Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Dr. Lei Nuo, I presume.
I was thinking about something my father said to me while we were jogging in Maine. He was exhorting me to get a PhD, and said that he was tired of correcting people who called him 'doctor', either covering their bases or simply assuming as much. Well, I'd been called doctor before on various research trips and at different meetings, but it's extremely widespread here. I've gotten two emails today alone with the Dr. title, and Alessandro's gotten one as well. I don't think that's a good enough reason to spend five years working on a PhD, but I can certainly imagine it becoming embarrassing or tiring after a while.
If my posts had fewer subjects it'd be easier to come up with clever titles.
8/24
Night out at 5:19
I decided that I should go out to a bar. I was sick of sitting around watching TV and eager to try to meet people, and I'd seen on the thatsbeijing forum that a member was performing at a place nearby called 5:19, so I decided to check it out.
5:19 was quiet. There was the forum member playing guitar and singing rather competently, plus maybe 10 other people on the first floor. There were others upstairs on the roof, but I didn't know that yet. So I ordered a drink, much to my regret turning down the Bombay Sapphire in favor of the dramatically cheaper Gordon's Dry in my gin and tonic. I chatted with a few of the guys sitting around on some couches. They turned out to be Americans working in construction on the new US embassy, and were all pretty drunk. The conversation was much as you'd expect a chat with drunk construction workers to be, revolving around booze, women, and sports. I politely declined their invitation to go next door to dance with the Filipina girls, explaining with a straight face that I was waiting for a friend.
I chatted with the bartender and owner, Dave from Canada, who was running the business in his retirement. I asked him why he'd stayed in China after his decade-long contract with the mining company was up and after his wife divorced him, and he answered that he couldn't imagine readjusting to civilization.
I met the musician, who I'd previously chatted with in the online forum, and we went upstairs to the roof to hang out with some others. There he introduced me to an older guy from Montana working on the communications infrastructure for the Olympics.
I took the opportunity to ask how he felt about potential protests, which was apparently a red-button issue. It ended up a 3-hour, heated debate about freedoms, respect, and the 'greatest stage ever set on earth'. I thought for a while he was drunk, but it later turned out he was a recovering alcoholic and he'd been drinking tonic water. Anyway, we had radically different points of view. In the young and naive corner, I supported protest and free speech and the ability and obligation of individuals to change the world. He had a much more jaded attitude about the potential for change, and he also believed that the Olympics shouldn't be interrupted by dissent. His arguments weren't very good, but one that held up for me was that public protest would inevitably disrupt some poor athlete's proudest moment. He also had this weird belief that Olympics were about hope for the Chinese people, and that protesting would somehow betray that hope. I personally think that most Chinese see the Olympics more as an opportunity to make a quick buck by whatever means they can than they do a source of hope or pride. Anyway, he argued on the grounds that protesting against injustices in China during thr Olympics was somehow taking away hope from the Chinese people, which was just weird. By this point the bar had closed, which I didn't think they did in Beijing, and we were standing outside the front door debating. He finally misquoted Ben Franklin at me, saying, "He who sacrifices hope for security gets neither." (What?) When of course it's, "He who sacrifices LIBERTY for security deserves neither." So when I pointed his error out to him, trying hard not to jump up and down in glee that he made my point for me, we agreed to disagree and I went home for the night. I didn't meet anyone my age and I didn't meet any girls, but at least I got out of the house.
8/25
On Saturday I met my language exchange partner for the second time, this time at a Starbucks in Guomao halfway between our places. We haven't been very diligent about studying, to say the least. As much as I loathe Starbucks, it was nice to overpay for a giant coffee; I had no idea how much I'd miss the drink. So we chatted for a few hours, asking questions and taking notes. I managed to drop my pocket PC with my electronic dictionary off of the table and down 2 flights of stairs, but it survived intact, probably thanks to the heavy metal case that I've hated lugging around.
Bike repairs (Or, "No, no. Night time is when I fill the hole with water")
It was getting dark when I got back to the subway station where I'd left my bike. I had already put on my helmet and flashing lights and started riding down the street when I realized that my rear tire was flat. Fortunately, China has bicycle repair 'shops' on just about every corner They're really just 3-wheeled carts with supplies and a grease-covered older guy sitting on a stool, but they work. I remembered that only a moment ago I'd seen one across the street from where my bike was parked. Then, as I got off my bike and turned around, something clicked- those bastards flattened my tire. Furious, but trying to act cool, I walked my bike over to the cart and asked to use his pump, hoping they'd just let the air out. So I pumped up my tube and stood around for a minute poking at the tire. It was leaking, so I asked the guy how much it'd be to change the tube. He wanted 40RMB, but I talked him down to 25RMB ($3.50 for parts and labor), plus I get to keep the dead tube, which I'll throw away to prevent him from pawning it off on someone who doesn't know a new one from a patch job. When he took the tire off I checked it for anything along the inside which could re-puncture the tube. Assuming he's competent, he should have done that himself if he didn't know how the tube was damaged. He had a water bowl, so I pumped the tube up and slowly ran the length of it through the water until I found the leak, an invisible line of holes along the seam. It could have been a slightly split seam or it could have been someone with a needle poking my tire a few times. Who knows, but after he put my wheel back on I waited for a few minutes to make sure all was kosher before I paid him and left. I don't know if he actually did kill my tube, but everyone here I've mentioned the incident to thinks he did.
8/27-28
On Monday and Tuesday I got little done at work, or so it always seems to feel. I'm calling and emailing a bunch of people in the government and research institutions, trying to get information and set up meetings. I finally managed to schedule one with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science on Wednesday, but other than that I mostly got passed around from person to person and played phone and email tag.
Alessandro, one of UNIDO's permanent staff, has been really helpful about suggesting names and sending emails out through his account with his name on them, so that's been encouraging. We also have fun chats during the day on everything from his part-time job at the opera during college, where he chatted with Pavarotti and had to carry around large, 'dead' sopranos on stage; to articles in the Economist; to hiking and climbing. He's much older than I am, has a wife and a kid, but it's cool to have someone at work to interact with on a social level.
This week I was also tasked with writing the copy for the new UNIDO China brochure. I don't mind doing some of this kind of work for the people here; it makes me feel like I'm pulling my weight and it keeps them happy.
Exercise, plus what do do with my time
The evenings have been slow and long since my 1 month membership for yoga expired. I would have re-upped it, but I'll leave for Thailand before the full month and it seemed expensive to waste that time. As a result I'm going home earlier and still not doing much when I get there. I've been thinking about getting back into martial arts, so I've been shopping around. I found a well-regarded jiu jitsu school down in SOHO, about 15 minutes from work by bike, which I'll probably check out, but I realized that since I'm in China I should probably take advantage of it by learning something local. I've been asking around about taiji and kung fu teachers, but they're elusive. Most of the best teachers seem to be old guys who teach in parks, just not in the parks near me. They also charge lesson by lesson, payable in cash, and aren't cheap. So I'm looking, but I don't know if it's a practical idea.
The other fitness thing I've recently stumbled on is this yoga retreat outside of the city. It's not cheap, but neither is it too expensive- on the order of $100 for a weekend with food, transportation, accommodation, and classes included. It sounds fun, but the most amazing part is the setting; one location is an old Buddhist temple, another has property around a crumbling stretch of the Great Wall. It seems great, assuming I can handle that big a dose of hippie-ness in a weekend.
8/29
My first work meeting with a 'local expert'
After much debate I ended up wearing my suit to my meeting at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. I seriously wonder what people think when they see me walking around wearing a jacket, tie, and eyebrow piercing. I sort of like the contradiction, and I guess I'll settle for it if I can't dye my hair fun colors. No one in China dresses up; it's like casual Friday meets the Caribbean, with short-sleeve button up shirts all around for the elite businessmen and officials and track pants and polo shirts for the rest. It's sort of a shame that a country with such a cool sartorial tradition has settled on the lowest common denominator of Western dress. Even during the Cultural Revolution, although the clothing was uniform, it was unique and interesting.
I got up at 6:30 to make it to my meeting by 9, biking to work to collect my notes and drop off my computer, then catching a cab to Haidian, some 15km away, during rush hour. I got to read papers and jot notes during the ride through the morning traffic, so I understand the appeal of chauffeurs for people with money and stressful jobs. The taxi driver didn't know exactly where to go, but we managed to navigate there successfully, marking the occasion as the first time the Chinese GPS software on my pocket PC has been useful, and even then it wasn't while hooked up to the GPS. The campus of the institute, along with the rest of China, was gutted by construction, so I hiked in dress shoes over piles of dirt and under tin roofs until I found the right building.
The man I was meeting with, a Prof. Huang, had come downstairs to meet me when I called him to tell him I was nearby. We shook hands and headed up to his office. After the business card swap ritual we got down to business, but as an aside, how are you supposed to take the card you're accepting with 2 hands while simultaneously offer your own the same way? I assume you take turns, but who offers first? The actual trade ended up a weird tangle, but I don't think he cared. He spent a couple of years at Cornell, studying abroad as everyone here seems to do, so was probably lower key about some things than he could have been.
Prof. Huang is the head of biotech research at the institute, a scientist, not a suit. He was wearing a tie, however, so I just took my jacket off and the clothing thing worked out after all. I started by telling him about my research and my goals, and then we dove right into my list of questions. Unfortunately this whole exchange was in English. His wasn't great, but he knew the relevant vocabulary, so it went better than it would have if I'd tried to come up with Chinese for 'cultivars' or 'herbicide'. I ended up with some good notes, a powerpoint presentation with stats, and an introduction to a guy at the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy whose papers I've read, so all in all it was productive.
When I got back to work I took my taxi receipts to the administrative assistant to figure out how to get reimbursed. She asked me to write my name and the purpose of the taxi trip on the receipt. "Just write, 'meeting'," she said. So I did, she added up the total for the 2 receipts on her calculator, asked if I could break a hundred, and handed me cash on the spot. How cool is that? In a country filled with red tape, in an organization known for bureaucracy, I got my taxi receipts refunded from petty cash out of a drawer in the assistant's desk.
Night out at 5:19
I decided that I should go out to a bar. I was sick of sitting around watching TV and eager to try to meet people, and I'd seen on the thatsbeijing forum that a member was performing at a place nearby called 5:19, so I decided to check it out.
5:19 was quiet. There was the forum member playing guitar and singing rather competently, plus maybe 10 other people on the first floor. There were others upstairs on the roof, but I didn't know that yet. So I ordered a drink, much to my regret turning down the Bombay Sapphire in favor of the dramatically cheaper Gordon's Dry in my gin and tonic. I chatted with a few of the guys sitting around on some couches. They turned out to be Americans working in construction on the new US embassy, and were all pretty drunk. The conversation was much as you'd expect a chat with drunk construction workers to be, revolving around booze, women, and sports. I politely declined their invitation to go next door to dance with the Filipina girls, explaining with a straight face that I was waiting for a friend.
I chatted with the bartender and owner, Dave from Canada, who was running the business in his retirement. I asked him why he'd stayed in China after his decade-long contract with the mining company was up and after his wife divorced him, and he answered that he couldn't imagine readjusting to civilization.
I met the musician, who I'd previously chatted with in the online forum, and we went upstairs to the roof to hang out with some others. There he introduced me to an older guy from Montana working on the communications infrastructure for the Olympics.
I took the opportunity to ask how he felt about potential protests, which was apparently a red-button issue. It ended up a 3-hour, heated debate about freedoms, respect, and the 'greatest stage ever set on earth'. I thought for a while he was drunk, but it later turned out he was a recovering alcoholic and he'd been drinking tonic water. Anyway, we had radically different points of view. In the young and naive corner, I supported protest and free speech and the ability and obligation of individuals to change the world. He had a much more jaded attitude about the potential for change, and he also believed that the Olympics shouldn't be interrupted by dissent. His arguments weren't very good, but one that held up for me was that public protest would inevitably disrupt some poor athlete's proudest moment. He also had this weird belief that Olympics were about hope for the Chinese people, and that protesting would somehow betray that hope. I personally think that most Chinese see the Olympics more as an opportunity to make a quick buck by whatever means they can than they do a source of hope or pride. Anyway, he argued on the grounds that protesting against injustices in China during thr Olympics was somehow taking away hope from the Chinese people, which was just weird. By this point the bar had closed, which I didn't think they did in Beijing, and we were standing outside the front door debating. He finally misquoted Ben Franklin at me, saying, "He who sacrifices hope for security gets neither." (What?) When of course it's, "He who sacrifices LIBERTY for security deserves neither." So when I pointed his error out to him, trying hard not to jump up and down in glee that he made my point for me, we agreed to disagree and I went home for the night. I didn't meet anyone my age and I didn't meet any girls, but at least I got out of the house.
8/25
On Saturday I met my language exchange partner for the second time, this time at a Starbucks in Guomao halfway between our places. We haven't been very diligent about studying, to say the least. As much as I loathe Starbucks, it was nice to overpay for a giant coffee; I had no idea how much I'd miss the drink. So we chatted for a few hours, asking questions and taking notes. I managed to drop my pocket PC with my electronic dictionary off of the table and down 2 flights of stairs, but it survived intact, probably thanks to the heavy metal case that I've hated lugging around.
Bike repairs (Or, "No, no. Night time is when I fill the hole with water")
It was getting dark when I got back to the subway station where I'd left my bike. I had already put on my helmet and flashing lights and started riding down the street when I realized that my rear tire was flat. Fortunately, China has bicycle repair 'shops' on just about every corner They're really just 3-wheeled carts with supplies and a grease-covered older guy sitting on a stool, but they work. I remembered that only a moment ago I'd seen one across the street from where my bike was parked. Then, as I got off my bike and turned around, something clicked- those bastards flattened my tire. Furious, but trying to act cool, I walked my bike over to the cart and asked to use his pump, hoping they'd just let the air out. So I pumped up my tube and stood around for a minute poking at the tire. It was leaking, so I asked the guy how much it'd be to change the tube. He wanted 40RMB, but I talked him down to 25RMB ($3.50 for parts and labor), plus I get to keep the dead tube, which I'll throw away to prevent him from pawning it off on someone who doesn't know a new one from a patch job. When he took the tire off I checked it for anything along the inside which could re-puncture the tube. Assuming he's competent, he should have done that himself if he didn't know how the tube was damaged. He had a water bowl, so I pumped the tube up and slowly ran the length of it through the water until I found the leak, an invisible line of holes along the seam. It could have been a slightly split seam or it could have been someone with a needle poking my tire a few times. Who knows, but after he put my wheel back on I waited for a few minutes to make sure all was kosher before I paid him and left. I don't know if he actually did kill my tube, but everyone here I've mentioned the incident to thinks he did.
8/27-28
On Monday and Tuesday I got little done at work, or so it always seems to feel. I'm calling and emailing a bunch of people in the government and research institutions, trying to get information and set up meetings. I finally managed to schedule one with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science on Wednesday, but other than that I mostly got passed around from person to person and played phone and email tag.
Alessandro, one of UNIDO's permanent staff, has been really helpful about suggesting names and sending emails out through his account with his name on them, so that's been encouraging. We also have fun chats during the day on everything from his part-time job at the opera during college, where he chatted with Pavarotti and had to carry around large, 'dead' sopranos on stage; to articles in the Economist; to hiking and climbing. He's much older than I am, has a wife and a kid, but it's cool to have someone at work to interact with on a social level.
This week I was also tasked with writing the copy for the new UNIDO China brochure. I don't mind doing some of this kind of work for the people here; it makes me feel like I'm pulling my weight and it keeps them happy.
Exercise, plus what do do with my time
The evenings have been slow and long since my 1 month membership for yoga expired. I would have re-upped it, but I'll leave for Thailand before the full month and it seemed expensive to waste that time. As a result I'm going home earlier and still not doing much when I get there. I've been thinking about getting back into martial arts, so I've been shopping around. I found a well-regarded jiu jitsu school down in SOHO, about 15 minutes from work by bike, which I'll probably check out, but I realized that since I'm in China I should probably take advantage of it by learning something local. I've been asking around about taiji and kung fu teachers, but they're elusive. Most of the best teachers seem to be old guys who teach in parks, just not in the parks near me. They also charge lesson by lesson, payable in cash, and aren't cheap. So I'm looking, but I don't know if it's a practical idea.
The other fitness thing I've recently stumbled on is this yoga retreat outside of the city. It's not cheap, but neither is it too expensive- on the order of $100 for a weekend with food, transportation, accommodation, and classes included. It sounds fun, but the most amazing part is the setting; one location is an old Buddhist temple, another has property around a crumbling stretch of the Great Wall. It seems great, assuming I can handle that big a dose of hippie-ness in a weekend.
8/29
My first work meeting with a 'local expert'
After much debate I ended up wearing my suit to my meeting at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. I seriously wonder what people think when they see me walking around wearing a jacket, tie, and eyebrow piercing. I sort of like the contradiction, and I guess I'll settle for it if I can't dye my hair fun colors. No one in China dresses up; it's like casual Friday meets the Caribbean, with short-sleeve button up shirts all around for the elite businessmen and officials and track pants and polo shirts for the rest. It's sort of a shame that a country with such a cool sartorial tradition has settled on the lowest common denominator of Western dress. Even during the Cultural Revolution, although the clothing was uniform, it was unique and interesting.
I got up at 6:30 to make it to my meeting by 9, biking to work to collect my notes and drop off my computer, then catching a cab to Haidian, some 15km away, during rush hour. I got to read papers and jot notes during the ride through the morning traffic, so I understand the appeal of chauffeurs for people with money and stressful jobs. The taxi driver didn't know exactly where to go, but we managed to navigate there successfully, marking the occasion as the first time the Chinese GPS software on my pocket PC has been useful, and even then it wasn't while hooked up to the GPS. The campus of the institute, along with the rest of China, was gutted by construction, so I hiked in dress shoes over piles of dirt and under tin roofs until I found the right building.
The man I was meeting with, a Prof. Huang, had come downstairs to meet me when I called him to tell him I was nearby. We shook hands and headed up to his office. After the business card swap ritual we got down to business, but as an aside, how are you supposed to take the card you're accepting with 2 hands while simultaneously offer your own the same way? I assume you take turns, but who offers first? The actual trade ended up a weird tangle, but I don't think he cared. He spent a couple of years at Cornell, studying abroad as everyone here seems to do, so was probably lower key about some things than he could have been.
Prof. Huang is the head of biotech research at the institute, a scientist, not a suit. He was wearing a tie, however, so I just took my jacket off and the clothing thing worked out after all. I started by telling him about my research and my goals, and then we dove right into my list of questions. Unfortunately this whole exchange was in English. His wasn't great, but he knew the relevant vocabulary, so it went better than it would have if I'd tried to come up with Chinese for 'cultivars' or 'herbicide'. I ended up with some good notes, a powerpoint presentation with stats, and an introduction to a guy at the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy whose papers I've read, so all in all it was productive.
When I got back to work I took my taxi receipts to the administrative assistant to figure out how to get reimbursed. She asked me to write my name and the purpose of the taxi trip on the receipt. "Just write, 'meeting'," she said. So I did, she added up the total for the 2 receipts on her calculator, asked if I could break a hundred, and handed me cash on the spot. How cool is that? In a country filled with red tape, in an organization known for bureaucracy, I got my taxi receipts refunded from petty cash out of a drawer in the assistant's desk.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Bermuda Triangle moved south.
So I don't follow Venezuela news very closely, just the latest craziness from Chavez.
I wondered what the justification would be. Maybe something about conforming to time zones set up by capitalist, imperialist countries while Venezuela straddled two of them? Maybe something about a compromise, single time zone for the whole country to help bring it together?
When I was there the television appearances would last a few hours, which was bad enough as it interrupted any TV you might want to watch that evening, but SEVEN HOURS? That's a whole workday. He's extended his own regime indefinitely and consolidated all federal power into his hands in the name of democracy. How does the guy have time to govern a country that he single-handedly controls? I feel like the power grabbing can be explained by a hunger for influence that I can sympathize with, and seems more normal, less diseased, than the thought process that makes him believe his countrymen want to listen to him talk for 7 hours in a day. He realizes that his biggest supporters are the country's poorest citizens and probably have to, you know, work, right? But I guess with the new 6-hour maximum workday they'll have more time to spend listening to him and less to waste on diversifying and strengthening the national economy in preparation for the inevitable oil decline.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): President Hugo Chavez Sunday announced that Venezuela's official time will be put ahead by half an hour starting January 1, and its first-ever offshore oil rig will start pumping before the year is out.
I wondered what the justification would be. Maybe something about conforming to time zones set up by capitalist, imperialist countries while Venezuela straddled two of them? Maybe something about a compromise, single time zone for the whole country to help bring it together?
"Its about the metabolic effect, where the human brain is conditioned by sunlight," Chavez said in a rambling, seven hour discussion on his radio show "Alo, Presidente"
When I was there the television appearances would last a few hours, which was bad enough as it interrupted any TV you might want to watch that evening, but SEVEN HOURS? That's a whole workday. He's extended his own regime indefinitely and consolidated all federal power into his hands in the name of democracy. How does the guy have time to govern a country that he single-handedly controls? I feel like the power grabbing can be explained by a hunger for influence that I can sympathize with, and seems more normal, less diseased, than the thought process that makes him believe his countrymen want to listen to him talk for 7 hours in a day. He realizes that his biggest supporters are the country's poorest citizens and probably have to, you know, work, right? But I guess with the new 6-hour maximum workday they'll have more time to spend listening to him and less to waste on diversifying and strengthening the national economy in preparation for the inevitable oil decline.
What do duck, military history, and bars have in common?
08/16
Thursday I went to yoga, went home and showered, then biked downtown to meet up with Scot and Catlin for dinner. An girl from MIT came along, and a guy from Harvard met us halfway through our meal, which was my first Peking duck in Peking. It was good, but not as spectacular as I'd hoped. I'll have to try a couple more places. The rest of the meal was pretty standard, but since it was more expensive than the places I tend to eat there was less (maybe no?) MSG and less oil. So it was fun, but sort of sad, as it was my goodbye to Catlin before she went back home. So stay in touch, Catlin.
08/17
Friday night I stayed in. I thought about going to see BT perform at a club literally across the street from my apartment, but I decided against going alone and paying more than I could afford, and I don't listen to his stuff much these days, anyway. So I watched DVDs. I should have studied Chinese, but I'm weak-willed. My (rather pathetic) excuse has been that I don't have a desk lamp and that it's too hard on my eyes to do it in the poor overhead lighting at night. Well, I'm buying a desk lamp today.
08/18
Jack, my flatmate's boyfriend who's sharing the apartment with me right now while Xie Fan is in Hong Kong dealing with a death in his family, invited me to go to the Temple of Heaven. I was tempted to tag along and get some Chinese practice in, but I'm trying to save these big, dramatic touristy things for when Adri or Daria (or anyone else that buys a ticket, hint to you all) come. That, plus the fact that it's the PLA's 80th anniversary and I was told I could see China's new J-10 fighter at the Military History Museum (they spoke lies) led me to turn him down and go to the museum on my own.
On my way to the subway I finally found the military surplus store I was looking for. They have some stuff there, but not the hat I'm looking for or exactly the right jacket. I really want to find navy or gray Cultural-Revolution gear.
I also took some street pictures as I biked. One illustrates the superfluous crossing guards (8 at an intersection, albeit a very large intersection, 3 visible in the photo.) Another is a sea of umbrellas on a sunny day like I discussed when I talked about combat walking. Some are construction photos, particularly of the cool new CCTV towers that are being built at an angle, eventually to be connected on top with an 'L' shape.
In the subway I noticed that there was a battery of monitors over the platform. I thought that it was a weird place for security monitors, but on closer inspection I realized that they showed every subway train door and were meant to be visible to the train conductor so he could control door closing. I thought it was neat.
I posted pictures from the museum, but other than that there's not much to say. It was absolutely crazy packed with people. I didn't understand enough of what was written on most of the signs to learn much Chinese military history, but the exhibits went back to the very beginning of the nationalist movement to the 2007 PLA anniversary with a tank simulator, updated uniforms (which look much like the US's, to much scandal), and lots of video displays that can only be described as recruiting material. Another observation is that the gift shop is on the 4th floor, way out of the way. Not only do you not have to go through it on the way out, but to get there you have to climb an awful lot of stairs to get from the 3rd to 4th floor. It was jammed with people anyway, so I guess it's not a problem.
On my way home I got a message from Scot, so we met up at the subway stop for dinner and beer. After that we started walking north up to Sanlitun, near where I work and live, to meet an MIT guy and to go to some bars. The hike is a few miles, but we broke it up with a short side-trip to Wal-Mart. I've been meaning to make the pilgrimage since I'd arrived, and I finally got my chance. It's a lot like what you'd expect from a Wal-Mart, only in Chinese. The one glaring difference I noticed was that checkout lines were short and really densely packed. We bought a durian (big spiky fruit with the strongest smell you can imagine) and cheated by having the employees cut it up for us, then continued on our hike north. I had the durian in my backpack sealed in 3 plastic bags, but it was still pretty strong.
We met Ben, the MIT guy who was in China teaching this summer, in Sanlitun, but the bars weren't really very full at 10pm. We went to Butterfly, one of the few bars I've found in Beijing that I like, mostly for its prices, and had a couple of drinks. We asked if we could eat our durian, and were surprised when they said yes. So we cracked it out. The flavor wasn't as strong as you'd expect from the smell, and was actually pleasant, but the texture was strange and soft. The waiters came by almost immediately and asked us to put it away.
We checked out Alfa, which was a fairly quiet lounge with high prices, and Nanjie, which wasn't really hopping either, but had outdoor seating next to a field and looked like it might be fun some other time. Bar Blue, winner of best in Beijing last year, seemed classy, but also wasn't packed and was way more than I wanted to pay.
So we sat at outdoor tables at Pure Girl Bar and played a drinking game with chopsticks while we people-watched. Besides lots of couples making out there were a few drunk drivers coming down the alley. One guy crashed his motorcycle about 10 feet from us. I jumped up and ran over with a couple of other people while I watched others jump up and run away- that made me feel good. The driver was a black guy with bleached hair, a sleeveless shirt, lots of bling, sunglasses on after midnight, and of course no helmet. He was ok, but he took the entire side panel off of his Honda rice rocket and destroyed one of the bar's signs. After making sure he was unhurt and wasn't about to ride off I sat back down and watched him pick at his bike and try to gather some dignity. I'd say he's an ambassador's son. I guess that because Chinese companies are loathe to hire blacks and as a result there aren't many around. The racism means that most of the blacks here, based on my observations, are with embassies or are students. Students can't buy motorcycles in China and don't tend to look that wealthy, and I guess that African embassy workers might not be that rich, either.
I went home at 3 or so, enjoyed climbing the 14 flights to the apartment, and went to sleep.
Thursday I went to yoga, went home and showered, then biked downtown to meet up with Scot and Catlin for dinner. An girl from MIT came along, and a guy from Harvard met us halfway through our meal, which was my first Peking duck in Peking. It was good, but not as spectacular as I'd hoped. I'll have to try a couple more places. The rest of the meal was pretty standard, but since it was more expensive than the places I tend to eat there was less (maybe no?) MSG and less oil. So it was fun, but sort of sad, as it was my goodbye to Catlin before she went back home. So stay in touch, Catlin.
08/17
Friday night I stayed in. I thought about going to see BT perform at a club literally across the street from my apartment, but I decided against going alone and paying more than I could afford, and I don't listen to his stuff much these days, anyway. So I watched DVDs. I should have studied Chinese, but I'm weak-willed. My (rather pathetic) excuse has been that I don't have a desk lamp and that it's too hard on my eyes to do it in the poor overhead lighting at night. Well, I'm buying a desk lamp today.
08/18
Jack, my flatmate's boyfriend who's sharing the apartment with me right now while Xie Fan is in Hong Kong dealing with a death in his family, invited me to go to the Temple of Heaven. I was tempted to tag along and get some Chinese practice in, but I'm trying to save these big, dramatic touristy things for when Adri or Daria (or anyone else that buys a ticket, hint to you all) come. That, plus the fact that it's the PLA's 80th anniversary and I was told I could see China's new J-10 fighter at the Military History Museum (they spoke lies) led me to turn him down and go to the museum on my own.
On my way to the subway I finally found the military surplus store I was looking for. They have some stuff there, but not the hat I'm looking for or exactly the right jacket. I really want to find navy or gray Cultural-Revolution gear.
I also took some street pictures as I biked. One illustrates the superfluous crossing guards (8 at an intersection, albeit a very large intersection, 3 visible in the photo.) Another is a sea of umbrellas on a sunny day like I discussed when I talked about combat walking. Some are construction photos, particularly of the cool new CCTV towers that are being built at an angle, eventually to be connected on top with an 'L' shape.
In the subway I noticed that there was a battery of monitors over the platform. I thought that it was a weird place for security monitors, but on closer inspection I realized that they showed every subway train door and were meant to be visible to the train conductor so he could control door closing. I thought it was neat.
I posted pictures from the museum, but other than that there's not much to say. It was absolutely crazy packed with people. I didn't understand enough of what was written on most of the signs to learn much Chinese military history, but the exhibits went back to the very beginning of the nationalist movement to the 2007 PLA anniversary with a tank simulator, updated uniforms (which look much like the US's, to much scandal), and lots of video displays that can only be described as recruiting material. Another observation is that the gift shop is on the 4th floor, way out of the way. Not only do you not have to go through it on the way out, but to get there you have to climb an awful lot of stairs to get from the 3rd to 4th floor. It was jammed with people anyway, so I guess it's not a problem.
On my way home I got a message from Scot, so we met up at the subway stop for dinner and beer. After that we started walking north up to Sanlitun, near where I work and live, to meet an MIT guy and to go to some bars. The hike is a few miles, but we broke it up with a short side-trip to Wal-Mart. I've been meaning to make the pilgrimage since I'd arrived, and I finally got my chance. It's a lot like what you'd expect from a Wal-Mart, only in Chinese. The one glaring difference I noticed was that checkout lines were short and really densely packed. We bought a durian (big spiky fruit with the strongest smell you can imagine) and cheated by having the employees cut it up for us, then continued on our hike north. I had the durian in my backpack sealed in 3 plastic bags, but it was still pretty strong.
We met Ben, the MIT guy who was in China teaching this summer, in Sanlitun, but the bars weren't really very full at 10pm. We went to Butterfly, one of the few bars I've found in Beijing that I like, mostly for its prices, and had a couple of drinks. We asked if we could eat our durian, and were surprised when they said yes. So we cracked it out. The flavor wasn't as strong as you'd expect from the smell, and was actually pleasant, but the texture was strange and soft. The waiters came by almost immediately and asked us to put it away.
We checked out Alfa, which was a fairly quiet lounge with high prices, and Nanjie, which wasn't really hopping either, but had outdoor seating next to a field and looked like it might be fun some other time. Bar Blue, winner of best in Beijing last year, seemed classy, but also wasn't packed and was way more than I wanted to pay.
So we sat at outdoor tables at Pure Girl Bar and played a drinking game with chopsticks while we people-watched. Besides lots of couples making out there were a few drunk drivers coming down the alley. One guy crashed his motorcycle about 10 feet from us. I jumped up and ran over with a couple of other people while I watched others jump up and run away- that made me feel good. The driver was a black guy with bleached hair, a sleeveless shirt, lots of bling, sunglasses on after midnight, and of course no helmet. He was ok, but he took the entire side panel off of his Honda rice rocket and destroyed one of the bar's signs. After making sure he was unhurt and wasn't about to ride off I sat back down and watched him pick at his bike and try to gather some dignity. I'd say he's an ambassador's son. I guess that because Chinese companies are loathe to hire blacks and as a result there aren't many around. The racism means that most of the blacks here, based on my observations, are with embassies or are students. Students can't buy motorcycles in China and don't tend to look that wealthy, and I guess that African embassy workers might not be that rich, either.
I went home at 3 or so, enjoyed climbing the 14 flights to the apartment, and went to sleep.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Chinese tiger
I read an article on the Economist and went to the Chinese Military History museum (pics), both of which were sort of scary.
From the Economist article:
If someone hits an aircraft carrier with a cruise missile a LOT of people are going to die. I mean thousands of people. The last time someone killed that many Americans at once was 9/11, and I'm pretty sure it was World War II before that.
To protect its carriers he US relies largely on ships like the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer I visited last year. These have missiles and cannons like the white-bubble phalanx CIWS (close-in weapons system) to shoot down incoming cruise missiles. The CIWS on the Arleigh-Burkes fire 4500 rounds a minute and has all sorts of fancy, automated tracking that make it theoretically capable of destroying an incoming Sizzler, but according to wikipedia the phalanx system has never been credited with an interception. Also don't forget that China recently managed to surface one of its diesel attack subs within a few miles of the USS Kitty Hawk without being detected beforehand.
China's also probably becoming a nuclear threat:
Ok, so it's not so likely that the US and China will duke it out in a conventional war or a nuclear exchange. But how would the US react if China shot down some of our satellites or jammed our internet? What will we do when we catch China stealing military secrets off of our unsecure networks? A military strike isn't proportional, but I don't know that there's any other action that would work as a deterrent. I think it's really important that China be reliant on the rest of the world, because the more self-sufficient it gets the better able it would be to shut down its borders or weather trade sanctions and embargoes. Here's what the Economist says about asymmetric warfare:
I seriously hope US spies have gotten better. Given this reading I also feel slightly better about Japan changing its constitution to allow a formal military. While China might be the new giant it'll be nice to have some allies in the area.
From the Economist article:
"On paper at least, China's gains have been impressive. Even into the 1990s China had little more than a conscript army of ill-educated peasants using equipment based largely on obsolete Soviet designs of the 1950s and outdated cold-war (or even guerrilla-war) doctrine. Now the emphasis has shifted from ground troops to the navy and air force, which would spearhead any attack on Taiwan. China has bought 12 Russian Kilo-class diesel attack submarines. The newest of these are equipped with supersonic Sizzler cruise missiles that America's carriers, many analysts believe, would find hard to stop."
If someone hits an aircraft carrier with a cruise missile a LOT of people are going to die. I mean thousands of people. The last time someone killed that many Americans at once was 9/11, and I'm pretty sure it was World War II before that.
To protect its carriers he US relies largely on ships like the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer I visited last year. These have missiles and cannons like the white-bubble phalanx CIWS (close-in weapons system) to shoot down incoming cruise missiles. The CIWS on the Arleigh-Burkes fire 4500 rounds a minute and has all sorts of fancy, automated tracking that make it theoretically capable of destroying an incoming Sizzler, but according to wikipedia the phalanx system has never been credited with an interception. Also don't forget that China recently managed to surface one of its diesel attack subs within a few miles of the USS Kitty Hawk without being detected beforehand.
China's also probably becoming a nuclear threat:
During the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995-96, America could be reasonably sure that, even if war did break out (few seriously thought it would), it could cope with any threat from China's nuclear arsenal. China's handful of strategic missiles capable of hitting mainland America were based in silos, whose positions the Americans most probably knew. Launch preparations would take so long that the Americans would have plenty of time to knock them out. China has been working hard to remedy this. It is deploying six road-mobile , solid-fuelled (which means quick to launch) intercontinental DF-31s and is believed to be developing DF-31As with a longer range that could hit anywhere in America (see map below), as well as submarine-launched (so more concealable) JL-2s that could threaten much of America too.
Ok, so it's not so likely that the US and China will duke it out in a conventional war or a nuclear exchange. But how would the US react if China shot down some of our satellites or jammed our internet? What will we do when we catch China stealing military secrets off of our unsecure networks? A military strike isn't proportional, but I don't know that there's any other action that would work as a deterrent. I think it's really important that China be reliant on the rest of the world, because the more self-sufficient it gets the better able it would be to shut down its borders or weather trade sanctions and embargoes. Here's what the Economist says about asymmetric warfare:
The PLA knows its weaknesses. It has few illusions that China can compete head-on with the Americans militarily. The Soviet Union's determination to do so is widely seen in China as the cause of its collapse. Instead China emphasises weaponry and doctrine that could be used to defeat a far more powerful enemy using “asymmetric capabilities”.
The idea is to exploit America's perceived weak points such as its dependence on satellites and information networks. China's successful (if messy and diplomatically damaging) destruction in January of one of its own ageing satellites with a rocket was clearly intended as a demonstration of such power. Some analysts believe Chinese people with state backing have been trying to hack into Pentagon computers. Richard Lawless, a Pentagon official, recently said China had developed a “very sophisticated” ability to attack American computer and internet systems.
I seriously hope US spies have gotten better. Given this reading I also feel slightly better about Japan changing its constitution to allow a formal military. While China might be the new giant it'll be nice to have some allies in the area.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
I'm productive, I swear.
I don't talk about work much, partly because I feel like I haven't gotten much done. I haven't really, but yesterday I sent out a draft of my global biotech trends paper to my bosses and they seem to be happy with my progress so far. I figured I'd post a couple of the papers I've written here in case anyone is interested.
Global Trends in Biotechnology - This is sort of an outline of what my final report will look like. I have all sorts of data to add to the descriptions here, and I'm probably going to spend much of my remaining time here collecting more.
Memo to UNIDO China staff about how biotech fits into the UNIDO mandate - This might be a more interesting read. I try to explain science to economists and accountants, so maybe you'll learn a thing or two about ethanol or GM crops or something.
Today I formulated a list of questions to send to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The idea is that I'll be able to set up a meeting with an official and get a bunch of statistics and data from them, or at least backing to conduct a survey of Chinese biotech firms.
Global Trends in Biotechnology - This is sort of an outline of what my final report will look like. I have all sorts of data to add to the descriptions here, and I'm probably going to spend much of my remaining time here collecting more.
Memo to UNIDO China staff about how biotech fits into the UNIDO mandate - This might be a more interesting read. I try to explain science to economists and accountants, so maybe you'll learn a thing or two about ethanol or GM crops or something.
Today I formulated a list of questions to send to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The idea is that I'll be able to set up a meeting with an official and get a bunch of statistics and data from them, or at least backing to conduct a survey of Chinese biotech firms.
Beach weekend
Pictures from the weekend.
08/10
I left work at 1 to meet up with Xie Fan and a bunch of his friends to drive out to Nandaihe for a weekend at the beach. Nandaihe is really close to Shanhaiguan, where I went to the Great Wall, but I wanted to go on this trip with Chinese speakers as a way to get some practice in. I think that worked to some extent, but I'm a much more boring person when I'm a bit shy about the language and can't be funny and witty.
I took notes of key words while there (thanks, Nate), thinking I'd remember what I'd cared about so I could write when I get back. I do remember, but I mostly don't care anymore. So I'm just going to move through some of them in a list and get this recorded.
-The car I rode in was a BMW 523, which doesn't exist outside of China. It's apparently slightly longer than some other BMW 5 series. I know his car was manufactured in China, but I'm a little bit disappointed if that's what a $60,000 car is like in the US. It was comfortable, and it seemed fast enough, but it wasn't actually very luxurious or how I'd choose to spend that much money.
-People on the highway are psychotic. Passing happens on all sides, people weave in and out of traffic, cars shoot by in the breakdown lane. From the People's Daily:
Last week when we went hiking I saw a truck (lorry, not pickup) in reverse on the highway, backing up to get onto the exit it had missed. Craziness.
-I got a sample of little emperor treatment of children. When I got into the car the driver's daughter was asleep in the passenger seat, and when she stirred she decided to recline the seat as far as it would go and push it all the way back. This kid is short enough that her feet don't touch the ground, but she has her seat pressed into the knees of the guy next to me. When she woke up we listened to the same song on repeat for the last hour of the drive, while she sang along (shouted, really), out of key. Well, key implies there was a melody, but I think she mostly hit the same note.
When we arrived I had my most expensive dinner so far in China. It was ok, but definitely not as good as Pure Lotus and I was sort of bummed about the total being so high. It was really only $11, but I hadn't planned on my weekend getting so expensive so fast. I tried jellyfish, which was disgusting and expensive, so I don't think I'll do that again. The mouth feel is just too strange and it's very bland.
After dinner we walked along the beach. There's sort of a carnival setup, with ATVs for rent to drive on the sand, minibikes and golfcarts to drive along the streets, amusement park games, etc. There were a couple of hot air balloons that went up in the distance, but they were lashed to the ground, so I'm not sure how much fun that would have been. I didn't get a picture of the cool lighthouse out in the haze, but here's a link. There was a group of performers that carried people around in a circle in sedan chairs, shaking them up and down along with the music played by a band. Apparently it's a traditional form of conveyance in weddings, here done for fun. There were also a bunch of candles in the shape of a heart over by a wall on the beach. Amazingly they stayed lit in the wind, and the people in our group stood around the fire and drank beer for a bit while making fun of the heart's absent creator.
08/11
We had lunch, which was cheaper than the night before, but still expensive, then went to the beach. The beach was crowded and heavily commercialized. We only paid to rent umbrellas and chairs, but people around us paid for motorboat rides or to have their pictures taken and such. I would have just sat in the sand and the sun, but I didn't want to be the one person opting out of paying their share of the rental, so the weekend expenses went up again. I waded out into the ocean a bit, but it was too crowded and I'm not a big swimmer, so I went back and sat down until we rented a volleyball (the only reasonably priced beach expense I saw there) and played for a bit. My only other comment about the place is the huge number of speedos worn. At least the Chinese don't have much body hair, but most of the wearers were overweight.
Oh, and I keep seeing people with these circular marks on their backs, so I asked one of the girls I was with what they were. She said that they're marks from a traditional Chinese medicine treatment in which glass cups are placed on your back and then paper is burnt in them. So the marks are burns, apparently good for what ails you. The cups suck out the bad stuff. Or something.
After the beach we went to a fish market in town. I told the organizer of this evening's cookout back at the guesthouse that I didn't want any seafood, that I wasn't used to the local stuff and was afraid I'd get sick if I kept eating it. So I spent a few RMB and bought some steamed buns and said I'd eat some of the vegetables they bought. I actually just didn't want to pony up the cash for another big, expensive dinner, but I think everyone bought my excuse.
Dinner was huge and lasted for a few hours as the guesthouse staff kept bringing out more dishes made from the food we'd bought for them to prepare. I had a bunch of the vegetables. Some were good, one was just strange: it was cabbage in a suanla (sour-spicy) sauce that seemed to have been flavored with baijiu, Chinese rice liquor. I tried it, but the floral. fruity baijiu flavor is off-putting. To be polite (and because I was hungry) I also tried some of the seafood that was forced on me. Some of the fish was great, the oysters were good, the shrimp weren't.
08/12
We had a simple lunch avoiding seafood, which was nice. Again, not cheap, but I was going to make it through the weekend with a few RMB left in my wallet after all. We ate at a place along a much nicer beach than the first. There were fewer people, fewer hawkers, and bigger waves. There were also these wooden boardwalks that led out to platforms maybe 40 feet into the water, with a sort of deck and seating. Some men stood on them and fished, I sat on the railing and let the waves hitting the platform splash me. As a wave came into shore it'd shoot up through the slats between the planks one-by-one, which for some reason didn't get old.
After some beach time we headed home, entertained (as we'd been all weekend while driving) by that same damn song on repeat. When the girl fell asleep and the dad/driver changed the track I breathed a huge sigh of relief, but then I realized that the CD was 18 tracks with different arrangements of the same 2 songs. God.
It was a good trip, if expensive.
08/10
I left work at 1 to meet up with Xie Fan and a bunch of his friends to drive out to Nandaihe for a weekend at the beach. Nandaihe is really close to Shanhaiguan, where I went to the Great Wall, but I wanted to go on this trip with Chinese speakers as a way to get some practice in. I think that worked to some extent, but I'm a much more boring person when I'm a bit shy about the language and can't be funny and witty.
I took notes of key words while there (thanks, Nate), thinking I'd remember what I'd cared about so I could write when I get back. I do remember, but I mostly don't care anymore. So I'm just going to move through some of them in a list and get this recorded.
-The car I rode in was a BMW 523, which doesn't exist outside of China. It's apparently slightly longer than some other BMW 5 series. I know his car was manufactured in China, but I'm a little bit disappointed if that's what a $60,000 car is like in the US. It was comfortable, and it seemed fast enough, but it wasn't actually very luxurious or how I'd choose to spend that much money.
-People on the highway are psychotic. Passing happens on all sides, people weave in and out of traffic, cars shoot by in the breakdown lane. From the People's Daily:
"It was a little ironic as the overall number of vehicles in China is far smaller than that in Western countries, while the death rate from road accidents is much higher," said an academic surnamed Wang who was quoted in the China Youth Daily.
"According to our research, the death toll and death rate per 10,000 automobiles here is eight times more than that in America," he said.
The most important factor was still the negligence of drivers. Statistics showed that last year some 78.5 per cent of the deaths, about 86,000 people, were caused by improper driving.
Last week when we went hiking I saw a truck (lorry, not pickup) in reverse on the highway, backing up to get onto the exit it had missed. Craziness.
-I got a sample of little emperor treatment of children. When I got into the car the driver's daughter was asleep in the passenger seat, and when she stirred she decided to recline the seat as far as it would go and push it all the way back. This kid is short enough that her feet don't touch the ground, but she has her seat pressed into the knees of the guy next to me. When she woke up we listened to the same song on repeat for the last hour of the drive, while she sang along (shouted, really), out of key. Well, key implies there was a melody, but I think she mostly hit the same note.
When we arrived I had my most expensive dinner so far in China. It was ok, but definitely not as good as Pure Lotus and I was sort of bummed about the total being so high. It was really only $11, but I hadn't planned on my weekend getting so expensive so fast. I tried jellyfish, which was disgusting and expensive, so I don't think I'll do that again. The mouth feel is just too strange and it's very bland.
After dinner we walked along the beach. There's sort of a carnival setup, with ATVs for rent to drive on the sand, minibikes and golfcarts to drive along the streets, amusement park games, etc. There were a couple of hot air balloons that went up in the distance, but they were lashed to the ground, so I'm not sure how much fun that would have been. I didn't get a picture of the cool lighthouse out in the haze, but here's a link. There was a group of performers that carried people around in a circle in sedan chairs, shaking them up and down along with the music played by a band. Apparently it's a traditional form of conveyance in weddings, here done for fun. There were also a bunch of candles in the shape of a heart over by a wall on the beach. Amazingly they stayed lit in the wind, and the people in our group stood around the fire and drank beer for a bit while making fun of the heart's absent creator.
08/11
We had lunch, which was cheaper than the night before, but still expensive, then went to the beach. The beach was crowded and heavily commercialized. We only paid to rent umbrellas and chairs, but people around us paid for motorboat rides or to have their pictures taken and such. I would have just sat in the sand and the sun, but I didn't want to be the one person opting out of paying their share of the rental, so the weekend expenses went up again. I waded out into the ocean a bit, but it was too crowded and I'm not a big swimmer, so I went back and sat down until we rented a volleyball (the only reasonably priced beach expense I saw there) and played for a bit. My only other comment about the place is the huge number of speedos worn. At least the Chinese don't have much body hair, but most of the wearers were overweight.
Oh, and I keep seeing people with these circular marks on their backs, so I asked one of the girls I was with what they were. She said that they're marks from a traditional Chinese medicine treatment in which glass cups are placed on your back and then paper is burnt in them. So the marks are burns, apparently good for what ails you. The cups suck out the bad stuff. Or something.
After the beach we went to a fish market in town. I told the organizer of this evening's cookout back at the guesthouse that I didn't want any seafood, that I wasn't used to the local stuff and was afraid I'd get sick if I kept eating it. So I spent a few RMB and bought some steamed buns and said I'd eat some of the vegetables they bought. I actually just didn't want to pony up the cash for another big, expensive dinner, but I think everyone bought my excuse.
Dinner was huge and lasted for a few hours as the guesthouse staff kept bringing out more dishes made from the food we'd bought for them to prepare. I had a bunch of the vegetables. Some were good, one was just strange: it was cabbage in a suanla (sour-spicy) sauce that seemed to have been flavored with baijiu, Chinese rice liquor. I tried it, but the floral. fruity baijiu flavor is off-putting. To be polite (and because I was hungry) I also tried some of the seafood that was forced on me. Some of the fish was great, the oysters were good, the shrimp weren't.
08/12
We had a simple lunch avoiding seafood, which was nice. Again, not cheap, but I was going to make it through the weekend with a few RMB left in my wallet after all. We ate at a place along a much nicer beach than the first. There were fewer people, fewer hawkers, and bigger waves. There were also these wooden boardwalks that led out to platforms maybe 40 feet into the water, with a sort of deck and seating. Some men stood on them and fished, I sat on the railing and let the waves hitting the platform splash me. As a wave came into shore it'd shoot up through the slats between the planks one-by-one, which for some reason didn't get old.
After some beach time we headed home, entertained (as we'd been all weekend while driving) by that same damn song on repeat. When the girl fell asleep and the dad/driver changed the track I breathed a huge sigh of relief, but then I realized that the CD was 18 tracks with different arrangements of the same 2 songs. God.
It was a good trip, if expensive.
Friday, August 10, 2007
God said, 'I sent you a radio report, a helicopter, and a guy in a rowboat. What the hell are you doing here?'
It's been another relatively quiet week so far. Work, yoga, movies, and books, mostly.
08/08
I met Qin Yang, a girl I'd been talking with online, for a language exchange session. I'd never done the whole language exchange thing, but I thought it might be a good way to meet people and to practice some Chinese.
She lives way out on the Batong light rail line, and it took about an hour to get there from my office. That might be annoying to do on a regular basis, but this was my first time in the area. It's sort of the suburbs. There are still huge apartment complexes and it feels urban, there's just maybe more green and definitely more mosquitos.
We wandered around the campus of her college a bit. It's a gated area, maybe a quarter of the size of MIT, but complete with its own shopping and restaurants. Despite the fact that the college is on summer vacation right now there were a lot of students studying in the classrooms we walked by, so we ended up sitting in a pagoda/gazebo thing and chatting there. We read articles from magazines, mostly. I happened to have an Economist from the office and she brought a sort of Chinese Newsweek magazine. Her English is substantially better than my Chinese, and I struggled through my reading whereas it didn't take her very long to figure out the article she looked at. After the reading we chatted some and got dinner, switching between English and Chinese pretty freely.
I guess it was a good experience; I certainly had fun. I just don't know whether this is an efficient way to learn a language. I suppose it's better than what I've been doing.
Fan Xie (my apartment mate) reminded me of an invitation to go to the beach with him and some of his friends this weekend. I hesitated. I'm not big on beaches, and I always worry about spending money. Then I realized that I was being silly, and that it'd be stupid to pass up an opportunity to hang out and get some real Chinese practice in. It seems like work, though, and it was tempting to sit around and read or watch movies and not exert myself to study Chinese. I almost did it this weekend.
I spend a lot of my time here tired. I think it's partly heat, partly pollution, partly sitting at a computer all day, and partly having to think to do things like buy lunch. I just need to commit to suffering through some more learning and it'll get easier, I'm sure.
Fan Xie had told me earlier that a friend of his was staying at the apartment for a while, and as part of the discussion of who was coming on the beach trip he mentioned that his boyfriend would be there. "Oh, by the way, I'm gay." It was funny how off-hand it was. I guess he told me because it was that or hide the fact that they were sleeping together. Whatever. Doesn't bother me, of course, and I'd sort of guessed, but it was a funny exchange.
08/08
I met Qin Yang, a girl I'd been talking with online, for a language exchange session. I'd never done the whole language exchange thing, but I thought it might be a good way to meet people and to practice some Chinese.
She lives way out on the Batong light rail line, and it took about an hour to get there from my office. That might be annoying to do on a regular basis, but this was my first time in the area. It's sort of the suburbs. There are still huge apartment complexes and it feels urban, there's just maybe more green and definitely more mosquitos.
We wandered around the campus of her college a bit. It's a gated area, maybe a quarter of the size of MIT, but complete with its own shopping and restaurants. Despite the fact that the college is on summer vacation right now there were a lot of students studying in the classrooms we walked by, so we ended up sitting in a pagoda/gazebo thing and chatting there. We read articles from magazines, mostly. I happened to have an Economist from the office and she brought a sort of Chinese Newsweek magazine. Her English is substantially better than my Chinese, and I struggled through my reading whereas it didn't take her very long to figure out the article she looked at. After the reading we chatted some and got dinner, switching between English and Chinese pretty freely.
I guess it was a good experience; I certainly had fun. I just don't know whether this is an efficient way to learn a language. I suppose it's better than what I've been doing.
Fan Xie (my apartment mate) reminded me of an invitation to go to the beach with him and some of his friends this weekend. I hesitated. I'm not big on beaches, and I always worry about spending money. Then I realized that I was being silly, and that it'd be stupid to pass up an opportunity to hang out and get some real Chinese practice in. It seems like work, though, and it was tempting to sit around and read or watch movies and not exert myself to study Chinese. I almost did it this weekend.
I spend a lot of my time here tired. I think it's partly heat, partly pollution, partly sitting at a computer all day, and partly having to think to do things like buy lunch. I just need to commit to suffering through some more learning and it'll get easier, I'm sure.
Fan Xie had told me earlier that a friend of his was staying at the apartment for a while, and as part of the discussion of who was coming on the beach trip he mentioned that his boyfriend would be there. "Oh, by the way, I'm gay." It was funny how off-hand it was. I guess he told me because it was that or hide the fact that they were sleeping together. Whatever. Doesn't bother me, of course, and I'd sort of guessed, but it was a funny exchange.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
A Remembrance of Things Past, and almost as long.
Sorry for these epic, week-spanning posts. I'll try to write more regularly and in smaller chunks.
7/31?
Beijing weather
I think I wrote this on Tuesday, but I didn't get around to posting it. Of course it's raining again as I write now.
"I'm in the middle of the most dramatic storm I've ever seen, and that includes tennis ball-sized hail hitting Oak Ridge. Lighting flashes every couple of seconds and thunder rolls and crashes ceaselessly. The wind is whistling in the windows, and I didn't think to close the one opened a crack to dry laundry until the clothes on the line had been completely soaked through. The rain hitting the ground 14 floors down sounds like a river.
Strange city, Beijing. Tomorrow will be hazy and hot, I bet."
We had several nights of miserable weather. I was caught out in it one evening, coming back from a window shopping/exploring trip. I was completely soaked through, biking through puddles several inches deep. The water that's on the ground is filthy, of course, but the stuff falling from the sky leaves crusty deposits when it dries, so it can't be much better.
8/1?
Shopping in Xidan
I think I went window shopping on Wednesday. I went to an area called Xidan, on the southwest corner of downtown whereas I live somewhat northeast of the downtown area. The trek over probably took an hour. I had to get to the subway, take it and a transfer for 30 minutes, and then make my way to the surface.
The first mall I went to was maybe 7 levels tall, almost all underground. It seemed to sell mostly clothing, but there were some stalls selling mixed junk and an electronics store that was filled with empty shelves. I bought some blank DVDs by the disk to backup my hard drive and keep some of the many movies I've been downloading, but that was it. I asked the price on a few items, like a thin black tie that had a small gold crown at the tip, but the $8 quote scared me off. I was starving, so I found the food court. I ate at a pretty standard 'homestyle' restaurant, picking through my stir-fried chicken and cucumber as I looked down at the ice skating rink on the level below. There were little kids skating around in helmets under the eyes of staffers, slightly older kids being coached individually on hockey skills and figure skating, and a couple of young couples just skating in circles and holding hands. I remember having more observations at the time, but the only thing that sticks with me is the idea that the figure skating girls and the hockey boy were all awfully young to be training in a sport so specifically. After eating I wandered the mall a bit more, running across a Nightmare Before Christmas store. I checked it out, and it was actually an entire store selling Nightmare movie paraphernalia. Strange that a market for that exists, but sorta cool.
I went to a department store next, which was just as horrible as the one I visited when I bought my harmonica (which is, by the way, sitting inactive because of a faulty 7 hole draw. I guess that's what I get for spending $5 on a harmonica). Everything was shiny, new, and probably more expensive than it'd be in the US. I exited quickly.
The next place I stopped was probably the mall I'd heard about. It was jam-packed with people and vendors on the ground floor, and seemed more like a market than an American-style mall. I found a piercing stall and tried to find a shorter barbell for my eyebrow, but the owner didn't have any the right size. He was, however, piercing a Chinese guy's ear without wearing gloves or probably taking much else in the way of precautions. Oh, I had washed my cellphone in my pants earlier in the week, disabling it, so I had been using my Fan Xie's old phone with my SIM card. The battery was about to die and he'd lost the charger, so that was one of my missions for the day. I found the charger I needed and got the store down to a near-reasonable price, then caved and bought the damn thing for $4 when I could have gotten it for $3. I have limited patience for that kind of haggling, but I guess I should just accept that I'm poor, too, and it's a fact of life here and be ruthless. I climbed the stairs to some of the upper levels where they focused on clothes. I found a tie identical to the one I'd seen before for half the price. As I walked away the lady called after me that she'd give it to me for $3, which was tempting. The only things I was really looking for were military surplus clothing and come counterfeit Converses, but the mall started closing before I found what I wanted. I'll go back later, I'm sure, but not before checking out some markets closer to home.
It was drizzling and dark when I left the mall, and by the time I got out of the subway it was storming. Fortunately I'd anticipated this and brought my waterproof camping bag in addition to my backpack, so all of the electronics and my wallet went into it and then in the backpack before I biked through the rain and puddles, fortunately helmeted and lighted. I had to stop at the office to pick up my laptop before going home. I wrapped grocery bags around the laptop case and stuck it in my backpack, then squished my way back out into the black and wet.
8/3
On Friday went to yoga in the middle of the day so that I'd be able to go out soon after work. That meant arriving at the office early enough that no one commented when I left for the class. After work I went home and changed, killed a bit of time, then headed out to Mao Livehouse for the Ramones tribute. I misjudged the time it'd take to ride a bus at 6PM on a Friday (which was an excruciating experience I'll try not to repeat), and so didn't really have a chance to get dinner beforehand as I'd planned. So I bought some Oreos and ate them instead, hoping the sugar would get me through.
Ramones tribute
There was a small crowd outside of the venue. I paid my 40RMB cover, a bit of a gamble, and wandered in. The interior is simple. There's a bar and some tables, a foosball setup, plus a staircase that leads to an upstairs lounge area. When I say lounge I mean there were a couple of couches; this place was not fancy. I went into the room with the stage, which was beginning to fill up, and hung around to people watch. Most of the crowd were fairly normal looking Chinese my age. There were a few Chinese wearing the punk uniform, and there were a handful of Westerners punked out to varying degrees. My only gesture to the evening was to wear my red boots instead of sneakers, a decision that I'd be grateful for later.
The first band was ok, but the crowd wasn't really into it. The second band was ok, too, but the place had been filling up and was starting to get excited. Both of these bands seemed to be suffering from superfluous members, like a keyboardist or an extra guitarist.
The third band, The K, was great, and by then the crowd was wired. So when the band started into a fast ska riff the already hopping (literally) crowd up front started moshing. I was right in the middle of it, and as I've mentioned before I'm bigger than most around me. The only people there who were larger were other Westerners, so as we bounced off of each other and shoving people around I gave better than I got. The previous band, incidentally, had thrown bananas out into the crowd, some of which had remained on the floor, adding an interesting variation to the mosh pit. One thing that's always amazed me in my limited experience with wailing on people at shows is how strong a camaraderie it produces. Afterwards you chat with the neighbors who you'd been standing silently next to before you started shoving them into each other. If someone falls there are instantly hands reaching to pull them up and people circle around them for protection. Someone lost a cellphone and one of the moshers spent the next 10 minutes going person to person until he found its owner. There's a code and there's etiquette and what some people might see as violence seems to create a weird community.
(Incidentally, while looking for more info on The K, I found a post online on a guy's blog that said: "One sign that the band was a hit was that a lot of crazy moshing was going on in the middle of the hall near the stage, as drunken young men, both Chinese and foreign, got caught up in a whirlpool of energy that had collected there." This amuses me because I think there might have been one drunk guy in the whole group. Ah well, I guess. The same guy expressed his doubts that the Ramones were punk, so what does he know. Also? The person who was probably moshing most enthusiastically was a five-foot-nothing asian girl. Drunken young men my ass.)
The fourth band wasn't really punk and I didn't care for them at all, so I wandered out to the bar section and had a drink, giving my exploding eardrums a quick break. I went back in time to see the 5th band, SKO, start. They were obviously popular; the crowd was out of control, but I didn't like them as much. I actually bailed about halfway through their set, before the headliners started, after maybe 3 hours at the show. I'd soaked my shirt through with sweat, my lungs were exploding, and my ears hurt. It took me a while to realize that the lung thing was probably caused by dancing in a room filled with smoke. So I started walking, trying to find a bus stop that was still in service that had a night line running closer to my place. I finally gave up and caught a cab so that I'd make it back before the elevators shut down for the evening, which I did, but only after running from the cab and even then only barely.
8/4
Slow day. Woke up late, went to my neighborhood Korean place to feed my spicy beef soup addiction. Went home, watched movies, and read Ilium. I was planning on going to sleep around 10 to wake up early on Sunday, but because of my book that ended up being closer to 2.
8/5
I woke up after a few hours, at 5:30, to meet people to go hiking. We were meeting at work at 7, but I wanted to get breakfast and pack some lunch before then, so I budgeted extra time. As I'd been told, but hadn't really seen before, in the mornings a lot of restaurants convert to breakfast places.
Fighting for change
I found one nearby and ordered a basket of dumplings and a bowl of rice porridge, plus one the fried dough sticks I saw people around me eating but hadn't tried. I did this without a menu, because they didn't have one, and all in Chinese. That's relevant because after I ordered another basket of dumplings to pack for my lunch and asked for the bill the waitress silently held up fingers. Because I'm foolish I haven't yet learned the Chinese method of finger counting and using hands to indicate numbers, which is radically different from our own and involves fists and making crosses and such. So, again in Chinese, I ask her to say the number. I think she says 7RMB, so I give her a 10. Then she says that it isn't enough, and says 12. I assume I'd misheard before because she'd muttered, and I give her 22 to make the change easier. 12 is a bit steep, but whatever. She walks off, and I sit there waiting. I see her doing other things, smiling oddly, not bringing me my change, so I call her and say that I've given her 22, not 12. She still doesn't bring any change, so I grab my bag and walk to the front of the restaurant where she's hanging out with other employees. I say that I'd given her 22RMB and I ask for the difference. She reaches into a box and gives me 2RMB, smiling at me. I'm standing with the employees, and I loudly list everything I'd just eaten, saying that it definitely wasn't 20RMB in total. The little old lady making dumplings, probably the manager, repeats my order, saying that adds up to 9.5 and tells the waitress to give me my change. I think to myself that 9.5 is almost exactly what I'd expected to pay, and hold out my hand to the waitress. She still doesn't do anything, smiling this whole time, and after a moment one of the other waitresses reaches into the box and gives me the rest of my money.
Ok. If I were a fresh off the boat newbie speaking loudly with a phrasebook I can see trying to rip me off for a few yuan. But I ordered in Chinese without a menu, so I'm not clueless and I'm not new, and when she tried to scam me I confronted her. Wouldn't the correct response be, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you gave me 12, my mistake?" Even then she would have been up 2.5RMB over the actual cost of my meal and I would have walked away happy at getting my change. But instead she just gave me her stupid grin as I made a scene and eventually got shot down by her boss and lost her 'tip'. I'm not quite sure how losing face works, but I'm hoping getting confronted and defeated by a laowai in front of your coworkers counts. Idiot.
I got to work and Alessandro, a UNIDO employee who'd just come back from a month's leave in Italy, was late. Hedda came, and she brought along another Norwegian from a different UN group. We went up to the office and had coffee as we waited, which was more funny than anything else, as Alessandro had asked me on Saturday whether the early meeting time would mean I was uninterested. Alessandro showed up 30 minutes later and we went down to meet him. He was driving his Land Cruiser, and his black lab Bookie was in the back, so we loaded up and headed out.
We drove maybe 40 miles out of Beijing to a place called Miyun. The Great Wall runs nearby, but we were just there to hike along the river. It was nice to get out of the city and listen to running water and insects instead of cars. The rocks looked raw and young, and vegetation grew green over everything. The haze here smelled like plants instead of city, and the effect of mist on mountains is much more interesting than it is on buildings.
Pictures of the walk.. I also updated the construction section on the pics page. I'll try to figure out a way to date my most recent changes so the new pictures can be found at a glance.
7/31?
Beijing weather
I think I wrote this on Tuesday, but I didn't get around to posting it. Of course it's raining again as I write now.
"I'm in the middle of the most dramatic storm I've ever seen, and that includes tennis ball-sized hail hitting Oak Ridge. Lighting flashes every couple of seconds and thunder rolls and crashes ceaselessly. The wind is whistling in the windows, and I didn't think to close the one opened a crack to dry laundry until the clothes on the line had been completely soaked through. The rain hitting the ground 14 floors down sounds like a river.
Strange city, Beijing. Tomorrow will be hazy and hot, I bet."
We had several nights of miserable weather. I was caught out in it one evening, coming back from a window shopping/exploring trip. I was completely soaked through, biking through puddles several inches deep. The water that's on the ground is filthy, of course, but the stuff falling from the sky leaves crusty deposits when it dries, so it can't be much better.
8/1?
Shopping in Xidan
I think I went window shopping on Wednesday. I went to an area called Xidan, on the southwest corner of downtown whereas I live somewhat northeast of the downtown area. The trek over probably took an hour. I had to get to the subway, take it and a transfer for 30 minutes, and then make my way to the surface.
The first mall I went to was maybe 7 levels tall, almost all underground. It seemed to sell mostly clothing, but there were some stalls selling mixed junk and an electronics store that was filled with empty shelves. I bought some blank DVDs by the disk to backup my hard drive and keep some of the many movies I've been downloading, but that was it. I asked the price on a few items, like a thin black tie that had a small gold crown at the tip, but the $8 quote scared me off. I was starving, so I found the food court. I ate at a pretty standard 'homestyle' restaurant, picking through my stir-fried chicken and cucumber as I looked down at the ice skating rink on the level below. There were little kids skating around in helmets under the eyes of staffers, slightly older kids being coached individually on hockey skills and figure skating, and a couple of young couples just skating in circles and holding hands. I remember having more observations at the time, but the only thing that sticks with me is the idea that the figure skating girls and the hockey boy were all awfully young to be training in a sport so specifically. After eating I wandered the mall a bit more, running across a Nightmare Before Christmas store. I checked it out, and it was actually an entire store selling Nightmare movie paraphernalia. Strange that a market for that exists, but sorta cool.
I went to a department store next, which was just as horrible as the one I visited when I bought my harmonica (which is, by the way, sitting inactive because of a faulty 7 hole draw. I guess that's what I get for spending $5 on a harmonica). Everything was shiny, new, and probably more expensive than it'd be in the US. I exited quickly.
The next place I stopped was probably the mall I'd heard about. It was jam-packed with people and vendors on the ground floor, and seemed more like a market than an American-style mall. I found a piercing stall and tried to find a shorter barbell for my eyebrow, but the owner didn't have any the right size. He was, however, piercing a Chinese guy's ear without wearing gloves or probably taking much else in the way of precautions. Oh, I had washed my cellphone in my pants earlier in the week, disabling it, so I had been using my Fan Xie's old phone with my SIM card. The battery was about to die and he'd lost the charger, so that was one of my missions for the day. I found the charger I needed and got the store down to a near-reasonable price, then caved and bought the damn thing for $4 when I could have gotten it for $3. I have limited patience for that kind of haggling, but I guess I should just accept that I'm poor, too, and it's a fact of life here and be ruthless. I climbed the stairs to some of the upper levels where they focused on clothes. I found a tie identical to the one I'd seen before for half the price. As I walked away the lady called after me that she'd give it to me for $3, which was tempting. The only things I was really looking for were military surplus clothing and come counterfeit Converses, but the mall started closing before I found what I wanted. I'll go back later, I'm sure, but not before checking out some markets closer to home.
It was drizzling and dark when I left the mall, and by the time I got out of the subway it was storming. Fortunately I'd anticipated this and brought my waterproof camping bag in addition to my backpack, so all of the electronics and my wallet went into it and then in the backpack before I biked through the rain and puddles, fortunately helmeted and lighted. I had to stop at the office to pick up my laptop before going home. I wrapped grocery bags around the laptop case and stuck it in my backpack, then squished my way back out into the black and wet.
8/3
On Friday went to yoga in the middle of the day so that I'd be able to go out soon after work. That meant arriving at the office early enough that no one commented when I left for the class. After work I went home and changed, killed a bit of time, then headed out to Mao Livehouse for the Ramones tribute. I misjudged the time it'd take to ride a bus at 6PM on a Friday (which was an excruciating experience I'll try not to repeat), and so didn't really have a chance to get dinner beforehand as I'd planned. So I bought some Oreos and ate them instead, hoping the sugar would get me through.
Ramones tribute
There was a small crowd outside of the venue. I paid my 40RMB cover, a bit of a gamble, and wandered in. The interior is simple. There's a bar and some tables, a foosball setup, plus a staircase that leads to an upstairs lounge area. When I say lounge I mean there were a couple of couches; this place was not fancy. I went into the room with the stage, which was beginning to fill up, and hung around to people watch. Most of the crowd were fairly normal looking Chinese my age. There were a few Chinese wearing the punk uniform, and there were a handful of Westerners punked out to varying degrees. My only gesture to the evening was to wear my red boots instead of sneakers, a decision that I'd be grateful for later.
The first band was ok, but the crowd wasn't really into it. The second band was ok, too, but the place had been filling up and was starting to get excited. Both of these bands seemed to be suffering from superfluous members, like a keyboardist or an extra guitarist.
The third band, The K, was great, and by then the crowd was wired. So when the band started into a fast ska riff the already hopping (literally) crowd up front started moshing. I was right in the middle of it, and as I've mentioned before I'm bigger than most around me. The only people there who were larger were other Westerners, so as we bounced off of each other and shoving people around I gave better than I got. The previous band, incidentally, had thrown bananas out into the crowd, some of which had remained on the floor, adding an interesting variation to the mosh pit. One thing that's always amazed me in my limited experience with wailing on people at shows is how strong a camaraderie it produces. Afterwards you chat with the neighbors who you'd been standing silently next to before you started shoving them into each other. If someone falls there are instantly hands reaching to pull them up and people circle around them for protection. Someone lost a cellphone and one of the moshers spent the next 10 minutes going person to person until he found its owner. There's a code and there's etiquette and what some people might see as violence seems to create a weird community.
(Incidentally, while looking for more info on The K, I found a post online on a guy's blog that said: "One sign that the band was a hit was that a lot of crazy moshing was going on in the middle of the hall near the stage, as drunken young men, both Chinese and foreign, got caught up in a whirlpool of energy that had collected there." This amuses me because I think there might have been one drunk guy in the whole group. Ah well, I guess. The same guy expressed his doubts that the Ramones were punk, so what does he know. Also? The person who was probably moshing most enthusiastically was a five-foot-nothing asian girl. Drunken young men my ass.)
The fourth band wasn't really punk and I didn't care for them at all, so I wandered out to the bar section and had a drink, giving my exploding eardrums a quick break. I went back in time to see the 5th band, SKO, start. They were obviously popular; the crowd was out of control, but I didn't like them as much. I actually bailed about halfway through their set, before the headliners started, after maybe 3 hours at the show. I'd soaked my shirt through with sweat, my lungs were exploding, and my ears hurt. It took me a while to realize that the lung thing was probably caused by dancing in a room filled with smoke. So I started walking, trying to find a bus stop that was still in service that had a night line running closer to my place. I finally gave up and caught a cab so that I'd make it back before the elevators shut down for the evening, which I did, but only after running from the cab and even then only barely.
8/4
Slow day. Woke up late, went to my neighborhood Korean place to feed my spicy beef soup addiction. Went home, watched movies, and read Ilium. I was planning on going to sleep around 10 to wake up early on Sunday, but because of my book that ended up being closer to 2.
8/5
I woke up after a few hours, at 5:30, to meet people to go hiking. We were meeting at work at 7, but I wanted to get breakfast and pack some lunch before then, so I budgeted extra time. As I'd been told, but hadn't really seen before, in the mornings a lot of restaurants convert to breakfast places.
Fighting for change
I found one nearby and ordered a basket of dumplings and a bowl of rice porridge, plus one the fried dough sticks I saw people around me eating but hadn't tried. I did this without a menu, because they didn't have one, and all in Chinese. That's relevant because after I ordered another basket of dumplings to pack for my lunch and asked for the bill the waitress silently held up fingers. Because I'm foolish I haven't yet learned the Chinese method of finger counting and using hands to indicate numbers, which is radically different from our own and involves fists and making crosses and such. So, again in Chinese, I ask her to say the number. I think she says 7RMB, so I give her a 10. Then she says that it isn't enough, and says 12. I assume I'd misheard before because she'd muttered, and I give her 22 to make the change easier. 12 is a bit steep, but whatever. She walks off, and I sit there waiting. I see her doing other things, smiling oddly, not bringing me my change, so I call her and say that I've given her 22, not 12. She still doesn't bring any change, so I grab my bag and walk to the front of the restaurant where she's hanging out with other employees. I say that I'd given her 22RMB and I ask for the difference. She reaches into a box and gives me 2RMB, smiling at me. I'm standing with the employees, and I loudly list everything I'd just eaten, saying that it definitely wasn't 20RMB in total. The little old lady making dumplings, probably the manager, repeats my order, saying that adds up to 9.5 and tells the waitress to give me my change. I think to myself that 9.5 is almost exactly what I'd expected to pay, and hold out my hand to the waitress. She still doesn't do anything, smiling this whole time, and after a moment one of the other waitresses reaches into the box and gives me the rest of my money.
Ok. If I were a fresh off the boat newbie speaking loudly with a phrasebook I can see trying to rip me off for a few yuan. But I ordered in Chinese without a menu, so I'm not clueless and I'm not new, and when she tried to scam me I confronted her. Wouldn't the correct response be, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you gave me 12, my mistake?" Even then she would have been up 2.5RMB over the actual cost of my meal and I would have walked away happy at getting my change. But instead she just gave me her stupid grin as I made a scene and eventually got shot down by her boss and lost her 'tip'. I'm not quite sure how losing face works, but I'm hoping getting confronted and defeated by a laowai in front of your coworkers counts. Idiot.
I got to work and Alessandro, a UNIDO employee who'd just come back from a month's leave in Italy, was late. Hedda came, and she brought along another Norwegian from a different UN group. We went up to the office and had coffee as we waited, which was more funny than anything else, as Alessandro had asked me on Saturday whether the early meeting time would mean I was uninterested. Alessandro showed up 30 minutes later and we went down to meet him. He was driving his Land Cruiser, and his black lab Bookie was in the back, so we loaded up and headed out.
We drove maybe 40 miles out of Beijing to a place called Miyun. The Great Wall runs nearby, but we were just there to hike along the river. It was nice to get out of the city and listen to running water and insects instead of cars. The rocks looked raw and young, and vegetation grew green over everything. The haze here smelled like plants instead of city, and the effect of mist on mountains is much more interesting than it is on buildings.
Pictures of the walk.. I also updated the construction section on the pics page. I'll try to figure out a way to date my most recent changes so the new pictures can be found at a glance.
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