Catching up before I go, go

Photos for Week 12 and Week 13

I have finally christened Beijing now that I have had my first big night out. It wasn't intentional, but it seems to be what happens whenever someone goes to 'Huxleys' for the first time. It might be the slightly seedy ambiance that lulls the senses; it might be warm hospitality of the owner, Mingus; or it might be the "GnT"s (Gin and no Tonic) Mingis serves. Either way, a fabulous time was had by all especially me who, despite Tash's protests to the contrary, was the embarrassing friend who is happy drunk in the corner oblivious to her own drunkedness. The trip home was fine except I could think of nothing to talk to the driver about except "I've had too much to drink" (never a good choice), "Have you eaten yet?" or "What's your favourite colour?" so I remained silent.

The next morning I awoke to find a box in my bed (don't ask because I don't know) and wondered who had been in my house: surely I could not have caused that much destruction between the door and my bed. So while the box (whose name I didn't catch) climbed out the window, I remembered that I had to give a presentation that afternoon for work. The presentation I had been planning in a vague sort of way for 2 months but had rehearsed zero times. Crap. My timing was, as always impeccable. Why I chose the night before a real work activity in front of 30 people to booze it up I don't know. I've clearly embraced "Beijing Time" (not quite the worst possible moment, but nearly) as my own.

A traditional brunch at Grandma's with Tash revived me, and the presentation went fine on the most part. I vagued out in the middle of one question but managed to cover it. That night we met up with some of the other friends out of Beijing who came for the weekend and I surreptitiously didn't drink.

Sunday was a quiet breakfast in a trendy little hutong we frequent frequently called Nanluogu Xiang where they had their first Street Festival. By the end of my leisurely breakfast and coffee over a good book, I checked out the Festival, bought only things for other people (I'm proud) and the world's largest bag of chocolate popcorn. Ate most of said kryptonite, before exploromg a new area of town to find "Ladies Street" (which is actually a 'Super Bar Street') and Laitai Flower Market where I purchased my very first (and more than likely only) plant.

During the week I made a day trip to the 'Green yard' organic dairy farm, China's first produced of wholly organic pasteurised (as opposed to UHT) mild and yoghurt, which are delicious. They even have sugar-free yoghurt (which also doesn't have artificial sweetener like all the others), and they wake their cows in the morning by playing classical music, bless them. There were fields of organic corn growing for them, and even an organic orchard out the back: those cows eat better than I do. It was a gorgeous farm, and so nice to be out of the city since that day was an extreme pollution day. I stupidly rode the 7kms to the meeting point and 7kms back after, but at least my lungs had a rest in between.

The week after I went to the Jiuchang Art District open day, called "artWALK". Jiuchang Art District is a new art district out in the middle of the old industrial area (Depresso-land we dubbed it). The galleries were amazing, all converted old warehouses, but I didn't get to see them all so I will have to have another trip our there. The exhibitions were great too (see photos) Chinese art is really fresh and exciting! Also, there was series of short presentations from various artists and creative types in a forum called "Pecha Kucha". Originally started in Japan (Pecha Kucha is actually Japanese for the sound of conversation), it is now a world-wide phenomenon. The idea is that specialists and creative people from various fields of work talk for 6mins and 40 secs each, showing 20 images to explain their work to you. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. My friend Vinny presented his show on touring Bosnia, and I saw some great presentations on sculpture, graffiti and TV production.

And now finally I've caught up with the present week! This Tuesday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and for those of you who aren't in Asia or used to live there, it's one of the most colourful and fun festivals on the calendar. I still wished I was back in Repulse Bay, balefully trying to light lanterns while not lighting them on fire, and balancing the world's flimsiest candles on the lid of a Mooncake tin...

It was celebrated in Beijing in a pretty big way, and I planned a dinner at a nice place I know for my friends, then a trip to Beihai Park to play with lanterns. But, since it's China, nothing went according to plan. The restaurant wouldn't take reservations, so I went really early to get us a table. So they reluctantly agreed to set a table for 8 people, but then handed me the set menu which was the only one they were offering that night. It was a whopping ¥1300 for 7-8 people so I left! All the other restaurants in that area, called Houhai, were doing the same sort of deal because it was the Mid-Autumn Festival. And everywhere was filling up so quickly I decided to make an executive decision and went to a bar I know that's away from the main area and has a lovely atmosphere about it. There are lots of red lanterns, with couches right on the lakeside and they'll bring you Xin Jiang food which is quite good. It's actually a bit of a dive bar really, but the ambiance is great, and it's quieter than the main stretch. Or so I thought...

I didn't realise the music gets played at ear splitting volume. And when it's Mongolian Throat singing, I do mean ear splitting. And because traffic was so horrendous I sat waiting for people for nearly two hours, slowly starving to death. Finally, people started to arrive and someone I don't know very well (and I have to admit I've never liked) got all holier-than-thou about it being Xin Jiang food, and there's no vegetarian options, and it's so far away, and drinks are expensive blah blah blah. I told her that the alternative was paying ¥160 per head, but I also wanted to say to her well, next time you get here two hours early and then YOU can choose whatever you want. She kept it up most of the night which I stoically ignored. She also sent an apologetic email the next morning, which I also stoically ignored. I'm not THAT good a person.

I also bought Mooncake for us all, which also turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I made sure to get a nut and honey filled Mooncake, not a traditional one. I had successfully differentiated and bought both before so I know I was asking for the right thing. The lady insisted, however, that the big one was the nut one, so I bought it but of course it wasn't. It was the traditional one, duck egg and all. And to top it all off we were supposed to go to Beihai Park after but the park closed at 10pm which was when we were just finishing dinner, because they all ended up being so late. But, I loved it all and had a great time. My good friends and the people they brought were brilliant and made the most of it, like I did. Spending the night with my friends was all I really wanted so I was happy, and the whingers can just do their own thing next time I say!

So tomorrow I'm off to the little province of Ningxia and won't be back until Monday 8 October as it's Golden Week (the week long public holiday for National Day). I'll be camel-trekking, Monastery-seeing, sand-surfing, tomb-visiting and even inflated-dead-sheep-boat-rafting for 10 days. But then again, maybe not... This is China, so who knows where we'll end up!

Fight the Power!

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I have a new hero: my supervisor. I have been having ongoing fights for months now with my Real Estate Agent over various items in my house, one of which being the Niagara Falls that is my kitchen tap. And I don't mean water coming out the nozzle, it was pouring out of the base, seeping down to cupboard under the sink then flooding my kitchen floor. I've bugged them about it before and they sent a man to come look at it but the report back from the Agent was that is was an "expensive European" tap and so I would need to pay for it myself. But, oh, they'll provide me with a receipt. Ha! I wasn't born yesterday. European tap, my tush! And official looking bits of paper are handed around like one yuan notes and are worth about the same. Damn The Man! So I refused to pay and nothing was done, but it has been getting worse so I asked my counterpart to call them again. My supervisor was there when I asked and when it my counterpart translated my request to her, she tutted and shook her head about the way I've been treated, bless her. She is a very tall but tiny boned lady (I'm talking Size 0), sweet and gentle. She likes to mother me, in an endearing way. Her name partly means "flower" which suits her to a T. So imagine my surprise when my counterpart comes to me the next day and says that she went down to the Real Estate Agency that morning to talk to them and they are coming to fix the tap today, is 12pm ok? Oh, and you have a new Real Estate Agent, here's her card.

I couldn't believe it! I had this vision of my sweet little supervisor standing in the smokey dirty offices of my Real Estate Agency which is full of large swarthy men, and just letting them have it. In my mind, all the burly men are standing there with heads hanging down, like children who are being chastised. I nearly hugged her when she came back except I was scared to breaking her, and could only give her the packet of Yacult I bought her as a thank you. She's put the "super" back in supervisor! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

This week was also the media launch of a project my friend Charlotte has been working on: the United Nations Conservation Union's (IUCN) launch of "Countdown 2010 - China", a campaign to stop or drastically reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by the year 2010. It's been launched by around the world before now but they've turned their eye to China now because it's one of the world’s megadiverse countries, believe it or not. China is home to nearly 15% of the world’s mammals, 14% of the birds, and 18% of the fishes. The IUCN were recruiting partner NGOs to sign up to the campaign and I got my NGO on board. Since then, I've also recruited her two more NGOs so my commission is in the mail she tells me. Anyway, I went with my supervisor though she did all the work; I was just there for moral support. It was interesting but slow as the keynote speaker, the big-wig Scientific Adviser to the UN, had to have his whole speech translated into Chinese. But then a member of each organisation had to make a very symbolic "signing up" to the campaign on a large poster to the side of the stage, very cute. The photo is me and Sheng Jianghua in front of said poster, she is very sweet insisting I be in the photo though really my only contribution was helping eat the food.

But the big news of that week was the totally rocking Beijing Pop Festival! Not a 'pop' festival at all, it was all about the Rock 'N' Roll and it was fantastic. The crowd were great, all about the fun and the music. It was a really lively atmosphere and anyone who has been to a concert in Canberra will know what I mean when I say it was nice to be in a crowd that got it is supposed to be "LIVE" music and you are hence supposed to act like you have a pulse. I think there was, however, a slight air of disbelief however that we were grooving to internationally reknown bands in a country that still looks at creative expression as something they found at the bottom of their shoe. The G have cancelled music festivals in the past, but luckily that hasn't happened to anything I've been to so far.

But, considering dissidence is virtually defined as anything they don't like, it's amazing it was allowed considering the acts the organisers pulled together. I mean, Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails were the headline acts! How crazy is that? Public Enemy (or P.E. as they were billed because of the "controversial nature of their name", and that's a direct quote) had us all chanting "Fight the power" for half the show, it was wild! Other acts present were the awesome, New York Dolls and Marky Ramone, as well as Brett Anderson (ex Suede) and Band who was such a dag but the crowd added him. Also, Cui Jian who is the "Godfather of Chinese Rock and Roll", and a few lesser internationally known acts like Mando Diao, Mumiy Troll, Muma & Third Party, XTX and Rize.

The guards looked quite uncomfortable at times. Except for the few younger ones who you cold tell were actually loving it all. I saw one guy who just typified 'New China': a young guy, looking a little severe in his guard uniform except that his cap was just a little crooked, his shirt was just a little untucked and his body was rocking just a little rhythmically. Long live rock and roll...

Dreams of travel and aquiring pets

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Friday night was good fun with my first taste of Xinjiang culture for Naomi's birthday bash. Xinjiang is China's largest province, located in North-W China, and somewhere I really hope to go and explore because of its rich culture and history. Xinjiang borders eight countries such as Russia, Mongolia, India and the '-stan' countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) and holds a large section of the infamous Silk Road. Anyway, we all went to reputably the best Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing, with awesome live music and dancing. A few drinks afterwards at the trendy little bar next door and I was feeling quite the cool Beijingite!

Bordering Xinjiang on the South-East side is a little-known province called Ningxia and a few friends are heading up that way, off the beaten track, for "Golden Week". There are three week-long holidays in China; May Day holidays (first week of May), National Day holidays (first week of October) and Chinese New Year (sometime in Feb). I wasn't going to go away for "Golden Week" in October as we call it, because that's when China's entire 1.3 billion people pack their bags and travel anywhere from the next town over to the other side of the Middle Kingdom. Imagine all the madness of summer and school holidays combined and packed into one week. They are the most expensive times of year to travel as well, and because I thought my parents were coming to visit straight afterwards I was going to just stay and check out all the events on in Beijing (which will still be mad as it will host a large proportion of the 1.3 billion people, but at least I have my bike and own flat). But now they aren't coming until the 17th, so I decided I will join my friends on their trip. I think I really need to get out of Beijing and start to explore, but it's so hard with so many great things on that I want to do here in the big city.

Saturday, I met up with Tash to explore a new shopping street, grabbed a Mango "Sand Ice" (shaved ice with mango puréed into it, so refreshing and delicious) at my favourite Taiwanese restaurant, met up with my new friend Meike whose from Germany here on an university exchange for 4 months, and we all went to see Vinny's slideshow presentation on his work in Bosnia. It was at a new art space simply called "The Hutong". It's on old courtyard house bought and refurbished to a more modern style of traditional house by an expat couple who run workshops and a little exhibition space there. It was there open day for people to come and have a look and they invited Vinny to give his slideshow for everyone there. The photos were amazing, Bosnia-Herzegovina is now definitely on my list of places to go. There are so many amazing places I want to see, and I've joined the Couch Surfing community which I highly recommend everyone who plans to travel to look at. I will definitely be using it in my travels around Europe next year and if you join up, make sure you add me as a contact so we can vouch for each other.

Sunday was my ritual brunch at Grandma's Kitchen, then took myself to a completely local market I'd been told about that sells fish tanks. It was awesome and, well, I should know better than to go shopping by myself. I went a little crazy, but luckily Andrea turned up to halt my rapid slide to bankruptcy (though she did lend me Y100 to buy a very funky green and purple jacket. It's not as hideous as it sounds. I think). I had only just found the aquarium section when she arrived, so she curbed my over-zealousness enough that I did do a recon in all the stores.

I was actually close to not buying one as I couldn't decide who to go with, which brand or size to buy and they weren't as cheap as I thought. I actually wanted a bigger one than would fit on my bike so I thought I would come back another time in a taxi but then I found my lady! She was great, her starting price was half that of everywhere else for a better brand. She was knowledgeable, never pushed me into buying anything I didn't need, never tried to sell me the most expensive of anything (I even asked for a better heater than she initially showed me), and gave me an awesome deal.

So I now have a fish tank! It's so cool, it has the filter and light built in, and I got everything I need (heater, filter medium, water purifier and nutrients, gravel cleaner, thermometer, fish food and net) for Y300 (AUS$50) which is exactly what it should be. Getting home was interesting though, as you can see from the photos it was quite a load to carry. I had a bit of momentum going so I became a bit of a tank in manoeuvrability! I couldn't really stop in a hurry and when people meandered around in front of me I had to try and dodge them. It was the first time I actually found riding around quite frustrating, and "Shopping Trolley Syndrome" as I like to call it, made it so much worse.

Shopping Trolley Syndrome, or STS, is what I've named the phenomena that no one here can walk, cycle or drive in a straight line: like everyone has a wobbly back wheel. Dodging people who are all over the path is a lot harder when you've got some weight behind you. But as Andrea and I were marvelling at how big the tank looked on my bike, a man rode passed with a flat bed bicycle and the contents of an entire house on the back, which put it all in perspective for us. We were just amateurs.

So, I got the thing home with no worries and set it up and left it for a week. It's always best to have a tank running for a week before you put fish in but boy was it hard to resist getting some straight away. The fish available in China are so beautiful. They have species of Rainbowfish (my favourite fish) I've never seen for sale in aquariums before, and the colours are stunning. Rainbows are a little bigger than I should probably have in my tank and I was thinking I should probably make it a normal tropical tank with smaller fish but that went out the window when I went fish shopping the next weekend, in between my rocking out at the Beijing Pop Festival. But that's in the next episode...

Friends, old and new

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This week I met up with a very old friend, Vinny. We went to primary and a little of secondary school together, but I haven't seen him in 13 years. Now, thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I connected to a whole bunch of my old school friends and I saw that he was in Beijing. He's been away all summer in Bosnia (I'll get to that) and as he's now returned we caught up on the Friday night for a dinner of Thai food and reminiscing.

He's a great guy, and we have a lot in common as it turns out. Having spent the past 2 years in Beijing working as a freelance photographer, actor, event organizer, and teacher, Vinny was in Bosnia this summer with the Youth Bridge Global international team as an assistant director/documentarian to stage a touring production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The project aims to bring teenagers from the three ethnic groups together in an attempt to reconcile differences twelve years after the Bosnian war. The team developed the production and then took it on a tour of Bosnia - Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Amazing stuff!

After dinner he had invited me to his friend's Olympic-themed costume party (and you all know how much I love a costume party) and luckily mum sent me my cheesy Aussie gear in her care package so I went donned in my thongs, shorts, Wallabies rugby jersey and Ashes cap, carting my Vegemite around to be absolutely clear what I was. It was good fun, and I met a whole bunch of mad, fun people which happens every time I go to an event Vinny invites me to. Needless to say, I'm trying to go to everything Vinny invites me to! Like Swing dance class which totally rocks!

The rest of the weekend was about more exploring. Tash and I decided to explore her area which is a very old and very traditional part of town. She is the only expat living there and because everyone has to be registered with the local police, word travelled fast and everyone knows who she is. Anyway, there aren't many of the little luxuries down that part of town, so we've been looking around for restaurants that don't overcharge her because she's a waiguoren (foreigner), shops that sell decent useful things that don't overcharge her because she's a waiguoren, and bars that are not brothels (yes, she's in that part of town).

Anyway, we admired the sometimes crumbling old buildings, found a local street shopping market, and found the first street in Beijing which I would not eat the food from if you paid me. Beijing is very clean, so much cleaner than I thought it would be, but this street... Food Poisoning Alley we called it. The place wasn't exactly dirty but you just KNOW they'll be using the sink in the toilet to wash things because that's probably the only sink in the restaurant. Hmmm.

Sunday, I went shopping with a work colleague. I've always liked her clothes so she took me shopping... to Zara! Lovely clothes but too expensive for me. I thought, you know, we're working at an NGO, we would all be looking at about the same budget. Well, everyone here plays in the stock market and some have partners who are quite well paid I think. Anyway, I adore her, we get along really well and she's a sweetheart, always making the effort to translate for me and invite me to lunch. Her husband is in IT and works in Japan a lot so I think she is also happy for the company.

So we went to "The Place" which is a standing joke amongst my friends now (How about I meet you at The Place, sweetie darling?). Lots of name brand shops that are cheaper than elsewhere in the world I think, and some cool Chinese fashion brands too. Guess where I'm taking you shopping, Mum? ;) But the best part was the restaurant in the basement we went to for lunch! It is called Macau Street, and though not entirely authentic (more a combination of Macau/HK/South China cuisine), the dim sum were actually really good and the Portuguese Tarts were to die for!

We had a nice long D&M at I felt very close to her by the end of it all. It is hard having her husband away and I am looking forward to our next shopping trip when she returns from her holiday in Japan to check on, er, visit her husband. Afterwards I met Naomi, another the other member of my totally rocking Chinese class, and she took me to The Bookworm - an English language lending library, bookshop, restaurant and events space. It got a nice ambiance, with over 16,000 titles which you can read there, or borrow to read later. A little overpriced (again, this odd phenomenon in Western places of a drink nearly costing the same as a meal) but Nay and I bonded over our smoothies, realising it was probably the first time we'd had a real conversation that wasn't composed mostly of fragmented, broken Chinese. And as I hadn't stuffed my face quite enough I invited myself over to another friend's place for dinner and one (or three) glasses of wine. I was spoilt with a lovely home-cooked dinner of fish and vegs, and for dessert Q tried to poison me with some Chinese chilli condiment. And I though I had an iron stomach.