Say Cheese Chinese Style

After my friend made her successful (and heavy) purchase, we came across this adorable girl whose mother was also selling "antiques".

We asked the girl to smile for us.

And instead of saying "cheese", the Chinese say qiezi or "eggplant".

Centre of Attention

When tourists or foreigners go to Panjiayuan, the antique flea market to bargain, they have to bear in mind everyone will be watching them.

The locals are curious to see what trinkets the lao wai or foreigners like to buy. But what really draws a crowd is watching them bargain.

My American friend knows she'll be the centre of attention and hams it up for the crowd.

She spied a pair of black rectangular cut stones with dragons carved on them. They're used as paper weights for calligraphers or painters. And she wants to use them to hold down her cookbooks.

"Duo shao qian?" she asked the older man in a singlet with a few front teeth missing.

"Wu bai [500RMB or US$66]" he replied.

She immediately put her hand on her chest and had an over dramatic look of shock on her face.

He smiled and handed her the calculator, telling her to punch in her price.

50.

He violently shook his head and waved his hand downwards, saying it was too low. And he handed back the calculator to her.

A crowd had gathered around her as she again punched in 50. They laughed and wondered if this was going to go anywhere.

She continued to stand her ground as the calculator was passed back and forth and he kept waving his hand and complaining she was asking too low a price.

But the old man played along and eventually lowered the price to 300, 280 and then 200. She also complied by raising her suggested price to 75 and then 90.

Finally they came to an agreement of 150RMB (US$19.82).

The audience was impressed by her skills and there were a few shouts of approval.

She gave him two-one hundred bills and then asked about a pair of long narrow bars made of silver with the animal zodiac on each of them. They are also used as paper weights.

The bargaining continued again. She knew he wouldn't give her change back so she managed to bargain to 50RMB and gave him the opportunity to punch that final number in the calculator.

In the end she thanked him profusely and he smiled a wide grin with his one upper front tooth showing.

The dramatic comedy was probably the highlight of his day.

Fixing Beijing's Software

Tonight I took the subway and then taxi to get home.

It was the first time I encountered no taxis at the subway station. And while I was patiently waiting, five other people just stood in front of me or walked ahead and caught taxis, totally ignoring the fact that I was trying to form a queue.

Granted one woman was pregnant, but there was no excuse for the four others to sidestep me as if I wasn't even there and grab a taxi before me.

Interestingly, just before I was fuming about queue jumping, I had just read an article in City Weekend, a bi-weekly magazine, giving an assessment of what Beijing needs to do to get ready for its international scrutiny, one year from now.

"Most Chinese are confident about the hardware for the 2008 Olympics," says Ge Chenhong, a government advisor and professor at Renmin University, "but they remain more skeptical about the 'software' -- Beijing's ability to improve residents' behavior."

A Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee staff member gave me the same opinion and worries that things like taxi drivers not speaking English, people spitting, dirty toilets, and queue jumping are going to leave a bad impression on visitors when they descend in the Chinese capital next August.

I have to agree.

While the venues are going to be amazing -- from the main stadium nicknamed The Bird's Nest to workers madly 'greening' the city by planting millions of trees and flowers -- people are going to be frustrated, shocked or amused by what they see, hear and smell in this city.

By the same token, China is a developing country and has come so far in a very short period of time. There are definitely rough edges that have yet to be smoothed over. While the Chinese are fiercely proud of hosting the Olympics, the spitting, littering, urinating on the street and queue jumping are not going to stop overnight.

And visitors might just have to accept this as part of the most populous nation's effort to reach some kind of international standard.

A Driving Epiphany

I just finished reading a book called "A Season in Red", by Australian Kristy Needham.

It chronicles her three months of working as a reporter for China Daily, the national English-language newspaper.

And in it are many observations similar to my own as well as some harrowing tales that I hope I may never encounter.

Towards the end of the non-fiction novel, she describes the driving habits of the Chinese:

"Foreigners tend to get upset with Chinese driving," continued our
travelling companion. He introduced himself as Luo Bin, a university
lecturer.

It was the understatement of the year. One of the most confronting
aspects of daily life in China was the complete disregard for rules,
or human mortality, on the roads. A nation of novice drivers had been
let loose en masse as car ownership suddenly came within reach of the
middle class.

The problem was, they had carried the attitudes and techniques that
worked for a rolling sea of bicycles into the fast lane with them. It
was a combination that was proving increasingly deadly as more and
more people got behind the wheel in the world's fastest growing car
market, which also boasted the world's highest traffic accident death
toll. (pg. 195)

And as soon as I read that, I realized she was bang on. No wonder drivers weave in and out of lanes, or straddle lanes if someone enters their lane. The bicycle-riding mentality has remained ingrained.

It all makes sense now...

Chinese Chess in Hou Hai

We came across two men in a Chinese chess game... many parks have almost exclusively men playing this game. I don't know how to play it, but it definitely requires alot of strategy.

By the way the guy on the left (green) won the game.

Cool Dining

At the entrance of Hou Hai, at the north gate, there is a Starbucks which does a brisk business with tourists and locals alike. Too bad it's so tiny you have to fight for seats.

But further down is a strip of stylish looking restaurants and one of them is South Silk Road, serving cuisine from Yunan Province.

Inside are large comfy lime green chairs, floor to ceiling windows, and even water cascading down underneath the stairs. During the day the staff wear basic black and white uniform. But for dinner they change into brilliant fuchsia sleeveless outfits decorated with silver buttons and black sashes, from Yunan.

You can also dine outside right by the lake where the water lilies are blooming now. However, we ate a late lunch and wanted to escape the heat so we sat inside near the window.

While the menu is mostly spicy, you can ask them to tone down the amount of chillis. We
ordered pea shoots that were cooked in a broth and flavoured with Chinese ham; "crossing the bridge" noodles, which were thick udon-like rice noodles with ham, and vegetables in a broth; banana pancakes with a sweet osmanthus honey-like dip; and dried beef chillis with deep-fried potatoes.

We were taken aback when the waitress asked us if we had any dietary requests -- this was a first, but now I notice that all restaurants are doing this. Probably a new decree that came down from some government department. But it's good that they are asking. So we requested less oil in the cooking and for the most part they complied.

The noodles weren't much to rave about, but the pea shoots were cooked perfectly and had a clean taste. The pancakes were great with a distinct banana flavour and the sweet dip was wonderful -- if only there was a bit more of the sauce for all eight pieces. The dried beef chillis looked like it would be a fire-breathing experience as they were covered in coarsely chopped dried chillis. But in fact it had a mild taste and quite good. The thinly sliced potatoes were mostly oily and not a good complement to the beef.

With two beers and good conversation, we enjoyed a two hour lunch that was cool and filling.

A Year to Go

Today the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) announced its plans for the one-year countdown to the Games.

There are a number of celebrations starting in the next few days, with community-oriented fitness events and performances. Even Qingdao, Shanghai and Hong Kong have their own celebrations.

On the evening of August 8, Beijing will have a "splendid" gala at Tiananmen Square, exactly a year to the opening ceremonies.

Zhao Dongming, head of BOCOG's cultural events department gave a brief outline of the program which starts at 7pm. It includes performances by pianist Lang Lang, an Inner Mongolian will play on a traditional instrument, a Swedish artist will sing "China Moon", and 100 singers will debut "We are Ready", a song composed especially for the one-year countdown.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will also attend, inviting some 200 delegates from National Olympic Committees worldwide.

BOCOG also has a contingency plan in case it rain -- the festivities will move indoors to the nearby Great Hall of the People.

And if you can't be here in person, CCTV will broadcast the event live.

But the upcoming celebrations were not on the minds of the various foreign journalists who came out of the woodwork to attend the press conference.

A BBC journalist said he'd heard that Steven Spielberg was thinking of pulling out of organizing the opening ceremonies. But spokeswoman Wang Hui and Zhao both said this was the first they had heard this.

Another from CTV asked if BOCOG was concerned about the environment and if they had any comments. All Wang would say was that this issue was being tackled.

One brought up the city's plan of taking one million cars off the road this month to see if it was possible to significantly reduce traffic congestion, and was asking when this strategy would be implemented. Wang would only reply that they were still talking about it.

And a French reporter asked how the number of "blue skies" in Beijing were calculated. Wang said this was an international standard so there was no skewing the numbers. But there were no further details on this "blue skies" standard.

With these kinds of questions on the minds of the foreign media, it looks like BOCOG will have to do more than window dressing to create a more favourable impression of the Games.