Even days, Odd days

When I took a taxi to see my othodontist today, I was given a survey by the taxi driving on how the recent decision of vehicle control try-out would affect my normal day. Oplympic organization has convinced the Beijing Traffic Control Police Department to agree on a test, from 8/17 till 8/20, on odd days, only the cars with license ending with an odd numbers are allowed to get on the street, and same with the even days, only the cars with license ending with an even numbers are allowed to get on the street. This is a test to see if this will help reduce traffic jam and improve the air quality during these days. This one of the alternative solutions including having everyone taking a long vacation. Violators will be fined up to RMB1000. I guess if you really need the car to go somewhere, say your baby is about to be born, then you could be execused. How about those funky license plates, such as one that reads "Hi Dude!"? Oh I forgot, they don't really exist in China. :-)

Free lunch while our car was serviced

This was a new experience! Our first car service was due after one month of driving. When we had the car service in US, we might call ahead to get a reserved car for us to drive around before we got our car back. I assumed that we are not going to have the same level of service here in China. However, guess what, what they offered is even better -- they invited me for a free lunch!

I wasn't really hungry and generally am very picky where I eat out. But out of curiosity, I took the offer. The agent who early helped us with the paper work while we purchased the car led me to their dinning hall. Ha, it is even better, I got to eat with the staff and hear about all about their secrets. :-)
The dinning room is not big. People lined up in front of a window to get their free meal. The menu that day was sauteed chicken wings and legs, some vegetables and rice. The agent helped me to get the utensils and ordered the meal for me. Than I sat down with another 3 girls. One of them was a sales representative and another two were accountants.

I would say the car sale reps in China are much "greener" than those in the States. They don't have much room to negotiate. The price is pretty much decided at the top. They just have to be nice and the orders will just roll in. :-) Also I am not sure if their bonus is connected with the final price or rather with the number of the cars they sell. That sure will affect their techniques.

Anyway, the girls were talking about their managers -- as normally what employees would do during their lunches. Obviously they like one over the other in several ways. And I understand that they would be a poll coming soon and poor managers, what they have to go through.

Since the dealer also has a service work shop. There were many service workers to eat here as well. They were not complaining having too many chicken legs on their plates as the girls do. They all ate a lot!

After the food, I noticed a board on the wall. It was the announcement board. What was announcing there were very interesting to me. Let me find a few and translate to our readers:

• Someone was sleeping in the new car during the working hours -- Fine for RMB50;
• Another was resting in the new car during the working hours -- Fine for RMB30, guess he was sleeping in a lower model car;
• One agent has worked very well and received a praise letter from his customer -- Reward RMB100;
• And there was a new dress code and one had violated the dress code -- Fine for RMB50;

The operation model reminds me of those 20 years ago. It seems easy to import the newest technology, but much harder to change the mindset of the managing model. Whatever works, as long as it brings in cash flows. This is the new mixed developing China.

Pastor Bae, Hyung-Kyu

Pastor Bae, Hyung-Kyu was recently martyred in Afghanistan.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19913035/

A colleage in MS has personally known the pastor as his dear friend and mentor. Chang Lee has been attending Bae's church before he left Korean. In his own emails to the Christian community inside MS, he has described his own encounter with the pastor. It is not right for me to repost his long email outside MS email DL. So I will just quote a little part here:
"Although I always attended church, through my teenage and college years, I grew up to be very cynical about church and faith. I became very critical and skeptical about the whole Christian beliefs. Christians appeared to be just a bunch of hypocrites. Hyung-Kyu ‘hyung’ (older brother in Korean) and other brothers in Christ completely changed my views through the very life that they live."
"Having met him, I saw the truths of the Bible. This might sound corny, but I saw a glimpse of Jesus in him. He was rather small in height, but a giant in faith and love."
Chang quoted Isiah 55 and ended his morning email with this "His blood is spilled and it will not return to the Father before giving life to other people."

My sorrows and prayers are with Pastor Bae's family.

Podcasting technology

I am trying out a new technology on Podcasting. Supposedly, it could be done all free. The issue would be what to podcast.
The link on the title points to a audio version of book "The Final Quest" in mp3 format.

China's Economy Growth -- Noteworthy

What a coincident: I was reading the newspaper this morning on the subway and a piece of infomation caught my eye. It was an analysis on China's international trade during the first half year of 2007. And then when I arrived my desk, there is an email in my mail box estimating that in 2 years China will pass Germany and becomes the 3rd world economy body (after US and JP).

The article on the newspaper listed the numbers about the international trade during the first half year. The growth rate is 23.3% comparing to 2006 Jan-June. From the percentages of the exported goods, more manufactures are done in China than before. And that is a good sign. The article also states that the adjustment on the export tax might cause the companies to speed up and export their goods before the adjustment takes effect in the second half of the year. Also the fact that RMB's exchange rate goes up also affect the overall number.

And here is a copy of the email I've got this morning about China's economy. It is in Chinese. The several main points are:
1) During the first half year, China's foreign currency savings has reached $1300B; the increase is more than the increase for the year 2006;
2) 2006's GDP has reached 21000BRMB, increased 11.1% which is the highest for the last 12 years and 0.4% higher than the expected number.
3) The economy is growthing too fast and applying the policy to slow down the economy is at the verge.
So it is estimated that by this speed in 2 years, China will become the 3rd lagest economy body world-wide, passing Germany.

中共兩年將超德 成第三大經濟體 白德華/上海報導
　中共官方統計，今年上半年大陸外匯儲備破一．三兆美元，半年增長竟超過去年全年總和，加上相關數據顯示，大陸經濟有過熱跡象，極可能導致緊縮政策一觸即發。此外，中共向上修訂去年國內生產總值（ＧＤＰ）增速達一一．一％，創十二年新高，預計今年總產值將逼近德國，有機會在後年成為世界第三大經濟體。
官方媒體說，按ＧＤＰ總量計算，目前中國排在美、日、德國之後，居全球第四。華爾街日報指出，大陸新公布的去年ＧＤＰ總量已達二．七○五兆美元，已大幅接近德國ＧＤＰ總量。去年德國國內生產總值二．三兆歐元（約三兆美元），但經濟增長僅二．五％，遠低於中國。專家預期說，中國將繼續成為亞洲經濟增長火車頭，有機會在○九年取代德國成為全球第三大經濟體。
繼六月外貿順差再創新高後，大陸近日公布上半年經濟數據顯示，貨幣信貸高增長趨勢不減。專家指出，這表明先前的緊縮措施效果不明顯，一旦十八日公布物價消費增長指數逾四％的話，短期內減免利息稅和加息措施都有可能出台。
大陸今年上半修改出口退稅政策，導致企業拚命出口結匯，也造成六月份外貿順差二六九．一億美元創新高，六月外匯儲備就增加四百億美元，上海申銀萬國證券研究所分析師李慧勇認為，其中可能含有大量熱錢流入。
國泰君安證券研究所研究員伍永剛指出，過快的外儲增長，將使人民幣升值壓力進一步加大。人民幣匯率正頻繁刷新匯改以來新紀錄。六月末，人民幣匯率一美元兌七．六一五五元人民幣，到十一日的報價已到七．五七一二元。

David's Log

Everyone is telling me how darling David is. Whenever we walk on the road, he catches everyone's attention first and I am just standing there watching how he captures people's hearts. :-) At the end of day, no matter how late I get home, my mom won't let me go unless I hear her telling me what cute thing David has done during the day.

It is probably too early to write David's anecdota because he is only 2. But I just cannot let my memory fails me and drop these pearls forever. So I am going to start recording David's growth before it is too late. :-)

'gree'

It was a little while before the dinner time. David started to show a little fuzziness. He climbed on the bed and looked at me and said "gree". I looked at him, not knowing what he meant. "You mean green?" He nodded. I point a green pen, "green"? Maybe he wanted to draw. He shook his head. I pointed at the bed sheet, "green"? Maybe he was telling me the color is gree. He shook his head and said "gree". I looked around, what else is green? I took out the picture book, pointing to a green car, "green"? "NO!" He said and started to be upset. I was confused and started to scratch my head. He saw that I could not understand him and he buried his head under the blanket giving up. I went to ask my mom if she knows what he meant. No, she didn't either.

After a while, my mom brought out the dinner. David jumped out of the bed with a big big smile. Then he washed his hand and started eating. "Oh, David, did you mean HUNGRY?" He gave me a big big nod.

'baby shee'

My mom always washes David's clothes right away because they are small and mostly need to be changed often. This afternoon, David believed that he had seen enough of us doing it and it was time for himself to try it. So he stopped us and told us "baby shee" (in Chinese it meant "Baby wash"). He put his own T-Shirt in the basin and turned on the water. He swirled the shirt in the water and put the soap on the shirt. Then he grabbed the shirt with both hands and started to rub it between his fists. If you don't care whether he was washing the dirty part of the shirt and whether there was a lot of water on the floor, I would say he actually did a pretty good job.

'baba?'

My mom took out 3 peaches and put them on the table. "David, would you please give everyone a peach?" In Chinese, my mom spoke to David. He picked one up and gave it to my mom. Then he picked up another one up and gave it to my dad who was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper. After that he picked up the last one and was about to bite it. Then he looked puzzled. He asked my mom, "baba?" Robert was lying down inside, probably not feeling well. My mom laughed. And then my dad handed out his peach to David and told him, "Give this to daddy." David took the peach, give my dad a deep look and went inside the room to give it to Daddy. For sure he won't forget you if you are his friend. :-)

'Shui Yao bu Yao?'

David's bathing is another game. He took an empty shampoo bottle, asked me, "shui yao bu yao" (want water or not?). I said, "Yao" (yes, I want some water). He smiled. Then he pressed down the bottle into the water to see the bubbles coming out. He lifted up the bottle and started to pour out the water inside on himself. He was laughing all the way when the water was running down his body. Then he would looked at me with a question mark in his eyes, "shui yao bu yao?" And I would say "Yao" again and again...

'baby de'

David tends to forget to eat his food. He would jump around and pick up a car or something and roam from here to there while he was still chewing on something. This is not a good habit. I am trying to get him to sit down and eat. However, we left the high chair in the states and we dare not to make him cry at dinner time -- my mom would start a war on us if we do. As I remember my grandma has said that some habbit will fade away when a child grows up and I haven't seen any grownup having trouble eat sitting down, I have to choose a different battle and let this go. So to remind him that he should take the next bite, my parents have to use a competitive methods. "Lao Ye De", my dad will say. And that meant "this is Grandpa's". And David will look at him challenging, "Baby de" which means "this is Baby's". And he will take a big bite to show that it really is his and look at my dad victoriously. And my dad laughes in his belly.



Work is fun. But playing with David is sure more fun. David brings laughs to all of us because he is just a God made pure kid. :-)

China Characteristics

Our dear friend Veronica has gifted us this book: China Characteristics. With a mixed feeling I am presented the book here. Some says that it is a book that look down on Chinese; others think it has portraited the old China in a humorous way.
In my opinion it has described the China in the 1920th and probably before that from the eyes of a western scholars. The 2 systems are clashing. The author tried his best to understand Chinese and probably felt frustrated as there seemed to be no way. His mission in China was to bring the Gospels, yet he found out that he could not understand Chinese at all.
I laughed about some of the examples he used in the book. For example, when he asked how far is from A to B and got an answer and when he asked how far is from B to A and got a different answer. In his accurate "scientific" mind, this is simply not perceivable. Yet it was happening and there was an interesting reason behind it. He eventually found out the reason and was fascinated that could be called a reason at all.
It could be strange to him, but it is not to me. Although China has changed so much, I could still see people behave similarly. To understand China, you need to be open minded; actually you need to use your heart rather than your mind. ;) In my observation, Chinese society is still a "close" society which stubbornly hold on to the old customs and values. Chinese will not always take on the foreign civilizations very easily -- we take it and change it to our benefit. Take the communist as an example, we changed it conveniently to the Chinese Characteristics. Often Chinese will not answer the "why"s to the "foreigners" because there is usually a long long story behind it. And to understand that story, you need to take a class first. So often what you've got are the quick answers of "how"s. Yikes!

I think no one could really give a whole picture of Chinese with just a few books. It is like a colorful portrait, you could see it and try to describe it using words. But you bound to be incomplete with your words. It is also like Chinese medicine, the experienced doctors know it well in their mind, and the it works out efficiently with a few grass and a niddle; yet no one could explain it at the atom level and no text book could make one a good Chinese medicine doctor.

Another interesting blog about the book and the author could be found here.

UpperRoom

There is a little tea house called "UpperRoom" in Beijing. The Chinese name is LouShang "楼尚". The owner is from HongKong and every Friday there is live music. The tea house offers some sweets that is specific to HongKong-ness and they can only be found here in Beijing. Stella, an acquaintance of ManLung, has invited us to meet at "UpperRoom". Since Veronica is from HongKong, so I just extended the invitation to her too.

After we parked the car, the 3 of us and David walked along a narrow alley till we finally saw this small building. There is a table set on the patio right outside the front door. And there a few people sitting at the table, chatting and obviously eating. We walked inside the door, and right in our face is a counter. On the left in front of the counter, we found our friend Stella sitting on the couch. She told us that the place is full and that is the place she has reserved for us. Eating on the sofa, that is the home style.

Luckily, before long we were able to be transferred to the "UpperRoom". The kitchen is actually upstairs. And there were only limited 5 to 6 tables. People there are... how would I describe it? They are like a family. The restaurant owner uses a laptop to project song lyrics. And then there is a guy who is invited by the owner to sing that night. Everyone in the room is welcome to sing along.


The owner knows most of the people there. "I did not make any money through this restaurant, but I did make many many friends." :-) I heard that the restaurant was on TV and has won some prizes for being creative.

The place is just crowded. But the atmosphere is hot and free. David loved to be there. He sit on the stairs and played the little decorative light bulbs wrapping around the hand rail. He moved his body by the music and even tried to sing along. He was so happy and so did I. Robert didn't seem to understand much about the songs. But he has got a delicious meal.

Teenhood Maid Reunion

I've got reconnected with one of my best friends in junior high and I just found out that how different we were and we are still. :-)

Lan YuXiang (兰玉香) is 1.5 years older than me. We spent 3 years in junior high almost doing everything together, with another girl XiaoYing. We were peas in the same pod. :-) Obvious I knew little about people or the world around me, or even myself; because the hours we talked yesterday only showed how different we are. She is gracious, energetic, sociable, considerate and interested in light and enjoyable things. I am simple, nice, silent, often submerging into my own thoughts and interested in "big" "heavy" topics. She doesn't remember much of the things she has said and I had hold on all these years. And I don't quite recall the things that I've said and she has cherished in her heart. She didn't change much and I guess I didn't either. I wonder how on the earth we were so close!

Well put the differences away, a bond is a bond, once had and will always have. I am so excited that I get to see her again and I am so glad to know that she is doing quite well. YuXiang works in the police department of the HaiDian District where we lived and are living in right now. She has told me stories about this city and this country. Being in Beijing, she got the chance to deal with some officials of the country, and witnessed a pure promising student being corrupted by power and the money it brings. "After all money is the enemy of no one", she quoted and that summarized the fall of the head exec of the HaiDian District. She has also seen people living at the bottom of the society and things that are simply indescribable. She has seen one person covered with shabby filthy cloth right out of the jail in the morning and the same person shone in fancy suit and glowing jewelries in the afternoon. Men do see the outside of a person and pay their respects based on that.
My friend, YuXiang is beautiful, inside and outside. I am sure she could marry anyone she wanted. She has chosen a life of wealth, an email address of 'liebe' and is happy about it. She has a lovely 9-year old. The girl, ZiYing Li, has her mom's eyes and smile...

I am sure more reunions will come up soon. And I will get to meet more friends of my teen years and bring out more stories from the dusty attic of my mind. This morning, a scripture fell into my readings:

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.” And, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk honestly as children of the light, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in anger and jealousy. And such were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified in the name of our Lord.”

That is the answer of my prayer and guidance in my confusion.

Navigating in Beijing -- Driving

As the capital of the country, Beijing has recorded population of 15 million. The estimated overall population, including the unrecorded residents, is from 15 million to 30 million. The streets are surely not designed to carry these many people!

It is very fun to go around the city with different ways and experience different sub-cultures. Since we have just bought our car, let me start with Driving.




Driving in Beijing is very fun for the following reasons:

Sneakers

Often while you are driving on the road, a car will suddenly show up on your side and poke its nose in front of your car. You have to step on the break suddenly to avoid bumping into it. Robert calls them sneakers. They keep us awake and help us made the decision to have an automatic car. Patience bucket needs to be full, as well as the gas tank, before you get on the road. :-)

Mixed Roads

Except for the major high ways (4 major circle city high ways and a few inter-city high ways), most of the streets are allowed with all kinds of vehicles -- bus, horse wagons, motor cycles. It really depends on where you are in the city. One morning we saw on the opposite direction a woman riding a 3-wheel motor cart carrying some vegetables and following her is a long line of Volkswagen's and Benz's. :-) This was the one lane street and those cars could not pass her. They waited peacefully behind her and sliding their luxury cars along patiently. We were laughing all the way passing them, clapping for the fairness of the right to the road.

Beeping and Honking

While we took the driver license test, one rule caught our eyes. That is when you passing someone walking, you should beep your horn. I guess that is to warn them that you are there. So I had to practice the horn on my new car to get the feel of it. I definitely don't want to scare people by a loud long beep. I remember when we had a conference call meeting through phones, our dev lead had to call in from his cell phone because he was stuck in the traffic for 2 hours that morning. Our Redmond colleagues were amazed by the beeps and horns in the background. You could tell there were some upset drivers there on the street. In my ears these beeping and honking have composed an interesting road melody -- I call it "harmony in the chaos".

Cameras, points and fine

In many intersections, cameras are installed to catch violators. Still there are smart drivers who could tell that if the camera is on or not. If one is caught violating the rules, he/she could be fined 200RMB and take 3 points. If his or her points reach 12, he/she needs to attend a class before getting on the road again.
Robert got stopped the second day we had the car. He changed lane over a solid white line. The police signaled him to park on the side of the street. Then he realized that our car hadn't got the license plate yet and Robert looked very puzzled and he doesn't know enough English to explain to Robert what went wrong. So he signaled him to drive along. I heard him saying something like "well, you are probably new to the road and are a foreigner, I will let you go this time. Next time don't pass the solid line!" I am glad it wasn't me driving.

Bus stops

Bus stops normally are set right after the intersections. And buses come in groups -- sometimes 4 or 5 in sequence. So the buses going in and out the stops slow down the traffic flow a lot. So keep at the left lane while you can. Just be careful that the left most lane might turn into a left turn only lane before you noticed. :-)

Dead locks

Everyone would like to get ahead. Cars trying to pass after the light turns to red and cars trying to turn left before the light turns to green, and cars trying to go straight after the light turns to green... They all meet in the middle of the street. Well, sometime it causes a deadlock and no one could move. Don't worry. Police will be here within half an hour. And you will have a well accepted and sympathized excuse to be late.

Parking

Parking lots are precious. Many times we had to circle around for a lot. We don't see many parking buildings as they are popular in the States. Inside the city, most of the parkings are above ground. To get in the tiny spot with crowded cars around you, you need to have skills. I often had to back and forth many times to get the car in. I felt like Austin Powers when he had to take the car out of the building after he has lost his mojo.
Newer buildings in the outskirts start to have underground parking. Big grocery stores, such as Walmart and Carrefour, have dedicated parking lots free to their customers.
The parking fee ranges from 0.5RMB/hour to 2RMB/hour. Only one time we had to pay 10RMB for 2 hours because we had to park in front of a restaurant without eating there. They sold the parking lot to us for 2 hours.

More roads and even more cars

The city is expanding. More and more roads are being built. Yet it still cannot catch up the speed of the increasing of the cars. Government has been working on the solutions for years. Even most people spend 2-3 hours on the road to an from work, everybody is confident that at least this will be resolved for the Olympics. The easiest way is to give everyone a 15-day long holiday so they could watch the game and don't have to drive to work. :-)




Next post on "Navigating in Beijing", I will talk about taxis as we have experiences with them for almost 9 months.

Church's new location and the Great Marching

This Sunday our church moved to this new location -- the Great Hotel by the 3rd ring.
What I love about this church is the people. They are simply NICE and sincere. The people are from all corners of the world and we get to meet and serve God together.
Among them are a large group of people from Africa who are welcoming and alive in all things they do. They dressed in their traditional clothes with all kinds of bright colors -- yellow, red, green and orange. We had the Palm Sunday in African theme. We danced around the room like we were having a party and enjoyed the delicious African food after the service.
Besides African brothers and sisters, we have people from Holland, Russia, Indonesia and Singapore. It will take me a while to learn to say their names all right. :-)

The Great Marching

This is the 3rd week that we march around the Forbidden city. This week we are praying for God to raise a new generation in China -- anointed, strong, seeking God's righteousness and wisdom.
The background of the picture on the left shows the north-east corner of the Forbidden city.
Just to bring the story up-to-date, during the 1st marching, we prayed for the nation to have the peace with God and the peace of God. And the second marching we prayed for the repent of the nation, to repend from their cheatings, lyings and all sinful ways.

Teach Your Kids Billingual

On Friday afternoon, company HR organized a talk about "how to teach your kids billingual". The topic sounds interesting so I spend about an hour in the talk.
Besides the commercial propaganda of their international billingual school, I did hear a few things that are helpful in raising a billingual kid. If I only have time and room to list one, I would take on the culture one -- billingual is not only a second language, it is a second culture. Billingual kids are more respectful, peaceful and sociable because they understand that different people approach things differently.
I thought I knew about this, but I don't think I've put much thinking into it. While we are bringing in English materials to David, we also have choose the right one that will influence how he understands the English world, mostly America in our family. :-)
So choosing Chinese and English as 2 languages for David is a perfect combination of the 2 cultures. Eastern model respects authorities and hierarchies. People often do what is being told to them and are mostly peaceful about it. Western model honors individuality. Self-starters are admired when they are creative and successful. It is OK to make mistakes when trying new things. So raising David to be a respectful, peaceful yet creative individual would be a nice thing. Of course God will do the final shaping of his character. :-)

Meeting new people

Yesterday we had a wonderful dinner with a couple from CA -- Ron and Delanda. They've been in Beijing for about 5 months. Ron has been giving talks around the world. He had his own business for the last 20 years on making injection molds for plastics. Delanda is a mom of 2 girls and is expecting her 2nd grandson in a few weeks.
But they are not old at all -- only about 45 years old maybe. And they've dedicated the rest of their lives to the Lord. Ron gives talks on marriages and Delanda does personal consulting and comes to women side by side. They have travelled around the world -- Germany, Peru, African during the last few years. They speak softly and lovingly. I could see God's grace is on them. How wonderful that we've found this couple who lives only 5 minutes away!

Let the journey continue

After 9 months in Beijing, I finally decided to start a blog on our life here. It is because our other part of the families have started a blog to tell their stories in Spain. And I thought that was cool! And I think we should do the same thing.
Choosing the name of the blog was not an easy task: anything that I could think of and has "China" in it is taken. Finally I had to expand our journey a little bit to the whole eastern half globe and that settles it. So our final blog name is http://easternglobe.blogspot.com/ Maybe we will have the luck to visit more regions and countries on the east side of the earth.

The real reason I'd like to start writing is actually not only to tell the family and friends our story in China. It is also because that so many things have happened and I'd like to write them down before the tiny tweeny details flee from my memory. It feels quite interesting when a Chinese comes back to her homeland after 11 years and has to adapt to the new country. Maybe one day I could publish a little brouchure on this adventure of back to the east. And that could be a witness to the history of China in the early 21st century. :-)