Sichuan Province!

Whenever I go for more than a week without writing it feels like something is missing! The past couple of weeks I've been taking classes here in a small private school, mainly a colloquial conversational Chinese class. Besides school I've been meeting new Chinese friends and practicing the language a lot. It seems as if I've finally broken a barrier where I've made one or two good Chinese friends that have begun to introduce me to more and more of their friends. It took a long time to get here, and a lot of language study, but it feels good to have reached it. I can now say my friends group is half/half foreigners and Chinese.

We have to start back classes at the University of Business and Economics here in Beijing in two weeks. Since I have only seen Shanghai during the entire summer break, I have decided to take off to Sichuan province for an pre-school starting adventure. Here's where it is in the middle of China:

Famous for Giant Pandas, the spiciest food in China, and the most beautiful ladies. I will be staying with a Chinese woman, the friend of a friend, while I'm in the capital, and then travel a little. Look for lots of good blogs to come!

I thought since I've had a lack of blogs, I'd throw in a few pictures of new friends!




Talk to you soon from Sichuan!

Bird and Flower Market

I went with a Chinese friend yesterday to what is called the Bird and Flower Market, but is actually more like an "everything that's living" market. You could buy fish, birds, dogs, turtles, fighter crickets, snakes, kites, antiques, pipes, etc. I really enjoyed it because there was not a foreigner in sight except for me, and it felt so real compared to some of the other places in Beijing. I just wanted to share some of the fun pictures.

They had every type of bird imaginable, some with their own cages and others crammed like pigeons on a phone wire.

I loved this little old woman selling her fake antiques.


This man was selling crickets that you feed to other pets. One cricket per little wooden cage.

And these people sold more expensive, fighter crickets, that people bet on and fight in little underground arenas.

I highly recommend a trip to Southeast Beijing to see this little market. Any pet or accessory you need, it will be there.

Beijing Bowling.

That's right. We went bowling in China. It was the largest bowling alley I've ever been in, called Gongti 100, and we felt like we were not actually in China for the moment. We got to wear the funny looking shoes, give dorky cheers when someone got a strike, and then go dancing next door when we were done! A great night...but everyone has decided that we need to organize paint ball in the Beijing suburbs for the next adventure. Oh, and I even bowled FIVE strikes during the second game. Three in a row. I never had that kind of luck in the States!

Visitors to Beijing!

Right after I got back from Shanghai it was visitor time! Alex (IMBA) visited before going back to his internship, David (another IMBA) came with two friends, and then the following weekend Shaun (another IMBA) showed up for a few days. What a blast. We did a lot of stuff, and had a full house most of the time. At one point our apartment slept 6 people! Here's just a few shots of the fun and games...

Taking our guests out to our favorite restaurant in Beijing, owned by the Japanese woman in the middle! Excellent food, fabulous owner, perfect service, and always more free lunch coupons! What more could you ask for?

4 IMBAs posing with the Kung Fu actors...

All the boys around the table for a very elaborate brunch at our apartment...

Being a tourist with Shaun at the Temple of Heaven...


Karaoke Time!
We bravely took our guests for Karaoke with some Chinese friends of ours, to get their feet wet with a little Chinese culture. They had a great time, I hope. At least it looks that way from the pictures!

Me with Zhang Yi...a great language partner and friend!

Some people had to clap for themselves because no one else would....

One last silly shot...what's wrong with those people?

Any and all are welcome to come to Beijing! At least while we still have a plush apartment and an air mattress :-)

Shanghai!!!

I had my first chance this past weekend to see the "Paris of the Orient," with none other than five days at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Shanghai. I owe it to Alex, who was sent there by his internship and graciously offered to share! I will probably never see Shanghai in such luxury again.

The Ritz was located in a posh area with Starbucks, Gucci, LV, etc. One of my favorite things I got to see there was the first five minutes after I arrived. Take a look at this picture...and notice the Buddhist monks sipping their 30RMB coffee! Doesn't this explain the contradictions of a developing country better than anything else?

I spent the days getting up late, eating a fabulous breakfast, and then walking for hours around various districts including the Pudong area, the French concession, and People's square. The modern, clustered skyscrapers are really something to admire as well as the pedestrian walkways on the Bund, next to the Huangpu river. These are a few of the sites...including the famous Oriental Pearl TV tower, some buildings on the Pudong side of the river, and the dumpling basket-shaped Shanghai museum.



In that second shot I was on the 88th floor of the Hyatt, which used to be the tallest building in Shanghai until they started construction on a much higher one next-door in order to outdo the new building in Dubai.

Night was a good time to get together with people we knew in Shanghai, and do stuff like massages and cocktails! I got together twice with an old classmate from Clemson, who also majored in Chinese and International Trade and now works in Shanghai. This is us the first night out at dinner.

This is Alex getting walked on during one of the massages:

And this is me with an espresso martini in Cloud 9, the highest bar in the world!

Finally, this is a tiny video of the scenery as I am walking along the Bund at night:

All-in-all, the shopping is better in Shanghai, although a little more expensive than Beijing. Other than that, for people coming to China for the first time, there is much more to see in Beijing. Shanghai seems less Chinese, very business oriented, and the language is hard to understand for those of us learning standard Mandarin. Compared with Beijing, there were very few bicycles, traffic moved a little faster, and the subway system was very developed. I have been asked repeatedly which city is better, and there is clearly no answer to that. Depends on your goals in China. Want to learn Chinese and experience more of the Chinese culture? You better head to Beijing. Want a more comfortable, more expensive expat life with more foreign goods and culture available to you? Head to Shanghai. For the time, I'm in the right place. We shall see where the internship takes me.

Laying Fiber-Optic Cable

Sarah and I had the best time on the way home one day speaking with a bunch of people from the Beijing electric company. They were laying cable for a future skyscraper next door, and most everyone was from Inner Mongolia. At first I was embarrassed to take their picture while they were working so hard, but it turned out that they soaked up the attention more than anyone else. They stopped spinning the giant wheel and told everyone to smile!


My favorite part was peering down into this man-hole and hearing everyone saying "Yi, Er, Zou!" meaning "One, two, walk!" Between heaves they all looked up and talked to us, welcoming us to come to Inner Mongolia. What nice people. Just when you think that you shouldn't stop and disturb, you meet some to the nicest, most open people.

The end of the semester and Courtney's BBQ

So I am behind in blogs. I'm sorry! A lot has happened..so I will try to catch up chronologically. The end of the semester was bittersweet because exams were over but we had to say goodbye to those friends that would not do the next semester here in Beijing.

This was our last class get-together. These are my teachers and classmates plus a few guests!


We said goodbye to Courtney with a cook-out at his Uncle's house in a swanky expat section of Beijing. We had a real grill, a real oven, and real cupcakes. Unimaginable! Here are some of us enjoying the spread. His Korean classmates also made some treats, the French provided beverages, the Germans provided pastries, and the Americans provided the meat. :-)

The cupcakes were made by yours truly, and they were so good that Prunelle got a little rowdy and had to smear some icing.

We will miss you Courtney! I hope to see you in England!

Spoiled in a whole new way.

When trying to discuss the differences between our U.S. and China lifestyles, I like the way Sarah said it- "We are spoiled in a whole new way in China." When asked to decide which life I like better, it is impossible to say. Each one has its own comforts and high points. We are spoiled in the U.S. with comfort, English, air conditioning, personal cars, rules and laws that are respected, cleaner air, less governmental corruption, etc. However, as expatriates in China, we are able to live lives above the level we could experience in the U.S. on the same budget. "Student" budgets are tight in the States, with the ever-so-familiar cheap apartment, cheap food, limited travel abilities, etc.

Here in China I do things that I could not dream of in the States, like going to acupuncture 3 times a week, having clothes made at the tailor, getting pedicures and manicures at the same time, eating out once or twice a day in restaurants, having a maid come to the apartment once a week, etc. My acupuncture sessions cost about $7.60 per hour, and the biggest Chinese meals are never over $2.50, and a housekeeper is $1.25/hour. All of that together doesn't even come to the cost of one dinner in the States. Of course, we trade this nicer personal lifestyle for the larger external environment that comes with a developing economy. It is less stable, more complicated, but intensely stimulating. There's the answer: who knows. I've been asked repeatedly what I think is better, and of course that answer depends on your personality and preference, but I think it is safe to say that I am comfortable in both for the time being. We are already discussing the reverse culture shock that will occur next year when we have to move back to a student lifestyle in South Carolina!

The 4th at Hardrock!

I decided that we needed to get a group together and be very American on Wednesday night to celebrate the 4th of July. Fortunately, there were about 8 others that agreed to go to Beijing's Hardrock Cafe with me. This was most of the group:

There was live music from an English-speaking Filipino band that was actually very good. When you get down to it, the food isn't so great for the relative price. We spent about $25 a piece on appetizer, drinks, food, dessert. In Chinese terms, that's unheard of for most people. It was my first burger in about 6 months, and definitely the best dessert in that time! This is Malte and I addressing the hot fudge brownie sundae. (Something I never thought could be eaten in China..but we found it.) It is dangerous...something that should remain a treat for once every 6 months!

Happy 4th everyone! Leave me a comment and tell me what you did to celebrate! There were no fireworks here because of rain, but we still had a blast celebrating.

The first celebration for the 4th of July

The American Chamber of Commerce put on an event here in Beijing for a few hundred people last Saturday. The whole thing was interesting. It would have been wonderful without the constant, heavy rain. It was in a resort outside of the city with live music, fireworks, and entertainment, almost all of which was cancelled because of the rain. The funny things was that they called it "Red, White, and BBQ" and got our hopes up for a real American cookout...but this is what they served:

That's right! You are looking at McDonalds and Budweiser. Unfortunately, the only cuisine connected with the U.S. in China is McDonalds...and that even goes for the American Chamber of Commerce! At least we got a chance to dress up in tacky red white and blue outfits and wave some flags around! These kids were particularly patriotic and cute:

No need to worry, we have something of our own planned for Wednesday the 4th...we need to do this thing right!

Restaurants Galore!

The thing about Beijing and most large cities is that there is a plethora of restaurants to chose from- upscale, homey, chic, cheesy, whatever you want. We often use weekends as a chance to explore different places. This Friday we went with two of our fellow USC alumni that live here in Beijing to Haiku, a classy Japanese restaurant and lounge bar opened by another Moore alumni and his partners. The sushi bar was circular and blue and produced some of the best sushi I've ever had!

This was the group that went that night:

Saturday night I went with my class for a going-away party to visit a Thai restaurant that seemed to resemble Disney Thai, although our Thai classmate said that food was actually authentic. The singing, dancing and games made dinner quite the entertainment process. This is a video of the waitresses dancing next to the table!

This is me with the class and some French friends:

These are some of the girls from class and my teacher sitting at my left. Yes, she is only 25, so she looks like one of us!

All in all, we have visited quite a few places but still have an extensive wish-list...there are too many magazine restaurant critiques to keep up with! Definitely go to Haiku for the food and atmosphere if you get the chance, and Banana Leaf if you are just looking for entertainment!

Mmm...Pollution.

If Seattle has the worst suicide rate in the U.S. because of the weather, it really makes we worry for China. Although we have some beautiful blue skies around here sometimes, weeks like this make them hard to remember. It is a cross between humidity and smog, leaving very low visibility. Lots of people wear masks on the street in hopes to avoid some of the bad air.

This was on today's CNN page, I found it interesting if you want to take a look:
href="http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/20/china.climate.ap/index.html"

Turns out China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's worst polluter, by 8%, but promises to have it cleaned up by the Olympics. We can only hope. This stems from a a couple of decades of promoting fast development at all costs. It is only in recent years that the people and politicians are seeing the costs they have created and the amount of attention it stirs up in the international arena. There will always be an positive and negative side to everything. Measures will be put in place to protect the environment, as the once rock-bottom cost of doing business in China- the main attraction to investors- begins to increase in the form of regulations compliance, taxes, etc.

A Learning Experience

Over the weekend I went on a sudo-business trip. I thought I was going to check out a trade show, but the situation turned out to be much more complicated. I don't want to mention the people or place I was in, but we were misrepresented as American investors to a province seeking to stimulate its economy. I was told not to say I was a student or give them my business card with my school name. We met with governors, mayors, entrepreneurs with business plans, etc. The meals were lavish, the rooms were decorated presidentially, we had one translator per person, a TV channel following us around, and I could not have felt more uncomfortable. My feeling is that the middlemen were actually at fault. They lied to their superiors telling them that we were investors, and then the superiors lied to all of the hopeful business start-ups telling them that we were an opportunity. After the first day, however, I found a way to sneak out of it with Adrian and we got a little touring done instead. You can imagine that I learned a lot, but it was also one of the most stressful things I have done since I have been here. Here are a few of the key points that I took away from it all though:

1) China is impossible to navigate without flexibility. Key phrase of this weekend was "Go with the flow." The difference between people that have lived here for some time and those that have never really sunk their teeth into the culture is painfully obvious. It is the difference between an understanding, smooth attitude and a complaining, argumentative one.

2) Things are not what they seem. Situations, things, people, all need more investigation than they do in the States. It comes from a combination of indirect communication, saving face, collectivism, and thousands of years of history. There is less respect for directness, "putting your cards on the table," or using an external system instead of a network of friends to get something done. So as a Westerner, my goal is to sift through all of these layers and figure out what it is I am looking at, and respond appropriately. Easier said than done.

3) The concept of "face" (gaining it, saving it, and losing it) is extremely powerful and increases in importance as you move up the chain of command. The higher the status or position of a person, the more face plays a role in every move that is made. Dealing with government officials on this trip was sometimes very frustrating because things are sometimes done in the hidden name of "face" and nothing else. As an American, if I don't see any mutually beneficial outcome or productive result, I just assume not do it. Here, again, is where flexibility comes in.

And just for fun, a few of our playing pictures! We took a boat ride to wander around an island for an afternoon, and this was the coastline of the city:

On the island, there were deer that we bought food to feed!

One night we saw an amazing song/dance show put on by hundreds of people. This type of thing would never happen in the States, as one dance company could not afford to pay 400 people, but China pulls out all the cards to impress. It just makes me wonder, WHAT will happen for the long-awaited opening ceremony of the Olympics?

Don't tell Mom!

Right. So I can't explain how this picture got into City Weekend's Beijing 2007 Bar and Restaurant Guide, under the night-life section...but here we are on the front page with an article entitled "Party Animals." That night we were dancing to 80's music while a photographer with a huge camera was poking around. There are three of us from USC, another American, and three French friends in the picture...all classmates of ours. Little did we know that we would discover ourselves a month later in one of Beijing's most popular expatriate reads, under such an inaccurate title! :-)