Thought I would put up a couple of pictures from the neighbourhood. There is this colourful gate just behind the hotel/apartment where I’m staying. Not sure what it means, but I was never one to get some art that is out there. There are two lions on either side, which in the Buddhist faith, the lion is considered a divine animal of nobleness and dignity, which can protect the truth and keep off evils. Thanks to google for that tidbit.

The building behind it is the backside of the apartment I'm leaving next week.

Oh and here is the neighbourhood immediately to the left of the gate. I find the contrast compelling

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Update!

It’s interesting here, Beijing is like Scarborough times 10. It is huge, fairly well laid out but huge. I’m OK with having my picture taken by people, or the staring that they will do its kind of fun to try and catch them doing it. But life here is fairly normal in some aspects, quite different in others.

Sitting at a Starbucks drinking a coffee brings the normal part out, lots of well off middle class youth doing the same. Dressed in jeans and business suits all texting on cell phones. But try going around the corner for some BBQ’d chuar, (think kabobs, the mutton is my favourite) and it is a whole other world. The menu if there is one is all in Chinese so the only way to do it is to point to another table and hold up as many fingers as the number you want. If I’ve been there before with one of the guys from work I just grab a menu and circle the number for what I liked, that way when I go back, point and count. It’s a bit of a crapshoot but so far now intestines or heads of fish have shown up on my plate. I’m working on the language but it will take sometime.

One thing there seems to be is a lot of staff. Right now I can see 8 cleaners from where I sit. Everything from sweeping the sidewalk with what looks like a homemade broom made from tree branches, to a window cleaner and 5 or 6 people with rages wiping every surface they can find. They’re not moving at a rapid pace, but they don’t stand still very long.

It will be interesting to see how the economy here fairs. There are huge malls that have few customers but plenty of staff. Factories are closing in the hinterlands putting 20 Million out of work. So as the economic wave ebbs and flows it will be an interesting year. 20 million out of work seems to make the government a little edgy. Seems that many people getting disgruntled could cause some problems. In Canada we can change the government when we don’t like the way they are handling things. Here, not so much.

Hillary was just here for a little visit to talk economy and climate change. Not much was said about human rights. Reports say that may people where detained at guest houses outside of Beijing to prevent any protests. There was a small one at the silk market Sunday morning, but was quickly dispersed by police. The only comment on human rights was more of statement. Hillary attended church in a county where Christianity is only allowed in state run churches. Apparently the Chinese where not thrilled with the idea so the place had about a 1 mile radius of a police presence to quell any notion of a demonstration.

I take possession of my apartment next week so I will post some photos when I get moved in. On the work front, we have not been able to travel much do to economics with the ongoing CanWest financial situation. I hope that changes for the better soon.

The faces

We went on a little drive of about 3 hours each way. Kind of North and West of the City. It was nice to get out of the city for a day. The province is called Hebei and is suffering from the drought that has hit Northern China. Worst in 50 years apparently. The winter wheat isn't going to happen for some folks. Others have had some help from the Government which has provided some irrigation, diversion of rivers as well as cloud seeding. So after poking around we finally stumbled across a farmer who would talk to us. He is hopeful, but this year is a right off. He won't be planting this spring unless he gets some rain.
The story rain on Saturday nights show. What I like about my travels are the faces. This guy has a very weathered look and you can almost see Mao in the lines on his face.

Oh and by the way, after 110 days in Beijing it finally rained. Of course it was the same day we filed the drought story.

A little fire video

Here is the video that didn't run on Global. I sent it but they ran some cell phone video. I have no idea why but I quit question things like that a long time ago and sleep better because of it.

CCTV is the state broadcaster. The building that went up is adjacent to there new office. Had a state of the art digital studio, hotel, conference rooms office space..... Was worth well over $250 Million for that building. The total complex was worth about $1 Billion.

Seems that the CCTV bosses hired a company to put on a fireworks display. It was video taped by CCTV with four cameras. The display was very impressive until it set the building on fire. They waited 10 minutes because it was not a permitted display... so while they waited they basically burned down one of their own buildings.

The story was buried on tv with in an hour and in the papers it was on the front page on day one and page 6 by day 2.

Chinese Fire Drill?

Here is why to many fireworks is a bad thing.

It arrived!

Wednesday was like Christmas for me, not only did Canadian IT for Global get my Blackberry working but the broke emailed to say that they would be delivering my gear. I can explain it, but it like a carpenter trying to build a house with 3 nails and one undersized hammer. Trying to do my job with out the tools of my trade is a bit of a challenge. So I spent all of Wednesday unpacking, setting up and testing everything. I still have a few things to pick up and work out but I can say that we are now up and running and able to do our jobs.

I haven't had the chance yet to get out and see the city. I'm hoping to hope on a tour bus in the next week or two and actually see the city from the tourist prospective. I also have to start looking for an apartment. That will be a little bit of a challenge. This is a cashed base place so you usually need about 3 months rent, first last and a deposit. I'm looking to see if I can either stay in the same building I'm in or near by, or a little further down the subway line and get a little nicer place.

Some of you may have heard the Global is in a bit of a crunch with creditors, but I'm told that we aren't affected other than a lack of travel budget. That's to bad because we were hoping to travel and see a bit of the country. I'm sure that will all change eventually and when something does break we will be able to go. So in the next week or two I hope to tour the city a little and get better prospective on the rest of the city. I'm fairly comfortable with in my neighbourhood. Jianguomen Scietech, and Sunlitun seem to be where I spend most of my time. It is on the east side of the city between the 2nd and 3 ring road.

Hopefully if I can get out and tour a bit I can then put up somemore interesting photos other then the office or my apartment.

I did have my first Peking duck. It was pretty good. Most of the food so far has been good. My favourite is the Mutton on a stick. There is also plenty of other choices. So those of you that want to come over for a visit in the next couple of years don't worry about the food. By for now.