Yay, back on the other side of the GFW with free and open Internet. Dang it I hate the Chinese Communist Party. I was checking my usual sources for China news/commentary in my hotel this morning and most of the sites are blocked: China Digital Times (CDT), Global Voices Online, ChinaGeeks, ChinaHush... this is in addition to the usual blocks on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, etc. Interestingly, ChinaSmack was not blocked nor are blogs on Wordpress.
Anyway, Haneda Airport is pretty deserted at this point. I have about three hours before my flight and there is no one waiting at the gate. I thought about going out to Tokyo again to check out the night lights but I wimped out... it's close to 30C outside and our plane was delayed a bit so I'm worried about making it back for my flight. While we were waiting on the runway at Beijing airport, the pilot said the delay was to to runway congestion. However, looking out the window I saw 3 Air China flights plus one Air Macau flight cut in front of us and took off on the same runway. WTF? It would be so lame if the tower made the "evil" Japanese airline wait after domestic airlines. Maybe there were VIPs aboard those flights. I can hear the fengqing yelling 加油!
Here are some posts made I made while in Chinese Internet hell...
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One hour from Beijing
That was my third time in Tokyo but the first time that I stepped out of the airport. The trip feels long already but that’s probably because I took the side trip to Tokyo Tower. Usually I sit on my ass in the airport; still debating whether to venture out of the airport again on my way home.
Right now I’m about an hour east of Beijing. From the flight map, our flight didn’t take the most direct route, probably trying to avoid flying over North Korea. Don’t want to take any chances on being shot down. This flight is on a Boeing 767-300 and it’s about 75% full. The flight attendants keep trying to speak Japanese to me. When I give them a blank stare, they would try Mandarin (since we’re flying to Beijing). Finally they would speak English but it’s hard to understand with their accent. I just watched Monster House on the little TV screen in the airplane seat back. Sigh… the legroom is not sufficient; I’m jammed against the seat in front of me and he’s not even reclined. I didn’t know about the premier economy class on ANA; maybe I’ll try that next time I fly to Beijing.
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Quick Beijing Trip, Day 1
Two things welcomed me to Beijing this time: the oppressive heat+humidity, and the China smell. I think the smell is air pollution from burning coal and it’s actually worse in Chengdu. Oh yeah, one more thing that greeted me was the wonderful Chinese customer service attitude. It was even more obvious after the treatment I got at Haneda. Leaving Beijing Terminal 3, there's one guy flagging people at random to put their bags through an x-ray scanner. I've never been picked before but I made eye contact and the guy (it's always a guy) yelled at me in Chinese to put my bag through. Look dumbass, Beijing gets a lot of foreign visitors and not everyone speaks Chinese. A bit of courtesy would be nice. As usual, Sindy was there to pick me up and I was sweating profusely just from the walk to the parking lot. It was the hottest and muggiest day so far this summer.
At the hotel, I had to pay to upgrade to the next room level to get something on the non-smoking floor. The said they could "freshen up" one of the rooms on a smoking floor but I wasn't falling for that trick (it doesn't work). After checking out the hotel floorplan, it was good I didn't go for the cheaper room... it's 1/2 the size of the room I got. The rest of the day was uneventful. We walked over to Sindy's parents' apartment, had dinner there, and walked back to the hotel in the rain. Usually I smell lots of good stuff while walking around her neighborhood... I hate to think what was in the puddles I had to step through. I also set up the Apple AirPort Express (old 11g version) I brought so Sindy can have wifi in her apartment, and be able to use the iPad 2 I got her for her b-day. FaceTime works really good.
Showing posts with label Beijing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beijing. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Driving in Beijing
Aah, back beyond the Great Firewall so no more IT gynmastics and VPN's to get uncensored Internet.
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One of the most dangerous things in the world is driving in China :). After dinner last night, I asked Sindy if I could drive back to her parents’ apartment (about 10 miles). Since it was a holiday, there was not much traffic on the road; there’s no way I’d attempt this in normal Beijing traffic. From Guomao, I took the 3rd Ring Road south then west and then exited on You'anmen Outer Street. Sindy’s car is not available in the US but it’s pretty similar to a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. I was nervous since China does not accept driver’s licenses from other jurisdictions so I was pretty much driving illegally. Luckily nothing happened though I almost got hit by a speeding taxi right after leaving the restaurant.
A couple of quick observations. 1) I kept getting freaked out by my peripheral vision. When I drive in California, most people are good about following rules. In China however, people and vehicles make moves that I don’t expect and I’m always on edge trying to figure out what they’re doing. For example, pedestrians and opposing traffic get real close to your lane of travel so I’m always reacting to something. They may see me and plan to give me the right of way but just seeing cars and people encroaching makes me nervous. 2) There’s a real lack of street lighting everywhere. It was already dark when I drove back and I could hardly see anything, even at major intersections. 3) People like to walk in the road instead of on the sidewalk, probably because there are lots of bikes, scooters, and cars blocking the sidewalk. It was much harder to drive on the small streets versus the wide ring roads since there are so many distractions. 4) Pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles seem to have no regard for traffic signals so even though I have the green light at an intersection, there is always something running the red light.
Actually, most people seem to drive okay but I see two groups of drivers that makes things exciting and dangerous. Since the car culture is pretty new, there are a lot of first time drivers that have zero experience with cars and driving etiquette. Even though I didn’t drive until I was sixteen, I’ve been riding in cars for many years by the time I got my license. This may not be true for many Chinese people. So one dangerous group of drivers are those that are oblivious to their surroundings. Usually they drive too slow and don’t follow any lane markings, forcing other drivers to maneuver around them. Then there’s the opposite group of hyper-aggressive drivers that are constantly changing lanes and cutting people off. Add vehicles with military plates (who don’t have to obey traffic rules) and lots of pedestrians to the mix, the result is total chaos.
Sindy's driving skills is actually pretty aggressive. She likes to change lanes constantly and honks her horn a lot. After I told her I used my horn in the US about once per year, she's been trying to cut back.
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One of the most dangerous things in the world is driving in China :). After dinner last night, I asked Sindy if I could drive back to her parents’ apartment (about 10 miles). Since it was a holiday, there was not much traffic on the road; there’s no way I’d attempt this in normal Beijing traffic. From Guomao, I took the 3rd Ring Road south then west and then exited on You'anmen Outer Street. Sindy’s car is not available in the US but it’s pretty similar to a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. I was nervous since China does not accept driver’s licenses from other jurisdictions so I was pretty much driving illegally. Luckily nothing happened though I almost got hit by a speeding taxi right after leaving the restaurant.
A couple of quick observations. 1) I kept getting freaked out by my peripheral vision. When I drive in California, most people are good about following rules. In China however, people and vehicles make moves that I don’t expect and I’m always on edge trying to figure out what they’re doing. For example, pedestrians and opposing traffic get real close to your lane of travel so I’m always reacting to something. They may see me and plan to give me the right of way but just seeing cars and people encroaching makes me nervous. 2) There’s a real lack of street lighting everywhere. It was already dark when I drove back and I could hardly see anything, even at major intersections. 3) People like to walk in the road instead of on the sidewalk, probably because there are lots of bikes, scooters, and cars blocking the sidewalk. It was much harder to drive on the small streets versus the wide ring roads since there are so many distractions. 4) Pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles seem to have no regard for traffic signals so even though I have the green light at an intersection, there is always something running the red light.
Actually, most people seem to drive okay but I see two groups of drivers that makes things exciting and dangerous. Since the car culture is pretty new, there are a lot of first time drivers that have zero experience with cars and driving etiquette. Even though I didn’t drive until I was sixteen, I’ve been riding in cars for many years by the time I got my license. This may not be true for many Chinese people. So one dangerous group of drivers are those that are oblivious to their surroundings. Usually they drive too slow and don’t follow any lane markings, forcing other drivers to maneuver around them. Then there’s the opposite group of hyper-aggressive drivers that are constantly changing lanes and cutting people off. Add vehicles with military plates (who don’t have to obey traffic rules) and lots of pedestrians to the mix, the result is total chaos.
Sindy's driving skills is actually pretty aggressive. She likes to change lanes constantly and honks her horn a lot. After I told her I used my horn in the US about once per year, she's been trying to cut back.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Beijing Side Trip, Day 3
As I mentioned below, I'm at Beijing Capital Airport gate E21 waiting for my flight from Beijing to Hong Kong. Since I managed to slip behind the GFW, I may as well finish blogging about my trip.
Day 2 of the trip ended uneventfully. I fell asleep at Sindy's parents' house in the afternoon so we ended up staying for dinner. His dad make porridge and some small salty dishes. I was still tired so we just went back to the hotel room afterward.
Day 3 was the big lunch with the extended family. The exact same people were there from last time except her great uncle. I think even the dishes were the same. Since I met everyone multiple times already, the conversation was a little more casual. Also, Sindy's cousin's wife is 3 months pregnant so a lot of talk was focused on that topic.
Big lunch
After lunch, we went to visit Sindy's grandparents' apartment again. I thought we were going to play mahjong but we just ended up talking. Her cousin had to work in the afternoon even though it's May Day and the other cousin went home early to pack for a vacation trip to Sanya/Hainan the next day.
To kill some time before dinner, we went to a nearby department store. The place was packed with people so I was surprised at the prices. Sindy wanted to buy me a shirt and the first one we picked out was ~RMB1400 or over $200. Good thing it was too small. I'm not sure why it was so expensive since I wasn't too impressed with the material. I guess everything "foreign" or "imported" is expensive in China.
For dinner, we went to a coffee place where Sindy prepaid for a dinner set for 2. It took us forever to find the place (inside Jianwai SOHO) and the food was just so so, though cheap for what we got (juice, salad, soup, beef/chicken steak, pizza, dessert). After dinner, I wanted to try driving so I drove from the restaurant (near Guomao) back to Sindy's parents' apartment near the South Railroad Station. I wasn't too long in distance but it was nerve-wracking; more about this later.
Oops, my flight is about to board so I'll need to continue in Hong Kong.
Day 2 of the trip ended uneventfully. I fell asleep at Sindy's parents' house in the afternoon so we ended up staying for dinner. His dad make porridge and some small salty dishes. I was still tired so we just went back to the hotel room afterward.
Day 3 was the big lunch with the extended family. The exact same people were there from last time except her great uncle. I think even the dishes were the same. Since I met everyone multiple times already, the conversation was a little more casual. Also, Sindy's cousin's wife is 3 months pregnant so a lot of talk was focused on that topic.
Big lunch
After lunch, we went to visit Sindy's grandparents' apartment again. I thought we were going to play mahjong but we just ended up talking. Her cousin had to work in the afternoon even though it's May Day and the other cousin went home early to pack for a vacation trip to Sanya/Hainan the next day.
To kill some time before dinner, we went to a nearby department store. The place was packed with people so I was surprised at the prices. Sindy wanted to buy me a shirt and the first one we picked out was ~RMB1400 or over $200. Good thing it was too small. I'm not sure why it was so expensive since I wasn't too impressed with the material. I guess everything "foreign" or "imported" is expensive in China.
For dinner, we went to a coffee place where Sindy prepaid for a dinner set for 2. It took us forever to find the place (inside Jianwai SOHO) and the food was just so so, though cheap for what we got (juice, salad, soup, beef/chicken steak, pizza, dessert). After dinner, I wanted to try driving so I drove from the restaurant (near Guomao) back to Sindy's parents' apartment near the South Railroad Station. I wasn't too long in distance but it was nerve-wracking; more about this later.
Oops, my flight is about to board so I'll need to continue in Hong Kong.
Free Airport Wifi
I finally got an Internet connection at Beijing Capital Airport. When I turned on my wifi antenna, I saw an AP called AIRPORT-WIFI-FREE. However, after I connected, I found out it's only for China Mobile customers. No problemo... I have a China Mobile SIM card in my phone. Of course, I didn't have it written down anywhere and it took me 10 minutes just to find it. After all this work, I finally received a text message to my China phone with my "free" account info. Even with all that work, it's still the sh*tty fire-walled Chinese connection so I had to connect through a VPN to get to this page. Sigh... 30+ minutes to get connected whereas it only takes 30 seconds in Hong Kong.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Beijing Side Trip, Days 1 & 2
Friday was a long travel day. I got up at 6am and didn't get to Beijing until after 9pm. There was a lot of people at HKIA in the afternoon and lots of traffic on the runway.
There aren't that many 4 engined jets. I think this is an Airbus A340.
My flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. I think Dragonair has an all Airbus fleet... this is an Airbus A330.
When I got to the hotel, it was already late so I took whatever room they gave me. Even though I asked for a non-smoking room, I got a room that smelled like an ashtray. My nose burned all night and I had to ask for a new room in the morning. There's an 85°C bakery across the street but no crazy line like in Irvine.
The next day, we went to Sindy's parent's house for lunch. Afterward, I went with her to check out a restaurant that caters to groups. It was near East 4th Ring Road and it was next to a lake in a park. The rooms were really nice but the prices on the menu was crazy expensive. Each dish was several hundred RMB (~$50).
Scenery outside one of the rooms in the restaurant
Since we had a few hours to spare before dinner, we went to check out Chaoyuan Park. There was a Pop Music Festival but I think it concluded before we got there.
There is a permanent carnival inside the park and they were renting bicycles and these tiny electric cars. We ended up renting one and drove around for 30 minutes.
There were some European looking buildings inside the park and lots of couples were taking engagement/wedding photos.
There was also a Segway rental place. I wanted to rent one since my one an only riding experience in Long Beach was pretty cool. However, the rental was for riding in a small enclosed area so I passed.
On the way to dinner, we drove by the CCTV building. They were still trying to renovate the burned tower next to it.
Lots of traffic on the 3rd Ring Road, even though it was a Saturday.
Sindy prepaid for a dinner for 4 at this Korean BBQ place. I think she paid RMB150 for a RMB400 dinner set. It was okay... the meat quality wasn't that great.
The name of the place was Korean Crystal BBQ. I think the crystal part refers to the cooking surface which was a clear piece of tempered glass. The only problem is that the fire doesn't come through so it was more of a stir-fry instead of a BBQ.
I told Sindy's parents that I liked their pork/vegetable dumplings so they said they would make it for lunch. Before lunch, we walked to the nearby Taoranting Park. The park entry fee was RMB2 but senior citizens get in for free. Since it was a holiday (May 1st is International Labor Day or something), the park was crowded. There is a large lake in the middle and it was filled with rental boats.
A rock with the name of the park
There were long line at each boat rental dock. Chinese people drive boats like they drive cars... poorly.
There were lots of rocks with Chinese characters. I thought they were poems or something literary but this one says No Swimming.
At this point, we were across the lake from the main entrance. I hear a lot of people singing. Sindy's dad said that they were singing "red" songs, i.e., Communist propaganda songs, and anyone was welcome join in. In this instance, Sindy said the song was "The East is Red". Crazy. When was the last time you saw hundreds of Americans spontaneously singing nationalistic songs in a park?! The brainwashing is strong here.
It's the 21st century, diapers have been invented for a long time, but the Chinese people refuse to give up on the split pants. I don't really have a problem with this conceptually (my mom said I used to wear them) but people here don't clean up after their kids. I guess they don't clean up after their dogs either.
Similar to yesterday in Chaoyang Park, there were lots of couples taking wedding pictures. I think there's a monopoly since the couples seem to rotate to different sites while all the photographers stayed put.
Park map... most of the park is covered by a large lake.
There aren't that many 4 engined jets. I think this is an Airbus A340.
My flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. I think Dragonair has an all Airbus fleet... this is an Airbus A330.
When I got to the hotel, it was already late so I took whatever room they gave me. Even though I asked for a non-smoking room, I got a room that smelled like an ashtray. My nose burned all night and I had to ask for a new room in the morning. There's an 85°C bakery across the street but no crazy line like in Irvine.
The next day, we went to Sindy's parent's house for lunch. Afterward, I went with her to check out a restaurant that caters to groups. It was near East 4th Ring Road and it was next to a lake in a park. The rooms were really nice but the prices on the menu was crazy expensive. Each dish was several hundred RMB (~$50).
Scenery outside one of the rooms in the restaurant
Since we had a few hours to spare before dinner, we went to check out Chaoyuan Park. There was a Pop Music Festival but I think it concluded before we got there.
There is a permanent carnival inside the park and they were renting bicycles and these tiny electric cars. We ended up renting one and drove around for 30 minutes.
There were some European looking buildings inside the park and lots of couples were taking engagement/wedding photos.
There was also a Segway rental place. I wanted to rent one since my one an only riding experience in Long Beach was pretty cool. However, the rental was for riding in a small enclosed area so I passed.
On the way to dinner, we drove by the CCTV building. They were still trying to renovate the burned tower next to it.
Lots of traffic on the 3rd Ring Road, even though it was a Saturday.
Sindy prepaid for a dinner for 4 at this Korean BBQ place. I think she paid RMB150 for a RMB400 dinner set. It was okay... the meat quality wasn't that great.
The name of the place was Korean Crystal BBQ. I think the crystal part refers to the cooking surface which was a clear piece of tempered glass. The only problem is that the fire doesn't come through so it was more of a stir-fry instead of a BBQ.
I told Sindy's parents that I liked their pork/vegetable dumplings so they said they would make it for lunch. Before lunch, we walked to the nearby Taoranting Park. The park entry fee was RMB2 but senior citizens get in for free. Since it was a holiday (May 1st is International Labor Day or something), the park was crowded. There is a large lake in the middle and it was filled with rental boats.
A rock with the name of the park
There were long line at each boat rental dock. Chinese people drive boats like they drive cars... poorly.
There were lots of rocks with Chinese characters. I thought they were poems or something literary but this one says No Swimming.
At this point, we were across the lake from the main entrance. I hear a lot of people singing. Sindy's dad said that they were singing "red" songs, i.e., Communist propaganda songs, and anyone was welcome join in. In this instance, Sindy said the song was "The East is Red". Crazy. When was the last time you saw hundreds of Americans spontaneously singing nationalistic songs in a park?! The brainwashing is strong here.
It's the 21st century, diapers have been invented for a long time, but the Chinese people refuse to give up on the split pants. I don't really have a problem with this conceptually (my mom said I used to wear them) but people here don't clean up after their kids. I guess they don't clean up after their dogs either.
Similar to yesterday in Chaoyang Park, there were lots of couples taking wedding pictures. I think there's a monopoly since the couples seem to rotate to different sites while all the photographers stayed put.
Park map... most of the park is covered by a large lake.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Beijing License Plate
Sindy told me about this earlier. My first thought was to have her enter the lottery for me. I'll probably never drive in Beijing much less buy a car, but if I "win" the license lottery, I can definitely sell it to someone else. Leon had the exact same thought.
Beijing News (translation from Danwei)
Dang... I'm not eligible. :)
Beijing News (translation from Danwei)
Beijing introduces cap on new car registration
To alleviate urban traffic congestion, Beijing started a cap-and-lottery issuance system intended to curb automobile growth.
According to the new policy, starting on December 24th, Beijing will issue 240,000 new car license plates until the end of 2011. The plates will be allocated by a lottery system. Eligible applicants include Beijing residents, non-Beijing residents who have lived here for at least five year and paid tax, foreigners and companies. However, car owners are banned from applying for another license unless they sell or scrap their old vehicles.
Prior to announcement of the policy, Beijing had seen an eruption in car sales due to buyers' fear that they might not be able to get a license. Yesterday, the last day before the limit taking effect, over 9,000 units of vehicles were sold in Beijing, making the total number of automobiles exceed 4.8 million.
Dang... I'm not eligible. :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
2010 Beijing Trip, Home
Yawn... I had to go to work today after arriving at LAX last night so I'm really tired. In addition, I scheduled a root canal for this morning so I was at the dentist office bright and early at 9am... or 1am Beijing time.
The rest of my Beijing trip was pretty uneventful after the ski trip. Here are some more photos:
Sindy had to go to a surgery Friday morning so I slept in again at the hotel. It didn't take too long so she came back to the hotel around 11:30am. For lunch, I decided that I would cook the spaghetti that we bought on Tuesday at her parents' apartment. Their kitchen was really small and they didn't have too many pots. Anyway, the pasta is cooking on the left, I had already heated the canned sauce (Hunt's spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage), and I'm heating up the garlic bread on the right. Originally, they could not find a can opener but her father eventually found a "Swiss" army knife which had a tool that opened cans very slowly. I think it turned out okay for canned sauce; I would have preferred to cook the sauce from scratch but that would have taken too long.
After lunch, Sindy went to get her hair styled at the salon downstairs. It was a really small place but it was packed with chairs and there were about 10 hairdressers (mostly guys) standing around. Her "regular" guy was off that day so some random guy was working on her hair. It took about 20 minutes to style with a brush and hairdryer, and he finished up with some gel and hairspray. Total cost: RMB15 or ~$2.25.
For dinner, we went to a Korean BBQ place with her extended family. I'd met everyone already the last time I was in Beijing. Before dinner, we checked out her cousin and his wife's new apartment. I think they bought it in 2008 for ~RMB750k and they said it was worth almost 2 million RMB now. It was a one bedroom apartment out by West 4th Ring Road.
As usual, they ordered too much food. I think for 9 people, the total bill was ~RMB600 or about $10/person. This was not including the bottle of wine and moutai (~RMB1000) that her uncle brought from home. I think everyone was full but they ordered a few bowls of cold noodles 냉면 and stone pot rice 돌솥비빔밥.
After dinner, we went to a KTV place in the same shopping mall. The place was really crowded so we were only able to get a small sized room. It got really warm since we packed all 9 of us in there (no additional girls). I think we sang for ~3 hours and left a bit after midnight. The lobby was still packed with people waiting for a room. Crazy.
The next day, we were planning to go to Tianjin by high-speed train. I was going to visit John and Jenn but they went to Japan for the week. However, since I didn't get back to the hotel until after 1am, we got up late and decided not to go. Instead, we took a trip to Ikea. I read an article in the LA Times about the Beijing Ikea before and had always wanted to see how it compares with the huge Ikea in Costa Mesa. It took us forever to find a parking spot so I was expecting the worst. This is the entry/lobby and the store was laid out the same way as all other Ikea stores I've been to.
It was crowded. There's probably 10x the amount of people compared to the Ikea stores in LA.
Swedish meatballs! I never had them here in the US so I don't know how they compare. We got 10 and only ate 9 of them.
Almost every seating/sleeping display was covered with people Here you see 5 people on one bed, with two people laying down. It's hard to visualize the furniture in your house with all the Chinese people in the way. I'm not sure why everyone was sitting around so much... are they tired? The LA Times article said people went to Ikea to escape the summer heat but this is wintertime and it was pretty cold outside.
The cafeteria was packed full of people. They were serving more than Swedish meatballs; there were some Chinese dishes and other Western food such as spaghetti(!) w/meat sauce and steaks. We just got some meatballs for a snack and had to wait for a table.
Lots of meatballs. They were just okay. Sindy also got some strange spicy cold noodles; I think she said it was a Chengdu dish. I don't think I've ever seen it all the times I was in Chengdu.
What she really wanted was the RMB3 hot dog, which was sold next to the checkout area. It was not too good (for me anyway). We also got some RMB1 soft serve cones. While walking around, she picked up some minor kitchen items. We had these in the large yellow Ikea shopping bag. Not knowing the checkout process, I put the bag on the conveyor belt. Typically in the US, the cashier would probably ask you nicely to take the items out and put the bag in a bin in front of the conveyor... perhaps he/she would even do it for you. However, this is China so you get Chinese customer service. The cashier basically threw the bag at me and rudely yelled at me to take the stuff out of the bag. WTF? Up until that point, I could have been at an Ikea in the US... except for the thousands of Chinese people in the store. Sindy also asked her politely if she could use her credit card to pay for the 3 items. This same cashier gave her an annoyed look and pointed at the card reader. Sheesh... if this was in the US, I think I easily could have her fired. If that person worked for me in any type of customer service role, I would have fired her.
For dinner, we went to a Sogo department store near my hotel. The original plan was to go to a steakhouse but we ended up at the food court. Like most food courts, you have to purchase a meal card and deposit some money. When you're done, you have to line up again to turn in the card and get a refund on any money that's left on the card... pain-in-the-ass. Not learning my lesson, I got a bowl of noodles with BBQ pork and it was just as bad as the bowl I got at Vancouver Airport. Very disappointed.
Sindy bought some cold noodles and a bowl of something. It was not that good either but better that my bowl of crappy noodles.
The next and last morning in Beijing, I was woken up by what sounded like war but turned out to be fireworks celebrating a wedding... twice. It was really really loud. I packed, went to Sindy's parents' apartment to pick up more stuff to bring back to the US, and had more homemade dumplings for lunch. Her dad made 100+ dumplings and wanted me to take some back to the US. Hmm, raw meat... yeah, that would be easy to bring across the border.
My flight was delayed about an hour when I checked in online. When I got to the airport, the display board didn't show the delay... panic! Turned out the display board was not updated. We ended up having some mechanical issues which delayed us for another hour at the gate. This was my flight: AC030 from PEK to YVR on a Boeing 767-300.
I ended up having ~30 minutes to connect to my YVR to LAX flight but I posted about that already. This was sunset at ~5pm as we were coming in to LAX.
At every other airport outside US, even at places like Chengdu and Sanya (Hainan Island), they have free luggage carts available. At LAX, you have to pay $4 (except for Bradley). I saw puzzled looks on foreign visitors' faces as they try to unsuccessfully grab a cart from the stack.
As I was waiting for my check luggage, this girl walked by wearing a pageant ribbon with "Marissa" written on the back, which I assumed was her name.
Intrigued, I tried to get a front shot from across the room at max zoom. The sash read "Miss South Col...something"... don't know if she was coming back from somewhere or attending a pageant in LA.
The rest of my Beijing trip was pretty uneventful after the ski trip. Here are some more photos:
Sindy had to go to a surgery Friday morning so I slept in again at the hotel. It didn't take too long so she came back to the hotel around 11:30am. For lunch, I decided that I would cook the spaghetti that we bought on Tuesday at her parents' apartment. Their kitchen was really small and they didn't have too many pots. Anyway, the pasta is cooking on the left, I had already heated the canned sauce (Hunt's spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage), and I'm heating up the garlic bread on the right. Originally, they could not find a can opener but her father eventually found a "Swiss" army knife which had a tool that opened cans very slowly. I think it turned out okay for canned sauce; I would have preferred to cook the sauce from scratch but that would have taken too long.
After lunch, Sindy went to get her hair styled at the salon downstairs. It was a really small place but it was packed with chairs and there were about 10 hairdressers (mostly guys) standing around. Her "regular" guy was off that day so some random guy was working on her hair. It took about 20 minutes to style with a brush and hairdryer, and he finished up with some gel and hairspray. Total cost: RMB15 or ~$2.25.
For dinner, we went to a Korean BBQ place with her extended family. I'd met everyone already the last time I was in Beijing. Before dinner, we checked out her cousin and his wife's new apartment. I think they bought it in 2008 for ~RMB750k and they said it was worth almost 2 million RMB now. It was a one bedroom apartment out by West 4th Ring Road.
As usual, they ordered too much food. I think for 9 people, the total bill was ~RMB600 or about $10/person. This was not including the bottle of wine and moutai (~RMB1000) that her uncle brought from home. I think everyone was full but they ordered a few bowls of cold noodles 냉면 and stone pot rice 돌솥비빔밥.
After dinner, we went to a KTV place in the same shopping mall. The place was really crowded so we were only able to get a small sized room. It got really warm since we packed all 9 of us in there (no additional girls). I think we sang for ~3 hours and left a bit after midnight. The lobby was still packed with people waiting for a room. Crazy.
The next day, we were planning to go to Tianjin by high-speed train. I was going to visit John and Jenn but they went to Japan for the week. However, since I didn't get back to the hotel until after 1am, we got up late and decided not to go. Instead, we took a trip to Ikea. I read an article in the LA Times about the Beijing Ikea before and had always wanted to see how it compares with the huge Ikea in Costa Mesa. It took us forever to find a parking spot so I was expecting the worst. This is the entry/lobby and the store was laid out the same way as all other Ikea stores I've been to.
It was crowded. There's probably 10x the amount of people compared to the Ikea stores in LA.
Swedish meatballs! I never had them here in the US so I don't know how they compare. We got 10 and only ate 9 of them.
Almost every seating/sleeping display was covered with people Here you see 5 people on one bed, with two people laying down. It's hard to visualize the furniture in your house with all the Chinese people in the way. I'm not sure why everyone was sitting around so much... are they tired? The LA Times article said people went to Ikea to escape the summer heat but this is wintertime and it was pretty cold outside.
The cafeteria was packed full of people. They were serving more than Swedish meatballs; there were some Chinese dishes and other Western food such as spaghetti(!) w/meat sauce and steaks. We just got some meatballs for a snack and had to wait for a table.
Lots of meatballs. They were just okay. Sindy also got some strange spicy cold noodles; I think she said it was a Chengdu dish. I don't think I've ever seen it all the times I was in Chengdu.
What she really wanted was the RMB3 hot dog, which was sold next to the checkout area. It was not too good (for me anyway). We also got some RMB1 soft serve cones. While walking around, she picked up some minor kitchen items. We had these in the large yellow Ikea shopping bag. Not knowing the checkout process, I put the bag on the conveyor belt. Typically in the US, the cashier would probably ask you nicely to take the items out and put the bag in a bin in front of the conveyor... perhaps he/she would even do it for you. However, this is China so you get Chinese customer service. The cashier basically threw the bag at me and rudely yelled at me to take the stuff out of the bag. WTF? Up until that point, I could have been at an Ikea in the US... except for the thousands of Chinese people in the store. Sindy also asked her politely if she could use her credit card to pay for the 3 items. This same cashier gave her an annoyed look and pointed at the card reader. Sheesh... if this was in the US, I think I easily could have her fired. If that person worked for me in any type of customer service role, I would have fired her.
For dinner, we went to a Sogo department store near my hotel. The original plan was to go to a steakhouse but we ended up at the food court. Like most food courts, you have to purchase a meal card and deposit some money. When you're done, you have to line up again to turn in the card and get a refund on any money that's left on the card... pain-in-the-ass. Not learning my lesson, I got a bowl of noodles with BBQ pork and it was just as bad as the bowl I got at Vancouver Airport. Very disappointed.
Sindy bought some cold noodles and a bowl of something. It was not that good either but better that my bowl of crappy noodles.
The next and last morning in Beijing, I was woken up by what sounded like war but turned out to be fireworks celebrating a wedding... twice. It was really really loud. I packed, went to Sindy's parents' apartment to pick up more stuff to bring back to the US, and had more homemade dumplings for lunch. Her dad made 100+ dumplings and wanted me to take some back to the US. Hmm, raw meat... yeah, that would be easy to bring across the border.
My flight was delayed about an hour when I checked in online. When I got to the airport, the display board didn't show the delay... panic! Turned out the display board was not updated. We ended up having some mechanical issues which delayed us for another hour at the gate. This was my flight: AC030 from PEK to YVR on a Boeing 767-300.
I ended up having ~30 minutes to connect to my YVR to LAX flight but I posted about that already. This was sunset at ~5pm as we were coming in to LAX.
At every other airport outside US, even at places like Chengdu and Sanya (Hainan Island), they have free luggage carts available. At LAX, you have to pay $4 (except for Bradley). I saw puzzled looks on foreign visitors' faces as they try to unsuccessfully grab a cart from the stack.
As I was waiting for my check luggage, this girl walked by wearing a pageant ribbon with "Marissa" written on the back, which I assumed was her name.
Intrigued, I tried to get a front shot from across the room at max zoom. The sash read "Miss South Col...something"... don't know if she was coming back from somewhere or attending a pageant in LA.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
2010 Beijing Trip, Endovascular Grafts
Yesterday, I basically stayed in my hotel room the entire day. Sindy came by in the afternoon but immediately got a call about a surgery scheduled for this morning. For each surgery sponsored by her company (more on that later), she has to go back to work and pick up products. In this case, after talking to the surgeon, she decided to bring 4 stents to the OR this morning.
There were two stents in each plastic box; the boxes came up to about my chin. Sindy said they charge ~RMB100k per stent so we were carrying about US$60k of product with us around Beijing.
I went with her by taxi back to work last night ~7pm since it was her no-car day (based on license plate number) in Beijing. Traffic was pretty bad as usual on the 2nd Ring Road and it took us about 45 minutes to go ~10 miles. After picking up the package, we went back to her parents' house via subway. Her office (Huapu Garden building) is right next to Dongsishitiao (东四十条) subway station. The subway was pretty crowded as well since people were still getting off work but it was faster than going by car. I felt a bit weird carrying $60k of medical devices through the subway but Sindy said one time she carried a box with 20 stents or ~$300k of product. Good thing the boxes are printed in English so most people won't know what's inside.
Why are we carrying medical devices around Beijing at night? The medical system here works a lot different from the US. In this case, Sindy's company are sole sales reps for Cook Medical's (US company) endovascular grafts. When there's a surgery scheduled, the patient actually pays her company for the entire surgery. Her company then pays the OR surgeon who then pays the medical support staff and hospital for their services. Therefore, if the patient do not pay for the surgery for some reason, Sindy's company takes the hit. After paying the surgeon (officially and under-the-table), product cost to Cook, and other sales and marketing expenses, the owners make ~RMB10k per surgery.
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Jovi, the Japanese fusion restaurant we ate at on Monday is very near Sindy's office. They have 2 Beijing locations currently and plan to open 13 more. Judging by the low number of diners when we were there, I'm not sure short skirts will draw enough business over the long run.
There were two stents in each plastic box; the boxes came up to about my chin. Sindy said they charge ~RMB100k per stent so we were carrying about US$60k of product with us around Beijing.
I went with her by taxi back to work last night ~7pm since it was her no-car day (based on license plate number) in Beijing. Traffic was pretty bad as usual on the 2nd Ring Road and it took us about 45 minutes to go ~10 miles. After picking up the package, we went back to her parents' house via subway. Her office (Huapu Garden building) is right next to Dongsishitiao (东四十条) subway station. The subway was pretty crowded as well since people were still getting off work but it was faster than going by car. I felt a bit weird carrying $60k of medical devices through the subway but Sindy said one time she carried a box with 20 stents or ~$300k of product. Good thing the boxes are printed in English so most people won't know what's inside.
Why are we carrying medical devices around Beijing at night? The medical system here works a lot different from the US. In this case, Sindy's company are sole sales reps for Cook Medical's (US company) endovascular grafts. When there's a surgery scheduled, the patient actually pays her company for the entire surgery. Her company then pays the OR surgeon who then pays the medical support staff and hospital for their services. Therefore, if the patient do not pay for the surgery for some reason, Sindy's company takes the hit. After paying the surgeon (officially and under-the-table), product cost to Cook, and other sales and marketing expenses, the owners make ~RMB10k per surgery.
==========
Jovi, the Japanese fusion restaurant we ate at on Monday is very near Sindy's office. They have 2 Beijing locations currently and plan to open 13 more. Judging by the low number of diners when we were there, I'm not sure short skirts will draw enough business over the long run.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
2010 Beijing Trip, Skiing
That's right, skiing in Beijing. We actually tried to go on a three day trip to Jilin, which is northeast of Beijing. There they have real mountains and ski resorts but it's too early in the season so we settled for indoor skiing. Sindy found discounted tickets (RMB168 per person including ski rentals) online so off we went.
The ski place is right outside of Beijing but still about an hour's drive away. Sindy didn't know how to get there so we took a bus. It was really windy and cold in the morning so we decided to drive to the bus terminal at Dongzhimen Station instead of taking the subway. This is the route map for bus line 915 express. The fare for the entire route was only RMB10 but since we had a transit card (I bought one a few years ago), it was only RMB4.
Bus 915 runs quite often and wasn't too full. Sindy says it fills up on Friday as all the workers from the surrounding rural area goes home for the weekend.
We had to transfer to a minibus somewhere on the outskirts of Beijing (beyond the 6th Ring Road) to get to the ski area. We told the ticket girl which stop we wanted to go and she deducted the amount from our transit card using a hand scanner.
The bus let us off at a stop near the ski resort; not sure why they didn't let us off at the front door since there was nothing else around. We had to walk ~10 minutes to get there... good thing we weren't carrying skis. You can see the two "runs" at the back of the building. I read somewhere that the longer slope is 260m long and the bunny slope is only 150m.
When we got there, there were only ~10 cars in the parking lot. Once you check in and pay, they give you a badge encoded with your payment information. The first station you come to is for lockers. You can change into your ski clothes (available for rent), put your shoes in the locker, and put on a pair of slippers. Next is ski boot rental, followed by ski rental. I had to check my running shoes to get the right size; they use European sizes in China (my US size 12 = EUR 45.5). I was a bit worried when they just gave us our skis with asking all the questions I'm used to hear (height, weight, ability) so they can adjust the bindings. They also gave me really short skis; I guess they don't want people to go too fast since the runs are so short.
They tried to mimic the look and feel of an Alpine ski lodge, I guess.
Looking up the larger slope. They didn't have real chair lifts but something equivalent to a t-bar lift. I have never used one of these before so it took a few tries before I figured out what to do. The downside is that you don't get to sit and after awhile, your legs get really sore from standing while being pulled uphill.
The top section of the longer run is slightly steeper than the bottom but still not too bad. Probably rates a low blue square in difficulty. The snow was hard packed since it's man made (obviously). The one problem with being indoors was the lighting was uneven; it was hard to tell if there were bumps or ice in the darker sections. On my second run down, I wiped out and smacked the back of my head pretty hard. My neck is all sore now... this is probably what it feels like to get whiplash in a car accident.
Sindy has been skiing a few times but never took lessons. I tried teaching her in Chinese but wasn't making much progress. We decided to get her a real instructor; they only charged RMB150 per hour. At the end of the hour, she was snowplowing well down the bunny slope.
Bunny slope. Instead of the "t-bar" type lift, there was a conveyor belt lift that brought you up slowly.
Basket where you deposit your slippers after putting on your ski boots. We left ~3pm (our whole day ticket was good until 6pm) and the place was more crowded. When we got there at 11am, there were only <10 pairs of slippers in the basket.
After skiing for ~3 hours, we had to walk back to the bus station, wait for the small minibus, which was packed with people, then transfer to line 915 back to Dongzhimen. There was a lot of traffic so we didn't get to Sindy's car until 5pm. Even then, it took her another hour to drive to my hotel and drop me off. I was so tired from skiing, the bump on the head, and jet lag that I crashed (after a shower) for 3 hours. She then came back to pick me up for dinner at her parents' house. I feel bad since I wasn't too hungry and her parents waited until 9:30pm for us to eat.
View Larger Map
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It's now about 4pm on Thursday afternoon. Sindy had to go to work this morning so I've been in the hotel room blogging. I finally went down to breakfast at the hotel and the food was lame... even worse than Jinghu hotel in Chengdu. And what's the deal with warm OJ?!
The ski place is right outside of Beijing but still about an hour's drive away. Sindy didn't know how to get there so we took a bus. It was really windy and cold in the morning so we decided to drive to the bus terminal at Dongzhimen Station instead of taking the subway. This is the route map for bus line 915 express. The fare for the entire route was only RMB10 but since we had a transit card (I bought one a few years ago), it was only RMB4.
Bus 915 runs quite often and wasn't too full. Sindy says it fills up on Friday as all the workers from the surrounding rural area goes home for the weekend.
We had to transfer to a minibus somewhere on the outskirts of Beijing (beyond the 6th Ring Road) to get to the ski area. We told the ticket girl which stop we wanted to go and she deducted the amount from our transit card using a hand scanner.
The bus let us off at a stop near the ski resort; not sure why they didn't let us off at the front door since there was nothing else around. We had to walk ~10 minutes to get there... good thing we weren't carrying skis. You can see the two "runs" at the back of the building. I read somewhere that the longer slope is 260m long and the bunny slope is only 150m.
When we got there, there were only ~10 cars in the parking lot. Once you check in and pay, they give you a badge encoded with your payment information. The first station you come to is for lockers. You can change into your ski clothes (available for rent), put your shoes in the locker, and put on a pair of slippers. Next is ski boot rental, followed by ski rental. I had to check my running shoes to get the right size; they use European sizes in China (my US size 12 = EUR 45.5). I was a bit worried when they just gave us our skis with asking all the questions I'm used to hear (height, weight, ability) so they can adjust the bindings. They also gave me really short skis; I guess they don't want people to go too fast since the runs are so short.
They tried to mimic the look and feel of an Alpine ski lodge, I guess.
Looking up the larger slope. They didn't have real chair lifts but something equivalent to a t-bar lift. I have never used one of these before so it took a few tries before I figured out what to do. The downside is that you don't get to sit and after awhile, your legs get really sore from standing while being pulled uphill.
The top section of the longer run is slightly steeper than the bottom but still not too bad. Probably rates a low blue square in difficulty. The snow was hard packed since it's man made (obviously). The one problem with being indoors was the lighting was uneven; it was hard to tell if there were bumps or ice in the darker sections. On my second run down, I wiped out and smacked the back of my head pretty hard. My neck is all sore now... this is probably what it feels like to get whiplash in a car accident.
Sindy has been skiing a few times but never took lessons. I tried teaching her in Chinese but wasn't making much progress. We decided to get her a real instructor; they only charged RMB150 per hour. At the end of the hour, she was snowplowing well down the bunny slope.
Bunny slope. Instead of the "t-bar" type lift, there was a conveyor belt lift that brought you up slowly.
Basket where you deposit your slippers after putting on your ski boots. We left ~3pm (our whole day ticket was good until 6pm) and the place was more crowded. When we got there at 11am, there were only <10 pairs of slippers in the basket.
After skiing for ~3 hours, we had to walk back to the bus station, wait for the small minibus, which was packed with people, then transfer to line 915 back to Dongzhimen. There was a lot of traffic so we didn't get to Sindy's car until 5pm. Even then, it took her another hour to drive to my hotel and drop me off. I was so tired from skiing, the bump on the head, and jet lag that I crashed (after a shower) for 3 hours. She then came back to pick me up for dinner at her parents' house. I feel bad since I wasn't too hungry and her parents waited until 9:30pm for us to eat.
View Larger Map
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It's now about 4pm on Thursday afternoon. Sindy had to go to work this morning so I've been in the hotel room blogging. I finally went down to breakfast at the hotel and the food was lame... even worse than Jinghu hotel in Chengdu. And what's the deal with warm OJ?!
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