When you ask for TWO and get EIGHT

Once, when my mother was visiting me in Beijing together with my mother-in-law, we went shopping. We always went shopping of course, but once we went shopping for tea. It was their last day of their stay in Beijing and the demand for different kind of green teas and jasmine teas in pretty little gift boxes was high. I was the tour guide and had to translate - but could not handle both mothers at the same time. So my mother, not shy, went ahead and ordered two more red boxes of a nice Dragon Well green tea. And to make sure the Chinese sales girl understood her right, she made the gesture with her two fingers - the Western way :

The Chinese sales girl got very excited and asked her collegue for help and they packed tea in boxes, and boxes and boxes ... meanwhile I turned around and saw my confused mother trying to stop the girls and behind the counter I saw happy busy working sales girls.

I understood right away, what had happened, when I heard my mother saying : No, TWO, TWO !

The Western gesture for TWO is the Chinese gesture for EIGHT !

You must know the following :
Chinese use one hand, five fingers only, to count to 10. And especially when shopping in the grocery markets they use their fingers.

And counting to ten the Chinese way goes like this:

Chinese figure gestures

Chinese characters for 1 to 10 and pinyin writing

Below alternative gestures for 10 :

So, my Mum had ordered EIGHT boxes of tea, thinking she had asked for only TWO. Well, she did ask for two, in her English - but with the Western gesture for two which is the Chinese gesture for eight.

What you want to know about Sexy Beijing's Sexy Christmas

In this Sexy Beijing video from December 2006 Su Fei tries to find out about the Christmas spirit that seems to invade China's capital every year. What do Chinese people think about Christmas? What do they know about Christian customs and what do they know about Jewish Hanukkah?

Although China is a communist country and Christmas is an official working day, Beijing is decorated with Christmas trees and full of Santa Clauses like any other capital in the world these days. Flower markets in Chaoyang district have been selling natural Christmas trees and Advent wreath with four candles. The sales person often not knowing the meaning are smart enough to know the foreigners' demand. Christmas seems like a fun holiday - as it should be - and as Chinese people do like most Western things they also "copy" Christmas - at least the decorative and fun part like getting together and exchanging gifts.

*

 HAPPY Holiday to all of you !

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8 Reasons why I don't want to be in Beijing during the Olympics

I am sitting in the South of Italy, sea view and sunset.
And I think of Beijing - every day.

Especially since August the 8.
The TV is on. Italians are winning quiet some medals!

Of course, how can I not think of my hometown of 3 years?!

People ask me, if I miss Beijing?

No. I think it is some internal protection that does not allow me to be emotional about it. That's why it is a clear and fast: No.

People ask me, wheather I would like to be in Beijing right now?
During the Olympic events?

Again: No.

And here are 8 reasons for my NO:

1) August always was said to be the worst month of the year - climate wise.
Hot and humid. Rains. Grey skies.

2) Beijing right now is not the Beijing how it was before and how it will be after the Games. It is not authentic.

3) There is so much security that moving around is less easy and less fun.

4) It is holiday time for expats and Chinese but going to a park with your kids would be difficult, unless you can ride your bike to the park. Transportation is an issue, you can use your car only every second day and most taxi will all be taken and subways will be overcrowded.

5) Some of the fun bars and restaurants were said to have to closed down during the Games. Some of them near the worker stadium for security reason. So maybe less fun at night.

6) I am afraid of crowds. You never know in those crazy days. It is just better to avoid crowds to be on the save side... of course you could always be hit by the schoolbus (but not in August)

7) Similar to point 6) but more clear: I am afraid of terr*rist att@cs. I have seen a picture of the military rockets they have next to the National Stadium to shoot down any airplane - just in case.

8) I don't enjoy the political discussions / demonstrations before and during the games, where some people of other countries tried to express their thoughts in front of the - mainly foreign - media. I think it is an offense to all Chinese people. It is a small group of reigning people that are to blame and not the entire people of China.

Beijing will change to normal again in October.

The Opening Ceremony I saw on TV. But only the entrance of some nations. I had an dentist appointment, unfortunately, it was not planned, but it was excactly at August 8, 8pm Beijing time. A painful appointment.

I am in Beijing with my thoughts.
I am thinking of my expat friends that have decided to stay for the Olympics. I hope they enjoy this time. And thinking of our Chinese friends, hoping they are doing fine.

And as I said before, I hope for peaceful Games until the very last day.

A Beijing Poem

I found this poem from an unknown Beijinger:

The Olympics are coming,
8 August is near,
The skies are not bluer
I really do fear.

No more lorries or trucks,
vehicles only from here.
Prices will go up
I really do fear.

Alternate car days,
to keep the roads clear.
Crowded buses and tubes
I really do fear.

The hotels are built,
the room rates are dear.
They will stand empty
I really do fear.

No visas for expats,
no parties I hear.
So nothing to do
I really do fear.

I know what you're thinking,
I really do fear.
So I'll finish this verse
with this Olympic cheer.

clap, clap
thumbs up
clap, clap
arms up

Source: the yahoo group 'Beijing Cafe' - the topic was about the actual 'outrageous shipping cost' due to the Olympics. Link: Beijing Cafe message 22306

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PS: This is my first post after I have moved out of China. I still have Beijing on my mind. More then I have imagined. But with the Olympics, the media is full with daily reports on Beijing - so I still feel I have things to say, to add, to correct, to contribute - at least a tiny part to the puzzle from my side.

Countdown to Move

7 days to go... and my husband - just back from a business trip - says he might have to go again on a business trip. His return to Beijing would be the day of our one-way-flight out. I would be alone when the packers storm the house.

6 days to go... I check my email between two farwell parties and find an email from the moving company: due to this busy week (every second expat moving seems to move this week) they are cancelling our first packing day. Anyway two days would be enough for our household. Please confirm....
Well, it was Saturday evening and I picked up the phone and lost my temper.
Although we anyhow thought of starting the packing a day later due to my husband's trip, I was disturbed by the service. They have my phone number and could have called right away when they knew they have to pack for someone else (maybe more important than us). Email is not appropriate and cancelling a packing day two working days in advance is even worse!

5 days to go... my husband is packing for his business trip back home and I am lucky to be able to give him and his collegue both again each a full suitcase of summer clothes. This means less volume for the container and summer clothes right on place when we come home.

Instead 4 days to go it is now ONE week to go! Yes! Great. Winning some extra time comforts me. I might not get a heart attack after all. But what do I do with my extra time when the container is gone? Shopping? Suitcases will be packed tight.
We are winning time for friends! And say good-bye again. One family had to leave earlier then planned to find a house in another destination then they thought they will move to. They will be back in some days. And another family that has to leave to Hong Kong due to visa renewel issues will be back this weekend. So this is very nice! We will be able to see both families one more time!

It is a very strange time right now here in Beijing for expats. All is about leaving. Even the magazine That's Beijing has on its June cover this subject:
"101 things to do before leaving Beijing".
Of course there are not 101 things to do in Beijing before leaving. Much less!
And that's why a lot of the points are meant to be funny.

But some of the points I recognize. E.g. getting a qipao. I lived without qipao, a traditonal Chinese dress, since my whole life... but the last time I went to Muxiyuan fabric market, my friend encouraged me and I got the silk to do one. And I went for the first time to a tailor at the Friendship Store (it was 10 days to go at the time). When I saw myself in the mirror, I wondered why I have not bought more silk, in different colours to get more dresses... No, stop thinking! No more fabric market trips (I got addicted, since two months I go there weekly, once even twice a week) - and will I ever wear it back home? Also, all tailors are working at their limits right now. Everybody leaving wants something done in the last minute. Meaning quality is suffering.

I have to go back to "work" and get my cupboards and drawers de-cluttered and sorted. I am also wondering what I find next that I have not thought I still have it. Maybe posting it on BeijingCafe, that serves these days as a very efficient Beijing version of ebay. I am not going to post a flower pot for 20 kuai or free shampoo ... this is what my ayi carries home every evening. But a kid's night pot? Or a toy tool bench? Mmhh, I am still looking for someone I know, who could use it. I am not going to let this be packed up in bubble wrapping and use up high valuable cubic meters in our tiny 20 feet container. So it gets the "Don't move" sticker.

I am glad about everything that I can get rid off, but on the other side all the farwell gifts are floating in and using up new space... Especially the bulky comapny gifts, like car grills... All these things get a "Don't move sticker" and at the end we will see what still fits in.

Today my ayi came with a "new" bike. It is just a tiny bit less shabby then her other bike. She declared her old one is broken. Very tricky... she knows that I have a nice Giant bike. And if it fits in the container, I might not leave it for her. How bad she makes me feel if I take my lovely Giant bike, with only one speed, useless for my hilly hometown, just for the sake of memories... I will feel bad every day I see it standing unused in the garage. Very tricky. I wonder if her bike is really broken - just 1 day before the packing starts?

BeijingCafe and how a Yahoo Group helps moving

It took me almost three years in Beijing to get to know BeijingCafe and its advantages! Last year I heard of BeijingCafe, a yahoo group, for the first time. It seemed to me an amazing source of information. If you want to know where to buy e.g. silk, you raise this question at BeijingCafe and the members who know where would eventually write back.

Well, I thought, I am living here since a while and did not feel the urgent need to get more information that I already had about life in this city. But who knows, there might be some shopping secrets out there that this group likes to share more openly with you then your neighbours or friends ....

So I asked my friend who had told me a couple of times about BeijingCage to invite me (it took me a while to find out, that you need to be invited). She tried once, we forgot about it and she tried twice. It did not work out. Some more monthes passed by until another friend told me that she had heard about this and that and I wondered how she got these hot info - BeijingCafe, you know? Oh, yes, please invite me. She forgot about it and so do I. Until a third friend told me that she has found something, maybe a great tailor or so, via BeijingCafe. BeijingCafe? Can you invite me? Please! Sure. She did it the same day and I received an invittion the same day! Great! And since I am a member, I am "branche", connected.

It turns out very handy!

One might think, why becoming a member of a Beijing online group when leaving?
It is the right time!

I had to find a job for my ayi. In July? The month every expat goes on holiday? I thought this will be impossible. Probably I need to pay her a month salary for bridging the gab until she finds a new job. But, wait a moment. Why not post her on BeijingCafe. This group has 1.300 members by now. So I wrote a nice recommendation and I got answers! My ayi had over a dozen job offers and enough interviews to find herself a convenient job in an even more convenient location at a higher salary!

Then I thought. What to do with my big Mercedes pedal car? We have no more space in the container, and my son definately does not play with it anymore. Where to sell it when not in China. I asked the neighbourhood, thought about posting it at Jenny Lou -but wait - BeijingCafe is the solution. A minute after I posted the used toy, I got already the first requests in my email box. And the next day it was gone! For a fair price. Fantastic.

Right now, in BeijingCafe the most popular topic is about Olympic tickets: The hurdles of picking them up, during holiday, with middle names and how to transfer it etc. I also checked here whether someone would buy our tickets. Oooh, what a flood of emails I got....

One last BJC story for today: For our farwell party I miscalculated the need of alcohol and am sitting now on a stock of liquor that I cannot pack in the container. What a pitty! I was trying to figure out which bottle I would give to whom, when I read another post on BJC about 'free tampons' that have already been picked up (!). People sell / give away and are looking for some strangest things sometimes...
So I thought, when someone would go to a strangers house to pick up two boxes of tampons, maybe I can find someone via BJC that would come to my house and buy my stock of various wines - white and red, new and old and gins and digestives. So I wrote: I am selling the lot, all 13 bottles together... and I just pressed the sent button when I got a phone call, several emails and one sms - all agreed the price and wanted to buy my leftovers. (Mmmh, maybe the French 1999 bottle is a collector item??)

Amazing BeijingCafe.

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PS: When you are interested, please don't ask me to invite you... I am leaving and busy. But check out this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Beijingcafe/

Sorry for no perfect link - I entered blogger via an anonymous proxy and it does not show all the features for posting links and photos etc.

Pictures from Beijing

One of the things the city of Beijing is doing before the Olympics is painting all the grey and a bit sad looking apartment houses along major roads. They get a quick paint job. Almost overnight. No scaffolding. No repair. Just paint. A quick face lift.

It is difficult to see in the picture. But this house looks so much nicer and cleaner than before! And when you drive a long e.g. the 3rd ring road, you see lots of them. They don't look that much different then before, but somehow different, and when you look closer, you realise, they have been all painted! I should have invested in a paint selling company...

In Beijing new bars and restaurants open weekly - and some may close for the Olympics, if they do not meet some standards. I discovered this "Italian" gelateria behind the Russian Market. It sounds almost Italian.

Boycotting - A new Sport ?

Last week my friend persuaded me to shop in Carrefour (speak: jia le fou in Chinese). We both hate to shop at Carrefour. In fact, all my expat friends hate to go to Carrefour. But still, last week, we went there - and we were the only foreigners. Only Chinese shop here. Foreigners don't like wasting time with the long drive through traffic jam, the hassle of finding the items of your shoping list in these large two story buildings, and then end up with much more than planned. If some friends buy products from Carrefour, then online. But it is so much easier to go to Jenny Lou around the corner for the daily grocery and milk. They have everything you need, you always meet someone you know and it was even cheaper then Carrefour! - WAS! - Was cheaper!

My friend said: "Lets go to Carrefour, I am boycotting Jenny Lou. (remark: seems like "boycotting" is a new sport these days.) Jenny Lou is exaggerating with its price increases!"

It is true! It is not only the yearly 10% price inflation... many things are 20% up and even more expensive at Jenny Lou lately.

I myself had already started to buy more and more with April Gourmet. The other very friendly and well stocked little chain for foreign brands. Some items I regularly buy are 10% cheaper at April Gourmet in comparison to Jenny Lou.

And to finish the story about my latest shopping experience in Carrefour: the prices really are better now at Carrefour - but I still will go to April Gourmet.

So that day we boycotted Jenny Lou.

And now Chinese want to boycott French Carrefour because of the things that happened in Paris?

This is totally crazy, because most of the products at Carrefour are Chinese - and all workers are Chinese - I have never ever seen any French guy, otherwise I would have told them, how much I am disappointed about the Carrefour outlets in Beijing. The worst Carrefour I have seen in Asia are in Beijing. However, Chinese love to shop there.

BTW demonstrations are allowed in China - at least against French goods.

Read more
Carrefour boycott, by China.org.cn including photos
Chinese netizens urge Carrefour boycott after torch relay incident, by China View
Kitty Shelley versus France, by ESWN including translations of the Chinese Internet discussion

Photo: Boycott sign against Carrefour circulating in the Internet to organise a boycott on May 1st

Clean up time in Beijing

It is clean up time in Beijing. Not really that type of spring cleaning a housewife would do to let freely flow the 'qi'. It is about a severe clean up time before the Olympics.





Three important things to know:

1) the visa policy has changed
2) you need to register at the local police station
3) carry an ID with you at any time

1) About the visa:
Beijing has stopped issuing multiple-entry visas, causing inconvenience to foreigners who travel to the mainland regularly and to foreign residents. Apparently this new policy only stays in place until after the Olympic Games.
Travelers are now restricted to single or double-entry visas valid for 30 days only. Multiple-entry visas that have not expired are still valid.

2) About the local police registration:
Beijing police requires foreign residents to register at the local police station within 24 hours after returning from each trip abroad. This requirement applies even if the temporary residence permit has not expired.

I am not sure since when this is in place, but I got a call in February from our compound's receptionist that they want our passports and visas copied because of a new regulation. So I guess, if you life in a compound that owns your rented house/apartment, they can organize it for you. Same as a hotel will organize the registration for its hotel guests.

3) About carrying your ID
If you are controlled by the police and you cannot identify yourself with an ID, passport or driving license, the police might take you to the police station for interrogation and you might have to pay a huge fine (I heard up to 1000 Euro?)

And I heard the story of some international school children that were controlled by police in Sanlitun and as they couldn't show their IDs they were taken to the police station. In a scary way, with plastic bags over their heads and they were not allowed to call their parents for three hours! What a terrible story! In Sanlitun where I live - I needed to search the Internet tonight...

And yes, the story took place. But it was not in the middle of the day after school on the way home (as I have first pictured), but still ...

Read about it here:

'Chinese torturing foreign teens in drugs bust', by journalist Richard Spencer in Beijing, 07/04/2008

and here

Drug raid in Sanlitun sees more than 20 arrested, by Beijing Boyce blog

Picture source: Plastered 8

Beijing Daily Pictures - Ducks

Attention, these pictures are not for the Western stomach...


You can see delicious duck necks and duck heads!
Amazing, how the colour of each dish is the same...



Taken today at Wanda Plaza, an office and entertainment complex with lots of tiny restaurants in Beijing.

PS: I love Beijing Duck or Peking Duck! That famous dish is is so different and really delicious!!!

Beijing: Mysterious Wrapping

Can you guess what's behind the wrapping?


And now? What's your guess?


The solution of the enigma:

Oh Tannenbaum !!

Chinese love trees. They built houses and walls around trees instead of chopping them. And now, in winter, they give them a winter coat to protect them from the cold winds that come down from Mongolia... Actually, the winds can be very cold, ice cold and sharp like knifes.

I can't remember that I have seen tree wrapping in the last two winters. New is also wrapping robes around stems:



But I saw bush wrappings and hedge wrappings like this before:

Beijing: About Drivers

Drivers know everything. They know where your new colleague lives. They know who had dinner where and when they went home - after which bar and probably with whom too. They know who is entitled to which company car and who has changed the car too early. Our driver also knows that apple juice is cheaper at Jenny Lou than at Carrefour. He knows which ham my husband likes to eat and which milk my son prefers. He also knew that a police control in Sanlitun’s barstreet was scheduled for the other night.

Drivers hear lots of things and they like to share information. That’s why we know also lots of things about our drivers.

Working as a driver in Beijing is a well respected and well paid job. At least it was for many years. It might change. However, our driver seems to drive for fun. He was waiting to finally drive his dream car, a Mercedes. He is happy with that. He owns a house and his wife does business trips to London. Never had a driver before who was living at that standard. He does not buy his cashmere sweater like I do at the Silk market for 240 RMB. He buys a better quality for 600 RMB at Lido Holiday Inn. Then there was a time he was thinking of buying an apartment, just for an investment. And last week he tells that he made a great deal. He sold an other apartment for 1,5 million RMB that he bought four years ago for 500,000 RMB. 1,000,0000 RMB profit (about 100,000 Euro). Our driver. Unbelievable. Do you still want to work for us?, I asked him. He just laughed and smiled friendly like always. He is one of the best looking Chinese around and he always dresses nicely. He does not spit on the street at a red light like taxi drives do. And you won’t believe, but he is also good in driving. He is the best driver we ever had (5 years in Thailand, no one could drive like that). And in China, someone who really knows to drive is hard to find. His English name is ‘Michael’. He said, his previous boss gave him this name after ‘Michael Schumacher’. He worked for Volvo and Siemens before. But his dream was to drive a Mercedes.

All visiting family members love him. My sister said that a certain distance with a taxi driver takes double of the time than with ‘Michael’. Our driver knows his way. With him there is no traffic jam in Beijing. He just avoids the traffic jam. He goes on the fourth or fifth ring road to avoid the traffic on the third. He burns more gasoline on more kilometres but he is seldom stacked in traffic. He knows that we will arrive in 7 minutes. Not 5 or 10 minutes, no he knows, it will take 7 minutes. He can always at anytime point in my fathers map where we are. When we go back home for summer he buys green tea for my mother and mother-in-law as a gift. He owns two mobile phones, latest models only. We already suspected him to spy on us. Maybe he has another job, maybe not. We don’t mind. We are happy with him.

Yesterday, we had dinner with another couple, friends, which happen to work for the same company. They told us, that their driver saw our car outside and said to them, that we are already in the restaurant. And of course he knows our driver. They probably will go for dinner together. So it happened that we had a small conversation about our drivers. We learned from our friends that their diver is an even bigger businessman than ours. He owns 6 shops in Yashow and Silk market. And he or his wife owns a spacious and apparently recognized Chinese restaurant that can host up to 800 people. One day, our friend told us, the driver asked him if he could stop at the bank. He might need some cash, he thought. Wrong. The driver opened the gloves box and took out an envelop 10cm thick, packed with 100 RMB bills. Money from his restaurant. This one definitely drives just for fun.

Our next dinner date will be at our friend's driver’s restaurant.

Beijing: Passport Photo Shooting

Today I had to get photos of myself. My visa for China must be re-newed and I need two photos same style as for passports (light blue background, new regulation).

First I didn't want to go as I felt terribly tired (jet-lag) and I looked even worse. But then I thought, come on, it is only for a visa application and not for the passport that you have to show for the next ten years. So I went there, smiled, click, click, done. What I totally forgot was the editing part. The editor eliminated all my freckles, deleted my latest pimple, cut off my mole on the neck, 'botoxed' my wrinkles on the forehead and whitened my cute suntan! After this beauty surgery, the editor became a hairdresser and cut some of my hair sticking out of my ponytail.

For job applications or sweetheart's wallet you can get the prettiest picture of you if you want, but for a passport or visa? I mean, does the police agree with that? Maybe they need to know about my mole to identify me one day? Beside I do not really know where I have a mole and maybe I do not care when they need to identify me ... but these edited pictures look so immaculate. Although I am happy with my look, today I didn't mind the little pimple erasing job. And I can picture what botox could do one day ;-)

Anyway. I got nine of it (I only need two) for 50 kwai (5 Euro).

Beijing: When the Salesman yells at you ...

This is a sign at Yashow Market in Beijing greeting all visitors.

If the booth of our market force you to buy anything or pull and yell at you
Originally uploaded by xiaming

Beijing Boys and Girls

I am sharing a snapshot form our today outing to DaShanzi 798 Art Center in Beijing. I like it: two Chinese girls with a bottle of Coke, a Disney bag and mobile phone... smiling at Western boys watching the girls go by... and waving!!! They said something in Chinese to the girls. I am not sure if it was polite, can't tell from the girl's face.

Actually, the boys are in PreK (kindergarten)...

Beijing: Courtyard House sells for Record Price

A courtyard home in Beijing near the picturesque Houhai lake has sold for a record 14.2 million dollars (110 million yuan) earlier this month.

A courtyard dwelling, or Siheyuan in Chinese, is an enclosed atrium house, a type of residence most famously found in Beijing. Courtyard houses are also called hutongs or hutong houses while ‘hutong’ in Chinese means only lane or alley.

As Chinese people consider the hutong houses as not modern and their inhabitants as poor, many are being destroyed to make way for modern apartment buildings. However lots of foreigners would love to live in a renovated courtyard home. A renovation includes the installation of water and electricity supply. Otherwise you would need to use the public toilets in your hutong (lane). But often the houses are not easy to access through the small lanes. And it is not easy to find a suitable and affordable one.

A few courtyards are being converted into luxury residences. The Houhai one was sold for 36,324 yuan per square metre, almost double the average price of residential properties nearby, the Beijing News said. A local property developer had been trying to sell the courtyard home since late 2005 after fixing it up but few people expressed interest until early this year, it said.

Last year I was invited to one of these luxury courtyard homes. It was renovated and decorated in a modern yet cosy style. The tenant had inherited some Biedermeier furniture and added modern and Asian elements. We had a BBQ in the garden at night and the whole house was illuminated. Some months later I recognized it right away when I found these pictures in a magazine.




All three pictures are from Better Homes and Gardens magazine in China (issue no. 8 - January 2007). The residence contains even two hutong houses with two atrium. The bigger one was the main house. All single elements were connected with a corridor of glass (last picture). If you want to walk from the kitchen to the bedroom you could either walk inside around the atrium through the corridor or you could walk outside across the atrium. The second smaller atrium belonged to the guest house. The renovation was time consuming and expensive although the former resident denied the latter. Today he does not live here anymore. So I guess this beautiful hutong house is empty at the moment. What a pity. But even more pity is the uncertain future of this beautiful house. It was saved from demolition once. But the neighbouring homes are already gone.

The record selling price of the Houhai courtyard house was featured in That's Beijing (7 Days in Beijing - Today's Alarming Statistic of April 20); and in Yahoo News.

See also my other post about Beijing Courtyards

Beijing and Today's Alarming Statistic

There are
3,000,000 migrant workers in Beijing.


There are 200 million migrant workers in China and 20 million migrant children.

Read about social and education programs for migrant children at Compassion for Migrant Children

Source: Alarming Statistic from That's 7 Days in Beijing.

Funny Sexy Beijing episode under attack

I have to post another episode of Sexy Beijing right now. These amateur clips are funny. But some Chinese student thought it is offending. Most people do not get it why this harmless episode about Chinese choosing funny English names for themselves is considered as 'imperial journalism'. The journalist Su Fei (alias Sophie) makes fun of herself, too. This is called humour. Nobody is loosing face in my opinion. Just watch it...

... and follow some links below for the strange discussion that is less funny than the clip:
- Danwei's reaction
- Some bad comments posted on youtube just after the discussion started.
- An American Chinese philosophy friend, Useless Tree, is defending Su Fei in an interesting post.

After the statistics Sexy Beijing's episodes seems to be even more popular among Chinese viewers than among western viewers. Danwei.tv's most popular program is Looking for Double Happiness which has got 272,092 views on Youtube, and 565,014 views on Chinese video sharing website 56.com.

Beijingers learn 'civilized behaviour'

The municipal government has launched the first ‘Queuing Day’ on February 11th. This event, on the 11th of each month is part of a campaign for Beijingers to show ‘civilized behaviour’ ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

The 11th was picked because the two figures 1 – 1 look like two people queuing.

At this very first Queuing Day thousands of volunteers were sent to bus-stops and subway train stations to supervise passengers to line up correctly. However after 5.30pm when the official Queuing Day was over everybody rushed to the arriving buses as usual.

Another improvement in public behaviour was observed by the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. According to its director Zhang, the ratio of people spitting in public declined from 8.4% in 2005 to 4.9% in 2006. And incidents of littering fell from 9.1% to 5.3%. Source: China Daily, February 12th, 2007

I have no idea where the spitting figures come from. It is very amusing for someone living in Beijing and being forced to listen to the ‘throat-nose-cleaning-procedure’ and paying attention to not been hit by the result of it when over passing a cyclist.

Skiing in Beijing

Skiing in Beijing is fun! To the nearest 'ski resort' (Nanshang Ski Village) it is about 40 minutes to drive. The weather is great, always blue sky and sunshine. The artificial snow is really okay. The rented second hand gear was not too bad. You can sit outside for lunch like in Austria. The scenery is surreal with all the brown hills and grassland around. The only thing is, you have to be cautious and watch out for all the Chinese skiers that are 99% learners that do not know how to break...