Late Fall Wall Camping

During the China's national holiday, the first week of October, esther came to Beijing to visit. It's a great time to be in Beijiing, because so many people leave. True, people travel all over the place during the holiday, but many more leave the city than come to it. This is because there are vastly more people who have moved here to work that return home for the holidays, than people who come for vacation. The result is, in general less people.

Plus, Beijing always seeds the clouds to make it rain a few days before the holiday, which clears away the pollution for a week or so.

One day, about ten of us went up to Jiankou, the part of the wall i go for camping. The weather was typical of late fall, with cool afternoons and potentially cold evenings. Only esther and i decided to brave actual camping, while the rest stayed at a small inn at the village below. For us, camping turned out to be a magnificent choice.

It was the first time i went camping that we had the tower to ourselves. After hiking around, we built a 3-hour fire, made Annie's Mac and Cheese, drank wine, had hot cocoa with rum, and enjoyed absolute peace and infinite stars. It was not nearly as cold as i anticipated. We didn't use any of the extra blankets or sleeping bags we brought, and i don't think i ever wore all the clothes i had.

We woke up for the sunrise, enjoyed oatmeal and english tea for breakfast, and listened to the early morning sounds of the wall.

We hiked a bit more and made our way over to the sky stairs before heading back down to the village to meet the others.

On our way back to Beijing, we stopped to play CS, which is very popular up there. CS stands for Counter Strike, basically outdoor laser tag. You get a vest and helmet with light sensors on it and a laser gun. Your vest tells you when you've been hit by vibrating violently for a few seconds, and it tells you when you've hit someone else by vibrating pleasantly for a second. The whole thing is fairly realistic. We played outdoors in a valley with natural cover like trees and bushes, as well as bailed hay and barracks. The valley had hills and cliffs on two sides, and offered a great spot to sniper the enemy as they entered the game. One team enters first and sets up a position. Two minutes later, the enemy enters the field and advances.

I remember diving out of the way, rolling, jumping around unfamiliar terrain, sprinting up the side of a mountain, providing cover fire for my advancing comrades, and feeling the rush of adrenaline when i got hit. Yeah, we got into it.

We ended the trip at a spa, boasting a few dozen different hot tubs. Each one had a special name, like Green Tea, Red Wine, Lavender, and Mint. If you thought about it hard enough, you could maybe smell the fragrance indicated, but the water was certainly dyed to be the color of it. That was weird. Also weird, the pool with fish that eat the dead skin off your feet.

~Kev

September Sabbatical

The month of September was both amazing and largely uneventful. My September needs no photos to describe it and offers few insights into Chinese life (except for meeting Esther's parents). I didn't do much out of the ordinary. Conversely, i did ordinary things, everyday. Many of my days went like this:

• Wake up at the reasonable hour of 8:30.
• Have a simple breakfast or cereal or smoothie, plus coffee.
• Go to the gym.
• Have lunch.
• Work for a few hours in the afternoon from a nice coffee shop or comfortable restaurant.
• Meet some friends to toss a frisbee in the afternoon, lay in my hammock in the park, or enjoy a beer with a book.
• Have dinner.
• Do nighttime stuff.

September is unquestionably the nicest month in Beijing, due to the mild weather and more frequent rainfall, resulting in plentiful "blue sky days". I decided to take the entire month off work as a 1-month sabbatical. As a side project, i spent many days working on US/Grant's Quality Manual, and was able to make wonderful progress on it.

I also spent the second week in Hangzhou visiting esther. We both technically had some work, so we didn't do all the touristy things Hangzhou has to offer. But that was fine, we spent time entertaining each other. We played pool, walked or biked the city, played frisbee, ate good food, and smiled a lot. We went jogging in the morning by the canal. I met a few of her friends and had dinner at her parents house. I even taught her dad how to throw a frisbee.

Meeting the esther-rents was surprisingly easy. They speak not a word of English, but are very nice people, although pretty shy. They seemed to regard me with careful interest: careful to not seem too interested, but interested enough to not ignore me completely. I later learned this was a conscious decision. They were friendly, but treated me as though i were just another person.

Here's a picture of esther from long ago. Awww!

Their house in Xiaoshan, which is technically part of Hangzhou, but it's not near the city center. It's is also home to the nearest airport, the same one that closed for two hours in July 2010 because of aliens. So, yeah. Their house is a massive 4 and a half floor detached dwelling, with 4 bathrooms, 6 bedrooms, a finished basement, and an unfinished top floor. Her parents live there alone. Apparently, this is just what people do. All the neighbors have similar houses that could comfortably accommodate four individual families, while only actually using 30%. They could probably rent the top two floors out to, like, two whole families of aliens.

One day in Hangzhou, Esther and i attended the weekly frisbee game and a film crew came out to record everyone. A TV station from Hong Kong is endeavouring to produce a travel show chronicling each province in China. Their plan is to sell it worldwide (possibly to BBC or Nat Geo) and they were in Hangzhou working on Zhejiang province. They somehow found out about the Ultimate Frisbee scene and came to check it out. After the game, they bought us beer and interviewed four of us in a local bar. The producer was pretty pleased with what she got, and we'll probably have a five minute slot in the episode, whenever it comes out.

Esther and i also went to the tea fields one day and walked around. That was the extent of our tourism. It was a completely wonderful trip.

Back in Beijing, my days were normal, relaxing, and very productive. I never lost my motivation and i always seemed to get things done. I probably would have blogged some, but i was without computer for three weeks.

And today is October 1st, the first day of the fall holiday, so i get another week off. But i also get esther. She'll be here for 9 days.

I could get used to this.

~Kev

It's been a while since i've seen a more terribly dressed person than this (note the flesh-colored panty-hose socks):

.

... or a dog as cluelessly happy as this one

The Rents Report

Our Beijing Adventures 2011
A guest post by Kevin's 'rents

After returning from our 2 week trip with Kevin to Southern & Western China (previously documented by Kevin), we had another 12 days to tour Beijing on our own. So with tour book in hand, and directions from Kevin, we ventured out by taxi, bus, and subway.

We found Beijing to be a beautiful and fascinating city. Bus 107 took us to the Drum Tower, where we then took a taxi to Prince Gong’s Residence. We spent 2 hours wandering the garden paths which wound around a reflecting pool and through dozens of “rockeries” and decorated walkways.

The next day, we took bus 24 to a small park where we found an 8 piece band playing and lots of people singing along. We watched from the back of the crowd until the conductor spotted the 2 foreigners and came straight for us. He brought us in front of the crowd for everyone to see. We stood there with him, clapping and dancing and slowly turning so everybody could see us. Then the band started playing Jingle Bells to a polka beat. We figured – Why Not? So we did the polka in front of about 400 cheering Chinese fans. Afterwards, nearly everyone came up to shake our hands or smile at us. Our brief embarrassment quickly disappeared due to their genuine hospitality.

Another day we took Bus 107 again to the Bell and Drum Towers. Traffic that day was awful and there were hundreds of police and soldiers everywhere in that area. But nobody could tell us why. We soon discovered that the Drum Tower was closed for the day, but we were able to tour and climb the adjacent Bell Tower – lots of steps, by the way. The bell was used to tell the time of day. It was erected in 1272 is 23 feet tall and weighs 63 tons. It’s a Big Bell!


As we exited the Bell Tower, we saw even more police and soldiers, plus maybe 40 or so vehicles... all parked very carefully where cars are not normally allowed. We finally found a U.S. Army officer who whispered to us that Joe Biden was touring the Drum Tower and would be leaving soon. That’s when we noticed all the Secret Service guys with sunglasses and the Big Black Chevy Suburbans with diplomatic plates. Traffic was stopped in all directions except for busses. We were both very tired, so we opted for beating the crowd and hopped on Bus 107 (our favorite!) and headed back to Kevin’s. It was fascinating to see hundreds of Chinese watching with great respect and interest, hoping to get a glimpse or photo of an important U.S. leader. 

Another adventure occurred much closer to home... inside Kevin’s apartment actually. The sink drain in his bathroom sprouted a leak, so the apartment owner sent over a repairman. Not only did he fix the leak, but he showed Kevin how to turn on the a/c (simply switch it to “summer” instead of “winter”). WOW! What a difference! We had sweated thru 6 days of 90° days and 80° nights – and suddenly we had cool air for the next 10!

On our last day we took the subway (line 5) to the Temple of Heaven, a huge park with buildings dating back to the Ming Dynasty around 1420 AD. We arrived at 7:50 AM and spent several hours roaming the spacious tree-lined walkways and courtyards. Even at that early hour, there were thousands of people doing all sorts of exercise routines on a variety of equipment. We saw a dozen groups doing various dance routines to music. Other activities included small groups playing a form of Hacky Sack with a large badminton shuttlecock, men playing with a gyroscopic top spinning on a string, and men playing cards or Chinese chess. There were men hanging bird cages in the trees, bands playing, and people singing. We saw people painting, playing Chinese violins, and flying kites. It was a delight to behold. Anyone heading to Beijing should definitely include an Early Morning visit to this magnificent park.

Benches: There are few chairs or benches in the Malls & Parks. People often carry their own small stools on bikes (& even a folding table to play cards), or they will sit on a concrete wall, or even seem comfortable squatting.

Random Observations:

Money: Chinese money is RMB (People’s Currency, commonly called yuan or kuai.). You really get your money’s worth! A bus trip costs 1 kuai ($.15) and the Subway is 2 kuai ($.30).
A taxi costs 10-20 kuai ($1.50-$3) and the custom is no tipping.
The largest bill is 100 kuai, and sometimes the driver can’t break a 100 RMB bill ($15).

Children: They are instant icebreakers. Parents want their children to say “Hello” & wave & are proud of them when they do this. We focused on the kids because we think it’s important to give a positive & friendly impression of Americans. They wanted photos taken with us, and were often surprised when we also asked for a photo with them.

Traffic: While walking on the sidewalk, if you hear a horn you assume it’s from the street, but it could be a motorcycle... behind you on the sidewalk! We quickly learned to look in ALL directions.

Stools: We’d seen stools chained to trees along the sidewalk. Finally, one morning we saw women walking around with red or green arm bands, with some of them sitting in these chairs. Maybe it’s like a neighborhood watch?

Restaurants: Many leave the dirty dishes outside in blue plastic cartons to be picked up by a service which will wash/sterilize them & then bring them back, each place setting sealed in plastic. Restaurants charge you 1 RMB extra for these dishes wrapped in plastic.

Food: At a breakfast buffet in Dali, some of the dishes were labeled “Fried Oil Powder”, “Red Pepper White Food”, and “Fried Rice Lines.” All of these were good. (Food Translations: Flour & Oil gravy base, Red peppers & cauliflower, Rice Noodles).

Bus to Dali: Kevin described the bus in his Dali post. Another bus parked next to ours, & the driver got a hose & attached it under his bus. We were told that’s to cool off the engine, because they don’t use coolant in the radiators.

Boats: While on the island of the Bai people in Kevin’s post about Dali, we discovered they made boats, constructed mainly of Styrofoam packing peanuts and discarded pants. Very creative!

Washers & dryers: Most apartments do not have dryers, but the washers spin the clothes almost dry. At Kevin’s, there is a sun room off the bedroom with drying racks, where everything dries amazingly quickly.

Wheel protectors: This apparently confuses the dogs!

This visit was quite different from our trip two years ago, and it was also somewhat spontaneous. China is a fascinating country. We also enjoyed seeing Kevin's friends again. We thank all of them for their help and hospitality. We have many good memories.

~The Rents

... And last but not least, the final installment of beardmageddon, day 27:

~Kev