Laundry Day

I've had a long string of long posts last month so I'm changing the pace for this upcoming month and I'll try to have a long string of short posts.

Here's one to start with:

Honey...where did you put the goose/duck/chichen?

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Lost In...

...Translation Beijing

Well I'm often lost in translation but that’s another (long) subject. I just wanted to share this picture with you. Not only it is an odd looking car but it is a car from Sweden… What are they doing so far away from home - Did they miss a turn somewhere?
In fact this was the first foreign car we’ve ever saw in Beijing..

I told you to turn right...you never listen

The Great (Fire)Wall of China

...Censored or Not Censored

Blogspot (thus C²J² Suiter) has been blocked for the better part of the month which in itself is not really pleasant but on the other hand gave me an idea of a post…you take the inspiration where you can!!

No access today either

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Not long after one arrives in China (or any other country that has restricted access to the net for that matter) one learns to look for alternatives to bypass the control. Anomymouse is one of those web-based proxy sites that was originally developed to allow internet users to surf the web without revealing any personal information. In China it’s used to look at web pages that are banned by the great fire wall, and I’m not talking about web pages that you could be embarrassed about. For example the free encyclopedia Wikipedia is 99% of the time censored and my friend Blog is permanently blocked… well I’m sure that the title “Blonde in Beijing” doesn’t help!!!

What would I do without you

China operates the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of internet filtering in the world," according to a recent report by the OpenNet Initiative. Highly sophisticated filters can block up to 500,000 ISPs simultaneously, leave some parts of a website accessible while blocking others, and make e-mails disappear. Tech surveillance is backed up with the human kind: Thousands of state employees are thought to monitor web traffic.

Little Pleasure in Life

...Jian1 Bing3 煎饼

One of the (many) small pleasures I get here in Beijing is from the street vendors that sell the Jian Bing.

Jian Bing are made with fresh crepe batter, with an egg cracked over it. It is then turned over before the addition of other ingredients: some bean sauce, hot sauce, shredded greens, cilantro and a piece of deep fried cruller (yiu tiao) is then added before being folded up in a square.

I first noticed those 3 wheel bikes selling them when we arrived but didn't know what to make of it so I took it slowly and decided to taste them from Jialefu (Carrefour supermarket) and found that they were delicious. Since I couldn't go to Jialefu each time I wanted to indulge in one of my guilty pleasure I decided that if millions of Chinese could eat from those 3 wheel bikes why shouldn't I and comforted my choice by convincing myself that it couldn't be any worse than streets vendors in New York (ok maybe a little bit worse but I convince myself the way I choose to!!)

Jian Bing is quintessential of Beijing Street food and its preparation would probably be thwarted by food hygiene laws in any western cities. But one of the attractions is having it made right in front of you. All that yummyness for 2 kuai (20 cents).

The Heating is Off

Ten days after the official date, we are officially without heating (referred to this post if you want more information). I hope it doesn’t get too cold in the next few days otherwise we might have to go and buy one of these:

It looks like a fan but it’s a heating lamp

30 Millions Single Men

..."Care For The Girls"

Another interesting article from China Daily which says that the rising sex-ration imbalance is a danger and there is an increasing number of single men in China.
With the one child policy a lot of families, especially in the south and in rural areas, prefer to have a male child over a female child. Currently for every 100 female children there are 118.6 males and in some southern regions the figure has reached 130 boys for every 100 girls (the gender ration was 110:100 in 2000), which may not sound like a lot but spread that over the huge population in China and it becomes greatly magnified. By 2020 it is expected that there will be some 30 million more men of marriage age than women (half the population of France!!) due to the imbalance.

In an attempt to halt the growing imbalance, a "Care for Girls" campaign was launched nationwide in 2000 to promote equality between men and women. Cash incentives are also offered to girl-only families in the countryside. The authorities said such programs will continue to fight discrimination against girls and ensure their healthy growth. The authorities also pledged to "firmly" continue the 33-year-old family planning policy, as the country still faces huge challenges from a growing population.
Formulated in the early 1970s, the family planning policy encourages late marriages and late childbearing, and limits most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two. The policy is credited with preventing 400 million births.

Ni Hui Shuo Zhongwen Ma?

...Do You Speak Chinese

Following this post about Mandarin, here’s the article I was talking about:

More Americans are dunking their children in Chinese immersion classes and hiring Mandarin-speaking nannies in the hope of giving them a competitive edge as China imposes itself as an economic giant.
The trend is such that many schools across the country are unable to meet the growing demand for Mandarin Chinese. At Potomac Elementary School, near Washington, the Chinese immersion program launched in 1996 has become so popular that about 40 children are on a waiting list to join and several of the spots available each year are given through a lottery. About 18 percent of the students are of Asian origin.
While US schools rush to fill the growing demand for Chinese, the same trend is hitting companies that place nannies and au pairs who say they are being deluged with requests for Chinese speakers. In New York, Chinese nannies are in such demand that some can command a salary of $20,000 more than an average nanny would earn.
One nanny reportedly even managed to secure a $70,000-salary after a bidding war between two families. Agencies are also reporting a surge in the demand for Chinese au pairs.
Michael DiMauro, senior vice president for marketing at the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS), which oversees Au Pair in America, said his company in the last year has received requests from about 1,400 families nationwide interested in hosting an au pair from China. So far, the company has only been able to provide two, but about 200 more are expected to arrive in the United States this year. "There is greater demand than supply," he told AFP. (China Daily).

Back To School

...Well, More Like Back to Class.

After a few months of trying to avoid going back to my Chinese class, I’ve decided that I had enough of a break and decided to start my lessons again. A while back I talked about the difficulty of learning Chinese so I did a little bit of research about it in honor of me going back to school class.

I then stumbled upon articles like “the Hardest Language on Earth?” and find out that Chinese is in the top 5, just behind Arabic and Cantonese (Chinese from the South of China with no less than 7 tones!).
“The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages based on the length of time it takes to achieve Speaking 3: General Professional Proficiency in Speaking (S3) and Reading 3: General Professional Proficiency in Reading (R3). The list is limited to languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute. So for the category III (Mandarin), languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers it requires 88 weeks (with the second year of study in-country) or 2,200 class hours.” Let me translate this for you: I have two 1 ½ hour classes a week. So I estimate it should take me 733 weeks (2200/3) or a little over 14 years (733/52) to achieve Speaking and Reading level 3!!!
(It must be kept in mind that students at FSI […] have a good aptitude for formal language study, plus knowledge of several other foreign languages. They study in small classes of no more than 6. Their schedule calls for 25 hours of class per week with 3-4 hours per day of directed self-study.)


But I got overwhelmed by all the information since I just wanted to give you a brief summary of the Mandarin Language or 普通话 Putonghua (the People’s language)

From http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm
The Chinese writing system
Chinese is written with characters known as 汉字 (hànzi). Each character represents a syllable of spoken Chinese and also has a meaning.
How many characters?
The Chinese writing system is an open-ended one, meaning that there is no upper limit to the number of characters. The largest Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000 characters. Knowledge of about 3,000 characters enables you to to read about 99% of the characters in Chinese newspapers and magazines.
Usage
Characters can be used on their own, in combination with other characters or as part of other characters.
Strokes
Chinese characters are written with twelve basic strokes. A character may consist of between 1 and 64 stokes. The strokes are always written in the same direction and there is a set order to write the strokes of each character. In dictionaries, characters are ordered partly by the number of stokes they contain.
When writing Chinese, every character is given exactly the same amount of space, no matter how many strokes it contains. There are no spaces between characters and the characters which make up multi-syllable words are not grouped together, so when reading Chinese, you not only have to work out what the characters mean and how to pronounce them, but also which characters belong together.*
Homophones
There are approximately 1,700 possible syllables in Mandarin, which compares with over 8,000 in English. As a result, there are many homophones - syllables which sound the same but mean different things. These are distinguished in written Chinese by using different characters for each one.
Characters that are pronounced with the same tone sound different to Chinese ears however for the Westerner ears they all sound the same. These syllables can be distinguished in speech from the context and because most of them usually appear in combination with other syllables.
It is even possible to write a text in Chinese using only one sound, pronounced with different tones, of course. This is exactly what Chinese linguist, Zhao Yuanren (趙元任) (1892-1982), did when he wrote the "Story of Shi Eating the Lions" using nothing but the sound 'shi'. The story makes sense in written form, but is impossible to understand when read aloud. He did so to prove just how inadequate it would be to replace Chinese characters by a purely phonetic script as others were advocating at the time.
You can see and hear the story on: http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/stonelion.html#
Simplified characters
In an effort to increase literacy, about 2,000 of the characters used in China have been simplified. These simplified characters are also used in Singapore, but in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia the traditional characters are still used.


Last but not least (and if I haven't lost you yet!!) I read an interesting article about the latest rave in the USA where parents want their precious offspring to learn Chinese, but that would be the subject of later post.

*Try reading this next sentence like if it was written the way Chinese characters are written: sowhenreadingchinese, younotonlyhavetoworkoutwhatthecharactersmeanandhowtopronouncethem, butalsowhichcharactersbelongtogether.

Mahjong...

...Or Another Insight In The Life Of A Desperate Expat’ Wife in Beijing

Since my friend Jodi mentioned me on her Blog…twice and referred to me as the Mahjong expert I figured I had to write a post about it.
I usually play with the French Ladies (how shocking, Celine, mingling with the French, I can't believe it!!!) but I’ve been asked by my friends (The ONES I spend most of my free time with) to show them how to play 麻将 (Ma2Jiang4). First I have to say that most Chinese (and my Ayi in particular) don’t understand that we play Mahjong for fun, because what started as an innocent game became an excuse to gamble. This traditional Chinese game was banned in its homeland in 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded. The new government forbade any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption. After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived, and once again Mahjong has become one of the favorite pastimes of the Chinese.

Our group, on the other hand, just plays for the pleasure of being together around a nice cup of tea and we don’t even bother to keep score. Chloe even learned how to play. We usually play a game or two after dinner and she usually beat the Blip blip out of us…. Better not tell her she could play for money!!

Ready to win some money!!

The object of the game is to build complete suits or melds (usually of threes) plus a pair from 13 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal wins the game. The winning tile completes the player's set of 14 tiles.

If you want to know how to play or just know what the heck I’m talking about, you can check it out here

Knot or Not Knot...

...Chinese Knot Tying

I had already done a few outings with the Chinese Cultural Club that I’d enjoyed, so today with some of my friends (Kim, Paige and Alicia not to name them) we went to a Chinese Knot Tying class.

These are some of the pieces the experts that were teaching us can make:

Their expertise

We were not about to try our hand on these complex knots. For our first attempt we will only do a simple knot the one you find in every store in Beijing. Well, let me tell you that I will probably not bargain anymore when I want to buy one because they look like they are easy to make but believe me they are not.

And this is my try of the simple Chinese knot…and I got a lot of help to make it this “beautiful”

My expertise

Valentine...

...The White One

I found out that today was apparently yet another Valentine Day in China. Beside February 14th which is the western Valentine’s Day, March 14th is White Valentine and the 7th day of the 7th month is Chinese Valentine.

So here you go 3 for the price of 1. Another bargain made in China. You can still apply this method for your purchase.

Queue Date

俳队日 Pai2 Dui4 Ri4

Just to let you know about another interesting fact on living in Beijing….
Beijing is attempting of fighting queue-jumping by launching a “Queuing Day” on the 11th of each month. The measure actually began last month and the date was not chosen by chance, it was described and symbolizing 2 persons queuing. The objective is to present the locals and the Chinese capital on their best behavior for the Olympics.

Only on the 11th?

What I want to know is which day is “Wait Until I’m Out Of The Elevator/Bus/Subway Before You Can Get In” day?

I, myself, prefer the 先下后上(xian xia hou shang*) way to the 先上后下(xian shang hou xia**) way

*first get out then get in - ** first get in then get out

Parking...

...What Parking?

Known as the "bicycle kingdom", China is home to a world-record 470 million bicycles.
On the other hand 1,110 motor vehicles have taken Beijing’s roads every day since January 1st and the number will top the three million mark sometime in May. One million of those cars are without a parking space.

I don’t see how they can apply this method of parking…

1.3 billion people on bicycle and yet no parking problem!!!

To this kind of cars…

Not an everyday sight in Beijing But you can spot tons of Porsche Cayenne SUVs

My Own MasterCard Commercial*

...And The Visa Version??!!

• Taxi Chauffeur at my disposal: Mianfei (0€-0$)
• Social Coffee with friends at the International Newcomers Network: 20 RMB (2€-3$)
• “Let’s Do Lunch Group” at a Delicious and Quaint French Restaurant (with 7 friends): 70 RMB (7€-9$)
• Pedicure and Manicure with 2 friends: 80 RMB (8€-10$)
• Pick up my new hand-made cashmere coat: 800 RMB (80€-100$)
• Taxi Chauffeur back to the apartment: Mianfei (0€-0$)
• Latest Oscar-Winning Movie (already on DVD here!) at a Private Theater (aka Home!) with hubby: 10 RMB (1€-2$)
• Another Relaxing day in the Desperate Expat Housewife’s Life: Priceless

NB 1: This is of course a parody and not a typical day….it’s usually spread out over the week it just happened that today everything was concentrated in one day!!

NB 2: I also have deliberately omitted the other side of the story (because there are always two sides of a story, aren’t there?) so another version of the Mastercard Commercial (the Visa Commercial?!!) could go something like this:

• My Blog (and other websites) once again blocked by the “Great (Fire)Wall”
• Another day of pollution (6.5 days out of 7 this week)
• Barely escaping another spitting projectile from a Chinese man
• Not daring going to the toilet for fear of another encounter with a squat toilet
• Not understanding a word of what they are saying
• Feeling like a 4 y.o. for not being able to read any signs on the streets, restaurants, etc
• Choosing dishes in the restaurant because the photo looks good
• Being too many miles/kms away from parents, sisters, brothers, friends…

• No price, it sucks but would I change my life???….probably not, always be happy with what you’ve got.

* I have seen a similar post on a Blog a while back and though it was funny so I took the idea and run with it!!

The Party is Over...

...Lantern Festival

While New Year (除夕- Chu2 Xi4) marks the beginning of Spring Festival (春节- Chun1 Jie2), Lantern Festival (元宵节- Yuan Xiao Jie), which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 1st month in the lunar year in the Chinese calendar, marks its end (i.e finally the end of the fireworks and firecrackers). The lanterns show the way for the spirits back to the world beyond.

Traditionally children go out at night carrying bright lanterns and the date once served as a day for love and matchmaking since it was one of the few nights without a strict curfew. One of the other tradition is to eat Tang1 Yuan2 (汤圆), which are glutinous rice balls made of glutinous rice, sugar, red beans or black sesame or peanut. “Tang Yuan” sounds like "Tuan Yuan" which in Mandarin means reunion of the family.

Lanterns

TangYuan or YuanXiao

You Are Such A Pig...

Now that I’ve got your attention let me tell you that this post is only about Chinese Zodiac.

By now you must know that we enter the year of the pig in the Chinese Zodiac Calendar and you will be happy to know that all the babies born this year (i.e. between February 18th, 2007 to February 6th, 2008) are Pigs but not any ordinary pig they are Golden Pigs or 金猪 Jin Zhu and this happens only every 60 years. So if you’ll turn 60 this year you too are Golden Pig (and if any of you are turning 120, not only are you lucky to still be alive but you too are Golden Pig). If you are 12, 24, 36, 48 you are just a normal pig.

Golden Pig is considered an auspicious year so China is expecting a baby boom since the babies born under this blessed sign are believed to have easy lives full of wealth and prosperity.

Hand-cut Paper

Chinese zodiac is divided in 12 animals (Rat/shu3, Ox/Niu2, Tiger/Hu3, Rabbit/Tu2, Dragon/Long2, Snake/she2, Horse/ma2, Goat/Yang2, Monkey/Hou2, Rooster/Ji, Dog/Gou2 and Pig/zhu1) associated with five elements (Wood/Mu 木, Fire/Huo 火, Earth/Tu 土, Metal/Jin 金 and Water/Shui 水) in their Yin and Yang forms which creates the 60-year cycle.

When trying to calculate the relevant year, an easy rule to follow is that years that end in an even number are yang, those that end with an odd number are yin. The cycle proceeds as follows: If the year ends in 0 it is Yang Metal, ends in 1 it is Yin Metal, in 2 it is Yang Water, in 3 it is Yin Water, in 4 it is Yang Wood, in 5 it is Yin Wood, in 6 it is Yang Fire, in 7 it is Yin Fire, in 8 it is Yang Earth, in 9 it is Yin Earth,


If you want to know you Chinese sign click here
And because I haven’t bored you enough and you always dreamed of knowing you (normal) zodiac sign in Chinese. Here are they:

Aries: BaiYangZuo, Taurus: JinNiuZuo, Gemini: ShuangZiZuo, Cancer: JuXieZuo, Leo: ShiZiZuo, Virgo: ChuNuZuo, Libra: TianChengZuo, Scorpio: TianXieZuo, Sagittarius: RenMaZuo, Capricorn: MoJieZuo, Pisces: ShuangYuZuo

So you can impress your friends with the following sentence:

"Did you know that I’m Aries and that my Chinese Zodiac sign is Dog"
"Ni zhidao, wode xing zuo shi BaiYangZuo he wo shu Gou"

Starbuck...

...Not Quite

After Colonel Sanders we’ve got:

If it looks like Starbuck, smells like Starbuck, well it must be Starbuck… Well not in China it can as well be usabucks!!!

Pig Smiley

To celebrate the Year of the Pig… impress your friends with some piggy Emoticoms.

oink, oink, oink

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And A Piggy New Year To You Too

Cover of the February's That's Beijing Magazine

Chloe and Jeremy in their Red Chinese Outfit

Let's Party Like...

It’s 1999 2007 4705

Tonight China says good bye to 4704 and the year of the Dog and welcomes the Golden Pig and 4705.

While Jeffrey is in the plane coming back from France, I’m in front of my TV watching the famous CCTV (no it’s not Closed Caption TV it’s Chinese Central TV!!) New Year’s Gala with the sound of loud non-stop fireworks and firecrackers in the background. So the night was going smoothly i.e. watching a nice program on TV without understanding a word of what it was all about (and it’s not only because of the loud noise outside) when I started to go see what was on other channels and I realized to my astonishment that I wasn’t watching the right show on TV, I wasn’t watching THE famous New Year Show followed by 800 millions people in China (yes you read right eight hundred million people). That’s a big audience (Super Bowl with more or less 100 million people is not playing in the same league -Official figure varies from 93 to 141 million-). Good thing I realized my mistake on time or I would have looked really foolish tomorrow while talking to my friends!!!! Shame on me!.

If you could only hear the noise too

23.45 and I thought the noise was bad all night long… that was nothing compared to what was about to start: the most amazing fireworks I’ve ever seen. From the corner window of my bedroom I have a 180° view of so many fireworks that my head is spinning from trying to see them all. It seems like every courtyard, every family is competing to send the best sparkles in the Beijing’s sky. It’s full of colors and for once it’s not the pollution but the reds, greens and blues of the fireworks (the pollution and the gun powder smell will come later). Again safety is not an issue, I am pretty sure the safety measures are not taken into consideration…fires are lit within feet of people standing around.
By 00.30 the relative calm is back, I still can hear some sparks being sent off but the big ones are slowly calming down…. 45 minutes of an extraordinary spectacle, like if the all experience was not about a fireworks but about 45 minutes of Finale. I pretty sure it will be on my mind each time I’ll “celebrate” Chinese New Year or even see a firework in the future.

Xin Nian Kuai le - 新年快乐

...Guo Nian Hao - 过年好*

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve… well I should say Chinese New Year’s Eve or 除夕 Chu2Xi4 which mark the beginning of 春节 Chun1Jie2 (Spring Festival - yes it’s already spring here, didn’t you read my previous post!).

Beijing Municipalities have allowed for the second consecutive year fireworks within the 5th ring (after a 12-year ban), which announced a lot of noise. According to legend, in ancient China, the nian2 (年), a man-eating beast from the mountains, could silently infiltrate houses to prey on humans. The people later learned that the nian2 was sensitive to loud noises and the color red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations. Guo4 nian2 过年, which means to celebrate the New Year, literally means the passing of the nian2 beast. (source: wikipedia!!)

So Fireworks will be authorized all day and all night on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 (that’s 48 hours!) then only (!) from 7am to midnight until the 5th of March, day of the Lantern Festival which marks the end of the festivities.

Here are some Superstitions during the New Year period:
The following is a list of beliefs that vary according to dialect groups/individuals.

Good Luck

• Opening windows and/or doors is considered to 'bring in' the good luck of the New Year.
• Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the New Year.
• Candy is eaten to ensure the consumer a "sweet" year.

Bad Luck

• Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck. The word "shoes" is a homophone for the word for "rough" in Cantonese.
• Buying a pair of pants is considered bad luck. The word "pants" is a homophone for the word for "bitter" in Cantonese. (Although some perceive it to be positive as the word 'pants' in Cantonese could be a homophone for the word for "wealth".)
• A hair-cut is considered bad luck. The word "hair" is a homophone for the word for "prosperity". Thus "cutting hair" could be perceived as "cutting away your prosperity" in Cantonese.
• Sweeping the floor is considered bad luck, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year; in the same way that having a bath will wash away the good fortune.
• Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious as well.
• Buying books is bad luck, because it is a homonym to the word "lose".

* Happy New Year…. Couldn’t you have guessed!!.

Qing Ren Jie Kuai Le

...情人结快乐 - Happy Valentine's Day

China will celebrate Valentine’s Day as the rest of the World. Traditionally they have a lovers’ days which is on the 7th day of the 7th month - which for some obscure reason of calendar they celebrated twice in 2006 because it was a leap year so the Chinese not only add a day every 4 years but a whole month (in the traditional calendar) every 2 to 3 years!!! And last year they decided to add a second 7th month (I’m sure it’s not really clear to you but I will investigate furthermore and write a new post when the time comes) but back to Valentine: When in the States over the Holidays I came upon this ad and I wanted to share it with my loyal male readers!!!!

And the mystery of lingerie shopping has been revealed!!!

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Temple of Heaven

...天坛 Tian Tan

What you need might want to know about Temple of Heaven or more specifically the Hall of Prayer of Good Harvest (Qi2Nian2Dian4) which is the crown of the whole complex:

• Has become a symbol of Beijing
• Set on a 267 ha (660-acre) park
• Completed in 1420 where the FengShui masters determined that is was the exact point where Heaven and Earth met
• Burn to cinders in 1889; a faithful reproduction based on Ming architecture methods was erected the following year using fir from Oregon for the support pillars
• The 38m (125ft) high vault was slotted together without using a single nail
• Built for the view of god and seen from above; temples are round with the bases square, a pattern deriving from the ancient Chinese belief that Heaven is round and Earth is square.
• Decorated in blue, yellow and green glazed tiles representing Heaven, Earth and the Mortal World
• The 4 central pillars symbolize the seasons, the 12 in the next ring denote the months, the 12 outer ones represent the day broken into 12 traditional Chinese hours, the 28 columns match the 28 Chinese constellations and the circumference of the uppermost roof is 30 zhang, the number of days in the lunar month
• The emperor would make sacrifices and pray to heaven and his ancestors at the winter solstice
• Off limit to the common people during Ming* and Qing* Dynasties.

Hall of Prayer of Good Harvest

Details

Great Clear Day (for once!!)

*Ming Dynasty: 1368-1644 ; Qing Dynasty: 1644-1911

Sources: Lonely planet, National Geographic, Frommers, Eyewitness Travel Guides and Insider’s Guide

Cloisonné...

...Enamel Factory

After the visit to the Silk Comforter factory, I’ve embarked on another Cultural outing with my friend Kim and went to visit an enamel factory, also called Cloisonné.
Cloisonné enamel, an ancient metalworking technique, developed in the Near East was first spread to the Byzantine Empire and from there along the Silk Road to China during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). It used to be reserved for the Emperor and his court.

Cloisonné is the unique technique of the combination of porcelain and bronze.

Model hammering

• ­ Vessels are constructed with several pieces of copper that are soldered together.
• A pattern is carefully traced by transferring the design to the surface with carbon paper.

Filigree welding

• ­ Cloisons (French for partitions), which will act as color-separators, are made with flat wire coppers that are bent with pliers, following a pattern on paper.
• The cloisons are placed onto the vessel with tweezers and held in place by a soldering paste.
• ­ The pieces are then heated in an oven to permanently affix the cloisons to the base metal by melting the solder. The piece is then allowed to cool.

Enamel filling

• ­ Eye droppers are used to fill the cloisons with enamel paste or frit (glass crushed to a powder).
• ­ The pieces are fired in an electric kiln. The heat causes the enamel to vitrify and settle into the cloisons. Three or four coats of enamel are applied and fired until the cloisons are completely full.

Surface polishing

• ­ The enameled surface is ground smooth on a lather with water and emery stones and re-fired.
• ­ The final polishing is also done on a lathe, but with water and charcoal.

Gilding
­

• The final step is to electroplate the exposed copper with gold and silver.

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Lama Temple and...

...Ditan Park

Or Cultural Outing

Often described as Beijing most spectacular temple complex and one of the largest in China, the Temple of Heaven or Yong1 He2 Gong1 雍和宫was constructed in 1694 and was originally the home of Qing Dynasty Prince Yong before he became the Emperor Yong Zheng in 1723 and moved to the Forbidden City. It was converted into a Tibetan lamasery in 1744 and became home to monks from Mongolia and Tibet. It has 5 main halls each taller and more impressive than the preceding one with the highlight being a 17-meter/55-foot high (with an extra 6m/20ft below ground) statue of Maitreya (the Future Buddha) in his Tibetan form (clothed in yellow satin). It was carved from a single block of white sandalwood given by the Dalai Lama to Emperor Qianlong in 1750 (It took 3 years to ship it from Nepal to Beijing). The building that houses this Buddha was in fact erected after the statue was carved.

Tower of Ten Thousand Happinesses (Wan4Fu2 Ge2)

One of the Hall and a Wheel of Prayer

View from Above and Maitreya Buddha (Scan of Postcards - photographs are forbidden)

Ditan Park (地坛公园 – Di4Tan2Gong1Yuan2) was named after the Temple of Earth (Di Tan 地坛) which was the venue for Imperial sacrifices to the Earth God. The altar is square shaped, symbolizing the earth. Under the Ming dynasty, five main altars were established at the city’s cardinal points:

• ­ Tian Tan 天坛 (Temple of Heaven) in the South,
• ­ Di Tan 地坛 (Temple of Earth) in the North,
• ­ Ri Tan 日坛 (Temple of the Sun) in the East (not far from where we live)
• ­ Yue Tan 月坛 (Temple of the Moon) in the West and,
• ­ Shejie Tan 射杰坛 (Temple of Land and Grain) in the center

The Altar and the Trees are ready for Chinese New Year

Transience Calligraphy

Sources: Lonely planet, National Geographic, Frommers, Eyewitness Travel Guides and Insider’s Guide

Spring Is Finally Here...

...Even If The Temperature Don't Show It

Today is officially the beginning of spring and it has nothing to do with GMT this time. Chinese being Chinese, seasons in China differs from Europe or the USA. In Western countries, we consider that the seasons start at the solstices (longest day of the year marks the beginning of Summer and the shortest day of the year marks the beginning of Winter) and at the equinoxes (the 2 days in the year when day and night have the same length, start of Spring and Autumn). In Asia they are considered to be halfway through a season. So for 2007 the calendar goes:

• 立春 (Lichun - Spring): February 4
• 立下 (Lixia - Summer): May 5
• 立秋 (Liqiu - Autumn): August 7
• 立冬 (Lidong - Winter) : November 7

Some trees are already blooming

These dates are valid for 2007 and slightly vary (+/-1 day) from year to year.

The Place

The Place or 世贸天阶 Shi Mao Tian Jie (literally “World Business Celestial Slice” ?!!) has the world's longest LED screen: 250m long and 30m wide (820ft x 100ft). It cost RMB 250 million (25 million euros/US$32 million) and they hope it will become an icon of Beijing (So now you know it). But what makes The Place so welcoming for the Westerners (apart from a Starbucks and an English language book shop) is the new Zara store.

Today was the opening (youpi), and every westerner (at least the ones I know) is over excited by the News. We can finally shop at a reasonable price (ok not dirt cheap like some other places around here) but for good quality clothes where the sizes are not restricted to mini, micro and midget (I, myself, went from a size 2 in the States to a size XL in China!!!). Ok it takes out all the fun from bargaining but at least you don’t have to resign yourself to buying that polo shirt with an upside down logo after 2 hours of hard negotiation for a 20 kuai (2 euros) discount. The only problem I foresee is that we will all end up with the same wardrobe and pretty soon the local market will probably sell some Zara rip-offs at a fraction of the price!!!

The Place and the LED (Only working at Night!!)

The Store (!)

Update:
This is what it looks like when the screen is on:

Sharks attack

View From Above...

...Beijing from the Sky

Forbidden City in the background

Bird's Nest (Olympic Stadium) and The Cube (Olympic Pool)

New Buildings by Night (CCTV Tower in the middle right)

No we didn’t take an helicopter trip around Beijing, we only headed to Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall where there is a 3D map of the City. Our apartment complex was just short of the 3D but the rest of the city is covered by a big photo taken from the sky..