It’s crazy how quickly time flies by. I have less than a week to go before I’m done with work and can start traveling. Thus, we went out hard core for the past few days, culminating in a full weekend.
Monday: We had visitors from CSHOR (Meg and Joyce) fly in from S. Africa to help us with modeling, and Karen, one of our CF doctors, was still in town visiting. When we have visitors, we eat – a lot. We went to Hatsune for a delicious Japanese lunch with Karen. For dinner, we went to Dadong for Beijing duck. We closed out the restaurant. After eating, we talked until it was almost midnight. Meg, who is an epidemiologist, is fascinating. She is fun yet brilliant, a combination that I love and admire. Now I seriously want to be an epidemiologist and model how diseases spread. PhD Hui? Perhaps.
Tuesday: I helped to organize a dinner with Professor Perkins, who is in Beijing with his wife. They are in Beijing for 2 months so Prof. Perkins can do research, so a group of us took them out to dinner at South Beauty. His stories about China in the 70s, and its development over the past few decades were fascinating. He’s been visiting every year for 30+ years. The changes must have been incredible to witness. After dinner, I met a HBS admit who happened to have been in Beijing for work. We had a drink together and chatted. She was super nice but super overworked.
Wednesday: We took Meg and Joyce to lunch at Middle 8. I love the food there, even though it’s clearly not authentic Yunnan cuisine. That night, Grace organized a Taiwanese dinner. Everyone got lost trying to find the place, but the food made it all worthwhile. Since they did not have shaved ice (rather strange for a Taiwanese place), we hit the Bellagio for dessert.
Thursday: Spent the day working at NCAIDS and planning my Japan trip with Kumi. That night, dinner with work people at Shin Yeh, another Taiwanese place. The food was good but the best dish of the night was the mango ice – literally mango puree in a cup. Simply incredible. I’d literally go back just for that. Afterwards, drinks at LAN, my favorite bar in Beijing. Love the funky Alice in Wonderland décor and the fruity cocktails. Courtesy of Promen (we’re pro-men!), we had 2 for 1 drinks.
Friday: Lunch with Meg and Joyce at Pure Lotus. It’s been a week of visiting my favorite restaurants! That night, I briefly went to Bar Blu to meet some other HBS admits in Beijing then headed to Lido for Ethiopian food at Beijing’s first Ethiopian restaurant, Ras. Kumi, who just got her Chinese driver’s license, drove us there. We managed to find it without any major problems. Having a car made us all realize what a fairy-tale life we all lead in Beijing. Anna was right. In many ways, we are like princesses in Asia. We go out every night and live in nice apartments with pools and gyms.
Dinner was chaotic. About twice as many people as we had expected showed up, but it was fun to eat with our fingers nonetheless. Afterwards, we went to a bar opening for a new bar on a boat. Not surprisingly, the bar was called, The Boat. The place reminded me too much of a frat party, so we left to get some more food before hitting Q Bar. It was a late night.
Saturday: I got up early to grocery shop for my sushi party the next day, hit the gym and then grabbed brunch at Alameda with Karen. Then I met Kumi, Alice and Tiffany to head to Three Shadows Gallery in the new 798 (798 is the art district). None of us had a map but between our memory of how to get to Ras, directions given over the phone, a text message, and Tiffany’s fussy sense of directions from previous trips there, we made it without getting lost. It was far – past the 5th ring. Ironically, on the flight on the way home to NYC after my first trip to Beijing, I sat next to a curator at the International Center of Photography. He was telling me about this place – he went for the opening of the gallery and is on the advisory board. After almost a year, I made it there finally. It feels like my time in Beijing has come full circle.
We went to 798 to relax at a café then drove to dinner at Lemon Leaf, a Thai hotpot place. I normally don’t like hotpot, but the Thai-flavored broths were really good (we tried a curry based broth and a tom yum based broth). Afterwards, we hit Luna bar for a friend’s birthday. Open bar. We got teased about our crazy schedule, which somehow leaked out to the public.
Sunday: Kumi, Chia-Li, Reshma, Sabrina and I got up to go to Chuandixia, a well-preserved Ming village outside Beijing. Again, Kumi drove. We were all suffering from the effects of overdrinking the night before, and unsurprisingly did not find this place in the 2 hours we had anticipated. The village was neat, but we got stuck in traffic on the way back and Kumi missed her flight. I hosted a sushi-making party which went well. But getting everything ready was stressful as we got back 3 hours after we had all anticipated.
Monday again: Last night, I just needed a quiet night in. Chia-Li and I grabbed dinner at Nearby the Tree and then watched the Nannie Diaries. Today, I am planning to stay in, by myself (can’t even remember the last time I did that!), and pack. Tomorrow is Salsa night and Thursday is my last night in Beijing for a while. We’re planning to grab drinks at LAN and dinner at Rumi. I fly out Friday morning for San Francisco. Funny how fast time flies. I’m both excited and sad. Leaving will be bittersweet.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Datong
Since the Chinese government decided to change its holidays and give people back the traditional Chinese holidays, we had a 3-day weekend for Ching Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day. Alice, Kumi, Reshma and I decided to hit Datong, in northern Shanxi Province, to see the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery.
Friday April 4: Friday was a full day. We arrive in Datong via overnight train early in the morning. We visited the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery and made our way to Mt. Hengshan.
To see Datong and travel like the locals, we attempted to take the bus to the caves. The instructions sounded simple and clear. Take bus #4 from the train station to the last stop, then take bus #3 to the caves. After riding around on the #4 for a while and realizing that we were passing by the same thing… the bus driver told us we had MISSED the last stop (didn’t even know that was possible – you think they’d announce the last stop or something). But luckily, the man was so nice that he flagged down a bus going in the opposite direction for us and then told us to run onto the other bus in the middle of a busy intersection. We scurried off into oncoming traffic and managed to make our way to the other bus in one piece. We did eventually make it to the caves without any more trouble.
The Yungang Caves, one of 4 Buddhist Caves in China, is a series of over 40 caves filled with Buddhist art and sculptures, some dating as far back as the Wei Dynasty, more than 1,500 years ago. The really old stuff looked merely like hollow creepy skeletons, having been beaten by the elements over hundreds of years, but the less weathered stuff were stunning – colorful Buddha statues and intricate wall frescos covered the walls of the approximately 20 caves that we could view. Sadly, a layer of coal dust and pollution coated a lot of the artwork but it is impressive nonetheless.
We went in search of an old, abandoned section of the Great Wall near the caves afterwards but never found it, so we returned to Datong for a quick meal before venturing to the Hanging Monastery, about 2 hours outside Datong. We passed out on the bus and woke up when we reached Hunyuan, the closest town. They dropped us off by a gas station in the middle of nowhere and a cab driver took us to the monastery. The Hanging Monastery got its name from its precarious location, perched on the side of a cliff on skinny, long wooden poles. It is simply amazing the structure has not toppled over! The monastery is actually quite small (no monks here!), with tiny walkways and narrow stairs connecting different rooms on multiple floors. It is literally hanging right off the cliff. The monastery is clearly the main attraction in this area – people seriously would not come out here if it weren’t for the monastery.
We climbed up to the top of a dam next to the monastery where we found a pile of coal. Datong is in coal country, so there was a lot of coal around. Kumi picked out a chunk for Sabrina who couldn’t make the trip and then carried it around for the rest of the trip. We spent the night in Mt. Hengshan, where we stayed in the home conveniently converted into a hotel of some local residents. We slept together like local villagers, on a kang bed in a room that was heated by coals. There’s a long pipe that’s supposed to filter smoke out of the room, which didn’t work fabulously. We were worried that we’d freeze to death in the mountains, so we figured coal smoke was better than being freezing. When the coals seemed to have burned down really low, we snuck outside and chopped us some more chucks of coal to throw into the stove, which was located in the ground. We got caught by the lady at the hotel who came knocking on our door. Oops. Maybe coal is really expensive (but there’s so much of it there!!). She warned us not to put in more coal because the room would start to smell like coal (which it did – oops again). But between the coal stove and the huge pile of blankets we were actually quite comfortable and the evening felt like quite an adventure.
Saturday, April 5: Mt. Hengshan and Datong
We woke up the next morning way after sunrise (which we went up to the mountains originally to see) to soothing Buddhist music streaming from the temple located practically right about the hotel we were staying at. Then we climbed Mt. Hengshan, which was dotted with temples all over. When we made it down the mountain, we grabbed lunch at a local place and called for our driver to pick us up. The hotel told him where we were but we had no idea how the hotel knew. It’s like they were tracking us or something. It was very odd.
We made it back to Datong and found this area where there were little snacks and local stores by one of the major temples. We sampled all sorts of different snacks – from tofu to bread (lots of different kinds). And to pamper ourselves, we had our hair washed and blown out at a salon.
Sunday, April 6: Nine Dragon Screen
We visited the Nine Dragon Screen – the largest ceramic tiled wall of 9 dragons. But it was literally just a wall. There was nothing else. So we just relaxed in the courtyard there until lunchtime where we finally went to this baozi restaurant we had been passing by and wanting to try. Their buns or baozi were indeed delicious. It was a yummy meal. Then it was back to Beijing on the train.
Friday April 4: Friday was a full day. We arrive in Datong via overnight train early in the morning. We visited the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery and made our way to Mt. Hengshan.
To see Datong and travel like the locals, we attempted to take the bus to the caves. The instructions sounded simple and clear. Take bus #4 from the train station to the last stop, then take bus #3 to the caves. After riding around on the #4 for a while and realizing that we were passing by the same thing… the bus driver told us we had MISSED the last stop (didn’t even know that was possible – you think they’d announce the last stop or something). But luckily, the man was so nice that he flagged down a bus going in the opposite direction for us and then told us to run onto the other bus in the middle of a busy intersection. We scurried off into oncoming traffic and managed to make our way to the other bus in one piece. We did eventually make it to the caves without any more trouble.
The Yungang Caves, one of 4 Buddhist Caves in China, is a series of over 40 caves filled with Buddhist art and sculptures, some dating as far back as the Wei Dynasty, more than 1,500 years ago. The really old stuff looked merely like hollow creepy skeletons, having been beaten by the elements over hundreds of years, but the less weathered stuff were stunning – colorful Buddha statues and intricate wall frescos covered the walls of the approximately 20 caves that we could view. Sadly, a layer of coal dust and pollution coated a lot of the artwork but it is impressive nonetheless.
We went in search of an old, abandoned section of the Great Wall near the caves afterwards but never found it, so we returned to Datong for a quick meal before venturing to the Hanging Monastery, about 2 hours outside Datong. We passed out on the bus and woke up when we reached Hunyuan, the closest town. They dropped us off by a gas station in the middle of nowhere and a cab driver took us to the monastery. The Hanging Monastery got its name from its precarious location, perched on the side of a cliff on skinny, long wooden poles. It is simply amazing the structure has not toppled over! The monastery is actually quite small (no monks here!), with tiny walkways and narrow stairs connecting different rooms on multiple floors. It is literally hanging right off the cliff. The monastery is clearly the main attraction in this area – people seriously would not come out here if it weren’t for the monastery.
We climbed up to the top of a dam next to the monastery where we found a pile of coal. Datong is in coal country, so there was a lot of coal around. Kumi picked out a chunk for Sabrina who couldn’t make the trip and then carried it around for the rest of the trip. We spent the night in Mt. Hengshan, where we stayed in the home conveniently converted into a hotel of some local residents. We slept together like local villagers, on a kang bed in a room that was heated by coals. There’s a long pipe that’s supposed to filter smoke out of the room, which didn’t work fabulously. We were worried that we’d freeze to death in the mountains, so we figured coal smoke was better than being freezing. When the coals seemed to have burned down really low, we snuck outside and chopped us some more chucks of coal to throw into the stove, which was located in the ground. We got caught by the lady at the hotel who came knocking on our door. Oops. Maybe coal is really expensive (but there’s so much of it there!!). She warned us not to put in more coal because the room would start to smell like coal (which it did – oops again). But between the coal stove and the huge pile of blankets we were actually quite comfortable and the evening felt like quite an adventure.
Saturday, April 5: Mt. Hengshan and Datong
We woke up the next morning way after sunrise (which we went up to the mountains originally to see) to soothing Buddhist music streaming from the temple located practically right about the hotel we were staying at. Then we climbed Mt. Hengshan, which was dotted with temples all over. When we made it down the mountain, we grabbed lunch at a local place and called for our driver to pick us up. The hotel told him where we were but we had no idea how the hotel knew. It’s like they were tracking us or something. It was very odd.
We made it back to Datong and found this area where there were little snacks and local stores by one of the major temples. We sampled all sorts of different snacks – from tofu to bread (lots of different kinds). And to pamper ourselves, we had our hair washed and blown out at a salon.
Sunday, April 6: Nine Dragon Screen
We visited the Nine Dragon Screen – the largest ceramic tiled wall of 9 dragons. But it was literally just a wall. There was nothing else. So we just relaxed in the courtyard there until lunchtime where we finally went to this baozi restaurant we had been passing by and wanting to try. Their buns or baozi were indeed delicious. It was a yummy meal. Then it was back to Beijing on the train.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Capital Airport
Over the weekend, for my flight to Shanghai for the Harvard Global Series Conference, I flew in and out of the new terminal (Terminal 3) at Beijing Capital Airport for the first time. The terminal, the world’s largest airport building, was designed by Sir Norman Foster and built in less than 4 years to open in time for the Olympics. The building is massive – a soaring steel and glass structure covered by thousands of twinkling lights on the inside. It is hard not to be impressed by the sheer size of this super modern building. However, I’ve been spoiled by the efficiency of Chinese airports over the past 9 months. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes to get through security (there is never more than 5 or so people in front of you) and get to my gate. Now, there are miles of stairs and walkway to conquer between any 2 points. Sometimes, bigger is just not better.
Nevertheless, Capital Airport needs the extra capacity the additional terminal offers. But sadly, rather than making the transport buses to and from the plane a thing of the past (they take forever since the plane parks in the middle of nowhere miles from the terminal), they still have those.
Nevertheless, Capital Airport needs the extra capacity the additional terminal offers. But sadly, rather than making the transport buses to and from the plane a thing of the past (they take forever since the plane parks in the middle of nowhere miles from the terminal), they still have those.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The World's Largest Airport Terminal
Over the weekend, for my flight to Shanghai for the Harvard Global Series Conference, I flew in and out of the new terminal (Terminal 3) at Beijing Capital Airport for the first time. The terminal, the world’s largest airport building, was designed by Sir Norman Foster and built in less than 4 years to open in time for the Olympics. The building is massive – a soaring steel and glass structure covered by thousands of twinkling lights on the inside. It is hard not to be impressed by the sheer size of this super modern building. However, I’ve been spoiled by the efficiency of Chinese airports over the past 9 months. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes to get through security (there is never more than 5 or so people in front of you) and get to my gate. Now, there are miles of stairs and walkway to conquer between any 2 points. Sometimes, bigger is just not better.
Nevertheless, Capital Airport needs the extra capacity the additional terminal offers. But sadly, rather than making the transport buses to and from the plane a thing of the past (they take forever since the plane parks in the middle of nowhere miles from the terminal), they still have those. But luckily, my flight back to Beijing pulled right into a gate.
Nevertheless, Capital Airport needs the extra capacity the additional terminal offers. But sadly, rather than making the transport buses to and from the plane a thing of the past (they take forever since the plane parks in the middle of nowhere miles from the terminal), they still have those. But luckily, my flight back to Beijing pulled right into a gate.
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