Panjiayuan Market and Ritan Park

Saturday 29th March

Today was the first day of Spring Break. Thy and I took the subway to Panjiayuan Antique Market. The subway was so crowded (weekends seem to be the worst) and we were squished up like sardines. People push and shove to get on and off - it's really every man for himself on the subway!

The market was absolutely fantastic (Thy wasn't overly impressed), selling all kinds of bits and pieces - art work, clothes, embroidery, jewelry, ceramics, communist memorabilia, etc. It has a great atmosphere but you have to bargain very hard - they start at 10 times the price! I'll definitely have to come back without Thy for some serious shopping one day.

After the market, we again took the subway and got off at the new CCTV building, famous for its quirky architecture. From there we walked to Ritan Park, passing fancy houses and diplomatic compounds on the way. Ritan Park is popular with Chinese and expats because of its greenery and location just south of Sanlitun. It's very manicured and 'Chinese' but very pretty at this time of year. You can sit and watch people doing all sorts of activities, including a giant climbing wall. Unfortunately for Thy, there was no fishing there.

We walked from Ritan Park to Sanlitun and dropped by at Yashow Clothing Market, The Book Work (a very trendy foreign bookstore/library/cafe/bar) and then stopped off at another subway stop to have a look in an international supermarket. There you can buy anything, but you'll pay big bucks for it! It's right opposite a diplomatic compound.

Spring Break

As you can see in the photo of our apartment complex, spring really has arrived. Today was the first day of our week long Spring Break, the temperature was 22 degrees and the pollution down to about 70 on the AQI index. A beautiful clear day by Beijing standards (Melbourne was 8 by comparison!).

The Arrival of Spring

 Only 2 weeks ago, Beijing was averaging single digit temperatures, but this week it has gotten into the low 20s! Spring is clearly here and it has come about very quickly. The grass is greening up, the trees have buds and the sun has been shining. Pity it’s shining through a layer of pollution!

A couple of weeks ago, Beijing turned off all the central heating. We have a wall heater but we haven’t had to use it at all because our apartment gets quite warm during the day and not too cold at night.  The corridors and classrooms at school are quite cold despite the increasing warmth outside.

I think after one month here, we have made it through the survival stage and now we are starting to have the time and energy to think about enjoying ourselves. We can now get comfortably to and from school by both subway and taxi without any concerns. We can go shopping easily at a variety of places; supermarkets, markets, clothing stores, etc. We can get drinking water in 20 litre bottles (you can’t drink Beijing tap water). We can top up our subway cards. All those things that proved so hard and time consuming when we first arrived are fine now. But I still haven’t worked out the apartment cards yet!

On Sunday afternoon, Thy and I had our first Chinese lesson. We have a private tutor who comes to our apartment for a 2 hour lesson each week. She was very good and taught us how to read pinyin (the pronunciation of many sounds is very different) and say the tones. We learnt a basic sentence structure, “I am …” and with a few extra words, we can say quite a few sentences! It was so much fun. Thyson also learnt the most important question, “Can I fish here?”

It’s only 3 more days until the Spring Break when we have one week off school. Most teachers are heading out of the country for beach holidays in places like Thailand and Vietnam. We are staying in Beijing for the week because we don’t have our passports at the moment (we had to hand them in for some immigration procedure). You can’t take a flight, the train or stay in a hotel without it. Never mind, there’s plenty to see and do here, I just hope the smog moves on by then!

Anyway, off to school now, and this evening we’re heading into the hutongs for dinner with a few friends. Should be lots of fun. Bye for now.

Another week done and dusted!

Saturday 1^st March

This week saw near record highs on the pollution index which forced the closure of school on Wednesday. It was recommended that we stay indoors with our air purifiers going. We don’t have an air purifier yet so by the afternoon our chests felt quite tight. Some teachers even complained of headaches and dizziness! The wind picked up on Wednesday night so by Thursday morning the skies were clear and could breathe easier. We actually saw views out of our apartment window that we hadn’t been able to see up until now!

The weather has warmed up significantly over the past week. This morning when I woke up, it was -1 degrees but we had a high of 8 degrees this afternoon, and tonight it will get down to -3. I think it got up to 12 degrees one day this week!

We undertook our first sightseeing trip today. We caught the subway to Sanlitun which is a diplomatic area and has a large and very expensive shopping mall with all the designer brands, and a street of bars and nightclubs. It also has the Yashow Clothing Market which is 5 stories of clothes, shoes, appliances, etc, but all very cheap if you are good at bargaining. Thy bought some sneakers and a soccer ball and I bought a gorgeous mug with pandas on it. We will certainly go back any time we need clothes because it was easy to get to and had a huge variety of clothes for cheap prices.

After that we took the subway to Tiananmen Square, finally arriving after rigid security checks. It’s a beautiful square surrounded by impressive architecture like the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People where the National People’s Congress convenes.

Arriving in China

Welcome to Beijing! After weeks of waiting for our visas to be processed, we finally left on the 18^th, arriving in at 6am the following morning. Our first impression, “OMG, it is FREEZING! -4 degrees!” That was only in the morning. By the afternoon, it got to about 4 degrees, and today it was a high of 8 degrees so apart from the initial shock, it’s not as cold as we were expecting.

We were driven straight to our apartment, Sunny Era. It’s actually a large gated complex (with guards) with about 15 high-rise apartment buildings. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Our apartment is on the 16^th floor of a 26-story building (see photos).

How apartments work here is not easy! For example, all of the amenities are prepaid using a different plastic card for each one – cold water, hot water, toilet water, gas, electricity. To find out how much you have on your cards, you slot them into different places. For example, the electricity is out in the corridor, the gas is in the kitchen, I haven’t quite worked out where they all are yet. You need to make sure you top them up when needed otherwise you will all of a sudden have no supply! Very confusing! And because they’re all in Chinese, I don’t know which one is which! Nothing has been easy yet. Trying to get things like a second door card and key, getting internet, working the washing machine that is all in Chinese characters and has no hose connection, … we’re still working on getting TV channels and plugs for the sinks! But we do have floor heating and a split system so we are warm.

Thyson was the first to start school while I had my medical check for Immigration. It was very efficient, being herded into room after room for different tests. Fast but absolutely no bedside manner, not even a smile.  After that I went shopping to get the basics for the apartment. I got a few things but it’s going to take some time before we get the apartment well equipped and feeling homely.

Had our first try of the subway system this afternoon. It may take a few goes to get the directions down pat. A taxi is much quicker but costs about 20 yuan ($4). The subway only costs about 40 cents. We might do a bit of both – taxi in the mornings and subway in the afternoons. The problem with the taxis is that they often don’t know where to g

o so you have to give them directions. That’s a problem when you’re totally lost yourself! We need to learn some Chinese taxi talk to make things a bit easier.

Last night and today were high pollutant days. Just looks very grey and foggy and the sun looks like the moon.  We’ve been told we don’t get many days like that so fingers crossed… Check out Thyson in his mask! They are very uncomfortable but may just save our lungs!

Everyone at school is very friendly and helpful. Thyson has already started making some friends from all around the world. Classes are very small and you have quite a lot of freedom to teach in your own style as long as it’s inquiry based. There are 11 children in my class, and only one boy who doesn’t speak much English. He should be fun to work with. They are a bit naughty though but I think that’s due to having a substitute teacher for the last 3 months.

 

Anyway, better go, still trying to organize the apartment and get ready for school in the morning. Hoping to be organized this week so that next weekend we can start a bit of sight seeing. Looking forward to that.