A Nice Taxi Ride

Beijing is a city with great public transportation. Subways and buses get you anywhere you need quickly, cheaply and reliably. However taxis are a whole lot more fun! They're the most expensive form of public transportation, but sometimes the views are well worth the price. Here are some pictures from a particularly nice taxi ride Ross and I took from a friend's house in the Guomao (国贸) area to our home in BeiXinQiao (北新桥).

This is GuoMao. One of the major commercial areas of Beijing, it's known for it's tall buildings, lights, shops and lots of other things every hyper-consumer and tourist needs.

The three pictures above show the new CCTV (Chinese Central Television, the ONLY major source of tv in China) Tower. It's one of the buildings the Chinese use as a symbol of their prosperity, acheivement, and giant strides into modernity. It was completed in time for the Olympics along with the JinMao building (in the last picture, the tapered building on the right), the tallest building in Beijing.

Spring Festival!!!

We have some time off coming up for Chinese New Years this weekend. New Year's Eve is on Sunday the 25th, and on the 26th we're all flying to Xi'an ( 西安, pronounced SHE-AN in a high tone) . It's the ancient capital of China, and most famous for the Terracotta Army. Our friend Ruby is originally from Xi'an, so she's going home for the holiday and we're all tagging along. SHe'll be showing us around, so we have a great tour guide with us. Will post photos as soon as I can...

A garden in Winter

I've claimed the downstairs balcony as my own and made it into the apartment's garden. Right next to the living room, it's quickly become the object of my affection during these increasingly cold and dry Winter months. With the exception of evergreens, the city is pretty much depleted of all green things. From high up, looking down at the city often resembles a sea of sharp brown tree branches. In just a few weeks the season's brown/grey colors will start to be replaced with with the colorful explosions from plum and cherry blossoms like the pink plant centered in the picture above. Their blooming coincides with Chinese New Year and seem to brighten up daytime the same way fireworks light up nighttime's skies.

The succulents

I have mostly tropical plants because they remind me of home. My favorite is the one pictured above near the top left corner. It's a tropical vine of sorts with a kind of cup trap at the tip of each leaf it uses to catch bugs for nutrients.

There are a ton of plants around the house, not just in the blacony. The plants in the foreground are inside the house, and there are also plants upstairs and in my bedroom.
On the wall on the top left corner of the picture above is a sign that these days is a common sight all over China. It's a red and gold sign with the character 福 (read fu, in a rising tone as if you're asking a question) hung upside down in celebration of the Chinese New Year, it simply says good fortune. It's hung upside down to confuse evil spirits and generally keep them away. The one we have on our front door was a giveaway from KFC, with a giant 福 and tiny little KFC logos all over the background.

Ice skating

Being the proper Florida boy I am, I've only ice skated about twice in my life. Near my home in Beijing there is a huge ancient artificial lake that freezes over from December to February. Said lake is called Houhai (后海), and while just 15 years ago a typical neighborhood, today it's a big bar and restaurant center complete with ancient ceremonial towers...and in Winter ice skating. Silvia, some friends and I went the other afternoon, and I learned to ice skate!

So while we skated, on this one opening in the ice some old Chinese people thought it would be perfect to jump in. I've only seen things like this on television, and now feeling how cold days like that one really are I remain more confused than ever on why Chinese people will only drink hot water all year long, then jump into a frozen lake in Winter for health purposes.