Catching up: Tim's Beijing Trip

Morgan took the girls and drove across the States to visit friends and family while Tim spent a month in Beijing for a language refresher course... with two other Air Force officers: fellow Olmsted Scholar Barry and new friend Lea. Here we are on our first day out and about in a taxi:

First day, first taxi, first intersection in Beijing and... bump. Our taxi nailed a scooter who totally ran a red light and came zooming through the intersection. Our taxi driver is there on his cell phone. As we were in the middle of the intersection, we paid the driver our fee on the meter (~$1.50), got out of the road and caught another taxi and were on our way again...

The first place to explore was a restored section of traditional Beijing housing called "hutong," this section is called Nanlouoguxiang:

There are lots of small shops and restaurants in this area.

This T-shirt shop has some of the more popular shirts (that would be President Obama in a Chairman Mao's uniform, cleverly called "Obamao)"...

Walking around the lake in one of the trendier areas near Nanluoguxiang... called Houhai. Not sure why these crazies were swimming in this water. See the little peddle-boats?

Those boats are lots of fun until you have to cross through one of the narrow tunnels. Now all these trendy boat drivers become crude taxi drivers... look at this traffic!

One of the many sets of wedding pictures we saw throughout the month we were there...

This guy was fun to watch. He wrote poems or famous saying in Chinese and drew pictures with this large brush and water, so the pictures didn't stay long...

But nonetheless fun to watch...

Just a pretty area...

China has low un-employment, as seen by all of these gainfully-employed workers:

Body art on sale...

We walked to class and passed this building everyday. Who needs actual brick? Just hold up a sheet that has a brick pattern. Will have to remember this technique for our next house...

Same city, different day. The food markets:

You can get any cut of any type of meat here...

This is better, any vegetable or fruit available. This is one of the things we miss about China, eating plenty of veggies.

Out and about... Yao Ming advertising for Oreos!

Not to be outdone, here's Shaquille O'Neal advertising for his new shoe company, the Chinese brand Li-Ning. Funny isn't it, Yao Ming advertises for American brand Nike, Shaq for Li-Ning. Not only is it difficult to be a prophet in your own country, it looks like it's easier to advertise in a different country.

Other random pictures from around town in Beijing:

Walked past a restaurant with Terracotta Warrior outside. Looked almost like the warriors we have in our home...

A lot of the taxis had this advertisement for, um, enhancement surgery. It's becoming quite popular in China...

Near our hotel, this crazy is setting of a heck of a string of firecrackers! No special occasion, just felt like lighting off fire crackers during the day. Must have been his lunch break...

This crazy welder has no eye protection. His even crazier friend is there watching this. I struggled to take this picture from this distance, it was ridiculously bright. But lack of safety controls keeps production costs down.

Two pandas taking their Volvo out on a date:

A bus advertising the NBA in China...

We went to the National Military Museum in Beijing. The Chinese shot down five U-2s during the 1960's. These planes were flown by the Taiwan Air Force to have a "look" at the land they left. Here I am following some folks who just took their picture here, striking the standard Chinese pose...

One of the few pictures of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek toether. Mao was leader of the Communists and Chiang was the leader of the Nationalists who eventually fled to Taiwan.

Painting of Mao under pictures of Lenin an Marx.

The mission of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)...

One morning on our way to class there was a little food stand that was making one of my favorite little egg sandwich things. I had just eaten breakfast so I didn't get one, but Lea did...

See the guys in uniform above? They weren't there for break fast, they were there to close the place down. A few seconds after taking this picture, the guys in uniform sprung into action.

We went up to class and looking back at the corner where we were, you can see the guys in uniform pushing the food cart away. The nice folks selling the food were fined by the cops. Lea reported that the food was tasty!

We saw this crazy couple crossing the street as we were headed back after class. This intersection is something like 10 lanes wide. They didn't want to wait for the protected "green man" to cross. So arm-in-arm they went, crossing one lane at a time just like the game Frogger. Some people just don't value their lives, or their toes, very much...

Too bad this black car was a Mercedes... it would have stopped itself and prevented this little fender bender... Interestingly, the tow trucks in China are all operated by the police, no private towing companies...
But bumps and dings are just part of life in China. I assume the owner of this big BMW would expect that his car could get dinged by parking halfway in the street.

Big conversion vans are all the rage in Beijing right now. Who wants an SUV when you can have the comfort of captain's chairs that swivel and plasma TVs in the walls... STYLING!

Classic picture I think... A guy selling berries next to a beautiful red Ferrari!

Think your TV is big? How about this TV at the Kerry Center in Beijing...

This might be my favorite picture of the trip:

A single bike rider passing jammed traffic in front of Tiananmen Square. There is just something that strikes me about this picture.

China won't be China without the freedom to pile anything on your bike. Think of how may trips you could save by piling up like this!

The Bird's Nest was once the center of the world's attention during the 2008 Olympics, now it just sits and rusts without professional sports to fill the seats on a regular basis.

But you can pay a couple of bucks to go in and see... an empty stadium.

We drove past the CCTV building regularly. It, too, was made famous during the Olympics. See the signs at the base of the building??

The signs are promoting this area of Beijing, called Chaoyang, as exceeding the world's great cities

And yes, it is a civilized area. How do I know that? Because they told me so!

Food. Fortunately we didn't have to eat some of the choices available on the street, such as little chicken. Is there any meat on those? We passed...

But we did enjoy some treats, like at this noodle restaurant where hundreds of different styles of noodles are made fresh in front of you...

This noodle shop was a chance for six Olmsted Scholars and some spouses to get together and share some stories. Fun times...

Looking for something fun to do in Beijing after all the main attraction have closed in the evenings? Go to this famous show, "Chun Yi's The Legend of Kung Fu" at the Red Theater near the Temple of Heaven. It is written and produced by Westerners, but with Chinese kung fu artists.

The story was a bit corny, but the scenes and athleticism of the entire cast was just incredible. I walked away thinking, "I had no idea my body could have done that." There is also an international touring production, it may be coming to a theater near you.

If you can't make it to the show, or are just curious, check out the video on their website.

In addition to this post, I'll also have posts on our day of making food at a Chinese restaurant, an amazing trip to the Great Wall, and a great weekend trip to Shanghai to see the World Expo and to participate in my MBA program's annual alumni activity!