expatcheeseburger

new bike ride to work

its been some time, but wanted to let you know that I've changed some things.  now that my office has moved from the central business district to fuchengmen, i've had to change my commute.  mostly since the move in October, i have taken a bike to the subway and then taken the subway to the office.  the average commute is about an hour.   Just recently i decided to try to bike all the way to work.  i tested this out with a roundtrip last weekend....i made the round-trip without rest in 1.5 hours.  I decided to upgrade my bike, buy some safety equipment and brave the journey across the heart of Beijing.  the results are very good.  I make it to work or home somewhere between 36-39 minutes (dependent upon wind and lights).  And you end up getting a nice HIIT workout along the way.  I want to take video, because its an amazing experience....working on that now.  each ways it 12km...here is the map.   A = home and B = work.  The lakes in the middle are where we went skating today.

Skating

Watch Houhai Skating in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Big Time Snow Here in Beijing

Today we got something like 8 inches...which is something like 40 inches in Philly.  Caroline's first day at the british school has been postponed at least one day because of the weather.  We were able to get out today a little with the kids...here is some video

Watch 2010 Winter Wonderland in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Happy Holidays All

I hope everyone is having a great holiday.  Its the eve of my return to work and Amy beginning to take down the tree and decorations.  We had an awesome holiday.  This is the first year where the kids really got it.  It is still a little odd to be here and away from family at a time of year where you most expect to see everybody.  Its also strange because work doesn't slow down like it does in the states (i had to take a vacation day for christmas day).  Christmas eve was me cooking (we had friends over for christmas dinner, but more on that later).  I was able to know off work a little early to swing by the french butcher on my bike ride home.  My plan was to do some roast chicken (ham, turkey and roasts are tough to come by here).  When I arrived at the butcher, they were mobbed and out of chicken...but there was a beautiful 9lb standing rib roast that i snapped up.  After arriving home, we spent some time with the kids and then I made some pies and some other preparatory things for dinner.  We ordered Indian take-out for our meals and after the kids went to bed, we put the presents out. 

The next morning the kids made it until 6:50am!  When they came to wake us up, I went out to the living room by myself to turn on the lights, start the ipod loaded with the christmas classics, start the coffee, and put the homemade cinnamon rolls i made the prior evening in the oven.  The we unleashed the hounds! They had fun...here is a little video (also some stuff from sanya on the front end that we want to share)

Watch christmas 2009 in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

For dinner in the afternoon, we had two couples come by for dinner.  I made the following menu:

• carrot and ginger soup
• horseradish and garlic crushed rib roast
• artisinal macaroni and cheese
• boulangerie potatoes
• brussels sprouts roasted craft style
• home made red onion focaccia
• fresh salad with homeade red wine and honey viniagrette
• apple pie
• chocolate pie

It was a nice time...good conversation, the beef was really, really good (even for china) and we had the hangovers to prove it.  

All in all, a great holiday.  The kids just loved every minute of it.  I hope everyone had a similar outcome.

View from the South China Sea

We just returned last night from our first beach vacation in China.  We went to the Hainan Province with is a large island and the southernmost tip of China (close to Vietnam).  We visited the resort city of Sanya situated on the southern tip of Hainan.  We stayed 5 nights and had two adjoining rooms at the Marriott Sanya. 

We had an awesome time.  It was the best family vacation ever. 

Because we were in China, we could bring one of our Ayis, Ivy, on the trip to help us out.  It was good for us because we could get some alone time and even go out at night, and it was good for her, as she had never been to the ocean.  If we wanted to go to Vietnam or Thailand like most of the expats, we wouldn't be able to take Ivy because she would not be given a visa.

Its about a 3.5 hour direct flight from Beijing to Sanya.  We were greeted at the airport in Sanya by the hotel minivan to take us to the hotel.  They had water, fruit and the cool scented towels...it was 28 degrees (sorry

elizabeth's third bday video

sorry this didn't get up yesterday...vimeo took literally 12 hours to process this thing

Untitled from Manning Field on Vimeo.

some interesting reading about us misperceptions of china

three of my goto sources do a great job...

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2009/12/top-ten-china-myths-of-2009.html#entry-more

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/12/forty_four_percent_of_americans.php

http://mpettis.com/

yes, i still have this thing

so Its been a really, really long time since I've put anything here.  we have just been so busy with so many things over the last 6 weeks that this just slipped off my radar.  lots happened so I will cover it by topic and not chronologically, so here it goes

1) Guests, guests, more guests...over the last 6 weeks, we've had amy's cousins, amy's mom and our nephew, our friends kristin and udai, and my parents and my sister stay with us here in Beijing.  Each visit was unique and we tried to show them a slice of our life in Beijing.  I think each trip went well, and we would love for more people to visit.  We have room, we know where to go...make reservations now!

2)  Turkey Day: the sequel in Beijing.  Once again, my parents and sister were here, and once again we had take out for Chef Too.  I supplemented the food with some homemade gravby and rolls.   We had some friends join us as well for a really nice dinner.  We also bought our first fake tree ever and trimmed it with the family.  Its really cool to see the kids get into the Christmas spirit.  We payed songs on the stereo and the kids danced to all the classic tunes

3) This past week I saw the most disturbing thing on the bike ride to work - a dead body.  I guess someone got hit by a car a few minutes before I passed by.  Traffic was stopped, a crowd of people around, and then I saw it...a body on the ground, a coat over the head, and a gigantic puddle of blood...no one was paying attention the the body, and everyone was around the car...I kept going, in shock, but man that image still sticks with me...the next day it was all cleaned up, but there were two guys close to the spot having a fistfight?!?  very strange and disturbing

4)  In a prior post I told the story of this poor family we were helping.  things got really weird...the really short version is they went to school and dropped out after 1 day...they then sent the boy to the expensive school and the girls were trying to find work to pay for the boys school.  we pulled our financial backing.  through amy's help, we were able to get some scholarships at a local school for the girls and they went to school.  unbeknown to us they were shaking down others for money for school, supplies and food, but we later found out they had it all covered with the scholarships.  All this fund-raising was not going to the girls as they didn't need it, but it was going to pay for the brothers school...net, net they weren't good actors.  We have stepped away and are focusing other kids in need.  

5)  On a lighter note, we are going on vacation next week to Sanya.  Now that i feel a little caught up and I don't feel like there is too much to update this blog (and making me procrastinate), I'll keep it more frequent.

happy december...its really cold here right now.

Brilliant...

Obama knows the long odds against a right-wing populist winning the presidency, no matter how good she looks in a skirt or running clothes, brandishing a gun. He shouldn’t be too cocky, however, because the death of the center is ultimately a problem for him and the whole country. If the Palinistas seize the GOP, they probably cannot take the White House. But their brand of no-prisoners partisanship sure can tie up Congress.

via trueslant.com

Land Mass and Population by Country | FlowingData

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I mean, it's basically population density, but it's separating population and area and then comparing the two. Then the population circles are sized based on 1,000 people per square mile which seems like it was more out of convenience than anything else.

via flowingdata.com

pretty interesting

birthday video

Untitled from Manning Field on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Declan

we had a great today after a rough night with elizabeth and declan both having a version of the stomach flu.  I worked .5 day and met jane, andrew, amy and caroline for lunch.  afterwards, I took andrew and caroline to the military museum while amy and jane went to the spa.  upon returning home, we had a great party for declan featuring wings and cake.  declan had an awesome time.  here are some pictures and with a video coming in the am

Mandarin Eclipses Cantonese, Changing the Sound of Chinatown - NYTimes.com

He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears.

via www.nytimes.com

this is specific to china, but the difference between cantonese and mandarin are vast. while i am approaching fluency in spoken and written mandarin, i can't even say hello in cantonese...these dialects here are much more than a soda vs pop, yall vs yous guys, and sneakers vs tennis shoes thing...its a different language

now i can see this site again

i just saw the poor layout of my previous posts.  like facebook, youtube, twitter, blod sites like blogger and typepad sites are now blocked by the big chinese firewall.  for some reason i can submit posts, but i cant preview or see them live.   now that's fixed as i am using a tool called freedur with firefox.  it works well so far, so i will do this a bit more.  we have guests in town, so you will probably see a some more pics from us.

earlier this week there was this crazy thunderstorm that blew through town in the early evening.  i busted my ass to ride my bike home from work to avoid the rain in some pretty strong wind.  I made it home mostly dry and took this picture from my bedroom balcony.  this is facing south into the central business district.  we obviously have a ridiculous view...

Last Disney Post

sorry for the random posts.  for some reason typepad is blocked here now, so i can't see things.

here is the conclusion:

we had an awesome day the first day in disneyland.  after figuring out the layout and the fastpass routine, we were able to ride 16 rides/attractions this day.  we had lunch and dinner in the park and got to see a great halloween parade.  at about 8:30 we limped back to the hotel after 12 hours in the park.  we passed out pretty quickly after arriving home.  

we awoke the next morning at 6:30 to rain...and it stayed with us all day.  good thing amy packed panchos, because we needed them.  we survived, but the combination of the rain and a park more designed for older kids (their top 5 rides were to dangerous for caroline to ride on), left us wanting to return to disneyland.  the day was fund and we made it to 7:30pm...but we knew we would return to disneyland the next day and had our fill of disney sea.

the next day wasn't nearly as rainy, but we did get some rain.  we crossed all of the rides off our list and were able to even squeeze in a nap in the hotel in the afternoon.  we did not get on the monsters, inc ride, because at literally 10 minutes after park opening, there was a 2 hour line for the fastpass...so we passed.

after these three days, we had our fill of disney.

we decided to spend the next day exploring tokyo.  we took the subway to the tokyo tower and then went to a famous temple and shopping area.  it was fun but exhausting.  the subway system is really complicated, but we mde no mistakes. we ended the day with a nice dinner with one of my dad's business partners...it was nice and the kids were behaved quite well.

the next day we relaxed in the morning and headed back home.

a few reflections about japan:

1)  the banking system totally sucks - getting to an atm is really hard, and my chase card wouldn't work at all.  this place uses more cash than i would have thought, so the atm problem was exacerbated

2)  you can definitely tell that the japanese are more well off because the kids and women are much, much fatter than chinese kids and women

3)  my visa in my passport has a high res barcode, while both the us and china have old school stamps

4)  for some reason there is an obsession with taking elevators for people who don't need it...for those in wheelchairs or double strollers, this stinks as you wait in line behind able bodied people waiting for the elevator when an escalator is 10 feet from you

5)  maybe a function of their stagnant economy - no one is in a rush anywhere - except getting the monsters inc fastpass

6) people are super nice

7) i was surprised about how many chinese characters are in common, but the pronunciation is so different...its as if you saw apple and someone told you it was pronounced shish kebob.  but the meaning is close...very strange

we had an awesome time, but we were glad to get home.  the kids will have very fond memories of this trip as will we.

disney video

Disney in Tokyo from Manning Field on Vimeo.

japan 3

more pics

Disney in Japan part 2

funky things happening with the blog software, so i will break this update up...sorry for an incoherent narrative

Disney in Japan

we arrived safely back from japan last night at about 11:30 to a quiet beijing.  after a little holdup at immigration (i've lost some weight, so they were giving me a hard time about my passport photo), we cleared and hopped into a cab home with three very tired kids.

I'll post video and pictures later, but here is a little about our trip and some observations about Japan.

After a relatively uneventful flight, we arrived in Narita and cleared cutoms with no problem on september 30th.  We opted for the bus transfer to our hotel and after killing an hour at the airport pizzaria, we headed to the hotel.  

Driving on the roads seemed very civilized.  They are left side drivers. we saw many more less expensive and flashy cars than in beijing.  Also they drive slower and seemed to follow laws.  After about 75 minutes we arrived at the resort.  Checking was uneventful and we were able to distract the kids in two different lobby playrooms while we sorted everything out.  

We were escorted into our two adjoining rooms and we quickly unpacked.  I checked my blackberry and no signal???  I have an international plan and this has worked all over europe and other parts of asia...oh well.  I plugged in my laptop so i could connect to the internet and that would be our tool for communication, but  I kept on getting a battery charge error.   OK so no internet, and no blackberry...aren't we in a technology hub...well at least there is a starbucks downstairs in the lobby - i will use my iphone for internet...nope - 5 days in japan and not a hotspot found.  I don't want to start this post with a big complaint because we had a really nice memorable trip and i will soon forget about this, but this technology/interoperability gap really sucks.  My solution for communication was to use a coin operated machine in the lobby for a once a day gmail check-in.

After getting settled, we went to go have dinner in one of the hotel's restaurants.  food was decent, but wow it was overpriced ($200 for 5 people).  We went back upstairs and went to bed (but not after a nice view of the evening fireworks in the park to whet our appetite)...mickey called for an early rise.

Tokyo is only 1 hour ahead of us, so there were no major body clock adjustments.  The sleeping arrangements had the boys in 1 room and the girls in the other.  We awoke around 6:30 and went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel (again way too expensive - $100) before heading to disneyland.

Disney in Japan has two parks - one called Disneyland with all of the traditional rides, and one called Disney Sea with a hybrid of water and adventure themed areas that cobble together epcot and maybe a universal studios.  We bought three day passes that allow for 1 day in each of these two parks and the third day is a pickem between the two.  On Thursday we went to Disneyland.

We arrived at 8:45am and strolled right into the park.  We started walking around to familiarize ourselves with the park and to pick our first ride.  Amy had done alot of research, so we had a good sense of what rides we wanted to do.

 

legal again - for at least another year

just completed the work permit and residence permit renewal - in about 6 days (instead of 6 weeks).  now we have passports back in hand and nothing's holding us back from tokyo next week.

Settling In - Family here for a year now

on this day, September 23rd, we left our house in Media with 6 suitcases, 3 car seats, a disturbingly large number of devices that require charging, and a pocketful of hopes, fears and wishes, and headed up the NJ turnpike towards Newark - and eventually our destination Beijing.  On one hand, who would have imagined all the things we have experienced, but on the other, it all feels very natural and normal.  I guess it means the normal might be one of the more relative words in the english language.  our 2007 normal was much different than our 2009 normal...but my guess is yours are different too.  

I just can't believe its been a year.  Being both busy and happy make the time really fly.

So down to today - we are pretty much settled into the apartment.  The place is really nice.  This apartment is an unserviced apartment, and where we were before was serviced.  The big difference is you don't have maid service 5 days a week.  We compensated for that by hiring a second Ayi.  No problem at all.  Another slightly (by me I mean) overlooked difference is utilities.   In the serviced apartment, they are included in the overall bill.  For an unserviced apartment, you have to set up accounts for the services - water (3 types- hot, cold and gray (toilets - non drinking etc.), propane, electric, phone, tv, Internet, air conditioning and heat.   All utilities are prepaid here.  Many of them have meters in the house that are recharged via a reloadable smart card.  These smart cards are usually associated with a specific local bank.  In order to load these cards, you have to open an account with this bank.  Of course, each bank had a different utility exclusively!  For my friends who live in houses, this is a major pain in the ass.  For apartment residents, its a little easier.  I pay my apartment management company for water, ac/heat, my landlord pays local phone, internet and tv - and I just need to open two bank accounts for electric and propane.  Still a pain the ass, bit it could be worse.  So you can get a little insight into the business environment I am working in - convenience (especially with banks) isn't even a consideration, and most everyone's life is pre-paid.  My cell phone is pre-paid, my massage card is pre-paid, my utilities are pre-paid.  Big mindset to overcome and influence...

So the first day in the apartment, the electricity went out for about 1 hour, as I struggled to figure out how to get it back on.  I now know, but it was frustrating at the time.  The move was relatively uneventful.  It took most of the day and three trips with the movers.  One piece of furniture, our big blue cabinet, wouldn't fit in the new apartment elevator.  So I paid the 4 movers $80 to carry it up 34 flights of stairs!  Gotta love cheap labor here.

The kids are adjusting well - except for Declan.  He got the upgrade to the big boy bed, but its still taking some adjustment.  Amy had borne the brunt of his nighttime antics, but hopefully he gets there soon.  They love their new playroom.  We have had one complaint from the neighbors about noise early in the morning - especially the little pitter patter of running...we are trying to get them to not run on the hard wood floors...wish us luck.

We are watching Beijing transform as it prepares for the October 1 parade in celebration of its 60th anniversary.  Its a ridiculously big deal here.  We are leaving for Tokyo next Wednesday, so we hopefully will miss all that craziness. So a year later, we are grizzled veterans of Beijing getting the hell out of dodge when things get too complicated.  Kinda feels normal...

Local Coverage of the disruptions here

STOP PRESS: Major Disruptions Tomorrow | the Beijinger Blog | Announcements | Sep 17, 2009 | thebeijinger.com

love the idea that they don't want you to look out the window. Doesn't impact us outside of me not being able to go to work today...

Happy Autumn

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.  Autumn (or being able to be outside without having to change your shirt weather is here.)  They say September and October are the nicest time of the year here.  The weather is in the low 70s with blue skies, less worse pollution...you know the weather really is nice when you see the Chinese break out the coats for the morning commute.  That means I can wear a short-sleeve shirt comfortably. 

Another busy week for us here...as we pack up all of our belongings for our move in 48 hours.  After doing some of that this time last year (only bringing essentials to China with no furniture), packing up our house this summer for renters, and now this move, it never ceases to amaze me how much shit you can accumulate.  We are ready, have packed up the kitchen and are eating take out for every meal.  

We will be off the internet on monday as we unplug the computer and move.

This weekend outside of packing did include a few fun activities.  Amy, the girls and I rode out bikes to the 798 district (arts community in old missile factory).  Its a little far, but it was a nice ride.  Today, Amy and I went around on bikes and I ended up taking her to the Chinese massage place I go to.  We each had an intense 90 minute massage followed by some shanxi noodles for lunch.  The quality is very good and its cheap.  Its not a fancy as the western style spa amy goes to, but this is high end for local chinese.  I will take you here when you come visit.

The town is abuzz preparing for the national celebration on october 1.  Many places are shutting down on september 15th.  There are lots of practices for the parade and everything grinds to a halt.  Its a little like new york's east side when the president is at the UN except they actually kick everyone out of stores and restaurants - no matter what.  In situations like this, the Chinese do not mess around.  Thank goodness we will be in Tokyo on the 1st.

It seems like things are stabilizing in america.  Obama looked and sounded good last week.  I just read a good article in newsweek about Jamie Dimon (our CEO).  When you look back 1 year ago, we were facing a lot of personal anxiety about the big move here.  We were also facing this insane professional uncertainty - especially after Lehman.  Not that things are any less uncertain for anybody, but things aren't going to cease to exist - and no one was sure about that then.  I had many friends tell me I was lucky I was going to China, and they are probably right, but i did take the risk to pursue it and move my family here.  Its too early to say what the right call was, but we made it as a family and we do not regret it.

I will post our new address when i get the official chinese version.  I will get that on tuesday after i register our move with the police (its sounds way more ominous than it is - cops here are a little like security guards at kids r us)

Be well.

1 year anniversary

So today is an anniversary of sorts...been here for 1 year.  Its funny to read the old blog posts and see how different our perspective is...and how little we knew then.  Also, if you haven't figured it out by now this blog is really for us and not for you...though you are welcome to be a voyuer - this is somethin for us to look back upon in the coming years...all the tactical detail gives us a memory framework for this amazing experience that words and pictures can't capture...I can't beleive its been a year...3 or 4 more to go!

http://web.me.com/manningfield/Dont_You_Dare_Click_On_This/Blog/Entries/2008/9/8_Flight_to_Beijing_and_Arrival.html

Busy Times

Its been a little while since a post.  We are very busy with our lives here in Beijing, as we head into fall we have many events happening. 

Event 1:  Next week we are finally moving to the new apartment.  We are 50% packed into boxes and the mover shows up at 8am next Tuesday.  The process is pretty simple and we don't have too much stuff, but moving is never that much fun.  Also, its crazy cheap - 220RMB to move us - thats $30. Amy has worked really hard to find bedding and towels for us that meet our quality standards at a good price.  She's made many trips to the fabric market and to the restaurant supply market to find just the right things.  It can be pretty expensive when you need to by towels for 3 bathrooms and bedding for 5 beds.  We got great deals on all of the stuff and all in (including these amazing silk filled comforters) for about 4000RMB.  Its was some work, but Amy saved a bunch of money and the quality is very good.  The kids are excited to move to the new apartment too.  Because we will have a playroom, Amy had a great idea to decorate the room like a school room with fun and engaging activities etc. 

Event 2:  On September 30th, we will go to Tokyo for 5 days and plan to spend most of it at Disneyland.  Amy has put together a schedule for us to make sure the kids don't miss anything.  It should be fun, and it will also be good to get out of Beijing during the national holiday - this is the 60th anniversary and a really big deal here.  Security will be crazy.  No reason to be here.  Disney sounds much better.

Event 3:  Sometime in the middle of October, Amy's cousins Emily and Brian will be here on a multicity trip to China.  They will stay with us, and we will try to show them a great time in Beijing.

Event 4:  On the tail end of that visit, Amy's mom and her nephew, Andrew, will be here to spend 10 days.  We are looking forward to that visit very much and during the stay, we will get to celebrate Declan's 2nd birthday.

Event 5:  My friends Udai and Kristen will spend a few days in Beijing with us.  They too are doing an Asian whirlwind.  We look forward to showing them around and have some roast duck.

Event 6:  My parents and sister will be here for about 9 days over the thanksgiving holiday.  This is a repeat of last year's trip for them, but we will try to do new things.

Event 7:  Elizabeth turns 3 in early December - this means she will also start going to school. 

Event 8:  The week before Christmas, we are all going to Sanya for a week of beachtime.  Because it is China, we get to bring our Ayi, Ivy for the trip.

Event 9:  Christmas

We definitely have a lot going on.  Between work for me, Amy's activities and all of these events, there not much time for too much else.

Tired yet - or you can come visit at the Field Bed and Breakfast - we still have a few weekends open

knowing poor

before I have shared our charity work in China with migrant children.  It has been a very rewarding experience for all of the constituents, but recently we were confronted with a case that required some special attention.  A co-worker of mine was approached by a teacher at the school and said that there was a special hardship case that we might be interested in.  Now to qualify hardship in this environment is difficult for any American to understand.  All of the kids are from very poor families.  No bathrooms, no running water, and usually no heat.  But we were introduced to an issue that would require not only our time, but also some financial support.

The three top kids in the entire school are from one family (two twin girls and their younger brother) - I know china is 1 child, but many poor and rural people break the rules, and too avoid fines they don't get things like birth certificates.  Now this family is the poorest in the school by far.  Both parents are disabled.  The father has an amputated leg and cannot work.  The mother has glaucoma and is blind in both eyes.  Neither are from Beijing so the critical hu kou (local id - the ticket to health care and other social services like school) is absent.  The kids have potential to move onto a higher quality school, but they have no money.

When presented with this hardship case, a group of us immediately said "no problem" we'll chip in to do the right thing for these kids.

My colleague (who is a real hero on this) went to meet the family this past weekend.  He discovered a few more sobering facts.  In asian culture, males are much more favored than females.  It sucks, but that's just how it is.  So it turns out the girls have been willing to sacrifice their future to take care of the brother.  They stopped going to class last year to tutor him for a big exam.  They also are much more malnourished than he is.  They keep trying to get us to only help him - focus only on him.  We made it clear that we will only help all of them - or none of them.  Also, my colleague saw the living conditions of their "house."  In a trash dump, they had three walls created by piling up loose bricks and rocks 5 feet high...a few random pieces of scrap plywood to cover their head and some fabric on the floor for sleeping.  No chair, no table, no sink, no stove...only one long extension cord hooked up to a makeshift fan with a built in lamp.  And this is where this family of 5 sleeps.  Who knows how they eat.  Who knows how they study.  Who knows how they play.  We do know that as for many in the world, school is the only way out.  They know this as well.  To their current school, they take an hour long bus ride...and they kids are very, very adult and articulate.  I guess life has made them grow up a little faster than other 14 year olds.

So we were able to pull a few strings and get them into a boarding school in the Hebei province (about 2 hours from their parents "house").  My hero colleague is escorting them to school this friday to see they get settled, to pay the bill for tuition, boarding and meal cards.  We are all excited and nervous for them.

I will post updates as we get them.  Here is a picture of them sitting in our car while we could talk to them and actually have a seat.

Update today - I got to meet them in the office after a run to buy glasses for the first time in their life...Inspiring.  

China Financial Markets

My ten-day trip – partly holiday on Phuket and Phi Phi islands (even more beautiful than I had expected) and mostly meetings in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore – finally ended yesterday.  Besides three presentations to large investment groups, I met about twenty to thirty institutional investors in small meetings, and those meetings were very instructive.  There is a real mix out there it seems to me of tentative optimism about Chinese prospects on the part of the majority of investors and deep pessimism on the part of a minority, which included both Chinese nationals and foreigners.   

via mpettis.com

As always...super insightful

Tonight's Feast and Treats

as mentioned, here is what xiao zhong made

chinese ribs

and this scallion, beansprout, ground pork, garlic and rice noodle dish - very strong peanut flavor as well...excellent

as a reward for such a great job swimming, I took the girls to dairy queen for some blizzards

Here they are awaiting their blizzards

Caroline with her vanilla and mandm

Elizabeth with oreo and mandm

It literally took us 5 times as long to walk back as it took to get there...guess the girls were distracted

it was fun even though i might be in a little trouble for letting elizabeth get so messy

This Week's Update

Hello all.  Sorry its been a little quiet on the blog front, but we have been busy here.  Work is very busy for me right now...the end of year is quickly creeping up and now its time to make sure we put the right amount of points on the board (to use that poor euphemism), but its always good to back half the year since performance is usually determined in October...

The saga of our apartment hunting is finally over.  We are under contract on our new place and move in on September 15th...coincidently our office is also moving that same day.  We have to find a mover, but labor is cheap here.  Amy and I took a trip to Ikea today to scope out some of the housewares we need to buy (kids sheets, comforters, pillow some kitchen stuff, etc.).  For our sheets and towels we will go higher end, so one of amy's projects is to find a good source.  We think that custom made sheets will probably be the cheapest based on the thread count and quality we are looking for (snobby bitches here i know, but what can I say).

Last weekend we had to fire xiao zhou (our second ayi).  Basically her cooking was not up to par and her ability to cook anything beyond stir fry was suspect (despite assurances at the interview that she was well versed in western cooking techniques).  Its not that we want only western food, as we love chinese food.  We just wanted variety.  When we say chicken and celery stir fry for the 3rd time in 9 meals, we knew the end was near.  Also, she had difficulty with the three kids at once, making it difficult for us to trust her if we were away.  Amy did the axing because she is the manager of the household.  Our plan was to now wait until we moved in before finding another...

Our Chariots

I wrote last week how I starting riding my bike to work.  After a week of it, I'm hooked.  Actually, I'm so hooked, I thought it was a good idea to go buy Caroline and Amy some bikes.  Caroline needed one because the little one we brought from america was just too small (plus Elizabeth needed something to ride).  Amy wanted one of the electric mopeds that cover the city to help the getting around and decrease her reliance on cabs.   All in, its been great so far.  Amy needs to get comfortable with the moped as its been awhile for her since she's been on two wheels (at least since she was in her 30's).  On Sunday morning, I took the girls out to ride bikes in the courtyard.

Here they are ready to go!

We park our bikes in the basement garage.  Here you can see mine with the white and brown child seat on the back.  I even bought a bell for the bike (you need it on the streets...trust me)

You can see its a pretty standard cruiser style bike.  It weighs about 5 times more than what my aluminum cannondale at home weighs.

This is Amy's moped (i had side mirrors put on for safety after this photo was taken).

Here is Elizabeth getting her bike (even she has a lock)

The girls - almost ready

Here they are!

They had fun.  I'll try to capture a few on the road pics from my travels.  Its a very interesting and different view of Beijing.

Also, meant to put this up yesterday, but the typhoon shut down the internet.  Outside of some strong rain, we had no other effects here.

View of our new apartment

Move in day is September 15th.  Lease should be signed this week.  Its a big upgrade from where we are today in both size and amenities...and its cheaper.  This is on PH1 (35th floor).  We took the kids with the ayi over today.  Here are some pictures and video

fuckyeahanimalswithcasts

this is the most awesome site since mullett hunter

fuckyeahanimalswithcasts.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

I love this post

Update from this past weekend

Sorry for being a little quiet...we've all been in various stages of recovering from summer colds. 

For our date night, we went back to haiku for some sushi. Amy started with some edamame and i had some miso soup. She also ordered some nigori sake while i had to settle for a diet coke ( 2.5 more weeks with no alcohol). We ordered three different rolls, but we continue to love the torched tuna roll. Its awesome, next time we will just get two of those. I also ordered some kobe fried rice, but while it smelled delicious it was dry, bland and crappy. 

 Saturday started with some more apartment hunting. We saw 3, and found one in park avenue that we love. We put an offer in that day, so cross your fingers. Caroline started her private chinese lessons, and she was very excited. According to the teacher, she did very well and has excellent pronounciation. We went swimming later with the girls. Both caroline and elizabeth are making great progress. 

On sunday we did more mundane things, but i bought something that should change our beijing experience - a bike. Declan and i walked to the bike store and bought a one-speed cruiser for me with a child seat on the back that could accomodate any of the kids. Now bikes are very common on the roads here in china. Heck look back 25 years ago in china and they were the only thing on the road. The main reason i bought the bike is so that i can ride it to a further subway station on the way to work. In about a month our office is moving to the other side of town. If i follow the same subway approach i take now, its two transfers and 1:15 door to door. If i ride a bike to a subway station about 20 minutes away, i can avoid any transfers and turn the commute into :45 door to door...no brainer. Plus you get to see a whole lot more of the city. The kids love the bike and they took turns as we went all around the area yesterday...lots of fun and we will be careful. We'll see if we can get amy on one!

Wisdom teeth

Went this morning and had all 4 wisdom teeth removed. So far so good except for the fact that they wouldnt let me go to work afterward because of the general anesthesia. Continue to get great health support here in beijing...

Video from Today

this morning we went to the Village with the kids to play in the fountains.  We followed that up with some ice cream.  Later after naps and a swim, we had pizza and a cake for amy.  A very nice day!

Upscale Cantonese Friday Night

Amy and I went to a new place called Zen 1903 in the ever popular legation quarter on a really cool summer night after several days of rain.  It was a really nice break to the Beijing heat.  Now I had a procedure this week to investigate my 15 year old problem with daily heartburn...don't worry, everything is fine.  But I can't have spicy food or alcohol for 6 weeks...at least I get to have air.

So we went Cantonese since its light and non-spicy, and I thought while Amy enjoys a nice glass of wine I can at least have some delicious fresh squeezed juice.

After a remarkably traffic night, we arrived at the restaurant ready for a feast.  We were ushered into a virtually empty restaurant and sat at a cozy bench.  Amy had a nice glass of red, and I ordered some fresh squeezed kiwi juice.

The menu had many choices, and I ordered for both of us. 

For cold appetizers I ordered 1) turnip and carrot in vinegar shaped like a flower and 2) braised eggplant with bean paste.  Both were outstanding.  The carrots were shredded and lightly pickled and were wrapped in a thin layer of turnip.  These finger sized rolls were then sliced and arranged to look like a flower.  A very impressive presentation.  The eggplant was perfect and had just a little bite (not spicy though).

We then had some pumpkin soup (we would call this butternut squash) soup with crab meat.  Unlike the thick one I make in the fall, this one was thinned with chicken stock and was very light and perfect for a summer night.  The crab meat was also a really nice addition.

For main dishes I ordered prawns in red peppers with peaches as well as duck breast topped with potato.  I would say both were just okay.  Pretty, but a little bland and not delicate like my favorite cantonese dishes.   For a vegetable we had pea sprouts and mushrooms...delicious, but not unique.  

To end the meal we had fried vermicelli with pork neck meat.  It was delicious.  I really liked this dish. I kind of liked this place.  The first two courses were great, the ending was good.  the mains were uninspired.  And its a bit expensive for this type of food, so kind of like doesn't merit a trip back, but it wasn't a bad experience.  Maybe give it one more shot for their weekend dim sum.

After dinner we went upstairs to a Moroccan style rooftop bar called Fez.  Amy had a drink and I had a lychee-grapefruit-cranberry juice...pretty yummy.  Another nice Friday night.

Celebrating Amy's Birthday

A couple of years ago I told Amy we'd go to Hawaii for her 40th bday.  Now our life has changed alot since then, so Hawaii couldn't happen - but I wanted to make the day special.  Since my mom is here, we decided to do a night away...Amy said she wanted to go here.

I took the afternoon off and we hopped in the 1:15 min ride to the wall in a cab at about 1:30pm.  We checked in and went to our room.  It was a really nice place.  All of these really cool modern villas right along the great wall.  After settling in, we went to have a complimentary tea service.  This tea service included some delicious chinese tea as well as some tarts, some fruit and some ice cream...very nice.

After tea we went and had dual aromotherapy massages for 90 minutes...very nice.  I am actually getting used to people touching my feet.  We went back to the room afterwards to have some wine before dinner.  During dinner, we went with a Peking Duck tasting menu with wine pairings.  Everything was good, not great...our standards are high.  The timing of the service was off and the pairings were really off (Chinese don't get drinking with food...they get drinking in between food).  We retired to our room ready to sleep in.

I woke up early to hike up and down the complex while amy slept in.  We had a nice breakfast and as it finished, the solar eclipse began.  We quickly hiked up to the private wall area to see the eclipse on the wall...here is video:

Caroline's Birthday Last Post 3 Vids

Caroline's birthday part #2

Part 2 of the class video and 2 of 5 birthday videos (sorry  youtube has a <10min requirement)

Caroline's birthday part #1

This is part 1 from caroline's school...look how exicited she is

Chinese GDP and US Debt Perspective

its a bit wonky, but this is an excellent explanation of why people who fret about "chinese holding our debt" don't really understand the issue.  The net of it is we are stuck in this together...and no one really has the upper hand.

Here is an excerpt of a great blog post from Michael Pettis:

July 16th, 2009 by Michael Pettis | Filed under Uncategorized.

My blog has been blocked in China. Given all the internet blocking that has happened in the past few months I guess this is not much of a surprise, and I was sort of waiting for it to happen, even while I was hoping that it wouldn’t.

I think after a few months – probably once the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1, 1949, is truly behind us – they will begin unblocking sites and my students once again will be able to read my blog without having to jump through all the proxy hoops. On a related note I was pretty pleased when Doug Paal, one of my Carnegie Endowment associates, told me yesterday that certain local policy analysts with whom he had recently met told him that they had been reading my blog and found it useful, but unless they are allowed to use proxies in government offices I guess whatever use I may have provided will be dramatically reduced.

Fun ride home

Big rain on the way home today. Got a ride in a death cab for cutie. Only 10rmb and stayed dry. First time and survived

First visit to real chinese hospital

All i can say is wow. I needed to get an mri on my noggin today (no worries preventative) but the beautiful beijing family united doesnt have an mri machine. So they escorted me to a local hospital. Holy shit this place was nuts. Crowded and run down- this picture is of the lobby and it resembles an otb. We went in the basement for radiology. The other picture is my view in the radiology waiting area. It was really scary - like out of some science fiction movie or 12 monkeys etc. They took me in behind the big sheilded door and low and behold a brand new ge mri machine. In and out in half an hour. Not bad. More on chinese hospitals later

Watching the tour de france

Its pretty tough to be a sportsfan here. Any us based sport is too difficult to follow with the 12 hour time change. Most sunday afternoon sports happen while im sleeping or at work on monday Over the last 10 years i've really gotten into watching the tour de france, but in the us that presents its own time zone challenges. The internet is tricky because you know the outcome of things realtime Here in china the timing actually works out...racing happens 8-11pm here. While cctv5(sports) tape delays coverage the following day, i watch text updates via http://live.cyclingnews.com. One day i was actually able to see a pirated stream of versus' coverage, but i haven't been able to reconnect Its still exciting and nice to follow some live sports. Go lance!

Amy's new kindle 2

Its tough to get good books here in china. Combine the censorship thing with the english language thing and you end up with slim pickings. I was an early adopter of the kindle and just loved it. In the states the wireless feature was awesome. Well just like most of america sprint has shitty to no coverage in china. But we just download to the computer and sync via usb I reluctantly handed over my kindle to amy as she was starving for pulp content. I use the iphone app for kindle which i actually prefer ( backlighting good for reading in bed while amy is sleeping) All was well until one of the kis dropped the kindle and the screem went crazy. It was out of warranty, so i bought the new one for amy. My mom graciously brought it with her and we will post a review soon. At first blush its much thinner with better buttons to avoid the inadvertant page turn. Amy is happy

Finally upgraded to iphone 3.0

I finally got the courage to upgrade my 3g iphone to 3.0. Since i am using a china mobile sim card and apple doesnt have a distribution deal in china, you have jailbreak(unlock) the phone and then install some new code to fix the blocks that apple puts in each new release. There are lots of hacker sites that tell you how to do it, but it just a little beyond my technical comfort zone. But i did it last night...took about 2 hours end to end. Works much better than my 2.3 hack and love the new features. Fyi i wrote this from my iphone. Here is a screenshot.

Meme reading to the grandkids

Meme is here and we are having fun. She actually arrived early and we scrambled a bit to rescue her from terminal 3. Today we will hangout with the kids and see how she feels

Ring Around The Country

I am back after a 6-day 3-city trip throughout China. The purpose of the trip was to do some market research and to conduct some training. Overall it was a successful trip, but I am tired. Starting from Beijing I went to Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu returning home last night.  I am very thankful for the trip because when you do a business trip here it is not just land, go to meeting and then move on - it is much deeper than that...and if you try to do it that way you will offend.  When you visit you have to respect the local area by learning about it, participating in the culture via local meals and sometimes seeing local points of interest.  I had the pleasure of doing all of this in each of these cities.

I started out by arriving in Nanjing to some much cool weather...a big plus.  The hospitality in general is always outstanding.  You are personally met outside of baggage claim where they grab your bags and escort you to the car.  They then take you to the hotel to check in and rest for an hour.  Then you go to lunch.  I was worried about the hotels (see last week’s post) but it ended up being fine.  No four seasons, but clean, air-conditioning, toilet with a seat and internet access.  The bed was small and hard, but I survived.  And it was only $40 a night.  Because we essentially do business with the government, we got the government rate.  Also, later I found out that 2 of the 3 hotels we stayed in aren’t even open to the public.  This was also true of a few of the restaurants we went to.  Government employment and party memberships have lots of hidden perks like access to these places.  It was interesting to peek into this even at the superficial level.

Nanjing is a place with lots of History in China.  It used to be the capital of the nationalist government.  It also was the place of some horrific Japanese actions in World War 2 during their occupation.  Its not the only reason, but if you want to understand why the Chinese hate the Japanese, just click here.  We had a nice lunch and dinner.  The Nanjing people eat lots of seafood.  They have these wonderful lobsters (more like the size of langoustines) and they cook them in this deliciously spicy sauce.  Also they do a wonderful roasted pigeon (i had eaten this before in egypt).  Generally they do not drink that much, so I was spared any of the macho one-upsmanship of previous trips.   The next day after a half day of training and branch visits, we went sightseeing.  We started off going to Zhong Shan Park where the mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat Sen (very famous nationalist and father of Chaing Kai-shek).  It was just absolutely gorgeous. 

 We then went to the former offices of the nationalist government.  There were also some other interesting artifacts from older warlords.

The next morning we hopped on the 1:45 minute flight to Guangzhou.  First thing off the plane was holy shit this is hot a humid.  Now Guangzhou really doesn’t have the same historical significance as Nanjing.  It is best none as the heart of the factory business.  It has grown tremendously since China became the world’s factory.  Things are very modern and the city is not the urban planning miracle of Beijing...small roads, too many cars.  We arrived and checked in and immediately went to eat.  Now I hadn’t had too much cantonese food...I have focused on the more northern and western chinese cuisines that are heavier and spicier.  I was stunned with the quality of the food.  Out of the 6 meals I had in Guangzhou 4 of them are in the top 10 of all meals I’ve had in china.  Its hard to describe, but its just delicate, slightly sweet and amazingly presented.  I didn’t eat anything too weird, and it all tasted great.  Another bonus was that here they didn’t drink too much either...whew.  One thing interesting is that the Guangzhou people aren’t nearly as political as the other provinces...they are more like business people and not politicians.  They even said that they don't watch cctv because its too political.  I don’t engage in these conversations because its just not a good idea.  Also they speak Cantonese here (Mandarin is understood and spoken as well, but the locals speak cantonese).  It is so different that Mandarin.  The people I was traveling with couldn’t understand a thing...its a different language with different words and tones.   I got to at least understand when they are speaking it...it is much more tonal and sounds much more lyrical...almost like when you were a kid and pretending to speak Chinese.

The last evening they took us on a great boat ride on the main river...here are some cool pics.

Back to Sichuan.  I was a little worried because this was the site of some really heavy drinking.  Upon arrival I was warmly welcomed.  They seem to like me very much greeting me with “Fei Zong!”  (My chinese surname plus the honorific of Zong (leader).  We ate some good Sichuan style food and we did some drinking - but red wine - my wheelhouse.  It wasn’t crazy heavy but much more than the other places.  I was worried about dinner. 

They took us to a hotpot place.  Now I hate, hate, hate this food.  I ate as little as possible and survived the drinking as we stuck to red wine again.  After dinner they took us to get 2 hour foot massages.  These are good and only cost 80 rmb (that right...$11).  It was good to see friends and felt like I dodged a big drinking bullet.

The next morning they took us to SanXingDui.  It was really cool.  After this we were to go to the airport to catch the flight home.  And then they said lets stop and eat at a local farmers restaurant next to the airport...and thats when I knew they had me.  

We drank red wine and they had each of the 10 people from Chengdu come up and toast me...they don’t sip it, they shoot it.   And I lost count, but there is no way I didn’t drink over three bottles of wine...in less than an hour.  Luckily we had to go, so we got dropped off and I somehow got on the plane.  Three hours later I woke up as we were landing...ouch.  Those darn Sichuan people.  I like them alot, but man!

It was a great trip, and I continue to enjoy uncovering new things about this place and its great people.  

Hot as Hell

It has been really, really hot here.  Last week it reached 40C...which is well over 100F.  Combine it with some thick pollution and its pretty tough.  When I walk to work in the morning the weather is perfect, which means by noontime it will be unbearable.  I have been wearing these great underarmour undershirts that keep me much cooler than the cotton ones I used to wear (and they also don’t turn grey like all the cotton ones), but you still break a sweat.  I’ve commented on how the temperature in the office is a constant battle.  On a day last week where it was 38C outside literally someone had the windows open in the office because they were cold.  I tell you what.  If I ever lose my cool in china it will be about fucking losing my cool in china.

It was a busy week.  Amy’s CPAP finally showed up so now we both can get much better sleep (we left it in the car that took us to the airport - $180 in fedex later and 6 days clearing customs).  We had dinner with some friends from Wilmington on Friday night as they were in town doing the whole tourist thing.  We ate at Duck de Chine and had a really nice time.  They are only here for three days and had an action packed agenda, so I’m glad we got to see them.  With this crappy weather, I couldn’t help but think that they must believe this place sucks...it doesn’t, its just not very nice right now.

On Saturday, Amy and I bought the kids some new shoes (they are growing so fast), and after my Mandarin lesson we went to look at some more apartments.  Actually during part of my Mandarin lesson, we conducted an in-person interview for our second Ayi.  Her name is xiao zhou and we liked her very much.  We were haggling a little on price, so she was going to get back to us today.  I hope she accepts, we liked her very much.  She also seemed pretty mellow, which will hopefully be a good offset to Ivy’s manic personality traits.  If all goes as planned she will start on July 13th.

The apartment hunting was good.  We saw four more apartments, but still love the one I described last weekend.  I took some video that I’ll put at the bottom of this.  We are really happy with the options.  Also the Marriott people aren’t negotiating in good faith, so we will definitely not be living here after September.  With occupancy way, way down and expats leaving beijing in droves (the economy) its curious to take a hard line stance on rent when the marketplace is so competitive...oh well, their choice.

Las night, we had burgers and milkshakes with the kids at the All Star grill in Solana.  It was alot of fun.  Caroline had a huge milkshake and mom and dad had margaritas.  We walked back through the big open square at Solana and watched the kids play in the drop fountain.  Here is some video (check out Elizabeth’s evil move at the end):

This week will be a hard week for us as I am going on a long business trip...I leave tomorrow morning and spend two days each in Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.  I arrive home on Saturday evening around midnight and then I go to Zhengzhou for two more days starting the following Monday.   This doesn’t happen very often, so we will get by.  But its tough on Amy to have the kids all alone.  Its also tough on me if its going to have all the heavy drinking that the last trips had.  Lets cross our fingers.  On this trip I will be traveling with our local partner.  They have a slightly different travel policy than the JP Morgan one.  Now we are extremely cost conscious as a corporation, but our minimum standards are above what our partner’s max is...and to avoid the two different worlds issue and too keep team cohesion, I will be staying in hotels following their travel policy...I’m hoping for AC and a private non-squatty potty.  Yikes.  It does raise a common issue in hybrid organizations - pay/benefits disparity.  It’s just so VASTLY different, and it will always be a sensitive topic.  I wont give details here, but over a beer, I will explain it to you.

One thing I wanted to mention too is that I had a comprehensive medical exam this week.  I have always been bad about doing this, but with too many of my friends getting sick, I thought it was wise.  I bring it up because as I watch the healthcare debate in america I get very frustrated with how we settle for shitty, expensive and inefficient.  The care I got during the checkup was outstanding.  In 73 minutes (and the clock started when I walked in) i had the following done - medical history, full physical check, height, weight, mole survey, ekg, urine test, blood test, singulair prescription filled, prostate exam, breathing volume, japanese encephalitis vaccine, MRI scheduled (getting the aneurysm thing checked out based on family history) and a GI doctor referral (check out my 20 year battle with heartburn).  It was incredible efficient and Private.  Politically I am for comprehensive reform and think a public option is good, but the experience I had shows that you can have a private insurance program and receive high-quality and efficient care.  I don’t believe there is anywhere in America that I could get all of this done in 73 minutes - and the other thing...68RMB co-pay.  $10 for all of that.  Who is my insurance?  Cigna.  See, so it can happen.  Lets trade shitty, expensive and inefficient for good, cheap, and efficient.  Who wouldn’t want that?

Minor issue here this week with Google.  Its well understood that the Chinese government filters the internet.  So they wanted Google to improve some of their pornography blocking - Google didn’t respond they way that the Chinese government wanted, so they shut it down.  Now google is not the #1 search engine here (it actually has only a 5% market share)  BaiDu is #1.  Looks familiar huh?!  For searching it was no big deal while google was down because we just went to bing (I actually liked it, so it was nice to experiment with bing).  It was a problem for email since Amy and I both use gmail for personal boxes...oh well.  It came back a day later.  We used facebook and my work email to communicate during the outage.

Have a great week and hopefully this Michael Jackson things dies down (come on, he was a pedophile and the world is probably better off without him) and we move onto more meaningful issues like iran, iraq, north korea, the economy and things that actually impact our lives and our future.

Apartment Video (i did it at lower res than the one above - my video rule - only the kids get hi res)