China part 2

 

Too big to post all together…

 

 

Chinese food

 

1. Has more variety than I ever dreamed. Its ranking on my previous post about world cuisines is rising even as Thai fell a little after visiting Thailand. Thai food has its red, green, yellow, penang, and massaman curries which are all to die for. But the variety doesn’t even come close to Chinese food.

2. Is more mild and balanced than I expected. Peanuts and mushrooms are used in everything.

3. Doesn’t do desserts nearly as much as the US (fortune cookies were invented in the US I learned)

4. Is very fatty in the meat sense of the term. Not that I would know, seeing as if I’m going to avoid meat anywhere it would be China (there’s dog and donkey here for starters) but Jacob loves the pork and duck here. The goose, not so much.

5. The coolest thing I’ve tried so far is abalone soup. It’s a delicacy.

6. I want to learn how to make good bean curd. Even Jacob likes it as much as meat.

7. No food poisoning yet! I got a bad bug in Thailand but nothing here so far.

8. I can now use chopsticks when I eat. Admittedly, I hold it in a way no Chinese person ever did, but I can get food from the plate to my mouth. I’ll be happy to demonstrate it for you the next time we eat Chinese food together.

          

Our apartment

1. We ended up grabbing even though it’s quite expensive ($1400 not including utilities) because we didn’t want to be on an endless chase in our relatively short term here and twice we said we’d take an apartment we’d looked at and then got told “Oh, someone JUST signed the contract for it.” A Chinese marketing upsell ploy? We didn’t know, but anyways our apartment is quite beautiful and spacious. Turns out Beijing is ranked 16th most expensive city in 2010.

2. Was not cleaned and we had to hire a housekeeper as soon as we arrived because we didn’t have any cleaning supplies. Apparently that’s the norm here.

3. Has a super view of the city and is in between three shopping malls

 

Beijing ward

1. There are two. 800 members in Beijing I read online. We were kindly invited to a 4th of July celebration. 

2. We can’t bring up the Church and no one with a Chinese passport can attend.

3. This is really an atheist society. Religion has no role in the day-to-day activities of most people. Instead, work is the main activity. I said I though Americans were the hardest workers in the world, and Jefferson said, “Wait til you get to China.” People work 7 day weeks, 8 am to 11 pm here. It’s the norm. People want money! I have visited remnants of their religious heritage: a Buddhist lamastery and a Confucian temple.

  

               

 

Jacob

1. Has been asked to take part in an article in "Men’s Health” October issue. Its readership is 12 million.

2. Was contacted by Sports Illustrated for an article on vertical jump training.

3. Has been training people here at local gyms.

4. Did I mention how proud I am of him?

 

Kalli

1. Is a fitness guru’s wife, so I am training accordingly. Gym classes daily, as well as a new record of a one mile run at 9:13. I’ll admit that was with cheating and holding the bar. Hey, it’s not a world record but it’s a personal one.

2. made an important discovery. Apparently there’s a difference between eyeliner on your lower eyelashes and eyeliner on your skin between your lower eyelashes and your eyeball, called the waterline. It looks much better to wear it on the waterline. I am now a happy wearer of eyeliner (I share this in case there’s anyone else clueless about it like me).

3. believes it is worth it to come to China just for the shopping and the food. I have an admission: I don’t like shopping. Is that a betrayal to my sex? Am I unfeminine for that? I hate knowing what I want and being unable to find it, the process of trying on clothes, and worst of all in foreign countries, having to bargain. But here in China, shopping is sightseeing. I have never seen so many foreign, exotic products in my life. And the saleskeepers aren’t aggressive. Nice.

           

PS Hate to break it to everyone, but I’m seeing with my own eyes that at this rate China’s economy will easily surpass ours in a matter of years. They’ve got a billion more people and they work 70 hour weeks. It’s growing right before our eyes.

The Great Wall of China

      

 

 

We actually haven’t visited the Great Wall yet in the typical sense of the term. We have, however, experienced two others. We have successfully scaled the first, but are stumped as to the other.

1. We have a proxy so we can access all websites which the government has chosen to block. This is endearingly nicknamed “The Great Firewall of China.”

2. No one here speaks English, French, Spanish, or German. They all speak…Chinese!! We do not speak Chinese. They do not know words like “metro” “McDonald’s” “Coke” or “water.” Next time we’re coming to China, we will try to know at least the basics.

 

We have made a couple of friends however. Fortunately the guy who set us up with our apartment speaks English fairly well since “business English” was his major in college. We went out with him and his workmates to sing in a kareoke bar. It’s a huge building with separate rooms to rent with a common food room where you can get unlimited goodies. People just hang out and take turns singing in the background. Top recreational activity in China. Jacob sang “Beat It” and I sang “My Heart Will Go On” “You Drive Me Crazy” and “Desperado.” It was fun! I totally judged when I said it was cheesy in the Thailand post. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Chinese people

1. Are sweetly naive seeming and just so cuddly and cute. For example I thanked a girl at the gym for watching my bag and she blew me a kiss. The people here are much nicer than I expected. I have a favorite independent traveler website, and it’s been right on many countries thus far, but it said the Chinese wouldn’t be friendly and I’ve seen nothing of the sort here.

2. Are, to be frank, not very attractive but they are extremely fashionable! I thought they might dress more conservatively here, but no. And I get told how beautiful I am (in a nonoffensive, unflirtatious way) by men and women alike constantly here. I’ve been compared to Snow White and Cindy Crawford. I’m not complaining!

3. Are very flat bodied. Especially their bums! I would know, the girl’s locker room at the gym doesn’t have shower stall doors. (I wait til I get home consequently. Too shy.) Their noses and foreheads are flat. Everything about them seems two dimensional.

4. Are extremely friendly and love to laugh.

5. Are undeterred by our lack of Chinese and think by writing and showing us Chinese characters we’ll finally get it.

6. Have short, squat little dogs. Totally see where the Chinese pug came from.

Chinese language

1. Is awesome to listen to

2. Is full of the “sh” sound. Jacob and I love to pretend to speak it to ourselves.

3. Sounds aggressive and angry to us sometimes, but the Chinese don’t get aggressive and angry, not even the taxi drivers!

4. Oh well, at least there’s English translation on menus! What sounds good to you?

 

 

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I ended up going with the impenetrable fortress, and yam with blueberry sauce.

 

Beijing

1. Is way more modern than I expected. Especially with the Olympics, the city I think has changed a lot in the last few years.

2. Is so extremely polluted (six times more than New York or Paris) but I only got allergies a couple of days, then adjusted to my new permanently gray foggy atmosphere. I think ths is why people wear what you see in the picture below. Jacob calls them storm troopers.

3. Is easy to get around and doesn’t feel nearly as crowded as India, though it’s just as or more populated in this big city.