Clare and the Hotpot

My dear friend Clare is staying with us at the moment. She and I went off to have hotpot the evening she arrived, despite the old chopstick technique being wobbly and her being convinced that she was unteachable. Full of optimism that my favourite hotpot place, "Little Sheep" would provide her with a fork in her hour of need, we ordered a fine feast, but were told that there were not any knives and forks. Clare is living proof now that necessity is the best teacher and here's proof of her newly acquired chopstick technique!



Hotpot is one of the joys of Beijing. There are lots of regional variations, but basically you order a big pot of broth and it is kept bubbling at your table either with a little charcoal burner, or in the case of this particular restaurant, through a magnetic induction element at the table. You then order the bits that you want to cook in it, for instance a plate of mixed vegetables. The one pictured has lotus root, black fungus, three different types of mushroom, lettuce, tofu, yam, pumpkin, greens and that well-known vegetable, crabsticks. You order a plate or two of meat, which is rolls of shaved meat. You then just put in whatever you want to eat and it cooks almost instantly. If the broth is boiling hard it's wise to hang on to your little morsel as it can be hard to find it again.

Actually Clare did much better than Ian and I did when we went a few days earlier. We splashed and dropped things so badly that the restaurant staff took pity on us. With great ceremony they put aprons on us and we had to eat the remainder of our meal wearing the Aprons of Shame.

Daxing Spring Festivities

Yesterday Ian and I went with some friends on a day tour through the China Culture Center. We drove for an hour to a little village in the Daxing area to the south of Beijing; a place, we were told, distinguished only by its ordinariness.

The day was special for several reasons. The village people open their homes and village once a year to 200-odd curious westerners. They are poor, weathered, communal, dignified, friendly, real, humorous and hospitable. The deal is great - they get paid for putting on food, going about their normal celebrations and to organise the day, and in return get some income, get paid to make loads of spring festival food for the visitors and their own families, meet big-nosed westerners and get to see professional entertainment themselves in the afternoon. As a brief overview, we were greeted mid morning when we arrived by thunderous firecrackers - of course - then two local villages doing their traditional spring festival dances - local people in their own little main road, went to eat lunch with a local family, and then were treated to entertainment in a big courtyard in the afternoon - a magician, a puppet show and general entertainment which felt like the kind of thing that could have gone from place to place in China in the last thousand years.

Like Beijing street vendors sell toffee fruit on sticks; haw fruit, strawberries, grapes, water chestnuts and other things I couldn't identify.

We had lunch with Mr Liu and his family. He makes paper funeral models for a living and makes a maximum of RMB1200 a month (about NZ$300). The models take a week to make and look like the biggest pinatas you have ever seen. They are sold to be burned at someone's funeral for good luck in their next life. The model pictured is in his family courtyard and will be used for an old woman who had died the morning we visited the village. Traditionally an additional model is made for women who have died - a cow. It is believed that through various celestial ways, a funeral cow will mean that a woman works less hard in her next life.

We ate dumplings for lunch in Mr Liu's home. They made us the traditional Spring Festival dumplings, like delicious oversized ravioli, different kinds filled either with herbs and garlic, minced pork, or cabbage ginger and peanuts. Here is Mrs Liu, cooking the dumplings.

Randomly, the other special thing that happened was that we met a couple during the day from New York, who we hooked up with that evening before they flew out today to Holland and then London. He's a marketing executive, she's an executive coach. We will be friends, and will see them when they are back in town next.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Today was the first day of Chinese year 4707. It was welcomed in last night with a thunderous explosion of fireworks which broke out over Beijing and continued through the night, lit by people welcoming in the year of the Ox. As I write this a night later, the night outside is a continuous barrage of sound and light. I now really know the meaning of the word "boom".



Chinese New Year is calculated by the lunar calendar, one of the calendars used by the Chinese. Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Chinese years are named in a twelve year cycle after animals, and each year is believed to have certain characteristics, as are the people born in those years. People born in the Year of the Ox are said to be patient, speak little, inspire confidence in others, are mentally and physically alert, generally easy-going, can be stubborn and hate to fail or be opposed. I wonder if there is an inbuilt need for horoscopes throughout humanity? This coming year of the Ox has been described as prosperity through fortitude and perseverance - very apt at the moment.

It is a supremely happy time; the equivalent of our Christmas. Shopping malls are decorated to within an inch of their lives with twinkly lights, red money trees and lanterns.

Chinese workers usually get a week of holiday over Chinese New Year to spend time at home with their families and visiting relatives. It is a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving and feasting. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors, uniting living family members with those who have passed away.

I went for an after-dinner walk this evening, along with the people with their little dogs. It's pleasant, though cold, and the river next to us is still mostly frozen. Walking around at the moment can cause some heart-stopping moments as someone lets off a loud firework in close proximity. Doorways are decorated with traditional and not-so-traditional paper cutouts of oxen, scrolls with poetry on each side and red chinese lanterns. People wish you "Xin Nian Kuai Le" - "Happy New Year".

Here's the doorway into what I think might be a shop in the little ordinary hutong community next to our apartments.

Here's the entrance of our very own Richmond Park Apartments:

Not to be outdone, I've decorated our own doorway with our very own New Year decorations. Happy new year everyone!

Meanwhile Knitters Turn to Graffiti

I've followed this quirky pastime for a couple of years now. Check out this article if you want to know more about yarnbombing, created by a renowned and nimble fingered group of rebels who have been covering public property with guerilla knitting. See this link for a cute clip on the bus wearing a woolly covering. It's spreading around the globe. Really.

The Rubik's Cube Record

I've promised Robbie that I will publish his latest exploit on the blog - a world record perhaps.

To paraphrase his Dad Geoff's words, when he emailed some photos; here are some shots of Robbie, who completed what we believe is a world first. At the 2670-metre Dome Shelter, near the 2797m (9177ft) summit of Mt Ruapehu, after his first ascent and aged 11, he solved his Rubik's Cube puzzle. Dome Shelter is the highest point that recreational climbers of the mountain are advised to reach.

It affords a great view of the often active crater lake, visible in the background in some of the pictures. We are confident that no one has completed their Rubik's Cube puzzle atop Ruapehu, but admit it might be difficult to prove this to the Guinness Book of World Records. Robbie has learned to complete the 3X3 cube puzzle in the past few days and has spent hours honing his skill and trying to lower his best time, which stands just below four minutes at present.

Unfortunately, the event took its toll and he couldn't do the cube after for a couple of days. The four hours in the snow was enough to give him a painful dose of snow blindness that required a 1am visit to our hospital's accident and emergency department that night. The next day he was a patched member of the I've-conquered-Ruapehu gang with two round, gauze pads stuck over his eyes and was been advised to keep himself in the dark for the day. Geoff was his seeing eye dog. The day after he was pretty much back to normal. No permanent damage, and the Rubik's Cube record is under siege again.

Two More Melamine-related Deaths

BBC reported today that two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal. We have been watching the trial in northern China on CCTV9, the government English-speaking channel. Dead men walking, you could see it at the trial, and the sentence is no surprise. The two men ran a melamine manufacturing business, making hundreds of tons of the stuff, which they sold to Sanlu and other companies, who then added it to raw milk to boost the protein content when tested. As well as milk and baby milk formula contamination, eggs and meat were found to be contaminated with melamine after it was also added to animal feedstock. Six babies died and 300,000 more became ill in this, China's second milk contamination scandal.

BBC also reports that the former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment. They are among 21 sentences being handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based. I've not seen Fonterra's name mentioned in any of the reporting of the scandal since we've been here, although of course they owned 42% of the now bankrupt company. Fonterra have been subsequently criticised by Amnesty International who have raised questions about their role in the whole affair.

BBC again: Chinese dairy companies involved apologised in a New Year text message sent to millions of mobile phone subscribers. "We are deeply sorry for the harm caused to the children and the society," the text message said. "We sincerely apologise for that and we beg your forgiveness." It said a compensation fund had been established for the victims, including the families of thousands of babies still suffering from urinary problems such as kidney stones.

As a captive consumer of Chinese products it has left me feeling nervously careful of milk products here. As expiry dates of fresh milk on the supermarket shelf seem always to be past, I buy long-life milk. However the health protection authorities seem to be vigilantly watching the sector. I note with approval recently seeing a total clearing of fresh milk products from a supermarket's refrigerated section. Of course I don't know whether this vigilance is enough to make the products always safe, so I tend to just avoid milk products, although "Wonder Milk" looks promising.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the scandal, some other interesting advertising appears from time to time. Check out this ad for a New Year show.

And this packaging on my favourite eggs. Brand: EM Effective Microorganisms - yum - showing that they don't give their chooks additives or antibiotics:

The Road to School

I go to Chinese language lessons twice a week. I learn pu tong hua, which is the standardised, simplified Mandarin which is official Chinese and the language that everyone in China should understand. It's rather like the Queen's English. I started going every day, but two hours of private lessons generate 4-6 hours homework, so now I go twice a week which is much more manageable.

Chinese words can be written in our alphabet (pinyin writing). The trick is, although many words look exactly the same to our eye, the word can be pronounced with five tones. For example the word "ma" can mean mother, horse, hemp, scold or it can be the word you say at the end of a sentence to turn it into a question, all depending on the tone. Tones can be high, high rising, low falling-rising, high falling or a neutral tone. The effect is a sing-song way of talking, more in the high registers than I am used to. It has taken me quite a while to first actually hear the difference between the different tones, and second to get my voice under enough control to make myself understood, at least sometimes. If you don't say the correct tone for a word, you will be genuinely incomprehensible. As I have found it doesn't matter if I think I am saying exactly the right word; if I use a low falling-rising tone instead of a high tone it Just Won't Work. I am also learning to read and write Chinese which, as the characters are stylised pictographs and need to be rote memorised, adds another layer of complexity to the whole deal. All that said learning Chinese is challenging but hugely enjoyable and, as with learning any language, gives a great insight into the culture of the country.

I'll post a picture another day of my teacher, Dong Xu, also known variously as Liu Liu or Winnie. The polite way of addressing her is Laoshi (Teacher) Winnie. She's a lively 24 year old who looks ten years younger, is very enterprising and is a talented, encouraging and patient teacher.

I walk to class along a street that is very ordinary to Beijingers, but very interesting to me. The walk takes about 20 minutes. When I leave for class it is about 9.30. This appears to be the time when the old people in the neighbourhood take their grandchildren and their dogs for a walk. The size of dogs is government-regulated within Beijing to (my interpretation) no bigger than a breadbox. Small as they are, both children and dogs are dressed warmly and extremely quirkily. Children wear bright padded clothes. Their hats often have ears and cartoon faces on them, coats often have a cute animal tail.
Dogs likewise get along dressed in smart little coats, jumpers, dresses, and once - marvellously - I even spotted a wee canine superman. Occasionally I see dogs with shoes. Walking along I need to be very conscious of where I put my feet. Both children and dogs relieve themselves unselfconsciously wherever they are. Strangely when I walk home from class the pavements are relatively clean again.

At the end of the walk back home to the apartment there is a busy intersection at the corner of Jiangtai Xilu and Fangyuan Nanli. About a week ago a stall sprouted up on the corner of this intersection, which operates during the morning. The stall sells fireworks for the upcoming Chinese New Year. The fireworks on sale here to the general public put our fireworks in New Zealand to shame. I guess this is why they are only allowed to be sold at this time of year.

My Chinese language isn't good enough to read the names on the boxes which are no doubt wonderfully poetic and descriptive. If I could give names based on the size of the boxes and the lurid pictures, they would be "Big Boy Boomeroo", "Frighten Your Grandmother", "Deafen all Past Generations", "Dazzle Future Generations with Awe and Splendour", and "Keep Whole City Blocks Awake Far into the Night".

Ian is away for the week on business in the Sudan, and I go to sleep listening to the sound of gigantic explosions and flashes of light from the people who can't resist setting off a few fireworks in advance of the prescribed time during new year next week.

And a Happy New Year.

A very happy, safe and successful New Year to you. We hope it is everything you wish for, and the best and most positive year possible for you and for those you love.

We celebrated New Year with some friends, Casey and Selina. I managed to survive an attack from a shark part-way through the evening - I really don't know where Ian found the hat.

Harry Christmas!

Christmas is a wonderful time in Beijing. Despite being a secular country, Beijing seems to embrace all the fun aspects of Christmas. There are twinkly Christmas trees on every corner, improbable-looking Santas on all the shop windows and Christmas greetings everywhere. HARRY CHRISTMAS! is my personal favourite.
Determined to put a bit of the Christmas spirit into our apartment we went to the market in Ladies Street to buy a tree. It's fibreoptic and changes colours at a rapid rate, which I find entrancing. Here I am with our tree in a taxi, on the way home.
We had some of our new friends around for dinner that night and they helped us put the tree up, a new experience for them.
Here it is looking beautiful.
And here's my very own Santa!

It seems that the pre-Christmas twinkly decorations are as far as it goes in China. December 25 is a working day, just like any other here. After some excited present opening, Ian went off to work and I went off to my Chinese language class! We talked to family in the afternoon when he got home, and then walked to Traders Hotel, about ten minutes beside a frozen river from our apartment. We had Christmas dinner, turkey, cranberry sauce, Christmas pud, gingerbread, the lot.