycles. Yes, 4 person, and no, there are none for 1 person.

So we carefully selected (and by carefully selected I mean, took the first one on the rack) the most uncomfortable 2 person bike with the least amount of breaks left possible and we were off.

To go strawberry picking.

Keep in mind that I have only twice seen enough non-paved sqaure footage for two trees to grow next to each other comfortably since I moved here, and we are going to a farm. On a bike.

But all of the sudden, sandwiched in between Multi-million dollar apartment buildings and "the beach", stretched out for 2 kilometers was, a genuine strawberry farm.

Now picking stuff in China is a fair amount different than it is in the US. Mostly because you can't eat anything right away. Do you know how hard it is to pick beautiful, plump, perfectly reddened strawberries for an hour in the hot summer sun, after riding a tandem bike in Chinese traffic, having only one of the breaks works well enough to slow you to a manageable speed as you go careening down a hill and not being able to eat them while you pick? The only thing that could possibly make it more un-enjoyably is being told you don't have enough and that you are actually picking for Lindon's whole neighborhood, not just your personal enjoyment.

Finally, our bounty was deemed plentiful enough and we were allowed to get back on our 2 wheeled future-children killing device.

But, just in case the tandem and Chinese pesticides wasn't deceasing our change of bearing offspring enough, it was announced that it was time to go horse back riding. In sandals, in a 3 million person city, in China.

With the infertility machine cranking away, we dodged traffic, a goat or 3, and an endless onslaught of Chinese people walking every which way for about 3 miles until we finally arrived at "Xiamen Equestrian Club".

There were certainly plenty of horses, (6 Australian thorough breads and 7 domestic Chinese breads) but what struck me right away was the lack of space to actually ride them. We had short conversation with the women there who began to show us around and then informed us that it cost 30,000 RMB ($4,400) to ride them. That put a nail in that coffin (since it turned out that only AFTER we had sufficiently reduced out probability of having children by 10% that I was the only person even willing to consider getting on a horse) and back we went.

Oh and then Lindon's friend just TOSSED OUT HALF THE FREAKIN STRAWBERRIES. 0 explanation. Granted that could have been because he didn't speak English, but still, I could have mimed "Ill put them in our basket" easily enough.

To top it all off, we then went out to dinner at a place where the most prominent thing on display was 5 large jars filled with a Cobra drowned in Alcohol in each one. (head reared, neck flared, and all). I lost my appetite instantly and did my best to stomach some rice.

Alright, I should be waking up any minute now...

Cost of Living in Xiamen

2010-03-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

One of the most astounding things about living in Xiamen is just how ridiculously inexpensive it is to live here. Maybe it the economist in me, but I would like to dive into this subject a little bit more.

When I was trying to make my decision about whether or not to come to Xiamen, I spent some time surfing the web trying to get an accurate picture of what my budget would need to be like in order live comfortably.

It turns out this information is harder to find then I thought, so I figured I would start keeping a weekly record of it myself and make it available on the blog so that it would be accessible to anyone else that wanted to travel or live here. It certainly would have saved me some stress had it been available to me!

I should summarize my trip getting here, then I will start with weekly updates about living.

Getting too Xiamen

Costs
1 Way Flight: $636
Arranged Pick up from the Airport: $22
4 Nights in Bed and Breakfast in HK: $260
6 Months Travelers Insurance: $390
Chinese 1 Month Double Entry Travel Visa: $300
Sight Seeing in HK and Eating: $100
Flight to Xiamen: $216
Virtual Private Network (for getting around Chinese firewall): $29.50
Total (with a few small international transaction fees and bottles of water to round it off): $2,000

Many of the costs could easily now be avoided in a variety of ways. Getting the right visa in the US for starters would eliminate the need to fly to HK all together and all the costs associated with it. (Very much depends on the purpose of your visit) For my arrangement and F visa works nicely.

The first 2 1/2 months will have to be one crude summary since I didn't keep very good records.

Moving in and Living
(based on 6.8 to 1 Exchange rate)

Monthly rent for a 1 bed room one bath apartment in Huli Area: $191.17

Included in the apartment were:

Refrigerator
Bed
Washing Machine
Couch
Dresser
Table
TV

Monthly Internet, Electricity, Cell Phone and Water Bills: $29.41
Hot Plate and Toaster Oven: $100
Christmas Presents for coming home: $250
Other stuff including dishes, transportation, food, and cleaning stuff, and going out: about $800
Total: about $1600

This is pretty vague, but the total is accurate because I know my monthly Salary is $800 (quite a good salary by Xiamen standards, English teachers here make about $730. I also read somewhere that $800 is about what a law school grad can expect to make starting salary here) and by the time I left to come home for break a had not taken any money out of my US account since my trip to HK. Of course I will be more specific from here on out since that is the point of this section of the blog.

Grand total of living and traveling for 3 months: $3600
(Note this does not include my flight home which was paid for by the company but would have cost me $600 had I not been coming back)

Any suggestions on a format would be great. I hope someone somewhere out there find all this helpful or at least interesting.

EDIT 06/08/2012: I have discovered that this post is still regularly read and searched for in google. Thank you everyone for your comments. Sorry to those who I didn't contact. Blogger seems to have stopped alerting me of comments. I'll be sure to fix this.

I think I will do a follow up to this post soon now that I have a better idea of what my year in XM and traveling cost. Also if you would like another reference for cost of living in XM (since I didn't do a good job of regular updates), you can check out this post about the cost of produce and eating in XM or this one that about my first run of the mill shopping excursion. If you are interested in my living arrangements while there, you can have a look at this post, about my apartment while living there. Thanks all for reading!

Mechanical Bulls. Jazz, Che Guevara, and Free Mojitos

2010-03-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

All that and more in Haiwan park this weekend!

(love this entrance!)

This past weekend Chris got to have his first proper weekend out (with out Jet lag) in Xiamen.

Friday night we met up with some Couch Surfers to catch some live music and half priced Heineken at JJ's Bar and Grill. Yet another ex-pat hang out. It was spur of the moment, but a fair amount of people showed up and we met some of our first non CS ex-pats.

The band was from Iceland. They had a pretty mellow grove that made for good back ground music while people chatted. JJ's is owned by a guy from Tennessee and is modeled after a Texas Steak house. It even has an old Ford out front, Mechanical bull to ride, and a big neon WELCOME TO TEXAS sign.

We also got dinner at a place next door called Havana. We knew it was new but we didn't realize that we happened to be the first customers to order food since they opened that day as a test run for their grand opening the next day! We both got chicken burritos and they were quite good. The bar tender there was a British guy who might have been 26-27. He told us come back for the Grand Opening the next day.

So we did. Along we CS friend CheFung from Hawaii who came to our first meeting and happened to be passing threw Xiamen again.

Havana was a blast. Live jazz band and free monitors margaritas and sangria all night helped a lot!

Just a good weekend over all!

More later.

The Fragrance Explodes the Squid Circle

2010-03-15T01:39:00.000-07:00

There is a " coffee shop" located right down the street from work that we discovered the other day

I say "Coffee Shop" but it is not at all like anything that we would normally call a coffee shop back home. It is called a coffee shop simply because it happens to serve coffee (along with a a varity of other interesting things as you will see)

You would think a blog post about a coffee shop would have something to do with coffee, this one does not.

This blog post is about just about everything BUT the coffee and is much more how one would go about describing everything else that is available to order in English.

The owner was nice enough to have the menu translated into English so all of us foreigners could know what to order. So your goal by the end of this post should be to know what you want from the menu.

First up on the menu the Entrees. I have split the list in half so that it is easier to read. A few of notable ones: "Harsh Sand Fish Maw" "Emperor Lion" " Does the Pot Fish Head" " Over turns the Heavens Red the Fish Head" "Unwearied Effort However Beef" and "The Peasant Family Braises the Stomach Point"

Next came the "Dutch Fragrant/ Bamboo Tube Food Section. Another honorable mention with: "Dutch Fragrant Fin-less Eel Food"

Some tasty gruels:'

Of course I should include the name sake of this blog under "Fine Snack"

And let us not for Get the "Fire Iron" and "The Water Boils the Series" Which includes "Wild Mountain fungus seafood pot" "The Water Boils the Frog" and my all time favorite "Incites Tinker Pans"

Here is what we chose:
"The country side cooks the meat"

What would you like?!

Zongshang Street (Walking Street)

2010-03-11T04:59:00.000-08:00

Well I typed out 3/4 of the blog post disconnected from the internet and then I updated firefox and lost it all. Grrrr I hate retyping things.

Basically Chris and I went to Zongshang Street (a street closed to cars in the center of Xiamen) and walked around looking for a guitar string and a keyboard.

Zongshang Street is one of the oldest "roads" in Xiamen. It was where the British established a settlement when they first started opening up China to trade.

Xiamen may be better known to some as Amoy, and was one of the early places where trade was allowed.

It is now full of little shops, vendors, and restaurants and a pretty neat place to spend a night wandering.

Here are some photos of assorted shops and vendors.

Food vendor

After at a particularly bad attempt at trying to order food at a buffet (The girl we dealt with will not be my partner if we ever play charades! She also continued to speak very rapid Chinese even after asking her to slow down and and telling her we didn't understand in Chinese) we decided to to try Xiamen KFC to see if it was any different and for ease of ordering. It wasn't. (but it was easy to order)

After we walked around a bit and I amused my self by taking pictures of all of the obvious attempts of Chinese businesses to knock off American brands.

Examples:

"Pearl Boy" and obvious knock off of "Playboy" bunny and all, sold mostly women clothing.

This company sold running shoes. I'd wager that swoosh is identical to the Nike swoosh if you flipped it over.

Crocodile sold men's work clothing. Their Croc logo looks just a liiiiitle bit like that of Lacoste.
http://brandnoise.typepad.com/brand_noise/images/lacoste_logo.gif

This one didn't seem to be knocking anyone off, but I had to take a picture for obvious reasons. Unfortunately it was just a logo. The store only sold bed sheets that didn't even have dinos on them.

After some more wandering we found a little coffee shop (no where near as common as it is in the US or Europe) so we decided to stop and try it out.

It was actually fantastic and they served Hagan-das to boot! I was happy.

Afterward we walked around a bit more...

That finally took us over to where the ferry leaves for Gulangyu.

Over all fun night. Nice to get to show Chris around a little bit.

More to come.

The Office

2010-03-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

No! Not with Jim and Pam, MY office.

Some people have been asking me about where I work so I figured I would post some pictures. Xiamen ENRY Co. ltd is the name of the company. It is a manufacturing and export company that specializes in the production of luggage, back packs, and hand bags along with a few other assorted varieties. If you are interested or if by chance you should happen to need a whole lot of bags made have a look at our website.

Its nothing too exciting really, but there are some distinct and interesting differences.

Everything about this picture is what you would normally see when you first come into the office except that the person at the front desk usually has quite a bit more affiliation with the flag on the left then on the one on the right. (Though Chris gets told he "looks more Chinese" all the time. He has decided its a compliment.)

Then as you turn right you see a few things that you might not see in a normal American office. Note the Buddhist shrine located on the right. There is incense, fruit, and a statue of Buddha on the inside. There is also a Tea set that we use frequently when we meet with customers and the factory foremen.

Then there is the super exciting area where we spend out days. Everyone else is out too lunch, but Chris is still plugging away...

Then we arrive at my desk. Apparently some where along the line I became a Mac fanboy. Nothing to exciting here just some pictures of the folks and friend, a photo copy of my diploma (since I haven't been able to see the real one yet!), and my Tiger calendar haha! (In case you didn't put 2 and 2 together, 2010 is in fact the year of the Tiger)

And this is my lovely view of everyone in the office. The windowed room is of course Lindon's office.

And then there is the newbies desk. It still needs some character building.

And that is about it for the office. I was wary of taking photos in the factory... I am not sure Lindon would appreciate that, though there are a few on the website if you care to look.

Anyway, not the most exciting post but I thought it might be interesting to others who are working in offices to see what they are like in China!

More later.

Chris' Arrival and Company Dinner Party

2010-03-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

"If you could have told us this is where we would be right now a year ago, would you believe yourself?"

Straight from the mouth of Chris, who just arrived here on Saturday! I couldn't have said it better my self.

Its hard to believe that just a year ago this whole adventure was just a couple of emails and at best a shot in the dark for the both of us and now, here we are!

You can read Chris' take on his arrival on his blog, which I now have linked along with a few others, on the side of this blog.

He was supposed arrive on Friday March 5th on the same flight I took, but at around 10PM I received a distress call from Beijing saying he was stranded there for the night and would be showing up around 11 the next day.

Fortunately he everything worked out and we meet up with him easily enough the next morning.

After he arrived we went for a quick lunched. (I briefly had him worried we were eating frog strew, which wasn't to much of a leap since there were about a dozen of them in a tank 5 feet away.)

Most of the afternoon was spent unpacking and napping, but at 6 o:clock Lindon had arranged for us to have our annual ENRY dinner party so everyone could meet.

The place we ate was called "The little Sheep" (for good reason). It was actually some of my favorite Chinese food so far. Around 15 people joined us in the end. All of ENRY plus some of Lindon's college friends.

The restaurant style was similar to broth based fondue in Europe. Each person orders a separate broth that stays heated. Mine was mainly garlic and hot pepper based. Then, a HUGE variety of things to cook in the broth is ordered and you get to pick and choose between what you want. Here is a picture of the way it was set up.

But, first there were some appetizers...

Barnacles mmmmmm

and Goose Neck!

Then comes the MASSIVE amount of food. I would hate to do dishes at a place like this. By my count including the dishes we ate off of and not including chop sticks and spoons there where 138 dishes from our table alone!

Thing that where included:
Lotus Root
Potato
Kelp
Lamb
Lamb Intestine
Noodles
Tofu
Lettuce
Cilantro
Cauliflower
Carrots
Beef

There were probably a few others that I forgot but those were the main ones.

Here is a photo of everyone eating together.

Afterward we sat around talking and play "the dice game" or "Bullshit" which is the direct Chinese translation. One of my coworkers challenged everyone around the table to a round.

After, we did a little private room Karaoke with a few coworkers. Chris found "Let it Be" by the Beatles to sing. I sand my staple, Superstition by Stevie Wonder and Lost by Coldplay. This was a new place and only had about about 3 dozen US artists with the majority of them being a similar genre close to Backstreet Boys, Michel Jackson, and Madonna.

Chris was pretty jet lagged by around 10 oclock so we headed back early and got a good nights rest. We are finally pretty settled in now and the appartment is starting to look pretty good. We got Chris a fork and knife today so he is officially living in luxury!

More soon of course. Stay good.

My New Appartment! Part 2

2010-03-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, time for a quick part two, but first a write up of my first real batch of culture shock.

The back story:

For those who don't know, the reason for moving is because my close friend and roommate from college, Chris Lombardozzi has moved out to Xiamen with me. (You can check out his blog here)

When the original plan for Chris to move out here was suggested, we mentioned it would probably be cheaper to live together. Lindon agreed and we left it at that with out elaborating.

About a week before Chris showed up, I got to talking to Lindon about living arrangements. My old apartment is quite small as any one who has followed the blog from the beginning knows and there was very little room for the two of us. My original plan was to turn the living room into a bedroom and try and swing it that way. It would be tight, but cheap, and Chris and I have lived together before, so we figured we could hack it.

Lindon however had other ideas...

When I mentioned getting another bed so that we could go forward with my plan Lindon looked perplexed. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Is there anyway we can get another bed and turn the living room into a bed room."
Lindon: "Why do you need another bed?"
Me: "So Chris or I doesn't need to sleep on the couch."
Lindon: "Is Chris very big?"
Me: "About my size. Why?"
Lindon: "Won't he fit in the bed then?"
Me: "Yes, but then I must sleep on the couch."
Lindon: "How come?"
Me: "Because, Chris is in the bed."
Lindon: "You can't share?"

Long awkward pause...

Me: "ummmmm No, no we can't."

Apparently, it is quite common for 2 full grown men to share a bed in China! Lindon's 20 something year old brothers do it right now. Lindon could not for the life of him understand why we couldn't, and I could not for the life of me explain it. In the end we had to chalk it up to cultural difference and we started contemplating new options.

He was also extremely surprised that Dan (my brother) and I only shared a room until about the age of 11 and that we never shared a bed. He told me how him and his 3 brothers share a bed most of their life and always shared a room. When he asked why we did it, I could really one think of "because that is what is common in the US." Which is not an answer I particularly like giving, but at the moment (and still really) I couldn't come up with a good reason.

While this was quite a shock at first, once I sat and thought about the economic conditions and the complete lack of space and resources, it actually makes a lot more sense.

Fortunately Lindon is a great guy and very understanding. (He also gets things done!) 2 days later, his wife (Susie) went out and found us this great new apartment and I was moved in Thursday.

Which brings us ack to the comparisons. I did 5 positive on the last post so I'll start with one of the draw backs this time.

A one true down side: The Building is much older.
The old apartment was only 3 years old. It was fresh, clean, and new. Most things were just put in, if not still being put in, and it just gave a very clean modern appearance. This one, not so much. It is however, much more like what I THOUGHT living in China would be like. This picture is taken from out kitchen.

The whole complex is the kind of odd round building where you can look out of your kitchen and just see what everyone else is doing. Something oddly communist about it to me.

Another positive: Bathroom.
Just about everything about it. There are cupboards for putting things in (especially nice with 2 people living there), running hot water in the sink, and a DOOR ON THE SHOWER! so that when I shower the whole bathroom doesn't get soaked like it did in the old apartment.

A down side for practicality, A plus for my health: Floor number
As you may have noticed from the picture of the building, this apartment is on the 6th floor. There is no elevator. Moving in was brutal! But now I am starting to get used to it. A good climb after sitting in the office all day isn't such a bad thing. This is the gate, the 602 is painted over and just barely visible.

Another positive: The kitchen.
The kitchen is about 3 times the size of my old kitchen. Aside from the fact that it has a table, cabinets, and is larger, it also has TWO gas stove top burners (still no oven) AND about 5 times the counters space (really 5 times as much, no exaggeration) That means that I no longer have to take the hot plate off the counter, put it on the floor, prep all my food, put it on top of the fridge, turn the hot plate on, make the rice, finish that and cover it and hope it stays warm, change plans, and then, hopefully, cook the rest of the meal in one plan. Rather, I can make rice in a steam cooker, have a pot and a pan hot at once and still have room to cut vegetables!

For comparison, this is my WHOLE kitchen in the old place.

And here is the new one again.

Here also, are the funky lights over the dinning part of the kitchen.

And finally a mixed difference: Cheap wooden stuff/Mini Bar
Because the apartment is old and we are in China everything that is "wooden" is actually really cheap plywood with cheep vinyl looking wood over it. The bag part about this is that from any closer than 3 feet away everything looks super cheap and cheesy. The good part is that the old owners at least used it to make a super cool mini bar thing in the living room! (complete with mini bridge, shelves, and spinny stools!)

There are also some smaller thing I have noticed after a few days that I like. I like the lighting much better, it is less harsh. I also like the marble floor and tables for ease of cleaning. I still can't get over how much more ROOM there is and how great it is.

In all, this place just has more character, and that is what I like in a living space. The other apartment was clean and nice and new, but it was also sterile and boring.

With a little cleaning up and a few Brad and Chris finishing touches (we already have a picture of Charles Darwin on the fridge (thanks Sara!) and my Nat. Geo. Dino poster behind the door) I have no doubt that this place will start to feel much more like home very soon!

My New Appartment! Part 1

2010-03-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Moved into the new apartment yesterday!

This post has a brief, yet great story behind it, but I will have to tell it another day. My internet time is limited.

We are still in the Huli area. The new place is maybe 200 meters from our old place, just on the other side of the road. It has two bed rooms, one bath, a MUCH larger kitchen, a livening room, and a balcony. We pay RMB 1650 a month which is about $240 (split two ways!) so $120 a piece.

Out of a list of ten notable differences so far, there are 7 good things and maybe 3 not as good things. I will talk about 5 in this post.

The good first, SPACE! There is so much more room for everything! We have shevles and cabinets in the kitchen for everything! There is room to move around in the living room and we both have our own rooms!

There is twice as much cabinet room in this photo alone, and you cant even see the one under the sink and the one under the stove top!

Good thing number 2 would be that we have a table. Techincally yes I had a table in the old apartment but it was a coffee table and it was about 6 inches too short for anyone from the US even eating from the couch.

The next is Bedrooms. We have our own. This is good because not only are we not sharing a bed but we also aren't living on top of each other. And since we are also working in the same company 3 feet apart, this is probably a good thing.

Bed room one,

and bed room two

both rooms have these as well. As I was saying MORE ROOM!

Positive thing number 4. Balcony!

The 5th and final for today, a nice couch for chilling and CSer's to crash on

The other 5 and back story another time! Time to unpack! I am being rushed out the door!

Lunch Time with the the Bag Team

2010-03-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the office went out for lunch at a restaurant down the street. I've never had my camera on me the times we have been out before, but today I did so I figured I would post a little about a typical lunch time meal today.

This type of food is traditional from the Hunan province which is located here.

This is a typical place setting when you arrive. Maybe times they are actually disposable.

The liquid in the cup is Chinese tea. Tea is usually had before the meal, not after like in the US or Europe. I have yet to come across a Chinese tea I dislike.

Then usually there is some sort of soup. Soup is usually considered the beverage of the meal and unless you specifically ask for "Bing Shui" (Ice Water) or "Ke Le" (Cola) it is not uncommon to not have a drink with your meal. (However today we got orange soda since the waitress insisted I would like it. Again not individual but a 1 liter bottle.)

This soup is Peanut and Papaya, interesting combo but not bad. At least it was all recognizable. The green stuff on the side is kelp. (Which in my taste isn't terrible, but I could live with out)

Here is more of what the soup looked like.

Most meals in China are served quite differently than in the US. Here, instead of individual meals, 4 or 5 dishes are ordered and shared on a lazy Susan and everyone get their own bowl of rice to put the food on. Not having enough food is considered VERY bad form, so there are is ALWAYS too much ordered. Typically the dishes come out one after another.

The first dish out was this one. Mostly cooked cabbage, chives, hot peppers, and mushrooms in a spicey soy like sauce. My personal favorite of the day.

Next out was some fish and noodles. I have no idea what kind of fish it was. The sauce was very garlicky with maybe some lemon. I also noticed it had a similar taste to the sauce Lindon's mom taught me to make for the dumplings. I think it has something to do with the untranslatable sauce used. I liked the sauce and noodles, but no surprise that the fish was not for me.

Next came a spicy chicken dish. This tasted pretty good, but having the bones still in the meat is a little weird for me. I think that the person who originally came up with American Chinese food maybe have experienced and tried to recreate something like this originally. This assumption is mostly based on the way the food looks and a few of the ingredients. The taste is still no where near the same. The smiling girl in the back ground is Lily, she is the Engineer at our company.

Here is a closer look at the chicken dish.

Finally the last. A mushroom based dish. I was so stuffed at this point I didn't get a chance to try it.

And finally a picture of all of us. Can you spot the foreigner!?

To really illustrate what I mean by always ordering too much, this is basically the end of the meal and all the food you see is left overs. Fortunately it doesn't go to waste and taking food home here is very normal. The whole affair, 4 people, 3 courses, 1 liter if soda, and tea cost us less than $30.00!

More later. Stay good.

The 'Hood

2010-03-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Talking to Rach (from back home) the other day, it was mentioned that I only ever take pictures of the really cool/beautiful/unique things I do. That is all fine and good I think, but my original purpose of the blog was to really be able to show what daily life in Xiamen is like and to provide a little bit of information for people that would consider coming here.

From now on, I am going to try and start doing more short, daily life related posts and then when something interesting comes along I will do a longer one.

So, to kick this format off, I thought I'd just do a quick post about my Neighborhood so people can get a better sense of where it is exactly that I am living.

First some info. My apartment is in the Huli area of Xiamen. You can look at a map here

It is pretty small, just 1 bathroom, 1 bed room, a living room and a TINY kitchen. My rent is about 1300RMB a month (Approximately $180). Its nothing fancy, but it suits my needs just fine.

Here is the entrance to the apartment complex that I only ever see if I walk there. Its kind of like how everyone has a front door that looks nice and is always decorated, yet for what ever reason it only opens when special people come visit.

This is my apartment complex. I live in the last one on the left, 8th floor.

Some of the buildings are apartments and some of them are "houses" I guess? A good comparison would be, If you live in the Bronx and you have one of those sort of "Classic" houses with the stoop and what not. That considered a house not a large apartment right? (Jim McMahmon if you're reading I am specifically thinking of your house." Anyway...

This is standing a little ways out from the entrance to my building at sun set.

Across the street there are a variety of shops, markets, and food vendors.

Occasionally I'll pick up some fresh fruit at this little stand before work.

These are dinner carts where workers or passersbyers can grab a quick bite on the fly.

Here is the market where I get most of my produce. Sorry for the blurry picture, I didn't have flash on so as not to attract even MORE attention then I already do as a foreigner ,with a camera, in a market.

More photos of the market. A table full of spices. (Can you name them in their not ground up and bottle forms?)

Some fresh veg. Again sorry for the blur...

These two are the view from my apartment at night.

The market is right behind this hotel.

And finally, for my own enjoy and if there are any TSLers reading, there was a SAAB outside my building today! By the look of it, an 06-07 Aero! I'd love to find out who's it is. Its only the second one I have seen in Xiamen so far!

Well, that's all for now. Hope that paints a decent picture for people!

Homemade Tradition Dumplings!

2010-02-28T18:22:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post today.

Last night I got the privileged of Lindon's (my boss) Mother making me homemade tradition dumplings!

She even made them vegetarian for me! These ones have egg, chives, and bamboo shoots in them. They do NOT taste like dumplings I have ever had before, but they are fantastic!

They also taught me how to make a dipping sauce out of garlic, soy sauces, and some magical ingredient I have never seen before.

I also made an "Asian" stir fry to go with it that complimented it pretty well. Onions peppers and snow peas in a soy, lemon, and honey sauce all served over rice. The vegstables here all come from the market next door and are always fresh and delicious. It came out pretty well and I was happy with it.

I will have to ask her to show me how to make them sometime.

More soon.

Couch Surfing Night Out!

2010-02-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty easily one of the best nights in Xiamen thus far.

A bit of a preface. Over the break Chris and I went up to Boston and visited Dan while he moved into NEU and to see other assorted friends who live there. While there, we met up with Chris' friend from home, John Martin. We got to talking about traveling and adventures we had been on and he brought up a website called Couchsufing.org that had enabled him to travel and meet some pretty cool people. I had actually briefly heard about it before and since John spoke highly I decided to check it out.

For those who don't know (I'll be brief since it seems like this blog is becoming a place where I promote websites haha) couch surfing (CS as the user call it) is an organization that links people who want to travel, with people who have extra couches or bedrooms they are willing to make available. It has since grown to also be a place where people can find someone who knows the city you are traveling in and can recommend places to go or find people who are just willing to grab a drink and exercise your English a bit. If you are a little creeped out by the idea, read about it on the website before you judge. (there are a fair amount of safety features)

Anyway, I joined and got a few nice messages from locals Xiameners, but activity appeared to be low. So 3 or 4 days ago I decided "What the heck" and posted a message on the Xiamen message board to see if anyone wanted to grab pizza or a beer.

Well the response was fantastic! About half a dozen people wrote back on the group post and it was decided we would go to a place called ME & U2 at 8:30. (Which I didn't realize I had actually gone to with a Customer when I first got to Xiamen)

ME & U2 is a a mostly outdoor bar/restaurant/club

situated in Haiwan Park. (which is pretty impressive)

It is owned by Ulf (THE WOLF!) who if you didn't know, would just come off as an extremely friendly old drunken Swed who spends a lot of time there.

There is a stage for live music and both times I have been there a pretty decent pair of Philippino singer/musicians have played. They do a bunch of American staples, as the clientele seems to be split about 50% foreigners 50% local Chinese. They have Stella, Heineken, Carona and 5 or 6 Chinese beers which, by Xiamen standards, is a healthy selection. (Though Havana, a South American restaurant I went to once wins so far with Sam Adams!) They also had the best Pizza I have had in China so far!

Back to the meeting.

Well, to be honest I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping that at best half the people who said would maybe show up actually would. That put my expectations at 3-4 people including me, a pizza, and a beer or two which to be honest, would have been great as well.

It was a trickle at first. Once I got there a guy named Che Fung came up to me and asked if I was part of CS. We sat down and were the first. Che Fung was born in Taiwan but lived in Hawaii for 32 years and now lives in Guangzhou.

We talked for about 5 mins before he got a text from Ting a 27 year old local who had said she would attend. Ting was one of the first people to message me when I joined the Xiamen group and she had also met with Che Fung the last time he was in Xiamen.

Ting showed up with some other friends from CS. Cameron from England and his girl friend Sally who I think was from Taiwan. Cameron came to Xiamen when he was 22 and met Sally. They moved to England for a few years and have just recently moved back to Xiamen to start an English school in Sally's home town. Cameron plays Trumpet and Guitar and is learning harmonica so it was easy to find stuff to talk about and we might even play some music some time.

That made five English speaking people, pizza, and beer. My expectations were met and it was officially a good night for me, but the people kept coming!

A few minutes later Bonto a fun guy about my age from Turkey showed up. After that 3 kids who are seniors in high school participating in an exchange program in Taiwan wandered in. Thomas from France (so obviously pronounced TOE-mas) Elan from Germany, and a Taiwanese girl named Hisn Chen They were all great fun! Next came a guy named Mike from Florida who I think was 30. He teaches English in Xiamen and we might do some running together at some point. Finally came Stephanie, another local from Xiamen and her friend Lee who was an older guy from South Africa!

So if my addition serves me well, including my self that made 12 people from 7 countries (Taiwan included)!

It seemed like everyone really hit it off great! I know I had a blast. Most of us ended up leaving ME&U2 after a few hours and going to a club that also had some great live music. There we met a few people from Germany and Belgium and the party went on until 3AM!

So after speaking with Ting, Banto, Mike, and Cameron we decided we would try and make it a monthly event, which I am looking forward too. Unfortunately Che Fung, Thomas, and a few others who I really hit it off with are just passing through. But that is the life of the traveler I guess.

May they have equally fun experiences where they off too next!

It was great to meet so many interesting and fun people from all over the world! I am really hoping making it a regular thing works out.

PS: If you happen to be reading this because you are considering moving to or already live in Xiamen, you can find links to the Xiamen couch surfer forum in the live feed located on the right side of this blog. Feel free to say "Hi" and ask any questions you have!

Helping Poor Entrepreneurs in China

2010-02-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post.

Some of you know I am a big advocate for kiva.org and this idea of micro-finance in general.

For those of you who don't know what micro finance is, it is actually much less daunting than it sound. Just a fancy term for making small loans available for poor entrepreneurs in poor countries. You can read about it here or you can skip the article and read my scattered summary in the next 3 paragraphs.

Kiva is an online organization that allows people to go online, make a profile, and help make these loans available. You can lend in as small a denomination as $25 and what is even better is that you eventually get the money back. (I choose to continually loan it out, but you can with draw it too.) Every dollar goes to the recipient. (Kiva does ask for an optional %15 donation to help operations though)

Kiva also allows you to choose where your money goes. You can sort borrowers by location, sex, trade, or amount of need. Then once you have made a loan it shows who else is lending to those people. I loan as part of a team, the "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious"

Anyway, For whatever reason I tend to give preference to places I have been, and in the past I most frequently made loans in Tanzania. But, because of China's currency policies you can't lend in China via kiva.

But there is good news! Today I found Wokai(in Chinese "Wo" means I and "Kai" means start) They are a newer, smaller operation than kiva but operate in a similar way. A nice difference is that the contribution amount is even smaller, just $10 (with optional 10% donation for operations). So I signed up and made my first loan to a doctor named Zhou Heping in Sichuan. You can view his profile here.

I would encourage anyone to participate in either one of these organizations. I have had great experiences with kiva including a touching letter from one of my borrowers, 100% pay back every time (7 loans), and some great dialogue with my fellow team members.

More about China and what not tomorrow probably.

我回来了! (I am back!)

2010-02-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

I’m back!

Home sweet home. (the entrance to my apartment complex)

And Xinglong road where I live

The travel here was pretty painless. I ended up taking a shuttle from the New Haven R.R. to JFK. It was easy, not to expensive, and I met some interesting people. One of the guys who happened to also be on my flight was named Frank. He has been going back and forth from China for 5 years now and gave me some great advice about a whole host of things.

I have found that Westerners who spend a lot of time in China tend to look out for one another quite a bit. Every time I meet one it as if they see a younger version of themselves and wish to take me under their wing to help me along. I can't complain their advice as been invaluable. I will have to remember this as I start to spend more time here.

My flight took off at around 4pm. It was just a hair over 16 hours. I am getting pretty used to them now. As long as I time my sleep for the right times, my jet lag is really limited to a few days of getting up earlier then usual. (which is actually nice when I have to start working tomorrow anyway).

My flight arrived in Beijing with the perfect amount of time for me to get through customs, navigate the massive maze that is Beijing airport, grab a coffee, and stop for a quick bathroom break. I boarded at 7:35pm and arrived in Xiamen at 10:30pm. Lindon’s brother and Lily picked me up right away and I was back in my apartment sleeping within an hour!

Here are a few pictures that where interesting from the plane.

This is the Mountains of Siberia

And here is the night view of Xiamen from the plane.

Flying over Beijing and Xiamen I could see Gold and Red fireworks going up EVERYWHERE to celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year. At one point, I counted 11 different spots where good-sized blasts were going off independently. Wish I could have caught them in a picture!

This morning, after I unpacked a bit, I decided I would go for a walk in the park where I had my adventure looking for pizza. It is actually beautiful! (And not creepy at all during the day haha)

Here is a picture of one of the random creepy status that popped out of no where in the night.

I had to laugh at my self. As I walked around I realized I couldn’t have taken a longer path then I did that night! There is a short path right out in the open if I had just gone left instead of right when walking in! Ah well, to quote Douglas Adams “You live and you learn. At any rate, you live.”

This park is however, a magnet for interesting experiences for me! As I was walking, I heard some music being played in the distance, so I took a wander towards it.

Here are some pictures along the path I took. It was well decorated for Chinese New Year.

Only in China would someone’s laundry just be hanging in the park haha!

Here is a picture for Rach from the old amusement part here. I know how she loves old abandoned stuff. (Im not sure if it is actually abandoned or just neglected... Either way, you won't catch me on it!)

Once I got there, the players where very excited to see me and asked me to come join!(Well I am assuming they did, I just saw them wave their arms indicating to come over and then they handed me an instrument) I wish I had thought to ask someone to take a picture, but I was so focused on trying to keep a rhythm on my funky Chinese percussion instrument that I forgot!

I did however get some pictures of the Chinese Fiddle player after our jam session had concluded. (This is the instrument I brought home for Dan for X-mas)

And as a special treat, some video of the players in the park!

It is good to be back!