Great Wallk

Sunday night, it rained a little. And Monday, we woke up to a wonderful, clear, blue, crisp air. With such beautiful sky, Sunday's ordeal was quickly forgotten. Truly schizophrenic changes in weather. Tuesday was as marvelous as Monday.  So I headed out with a group of French women to walk on the Great Wall, on the JinShanLing portion.

I recently joined the group Pékin Acceuil, a group of French and francophones who get together. What is really interesting is that they do not only meet for coffee or wine tasting (isn't that what would most people expect from a French expatriate, no?). In fact, they organize visits to art galleries, do aquafitness or hiking together, play bridge or mahjong, discuss chinese culture or paint, and countless other interesting activities. Myself, already busy here and there, happened to discover them late in my Beijing stay. With them, I am finding a source for new friendships (to possibly replace lost repatriated ones), and another way to jam thigh fill my schedule with taitai time. 

So, JinShanLing, we went. And for you readers, a few pictures in lieu of words. It is just easier for all of us (you and I included), as we were busy chatting away. 

Lost placenta

Here I just wanted to share with you one message and its thread found this week on a forum I am a member of (Beijing Mamas).

In Beijing, we, expats, are having no shortage of information. Not only do we have several free entertainment magazines  (Beijing Kids, City Weekend, the Beijinger, Agenda, City Weekend Parents, and more), we are also blessed with several forums. Beijing Mamas is only one of many; Beijing café for all sorts of practical things, Boca for green living, Beijing_homeschoolers, Beijing gluten-free group, Beijing Mamas for mom/kids related issues of course, and many others more specific ones. They are, for expats who share similar concerns and values, a way to connect, share and exchange. In a city of 16 million, where the language makes us all illiterates, where we are stuck because of the endemic traffic, where the stores landscape changes faster than FedEx can delivered to you, where new complexes are sprouting like mushrooms and entire areas are erased without much warning, where danger roams in the form of baby powder milk or detergent, these are our tools to stay afloat, to survive and thrive... Without Beijing café, simple questions are answered: where to buy pair of kids shoes? which pediatrician to choose from? why is it impossible to retrieve cash from my Chinese ATM today? what is the standard regarding nanny salaries? where is the best sushi in town? where to do painting classes? Trivial and not so trivial issues are shared, discussed, explained, detailed...

So here is the thread in question, an hilarious example of what cultural brassage can bring you in your inbox, or in our case, in our garden... 

----- Forwarded Message ----

                                       (BeijingCafe) Lost Placenta in Central Park??

From: ratomme

To: Beijingcafe@...com

Sent: Fri, 15 October, 2010 8:27:56

Subject: (BeijingCafe) Lost Placenta in Central Park??

I apologize beforehand to those who are fainthearted:

For the happy lady who just had a baby and lives in Central Park and

had burried fresh placenta with imbilical cord in clear plastic bag under a

tree on the hill-your placenta is lying around next to shallow hole, looks

like dogs dug it out (at least I hope it was dogs!)

I think it mist befrom an expat -Chinese would not throw it away.

Re: Fw: (BeijingCafe) Lost Placenta in Central Park??

Posted by: "Diane" dandan622@...   

Mon Oct 18, 2010 1:35 am (PDT)

IMO, if I were the lady, I could only thank the person who posted the

original msg, as I am now acknowledged of the fact and can make my choice

what to do with it(whether to go back to rebury it or not) as it's a

PLACENTA we're talking about...

Anyways, when I had my baby at BJU, my placenta was given to my family since

my husband's mom who's a Chinese, asked for it and then when I asked what

they did with it, my MIL said she's given it to ayi and buried in the

backyard but wouldn't tell me exactly where. I thought that was weird.

Diane

--- In Beijing_Mamas@...groups.com, Roberta 

wrote:

When I lived in Sanya a friend of mine from Canada gave birth in a local

hospital. She was not asked whether she wanted to keep the placenta or not

but to her dismay the same evening a nurse brought a soup to her made with

her placenta! She was told that it is a typical Chinese thing to do since it

is said that for a mom to eat her own placenta after giving birth gives her

strength and keeps her healthy. I find it quite gruesome to say the least.

Anyways, I gave birth the first time in Shanghai and the second time in

Kuala Lumpur. Never was I asked if I wanted to take the placentas home with

me. I mean... what is the point of bringing it home? And I really don't

understand why the 1st message was posted on Beijing Cafe'... if someone did

in fact bury her placenta in Central Park, well that's her business I guess.

Did someone think that this lady would go back to the park and look for it

to then throw it in a garbage can?

I don't see the point in all this...

To: Beijing_Mamas@...groups.com

From: chinees_spookstje@...

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 06:49:31 +0000

Subject: Re: [BJMamas] Fw: (BeijingCafe) Lost Placenta in Central Park??

When I gave birth at Amcare earlier this year, the medical staff asked us

if we wanted to take the placenta home with us or not. Actually, they asked

both of us seperately: they asked me while they were prepping me for the

(emergency) c-section and my husband while he was scrubbing in. After we

both declined, they showed the placenta to my husband after birth and showed

him how they would dispose of it.

Later on, I inquired about this question in the hospital and the nurses

told me that many Chinese take the placenta home with them. Didn't ask what

they do with it though... I just thought it was a bit odd...

Ciska

--- In Beijing_Mamas@...groups.com, "lioracc" wrote:

i do not know local or expat hospital policy but I would think it most

unusual for them to release a placenta from a hospital.

Among home birthers in the U.S., and perhaps some Birthing Centers there

is a portion (just a few percent) who choose to do a "lotus birth", that is,

keep the placenta connected for several days till the cord falls off

naturally. They keep the placenta connected to the baby, place the placenta

and most of the cord inside plastic, and in a nice velvet bag or something,

until the end of the cord separates naturally from the belly.

The thinking is that there is a spiritual connection with the baby, and

that after 9 months together it is gentler to take the time to separate.

Liora

Schizophenic air

While my sister-in-law and her son were here visiting us, we had the most wonderful weather: 10 days of sunny, clear, blue sky; the stuff most people take for granted in Canada, in Israel or in most places. 10 amazing Beijing Blue Sky Days! So unusual indeed it was deemed a "Golden Week"!
However, the minute Nurit and Liam boarded that plane to go back home, the pollution fog slowly started to cover Beijing again. For the last 4 or 5 days, in the evening, I could only see a floating and blinking light in front of our building, across the avenue. The view of the building itself, onto which the sign sits atop, was swallowed by the thick layer of pollution. During the day, looking out from our windows would be as if looking out of an airplane window into a white cloud, except unconsciously, it does not quite feel (or smell) as glamorous.
Saturday, upon waking up, Noam asked us "where is the sun?". Later in the day, he excitingly told us, pointing at the sun (dimly glowing through the fog): "Look, the moon is up!"
Sunday morning, it was really bad.

This picture was taken at 8AM. I did not use any filters, it was taken by my little powershot Canon. 
In fact, the 10-10-10 was one of the most horrible day we ever had. It was so bad that at 3PM, car needed to use the fog lights to go around the city.  It was so thick and dark and heavy that there were no escape. In vain, with our new-to-us car, we drove out of the city in hope of some fresher air. 60 km out of the city center, the air was still opaque and thick. 500 m up on the hills, and we were not sure if the fog we were walking in was cleaner or not... (although it felt as if the air was getting a little yellower in color as we were driving down the hills).
The whole trip was not really "picturesque", we could not see anything. We drove past Tiananmen square - this is not my photo, but it did look almost like this.

Photograph by Oded Balilty/AP Photo - December 27, 2007 
That same day was also the last of 4 days of talks in Tianjin, of the UN Climate Change Summit. I am a little dubious of the validity of such summit held here in China, as China is always opposed to make concessions on its CO2 emissions levels. However, Sunday's air quality maybe has helped the international counterparts understand better the meaning of "bad air quality"...
On Sunday, the air quality was so bad that the China Daily (our expat' local propaganda) even labelled it as "worst" and listed the city as most polluted of 47 cities monitored nationwide. Indeed, levels of pollution are monitored daily by the Chinese government. They are also measured by the American Embassy and distributed on Twitter here. This certainly to ensure the distribution of "real data" (read non-altered). The device used by the Americans is only able to measure up to 500 ppm of particles in the air, and in several past occasions, the levels to be measured were beyond the machine's capacity.  For clarifications, in most countries, at levels of 150 or 200ppm, there are some warnings for at-risks citizens, and most people would stay home.
The interesting thing about such measures of pollution is the lack of uniform labeling, from one country to another. In other words, when the China National Environmental Monitoring Center rated Sunday's air quality as "poor" (one level away from "Hazardous"), most other countries would have simply rated it as "hazardous". A local magazine even hinted that "hazardous" air quality would apparently requires something akin to nuclear fallout!
Already in 2005, Beijing was qualified as the air pollution capital of the world... You can check here at this photo essay prepared by the Time Magazine, just before the Olympics. It give a broad overview of some of the issues related to the problem of air pollution in Beijing. (Plus the pictures are beautiful.)
Of course we can discuss here on the sources and the improvements seen since the Olympics (and there has been), but as a mom of two young kids, I am concerned on the impacts this kind of environment can have on their health.

Black out

Today CNN, BBC and TV5 were partially blacked out today. Initially I thought it was again the receiver who was acting up. Or Emmanuel who played with the remote again, messing up the system...
In fact, today is a big day for Chinese human rights activists: Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Price. He was a leader in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, and has also co-authored the Charter 08, calling for multi-party democratic system and human rights respect in China. The later has ended him up in jail for a sentence of 11 years, which he started on December 2009.

From our perspective, here from our Beijing expatriate's cushy couch, it is just a black out on our screens. But in some other Chinese's humble dwellings, it might eventually cast some light to the current darkness.
Years of unrestrained propaganda and the Cultural Revolution's ordeal have left the Chinese society with deep scars, and the leaders with rather harsh reflexes. The late 80's, culminating with the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, have left somewhat murkier waters for anybody attempting to demand democracy,  human right respect, or simple change. Of course we were entertained by the more recent, flashy but composed, facade presented for the Olympics; fascinating and exalting it was! Everybody wants to believe in a better China, a more humane one.
How appropriate! I just finished the reading of Beijing Coma, from Ma Jian. It relates the memories of a medicine student who participated in the Tiananmen events. Dai Wei, the protagonist, got wounded by a bullet in the head, and remains in coma since.  It took 10 years for Ma Jian to write, and through the Dai Wei recollection of his own life, it recreates a pretty accurate tableau of the changes undergone by the Chinese society over the last 40 years, from a youth in the cultural revolution until today's economic race for success of his fellow students. Of course, the moments leading to the 89's events are vividly described.  Evidently, the book is banned in China, and its author, exiled for over 20 years now. If you are interested, this NY Times review gives you a more detailed overview of the story line.

However, the insistence of Ma Jian to tell Tiananmen story in details, and to recount the further oppression of its former participants, can be paralleled by Liu Xiaobo's own insistence on demanding human rights respect and democracy in the country. Despite the jail sentences following 1989, warnings and continuous repression, Liu continued incessantly to call for democratic reforms. The Charter 08 he co-authored, following the model of the anti-Soviet Charter 77 prepared by Czechoslovakia dissidents, has left the Parti leaders concerned enough to justify another jail sentence of 11 years, under the charges of "inciting subversion to the state power". I am somewhat surprised by the amplitude of their reaction, as only 350 intellectuals and human activists signed the petition. (What percentage of the Chinese population is this??)  At least 70 of the original 303 signatories have been summoned or interrogated at some point. Censorship runs fast and high when the word democracy is repeated a few times on a single piece of paper... 
Like Liu Xiaobo, Ma Jian believes in the power of analogies and dates. Ma Jian published his novel  right before the Olympics, and one year before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. The Charter 08 was published on December 10 2008, the day of the 60th anniversary of the UN resolution adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
However, Ma Jian, unlike Liu, does not believes in change so much. Ma Jian, in the preface to the Chinese edition of his book, argues that not only Dai Wei is comatose, but it is the Chinese people who truly are. "Only memory can help people regain the brightness of freedom" he argues. Let's hope that the nomination of Liu Xiaobo will help send an electroshock of light and energy to the Chinese youth, calling them to remember the values fought for by some of their fellows citizens. And encourage them to also request democracy and change.

Today, Liu Xiaobo probably does not know he won the prize; the Chinese government is trying hard to censor and discredit the information.  Despite censorship of the news, and of the control of the use of Liu's characters on emails and cell phones, the Chinese youth is still able to share and spread the information.  Internationally, China also reacted by saying it is wrong to give the prize to a convicted criminal, and warns Norway of possible damages to their political relations. (We have heard this threat before). Despite all this Chinese unease, this Nobel prize appears like a warning by the Western world to China, a statement telling them that despite their smoking mirrors and noisy rhetoric, someone is watching, aware of the violations taking place. And that China's attempt at joining the big leaders of the world also means responsibilities, along some of the West's rules...

But of course, from my couch, the screen is black...

A view from the top

Pauli's office is in the China World Trade Centre, phase two. More commonly known as Guo Mao (国贸), the CWTC is also two hotels, a large high-end (read too expensive) shopping mall, and now three tower. The new phase, the third tower,  has just recently been completed, and it also house a luxurious hotel. It is now the highest point in Beijing, with its 90 floors.
On a wonderful weather like today, we just headed up, reaching for the 88th floor of the hotel, in hope to catch a glimpse of Beijing while enjoying a fancy drink. With kids, and their (im)possible tantrums, we were sure that our attempt to a high life would be bound to some limitations. However the experienced proved itself to be quite pleasant, and their washrooms quite useful (and cosy as far as bathroom goes) to calm our initially screaming 3 year old. Of course a little bowl of peanuts also goes a long way too...


North view: Looking at the left bottom of the picture, arranged around a "central park", our compound, with its green and white buildings (our tower is the second from the left, hiding behind the third one). A bit further, the Workers' Stadium and in the background, the mountains (where the Great Wall portions are - can't see them, can't you?!).


A West view (with glare, sorry) over the first diplomatic area and Ritan Park, towards the Forbiden City and Tiananmen square, and the large Jiangomenwai/Changan avenue. In the distance we can also see the Egg (National Theater).


Looking South West, over Pauli's office (Guo Mao 2), over Jian Wai Soho and the Hyatt (who until now had the highest restaurant in town), with a sea of housing towers in the background.


And full South, more buildings buildings buildings... It takes a few to house everyone here...


And a little more East, towards the other portion of the CBD (Central Business District). Walt Mart is under one of the three grey towers on the right side, a bit behind the orange ones...


Looking North-East, where we saying there is lots of buildings around here? You can see the suburb somewhere in the distance.


And there you go, just over the "pants" of Mr Koolhaus!


A great ambiance...


My mothley crew and I enjoying the setting.