Miles Away In China

Beijing Air Quality Over 500!

2010-11-19T12:59:00.000+08:00

I wrote a long post about the air quality in Beijing a while ago and you can read it here. But suffice to say, since the index is out of 500, I never imagined it would get beyond that. Well, I have been proven wrong. Once again, Beijing / China finds a way to break free from any boundaries one thinks might exist and do its own thing.

301-500, according to the chart below is so bad that "everyone should avoid any outdoor exertion" and anybody with any sort of illness should "remain indoors." Well, guess what the index is?

As of 11am today it had gotten as high as 557!!! Which the US embassy in Beijing aptly notes is "Beyond index."

Suffice to say I am coughing, hacking, dehydrated, and feel pretty darn awful. Not only do you notice it outside, because you can't see beyond the end of your nose, but you can really feel it in your throat and lungs.

Last night in a cab home I noticed some neon signs at the top of a building no more than 200/300 metres away but they looked to be suspended in the air as you could not see the building, you could just make out the fuzzy glow of the lights. I also went to the Summer Palace and I couldn't see the other side of the lake. Again, no more than 400m away.

I especially like the embassy's tweet shown below. Until it figured out that "beyond index" was a more "proper" sounding way to put how bad it is, the embassy decided to say "Crazy bad."

Asking For Directions In China

2010-11-16T14:04:00.000+08:00

No, don't worry. I am not on a desert island... though it would be really cool

As a foreigner in any strange, new city you often find yourself needing to ask the locals for directions. If you don't speak the language, asking for directions often becomes a fun game of charades and a lot of index finger pointing and arm waiving. If you do speak the language though, you would expect to be able to easily get adequate directions from strangers without too much hassle.

In China though, I have found, as have others I know, that getting directions is never as simple and easy as it should be.

Take the example of when I went to pick up my Beijing Marathon packet. I was told to head to the olympic area, which, by the way, is now fairly deserted and altogether rather eery. Especially when the pollution is bad and you can't even make out the birds nest when you get out of the stadium subway stop. When I got to the area, there were no signs for where to go to pick up the marathon packet, despite it most certainly being the only "event" going on within a couple mile radius that day.

So I started asking people for directions and the following is what transpired:

Person 1: go to the intersection

I get there and see no obvious signs this is it so ask someone else

Person 2: go left and walk about 200 metres

This leads me to a gate with a sign indicating packet pick up. But still not obvious where to go

Person 3: go that way ... and points

I head that way

Person 3 yells in Chinese: foreigner, to the left more

This sends me over an embankment and down some steps. Really not obvious where to go

Person 4: points behind him, indicating he has come from it

I keep walking and get to a small lake. Again, no obvious place for it to be

Person 5: directs me round the lake and over to a set of stairs

Get there and eventually find the packet pick up but....

Guard: you can't come in here. Go down the stairs, up a bigger set of stairs and round to the other side

WOW. By that point I was pretty ticked off to say the least.

I find it very bizarre that no one wants to take the time to actually give you a comprehensive set of directions when you ask. If someone asked me for directions, I would try and tell them as much as I could, rather than just say go straight then left if after that there was still a lot more of importance. I am not quite sure what this says about the Chinese mindset. Does it mean that they value their time and don't want to waste it giving directions? They don't value people's time and thus presume you can continue to ask many people each step of the way?

It is also interesting that it is not just foreigners who experience this phenomenon. I have been with Chinese people who also have to ask several different people for directions before they get to their destination. The overall reliance on people for help is certainly noteworthy. In the US we tend to rely on technology or government signs to guide us, and turn to people as a last resort. I think we naturally asume we are capable enough to solve an issue on our own. Here in Beijing though people instinctively turn to others for help, rather than individually try to solve the issue. In the US we highly value an individuals time, where as over here, because there are so many people, time arguably seems less valued. True? Interesting?

Something else to note is that in my experience many Chinese tend to try and avoid confrontation. Among my fellow Chinese dorm students, this phenomenon has come up quite often. You end up hearing through 3rd and 4th hand sources about how you did something to annoy or upset one of them but they couldn't say anything at the time because it would be confrontational. For example, once I was looking through a female friend's music library to borrow some music when her roommate came in and then left again. She said nothing, and we both presumed she had just grabbed something to continue doing whatever she was doing. I left 5 minutes later. Apparently though she wanted to change in the room but didn't want to ask me to leave for a minute. Cultural differences as well come into play here, but the emphasis is on the idea of shying away from confrontation. When it comes to directions as well, I think the fact you only get a small snippet of directions is due to the fact people don't actually want to help you but don't want to engage in confrontation to the extent of outrightly say "no!"

Of course one way to solve this is to not ask for directions at all, and instead just follow the crowds - which is what I did when I arrived in Tiananmen Square for the marathon and was not sure where to go. With so many people, if you are going to a sizable event or non-insignificant place, you can usually rely on the crowd to guide you.

Bikes in Beijing and the Bike Man

2010-11-15T14:53:00.000+08:00

For a long time China was referred to as the "bicycle kingdom," but here in Beijing now, "car kingdom" is definitely a more appropriate characterization. Don't get me wrong, there are still FAR more bikes on the road than you will see in any US city but I would contend that they are definitely no longer the majority; they certainly don't rule the roads.

Aside: it is interesting that the opposite phenomenon is occurring in the US, where cities are becoming more concerned about building infrastructure to support biking.

Back to China...........

Under Mao, a bike, along with a watch and sewing machine, were the three most-wanted and must-have goods. It was during this period that the bicycle became the dominant form of transport in China, and the symbol for a communist and egalitarian country. However, often people didn't have enough wealth to easily afford one, so it remained a quasi-luxury good. When Deng Xiaoping came to power, he defined prosperity as "a Flying Pigeon for every household." At the time, Flying Pigeon was the standard for well-built bicycles in China.

Despite the shift from the bicycle to the car as a symbol of prosperity, Beijing still retains a large bicycle culture. Biking is still widely enough used, and enough of a traditional symbol, that almost all of the large roads in Beijing still have car-wide lanes, seperated by a low barrier, reserved exclusively for bikes. However, the push-bike is definitely a rare-sight.

While a car-culture dominates, electric bikes and scooters vie for dominance on the roads. A lot of 3-wheel push-bikes that are used to cart goods around have been modified to use an electric motor while still retaining manual power capabilities. Most electric scooters also come with pedels. An interesting observation of bikes in Beijing is that gas powered bikes are incredibly rare.

Maybe the US could take a page out of China's book and think about developing the technology to easily modify push-bikes to also use a small electric motor.

Back to China .....

When I went to Yangshuo / Guilin, a much more rural area of China, it was clear that biking definitely lingers as the dominant transportation. However, I could tell the balance is rapidly shifting.

In Beijing the Beijing University campus, and other neighboring university campuses, are definitely still bicycle kingdoms. The odd car that does brave to enter the campus walls is often ground to a halt by all the bicycles on the roads as it tries to clumsily weave through them all. Finding a bike parking space anywhere near the entrance to a major building is a fight. And if you aren't incredibly proficient at handling a bicycle you will get in a ton of accidents. Getting nipped on the hands by other people's handle-bars is a common occurrence. Oh, and no one wears helmets. Not even on the major roads. In fact, not only do they not wear helmets, I have never seen a helmet sold in any store. Population control measure?

To try and help you understand just how many bikes there are on campus, because it is truly incredible, I want to let you know about THE BIKE MAN.

The bike man:

is rarely seen
can screw with your mind
makes treasure hunts for a living
has a posse of cronies

So who is the bike man?

Well, he is the one responsible for organizing all the parked bikes on campus. He will re-align parked bikes to make room for others. He will move your bike many feet if he deems it to be in the way. He will move your bike wherever he wants as part of his random organizing scheme for the day.

When I return to my bike after having left it for a couple hours because I took the subway into town, I will always find it moved to a completely new spot somewhat "roughly" within the same area. Often it will take a good 5-10 minutes to find. More if it is late at night and I have consumed some inhibiting liquids. Its a good think they don't have BUIs.

So whilst Beijing is no longer a bicycle kingdom, Beijing University is, and it even needs a bike man to keep the world in order.

Beijing Survey and TEDx Beijing

2010-11-12T18:13:00.000+08:00

So the survey I mentioned I was going to make a while back, is now complete and posted below. It is 30 questions long and I think once we have collected all the data, it will be really interesting. I am not expecting to do anything amazing with thus; its all just for personal interest and fun.

Also, I have been accepted to attend the TEDx conference here in Beijing. The theme for it is: "uncovering innovation." I have always wanted to go to a TED conference so I am really excited about this opportunity. In order to attend, I had to fill out a rather comprehensive application since they only have a 200 person space. One of the final questions was: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Explain?

I Live in Beijing, China and I ......

2010-11-11T15:10:00.000+08:00

have eaten scorpion
often have to squat when I go to the loo
don't consider riding the subway for an hour a long time
have a chinese roommate who snores
have to use a VPN to write this blog... and watch youtube
can get a good meal for 20元/$3.50
can get a crap, college cafeteria meal for 5元/$0.90
sleep on a plank of wood with the thinest of thin foam things on top... basically, a plank of wood
have all my dorm lights turned of at midnight. I guess the government cares about students getting sleep
find lots of Chinese students studying at KFC across the street at 2am because they have no lights
pay more for western brands than in the west, despite the fact that they are made here
only eats with chopsticks
can ride a bike weaving between people, cyclists, vendors... basically I am amazing on a bike now
stare at other white people on the subway because I don't expect to see them
see fender bender accidents ALL the time
can ride in a cab for over an hour and only pay around 60元／$9
can go to bars and by drinks starting at 10元/ $1.50
am rarely full. Chinese food doesn't have a high satiating factor
crave a salad
crave fish
miss the coast
never wear a seat belt. They don't have them in cabs.
radically underestimate how much I get stared at
cannot control the temperature of my room's radiator
can buy movies for 10元／$1.50
use google in Chinese
sometimes can't see the top of tall buildings due to pollution
naturally speak Chinese when buying anything eg. in restaurants, cabs, malls, the fruit vendor etc
think China is the center of the world
inhale enough second hand smoke to be considered smoking myself
inhale cigarette smoke even while riding my bike
can buy 白酒(white liquor) which is extremely potent and goes for 6元/$1 for a large bottle
hang my washing to dry at the end of my bed
never do my own washing because it costs 4元/$0.60 next door
have hour long skype chats with friends back home
carry toilet paper around in my backpack
have to clean my dorm floors every week due to dust
can't remember how normal people drive / how to actually drive

can't believe I have actually been living here for so long

Less Than 6 Weeks Left Out of an Epic 6.5 Month Journey

2010-11-10T20:51:00.000+08:00

As corny and trite as it sounds, my time in China really has flown by. With less than 6 weeks left in Beijing, I already know I will be stepping on that plane back to the USA sooner than I can really comprehend.

When I look back and begin to reflect over the experience, the more I think about it, the crazier I realize I am. I had never stepped foot in China before, never eaten Chinese food, never been to any China town in the US, had very few Chinese friends, yet decided it would be a brilliant idea to head half-way around the world and stay there for over half a year. Despite China being a totally foreign place, with a different language, food, culture, etc. I felt I could tackle it and survive. And survive I have. Fingers crossed.

One of the questions that I often wonder about is why more people don't study-abroad. Obviosuly there is the major obstacle of financing, but for this program, if you are on financial aid at Yale, it all transfers over. This would arguably make it cheaper to live here because your food, social, and entertainment costs could be significantly lower than those in the US. So why does this program only have 7 students this year, when it can accomodate 20+?

I think a lot of it has to do with attitude and the way one views the world. Ok, that was rather general and uninformative. In order to explain, let me side-track a little.

Take running a marathon. When you suggest the idea of running a marathon to most people, they laugh, or shiver, or look dum-founded. The response more often than not tends to be: "I could never do that." That, in my opinion, is the biggest obstacle to them ever actually running one. If you want to run one, the first step is to mentally accept that you can do it. If you're mental attitude is one of impossibility or negativity, you are just creating obstacles to your success every step of the way (pun intended).

The same shift in mental attitude and perception needed in order to be able to run a marathon is true for study-abroad. And quite frankly, everything in life. When you ask people why they aren't going to study-abroad the response usually begins: "I can't because ....." and the list of excuses offered up is endless. Just like most people never get past hearing about the marathon, a lot of students never get past just hearing about the fantastic international opportunities.

I think a lot of the reason I have run marathons, or lived abroad is because I try not to say that I cannot. My general attitude tends to be one of blazen optimism until I fall fat on my face. Of course, this has its downsides too, but it has enabled me to experience and learn so much.

One of the reasons I think athletics is such an important component of life is that if you have the physical confidence in yourself, it naturally leads to a confident mental outlook that pushes you to take on any difficult challenge.

So as my time dwindles down, in order to make the most of it, I am going to find excuses to do things, rather than to not do things.

Bargaining In Beijing, China

2010-11-10T00:54:00.000+08:00

Bargaining anywhere is an art. And a hard one to master.

There are several techniques that one is commonly advised to employ:

loudly, exaggeratedly, and with a lot of incorporated arm flailing exclaiming outrage towards the ridiculously high price the vendor suggest.
degrading the actual quality of the product and finding any possible fault with it
claiming you don't have that much money. Offering a price of now more than 1/4 of theirs
not giving up when they refuse to change the price
maintaining interest in the good, and maintaining their interest in selling you the good, while acting outraged and disinterested
exclaiming you will leave and pretend to walk away
claiming you want to be best friends, if only you got a lower price

There are many more but what I think it boils down to is maintaing their interest in selling the good while forcing them to lower and lower the price. Of course, that is much easier said than done, and in my opinion is a huge function of the type of personality and character you exude.

All at the same time, you need to be:

cut-throat and amicable
resolute and negotiable
a foreigner and a local
entirely interested and indifferent

In my opinion, a complete dualism of character is needed in order to bargain effectively.

The above video which I was present for is some of the best, and funniest, bargaining I have witnessed. At times it seems a bit ruthless and snarky, but in many ways this is necessary in order to avoid being completely ripped off. The reason I struggle with bargaining and find it rather exhausting is that the vendors necessitate you are rather rude and cut-throat in order for them to give you a reasonable price. Such behavior is rather contradictory to my western upbringing, through which I have internalized (or at least like to think I have) a sense of respect and politeness towards people. But all of that impedes my ability to effectively bargain.

It is also important to remember that the actual underlying value of the good you are buying is in fact negligible. While you might bargain a panda hat (they seem to be sold everywhere at the moment) down to 10元/$1.40, the actual cost of producing that good is probably no more than 1元/$0.20. Thus, if they are purely concerned about the profit on that good then they can actually sell it to you for significantly lower than they do. Of course, the vendor has to internalize the costs of rent, time, electricity, etc. But, so that I don't feel to bad bargaining hard, I remind myself that the actual value of the good is much lower than I will ever end up playing, so they are definitely making some profit no matter how ruthless I am.

Trans-Siberian Railroad Journey

2010-11-08T19:24:00.004+08:00

Trans-Siberian Railroad Journey from miles grimshaw on Vimeo.

Over the past who knows how long, I have been working on writing down all the useful information I have from having planned and taken the Trans-Siberian railroad to Beijing. You can check it out here, or by clicking on the tab at the top of the blog. It is not just an FAQ. It also includes a lot of reflections about taking the trip. Below are a few quotes:

"For food we enjoyed a restaurant called Moo Moo, which you can find by looking for a cow facade."
"You can travel by whatever means you want: horse, bike, camel, foot, scooter, roller blades. OK, roller blades might be a bit tough."
"This mostly consisted of breads, baked goods, and lots of packaged foods you could expect to find in small corner stores anywhere in the world: biscuits, chips, candy, etc. Nothing very healthy and it quickly got very bland."
"Taking the time to enjoy doing NOTHING was something I will never regret; it was a strange and fantastic experience."
"China is a mystical and far-away place with a very different culture and people, but it is easy to underestimate if you just hope on a plane and arrive 12hrs later. The train allowed my anticipation of spending 6 months in China to build to the extent that I was super excited to finally arrive. I felt like I deserved to be there, not just decided one day and then got on a plane."

The video above is well worth checking out. It includes a lot of footage as well as pictures, combined with some good music. I hope you enjoy it.

Halloween In Beijing And A Fantastic Costume Idea

2010-11-04T14:34:00.000+08:00

Halloween is not exactly a major festival in China. At colleges in the USA, you can be sure to see a large percentage of the student population dressed up and taking advantage of an excuse to have a good time. Sure, everyone doesn't get into it, but you would not be able to miss the fact that it was Halloween. On the Beijing University campus ..... it was just another day. I didn't see any pumpkins apart from the ones we bought. No costumes. No black and orange. No candy. I was thinking about trick or treating but couldn't figure out how to aptly translate the real meaning of the phrase.

However, when you went to any of the cafes, restaurants, areas more focused on the western consumer, you knew it was Halloween. Some of the big western chain restaurants even go overboard with Halloween. When I went to Pizza Hut on October 2nd in Guangzhou, the restaurant was already filled with Halloween decorations and the waitresses were all in costume. On October 15th when we went to TGI Friday's, the restaurant was also heavily decorated in Halloween trinkets and colors.

On October 30th, Saturday, the main western-nightlife bar street, Sanlitun, was full of westerners in costume. It was actually one of the busiest I have seen the area.

So now onto the important details ..... what was I for halloween: a blank sheet of paper! We (a Stanford friend and I) dressed up in white pants, white shirt, white tie, and white hat, and carried a bunch of markers around with us an invited anyone to draw, write, sign, or anything else they wanted (within reason) on us. He often chose to frame it in the idea of an "avant garde art project." It was a lot of fun as it offered the perfect excuse to meet anyone. One of the great things about being abroad is all the fantastic people you meet, so it was great to have the perfect ice-breaker costume for the night.

To find all of these articles of clothing we went to the Zoo market. The Zoo market is so-named because it is a massive, I repeat, massive, building right by the Beijing Zoo. It is about 6 immense floors full of individual vendors selling the cheapest, lowest quality stuff you can find in Beijing. It is where a ton of Chinese go to buy stuff. The subway stop right there was the most crowded I have ever seen one. We literally had to fight to make it into the station and it still took 15-20 minutes to get in. But back to our costume... finding fully white pants, shirt, and tie is actually pretty tough. But we pulled it off, and for a pretty good price. The entire outfit cost about $10 per person. Definitely worth the investment!

During the night, I ran into someone dressed up in a full bugs-bunny costume. I borrowed his "head" and got the photo below taken.

Receiving Packages in China: A Bizzarre World

2010-11-02T22:43:00.001+08:00

I will concede that Beijing is not quite as developed as New York, or London, but it is far from an under-developed and impoverished Delhi. There is a modern subway system, fast internet, a huge variety of fantastic western restaurants with fresh imported meats, and much more that, in my opinion, puts it pretty damn close to the ranks of modern metropolis. Sure, trash still often tends to be emptied by hand and put on the back of bicycles, and construction projects can at times be a little dubious in quality, and of course there are scary levels of pollution, but on the whole you feel like you are in a very modern, bustling, commercial, developed city.

At times though, a very underdeveloped feel creeps through, and you are shocked back to the realization that you are still a long way away from New York and that that despite all the hype, maybe China still has a long, long way to go before it can truly rival the developed western world. And if one can have these experiences in Beijing, the capital of China, think about what it is still like outside of the major cities.

Here is the story of one of those moments:

A friend back in the USA is exceptionally kind and knows that I have really taken a dislike for Chinese food and crave some western granola, meal-replacement bars, dried fruit, etc. (Note: I think I just have a strong dislike for Chinese school cafeteria food. I still enjoy good Chinese restaurant food) So said friend kindly puts together a care package, heads over to UPS, and ships a wonderful bounty of goods.

Take note: friend used UPS to ship it. Not some random service.

It was sent by air, not by sea, or sea turtle, or dolphin. It had a tracking number and I watched it make its way from the USA to Beijing. This is a LOT of fun by the way.

Impressive right! In 3 days the package made it all the way from DC to Beijing. Not bad. And it even got to visit some cool places along the way. Sometimes I wish I was a package.

Aside: it would be a sweat idea to have a camera film one of these journeys. I am thinking something along the lines of this video. PS. That video is definitely worth checking out.

But after it got to Beijing, it hung out in a warehouse for 33 days.

It says they needed additional documentation, but we never ended up getting anything to them. One day, they just decided to let it go free.

And then I start getting calls on my cell phone. I don't tend to pick up the phone to random chinese numbers as I often can't understand what they want, and often it is a wrong call, or advertisement anyway. I eventually picked this one up, and understood it was UPS. I then got a friend to help me pin the details down.

Basically, I was now dealing with the delivery man directly about when was the best time for him to deliver since the last two times he had tried and called me, I had been asleep and not picked up. We agreed a time for the next day at which point the delivery man would call me again. I even saved him as a contact in my phone. And well, the rest is history.

I found it bizarre that I would deal directly with the delivery man to schedule a time. I also think it is strange that he needs to call me in order for it to actually be delivered.

However, upon reflection, maybe the whole experience is actually a display of how developed Beijing is. UPS tracking data does still exist here, they still can packages and add comments, continue to try and deliver, give you a call to clarify delivery etc.

What I really think it sheds light on though is an interesting confluence of western / modern commercial culture and Chinese traditional culture in business in China. (Note: I realize I am making huge generalizations, but I think it is better to be thinking about, and engaged in these things while abroad, than just sit back and watch it all pass by.) Chinese business certainly used to be heavily dominated by social contacts, family lineages, and very personal relations. Heck, I read that property in the Qing period even belonged to the family, not the individual. I hear it is still the case today in that a lot of business is still a matter of having the right connections, and more importantly, government connections.

In the west I wouldn't expect to deal with the delivery man in this manner, but maybe it is actually a nice touch after all.

Beijing Monument / Memorial Workout

2010-10-31T17:19:00.000+08:00

So this month's reader challenge workout from AnywhereFit was to do a workout at a monument (last month was the transport workout and you can see my Beijing subway workout video here). A monument was defined "as anything constructed in memory of some person, group, or event." So, I started googling "Beijing Monuments."

What I found was rather startling. Beijing has very few monuments that are actually constructued specifically for a person, group, or event. It has a ton of historical monuments: the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square. The list is endless. But finding one that fits this definition of a monument was rather tough. Is this a communist thing? There are quite a few Mao statues around (I almost used one), but very few monuments in honor of other people or events.

I eventually chanced upon the one described in the video below.

PS. In the next day or two, the video will be up for a vote. I came second in the last round, so please vote for me again this time. I will post the link to vote when its up.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT CHINA / CHINESE PEOPLE?

2010-10-27T18:18:00.000+08:00

It's your turn to start asking questions and then I am going to let the data do the talking, not me.

One of the goals a fellow student and I have is to make an interesting questionnaire and then go out onto the streets and accumulate a mass of information about Beijing people and their positions on various issues. We have no structure or set topics that we plan to base the questionnaires on, so we are asking for your input.

What do you want to know? Do you want to know how many bowls of rice Chinese people eat a day? Do you want to know if they own a car and if not, if they want to own one? Do you want to know how long their commute to work is? Do you want to know if they know the government censures the news?

Please post any questions you are interested in to the comments or email them to me at: miles.grimshaw (at) gmail.com

Pollution In Beijing And Exercise

2010-10-27T15:58:00.000+08:00

About a week ago I wrote a long post on two of the different pollution indexes available for Beijing and why they are different. Since then, the application I have on the side of the blog that sourced Chinese data seems to have lost the data feed, so it no longer works. The US embassy twitter account therefore is the go to for the Beijing air pollution / quality index now. Although I will mention, I think it becomes inactive over the weekend. Before running the half-marathon I tried to check the index but it stopped posting Saturday afternoon at 3pm and didn't pick up again until 8am Monday morning.

I have received a bunch of questions about whether it is safe to exercise in Beijing, is it better to be indoors or outdoors, what index level is ok, etc. So here is my personal experience and opinions on exercising in Beijing.

Definitely exercise if it rains: I have said this a bunch of times before but it can't be reiterated enough. Beijing is a wonderful city for the few days right after it rains. If you want to exercise, then is the time.

Strong wind: can also clear up the skies and make for low levels of pollution. Rain and strong winds are especially good. This past monday the index got as low as 23 due to the combination.

If the index is less than 100 the sky is blue: and the health effects of pollution are minimal. I have read, and personally seen, that around index 100 the sky stops being obviously blue. If you don't want to check the index, or don't have a VPN to use to get on twitter, just go with what you see. Blue sky definitely menas it is worth getting out.

100 to 200, 200 to 300: I can't say exactly what the health effects are, but the higher it gets the worse it is. DUH! Below 200 I have exercised outside and have not felt any noticeable effects because of it. When it gets over 200 though I can start to feel it.

Effects: When the pollution is high I often get a weird taste in the back of my throat regardless of if I am exercising or not. When I wake up my throat can often feel rather raspy. If I exercise, I find that I can get a really bad headache pretty fast. Both of these problems don't tent to be long-lasting, and I usually just drink a lot of water and they go away.

You don't escape by going inside: that is, unless you get filtered air. If the pollution is bad outside, exercising indoors vs outdoors makes no difference. I can attest to this from personal experience for when the index was 300 the other day, I decided to do some rowing intervals in the gym, and after 20 minutes had a splitting headache and a little cough for several hours after. Nothing long-term though.

Remember it cycles: this is probably the most important consideration for exercise in Beijing. Try to plan your exercise so that it correlates with the weather cycles. When it rains it is best to make sure you work out then. Keep working out for 4-5 days after the rains or whenever you notice the index has crept back up near the 200s, or the sky is definitely not blue anymore. Then take 2 or so days off and wait for it to rain again.

Think about buying plants for indoors: For a discussion of the health effects of pollution and some ideas on how to deal with it check out this article.

Pictures above and below are actually from a sandstorm I got stuck in in Xinjiang (western China) earlier this year, but when the pollution is bad in Beijing it feels and looks exactly the same.

Beijing Half-Marathon Race Report

2010-10-26T00:43:00.000+08:00

Pre-Race:

Well, it was .... interesting. Usually before races of any magnitude or significance I make sure I get good sleep, am well hydrated, well fed, etc. I usually spend time the day before loosening up and stretching, as well as visualizing, thinking about, and generally mentally preparing for the battle that lies ahead. Because I wasn't even sure if the pollution was going to clear up, and my training for this race was in no way intense or specific, my mental attitude towards the race was one of fun, not ambition or goal achievement. With this in mind, I went out the night before to celebrate a friends 21st birthday, and had a thoroughly good time. I didn't doubt my decision, or question if I should have been in bed. I enjoyed myself and let the race fall to the back of my mind.

Race Morning:

I woke up a bit groggy as was to be expected after only two hours of sleep and a night of loud music. But as I expected, the anticipation of the event quickly got the adrenaline running and all my previous racing experience took over and got me really excited. When we got on the train it was filled with fellow runners heading into town. Tiananmen square, the start, was packed, which made for a fun opportunity to imagine what it might have been like to be here during the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. As you can see in the video below, it was quite an apocolyptic setting in the square due to the eery weather which finally unleashed with rain and wind just as we started.

GO!

As usual in mass running events it takes a while till you actually cross the start line and can move. The first 400m was rather chaotic as many runners who had only just started stopped again to take pictures infront of Mao's portrait on the gate to the Forbidden City. Another interesting thing I quickly noticed was that most runners were carrying the free bag they had been given at registration. This was due to the fact that most people never managed to find the bag-check were you could give them your bag to take to the finish line for collection. As such, lots of people had to carry it the whole way. I was super thankful to have had friends come with me to the start so I didn't have to bother with any of that.

When I started I had a vague hope of finishing in around 1hr 45 mins. I decided not to focus on hitting target splits, rather to just keep running and enjoy. Interestingly enough though, the first distance marker I came to was the 10k, and the next one was 15k, so pacing would have been pretty tough anyway. When I hit those markers, I did realize I was doing well, and just kept my head down and my legs turning. Unfortuatly Beijing is not a beautiful city, and the course ran along some of the major roads with cars driving on the opposite side. Combine that with the awful weather and there really wasn't much to stick around for, so the incentive was on my side to keep trucking.

Post-Race Reflection:

I was shocked and very pleased with my finishing time of 1hr 38. I don't want to advocate or even emulate such pre-race preparation too many more times in the future, but I think I learned an interesting lesson from the experience.

During the race the only thing I told myself was too just keep putting one foot infront of the next. I didn't think too hard about time, hydration (I only took water at two stations), food, etc. I just ran. And fundamentally that is all you have to do. I realized that while all the other things do matter, and through experience as well I know they do, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is covering the distance. And to do that, you have to run. No two ways about it. No excuses. Just do it. Often times I think I can spend too much time learning how to be a good athlete - what to eat, training protocols, how much rest to take, lifting technique, etc - and not enough time physically doing. Training isn't sitting infront of the computer reading about it. Its getting out there and pushing yourself. And I am glad I had this more primal experience of knowing I had a distance to cover and just getting it done. No thinking, no analyzing, just action.

And as a student-athlete I must mention that I think the same lesson applies to school as well. I think I end up spending far too much time thinking about the act of doing the assignment, instead of just getting right to doing it. Athletics is very much an arena in which to learn important life-lessons.

Post-Race Blues:

I am not sure this is a legitimate term, or one that I made up, but I use it to describe how I feel after most endurance events - that is, mentally drained. My sister just raced in the Head of the Charles regatta (congrats!) and I think she is also experiencing the same emotions. Post-race I have little enthusiasm to do very much at all. I think this is due to the fact that endurance athletics requires so much of a mental effort as well as a physical one. Motivating yourself to keep going as fast as you can requires a significant output of mental determination. As a result, when you finish, your "mental tank" is severely drained. I usually find it takes me a day or more to re-psyche myself up for life, and often I get re-motivated by finding the next feat, wether it be academic or athletic, I can refocus on and strive for. After all, prior accomplishments only count for so much. Its what your working towards now thats important. Use the past as kindle for future ambition.

Beijing Half-Marathon: A Rainy Success

2010-10-24T17:42:00.000+08:00

As I mentioned in my pre-race post , it needed to rain in order for the pollution to clear and it to be healthy to run. Well, rain it did. It started showering at around 11pm as predicted, so I knew I was going to go for it. At 6am when I woke up, there was a good amount of water on the ground already and it was still drizzling.

But then it got a little bit out of control. At 8am when the gun went off it started bucketing down. From 8-9am there was a nasty head wind and heavy, heavy rain. I was absolutely soaked from head to toe. My shorts were even so water clogged and heavy I had to pull them up every couple of minutes. By 8.45am you could tell the pollution had really cleared. And by 2pm this afternoon there were gorgeous blue skies. Talk about timing. Not!

Anyway, I finished in a respectable, and personal half-marathon record time of 1 hour and 38 minutes (7 minute 29 seconds miles). Considering I was out the night before until 2.30/3am celebrating a friends 21st birthday party, consumed a considerable amount of champagne, only had at most 2hrs of sleep, ran into a stiff headwind, and had heavy water-clogged shoes, I am very pleased.

Expect a more full race report to later in the week after I take a midterm and get through some homework. But before I go, I must give a huge shout out and thanks to Marissa (competitive blogger extraordinaire) and Liz who braved the elements and foolishly got up at 6am to come with me to Tiananmen and then made it to the finish line for support. Endurance sports is so much about the solo athlete because it is just him/her competing against the clock. However, in my opinion, endurance athletics is much more of a mental challenge rather than physical one, so having friend's and family's support makes a huge difference. Knowing that someone will be there at the finishing line really helps me keep putting one foot infront of the other. So BIG thanks to Liz and Marisa and also my fantastic family and friend's across the planet who are supporting my virtually!

Beijing Marathon Pre-Race

2010-10-23T17:33:00.020+08:00

The time has come. It is Beijing Marathon Sunday. Unfortunately / fortunately it is only Beijing half-Marathon weekend for me, since you have to be 20 to register for the full Marathon in China. A new rule this year!

One of the natural things to reflect on leading up to a big race is how your training and preparation has been, and hopefully take confidence in all the work you have already put in, and just get ready to go out and crush it. However, training in Beijing has been very sub-par. I have started to get into the gym here more regularly, and have found a good running route, but it takes more than a few good gym sessions to make an athlete. To continue to set PRs and make improvement, you don't need to just train well, you need to eat well, sleep well, make sure you aren't over stressed, etc. The body isn't a machine, and as such there are so many factors that go into making a great athlete. In Beijing, whilst you can learn how to make the best of any environment, it isn't conducive to being the best athlete you can possibly be.

Bearing that in mind, why do I want to go and run tomorrow? There are many reasons. The most basic of which is that I still have my own two feet to run on and I feel I should make the most of my health. One of my favorite quotes (thanks Sam) is:

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn-out, shouting, 'Holy shit! What a ride!'

Furthermore, having the ability to run from Tiananmen Square to the outskirts of Beijing with the streets fully closed of to traffic is an amazing opportunity to get a totally new perspective on the city. It will also be my four year anniversary since I ran my first endurance race, the Delhi half-Marathon. Hopefully I will beat my time (1.49).

Before I finish this post, I must address one of the most pressing issues facing every runner tomorrow: POLLUTION. I think, and am praying, that we will all be saved from the most awful running experience imaginable by some rain this evening.

Beijing pollution goes in cycles. The index steadily climbs and climbs, until it rains, and then it drops down again and we get blue skys, and then it repeats. Today, Saturday, we are right at then end of one of those cycles and the question is, will it end in time?! The index right now has reached 310 which is VERY unhealthy and the visibility outside is absolutely terrible. Interestingly, the race booklet they gave us tells us everything from how much to drink pre/during/post race to what cloths to bring the day off, but makes no mention of the hazards of pollution.

However, according to weather.com it is going to start showering at midnight and by 6am it should be full on raining. It is then going to continue to rain throughout Sunday. I am hoping that by 8am when the race starts there will have been enough rain to help get rid of a good amount of the pollution. If it hasn't started raining by 6am, I don't think I will dare to run :( It is also going to be rather cold with temperatures around 50.

Hopefully I will get the chance to run through Beijing tomorrow and enjoy the fantastic life that I have!
Pictures below are from the Marathon expo event.

TGI Friday's on a Friday

2010-10-15T23:17:00.001+08:00

What happens when American college students crave western food in Beijing on a Friday? They go to TGI Friday's.

We have been discussing the idea of going to TGIF for a few weeks now, but most of us had yet to get fed up with Chinese food. Now though, the momentum has shifted, so we put our much talked about plan into action. And it was great.

For Reference:

Location: go to the SW exit of the 人民大学 subway stop. As you head out of the exit you will see Beijing Friendship Hotel. Head round the right hand side of it.

Price: it is pricey. I was told that it was slightly more expensive than the equivalent in America. Salads are about 55元, and mains are about 90-150元. Steaks are a minimum of about 230元.

Quality: I was impressed. There are the typical American greasy options but they also have some fairly healthy and good quality options as well. The quality of the meats / fish was solid.

Service: A bit slow. One dish sat waiting for a while after it had finished being cooked and we had to remind the waiter that we had ordered it, at which point she proceded to go and check.

The interior. All the typical American restaurant decorations on the wall. It even had Halloween decorations up.

Very good English menu. No mistranslations.

First time I have had an English menu in an "American" restaurant and can actually order drinks.

Cobb salad. BIG.

Salmon, rice, and brocoli. Even had chopped pecans on top of the salmon. My first piece of salmon in Beijing. Oh how I do miss my fish.

After the feast.

When we got back it was one of the PKU student's birthday so we had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen to celebrate.

For some more pictures check out Marissa's blog here.

For my little sister: How about that for a stuffed bear?!?!

The Best Running Route In Beijing (including map)

2010-10-15T15:12:00.000+08:00

For me, one of the most fun and essential parts of settling into a city is finding a good running route, for it makes for a perfect weekeend day. Blue skies, head out for a run, and then pick a great cafe / picnic spot and watch the world go by.

Beijing, however, is not the most runnable city. Over the summer I was in the central business district where concrete / tarmac is inescapable. You can find some nice parks, like Ritan Park, which are fairly large, but its not quite the same.

Over here in the NW corner of Beijing though I have found a great spot. There is a canal that runs out from the Summer Palace in the very NW corner of Beijing and along the west side of Beijing. Small boats ferry people up and down the river. Old men hang out on the banks fishing and chatting. And there is a great canal path that runs along the side for people to walk along, or me to run. Usually you would expect a path in China to be absurdly large given that it should be built to accomodate enormous numbers of people, but this one is just two or three people wide. A nice break from the enormity of the city. There are roads that follow the canal as well, but they are only a couple lanes wide, and there are trees, grass, greenery and even a fence that seperates the road and the river / canal path. Furthermore, the canal path sits slightly lower than the road, so you can escape all the cars and pollution a little.

All in all it makes for a great escape from the noise and crowdedness of Beijing on a sunny, pollution free morning or afternoon.

Oh, and I haven't tried it yet, but I have even seen two people swimming in the canal. Not sure I am that bold.

Beijing Air Quality And Daily Index

2010-10-14T16:34:00.004+08:00

If you have been following the blog you will know that I have an air quality pollution index widget that updates daily. Well, I just was informed (thank you professor Lu) of another way of tracking the air quality in Beijing and have since discovered a few interesting things that I wish to share with you.

So what is the pollution index?

The pollution index is actually correctly refferred to as the Air Quality Index (AQI). The index ranges from 0-500 with 0 being good and 500 being a serious threat to your life.

As you can see from the chart above, when the index surpasses 100 the air starts to become "unhealthy." 100 is also about the point when the sky no longer looks blue.

So how do I find out what the index is for today?

You can check the widget on my blog, whose index is based on Chinese data. Alternatively, you can check the Beijing US Embassy's twitter account: Beijing Air. This account gives you hourly updates based on their own monitoring equipment in Beijing.

How do I read the US Embassy updates?

The number of importance in this instance is 214. This, according to the chart above which they correlate to, is classified as "very unhealthy."

Wait a minute, is the US Embassy index different to your widget index?

Wow. I am glad you noticed. It took me almost 4 months to find this out. The other weekend my widget said that the index was just over 200, whereas the US Embassy said it got has high as 466.

Why is there such a difference?

According to my research it is because the Chinese date and the US date is based on different measurements. The US data includes particles as small as 2.5 micrometers in diameter, PM 2.5, for it believes particles even as small as that can be dangerous to your health. The Chinese data however only counts particles as small as PM 10. Thus, given that a particle must be that much larger to be included in the Chinese measurement, their index has to be lower.

So which one should I follow?

Split the difference? Play it safe? Throw caution to the wind? It is up to you.
I tend to just look up the sky and if it looks nice and blue I will dare to venture out and run. If it doesn't, I will probably not risk it.

Anything else of note when it comes to pollution and living in Beijing?

Rains clears away the pollution, so make sure you get outside and enjoy the city after any rain!

Links:

A Little Western Food Shopping

2010-10-13T22:11:00.000+08:00

I have been in Beijing for almost 4 months now, and, to tell you all the truth, I am pretty fed up of eating Chinese food. Don't get me wrong, when I started out I was infatuated. I had never really eaten Chinese food before coming to China, and when I arrived I couldn't get enough of it. Because there are so many different regions in China, Chinese cuisine has so many different styles of cooking, spices, flavors, ingredients, etc. A Chinese food newbie fresh of the plane (well actually train), I had so much to try and explore; I was like a kid in a candy store.

However, the infatuation has slowly worn off. Sure its cheap. Sure it is the food you find everywhere. Sure you have to pay more and go out of your way to find western food. But the oily, saucy, shredded scraps of meats with assorted vegetables in MSG just really isn't doing it for me anymore. I crave the simple deliciousness of western food: the salads, steaks, chicken breasts, burgers, etc. I don't want all my food swimming in some unknown sauce anymore.

Well, I try not to be one who just complains and doesn't take any action to remedy a situation. So this afternoon after class I biked down the road to Carrefour, a massive french supermarket chain. Now, while you can buy meat cuts there and all the ingredients to whip up your own food, unfortunately I am a college student in a Chinese dorm and don't have a kitchen to cook in. All I got is a communal fridge shared by 6 guys. Given my situation, below is what I bought to make my life a little more enjoyable:

I can't cook meat so I have to go with deli meat. This was the only one I could find. Other options include ..... chicken feet.

Cereal! This was the most expensive purchase. The two boxes came to 82 yuan = $12.6

I got a litre of Chinese milk which is "fresh" and a litre of western brand UHT milk. Unfortunately there is neither of these options in the tiny grocery store on campus, so the UHT milk is useful so I can enjoy a couple days of cereal without having to get back over to Carrefour.

A bowl ..... for the cereal. DUH.

In all Chinese restaurants you tend to just get scraps of meat served in some unidentifiable sauce. So I decided I would get some canned imported fish to make sandwiches with for lunch / dinner.

黄山 (Yellow Mountain)

2010-10-12T10:25:00.002+08:00

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Fireworks In Hong Kong For National Day

2010-10-11T14:31:00.000+08:00

Friday October 1st was the National Day of the People's Republic of China. 61 years ago to the day the Communist Party came to power. I was in Hong Kong, which is an interesting autonomous region of China. It was a colony of England until fairly recently, at which point it was given back to China. However, it maintains much of the British legal system, its own currency and laws, and speaks little to no Mandarin. However, they do honor and celebrate National Day with a big firework display in the canal between Hong Kong island and the mainland. It lasted for almost half an hour! Given that it was the Chinese who invented gunpowder, I am glad they celebrated the day with a lot of bang.

阳朔 (Yangshuo)

2010-10-11T11:11:00.002+08:00

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Blue Sky

2010-10-11T10:29:00.000+08:00

My remix worked, and I woke up to the wonderful blue sky that makes Beijing such a fantastic city to be in during the Fall.

香港 (Hong Kong)

2010-10-10T22:20:00.002+08:00

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