Typhoon - Fengshen

Well yesterday was another day of firsts for me. I was called by two colleagues early morning and told not to make the commute to work because Typhoon Fengshen was going to be hitting. Mom - no worries all we got was a lot of rain and some wind. However the amount of rain is stunning. While the worst is behind us they say, we are still getting heavy rain today. I guess it is a good thing in that the rain has cooled the city off some as it had been in the upper 90's for the previous days...

Beijing Olympics - Article

I thought you all would enjoy this article about Beijing. It will give you a good idea of the size of the city, the architecture, food, etc not to mention the wonderful pollution.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3453777&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos1

Carnival game anyone????

We all remember the game that is at carnivals or sometimes in the front of a grocery store? You put your money in, then try and operate a machine to grab the best toy in the box and hopefully it doesn't fall when it comes up...and therefore leaves you with nothing right?

Well check out this Chinese version. Called Lucky Baby! I must admit that this is not my photo but taken from a friend who saw this. Inside is a variety of cigarettes from cheap local brands to expensive local and import brands!

What do I eat on a regular basis?

I have been asked in numerous e-mails to try and explain what I eat on a regular basis. When I'm not on the road I try my best to eat at home. Within a 5 minute walk I have a full grocery store. However many things in there are really for locals. For example this photo of a variety of meats included dried duck! Thanks but no thanks!! So in this store I find a lot of staples like: rice, juice, milk (another story for another time there), soda, Oreo's, Pringles, great fresh vegetables, etc.


Then I also have 2-3 western stores that are like small convenience stores that carry a variety of western foods. This includes many items that are way over priced but at the same time it's the only way to get them. This is stuff like canned Tuna, Mac & Cheese, potato chips, Oscar Meyer Bologna and the occasional Turkey!

So I do eat way more Bologna and cheese sandwiches than I've eaten since I was a little kid! But I have also been experimenting with some Chinese style cooking. Pork is excellent here and used often because it is relatively inexpensive. Rarely do the Chinese eat beef so when I cook that is usually what I try to make.

Below is beef (at least I hope it is) that was bought at Wal-Mart with snap peas, onions, peanuts and a spicy Chinese seasoning. All on top of a bed of rice with some extra hot peppers on top! By the way this isn't Uncle Ben's 10 minute rice! This rice has to be cleaned at least 2 times before being cooked in rice cooker for about 30 minutes or so. I must say I love this dish!

Flooding!

It seems like flooding is all over the world these days. I've seen disasters in Iowa and Wisconsin, including the Wisconsin Dells! Well my current "hometown" of Shenzhen is not immune either. Today we have been inundated with torrential rain all day! These photos are taken in the Bao'an area of Shenzhen near the airport.

There are notices up in my apartment complex that we have officially begun Typhoon season and to make sure windows are closed, etc when you leave. I guess I should get used to this!

I've also just looked out my window at the South China Sea and you can literally see a line in the water where it goes from brown to blue. I'm not sure if this guy thinks he can actually control/move the bus in these conditions!
If this were me I would be outside of the bus even if that meant in the flood as I wouldn't want to be trapped in the bus if the water started rising fast!

Hangzhou/Ling Yin Temple

I stayed in Hangzhou basically right on Westlake which is a dynamic lake with lots of lotus flowers growing around it, scenic walkways, boat rides, etc. Very crowded during the day but super peaceful in the early morning hours. Here is a view of the lake, obviously a very overcast day but still...
I was sitting on one of the many bridges connecting different areas of the lake...
If you open this up and look a bit more you can literally see it raining. It was thankfully a light rain as we had lots more walking to do.
Here is the area called Ling Yin Temple. According to history this is a limestone mountain that came from India and is a holy mountain. There are hundreds of Buddha's carved into the limestone through the park...
In addition the actual temple is so large that it can't fit in any pictures. This is from one of the rooms that had 4 enormous guards like you see in this photo. Each were no less than 25' tall!

This shows just a bit of the temple. It was on multiple levels and probably comprised about 5 buildings of this size, each seemingly more amazing than the last...
This was the view from the top where you can see the roof of one of the temples...
All over we saw very interesting trees and their root growth. Sometimes growing in circles, sometimes seemingly growing out of rocks, etc...
This is in the city of Hangzhou we went to a restaurant in a very non tourist part of town. It had lots of the cool local attractions, good food, etc.

Qiandao Lake

This past weekend I stayed in Hangzhou which is soutwest of Shanghai by a few hours. It's a gorgeous and scenic place and was voted the top tourist city in China in 2007. Here are some photos from a day trip to Qiandao Lake. Qiandao (pronounced "chindauw") means lake of 1,000 islands.

National Geographic

If anyone is looking for a lot of insight into China today check out the May 2008 edition of National Geographic. It has a whole issue dedicated to China. Plus a map inside that is in English - which for me is a godsend as I’ve not found a good one here that I can read!

Mc Donald's

With all my talk about the food here, some good, some bad I do have McDonald's and KFC around. I eat way too much McDonald's here. When I get back to Chicago I'm guessing it will be a long time before I eat at the Golden Arches again...

However even the architecture on a McDonald's can be very different here as seen in Hangzhou.

Hot Pot

Hot Pot is a really cool meal, especially with a bunch of people. You see the pot here in the photo. It has two sides to it - one with very spicy flavor and the other with a non-spicy flavor.

You order your food - meats, seafood, vegetables, etc and then put them in the hot pot in the middle of the table until it is cooked. Grab it out and enjoy!

Eat as much or as little as you want because the cooking takes just minutes.

The restaurant I was at had all sorts of disgusting items to put in. These included - intestines (of what I do not know), stomach (don't know), chicken feet and my favorite...Pigs Brain. I actually saw two ladies eating that and nearly got sick!

Toilet

A few of you have asked about the toilets here. Well some are nice...relatively speaking. Some are our typical western style toilet including my apartment, office and more western restaurants or bars.

However much of China still uses the type of toilet you see at the right...a porcelain hole. These bathrooms stink more than you could imagine and just simply are not clean.

The one you see at the right though is in fact a luxurious one! That's because it actually has toilet paper and a bucket of water to "flush" the toilet with! Literally most bathrooms do not come with the toilet paper included so people carry their own.

Hopefully this image gives you a good idea, just be thankful there is no way for me to transmit the smell for you to check out!

Drunken Shrimp

One great thing in China is eating fresh seafood, fish and vegetables all the time. However this bit of shrimp was a new experience for me. First off we were delivered 3 dishes. One was essentially fresh green beans, the other was liver (from what I do not know). The last was this glass dish with a red looking sauce...

When I took off the lid I found that the dish was filled with shrimp. What shocked me was that the shrimp were still totally alive! Yes I said ALIVE!!!
The sauce was a mix of red wine and vinegar. The dish translated was called "Drunken Shrimp" because after 10 minutes or so the shrimp die from drinking the wine. However they are never cooked as the dish is actually relatively cold. I've not been one to eat live anything and so the idea didn't sit well with my stomach. But I grabbed a small one and gave it a try...
It's a little challenging in that you have to peel the shrimp in your mouth while thinking about it still being alive even though it is dead.
All in all it wasn't terrible. My colleague on the other hand loves them and kept grabbing big shrimps as you can see here.
I found out later that the factory person we were guests of pretty much eats anything. In fact he was asking my colleague if she had tried rat? Don't think I will go that far!

Tu Dou

As some of you have heard I have essentially been given a Chinese name. The name is Tu Dou which means "potato." This was given to me because I love the potatoes here, the way they are cooked in oil and soy sauce and mixed with various meats and vegetables. The other reason is that my colleagues say I am fat like a potato! The reality is that most of them have never experienced Americans in real life and would be shocked by how big many of them are.

I've happily embraced the name and even some of our factories know me by Tu Dou now because for them it is easier to say than Nolan.

Joke

For those of you who have been to China and wondered about the challenges facing a communist country with developing capitalistic needs this joke says a lot...

For those of you who have visited and been in a car this also says a lot...

“Deng Xiaoping is sitting in his car reading a newspaper, when his driver interrupts him and says, ‘Comrade, there’s a problem. The sign says turn Left for communism, turn Right for capitalism. Which way should I go?’ Deng tells his driver, ‘There is no problem. Just signal left and go right."