Valentine's Day, Beijing Style

For the most part, Valentine's Day is moderately popular here in China.  Young adult Chinese, who like to embrace Western traditions, are the ones you see carrying bouquets of flowers along the street. 

For us, we didn't have any solid plans until mid afternoon when hubby's associates decided to put together a dinner. Since E had a late night at school, D and I met up with hubby at the New Otani hotel for some romantic accounting talk.

 This fella greeted us as we entered the restaurant. It was a buffet-style restaurant featuring Beijing duck, sushi, traditional Chinese faire and pizza (?). 

 All the tables were decorated with red roses and lots of pink.

 Each male received this tulle wrapped box of chocolates. Each female received a long stem red rose.

That is not all the males and females received...

Bird's Nest Soup

 ...each female was served a bowl of Bird's Nest Soup. It is a very expensive delicacy (bowls range from $30USD - $100 USD). Do you know why it is a delicacy? First off, only certain birds make their nests out of their spit! Yes, I said spit! (I am seeing a spit fettish here in China) This soup is made from spit nests...I am not trying to be disrespectful, this is how a Chinese person explained it to me. The second reason it is a delicacy, and the reason the women got this soup, is because it is thought to enhance the skin of women.

And for the men?

 Well, of course the men received a bowl of Sea Cucumber Soup. Sea Cucumber is thought to be an aphrodisiac for men. I guess the thought was for the women's skin to look radiant and the men to be hot and bothered. After all, it is Valentine's Day! 

BUT...I did not eat my Bird's Nest Soup ( I am good with my skin), hubby ate it. You know, I am beginning to notice his pores looking awfully nice.

The group of associates 

 Here is my Valentine!

The Gift

 Last weekend we were at the flower market (I had a hankering to buy an indoor water fountain...didn't find one I liked) and we found two watercolor paintings that we really liked. The wife of the artist runs the booth. We decided that for Valentine's Day we would buy two of his paintings.

The artist name is Zhu Dan. These are paintings of hutongs in Houhai, but we have hutongs just like these near our apartment. We thought they would make a nice keepsake to remember our time here in Beijing.

And if the Bird's Nest Soup wasn't enough for you...check out this tree made of Ferrero Rocher chocolates!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Indian Food- the easy way

I had to come all the way to China to learn that I love Indian food! I  tried these packets and absolutely love them. I am hoping my American friends can find them at Cost Plus World Market. I know the coconut rice isn't actually Indian, but it goes so well with the curry chicken that I have just made it a combo. I make this at least once every two weeks.

I love meals that are super easy and taste restaurant quality!

My only complaint is that I can't stop eating this when I make it.

Winter in Beijing ~ Toddler Steps

You may have read my emotional evaluation of the first six months of our Chinese adventure. There have also been some significant milestones reached that I should write down. 

You may remember my baby steps post back in the Fall. 

Consider this my toddler steps post for the Winter.

• I got my haircut here. Something I said I would never do. It was great! The salon is located on the third floor of our building and it was only 40 yuan ($6.00 USD). The stylist has cut three out of four of our hair now. I guess you can say we are regulars.
• Since the above haircut went so well, hubby and I decided to indulge in an hour massage at our third floor salon. You see, I had gotten a Chinese massage (from a hoity toity place) when I first arrived that was pure torture so I swore off massages in China...no matter how cheap they were. I have to say, we really enjoyed our massages this time. Each one cost 100 yuan ($15.00 USD). Next time we are going to sneak down there in our robes :)
• I can somewhat communicate what I need to in mandarin. The grammar is correct, the tones are a mess and the recipient has to piece it together like a puzzle...it's coming along though. In the next six months I just may understand something someone says.
• If I have been there before, I can almost always get there again by speaking (rather than showing something) to the taxi driver. You don't even know how much better they treat you when they think you know what you are doing. Taxis no longer raise my blood pressure.
• We have friends! Sure, we don't know their name. Sure, we cannot communicate that well with them. But, the workers at our little Russian Market (the only thing Russian about it is that the sign is in Russian) know us. The girl at the fruit stand on the corner always says hello to us.
• We have real friends. In all honesty, I really thought that the relationships that I made here would be temporary or not as deep as the ones I have at home. I have found just the opposite. Yes, we have to work hard to see each other and communicate but that, along with the shared experiences here, make the bonds that much deeper. 
• I crave Chinese food now more than American food! This is a biggie, as I have never been a lover of Chinese food. Now, I eat it every single day and am happy to do so. I crave warm, steaming dumplings. And the kung pao shrimp at one of our favorite places is something I could eat every single day.
• I don't even gag anymore when I hear the sound of "hawking loogies". Sometimes I still gag when I see those loogies on the ground though.
• The best move we have made here so far was joining the fitness center at the City Wall Marriott. For the last six months I have continuously exercised. But the Beijing elements (smog and temperature) really decided how my work outs went. Now, I walk the 20 minute walk to the bea-uuuuuu-ti-ful facilities each morning and burn those calories. I reward myself with a few minutes in the steam room and a shower with their yummy smelling products. It makes me happy!
• Here is another biggie! I had resolved that I could not use my favorite app to record my daily calorie intake. First, I thought it wouldn't work or that it wouldn't have enough of the foods that I am eating in it's database...EXCUSES! I now am back to recording my work outs and what I eat. Surprisingly it works perfectly fine. Last night we had Vietnamese food (SO GOOD!). It wasn't in the database so I went online and found the nutritional information myself (did you know you can find ANYTHING on the Internet?) and added it to the database myself. 
• I am blending in! I look like a real Beijinger with my calf-length down-filled coat, face buried in a thick scarf and my head covered. On a couple occasions someone has come up to me to ask me a question in Chinese. Then they see I am a foreigner and they walk away.

This is how I look whenever I go out recently.

I went to a market with two women who just arrived in Beijing. I remember what it was like just six months ago, when everything was so overwhelming. I sounded like I had lived here for years and I told them that in six months, they would sound like that too.

I can't wait to see what the next six months brings!

The First Six Months ~ An evolution

Happy Six Month Anniversary in Beijing!
disclaimer: this post is a bit deep and emotional. 
If you want something lighter, skip it and wait for the next post.

The evolution is occurring!
In so many ways it seems like it was yesterday that we arrived in Beijing. But when I sit back and assess, it really seems like it has been five years! How can that be?

I remember hearing "I turned a corner, you will too". 
I never, ever thought I would get to that corner. Heck, I wasn't even sure I was on the right street! But here I am and I can completely say that there are things about living here that I actually LIKE! I am even on the verge of loving certain things, which was completely unpredicted!


So how did I get from there to here? For me, my holiday trip back home was the beginning of my rock bottom.  From the moment I stepped off the plane in Chicago I could only think of how BEAUTIFUL America was and how UGLY China was. If you spoke to me on that trip you probably heard me say I hated (and I don't use that term lightly) it.  I probably told many stories that painted an awful picture (my apologies to the China Visitors Bureau). I am not proud to admit these things, and only do so in hopes that one soul out there will feel validated by my experience. I also was hanging on to a lot of resentment about moving here in the first place. That experience, back home, makes me worried about going back home for another visit. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful time! Probably too much of a wonderful time...


Needless to say, I was in a pretty dark place when I returned to Beijing just after New Years. It lasted about two weeks. Around that time I had the opportunity to see the movie "17 Miracles". It is so cliche to say it was life changing, but it was definitely perspective altering. I felt completely chastened about my attitude! How dare I complain, feel sorry for myself and be bitter? I have my family, my health, a roof over my head, food on the table, a regular pay check... and I am miserable because it is not pretty outside? When had I become a spoiled, self-pitiful, complainer who spreads it around like confetti at a party? 


It wasn't a conscious decision to begin noticing the perks and positive about living in here in Beijing. I definitely feel that this is one of those tender mercies from the Lord. He helped me begin to overlook the yucky, hard things and shined a light on the good things. Without making excuses for myself, I think my perspective was somewhat normal when plunked into a culture with so few similarities. How I manifested that perspective I take full responsibility for.


I mentioned I had been holding on to some resentment about moving here in the first place. Can I tell you...holding onto resentment (well, anything negative) is poisonous. I felt like I couldn't allow myself to enjoy any aspect of living here because I didn't want ANYONE to think that I had surrendered...surrendered to what? I was already living here! Was I really going to make our entire two years filled with me being bitter and putting a damper on every single experience? Yep, sadly,  I was kinda heading down that road. What a tragedy that would've been! What a miserable example to my children! The thing about negativity is that it is not compartmentalized. Before you know it, it is spilling over into other aspects of your life. I know it is because when we hold onto negative feelings we do not have the Holy Spirit with us. It began to affect my relationships with others, with my Heavenly Father and myself!


So here I am now. There are always going to be unpleasant, hard to understand, frustrating things about living here in China. But I have realized that time flies and, before you know it, our time here will be over. I realize that I need to embrace everything this experience has to offer and not take any of it for granted. So that is what I am doing and, darn it, it is pretty cool and fun!


Since you made it all the way through my melodramatic post I will reward you with this funny picture. It was posted in a make-shift bathroom outside of a restaurant I ate at.

Gotta LOVE China!

Longqing Gorge ~ Winter Ice Festival

The last hurrah of our Spring Festival holiday off from school and work was a trip with our branch from church to Longqing Gorge to see the annual Ice Festival.

We loaded up two buses, around 70 people, and headed an hour and a half outside of Beijing. Nobody had been there before, so expectations were questionable.

We arrived in late afternoon and hopped on a golf cart to get into the gorge. Imagine a long gorge, surrounded by vertical cliffs, leading to a tall dam. This is what it was like.

 The first thing we did was a looooooong toboggan ride. It went down the complete hillside and was a blast. You can see part of the track in the picture below.

At the base of the toboggan were some outside ice sculptures. We really thought this was it. Oh how wrong we were.

While we were looking at ice, D and his partner in crime decided to climb the hill and slide down on his bum. They had a blast!

 This picture below shows the toboggan track (yes, the bridge-looking thing). You can see the dam far off behind it. At the base you see the entrance to the dragon mouth, which is the entrance to the indoor ice sculptures. Look closely to the mountain on the right and you will see a yellow and green dragon climbing up the mountain. This is an enclosed escalator that takes you to the top of the dam.

 I am so glad we went inside! There were three rooms of ice sculptures and each room got better and better. Each sculpture had light from within to illuminate the creations. Something we will not soon forget!

 THIS IS ALL ICE!

 When you have completed the sculpture "rooms" you are at the base of the dam. Below they have sprayed the wall with water and let it freeze which created the most beautiful ice fall.

 Below is one of the sculpture rooms from above.

After we finished looking at the sculptures we headed up the gigantic dragon escalator to the top of the dam. Below is the view.

 As night fell, lights clicked on. To our surprise they had lights replicating The Great Wall up the side of the mountain.

 Below you will see how the dam is illuminated.

 Disneyland has nothing on the lights of this place!

 This was one of the best experiences we've had in China so far! We totally recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to go, go! We look forward to going back in the summer when the gorge is filled with water and the mountains are filled with lush green.

An authentic Chinese lunch & MORE fireworks

One of the blessings about living here is having authentic Chinese experiences. I thought it might be interesting to share.

A koi pond in the entry hall of their apartment

 Hubby works with mostly Chinese people and this week we were asked over for lunch at one of his bosses homes.

A courtyard in a typical Chinese apartment complex

 Since it is Spring Festival, making dumplings was on the to do list.

 Taking a long roll of dough and breaking it off into small pieces.

 Roll and flatten with hand.

 This is the part that took a lot of experience. Using a small wooden rolling pin with one hand, and turning the dough with the other you flatten it out into circles.

 Next you fill the dough. This was a pork and leek mixture. Not too much or you can't close it up.

 Pinching it closed was the most difficult part for us "Westerners".

The dumplings were then steamed and served and were yummy!

Below is the dishes that Xia's wife spent all morning preparing. There must've been 18 dishes!

A cute way to hold your chopsticks

 A typical Chinese street outside of their apartment complex.

Hubby and a friend went outside of our province to stock up on MORE fireworks. We all got together to light them off.

 The  boxes above shoot off 100 blossoms into the sky. We spent a couple of hours shooting all of these off. 

Will we ever be done with fireworks?

Temple Fair 2012

Temple Fairs are how Chinese people spend the time off of work during the Spring Festival holiday. Parks decorate and are filled with vendors. The streets of Beijing are empty but the parks are jam packed with people.

 We chose to go to LongTan Park for our first (and probably only) Temple Fair.

 Millions of people crowd around stalls selling garbage stuff. Blow up 1,000 lb mallets were popular, as were fake plastic apples piled on a stick. Since our kids just received their hongbaos we let them choose some things to buy. Both bought some wooden puzzles.

 This park has a lake in the middle, as do many others. You can see the crowd of people over hubby's shoulder.

Another section of the fair is the carnival game section. It cost 20 yuan ($3.50 USD) for 10 tokens. Most games cost 10 tokens for 2-5 chances. Even if you did not "win" you still walked away with a small trinket. 

 The next section of stalls were the food stalls. Many traditional Chinese street foods were for sale. I was wanting a "treat" but no deep fried Oreo's were to be found! 

Baby birds being roasted up to munch on!

Notice the pig hanging at this pork stand.

 Our kids could not win the stuffies they wanted so they bought them. E chose a dragon to honor the year of the dragon. Hers cost 70 yuan ($10.50 USD).

I cannot remember how much D's "Planet VS Zombies guy" cost.

 This game of chance below was the funniest of all!

 You pay for rings to toss around junk! Literally these were dirty, mismatched, sometimes broken things that looked like they were just picked up at a yard sale. There were also boxes of remote control helicopters but the boxes were too big to even hook on the box. That didn't stop people from trying!

 Then there is the snow play area. There was a section for snow ball fights, sledding, building snowmen, etc. Looked like a lot of fun!

This display was at the exit of the fair. As we were leaving we saw a fist fight between two men. It escalated quickly. The funny part was that they were fighting right in front of policemen who just stepped out of the way as they punched each other. A man's girlfriend tried to break it up and she got punched in the face. The police finally stepped in when one of the guys was on the ground. 

The bottom line...a Chinese temple fair is just like an American street fair (minus the beer). It was fun to do once, but we have crossed that off of our list.