Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

I’m traveling home (= Cincinnati) tomorrow for the holidays and will return to Beijing on January 5th 2008. So my blog will go quiet for the next few weeks. To all my readers, I wish you the best of luck for 2008. I want to thank all of you for your encouraging and supportive messages. I have experienced some truly unique travel moments over the last 5 months but it is the friendships and the connections that I’m creating also through this blog and e-mails that I will cherish the most. I wish you all a prosperous, healthy and peaceful 2008. I’m attaching some pictures of an early Xmas celebration I was able to join in the Sichuan province last week. Looking forward to keep the blog alive next year.

Having a little bit of fun

fearsome warrior ?

Don't be fooled... toasting is a serious thing... it's all about showing respect ...a dinner or lunch can easily be interrupted a dozen times for a toast...as you see you even toast to the waitresses

I've asked if they had handcuffs... but they didn't

We all know that business travels can be stressful (delayed flights, long hours in the factories, lack of sleep, late dinners, etc), so whenever there is a chance to joke around, I’m game. I’ve found it also a perfect ice breaker and an excellent way to get to know the people. In the spirit of “going with the flow”, I’ve done my fair share of karaoke, toasting, costume dressing, playing arrested, etc… Enjoy some pictures.

What's on the menu?

Pig Tongue


Snake

There is no such thing as Chinese food. With a country as vast as China and with over a billion people, there are so many food varieties as you can imagine. There is however one truth: everything can be eaten. Over the last week, I’ve added to my check list of new-foods-eaten: snake, fried scorpions and pig tongue. Snake was not too bad, it tasted like eel. Fried scorpions were like eating unpeeled shrimp. The pig tongue? My Chinese host said it would help me speak better Chinese. I had to swallow it with a good dose of green tea. You get the picture.

Fengdu: ghost town

While traveling in the Sichuan province, I was invited to go and visit the ghost town of Fengdu. On the bank of the Yangtze River and on the Minshan Mountain, you will find series of temples that were build in the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD). The place is a representation of Chinese hell mythology. It depicts through statues, paintings and gates, the journey the dead need to take. Incorporating ideas from Taoism and Buddhism as well as traditional Chinese folk religion, Fengdu is a kind of purgatory place. Here you will be judged for your earthly (mis)deeds. At each gate or temple, you’ll have to reflect on what you have done and either a reward or punishment is waiting the dead. The Chinese folk version of the final judgment! Being on this spiritual mountain, I did follow the local customs and made some prayers and offerings according to some Taoism and Buddhist traditions.

under the weather

I was planning to keep it easy this weekend and stay in my apartment for most of the weekend. I wanted to catch up on some reading, writing, laundry, etc. I spend so little time at “home” that I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own place. Unfortunately, I had no choice as flu-like symptoms are getting the best of me. Somehow my body is telling me to take it easy and slow down. So I’m breaking new sleeping records as I slept most of Saturday. I didn’t know one could sleep so many hours. I’m drinking plenty of fluids (green tea), stuff myself with vitamin C so that by Monday morning, I’m hoping to feel much better. So far no fever yet. I do have a full week of traveling coming up with trips to Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chongqing next week. The weather in Beijing is getting colder and greyer. The winter here seems to be a little different than in North America or Europe. In addition to frigid temperatures, the air is dry and dusty. The coldest month in Beijing is January with average of minus 6-7 degrees Celsius or about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. People and especially cyclists are layering up to stay warm. In the gym I started to notice that most Chinese men are starting to wear long underwear, no luxury if the freezing wind is blowing in your face. I hibernated my bike in late October and solely rely on taxis (or walking) for transportation. When I’m not traveling across the country, I’m still going to the spinning classes 3-4 times a week. I can call myself a regular now and started to get to know a few people. There is Ned, a chubby student from New Jersey that is here to learn Chinese and lately shows up a few times a week ; there is Chil, a designer working for Lenovo from New Zealand but with Chinese parents and a few Korean girls from California here to learn Chinese as well. Most of the times, I’m still the only white guy in the room and by far the oldest. Although with grey hair and 40 years of age, I can still kick it and teach those young students a few things. Chris will know what I’m talking about. Last week, I approached one of the teachers and asked him to e-mail me one of the songs I got to like but I’m not sure if he understood what I wanted. Although I asked Ned to translate, even Ned was not sure if his Chinese was adequate to convey the request. It was a slow song in a Tibetan-like language, perfect to wind down at the end of the class. I gave him my business card but I’m still waiting to receive that e-mail. I might have to try again. Right now, I'm going to sleep a little more. To be continued.

To eat or not to eat

With Nele being a food engineer, we certainly were not going to miss checking out some colorful food stalls. Yes, you are seeing it correctly. Those are scorpions, centipedes, cockroaches, silkworms, etc…ready to be grilled on a stick, on the spot, on the go. We politely declined to taste those. I know, I know, I have been going with the flow the last 4 months and done amazing things but I do have my limits. The visual experience was enough this time. LOL

Discovering Beijing along side my little sis

Did I tell you already that I’m having a great time in Beijing? You probably figured that one out already by just reading my blog. However, everything you've read pales against the great time I had with my sister Nele this weekend in Beijing. You see, my little sis works for a food company and needed to audit some food factories nearby Beijing. Yes, Beijing of all places. I'm a lucky man, I know. Needless to say that I was thrilled to learn that she would spend a weekend with me. So we toured the classics such as the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, etc… but it was also totally awesome to just sit down and cherish a drink with little sis in a local Thai restaurant. Actually, little sis, is not really little. At 1.82 m and with blond hair, I had no issues spotting her in the crowd. Being tall myself (1.90 m), we were both literately sticking out the crowds. Imagine the view of the two of us together, so funny. However, with the winter approaching fast, the crowds of local and international tourists are thinning fast. It is also getting cold already in Beijing with temperatures below freezing at night. Sometimes felt we had the place (such as the Great Wall) for ourselves. I've been to the Wall serveral times now but it is never getting old. Each time, was during a different season, with different people, making each trip unique. We also had an incredible blue sky on Sunday, so we took picture after picture. Enjoy some below. I will cherish these moments forever.

Tibetan Night

When we arrived at our hotel is Wolong, we were greeted by two ladies dressed in a traditional Tibetan-looking costume. We all got a silk scarf and a little glass with liquor for a toast. That evening we also participated in roasting a whole sheep, made a fool of ourselves during karaoke, learned a few Tibetan folk dances, and tasted some more local strong drinks. Not a bad way to relax during the weekend.

Road to Wolong

After three months of cities, factories and airports, it was a dramatic change of scenery when we headed into the mountains towards Wolong to see the pandas. The air is fresh, the water is clean. China has beautiful national parks in the Sichuan province and worth a trip. The roads are still under construction and after a rainy day, quite muddy and slippery so it becomes a little bit of an adventure but at the end it was all worth it.

China Road

Last week, I went back to The Bookworm for another book talk. This time I listened to a lecture by Rob Gifford who wrote China Road, a book based upon his radio series for NPR that took him on a 4800 km hitchhiking trip across the country. He started in Shanghai and went all the way to China’s border with Kazakhstan. Along the way he interviewed and documented his encounters with Chinese farmers, Taoist monks, Uigyhr separatists, etc,… Rob mentioned that writing the book was not too difficult because there is so much happening in China that Woody Allen’s saying; “showing up is 80% of the work” rang true. I feel the same about my blog sometimes: no shortage of ideas to write about and even if I leave out any stories about all my adventures in the office. Rob started his trip as an optimist but claimed to have returned as a pessimist because of the fact that in rural China you are getting confronted with the 800 million people who still live in poverty, with the rampant corruption, with the huge environmental problems, with the widening gap between the poor and wealthy, etc,.. Did you know that there are more millionaires in China than in the US? However, he also acknowledges that over the last few decades the government had lifted 400 million people out of poverty and into the middle class. When asked to compare China with India, he agreed that he still would rather be farmer in China than in India. We all know that China is facing some huge challenges but I tend to believe that China will pull this off. The people (total Chinese population is more than 1.2 billion) are very optimistic, very entrepreneurial, very motivated, very hungry for knowledge, very driven to pursue a better life, very hard working, etc… many things I wished to see more at home in the US or Europe. We could learn from them as much as they are learning from us, but we better do it fast.

How to hug a panda?

From the city of Chengdu, a three hour bumpy car ride into the Qionglai Mountains (Sichuan Province) will bring you to the Wolong natural reserve. In collaboration with the WWF, Wolong houses the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. The Center has over 100 pandas (= more than 70% of the world’s captive ones) and is the world largest semi-wild breeding farm. Less than 2000 pandas are believed to be living in the wild. This time of the year, the park is almost deserted and as such the local workers and volunteers have plenty of time for you. I had the incredible and once in-a life-time opportunity to go behind the scenes and touch, hug, wrestle, almost kiss the pandas. You have to see the pictures to believe it. At one time, a panda hugged me from behind (meaning he wrapped his right arm around me and his left paw on my left shoulder), I didn’t see him or her coming and I needed the help of a keeper to get free. The panda just wanted to play but I wasn’t so sure. The panda are so huggable but at the end they are still bears. Surprisingly their fur is not as soft as I expected but boy do they look cute. I’m a little in shock and still cannot believe it myself that I actually hugged a panda. This is by far the highlight of all my adventures in China. I took over 250 pictures, just couldn’t stop taking them but then the feeling of touching a panda cannot be captured in a picture or words. I wished many of you were there with me to experience it, especially my son Andreas who has a life long obsession with pandas.

a day in the park (ctd)

This couple was dancing so elegantly, so romantic. I hesitated to take pictures as I didn't want to be intrusive but then they had only eyes for each other.


These men could play, lot's of instruments I had never seen before.

Later in the afternoon, I walked upon the sax player. My feet were hurting form the walking, so I decided to sit on a bench and he started playing the most beautiful tunes I had ever heard. This one is for my son Andreas who also plays the sax now.

A day in the park

reading the newspaper in the park

card games: one group after another

the game of Mahjong

group singing and top class

To get to know the Chinese people, there is no better way than to take a walk in a public park on a sunny weekend. Parks are the place where the locals gather to relax and socialize and where you will see:

• Kites: a major hobby for all ages and made of beautiful designs such as dragons, lions, fishes, eagles, Buddha’s…
• Board games such as mahjong (like gin rummy) and card games
• Ballroom street dancing: somebody brings along a boom box and people start to dance the waltz, the foxtrot, the polka,…mostly older people are dancing but the group forms spontaneously and can be easily in the hundreds.
• Singing: again somebody start to play an instrument and signs and before you know hundreds are singing along and easily you can find a similar group a few hundred feet away doing the same.
• If you walk to the outskirts of the park, you will find smaller groups playing music or practicing martial arts or Tai chi.
• People are also bringing their caged songbirds to the park and hang them in the trees so the birds sing at the background while the owner has a casual conversation with his buddies.

Just the type of experience you might miss when you are a typical tourist on a whirlwind 2-day tour through the city but which are a such an intrinsic part of Chinese life and it is those memories that I will cherish forever.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven refers to a large park complex that houses several buildings: a large, marble sacrificial altar, the famous three story hall of Prayer, the smaller Imperial Vault of Heaven and several smaller ancillary buildings. It is at the Temple of Heaven that the Emperor (= the Son of Heaven) would make sacrifices, communicate with the gods and pray for a good harvest. Common people were not allowed to enter the Temple during the Ming and Qing dynasties but nowadays it is a major tourist attraction. The park surrounding the buildings is crowded with local Chinese people who come to relax, to play cards, to play music, to dance, to sing, to walk, to exercise, …Of the Top 10 places to visit in Beijing (according to one of my tour guides) only two are left on my to-do-list: Bei Hai Park and the Ming Tombs. Although many local friends have told me that the latter is not too impressive. Here is the full list in no particular order: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tian’an Men Square, Lama Temple, Bei Hai Park, Hou Hai Park, Summer Palace, 798 Art District, Ming Tombs, Great Wall of China

For sure, at the end of my stay in Beijing, I’ll have my own personal top 10 ready.

Turning on the heat

The weather is quickly turning cold here in Beijing. Last week we had several mornings with temperatures below freezing point. I’m one of the lucky ones as my apartment complex turned on the heat on November 1. For the rest of Beijing, heating officially starts on November 15. Some of my colleagues are toughening it out at home for another two weeks. For many of us, it would be hard to imagine that you cannot simply turn on the heat at your home. It makes me appreciate the little things even more. The government supplies the heat to most of the residential areas and if the temperature of your room is below 16 degrees, you can call the Beijing Heating Group to complain. In Beijing most of the heating is coal-fired but the city is trying to double the use of natural gas by 2010 in a switch to a more eco-friendly energy system. The cold weather also puts people indoors for exercising. The gym I’m frequenting for spinning class is then also packed with people. However, I can still see people practicing their tai chi in the public parks or in front of their appartment complex. Some groups are very large, over 100 people, lead by a master. Tai chi is a form a slow motion martial arts. It aims at promoting health and longevity while focusing on the internal power. To me it seems to be a combination of yoga meditation and stretching exercises. One day I’ll give it a try as it is also being taught in my gym, just to experience it. Occasionally I see a man in a park walk backwards but even in a gym on a treadmill I have seen it done. I stopped wondering why people do it that way. They move as they see fit and I discovered another reason why this city and its culture are so fascinating.

Half way: trick or treat?

Today marks the mid point of my stay in Beijing. My assignment is supposed to last 6 months and the first three months have passed so fast that it is hard to believe. Beijing and China is undergoing such a rapid transformation that everything seems to moves a little faster here, even time. There is an eclectic energy in the air that is very addictive: a country full of movers and shakers, full of opportunities and challenges, full of surprises, full of great people eager to learn and to explore, full of contrasts, full of opposites, full of dreamers, full of hopes… you get the picture. I had the opportunity to travel a little and see some amazing places but at the end the most memorable experiences will be the ones where I connected (successfully or otherwise) with the local people. I took as much pictures as I could but still the experiences are best shared in stories. So expect some more stories to be posted on this blog for the remaining three months. My treat.

Shi Cha Hai park

Sunday afternoon, I took a stroll through one of Beijing's parks that has not been discovered yet by too many tourists. It certainly did remind me of my hometown Bruges: stone bridges, weeping willow trees, ponds with ducks, etc... It had rained the night before and there was a strong (chilly) wind creating one of those rare days of clean air. A perfect day to walk and observe and to take pictures. I dipped my hand in the water and it was freezing cold. There is a reason the guy in the picture reading a book was warmly dressed, but that didn't scare a dozen people to take a dip into the lake. I could only think about a hot chocolate drink when I watched a few cross the lake.