We Are King Of The World...

...I Mean On Top Of Beijing!

Today we decided to see how the rich (and famous?) live and have a little taste of it.

We started small and went on to visit the bar at the newly opened Park Hyatt hotel… we’ll have to wait to spend a night in a room (let’s dream) or set our eyes in one of the apartment (penthouse, maybe?) for rent.

Arriving in style (I wish!) and taking a rest from singing

Park Hyatt Beijing (a 5-star luxury hotel) is part of the prestigious Beijing Yintai Center in the heart of Beijing’s Central Business District (that’s opposite of the China World Trade Centre and the new CCTV tower –the one that look like a big doughnut or Z-shaped) and is the tallest skyscraper in Beijing (250 meter or 820 foot tall). The square-fronted tower, designed by John Portman & Associates is topped with a glowing scarlet beacon after nightfall. The hotel comprises 237 rooms (between the 37th and 49th floors) –one day maybe!, 216 luxury apartments (7th to 33rd floors) –daydreaming! and there are also 21 penthouses (35th-36th and 50th to 58th floors) –if I win the lottery, I’ll come back!. The 66th floor is home to the highest restaurant in Beijing, the China Grill and on the 65th floor is where we had our cocktail at the Bar Lounge with a 360-degree view over the city.

View from the top

Just Like "Time" Predicted...

...The USA Has A New President

With all the last two days excitement (Melbourne cup and James Bond) I almost forgot to tell you who won the big prize in the USA election! So in case I’m your only source of information and just like “Time” magazine said a couple months ago …. Obama is the winner. Youhoo!!!

And the winner is...

I had planned to go and take a picture of the newspaper “board” down the street just like for the French election 18 months ago but after wandering around my neighborhood on my bike I realized that they had vanished, probably in the big town clean up for the Olympics. Maybe if I had gone far and beyond my (chic) neighborhood I would have found one!



And just to let you know one of president-elected Obama’s half brother*,Mark Ndesandjo lives in Shenzen, China, teaches piano at an orphanage and runs an Internet company, World Nexus, that helps Chinese companies export to the US.

* Barack Obama Sr fathered 7 sons and 1 daughter by 4 different women!

The Day Has Finally...

...Come

零零七, LingLingQi, 007, James Bond …. whatever you want to call it, the latest extravaganza “Quantun of Solace” is being released in Cinemas throughout China today November 5, that’s a full 9 days before the USA (and 5 days after France –which with the UK and Sweden was where the film has been released first… yoohoo!!!). I’m guessing that by doing an early release they will try to beat the pirated versions of the movie invading the market before it’s in the theaters like for Casino Royale.

With Jeff we’ve decided NOT to wait until the weekend and the release of the DVD in Beijing (!) but splurge on a 70 rmb (that’s 7€ or $10) movie theater ticket (almost forgot what a movie theater looked like). Do you know how many movies we could have watched with that kind of money…. 140rbm get you almost 15 DVDs down here but that was money well spent.

We were expecting Chinese people talking all the way through the movie (which everyone knows is OK here because they have the subtitles in Chinese so they don’t need to listen!) like some of our friends tried to warn us but with only less than 10 of us in a huge movie theater we didn’t get this problem.

The one thing we weren’t expecting is the subtitles in Chinese when James was speaking in French or Spanish (good thing we can understand!) and we were a little lost as in which country James was since the name were in Chinese too… (we’ll have to way and watch the DVD to find out!)

We’ll still try to find a copy (probably just around the corner of the movie theater) so we can watch it again at home!!

My 2day's 2Js, James and Jeffrey

The ticket to prove we DID go to the movie!

Update: We found a copy not the following week end but a few days later on the 14th of November for a whopping 8RMB (yes that’s €0.80 or about $1!)
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Let's Go To Melbourne

...Well At Least The Melbourne Cup!

The Australians surely know how to party. The last time we partied with them was for the Great Wall Ball back in May, this time is the Melbourne Cup. All I knew about it was that I needed a hat and that there were some drinks involved, or and some horse racing too.

The Girls and the Horse!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual thoroughbred horse race. Billed as The race that stops a nation, it is for three-year-olds and over, and covers a distance of 3,200 metres. It is generally regarded as the most prestigious "two-mile" handicap in the world. The event is held on the first Tuesday in November by the Victoria Racing Club, on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

The event is one of the most popular spectator events in Australia, with sometimes over 110,000 people, some dressed in traditional formal raceday wear and others in all manner of exotic and amusing costumes, attending the race.
“Fashions On The Field” is a major focus of the day, with substantial prizes awarded for the best-dressed male and female racegoers. The requirement for elegant hats, and more recently the alternative of a fascinator, almost single-handedly keeps Melbourne's milliners in business.

In 2000 it was estimated that 80 percent of the adult Australian population placed a bet on the race that year. In New Zealand the Melbourne Cup is the country's single biggest betting event, with carnival race-days held at several of the country's top tracks showing the cup live on big screens.

Where is Waldo?

A Little Bit Of...

...Art

My photograph teacher had a solo exhibition opening today in one of the art district of Beijing.

We like to wander around the now internationally acclaimed 798 art district, but thanks to Lukas’ exhibit we’ve being introduced to a new lesser known art area.

I’ve already talked about 798 Art District in another post. Located in Dashanzi area, 798 was once home to the electronic industries, housing building constructed with help from the old Soviet Unions and designed but the former East Germany experts. What began with a cluster of young artists who set up camp in the abandoned workshop of a military electronics complex (Factory 798) on the fringes of the city has become the biggest arts area in China and earned great international acclaim in a spam of just two years.

Another new contemporary art district in northeast Beijing is the Caochangdi area, close to 798. It is a district that hosts national and international artists, arts organizations, galleries and design studios.

Jiuchang Art Complex, or Brewery Factory International Art Community is a newly rising art area in Beijing. It has developed since 2005 from the Chaoyang Brewery Factory, built in 1975. Though it's all one factory, Jiuchang comprises a number of small brick buildings. On the inside, it's pipe-free and freshly painted. Large outdoor sculptures line the main road, alongside an artificial lake

Songzhuang Art Community, a serene artists' village to the east of Beijing, Tongzhou District, is starting to being noticed. The community houses up-and-coming artists who live and work in rustic studios. The Songzhuang Art Community was established in 2003 in Songzhuang painter village of Beijing.

Lukas’ Junsui じゅんすい Secrets on Display II (玄色的秘密) is at Shi Tang Alternative Space at JiuChang (Liquor Factory).

Beware, Spoilers Alert...

...And The Winner Is:

Another way of predicting the next US president…

According to Steven Silverstein, CEO of Spirit Halloween, sales records show that the presidential nominee masks are selling big this Halloween season! The costume retailer appeared on Martha Stewart Living Radio to discuss the hottest costumes this season. Silverstein adds that for the last three elections, the highest selling masks at his stores have also been the election winners. So who's in the lead this year in sales???? Turns out that Barack Obama is winning the race, selling 69% of the masks. Go Barack! What, or who, will U be dressing up as for Halloween?

John or Barack

Massive Wedding

...At The Bird's Nest

Now that the Olympics games are finished, the venue needs to find a new purpose! Last weekend, two hundred and thirty policemen, who took part in Olympic security work, tie the knot in a group wedding ceremony held in front of the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.

Beijing municipality initiated annual group wedding in the 1930s, in a bid to simplify the extensive wedding ceremonies of olden times. The practice was suspended during the War of Resistance Against Japanese's Aggression (1937-45) but made a comeback after the war.

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Signed, Seal(ed)...

...And Delivered

It’s been a while since I’ve had another try at Chinese arts and crafts. Chinese Culture Center was advertising for some Seal Chop Carving* lessons so I decided to attend. I already have my personal name seal with my Chinese name (西琳 - XiLin) which was done by a (real) seal carver so I went a different route and did something different (I didn’t want to compete with the masters!):

Material

Final product

And like last time with the Chinese Knot Tying, I’ll go to the experts next time I need a Chop!

* A Seal is used in East Asia (China, Korea and Japan) to prove identity on document, office paperwork, contracts, art, etc… in certain cases, only seals are acceptable
The chops are typically made of stone, sometimes of wood, bamboo, plastic or ivory and are used with red ink.
Most people in China possess a personal name seal. Seals can serve as identification with signatures because they are difficult to forge (when compared to forging a signature) and only the owner has access to his own seal. Seals are usually carved out by specialist seal carvers, or by the users themselves. Results vary, but it is possible for individuals to carve perfectly legitimate seals for themselves.

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What's Your Favorite...

...Number?

Living in China is like playing the lottery; you never know which number to pick.

Because 85% people share only 100 surnames you usually find people in the public businesses (whether you are at the post office, the bank, etc…) having a number on their “name” tag instead of their actual name because let’s face it, it doesn’t help if they are all called Wang!

So a couple of weeks ago I was chatting with some friends and we were talking about pedicure/manicure and massages (aka the perk of Expat life in cheap countries), the conversation went a little like this:

• V.: I always take “number 9” for my manicure if she’s not there “number 15” is not bad either
• J.: As for massage at the club house, I prefer “number 6” while my husband goes to “number 7”
• C. : My husband swears by “number 12” for his massages.

I have to say that the number system is not as bad as it sounds because I personally would never remember their Chinese name (I would probably say it with the wrong tone and end up calling her/him a very bad word) and when Chinese choose an English name sometime there are really creative and it’s not easy not to laugh… calling Samanfar, Lucky, Dollar, Frog or Tornado to the rescue.

It's better than 666

The Pregnant Lady...

...Can Do Whatever She Wants!

While having a nice tête-à-tête with my husband at “Element Fresh”, the new up and coming restaurant in town, some of my friends showed up and were seated just next to our table (and that was the end of our romantic lunch –just kidding!). Since this was not our first time to this restaurant, Paige came prepared:

Nothing beat home(made) dressing!

It's A French Thing...

...Sainte Celine

And since Jeffrey was in France last week he brought me back some of my favorite “candy/cake” from renowned bakery Ladurée and its even more renowned Macarons.

These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are the most famous creation of Ladurée:

Thank you babe

A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America of celebrating on a particular day of the year associated with the one's given name. The custom originated with the Catholic and Orthodox calendar of saints, where believers, named after a particular saint, would celebrate that saint's feast day. In many countries, however, there is no longer any explicit connection to Christianity. […]

Each day of the year corresponds to a personal name (or several names). People celebrate their name day on the date corresponding to their own given name.
Name days are commonly of less importance than birthdays. However, name day celebrations can be, and often are, held together with friends of the same.[…]

Traditionally, most people were given names from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints.
First names are chosen by the child's parents. There are no legal a priori constraints on the choice of names. This has not always been the case. The choice of given names, originally limited by the tradition of naming children after a small number of popular saints, was restricted by law at the end of the 18th century. Officially, only names figuring on a calendar or names of illustrious Frenchmen/women of the past could be accepted. Much later in 1966, a new law admitted in a limited number of mythological, regional or foreign names, substantives (Olive, Violette), diminutives and alternative spelling. Only in 1993 were French parents set free to name their child without constraint. However, if the birth registrar thinks that the chosen names (alone or in association with the last name) may be detrimental to the child's interests, or to the right of other families to protect their own family name, the registrar may refer the matter to the local prosecutor, who may choose to refer the matter to the local court. The court may then refuse the chosen names. Such refusals are rare and mostly concern given names that may expose the child to mockery. (source: Wikipedia)

* Again nothing to do with China but who cares it's my blog!

It's Back...

...The China We Love

China's coming out party (i.e. Olympics and Paralympics) has been over for a month now and everything is back to normal.

I can finally pick up the latest Dvds (ie movies being actually played at movie theater right now!) while grocery shopping:

Conveniently located next to the dish washer powder

I was a little surprised to see that one of the “stores” went a little over the standard display (right next to the foreign section of the DVDs aisles and the tourists book)

Yes it's what you think it is... the sign warned you!

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What's Wrong...

...With This Picture?!

At our last LDL –Let’s Do Lunch or Ladies Do Lunch

We really accept anybody!

That Explains

...A Lot

While reading one of my Chinese language book last night (FYI, that was the only available, non-read book on my night stand and I didn’t feel like getting up!!!) I came upon an interesting fact: Chinese language doesn’t have a word to say “Logic” or “Humor”. They have to use a phonetic transcription LuoJiXue (luo2 ji4 xue2 - 逻辑学) for logic and YouMo (you1 mo4 – 幽默) for humor. Now it’s all becoming clear.

Oops They Did It...

...Again

And we thought that after the Olympics we’ll be done with their plan of “a month, a restriction” but the big guys just cooked us a new one:

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Beijing has announced a series of post-Olympics car restrictions, which will take effect next month and hopefully sustain the hard-won smooth traffic and good air quality during the Games.
Under the new traffic restrictions, 30 percent of government vehicles will be sealed off as of October 1, said a circular issued by the Beijing municipal government on Saturday.
The remaining 70 percent of government vehicles, as well as all corporate and private cars, will take turns off the roads one out of the five weekdays as of October 11, it said.
Cars whose number plates end with 1 or 6 will be taken off roads on Monday, while those ending with 2 or 7 will be banned on Tuesday, 3 or 8 on Wednesday, 4 or 9 on Thursday and 5 or 0 on Friday. The ban does not apply on weekends.
The ban will be applicable within the Fifth Ring Road inclusive, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for private cars and round the clock for government and corporate vehicles.
The new restrictions will take effect on a trial basis on October 11 for six months until April 10, but does not apply to police wagons, ambulances, fire engines, buses, taxies and other public service vehicles.
"It's expected to reduce Beijing's average road traffic flow by 6.5 percent and speed up traffic within the Fifth Ring by 8 percent at least," said Wang Zhaorong, an official with the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, at a press conference on Sunday.
In compensation, the restricted vehicles will be exempt from one month of vehicle tax and road maintenance fee a year. Drivers who are caught to have breached the new rule will not enjoy the exemption, according to Wang.
While most people applaud the ban on government and corporate vehicles, the ban on private cars, however, has sparked an outcry from car owners, many of whom complain it is "unfair".

Personally we'll have to walk on Friday!!

The Mission Is A Success...

...Oh Wait, They Haven't Blasted Off Yet

Chinese News Article, Including Vivid Details, Printed Before Launch (Published on Thu, Sep 25, 2008)

Posted two days before the launch even takes place, the article vividly describes the dialogue between the astronauts, the crowd’s response, and the sights of the ship taking off.
The article, dated two days from now on Sept. 27, vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.
Excerpts are below:
“After this order, signal lights all were switched on, various data show up on rows of screens, hundreds of technicians staring at the screens, without missing any slightest changes …
‘One minute to go!’
‘Changjiang No.1 found the target!’…
“The firm voice of the controller broke the silence of the whole ship. Now, the target is captured 12 seconds ahead of the predicted time …
‘The air pressure in the cabin is normal!’
“Ten minutes later, the ship disappears below the horizon. Warm clapping and excited cheering breaks the night sky, echoing across the silent Pacific Ocean.”

Xinhua, the state-run news service, is attributing the posting to a “technical error”. No explanation for why they already have the story written complete with dialogue.

The Shenzhou 7 mission (meaning “sacred vessel) carried three taikonauts (the Chinese term for Astronauts) into space on the country’s third manned space mission in five years and feature China's first-ever spacewalk. It took off Thursday 27th September (or 2 days after the article!)
Let's hope Xinhau at least comes up with some fresh quotes from the astronauts.
Zhai Zhigang, an unsuccessful candidate for the previous two manned missions, is the astronaut who carried out the walk. The two other astronauts were Jin Haipeng and Liu Boming. They are all 42-year-old fighter pilots. And because it’s the little details that count (!), they had a choice of nearly 80 foods, including spicy "kung-pao" chicken. They also took traditional Chinese medicine made of more than ten herbs to treat space motion sickness.

One Cannot Go To Japan...

...And Not Talk About Toilets!

So first of all here’s the picture:

So many options...

So many options, so little time… Do I want a warm heated seat, a bidet function with a strong or weak water flow, have my backside spritz and dried and let’s not forget the deodorization and the auto flushing.

Some customers are willing to fork over amounts ranging from about $750 to nearly $2,000 (before attaching the toilet itself!). High-end all-in-one toilets can run $5,000

In Japan – where Western-style commodes replaced the traditional squat-style affair only three decades ago – the porcelain throne has attained something of a royal status. A quotidian workhorse is now a high-tech, multifeatured must-have that elicits almost reverential observations.
For Japanese today, it’s so important that one type of toilet seat is an advertised feature at hotels. The Washlet – a seat that adds a bidet function and so much more to a regular toilet – evokes warm feelings. That may be, in part, because some of the toilets literally heat up and light up when you walk in the room. […] The fixtures are found in 70 percent of residential homes and in countless public facilities.

Choose Your Airline Company

...Carefully

We are back in Beijing and it’s a good thing we didn’t take this airplane…

Gas price couldn’t have gotten that high, could it?

From the Daily Mail
The great heave forward... Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane
Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.
But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.
That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.
The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely at Zhengzhou from Guilin, but broke down before it could taxi to the passenger terminal.
Airport staff were called out to help push, but they had to ask some of the 69 passengers on board to help because the plane would not budge.
It took the group nearly two hours to shove the plane half a mile to a side lane.
One of the airport workers said: 'Thank God it was only a 20-ton medium-sized aeroplane. If it were a big plane, it would have knocked us out.'
The plane remained parked in the side lane on Friday night, waiting for technicians arriving on the next flight to fix the problem.

Let's Go See...

...Where The Sun Rises

A selection of pictures from our trip to come... soon!

What Will Louis Do...

...Without The Japanese?

LV everywhere

Louis Vuitton brand has a 28 percent share of the handbag market in Japan and Japan accounts for more than half of Louis Vuitton’s global sales.

No Groping Here

Hands Off

When The Japanese Take Translation Lesson

...From The Chinese

Not sure what they are trying to tell us

That was the ONLY sign we saw that was poorly translated

A Little Bit Of This...

...A Little Bit Of That

For me, Japan is a little:

• Chinese - They use some of the Chinese characters for writing
• British - They drive on the left side of the road
• French - They take their food seriously (+ they love LV – more on that later)
• Italian - They take their fashion style very seriously
• Arabic - They write from left to right (albeit top to bottom) and read from (our) back to front cover
• American - They cannot do like the rest of the world and start numbering their floors with Ground Floor and they have to run appliance on 110w
• German - They are really rigorous

The only thing they are missing to be a complete melting pot of nations would be for them to live in the Southern hemisphere where summer is in December and winter in August!!

Oh No...

...Not The Olympics Again!

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We Are At It Again...

...This Time It's Japan

And because I’m nice, I’m helping you situate it on a map! (just like last time)

Right next to us!

On our way out of China…

It's nice to know that not everybody went crazy with the Olympics

Rain + Bike...

...NOT A Good Combination

Point proven:

Click on the picture to enlarge Click on the "Back" button of your browser to come back to this page

Where There Is A Problem...

...There's A Solution When*

Click on the picture to enlarge Click on the "Back" button of your browser to come back to this page

* W-e-n J-i-a-b-a-o (When I first published this post with his name spelled out, I couldn't access the blog anymore!!!)... If you don't know who he is just do a wikipedia search (cannot put the link either.... spooky!)

The Olympics (and Paralympics) Are Over...

...Scandals Can Be Unveiled

I’ve been telling my friends for some time now that with the amount of milk my kids are drinking on a daily basis I should buy a cow…. It might not be such a bad idea after the latest milk scandal. Well I guess we’ll have to switch to imported milk from now on…. There is never a better time than right now to support the French farmers by buying their thrice-priced milk!

But the real question is what am I going to order at Starbuck… cannot bring myself to drink their new soy milk cappuccino.

As always in this case the Chinese are quick to point finger at other country:

Excerpt from Life Times (生命时报), a weekly newspaper on health, medicine, and wellness that grew out of the Global Times weekly supplement "Life Week”.

“Our milk has problem, your foreign milk isn’t clean either”? Whenever there's a scandal, the habitual response of certain people is to cover it up, and to minimize major problems that can't be covered up. If it can't be minimized, then there's another technique: prove that it exists in foreign countries, too. This time is no exception. Sanlu's milk powder has become kidney stone powder, and other famous national brands have been laid low as well. Life Times, a domestic paper attached to a major newspaper, has taken advantage of its position to report what its journalists, stationed all over the world, were able to find: "The safety of milk powder is actually a global problem. It's not unique to China; across the whole world, there have been milk powder safety incidents involving more than a few famous and well-regarded businesses in major infant formula producing nations like the United States and Germany." The following are five recent crises involving foreign milk that Life Times reporters found:

1. March, 1998: Milk sold in Germany was found to be high in dioxin. The source of the problem was revealed to be animal feed containing contaminated citrus pulp exported from Brazil.
2. September, 2002: A Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department spokesperson urged local residents to immediately stop using Special Batch Milupa HN25, a German infant formula. The formula had been contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii, a bacteria that can cause inflammation of the gut and meningitis in newborns.
3. November 10, 2004: US-based Heinz, an internationally-known food producer, issued a recall of infant formula for sale in Israel. The formula had caused the deaths of three infants and had made ten others ill; analysis showed that Vitamin B1 had not been added to the formula, resulting in encephalopathy.
4. Late April, 2005: A spot-check by the Zhejiang Province Bureau of Industry and Commerce revealed that a batch of Nestle milk powder exceeded iodine standards by 41.6 micrograms. The cause: the producer had not inspected the iodine levels of raw milk or the milk powder.
5. February 22, 2006: The US Food and Drug Administration announced a recall of 41,000 cans of Mead Johnson's Gentlease infant formula because metal particles were discovered which could present a serious risk to the infant's respiratory system and throat.

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It's Over...

...Really Over

• Security checks have stopped
• Roads have re-opened
• Restaurants and clubs are back open
• Al fresco dining on streets has resumed
• Street vendors are back
• Traffic ban has been lifted… welcome back to pre-Olympics congestion
• Smog is back
• Dvds are on sale again
• MingGong (Construction workers) are slowly coming back to the city.
• PJ wearers are starting to reappear in the back alleys
• Spitting is back on full swing
• Etc, etc…

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I Know Where...

...Your (U.S.) Tax Money Goes

224 denote US diplomatic car

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about read here my post on the different type of license plates in Beijing

UPDATE: A few days later I saw the same car in the middle of an intersection surrounded by a lot of people and what appeared to be a bicycle under his wheels…. Better prepare your checkbook to fork some money to pay the damage!!!!

Hunting Season...

...Is Opened

“The People’s Bank of China has issued a commemorative RMB10 bank note to commemorate China successfully holding of the 2008 Summer Olympic
The notes feature the “Birds Nest” National Stadium on the front and a Greek discus thrower on the reverse. This is the first issuance of a bank note since 1999 that does not feature a portrait of Chairman Mao, however only six million of them have been released for circulation, ensuring their instant status as a collector’s item.”

Let’s see, there are 15+ million inhabitants in Beijing and only 6 million bank notes have been issued…. Wonder what are my chances of getting hold of one?

When You Thought It Was Over...

...There Is More Coming To You

After the 29th Olympics game now it’s time for the 13th Paralympics Game which will be host here in Beijing from the 6th to the 17th of September.

While more than 10,000 athletes from 304 countries competed in the big O, “only” 4,200 athletes from 148 countries will try to grab one of the 472 gold medals* in 20 sports (302 in 28 sports in the Oly). China will compete in all 20 sports with 332 athletes.

6,000 journalists -2,960 being foreigners- (compare to 20,000 for the O.) will cover the event, twice the number which reported on the previous Paralympics in Athens, when only 100 journalists cover the 1992 Paralympics. The Paralympics are not as profitable for media but it’s getting better.

The Paralympics started in 1948 summer Olympics in London when Dr Ludwig Guttman organized a sport competition for British World War II veteran with spinal cord injuries. The games were held again at the same location in 1952, and Dutch veterans took part alongside the British, making it the first international competition of its kind. These Stoke Mandeville Games have been described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics were subsequently officialised as a quadrennial event tied to the Olympic Games and the first official Paralympics Game, no longer open solely to war veterans, were held in Rome in 1960. At the Toronto 1976 Games other groups of athletes with different disabilities were also included. The Paralympic Games take place in the same year as the Olympic Games. However, it is only since 1988 that the Games have been held in the same city, using the same venues. (Source: Wikipedia)

On a side note: “For the first time since the launch of the official Paralympic Games in 1960, French Paralympians will receive the same monetary award as their Olympian counterparts. Each athlete will receive 2,000 euros for participation. For medalists: 13,000 euros for bronze, 20,000 euros for silver and 50,000 for gold.” GO France

Now about the opening ceremony, it was not obviously as flashy as the Olympics version but the torch lighting was amazing. Hou Bin (侯斌), a one-legged track athlete, pulled himself and his wheelchair in the air by rope and lit the Olympic cauldron. Another highlight was when Pin Yali who became China’s first Paralympics champion in 1984 (blind long jumper) carried the flame with the aid of a guide dog named lucky. Lucky is one of China's first seeing-eye dogs and the first in the capital. When Lucky came to Beijing last year, the Golden Retriever was technically banned under a Beijing rule against large dogs in public places. In April, a temporary regulation was put in place to allow guide dogs in public places during the Paralympics. The blind and their supporters say that's a small example of how the Paralympics could help improve the lives of China's disabled.

* If there is one major difference between the Olympics and the Paralympics it is the concept of classifications. Put simply, the classifications are a way for organizers to group like with like athletes so that people of roughly equivalent disabilities can compete together. There are five main categories of disabilities represented at the Paralympics: Amputee, Cerebral palsy, vision impairment or blindness, wheelchair, Les Autres (French term meaning “the others” – such as dwarfism. With the range of amputations displayed by athletes there is also a numerical classification to cater for the differing levels of disability.
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Olympics...

...Facts

Before the next round of foreign athletes arrives in town let me give you some random Olympics facts:

• The Olympic motto, in Latin: "Citius, Altius, Fortius"; which means, "Faster, Higher, Stronger".
• The Olympic Creed: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."
• Ranking: The Olympic Charter, Chapter 1, section 6 states that: The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries … Officially, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not recognize a ranking of participating countries at the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the IOC does publish medal table, the table is sorted first by the number of gold medals the athletes from a country have earned. In the event of a tie in the number of gold medals, the number of silver medals is taken into consideration, and then the number of bronze medals. If two countries have an equal number of gold, silver, and bronze medals, they are ordered in the table alphabetically by their IOC country code. In recent Olympic history the country that led in total medals also led in the gold count. China and the US bucked this trend in 2008.
• Medals: In the antique game, only the winner received a wreath of wild olive branches. There were no 2 or 3 places. From 1948 onward athletes placing fourth, fifth and sixth have received certificates, which became officially known as "victory diplomas". In 1984 victory diplomas for seventh- and eighth-place finishers were added.*
• Participants: From the 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, the Games have grown to 10,500 competitors from 205 countries at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, competing in 302 events in 28 sports
• Records: The Games saw 43 new world records and 132 new Olympic records set. A record 87 countries won a medal during the Games.

• Great Britain is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Games. London (UK) is the only city to host the games three times (1908, 1948, 2012)
• France has hosted the Games on five occasions: (1900 in Paris (summer), 1924 in Chamonix (winter) and in Paris (summer), 1968 Grenoble (winter) and 1992 Albertville (winter). France sent a team of 323 athletes to the 2008 Summer Olympics
• The United States is the only country to have won at least one gold medal at every Winter Olympics. The U.S. has hosted the Games on eight occasions, (1904 St Louis, MO (summer) ; 1932 Lake Placid, NY (winter) ; 1932 Los Angeles, CA (summer) ; 1960 Squaw Valley, CA (winter) ; 1980. Lake Placid, NY (winter) ; 1984 Los Angeles, CA (summer) ; 1996, Atlanta, GA (summer) ; 2002, Salt Lake City, UT (winter). The USA has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted. (Moscow).

• Opening ceremony delegations entrance: Traditionally (starting at the 1928 Summer Olympics), Greece enters first, due to its historical status as the origin of the Olympics, while the host nation marches last. Between these two nations, all other participating nations march in alphabetical order of the dominant language of the host country, or in French or English alphabetical order if the host country does not write its dominant language in an alphabet which has a set order. For the 2008 Summer Olympics, instead of using either French or English, the countries were ordered by how many strokes it took to write the country's name in Simplified Chinese. As a result, Australia (normally one of the first teams to enter the stadium) became one of the final teams to arrive, as the first character of the Chinese name of Australia (澳大利亚) has 16 strokes, followed by Zambia stroke). Guinea and Japan will be the first countries to enter the Bird’s nest (behind Greece)

• Numbers: According to Nielsen Media Research, 4.7 billion viewers worldwide tuned in to some of the television coverage, one-fifth larger than the 3.9 billion who watched the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The 2008 Olympics was the most-viewed event in American television history. A total of an estimated US$42 billion were spent on the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, making it the most expensive games ever.

* To put an end to the story “who is first” here are the result if European Union competed under one flag! European Union: 280 medals (87 gold, 101 silver, 92 bronze) ; China 100 medals (51 golds, 21 silver, 28 bronze) ; USA 110 medals (36 gold, 38 silver, 36 bronze)!!
.

Finally I Found What To Do...

...With My Free Time

Now that the kids are back to school, it’s back to Mommy’s time for me and since I’m not sure what I will do with my free time this year I've decided to broaden my horizon and take a local job (!?)

Perfect for those leg muscles!

10 years and

...NOT Counting

We’ve got a few days before the next round of madness start (i.e. the Paralympics) so let’s change subject because today it’s anniversary day at the Suiter’s.

Ten years ago (already!) we were partying until the wee hours of the morning (7am – we were still young and energetic!!) for our wedding. To celebrate our 10 years (well actually we’ve been together 17!) Jeffrey invited me to dinner at the new French restaurant by renowned French Chef Daniel Boulud near Tiananmen Square. The cuisine is “franco-american” like M. Boulud who has kept his traditional connection to Lyon (culinary capital within France) and has been base in the US for over 30 years. So it was the perfect combination/representation for our "franco-american" marriage.

“Maison Boulud” is located in the building which used to host the old American Embassy where former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met his equivalent Zhou Enlai to prepare the historical visit of President Richard Nixon to China in 1972.

We received the same "candles holders as presents for our wedding (France & USA) On the box, Jeffrey had our names and the words 10 years written in Chinese

I Feel Like...

...I'm Day-Dreaming

Do you know the movie “Groundhog day” with Andy MacDowell and Bill Murray? Well I feel like I have been having the same experience as Bill Murray for the last 3 days.

Let me explain: our membership at our complex gym has expired and the apartment owner cannot come right away to pay the annual fee but call the management office and told them (in Chinese might I add) that he will come within a week and that they should let us have access to the facilities anyway…which they agreed to. I personally wouldn’t mind too much (as my friend Violaine knows I’m not the one over using the gym equipment here – 3 times in 2 years I wouldn’t call that dedication) but let’s go back to what bring me to this post. The gym has two pools, an inside one and an outside one and the outdoor one is supposed to close at the end of the month (Beijing municipality policy: outside pool can operate from July 1st to August 31st not a day before or after those set dates - same for heat!) and the kids want to enjoy it before it closes and school starts next week. So the first day after explaining my little problem to the entrance clerk and her checking if the facts were indeed right I was allowed access to the pool. The next day I had to tell my story over to the SAME person like it was the first time she heard the story from me… I made a point off asking her if she will remember me the next day and she of course said yes, no problem. Well you guessed it, the following day she had no recollection of our encounter the previous day. You might think that we, westerners, must look all the same to them, but no my friend those same persons will have no problem remembering tiny little details about you. Most of the time they have an incredible memory, they do have to learn and remember all those Chinese characters to be able to read and write!.

Maybe I never went to the pool the previous days I was really just dreaming…. Maybe I’m not even in China just in a bad dream.

Fun Is Over...

...Well Not Quite Yet

The Chinese calendar has been reset and time is now counted in anno post olympic. But it’s not quite finished yet… there’s still the Para Olympics:

And here’s its very own emblem:

“Dubbed "Sky, Earth and Human Beings," the emblem of the Beijing Paralympics is a stylized figure of an athlete in motion, implying the tremendous efforts a disabled person has to make in sports as well as in real life. With the unity and the harmony of "sky, earth and human beings," the emblem incorporates Chinese characters, calligraphy and the Paralympic spirit. It embodies the Paralympic motto of "Spirit in Motion" and reflects the integration of heart, body and spirit in human beings -- the core of the philosophy of Chinese culture. The three colours in the emblem represent the sun (red), the sky (blue) and the earth (green).”

And mascot:

The design of Fu Niu Lele derives its inspiration from the farming cultivation culture of ancient Chinese civilization, and bears the following salient features:
(1) Showing the rich concept of the Beijing Paralympic Games
Cows, symbolic of a down-to-earth, diligent, staunch and never-say-die spirit, are adopted to show the unremitting spirit of athletes with a disability in being the best they can be. […] Cows, symbolic of a down-to-earth, diligent, staunch and never-say-die spirit, are adopted to show the unremitting spirit of athletes with a disability in being the best they can be.[..] The determined, optimistic and diligent spirit of cows reflects a positive attitude to life
(2) Embodying the harmony between man and nature […]Throughout the history of the development of world civilization, poetry and songs have clearly expressed the aspiration of humankind for a harmonious life. Cows have often found their way into the natural, cozy and poetic country life reflected in literary and art works, showing public expectation for the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
(3) Carrying rich national style and cultural features […]
(4) Cows are widely accepted internationally […]
Cows were one of the first animals depicted in literary and art works. Cases in point include the Lascaux mural in France and Altamira rock paintings in Spain, which all contain drawings of cows. Therefore, adopting cows as the mascot of the Paralympic Games, instead of traditional rare animals, is a creative act in terms of design to a certain extent

Thanks to the Paralympics, I’ve learn a lot about cows.

And to finish up this post: Do you know where the next Olympics will be held?
I bet you said London in 2012 (at least for the well informed!) Well that would be right if I had said the next SUMMER Olympics, I just said Olympics. So the next Olympics will be the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada in 2010. And since we are at it, the 2014 ones will be in Sotchi which is in…………..……Russia .

We Are Back...

...Well The Last 3 Members Of The Family

Fun is over… we are back in Beijing and I’m back behind the keyboard. Hope you enjoyed Jeff’s encounter of his Olympics but I’m back in command.

Get him OUT of here!

Argentina 3, Brazil 0

(August 19th)

Well I normally didn't have anything lined up for tonight but I got a phone call this afternoon from an old buddy I met when we were in Argentina....and I couldn't believe that Maradona would think of me during his visit to Beijing....

So I walked down the Workers Stadium and saw a guy holding up a ticket (Diego couldn't comp me I guess), so I spilled out 2 times the face value (the going rate for scalped tix) and wandered in with my new Chinese friends who sold me the ticket....they bought me a beer though!

It was a great atmosphere and I had a good time explaining to my Chinese neighbors that I was rooting for Argentina because my daughter is Argentinean and I am a permanent resident of Argentina (with Celine of course!). They had a hard time getting that I was American, my wife is French, but our daughter was from Argentina.......oh well, it was good to be a part of it!.

A little bit crowded, no?

Figures Lie And Liars Figure

(August 17th)

Guess which is from a China-based news source and which is from the US-based news source?

China Vs the USA

Both are right, it’s just the spin that's different....

But the Chinese approach does remind my of my favorite Ricky Bobby maxim: "If you ain't first, you're last"...so it explains their fixation on the 'gold'.

P.S. I'm told by Celine in fact that it is only the USA that is ranking by total medals....usually everyone ranks by 'gold medals'......oh well.

Soccer Quaterfinals (Belgium-Italy)

(August 16th)

I finally got to see the Worker's Stadium from the inside as we live right next door and have only seen the exterior for the past two years......

So I combined a nice foot massage across the street at Bohdi before walking across the street to get my seat......An overall great atmosphere, especially since Belgium trounced the Italians who were the favorite to win....

The official spectator total was 50,802 and we were even treated to the cheerleaders and volunteers who initiated the 'wave' around the stadium.......The Chinese were great spectators too as they were cheering for whoever had the ball so that was great.....

First Trip To The Bird's Nest

(August 15th)

Finally I get to see the Bird's Nest in all its splendor (Celine had already seen it...but in the daytime, ha!).....Very much part of the success story for the architecture here in Beijing:

I do regret the 1 hour wait to get through the metal detectors though! Will have to rethink the strategy to get in when we come back with the rest of the family in September for the Paralympics!.

China Has Set The Bar Quite High For London 2012

(August 11th)

...and I'm not talking for the pole-jump....but in terms of quality of the volunteers, hostesses and cheerleaders at the games......

As your guest-blogger, this probably ranks up there with their architectural feats for the Games to show off one of their many assets from this growing superpower....

I think the UK is going to have to do some major importing of talent because my gut-feeling is that they are going to have some problems sourcing it from the 'home' team....

The guys from the US Rowing team look quite pleased also with the Chinese efforts in this domain:

Forget the skimpily clad cheerleaders. The immaculate hostesses handing out medals at the Olympics have won the spectator vote for glamour.

Wearing Chinese silk dresses with their hair pulled back tightly into neat buns, the hostesses are beautiful, elegant and their eyes are three-tenths the length of their faces.

"They are so pretty and precise. They smile continuously," said Debra Sinex, a tourist from Atlanta, Georgia, in Beijing for the Olympics.

At every medal ceremony six or more hostesses are on duty.

Two wearing "cheongsam", or long dresses, stand either side of the podium while three or more in knee-length dresses hold platters bearing the medals and bouquets of nine red roses, with red a lucky colour in China and nine meaning everlasting.

But although the role looks simple these hostesses have been meticulously chosen and trained.

Hostess candidates have to be university educated, aged 18 to 24, between 1.68 and 1.78 metres in height (5 ft 5 ins and 5 ft 8 ins), with a "ruddy and shiny complexion", "elastic skin" and "a plump but not fat body".

Their faces needed to meet standards including the ratio between the "width of the nose and the length of the face" and "width of the mouth and width between the pupils", with eyes three-tenths the length of the face.

From about 5,000 applications, 297 candidates were chosen from a dozen Beijing colleges and 40 students from Shanghai to be "Olympic victory ceremony volunteers".

Five series of costumes were designed for the hostesses to wear at the 302 Olympic and 471 Paralympic medal ceremonies, each for different sports and featuring traditional Chinese images such as blue-and-white porcelain, embroidery and jade.

The women have been through thorough training at a kind of charm boot camp, learning to stand for hours in high-heels and honing the perfect smile exposing eight teeth by spending hours before a mirror with a chopstick between their teeth.

"In the standing sessions, we have to stand still and smile for half an hour or more. We also run about a 1,000 metres every day for physical conditioning," one of the hostesses, Ma Sha, 20, told reporters ahead of the Games.