We did it!

All-

Lightnin here....well we had a very eventful day today! We ate at a Thai place for lunch then got in some shopping for essentials. You know, fabric softener (boy is that necessary!?!") cascade, beer, and STEB we found Four Roses! Then it was off to dinner with 20 friends at an Ethiopian restaurant. Thunder enjoyed it more than I did, but fun none the less. The entertainment was awesome! Then we headed to the night market. Which we found out closes fairly early! But, alas just before they shut down someone found the scorpion booth! YES! Jackpot! There were a few of us brave souls that were willing to give it a shot! And I have to tell you, it really does taste like chicken! I guess more like crunchy chicken but I managed to get two of the buggers! Thunder, Jeff, and the two young boys from Boston, Ethan and Luke were willing also! Afterward we all high-fived and declared "real men eat scorpions!"

Ethiopian cuisine; looks bad, tastes good!

Scorpions

More scorpions

And more scorpions

Ahh, nothing like a homely cooked meal ("Lost in Translation")

Only in Beijing!

A Walk in the Park II

Finally getting back to this post. A couple of weeks ago I went to Yu Yuan Tan Park to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. the only problem was that it rained pretty hard lat the night before and it knocked most of the blooms off the trees. I did manage to get a couple of photos of cherry blossoms and some other varieties of flowering plants.

Cherry Blossoms

Don't know, but they were pretty!

Just me and over a million of my close friends on a quiet walk though the park ;-)

Hey, doesn't this guy know what the specialty is here in Beijing?

This was taken about 4 kg earlier. The current tally is 9kg (19.8lb) wt loss in 8 weeks! Plus I've trimmed down to the summer beard since this was taken.

We'll try to post some of the pic with both me and Lightnin in them this weekend.

Final Preparation for Lightnin's Arrival

Lightnin comes in tomorrow, so I've made a few last minute preparations.

25 Red Roses in the dining room, one for each year of our marriage (oh the pink one was a freebie that I'll place on her pillow before I head to the airport to pick her up).

Some type of Orange Daisy's (I don't know, but hey I thought they looked good), and some Yellow Roses in the living room.

Yellow Roses and some type of a Lilly (Again, I don't know, but they look good).

She'll be surprised to see them when see gets here! You see, I waited until I knew she was on the plane before I posted this! (he,he,he!)

I bet you're thinking I spent a small fortune on these too.

3 vases: 75RMB ($10.71)
25 Red Roses: 35RMB ($5.00)

20 Yellow Roses: 30RMB ($4.28)

10 Lilly's: 15RMB ($2.14)

12 special Daisy's: 10RMB ($1.43)

Seeing the surprise on Lightnin's face: Priceless!

Just Random Thoughts From the Other Side of the Earth

It seems that Spring over here is just as unpredictable as it is in the US. They've been calling for rain everyday this past week and it has been hit and miss.

Side note to Lightnin - It's as if Derrick is doing the forecasting over here too! ;-)

Some days I get up in the morning and it looks like it will let loose at any time, but then by noon it's completely clear and sunny. Last night it started to rain and it looked like it was going to rain all night and then all day today, but I woke up to clear sunny skies again.

Hey I'm not complaining, merely observing!

Our company has made a good move forward in the quest to balance work and home, and so I'm currently scheduled to work from home every Friday! This actually does do a lot of good. It saves cab fare for 1 day a week, let's me get to work at my most productive time, which is when I first get up, and it helps cut down on traffic and emissions from the trip to and from work! Especially if you multiply this by the, hopefully, hundreds of other employees that are taking advantage of this program!

For me personally it helps me to get my workload accomplished more efficiently, and I don't spend 2 hours on the road each way, with my knees up to my chest crammed into the back seat of a taxi. ;-) I also feel good about doing the little bit that I can do to help out the environment.

On my lunch break today (yes, I really do limit myself to the same breaks that I would normally take if I were actually in the office!) I went to the ATM to get some cash for the next couple of weeks and on my way back through the lobby of my apartment complex I picked up my copy of China daily. Perfect, the top headline shows that the Dollar just took a hit against the Yuan (my current currency). Well they say timing is everything and it looks like my timing was off by about a day.

I'm done for the day and so I decided to share my random thinking before I shut down the computer. I've been invited to join some folks to see a live band tonight, but I'm really tossing around the idea of just spending some quite time by myself. I already have plans for tomorrow night, so I think I' going to bow out of this one.

I had a good suggestion by my partner at work, to do a review of the beers that are available locally here. I liked the idea so much that the two of us are going to walk to one of the micro breweries near us and sample their products. Who knows maybe I can visit all of them in the next week or so and get a review put together. As long as I can walk to get there I may be able to stay in shape at the same time!

Well, that's about all the random thoughts I've got going on at the moment. Yea I know I've still got some photos of the park to upload. Who knows maybe I can get that done this evening.

Inspirational or Philosophical Quotes

I still haven't uploaded the Cherry Blossom photos from my trip to the park last weekend, so I thought I'd switch gears this time and share some of my favorite quotes with you. The first three are my very favorite and are on my screen saver because they have special meaning to me, the others I've picked up along the way. I hope you enjoy:

What is now proved was once only imagined - William Blake

Real integrity stays in place, whether the challenge is adversity or prosperity - Charles Swindoll

The more you try to be interested in other people, the more you learn about yourself - Thea Astley


Some others:

The distance doesn't matter; it is only the first step that is difficult - Marquise du Deffand

When we cannot find commitment in ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere - La Rochefoucauld

What would Life be if we had no courage to attempt anything - Vincent van Gogh

Character is the architecture of the being - Louise Nevelson

To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness - Benjamin Franklin

I think that's probably enough to think about for awhile. Please feel free to share some of your favorites.

Oh and please remember my readers are a somewhat family crowd, so no limericks from you Lightnin! ;-)

OK, at Lightnin's Request: My Anniversary Gift!

If you recall my St. Paddy's Day post then you know that this is the first year that we have been apart on that special day, I think ever since we've met! Well, it had a pretty big impact on the both of us, more so I think on Lightnin because she went out and bought one hell of a gift for me!

Of course the only problem I have with this is the fact that I'm in China for the next year and only get to look at the pictures like the rest of you, which is sort of why I've been holding off on making a big deal over it. I'm very happy about the gift, just frustrated that I can't use it right now!

So at Lightnin's request I give you my new 105th anniversary edition of the Harley-Davidson Ultra-Classic Electra Glide:

She's a beauty!

I'm not sure which side is her best side!

Baby got back, nice rack too!

Not bad from the front end either!

I think it was nice of HD to come out with a special edition bike for our 25th year together!!!!

The pipes are custom, and are a bit louder than stock, but I (we) also have the stock pipes. They tried to fire it up for me to hear the other day, but over the cell phones it really just didn't work!

I can't wait to get home to ride her. I think Lightnin and I are going to go shopping for some matching leathers when she comes over here. and then for matching helmets when I get back over there!

I think she did a pretty good job picking out a gift, now my job's cut out for me!

Hmmmm, maybe something like pearls, or silk.

Well I'll be working on that for awhile, technically I have until September when our actual wedding anniversary comes around, but I'm open for suggestions! ;-)

The Second Half of The Wall

As I stated in the previous post, by this time in the journey I was starting to feel fatigue (and my age). We had made sure that we brought plenty of fluids (water, green tea, etc.) and snacks (cheese, bread, nuts, salami, fruit, etc.) to make sure we kept our systems properly fueled for the endeavor. Still with my 50th trip around the sun quickly approaching, I was feeling every bit of my age and this challenging terrain!


Here's more photos:









We decided to take a break at the half way mark and take in the view
























We still have a way to go!























Check out the terraced farm land. If I understood correctly the main crop for this area is actually corn.

One last, long up hill climb to go. You can see the strategy planning session in the foreground.

Looks like it's all down hill from here, but that's just an illusion!

A view from the inside of the last guard tower. There were 30 of these towers along our route. They helped by serving as distance markers, a (usually) level spot to rest, and a place in the shade.

It was a beautiful day: clear, sunny, and about 22-23C (mid 70'sF). Never in my wildest dream did I ever think I would actually be living here in China, Much less standing on The Great Wall.

I would describe The Wall as possibly the most insanely, ingenious, failure in the history of the use of engineering for defense purposes. Many, many, many years ago the Emperor had ordered it to be built to prevent the Mongol's, the likes of Ghinges Khan and Kubla Khan (please pardon my spelling) from invading China. I think the process lasted through several Emperor's lifetimes. Their efforts of course failed miserably because building the wall was one thing, but defending it was quite another. As we experienced ourselves, it would have taken too long for any of the troops stationed at one section of the wall to reach another if under attack and in need of reinforcements. Yet, what a legacy they left behind!

More Pictures From The Wall

Lunch Time, and what a spot to stop and eat. We stopped after about an hour on the wall.





This was the group of friends that I tagged along with. A truly international team: 1 American, 2 Dutch, 2 French, and 1 Irish!









A couple of views of what lies ahead!

















I think that in these photos Mongolia is now on the left side and China to the right.

















There was usually a choice to either go down and then back up steps, or perform the balancing act and take the short cut.



















A view from one of the guard stations

A bit of an up hill climb ahead

Stairway to Heaven???

Half way and I'm still alive!

The smile is from a combination of the statement above, low oxygen from the altitude, and euphoria from the endorphin rush from the pain my body was experiencing from the self induced punishment.

The second half still to come!

Pictures From The Wall

Mae Guoren on the wall! Is that a happy smile of anticipation or the foolish grin from ingnorance of lay ahead?

A view from the wall. I think in this shot that Mongolia is to the right and Chins is to the left.

The view from an ancient archer's post.

A view of one of the inclines, but by far not the steepest!

What a view from here!

I'll post more photos from the jouney later because I'm still experienceing some issues uploading photos. At this point we hadn't even stopped for lunch yet, and not near the half way point!

Mae Guoren on the Great Wall at Simatai

Wo shi Mae Guoren (Pinyin for: I am American, pronounced: whoa-sha-may-gwor-in), and I was on "The Wall" at Simatai, China yesterday! It was more awesome than words can describe or pictures can show, but I'll try.

However I'm having severe difficulty uploading photos to Blogger right now, so I'm sorry to keep you in suspense. As soon as I can get them through I'll continue the post and share the photos.

I will at least let you know that the section of the wall that we visited was 2-1/2hrs taxi ride away, and it took us 5 hrs to walk the wall. The walk was scenic, historic, and very physically challenging. I would compare it to working out on a "Stair Master" for 4 hrs straight. OK I admit I've never actually done that, but this has got to be as close to that as you can get!

My legs were burning by about the half way point (I have a picture that I'll share when I can) and I felt like I wasn't going to be able to make it, but the group of new (very young!) friends I was with were patient and encouraging and helped to divert my attention with good conversation, which helped keep me motivated and I did walk the entire route.

I apologize for this unplanned teaser and will keep trying to get the pictures uploaded! It looks like there's extremely heavy traffic on the internet tonight for some reason and it's causing alot of hickups in my connection!

Yes it's a Sunset Post, Again!

I'm betting some, OK probably most, of you are getting tired of my photos of the sunset. Well that's just too bad because I just can't stop myself from watching the fiery orb sink into the west any time I get the chance.

I'm not sure why I have this sudden fascination with it, other than the obvious beauty. It could possibly be that it's sort of a validation that I made it through another day. Or maybe it's because I'm pondering the fact that as I see it setting you folks in the US Eastern time zone are seeing it rising.

It could even be that it provides me with a source of meditation, a time for self reflection when I go deep inside myself and the rest of the world just stands still.

Possibly it's all of the above; or then again it could simply be because of the pretty colors!!! ;-)

Check these out;

Sort of a standard scene for me of a clear evening

I think this was the best view so far showing the mountians in the distance

Tomorrow I go to "The Wall"! Can you tell I'm excited?

Qing Ming (and some random thoughts)

Tomorrow (Friday April 4th) is Qing Ming or "Tomb Sweeping Day", and we get a day off for it!

To take some info from our Cultural Training:
Qing Ming literally means "Clear Brightness" and is a day to celebrate the rebirth of nature. It also marks the beginning of planting season and other outdoor activities.

Tomb Sweeping Day as celebrated today: The Chinese believed that the spirits of the dead looked after the family. Sacrifices of food, spirit, and money would keep them happy and the family would prosper through good harvests and more children.

However there is one major flaw with this in modern day China: currently married couples are limited to one child per family, unless of course they are blessed with twins or triplets.

Another interesting statistic is that women way out number the men in the population. I don't have an exact figure, but it's enough of a difference that it's even obvious to us non-"bean counter" types! Both of these little tidbits of information may help to explain the large numbers of Asian female children that are up for adoption each year.

But enough about that, I have a holiday tomorrow and I'm taking advantage of it. Some of my new friends have invited me to come along with them on a 5hr walk along the Great Wall! There are actually three different sections of "The Wall" that are fairly easy to access from our apartments, this one obviously being the largest and best preserved of those.

This will be my first visit to "The Wall", and man am I excited! I'll take the camera with me and try to get some good photos to post either Friday night or Saturday morning, Beijing time of course!

Tonight (Thursday) however I'll be on a phone conference to my home office. Being 12 hours away our night is their morning, and visa verse, but it always seems to be us here on this side of the world that have to do the night time thing. Man this work thing really gets in the way of fun sometimes, oh that's right I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the job!

OK I guess work wins out this time, but my day is coming soon enough!

It's Raining, and I'm Excited!

I'm excited because this is only the second time that it has rained since I've been here. The rain serves several purposes of course: 1) Water the plants, which are trying bloom in the spring; 2) Clean the dust off of everything; 3) Clear some of the particulate matter out of the air; and last but by far not least 4) Add humidity to the air!!!!!!

I think I mentioned before that we've been averaging about 10% humidity here, which is great if you're trying to preserve a mummy, but for living tissue it's not exactly ideal. The last time it rained we got all the way up to 40% humidity, which is about normal for a Cincinnati winter, but this is spring! I swear though that you could actually hear my skin and sinus' saying "Aaaaahhhhh!".

This time it's supposed to rain both today and tomorrow so who knows maybe we'll break a record and hit a whopping 50-60% humidity, and with temperatures around 50-60F, now that would be spring!!!

Curry Anyone?

I forgot that I did snap this one of my dinner prep before my guests arrived. I fixed a beef curry because I wasn't able to locate any lamb over the weekend. It was sort of a combination of Indian and Thai flavors, and came out very well!

I also cooked some Teryaki spare ribs that came out wonderful, even though this was the first time I attempted to use the oven here.

I had planned to get some of the finished product, and of my guests, but as I said in the last post we got to talking and forgot about the camera. Well there's always next time, and judging by the comments on the meal I'm sure they'll be back for more!

A Sunny Day in the Part

The weather was so nice yesterday that I decided to go back to Chao Yang park and see how spring was progressing. It looks like it's coming along nicely! I spent about 2-3 hours wandering around the park, I sort of lost track of time so I don't know for sure. So I thought I'd share a few of the sites along my walk.










Look, up in the sky, it's a Bird, it's a Plane, no it's a Carp?
I took this one for you Lightnin! there was a pretty constant breeze so a lot of folks were out flying kites, this was the only shot that turned out decent though.

OK we have fish swimming in the air and Flying Saucers in the water. I'm thinking: "Only in Beijing.


















There's a nice walk along a canal that connects the lakes. They have boats for rent so that you can tour the park via water. Here's a couple bridges that I walked over.

Cherry Blossoms!
































Not sure what these are, but they were really large flowers; about the size of a Magnolia.




























Just another view of one of the lakes.















It was a gorgeous day and it felt good to get out ans stretch my legs and get some sun!
That night I fixed dinner for a couple of my new friends. We got so busy talking that we forgot to snap any photos though. :-(
I'm going to go to the Great Wall for the first time with them this Friday though, so I'll be sure to get some photos then!

Paradise Found!

I found my cheeseburger!

Well actually I took Jacki's advice and made it myself! Jacki is a fellow blogger and a pretty good recipe wrangler.

I figured that the German Butcher would have either hachefleisch (hamburger; I know I spelled that wrong!) or Steak Tartar (Basically fillet Mignon ground up very fine), and I was right they had both! I decided to go with the tartar. I know that sounds crazy, but I am seriously trying to lose some weight and get in better shape while I'm over here so I opted for the low fat choice. So knowing that it wouldn't have any fat in it I did add a touch of olive oil to it as I patted it out.

Just look at that lovely sight, complete with homemade fries (fried in olive/sunflower seed oil)and even some pork & beans (OK that was the unhealthy part)!

I bought a pound of the meat (well 500g to be exact), so I made 4 patties. I think I'm gonna' freeze the other 3 until this craving hits me again!

A City of Contrast!

I know that it sounds very cliche, but Beijing is really a city of contrast. There is a struggle between the desire to enter capitalism, and yet this is still very much a Communist country. This post is actually more about the contrast in scenery.




The air was very clear in the city the past few days so I was amazed by the view from my balcony when I got home yesterday evening. So I grabbed the camera and snapped off a few shots to share:









If you look behind the buildings you can see the mountains in the distance.

Here I tried to zoom in a bit, steadying the camera on the balcony railing







Keep in mind that my balcony faces west so those mountains are the separation between China and Mongolia, and sitting on top of them is the Great Wall. It's not visible in these photos, but one day it might be clear enough to see it. I've been told that one portion of the wall is only about an hour from here, but I'm saving that trip until Lightnin comes out to visit so we can both see it for the first time!

Like I said contrasts, this time in the scenery!

Two Milestones in 1 Week!

I thought I'd give mention to two major milestones in my life this week:

The first is that today (March 25th) marks my 17th year with the same company, although obviously not in the same location. This is a milestone because for a while there I know that both Lightnin and my Parents would hold their breath when I reached 5 years with a company because that seemed to be about my limit and then I'd move on to the next.

The second is that tomorrow (March 26th) my writings about China will be published in my local newspaper. The editor had approached me with the idea of writing a column for the paper when he heard that I was going to be taking this adventure. I sent him a few of my writings and he liked them! This could be the start of something, but we'll just have to see.

Mom, Dad, and Lightnin you can all breath easy I'm not quiting my "day job" yet!

Cheeseburger in Paradise?

Notice the question mark in the title, well of course there's a story behind that!

A couple of weeks ago Lightnin had made the statement that she was going to go out and get a cheeseburger, and I said that sounded pretty good and then tried to block that thought from my mind for a couple of reasons: 1) There's a huge variety of almost any food types, backgrounds, etc. here to choose from, and 2) I really don't know where to go to get one here, other than McD's (yes they have them here, although surprisingly KFC is much more represented!).

However, this past Saturday morning I awoke with one thing on my mind: CHEESEBURGER! I guess I really need to go back to Friday night in order to explain this craving. You see most of the workforce here is made up of folks in the same age range as our children, and just like our children have done in the past, the challenge was laid out to this "Old Guy" that I should come pub crawling with the "Young Guy's" after we went out for dinner. So not being of a competitive nature I naturally turned them down.

Oh come on, you know me better than that, of course I went out on the town with them! ;-)

We started off at with dinner at a Hunan style restaurant (I guess I should take another side trip here to explain some more, but I promise I'll get back to the cheeseburger. You see Beijing is the capital city of Mainland China, so the representatives from each province live and work here. Well it seems they are a lot like us in that they like to eat foods that they grew up with, so there are different foods available in the different areas of town for instance Hunan, Sechuan, etc. are all totally separate provinces, styles of cooking, and different restaurants!). Anyway the food was great,and it helped to give a layer of protection for what was to lie ahead for the evening. Now back to the 1st diversion from the Cheeseburger!

From dinner we proceeded to hit several of the hottest, most popular night spots in the city. We started at a place that was giving your first two beers (Tsing Tao) for free and any additional beers (Tsing Tao) for 1/2 off or 5RMB, about 70 cents USD. So we stayed there and listened to music and talked for a couple of hours and moved onto the next hot spot. Well this went on until about 2:30am, at which point I decided It was about time to head back home and get a little rest. Feeling satisfied that I had proved that the "Old Guy"could still hang!

So after a hard night out on the town I slept in until about 10am the next morning (something that I very rarely do), time enough to get cleaned up and then head out for lunch (having missed breakfast, again something that I very rarely do), And that's when the cheeseburger craving hit me!

So as I lay there I start thinking about my plan of attack and just where was I going to get a cheeseburger? I'm not talking about one of those pre-stamped burgers from the clown shop either, I'm talking a real honest to goodness patted out thick juicy chuck of meat with melted cheese on a bun! Aha, I'm walking distance from the Hard Rock Cafe and I'll bet they've got a cheeseburger on the menu.

I get cleaned up and head out all the while imagining how good that burger's gonna' taste, ooh and fries too, with ketchup! By the time I see the place my mouth is actually starting to water. I head up the steps, past the armed guards (another post), and open the door to find "What the...closed for renovations!?" Yep they were redoing the inside of the place o prepare for the upcoming crowds brought in by the Olympics.

Well, do I get into a taxi and head for Hooter's (which is a bit of false advertising here I've been told!) to see if I can get one there? No, I spend enough time in a taxi as it is I need to walk. So I head back towards the apartment and decide to stop and get the next best thing to a cheeseburger, good old German style Brats at the Paulaner Brewhaus. It wasn't the same, but a couple of Dunkle's, Brats with Sauerkraut later and I'm somewhat satisfied.

I'm not sure if my new friends are keeping the location of these newly proclaimed delicacies a secret from me, or if they even exist here, but I'm on a quest now to locate and devour a real cheeseburger! I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Views From the Taxi

Since I spend about 2 hours of my life each day riding in the back of a taxi, I thought it might be a good idea to start taking my camera with me. Yesterday (Easter Sunday) was a sunny and clear day, and today looks to be just a clear and sunny with high winds though.

So I was able to snap a few photos of some of the things that I see from the back of the cab:

These first two were of a couple of Temples that we passed on the way to the Champagne Brunch yesterday. I'm not sure what they are temples for, but I just thought that they helped to show some more examples of the contrast between modern and historic that is so prevalent in this city.

The next 2 photos I was able to snap on my way into work this morning:

This is the Olympic Stadium. Depending on traffic, and which route the cab driver decides to take, I go past this structure either on my way to or from work.

This is just another example of the competitive architectural game that is being played out all over the city. I'm not sure exactly what the shape would be called, or what the name of the building is, but you have to admit it is pretty interesting.

I never know what I'll see on the way home, but I'll have my camera with me and I'll try to capture it on film (well I guess technically it's not film, but is a stored electrical charge that can be converted into a digitally formatted image that can then be uploaded and viewed!).

Oh and Lightnin to your earlier question: I finally caught a glimpse of the gas prices here yesterday too. It looks like they are around 5.50 RMB per liter, which would convert to about $3.14 USD/gallon.