Category Archives: Weather

Day 361 in Beijing: Moving Videos.

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I honestly can’t say how thankful we are to Rachel, Justin, and the movers.

Jill and I are happily set up in our apartment and loving it.

I wanted to do a separate post, with just the videos attached, so you can get an idea of how hard these guys were working.

Again, it was 100 degrees and fairly humid yesterday.

They didn’t complain and worked hard and just kept on going until the job was done.

And, you get to say hi to Rachel in the final video so make sure to watch them all.  I’ve made sure they are concise.

 

 

Day 360 in Beijing: Moving Day!

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Beijing is a huge city.

It is really incomprehensible how large the city is compared to any other city I’ve been lived in.

There are 6 ring roads and the furthest one out is about located at a point that it takes about 220 kms to drive around the city.

The 6th ring road is about 10 kms from the center of the city.

There are about 25,000,000 people here.

Beijing is massive.

We were living right inside the 4th ring road and about a 30 minute cab ride from my work.

It became a daily ordeal to find a cab, take the ride through traffic, and then get to work or home.

I’ve had long commutes before, especially living in El Cerrito and commuting to San Francisco (sometimes up to 1.5 hours each way) but it seemed much longer here.

It was also just tough being so far away from our friends and people we truly care about who live near Sanlitun.

All our favorite restaurants, bars, and my work are all downtown so it just didn’t make sense to live where we were anymore.

The only negative is we won’t be as close to our wonderful roommate, Gulzar, and our dear friend Federica.

But that is the expatriate life.

And starting today, Jill and I have moved into our new apartment near where I work.

I can now get up in the morning and walk to work in a few minutes.

It is wonderful!

The move, by the way, went incredibly well.

My buddy, Justin, set us up with a moving company that he knows and trusts.

They ended up showing up about 1.5 hours late, but other than that, they were incredible.

Three guys, working their butts off in 100 degree heat, and moving our stuff with almost no complaining or whining.

These guys WORK.

They took our armoire, our queen sized mattress, our washing machine and a bunch of other stuff and just kept going without a rest.

We all helped out a bit but it was mostly them.

How much did this all cost to move our apartment, with three workers, about 5 miles and then up 5 flights of stairs since our new place doesn’t have an elevator?

Well, we had set the price at 450RMB.

Jill and I then bought them 2 bottles of water each (we offered beer but they told us not when they are working).  This sounds obvious but there are times when we’ve gotten in a cab and you can smell alcohol on the driver’s breath.  Not these guys.  True professionals.  We also bought them Popsicles.

That cost us about 20RMB.

We gave them a 50RMB tip, which no one tips here so they were very happy with that and we felt they definitely deserved it.

Total price:  520RMB

Total price in USD: 85 bucks.

Honestly, our new place is fantastic and we have our internet and wifi all set up already.

We later went for a walk by the canal behind our apartment and celebrated.

We also have to give a HUGE thank you to our dear friend, Rachel.  She is a native Beijinger and moving to Hong Kong in the next few weeks for work.  She has helped us out so much and we love her dearly.  THANK YOU, RACHEL!

Life is good.

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Day 344 in Beijing: A Rose, By Any Other Name…

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Two roses.

Two roses.

Would smell as sweet.

I would love to agree but I have no sense of smell.

This is a sad fact since I was in a car crash when I was four years old and have no memory of what is a smell.

I can guess what a smell is because I can taste, albeit, I believe around 50-60% of what most people taste.

Therefore, being a vegetarian is quite easy, as I’m not as tempted by the wonderful smells of bacon and other foods that people seem to crave.

I also am not tempted to go into a dessert store because I don’t smell cookies or cakes being baked when I walk by.

The other benefit is I don’t smell the horrible smells from the sewers and drains that often accompany living in big cities.

Living in San Francisco, Beijing, Oakland, and so many other big cities, this has proved to be quite wonderful actually.

I don’t mind it, that much, because I think of the other senses I could have lost, especially my sight, and I was lucky enough only to lose my sense of smell.

This is part of the behavioral therapy I do also: Instead of focusing on what is wrong, look at what you have and what wonderful benefits your “loss” gives you.  I have learned not to complain very much and to try to find the best way out of a problem and it has given me a lot of skills and experiences that I never would have received if I had accepted the negative and given up.

Jill, on the other hand, has an amazing sense of smell and loves roses.

She enjoyed smelling these roses and walking by them.

Spring has definitely sprung in Beijing.

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Day 343 in Beijing: Random Shots.

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Once in a while, I’ll just take a few neat shots with the camera.

However, there isn’t really a theme or a specific blog that would make sense where to post them.

So, I thought I’d just throw them up here and let you meander through them and see if you like any of them.

Please feel free to comment and share them with others.

That is what this blog is about.

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Day 341 in Beijing: White Pollen.

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Yep, there is a lot of white fuzz.

Yep, there is a lot of white fuzz.

There is an annual event in Beijing that seems to be quite a surprise to most people.

People are well aware of the pollution in Beijing and how the air quality is lacking at this point.

However, there is another weird bit of Beijing air drama that seems to come up every Spring.

After World War II, Beijing was fairly devoid of trees.

The government decided to plant popular and willow trees, being that they grew quickly and gave lots of shade, but they didn’t realize that this would cause a massive white flow of catkins (that is what they are called) when they bloom.

It is quite beautiful, but it is also quite annoying, as when you are walking around, these things are everywhere and they can get breathed in quite easily.

Luckily, I don’t have allergies, but I can not imagine how people with allergies would handle the Spring in Beijing.

It is rather amazing to see so much of the stuff floating through the air and there are reports of traffic issues and other problems because it becomes so overwhelming to drivers.

In a way, it is like a tumbleweed in the Southwest of the USA if you’ve ever experienced a windstorm with those things flying around you.

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And just to give you an idea of what it is like to walk around in this stuff:

Day 339 in Beijing: 798 Art District, Part 2.

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One of our favorite pieces of graffiti art,

One of our favorite pieces of graffiti art,

Jill and I continued to walk around and check out the scene.

We were very impressed and noticed a massive building off a side street.

It was totally covered in graffitti and we noticed some other people taking pictures of it.

Being that I work Sunday through Wednesday, we often go places when other people are at work, so the locations are quite empty.

However, there were a lot of people visiting from out of town and so there were more tourists than usual compared to when we normally go sightseeing.

We walked up and notice a few high school aged girls taking pictures and waited for them to finish.

They looked at us and one of them started speaking English and asked us where we are from, do we live in Beijing and so forth.  They were on vacation from their high school and in Beijing only for a few days.

Jill and I have gotten used to being asked these kinds of questions, here in Beijing, and when we travel to other parts of China.

We don’t find it rude but it can be somewhat tiring as we sort of feel as if we are “monkeys in a zoo” and never really allowed to fit in completely.

Even on the subway or walking around beijing, a city of 23 million people, we are often stared at and looked at with amazement.

Now, we are good looking folks, but not that good looking.  Just kidding!

We also realize that expatriates are still fairly rare to a lot of people here and we want to make a good example so that people don’t believe everything they see on tv and that most Americans aren’t running around, shooting each other and dealing drugs.  We are just people who are trying to get along and survive, like most anyone else.

These girls then asked Jill, which I sort of expected, if she would take a picture with them.

This happens to us a lot.

Again, we aren’t that good looking, we are just average, but we are different here and so people want to take pictures with us.

I could never imagine going up to someone, who I don’t know in the USA, and just saying, “Oh, can I take a picture with you because you don’t look like me?” but people do here.  And it isn’t done in a rude or offensive way.  They just love selfies and love taking pictures with people.

So, Jill being Jill, she jumped right in and they took a few pictures.

After this, we continued on our way and just enjoyed the art and gorgeous day with very low pollution and blue skies.

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Day 338 in Beijing: 798 Art District, Part 1.

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The 798 entrance.

The 798 entrance.

Jill and I decided to head out the 798 Art District a few weeks ago.

It was an utterly gorgeous day and we felt incredibly lucky to be living in Beijing and to have this type of experience.

Some days are incredibly difficult, being an expatriate in China, since we don’t speak much of the language, we don’t live near downtown Beijing (which will be changing in a few weeks) and we are still relatively new here as we’ve only been her just over 11 months.

Jill and I are incredibly outgoing, and social, but it takes time to start a new life.

Many of the other expats, that are our age, aren’t going out as often as we do, they have kids, and they have a different priority so it can be difficult that way.

It does seem we end up hanging out with 20-30 year olds even though we have friends our age also.

It is a nice balance and it keeps us “young at heart” as the saying goes.

We ventured out to the 798 and fell in love with it instantly.

It used to be an industrial part of town, and in the past 10 years or so, has become an art enclave and it has loads of galleries and shops to look at art and art materials.

 

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Day 319 in Beijing: Erlian, Mongolia Visa Run: Hours 18-24

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Leaving China makes a rainbow.

Leaving China makes a rainbow.

And the sun rose on Erlian.

And on us.

We woke up and looked out the windows of our hotel room.

Erlian is a pretty damn boring place, sad to say.

Honesty is the best policy, right?

As we got up, we decided to try the buffet breakfast, which was included in our hotel stay, we were pretty worried that it would be all meat and eggs.

Erlian is on the Mongolian border and Mongolia is a serious meat eating country.

We were pleasantly surprised since there was a decent amount of vegetarian options, although no fruit, and we ate up our food and decided to walk around Erlian and get some pictures of the people and the place.

There is one thing Jill and I love about China and that is the doggies.  As you know, if you follow this blog, we love the dogs and take a lot of pictures of them.  The dogs here seemed to be somewhat skittish, and we are guessing they are not treated as well as the dogs in Beijing, and they looked more like they were homeless.

Jill and I really enjoyed the Mongolia script for their language and how the signs were in Chinese, Mongolian and Russian in many places.

I had no idea that so many Russians would be near this area, but since it is part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, it makes sense for the signs to have all three languages written out.

After walking around for a bit, we went back to our rooms to get ready as we were meeting Diana at 9 am to start the border crossing journey.

Jill took the first shower and stepped out of it into a puddle of water.

The shower wasn’t built quite right so the water from it drained out into the bathroom.  There is a drain, under the sink, for the water to drain into as a back up but the floor was tilted towards the toilet so that didn’t help at all. I took my shower and we basically were walking in water whenever we went into the bathroom again.  It flat out didn’t drain at all.

Other than that, our stay at the hotel was fine and we would stay there again if we need to go to Erlian on another trip.  I guess that is about the best review I could give it.  In fact, I basically gave that review on Tripadvisor the next day.

As we would be returning to Beijing this afternoon, we checked out of our hotel, which cost us about 40 USD for the night, and waited for our driver, Diana.  We had no idea what she looked like and we had chatted, briefly, on WeChat a week before to make sure she had space for us.

A nice SUV drove up and his very cute and perky woman of about 35 showed up and said, “Hi!” to us.  We jumped in her car and she started playing American music on the radio and singing.  She was friendly and smiled a lot as we drove to our first destination.

Jill and I didn’t really have a clue what would happen.  Our friend, Moeava, telling us that she’s the best and she’ll take us on some errands during our trip.  We were looking forward to seeing what would happen and a tiny bit apprehensive.

We ended up driving to a big parking lot with lots of other jeeps and trucks with people waiting around.  This is where most the other visa run people meet and haggle for the lowest price to go over the border and back.

Three other people, including a 50 year old mother and her 25 year old daughter, got in.  The mother and daughter couple were from Mongolia, originally, and now live in Beijing.  They have to make this run every 30 days to be able to stay in China.  This gives you an idea of how much more they are paid in Beijing compared to Mongolia and why there aren’t a lot of people that choose to stay in Mongolia if they can work elsewhere.

The mother and daughter both spoke English and were very nice.  The other guy didn’t speak English but did speak Mongolian and they all talked among each other.

As we drove around, Diana did some of her errands and picked up, or dropped off, stuff that she had picked up in Mongolia.

She told us she does this run 4-5 times a day and usually takes about 4-5 people.  We paid about 25 bucks each, for our run, and if you add this up, that is a serious amount of cash just to take people back and forth across the border each day, especially in Northern China or Mongolia.

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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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