Temple of Heaven

I've posted more pictures on flickr.com for your enjoyment... Lots of pictures from the Temple of Heaven (tian tan). This time I added brief captions on some of them. There are some attempts of capturing details, but I have a small and light camera suited for photography dummy (moi) and travel so there are limited things I can do.... ;p

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15506077@N03/

The park is the largest green space in the city. The Olympic green may be bigger, or at least comes close to it; but that's way out of the city while the Temple of Heaven Park is very much in the city. Ticket to get into the park is very cheap, equivalent to $2 CAD. Then it cost another $5CAD to see the main attractions: the temple, the museum, the actual spot where it is considered to be closest to heaven and therefore was where the emperors performed all the ceremonial rituals. I did not know how many steps there were in those rituals; they had to have a little museum to showcase the cumbersome procedure!

The most amazing part of the architecture was the details on each and every piece of building material; everything was hand painted (recently restored; renovation will be completed by Olympic time) and it's jaw-dropping to think how much work was involved in its making. Apparantly when the Ming Dynasty changed to the Qing Dynasty, the emperor ordered the color scheme changed completely to reflect their preferences and interpretation of color!

Check out my photo posting on flickr for more details...

I'm also impressed by the cleanliness of the public washrooms in the park. I dreaded going at first but was so shocked by how big and clean it was, considering it was a public washroom in a very busy park! Granted I was there on a slow day, weekdays during working hour; the place was spacious and smelled normal. There were toilet paper at the entrance and there were enough stalls with western style toilets! The floor was not wet and liquid soap was available from dispensers. All in all, it was not what I expect from public washroom in China. :)

I went with some friends to the Pearl market, which is just across the street from the East Gate of the park. I am so proud of myself: I didn't buy ANYTHING! :) Lara and Lindsay, however, were out of control and we literally could not get out of that place!! The sales ladies were downright aggressive, at times physically :P Lara had her arm pulled and one sales chased us to the elevator! They are absolutely relentless! When not participating in the bargaining, it's both amusing and tiring to watch it unfold. :P As a participant, I'm sure it's quite draining for Lara and Lindsay! but they were certainly happy with their purchases and both had huge smiles.... I suppose it was all worth it :) This place never cease to be entertaining.

I've had 2 days off and needed every minute of it to feel refreshed enough to go back to work again. Yesterday I went out late at night to get a foot massage and a whole body massage, and realized for about $25CAD I was pampered (in the painful but super effective Chinese massage way) for nearly 3 hours! I felt so much better after that, and even more so after sleeping in until lunch time! Took it easy today and just stayed in. Went to the Happy Hour at the Canadian Club in the Embassey and had a great time. Met lots of people who worked at the embassey and introduced myself, including a former colleague of mine from Industry Canada, who is now working for DFAIT as well and posted in Beijing! What a small world! :)

It's late now, I should hit the bed if I want to wake up in time for work...

note: I added more to the last entry

Instead of starting a new posting, I added to the last one I posted earlier today. Probably shouldn't have done that. I left the story half told so I continued on. So, if the last time you read that entry it ended with "to be continued, off to dinner" then you can read the end again as I have now completed my story about Dashan. sorry...

BTW, I no longer have access to my own blog website. However, I appear to still be able to post to it. I just cannot see how it looks as a blog site. If it doesn't look so good, bear with me, I'm posting blindly :P

Oh, did I mention it rained HARD the day before yesterday? It poured and poured! I woke up and the sky was dark, 5 min later it was nearly pitch black and the storm hit hard. It was actually kind of scary but this is aparently how it rains in Beijing in the summer. Either no rain or it rains HARD! I was so happy!! Remember I've been praying for rain? Air is clean again. :) Even today I can still feel the effects of the rain and air is still reasonable. It's great! I love rain in Beijing :)

BCCP pre-opening

It's been a crazy few days. I haven't had much time or energy to keep up the blog, especially at the level of detail I had been providing... I am not sure I can share some of the operational or logistical information. So, I'll just skip those details.

We were supposed to open on May 1 but delayed to May 6, which is tomorrow. The construction or at least the positioning of all exhibit items have not been completed. The wall towards the end of the exhibit about the Pacific Gateway and the 2010 Olympics are yet to be finished. But otherwise, the exhibit area looks great!

When the tour is given by someone with a good knowledge of the exhibit and who can tell the stories with a bit of passion and enthusiasm, it is a great experience to go through the hall. I along with some other host team members have been practicing and learning the material in the last few days. Not just where the picture was taken, what it was about, but also the whole concept behind the design of the whole exhibition area. When it all comes together, it tells a great story. The video segments being played as welcome at the impressive welcome area on 6 gigantic vertical screens is very well done and the scenery combined with the background music is quite moving and leaves a strong sense of patriotism...

As will be the case in the future, the pavilion is open 6 days a week, including the weekends. Technically Monday is a day off but only the first floor exhibit is closed. The facility is still open for business programming, which takes place any day of the week and we VIP hosts need to be there to provide tours to visiting delegations. So we worked through the weekend getting ready for the opening tomorrow. In fact, we opened today for a business delegation.

It was a long day. As usual, things change from one minute to another. A few minutes before the first visitors showed up (45min early, mind you!! ) we found out many processes had to be changed and responsibilities had to be reassigned, etc... hectic and stressful, no doubt. Overall, we pulled it off quite well. We even had a visit from the Canadian Ambassador to China, AND a surprise visit by a celebrity, Dashan!

Canadians may not know who he is but I'm sure anyone in China or anyone who spent significant time in China knows him. He is Canadian, by the way. He made his name in the Chinese entertainment industry and is a HUGE deal here. He speaks better Chinese than many Chinese and does a form of stand-up comedy called "xiangshen" here. EVERYONE here knows him and he has a huge fan base. So when we heard he was coming in an hour, the students hired locally were so excited that their eyes were glowing! :P Being a VIP host, it was part of my duty to follow him as his entourage while he toured the facilities. While I wasn't his fan and have never watched him perform, it was still quite an experience to meet both the ambassador and a big celebrity all in one day, and the first day! I wonder who else we will encounter?!

The glamour of the job aside, standing around for 9-10 hours a day is not a fun thing to do (some of those time was of course break, just not regular and not long), especially in some of the shoes people are wearing. Luckily I have wonderful shoes and my feet didn't hurt; it was still super exhausting. There was a rush to buy comfortable shoes after the first few days of work... ;p

Tomorrow, we will be open to the public. We really don't know what to expect. It could be anywhere from being super crowded to very very quiet; planning of resources will have to adjust accordingly as the day goes on. It's definitely interesting to be part of all this fluidity! :) Those who are coming in future waves, you don't know what you are missing!! :P Now that I'm here, I feel so lucky I'm here at the beginning; just being in the middle of all this chaos and somehow helping to make things work is an experience in itself. (Not to mention the weather will get so much hotter and the smog so much stronger as it gets to the peak of the summer).

Sorry, no photos to post. Been too busy to take photos of the pavilion, perhaps I'll go one day when I'm off to take some photos and post them. I wish I could give you all a guided tour of the place, I did my first VIP guided tour with a group of business delegates today! As I was the only Chinese speaking VIP host, I was assigned to do the tour in Mandarin... Having never received the material in Chinese, I had to do a lot of translation in my head! I managed quite well and only stumbled on "sea otter"... which I now know :) I'm sure I will be doing this many times in the months to come; probably get to the point where I'd be giving this tour in my sleep... ;p

BC-Canada Pavilion – Orientation and Training

We were finally allowed to go inside the pavilion for a tour and training on Tuesday! A quick tour of the first floor exhibits took roughly 15min of speed-talking by Karen who knows every inch of the place inside out… =) Since the site is still officially a construction site, we weren’t allowed yet to wander around.

I won’t post pictures until the Pavilion has been completed so you’ll have a better idea. :) suffice to say it’s very nice, and the design is cool!

Training took place on the 2nd floor business area. Orientation of what to expect, what we need to know, etc… was followed by a detailed study of all the imagery being displayed in the exhibits so we know the stories behind each image as well as why it’s important; we anticipated the questions that visitors may have and shared knowledge of the place/topics/activities/industries referenced in each image. It was a lengthy process but well worth the time investment. We all need to be experts in all of these subject matter and be able to speak to any of these with ease in case a visitor asks a question about any one of the images. I find I am learning so much more about Canada with every training session! Every extra bit of information is making me more of a Canadian =)

Of course, given that we received this thick package with hundreds of images, it will take a while for me to know it all by heart. It will help once we are permitted to wander the first floor and study the exhibits in detail then I can put these information into context and do dry runs in my head. Our business program starts on Friday, May 5. The soft opening was supposed to be May 1, but it was proven too ambitious and delayed to May 6, I believe. Being in the Pavilion physically, watching Bette and others run around trying to deal with issue after issue, I’m starting to appreciate just how enormous a task this is to get all the ducks in a row for the opening and for the smooth sailing of the pavilion from day to day… Let me just say that I don’t envy Bette’s job. Just to clarify, for those of you who don’t know, (which is pretty much all of you), Bette Sterling is the lady who is in charge of running this place =) She and Kathryn Burkell from DFAIT hired me for this position.

There are a lot of staff here, more and more each day as the students from Canada finishes their exams and join us here. There are also Chinese students who are studying in Canada and local Chinese students. Our staff family is ever growing. Getting to know all of them has not been possible yet; I will do better once they start wearing name tags :p

There is only one issue with the Pavilion that I wish will be resolved shortly – the bathroom. Not the cleanest or most fragrant. =( This is still a construction site and the workers are on site all the time so it’s hard to keep it clean and odor free. I can’t wait for construction to finish so it will be maintained at a level acceptable by Canadian standards… For now, yikes =( Hopefully this is not about to be your lunch time :p

We also had the opportunity to visit the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. As I crossed the gates of the embassy, I had this warm fuzzy feeling of going home – stepping on Canadian soil again after a week out of the country can give you this funny sentiment. (of course, everyone loved the Canadian washroom ;P) Even the ambassador Rob Wright himself spared some time to come and gave the group a quick welcome speech. Among the group, I felt particularly like I’ve come home since I work for DFAIT and I would be working in the Embassy is I was here on a posting. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to some of the people at the embassy… I’ve even got a badge to access the facility while I’m here thanks to Kathryn and the gracious hospitality of my colleagues here. =) A small gesture such as this really helps to make someone feel welcomed and valued, even if I don’t end up using this privilege – so nice to feel like I’m a part of something or a member of a family when I’m thousands of miles away from home!

Smog city!

You may remember from one of my earlier posts where I said the air quality in Beijing was much better than I anticipated and that whatever they did to clean up the air worked...

Well, turns out I spoke too soon! Apparently that day was just after 2 straight days of rain, which settles the dust and cleans up the air. Once the city is dry again, the dust and all the other pollutants slowly rises up again. The day I went to the Pearl market, it was starting to get worse, but I thought it was tolerable. The day after, it all nose dived. I got up quite early to go to breakfast, and it was not too hot at that time of the day, but the air was literally greyish. I could see pollutants and dust floating and flying in the air and it hurt me to breath that air : (

I was already coughing, imagine the damage this smog was doing! I ended up coughing more frequently and more violently, despite the fact that I was already gettting better after drinking the Chinese medicine.

With air like this, the atheletes will need to get here sooner than their original plan, and try to adjust to this air, to this climate if they would like to perform during the games. In short, I take back my initial assessment of air quality here; I am considering buying disposable masks to wear on the streets to at least filter out all the construction dust -- if only I know where to find that! ;)

After 3 days of heavy smog, (getting worse by the day) all I pray for now is a nice long rain to clean the air up....

Pictures on flickr

I thought I had already posted the link to my flickr account where I've posted all the pictures I took. I just realized I hadn't posted... hmmm... I may be losing my mind :)

Sorry about that. Here is the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15506077@N03/

There are a lot of pictures, and I have not had time to filter or put captions on all of them, and hope to get to them eventually. As you can imagine my days are quite full and by the end of the day I'm usually exhausted. :P I'll work on it ASAP.

You can start from the category on the bottom of the list on the right, and then work your way up. That would be chronological order. The BC set is from my Cross-Canada tour, and has nothing to do with this trip. You can just ignore that.

Enjoy!

Pearl Market shopping spree

How can I be in Beijing and not go shopping? Sun was our first day off in Beijing. (This week we are off on Sun and Monday instead of the regular weekend.) This may well be the only weekend we get that has 2 days off and that everyone is off at the same time… Once the Pavilion opens, I doubt we’d have this much free time…

After the visit to the Great Wall, many of us felt we’ve had enough sightseeing for the next little while; instead, we decided to hit the Hongqiao Pearl Market.

This may be a good time to say that I’ve become really close with a few people over the last few days, two of them in particular: Pearl and Yuanyuan. They have both lived in Beijing for extended time before and knows their way around. Fortunately for me, we’ve hit it off right from the get go. They are extremely friendly and kind; they are both older than me and instantly took it to themselves to look after me in every aspect as would a big sister. We get along superbly as if we’ve known each other forever; I feel comfortable talking to them about anything and we loved the same food, same kind of shopping, and generally did everything together. Their names will likely come up quite a lot.

Anyways, Pearl and Yuanyuan brought me and a whole group of other staff: Suzanne, Nancy, Barb, Iris, Pardip, Beth, Laurel, Daryl, Paul and Roy to the Pearl Market. As soon as we arrive, we thought we were in heaven: there were countless little shops selling an infinite variety of jewelry, mainly pearl, but also various things like jade, onyx, shell, chrystals, etc…. I literally felt overwhelmed by the selection, and the amount of people there. I had no idea where to start or what price to expect there. Thankfully Pearl was there to help; she brought us to a shop and negotiated a good deal for us as a base price from which we drew inspiration for further bargaining.

The pearls were of varying sizes and quality; I had to first have a lesson on how to tell if a pearl was real and how to tell one quality level from another. Apparently you can simply scratch a real pearl with the blade of scissors as a test for real vs fake pearls. If it is really fine powder that comes off of the pearl, and if by gently rubbing the pearl at the spot where you scratched it you can reveal a beautiful shine and luster again effortlessly, then the pearl is real. If the pearl is fake, you’ll scratch off the color coating and reveal the plastic inside.

Armed with this knowledge, we began bargain hunting. The jewelry is very affordable here; I ended up buying quite a few items for gift and for myself. I had lots of fun picking through the vast ocean of merchandise, looking for the right design, the right color, the right size, the right shape… Pearl was indispensable to all of us; she has great taste, and eyes for good items, not to mention the ability to negotiate good deals. We all left after a few hours perfectly content. The smile on my face was so big and I couldn’t stop admiring what I bought that my dear friends said I was in “pearl ecstasy”.

The side effect of this shopping trip was that the crowded place made me cough even worse. (Many of you would remember that I have been coughing ever since I was stranded in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Yup, however hard to believe, I am still coughing and it got worse after the Pearl market. I suspect the 2-3 days I’ve been in Beijing hasn’t helped either. So, I went to visit Chinese Traditional Medicine doctors on Wangfujing in one of the really well known Chinese medicine pharmacies. Luckily for me, their most senior doctor was in. Just her confidence was very comforting to me. She gave me a prescription for Chinese herbal medicine and I paid peanuts to have the pharmacy boil the medicine for me. When I went back later in the evening to pick up my medicine, it was still hot to the touch, obviously just finished.

I don’t want to brag about this ancient art of medicine, but after drinking this medicine at night, and again in the morning, I, along with Pearl and Yuanyuan, noticed obvious improvements in the sound of my cough and the significant reduction of phlem. =) Yeah!!!

Great Wall & Olympic Green

Today we are getting a tour of the Great Wall; we were joined by locally engaged staff for a big team building day. We lucked out and had the most beautiful day for walking the Great Wall, the sun was beautiful – nice and warm but not scorching; the wind was mild, which was rare. All in all, the best condition for a little mountain climbing.

The bus ride to the Great Wall was a little over 2 hours; not too bumpy but I was still car sick. I was just beginning to be concerned about how I was to climb up to the Great Wall, especially after hearing that the area of the Great wall we were visiting was steeper than the most popular segment of the wall. Just then, we arrived, and we were given tickets to a cable lift!! What a blessing, we got to see the gorgeous scenery in the comfort of a ski lift! J To get to the lift, we walked through a bustling sidewalk market of trinkets and souvenir items. This is the familiar sight of any tourist attraction; I’d expected nothing less J Prominently displayed were not only souvenirs of the Great Wall, but also the 5 mascots of the Beijing Olympics…

Effortlessly, we got to the top of the mountain and found ourselves at the foot of the Wall. On the way up, I also had a sneak peak of the toboggan slides which I would eventually use as my transportation down the mountain. It wound through the landscape of the mountain and appeared to be endless… I wonder if it has the Guinness world record of the longest toboggan ride (without the snow…) ;p It looked like so much fun; that alone could be a tourist attraction. How ingenius!

The view of the Great Wall, and from the Great Wall were both breath taking. The pictures don’t begin to do it justice; not even the postcards do – you really have to come and see it for yourself. The walk is pleasant given the nice weather. What I found funny were the tiny little stone steps which constantly threatened to trip me and make me fall or twist an ankle!! And the fact that there were so so so many of those!! J

My toboggan ride down was every bit as fun as I anticipated, if not more. I thought the speed may be slightly scary, but each cart had control of the speed. The brake worked so well it was never scary for even me. I almost wished I could go up and try it again, only I’d do it faster next time.

Next the group had a tree planting ceremony at the Olympic Green, which is a Forest park being constructed right now. It began 2.5yrs ago and is finally nearing completion. The magnitude of the project was not appreciated until we got there. I don’t remember the specifics of sizes of land, but I remember there are 300,000 trees planted in the park. The land was originally farm land north of Beijing, on the outer edge of the city. It sits directly north of the Tian’anmen square – the center line of the city. The trees are still being planted; young trees are still supported by sticks. Here is a link where you can read more about it in terms of environmental motivations of this project.
http://archrecord.construction.com/ar_china/BWAR/0604-15_BeijingOlympic.asp

The park won’t be open to public until after the Olympics is over; the fact that we are visiting it right now really speaks to our VIP status J I learned during our tour that not only were we allowed to visit, the landscape designer herself was there to tell us stories and explain the concept!! Quite a rare treat. Here I’ll share some with you:

There are several hundred ancient trees in the park which have been moved from the Three Gorges area before that area was flooded. Most of those rescued trees are thousands of years old, and have been moved to Shanghai/Pudong; the ones that are suited for northern climate were moved to this park. I took picture of the ones we spotted. Each tree had to be carefully transported and replanted; the challenges were interesting. Apparently they avoided pruning any branches to preserve the original shape of the tree and not harm its growth. This meant great difficulties getting the trees through narrow roadways such as toll booth or overpasses. The solution? Each tree was transported individually in trucks, lying down in transit. Each was followed by a crane, so it can be lifted up from the truck to pass over the obstacle vertically and then lowered in the truck again afterwards. Amazing? Considering how many trees were moved this way, it is darned incredible!

The lake in the park is designed to be the shape of a dragon. The entire lake was dug from scratch and they had to dig really deep to get the water. The landscaping was beautiful, including a waterfall feature amongst pretty rocks. The tree we planted was in a prominent position near the “dragon” J

We saw one heritage home being re-built in the park. There will be 40 of these houses in the park, each were disassembled piece by piece carefully at its original location across the country, and then meticulously numbered. Then the pieces were transported to the park and were re-assembled like fitting pieces of the puzzle together. The details in the material all over the house we saw were amazing; hand carved hundreds of years ago yet still in great condition. The particular house we came upon was still under re-construction; it is destined to be a coffee house and should be completed in 2 months. We are hoping to go and enjoy a cup of coffee there before we have to leave at the end of our post J

Well, there are many other interesting things about the park, I certainly don’t remember it all and can’t even put everything I remember down. I’m just glad I got to see it before it is even open to public….

For dinner, 5 of us went to look for a light but authentic meal. We passed in front of a Taiwanese restaurant that appeared very promising. We had noodles, wonton, various dishes, drinks, even beer, and came to a bill of only 37Yuan a person. Which is equivalent to about $5.5 CAD. We were all stuffed, and thoroughly enjoyed the tasty meal. Food can certainly be cheap in Beijing if you know where to look J

To complete our local resident experience, we shopped in a local supermarket. It was so big and cheap! I bought laundry detergent and went home to discover that doing laundry with the washing/drying machine here can be the toughest challenge! There are about 500 positions on the knobs and buttons, none of them are labeled in any comprehensible way, if at all. Doing laundry was the art of lucky guessing and creative interpretation of funny symbols. So far of all the intelligent people the BCCP has hired and who live in Lee Garden, no one has had an easy time with this particular piece of essential but troubling equipment :P Once you get past this point, there is the question of how to open the door after the washing & drying is done. Many have had their washed laundry trapped in the machine over-night or longer!!! And should you be unlucky enough to have clothes that are not fully dried, you’ll probably need to wash it again to try it again as no one can figure out if doing drying alone is even possible. Is that not fun?!

My first full day in Beijing

I was up by 7am after a tough night; at least I was able to fall asleep again each time I woke up. I felt reasonably refreshed and energetic, possibly driven by adrenaline than anything else. My first order of business was to set up skype long distance calling. I didn’t know there were unlimited plans I could get which allows me to call US or Canada from Skype that is very cheap. It’s quite incredible. I signed up instantly and took advantage of the plan right away by calling Kenn and mom. It was of a better quality than I anticipated; I heard no delays and the voices were perfectly smooth. The wonders of technology J I initially heard that high-speed internet in China may not be the same high-speed we are used to in NA, I have to disagree. I’m having no problems at all here; everything is just as fast almost always – at least it is so from my hotel/apartment.

Once I took care of my communication needs, I happily went to meet with the team. We took a subway tour, simultaneously learning how the subway systems worked in Beijing and how to get to work from the apartment. First we took the long route, passing through Tian’anmen Square on the way. Until you are there, it’s hard to appreciate how big this largest public square in the world really is. It was late morning on a weekday, but the square was still packed with people. I apologize for not having posted any pictures so far, I will try to get this set up in the next day or two. You can see some of the pictures I took there, which are by no means good (sorry). It’s hard to take picture with herds of tourists swamping around…

Weather was nice and sunny, surprisingly, air quality was far better than I anticipated. Obviously all the measures taken by the government are working. Certainly, I know it’s not what we are used to in Ottawa, but I am not having trouble with it at all. In fact, I’m quite impressed. At one point during the day, the wind was momentarily quite strong, it only lasted 30 seconds or so, but it gave me a taste of the gust and sand. Those who warned me about the strong wind and sand were not exaggerating. J

We got to the BC-Canada Pavilion and saw a large group of workers busy with installation of the arches and other parts of the exhibition hall exterior. I finally got to see the 13 wooden arches that symbolizes the 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada. I can’t wait to see it once it’s completed. The location is truly impressive; kitty-corner to the Tian’anmen Square, I can just imagine the crowd that drift there from the square…

Practically right next to the Pavilion was a Chinese restaurant; we ate a large meal there with so many plates of food we lost count half way through the meal. The non-Chinese at the table were quite fascinated by the sheer quantity an variety of food that came to the table one after another and they really enjoyed the taste too. We who are of Chinese descent had fun explaining each dish, including other related stories/traditions, and know that it would be nothing compared to a real feast. Secretly, I find it quite wasteful; apparently, no doggy bags here in Beijing! Everything goes to waste if you can’t finish it :P

The afternoon was spent in chaos with everyone trying to exchange/tailor uniforms. The tailor came to the hotel, we lined up to get measured and pinned; many of us cannot even do this because what was given to us were simply too large. Unfortunately, the shipment of extra uniforms were held up at the border. We couldn’t exchange to smaller sizes until it arrived. I took a picture of me in my shirt and skirt, I’m sure those who saw it on flickr would have laughed so hard at how ridiculous I look. Oh well, at least I have 2 t-shirts that fit…

Several of us went walking around on shopping streets instead of having dinner, still stuffed from our lunch feast. Just walking on the shopping streets was an experience in itself; crossing streets were another. J (I am proud to report, at the time of writing this, I’ve been here 3 full days and I no longer fear crossing streets. In fact, I’ve been just as reckless as anyone else on the street and apparently it’s the safest way – do as you are expected)

No matter how late, the streets were always as crowded as ever. At 10:30pm, on my way back to the hotel, Wangfujing street (the main pedestrian shopping street) was still shining neonlights, playing pop music, shop lights were finally beginning to dim, people were in no hurry to leave, eateries were still filled with patrons. In fact, it was busier than Parliament Hill on Canada Day!!!

I’m in Beijing!!!

But first let me finish describing my time in Vancouver. The last 2 days of training weren’t too eventful: one day on customer service, half a day on updating us on events planned for the time we are there. It’s amazing how many events are already scheduled! We the first group are actually looking at the busiest schedule of all three waves! Most delegations, ministerial visits, or other events are being crammed into the May/June period. We will have only a few days to get organized before the soft opening on May 1, which happens to be a 3-day national holiday here in China. This means we are probably looking at hundreds of thousands of people to millions of people flowing through the Tian’anmen square in those days alone. What a way to open!!! I really wonder how it will all work out J

The final half day was media training, which we put to good use immediately the next morning. The morning of the flight, media was all over us. It was an organized media event, with all the local media, especially the Chinese ones. Everyone was being interviewed, the Chinese speaking staff were of course easy targets. I tried to stay low-profile knowing the strict rules at my department. However, I was the only one who spoke Cantonese and the word got out. I believe every Chinese media came after me so I did about 4 Cantonese interviews, a Mandarin one, and an English one – all the while being very careful to stick only to personal background and my excitement. That was my first encounter with media, first time being interviewed; not my cup of tea. My family saw me on Fairchild News at night. Ouch :P

The flight to Beijing was delayed by 2 hours or so, but it was a smooth flight; not too much turbulence. I wasn’t able to sleep too much despite the single seat (pods that lie flat). I was never uncomfortable, just simply suffering from jet lag I suppose. Loved the service, and the fully adjustable seat that turns into a bed, with privacy too. J If only I am rich enough to always travel this way :P

We got to Beijing at 5pm local time, were met by BCCP staff there. The airport was huge, the soaring ceiling is very unique and futuristic. From a distance it’s like a space ship… I was quite impressed by the magnitude of it all. We had to take the train to luggage claim and it was quite a long ride. The trains were made by Bombardier; if my camera had been handy, I would have taken a picture of that logo at the foot of doorway. J These were fully automated people movers; no driver necessary. Impressive technology. When we had cultural training, we learned that westerners tend to line up in a relatively straight line, Chinese form no line and all crowd around, Japanese form a straight line… I got to observe that a little bit with the people mover, and later fully experienced it on the Subway system (today).

It was also the first trip I ever made using my red diplomatic passport; quite enjoyed the separate line at Chinese customs which took no time at all and were asked no questions. J Of course, all the advantage of time saving from customs were all lost at baggage claim, where our “priority handling” tags did nothing to speed up the arrival of our luggage. Hey, at least we all got our luggages, no story of poor souls arriving missing their luggage. Given we were a big group, that’s quite an accomplishment for Air Canada. J

We were lucky enough to be directly behind a motorcade for some important visitors, apparently we made record time going from Airport to downtown. I saw complex highway networks that dwarfs anything we have in Ottawa; construction was taking place EVERYWHERE… There are new buildings, but on the same street you could sometimes also see ruins of old buildings demolished; this contrast of old and new, of rich and poor were really standing out.

Lee Garden is practically at the center of universe here, we were very impressed. There was some fruit and drink prepared for us while we checked in; the process went relatively well. I’m situated on the 9th floor for now in an one-bedroom apartment. I know I have to move to a studio room in a few days. It’s beautiful; I get to enjoy having a living room and dining room before I move. The bed is super hard though! Not that it mattered much, by night time I hit the bed and passed out cold. I was so exhausted! Woke up at 2am and then every hour after that until 7am…

Weekend in Vancouver

I had such a busy weekend; I feel completely exhausted and aching all over. When you’ve read about everything I did in 2 days, you’d understand why…

Friday’s training was aimed at turning us all into experts on Canadian tourism. If you know me well, you know I am no expert in geography or history. This doesn’t make the day’s training very easy. Luckily it was not a day of textbook reading/memorizing; we started by sharing experiences/knowledge about each province & territory – making a list of main communities, tourist attraction, etc and included some personal experiences. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought; kind of fun, actually. Thank goodness I have already completed my Cross-Canada Study Tour at DFAIT or I would have been extremely quiet and ignorant at this session. So, I felt quite smug that I was able to add some tidbits to our master list which most others did not know about.

The afternoon was more focused on BC and Vancouver/Victoria, of which I know very little. Plus, by the end of the day, my brain has gone into serious information overload, it just didn’t want to remember anything else anymore… I did set me up quite well for my weekend adventure though! I went home with lots of study material; I wonder if I’ll find time and interest to read them…

I felt like having noodles for dinner, but it started snowing (Can you believe it? Snowing in Vancouver towards the end of April!!! Why do I always run into cold weather?! L) by the time I ventured out to dinner. I had to change my plans to visit a small Japanese restaurant 2 min walk away from the hotel. What I love about this city: there are endless selection of small Japanese restaurants within 2 blocks radius!

My goal for the weekend was to do as much as possible. Meera had given me a list of suggestions and I picked up brochures at the hotel. My plan was to get up really early each day but it didn’t work out that way (is that even a surprise?) I slept in on Sat and didn’t leave until lunch time; which was actually a good thing. It was so cold! The wind was so strong it would certainly have been too cold early in the morning! Even under the sun, I was freezing. I didn’t bring any warm jacket with me; never figured I’d need them...

Anyways, I walked to take the Aquabus to Granville Public Market. The aquabus was a small little boat, very cute. The ride was only a couple of minute and cost $2.5 each way. I could see the market on the other side before I got on the Aquabus. Once there, I could feel the ambiance – perfect for a leisure weekend morning. Walking through the market is a treat to the senses: I could smell all the fresh fruit and flowers, the aromatherapy products, hot gourmet coffee, and all these other things. Certainly made me really hungry. After making mental note to buy fruits/snacks before leaving, I made my way to the restaurant Sandbar, which Meera said was her favorite. It did not disappoint, I had what the waitress recommended: black cod. Juicy and tender, it was simply delicious. While waiting, I saw the family at the table next to me order a big plate of seafood for 2 – one large crab, one large lobster and many shrimps… my mouth was watering and it was a pity I was alone and couldn’t possibly have been able to try everything!

I went back to the market after lunch and picked up a single serving portion of chocolate mousse cake, mini mandarin oranges the size of cherry tomato, and some exotic fruit with a name I can’t pronounce (red and furry on the outside, and like lichee on the inside.) They are good, but not so good as to warrant the high prices. So it’s good to try them once in a while, but I won’t be eager to eat them everyday. I then bought a frozen yogurt on waffle cone and sat outside on the boardwalk, reading a book, and enjoying the view of the water and bridges, listening to a performer doing majic show for kids… mmmmmm, it was a good day.

I dropped off the fruits at the hotel on the way, and walked to Canada Place; it’s a good walk away but the view is excellent once I get there. I walked around the top deck promenade; it reminded me of being on a cruise (I guess that’s the whole point). If only it wasn’t so windy, I could sit down and read or even take a nap.

I still had enough time in the day to try out the Sky Train, which took me all the way to Metrotown, the largest shopping mall in BC. When I got there, I found out that I had been there before!! My team was there for a visit on the first day of our tour! Only I didn’t know at that time it was Metrotown and that it was such a big place! :P I even found some things I needed and did quite well in a couple of hours! J I didn’t linger too long, not wanting to add further burden to my already heavy luggages.

On the way back from Metrotown, I hopped off the Sky Train near Chinatown. Unfortunately the area I had to pass through was quite sketchy and I worried about my safety once it gets dark. So instead of going into Chinatown, I hurried through that area and left while it was still bright day light. I didn’t have a map, and didn’t have much of a sense of direction, If I ventured into that area and took a wrong turn and got lost, it wouldn’t have been very wise… The silver lining is I ended up getting to Gastown and saw the steam clock! I kept walking all the way to a Thai restaurant and then back to the hotel. I walked almost 25,000 steps in one day! I didn’t even feel that tired!

Today, when I woke up, I began to feel the effects of my exercises yesterday – sore legs, sore back… but I can’t sit home! I have more to explore J I still slept in, and ended up having lunch on a small crepe restaurant off Robson. There was a patio outside, I sat there at first, enjoying the sun and the atmosphere, but later I had to escape into the warm interior because it was simply too cold outside. I sat by the window looking out so it was close enough to being outside. I was starving and greedy, I had a warm savory crepe with duck confit and white wine sauce followed by a peach/vanilla icecream/raspberry sauce sweet crepe. I was totally stuffed. :P What a wonderful way to start my day’s activities.

I walked all the way to Stanley Park with the intention to follow the seawall all the way around the park. I got a bit distracted though, I went into the Aquarium instead to see some fascinating animals. I was even in time for a demonstration in the Web Lab, which is usually only open to school groups. They introduced 3 different animals, and told us what the difference was, why, etc and then allowed us to go interact with some of the animals in their tanks. We were permitted to touch urchins, star fishes, etc with our pinky fingers so as to be very gentle. Some of them have a very interesting feel; one kind in particular sticks to your finger when you touch it, however gently…

Coming out of the Aquarium, I was just in time for the last horse-drawn trolley ride of the day. It was so cold, I knew I couldn’t finish the loop today, so I hopped on the trolley and had a guided tour of the park under the protection of 2 heavy & warm blanckets. I cheated, but it was worth it. I can always come back and do the walk around the park on another trip… I took lots of pictures today. As soon as I have them organized, I will upload on flickr to share with you all.

Since I walked everywhere, I think I did more than enough exercise to justify the treat of the dessert crepe this morning :P I am also extremely tired and sore. I hope a good night’s sleep will help me recover. I need a nice soaker tub and a massage….

Ha ha, I haven’t written essay like emails in ages!! In case I’m boring some people, I posted this on a blog site and will be sending out the link instead. If it doesn’t work in China then I will find alternate solution… ciao, til next time! J

Arriving in Vancouver

I’ve been in Vancouver for a few days. Today was day 2 of training. It’s a good time to give you a quick update of my life here. Of course, nothing super exciting has happened as I’m still on Canadian soil J If you are only interested in updates of my adventure in Beijing, wait a week and then read my emails...

I got to Vancouver on Tuesday; the weather was beautiful here. I didn’t have a room right away so I went for a long walk and ate at a restaurant Meera recommended, Tropika on Robson. It was really good and l liked the environment; love the fact it's on a shopping street :P I can’t remember how long it has been since the last time I enjoyed a leisure afternoon with a good book, having a quiet but delicious lunch. So, it was quite a treat. The walk and shopping after that was certainly a bonus as well.

The hotel I’m in is comfortable and very close to my training location. It’s only 2 blocks away, so it’s convenient even for a late riser like myself. Breakfast and lunch are provided at training. Love the fruit at breakfast; lunch is not as “wholesome” and healthy as I am used to but it’s not bad.

Day 1 of training was for general orientation and answering questions that the participants had; most pressing concerns such as accommodation/transportation in Beijing, uniform, job descriptions, etc. Of course, a lot of time to get to know one another better since we will be working/living together. There are about 55 of us in total. 3 of us are feds and most of them are from the provincial gov’t, with a few from the City of Vancouver. What surprised me was the large number of University students who work for a catering contractor as service staff. They, as well as their head chef, are taking the training with us so there is a really good mix of people. Everyone seem very nice and approachable. Quite a few of them have had previous work experience in Beijing, even a few natives.

For dinner I tried out Yamato Sushi which Sree strongly recommended. It’s small and one can easily miss it if not looking hard for it. Turned out it’s only a few blocks away from my hotel. It’s so cheap! A meal special with 18 pc of rolls, soup and salad is only $5.50 and it’s really good! Amazing. Thanks, Sree! Would not have been on my radar otherwise.

Day 2 was cultural training. Even I learned a lot of useful things. The instructor was very entertaining and made it really fun to learn the cultural differences. It was so much fun today it didn’t feel like we were on training J It certainly gave us a fresh perspective and will help immensely in our work. Can’t get into details but I’d be happy to discuss this once I get back. I hope I still remember all the hilarious examples the instructor used today…

I met up with Lena for dinner tonight. Although we’ve met a few times in Ottawa, it was always with a group and we never really had a long chat by ourselves. I felt we bonded really well tonight and had a super fun time, not to mention a WONDERFUL dinner. She took me to a Japanese Tapas place with awesome ambiance, great deco, interesting menu and delicious food. I LOVED every plate we ordered. It wasn’t heavy but was very satisfying. Some of the pickled stuff we tried really reminded me of some flavors I grew up with in Shanghai but have not had an opportunity to try again since I left; only the ones I ate tonight has a twist to them and has a subtle Japanese flavor. Every plate was beautifully presented, and delicious. I need to look up its name so I can recommend it to everyone heading this way.

Good food, good company, what more could I ask? J Well…. Maybe more stylish uniform… I won’t say more, but once you see me in them, you’ll understand. Perhaps the tailor in Beijing will do wonders, I sure hope so. I’m quite impressed with the organization of the training activities though. I was speaking to a career MCO on her final posting before retirement, she said DFAIT never offer nearly as much prep or training before sending officers on long term postings!! The truth is, it’s quite useful. Day 1 helped ease a lot of the anxiety about the unknown in a new place; Day 2 would make it easier to work in the new environment and help us avoid cultural faux-pas or misunderstanding resulting in damaged business relationships. Don’t know about the rest of the days yet, I’ll comment as I go.

All in all, I’m having a good time, and taking advantage of this time to get to know Vancouver a little better too. Getting a flavor of downtown already. Will venture a little further over the weekend. Have not found a good way to share pictures (having some issues with my laptop, will need to sort this out before I’ll be able to share photo). The good thing is, I haven’t taken any photo yet :P so you are not missing anything. Patience… J

Later on, I may set up a website where you can go to see my updates if you want to and just send a little note to let you know I added updates. That way I won’t have to flood your inbox with a long email; not everyone wants to read my long essays, especially not during working hours… Until then, please bear with me. I also hear access to google/Facebook etc are on and off in China; I can’t count on being able to access these sites, so I will need to be creative. I will also not be able to say directly what I think sometimes for various reasons; will have to save those more sensitive subjects to after my return! I’m sure you’ll all understand…

OK, enough rambling from me. Get back to work! Ha ha… I need to hit the pillows for my beauty sleep. Stay tuned for my next update :P