from xkcd.com. It seems relevant.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Keep the change?
It wouldn't be so bad if I learned a little more Chinese. (EMC is offering a 6 month class this fall). "Hello" and "thank you" only go so far. And recognizing a few written words or symbols (person, big, exit, entrance, center, China, Yuan), doesn't really get you to the 3-6000 symbols needed to be literate.After swimming tonight (with EMC), I decided to treat myself to an ice cream. Let me introduce you to the currency here in China. Everything is based on the RMB (Yuan). There are 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100 Yuan bills. Given the exchange rate 7:1, this means that 1 Yuan is about 15 cents. I've not seen any coins, though I think they exist. I picked out my ice cream treat (Unilever magnum, ) and attempted to pay 3 Yuan. That's what I had. The cashier couldn't make change and would not accept my 3 yuan for something that cost 2.5 Yuan. I tried again, saying its all I had. She would budge. Hmmm. I was flustered. She offered me a different ice cream treat and pointed to the price chart showing that this new one cost 3. No good. I don't want it -- it doesn't look good. I grab the magnum and try to pay 3 yuan, but that isn't going to work. So she finally gives me two magnums and says. "5". I pay her the 5 Yuan and am now stuck with two ice creams. Had I been quick, I would have handed her back the extra ice cream bar and left -- I'm not such a quick thinker, and since I hadn't yet had dinner, it wasn't too bad to have two ice creams instead.
Swimming with the team
I've uploaded a few pictures at picasa. (http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.r.glasgow/Simata)
Today was the day to review projects and present pNFS as a "Tech Talk" for the Beijing office and for the Shanhai office via video link. I've never presented pNFS before, and certainly not to a crowd of 50 non-native English speakers. Far from having nothing to say (always my fear), I easily filled the hour and took questions for another 20 minutes. I think it was a big success. Xaio, the manager for the MPFS team in Beijing, says it was the best tech talk that he has been to. I was glad to be able to share some of the work that is going on in Southborough with office here, and it is much more effective than our weekly conference calls.
After the tech talk I watched a few games of ping pong and tried playing Haiyun. To put things more accurately, I should say that I had a lesson from Haiyun. He was happy to give me a few pointers on my ping pong playing and volley with me. It was all about him trying to see if he could hit a moving target (my racket) and get the ball to bounce back to his side. I must say that despite the random movements of my racket, he did a great job. Not to stereo type, but there are some incredible (IMHO) ping pong players in the EMC office. They hold the racket in a funny way, blow on it before the serve, stare down each other, spin the ball like crazy, and play so fast I can't follow the game. They're good. Seems like Hiayun is one of the best. I wish Dani could get a chance to play. He would probably enjoy the game even more than I.
So what are my impressions of the office, the team, etc? Well the working quarters are certainly a little more intimate. The cubicle walls, if you can call them that, are much lower than in sobo. Basically everybody can see each other, or spin around an talk to one another very easily. It certainly makes for good communication, though not the best if you want to have a phone conversation. The office temperature is also kept a fair bit hotter than is the case in the US. In fact it almost feels like it isn't air conditioned. Environmentally that's great. The 20+ story office build has operable windows, and when it is too hot, they crack the window a bit to get some air. Its different. I cannot think of a single office building that I've worked in that has operable windows. So, while I sometimes felt a little hot, I also thought that this is so muc better than burning oil to stay in an entirely temperature control environment. The team, and the office has a lot of camaraderie. They often go out to lunch together (one of the advantages of being in a city, and not in a suburb near 495), play lots of ping pong, regularly go swimming with the EMC swimming club (I joined them too tonight), and even go hiking with the hiking club.
A few more notes of interest... EMC is in the same building as Microsoft. Next door is Google and Adobe. Downstairs is VMware.
For Monday lunch we went to (http://www.liaofan.com/) a vegetarian restaurant. "No egg, no meat, no smoking, no alcohol". It was the first meal where I felt I could eat *anything* that was served. It was great. Even the fake (tofu) Peking duck.
Driving stories continue.... On the way to the pool tonight I got a ride with Niu. We passed under the subway station (it is above ground here), and then I was some flashing lights and heard some bells. I hadn't quite figured out what was going on when Niu said, "Oh a train must be coming", stepped on the gas and sped across the railroad tracks. Yikes. Well, at least the gates hadn't yet descended. I looked both ways and didn't see the train -- as if that would have made a difference. And the craziness continues. Everybody seems to think they have the right of way, from pedestrians, to cyclists, to moped drivers, to cars, trucks and busses. Perhaps the rule is that who ever does not flinch has the right of way. After crossing the railroad tracks we got stuck in traffic trying to make a left. The cyclists started accumulating around us and in front, all edging up to be the first to make the turn. Mr. Bold decides he's going to go for it, despite the huge articulated bus bearing down on the intersection. It's chicken. Between you and me, I'm chicken. I wouldn't challenge a bus. I was getting a little nervious, but at the last second the cyclist yielded and let the bus go first. A momentary lapse into sanity.
Today was the day to review projects and present pNFS as a "Tech Talk" for the Beijing office and for the Shanhai office via video link. I've never presented pNFS before, and certainly not to a crowd of 50 non-native English speakers. Far from having nothing to say (always my fear), I easily filled the hour and took questions for another 20 minutes. I think it was a big success. Xaio, the manager for the MPFS team in Beijing, says it was the best tech talk that he has been to. I was glad to be able to share some of the work that is going on in Southborough with office here, and it is much more effective than our weekly conference calls.
After the tech talk I watched a few games of ping pong and tried playing Haiyun. To put things more accurately, I should say that I had a lesson from Haiyun. He was happy to give me a few pointers on my ping pong playing and volley with me. It was all about him trying to see if he could hit a moving target (my racket) and get the ball to bounce back to his side. I must say that despite the random movements of my racket, he did a great job. Not to stereo type, but there are some incredible (IMHO) ping pong players in the EMC office. They hold the racket in a funny way, blow on it before the serve, stare down each other, spin the ball like crazy, and play so fast I can't follow the game. They're good. Seems like Hiayun is one of the best. I wish Dani could get a chance to play. He would probably enjoy the game even more than I.
So what are my impressions of the office, the team, etc? Well the working quarters are certainly a little more intimate. The cubicle walls, if you can call them that, are much lower than in sobo. Basically everybody can see each other, or spin around an talk to one another very easily. It certainly makes for good communication, though not the best if you want to have a phone conversation. The office temperature is also kept a fair bit hotter than is the case in the US. In fact it almost feels like it isn't air conditioned. Environmentally that's great. The 20+ story office build has operable windows, and when it is too hot, they crack the window a bit to get some air. Its different. I cannot think of a single office building that I've worked in that has operable windows. So, while I sometimes felt a little hot, I also thought that this is so muc better than burning oil to stay in an entirely temperature control environment. The team, and the office has a lot of camaraderie. They often go out to lunch together (one of the advantages of being in a city, and not in a suburb near 495), play lots of ping pong, regularly go swimming with the EMC swimming club (I joined them too tonight), and even go hiking with the hiking club.
A few more notes of interest... EMC is in the same building as Microsoft. Next door is Google and Adobe. Downstairs is VMware.
For Monday lunch we went to (http://www.liaofan.com/) a vegetarian restaurant. "No egg, no meat, no smoking, no alcohol". It was the first meal where I felt I could eat *anything* that was served. It was great. Even the fake (tofu) Peking duck.
Driving stories continue.... On the way to the pool tonight I got a ride with Niu. We passed under the subway station (it is above ground here), and then I was some flashing lights and heard some bells. I hadn't quite figured out what was going on when Niu said, "Oh a train must be coming", stepped on the gas and sped across the railroad tracks. Yikes. Well, at least the gates hadn't yet descended. I looked both ways and didn't see the train -- as if that would have made a difference. And the craziness continues. Everybody seems to think they have the right of way, from pedestrians, to cyclists, to moped drivers, to cars, trucks and busses. Perhaps the rule is that who ever does not flinch has the right of way. After crossing the railroad tracks we got stuck in traffic trying to make a left. The cyclists started accumulating around us and in front, all edging up to be the first to make the turn. Mr. Bold decides he's going to go for it, despite the huge articulated bus bearing down on the intersection. It's chicken. Between you and me, I'm chicken. I wouldn't challenge a bus. I was getting a little nervious, but at the last second the cyclist yielded and let the bus go first. A momentary lapse into sanity.
Monday, May 26, 2008
En route to EMC office
8:45AM Monday
Well, I'm off to an adventure.. Armed with my laptop and some Chinese saying, "Please take this passenger to EMC....", I thought I would be all set. I checked out of my "downtown hotel", showed the doorman the picture on my laptop, and hopped into a taxi. I said, "Ni how" and he replied "Ni how." Okay, that's it for my Chinese. I showed the driver the picture and he said, "wua ha wua ha", meaning, "I have no idea where you want to go." At least I think that's what it means. I said, "I don't understand Chinese" and pointed at the map again. Evidently he wanted me to zoom in on the office, but I couldn't. He then said something else which was unintelligible, and left the taxi, evidently 
to confer with other waiting drivers. He's now back in the car driving in what I think is the right direction. I'm left thinking that grid systems and numbered roads are great.
We are now headed west on the 3rd ring road. Not very fast mind you, because it is one huge parking lot. I was warned.
Backtracking....
Sunday was my day to explore Beijing myself. Still being a little off schedule I woke at some ungodly hour, wrote the blog, had breakfast and got an early start to see the forbidden city. I grabbed a cab at the hotel and pointed to the line saying, "Take me to the forbidden city" in English and Chinese. That worked fine. I arrived at the forbidden city and was immediately accosted and offered books, postcards, baseball caps, etc. I'm getting better at making no eye contact and just walking away. It feels rude, but it is certainly the best way to handle it. Getting to the main square where one has to buy tickets, an unlicensed tour guide approached me and offered his services. 90 minutes of tour for 200 Yuan ($30). His english was pretty good, but I declined seeing that I could get an GPS based audio tour. Technologically it is pretty neat. It might not work well in a small confined space, but in a place as large as the forbidden city it is easily able to track your movements, flash the LED on the map and give you an explanation of the building you are approaching. The entire forbidden city is overwhelming. It is huge square after huge square, palace after palace, heavenly this, supreme that. I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful buildings, the emperors garden, the exhibit on Puyi (the last emperor?), and the clock exhibit. I was there for three hours, and yet barely scratched the surface. My Chinese history is a little better now that I've got the Ming Dynasty, the Qin Dynatsy, Sun Yat Sen, and Chang Hai Shek ordered chronologically in my head, but I'm in need of my 10th grade text book on China to sort it all out in more detail.
I exited on the north side of the forbidden city and had to walk back to the South side to see Tienanmen sq. This is no small walk. I walked along the huge moat.
The size and scale of the square, the 12 lane road separating it from the forbidden city, and the imposing Mao mausoleum combine to make one feel very small. I cannot image what Beijing was like two decades ago when there were a tiny fraction of the cars. It feels like the city is paved over in the worst possible ways. Huge thorough fares that are impassable to pedestrians. Streets so wide that either side of the street is a different disconnected neighborhood. Beijing could have used an urban planner, IMHO. I did not walk in Tianamen Square, just along part of the perimeter, thinking I would go to the National Museum. But alas it is closed for several years of renovations. Oops. So I decided to take the Subway back to the hotel. I always like to see what a city's subways are like. The subway was fine. A little less commercial than the Shanghai subway. Last year I was surprised by the number of Apple iPod ads in the Shanghai subway. It seemed like there was one on every single support column. Beijing has far fewer ads, and none for Apple iPods. The Beijing subway only gets one for far (er, close). I got off at the nearest stop but still had at least a mile and a half to my hotel. The subway is very well used, and they are in the process of adding several more subway lines -- so coverage of the city will improve.
Well, I'm off to an adventure.
We are now headed west on the 3rd ring road. Not very fast mind you, because it is one huge parking lot. I was warned.
Backtracking....
Sunday was my day to explore Beijing myself. Still being a little off schedule I woke at some ungodly hour, wrote the blog, had breakfast and got an early start to see the forbidden city. I grabbed a cab at the hotel and pointed to the line saying, "Take me to the forbidden city" in English and Chinese. That worked fine. I arrived at the forbidden city and was immediately accosted and offered books, postcards, baseball caps, etc. I'm getting better at making no eye contact and just walking away. It feels rude, but it is certainly the best way to handle it. Getting to the main square where one has to buy tickets, an unlicensed tour guide approached me and offered his services. 90 minutes of tour for 200 Yuan ($30). His english was pretty good, but I declined seeing that I could get an GPS based audio tour. Technologically it is pretty neat. It might not work well in a small confined space, but in a place as large as the forbidden city it is easily able to track your movements, flash the LED on the map and give you an explanation of the building you are approaching. The entire forbidden city is overwhelming. It is huge square after huge square, palace after palace, heavenly this, supreme that. I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful buildings, the emperors garden, the exhibit on Puyi (the last emperor?), and the clock exhibit. I was there for three hours, and yet barely scratched the surface. My Chinese history is a little better now that I've got the Ming Dynasty, the Qin Dynatsy, Sun Yat Sen, and Chang Hai Shek ordered chronologically in my head, but I'm in need of my 10th grade text book on China to sort it all out in more detail.
I exited on the north side of the forbidden city and had to walk back to the South side to see Tienanmen sq. This is no small walk. I walked along the huge moat.
Interuption. We just got on the highway North, to go from the 3rd ring road to the fourth ring road. Suddenly there is no traffic. Now that is great.TienanmenSquare (photos) is, like most of Beijing, overwhelming in size. It is hard and cold looking, and very much conveys the feeling of an authoritarian regime. Apparently it is modeled after the Soviet city architecture.
Interuption. We reached the fourth ring parking lot, er, road. It was fast getting here, but we are going anywhere fast now that we are here.
The size and scale of the square, the 12 lane road separating it from the forbidden city, and the imposing Mao mausoleum combine to make one feel very small. I cannot image what Beijing was like two decades ago when there were a tiny fraction of the cars. It feels like the city is paved over in the worst possible ways. Huge thorough fares that are impassable to pedestrians. Streets so wide that either side of the street is a different disconnected neighborhood. Beijing could have used an urban planner, IMHO. I did not walk in Tianamen Square, just along part of the perimeter, thinking I would go to the National Museum. But alas it is closed for several years of renovations. Oops. So I decided to take the Subway back to the hotel. I always like to see what a city's subways are like. The subway was fine. A little less commercial than the Shanghai subway. Last year I was surprised by the number of Apple iPod ads in the Shanghai subway. It seemed like there was one on every single support column. Beijing has far fewer ads, and none for Apple iPods. The Beijing subway only gets one for far (er, close). I got off at the nearest stop but still had at least a mile and a half to my hotel. The subway is very well used, and they are in the process of adding several more subway lines -- so coverage of the city will improve.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Visiting Simatai
Saturday Evening, 9pmI just got back my hotel room after a very long day of site seeing. Of course I have jet lag, so I woke at 4am. Yikes. I used that time to check my email, talk to Ami in Israel and call home. Then at 6:30 I decided to exercise in the hotel gym. I knew I was going out to see the great wall later in the day, but I figured, good to get the exercise done with, even if I walk a little later. I had breakfast at the hotel, an extensive buffet, and I ate a lot, on the theory that who knows what kind of food I will get to eat later in the day.
At 8:30am Haiyun and his 5 year old daughter picked me up at the hotel, and we drove to the other side of town to meet Xiao and Niu. At least that was what I thought was the plan. Instead, though we meet with Xiao, Niu, Niu's girl friend, Niu's friend, Haiyeen and Gong Chen. Xiao, Niu and Haiyun I know from my visit to China last year, Haiyeen I interviewed on the phone a few weeks ago, and we hired her last week and Gong Chen has been working with the group for 6 months or so, but I've never met him. So it turns out that we are going to take two cars to "Simatai" -- a certain section of the Great Wall. Haiyun explains that he will drive me since he is a slower driver than Niu, and they don't want to scare me. That leads in to a few notes about driving in China.
I asked Hiayun about right on red. He explained to me that there is now requirement to stop, although it is a good idea to slow down. Argh. Well, that explains some of the insanity. Among other things, it turns out that Simatia is 80 miles from Beijing, so we are in for a long ride -- and don't forget that there is traffic even early on a Sunday morning. About an hour into the trip we reach the end of the highway and get on to local roads. The air has already cleared significantly, but the traffic is now horrific. It seems they are repaving the roads today. Slowly we creep along until we get to the portion that is freshly paved, though not marked. It must be a 2 lane road in each direction, plus a decent shoulder. Without markings though the cars are all over the place. I swear we were traveling in the wrong lane. Pretty soon we left the fresh pavement and got on to a 1 lane (each direction) road that was marked. Now might be a good time to introduce the "triple pass" maneuver.
Pretend your driving along, three cars stuck behind a slow moving overloaded truck. Or better yet, two cars and a (speedy?) truck, stuck behind a hugely overloaded truck. Yes, that sounds right. Obviously the speedy truck can't wait for a dashed line to pass, so he crosses the double yellow and tries to overtake the overloaded truck. Speedy is a misnomer, because these maneuvers generally happen on inclines, and so even the speedy truck ain't so fast. Anyway, that still leaves two cars. One inevitably (I saw this multiple times) decides that he cannot bother going so slow, and yet can't pass on the left, so he moves onto the shoulder to pass on the right. Sure. Why not. In the worst case he'll run over a cyclist or two. But that still does not make for a "triple pass". The second car, seeing all the lanes clogged with slow moving vehicles has no choice but to cross the yellow line and then enter the shoulder on the far *LEFT* side of the road, thus triple passing all the other annoying vehicles. Visibility, about 50 feet. Lucky for me, Haiyun generally did not participate in the triple pass maneuver, though he did ignore the double yellow line, and did try to pass from the shoulder. Yikes. By my count we were almost squeezed off the shoulder twice, and had 3 near head on collisions. At dinner, Haiyun told me that he's only had his license for 7 months. Hmm. I assured him that he was every bit as good as the other Chinese drivers on the road.
I did not take a photo of the 18 wheeler at the side of the road half on the shoulder half beyond the shoulder tipped over at 45 degrees facing the wrong direction. It did not immediately occur to me the cause, but in hind site this was definitely an ill-planned triple pass. Or, maybe even a quadruple.
One final note on driving in China... It would appear that pedestrians DO NOT have the right away. A friendly driver might honk to warn the pedestrian, but in general the pedestrians are totally ignored, even when they are in a cross walk.
I'm now too tired to do the Great Wall justice. Lets just say that we arrived around noon, packed up the backpacks with much water, and started climbing. Haiyun had chosen to go to Simatai instead of the "normal" place to visit the Wall, because it is more difficult hiking and thus much less crowded. This was true. While there were other people hiking the wall, even a couple speaking in Hebrew (surprise!), it really was not crowded. It was lot of tough climbing. I'm not sure how high the elevation was, but it was a good workout. From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simatai)
Simatai, (simplified Chinese: 司马台; traditional Chinese: 司馬臺; pinyin: Sīmǎtái) a section of the Great Wall of China located in the north of Miyun county, 120 km northeast of Beijing, holds the access to Gubeikou, a strategic pass in the eastern part of the Great Wall. Originally built during the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) and rebuilt in the Hongwu years of the Ming dynasty by Qi Jiguang, this section of Great Wall is one of the few to retain the original features of the Ming dynasty Great Wall.
Simatai Great Wall is 5.4 km long with 35 beacon towers. Ingeniously conceived and uniquely designed, this section of Great Wall, inimitable and diversified, has incorporated the different characteristics of each section of the Great Wall. No wonder the famous specialist of Great Wall, Professor Luo Zhewen, says: "The Great Wall is the best of the Chinese buildings, and Simatai is the best of the Great Wall." UNESCO has designated Simatai Great Wall as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites.
On way down, my I decided to take the "Inertia ropeway" I'm afraid of heights, and a little skeptical of the condition of amusement park rides, etc. Especially in China. But after reading the "PASSED SAFETY TEST" sign, I thought I might take a closer look. As I was evaluating, knees shaking, Niu was busy buying 4 tickets. Before I knew it, I had no choice. I put on the harness, clicked on to the steel cable, and jumped. You know, it was not quite as scary as I expected. On Monday I will post the pictures from Haiyun's camera so you can see me waving as I descend. You cannot really see in the picture below, but the cables go all the way to the dam.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Getting to Beijing
We arrived rather late. The flight was fine but I could not sleep very much. I watched "27 Dresses" (or at least the second half of it), and some of the discovery channel. Its pretty nice to have TV on airplanes. I also read through the Wall Street Journal and did some work on my laptop. With a few hours to go we hit some really bad turbulence -- the kind where you feel like the plane may break apart. I'm not prone to being nervous, but after a few drops that left my
stomach 5 rows back in the overhead luggage bins, I started to wonder if I would make it to Beijing alive. I told myself not to worry. "I'm sure this plane has been flying this route for 30+ years without an accident." But, you know, that didn't make me feel much better. Can you say metal fatigue?
One of the stewards on the flight noticed I was wearing an EMC shift and so struck up a conversation with me about EMC. He has a high school friend who works there too. He said the air in Beijing is horrible. True to his word even as we approached Beijing the air in the plane began to smell. We landed and I could barely see accross the runway. Yuck. The Beijing airport is huge. Very open, expansive and clearly ready for the Olympics. I passed through passport control and customs without a hitch, and used an ATM to get some Yuan. Easy enough to find a cab, but the driver does not speak english. I showed him my hotel confirmation, but he did not seem to know where to go, so I cracked open my laptop with detailed directions in Chinese and I
think that seems to have done the trick. I say that now as I ride in the backseat, hopeful that I will arrive at my hotel. Immediately upon exiting the airport the traffic is horrible. I don't know where we are going, so I don't know if I will be stuck in traffic for 10 minutes or 10 hours. I hope the former. I'm already wishing that I had taken the train.
stomach 5 rows back in the overhead luggage bins, I started to wonder if I would make it to Beijing alive. I told myself not to worry. "I'm sure this plane has been flying this route for 30+ years without an accident." But, you know, that didn't make me feel much better. Can you say metal fatigue?
One of the stewards on the flight noticed I was wearing an EMC shift and so struck up a conversation with me about EMC. He has a high school friend who works there too. He said the air in Beijing is horrible. True to his word even as we approached Beijing the air in the plane began to smell. We landed and I could barely see accross the runway. Yuck. The Beijing airport is huge. Very open, expansive and clearly ready for the Olympics. I passed through passport control and customs without a hitch, and used an ATM to get some Yuan. Easy enough to find a cab, but the driver does not speak english. I showed him my hotel confirmation, but he did not seem to know where to go, so I cracked open my laptop with detailed directions in Chinese and I
think that seems to have done the trick. I say that now as I ride in the backseat, hopeful that I will arrive at my hotel. Immediately upon exiting the airport the traffic is horrible. I don't know where we are going, so I don't know if I will be stuck in traffic for 10 minutes or 10 hours. I hope the former. I'm already wishing that I had taken the train.
Around town
Saturday Morning 5:00AM
In the end, I made it to the hotel pretty quickly. Perhaps it took half an hour. Not surpisingly at the hotel English is spoken. Not well, but spoken. That is a relief. I have a room on the 22nd floor
with a view of the city, but the air is so thick there is not much to see. It is like the air is full of dust. The Beijing air seems much worse than Shanghai (or at least worse than my recollection of
Shanghai). After settling in to my hotel room I decided to take a walk around town and grab some dinner. The restaurants in the hotel looked very expensive, so I asked the concierge for a map and started walking. Much like Shanghai the streets are full of bicycles. Sometimes one person on a bike, sometimes two. Never a helmet. Often the "passenger" is just sitting side saddle on the pannier rack. The car drivers is crazy. There seems to be a "right on red" law here,
but it is certainly not required to stop. I can't tell you how many cars I've seen speeding into the intersection to take a right turn when the light is red. It looks like they think they have the right
of way. Bizarre. And they have to cut accross the bike lane to the the right, which wouldn't be so bad, except the cyclists seem to think there is "straight on red". I actually saw a cyclist stuck in the middle of a 6 lane road going back and forth, trying not to dismount, while traffic zoomed on either side of him. Death wish.
My hotel, Kunlun is in the north east part of Beijing near ring road 3, which puts it about 3 miles from the forbidden city. According to my map, the forbinned city is the center of Beijing. I obviously don't really know the neighborhoods, but there were lots of people out on the streets and a fair number of restaurants, supermarkets and other such commercial establishments, so I felt pretty safe walking around. Finding a restaurant that "looked good" was another story. Finally, I landed myself at a Chinese Restaurant (surprise), whose specialty was "Peking Duck" (surprise again). I struggled through the menu, my chinese not being quite as good as my hebrew, and eventually selected based on the english desriptions and pictures -- mandarin fish, spicy green beans, rice and local beer.
As I waited for my food I watched the waiters wheel out whole roasted duck after duck to the other patrons. The waiters would carve the duck up right next to the table. They seem to be pretty skilled at carving, and despite that fact that I often carve chicken and turkey, I found the experience nudging me toward vegetarianism. Just then a waiter stopped by my table with a plastic bag. Oh no, I don't want take out. What are they thinking? The waiter held open the plastic bag so I could see inside -- and there it is, my fish. Alive or dead? I'm not sure. I smiled and said, "OK". He disappeared to cook it. I really didn't need to see the fish before it was cooked. Really. I wish I could have explained that, but the only phrase that comes to mind is "Nee How?", not "Don't show me the the raw fish, just cook the damn thing." They brought out the whole fish, and left me with my chopsticks to fillet it. It was a little difficult and I managed to
splash the sauce all over the table several times -- which is good, because I have a feeling I'll be eating the same thing for the next 8 dinners.
Getting back to the hotel was pretty easy. I was still amazed at the low quality of the air, and now I am up at 5:00AM suffering from jet lag. The air is just as gross as yesterday, perhaps even worse. I would NOT want to be an olympic athelete in this city -- let alone a resident breathing in this junk. I've seen the "smokers lungs" before. I wonder what "Peking Lungs" look like?
In the end, I made it to the hotel pretty quickly. Perhaps it took half an hour. Not surpisingly at the hotel English is spoken. Not well, but spoken. That is a relief. I have a room on the 22nd floor
with a view of the city, but the air is so thick there is not much to see. It is like the air is full of dust. The Beijing air seems much worse than Shanghai (or at least worse than my recollection of
Shanghai). After settling in to my hotel room I decided to take a walk around town and grab some dinner. The restaurants in the hotel looked very expensive, so I asked the concierge for a map and started walking. Much like Shanghai the streets are full of bicycles. Sometimes one person on a bike, sometimes two. Never a helmet. Often the "passenger" is just sitting side saddle on the pannier rack. The car drivers is crazy. There seems to be a "right on red" law here,
but it is certainly not required to stop. I can't tell you how many cars I've seen speeding into the intersection to take a right turn when the light is red. It looks like they think they have the right
of way. Bizarre. And they have to cut accross the bike lane to the the right, which wouldn't be so bad, except the cyclists seem to think there is "straight on red". I actually saw a cyclist stuck in the middle of a 6 lane road going back and forth, trying not to dismount, while traffic zoomed on either side of him. Death wish.
My hotel, Kunlun is in the north east part of Beijing near ring road 3, which puts it about 3 miles from the forbidden city. According to my map, the forbinned city is the center of Beijing. I obviously don't really know the neighborhoods, but there were lots of people out on the streets and a fair number of restaurants, supermarkets and other such commercial establishments, so I felt pretty safe walking around. Finding a restaurant that "looked good" was another story. Finally, I landed myself at a Chinese Restaurant (surprise), whose specialty was "Peking Duck" (surprise again). I struggled through the menu, my chinese not being quite as good as my hebrew, and eventually selected based on the english desriptions and pictures -- mandarin fish, spicy green beans, rice and local beer.
As I waited for my food I watched the waiters wheel out whole roasted duck after duck to the other patrons. The waiters would carve the duck up right next to the table. They seem to be pretty skilled at carving, and despite that fact that I often carve chicken and turkey, I found the experience nudging me toward vegetarianism. Just then a waiter stopped by my table with a plastic bag. Oh no, I don't want take out. What are they thinking? The waiter held open the plastic bag so I could see inside -- and there it is, my fish. Alive or dead? I'm not sure. I smiled and said, "OK". He disappeared to cook it. I really didn't need to see the fish before it was cooked. Really. I wish I could have explained that, but the only phrase that comes to mind is "Nee How?", not "Don't show me the the raw fish, just cook the damn thing." They brought out the whole fish, and left me with my chopsticks to fillet it. It was a little difficult and I managed to
splash the sauce all over the table several times -- which is good, because I have a feeling I'll be eating the same thing for the next 8 dinners.
Getting back to the hotel was pretty easy. I was still amazed at the low quality of the air, and now I am up at 5:00AM suffering from jet lag. The air is just as gross as yesterday, perhaps even worse. I would NOT want to be an olympic athelete in this city -- let alone a resident breathing in this junk. I've seen the "smokers lungs" before. I wonder what "Peking Lungs" look like?
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