Winding Down and Ramping Up

If the trips to the Tengger Desert and Xian weren’t enough to convince me that China was really starting to turn up the heat on amazing experiences, then the few elapsed months between Mum and Dad leaving and Xmas decending on the world certainly was. One of my work colleagues was heading back to Australia and for her farewell we went to a dinner at a nearby well-known Xingjang restaurant that was reported to include a belly dancing show and some serious snake tricks. Following this was the promise of dancing at Beijing’s own 80’s dance club, which I have since found is located just down the road and within easy striking distance of me after a few warmup ales on a party night.

We managed to get to the restaurant just as the show was about to start, and as the MC came on stage to introduce the first act (more in Mandarin than in English, but we got the gist) so did the food. Now in our post on the Inner Mongolia trip I went into detail about the very ordinary meals we had out west near where Xingjiang is located, and their habit of serving up nice looking cooked animal only to find it more bones and fat than lamb, with any meat ending up being older than some albums in my father's music collection (Marty Robbins, you no longer rock my world). Not the case here though – the food was some of the best Chinese dining I've had out, and when they brought out the roasted lamb the meat outweighed the bones 2:1. Now THAT was promising, and if I managed to make my way through that I could always try vegetarian (although I hear they are a bit stringy).

All the while dinner was being hoed down the waiter service were really keeping on the ball, also making it some of the best local table service I've received here. I never seemed to notice them come and take plates away or need to be called but my wineglass was never empty and the plates of food just kept on coming.

As for the night’s entertainment, I finally managed to discover the cause of my high blood pressure, and there ain’t nothing that the Dr can do about it. I think it may have had something to do with the belly dancing duo on stage, one of which gets my vote for the hottest girl on the planet (don’t worry ladies – Amy agrees).

The night was going to end with dancing, so midway through the show I decided it should start with some as well so myself and a few of us from the table accepted the invitation of the female MC to get up on stage and show our wares. No snake unfortunately, but the dancers headed into the crowd and it was almost a carnivale atmosphere. I hear from others that this is the more tame of the Xingjian all-eating, all-dancing, all-drinking dinner-show restaurants. The other one usually ends with the patrons themselves dancing on the tables, so Amy and I are both keen to check out this other one when the inlaws come over in May.

Backing up the next night from the Xingjiang restaurant experience, we had booked ourselves in to attend an event put on by the Argentinian Embassy at a big Argentinian restauarant on the outskirts of town. The travel was longer than what we would usually do for a dinner date, but with the promise of a specially imported Argentinian beef steak and a night of Argentinian Tango for entertainment it was an offer too good to refuse. And what a winner it was, with Amy and I getting a table right next to the stage and getting a front row view to the action as the three couples came out and showed their skills (and the ladies showed their leg work). Worthwhile to remember for nexttime though the trouble in getting a taxi at Shunyi at midnight for a trip back into town, and it might be better to pre-arrange a driver for the night.

On the other social front we finally got organised and had the Flying Cocktails (my darts team) around for a night of home-cooked Moroccan and Karaoke, with a significant amount of wine and cocktails thrown in there for good measure. Aligning with Halloween, it was a great night as Maddy was amped up from the trick or treat. The appearance of the first snow of the season, just as everyone was leaving the party, finished off a magical night.

Any 'good' karaoke night is always preceeded by the consumption of significant amounts of liquid courage, and the Flying Cocktails night was no exception.

Snow + Halloween + Too Much Time = Snow Witch

With the darts team comprising of people from all corners of the globe, many could proudly attest to now having visited Australian soil with one guest enjoying it so much she decided to stay the night. Not sure if it had anything to do with it, but we did win 4 of our next 5 games after the party so I put it down to Aussie good luck rubbing off.

Our Slovenian friend Kaja finally gets to visit Australian soil, and it's not Thredbo in the winter.


Southern Gate of the Forbidden City, day after Halloween.

In between the social activities Amy had a number of key work activities that needed her attention before she was able to lay down the pen for the year. Two work trips kept her busy in late November and early December, along with visits from work colleagues in Canberra - all of whom were keen to test out their shopping and bargaining skills during their free time. Amy and I were both happy to help out, especially since I've discovered that a combination of hard haggling and KFC make for the best hangover cure.

Maddy was also very busy leading up to the end of her school semester, with a large number of concerts, choir performances, plays and fetes filling up her calendar (and subseqently ours). It seemed at one stage we had two school events on every week for about 3 weeks, so in the end we are not sure who was looking forward to the end of the school term more - Maddy, or Amy and I. In between these events we also had the Xmas party for all the kids here, where we FINALLY managed to get a photo of Maddy with Santa (after alot of life coaching from me and convincing her that Santa wasn't going to cause her to die instantly of fear).

Maddy and Santa at the lighting of the Xmas Tree and pressies for the kids.

There was one performance that I was able to attend with Maddy which was a winner, and it wasn't even school related. It was a performance of Don Quixote by the American Ballet Company, which Amy and initially planned to accompany Maddy to with some other ladies from our apartment complex. Unfortunately it later clashed with Amy's trip interstate so I got the opportunity to go. The performance was at the 'Egg', the Beijing Performing Arts building down near Tiannenman, and the location was amazing and it is a place I would be keen to visit again. Equally amazing was the performance itself - this was a surprise for me as I had been expecting it to be similar to sticking a needle in my eye repeatedly.

So after an unsuccessful attempt to wind down as our first year in China wound to a close, we looked forward to our trip back to Australia for Christmas via Hong Kong. With Amy's brother and sister-in-law also travelling back to Australia from London to join in the reunion it was going to be a great time for Amy to meet her new nephew and catch up with her other nephew and niece and relax in the sun rather than shiver in the winter.

But first we had to get there, and that posed a problem thanks to a mechanical on our plane leaving Beijing for Hong Kong. Originally scheduled to depart at 6.30pm on the Friday evening that Maddy finished school, it was not until 11.30pm that we finally left the runway tarmac after having made two pitstops at a remote parking bay while the aircraft engineers played with the plane landing gear steering, and then needing to give up on the original plane entirely and transfer to another plane.

When we finally arrived at HKIA at around 3.30am we knew we were going to have a later morning than anticipated, which would eat into our sightseeing time. But were lucky to even get that when Amy noticed our taxi driver falling asleep on the drive from the airport to our hotel. With stationary concrete road dividers on either side of the HK airport express road I could see myself being like that famous Princess who was out until after midnight then turned into a concrete pylon (Lady Di[e]), so I resorted to whistling dixie and engaging the driver in conversation at 100Db to keep her focussed at least until we were safely at our digs.

After a not so solid sleep-in we finally got moving around 11am that day and decided to wander into the city to get some breakfast before taking the tram up to Victoria Peak, which we were told gave a great view of the city and the surrounding ocean and islands. Unfortunately we managed to pick the mistier of the two days to do the long-distance viewing part of the trip, and when we finally made it to the top we were lucky to be able to see much more than the city buildings closest to the hill. Much of the surrounding islands were obscured in the haze, and while we had read that the HK pollution is becoming a real problem our issue appeared to be the genuine result of unfortunate weather rather than China's own benzine blanket (although Amy begs to differ on this point).

Tram to Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Many sections of the tram line are so steep that you cannot stand up, and the buildings to either side of the tram line look like they are built at an angle.


Hong Kong from atop Victoria Peak. Pollution, or mist?



'Scenic' shot from ontop of Victoria Peak. The longer we stayed up there, the more obsured with pollution/mist the skyline became.

The trip up the hill was not without its benefits though, with the usual celluloid shenanigans ensuing as we came across a few of Madam Toussaurd's wax creations of local and still resident (in candle form anyway) Bruce Lee and China's own Barak ObaMao.

I tried to take him, but his yellow jumpsuit with the speed stripe was just too quick.

Maddy and I in downtown Hong Kong CBD, on our way to Mongkok for iPhone shopping.

After some lunch we decided to head to Mongkok on the hunt for the iPhone Amy was after, discovering some great architecture along the way (c/o years of British administration). With the Lonely Planet giving us the heads up on the Monkgkok population density, and having lived in Beijing for the last year we thought we were prepared for the masses. In reality though, Mongkok makes Beijing look like the Simpson Desert in regards to how busy it was. It appeared that on Saturday night Mongkok was THE place for HK' young and hip to go for shopping, demonstrations, and just socialising and hanging out. After a bit of asking around we found the shop we were looking for and 1/2 hr later were on our way back to the hotel plus one iPhone and an appetite for the great buffet that was on offer at the hotel (which didn't do my diet any favours - I blame the all-you-can-drink wine that came as part of the price).

Sunday was to prove a day of highs and lows, as Maddy came of age on the fear-tackling front and went on multiple rides at Ocean World amusement park, including 3 laps of the rollercoaster and a lap of the water log ride the latter of which offered a great facial expression photo opportunity. While we had initially intended to do only a half day at the Ocean World park, we found that there was plenty to do, and with Madeline braver than usual on the rides front we decided to take full advantage of it while it lasted and did both ends of the park.

Part of the Hong Kong skyline in the background, with a fun part of the Ocean World 'Mine Train' rollercoaster in the foreground. What a hoot this ride was!

Far end of the Ocean World Park, from the Ocean View ride. This is where the real adrenaline rides were.

In the end though our enthusiasm proved to be Amy's undoing, as tiredness set in and our lack of awareness opened the way for a pickpocket to help themselves to Amy's new iPhone only 24 hours after she acquired it. Discussions were had on the best way to get ovet that horrible feeling you get in your stomach of just having seen lots of $$ walk out the door, and it was agreed that it is better to go home with something having paid twice as much for it, than to go home with nothing at all. So with that in mind, and a number of hours to go before we needed to get to the airport, we headed back to Mongkok and grabbed a replacement iPhone for Amy followed by some KFC for dinner before heading back to the hotel and grabbing our bags for the trip to the airport.

We both thought the Hong Kong sub way system was one of the best subway systems we had ridden. So did Maddy, it seems.

We had a very comfortable overnight flight into Sydney and arrived in Canberra in the early afternoon. We had a great couple of weeks catching up with friends and family in Canberra, Merimbula and Cowra - thanks to all who were able to it in with our quite tight schedule, and to all those who helped me drag my unfit and sorry ar$e up the hills on the three mountain bike rides I managed to fit in. If we missed you this time then we hope to catch you next time we are back.

All in all it has been an absolutely amazing year for us and have enjoyed nearly every minute of it. While we were all very apprehensive at first and unsure of what we were getting ourselves into all three of us have, from early on in our move, considered Beijing as our home (well, for the 3 years we are here at least). We have been fortunate to make some great friends both within Amy's network of colleagues as well as outside of work. We have managed to see some great parts of China in the last 12 months and look forward to exploring more of it in the next 24 months. We hope you have enjoyed reading the blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and if you can continue to live with my adhoc timing between posts then there will hopefully be a few more stories yet (which I can guarantee will continue to include a lot of food descriptions, and there is ALWAYS a new China toilet story around every hutong corner).

Next post: Aussie return highlights, Amy's brother and sister-in-law (and niece) hit town, Beijing snow BIGTIME, and our journey to "Oriental Moscow" in search of Ice Festivals and Vodka Ice Bars.