500 days to go

This week we hit '500 days to go'. The occasion was marked with sporting and cultural events across the city as well as the unveiling of the official Beijing 2008 Olympic medals (..the reverse face of each medal contains a coloured jade ring linking western and eastern cultures..).

The marketing momentum is gathering pace and Beijingers will be in a total Olympic frenzy by the time the games begin. Though you can't help being caught up in the tide of enthusiasm surrounding it all. The official Beijing 2008 web site is open and accepting advance ticket registrations for China residents (that's us!) with tickets on sale as of next month. They are promising to make this an 'affordable' games for everyone, though I'm sure the key events will be very expensive and tickets difficult to get.

At the moment, every effort is being made to ensure the city and its people shows their best face to the world.

A massive cleanup of 'Chinglish' signs is taking place across the city. Over 4,000 signs containing dubious English are being systematically replaced. There is even a special website where you can report these offending signs and city workers will come along and fix them. [There is a lovely collection of these sort of signs at Engrish.com - though, to be fair, most of them are from Japan - the spiritual home of Chinglish].

If you can, be sure to visit town on the 11th of the month because every 11th of the month is 'practice how to queue' day in Beijing. Yes, Beijingers are being taught how to stand in line and wait their turn. Not something that comes naturally to them. Queuing marshalls police busy bus-stops and encourage orderly queues in the hope that in 500 days time catching a bus in Beijing will be as hassle free as hopping a tram in Zurich.

Just hope that you don't need to use a public toilet when you get off that bus.

'Beijing Today' March 23rd, 2007

My first Beijing haircut

Since my Mandarin doesn't stretch to "2 and 1/2 with the clippers, all round" or "give me a Chairman Mao, but shorter" I hastily flick through my phrase book as I walk past the twin revolving barbers pole into our local hair salon.

Unfortunately, the phrase book section on hair styling isn't as helpful as I had hoped..."I'm in a hurry, please give me a quickie" - always useful, but not what I'm looking for this morning. "I'll have a mullet, please" - reminds me to check the phrase book's publication date.

So, it's good old hand gestures and a lady who spoke a few words of English that got things going Beijing style. First of all, shampoo and wash (thirty years since I last bothered with that at - down the Kings Road, I think). Then an invigorating head massage (which left a few lingering red blotches on my head) before "Kang A", the spikey-haired hair artiste and stylist, got to work. We figured out that 2 and 1/2 was about the same as 6mm and off he went. Finale was a further wash then blow dry (though my hair had dried in the time it took to walk back to the chair). Cost - 30RMB (£2) - though I think they would have paid me that for the fun they got putting me through this.

I could tell from the expression on Tac's face when I walked in that she thought it looked great. Will suggest head massage to Burke & Hare on Richmond roundabout..it would be a nice touch and more of a value add to customers than last year's "Trout Monthly".

Looking for a hot stock tip?

Look no further. If you were in any doubt about the business appetite of Chinese companies, just check out this press release from Admax Resources. They've just changed their name to China YouTV and plan to create the China equivalent of YouTube. Good idea - but they are a mining company - as their press release states:

"The Company intends to participate in the fast growing video sharing web site market in China and, at the same time, continue its exploration of mineral properties in British Columbia, Canada,"

But no need to be worried about your investment because they go on to say:

"If we find mineralized material and it is economically feasible to remove the mineralized material, we will attempt to raise additional money through a subsequent private placement, public offering or through loans. If we need additional cash and can't raise it, we will either have to suspend activities until we do raise the cash, or cease activities entirely. If we can't find any mineralized material or it is not economically feasible to remove the mineralized material, we will have to cease activities and focus on the new market: the media and entertainment industry in China. "

So that's ok, then.

Our first visitors!

Sandy, Alan & Aidan arrived in Beijing from Hong Kong on Thursday evening for the weekend.

It was great to see them. Aidan is now 6 months old and a happy, smiling baby (Alan & Sandy are older but also happy and smiling).

The weekend was action packed with visits to the Great Wall at Mutiyanu, the fantastic Panjiayuan flea/antique market, Tienanmen square, the Forbidden City and the Lingzhi foot massage parlour (but more of that later..).

We also managed to have some great meals including drinks and dinner at the Red Capital Club, a revolutionary themed, kitsch, restaurant set in a beautiful old courtyard house in the depths of the Beijing hutongs. The menu was a Chinese modern history lesson and each dish - including Chang Kai-shek's Balls and the Chairman's Favourite Roast Pork... was served with elegantly carved vegetable figures decorating the plate. Tacky - yes; touristy, true..but nicely done.

Sandy in the bar of the Red Capital Club.

As usual, Embassy House came up trumps, supplying a cot for Aidan and a babysitter for Friday and Saturday nights. We didn't understand a word she said but she smiled a lot and Aidan seemed to like her.

Unfortunately, Tac was really ill on Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday too) and so we walked round the Forbidden City without her. Was it the infamous Beijing flu that struck her down? Or did the foot massage have strange and lingering effects on her system? We will probably never know.


Alan & Aidan at the Forbidden City

The only way to watch 6 nations rugby

After dinner, off to Lingzhi ("herb of spiritual potency" in Chinese) foot massage parlour with Sandy and Alan. They have just opened a branch round the corner from us. At the entrance, a line of women in elegant gowns greet us with much bowing and we are led downstairs to our private massage room. It's plush, with comfortable reclining armchairs. Our shoes and socks are removed and our feet soaked in individual wooden tubs of hot liquid (tea?) before the foot pummeling begins. We are brought beers and tea and the big, flat screen, TV on the wall switched on to ESPN where we relax and watch live 6 nations rugby - it's Scotland v Ireland.

Each of us has a personal foot masseur. The treatment takes us all the way through to full time and an Irish victory. At times it really hurts (an Irish victory always does..); at times it tickles and you can't stop giggling. But by the end my feet are glowing and super-smooth.

Standing in a packed, smokey pub watching rugby? Never again.

View from my window 2

High winds in Beijing today ripped Daniel Craig off his billboard to reveal an ad for the NCL insurance group. The fresh young faces from NCL - each of them licenced to insure - will surely provide more inspiration than Daniel did...

Birthday celebrations Teleca China style

Birthdays are celebrated in the office with a seriously sized cake. This one was green tea sponge, cream and peach halves - in honour of Ocean, one of the consulting team.

No Refills Allowed

Too cold & windy to venture out far tonight, so we end up eating at Pizza Hut.

"No refills" allowed at the salad bar didn't stop this budding structural engineer from maximising the amount of salad that can be stacked onto a small plate. She then spent the next half hour transferring it all into take-out containers - enough for her and a few friends waiting at home.

Teleca China

Our new offices in Beijing and my view overlooking the 3rd Ring Road & 007

Beijing Weather 2

So much for the early spring - mother nature came back with a vengeance this week. Snow on Sunday (last day of spring festival) and a bitterly cold wind with temperatures dropping to minus a lot with the wind chill.

Should be the last day of fireworks and a lot were set off during the evening. Looked beautiful from the comfort and warmth of the apartment. We ventured out for dinner, dodging the firecrackers and stray fireworks blown off course by the high winds.

China Daily

China's English language daily - as the name suggests - has a regular column with interesting pieces from around the country. Saw this one and rather liked it...

IKEA

Day 6 in the big brother house. Tac and Ben succumb to the draw of Swedish meatballs and Billy bookcases - yes - we visit IKEA.

What a pleasure this was, though. Easy to get to – taxi dropped us off at the door; no wait at the checkout and a taxi waiting outside the door to take us home. Car park completely underground so the store looked eerily empty until we got inside.

Apart from that, this was just like an IKEA experience in London – floor and store layout very similar; products identical with a few concessions to local taste (chopstick holders in kitchen section); same silly names for everything. A nice touch – food and drink being sold in several locations along the way through the store - so you can get sustenance and recharge those shopping batteries before tackling the furniture pickup.

Prices were very close to UK ones, so I don’t think IKEA can be a cheap place for the locals – maybe it’s more of an upmarket, foreign design place? Anyway, like everywhere, this IKEA was very busy with lots of eager purchasers loading their yellow bags with napkins and tea lights.

We bought all those kitchen and bathroom things that we kept saying weren’t worth shipping over. We now own aluminium toilet brush holders in two continents. Resisted the meatballs and those double chocolate biscuits. What will power.

Beijing Weather

We have had superb weather this last week. Mainly, blue skies and mild temperatures of up to 10-12C during the day. Apparently, it’s the warmest New Year week they have had here for 60 years.

Today, however, I drew the living room curtains and looked out to blanket of fog. A real pea-souper. You just can’t see a thing out there. Maybe it’s the effect of millions of fireworks being let off non-stop for the past three days that has finally taken its toll. Won’t do much to help road safety.

Dongue Temple

Tac and her minders enjoying the performance at Dongyue Temple during Spring Festival

New Year Celebrations

The Chinese New Year celebrations go on all week with fairs, performances and events at temples and parks all over the city. We visited several.

Dongyue Temple is a beautiful old site built around multiple courtyards. People ate, played fun-fair style games and sat around in the sun watching acrobatic performances - including a very talented lady spinning a large vase/urn with a man inside with her feet.

Ditan Park, right in the centre of town, was built in the 16th century for the emperors to worship the earth. The trees and walkways were decorated with lanterns and it looked wonderful. It was packed – thousands of people streaming into the park to enjoy the day. Performances on stage, lots of food stalls (anything you can image, grilled on a stick) and hundreds of fair-ground amusement rides & stalls. It seems that when it comes to fun-fairs, the Chinese are just like the Brits – they can’t resist those stalls where you spend a fortune to win one of those big fluffy animals … I won a lucky pig by throwing metal washers at a bell – hit 7 out of 10!

We also visited Chayong Park, a large park on the east side of town, which has a permanent amusement park in place. Not as quaint as the others but just as busy. Also, with more Chinese ‘out-of-towners’, we assume, since we were stared at a lot more and had our pictures taken to show the folks back home how wild and crazy it is in the city.

New Year’s Eve in Beijing – Saturday Feb 17th, 2007

New Year in Beijing – what a start to our time living out here! Here we are, just three days into our Beijing adventure and we find ourselves on the 30th floor of Embassy House (our apartment block), at midnight, with Joe - the Tongan Defence Attache, wearing a blue shell suit and free hotel fluffy slippers - his 9 children and a whole crowd of Tongans and other residents watching the most amazing fireworks display ever seen.

So, it turns out that the Tongan embassy is on the 30th floor of our apartment block. There are only 100,000 people living in Tonga and it seems as if most of them are part of the embassy delegation. Since they are too small to have their own embassy building, they have been occupying a floor here at Embassy House (very appropriate) for the last five years. We met a group of them in the bar this evening and ended up being invited up to their apartment – sorry, embassy – to watch the crescendo of fireworks leading up to midnight. Tongan social activity in Beijing is organised by Asupa – a noisy, brash, larger than life person who befriended us in the bar and invited us to join the party. Good old Asupa – what a hostess – our glasses were never empty!

The firecrackers and fireworks started early afternoon. Men & women setting them off on pavements, on street corners and in the middle of the streets. We had to walk gingerly round them as we returned from dinner (Schezuan meal with a chili beef that was too hot to handle) to avoid being blown up. All around, car alarms wailed as they were set of by the explosions. Steadily, the intensity and pace of the fireworks picked up and by midnight the entire city was a massive fireworks display. The noise was unbelievable. No government organised official display for Beijing – this was thousands of people setting off fireworks all over town. Big rockets, firecrackers and everything in between. The air was soon thick with smoke from the million of fireworks being let off. The entire city, for as far as the eye could see was a mass of explosions and bright lights. Take a look at this amateur video footage from YouTube.

But back to Joe. He is married to the Tongan ambassador for China. She wasn’t feeling well and was asleep. Hard to believe that it was possible to sleep. Jo, like all Tongans was a big rugby fan – Tonga will be in the same group as England in the world cup. Amazing that they can produce an international team, and compete, from a population of 100,000 people.

It’s 2.30 am – the fireworks are still going off all over the city. Apparently this goes on for the whole of the spring festival period – two weeks. I hope this is a joke.