Traffic, Sunset, and the Best Fish in Beijing!

Well with the end of the years biggest festival(s) traffic in the city is back to normal, OK normal for Beijing that is. Here's a couple of shots from the balcony of weekend traffic:



Yes of course I had to share another couple of shots of the sunset. the shots are not the best but they are significant because as you can see the sun is just now becoming visible from the balcony which is the mark of the returning of spring!


One of our friends has returned to Beijing from her home town and we had dinner with her last night at my favorite grilled fish restaurant. We had good food, good conversation and some fun comparing the size of my hands to hers!




The weather turned winter cold again yesterday, but I know that spring is just around the corner now. I just hope it warms up a bit more and I can get some good shots of pre-spring Beijing before I have to leave.


As of today it's 23days and a wake-up!

1001 Nights

While our visitors were here we had a few of our Beijing friends meet us for dinner at a place called 1001 Arabian Nights. Yes it's named after the famous book that contained stories such as Sinbad, Alibaba, etc. The original tale (and I hope I get this rightt)is of an Arabian Sheik who would request of his wife's that they entertain him, but once he became bored with their entertainment he would execute them. So this one wife had a brilliant idea that she would tell these fantastic tales which really had no ending and sort of intertwined with each other, and each night she would start again where she left off the previous night. She was able to continue the tales for a total of 1001 nights.

All I know is that the food and entertainment at the restaurant were excellent!

See for yourself:




Just another night in "The Jing"!

Sun Rising as the Moon Sets

I guess you know by now that I have been infatuated with the sunrises and sunsets since I came over here, but some of them are just so breathtaking that you have to stop what you're doing, take a look, and hopefully remember to grab the camera and take a photo.

The shot above was taken at about 6:30AM this morning as I stepped out onto the balcony to do a quick temperature check to determine the necessary outer wear for today. You can see the reflection of light from the rising sun against the new Westin hotel, in the distance, while the moon is still clearly visible.

This week we have warmed up into the 60's during the day and hopefully we're on our way to an early spring. It's at least encouraging to be able to see the sun both on the way to work and on the way home again! That is unless it's a "Cloudy" day! ;-)

One More Trip to The Wall

Just getting back into the routine and thought I'd post a few more pictures from the visit with our friends. While they were here we managed to get to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. This is my 4th trip to the wall, the other three were all at Simatai, but this was my first time to Mutianyu.



From there we headed to the Jade Market and then on to the Ming Tombs.

This was one of the main buildings on the grounds of the Ming Tombs. I tried to use our friends to show the scale of the enormous building. The columns and beams are made out of trees that were brought from the forests in Sichuan province which is a couple of hours plane ride from here. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to have moved them that far by floating them upstream to get them to this area!

I'm glad I was able to share the experience with good friends!


Two updates: 1) As of today I now have 29days and a wake-up before returning home and 2) I finally hit my weight loss goal and am now down to 85kg for a grand total loss of (drum roll please!) 20kg!

More Photos of Westsiders in the Jing

We are still having a great time with the crew from Cincy! They are out with Thunder today being tourist....Great Wall, Jade market and the Summer Palace. Will have more photos tomorrow.


Father Daughter dance


The Tim of Tim's Texas Roadhouse


Happy smiles


Jivuel, Taco and Tatiana


Thunder having a Mojito


It must be in their DNA


The year of the Ox

Westsiders Hit the Jing!

It is officially the year of the Ox now. STEB, Taco and Jivuel hit the Jing about 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon. New Year's Eve what a great time! Went to Tim's to have dinner, margaritas and beer! Tonight we're headed back to Tim's so that Taco can sing, stay tuned to this! Enjoy the pics!

New Friends

One of our good friends (who went to the North Pole with us!) is an English teacher here in Beijing. She had this wonderful idea of having her students go to dinner with some of us English speaking foreigners so that they could practice speaking and listening to "Real" English. I say "Real" English because those of us non-Chinese folks were Myself (Kansas English), Lightnin (Missouri English), the others were Dutch (Flemish/French English), French (Frensh English), Ohio (Toledo English), and United Kingdom(English English).



It was a great idea and we had a fun time as well as getting to know some new friends. For several of the students this was the first time they had actaully met and talked with Americans! I'm glad we were able to provide them with that experience!

Old Friends...

Spending a little time in Florida.... ahhh it's nice to be warm again! Heading out today to check on our property in Old Town and then back to Ohio so I can go back to China! We have STEB, Taco and Jivuel coming over on Saturday for the Chinese New Year. There should be lots of pictures posted from that two weeks! So here are our friends from Paradise. Thunder they all are looking forward to seeing you in March!




Lunch at Peg Leg Petes...fish chowder, cole slaw and Cobia nuggets, Yummy!



STEB, Park Ranger Patty and Stephan

The magic coat (Great Story!, you'll have to ask)


STEB, Bobby and I

I didn't get a picture of Bonita, Darrin or Dawn but I'm sure we will the next time we're here. These are friends that we met about 4 years ago and we look forward to meeting up with on each visit. All it takes is a quick phone call and they head up to see us!

Dudes name plate on the wall of the Bar and Grill. Thunder and I had this made for him while he was serving in Iraq....It made it through Ivan!

Update on the "Big Dig"

I just wanted to give a short progress report on the work going on out in front of my apartment. It looks like they've completed the work and are now filling in the holes. this is a good thing because it has been a major disruption to getting around town. There used to be a constant stream of available taxis driving by, but since the work started the taxi's have been avoiding this area! With the Lunar or Chinese New Year coming up in just a little over a week it will be much better if the street is opened up once again!

Year End Site Celebration and Red Carpet

Not a lot of words but lotsa photos. Last night was Thunders year end celebration at work and what a party it was!!! This is Beijing but very culturally diversed. There were booths from 20 different countries, of course my favorite was Belgiam...they were selling Belgian beers and phone bling that looks like a piece of Chocolate (So real Thunder asked if we should put it in the fridge and I told him I thought the plastic would stay just fine without refrigeration). Then there was dinner and it was very good! After dinner was the Red Carpet production and it was
awesome! For a minute there we thought we were stars! For those of you that see us we are hoping to get a copy of the video so stayed tuned!


Aaron from Toledo and Lamia from Brussels



Arif from Scotland and the Tamara Sandwich (The other Tamara's from Holland)



Arif and Father Thunder


Arif and yes he wears the kilt and he can play the bagpipes and no, he doesn't wear anything under there! (You know I had to ask!)



Modeling



Even the Villiage People were there



Titanic



Elvis even made an appearance



What party would be complete without 007 Shaken not Stired



Thunder doing a traditional Chinese dance



Belly Dancers

Digging All the Way To China...er America?

Just a quick picture of what's happening outside of Thunders apartment! Not sure what they are doing, but I'm pretty sure there are no "Confined Spaces" permits involved! It is really causing problems for us! We stood outside last night for over 20 minutes trying to catch a cab! They can't get through as some people take this as a new parking lot! Oh well, that's Beijing!

Not Just Another Taxi Driver In Beijing

I have to go back a bit to explain this story. Back in May/June, Thunder was coming out of work to hail a cab, just like every day. A driver came up to him and asked in good English if we needed a ride. So began the saga of Mr. Ma. Since that day Mr. Ma has been our number one driver! He takes me to the airport, picks me up and has done the same for Dude and Matt. He is the driver that took us to the Great Wall and any special events we may need a driver. He has arranged for his friend Lee Dong to pick David up every morning at the apartment to get him to work. (She lives closer than Mr. Ma)

I noticed on my first ride with him that he had a list of all of the States quarters. Some had check marks but most didn't. So I made a note of this and brought him all of the ones he was misssing. He was so grateful, because we also brought him a five dollar bill "with color" and a two dollar bill! As he told me one day, "For many year, paper money in America, just one color?"

Well for some time now he's been wanting to take us out for dinner, saying "I pay". So last night we finally got the chance to go. He took us to an authentic Hot Pot out in the country. Oh my, such good food and he trully seemed to enjoy himself and learning more English. He has also helped David and me with the Chinese language! We gave him a stocking with candy from "America" and all of the stray coins we have amassed from the states, Malayasia, Europe, Japan and whatever else we had on hand. You see, his daughter had just gotten her first "Pickey bank" which we explained was really a "Piggy Bank".

We asked him on the ride home how many taxis there are in Beijing? His reply, "Over 70,000". I think with odds like that Thunder should hit the casinos when he gets back home, because he really did hit the jackpot in finding Mr. Ma, we will miss him!

Dinner On New Year's Day

Our friend over at Pure Florida asked "whatchu cookin" for New Years day? So I already told you what we cooked New Years eve. Sorry no photos we were just so anxious to dig in, we didn't even think about photos! The next day, we made BBQ Chicken (ji rou, pronounced gee-row) potato salad (tu dou cai, pronounced two-doe, sigh) and black eyed peas (dou zi, pronounced doe-suh) We did have some help with the KC Masterpiece I smugggled in along with tequilla and various other sundries that sustain Thunder over here. (Can you say 'Mule'?) Thunder has this most awesome oven. Of course I don't know how to work it, but it turns out some great food. So enjoy our picture and maybe you can kinda even taste what we had for our New Years dinner.

Happy New Year From Beijing!

Welcoming in 2009 here in Beijing with Champagne with HUGE strawberries, prime rib, greens and black eyed peas! Keeping up with our tradition! I know this is 13-14 hours ahead of most of you but we wanted to wish you all Happy New Year!