betsy-china: January 2009

The winter continues here, some days bright and sunny, some overcast and foggy, but always dry. there's been no precipitation for months--no rain, no snow.

here are some highlights from 2009 thus far:

--we have a month off from work for the Chinese New Year--(we're leaving the rat behind and ringing in the year of the ox)--and both becca smith and susan golland are traveling here to see us! all over the city chinese decorations are being sold in preparation. according to something becca read, the chinese new year results in the greatest movement of humans on the planet each year, which isn't so surprising when you think how big the population is, and that everyone returns home this one time each year to be with family.

--in his efforts to avoid the easy route and go to a mcdonalds before a tutoring session in an area with limited food options, aaron took a side street, found a little hole in the wall restaurant and ate a mystery sandwich that turned out to be a donkey burger.

--we have spent a few cold nights and days in the apartment when we first ran out of gas and then later electricity, both which are needed for heat....

we yet again opted against the furry meat pastry.

night time snack shop. the sticks are kabobs of fruit glazed in suger. they're sold all over the city, either along the street in a case as above, or stuck out from a big piece of styrofoam and carried on the back of the seller's bike.

some kind of meat, rotating in a window

meat kabobs: like the fruit kabobs they're on sharp wooden sticks and sold all over the city. occasionally i wonder how many injuries occur each year as a result of crowds of people walking around with long, sharp sticks at face level, not to mention children running around with them.....

taking photos through a kaleidoscope

we buy our produce and eggs at a semi outdoor market not far from us. a lot of the people there come in from the country side to sell their produce. i like going there; everyone is always really friendly to us. it is unbelievably cheap; all of this was about 18 kuai, or $2.50.

as it was the last day of 2008, we thought we should have some adventures. we decided to take in a view of the city from the highest point: the old cctv tower and then see where the day led after that. we figured it would also be a good day to take pictures-- of the exciting as well as the mundane--to give you some idea of our daily life. starting with our toothpaste.

how could we possibly by Crest when this chinese brand was an option? we liked the snazzy face on it. Upon closer inspection when we got home, we realized the characters translate as "black man tooth paste"....

(I guess a lack of exposure often breeds prejudice; you don't often see people of african descent in china and consequently chinese people generally don't really seem to know what to make of black people. After obama was elected, people would say things like, "Yes, but he is black!")

aaron starts the day with a living room mime performance.

our metal apartment door... secure, but a little cell-like.

down our cement hallway. everything in china seems to be constructed out of cement.

waiting for the elevator. we're on the 13th floor. (there are 17)

as so many things in china seem to be, the emergency fire # to call is opposite too: 119.

the entrance to the apartment. in cold weather many buildings hang heavy blankets over the doors to keep out the cold. the little room you can see part of in this picture is where the apartment clothes mending girl lives. most apartments have a room like this where you can drop off your mending. behind the mending room is a room with a bed where they sleep and cook.

beijing did a lot to make the city more traveler friendly leading up to the olympics, translating a lot of signs, etc. into English. the bus system is an exception as it's all only in Chinese. without knowing some characters it would be pretty difficult to use.

one of the tens of thousands of electric bikes around the city. notice my favorite detail: the attached hand-warming mits on the handle bars that many of them have.

the old cctv tower in the distance. at night it's all lit up and looks like some sort of UFO/christmas ornament.

we passed a river boat along the way and one of the guards called out to us. he just wanted to chat and wish us a happy new year. then he asked if we could take a picture together.

the bridge we'd seen in the distance turned out to be under construction, but the river/canal was frozen several inches deep so we could cross over the ice.

nearing the tower!

we finally found our way to the base of the tower, bought a ticket, and went up. this sign was on one of the telescopes you could look out over beijing with to get a better view.

the sky was completely clear and we could pick our apartment out in the distance.

facing west toward the mountains, away from the city

facing north east

facing straight east toward the center of the city far in the distance. the sprawl of the city is incredible. using the telescope we could see the rooftops of the forbidden city which is in the very center of the city, miles away. just north of the forbidden city is a small hill, the highest land in the city. there is a pavilion on top and through the telescope i could just make out some people on the hill.

looking through the telescope down at the large lake just east of the tower we found people out on the ice riding... ice bicycles? we decided that obviously had to be our next destination. (i took this photo through the telescope)

below the outdoor observation deck was an indoor observation area. there were some machines along one side which we bought tokens for. they seemed like they'd probably been there for a long time...

we found the lake after we left the tower and rented an ice bicycle!

it was a pretty strange contraption. completely rickety and really, really fun. if you got going fast and then leaned to the side you could spin several times around as you slid across the ice before stopping.

on the next 'rink' over were little sleds with child-size folding chairs. they'd give you a sled and a couple mini poles to propel yourself along with. kids, adults, grandparents, everyone was out there on them.

there were only 5 or so people on ice bikes, which was probably good. i can't imagine riding around on them if it was crowded. in the background you can see the 40 or so more bikes available for rent.

i took a photo of this woman watching aaron. one of the many beijingers donning the face mask.

more chair sleds...

lunch break-- just a fast food noodle place in a mall.

on the subway, not rush hour so the crowds weren't too bad.

subway hall

typical squat toilet

city sights...

meat hanging outside of someone's window...

view of Xizhimen which used to be the west gate of the city wall before it was torn down. now it's marked by these three iconic buildings. it's also the nearest subway stop to us so we take a bus here almost every time we want to go anywhere.

china's favorite fast food. KFC. they're everywhere here and i realized one day that the colonel looks exactly like my father...

do you think so dad?

fancy baozi in a grocery store (little steamed bread rolls filled with meat and vegetables.)

it was almost midnight and we were wandering the frozen streets. aaron remembered seeing an irish pub somewhere in that neighborhood. we found it a couple minutes before midnight and stepped out of the cold into a room full of new year celebrators.