2009 Wishes!

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De wishes

Xmas in Beijing

We have celebrated Xmas together in family, cooking ourselves a magnificient duck (not Peking way thought), and Pauli graciously gave up his fishitarianism for this special occasion. Santa Claus was generous, bringing Noam several large gifts, namely a Noah's Ark and a red and blue kitchen.

De Xmas in Beijing

Pauli received a superb Beijing bike, a tall city cruiser, with large handle bars, no speed gear, basket in front and rack at the back. The most fun part of the evening was to see his face when I opened the door with it (in lieu of wrapping paper!). For my part, I guess I was a really good girl, since Santa drop me a NEW amazing MacBook, one of those shinny aluminum portable computers! What a treat, specially since my old Mac was really acting up. (It was the last stroke for my old Mac, who got so upset it decided to crash really bad the next day).

A pearl of a friend

My dear friend Kerstin came over this week. While in Washington, Kerstin and I bonded while watching our respective sons grow during their first year of life. She is one of those persons with whom I instantly found affinities beyond the mummy business.  

As Kerstin has been coming in Beijing for work several times a year, she was our informal guide when we came in June for our pre-assignment trip. To have her stay with us in Beijing was such a wonderful Xmas gift for me. 

Noam also enjoyed her company. Note that we unintentionally coordinated ourselves with stripes; sweater, socks and shirt. 

Kerstin was not only in town for a forestry conference, but also was mandated by her mom to find a pearl necklace for her aunt. Together we went on mission to find her aunt the perfect treasure. We went to the Silk Market, a huge battleground of a market, where even veteran hagglers like myself get tired. 

A friend had recommended Marie's shop, on the top floor of the market, so we headed straight up, avoiding the crowd and its hustle bustle. Once in the shop, we started looking at the pearls. After mentioning my friend's name, the price of a string of pearls went down by ... 95%! This steep drop in price made us feel that maybe there was something to be weary of. Or how much they really abuse the poor shoppers. Since Kerstin remembered how much she paid last year for a similar necklace, we estimated that the owner would be offering us a decent price. 

So as we were shown threads after threads of pearls, from hues of white to hues of pink, we inspected them, trying to find defects and imperfections. In the end we settled for a string of slightly pink ones, of a larger size. A lady prepared the necklace for us, her magical hands knotting 16 inches of pearls on a string in less than 15 minutes. 

Once back home we looked at them again, not sure if our deal was good, or if the pearls were like most things in the Silk Market, fakes. I guess the only way to know will be to bring them for an evaluation. And maybe I could also find out the store owner's value of her friendship.

That said, with my limited knowledge of pearls (I received a Mikimoto pearl last year from my mother in law), I feel somewhat confident that we bought something of a reasonably good quality for the price paid. 

Tea-ism

Not defeated in our failed attempt to see a dance show, we decide to see something else worth while. We walk across Tienanmen Square to reach LaoShe Tea House. I shall remind you that the square is the largest in the world, with a full kilometer long. And that the weather is (slightly) below 0 (not so bad for me with my nice long coat, but my Israeli Darling would still remind me of how much better 40 degree feels). 

We could not take a taxi because 1) there were no free taxi passing by and 2) even if there were any, we were not sure of the exact location of that place, and with our limited vocabulary we could not have directed the driver. So we walked. 

We reached the tea house to realize that it is a major (touristic) location. As we entered we were lead upstairs. I proudly was able to tell them in Chinese that we are here to drink tea(喝茶    "he cha"). Obviously.

We are lead upstairs, and walk in what is a replica of some old hutong gate, to an area filled with the sounds of water, music and crickets. 

We are led to a small room. Unfortunately, our view is not only to the courtyard, but also to several jars of crickets lined up. Their song might be lovely, but their sight is not so inspiring for tea tasting. We ask for a new room.  

We are led to a new little space furnished with a table and 4 straight back chair. The tea equipment is on the table. As we sit, a young lady brings us a menu, written on bamboo sticks. Paul leaves me glance at it and order. The prices are out of control, ranging from 2220 RMB (about 350$) to a meager 280 RMB (45$). I think it must be the price per pound, and choose the cheapest, a jasmine tea. Tea can't be that expensive. 

She returns with the tray, and shows to Pauli a few pellets of tea at the bottom of a jar. As she does so, she mentions the price. It is that expensive, at 280 per cup (plus the room 60, plus the cookies)! We prevaricate a bit, almost ready to go, ask to see the menu again. We spot a tea, the only one, at 86 per cup. Sounds like more reasonable. Our waitress can avoid showing a certain disappointment. We are so uncultured she must think!

Indeed one must be a real connoisseur to sip a weak tea sitting on a straight back wooden chair, in a cold little room lit by a florescent, with no carpet or cushions, with the sound of the one cord Chinese violin in the background. The repertory of the instrument sounds more like a constant tuning exercise. 

Our hostess returns with two tall glasses and a teapot of hot water. She pours the water in our glasses to warm them up, and discart it. She then puts in them a large fluffy ball. A flower opens as the water warms it. It is very interesting to see, the taste is slightly bitter. 

As we sit there sipping our tea, we browse the leaflets left on the table. It proudly boast about numerous foreign heads of state who greeted a visit to the teahouse. I munch on a few special cookies while we discuss the experiment. 

Unfortunate Lao She, we, novice tea drinkers, walk out of his house thinking that coffee is still a much nicer drink for this cold weather.  

A night expedition

We have asked our ayi (nanny) Lili to babysit, in a (failed) attempt to attend some "culture" , a dance show by Jennifer Muller at the CNCPA, aka the Egg. We are not sure of who she is, but the idea of going to the Egg is exciting. We hope for cheap tickets. (Our destination was a very last minute decision). 

The Egg is the new China National Center for the Performing Arts. It has been designed by Paul Andreu, a French Architect. The concept of the building is simple: an egg floating on water. Andreu took pleasure in juxtaposing the sleek and sexy lines of his building against the austere architecture of the public buildings surrounding Tienanmen Square. Some critics even go as far as saying that he mocked I.M. Pei (who did the Pyramid at the Louvre).

The taxi dropped us in front of the building. We suspiciously approached the entrance, not seeing many people there. A guard told us to go around the building. We walked and walked around the immense water pond (lake?) surrounding the building.

After a while (and in the cold that while might be a bit shorter), we wondered if we misunderstood what the guard said. There was no entrance in sight! Only a round facade, and water surrounding it... Then I remembered someones comment in a architecture lecture. Walking under water... We ask a guard (in our approximate Chinese) and he indicates the direction of the street, away from the building. There it is, like a warm red mouth, ready to welcome all the center's visitors!

As we walk down the stairs, a few men come to us, saying "piao". They are scalpers. We walk in, and go to the counter, to be told the show is sold out. Ah, disappointment! We walk back out and look for those piao guys. They want 180$ for a pair of good tickets! We wander a bit more, hoping for a price reduction as the show starts. All a sudden we see about 10 of them fleeing, and witness the arrest of a couple of them by two policemen. A few approach us again, but by that time, we are wondering if we might even get arrested for buying scalped tickets. So we slowly drift towards Tienanmen. 

Floating on water, the Egg appears as an enigma. Despite our attempt, it will remain as such tonight!

Awaiting the Major Snow 大雪

I received an email a few days ago from my favorite CCC. They announced that this last Sunday (December 7) was the seasonal marker of 大雪"da xue", or major snow, according to the Chinese agricultural calender. It will be the major snow season of snowstorm in full swing. What an exciting thing! I love snow storms!  I can imagine that Beijing winds, really strong around the area where we live, could make wonderful snow storms! Usually the "da xue" is followed by the following "jie qi" seasonal segments: 

December 22 "dong zhi" or winter solstice, the winter extreme (of sun's height);

January 6 "xiao han" or minor cold, the cold start to become unbearable;

January 20 "da han" or major cold, the coldest time of the year. 

So initially I looked at these seasonal markers as maybe futile. Are we sure about these dates? And then amazingly, yesterday morning, I drew my curtains to the wonderful sight of bright and fluffy flakes dancing mid air in front of our windows. I showed the flakes to Noam whom for a second, looked puzzled about this strange phenomenon. He then smiled as he saw that I was happy. Unfortunately by the time we had a diaper change and a highly requested breakfast, the flakes were gone, leaving the ground wet and the sky grey. Not even have a chance to take a picture!

Alternatively, I am posting for you a picture of one of the Beijing canals, near the Kempisky Hotel. It is beautifully frozen now. I was probably too late by 10 minutes to catch the wonderful light of the late afternoon sun setting down through the fog. 

De first day of snow

China World Yi Er San

I am posting here a few pictures of the complex where Paul is working. It is called China World, and has 2 office towers, an underground upscale shopping mall (including a skating ring), two hotels, some convention spaces, two Starbucks coffee shops, etc, etc. A third tower is under construction. It will be, when completed, the highest building in Beijing. Paul's office, on the 16th and 17th floor of Tower 2 (also known as Guo Mao Er or 国贸二), has a great view of the new CCTV tower.

De Guo Mao Yi Er San

You can see from left to right, Guo Mao Yi, Er and San (one, two and three).

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The now famous CCTV tower, also renamed as the "trousers" by taxi drivers, designed by Rem Koolhas is standing across from the third ring road.

De Guo Mao Yi Er San

De Guo Mao Yi Er San

On clear skies days, there is quite an interesting view of the area. In the distance, you can notice a set of pink low rise buildings. These are the typical Beijing apartments. They are found all over the city. From this picture it is possible to see how they are outscaled now by the surrounding new constructions. A few more years and they probably will be replaced by new taller, more expensive and more sleek buildings (unless the economical crisis persists).  

De Guo Mao Yi Er San

Also a view of the Third Ring Road on a beautiful clear sky day. And below, same view, on a no-so-good day (last Monday, a week after the first photo!). With the cold season, coal heating is contributing a great deal to the pollution levels. 

De Guo Mao Yi Er San