White Beijing

There's been a bit of fuss around here lately about a drought here in Beijing and surrounding environs. Apparently it hadn't rained in over 3 months, so when it finally rained last week, it was a bit of a relief. But I was a bit suspicious. Especially when it snowed for a couple days after that.

So when I read online that the rain (and snow) had been seeded, I wasn't so surprised. My theory is that they used up all their fall rain by shooting their rain-making missiles in the summer, so now they have to get a rain advance on their spring rain.

I don't mind the snow so much, although apparently a few of the highways around had to be closed. Hopefully the cold has refrozen the lakes so we can go icechairing again!

Kungfu Valentine

I'm not too big a fan of celebrating Valentine's day, but I've learned from past experience it's just better to play along than to take a stand. I wasn't expecting much out of the nation of China; however, apparently young Chinese couples go bonkers for Valentine's day here. People were all upons with flowers and chocolate and what have you.

Which made me feel a little bad that I had to work and hadn't really planned any festivities for the Missus. Some of my classes were canceled on account of my students going back to school this weekend, but I still had a few ones. Unfortunately for M, I was scheduled for class from 6-8pm.

I spent most of my Valentine's Day (poorly) drawing bad puns on the board for my students to mimic:

Yes, that's a sad sad attempt at a panda. I had forgotten how the black/white pattern goes.




M and I met during a break in the afternoon; we walked to a nearby mall and encountered this bad boy:

This stage was set-up in the middle of the mall for an amateur fashion show, audience karaoke competition, kissing game, and more. We stuck around just long enough to watch this guy get his groove on and listen to a couple crowd members croon the latest Chinese love songs, before we decided to move along.

After I finished class, M and I had a nice Indian meal at a restaurant called Ganges. They have great food, but I'm not so stoked on the name since it calls up mental images like this Google image result (which I consider pretty tame as far as shots of the Ganges are concerned):

Icechairing

Last Sunday, our friends (we'll call S and C) wanted to check out the 北大 (Peking University) campus. Unfortunately for M, she was sick at home with the some kind of strange stomach virus, which took her out for a few days, so she couldn't go exploring with us.

We started at the East Gate of the university and worked our way in, stopping only to play a bit of hackey-sack on the steps of a somewhat imposing library facade. As we wandered, we noticed arrows pointing out the way to a lake, and we couldn't resist. We did get lost a few times, but we found it eventually. The lake was (mostly) frozen over, and apparently in China when lakes (mostly) freeze, swarms of industrious businessmen and women flock to peddle their wares. Ice skates, carmelized haw on a sharp stick, books, etc.

But what really got us were these badboys:


Old school (as in kindergarten circa 1985) chairs nailed to planks of wood atop two rusty runners, throw in a couple metal spikes with which to get around, and you've got yourself a winner. Not until after I picked it did I realize that my chair didn't have a back, just two posts of a wood with a couple passes of packing tape across the back.

Next to the icechairs, they had real ice skates for the same price, but ice skating is out, chairs are the new skate.

(I have a sneaking suspicion they were invented for Chinese grandparents who want to keep a watchful eye on their budding ice princesses and ice princes.)

The icechair vendor had a tandem chair set, but he charged extra, so S and I decided to rent our own. C opted to walk out on the ice, although when tempted, he caved and rode a chair for a bit.

10rmb ($1.50) for as long as we wanted out on the ice, which ended up being about 20 minutes. S and I raced a couple times, but my chair was more defective than his, so whoever was in my chair lost. It was pure adrenaline weaving between the bumbling kids on ice skates, fellow icechairers, and the occasional suspicious-looking-burn-marked pothole filled with firework scraps.


We haven't really been keeping up with the Only in China posts, but I'm pretty sure this counts as one.

Back to the Grind

After almost two weeks of a ghost-town, Beijingers headed back to work this week. Unfortunately for me, I'm among the group. I have an exciting couple weeks ahead, since I'm working English camp during the week while still working my usual weekend classes. It shouldn't be as bad as my crazy camp schedule over the summer, though.

The past two weeks we had a couple friends in town, so there were 3 of us guys and M all crammed into our studio apartment. I think M felt like a mother hen as she prodded 3 guys, all staring at their computers unresponsively. We also learned that our little toilet wasn't built for 4 :P.

On the Spring Festival front, the firecrackers have slowed a bit, but they'll be back for a finale on the last day of the festival. Apparently, after the Lantern Festival, no one will be able to light off fireworks, so everyone will be lighting off everything they have left. I'm hoping that all the fireworks stands, which are on just about every corner, will light off all their unsold stock. I'm sure they could pass it off as an 'accident'.

春节愉快！(or Happy Spring Festival!)

As most of you probably already know, tonight is the eve of the Lunar New Year. We celebrated by enjoying some delicious dumplings and home cooked Korean food, playing a traditional Korean game called "Yut," and setting off some underwhelming but still very fun fireworks. (We were beginners, and the guy who was lighting the fuse risked blowing off his arm plenty of times as it was...)

Finally, J and our two visitors hopped on the last subway home. When we got through the door, it was about 11:30pm, and it felt like we were in the midst of enemy fire. But of course, it was really just our friendly neighbors celebrating the biggest event of the year in style.

This was the view just outside our window, from our apartment on the 17th floor. Apparently, most fireworks sold in China are designed to explode right about...oh, the 17th floor. We know this because those puppies were popping right into our frickin' faces, like so:

From Beijing Dou

And also:

From Beijing Dou

Oh, and check out this cool double helixy one:

From Beijing Dou

"But, Marilyn!" you exclaim, "Those fireworks are exploding not more than 20 yards away from all those residential high rises! That can't be safe!"

Never fear, my friend, because we currently reside in a glorious nation whose iron-grip government does not regulate the sales of such explosives on the open street, nor the whims of ordinary citizens as they set them ablaze. If the good ol' CCP's not worried, we needn't be, right? All in good fun! (Ok, maybe that's not entirely true. We've heard people aren't allowed to set them off on private property...but wait, how does that keep up from blowing our limbs off? Or each others' faces?)

Anyway, all this leads to probably the most spectacular, and profuse, display of fireworks I've ever seen this up close. I didn't really capture the full effect on camera, but a quick glance out our window revealed layers upon layers of exploding balls of light for miles in every direction. It's now 2 hours since we've gotten home, and it's still going strong...

So, to finish this post as we head to bed (assuming we can fall asleep to the sweet tunes of sporadically exploding gunpowder), I will borrow an overused and groan-inducing pun that we've been seeing EVERYWHERE here:

Happy 牛 Year!!*








*[FYI, "牛," pronounced "niu," is the character for "cow" or "ox," which--conveniently enough for punsters everywhere (have I mentioned how much Chinese people love puns?)--happens to be the Chinese zodiac animal representing the new Lunar Year.]

Historymaker?

Sunday we got the chance to go to the band Delirious's first concert in China. Some of you might not be familiar with them--they're one of the more well-known Christian bands. They wrote the song "I Could Sing of Your Love (Over the Mountains and the Sea)". Although in recent years I haven't really kept up with their music, one of their earlier CDs had a huge impact on me when I was in high school, so I wanted to check out the show.

The venue was a small local club, perched atop several floors of high-class KTVs (karaoke bars). It was a marked contrast from the last time I saw them, a 30,000+ person Christian music festival that I was volunteering at. A welcome one.

Early in the set, as Martin was talking about how incredible it was that they were finally able to play a show in China, he mentioned that they weren't allowed to play many of their songs. It cast a slightly ominous mood over the show, but it also brought the audience together in focus.

The concert was remarkably refreshing for me. From the boisterous moments of worship to the "Here I am, send me" anthems, the energy in the room was powerful. As the audience warmed up and began to jump, sing, shout, dance, it felt as if all of us were emerging from a long silence, from whispered words and hushed tones, erupting in praise as one voice.

"History Maker" was a sharp reminder for me to remember to dream big. To believe that, with Help, any of us can change history:

I want to be a history maker in this land.
I want to be a speaker of truth to all mankind.
I'm gonna stand.
I'm gonna run into your arms.

Youtube's already got some clips from the show:

Signs of the Times

Saw this guy in the bathroom at the Shenzhen airport.


M and I were really excited when we found out there was a supermarket opening up in the basement of our building. Today, when I noticed that they sell crack, I got even more excited.