Kathy & Paul's Adventures Abroad

Park your bike for the day for .3 RMB or 5 cents. Ride the subway anywhere in the city for 2 RMB or 34 cents.

Lots of housing – the photo of these homes was taken at Lishuiqias Station in the northern area of Beijing. This area has many undeveloped sections in comparison to the rest of the city.

Trees, streets and sidewalks go in first before the building. The building site is surrounded by mesh to contain construction debris. This is a small part of a larger project shown in the advertisement.

Coal plays an important role in China. This housing complex uses coal as a heat source.

I love this photo! In the background you can see the encroaching city. This photo reminds me of another photo from Newfoundland, Canda, our home province. A photo of a single small house on a rocky shoreline with blankets blowing in the breeze. No matter who you are or where you are the laundry has to be done.

In my four months in Beijing this is the only graffiti I’ve seen. It was out of sight behind a building.

Friday night we went out to dinner with friends at a local hutong.
Back row- Doris, Alexander, Anthony
Front row- Paul, Dave, Justin, Kathy

We arrive.

The Reception Area

The Menu


Air is injected under the skin so it turns crispy.

The Cooks

The Meal

Carving the duck is an art.

The cook started carving duck at fifteen and he is now twenty-eight. There are 109 exact cuts on each duck. We had three ducks with the fixings and three or four side dishes.

The Trip Home on the Subway

Saturday Afternoon
Mike and I went to lunch before going to Mixed Martial Arts – Art of War Tournament (www.mmachina.com)

After lunch we went to the Olympic Sports Centre to see the tournament, which is open to all disciplines.

This photo shows two crane or boom cameras. There are several ceiling-mounted cameras and during each match I saw four hand-held cameras and cameramen. This TV productions rivals any Vegas spectacle. It is broadcast weekly to 200 million homes in China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Macau – an audience that any MMA organization in the west would love to have.

A Canadian, Vaughn Anderson (who is very well liked in China) won in his weight class. He defeated Ivan Ivanov from Bulgaria with a TKO at 3 minutes,39 seconds into the first round. He received a five foot long cheque and a trophy for his efforts in the super welterweight division.

Sunday

On Sunday Kathy and I left early to get my sister a Christmas gift. We headed back down to the Pearl Market but when we got there we discovered that there was another huge store just behind Toy City, which is not even marked by a sign. We decided to check it out and bought some great gifts and other items at even better prices than the Pearl Market. It seemed to be a store where more local people shopped and less tourists.

After about two hours of shopping we made our way back on the subway, picked up our bikes at the station and arrived at the hotel at about five o’clock, just as it was getting dark.

In Beijing buying a home would be the equivalent of buying a condominium in North America, and the majority of people live in high-rise apartment buildings. There are single family homes in the hutongs and in the countryside,but the hutongs in Beijing are rapidly disappearing. Unlike North America Beijing’s growth is mostly upwards. Instead of more and more subdivisions Beijing is building more and more high-rises. Friends of ours tell us the same thing is happening in most major Chinese cities whereas change comes slowly in the countryside. We live on the tenth floor of a twelve storey building which is not large by Beijing standards.

On my bike ride this morning I took some photos that I hope will help explain where the people live here.

These lane-ways are called hutongs and they are formed by several walled homes arranged in a quadrangle around a central courtyard. At one time these laneways covered large areas of the city.

About a month ago I saw about thirty men working here recycling brick and other building materials – very little is wasted.

These apartments or homes are on the opposite side of the street from where the hutong is being demolished. In just a short time the demolished area will look like this.

This building is not finished yet and you can still see the exterior wall of the old hutong that remains standing.

This is the bike shop where I got my bike pedal fixed. the three wheeled bike with tires and the box is the entire store. Ten days ago it was cold and snowing when he fixed my bike. Today he has another customer – the three wheeled bike on the stool with the missing wheel. He is off to the left fixing a tire.

It’s not uncommon to see people working right on the sidewalk. They don’t know the phrase “can’t be done.”

Older-style homes(condos) that originally replaced the hutongs.

The older homes are only six stories – small compared to their high-rise neighbours.

Located in the south east of Beijing near subway station Tiantandongmen, the Pearl Market is similar to the Silk Market. Next door to it is Toy City which our grandkids will be glad we found. Here is where Kathy started to show some real haggling skills. She began slowly but it was like a dam broke and out of nowhere a haggler appeared. After a trial run at Toy city I went with my newly-found haggler to the big time – the Pearl Market!!

This market had everything from kids’ watches for 15 RMB ($2.00) to pearl necklaces for 125,000 RMB ($20,000). With Kathy’s newly acquired haggling skills we got most of our Christmas shopping completed in an afternoon. I was very proud of her – she held her own with seasoned sales people and I believe we did very well.

I think we are finally beginning to understand the haggling game even though haggling is serious business – serious as in a person’s livelihood. This haggling allows both seller and buyer to enjoy the game. By the end of the day arriving at a final price usually involved lots of laughing and joking. We really did enjoy ourselves!

In one of Kathy’s haggling sessions I said without thinking or premeditation “That sounds good.” If looks could kill I’d be finished! In the world of haggling this is the ultimate treason. I was later informed by Kathy that when she is haggling I should leave or at least fade into the background. I’m okay with this because I’m tired of the salespeople verbally beating up on me and taking my money!!