Move from Zhuhai to Beijing

  Tuesday 2-11-10 I parted ways with Steven from Belgium and took a casino bus to the Macau-Zhuhai border.  Here I waited in line for way too long and called Samuel to meet back at his place where all of my things were.  We met up, had a bite to eat and I slept and slept…   Wednesday 2-12-10 I got some things together and did some Beijing research before running into this lady with a ton of stuff in the elevator.  She was just moving into the building so I helped her get all her things in.  We chatted afterwards and she played a song for me.  She said she had just opened up a music bar in Zhuhai.  An older lady came in and started talking with us.  She kept telling me I need to go to Nanjing to study Chinese and get a job and everything. She said her husband was doing something for a TV station there and could get me a job.  She really just wanted to find a foreign husband for her daughter though. haha.    
That night I went out with Macky, Sammy, Owen and his wife and Daughter from Taiwan…  More hot pot.
  We went to a store afterwards to pick up a DVD player to watch a movie at Sam’s.  The silver speakers here are to help people show how much money they have- $200,000 US for a pair of 6 speaker towers.



2-13-10 I leave for Beijing early tomorrow morning.  I still have had no luck selling my moped so I rode out to this area with second hand stores to try and sell it.  No luck.  The old lady with the daughter in Nanjing from yesterday said she would ship it to me along with some other stuff… I’m skeptical, but it’s worth a shot.

After trying to sell my bike I found a dumpling shop that was open- almost everything was closed for new years.  The ladies here were really sweet and we had a mutual understanding about missing our families on New Years.  They put extra love in to my dumplings and tried to not accept my money.


That night I went out with Samuel to watch the New Years fireworks on lover’s road.  They are really cool in China… but not quite the same as making your own.  

 

Samuel and I

We walked around and heard these huge fireworks going off in the middle of the road.

Turns out it was this guy who spent $5000 US filling his van with these giant display fireworks.  They were super loud and exploded beautifully just a couple hundred feet above us.  

2-14-10 I woke up way too early this morning and flew to Beijing.  I landed around 12:00.  It’s just as cold as I expected here, but luckily I had a huge bag to haul around to keep my body temperature up.  I called up Justin and Scott to tell them I landed then took a bus and subway closer to their place.  Once I got out of the subway, both of my phones stopped working.  This is me in front of the nearby subway station. The first frozen body of water I’ve seen in years.

I walked around a bit asking people where this place was and ran into Justin and Scott’s classmate who pointed it out for me.  Finally I got there and said hello to my old friends. We went out and had lunch then stopped by the fireworks stand to get some pow.
  That night we went out to light off our pow in the apartment courtyard.  Chinese people really love their fireworks on New Years.  The place sounded like a war zone with constant shells exploding in the air.  I was at home. This is one of the amazing display fireworks.

  We packed up the pow pows and Justin made some rice and tofu for us.

  This is Justin’s cat, Kao Chuar- or Barbequed Skewer (because of his fate when Justin leaves China)

 
2-15-10   We woke up this morning grabbed our nice cameras and went out for some scenery. Here’s Justin with some leftover Pow from last night.

    The little stream on the way to the subway station.  The station is about 20 minutes walk or 5 minutes skateboard from the apartment.

  We met up with our old friend Shienan from UCI who was traveling some of China with her boyfriend.

  Beijing’s subway is super convenient.  It makes me with Sacramento or LA had developed systems before hitting critical mass.  It’s one of few things in China I’ve seen that really works.  You can traverse the whole city for $.30 US.  Through the window here you can see some LED advertisement on the walls of the tunnel.  There are parts with miles of continuous LED grids timed with the speed of the bus to play continuous commercials for the passengers.

  We got off at the new Summer Palace.  One of the old Empresses of China had decided to take manpower away from the army and great wall and build a new palace that she could go relax at in Summer.  The place is really beautiful.  There were lots of people here to watch the traditional shows put on for New Years.



  Ice Chairing?





\   Some 10 year old acrobats making me regret ever leaving gymnastics as a kid.



  The palace courtyard.

  There’s no shortage of people selling useless junk in China.



  We ran into a guard who said we couldn’t go up the stairs to get into the palace and the whole other side of the park.  There was a nice rock face on the other side though so I put my new found climbing skills to use and made it in to the palace!  Here are Scott and Shienan and her BF below.


This is North West Beijing about 5 miles from the city center.  Beijing is a huge flat city.  
  The gang found another way in and met me up here.









  The heads had been chipped off the little sculptures on this building. Justin says it happened during the Chinese revolution.





  These fruit skewer things are insanely popular in Beijing.  Just some old fruit on a skewer dipped in a melted sugar syrup.  I think people buy them just to buy them because I always see them on the ground with only one bite or so missing.




This is some famous marble boat of many Chinese literature pieces.

  The lake was frozen but in desperate need of a Zamboni.


The tower here is in many pictures of Beijing, even on the cover of my Chinese textbook.


  There’s a little island in the middle of the pond but I’m not sure what’s on it.





  This is a famous stone bridge of the Summer Palace.

  Comrade Rast

  We hopped in Taxis and went out to Tian’An Men Square

  Shienan and her boyfriend got some dashing hats.

  This is an old gate to the city.  There used to be a wall surrounding the whole city but as Beijing grew they knocked more and more down just leaving parts like these erect.


This is outside of the building where they keep Comrade Mao’s body.  It was closed for New Years though
  Through security and into the square where so much history has taken place. 

 
 

  North of the square is the forbidden city, a humongous ancient city surrounded by a moat.  It too was closed for New Years though.  Notice the cameras on the light pole on the left. Hello Big Brother.

  There are lots of places with security guards standing all day, like the ones guarding this tunnel to cross the street.

  We came back to our neighborhood and had some Kao Chuar (lamb kebabs) for dinner.  They’re all made by the Muslims that come from far West China and taste super good with secret Muslim spices.

  We met up with Shienan and her extended family for some real dinner.  There was way too much food, but we managed : )  These are shrimp skewers baked in salt.



Well that’s all for now I have to get back to studying for midterms now.  More to come from Beijing after I finish my tests!