KLB - Beijing (11)
Since I haven't done a good job of taking touristy pictures of Beijing (because I'm just not that interested in going to touristy places) I thought I'd post a link to a site with lots of information and pictures about the usual spots of interest in Beijing. Just pretend like I'm standing in front of all the nice places...
http://www.beijingpage.com/
http://www.beijingpage.com/#photo
Jake and I were going to take a 10 hour trip to Dalian where we planned on relaxing for 5 days, swimming and watching Chinese girls romp around in bikinis. However, my tourist visa is to expire soon. Jake also needed to buy a 6 month extension himself as he's finishing his job this week. We dropped off our passports, but cursed to find out they will take a full week to process.
Unfortunately, a foreigner in China can't register in any hotel without a passport as the communist government needs to know where everyone is at every moment. There's a chance some might let us stay, but it's also peak tourist season so they may be more apt to turn us away. Now we're stuck here in Beijing still, though it's not all that bad. I have a lot of things I want to do here yet. Maybe I will have to get out to some touristy spots after all. I'm semi-interested in seeing the Great Wall at least and maybe the Forbidden City. The weather has been horrendous, though, making it hard to do much. The avergae temperature has been between 36-40 degrees C (just below and just above 100 F) every day + humid as hell, which I can't figure out since most of China is a desert! It's hard to even breathe outside.
Well, I'm going to sweat my way over to the health club for now. By the way, last night I had the best Korean style Chinese food featuring tangsuyuk and jja jang myung, the best I've ever had. Wait until you see!
|
written by shawn matthews
-|link
|
KLB - Beijing (10)
I woke up at 7:30 AM today by my own accord. I haven't gotten up that early without reason in a long time. It feels good, and I hope I can get in the habit. Not drinking helps, of course. I was drinking almost every day when I first arrived. Then I got sick on fake Carlsberg drafts that I had at one of the downtown bars the weekend before last. I had 6 or 7 mugs and wound up throwing up all the next day and felt run down a few days after that. Turns out several people Jake knows have gotten sick off the same beer. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise cause I haven't had a drink since. I tried to have a couple the other night when I was out, but they made me naseous. Maybe it'll be like the time I got food poisoning in America from chicken parmesan. That was 10 years ago and I haven't been able to eat it again since. OK, somehow I doubt that will be the case with beer, but it's a good idea to take a break anyway before it becomes a bad habit.
So what can I do with all my time this morning? I guess I will study Japanese and Chinese again before going to the health club. Oh, did I mention I joined one a few weeks ago? I figured why not while I'm here. It's a small, inexpensive place full of beefy Chinese guys, a few Koreans and several hot women! I met one Chinese guy who is married to a Korean. As he lived in California for 5 years years before moving to Seoul for a job, he can now speak fluent English and Korean. He and his wife are in China now because his wife couldn't speak a word of Chinese and so she is studying here. He uses the time that she's studying to work out.
I'm back with breakfast. More chow mien noodles and a bag of delicious Chinese dumplings called baozi. Total cost: 8 RMB, or about $1.15. This will fill me up until the evening.
Last night it was KFC. For some reason, perhaps because there is one on every single corner in this country, the KFC is much better here than I've ever had. You also get much bigger portions of french fries and cola than in Korea, though perhaps an American would still consider them to be small size. In Korea they give you about 8 french fries and a third of a regular cola.
As for the e-book, I've got the first 40 pages done. I worked on it all day yesterday. I'm aiming for 100 pages but the file size is getting big, so I may make it two parts. More on that soon.
Do I miss Korea? I can't say as I do. It's odd, but I haven't missed anything from there since I left. I'm sure it would be a different story if I was back in America now or if I couldn't just walk over to the store down the road and buy kimchi chigae in the Korean town. Probably the biggest reason I haven't missed Korea is because I don't miss teaching. Even though it got much much better when Cathy quit, 10 months teaching the same 50-60 kids will wear anyone out. Still, I don't want to be lazy too much longer as it just makes it that much harder to get going again. Thats why I'm trying to wake up earlier and study and exercise and keep up the writing, just to stay active.
Well, time to get off the computer and over to the health club. See you later. Hopefully I'll be up early again tomorrow. I seem more inclined to update in the mornings.
|
written by shawn matthews
-|link
|
KLB - Beijing (9)
Interesting information about Beijing apartments:
1. I had wondered how all the cars look so clean around here. Jake knows why. Apparently the complexes have a car-cleaning crew. At 5 o'clock in the morning, they go out and wash everyone's car.
2. Every building has a couple of elevator women. In exchange for a room about the size of a closet and with no plumbing, they sit in the hallway and push the elevator button for you as you enter the building.
3. Guards. Every entrance in this place has a guard. These guys are no more than 15 year old boney kids that could be cut in half with a weak kung fu chop. It's very comical to see them when they have to run military style in a group while they're leader shouts at them.
4. Bills. With the exception of the phone, all your bills have to be prepaid. If you run out of credit, the power simply goes off. This has happened to Jake on a few occasions late at night. Fortunately there is a meter in the main hall where you can check the electronic number that counts down your credit. And to prepay, Jake just gives some money to his maid who runs over and pays at the local offices.
5. Heat. Thankfully this won't affect me. According to Jake, the government controls everyone's heat. They turn it on in your building remotely. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when it's on or off and, unsurprisingly, it's usually off.
|
written by shawn matthews
-|link
|
