I went to the most fabulous place today, called Dahutong. It's like three malls of wholesale stuff crammed together in one great spot. I had to pick up some more work clothes as I will be running low before long. The dry cleaners takes about 4 days turnaround and there is no such thing as a rush. I purchased a pair of sweet trousers, a nice sport coat and two dress shirts for a whopping total of USD54!
I was walking over to the Xiaobailou Area (one of the 3 major CBDs in Tianjin) and I happened upon a beautiful display setup for the Olympics. I had not seen so many flowers in such a space, so I stopped to see what they had. A plethora of pansies and chrysanthemums, but they were all in 4 inch pots and looked like they had not been watered for a few days. I see a trend emerging here; put forth enormous amounts of energy to attain instant results with absolutely no thought of sustainability. It was not the flowers which brought forth this epiphany, but they are merely an example. I marvel at the vast inefficiencies with appreciation of the very worthy effort.
I had the opportunity to walk through one of the projects which is managed by JLL here in Tianjin at the basement of a building. It is going to host a Papa John's, Starbucks and some other stores when completed. Some things struck me as odd while I was touring. For example, people were walking through the construction site from the subway to gain access to the upper floors as if it were nothing, and nobody cared. The picture to the right is going to be a Starbucks, but you may notice something missing...like safety equipment. The guy bending over was jack hammering the floor and I walked by other people who were shaving metal with large Dremel tools sans goggles. I asked the project manager about contractors supplying safety equipment, but his reply was not encouraging. Even if supplied, nobody would want to use them.
Apparently the Forbidden City is not forbidden to underwear hanging out on a line. This is a portion of the city which has been apparently allocated as barracks. It comes complete with laundry facilities and a workout area (if you look carefully, you can see the Bowflex machine to the left of the clothesline).
I had planned on playing Badminton yesterday with some of the office staff, so I sent the driver home early. When there were few takers in the office to go, I took a taxi home. The fare is about RMB13, which boils down to about USD1.86. I asked him where a good place to buy cheap clothing is and he pointed to a building close to the flat where I am staying. I walked through the building, finding nothing suitable to wear to work (I should have packed more dress shirts as the dry cleaners take about a week here) and I turned down the street to the side of the building. There, I found local everyday night life. Small shops sold knock-off clothing and cheap local brands. Small store owners were sitting around low tables playing Majiang and a number of restaurants had some business. As I walked down the street, I saw a crowd of people sitting at low tables near billowing smoke. I stopped to see what was so popular. As you can see in the photo, a very long thin grill had been constructed to hold kabob sticks. They beef, lamb and chicken, each for RMB1. I looked around for a while more to find that it was the place to be. Absolutely no place in a 3 block radius had so many people, so I returned and had the lamb. While I was waiting, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Nearly half of the people sitting outside were staring at me, not in a threatening way mind you, they were just curious about the tall white boy who was ordering lamb kebobs at a local place in Chinese.
If any of you have had hot pot...hold onto your seat, literally. I went out with Wei's uncle and his work friends my last night in Beijing. We went to a Sichuan restaurant, which is known for spicy food. We walked through a restaurant, its kitchen, outside and back into a small room which felt like a sauna for dinner and this thing showed up at the table. At the base is something like an oven pan, and on it is a metal stand which is filled with hot coals to keep the top hot, another pan filled with an entire fish which has been gutted, scallions, cilantro, ginger and more chilies than one would normally eat. After the fish was gone, they brought out pieces of nan (Indian bread) to dip into the, by the end, liquid fire. We cooled the burn with copious amounts of Tsingtao Beer.
Although I am not big on the whole guardian angel idea, Wei could best be described as mine during my Beijing trip. She picked me up at the airport and was largely by my side until she deposited me at the train station. Were it not for her, my time in Beijing would not have been nearly as enjoyable. She took me around as a family member and watched after my safety like a mother. I can't thank her enough for her time and energy.
The famous Tiananmen Square was a bit difficult to see from a distance due not to the clouds or fog, but to the pollution. I was reading a publication today that spoke of increasing Blue Sky Days in one of the major cities from 100 to something else. Whatever the goal, what stuck in my mind was that Blue Sky Days were going to be increased from 100! That's less than 1/3 of the year! I am glad to see that there are efforts being taken to decrease pollution.
My hotel room in Beijing was not large, but provided me with air conditioning and a place to sleep. I found it odd when I opened the blinds to see through the window was a hallway and window of another building not 6 inches away. Now one of these buildings was built first I understand, but I can't figure out why the builder of the second building even bothered with windows. Moreover, why did they place windows in the same spot...just in case someone in the other building wanted to look at you?
