Category Archives: Holidays

Day 433 In Beijing: The Flight And Arrival In Xinjiang.

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I love the look of the woman beside us.

I love the look of the woman beside us.

Jill and I heard our flight called and headed out.

One of the interesting things about Beijing airport is that it handles 73,000,000 people a year.

That is utterly absurd and insane number.

I can’t even get my mind around it.

It is also one of the worst on time arrival and departure airports in the world.

This I can get my mind around after living in China.

However, we’ve been quite lucky since almost all our flights have been on time and quite enjoyable regardless of which airline we’ve used.

If you check out China Southern or China Eastern, they are ranked quite lowly overall.

However, I have to say we’ve had decent food, good service, and very comfortable seats every time we’ve used them and would definitely recommend them as they didn’t seem very different from United, Delta or any of the American airlines we’ve used previously.

Turkish Airlines, on the other hand, is amazing and we love flying them whenever possible.

But that is a blog for another day as we flew them numerous times inside Turkey and took lots of pictures.

We had a layover in Xinjiang, where our ex-roommate comes from, and it was beautiful.

It was also boiling outside.  It was somewhere around 113 degrees according to our pilot.

We hopped off the plane and after checking through customs, hung out in the waiting area for our next flight.

It was 6:30 pm.

An, interesting, and confusing part of China is that even though it is the size of the USA, it only has one time zone.

So, when it is 6:30 AM in Beijing, it is also 6:30 AM in Xinjiang.

Even though the suns rises and sets 3 hours earlier.  So, basically it is really 3:30 am in Beijing when it is 6:30 AM in Xinjiang.  It doesn’t make any logical sense.

It is silly rule that the government enforces for no particular reason that I want to attempt to explain on this blog but not while I’m living in China.

Either way, it was a beautiful sunset and a gorgeous landscape.

 

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Day 432 In Beijing: Getting Ready For Vacation!

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Getting ready to go on vacation to Turkey and Greece!

Getting ready to go on vacation to Turkey and Greece!

The day had finally arrived.

We were OUT OF HERE!

Trust me, we needed it.

I absolutely love my job and wanted to make sure I didn’t start suffering from burn out and Jill has her own website SF TOURISM TIPS and works incredibly hard on it.

As you may know, the internet in China leaves much to be desired.

It seems to come and go, depending on the whims of some unknown entity, and this makes it quite difficult to be able to keep working on a website that requires a lot of detail, information and access to the USA.

We are essentially blocked from using Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, unless we are on our Virtual Private Network (VPN) and the VPN is much slower than our usual internet feed here in China.

In other words, we needed a break and we needed it now.

We got it.

We got ready for our flight and already were feeling relaxed.

We said our final goodbye to our dear friend, Gulzar, and jumped on the bus.  We took it two stops and headed for the Airport Express Subway.

It is a fairly new subway line and only has 3 stops total.

It costs about 5 bucks each to go 45 minutes so it is a heck of a deal.

After we arrive at the airport, we hung out and just relaxed.

We spent a lot of time talking about Jill’s website, as that is going to be how we fund our world travels and live the life we want.

This is going to happen in a few years but we are very much into planning and making sure things work out, as much as possible, how we set them.

Jill has been working on her site for over 4 years and I’ve been editing and helping her with ideas since we met.

It is, to be honest, her baby and I’m just helping but it is becoming more and more of a team effort each day.

It may seem strange, since I have a blog that I update every day, but I don’t like writing factual stories based on research.  I enjoy writing fiction and making stories come alive (although, as far as I know, everything I’ve written on this blog is absolutely true).

So, Jill writes her website and I edit it and it seems we make a great team.

In so many ways since we also make a great team traveling, supporting each other emotionally and financially, and in pretty much every other way I can imagine a couple would want to support each other.

i’m not sure if you’ve traveled with your partner, but if you haven’t, you will learn much more about each other, in a week or two, than you will in years of living a stable life at home.

I think this is because each choice, moment and change happens so quickly, and so often, that you quickly learn how the other reacts, how they think, and what their strengths and weaknesses are without having to wait years for a stressful event.

Jill and I have been to Shanghai, Mongolia, Malaysia and Singapore twice and we met only 8 days before I left for China.  She arrived 1.5 months later without knowing anyone other than me here.  And she only truly knew me through emails, my blog, and Skype.

Talk about a leap of faith.

We both believe deeply in planning while also living in the present.

Day 404 in Beijing: And We Are Out Of Here!

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A beautiful view of the mosques in Istanbul.

A beautiful view of the mosques in Istanbul.

I hope you enjoy the next week or so of blog posts because I won’t be able to update them much since Jill and I will be in Turkey and Greece.

We leave today and return on August 15th so we will be gone for exactly one month.

We have been in China, non-stop, for 7 months and are extremely excited to get away and have some peace and quiet.

Istanbul will be busy but we will be hanging out with friends, and some family, and just enjoying it for the first week.

Trust me, compared to Beijing, nothing is busy and anywhere is quiet.

Jill has been to Turkey three times and I’ve been there once so we have some familiarity with it and the people.

We have always loved going there and meeting with people who are very open and friendly.

We will start, and end, our trip in Istanbul.

We are going to go to Cappadocia and do a balloon ride through the Fairy Chimneys.

Then to Pammakule to see the perfect blue waters and natural white thermal pools.

We are also going to other parts of Turkey but those are the highlights.

We will then go to four different islands in Greece including Naxos, Paros, Santorini and Mykonos.

We will spend about 3 days on each island and Jill will be able to celebrate her 41st birthday on Naxos.

Last year she celebrated in China and we think this is a very nice way to celebrate Jill.

Who knows where we will celebrate her birthday next year?  The world is our oyster!

We will head of Athens for two days and see the sites and then head back to Istanbul to finish off our trip and grab our flight back to Beijing on the 15th of August.

I’ll do my best to post a few pictures of our travels and hope you enjoy them.

I’ll be doing more full blog posts when I get back to Beijing and have time to sort through everything and figure out what I want to write about regarding our trip.

Here are a few pictures from Jill’s past visits to give you an idea of what we will be seeing and doing when we arrive in Istanbul.

 

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Day 365 in Beijing: HAPPY CHINAVERSARY TO ME!

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Celebrating my CHINAVERSARY with Jill, Nebraska State Senator Kate Sullivan and her wonderful husband Mike. A very nice way to ring in the second year in China.

Celebrating my CHINAVERSARY with Jill, Nebraska State Senator Kate Sullivan and her wonderful husband Mike. A very nice way to ring in the second year in China.

This is actually a weird problem to have.

This is my Chinaversary.

I’ve lived here for one year.

Except, that isn’t quite right.

I lost a day in my flight over so I’m never sure if I’ve really been here for one year or not.

I’m going with this is my anniversary since I left the USA on this date and technically would have arrived on the same date if not for the time change.   And, it would also set my “Day …” count off by a day if I didn’t do this.

I can’t really believe I’ve been in China for one year.

And that I’ve written 365 blog posts.

I had no idea that I could find that much to write about, that much to think about that much to keep going, day after day.

I’m actually quite proud of my accomplishment.

I also thank everyone that has been on this ride with me, either physically, like Jill, or mentally/emotionally like my family, friends and readers of this blog.

Some of the things I’ve learned in my first year:

Traffic in China is pretty bad.  I just moved to a new place about 1 block from my work.  It takes me 3 minutes to walk there and my stress load has gone down incredibly.  I used to commute, by taxi, for about 30-40 minutes each way.  The time I get to spend relaxing with Jill and going for walks is priceless.

Beijing is huge.  23,000,000 people, and by some estimates, 25,000,000, in a 200 km city.  It just seems to go on forever.  This has good and bad points.  We mainly have figured out the good points and that there is always something new opening and a new place to explore.  Or, better yet, a very old place to explore.

We love traveling.  We truly love to get out, try something new, meet new people, and see what life is like outside of our “little world” back home.  It gives us a new perspective every time we meet someone because we hear a life story that is so different and so contrary to what we both used to believe about what we could or should do with our own lives.

We miss our friends and family back home.  This goes without saying.  Two dear friends, and one who is basically “my second father” died while I was away.  I did what I could do, from here, but missed the memorials or being able to truly say goodbye.  This is a major downside to being an expatriate.

China is an amazingly dizzying place to live and understand.  It is like the industrial revolution on steroids.  I’ve never experienced anything like it and I’ve been to a lot of major cities around the world and lived in Japan, Australia and other countries.  Seriously, nothing compares to China.  That is good and bad.

Jill and I are an amazing couple.  We have put up with, I would say, was probably one of the hardest years of our lives and have come through with more love and respect for each other than we could have imagined.

Here is a simple list of what has happened since we met, some good, some bad.

I moved to China.

I started a new job.

I moved into a new apartment with very little support or idea of how to do anything in China.

Jill Moved to China.

Jill’s grandmother died.

Two of my friends/mentors died.

3 different visa trips to leave China so Jill wouldn’t overstay her visa.

Jill started Mandarin school.

Dealing with pollution.

Jill’s almost having to start over from scratch on her website because of problems.

The internet being limited beyond belief because of….I won’t state that here.  😉

Jill found out that people very close to her have cancer.

Jill had a breast cancer scare and a biopsy here (everything is fine, thankfully!).

Amazing boss and dear friend in the same person.

Seeing the Great Wall twice.

Having friends from the USA visit.

Salsa dancing in China.

Playing badminton with my coworkers.

Making new incredible friends that keep us continually laughing and feeling like we have a “family here.”

The ability to support and love each other through the hardships and know that we have each other’s love.

A move to a new apartment that is wonderful.

My therapy practice which is doing incredibly well.

Working in situations that I would have never imagined in the USA which includes doing therapy on a oil rig in the the middle of a bay in China among others.

Helping many people feel better and figure out what is right for them.

Not having to own a car.

Seeing the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tienanmen Square, Summer Palace and so much more.

Seeing Chinese New Year in China!

Having Octoberfest in Beijing.

Becoming vegetarian, together, on New Year’s Day.

Visiting Mongolia.

Visiting Shanghai.

Visiting Malaysia, twice!

Visiting Singapore.

Spending NYE in Singapore with Dipesh.

The ability to take a month off in the summer and go to Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria.

Jill’s websites taking off and becoming a real force for tourism in San Francisco.

A new internet service that is screamingly fast which allows this blog, Jill’s sites, and all the connections we need to stay here and feel more at “home” when we miss people.

Overall, the positive definitely outweighs the negative and I’m sure there are lots more to list but I don’t want to overwhelm people.  Suffice to say that year one was incredibly tough, and taught us so much about ourselves, and each other, that we know year two will be a breeze. We are so much stronger, knowledgeable and resilient to what comes our way that we will succeed and master whatever needs to be done.

We both thank you for all your support, care and love.

 

Day 317 in Beijing: Erlian, Mongolia Visa Run: Hours 8-12

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Trains carrying coal are everywhere.

Trains carrying coal are everywhere.

We continue through the countryside heading North to Mongolia and spent time hanging out with Dan and Krick.

We feel very lucky we ran into them because they were great travel partners and a joy to hang out with during the time.

They work, according to factual evidence, in “the most isolated spot in the world.”

Their job entails making sure that the fuel and energy systems in McMurdo Station, Antarctica, keep running at all time.  They work 6 days a week, about 12 hours a day, and it is not an easy job.

They are both in great physical shape since they are constantly on the move, carrying heavy equipment and doing hard labor.

They seem to love their job, especially the peace and quiet they get and time together.

This sounds isolated enough but it is, excuse my pun, just the tip of the iceberg.

The job they did this year included them staying 500 miles away from McMurdo Station and running some type of outpost on their own.

They said it was amazing and interesting and that there would be groups that would come in and do research but that they were alone, in the middle of frozen nature, for much of the time.

I wondered about cabin fever, since they are married and out there almost entirely with each other, and they said they didn’t really get it.  They seemed to love the quiet, solitude and time together to really enjoy each other.

We seemed to have a lot in common and hanging with them made the 12 hour train ride fly by in seconds.

They are both in the mid-30s and also thinking about what they want to do for their lives.

In this way, they are sort of different than Jill and me.  We are looking to keep moving and keep traveling all over the world.  I actually want to touch all seven continents before I die and hopefully can achieve that within the next 10 years.  I have a feeling Jill would be more than happy to do the same.  Our plan, once her websites really take off, and my contract ends, is to travel the world for the next umpteen years and live in each place for 6 months at a time.  This will allow us to find friends, see the sights, and then move on and see what else is out there in this huge world of ours.

Dan and Krick, on the other hand, are starting to think of settling down.  They have been traveling for the last 10 years or so, and want to have a place to call their own.

Krick told us that they basically haven’t even had a closet to put their jackets in when they come home because of their jobs and their traveling.  I could see how this would get quite tiring just living out of boxes and not having a place to ground yourself.

We had long discussions about the type of lifestyles we all lead and how this affects us in regards to relationships, family, and our ways of thinking about reality.  My mom, and Jill’s parents, have told us that if we ever want to come “home” we can stay with them.  I think having that peace of mind is very helpful and allows us to roam more freely and openly because we know that, if something happened, we have a place to go.  That being said, I doubt that I will want to live in the USA again unless something changes drastically.  I enjoy meeting new people and learning about new places, and myself, when traveling that I don’t want to give this up.

It is one of the reasons that I choose not to have kids.  I want the freedom to move around, travel, and not be tied down to anything other than what I carry with me at that moment.  Jill is the same way.  Many people I know tell me that they couldn’t imagine their lives without their kids and I’m glad for them.  I just know I couldn’t imagine my life with kids.  I like my choices and I’m glad Jill does also.

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Day 316 in Beijing: Erlian, Mongolia Visa Run: Hours 4-8

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The lovely Jill and me. Cheers!

The lovely Jill and me. Cheers!

You may be wondering why we are going to Erlian, China and then across the border to Erenhot, Mongolia.

A simple answer is it is inexpensive.  We basically have to leave the country every 90 days for Jill’s tourist visa not to become illegal.

We have choices where we can go and what we can do.

We’ve been to Malaysia twice and love it.

However, we are planning a big trip this summer to Europe and wanted to save some cash so we decided to do the Erlian Visa Run (as it is known around here) instead of going to Hong Kong or some place else that would have been much more expensive.

Back to our journey:  We hung out in the cabin for a bit and relaxed.

Sadly, Jill’s Kindle decided to poop out on us and we didn’t want to distract our cabin mate, Zheng, with our idle conversations, so we decided to hit the dining car and see what was going on there.

It was a fairly spacious place and we were the first to show up.  It opened at 1030 so we were right on time as we walked in at 1030 on the dot.

As we hung out, and drank some water, the expatriates that we met in the Beijing Railway Station showed up and we welcomed each other.

Other expatriates and Chinese or Mongolian nationals showed up also.

We decided it was time for a beer and just watched the beautiful scenery fly by.

Now, beautiful may not be what you expect from a trip to Inner Mongolia but it was, especially just outside of Beijing.

There are a lot of mountains outside out Beijing and it is quite beautiful, and when the pollution cleared up as we exited the city, it became even more gorgeous.

As we meandered north, we actually saw some vineyards and wineries.  I have been told the the Chinese wine market is the largest in the world with the Chinese drinking 1.2 billion gallons of wine a year.  And they have really just learned about wine in the last 10 years so this will be the biggest market ever seen in a very short time.  Red China loves Red wine.  Especially if they can add Coca-Cola to it.  Yes, I’ve seen this happen before.

Anyway, two expatriates entered the dining car and they didn’t have anywhere to sit so we invited them to sit with us.

Jill and I were very glad we did.

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Day 315: Erlian Trip: Erlian, Mongolia Visa Run: Hours 0-4.

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Sunrise at Beijing Subway Station.

Sunrise at Beijing Subway Station.

Our trip started at 5:45 am on Wednesday, April 10th.

This trip is not really a vacation as much as an escape.

An escape from China, for about 2 hours, so that Jill can meet her tourist visa (L Visa) requirements of leaving China ever 90 days.

It is a bit of a pain because we’d rather leave during holidays and use our work time/play time more efficiently, but that is what happens when you live an expatriate life.  We choose to live in China so we choose to live by their rules.

So, we headed off to the Beijing Railway Station and out of our house at 6 am.

We got to the subway, which was actually somewhat busy for that time of the day, and boarded.

We had one wheel on piece of luggage and one backpack.

We brought along our computers to do work on the train and also to watch some movies in case we were bored with the scenery.

The subway zoomed along and we made one transfer and arrived at the station with an hour or so to spare.

Sometimes the train stations can be a horrific mess of people and confusion so we wanted to get there early and be able to relax.

To be honest, Jill went down the day before to get our tickets and make sure we were going to the right place since we would actually be crossing out of China on the 90th day of her visa.  That meant no mistakes and no screw ups or she would be illegally living in China and forced to pay a 500RMB (80 USD) a day fine.  We were also worried that the Chinese government may not give her a one year visa, for this year, if she did anything that might draw their attention.  It is dangerous to cut it so close but for many reasons, we chose to do it.  It would have been no one’s fault but our own if we didn’t make it because we made the choice to wait this long.

As we looked around for the correct ticket counter, we asked a guy to take a picture of us.  He took a couple and I actually love the way the older couple behind us move in it even if we stood still.  It gives a very alive feeling to a picture that could feel locked in time.

We found the right ticket counter, and went through security, and then sat down to wait.  There were about 4 or 5 other expatriates, from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who were being trained as tour guides for a company, and we hung out with them.

We then noticed an elderly Chinese woman who started to gargle water.  As she did this, she walked over to the edge of her seat row, and spit it out on the floor.  She proceeded to do this three times.  She also left all of her garbage on the station floor and seemed not to care about it.  Sadly, this is fairly common in China and it seems that many people don’t care about cleaning up after themselves.  Many people, inlcuding us, have cleaning people for their apartments, and cooks, and so they let someone else do all the “dirty work” for them and seem to have taken on a self-centered thought process that it isn’t their job and so they leave it for someone else.

We find that the worst part of living in China and what frustrates us since we have to walk around and constantly be on the look out to not step in spit, pee and, honestly, poop from people who go bathroom on the streets.

The station P.A. system let us know that it was time to board and we went to our cabin.  It was a four person cabin that each had beds in it so that the people continuing on to Ulan Batur, and the final destination of Moscow, could sleep as they desired.

We thought we’d have the cabin all to ourselves but, at the last minute, and gentleman walked in and sat down.  He introduced himself as “Zhang” and we introduced ourselves also.  He spoke English quite well and we talked for a while.

 

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Day 300 in Beijing: JILL AND I ARE MARRIED!!!!

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Yes, it is true.

Jill and I are married.

We tied the knot.

We know we let down a lot of our family and our friends because we didn’t tell you beforehand.

We also know you are probably upset because you weren’t able to attend the ceremony.

You probably have no interest in sending us flowers or even talking to us at this point.

We understand and we respect your wishes.

However, we are in love.

We aren’t getting any younger.

And,

most importantly,

it is Day 300 in Beijing for me.

Why is that important?

Because Day 300 in Beijing for me lands squarely on April 2nd here in Beijing.

That is April 1st for most of you back in the USA.

Why is that important?

Because April 1st is commonly referred to April Fool’s Day.

So, in response to that bit of information, I hope you forgive me for my little joke.

I honestly hope you have a wonderful April Fool’s Day, wherever you are, and know that we send our love to you and yours, even if we aren’t even engaged at this point.

By the way, I didn’t even tell Jill about this blog post so she might be surprised by it also.

If my next blog post is about her packing up all her luggage, moving back to the USA and me wondering what went wrong, well, you know what that I am the one to blame.

 

Day 256 in Beijing: How to be a vegetarian in China.

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Buddhist Beads=Vegetarian

Buddhist Beads=Vegetarian

This may sound easy to most people not living in China, but it is quite difficult to be vegetarian in China.

Obviously, Jill and I speak very little Mandarin so that is a major issues in our trying to order food here and help the servers to realize we don’t eat meat of any type.  We also don’t eat fish, shrimp or any shellfish.

This makes it very hard to eat at any restaurant that isn’t a Western based restaurant because so much of Chinese food has loads of meat in it.

There are the customary pictures on the menu that usually provide some relief but many of the sauces have animal or fish sauces and so our vegetarian ideals are crushed.

On Chinese New Year, we happened to run into a 7-11 type store here in Beijing as we were hungry and the party we were going to attend wouldn’t start for another few hours.

Almost every restaurant was closed and a 7-11 rip off store was all we could find at that time.

It was an auspicious start to the Year of the Horse now that I look back on it.

There was an America order a steamed bun and he was speaking fluent Mandarin to the clerks.  They were laughing and joking around as Jill and I bought some potato chips and nuts to eat.

He left and then came back in.  I asked if he had forgotten something and he said, “Nope, these buns are just delicious!  I want another one.”

We told him that we also wanted some but are vegetarians and don’t know what to say.

He laughed and said, “I’m vegetarian too.  I have tried to get people to understand that being vegetarian means no meat at all but they usually tell me, ‘It is just a little bit of pork’ after I’ve started eating.  It is hopeless to try to use Mandarin to tell them what you want.  They just don’t get it.”

We asked him how he does it and he responded with, “Buy a set of Buddhist prayer beads.  Wear them on your wrist.  Then, when you order, point to them and they will immediately understand since Buddhists don’t eat any living creatures.  You won’t even have to say a word.”

We thought this was genius and started laughing at the simplicity of it.

I’ve a firm belief there is almost always a new way to “hack they system” and figure out a more efficient, and inventive, way of doing things.  It is only when we get stuck in a linear thought formation that we stop ourselves from seeing the other possibilities to change.

We exchanged information and thanked him for his help.

By the way, we each had one of the vegetarian steamed buns and he was right, the were amazing!

We will now be able to order more of them since we know how to order and not get steamed buns filled with meat!

Day 253 in Beijing: A Temple Excursion.

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Juxtaposition of time and architecture.

Juxtaposition of time and architecture.

During the Spring Festival, there are loads of temple festivals going on all around Beijing.

We decided, on the last day of the festival, to venture out and see what they are like.

We decided on a smaller one because we didn’t want to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowds and pushed along by everyone else.

We met our friend Federica and paid the 10RMB to enter and were surprised by how few people were around since this is a major holiday.

We looked at the signs and realized that it had actually ended the day before!

We had checked online and the webpage stated it would continue to today but I guess the websites were not correct.  This is actually a pretty common occurrence, from what we’ve seen, where many of the websites are horribly outdated or just have incorrect information and no one seems interested in fixing them.  This could be a big business opportunity if someone wanted to fix these issues but no one seems to care.  C’est la vie…or maybe it would be better stated at, “C’est la Chine.”

The temple’s name is “Dongyue miao” and it is quite beautiful.

It was originally built in 1319 and has 376 rooms.  There are also massive stone tablets that reach about 20 or 30 feet into the sky.  They are covered with old Chinese writing and explain the auspicious events that occurred in the past.  These stone tablets were made to give thanks to the Gods for allowing prosperity.

A full restoration was done in 1997 and, from the pictures that were posted, it needed it.

It looked like it was it utter disrepair and the massive stones had fallen down into dirt and refuse.

They did an excellent job and it is quite beautiful and stunning.

Since there weren’t a lot of people, we were able to take pictures of some of the statues and look into each of the little rooms that have depictions of each part of this Taoist belief system.

Each room had a “Department of…” and they ranged from “Department of signing forms” to very obscure and more spiritual departments which I didn’t understand.

It didn’t really matter though, as the statues were amazing and I could get an idea of what kind of location this department was in and if it was a hopeful department or a hellish one.

 

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