december travels

As a result of my visa issue and a wedding in the family, much of my December was spent out of Beijing. First I went to Hong Kong and Shenzhen (which is the border city in China right next to Hong Kong), which was a nice because I visited family in Hong Kong, escaped from the Beijing cold, and of course saw a completely different part of China.

Here's some highlights:

*Seeing green- since all plant matter had died in Beijing by the end of November, I realized that I missed seeing life

It might be 25 degrees warmer than Beijing in Hong Kong, but some things don't change.

*Spending time with my aunt S, uncle D, and cousin R- even though they were busy during the day, they still found time to take me to have a dim sum brunch as well as the typical Hong Kong street food

Aunt S' delicious home-made dinner

Jackfruit (the king of fruits?)

*The new & old Hong Kong- in a similar way to Beijing, you could find narrow streets with traditional markets just meters away from Western shops and skyscrapers.

The convenience of these streets! After you buy your raw meat, just go next door for some shoe shopping.

The glittery HK skyline at dusk

In late December, I flew to the Sichuan province to visit family and attend my cousin's wedding. This trip was a test of my ability to recall names and relationships but I managed alright. Oh right, everybody insisted on taking me out to eat extremely delicious (but spicy and oily) foods so I also gained some kilos during the 6-day trip. It had been 8 years since the last time I had traveled to Sichuan so one of the best parts was reconnecting with all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles, and meeting my "new" nieces and nephews!

The newlyweds

Oh, did I mention that I persuaded into being a bridesmaid? At least in China the expectations are different from the U.S., with the main bridesmaid/maid of honor requirement being that she is unmarried.

Deyang's Bell Tower

A typical bowl of 5RMB noodles

I pretty much ate this for 6 days straight.

At the Chengdu panda sanctuary (Breeding and Research Center). Unfortunately I didn't fork over the 1200RMB that you can pay to chill and take photos with the pandas- maybe next time!

back to biking

Earlier this week, I attended a talk about bike culture in Beijing. This is a really interesting topic that I can’t help but muse about, considering how connected the bicycle has been with Beijing. But before I talk about Beijing’s relationship with biking, I’ll talk about my own relationship with biking. Despite having learned to bike as most young children in the US, there was a lack of biking throughout most of my life. Bicycle culture has always been associated with a small set of the population, and you can go days in Southern California without seeing a single bike (obviously, certain roads and parks are more bike-friendly but in general it’s not so common to share the road). Mainly my experiences in Europe were what brought biking back into my life. Biking isn’t just a distant idea, or for semi-professional riders, but rather an everyday activity, a hobby that anybody can enjoy, and most importantly an extremely convenient and healthy way to get around. During my year in Valencia, I whole-heartedly embraced biking which became a part of my everyday life. I used Valenbisi (the extremely popular and successful bike-sharing program in Valencia) all the time, bought my own bike when Valenbisi was not enough for my transportation needs, and took mini-trips with friends in Valencia and in the surrounding area. I met quite a few people who were new bike enthusiasts or recreational bikers or semi-professionals, but they all shared a passion for biking which was captivating and infectious. Biking became a social activity and something that I could share and find in common with pretty much anybody in Valencia. And when my 1-year Valenbisi subscription expired my last night in Valencia, it was nothing if not symbolic of time in Valencia.

So, after coming to Beijing, it’s disappointing to say that I haven’t biked at all. Compared to the extremely small and easy to navigate Valencia, Beijing is enormous and scary. It took me weeks, if not months, just to understand the traffic patterns and be able to cross confidently. How would I ever brave the crowded streets that are filled with massive groups of pedestrians, motorcycles traveling in every direction, and cars that never seem to respect any traffic law? There are other reasons (or excuses) that I had for avoiding biking… the cold, the wind, the pollution. I would never want or be able to drive a vehicle in this city, but the buses and subways are effective enough to get around in Beijing. This leads me to the bicycle culture talk, which first highlighted the extremely quick decline of biking in Beijing and then discussed the current bicycle culture, and where biking will stand in Beijing’s future. In the past 25 years, the role of the bike has changed from the mode of transportation used by the majority of the population to a “backwards” symbol. The car has by far become the preferred mode of transportation and a status symbol, to the point where young men must have cars to find girlfriends. (Most famous example is a Chinese dating show contestant who said "I'd rather weep in a BMW than laugh on the backseat of a bicycle”… this is extremely disturbing to me but a good representation of how modern Chinese society feels about bikes and cars). And even though people realize that traveling by a bike will get you to your destination more quickly than a car, they wouldn’t want to trade the efficiency or speed of a car for a bike. Despite the fact that there are still many people who use bikes for transportation or their business (e.g. selling fruits, magazines, gloves, etc.) in the city, bicycles are on the decline in a city that certainly does not need more motor vehicles. So, the good news? Recreational bike culture and fixed gear culture are becoming popular in China, and the government is also realizing the importance of bikes and using initiatives such as bike-loaning programs to promote cycling.

The speaker also tried to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding the health effects of biking in polluted areas. He cited some studies that show that the air quality is better outdoors than inside of a car, where the air is polluted with fumes from your own car engine as well as the fixtures and upholstery of the car. He also recommended for bikers to ride at slower speeds to avoid accidents and keep their heart rates low.

In the end, it’ll be up to both city governments to make bikers feel safer and take advantage of the already-existing wide bike lanes, as well as grassroots organizations to promote biking as a healthy and trendy alternative to cars. And as for me, I probably won’t be making my daily commute on a bicycle but I’ll be looking for opportunities to get over my fear and get out biking!

Valuable lessons from a dinner of zaatar, hummus, and conversation in Beijing

1. Affordable, authentic international cuisine does exist in Beijing... you just have to look in the right places  

The truth is that I haven’t tried too many foreign restaurants in Beijing, but I’m a skeptic. Coming from Southern California, and especially after living in LA, I’ve been spoiled with cheap and authentic ethnic foods from all corners of the world. Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Ethiopian, Salvadoran, Brazilian, Persian, Japanese... the list goes on and on. You can see why I’d rather just stick to Chinese food in Beijing. I did try Japanese near my work (mediocre and a rip-off), Korean near Chaoyangmen (not bad but that was more thanks to the situation rather than the chef, since I was freezing cold and they basically put paste, noodles, and kimchi into a hot soup), and Mexican food in the hip hutongs by Lama Temple (not great and pricey). The common factor? I won’t be going back to any of these places. However, last night’s find left me full and satisfied- my friend YJ and I chatted with the restaurant owner, the food was extremely affordable and yummy, and it was clearly quite authentic as Arabic was spoken much more than Chinese.

2. Who says Chinese is difficult? 

Arabic speakers have the capability to dominate the Chinese language within months. Hey, if you already speak the #1 most difficult language to learn in the world, the #2 should be cake. Or honey-soaked baklava 

3. Flight tickets are made easy by Gaza hackers

They’re capable of more than just attacking Israeli websites- identity theft and purchasing flight tickets has become a big money-maker for Palestine hackers.

Here’s how it goes down: Let’s say you're going to purchase an Istanbul-Tokyo flight. You talk to your friendly Palestinian hacker bud, who can purchase this ticket using someone else’s credit or debit card, and being in Gaza, I guess Interpol isn’t able to track their activity. Generally they target individuals with $100,000+ in their account, who are less likely to notice when $2000 disappears. Then you pay them half of the value of the ticket, so you’re pretty happy about the deal that you just got, and of course your friendly hacker has just made $1000 at the click of a mouse. 

My reaction? First, shock and anger. Identity theft is so common that it can and does happen to anybody- I can think of 3 instances off the top of my head. Oh yeah, and stealing is also a crime- the pathway may be completely wireless but there’s always an entirely innocent victim on the other end. My next reaction was, oddly, kind of smug. The world has been screwing over the Palestinians for over half a century, of course not just politically but also economically and socially. At least the identity theft business is one way for them to screw over the rest of the world, if in a circular way the victims of identity theft are reimbursed by their financial institutions, which are the same entities that control much of the high-level international politics that makes decisions that affect Palestine. Yes, it's a stretch. Anyways this brings me to my final reaction- conflicted and helpless. The crime of identity theft is still being committed against innocent victims, just as the Palestinian conflict has taken the life of so many innocent victims. There’s no way that these two (or other) injustices can be compared, and even if we could, two wrongs still do not make a right. It’s unfortunate but much of society is how it is because somebody benefits from screwing over someone else. 

Zhongshan Park: A lesson on dating in China

Zhongshan is your typical park in China- you can enjoy great views of the Forbidden city while strolling by a lake, wander among the centuries-old trees, and of course visit some temples and pavilions. However, the REAL attraction that we found two weekends ago was the weekend afternoon dating gathering. (Perhaps parent-led dating auction would be a better term...)  In one little area of the park, there were at least 300 Chinese, generally of the 50+ demographic, looking for potential sons- and daughters-in-laws. Yep, these parents are either so concerned that their children will stay forever single, are too eager for some grandchildren, or just bored that they gather in the park to meet others with a common purpose to trade info and set up their kids.  The typical participant was sitting with a description of their still single daughter or son: DOB, city, something education or career related, height, and in some cases a photo or even a monthly salary. Even though the demographics might imply that Chinese males have trouble finding a spouse, being at Zhongshan Park told me quite the opposite. I'd say over 80% of the ads were for daughters rather than sons, because not only is there societal pressure on females to be married before the age of 30, but there's also the biological clock ticking and the fact that males can easily date and marry when they're older without being considered an old maid.

Although this phenomenon may seem completely strange to a Westerner, in both an awful and entertaining way, it's really not so strange in other parts of the world especially in Asia. Dating and marriage are treated so differently in each culture, and it's quite fascinating how expectations and the family's role change in each place. I'll give you a typical Chinese example. My aunt and uncle have been working on a set-up for awhile now; the girl is my aunt's co-worker and friend and the guy is my uncle's acquaintance from the gym. My aunt kept quizzing my uncle about this guy: how tall is he? what do his parents do? how educated are his parents have? where did he graduate from? These questions may not be on the top of the list for an American girl, but they do represent the Chinese priorities. I was shocked to find a father list his daughter's monthly salary (a respectable 5000RMB/month)- these private details, along with age, are such a no-no in the American dating world that there's people who have been dating years and still don't know their boyfriend or girlfriend's salary! Western society and Hollywood are always reminding us to look beyond the physical, material, and financial to find true love, and this guy is ADVERTISING his daughter's salary?!? This is definitely going to attract the wrong type of golddigger husband, I thought. However, looking at this from the Chinese perspective, adding this piece of information makes a lot of sense; neither this girl nor her father will consider a potential husband who makes significant less than her and on the flipside, the potential husband would most likely suffer a blow to his ego if his wife was a bigger bread-winner. To them, a salary is actually a very practical thing to advertise.

Lately, there's been some even crazier dating phenomena. Social media and advertising have been taken to a whole new level... read more here.

Dating and networking frenzy

A more peaceful part of Zhongshan

lately at work: rice husk, fuel efficiency, and emissions gap

Lately I've been juggling several projects- I'm still communicating with Chinese suppliers for the rice husk generation project, and at the same time evaluating reports on improving fuel efficiency in the Chinese automotive industry. Both have been great learning opportunities for my Chinese, and also HUGE tests of my patience and determination. For example, not only do I have to understand biomass generation technology but also I must communicate the project needs to the suppliers, make sure they understand some key aspects of a GEF project, and keep the project lead updated. It's been difficult since we are not flexible on the project parameters and we are looking for a turnkey supplier, but things are moving along.

At the office, it's generally casual and quiet. Most people work on their own projects and know relatively little about what's going on for others. However I do appreciate that the more senior/experienced officers are very approachable and incorporate me as much as possible. For example, J and M were extremely helpful when I had questions about my visa, D told me about an EU Call for Proposals for collaborating environmental projects and the UNEP emissions gap press release (of which I was completely unaware), and A invited me to a China in the World meeting and a biotechnology and biofuels conference next Tuesday. By attending these events, I've been getting a feel for how the international community works in Beijing and also the plethora of orgs related to environment, water, energy, sustainability, etc. And it's not just NGOs or European countries' development agencies or international development groups; there is a great representation from Chinese governmental agencies and research institutes who work in this field as well. I have to say, in a very cliche way, that it's exciting and inspiring to see so many individuals and groups working toward a common goal.

So last Thursday, I attended the UNEP Emissions Gap Beijing Press Release. Yet another reminder that the improvements we're making in climate change are not nearly enough to put us on the golden path- the golden 2C path that will maintain the global temperature increase at 2C. How's it looking right now? We're several gigatons of carbon emissions away from achieving this path, and we're headed on a path for ~3.5C increase.

The politics of climate change research, policy, and organizations was definitely present. At the press release, the 2 Chinese representatives for the IPCC presented on the emissions gap as well as climate change, energy, and environment in the Chinese context. The first expert, who is a professor Tsinghua University, mentioned a heavily debated "negative emissions" scenario in which around the year 2070 the technologies in carbon capture and storage and the utilization of renewable energies will be so well developed that more carbon is being removed from the atmosphere rather than emitted (a simple mass balance: carbon_IN < carbon_OUT). Currently there's a lot of climate change policy action- the World Bank also released a report called Turn Down the Heat, on mitigation efforts and how much more susceptible the developing world is to natural disasters, famine, and other climate phenomena.  You can read more here. These reports were all published at the opportune moment, right before the UNFCCC's Doha meeting.

around Beijing

Despite some rainy days, I’ve been venturing out despite rainy, windy, snowy, or just plain cold weather. Here are some of the sights in and around Beijing that I’ve visited so far.

National Museum: By far the most thorough security I’ve gone through ever for a museum. My bag went through 2 different metal detectors, and everybody was given a thorough pat-down before entering. Otherwise, the museum itself was pretty interesting- not too overwhelming but some nice exhibits. As always some were difficult to appreciate for foreigners as there was no English.

Confucius Temple: A popular sight in Beijing where offerings and sacrifices were made to Confucius. We also stumbled across brief dance performance in the temple! I ended sacrificing my gloves to Confucius though...

Shanhaiguan (山海关): My first trip to the Chinese seaside! This is also where the Great Wall meets the ocean. Even though I had been away from any kind of sea or ocean for about two weeks, the sound of the crashing waves and the smell of rotting seaweed made me ecstatic.

Beijing Zoo: My last couple of zoo visits have been disappointing, and I’m becoming more and more convinced that my frequent childhood trips to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park were the cause of this. Am I really being so picky when it bothered me that you could see the surrounding buildings while you were at Valencia’s Bioparc? It’s hard to get into the “I’m in the great African plains amidst giraffes” mood if right behind you there’s a couple skyscrapers. I didn’t expect anything spectacular at the Beijing Zoo, but I was even more disappointed- by the fact that the domestic tourists had brought food to feed the animals. There were apples, lettuce, carrots, and junk food being fed to almost all the animals. Even when there were 10-feet high walls, that didn’t stop them- they simply tossed the food over the fence. As all this happening around me was a bit depressing, I took very few photos.

Houhai: The renovated area along the lake is now filled with bars, cafes, and bougie restaurants. It was very wet and freezing cold when I was there, but the lake is still gorgeous at night.

Wonderland Amusement Park: One of my favorite excursions so far, I went with an awesome group of CS’ers to this abandoned amusement park in the outskirts of Beijing. The plan was that this would be Asia’s largest amusement park but after some conflicts and financial issues, they abandoned the project in 1998. The weather was beautiful, the park was empty (obviously), and we explored the building interiors as well as the surrounding cornfields. A couple of us even climbed up the spiral staircase of the rocket-like castle. 

Ritan Park: One of the only free parks I've visited, but still very pleasant! It's like a 25 minute run here from my workplace, so I've come once on a jog.

A panorama on a sunny day (half of the pond is actually frozen though!)

Trending in Beijing

Beijing is in my eyes a society of high-consumption, where products and fashions are constantly changing for better or worse. Here are some of the newest trends I've noticed and could perhaps spread to your neighborhood very very soon.

-plastic hairties: You know those spiral plastic bracelets (usually neon yellow) that are attached to a keychain that you use to make sure you don't lose your keys? Those spirally bracelets have taken over Beijing as hairties! Who would've thought?

Some spirally hairties on the bus...

And the subway. Yes I was being a creeper.

-motorized bikes: Apparently they're dirt cheap (like 2000RMB from what I've heard). Some of them are really really quiet and extremely dangerous.

-hipsters: Beijing has few hipsters, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up in quality. None of this indecisive, kind of hip, I'm an artist in my spare time crap. The hipsters that I see embody hipster in every possible aspect. Sad I didn't have some creeper photos of Beijing hispters.

-angry birds: Definitely a fad that I don't think will be around in 2 years. But now is definitely the time if you want to deck yourself out in with an angry birds sweater, backpack, hat, bracelet, wristwatch...

-sex shops: Maybe I was just too innocent to notice before, but sex shops are all over in Beijing! The density of sex shops is much higher than any other city I've visited (ok, obviously not counting the red light district of Hamburg and Amsterdam). I've also noticed these shops a lot more in Chaoyang, but that could be because I work there and a lot of time there.

-wintery trends: Now that fall is definitely over and the daily temperature high is no more than 6C, I've been noticing a lot of winter apparel trends, with the most obvious one being the reindeer and moose motif. This motif can be found on sweaters, tights, and scarves generally on females between the age of 16 and 35. The latest shoe and boot trends can also be found on this demographic; roughly 40% will be wearing knock-off uggs, and another 25% will be wearing fake-heel boots. I discovered this unfortunate trend while boot shopping several weeks ago and now I notice the two inch built-in heel everywhere.