Scenes from Japan

Japan is the home of the vending machine...

The 'Golden Turd' - or Asahi Beer building in Tokyo

Our Kyoto ryokan room

Relaxing in the ryokan

Long Qing Ice Festival

About 60kms north west of Beijing lies the Long Qing gorge.
Steep cliffs, a dam and a lake.
In summer a place for boating, climbing and hiking.
In winter, Long Qing is home to an ice festival - Beijing's answer to Harbin - a bizarre display of large and small illuminated ice sculptures sitting at the bottom of the gorge in a massive tent.
See the Forbidden City in ice. See goldfish and assorted sea creatures trapped in an ice world.

Long Qing is also home to the largest dragon encased escalator in the the world (or maybe China; or Beijing; or north of Beijing?) - it is used to get to the top of the dam and to the lake. Coming down is a walk or for 20RMB you can do it on a toboggan.

Building across the street III

It's the one year anniversary of the start of construction of the building across the street and still the end is not in sight. They worked day and night starting last February. They ruined our sleep with the noise of cement mixers arriving throughout the night.

Then in July they stopped as part of the Olympic preparations - all building works across Beijng were halted and the skies cleared and noise disappeared.

They resumed after the October national holiday, but by now the persistent complaints of the neighbours had resulted in a ban on night-time work. We watched as every day the building grew taller. We speculated as to the final height. Originally we had been told 5 floors but when this was passed we were told 28! Now, in fact, it looks like a dozen or so..but who knows.

What will it be? Who will move in? No-one seems to know for sure. Building in Beijing is shrouded in mystery and speculation. What we do know - for sure - is that our view from the 12th floor is seriously impaired - the line of site to the mountains, on a clear day, is now obstructed by Beijing's rising skyline.

Raising the flag in Tienanmen Square

It was one of those 'conference call till 5am - still jet lagged' mornings that found us in a cab heading for Tienanmen Square for the dawn flag raising ceremony. We had never been and I thought it would be romantic - the two of us in the square on a chilly February morning as dawn broke over the Forbidden City and the flag of the PRC was slowly raised to the mournful sound of single trumpeter.

Little did I know that this ceremony is on the itinerary of every Chinese tour group visiting Beijing. It was the two of us, a chilly February morning and about 5,000 out-of-towners six deep across the square. The national anthem blasted out of the loudspeakers as the guard-of-honour marched to the flagpole and raised the flag. It was all over in a few moments and the crowd scattered. Tienanmen at 6am was heaving and buzzing. We beat a hasty retreat to Steak and Eggs for a fry-up.

So what is the finger guessing game, anyway?

What is this finger guessing game? What sort of job do you win that pays 100KRMB pa if you are an ace at it? Why did the woman manager want to learn to be great at it..and to avoid too much dinner table drinking? Could I train and get free meat? Would you subscribe to the Chongching Times?

Such a short article..so many questions to answer.

All quiet at Terminal 2

Poor old Terminal 2 at Beijing's Capital Airport.

It was relegated to second class status once the Norman Foster designed T3 opened in spring 2008 and all the major domestic and international airlines moved their services over to the shiny, new terminal.

T2 has become a terminal backwater. Serving a few domestic airlines and the slightly bizarre 'SkyTeam' alliance of KLM/Air France, Aeroflot, Delta, Korean Air and Alitalia and a host of lesser known carriers I feared the worst on a recent flight to Seoul.

But what a great surprise - the place is empty. Check-in, immigration and security in minutes. Walk to the gate..just a few steps. And on the way back I was off the plane and in the car in 15 minutes. Maybe the old terminal doesn't have the glitz and elegance of the new T3 but in terms of convenience - no contest.
another busy night at the restaurant

Chinese New Year 2009

Two years on from our first Chinese new year's eve. Then we stood, in a sea of people, partying on Joe's balcony on the 30th floor of Embassy House - thousands of fireworks exploding all across Beijing. This week we stood on the same balcony - but, unfortunately, the apartment was empty since Joe and his family had moved out a few months ago.

Watching the fireworks was as intense and exciting as that first time, two years ago. It's hard to explain what it's like. The fireworks start early in the day and build up to a crescendo - from around 11pm to 1am it's non-stop. There is nothing quite like it. I've seen spectacular fireworks displays in the past - they have all been beautifully organised, immaculately planned, wonderfully co-ordinated and executed. But not in Beijing. Beijing on new year's eve is wild, out of control and completely un-coordinated. Thousands of individuals all over the city go out and buy fireworks from street-corner tents set up specially for the holiday and then let them off where ever they feel like. In the middle of the road as cars drive past; on the pavement as people walk past. It's a war zone. It's the Blitz but more colourful.
Street-corner fireworks stand, ringed with fire extinguishers, and boxes of explosives stacked high

Across the street from our building is 'Water World' - Hua Yi Tian Lun Shui Shi - a bath house/massage/spa place. The staff had been setting off fireworks in front of the building on and off all day but around 10.30pm they brought out dozens of big rocket boxes, put them on the middle divider and let them all off. Take a look.

London cabs hit Beijing streets

Now manufactured in Shanghai for sale across the world, the famed London taxi hit Beijing streets for the Paralympics. Now a fleet of them happily ply their trade in traditional Beijing taxi livery. Seating is the regular two pull down seats facing the back bench and no sitting in front. How will the Chinese cab-rider cope with this, since most like to sit upfront.

Lazy Susan

We were seven, sitting at a big round table at Da Dong our favourite Beijing duck restaurant. As the dishes glided slowly & elegantly round the table on the lazy susan and I started wondering...did the Chinese invent the lazy susan or as they call it - 玻璃 转盘 (bō li zhuàn pán) - rather boringly - 'glass turntable' ? If so, it's definitely up there with gunpowder and paper since the bō li zhuàn pán is a critical component of enjoying shared-food-meals such as Chinese.


But lazy susan sounds so North American - and who was Susan? Someone so lazy that she found it easier to invent a thick cut, heavy duty, glass disc sitting on top of a precision ball bearing turntable rather than pass the yams when her kids asked at the dinner table?



As we discussed it, I thought about the tens of thousands of restaurants throughout China and all those big round tables and all those lazy susans and wondered how many serious accidents had occurred that involved lazy susans? Just think of that heavy glass platter whizzing around too fast and flying off the turntable..decapitating all in its path. How many had died over the years, victims of the rogue lazy susan?


Harry was intrigued and immediately hit Google on his return home. This is where the internet comes into it's own. A few keystrokes & you will get more information about lazy susans than you ever wanted or thought existed..and you will probably find some weirdo that runs a web site dedicated to the subject.



No terminal accidents, but he did find the 2002 case of the Perri family v Furama Restaurant heard in Cook County Court, Illinois. A waitress had placed a pot of tea on the lazy susan, apparently unbeknown to the family. Later, the lazy susan was spun and the pot of tea flew off scalding the family's young child. They claimed the restaurant was negligent but lost their case. Not a happy story, but it sets a precedent...we are each responsible for the actions of our own lazy susan.



P.S. The Jewish World Review dates the lazy susan to a 1917 advert in Vanity Fair, but claims the turntable-with-food-on-it goes back to the 1700s. And Susan was a common term when referring to a waitress. I still think it was the Chinese.