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.