The Weekend

This weekend was mostly about Christmas shopping for people back in NZ and OZ. Saturday morning found us a shopping centre a shortish taxi ride away to the north-east. We were looking for a Christmas tree. We spent a good 1-2 hours in a plant shop. All the real trees were far too big to get in a taxi. None of the fake ones were up to scratch and/or too expensive. Needless to say we didn’t get one. Not a big problem for me but Mel was disappointed. We have a few weeks before Christmas so we’ll figure something out. Eventually☺ Of course we didn’t come home empty handed! Mel managed to find some more decorations as well as flowers.

On Sunday we headed for the ‘Dirt Market’. So called, not because they sell dirt, but because it is an open market. I presume there used to be a dirt floor at some stage in the past. Not now though. Anyhoo, this market had lots of stuff. Glass beads (of which Mel managed buy several kilos worth!), lots of art – many, many pictures of naked women, reprints of old propaganda posters and old scrolls. There were people selling fossils, lots of interesting rocks end even several stalagmites (which were a good couple metres tall)! Also a lot calligraphy supplies, ‘antique’ furniture and militaria (is that a word??). Outside the market, people were selling animal furs – tiger, leopard, and bear – along with the odd animal bit. I saw one guy with a dried claw, which could have been from a bear or a tiger.

We were able to get most of the Christmas shopping sorted (no tree yet though!), which is good. I picked up a couple of the propaganda posters and a really cool map of Beijing. Actually it’s a reprint of a map of drawn by an American bloke in the 1930’s. Very cool! If you’re a geography geek like me.

I also took a few photos. Enjoy!

Cheers
TONE

More stuff

The other photos are of some upside down cat fish, a T Rex like beast and some funky gibbon skeletons. The fish are really swimming upside down!
Bizarre!
Enjoy!

Some more photos

Here are some more photos from the last week or so

The certificate is from a Peking Duck restaurant. Our duck was the 115 millionth or so duck served at this restaurant since 1864. Tasty too.

More from the first week.

It's exactly a week since I arrived.

I made it to the natural history museum today. Quite interesting but a bit sad and freaky too. Most of the exhibits are quite old and tattered. Although they have a lot of dinosaur fossils, which is great if you like old bones. If you don't well too bad! The sad bits came from the aquarium where they have a pair sea turtles in a really small pool and a really depressed looking giant salamander. Check out the pics below! The freakiest bit was the Human Body exhibit where they had real live dead bodies! I shit you not - there were complete bodies, bits of bodies, bits of bits and even 3 or 4 babies. Very weird and morbidly fascinating - for me anyway. The other thing here was that the exhibit was filled with primary school kids (live ones!!) who weren't freaked out at all. In fact they were more scared by the motorized Tyrannosaurus Rex! This wouldn't happen at home methinks.

But enough of that. We finished the day by having drinks at the NZ embassy which is close by our apartment. I don't know if I mentioned before that we live in one of the two special 'embassy areas' in Beijing. They were set up to keep all the 'foreign devils' in one place so they couldn't get up to any mischief. Anyhoo, the Kiwis have drinks for NZ citizens and their guests once a month which is a really cool way of making connections. I met some really interesting people (like the NZ military attache) and course had several cordials (read beers) which was jolly nice.

I think that's about it for the time being so I'll bugger off and leave you with some photos from todays little excursion. See if you can guess which one is the arse of a giant rhinoceros!!

Cheers
TONE

Oops. Forgot to put the picture in. Here 'tis!

More stuff

I've just thought of something more to say.

Mel is here in Beijing for 4 months for her work. She's Setting up/teaching a hospitality English course for a big hotel chain. I'm here until late January. Hopefully I'll be heading back to start a new job! I had an interview the day before left which seemed to go pretty well.

I could possibly get some work here in the ESL/EFL area. We'll have to see how that pans out.

I should explain the last few pictures. I took them on Monday morning around Tiananmen Square. The first one is a list of stuff you can't do on the grass. It's the same as the one at the gate to the park near our apartment. There are a lot of things that aren't allowed!

The second picture is from in front of Mao's mausoleum. There are three other statues like this one around the building. I guess they represent the the spirit and determination of 'the people'. The guy standing guard must possess this as he gets to stand where he is, without moving for hours on end. Thrilling no doubt!

The last picture is looking north towards the Forbidden City. It was about 11am when I took this. The pollution/fog is incredible here. It's also pretty cold. It's been single digit maximums all week. Today was a balmy 3°! As it's only going to get colder,our plan for a short trip Thailand around New Year is a good one methinks.

One more picture before I bugger off. A Google Earth image of our apartment in relation the Forbidden City.

Later

TONE

First week in Beijing

I've been in Beijing for almost a week.

I haven't done heaps of sight seeing as yet. I tried to go to the Natural History Museum but it's closed on Mondays, which of course the Lonely Planet book didn't tell me! Anyhoo, after being thwarted at the museum I wandered back towards the subway station which is across the road from Tiananmen Square.

Once there I figured I would take the opportunity to visit Chairman Mao in his final resting place. Alas, I was thwarted once again by the opening days - Tuesday to Thursday. Frustrated I walked around the square for a bit. It really is massive! According to the Lonely Planet the biggest in the world, but knowing those slackers that might not be entirely accurate. I did take a few photos which I'll post eventually. Unfortunately none are particularly inspiring due to the incredible pollution/fog.