Simple Pleasures

You've been huntin' round for treasure
Find it all in the simple pleasures
- Jake Bugg

Last Thursday, birdMAN taught his last English class of the semester. What should we do with all his free time? Study Chinese? Naahh. Let’s go play!

For us, the equivalent of playing is eating. So the following morning, we bee lined to our favorite beer and cheeseburger place: Great Leap Brewery. Great Leap is westerner’s haven. It’s clean. It’s spacious. It smells like hops. The bathrooms are not only stocked with toilet paper but also soap. The no smoking inside rule is enforced. The Indian Pale Ale beer is cold and bitter. The flavorful lamb burger is accompanied by a generous side of French fries crisped to golden perfection.

Great Leap makes a great burger

After satisfying our American bellies with American-style food and beer, we headed over to a popular hutong* called Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷). Nestled amongst the stuffed pandas and silk slipper stocked shops was a real, genuine, just-like-the-kind-in-California frozen yogurt shop. For 21.5 RMB (3.50 USD), birdMAN and I shared a cup of sheer pleasure: tart frozen yogurt topped with whole almonds, kiwi chunks, and chocolate syrup.

Life just got a little sweeter.

This is my happy face

Nanluoguxiang can be crowded.

You can buy cool stuff in Nanluoguxiang. This picture reminds me of me with my two sisters.

Food options appealing to the western palate seem to be popping up all over Beijing. Pizza, Indian, Italian, cheeseburger, and sandwich restaurants are within a 20 minute bike ride of our house. Ok, the available monstrous nachos or chicken burritos may not quite meet California Mexican food standards, but it’s pretty darn good.

Eating like a westerner, however, can be pricey for an average Chinese person. A decent western entrée will cost 40 to 80 RMB (6.50 – 13.00 USD)#. An exceptionally tasty entrée at a fancy place will cost more (we don’t go to those places). A pint of Great Leap craft brew ranges in cost from 25 to 55 RMB (4.00 – 9.00 USD). Generally, birdMAN and I will spend about 150 RMB (25 USD) for a splurge meal. Ok, in US dollars, 25 bucks may sound like a cheap meal. But for comparison, our monthly water bill is about 25 RMB (4 USD). A bowl of noodles with vegetables and meat will cost 10 to 20 RMB (1.60 to 3.20 USD).

But what can we do? Californians just cannot live on noodles and rice alone.

Chinese word of the blog: 口福kǒufú (literally, mouth good fortune)

English translation: very nice to eat

Example sentence: 我可真有口福Wǒ kězhēn yǒu kǒufú

English translation: I am eating really delicious food. (My translation may not be super correct, but you do say this when you eat really delicious food).

*Hutong 胡同: Hutong is neighborhood characterized by a cluster of narrow alleys. A long time ago, China’s emperors built Beijing’s hutongs to house people according to social class. 

# Some restaurants offer lunch or dinner specials.  Subway restaurant sells a 15 RMB sandwich. One nearby restaurant discounts the 35 RMB chicken burger to 10 RMB every Monday. We take full advantage of such deals!

Great Leap also offers this vegetarian option: the Knife and Fork Sandwich

Last February we woke up early to watch the Superbowl at Great Leap. birdMAN is very happy. There's nothing like a beer at 8 am.

Really awesome pizza no matter where you are

This is birdMAN's happy face

This burrito is a cylinder of deliciousness

Beijing Nachos! Totally worth 58 RMB

Can't Stop The Spring

You can put the clouds up in your own little way
But the sun is gonna come up the very next day
It's gonna be so bright, it's gonna blow you away
And once it's over, your head will never be the same
-The Flaming Lips

Chinese people are very interested in American lifestyles. Typical questions may include: Do you know how to drive? In America, did you have a car? Is it true there are no subways? Was your house very big? How much money did it cost? How many children do people have?

People find it amusing that I grew up on a large country property with chickens, turtles, cats, a dog and a pond.  They also find it even more amusing that I have a Chinese father who can’t speak standard Chinese. They find it bewildering that we could live in a house in America and have cars, but we chose to move to a sprawling and polluted city crammed with 21 million people.

Yes, it is quite the conundrum. The six-story malls, the shoving and pushing required to board a subway car or bus, the garbage clogging the storm drains, the foul smells wafting from public restrooms, the dust, the grime, the spit-marked sidewalks, the air pollution—yes, all  the repercussions of a city with elbow-to-elbow people—have yet to drive me mad. In fact, the chaos continues to amuse and intrigue me.

But sometimes an escape from the concrete is necessary and reviving. (Forget about escaping people. That’s just impossible.) Fortunately, Beijing has a number of pristinely groomed gardens which are especially lovely during the spring. And this year's spring was especially lovely.

Here are some parks I visited during April that are great for flower viewing and people watching:

Beijing Botanical Gardens 植物园

This garden is my new favorite place to escape the concrete. The hills are alive with blossoms upon blossoms upon blossoms! On the Qingming Jie holiday, I went sans birdMAN with a large group of friends. We picnicked, jump-roped, chatted, and enjoyed the sunshine.

I liked this park so much, I returned the same week with birdMAN and other fellow expats. We were quite the spectacle. Not only were we blatantly foreign (3 white people, one black guy, and one of ambiguous origin (that would be me)), we were loud. If you know me, and you know our friend Ming Jie, well—it is one loud combination. Jokes, laughter, and overly expressive reactions. It’s like opening a soda bottle that has just been vigorously shaken for three hours straight. Explosive and fun. Wish you could have joined us.

Cost: 10 RMB

The Free Radicals Free Advice: Do bring lunch and water. No need to buy the more expensive 50 RMB ticket. My friends tell me that the expensive ticket is not worth the entrance to the temple and greenhouse. There is plenty to see.

Fun times at the park. Click HERE

Expats know how to have fun. Click HERE

G and the Bees

Jing Shan Park 景山公园

I have a Beijing auntie that I absolutely adore. She loves to laugh, chat, run, and sing. Even though she doesn’t speak any English and my Chinese is severely lacking, I can spend hours with her and feel totally comfortable. She invited me to experience the Jing Shan Park’s peonies and Beijing park life. Lots of dancing, singing, shuttlecock kicking, and sword wielding.

Cost: 10 RMB

The Free Radicals Free Advice: If limited on time and money, skip the Forbidden City and its expensive 60 RMB entrance fee. Hike to the top of the Jing Shan hill and view the Forbidden City from up high (and hope for a clear day).

Click HERE for more of Jing Shan

Yuan Dynasty City Wall Ruins Park元大都城垣遗址公园 

At the early hour of 6:30 am in an effort to beat the Qingming Jie weekend crowds, we took a half-hour bike ride with a group of friends. The early departure was to no avail. Everybody came out to see the cherry blossomed trees at the Wall Park. So what happens when two giddy expats (that would be my Brit-Aussie gal pal LD and me-- my husband would never be called a “giddy expat”) try to get cozy with the local, long-timers? A lot of picture taking, posing, and spectacle-making.

Cost: Free
The Free Radicals Free Advice: Do go while the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Be sure to bring a camera and find some elderly uncles and aunties to pose with.

Lovely day for a stroll

Met this cute elderly uncle in the park. He made his cane himself!

Click HERE for more pictures of City Wall Park

Olympic Forest Park and Bird’s Nest 奥林匹克森林公园

The Olympic Forest Park is my favorite place to run. The north section of the park has a 3K, 5K, and 10K running path that weaves through the ponds, trees, and flower gardens. In April, I went right after the Qingming Jie holiday (not to run, just to look around). The weekend hordes of people had left a trail of garbage and tramped grass in its wake.

Cost: Free
The Free Radicals Free Advice: Strap on your running shoes and join the walkers and runners along the running path. Go early in the morning to avoid peak people hours. Spend the hot summer evenings strolling the concrete expanse between the Forest Park and the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. Eat some street food and join in on the dancing.

Click HERE for more Olympic Park pictures

 LK getting groovy with the locals

Summer nights are a good for running Olympic Forest Park

Temple of Heaven 天坛公园

The park is large with lots of evergreen trees, but you don’t come here to see the trees. After seeing the blooms at other parks, the natural fauna seemed severely lacking. The real reason to visit the Temple of Heaven is to see the rather impressive wood altars.

The Temple of Heaven is listed as a must-do for Beijing Tourists, so the place is teeming with foreign and Chinese alike. The verdict: glad we went, but we don’t feel particularly compelled to return.

Cost: 10 RMB for the park + 20 RMB to see the temples = 30 RMB
The Free Radicals Free Advice: Bring your own water. A bottle of Nongfu water is 5 RMB, whereas it is normally 2 RMB.

Click HERE for more closeups of heaven

Chinese Word of the Blog: 逛 guàng  

English Translation: to stroll / to visit

Example sentence: 我们去公园逛一逛吧! Wǒmen qù gōngyuán guàng yī guàng ba!

English translation: Let’s go to the park and stroll!

Dead Souls

Where figures from the past stand tall, 
And mocking voices ring the halls.
Imperialistic house of prayer,
Conquistadors who took their share.
That keep calling me 
They keep calling me  
-Joy Division

Tombs in Taiwan -- They need their weeds cleared

A few weeks ago, China celebrated Qingming Jie (清明节Qīngmíng jié), which literally translated means “Pure Brightness Festival.” The English translation, Tomb Sweeping Day, highlights how people traditionally celebrate this festival: they clear away the weeds from ancestral tombs and make offerings for the dead.

This year, Qingming Jie fell on Saturday, April 5. All over China, the dutiful set fake money ablaze on street corners, outside their doorsteps, and on tomb stones. They journeyed to graves, cleared away the weeds, and set plates of food and fruit on altars. To human eyes, the money went up in smoke and ashes. In the hereafter, however, the spirits may use this money for whatever spirits need to buy. Maybe they rent a condo in an upscale spirit neighborhood with a view of a celestial temple.

A few days after Qingming Jie, I talked to an elderly woman whose husband died three years ago. At the end of his life, he had lost his mind to dementia. He wouldn’t eat. He couldn’t talk. He wouldn’t wear clothes. She worries that in the afterworld (另外世界lìngwài shìjiè) he doesn’t have any clothes to wear, so during Qingming Jie she burns money. She feels that her husband needs the money to buy clothes. I asked her what else he does in the next world. Besides shopping, he probably has other interests. Of course he does. He goes fishing.

While slurping on his egg and vegetable soup in a “Chinese Hamburger” restaurant (really that’s what the sign said), a cabbie driver told me spent his Saturday worshiping his ancestors (拜先祖 bài xiānzǔ).  He and his family are from Beijing, so visiting the tombs of his dead relatives is very convenient. He brings them food and probably burns fake money. I asked him if he believes that the dead continue on in the afterlife. He didn’t give me a direct answer (that means he said a lot of things that I didn’t understand through his garbled Beijinghua—so whether the answer was yes or no is unclear), but he was clear that Qingming Jie is a very important in Chinese history. It is culture. It is tradition.

Such practices, however, are slowly fading with the younger and secularized Chinese. Millions of young Chinese leave their hometowns— fortresses of traditions—to live, work, and study in big cities. They leave behind the ancestral tombs, and their aging and superstitious grandparents. They embrace a secular way of life, consumed with higher education, finding a satisfying job, finding a spouse and having children. Money is king to many of these young bookworms. The old traditions are fun—but not spiritual or even necessary.

One young graduate student told me that as a child she accompanied her parents to the ancestors’ tombs to burn money and to offer food. Now both she and her parents live in Beijing. Their hometown and the tombs are too far away to make the long trip to traditionally commemorate Qingming Jie. She does not think that her dead ancestors need her money. She's not sure if she believes in life after death (línghún 灵魂). Instead of burning real money on fake money to literally burn, she spent 10 RMB (1.60 USD) on an entrance ticket to the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Yes, she spent Qingming Jie as most people with a day off do: she went out and played.

Chinese Word of the Blog: 另外世界lìngwài shìjiè (literally, another world)

English Translation: place people go when they die – the hereafter

Everyone went out to play at the Beijing Botanical Gardens. There were as many people as flowers.

These flower children dressed for the occasion

Beijing saw blue skies on Qingming Jie. The ancestors must be pleased.

Go Outside

I really want to go out

I really want to go outside and stop to see your day

You really want to hole up

You really want to stay inside and sleep the light away

-The Cults

Spring came on time this year. Despite the long stretches of severe pollution, the magnolia, cherry, plum, and peach buds opened wide to the sky and said, “Take that smog, I AM ALIVE.” Unfortunately, the lifespan of these awesome blossoms are awesomely short. The Beijing spring is short, and cool weather quickly transforms into hot weather. No spring jackets needed here.

On that note, Beijingers have shed the gloves and winter hats, but are still walking around wearing wool coats and sweaters. The thinking is you should wear as many layers as you can until you can’t stand it anymore. If you do not dress warm during the not-so-hot time, you will be too hot in the summer. That is, when the weather is a pleasant 70F, sweat it out under layers of clothes so you will be cooler in the summer. I reject this thinking. Cold is cold is cold. Warm is warm is warm. Hot is hot is hot. Dress accordingly.

Chinese Word of the Blog: 玉兰花 yù lán huā (literally jade orchid flower) 

English Translation: magnolia

The ladies came out for a spring dance

I have no idea what kind of buds these are

Blue skies are a rare sight

Beijing buds in all their glory

 

The kindergarteners out for a stroll

Neighborhood fruit girl in high spirits

A couple of weeks ago the skies cleared for a glorious sunset

Garden of Eyes/ Forever is a Long Time

You take a second look to find
A second chance at giving
The voices say do not despair
There's a real good reason you're living

-The Flaming Lips

Too much to read? Click HERE for pictures of our California trip

In the Western Hemisphere and 6,098 miles away, California experienced an uncharacteristically warm winter. T-shirt wearing dog-lovers walked their dogs. Sweet-toothed children ate ice-cream. The parched ground bloomed with daffodils. Californians lamented the lack of rain but basked in the sunshine while pushing the mittens, hats, and sweaters to the back of the closet.

Meanwhile, Beijing skies were gray and snow lingered on the ground. In the midst of our Beijing winter, an email popped up in birdMAN’s inbox: I recently had some medical tests and the results are not good. birdMAN’s father has the Modern Plague: cancer.

The problem with living 6,098 miles away is that …well, being 6,098 miles away.

So we bought our plane tickets, packed one bag each, told our friends goodbye, gave away our perishables, and awoke the next day at 4:00 am to catch the 8:00 am flight out of Beijing, to Hong Kong, and then to Sacramento. Six-thousand ninety eight miles in 15 hours.

Despite everything- the cancer (hangs like a menacing cloud), the immunity-boosting diet (no gluten and lots of Vitamin C), the chemotherapy (so not fun)—we had very nice visit with the family. birdMAN’s parents’ house, after all, is a vacation unto itself. Perched at the edge of a scenic canyon, the house is spacious but comfortable with a large screen TV and a pantry stocked with organic nuts and avocados.  After the family went to bed, we stayed up late watching the Winter Olympics and finishing off the stock of Haagen-Dazs ice cream left in the garage freezer. Then we would retire to the guest bed to sleep as blissfully as babies. The sun would gently awaken us as it peaked over the canyon, orange light streaming through the windows reflecting on cauliflower clouds.

After one week, birdMAN boarded a plane and flew 6,098 miles back to Beijing. I spent the next two weeks at my BC (Before China) job reprising my BC life as a civil engineer. Creek computer modeling, sitting in an office, drinking coffee, and driving a car felt so normal. I even dug out my hair dryer, curling iron, and heeled boots from storage and tried to be California-fashionable again. I gorged on beets, sandwiches, and tacos. I drank Starbucks coffee and shopped at Whole Foods. So California normal.

Much to the relief of parched Californians, the weather turned. Steady, gentle rain and then one ferocious storm. The ground soaked it up. Not a cure for California’s inevitable drought, but a small mercy for seemingly impossible plight.

A rainbow after the storm

As the rain commenced, birdMANs father began his chemotherapy. Like the water seeping into the ground, fillings its voids, and eventually draining to the low water tables, the chemicals infused into his blood, circulated to his heart, and filled his body. Chemotherapy is not like water. It poisons. It kills cells. It makes you sick. But chemotherapy is like water. It permeates. It saturates. It leaves its effects wherever it goes. And in the end, it’s life.

And birdMAN’s dad has a beautiful life. He has doting wife of 41 years. During those 41 years together, they raised two sons and two daughters. Each son and each daughter married, and birdMAN’s parents welcomed each in-law child as one of their own. Out of the four unions, one spunky grand-daughter has been born. Milan affectionately calls her grandparents Moomoo and Baba. The pitter patter of her feet racing around the house, her tiny voice exclaiming with delight over mundane things, and her insightful observations grab hold of Moomoo and Baba’s hearts, squeezing it with love.

They love nothing more than their house filled with all their children. They love to hear their children teasing each other like brothers and sisters do. They love hearing their children’s successes, and helping them through their trials. They have built a house. And that house is filled with love.

Chinese Phrase of the Blog: 祝你早康复 Zhù nǐ zǎo kāngfù

English Translation: Wish you a quick recovery