East Asia Transit Lounge

National Museum and Other Photos

2012-01-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

National Museum

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Other Photos

Harbin Trip

2012-01-08T00:56:00.000-08:00

Train Ride

Random Pictures

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Train Ride Back to Beijing

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Harbin Tiger Park

2012-01-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

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Kazy Hostel and Church of Sophia

2012-01-08T00:51:00.000-08:00

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Harbin Ice Festival

2012-01-08T00:48:00.000-08:00

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Random December

2011-12-28T03:17:00.000-08:00

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Great Wall, Christmas Day, Hot Spring

2011-12-25T06:24:00.000-08:00

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Merry Christmas from Beijing 2011

2011-12-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

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Planning Museum and Market

2011-12-24T03:14:00.000-08:00

Planning Museum

Market

Teach Foreigners to Understand China in 10 Minutes (老外教你十分钟看懂中国)

2011-12-18T02:33:00.000-08:00

A Chinese friend of ours at work gave us a link for a video that she said would explain China and Chinese culture to us in 10 minutes. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but after watching the video I have to agree that it is an excellent honest concise summary.

Teach Foreigners to Understand China in 10 Minutes (老外教你十分钟看懂中国)

Tiger Pub Crawl

2011-12-17T01:02:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went on a pub crawl sponsored by Tiger Beer. The event was cheap drunken debauchery that involved bikes and rickshaws with representatives from most of the former British colonies. Represented at the event was the usual drunken expats from America, England and Australia, with some lesser known, but equally pissed Zimbabwean and Canadians. Absent from the nights festivities was New Zealand and the surprise British colony was Singapore. Anyway, Tiger Beer gave us Santa costumes to wear and we had a lot of fun causing mischief all over Beijing.

(The full story is coming soon, but I wanted to get the pictures and videos out early)

The Plan

Tiger Rickshaws

Mr. and Mrs. "Tiger Santa Claus"

Aaahhh How Cute!

Dinosaur Turtle at Nanlou Guziang

Drunken Memory Games at Houhai

Triple and Double Seat Bikes

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Triple Seat Santa Bike Ride

(The Picture Describes Itself)

Santa Subway Ride

Event Organizer

Jingle Bells BJ Subway

Saying Something Profound

Well, Maybe Not.

Karaoke and LS Work Birthday Party

2011-12-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

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Smog, Postal Bike, Tibetan Skull (Kapala) and Femur Trumpet (Kangling)

2011-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

API 522
The maximum level for the air pollution index (API) is 500 and last night (12/4/2011) it hit 522! In honor of this occasion, I thought I would post some smog pictures and the US EPA's API. Also, on the far right column of the blog I add a Twitter widget to giver hourly updates of the air quality in Beijing.

NASA Satellite Photo of Smog over Beijing

US EPA Air Pollution Index (API)

Postal Service Bike
All mail in Beijing is delivered by bike or electric scooter and the postal service has their own bike.

Postal Service Bike

Tibetan Femur Trumpet or Kangling

LS and I were at this Tibetan store when I noticed what looked like a "Femur Trumpet" I was saw in a climbing video. I talked with the shop owner and he said that is was made from a femur and that I could have it for 300$. I asked why so much and he said because of all the silver used. I guess the femur part did not add that much value. I did some research on Tibetan Femur Trumpet and this is what I learned.

Kangling (Tibetan: རྐང་གླིང།, Wylie: rkang-gling) is the Tibetan word for a trumpet or horn made out of a human thighbone, used in Himalayan Buddhist funeral rituals.[1] The femur of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred.[2] (It may also be made out of wood or metal.) The kangling is usually only used in Tantric rituals, and seldom played in the open.[2] In Tantric Chöd practice the practitioner, motivated by compassion, plays the kangling to summon hungry spirits and demons so that s/he may satisfy their hunger and thereby relieve their sufferings.[citation needed] It is also played as a way of "cutting off of the ego." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling

Trumpet from Femur

Tibetan Skull or Kapala
The decorated skull is called a Kapala (Tibetan: ཀ་པ་ལ, Wylie: kapala) is a loan word into Tibetan from Sanskrit 'kapāla' (Devanagari: कपाल) and it denotes the 'skull' or 'forehead' (most often of the human) and by implication the ritual item, the skullcup, crafted from the human cranium and skullcup is a cup made from a human skull used as a ritual implement (bowl) in both Hindu Tantra and Buddhist Tantra (Vajrayana). Especially in Tibet, they were often carved or elaborately mounted with precious metals and jewels. A legacy of the ancient tradition of human sacrifice, the kapala is nowadays perceived as a dark but fascinating form of sculpture. Tibetan kapalas, in particular, feature impressive bas-relief artworksdepicting religious figures and scenes, and are often adorned with semi-precious stones and silver-work. The elaborate carvings were handmade and the skull was soaked in water to soften the bone. In Tibet, skull cups are used at Buddhist altars to offer wrathful divinities either wine, which symbolizes blood, or dough cakes shaped as human eyes or ears. Through the force of tantric visualization based on meditation and deep philosophical study, a sort of transubstantiation will occur and the wine will be transformed into the Wisdom Nectar, a liquid form of the enlightened mind of one or all the deities in the Celestial Palace of the Mandala. This is just one of the many uses of the kapala in Tibetan ritual culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapala

Carved Skull

Side View Carved Skull

Maohou

2011-11-30T04:08:00.000-08:00

Maohou is a Chinese folk art form, and a form of Miniature Art. Artists build miniature sculptures using cicada sloughs and Magnolia buds. An old Beijing art form, Maohou sculpture came into being during the Qing dynasty. Legend has it that a Beijing herbal medicine shopkeeper designed such miniature toys for his son using the two traditional medicine ingredients since he was too poor to buy any toys. The most common Maohou sculptures feature dancing or posturing monkeys.

Z's trip to Beijing

2011-11-28T05:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my very dear friend Z visited from Hong Kong for the weekend. Although it was a short visit the itinerary was packed. We managed to get in a trip to the Great Wall, some Beiijing Hot Pot, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, hutongs and a Beijing bike ride.

Welcome to Beijing

Mùtiányù Section of The Great Wall

Our day at the great wall was great! We decided that due to the time constraints we would head up to the wall on the chair lift. Initially we thought we would spend 2 hours on the wall but just before we decided to turn back we realized that we had reach the wild wall section and another hour of hiking was under way. It was a beautiful clear day and the grey snaking wall against the mountain side was stunning. The hike itself definitely had Z and I aching the next morning and the highlight of our day was the toboggan ride back down to the car park. Z definitely had the toboggan workers jumping out of their chairs as she went screaming down the hill. Mr Cui then drove us back to Beijing for a hot pot and some sightseeing.

The Original Wall

Authentic Beijing Hot Pot

A Beijing Subway Ride

The Forbidden City

On Sunday morning we cycled over to the Forbidden City to join the crowds viewing the ancient palace.

Z's New Hommie In BJ

Goodbye Beijing

Hit by Car on Sidewalk

2011-11-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

LS and I were talking about the Tibetan store we were just in, when she suddenly lurched forward. We were both stunned by what had just happened, because the last place you expect to get hit by a car is on the sidewalk. Then again, this is Beijing or as once expat put it, “You haven’t lived in Beijing to you have been hit by a car”.

When LS realized the driver had backed into her from their illegal parking spot on the sidewalk she yelled at the driver to “Watch where you are going”. I became furious and slammed my fist onto the truck of the car (denting it a least) and yelled to the driver to get the f**k out of the car. As I walked over to the driver side window to tell the driver to get f**k out, I was shocked to see him and his wife just laughing at us. Bare in mind that in Chinese culture it is very improper and extremely rare to show your true emotion, so to see two enraged laowais (老外), would have been either humorous or terrifying. Since I am sure that we were not the first laowais they had seen hit by a car, they thought it was hilarious. Seeing them laugh at us enraged me and I yelled at the driver to get out of the car. The driver was too scared to get out so his wife got out to tell us she was sorry in her barley intelligible English. I proceeded to yell at her and rudely explain how bad of a driver her husband was and chastise them for their lack of regard for other people or driving regulations. All the while she just laughed at me and told me in her intelligible English, “Sa-whee”. I can not explain how unsatisfying and demoralizing it is to yell and admonish someone without them understanding what you are saying. Frustrated, I gave up and walked back to LS and asked again if she was alright. In retrospect, admonishing the couple was pointless. We should have photographed the license plate in case LS’s back was sore the next day and walked away.

Lama Temple (Yonghe Gong) 雍和宮

2011-11-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

The Yonghe Temple , also known as the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple", the "Yonghe Lamasery", or - popularly - the "Lama Temple" is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism located in the northeastern part of Beijing, China. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. Building work on the Yonghegong Temple started in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. It originally served as an official residence for court eunuchs. The temple is said to have survived the Cultural Revolution due to the intervention of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple)

The entrance

The atmosphere at this temple was one of calmness in a haze of incense.

The main courtyard

Persimmon Tree

Glazed ceramic roofs and ornate figures

The roof of a building is believed to belongs to the spirits, according to Chinese culture. It acts as a platform where the spirits can descend and ascend between the two worlds. The ornate figures on the roof are there to assist in this communication with the celestial world, attracting good fortune, protection and blessings. These roof decorations are generally found on temples and palaces and the number of figures along the ridge depends on the significance of the building. For example, the roof of the main temple in the forbidden city has 11, the highest number of figures found on any roof. (This history lesson by LS is now over and you can continue your browsing.)

The covered statues

Tibetan tantric statues with ferocious-looking gods and goddesses in sexual union are covered due to government required modesty. Absurdly, the adjacent building displayed uncovered smaller versions of the statues.

Cute couple

Monk on his cellphone

Colorful buddhist statue

Look at the skulls on this head

Incense burning and offering prayers

Stunning architecture

This temple has definitely become one of our favorite attractions in Beijing.

HK: Train, Random Photos

2011-10-31T01:10:00.000-07:00

Train from HK to BJ

On our way back from Hong Kong we decided to try out the train. The journey totaled 24 hours and went over night. Our soft sleeper tickets were nice and we had a western toilet :) We shared our room with a mother and daughter.

Train from HK to BJ

LS sleeping on the train

Bunk Beds and Kettle for Tea

View from Train

We took the train instead of a plane so we could see other parts of China, but the smog was so bad that we could barely see anything. I can't believe parts of China have worse smog than BJ.

Narrow Hallway on Train

Reading Paper in Dining Car

Random Photos:

Cramped Street in HK

HK Skyline during Symphony of Lights

A Symphony of Lights (幻彩詠香江) is a synchronised building exterior decorative light and laser multimedia display, featuring 44 buildings on both sides of the Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong accompanied by music. The technology was developed by Australian firm Laservision and cost approximately 44 million HK dollars. It has attracted over 4 million visitors and locals so far, and is held every night for ten minutes.

HK Trolly (extra narrow)

Streets and alleys

HK: Horse Races, Peak Tram, Temple Street Night Market

2011-10-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Valley Horse Races

Unusual race course located in the center of the city. This is a great places for after work drinks on a Wednesday night for many expats and you may even win some money :)

The crowd

LS's winning horse ( HK$180)

The race is on

Chairman Z and LS

The Peak Tram up Victoria Peak
The history of the peak tram is not that exciting but we did find out that after its opening to 1926 the Peak Tram was divided into three classes: First Class: British colonial officials and residents of Victoria Peak; Second Class: British military and the Hong Kong Police Force personnel; Third Class: Other people and animals. So colonial.......................

G and Miss T gazing over HK

Howling winds and crazy hair

View over the city

Kuài zi Lessons

Miss T and G's insturctions on alternative uses of chopsticks (kuài zi).

Our wedding photo...he he

Bubba Gump

Temple Street Night Market
Our evening at the night market was great. The food was delicious and the cheap house wine was not too bad. Miss T and JDK mutilated a pigeon eating its head. JDK went even further to eat the brain and then spent the rest of the evening stressing about the diseases he could have got from eating the brain :)

Bustling night market

Delicious treats on the menu

One of our many discussions that night

The night also involved some heated discussions about the state of the environment and over population. A compromise was not reached and we all walked away with our original position.

HK: Ladies Night Out, Maclehose Trail

2011-10-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Night out

The night life in Hong Kong was fun and the roof top bars gave great panoramas of the city.

Chariman Z, LS, Miss T & G

disinterested, self absorption with a hint of vanity

Wine and Cheese Evening

The Ladies and the Eunuch

Maclehose Trail Section 1-3
Despite the rainy weather Chairman Z insisted we head off on a hike. There was some reluctance at first because of a forecasted level 3 monsoon. Once out there we enjoy the fresh air and great views and thankfully little rain.

JUMP

The hikers

the view

GRRRR, the delayed jumpers

The pink fairy

HK: Lantau Island and Big Buddha

2011-10-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

Lantau Island and the Big Buddha

Lantua Island is the largest of the Hong Kong islands and home of the Po Lin Monastery and its 26m (85ft) high bronze Buddha. It also has stunning hiking trails and ancient fishing villages on stilts. In years gone by Lantau was a base for pirates and smugglers in the 19th Century.

Our ferry ride

G and JDK at the entrance

A glimpse of the big buddha with protectorate generals

JDK and I have a zen moment with our free ice creams

The Buddha was huge and had a swastika on his chest, which is a Buddhist symbol for the four virtues.

Buddha in the landscape

Hiking to Tai O
After out Buddha visit we decided to hike one of the many trails on the island. This particular trail took us from Sham Wat Wan to Tai O. A cab driver dropped us off in the village where we bought a few beers by engaging in some sign language with the locals and then headed for the trail.

JDK and bananas

The hiking trail

Tai O fishing village

Local village residence

The slough

Stir fry snails

BBQ oysters for lunch

Dried calamari, grilled and served

The abacus

Drying fish

Yummy......

HK: Food

2011-10-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

Here are few pictures I took in a food market in Hong Kong.

Crab in Tank

Eels for Dinner?

Descaling and Cleaning Fish

Frogs for Sale

Cleaning Fish

China Ikea and Nap Time

2011-10-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

[An excerpt from NPR about life in China.]

"In fact, some Chinese have always treated IKEA like an extension of their own homes. When the first store opened in Beijing in 1998, people napped on the beds. Families camped out on sofa sets, reading newspapers, drinking tea from glass jars and eating biscuits."

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141904803/at-ikea-in-shanghai-do-it-yourself-matchmaking

China Indebted to Corruption and Debt

2011-10-22T03:09:00.000-07:00

[Great article about life in China in regards to corruption and debt. We are many levels removed from being involved but these issues do influence our work related decisions. This articles also partially explains the poor construction quality and why everything seemingly falls apart. -JDK]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/china-indebted-to-corruption/story-e6frgah6-1226125293837

There is the 10m gash left after the side wall abruptly fell off last month. Nearby is the 7m crack in the road, which a heavily laden lorry was swerving to avoid when it flew off the edge.

All along the bridge are 10cm scars where joints have slipped out of alignment and the shoddy concrete edges have eroded away. Finally, there is the 50-strong team of construction workers carrying-out the £6 million ($9.22m) emergency repair work that the whole debacle has triggered.

This, along with tens of thousands of other grand infrastructure projects across the country, is how the new China is being built. Not visible on the bridge are the various national engineering prizes won by the creator of this crumbling catastrophe: they sit proudly in the head offices of the Hunan Road and Bridge Construction Group.

The July accident was not the company's first: in 2007, two more of its bridges collapsed, one at the cost of 64 lives. But what is starting to worry both the Chinese authorities and the general public is that the trouble is not restricted to HRBC and its flawed creations: in fact, the bridge collapses in China are starting to have the feel of a pandemic.

Between July 11 and July 19 this year, four bridges crumpled in different regions of China - all of them, in common with thousands of other bridges in the world's fastest growing economy, started carrying traffic between 1997 and 1999.

Behind the accidents, say analysts, are features of the Chinese economy that could eventually become its undoing: huge corruption, an obsessive praise of construction speed over build quality, and the failure to realise the gnawing, long-term cost of both those issues.

Explanations for the various bridge collapses tend to focus on the way the contracts to build them are distributed. Via virtually non-existent tender processes, local governments hand out projects to companies they themselves own. The work itself, however, is sub-contracted down an often bafflingly long chain of smaller companies, with bribes paid at each level and successive layers of cash creamed from each strata.

By the time the first shovel of cement enters the mixer, the actual budget that remains allows for only the cheapest labour and often inferior materials.

In many cases, wrote Victor Shih, a professor of political science at Northwestern University in a recent article, the "parasitic" chain of companies can involve several doing no work at all but receiving a "rent" based purely on their connections.

"As this 'unspoken rule' way of business proliferates to every corner of the Chinese economy, quality, safety and basic trust all go out the window, replaced by the sub-contractors who could pay the highest bribes," he wrote.

Suggestions of corruption relating to the No 3 bridge are not new. Chinese media openly reported its failure to pass safety checks in 1997, with prominent engineers flatly refusing to have their names associated with any sign-off. A year later, a quality standard was miraculously granted, without any discernible changes being made to the bridge itself.

Looming over the whole scene is the increasingly troubling question of local government debt in China: economists are already exercised about how far dangerously high levels of indebtedness have been masked, how many of the estimated 14.2 trillion yuan ($2.09 trillion) of loans to local government entities will turn bad even if the global economy limps back to health, and how the world's second-biggest economy will react if the brakes are suddenly applied to fixed-asset investment, currently accounting for around 70per cent of gross domestic product.

The concern is that, in the country's unprecedented spree of infrastructure construction and other spending, local governments have already taken themselves close to the danger zone on debt: that line will inevitably be crossed if decades of shoddy work now require billions of yuan to put right.

And, unlike the money that can cheerfully be borrowed to finance projects such as bridges, stadiums, and high-speed rail lines in whose glorious light local party bosses can bask, raising the money to fix pre-existing venality and sloppiness holds zero appeal. The potentially colossal bill for repairing what China did not build right in the first place, say economists, could be the fault line on which the local debt problem starts to totter.

In many cases, that scenario is well under way. Last week, a report suggested that more than a quarter of Chinese cities are at risk of flooding because 40,000 reservoirs are nearing the end of their functional life. Repairs have been ordered, but banking sources are already warning that local governments could find themselves badly short of funding when it comes to financing the "boring" side of construction.

Officially documented corruption on China's cherished high-speed rail network has already been linked - at least in the public's mind - with the fatal crash in Wenzhou this summer. The entire network may be forced to make punishingly expensive repairs just to convince the public that the lines are safe. And even then, many of the lines are unlikely ever to pay for themselves.

'Naked Marriages' on Rise in China

2011-10-20T02:20:00.000-07:00

As costs soar in the cities, more couples in China are opting for 'naked marriages' - those without the once-required trappings of a house, a car, and other goods.

A future bride and groom posed for photos at Beijing’s Chaoyang Park

Even to the most modern of young Beijing couples, some traditions are sacred: Real estate consultant Zhu Heng and his lawyer bride, Jia Zhiwei, are postponing their wedding banquet until Mr. Zhu's parents' feng shui adviser chooses an auspicious date for it.

But helpless in the face of astronomical housing prices in the capital, Zhu had to marry the woman he loves without being able to offer her a home of their own – a standard requirement of Chinese brides down the ages.

"I feel pretty guilty about it, but it's a question of reality," says Zhu, shrugging his shoulders. "A lot of my generation understands that it's just not possible."

In China's most prosperous cities, time-honored truths are losing their luster for young adults coping with a very different world from the one their forebears knew.

Wang Yu, a secretary, and her husband, Wang Lue, a sales engineer for an electronics company in Beijing, were both born after China introduced its one-child policy in 1979. Like couples almost everywhere in the country made up of only-children, they are eligible to have two kids. But they are not going to.

"Their thinking is not like their parents'," says Feng Xiaotian, head of the sociology department at Nanjing University, who studies young couples made up of only-children. "They have the choice but they are just like their whole generation. Sixty percent of them want only one child."

For a start, they say, having one child is normal to them, since they were brought up alone. But more important, says Ms. Wang, "more children mean more pressure." She adds, "It's very expensive to raise a child here."

The cost of feeding and clothing a child is nothing compared with the cost of educating him or her in a competitive city like Beijing. Parents know that the road to the best universities begins with the best primary schools, and getting your child into one of those takes connections or money.

"I want us to focus on Yoyo and give her the best we can," says Ms. Wang. "If we had another child we'd have to cut everything we give her in half, and that would not be best for her."

Once, Chinese children were their parents' safety net, home-grown pension plans. But Mr. Wang is confident they'll be able to look after themselves. "I plan to earn enough money before I retire to take care of things," he says.

Depending on children in old age "was the way our grandmothers thought," scoffs Zhang Hong, a computer programmer who is also entitled to two children, but who has decided with his wife, Cao Ling, a TV reporter, to stop with their 2-year-old girl."Today, bringing up a child means a lot of trouble," he adds.

His parents, who never had a choice, might have liked more grandchildren. But in fact "they are happy we've had a child at all," laughs Ms. Cao. "A lot of our friends don't want any children."
Different priorities in 21st century China

Young urban parents born after 1980 pay more attention to their own well-being than earlier generations did, suggests Professor Feng. "They think that a kid's life occupies a large part of family life, so if they have two their own quality of life will go down." Their generation is more than twice as likely as the average Chinese to want only one child, Feng has found.

Zhu and Ms. Jia say they are not yet ready to have children, though they had been engaged for six years before they finally tied the knot last month.

The trouble was that not long after proposing in 2005, Zhu fell ill. By the time he recovered six months later, the price of housing in Beijing had rocketed beyond his reach. "We just couldn't afford to buy an apartment," he recalls. An average Beijing apartment costs 32 times the annual salary of an average middle-class employee.

In Chinese tradition a groom would bring his bride to his family home, where she would eventually become matriarch. In modern cities, that tradition has morphed into an expectation that the man will buy his own home – often with his parents' help – to share with his wife.

After years of waiting fruitlessly for the housing market to cool, Zhu and Jia decided to get married this year, prodded by their friends and parents and conscious of passing time.

The couple dispensed not only with the house and car that would normally come with a wedding but with the traditional ceremony, too. They paid just 9 renminbi ($1.50) for a marriage license, got their papers together, and went to the registry office. "Every girl wants a romantic wedding, but happiness is more important than anything else," says Jia. "I just want the two of us to be together."
'It even has a name - naked marriage.'

"More and more people are getting married without a car or a house," adds Zhu. "There are so many doing it; it even has a name – 'naked marriage.' "

Naked marriage is a rising phenomenon, especially in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai where property prices have risen nearly fivefold in the past decade.

"A house and a ceremony are very important," acknowledges Li Xin, a 20-something customer service agent who married her husband, Li Lian, without either earlier this year. "But when he first said he loved me he told me all about himself, including how much he earned. I could do the [math]. I knew he would not be able to afford an apartment."

It didn't matter, though. "We both believe it's more important to find the right person than to find the right house," says Ms. Li. "We don't ask for anything more."

Mr. Li, a software engineer, says that like Zhu he feels guilty at not being in a position to meet his traditional obligations.

His wife, though, is matter-of-fact. "My parents could not help us buy in Beijing, neither could his parents, and we do not earn enough," she says bluntly.

"We solved the problem with a naked marriage. We accepted reality. There's nothing wrong with that."

Reference:
(http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/1112/Naked-marriages-on-rise-in-China)