Life Walks On ….

Upon starting this posting I had written the 13^th entry of my morning pages. I cannot believe that I’ve been back in Beijing for more than two weeks already. What are morning pages, you may ask. Let me explain: Upon hearing of the arrival of my 40^th, a friend mentioned that for her this was the breakthrough year in which she started exploring her creativity. This she did with the help of a book called ‘The Artist’s Way’, written by Julia Cameron. So, while still in South Africa, I bought a few copies and I’ve been diligently writing my pages.

Life is Rosie

After schlepping all my stuff across the C5-208, Rosie and I have had many a good chuckle together. She’s ‘fabulously 50’, used to practice as a nurse in Perth and has a penchant for cleaning floors. We’ve had a lot of fun sharing our abode. I’ve even started watching the dreaded DVD’s that we buy here for less than R10-00 a copy. So when time allows, I’ll cook dinner and then over a glass of wine, we’ll watch Julia Roberts in ‘Notting Hill’ or cry with Toni Collette in ‘Japanese Story’.

Dreaded DVD’s? Because China is such a deplete-intensive* economy, one gets to buy a copy of any movie ever made for 10-00 kwai. Every teacher has a DVD collection, which seems to consume any spare time over a weekend or a lazy morning.

Student Graduation

The 26^th July was an auspicious day at Real Life English, for this was the day that most students had been working for. They were graduating from the specific levels and would hopefully move to the next level. Everyone gathered in the big seminar room, excitement palpable amongst students and teachers alike. There were cool drinks and the two most beautiful cakes.

When my Intermediate A class was called up, Manuel, or shall I say ‘Shiver’ went up to collect the certificates and thanked his ‘…. core class teacher, Petrithia …’. I am delighted to say that I am wishing him all the best in his future endeavours and that I don’t have to teach him any longer. Uggghh!!

Teacher’s Farewell Dinner

Not only was this date auspicious for students graduating, but also for seven teachers, whose tenure had come to an end at Real Life English.

To thank and celebrate we went to a sushi restaurant, where one could eat as much as one wanted for less than R100-00. The food was nothing to rave about and I was very glad that I had cooked some pasta at home for lunch. However, there was the most impressive loo, I had ever laid eyes on. Think ’10 Bompas Road’, think ‘Orient’, think ‘The Saxon’ and you will not be able to imagine this squatter. I took lots and lots of photos in the hope that this will be the last of my toilet nightmares!

Note, the paper basket. You’ll understand later.

Someone Visiting from Nan Fei

Last Monday morning, my Chinese mobile shrills at 08:00 in the morning. (No one ever calls me on this number.) Still asleep, I answer, only to hear the voice of Jenny Watson, saying, ‘Trisha, are you still sleeping ….?’ What a delightful surprise!! Jenny and a friend decided to pay a quick visit to China and had three days in Beijing, so on the following Wednesday evening, I went to Wangfujing (one of the best western shopping districts) and had some delicious, international food and a very good bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc. Jenny promised me a job in her garden, as her gardener is earning more per day, than what I am here in China. I may have to remember that for next year …. Hie hie hie

A New Month, a New Schedule and a ‘Promotion’

With August here, my teaching schedule has changed completely; no more English Corner on a Friday night – yippee!, I have no more core classes, but I have: VIP’s and Corporates.

On a Saturday, I only teach VIP’s. VIP’s are those students with sufficient money to afford one-on-one classes. Henry, is a precocious 12-year old. I see him for an hour from 09:30 to 10:30. Then I have the twin-girls, Patricia and Jessica – 13-years old, identical and a delight to teach. I spend two hours with them and then I leave for a teahouse to meet with HongMei, a general manager in China Mobile’s Strategic Development department.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two different classes at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the morning I teach all of the secretaries and personal assistants in the Advisory Services business unit and for 90 minutes on the same evenings, I take the consultants.

On a Friday, I take the advanced class at Odyssey (spelt AuDaCee), an IT company, who have recently enrolled more than 50 students to learn to speak English. Learning English in China is big business and in our building alone, there are five different schools all vying for trade.

Because I’m starting earlier than normal on all of these days, I get to go home around 20:00, which will make things much easier for me. I have really struggled to get used to having dinner after 22:00 and only being able to put the lights out after twelve. The challenge for now is not getting used to this ‘easy schedule’. It may all change when September heralds autumn in Beijing.

A promotion? What promotion? In exchange for 500-00 Yuan extra per month (an increase of almost 15%), I am now accountable for VIP and Corporate Liaison and my main responsibilities will be to see that all VIP and Corporate clients receive the service as promised in their contracts and to ensure that they have a helpline available to them at all times. It seems like fun and I am sure that I will learn much in my interactions with them.

Ashtanga Yoga

I eventually found my way to SOHO zi Dawanglu, to a 32-storey, green building (yes, the entire building is green, right next to the red and the yellow and the blue building), where www.beijingyoga.com have opened their new studio. The view is spectacular from the 32^nd floor and in a room painted in marshmallow orange, I attend my yoga classes three times a week. Sherry, Cisi, Cindy, three instructors, take turns in teaching me as a VIP (I am the only person attending the 07:00 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and as a treat Vijay, a lanky Indian with big, flat feet from Mysore will take my class.

I am very proud of myself. After just 4 lessons, I am able to spend a very short time in the full lotus position, have managed to press my heels down in the ‘up-dog’ asana and can do a head-stand in the middle of the floor with no assistance from a wall. I really enjoy the classes and even though, they are expensive by foreign teacher’s standards I will continue for as long as possible.

It’s a good 40-minute walk back from this SOHO to Fu Li Cheng, but at 08:15 in the morning, it’s still cool enough to be a pleasant amble.

There’s Trivial …

Beijing is the driest major city in the world. This I read in the August edition of ‘That’s Beijing’ and water restrictions have been promulgated, however, in a city with 17 million people, it’s almost impossible to implement. Car washes waste billions of cubic litres of water, not knowing that a crisis may be ensuing.

This is also one of the reasons why the government continue seeding clouds, to increase the rainfall.

Something Not So Trivial

The evening I had dinner with Jenny and Gill, we invariably spoke about hygiene and bathrooms and the squatter toilets. Gill mentioned that she had lived in Brazil for three years and was asked not to flush toilet paper, but to use the bin placed in her bathroom or cubicle. She decided that no one would ever know if she didn’t oblige and thus kept on flushing paper. When the pipes to the whole apartment became blocked, everyone knew that it was her causing this chaos and she ended up paying a heavy fine. I listened to this story and still the penny would not drop.

I have seen little paper baskets in all of the toilets here in China, but never considered not to flush loo paper. Then I notice that Rosie seems to be using the paper basket in the bathroom that we share and thought to myself that this was a little weird. Still I don’t click. Then Rosie asks me whether I flush every time having used the loo and whether I flush the paper. Unsuspecting I answer in the affirmative and she tells me that she was told that only the ‘…really dirty loo-roll…’ should be flushed. Thus, I admit, I don’t flush loo-roll every time I go anymore. Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

*deplete-intensive: I had to create this word and it means eradicably using things up. In China stuff is mass-produced-for-mass-consumption-in-record-time. Quality is not a priority, because tomorrow one buys a new bucket, glass, iron, hairdryer for a pittance.

The 4th Earl of Sandwich
On Sunday, we had a sandwich-making elective at Real Life English, from 14:00 to 15:30, and everyone, students and teachers, were entertained making their own sandwiches. This is how interesting life is in China. Did you ever consider where the idea of two or more slices of bread with a filling came from? It is named for John Montagu, who lived in the 18th century, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, an inveterate gambler who ate informally at the gaming table rather than stopping for the set meal.



Armed with a hundred slices of bread, lettuce, cucumber, ham, tomatoes, Skippy peanut butter and a few jars of jelly or jam, the students tucked in and made their own sandwiches. Many a time, I had to reprimand some of the students that peanut butter, lettuce and tomato were not meant to share the same two slices of bread.



After the sandwich-making encounter, teachers and students left for Chaoyang Park to enjoy the sunshine in a relatively pollution-free Beijing.



Below is a picture of one of the students – Alex, with his baby daughter who celebrated her 90th day on Sunday. He decided to give her an English name and asked for some suggestions. I came up with ‘Lulu-Belle’ and after we looked up the meaning – remarkable, charming woman, he felt that it was a perfect name for his perfect little girl.



Taking the Bus for the First Time
Nick and Katie, two salted, well-travelled teachers invited me to join them on their trip to Ritan Park (pronounced in a guttural ‘hrrritu park’ – see Chinese 101 below) and the flower market in Lady Street on Monday. What a relief! I didn’t have to go scouting on my own. With great excitement I met them at 08:15 at the Seven Eleven up the road from my apartment. (It makes such a difference if I get to discover with someone else – it’s less stressful and I learn so much during the experience).

A wall inside Ritan Park.



There was ulterior motive to our outing, as both of them have tai chi lessons in the park on a Wednesday and they wanted to time taking the bus as opposed to a taxi. For one kwai (Chinese collective name for money) I get to go on my first bus trip in Beijing. At least there is some sort of protocol here – one gets on at the first door and steadily moves to the back of the bus to eventually alight at the back door. Needless to say the bus is packed to beyond capacity.

Nick and Katie doing tai chi in the Grrrrr Park.



Ballroom dancing to Italian music on a Monday morning.



Ritan Park is also known for worshipping the Sun God. However, in worship to the 2006 Football World Cup, the altar has been converted into a big screen soccer spectacle. The 2006 FIFA World Cup is hot news in Beijing and pools and bets are running wild. Matches are screened at 21:00, 00:00, 03:00 and many people congregate in the park at night to pay around R20-00 for one Chinese beer, watching the game and schlurping up the atmosphere shared with like-minded football fans.



On the eve of the world cup, I purchased a baublish pair of Brazilian slip-slops. My team for the cup!



Yaxiu Market
Nick, Katie and I walked many, many kilometres to get to Yaxiu market (pronounced ‘Yashow’) and it was a real treat! Less hassled and more spacious than Silk Street, I enjoyed the relative harmony. Right at the top of the building there’s a food stall that sells anything from fried dumplings to noodles, to spicy chicken, egg plant, watery broth, freshly liquidized watermelon and of course ‘piyiou’ – beer.



A great experience as I get to walk around the entire food stall, with everyone offering toothpicks with tasty-and-not-so-tasty-morsels. The Chinese custom is to buy a few dishes and to share amongst others, getting a taste of everything.



After lunch is normally a good time to get a wax, don’t you think? And I may be over sharing …. We’re ambling along and I happen across a line of ten purple recliners, with a few of them occupied by ladies receiving manicures or pedicures and busy-bee therapists. A month in Beijing, I really needed to have my legs waxed. After a bargaining exercise, in which the price tumbles by an astronomical R80-00, a makeshift purple curtain is put up around two chairs and I am ordered to remove my pants.

A huge jar of bees wax appears out of nowhere and while I loll on my purple chair, two girls start spreading wax, covering with pieces of material, sprinkling with water and slapping the strip and then ripping. Ouch! I do feel much better though. I know what you’re thinking? What about the hygiene – well the wax was clean, the pieces of material were unsoiled and dry and I choose not to analyse too much.

Lady Street and the Flower Market
Tired, but enthusiastic, we arrive at the flower market. Isle upon isle of plants and flowers, gardening equipment and artefacts and countless aquariums.







The most exquisite marine creatures fill banks of glass tanks.



 

Fish and turtles are pets treasured in China. 

Catching the bus back from the flower market at 18:30, it was a blistering 30 degrees.  I discovered that the suburb in which I live is called ‘Double Well’, which means I live in an area which is particularly blessed. What a good thought?

Chinese 101, 101, 101 ….. Repeated
When I first had my telephonic interview with Real Life English, I expressed a desire to become proficient in Chinese as early as possible and my expectations were curbed, as I was told that it takes at least two years for someone studying Chinese full-time to become proficient. I now begin to understand why:
• Vocabulary – there are approx. 800 words (two syllables only) on the A-list which need to be mastered during the first year of study, followed by an additional 800 in year two, on the B-list. Then there are additional characters to be mastered.
• Pronunciation - is far more guttural than even Afrikaans or German, for that matter. ‘r’, which we would usually articulate as ‘are’, becomes a ‘hgrr’ – with tongue curled up, touching back palate. Words are not ‘rounded off’ and no ‘n’s’ or ‘ng’s’ are pronounced, they disappear somewhere into the great divide. An ‘e’ normally pronounced as ‘ee’, becomes an ‘uh’, so does some of the ‘i’s’. A ‘c’ becomes a ‘ts’ and there’s very little difference between ‘c’, ‘q’, ‘x’ and ‘j’. When I practice my pronunciation, I feel that there is so much more inside and I don’t have the opportunity to express, exhale, articulate. As an example, and I hope that I get the meaning across – if I’d like to say, ‘no worry’, ‘no problem’ or ‘pleasure’, the Pinyin is ‘bu ke xie’, pronounced as ‘booktsz’. See what I mean?
• Then there are the four, no, five tones, which means that one character can have at least five meanings depending on the tone used. Katie, my fellow teacher, from Chinese descent, was called in by the marketing director and told that she should really change the tone on the word 'ji’ as she kept on referring to a ‘bridge’ as a ‘chicken’.
• If all of the above sounds achievable then remember there are the characters - looming as the ides of March. If one only had to read Pinyin, it might have been an easier task, but being able to read Pinyin, does not guarantee anything. On most of the bill boards, bus routes, sub-way stations, shops, menus, catalogues, one finds only characters and no Pinyin. As a result, taxi drivers read only characters, and not Pinyin and if one wishes to descry in China, characters is the way to go.
• Now that everyone’s fired up about learning characters, here’s one more hurdle. There are some characters with as many as 17 strokes, yes, 17 strokes (brush strokes from ancient Chinese calligraphy) and there’s a certain order in which the strokes need to be plied.
As soon as I have the tones and chanting placed, I feel quite adept … and then I see a string of five or six characters and my mind wants to shift into gear and decipher, but there’s no pattern and no key. Not yet anyway.

A Homemaker and It Takes Me More Than a Month To Prepare a Home-Cooked Meal
Cancerians are known as homemakers and somehow, I had not perfected the art in South Africa and in China the trend seems to continue. It’s Tuesday evening after work (22:00) and I am as keen as a bean! About to cook my first meal at Fù Lì Chéng (fourth tone, fourth tone second tone). Rigatoni pasta with three different Barilla sauces (olive, basil, arrabiata) imported from Italy, together with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, crowned with some imported wine from Nán Fēi (Pinyin for South Africa – second tone, first tone) – a 2002 Fleur du Cap Cabernet Sauvignon. Pasta cooked on gas plate, whilst downloading David Gray. Everything is just dandy.

Dinner was absolutely delicious, eaten with chopsticks. In the month that I’ve been in China, I’ve only used a fork once and that was at a Thai restaurant. The human being’s capacity for acclimatising I beyond belief if I give it due consideration.

The Small Pleasures in Life
It’s a bunch of St. Joseph’s lilies in a vase in my room, a bowl of fruit on the table, a coffee peculator from Ikea, gurgling on the stove and the aroma of freshly brewed Lavazza espresso, finding a Moby CD on a shelf in Century Mart and speaking to loved ones on the other side of the world. These are the things that make this life extra special.

Trivialities*
1. On the 6th of June 2006 – many couples decided to get married, as here, the numbers 6 (depicting success), 8 (representing wealth) and 9 (indicting eternity) are considered good luck numbers. Rumour has it that many couples signed the legal marriage certificate on this auspicious day and reportedly, no wedding ceremony is held, but at night a big party is thrown for each of the couples.
2. During the previous week, Google mail users experienced severe disruption of service and I was one of them, as a GMail user. This was due to the Chinese government restricting access to various Google sites. Google and the Chinese government could not reach agreement as to what was meant by ‘restricting’ information. Hence the interruption. After some negotiations, services are up and running and I am fortunate to receive news from around the world.

• I can only assume responsibility for the experiential quality of the trivia above and not for the factual accuracy

Settling into a routine...
...has been incredibly hard for me. At Real Life English we teach young adults - some are still at university, but the majority has completed their studies and work during the day. They come to the academy to learn to speak English and the majority arrives from 16:00 onwards. Official work hours are from 13:30 to 21:30. By the time that I've ambled the route back to Fu Li Cheng (pronounced Foo Lee Chung), it's almost 22:00 and often I have to buy water or an emergency bottle of red wine, by which time its 23:00 and I don't feel like sleeping, so I catch up on mail, browse a bit, practice my Chinese (more later), prepare for the next day or read the one (of two) English books that I had brought along. Thus lights out at B1 515 is around 01:00. Maybe it's those early cycling mornings or maybe just the sparrow in me, but I wake up at 06:00 and even though I would love to sleep 'till 11:00, I get up at 08:00 and arrive at work just after 09:00.

It's Saturday evening here, as I'm starting to write this missive, but it's actually my Friday. I have Sundays and Mondays off. So, tomorrow morning I can sleep until I've made up all of those lost hours. zzzzz......

Afrikaners is plesierig - even in Beijing
Their names are Alana and Dries, from George and Stellenbosch and they are studying Chinese at the academy. They've been in China for two months and plan to return to South Africa in December, but would really like to stay. Maybe, they will. When Alana approached me, we spoke the first sentence in English and then immediately switched over to Afrikaans. She invited me to a - can you believe it! - potjiekoskompetisie with the rest of the South Africans, but it was the weekend that I had planned to go to Datong. Hopefully, I get to meet my fellow country people soon. Oh yes! There's a Chinese man who makes boerewors and according to Dries, it looks quite weird to see Chinese characters on the packet, but he says it tastes like the real thing. Then, there's an old lady who bakes rusks and I would sell my soul for some of her rusks. (Even if they don't come close to Tannie Lenie's;-)

Easy-peasy-not-so-Chinesy
Beginner's class survival Chinese: Every Tuesday from 10:00 - 12:00. My teacher cannot speak a word of English and in the first lesson I learnt how to greet in single and plural from and I also learnt about the 4, but actually 5 tones in Chinese.
1.  high pitch
2.  mid-high pitch (rising)
3.  middle pitch with a dip
4.  low, sort pitch (like a bark)
5.  no tone

Depending on the tone used the word takes on a totally different meaning. In class, one would do well to sing along as this is the way that the Chinese speak. My vocabulary has expanded to around 10 words and I only have to do 1.3 billion more. Just joking, but that's how it feels. (One of my fellow teachers gave me a good tip. She decided to first learn all the words related to food, so that she could eat and from there proceeded. Good idea!)

Pronunciation was the difficult bit, right? No. Once you are able to master the tones, you have to be able to draw the picture or character. And, there's a certain order to each brush / pen stroke. I have a magnitude of learning to do. There are two ways in which to write Chinese, - well actually more, as there are characters for simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and then Pinyin, which uses western characters to describe the Chinese characters. For now, I ask all of my students to write words in Pinyin, so that I can read and then (hopefully) understand. phew! Blood, sweat and tears.

Chinese calligraphy
For the 4 weeks, on a Friday, I become the scholar of a Mr. Wood, famous and published Chinese calligrapher. According to our Director of Studies (DOS), he is a really famous man in China. So, while he tells me about the 4 (and there are actually 5) treasures of calligraphy, I correct his English. Can you guess what the treasures are?
1. Brush:
Tip made from horse, sheep or weasel hair and stem from bamboo or cow horn.
2. Paper
Made from rice and you find them in varying quality. The softer the whisper, when you ruffle it and the smoother the texture, the better the quality. Absorbency also plays a role. The quicker the paper absorbs the wet ink, the better the quality.
3. Ink
Made from the soot of pine or nut burnings. Shaped into an ink stick, which is ornately decorated with, for instance, a golden dragon. Modern calligraphers use liquid ink and miss out on the opportunity to blend the ink zen-style in an ink stone. A good-quality ink stick will last a calligrapher a lifetime. The ink is normally black.
4. Ink Stone
A bowl-like stone used to collect water and in which the ink stone is rhythmically moved until the ink is dark enough.
5. Seal, Stamp or Chap
Carved from Jade, Amber or a similar stone and serves as the calligrapher's signature on a piece of art. Normally seen as the red square in the lower right hand corner of picture. Below is Mr. Wood's seal. There are 4 characters and they literally translate into 'I am nothing', which he explained was a form of humility, also meaning that there is more space in which learning may take place.



I was the only teacher who attended this class and it was a wonderful experience, akin to a two-hour meditation. I had the opportunity to hold my brush and dip it in the ink and wrote my Chinese name for Mr. Wood in ink and he seemed quite impressed with my knack, However, he corrected my posture. In order to live a long life, one has to sit upright.

I have a name!
During the course of my fist week's teaching, one of the students asked whether I had a Chinese name. No?! So I had to find one. There is a Chinese teacher called Jasmine and I asked her to kindly give me a Chinese name. It is quite the done thing here in Beijing. A student may arrive at the academy with only a Chinese name and then ask his or her English teacher to christen them with an English name. Jasmine thought about my request for a day and then came up with the following: zhu cui shan

In China, everyone is known, first and foremost, by their family name, followed by their fist name, hence my - zhu cui shan

Draper = zhu: this is quite a famous family name in China and I believe that there was an emperor called 'zhu'. it also means 'red'.
Patricia = cui shan: two words which mean 'green' and 'coral'. Here students have struggled to pronounce 'Patricia', wanting to sound the 'c' as a 'k'. So , 'cui' sounds like the 'sh' and 'shan' sounds like the last syllable 'sha'. Whenever they get the pronunciation right, try invariably go: 'Oh, Russian name ....?'

I m quite delighted with my name 'Red Green Coral' and will use it during my stay here, I have shown you the Pinyin script and there are three characters which I need to remember before I can write it in simplified Chinese.   I'm working on that.

Did you say sosatie?
Wednesday evenings are traditionally the evenings that the teachers go out to dinner together. 15 minute walk from Fu Li Cheng is THE dingiest alley you have ever seen! Lo and behold, this is where teachers meet, around 22:15, to share dinner together. Negotiating the way to this alley is quite treacherous as there are road works everywhere and as I leave the hum-drum of the traffic behind, I smell braaivleis on Sunday afternoon. But, it was not to be. You choose a sticky table outside a fluorescent lit room and order 'zhuan', pronounced in French 'twoir' . Crazy, I agree. So what is twoir? Rat meat on a wooden skewer, roasted, salted peanuts, cucumber in wine vinegar and 'stokbrood'. Did I say rat meat? It certainly looks like it, but my students convinced me today that it is mutton or lamb. Would you trust them?

My fellow teachers seem to be on a much reduced budget and every conversation centers around the amount of 'kwai' paid for an outing or an item. To put things in perspective then, rat sosaties, stick bread, roasted, salted peanuts, cucumber in wine vinegar and some noodles, plus a few beers only cost R15,00. If you're hungry, have a big appetite and you're not too fussed about the true origins of the ingredients, China is the place for you!

Another fist, which for me is more palatable is apple and peanut butter. Thin slices of apple with smidgen or dollop of peanut butter is delicious. Try it! (Not a Chinese tradition, but one of the American teachers has it for tea every afternoon).

Teacher's social event
Earlier this evening, the teachers had a social gathering sponsored by the academy and the venue was 'BIG PIZZA' somewhere in sprawling Beijing, 'Oh Col' Cacchio how I love thee'. At Big Pizza, pizza slices are offered buffet style with labels like: 'Fruit Sensation', 'Baby's Delight' and 'Thousand Island Holiday' and no one is divulging the ingredients of these flavoursome pizzas, Shucks!! In China, they also have the concept of 'low fat' and below is the label used to describe the 'lighter' version.



Have you read the ' Da Vinci Code'?
The movie was released here on Thursday evening and reviews were not great, The interesting thing is that movie tickets are sold at different prices depending on where you sit. The most expensive tickets will sell for around R80,00. The next morning one is able to buy the DVD for R5,00. So movies don't seem to be as big in China

Exploring the Houhai district
On Monday morning, after having slept for about 24 hours, I felt suitably revived to explore beyond Fu Li Cheng; and to tell the truth, I was so home sick that I would have committed hari kiri (I think it's Japanese, but hopefully you get the meaning), if I had to stay indoors one more day.

It was a beautiful, bright day in Beijing, re-promising the arrival of Spring. A friend of mine at Real Life English had given me an 'info pack' with a few maps and magazine cuttings to suggested areas and shops and I decided to explore the Houhai district. My intention was to go to a bookstore called 'The Bookworm', but I could not find the directions or address and Houhai seemed like a good spot. However, and there' always a however in Chin, I did not notice that Houhai was mainly a bar / food district. (I did not notice this, until I was in Houhai). Exploring at midday heralded not quite what I expected, but I had fun and was delighted at my map-reading skills.

I caught a taxi outside of Fu Li Cheng and all that's required is a map or the address written in simple Chinese and you're away! I had asked to be dropped off at the Starbucks. Coffee is a prized drink over here and costs more than a beer! So after my latte, I ambled down Houhai and found this man, making characters from sugar (caramel). He wanted to sell me one, but, again, he had just blown into the mouse, so, how could I eat it!???



A sign with some Chinglish.



I thought that baobab trees were only found in Africa, but I was wrong.



Some ancient Chinese playing dominoes next to the Hai Bei lake.



I wandered into the 'Vanilla Tea Shop' and while browsing the sales lady asked if she could make me some tea. I accepted and this is a picture of her, completing the ceremony. I bought some black (sweet) and Jasmine tea for R150-00, and it was worth it.



I decided to ask a rickshaw to take me to a Sichuan restaurant (very spicy food) only to discover that the restaurant would be closed until 17:00 and it was 15:00. So, I jumped on another rickshaw to deliver me back to Lotus Lane, where I had started from. Instead of a spicy Sichuan lunch, I had roasted, salted peanuts. Note the chopsticks on the plate, for that is the way in which one eats peanuts in China!



Trivialities*
1. The hygiene thing again. At Real Life English our cups and glasses are washed in the ladies toilets. There is no such thing as a kitchen in the building we work in.  (The Yuk- factor is almost off the scale and I don't need to entertain you any further.)
2. Many Chinese walking or cycling about wear the surgical masks used in the medical drama soap operas. Another minority just hold their hands in front of their mouths while walking, cycling or driving.

* I can only assume responsibility for the experiential quality of the trivia above and not for the factual accuracy

PS. I am concerned by the lack of trivialities. Does it mean that I am being integrated into China and that I don't find things odd anymore?

A weekend away from Beijing
It's mid May and spring has suddenly arrived in Beijing! The maximum temperature today was 30 degrees centigrade and the air-conditioning systems are not very reliable in our Soho building.

I spent he weekend away from the swirling mass of humanity and took a trip by train and bus to Datong. Datong is the energy hub for the whole of China, as it is responsible for producing most of the coal to provide in China's energy demands.

Datong is situated around 380 kilometers north of Beijing in the Shanxi province and was founded 200 BC by the Han dynasty. The 380 kilometers are covered by train in six hours.

When was the last time you travelled on a train?
...... and I don't mean the Blue Train. There are three different classes in which can travel by train in Asia:
Seated - travellers sit 4 side-by-side, with no opportunity to lie down to sleep – the least expensive option;
Hard sleeper - cabins have six beds - three bunk beds on each side and there is no door to ensure privacy – at around R65-00, this is quite cheap;
Soft sleeper - cabins contain four beds and have a sliding door that provides privacy – haven’t done it, so I don’t know how much.

Our group of twenty travellers to Datong boarded the train at 23:30 and was allocated carriage nine, which was a hard sleeper. 15 minutes after departure, lights were called and darkness descended on a group of people sleeping in their finest travelling gear. No time was allowed to change into pyjamas or even brush teeth.

There’s a dichotomy in travelling hard sleeper – the gentle rocking of the train wants to lull the traveller into blissful sleep, but the snoring, coughing and just the close proximity of a stranger wants one to sleep with eyes wide shut.

Below is a picture of the hard sleeper as travellers are waking up the following morning



We arrived in Datong at 07:00 the next morning and was carted away in a luxury bus to the Datong Hotel **** (four stars), which was built in the late sixties. During that time capitalism was not as popular as in recent times and I was surprised at the splendour that the communist government allowed.

This picture shows the enormous number of trees that are being planted in China


I have to remark on the hygiene that I have experienced to date and I guess that this is a subject which may become a regular feature in my journal. It seems as if the Chinese are not as hygienic as that which I have come accustomed to. One is very blessed to find a 'western' toilet in most of the towns and certainly on the train there was no such thing. In stead, you'll find a 'pooper' or a 'squatter', which basically translates into a hole in the floor and one just has to ..... squat! Toilet paper is a sheer luxury and everyone carries tissue with them. Choosing a restaurant or a place to eat has very little to do with the food, but rather with ‘how clean’ the restaurant is.

Almost all of the foreigners carry waterless sanitizing gel or wipes and use it to clean tables, bottles and cans. In our party was an American who had a collection of toothbrushes that she had accidentally used under tap water and she’ll not put them in her mouth. A bit extreme, maybe?

The Hanging Monastery
Against the Hengshan mountains the hanging Buddhist temple teeters precariously. It was built in 491 and has survived more than 1400 years. It can only be viewed until 11:00 in the morning, at which time the sun disappears behind the mountains and it is concealed in shade.




How could a building like this withstand the winds and storms of so many years? The Hanging Monastery is an architectural wonder. A unique mechanical theory was applied to building the framework. Crossbeams were half-inserted into the rock as the foundation, while the rock at the back became its support. Seen from below, Hanging Monastery appears to be a tumbled-down castle in the air.

The second attraction of the Hanging Monastery is that it includes Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism – the three major religions in China. Inside the monastery, the sculptures of Sakyamuni, Confuscious and Laotzu appear together, which is unusual.

Why build a monastery like this? Location is the first reason; building a monastery on the cliff would shield it from floods. In addition, the mountain peak protects it from rain and snow; and the mountain around it also limits damage from exposure to the sunshine. The second reason is that the builders followed a principle in Taoism: no noises, including those from rooster crowing and dog baying; so from the upper ground, all noises drop away. (The previous sentence is what is generally referred to as ‘Chinglish’ and I copied it from a Chinese travel website. It gives you an idea of the English I get to read in China.)

The day before we arrived, it had rained in Datong and as a result it was freezing! The maximum temperature on Saturday was 12 degrees centigrade and there was a sniping wind howling cross the valley. In the week leading up to our trip, it had reached 29 degrees centigrade! An example of the extremes (and I’m not only referring to the weather) one can experience here.

The wooden pagoda
The Yingxian Wooden Pagoda was built in 1056, the oldest wooden Buddhist pagoda in existence and is located in the town of Yingxian 75km south of Datong. At a height of 67 meters the pagoda is a nine storey octagonal building and was constructed without using any nails.



Seen from the outside there are only 5 storeys, however, between each visible storey is a hidden level, only occupied by certain monks. When climbing the wooden stairs, I realised just how tiny some of these monks must have been as the trap door openings and stairs are really small.

A hutong in Datong
Hutongs (Chinese: 胡同; Pinyin: hútong) are narrow throughways, often alleys, most prominently present in Beijing.

The pictures below speak the thousand words …..

Fish are kept alive in the tin container and slaughtered as people buy them. The tin bath also contained some dead, floating fish, which I suppose was sold for less.



Vegetables are sold on the side of the road, and as you can see, are of excellent quality



Those are rabbit heads, marinated in five spices and the chef was starting to warm them up on a coal fire.



And then we discover a coffee shop!
At the end of the hutong, we found a 'Coffee & Tea House'. Decent coffee is a sheer luxury here in China and the aroma of a rich, deep, dark, Italian coffee will still stir a passion within.

Below is a group of gentlemen enjoying a tea ceremony



Coffee shop or pleasure palace? (The entrance to the Coffee House).



A group of us was shown into a room, like a lounge or 'voorkamer' - couches and coffee table in the centre and we were shown a menu to select drinks from. We decided to be spendthrift and ordered coffee at RMB68-00 (R55-00) per cup. I must say, it was delicious! mmmmmmm...

The Yungan Grottos
Located at the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain some 16 km west of Datong City the Yungang Grottoes were built against the mountain and extend about 1 km from east to west. The construction of the caves was started in 453 and took 50 years to complete. Some 40,000 people, contributed to the huge project.

The 53 grottoes in Yungang Grottos include some 1,000 niches with about 51,000 statues – a treasure-trove of cave art that combines traditional Chinese art forms with foreign influence, particularly Greek and Indian.



Many Buddhist monks come to worship the largest Buddha in the world. The front of the cave gave way to expose this structure. With incense sticks burning and the essences swirling in the early morning sun, Buddhists with their Tibetan bells tinkling, it has an aura of deep reverence. But this spell broken by the loud, tonal baying of a Chinese travel guide, herding his or her group around the grottos.



It is such an interesting world and I recount the finer points, which can only be known by an 'insider' in China J

Trivialities*
The air is extremely dry in Beijing and therefore layers and layers of body butter are required. Visitors and residents should all consume extra water in order to rehydrate. (This is actually a note to me.)
The Chinese people put cosmetic whitener in most of their shower gels to ensure that their skins remain alabaster in the scorching Beijing sun. Ladies cycle around with peaks on their heads, full-face masks and elbow length opera gloves.
There is at least one cobbler in Beijing that will create a pair of shoes from a picture for RMB40-00 (R30-00). Good-bye Kenneth Cole, Prada and Timberland! Some of my fellow teachers have ordered these shoes and I’ll report back.
The Chinese are changing the weather patterns by planting hundreds of millions of trees outside of Beijing - mostly poplars and fruit trees. This is very interesting as water is a very scarce resource in most of China.
In China there is a subtle, but indisputable hierarchy - even on the road, there is a pecking order which cannot be ignored, i.e. busses, cars, taxi's, cyclists and then pedestrians have right of way. And in that order. Buses drive in the middle of the road and do not swerve for anything.
Pedestrians and cyclists never make eye contact with drivers, because, in the event of an accident, the pedestrian or cyclist will have to assume responsibility for the accident.
In the morning one sees ladies, mostly the older ones, walking backwards, in the parks. The goal is twofold: Exercise and also to balance the yin and the yang. Normal perambulation (walking forward every day) is considered a female activity, whilst walking backwards is the male counterpart.
Ooooh! Ice cream. Spring and summer in Beijing is time for ice cream - flavours like Green bean, Red bean and Maize ice creams seem to be favoured above chocolate, orange ice and vanilla.

* I can only assume responsibility for the experiential quality of the trivia above and not for the factual accuracy