Happy New Year and Hello Singapore!

As you’ve probably figured, by my 3 blog entries in two years, that I’m pathetic at this online social sharing thing. However, it’s a new year and I’m enthusiastic (at least for the moment) about giving this blogging thing another shot. Especially since I was heavily tsk’d by many during my visit in Australia that I need to stop being MIA (sorry about that!). So it’s a new year, new start and let’s see how we go!

There’s plenty to update on, for a start, F & I are no longer living in Beijing. We’ve moved to Singapore! We’ve just arrived and are in the process of finding a new home and job. Even though it’s the third time I’ve moved countries, the beginning stages can still be stressful! But we’re really excited to be here and more about Singapore to come later. In the meantime some backfilling is due about the highs and lows of our life in Beijing, China.

Some Of My Fave Things In Beijing (not in order)

PEOPLE AND THE DEVELOPMENT

Beijing Supreme Court

Beijing attracts a really diverse group of people – academics, language students, diplomats, entrepreneurs, leaders, artists, economists, collectors, journalists, corporates, writers etc. Over the last two years I’ve been able to meet some really inspirational and interesting people who have opened up my mind dramatically. We loved the variety of discussions that was made even more exciting because of the rapidly changing environment in China. If you’re in Beijing or you’d just like to find out more about the developments in China, I recommend checking out: BeyondBrics, Beijing International Society, Caixin, City Weekend, Timeout Beijing, Beijinger

COMPASSION FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN (CMC)

Photo by Rita Chen (aka rockstar)

CMC is the nonprofit organization that I worked for whilst in Beijing managing their Communications and Fundraising department. They’re an almost 6 years old organization working with the migrant communities in China and more recently in Nepal. I loved my time with them and really believe in the work that they do which is to provide social and educational programs via a community center model.

The issue of migrants is hot topic in China. Referred to as the liu dong ren kou (flowing population) the exact size of the migrant population in China is difficult to pinpoint but local newspapers estimate it at about 300 million. Earning, on average, GBP 160/month, the migrants are the working ants behind all the glamorous developments in the country but unfortunately few are unable to benefit from the country’s advancements. At the heart of the issue, is China’s archaic registration system – the hukou, which ties a person’s ability to access social benefits (e.g. healthcare, education, housing, pension) to a particular locality. When a person moves, they are no longer able to access these benefits and usually it’s the children who have the most to lose. To find out more check out CMC’s website and also this article in The Atlantic.

OUR HUMBLE HOME

Raymond hanging out at the 'Wonderland'

Our flat in Beijing, humbly named “International Wonderland” was simply awesome. It was our little sanctuary after the craziness of the day. It was toasty warm in the negative 10 Winter and conveniently located close to the expat comforts such as Sanlitun Village, April Gourmet, Jenny Lous, Cinema. We were very sad to leave our home.

FABRIC MARKET AND THE TAILOR

Spoilt For Choice!

Nowadays it is almost impossible to find a product that doesn’t contain the “Made in China” label. But it’s actually surprisingly difficult to find quality and tasteful products in China. It seems that all the good stuff is exported.

After over a year of abstaining from shopping, F & I discovered the fabric market Muxuyuan and developed a new hobby. For almost 6 weeks straight, we made weekly trips to the fabric market and to our favourite tailor (Lina Tailor on Sanlitun Bar Street Xi Jie, Chaoyang District, Beijing). Fabrics cost around RMB 20 – RMB 40 per meter. A tailored shirt (if you provide your own material) costs RMB60, a dress around RMB 150 to RMB 250 and a blazer about RMB 240. You need a good dose of patience when having things tailored. The least painful way is to provide a sample item for the tailor to copy.

HUTONGS

Characterful Hutongs

One of our favourite things to do in Beijing is to wander aimlessly through the narrow streets of the hutongs. Sadly, many of the original hutongs are being torn down and replaced by “new modern hutongs” that sell tacky souvenirs like in Qianmen. I recommend Houhai, Nanluoguxiang and Guluo to tour some beautiful hutong architecture.

FOOD

Some Duck Goodness

Beijing food can be very starchy, oily and heavy. So we mostly ate non-Beijing cuisine. Some of our favourite restaurants include:

- Afternoon tea: Aman at Summer Palace
- Taiwanese food: Din Tai Fung, Bellagio
- Dumplings: Baoyuan Jiaozi
- Duck: Private Kitchen, Da Dong
- Yunnan: Dali Courtyard, In & Out
- Pizza: Kros Nest, The Tree
- Burgers: Blue Frog
- Breakfast: Vineyard, Element Fresh, Yonghe King (their youtiao with egg is really good)

- Japanese: Tori Tei, Geba Geba, Sake Manzo
- European: Mosto, Modo, Alameda
- Dim Sum: Hengshan Hui, Lotus Garden
- Beijing: Najia Xiaoguan, Jing Ding Xuan
- Hotpot: Haidilao, Ding Ding Xiang
- Hangzhou: Green Tea Restaurant
- Vietnamese: Susu
- Lebanese: Biteapitta

I read someone that there are over 40,000 registered restaurants in Beijing. So I think we might've missed a few on our list. For a good food blog, check out LumDimSum.

OTHER

The National Center for Performing Arts

Some other things we enjoyed and highly recommend you checking out in Beijing are: cultural activities at The Hutong, talks at the Bookworm, shows at the NCPA, some side-splitting chuckles with the Beijing Improv

As for our Not-So-Fave things in Beijing, that will be in the next posting!

Tying the knot 22nd October 2010

When we decided to change our wedding location from Australia to Phuket three months before the big day, many of our friends and family said we were mad. It was actually quite prophetic of them because re-planning EVERYTHING, from Beijing, during those 3 months did almost drive us mad! Stress aside, changing our wedding to Phuket was definitely the best decision that we made. More of F’s family and friends could make it, the venue was breathtakingly beautiful and we loved having extra time to spend with our family and friends.

Some of my favourite memories were (not in order):

‘Hong by Starlight’ cave kayaking tour with John Gray
I highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Phuket. Each kayak was accompanied by a guide who paddled us inside the ‘Hongs’ (a sea cave). We entered some of the Hongs at dusk when the tide was quite high. Trying to lie as flat as possible in the inflatable kayak, we still had some too-close-to-comfort moments where the sharp shell encrusted ceiling was only a few centimetres away from the tip of our noses! Definitely not an experience for the claustrophobics! Inside the Hongs, we lit floating ‘Kratongs’ (offerings) as a sign of new beginnings and for good luck. The most magical moment was seeing the plankton glow like stars in the darkness when we waved our hands through the water. If you take the tour, make sure that your guide is an official ‘John Gray’ tour. Some of our friends had inexperienced tour guides and had a terrifying experience.

Seeing Andara for the first time
On the second day of our arrival in Phuket, we went to meet the Andara wedding preparation team and see our wedding venue – for the first time. When we arrived we were completely awestruck by the luxury and beauty of the place. F & I were so excited that we could hardly contain ourselves from clapping and dancing like little kids!

Hen’s night spent with girls and girl boys

At my suggestion (but honestly without much persuasion needed!) my girlfriends/bridesmaids treated me to dinner and an evening of very classy entertainment – a Simon Cabaret show!! Some of these girly boys were, frankly, quite spectacular specimens. They had legs and torsos that would give any girl a good run for their money.

The wedding day
What can I say? It was so much fun, so beautiful and so memorable – and I wish we could do it again and again. I loved the excitement of getting ready in the morning with my bridesmaids (Kaz, Yoz and Lis). I loved seeing F’s face at the altar and recognising some of the 48 familiar faces in the crowd as I walked down the aisle. I loved that the light rain drizzle stopped just in time and gave way to a beautiful rainbow backdrop. Most of all, I loved making a promise of life together with my soul mate and having my loved ones there to witness it.

My dad the celebrity
When I asked my dad if he could do a speech, his first response was “is it really necessary?” Then he spent several months working, re-working, reciting and re-reciting his speech. Just before the reception, with the heat and nerves, he downed several cocktails thinking that they were just orange juice. My dad, bless him, has virtually zero tolerance to alcohol. He promptly turned a fire engine red and tried to hide near the shrubs so that we wouldn’t see that he was unsteady on his feet. So when it came time for his speech, I wasn’t really sure what to expect! He turned out to be such a pro with his speech (possibly enhanced by the alcohol) and I was so proud of him. At the end, everyone gave him a hero’s cheer and in response, he stood for a few moments giving everyone a Queen’s thank you wave! I could not stop laughing!

Seafood, seafood, seafood
You expect nothing less than fantastic seafood in Phuket and boy were we not disappointed! Mai, our Thai friend from Beijing, said we absolutely had to check out the Lotus restaurant as it has the best pick-your-own seafood in town. The seafood was awesome and most people (with the exception of Fabbo ;) ) had fun picking out their own lobster/fish. Here’s the website – another must visit when you’re in Phuket!

You can also check out some of the professional photos from our wedding here and of our other activities on facebook.

A huge thank you to:

• Our family for their oceans of love, support and generous presents
• Our friends, also for their generous gifts and for travelling from all over the world to be with us - some only staying overnight (Will!).
• The Andara team for making the day such a beautiful and memorable one!

Photos from "Public holidaying with the masses"

Guoliangcun

We're getting ready to slippery slide down the mountain.

This was built right in the middle of the valley!

Nanping

Cooling off our feet after a big hike

Luoyang and Longman

Longman Old Town

View from the other side of the platform

Public holidaying with the Chinese masses

Since we missed out on exploring outside of Beijing for the first public holiday (entirely due to our poor planning!) we made sure we were better organised and booked ourselves some train tickets to Henan for the second public holiday on May 1st.

So at 6.45am, with several thousand other sleepy Beijingers we boarded our “gao tie” (high speed train) at Beijing West Station for Xinxiang, Henan. The “gao tie” was clean, air conditioned and very comfortable – so completely different to what I remembered of my train experiences in China over five years ago! Travelling at about 300km/hr we made it to Xinxiang in less than 4 hours.

Guoliangcun and Nanping

Getting to our first stop (Guoliangcun) was no easy feat. Our “mian bao che” (literally, bread van), unable to proceed further due to the holiday traffic backlog, dropped us off at the entrance gates to the protected area. There, we walked about 5 kilometres uphill, with hundreds of other local tourists past the seemingly never ending stretch of exhaust burping cars to get to the main village.

Guoliangcun and Nanping are nestled high in the mountains north of Xinxiang. This place was catapulted to fame after they were used as the location for many Chinese films. We checked ourselves into a small family run guest house in Guoliangcun – picked for its relative cleanliness and price. Because of the public holiday, many of the hotels/guest houses took the opportunity to bump their prices from about 100RMB to 260RMB, talk about inflation! We spent two days hiking around the area taking in the magnificent valley views. However, it’s a shame that like most of the natural beauties in China, it is quickly discovered and commercialised. Amongst the trees, you could see evidence of people having been there – there were plastic bottles, bags and food wrappers everywhere.

Zhengzhou

At the end of the second day we made a dusty journey back from Guoliangcun to Xinxiang to take a “gao tie” to Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou, is a madly dense industrial city made up of about six million people. Exhausted and overwhelmed by the multitude of people, we used this place as an overnight stop to rest before making our way to Gongyi and Luoyang.

Gongyi

On our third day, we made our way from Zhengzhou to Gongyi - a “small” town West of Zhengzhou. I’ve come to compare everything in China relative to things only in China. The scale and size of things can sometimes be mindboggling – here “small” means a population of about 1 million in a town size of 1,000 square km (compared to Geelong with a population of 160,000 and town size of 1,240 square km), and when taxi drivers say a place is “not far” that could mean 45 minutes to 1 hour away!

As a city, Gongyi isn’t particularly attractive or interesting. We made a special trip there to see the Song Tombs where the 7 emperors of the Song dynasty were laid to rest. The tombs were scattered throughout the city and were not well maintained. The burial sites looked like the mounds of construction dirt that we’d seen everywhere in China, except this time we had to pay RMB 20 for the privilege.

Luoyang and the Longman Grottoes

On the last day of our trip we went to explore the fascinating Longman Grottoes in Luoyang. The site contained over 100,000 Buddhist sculptures beautifully carved into the side of the mountains. It was such a shame that most of the heads of the sculptures were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

The old town of Luoyang was not so “old”. The city used to be part of the Silk Road and apparently had been destroyed so many times that there were hardly any original buildings left. The good thing is that when the buildings were rebuilt they kept the same style of the ancient city.

After 2 months of being in Beijing, the divide between the “have” and “have-nots” still surprises me. We saw another example of this when making our way back from Beijing at the end of our trip. Neatly dressed, uniformed hostesses greeted us as we boarded our clean, spacious, air conditioned “gao tie” train to Beijing. Inside, the train hostesses wheeled their trolleys offering us a large variety of hot and cold food and drinks for purchase. Immediately, on the other side of the platform was another train also bound for Beijing. Except this train, was an old dimly lit common train, overcrowded with seated and standing passengers. All the windows were open to help ease the heat in the cabins and also to allow people to poke their bodies out to buy food from the platform vendors selling pot noodles, frankfurters and drinks. It was such a surreal moment sitting in our gao tie staring at all the passengers in the old train staring back at us. Our thoughts were “thank goodness we’re on this train” theirs were “Wow, it would be nice to be on that train”.

Click here for more photos.