The Danger of Overconfidence

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Today marks the one month anniversary of our arrival in Beijing. It has certainly been one of the more interesting months of our lives. In many ways things are going well. We're especially happy to have made so many new friends (and eaten so much good food!) We have had a very smooth transition into China and have largely avoided the horror stories of other expats. We were getting pretty smug about it, thinking we had passed the critical first month painlessly.

Then today we had a brush with the complexity of living here. Late this afternoon, I ran into Carol, the woman who has been helping us with our relocation. She was in a bit of a panic saying that she had just spoken to the owner of the house we will be renting. Apparently the power and gas were off at the house, and the pipes were in danger of freezing. She told us we had to go immediately pay for more gas and electricity. The only thing was, I didn't really know how to do this.

First, it's worth explaining that gas, water, and electricity are pre-paid here. You have cards like a Starbucks gift card that you charge up with money somewhere and then put it into your gas, power, or water meter to keep the goods flowing. We received the cards with our house keys and were told we could charge them at the management office of our neighborhood.

So, I loaded up the family and starting trucking over to the house at 4:00pm, the start of evening rush hour, when I received a call from Carol saying that she had just called the management office and learned we couldn't do it there. We'd have to go to the Bank of Beijing to add money to the gas card and to the Bank of China to add money to the electricity card (because of course it couldn't be the same bank...). What's more, we'd need to open a bank account at the Bank of Beijing before we could add money. I knew we'd need our passports to do this, so we turned around back to the apartment to get Michelle's passport (mine is with the customs people who are inspecting our air and sea shipments.) I was nervous that the banks might close at 5:00pm, preventing us from adding money to our cards and potentially risking burst pipes at the house. A quick call confirmed that both banks would close at 5:00.

At 4:40pm I had the passports, and we raced over to the nearby Jianwai SOHO (a huge tower/office/shopping complex) where there were branches of both banks. As our masterful driver (more on him in another post) twisted and squeaked our way through the traffic, I asked Carol to meet us at the Bank of Beijing. As soon as we arrived at 4:55, I ran to the Bank of China while Michelle drove a few buildings over to the Bank of Beijing.

I burst into the bank and grabbed a number; while I was waiting I noticed a sign over a machine saying I could pay my electricity bill there (thank God the sign had English on it!) I asked the young guard if I really could pay my bill there (apologizing like I always do that my Chinese is bad and that I can't read). He took pity on my and very kindly helped me walk through the Chinese menus on the keypad. With his help, I was done quickly and on my way over to meet Michelle and Carol after asking the guards to raise the metal bar screen they were were lowering over the doors.

When I found them they were finishing at the bank counter and headed over to a machine. Apparently, we didn't need to create an account (and hence didn't need our passports), but you have to go to a machine to get the status of the card, then go to a teller and pay for the additional credits, then go back out to the machine to put the credits on the card. Even though the machine is outside the building and says "self-service" on it, there's apparently no way to add credits to your card without going inside and talking to a teller. Hm.

Anyway, we headed out to the house next and were confronted with a dark, cold house. After I fumbled through the bag of keys we received (we got something like 45 keys to the house -- multiple copies of keys for the front door, side door, gate, bathroom, bedroom, mailbox, etc.) by the light of my cellphone, I unlocked the door to our house for the first time and clicked on the lights. Or at least I tried to. The house was completely powerless.

I went to the box in front of the house and put the power card in. Michelle went back in but no luck. Just then, a maintenance guy from the complex came over and started talking at me in a very thick Beijing accent. He looked in the box, the lights came on, and he started yelling something at me. I didn't make out much besides his condescending tone (I think he said something like the Chinese equivalent of "Of course it doesn't work if you do that, you dumbass..."), but whatever, the lights were on. I'm not really convinced he did anything; I think it just took a minute for everything to register.

A much nicer guy came over to show me where to charge up the gas meter inside. We then turned on the heat in the freezing house (the thermostats read 0 degrees C.) The water all ran fine so we're hopeful everything is OK.

We finished off the evening at a German restaurant near our house. This was a bit of a surreal (but fun) experience. We were the only ones in the restaurant, trying to order German food in Chinese (easier in German than Chinese as it turns out), and then singing Hotel California and Sweet Home Alabama with the Filipino band. We're definitely not in Bellevue anymore...

Shengdan Kuai Le! (Merry Christmas!)

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Merry Christmas from Beijing! It's a lovely Christmas Day here in Beijing -- sunny and warm (at least by the window where I just took a nap like a cat...) The boys are playing with their Christmas loot -- Legos, K'NEX, video games, and books while I blog and Michelle hangs out. Nice lazy Christmas.

Here's a little Christmas photo of the family:

Andrew, Michael, and Michelle at The Place.

As I mentioned in my last post, there are a lot of lights up and people enjoying the trappings of Christmas here. The crazy shot below is from The Place (世贸天阶 shi4 mao4 tian1 jie1) last night (Christmas Eve). This is a shopping mall across the street from our temp apartment. It has a multi-block long display panel over the courtyard that plays different scenes and shows at night; in winter, there's also an outdoor ice skating rink (which we may try out this afternoon.) Like every other shopping mall here, they blare Christmas music too. Unfortunately, I think they only have three songs that they loop repeatedly (Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, and All I Want for Christmas is You). At least The Place has recordings sung by native English speakers; another nearby mall is blaring music sung by Chinese singers in English. It's a bit odd to hear the songs with heavy Chinese accents. Oh well.

Anyway, here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Beijing

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Christmas is clearly not a traditional Chinese holiday; we don't even get the day off from work. But like many cultures around the world, the Chinese (at least here in Beijing) have adopted some of the trappings of Christmas, especially around big shopping malls (even though I don't think there's really a gift giving tradition yet for this time of the year). Every mall and big many big commercial buildings have Christmas lights up, big "Merry Xmas" signs and so on; these all tend to be on the Santa Claus/Christmas tree side of the house and not the "A Savior is Born" type. Linus would be disappointed.

While you can find some real Christmas trees here (boy, are they scruffy compared to the ones in Seattle!), we decided to take a more local approach. We picked a living bamboo plant and decorated it with some lights and a few ornaments. We figured it was kind of funny, and we could keep the plant afterwards. I think Michelle did a nice job decorating it, but it does make our apartment look a bit like we're opening a Chinese restaurant.

Our Christmas bamboo plant, complete with lights and a red bow.

The management of our apartment building also threw a lovely and pretty lavish Christmas party/brunch this weekend. It was very nice to meet some of our neighbors, and the boys came back with some nice presents from Santa. (We also won the third prize drawing of two massages at a nearby spa and a box of assorted juices. Guess which one of us will get the massages and which will get the juice? Mmm, I'm looking forward to that juice...)

I know that no one has really seen Santa and that I'm a product of Judo-Christian Eurocentric brainwashing broadcast through the blanking interval on my TV, but our very sincere local Santa didn't quite have the right look to me. (No, it's not me playing Santa in this photo). Still, we all enjoyed the party very much.

Andrew and Michael with Santa.

The holidays are where the heart is, of course, so I'm sure we'll have a nice Christmas here. It's definitely interesting to see these traditions played back through new eyes though.

Some Beijing Restaurants We Like So Far

We've been sampling a lot of restaurants around our apartment and in the nearby environs, so I thought I'd share some of the places we especially like so far (and write them down so we remember.)

[Note: I've included the Chinese names where I have them. If you see a bunch of boxes in the post, it's because you don't have Chinese fonts installed. If see a bunch of non-Chinese looking characters, try changing your encoding to Unicode UTF-8. In IE, go the View menu and choose Encoding and then find Unicode (UTF-8).]

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰丰 - ding3 tai4 feng1): This is a well-known Shanghai-style chain from Taiwan known for their insanely good and juicy dumplings. We love this place and have been several times. The ones here in Beijing are much nicer than the one I went to in Taipei. In case you're looking for one, they also have branches in Los Angeles, Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Jakarta. There are two branches in Beijing. The older one seems to be everyone's favorite (quieter, more private rooms), but the one at Shin Kong Place was fine too.

Guo Tie Zhou Pu (锅贴粥铺 -- guo1 tie1 zhou1 pu1): How can a place named "Potsticker Congee Spread" be bad? As the name implies, they specialize in potstickers and congee. They have a wide variety of fillings for the potstickers; we stuffed our faces with three different kinds of potstickers: pork and chive, pork and pickled vegetables, and egg and spinach. We didn't even get to the lamb or seafood parts of the menu. The noodles in the zhajiangmein (a Beijing specialty) were home made and lovely too. This is definitely a locals restaurant at local prices; we spent 50 RMB- US$7.31 for all four of us!! The most expensive part was probably the liter bottle of Sprite they brought out (it was the only size). Even better, they had English menus so we could more easily order. This is a winner; we'll be back. Address: 朝阳门南小街,金宝街西南口,向南100米 (从长安街国际饭店往北走)
Chaoyangmen Nanxiaojie, Jinbao jie xinankou, xiang nan 100 mi (cong Changan Jie, Guo Ji Fan Dian wang bei zhou). Thanks to Savour Asia for the find (they have a bunch of other places listed too. Must go try them as well.)

Isshin (日本料理 - ri4 ben3 liao4 li3): Isshin is a very good Japanese restaurant. The tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) I had was better than most of the tonkatsu I'd had in Japan this summer -- tender and juicy meat with a very crisp coating. Michelle's tempura was good too, and Andrew (11) and Michael (8) ate a ton of tamago (this sort of scrambled egg thing, normally served as sushi but here they had just the egg) and tekka maki (tuna sushi rolls). Even the edamame (boiled soybeans) were better than average. To top it all off, they were very friendly - even giving Transformer toys to the boys after dinner as a gift. We went to the branch in Jianwai SOHO. It's in building 15 on the western half of this huge complex -- make sure you go to the correct part. The cab dropped us off on the eastern part, so we had a long hike in the cold and wind to get to the right place. There are at least three other branches in Beijing in the northwest part (closer to my office!  Yippee!)

Meeting Point: This is a  very decent family Italian restaurant in the basement of "The Place" shopping mall. Their pasta is all freshly made and served with tasty sauces (I almost stole half of Andrew's carbonara). The thin crust pizza was good as well as was the Montepulciano by the glass Michelle ordered. Perhaps the most amazing thing, however, was the hot chocolate the kids ordered. It wasn't the hot chocolate drink we expected (although it was on the beverage menu and served in a mug); it was more like a hot chocolate pudding with just the right level of sweet and bitter chocolate flavor. The boys didn't like it much, but Michelle and I gladly finished the rest. Unfortunately, the salads were disappointing. More room for hot chocolate! The Italian owner is very nice too.

Xiao Wang Fu (小王府 - xiao3 wang2 fu3): Yum, yum, yum! Very tasty Beijing-style food: good duck, killer jiaozi (dumplings), to-die-for salt and pepper ribs, and the list goes on. The one we went to on Guanghua Lu (near the Kerry Centre behind Guomao) was decidedly not fancy, but let me say again -- yum. The Ritan Park location is apparently much nicer (and more expensive) with a patio. We were especially thrilled to learn they deliver to our apartment (with a delivery fee of only 1 RMB - about US$.14 -- yes, fourteen cents -- per dish.) Xiao Wang Fu was also pretty cheap; we spent 172 RMB (US$25) for six dishes. Finally, they have what I consider the perfect menu -- Chinese, English, Pinyin, and photos. Address: 朝阳区光华路东里2号, Cháoyángqū Guānghuá Lùdōng Lǐ 2 Hào, GuoMao.

Paulaner Brauhaus: The famous German brewery has a microbrewery/restaurant in Beijing where they make their own beer. Michelle and I had a nice, authentic lunch there -- good wurst, pretzels, and beer. Only the onion soup was bleh. Except for the Chinese waitstaff, we could have been in Germany. It's in the Kempinski Hotel near Lufthansa Center.

Pekotan Butcher and Deli: This is a great shop in our neighborhood with amazingly good bread (especially the baguettes); it just smells like a French bakery when you walk in. They have some attractive set menu lunches for 28 RMB (US$4) that we still need to try plus a good selection wine for purchase. After 9:00pm the baked goods are half off (and they're not expensive to begin with); I've braved the cold a few times already to get the still-yummy bread for half price (it's so dry here that the stuff doesn't really get stale.) Address: Central Park Apartments, Tower 12.

Yonghe King (永和大王 - yong3 he2 da4 wang2): This is a huge fast food chain with hundreds of outlets across China. Fortunately for me, there's a branch just a short walk away from the office. They're clean, open 24 hours a day, cheap, and delicious. I've had breakfast there several times and dinner once. The congee is very good as are the dan bing you tiao (kind of an egg coated flaky tortilla around a fried non-sweet donut -- hard to explain, but trust me, it's great.) The beef noodle soup is good too. They have a few set menus with photos on the board, so I can order something; I need to translate more of the non-photo items to try more stuff out. This is cheap too; I spend I think 10 or 12 RMB for breakfast (about US$1.50).

Yotsuba (四叶 - si4 ye4): This is widely considered to be one of the best (if not the best) sushi joints in Beijing; we saw no reason to dispute that view. They fly their fish in daily from Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market, so everything is very fresh and oishii (Japanese for delicious). The first one is in Chaoyang; we went to the one in Shunyi at Lake View Place (near Dragon Bay Villas); this is walking distance from our house!

Going Native

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I crossed a significant personal China boundary the other day: I started brushing my teeth with tap water.

The tap water here in China is not safe for drinking (I understand it is safe in some big int'l hotels), so I've always used bottled water for my brushing. I even rinsed my toothbrush in bottled water. On my previous short trips, I never wanted to risk getting sick over something so preventable.

However, this practice is somewhat burdensome now that we live here. Michelle (and many others) always thought I was being a bit prissy about this anyway, so I went cold turkey and started brushing, swishing, and rinsing in tap water. So far so good.

I know you were all wondering about my personal dental care habits, so now you know. You can sleep easy tonight. :)

Our First Week in China

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It's hard to believe we've only been in a China for a little over a week. In many ways we're settling in to a rhythm and starting to feel more comfortable here.

On Monday, the boys started school. It was a little traumatic at first (especially since they dropped Michael (8) into the middle of a Chinese language class that was too advanced for him -- he was totally lost) but by the time they came home the first afternoon, they were relaxed and had enjoyed school. Since then they've started taking the bus to and from school and have some friends (Andrew  (11) came back with a bunch of phone numbers and is already texting away.)

I had two days of training to learn how I can successfully manage Chinese employees as an expat. While this sounds a bit ironic since I'm Chinese, it was pretty useful to understand the market conditions and recent Chinese history that affects the labor market as well as more on Chinese culture that affects employee expectations. As usual, one of the more valuable parts of the class was meeting senior managers from other teams -- some people I knew and a lot that were new to me. Anyway, after that I had two days of real work in the office finally. It's nice to finally be here working.

The other expat wives (affectionately known as tai tais after the Chinese word for wife) have been very welcoming and helpful to Michelle, taking her to different markets and restaurants during the day. In fact we've been very pleasantly surprised how great the expat community has been. We've met so many nice people who have been very generous and helpful. It seems like a very nice community.

Last weekend we also explored around town a bit. We checked out Ritan Park near our apartment; this was formerly used by the Emperor as a place to sacrifice animals to the Sun God, but now it's a nice park to walk around and has a small amusement park for kids. It's also near the embassy district; I think the Russian Embassy must be nearby since there were a lot of Russian shops and restaurants nearby.

Andrew and Michael shooting rifles at an amusement park.
The boys demonstrating their revolutionary zeal at Ritan Park.

 

Sign at Ritan Park pointing to animal Sacrifice altar and mini golf course.
It's not often you find animal sacrifice near a golf course this explicitly. Maybe it would help my game.

We also visited the 798 Art Zone. This is an artist enclave housed in a former military electronics factory area (Factory 798, hence the name). The old factory structures have been remodeled as hip galleries and restaurants. I'm not sure how much real art happens here, but there were some very cool galleries and exhibitions. I'd love to go back here to explore some more.

Andrew and Michael jumping in front of 798 Art Zone sign 
Michael and Andrew jumping for joy at 798.

 

Andrew next to a statue of workers holding up 100 RMB notes.
Andrew helps the workers prop up the Chinese Renminbi.

While I think things have been going very well so far, there have been some challenges no doubt. It's been super dry and cold (below freezing and windy). This is always hard but especially so given the overly warm apartment (which has been more like 80 degrees F if we're not managing it well). While we bought a bunch of humidifiers, they can't keep up since we have to keep the windows open to keep from dying of heat exhaustion inside. It's been hard to get a great night's sleep since the air is so dry. I hope my body just starts to adjust or something.

We've also had to figure out a bunch of household things. The first time we tried to cook a meal, we couldn't get the stove to light; it turns out the gas meter was out of money. In China I guess you pay first by charging the gas meter from a pre-paid card; once we knew this, we called the apartment manager to charge the meter and everything was OK, but there was a some consternation leading up to this (Is the gas on? Do they add the smell to the gas so you can tell if it's on or are we about to die? etc.) Our washer only has Chinese labels too so Michelle had to find an English copy of the manual and make a key. Anyway, small things, but they all add up to things taking longer than expected. Part of the fun of the new adventure I guess.

Our First 48 Hours in China

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The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions. We landed in Beijing and got to our temporary housing around 11:00pm on Wednesday night (the day before Thanksgiving). We're staying in a nice, new three bedroom apartment on the east side of downtown Beijing. It's fully furnished and was ready for us to move in.

Our first challenge was to figure out how to turn down the heat. For some reason, Chinese (and I think Japanese) like their buildings warm. Really warm. Like 22 degrees C (72 degrees F). This is way way too warm for our tastes. Unfortunately, in most buildings, there's pretty limited ability to control the temperature in the rooms so we've had to just turn off the heat in the room and open the windows (which you can do here, even though we're on the 30th floor.) We achieved enough success here to get to sleep, but it's an ongoing problem as the maids turn the heat back on all the time.

In the morning, I set out around 6:00am foraging for coffee and breakfast for the family, not knowing much of anything about the environs. It turns out this part of Beijing is totally dark and closed until at least 7:00 or 8:00am. It was, however, freezing cold and windy outside. I came back to a den of hungry and un-caffeinated family members. We struck out later together and found some grub and did a little grocery shopping at a ridiculously overpriced organic grocery (Lohao City - a chain here).

We then got a tour around the area from the assistant manager of the apartment building, a very charming French guy. Aside from helping us find a less expensive grocery store, he pointed out the good and not-so-good restaurants in the area - a clear plus.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Thanksgiving Dinner at another Microsoft expat's home; the Emighs very graciously invited us to their party (at the suggestion of the Lindheimers whom we met on our last trip), even though we had never met. We enjoyed a great dinner with three other expat families and their kids.  As an extra bonus some of the families had kids who go to the same school the boys will be going to, so they already know a few kids. The expat community here seems pretty supportive (or at least the folks we met are); we feel very fortunate to have already met some nice friends here.

Our second day was about buying the things critical to our life here - power supplies for our Gameboys and Wii, household sundries like coat hangers, as well as cell phone service for Michelle and Andrew (I already have a phone from work). I have to admit, I was surprised how successful we were finding what we needed between Walmart (which deserves its own post) and the Hailong Electronics Mall, despite my spotty Chinese.

After dropping the family back at the apartment, I struck out for China Mobile to get cell service. I wound up in a small, dingy office with fluorescent lights on the fifth floor of some high-rise office tower. I know almost zero words associated with mobile phones, billing plans, and so on, but I smiled a lot and tried hard. I had three very helpful ladies explain the different options (all of them apparently wondering why I was so dumb). I settled on two plans that I think made sense (we'll see after the first month I suppose) and then met a hapless woman who tried to set up our service. Once she confessed to the most helpful of the first three that she had only done this once before, Ms. Helpful pushed Ms. Hapless out of the way and finished the job. Both phones ring and can send text messages, so I guess it was a success.

Everyone was too tired and jetlagged to go out for dinner, so we had delivery from a nearby Italian place (Osteria) which wasn't bad at all and went to bed. It's been a busy two days. Fortunately, the boys have been pretty good, and we're (mostly) getting used to the idea that we're actually living here now. Next week, we start our new life in earnest with school and work.

On the Flight to Beijing

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I'm sitting in Northwest flight 29, seat 6C on the last leg of our move to Beijing; we had a short stop in Tokyo and now have about two hours left before we land. According to the in-flight map, we're somewhere over South Korea.

In many ways this flight has felt pretty normal (aside from the twelve bags we checked in). Both Michelle and I have flown the Seattle to Tokyo Northwest flight a lot this year (some of the flight attendants recognized me today), and the boys are both professional flyers. It wasn't until a few minutes ago when I filled out the immigration paperwork and checked "Settle Down" as the reason for our trip where things really started to sink in – we're moving to China.

settledown

There are a few very memorable moments in my life when I've realized I was starting a new chapter – arriving at Stanford for freshman year, flying to Seattle to work at Microsoft, standing on the altar watching Michelle walk up the aisle, meeting my sons for the first time in the delivery room. I have that feeling again now. It's thrilling and terrifying all at once.

[Postscript: Obviously, we're on the ground now, so I can post this. We're in our temp housing getting settled. The adventure begins...]

We're Finally Moving!

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Well, the big day is finally here. We fly out to Beijing in the morning. We've been building up to this for a long time now, so I'm more relieved than anything that it's finally happening. Of course, Michelle did virtually all of the work prepping for the move, so it didn't seem so hard to me. :) In particular, I was gone two of the last four weeks including last week when the movers came (plus Michelle had to sell the Prius since I didn't get the job done before I left.)

Perhaps the hardest part for me was the realization how many friends we're leaving here in Seattle. Of course, we'll be back a lot (especially me), and we're not moving away forever, but I certainly feel silly for not having spent more time seeing friends the 18+ years I lived here. I really enjoyed all of the nice gestures, comments, and gifts our friends gave us in these final few weeks (like the B(ac)on Voyage Party!) So a word of advice to everyone: don't take your friends for granted. Spend time going out, hanging out, doing whatever with your friends. Make a play date today!

As we've talked to friends these past few weeks there have been a few common questions, so here are a few answers to these FAQs:

  • We're planning on being gone three years. More if we like it. Fewer if we don't.
  • We're not selling or renting our house in Bellevue. I'll stay here when I'm home (pretty frequently). Michelle and the boys will spend the summer here. It made moving a lot easier physically and emotionally.
  • Michelle quit her job at Microsoft. Everyone we talked to said it was super helpful to have one spouse not working to help get the family settled. She may work after we're set.
  • The boys will be going to an international school in Beijing. Chinese schools are way too hardcore with lots of rote memorization, plus the boys don't speak enough Chinese to really participate. The school is amazing (way better equipped than their current schools). Classes are conducted in English; they'll have an hour of Chinese language instruction a day.
  • We'll be living in a house in the Shunyi suburb, near the airport. The house is comparable in size to our place in Bellevue. The yard is tiny/non-existent, although there is a clubhouse with nice amenities plus some great restaurants and shops within easy walking distance. The alternatives (apartment in the city) were too far from the boys' school.
  • My commute will be 45-60 minutes each way, but I'll have a driver, so I'll be able to work, read, nap, whatever. This long commute is the tradeoff for living close to the boys' school.
  • We'll be living in temp housing for 30-45 days (or so) until our sea shipment arrives with our furniture. This apartment will be in the city, on the east side of town (sort of near Chaoyang Park, where they played beach volleyball in the Olympics.)
  • I speak Chinese conversationally well, but I don't read/write well at all. Michelle took a few years of Chinese when we were first married; she's a bit rusty now but she has a good ear for it. The boys don't really speak any Chinese at all and will need to learn.
  • We've switched our home phone to Vonage, allowing us to keep our US phone number. This way, our friends and family can make a US call, but the phone will ring in Beijing. Our calls via this line will be US calls as well. Kind of magical and cool, really.
  • Yes, we're concerned about air quality. At the advice of many people we bought IQAir air purifiers for each bedroom and one for the family room. We'll just have to keep an eye on how it affects us.
  • I think we'll be drinking imported milk (from Australia typically) for a while.

Anyway, I'll write more over the next few days. See you on the other side!

The Great Wall at Shuiguan

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Last week, we went back to Beijing to finalize stuff for our move there. We also spent two days at the very lovely Commune by the Great Wall resort (more on that later). This resort is just downhill from an unrestored section of the Great Wall (the section is called Shuiguan). Andrew (10) and I made the quarter mile hike up to the wall and then walked along the quarter mile section that was open (a fence at the end prevented hikers from getting to the really dangerous collapsed sections.

The unrestored sections of the Wall are very different from the restored parts. These "wild" parts have trees and grass growing on top, the walls and towers are partially crumbled, and the walking surface is broken up. There are only a few places where they've installed safety measures like a hand rail on very steep sections. I actually quite like these parts of the Wall better.

Although the sky was hazy, it was still very picturesque given the mountainous terrain and the fall foliage. Andrew and I really enjoyed it.

Here are a few photos for your enjoyment.

The Great Wall of China at Shuiguan in the fall. 
Beautiful fall foliage and the Great Wall.

 

The Great Wall of China at Shuiguan in the fall.
Trees, grass, and shrubs growing on top of the Great Wall.

 

Andrew on top of a collapsed guard tower on the Great Wall.
Andrew on top of a guard tower with a collapsed roof.

 

 Andrew about to climb a very steep section of the Great Wall.
Andrew about to climb a very steep section of the Great Wall.