China Menu

One of the most challenging things that I had to deal with when we moved to Beijing in 2006 was ordering food from chinese restaurants that didn’t have English menus (most of them). Over time it became easier (you memorize a few favorite dishes) but it was always slightly annoying.

Well technology keeps on progressing and a new application has been released on the iPhone that should make ordering Chinese food easier. If you are planning to visit China for a holiday or have decided to line in China but can’t speak Chinese then China Menu is an App worth considering. Unlike phrases books this China Menu helps you customize your order (you want cold beer, not warm beer). It also has a section that help you to understand Chinese customs and tells you how to deal with some of the more interesting ones.

That being said it doesn’t have the killer feature that I would love to see which is being able to take a photo of the menu and being told what it is ^_^

Discloser: I worked with the primary developer of this App when I was living in China. That being said it’s still a great idea and I’m looking forward to using it when I go back to China.

Over the last two years I have learned a number of lessons about management. Some of them have been learned the hard way and other have been learned by talking to other people. In this article I’ve tried to summarize some of the most important lessons so you can try to avoid these mistakes.

In China a lot of these management problems are related to “saving face”, which is part of Asian culture. In the west these same problems are often called “office politics”. Whatever the cause the outcome is the same: They generally help a specific individual at the expense of the company.

All of these problems are related to authority and responsibility.

• Authority means that you:
  • Get the praise if the project succeeds.
  • Can be allocated resources and make things happen.
• Responsibility means that you get in trouble if the project fails.

What Works

Responsibility with Authority

If a single person is responsible for a project and has authority over the project then they have the motivation to make sure that the project succeeds. This doesn’t guarantee that the project will be a success but does improve the odds.

A Group with a Group Leader who assigns Responsibility and Authority

The chairman is not responsible for the output of the group. He/She is only responsible for assigning responsibility and authority. So if a task isn’t assigned to anyone then the chairman is responsible for that mistake but individuals are responsible for their individual projects.

What Doesn’t Work

Responsibility without Authority

This almost always means that the project will fail. It generally happens when a manager assigns a task to an employee without giving them enough authority to complete the task.

Authority without Responsibility (Kingdom Building)

This happens when roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. The two most common forms are:

• Large unproductive departments (More employees = more important)
• Managers taking on titles without taking on the work. (More titles = more important)

Equal Group Authority with equal Group Responsibility (Blame Game)

If everyone has equal authority and responsibility then everyone assumes that someone else will do the work. If one person does all the work then everyone else still gets the glory. If no one decides to do the work then when the project fails then it is easy to blame someone else for the project’s failure.

Equal Group Authority with Individual Responsibility (Burn Out)

This scenario is similar to the “Chairman scenario” the main difference is that the chairman delegates responsibility and authority. In this scenario the individual is responsible for the project but doesn’t have enough authority to make sure it is successful. This scenario works for a while but eventually the person responsible for all the mistakes that the group makes will burn out.
This post is really different from the other posts in the blog and I would really appreciate feedback. Either directly or in the comments.

After a lot of soul searching we have decided to return to Australia at the end of Sheree’s contract in July. It has been an interesting two years and we have both enjoyed being over here with its ups and downs. The only regret that I have is that we have not seen much of China apart from Beijing. Over the last 6 weeks we have been trying to compensate and have gone to a number of different places. So far we have:

• Gone Go Karting

• Went to a Hot Spa with our Home Cell.
• Went to Xi’an and saw the Terracotta Warriors
• Went to TainJin and saw the concessions.
• Went to the New Summer Palace and saw the marble boat.

Go Karting

We went Go Karting with Ingrid and Alex from Language Calls. The most interesting thing about the racecourse was that it was indoors. When the temperature is below zero for almost four months it make sense. Because it was indoors the track was a lot tighter than some of the other ones we’ve been one. It was also really noisy but that just added to the excitement. Each race was only 6 minutes which does not seem like a lot of time but when each lap is about 30 seconds the 6 minutes seems like a really long time. Sheree was won by a lap and had an average speed of 34.3 kph.

Hot Spa

We went to a Hot Spa with some of our friends from Home Cell. We had bible studies, lots of praise and worship and a really good time. I don’t think we have many photos of the Spa and water park because we were to busy having fun but that’s life. My favourite ride was the man made wave … although that may be because I was the only one able to surf for more than a couple of seconds

Xi’an

Sheree organised the holiday to Xi’an which was a nice change. She found some really cool apartments near the center of town. We got to see al the major attractions in Xi’an:

The Drum Tower & Bell Tower

The Terracotta Warriors

The Bumpo Village

The Big pogola.

The Wall (We found out the hard way that it takes just over 1.5 hours to ride all the way around it)

We also go to see some other attractions:

Kites that stretched as far as you could see into the sky.

Some snacks in Moslem street.

Jiaoza Banquet.

TainJin

We went to TainJin with some of the teachers from Sheree’s school. The hotel was really nice but the bus trip there took almost 5 hours. We went on a tour through TainJin looking at all the concession(sort of like embassies) and hearing about TainJin’s history. I think one of the most memorable photos was looking at all the people fishing right next to the no fishing sign.

The photos from the TainJin holiday probably look really boring since the photos are mainly of buildings but in China they are really out of place and it almost feels like you are in another country when you go through some of the concessions.

New Summer Palace

We went to the New Summer Palace with Jon because it was his last day in Beijing. The day was windy and cloudy and rather depressing. I was freezing and to be 100% honest the jade boat wasn’t that impressive. I’m glad we want but I’ve seen so many temples in Beijing that they are getting a bit boring. We didn’t go to the palace itself because it cost an extra 30RMB to go there and we had ran out of time.

Future Plans

When we get back to Australia I am planning to go back to university and get a Graduate Diploma of Education. Eventually we would like to travel again and it will be easier if we are both teachers at the same international school. We will both:

• Get medical insurance.
• Flights back to Australia every two years.
• Paid an international wage.
• Leave work at the same time.
• Get the same holidays.

That should make it a lot easier the next time we travel.

Till next time…

For those of you that don’t know the Chinese have a lunisolar calendar which means that the Chinese New Year isn’t the 31stof December. Chinese New Year generally happens sometime in February and in China it’s a big deal, a REALLY big deal.

For the whole month everything goes a little bit crazy (like Christmas in Australia but with 1 billion people). Here are some of the things that happen:

• Almost all the Chinese get to take a 9 day holiday BUT 4 ofthose days are weekends and they have to work the entire weekend before the holiday, so they only really 3 days off but if you try to explainthat to them they’ll adamantly say they get 9 days off.
• Many part time employees take the entire month off.Lots of English schools shut down for the whole month.
• Virtually everyone goes home.
• There are virtually no cars in Beijing and most of the pollution goes away as well.
• They start selling fireworks 3 days before Chinese New Year and lots of Chinese people spend up to a months salary on Fireworks and food for the banquets.
• On Chinese New Year the fireworks start going off as soon as it gets dark and by midnight they are constantly going off in every direction.
• The fireworks keep going for the next 2 weeks.
• It’s traditional to make Jiaozi (dumplings) during Chinese New Year.

This Chinese New Year was extra special because my Parents and Daniel decided to visit us (after having some problems with their visas). Here is a breakdown of what we did:

• Tuesday – Sheree picked them up from the airport and then took them to the Great Wall with some of our friends from Yizhuang.
• Wednesday – We all went to Longqing Xia to see the Ice Festival with some of my friends from work. On Wednesday night we let off about $200 worth of fireworks (We carried them all around in a suitcase) at 10pm then went back to the apartment on the 9th floor to watch the fireworks till about 1am.
• Thursday – We relaxed and got a massage at the hair dresser. We were going to go chair skating but they had already packed up for the year
• Friday – We were going to go to the Pearl Market but it was closed fortunately the Toy Market behind it wasn’t closed
• Saturday – I went Skiing with Daniel while everyone else relaxed at home. We took a bus there and back unfortunately whenwe tried to catch the bus back to Beijing it was full so we jumped in a van with about seven other people. I had no idea were we were going but the lady next to me was going to Beijing as well so I figured if we followed her we’d make it back. In the end we found out that the van was going to the first bus stop so we were able to get on the bus and make it back to Beijing.
• Sunday – We didn’t do much on Sunday apart from say goodbye and send Mum, Dad and Dano off to the airport.

Overall Chinese New Year was a lot of fun. It was great catching up with my parents although I did neglect Sheree a bit that week (I tried to make up for it the next week).

It’s amazing how easy it is to stop
doing something (like posting to this blog) and once you’ve stopped
doing it guilt and fear stops you from starting again.

• Guilt because you feel that you
  should somehow compensate for failing.
• Fear because now that you have to
  catch up you’ll have to do double, triple, quadruple the amount of
  work just to catch up today let alone getting ahead.

So it’s been four months since my last
update so rather than writing a big long post I’m going to summarize
each month.

September

September was basically a boring month.
We were both back at work and nothing interesting really happened. I
spent a bit of time uploading and GeoTagging lots of the photos that
we have.

October

Israel and Ruth came over in October
before they went to Thailand to see my parents. I went down to Zibo
with them to see where Israel lived while he was in China. They took
me around to all their favourite places and just like Beijing half of
them didn’t exist any more (things change rapidly over here).

November

This was a really pivotal month at
work. We finally released the new website which was good and bad. We
were having lots of problems with the old site and the new site fixed
a lot of issues while introducing new issues. My manager also
finished his contract at Language Calls and decided to go back to
America.

December

Thailand! That just about sums it up
^_^

The beginning of the month was really
busy but it was worth it to go to Thailand for Christmas and see all
my Brothers. I don’t want to spend to much time writing about it here
because I’m going to write a full post about it later on but you can
check out the photos if you want to

http://picasaweb.google.com/adinobro/Christmas2007Thailand

January

It was really hard to go back to work
after Christmas. To make things worse I got sick for a week and then
depressed for a week. It wasn’t a good month for me. Things had
picked up by the end of the month and it finished on a good note
especially since my parent’s and Daniel were coming over for Chinese
New Year but I’ll write about that at the end of the month.

So that’s about it for this post. The
next post should be coming soon.

As expected August was a fairly boring month. Almost everyone was away on holidays and we were both really busy. Sheree had to start teaching again and I had a product launch. To make up for the fact that I have nothing to write about I decided to update the website and make a video.

You can checkout the website at http://www.adinobro.com/

There are lots og new photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/adinobro

You can watch the video below or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANn_8_m5A-Y

If you live in Beijing you might be interested in my guide to buying electric bikes in Beijing located at http://www.adinobro.com/buying-electronic-bike-beijing.html

Also over the next couple of months I’m going to start phasing out my old mailing list. If you would like to keep on recieving these updates please go to http://www.adinobro.com/ and click on “Subscribe via Email” or “Subscribe via RSS” if you have an RSS reader. If this sounds to complicated then send me an email and I’ll walk you through it.

Nathaniel Brown.

We arrive back from Tibet at 8am and I went back to work straight away and I mean straight away. I had a spare change of cloths so I caught a taxi to work and got changed there after I had a shower (After living on a train for two days the shower felt like heaven). Sheree and her parents relaxed on Monday then went to the Great Wall and some of the markets on Tuesday on Wednesday. I took Thursday off work to go with them to Longqing gorge. In the morning we meet Cathy and Janny, her co-teacher. By the time we left it was about 9:00 so the traffic was horrible. On the way to Longqing gorge we picked up Janny’s children. We finally arrived at Longqing gorge at about 1:00pm so we had some lunch at a local restaurant. After we arrived at the gorge we went up the dragon escalator and took a boat ride up the gorge which was fantastic. When we arrived at the end of the gorge there were a number of shops with stuff for sale and a spot where you could go bungee jumping over the river. I deiced to take the plunge and while it’s not a much fun as sky diving it’s definitely an adrenaline buzz. Unfortunately we ran out of time so we were not able to take the chairlift to the top of the gorge. I guess that means we’ll have something to do if we come back another time.

One week after Sheree’s parents left we went on another Holiday. We went to Hong Kong first via Shengjin. Shengjin is about 2 hours away from Hong Kong but it is about $100 cheaper per flight to go to Shengjin because it is a domestic flight instead of an international flight. Sheree found a really nice hotel in Hong Kong called Mingle Place which is a tech hotel. You could use a finger scanner to get into your room and there was even a mini tv in the bathroom. After we settled into the hotel we went out for dinner and it became painfully obvious that we weren’t in Beijing anymore. In Beijing any meal over 100 RMB ($15) is really expensive. Well as we looked around for a place to eat the prices started at about 80 RMB and go up to 300+ RMB for dinner. We ended up having a reasonable priced dinner but it did make me thankful that we ended up in Beijing instead of Hong Kong.

The next day we caught up with Ron and went to Ocean Park which was a blast. I highly recommend checking out the photos that we took of the day. After Ocean Park we went down to the river to see the laser light show. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations but the fireworks were nice. The next day we meet Wilson a the metro station. Wilson was a lived with my family for almost a month back in 1998 and my monther has been keeping in touch with him since then. I hadn’t seen him for almost 10 years so I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t recognize each other. Fortunately we found each other and then went to Jumbo Kingdom for lunch. We figured that a trip to Hong Kong without eating Dim Sum would be like going to Australia and not eating a meat pie, so we had lots of weird and interesting food for lunch. It was lots of fun catching up and finding out what Wilson had been up to over the last couple of years. After lunch we went shopping at a local market and basically killed time until it was late enough to go to The Peak. On the way to the markets we ran into Ronald McDonald. You wouldn’t believe how excited Sheree was. He was in a bit of a rush he but he was willing to stop and have his photo taken with Sheree which really made her day. After the markets we caught the tram up to The Peak which was an experience. The next day wasn’t anywhere near as much fun. We spent almost the whole day waiting in queues first at the visa office then at the book fair but in the end I got my visa and we both got some books in English The next day we left for Guilin.

We arrived at the airport at Guilin and were all excited about catching a river cruise down to Yangshuo but unfortunately it leaves at 8am unless you want to hire a private boat which wasn’t in our budget. We ended up catching a bus to Yangshuo and then catching a Taxi to the Outside Inn which was in a farming village just outside Yangshuo. We had a few problems on the first night with huntsman spiders but after that it settled down. Over the next couple of days we had the most fun we’ve even had in China. We went to the Water Caves which had mud baths and pools that you could swim in, we rode electric scooters, we climbed a mountain right next to the town, we went down rapids and relaxed on a river cruise. It was fantastic. We like it so much that we are going to try and organize another trip down there in the October holidays or the May holidays.

Eventually we had to leave Yangshuo and continue on our journey. Late Friday night we caught a plane to Shanghai where we stayed at a serviced apartment. The next day we explored Shanghai which didn’t end up taking that long. Maybe we were looking in the wrong places but apart from shopping there didn’t seem to be much to do in Shanghai. The prices were roughly the same as Beijing or slightly higher. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower was impressive but in the end Shanghai just felt like another big city. By the time we arrived in Beijing on Sunday afternoon we were well restarted and glade that we were living in Beijing instead of Hong Kong or Shanghai. We are already planning to go back to Yangshuo with some friends in the next twelve month.

I’m expecting August to be a fairly boring month so I’m going to try and make up for it by making a video of our first year of China. There will be a link to it in the next update. Until them feel free to check out the photos on our online gallery.

Till next month,

Nathaniel and Sheree Brown.

July was a really big month, in fact it was so big that I’ve had to split it into two posts. This post is about Chengdu and Tibet and the second post is about everything else that happened in July.

Sheree’s parent’s arrived on the 30th of June. We picked them up from the train station at 5:20 in the morning (which meant that we had to wake up at about 4:30 am). Sheree took them back to our apartment and I caught the subway to work (it was a long day).

On Saturday Sheree’s parent’s spent the day recovering from their travels. On Sunday we went to Church and after Church we went to Kiss for Sheree’s birthday. A couple of our friends from Beijing met us there and Sheree got lots of presents but the one she liked the most was her parents being there. After lunch we rushed home, grabbed our bags and flew to Chengdu. We had organized airport pickup at Chengdu so when we landed we got taken straight to the hostel.

On Monday we went to see Giant Pandas and Red Pandas at the Panda breeding center. We got to see lots of adult pandas and about 10 baby pandas. We even got to see a panda that was less than a week old in a humidicrib. After the pandas we went to a Temple and had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant that specialized in fake meat dishes. Some of the food was a bit weird but it was lots of fun. When we got home I sat on the front step with my father-in-law and watched people go about their lives for a couple of hours.

On Monday night I double checked the airplane tickets and found out that they had been issued for Wednesday instead of Tuesday. On Tuesday morning it was raining so everyone relaxed at the hostel while I called our travel agent and got the date changed on the tickets, it was a bit inconvenient but not that big a deal because they were electronic tickets so we just had to show our passports at the airport and not the actual tickets.

We arrived at Lhasa that afternoon and went straight to the hotel. The altitude made all of us short of breath so we had an early night. The next morning Sheree and I went to the supermarket and bought big bottles of water and some snacks. The supermarket was less than 100 meters from the hotel but we were still out of breath by the time we got there. While we were short on breath Sheree’s parents were suffering from altitude sickness. After lunch Sheree’s parents felt a little better so we went to the Potala Palace.

I always thought there was just one Buddha (the big fat laughing Buddha) but there are lots of Buddhas and I never saw the laughing Buddha in Tibet. The Potala Palace is one of three sacred sites in Tibet that was spared during the Cultural Revolution. The governor of Tibet was able to convince Chairman Mao that these three sites were famous and shouldn’t be destroyed to avoid backlash from the global community. During the Cultural Revolution all the other temples and monasteries were vandalized. Often the monks where able to carry off the most valuable relics before the soldiers arrived but all the paintings on the walls of the monasteries where whitewashed. After the Potala Palace we went to the Dreung Monastery which was vandalized. They have restored most of the monastery but they have deliberately left one wall whitewashed so tourists can see what was done during the Cultural Revolution.

On Thursday we went to Jokhang Monastery and the Barkhor street markets. The monastery was ok but it wasn’t as impressive as Potala Palace. The markets were reasonable but apart from a few obviously local products like “I Love Tibet” T-shirts the rest of the markets were just like every other Chinese market. After lunch we went to the Sera Monastery which was much more interesting. It’s one of a few functioning colleges for monks. To become a monk you basically have to memorize a bunch of scriptures. Monday to Saturday they get together in a courtyard next to the monastery and debate. When our guide told us they debated I expected to see a few people sitting at the front talking like a western debate. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Their debating consisted of many mini groups with one person asking questions and another person answering the questions, with lots of clapping, stomping of feet and pray beads being shaken. There were probably about 100 little groups all debating at the same time. It was so loud that we sometimes found it hard to talking to teach other.

??Thursday night we took a pedicab ride to the markets to have dinner.  Mum and Dad in one and Sheree and I in the other, it started to rain during our ride, but had stopped by the time we got there.  We had dinner at a lovely open-air restaurant that looked out over the markets and the monastery we had seen the previous day.  The mountains were in the background and we ate great food with the sun setting behind us.  After dinner Sheree and her Mum went and did some shopping whilst us men, stayed at the restaurant having a few drinks.  We eventually joined them and made our way to the city square ? where we were told there would be a ?water and light show? set to music.  Lots of people were beginning to crowd around and we knew we were in the right spot.  Right on 9pm the water spurted high up into the air ? many people were standing too close and got wet ? it was funny.  It was amazing and too hard to describe but I will try. ??

On Friday we went to Ganden Monastery which is about 2 hours outside of Lhasa and way up in the mountains. The road to get to the monastery was recently paved so it was really nice but it weaves back and forth like a coil of rope. After we finished looking at the monastery we had the option of hiking for 2 hours around the mountain, or not. Sheree’s parent’s weren’t feeling that well and Sheree wasn’t wearing the right shoes for hiking but I really wanted to make the most of my last day in Tibet. In the end I decided to compromise and climb to the top of the mountain instead, which was only supposed to take an hour instead of 2 hours. About 2/3rds of the way up I went over a crest and realized how far I had to go. At that stage I was stopping every 10 meters for a rest because of the altitude so I cut across the mountain to the ridge so that I could see what was on the other side. The view was amazing. I’ve made a couple of panoramic photos but they don’t do it justice. After I climbed down we went back to the hotel for a rest before we went back to the markets to do some last minute shopping.

From Chengdu and Lhasa

One of the reasons why we went to Tibet was to go on the new train that connects Tibet to the rest of China. The train trip took 47 hours and the food was worse than airline food but the scenery was fantastic. On the first day we went through the mountains which were breathtaking. One of the things that really puzzled us was the Chinese guards that were posted every couple of kilometers facing away from the train on both sides. I’ve asked a couple of people in Beijing about them but no one seems to know about them.

On the second day we start following a river. The road on the other side of the river was miserable but they were building a four lane highway above the river that will make a massive difference when it’s finished.

After lunch we left the river and went through some more cities and agricultural areas. The biggest difference between Australia and China is that in China they use everything. The farms went all the way up the hills with terracing no matter how step they were.

If you want to see some more of our photos check out our online gallery.

Till next time,

Nathaniel & Sheree Brown.

Lets get the big news out of the way first. I’ve
finished studying Mandarin and in April I got a full time job as a
System Administrator. Now that I’ve got that out of the way lets go
back to march and work our way forward from there.

After everything that happened in March was a fairly boring
month after the spring break in February. Here’s what happened in March:

• I finished my Mandarin coarse on the 2nd of April and we had the breakup party on 30th of March.
• I applied for a job at the beginning of March but they ended
  up stringing me along for the rest of March before telling me that they
  couldn’t hire me.
• Because I was job hunting I stopped tutoring.
• I wrote some software for my Dad which is on ice now that I have a job.
• Our Cat “Mimi” has three kittens on the Monday the 12th of March which is also Sheree’s mother’s birthday.

March
was a fairly laid back compared to February but it was also rather
depressing because I was still looking for a job and I wasn’t doing
anything else. luckily April was just round the corner.

April was fantastic. April was by far the best month I’ve had in China so far.

• I
  went to a conference on Tuesday the 2nd of April. At the conference I
  got three more job leads that I followed up when I got home.
• Two of the leads were really interested in me. In the end I accepted the offer from http://www.languagecalls.com/.
• The company agreed to let me take the last 2 weeks of April off while Caleb, Peter and Penny were visiting.
• Caleb arrived safely on the 15th and Peter and Penny arrived on the 19th.
• Before Peter and Penny arrive Caleb and I just relaxed around the house took it fairly easy.
• On
  the 17th I went with Caleb to my work and picked up my Laptop which had
  finally arrived. It was running a little late so we went to the old
  summer palace and checked it out. I never realized that the west raped
  and pillaged China so much during the Boxer revolution.
• When Peter and Penny arrived I turned into a tour guide and
  we went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen men Square,
  etc.

As you can see April was really busy but lots of fun. I
loved spending time with Caleb, Peter and Penny. I’ve been a bit slack
uploading photos but over the next couple of weeks I’ll upload some
more photos.

At the end of April everyone left and then in May Sheree left
and went to Thailand during her May holidays. She had lots of fun and
got to ride an Elephant and pat a Tiger. While she was in Thailand I
moved to Wudaokou and stayed in the company apartment so I didn’t have
to travel so much. If I used one word to described May it would have to
be “travel”. It takes me 2 hours to get to work and then another 2
hours to get home. That’s 4 hours of travel every day. The only reason
why I put up with this is because in June we’re moving into the City in
the middle of June. So after I finish traveling to and from work I
really don have much time left to do anything so there isn’t much else
to talk about.

Nathaniel & Sheree Brown.

Last month we got our first topic request. Woo Hoo! Please keep them coming. It is a lot more interesting being able to write about something that you want to learn about. This month in addition to the usual updates I’m going to write about food: what we eat, grocery shopping, Chinese food and some of the differences between Australia and Beijing. I’m also going to create a new gallery with photos of food . This should be a lot of fun. On with the update.

Questions and Answers

Q: Nathaniel, have you found a job?
A: Maybe. I have an interview on Monday that looks fairly promising.

Q: What’s an expat?
A: An expat is an abbreviation of expatriate. An expatriate is someone who is voluntarily living overseas.

Q: What is Big 2?
A: Big 2 is a card game that is very popular in China. It’s like a combination of scumbag and poker. You can find the rules at http://www.answers.com/topic/big-two

Food
So what is food like in China? Well that really depends on where you live, what you want to eat and what you can afford. In Beijing we can get basically anything. There are lots of restaurants and import stores all over the place and from what I’ve been told the other major cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong are the same. If there is anything that you really miss from home then you can always buy it over the Internet or get friends and family to send it to you.

What we eat
At the moment we are eating a mixture of Chinese food and restaurant food. Lately we’ve had Italian, Indian, Thai, Brazilian, Canadian, French, Mexican and fast food. Our Ayi (maid) cooks for us on Monday and Thursday so always have dinner at home at least two nights a week. She generally cooks three dishes which have Chinese and Western influences. Apart from those two nights we usually eat at restaurants because it’s cheaper to eat out than cook at home. One of the nicest things about China is that over here we can afford to eat at restaurants instead of just fast food which is only what we could afford in Australia. We can eat like Kings and Queens at really posh Chinese restaurants for less than $10. Not only that but we’ve eaten at some of the best restaurants in Beijing and my most expensive meal so far was less than $30.

Here’s a summary of some of the places we’ve eaten:

Restaurants:
* Cheap Chinese restaurant = $4
* Fancy Chinese restaurant = $7
* Italian (local franchise) = $7
* Indian = $10
* Thai = $10
* Brazilian (Very Posh) = $16
* Canadian (Diner) = $10
* Mexican (local franchise) = $10
* French (Very Posh/romantic) = $30

Western Franchises:
* Pizza Hut = $15 (In China it’s a upmarket franchise)
* Dominos = $3 for a meal deal or $10 for a pizza.
* McDonalds = $5
* KFC = $4
* TGI Fridays = $15
* Starbucks = $5 (coffee is still expensive)

Cooking at home:
* Curry = $10
* Nachos = $16
* Steak = $10

Grocery shopping

So why is cooking at home so expensive? Well part of the problem is that most of the ingredients that we’re use to cook with at the moment are imported. The other part of them problem is that we often have to go to multiple import stores to get the ingredients that we need. The reason why we have to travel all over the city is because the import stores are constantly changing their stock. So while you might be able to buy something here this week it doesn’t mean it will be there next week. If you are looking for specific ingredients, you might have to go to three or four different import stores. Even then the ingredients that you need may not actually be in stock. That being said lots of these products are slowly making their way into the local stores which makes life a little bit easier every day.

So if our ingredients are expensive then how can the restaurants make the same food cheaper than we can? Well most of the groceries we buy are processed. For example when we made nachos we bought salsa for $5, refried beans for $3 and corn chips for $5 and $3 worth of cheese. The restaurants on the other hand make the salsa and refried beans themselves and also buy in bulk. In China it’s really cheap to buy unprocessed food and labour is also cheap. So therefore it’s cheaper to make it from scratch than buy prepared and then make it. So with that in mind imagine a supermarket in Australia without any instant 5 or 10 minute foods, well that’s China at the moment. The situation is slowly changing and in the last two months they have introduced 5 minute curries where you just add meat and cook.

So shopping in China is annoying and expensive. What’s the good side? Well these days there are lots of import stores and while they have their quirks they are fairly good over all. The that thing makes up for all the quirks is that they have a larger ranger than Australian supermarkets. This is because they don’t just have Australian brands they also have American, European and other brands from all over the world, that we don’t have in Australia. It’s been a lot of fun trying lollies from all over the world. The local stores on the other hand have a lot more Chinese brands which are a lot cheaper than western brands, some times up to three times cheaper than the import stores. It’s also been fun trying local snack foods and drinks. Both of us have fallen in love with apple flavoured fanta and a local snack called Pokey, which is a long thin biscuit covered in chocolate.

Local Stores:
* Can Coke = $0.30
* 600ml Coke = $ 0.50
* 2.5L Coke = $1.00
* Magnum = $0.50
* Chips = $1.50
* 1L Juice = $1.50
* Snacks = $1.00
* 1L Milk = $1.00

Import Stores:
* Can Dr Pepper = $1
* Tim Tams = $5
* Large Doritos = $10
* 1Kg Pastry = $15
* Herbs/Spices = $3

Chinese food
Lets get one thing straight before we even start. Chinese takeaway in Australia is nothing like real Chinese food. Even if you find a dish with the same name it rarely taste the same. Now that we’ve got that out of the way lets get down to business. When ever we look through the menu we always have to be fairly careful. Generally at least half of the menu is “weird stuff” like tongue, feet or other offal that we don’t generally eat in the west. Lots of Chinese dishes also have bones because Chinese think that meat on the bone has more flavour and is better for you. So once we’ve eliminated half the menu the rest of the dishes are fairly good. Some of my favourite dishes are rose favoured beef, sizzling beef, stir fried broccoli, crushed cucumber, jiaozi (dumplings) and toffee banana. They also have a lot of desserts using pumpkin that aren’t too bad.

Oddities
No discussion about food in China would be complete if it didn’t mention food on sticks and street vendors. Chinese seem to eat virtually anything on a stick, starfish, sea horse, silk cocoons, baby birds, scorpion, squid, sheep’s penises and my favourite toffee fruit. Sheree loves toffee banana and toffee strawberries. Generally the food on a stick is sold by street vendors which generally have their store on the back of a bike. At the moment it’s still cold so they are selling fruit on a stick (in summer the toffee melts) and baked sweet potatoes. Street vendors generally sell food for a couple of kuai (less than 50c). There are also street vendors that sell plants, drinks, socks, watches, jewellery, basically anything that’s small and portable. From what I’ve been told none of the street vendors are legal so every now and then they will grab their stuff and pedal off in random directions because they’ve been tipped off that a raids about to happen. As well as the numerous temporary stands there are also some semi-permanent stands in city that sell breakfast every morning but close up shop by 10am.

February

There were a lot of little things that happened during February but they were not as impressive as Chinese New Year which was absolutely amazing. Here’s a quick list of some of the things we did:
* We went to a couple of new restaurants.
* We went to the Yan Oasis Resort for two nights for a belated anniversary.
* We relaxed at home and went shopping.
* We visited a Chinese village for Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year

Nothing can truly describe Chinese. You can only experience it. That being said I’m going to try to do my best to describe Chinese New Year. Imagine it’s the day before Chinese New Year and for the last couple of weeks you’ve heard rumours about Chinese New Year. Some people say it’s amazing, other say not to go out doors because it’s so dangerous. For the last couple of weeks small fireworks have been going off. Initially you were shocked by the sound of Chinese bangers (firecrackers that go bang, bang, bang, bang depending on length) that can go off anywhere and at anytime, but by now you are use to them and don’t even turn around. Now that the scene has been set lets get on with the story.

Throughout the whole day Chinese bangers have been going off every hour. At 7:00pm it start to get dark and there were occasional small fireworks but you ignore them and enjoy dinner. After you have enjoyed dinner at talked for a while you decided to go down stairs and light your own fireworks.

By now it’s about 9:00pm and the fireworks are being set off more frequently around your apartment. You light some of the smaller fireworks but then you hear a big firework explode nearby and 5 or 6 car alarms start going off around you. You can see the show from where you are so you grab your fireworks and try to find somewhere where you will have a better view. You arrive at the park where you have a much better view of the surrounding area. You start lighting some more fireworks and within 5 minutes there are 5 other groups nearby letting off fireworks in addition to the fireworks going off in the distance. Over the next half hour you use up most of your smaller fireworks, fountains, cherry bombs, flash bangs, strobe lights, Roman candles, etc. You are all getting cold and you’ve decided to save your big fireworks for later on, so you all head home to relax.

At 10:30pm you decided to start walking to a spot that had good fireworks last year. Fireworks are still going off every couple of minutes and they were going off the entire time you were inside relaxing. At about 11:00pm there’s a really nice show a couple of blocks away right above a new hotel. It’s goes for about 15 minutes but by now you’re getting distracted by the other fireworks that are starting to go off. There are lots of fireworks going off near your complex and some more just to your right.

At about 11:30 the bangers start. The first ones you notice are in a small side street and they look like they have a lot of fireworks so you move closer to investigate. You watch their fireworks for a couple of minutes but by now fireworks are going off constantly in every direction possible. You decided to go back to the main main street to see what is happening there and when you arrive you are blown away (not literally). They have bangers going off on both sides of the street with a fountain just beyond them and the hotel at the end of the street has started up it’s show again. It’s crazy and at midnight it just gets even more insane. To talk to your friends you have to yell into their ears because it’s so load. For the next half hour the fireworks don’t stop. You’re curious about why the bangers and fountains haven’t stopped this entire time. As you walk down the street, fireworks are being lit ever 5 meters or so. You find out that they had almost 2 trolleys of bangers and the guy with the fountains had an entire 4 wheel drive full of fireworks. As the fireworks start winding down you watch a guy on his bike ride down the street with bangers still going off on either side.

By now it’s 1:30 and the fireworks are starting to become less frequent, a few every minute. You are getting tied and cold so you decided to walk home. On the way you catch up with some of your friends who went to other places in Beijing and find out that it has been the same all over Beijing and probably all over China. You finally get to bed at 3:00am with the fireworks still going strong. For next two weeks fireworks keep going off sporadically but nothing compared to Chinese New Year.

Sheree’s Update

Now that you’ve read Nat’s entry, hopefully you still have enough time and energy to read a little update from me.

Mimi still hasn’t had her kittens, but she is fat and must be about to pop any day now. We took her to the vet a week ago and found out that she is going to have 3 kittens. It’s exciting that we are going to be grandparents, but for then next 3 months at least we will end up having 4 cats in the apartment. So if you’re allergic to cats don’t plan to visit us in the next 3 months.

I had a week holiday over Chinese New Year and it was a nice break. But now I am back at school, full steam ahead through this month and into April when I get another week off for May 1st China Day. I have started to take on more responsibility this semester. I am running a Theatre Sports (Drama skills) group on Friday afternoons periods 6 and 7, this week I am starting a quilling club after school on Thursdays, and I have also just signed up to be the teacher liaison to the parents organisation. So I am being kept very busy with all of that, as well as the normal planning and teaching that I usually do.

Ummm what else to say…Shopping I can always talk about shopping!

I have found a new clothes store that I love. They seem to sell seconds stock of overseas brands. It’s called the 25 Kuai store and most items are 25 kuai (about $4) I was getting singlet tops (a Canadian brand) for 10 kuai, needless to say I bought about 6. I have also gotten some lovely sweaters, jumpers, gym pants and dress tops for 25 kuai each. But I made the mistake of sharing my great find with my friends and now they are showing their friends. Now when I go they are always low on stock or out of the larger sizes. But that’s life.

Today I bought the cutest handbag. It’s a stiletto shoe made into a handbag. It’s sooo cool, I’ll have to post a photo of it soon.

In other news, we are going to the Australian Ball this weekend (March 10th). Some friends of ours from the Embassy invited us. It seems like it will be a fun night, but of course it’s a black tie Ball and I needed a dress. I’m getting a Chinese style dress made it wasn’t cheap, but we didn’t really have a lot of time for bargaining. Compared to Australian prices it is worth it, but just not as cheap as we would like, considering that we live in Beijing and know the prices of a lot of things. In total I am paying just over $200 for a 2 piece dress. A full length black silk gown with a Chinese style long jacket in blue, with tall collar and Chinese knot design on the front. It falls open revealing the black gown underneath. Considering that it is custom made to fit my body shape perfectly and tailored for me in a week with a fitting before pickup I’m very happy. Once again I will post some pictures after I have picked it up.

Anyway, that’s going to have to be all from me. Thanks for reading your way through this essay. I hope that you learnt something. Hopefully the next one will be shorter and with less of a wait.

Till next time, love you all.
Blessings from China Nat, Sheree and Mimi xxx