Lindheimer Family Blog

OK, all you cynical folks out there.  I’ve been telling you the pollution here is not nearly as bad as the media makes it out to be, and here’s the proof.  In the first six months of 2009, Beijing has 146 blue sky days, up from 123 for the same period last year.

Yes, it’s true, the article is from the government controlled English newspaper, and there are plenty of allegations that the monitoring system is rigged, such as putting the sensors in the most optimal locations.  But speaking purely qualitatively, it’s been pretty good.  Out of the 3 weeks since Lauren and the girls headed off for their summer trip, we’ve had two days of murky air.  Today is yet another clear and hot day in the northern capital.

A lot of the improvement comes from specific measures leading into the Olympics, such as shutting down factories and plants within the city.  The driving restrictions – every private car is off the road one day per workweek – has been a huge success in my view.  The inconvenience is more than compensated by the reduction in traffic and car-based pollution.

Beijing air cleanest in 9 years

Thanks to Beijing Boyce for posting this.  The new Gongsan Plaza development near my apartment.  Not sure if it refers to work or play?

Most things go better in China when you go with the flow.  A good example is biking the mean streets of Beijing.  My strategy is to stay in the middle of a pack of other bikers as much as possible.  My theory is that it’s less likely for a bus to mow down a whole crowd than it is to wipe out one lonely biker.  And in the worst case, I figure those on the outside of the pack will shield me from the impact.

Another example came today at the bank.  I went in to get cash to pay rent and some other expenses.  I needed 50,000 rmb.  In the past I haven’t needed my passport for a simple withdrawal, so I didn’t bring it with me.  When I got to the window, I slid a note across to the teller with a simple message:  “50,000”.  He asked me for my passport, to which I explained, ”Mei you” (“don’t have it”. BTW, this is likely the second most uttered phrase in China after “ne ge”, which means “umm”).

Strangely enough, he asked me for 1 rmb.  I didn’t quite understand how this note with the picture of Chairman Mao could stand in for my US government-issued international travel certificate, but in the spirit of going with the flow, I gave him 1 kuai.

He took and slid 50,000 rmb back to me.  Then the withdrawal slip with the amount listed:  49,999 rmb.  Aha:  I only need the passport for withdrawals over 50,000 rmb.  Transaction completed, 50,000 – 1 rmb in my pocket, satisfied customer!

My stand-in passport!

At the recent Microsoft China R&D Games, Scott and I competed among many for the men’s shotput crown.  I achieved my goals:  don’t get hurt and don’t come in last place.  Scott did better, taking home the silver medal.

File this under the unexplained sites of Beijing.  On the outdoor mezzanine level of the new office building next to our apartment building sits a 6 foot tall multi-stage rocket.  Preparations for the next great fireworks show?  China’s moon mission, staffed by mice?  We’ll keep an eye on things and let you know…

We find that being together as a family here in China broadens our horizons and brings us together as a family.  Consider this SMS exchange between Mia and me, on a Saturday afternoon while I was out getting a haircut and Mia and Sophie were home.

Lindheimer, Mia

CAN WE SCOOTER OUT BACK?

Me

Ok, wear helmets.   Scooters are on porch.

Lindheimer, Mia

OK, BUT MOM SAYS THATWE DONT HAVE 2 WEAR HELMETS ON SCOOTERS

Me

I’m not mom

Lindheimer, Mia

DAD!  WE DONT FALL ON OUR SCOOTERS!  I WONT WEAR A HELMET.

Me

Then you can stay home tonight.  When mom & I are not home, you wear helmets.

Lindheimer, Mia

UGH.  FINE.

Many things work very well in China.  Banking is not one of them. 

I’ll give you an example.  Lauren made reservations at two small hotels at Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) for a trip with friends in May.  Both required deposits to hold the room.  Normally, one would provide a credit card number to hold the room, but China is not so big on personal credit (hmmm… maybe that’s a good thing) so that wasn’t a possibility.

Instead, the typical way is to transfer money into the hotels’ respective bank accounts.  Each hotel had provided their bank name, account number, account holder name, etc.  Of course, this was all in Chinese so I had my assistant at work take down all the info.

Now it’s probably possible to perform these transfers online, but the English language versions of e-banking don’t have that feature, so I went to the bank armed with many pieces of paper filled with Chinese writing.

First stop:  China Merchant Bank, our primary personal bank.  Usually they have at least one person there who speaks some English, but not today.  Luckily Mr. Ma accompanied me, and he and I can usually communicate between my rudimentary Chinese and his rudimentary English.  They told us they couldn’t do the transfer so we should go to ICBC across the street.  I didn’t quite catch the reason why.

So across the massive intersection we strode, right to the front door of the closed ICBC branch.  Various useless iterations of trying the ATM and telephone banking ensued.  Telephone banking was promising at first, but it would only work to transfer to another account in Beijing.  The Huangshan hotel, being in Anhui provice, did not fit that requirement.  On our way back across to the car, I asked Mr. Ma why they couldn’t do it at China Merchant.  He didn’t have such a clear answer, so I tried one more time.

This time I learned we were missing the address of the bank.  A call to the hotel and SMS text of the address solved that problem.  They charged me 3 RMB each to make the payment which was well worth not visiting any more banks that day.  Finally, my two transactions were complete, my receipts stamped with multiple chops were in my hand, and I pushed the button indicating the service was “satisfactory”.  That counts as a good banking experience.

Sophie was the winner of ISB’s Dragon Award this month.  It was given to her for “being a positive role model, studious learner, and trustworthy friend for her peers.”  What a kid!  Here’s Upper Elementary School principal Smith giving Sophie the award.

Our week started on a low note.  Lauren didn’t feel well on Sunday night and couldn’t sleep.  She had pain in her lower abdomen and some dizziness but none of other normal digestive distress symptoms.  By Monday morning she knew something was amiss, so after sending the kids off to school, we headed to the SOS International Clinic.

The doctor did a quick exam and concluded that appendicitis was likely, so we headed directly to Beijing United Family Hospital.  On the way, we contacted our friends from temple who founded the hospital and got recommendations on which doctors to see.  They ran a series of tests to confirm the diagnosis, and by 2 PM, Lauren was scheduled for a appendectomy that evening.  We insisted on a laparoscopic procedure in order to minimize recovery time and scarring.  The procedure was done under general anesthesia.

Everything went smoothly – no perforation - and by 8 PM, Lauren was back in her room, still very groggy but up for a brief visit by the girls.  By Wednesday afternoon, all her systems were going again (I’ll leave that to your imagination) and Lauren was allowed to go home.

On Thursday she was well enough to attend a talk by Alon Hilu as part of the Bookworm Literary Festival.  On Friday night, we had arranged a table at the Festival Gala Dinner, where we had the pleasure of sharing a table with Fuschia Dunlop, author of Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

She was a charming guest, answering our questions about the buzz of eating Sichuan food and why boiling shrimp bothers her more than boiling rabbits.  We got her to autograph our book and Lauren promised to email her the recipe for Mandarin Orange and Sichuan Peppercorn ice cream!  We also enjoyed the company of our friends Tom and Sharon, Jorge and Paola, Dan and Julie, plus Deb Fallows, wife of author James Fallows who was out of town that night. It was a fun and enlightening evening…

So all in all, another interesting week in Beijing!

Today, we have a belated recap on the events of this year’s Chinese New Year (AKA Spring Festival).  We kicked things off with an emerging tradition – the Chinese New Year Mexican Fiesta at Becky and Garry’s apartment.  Margaritas, enchiladas, and Reese’s peanut butter cup pie are not the traditional Chinese New Year foods, but they sure are delicious!  We lit off our first batch of fireworks outside the apartment later that night, then settled in for a ear-splitting night of ongoing pyrotechnics.  Earplugs are a must to get any sleep on the first few nights of New Year.

Since the holiday came early this year, just on the heels of the Christmas and New Year holiday, we weren’t ready to pack our bags and head on a new adventure right away.  But the prospect of a week with no plans coupled with the insomnia of all-night fireworks gave us motivation to get out of town.  Traveling within China during spring festival can be impossible, but Lauren was able to find us cheap flights mid-week, so we headed off to Shanghai for a four-day getaway.

I can best describe our visit to Shanghai with one wonderful Chinese word:  Ma ma hou hou (yes, that’s one word).  It means “so-so”.  The weather for the first part of our trip was nice – sunny and mid-50s, so we were able to explore Shanghai on foot.  A lot of the city was shut down for the New Year, but we enjoyed the shopping of Nanjing Road, visiting Xintandi, the upscale areas reminiscent of Quincy Market, and the neon nighttime of the Bund.  We were lucky to re-find Yang’s Fried Dumplings, the very same street stall Lauren and I discovered in 2007 simply by getting on a big line on the street in the hope it was something good.  The Shanghai “soup dumplings” are delicious, filled with scalding broth and perfectly pan-fried.

We took a day trip to Suzhou.  We climbed the central pagoda, strolled through the Humble Administrator’s Garden, and had a pleasant noodle lunch.  Toward dusk, we drove about one hour to the small town of Zhouzhuang, a nicely preserved canal city.  They’ve done a great job of making it into a tourist destination, complete with entry fee to get into the old town, singing gondoliers, and local merchants selling fish heads, pig’s feet, and some in-between things we couldn’t identify.

Overall, Shanghai felt like it was missing something.  We didn’t see the pride and animation we see of people in Beijing.  Instead, we got a strong feeling of commercialism, of getting ahead.  This is both a vast generalization and really only a difference of degree from Beijing – Shanghai is still a great place to visit, but we decided we wouldn’t want to live there.  Thus, one great outcome of our trip was that we confirmed that we made the right decision in moving to Beijing!

Also during Chinese New Year, our Ayi Pan Jun cooked us the traditional jaozi (dumpling) dinner.  Lauren and the girls took an inpromptu lesson.  It turns out Sophie has the best innate jaozi construction skills.  They were scrumptious although none of us came close to Pan Jun’s recommended serving size of 40!

School started again the following Monday, but the official holiday goes until Lantern Festival, the next full moon.  Again fireworks ruled the night, although this one ended badly with the fire at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.  In the aftermath, the story is that CCTV, which owns the complex, lit off unauthorized fireworks on the scale of those used to kick off the summer Olympics, thus igniting the blaze.  Surely, there will be more controls on fireworks in the city next year, if not an outright ban.