Read recently:
No more all night World of Warcraft Marathons for young computer game friends in China! By July 5 all game operators must install a new anti-addiction system intended to restrict minors from playing online computer games for more than three hours a day. One of the system’s techniques is a mechanism that strips a player of his gaming credits once he reaches the five-hour mark….. Oh my, what is Jeremy going to do!!!
Posted by
After posting several times about the air situation in Beijing, this time I want to tell you about the grass situation in town with this article from news.com:
Is it grass? Is it concrete? No, it's Grasscrete, an environmentally sustainable alternative paving system used to create footpaths while leaving room for greenery. It will be part of Olympic Forest Park in northern Beijing, a multimillion-dollar, 680-hectare space being built for next year's Olympic Games. Cleaning up Beijing is a big undertaking.
Grass + Concrete
Posted by
This post has nothing to do with China but it's good for my self esteem!!!
Stay-at-home mother's work worth $138,095 a year
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released on Wednesday.
This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year's $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc, Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts.
The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.
The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.
A mother who holds full-time job outside the home would earn an additional $85,939 for the work she does at home, Salary.com.
Last year she would have earned $85,876 for her at-home work, it said.[...]
 |
Posted by
A few months ago I read in one of the Blog on Beijing about a place called Hutong Cuisine. I had mentioned it to some of my friends and we finally find a time convenient to all of us (and you would think being Tai Tai we would have a lot of Time Time, but we do live busy life!!!).
The cooking class given by ChunYi, a women from the Guandong province (canton), takes place at her home in a hutong (hence the name!!). So from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm she explained to us the different type of vinegar, soy sauce, etc... (a little bit like the French explain their wines), we then cooked (steamed fish, stir-fried cabbage and Gong Bao JiDing which is better known in English as Kung Pao Chicken) and finally ate the fruit of our labor.
 | |
 |  |
| THE place and THE host | |
 |
| THE Food |
 |
| THE Girls |
Posted by
Seen early Saturday morning:
 |  |
Posted by
After a 6 o’clock wake up call and a 2-hour drive we arrived in Jacksonhall for a photo shoot. In the middle of nowhere, this villa development was built to recreate the image of what the Chinese think the USA look like and allows them to indulge in a stereotype of western country life style for their holiday.
The American Dream??!
Chloe had already done a fashion show for this clothing company a few weeks after we arrived in Beijing and she got called back for the shooting of some photos for their winter catalog... which were really interesting to shoot since it was probably 35 to 40°c (95/105°F) in Beijing!! Who said that the life of a supermodel was easy?
Looking beautiful is hard work
Posted by
Thank goodness I don’t have to wash the windows…
 |
| Two Spidermen in Action |
 |  |  |
| Before | During | After |
| That's Why The Sky Never Looked Blue | ||
 |
| Yikes It's High |
Posted by
After no editing from the radio station, you can hear me talk about...ME!!!
 |
| Where the Magic happened!! |
Posted by
You can never be too careful...
 |
| Extra protection everywhere you need it!! |
Posted by
A radio and an open space… not a lot is needed to have a fun time on a Saturday night.
Posted by
Because this is what I did today. I know not everybody is a TaiTai but somebody’s got to do it and somehow I must have raised my hand!!!
Today was a busy day and it was funny how it turned out since every event was somehow linked to one another:
I started the day at a local radio station for an interview about the life of an expat. I met the host of the talk show at a INN meeting (International Newcomers Network) when she heard my friends babbling about me becoming the vice-president of the French group and was interested to interview me about my background as an expat in our previous postings and in China.
 |
| With Jane the Host |
I then went to a Fashion show invited by my friend Violaine who knew the stylist. The link between the two events so far: well at the show I met Camille… Camille has LE blog of the French community here in Beijing and I used to read it a lot when I first arrived. But what’s funny is that this morning at the radio station Jane, the host, mentioned her to me because she interviewed here a few months back (she’s French, I’m French…. What other reasons do you need?) and I then bump into her at the show. I couldn’t NOT go and introduce myself, so I did (so out-of-character for me!!)
 |
| Fashion Show by Esmod |
I definitely could not round up this nice day in front of the TV with microwave dinner and it just happened that INN was organizing an Happy Hour, where I also bumped into a girl I met at the Fashion show a few hours before (yet another French girl… they seem to be everywhere nowadays and invading my space). It was also a nice way of finishing the day and come full circle since I met the radio host at an INN meeting.
 |
| Happy Hour at Centro |
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do;
the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.
Mary Wilson Little
Défile de mode esmod:
http://www.aujourdhuilachine.com/article.asp?IdArticle=3410&IdVideo=2
Happy Hour at Centro (
http://www.innbeijing.org/polkadots.htm
Posted by
There seems to be a lot more people than usual on my street which has also by the way been banned to cars…. This requires some investigation!!!
 |
| A tad more crowded than usual |
 |
| The sign says it clearly |
On the sign on the right: “JiaoTong GuanZhi CheLiang RaoXing”; which roughly translate to no car allowed and with the sign on the left I get my explanation!!!: "GaoKao KaoChang CheLiang RaoXing" (“Big Exam” / Place / Vehicule / Deviated) - "YingHu GaoKao JinZhi MingDi" (English / “Big Exam” / Forbidden / Honk the horn)
The big exam in question is the 高等院校入学考试 – Gao1Deng3 Yuan4Xiao4 Ru4Xue2 Kao3Shi4 or 高考 Gao1Kao3 for short. The annual national post secondary entrance examinations is the largest of its kind in the world with more than 9.5 million Chinese students sitting the exam today and tomorrow (more than 125,000 in Beijing). The exam is regarded as one of the most important events for the participants and could change their lives in a fiercely competitive society. A record 10.1 million Chinese students have applied for this year nationwide college entrance exam but only 5.67 million will see their college dream fulfilled. It’s the 30th since it was restored after the Cultural Revolution (Chinese universities were shut down from 1966 to 1976, due to the political turmoil).
Posted by
From That’s Beijing Kids
Five Olympic Rings, Five Olympic Babies
Some people really have Olympic pride. Recently, a set of quintuplet form Henan province gather together for their fourth birthdays to receive their official names: “Bei”, “Jing”, “Huan”, “Ying” and “Ni”. Put the five siblings together and what do they spell? “Beijing Welcomes You” the slogan of the Beijing Olympics!
Posted by
An article caught my attention when it said that Flickr has been blocked in China in the past few days due to the upcoming "anniversary".
 |
 |
| It's blocked really fast on Google |
And now here's what you can see when you use a proxy:
 |
And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the Wikipekia entry (I didn't want to type anything on the subject, hence the picture format.... but on the other hand the Blog is already blocked in China so I don't really see what they could do about it; double block it?!)
 |
| Click on the picture to enlarge Click on the "Back" button of your browser to come back to this page |
Posted by
Having a rare, free afternoon without the kids we ventured to the art district of Beijing. I first went to Dashanzi or 798 Art District a few months after we arrived and I liked to wander around the different venues and always wanted to show it to Jeff. The summer is a great time to visit the area either to see art exhibitions, have a drink on the terrace of a café or, my favorite: just walk around without a purpose.
 |
| A few pictures around DaShanZi |
From http://www.798space.com/
"798" is located in the Dashanzi area, to the northeast of central Beijing. It was the site of state-owned factories including Factory 798, which originally produced electronics.
Beginning in 2002, artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art centers, artists' studios, design companies, restaurants, and bars.
It became a "Soho-esque" area of international character, replete with "loft living," attracting attention from all around. Bringing together contemporary art, architecture, and culture with a historically interesting location and an urban lifestyle, "798" has evolved into a cultural concept, of interest to experts and normal folk alike, influential on our concepts of both urban culture and living space.
Posted by
