Espresso Martinis, Kiwi Sorbet and the Sub-Arctic Tourist Express

Back to Beijing

In the end the flight back from Australia to Beijing was nowhere near as bad as what I'd built up in my head.  It did sound aweful on paper though - fly out of Canberra at 7.30am (5am wakeup - hmmmm), then to Sydney, then Hong Kong and then onto Beijing and finally arrive at 10pm (1am Canberra time) on the same day.  On top of this I knew we were going to be way over the luggage limit, having jammed our bags full of Xmas gifts and those things you just can't get in China.

We needed some good fortune, and lucky for us it started as early as walking into the Canberra terminal and lining up at the Qantas check-in, when from a distance I recognised one of the check-in attendants as a fellow mountain biker and ex-member of the CORC committee.  As it turned out we got shuffled down to her waiting scales of justice, and with the bags 15kg over the limit the time I‘d invested making mountain bike contacts in the last 8 years repaid itself in full (assuming investment amount = 15kg multiplied by excess kg baggage charge).  It only took a bit of rearranging of one bag to meet the OHAS limit and we were on our way with bags checked all the way through to Beijing, never having to deal with them again.

Luckily that was the only real challenge we faced along the way (aside from the very quick walk between connecting flights in HK), and when we touched down in Beijing just after our estimated arrival time our friends were waiting for us to load all the luggage into their big SUV for the more relaxed drive into the city than a Beijing taxi could otherwise provide (and all it cost us was a jar of every 'mite' we could find on the Woolworths supermarket shelf - hey, he's Canadian and Marmite is supposedly his thing).  And as an added bonus we were greeted by an apartment that was a lot warmer than we expected, given that the heating had been turned off for the 3 weeks while we were away as the outside max temp hovered consistently around the -8 deg celsius.  The advantage of having one-foot thick concrete walls.

New Years Eve
Our wake-up from New Years Eve was a slow one, but we were keen to get out and enjoy what we remembered were the clearer blue Beijing skies of winter (as opposed to Summer, where pollution is fierce).  We also had preparations to take care of, as we had invited any of the leftover people from our apartment complex over for New Years Eve with the promise of snacks and wine.  With our snacks presently comprising 3 slices of green mouldy bread that we had forgotten to throw out and a fridge crisper of liquified fruit and vegetables some restocking was in order.  On top of this there was also the task of finding an apropriate cocktail that would best suit the desire to celebrate the new decade at  midnight, with the need to stay awake long enough to enjoy it (a bigger problem as one gets older).

Thanks to some 007 drinking memories from our Aussie trip (in particular our great catch-up with friends on our 2nd night back in Oz for my best friend's birthday) we had the lingering taste sensation of Espresso Martinis on our lips so the recipe was looked up and the necessary brewing of beans cooked and cooled in preparation for what we hoped would be a nice night with friends.

And that it was, after a bit of a late start that Amy filled in with reading, Maddy filled in doing a bit of party coordination and I filled in pretending I knew how to play my Status Quo-esque Yamaha Pacifica that Amy was crazy enough to allow me to buy as my Xmas present (I've since started lessons, which she is probably happy about).  As I had picked up a flu and secondary infection in Australia (and brought back a skin infection on the nose that made leprosy look edible) I was on the antibiotics so not really planning on getting into the drinking.  As the night wore on though everyone else was keen to keep rocking so in the end a few of us ended up down at the bar getting into some serious darts action until 2am.

Blades of Glory
The weekend after New Years Day was an opportunity for Maddy to try out her new ice skates that we got her for Xmas, so we headed down to Hou Hai nearly a year to the day since we last went ice skating there.  With the winter having well and truely set in the lake had frozen over well enough to allow the operators to set up business so after jogging my memory on the order of things we had Maddy in her skates and Amy and I had ice bikes doing laps of the frozen lake from one end to the other all the while trying to drift the bikes and avoid colliding with other users.  We had a hoot, and for those who have not seen it yet I managed to string enough of our footage together into a short video of our afternoon which we rounded out with a trip to Guihot favourite Hutong Pizza.  As usual there was the unexpected yet unsurprising sights, like the woman ice biking in the high heels（Darwin theory candidate？ and one guy riding around in a converted dodgem-car (installed on ice skates) before getting pulled over by what appeared to be ice traffic cops, and having to push his ’vehicle‘ back to the parking station.  And then there were these little robot-like chucky dolls pulling kids on ice-sleds, looking like a scene from a Tim Burton movie or a cheesy B-grade horror flick (Something Wicked This Way Comes or similar)..

Maddy has really started enjoying the ice skating and is improving every time she does it.  As well as the enjoyment of watching her improve, we've also come across some very cool landmarks around Beijing in our search for a smooth frozen lake or canal, like this little beauty in Chaoyang Park - the first double decker merry-go-round I think I've ever seen.

Like loading and unloading an Airbus A380.

The Flying Family Visit
Our first Saturday night was to bring the biggest surprise since we arrive back as the sky dumped the biggest load of snow on the ground in 60 years.  In the 24hrs to Sunday evening over 60cm of the white stuff fell, bringing Beijing roads and all other transport options to a complete standstill. The street workers who we would  usually see out the back window first thing in the morning clearing the snow just gave up and downed their tools, as the snow resettling just as fast behind them as they were clearing it in front of them.

The New Year’s Snow - nearly 6 weeks later and it is still laying all over the ground here （although now with a yellow tinge）

Now at nearly any other time the big dump of snow would have been a great novelty for us. We got an SMS late Sunday from Maddy's school that it was closed the following Monday due to the dump (making one out of the three Guihot family members happy :-), and we really didn't need to be anywhere until the next weekend when we had our planned trip to Harbin.  We did though have Amy's brother, sister-in-law and little niece flying in to see us on their way back to London from Australia, and right now this wasn't looking likely as the Beijing airport runways were even deeper in snow than the cities.  On top of this the tendency of the authorities to not provide any information on transport delays was making it hard to determine the impact on their expected 10pm Monday evening touchdown time.  Any delay in their arrival would not only mean increased challenges in getting them back to the city (as our plaanned driver was not keen for a graveyard shift pickup), but it would also eat into their tourist activities as Amy and I had organised for them a guided tour of some of Beijing's finest as their Xmas present.  Thankfully Amy was able to get some sense from the Air China website (the only thing Air China has actually done well for any of our travelling friends it seems), and while I slept soundly Amy headed out in a taxi and met them at the arrival gate at 3am on the Tuesday morning a bit tired and worse for wear but more importantly well and safe.

What followed for Dave and Sue as a whirlwind one and a half day tour of the Great Wall under snow, the Forbidden City, Tiannanmen Square, Temple of Heaven and the secret markets of Hongqiao in between meeting us for a great lunch at the Meat and Wine Co in Qianmen (which was a first for Amy and I, and won't be the last). Amy and I really enjoyed looking after Abby while Dave and Sue toured the sights of the city!

Kicking back with Dave, Sue and Abbey at the Meat and Wine Company - one GREAT steak.

With the trekking through the cold and the sore muscles we decided that a trip to Oriental Taipan was in order on their last night, so while Amy caught up on some sleep Dave, Sue and I went around the corner and indulged in the back, head and foot massage while sampling some of the complimentary menu they have on offer.  Not alot was eaten though, as we had chowed into Singaporian from across the road for dinner when our plans to head to Hou Hai were cancelled due to a lack of taxi pickup action out the front.

It was great to have them here, and having a little toddler running around the place was fun although somewhat tiring.  And while their visit was short and in temperatures that would make a polar bear reach for a jumper they had a great time by all accounts.

The rest of the week was about preparing for our planned trip to Harbin that following weekend.  World famous as having the biggest Ice Festival in the world, we had decided to pass up an Embassy organised trip last year as we had only just recently arrived.  The extra year did give us time to research the place in more detail, and what we did find out was that it was going to be very very very very cold.  So off we went to the market to purchase extra clothing and seek out some chemical heat pads that you could put in the pockets and on the outside of clothes to keep warm, as well as in the bags in an attempt to keep my insulin from turning into a pancreatic hormone slushie.

Vodka and Caviar on the Russian Front
Having done the itinerary-planned overnight sleeper thing to Shaolin last year we decided to skip the bone-rattler experience to Harbin in lieu of the (more expensive) flight option instead.  This had us flying out on the Saturday morning rather than departing by train the night before, but in the end we got to the snow festival mid morning on the Saturday only 45minutes after the rest of the group arrived.

By coincidence our weekend travel plans with the CCC aligned with the personal travel plans of a group of firends from Beijing, one of whose grandmother was actually raised in Harbin and from Russian decent.  They had similar travel stops planned to what we did, albeit with a more flexible schedule but with the added challenge of having to move themselves around the place in a city that was brimming with tourists and short on taxis.

Our first stop straight from the airport was the snow festival, where we checked out a large array of snow sculptures some of a scale that had to be seen to be believed (horses, Temple of Heaven replicas, even the Chairman).  And even with all the ones that were done there were still a large number of solid snow blocks just waiting to be carved up by the artists, many of who were in town that weekend for a competition.  We wandered past one that a group of artists were working on, and when we went past 1/2hr later on our way back to the bus they had a bulldozer in to move all the snow they'd carved out.

One of the bigger snow carvings at the Harbin festival, including carved horses, dragons and Chinese temple.  Impressive.

Snow sculptors hard at work behind us.

Ice, Ice Mao - Stop, collaborate and listen.

Our 2nd stop on the Saturday was to lunch at a local hotel, which offerd up a great selection of Dong Bei (North-East) fare but also had in the foyer a pair of live seals that were housed in a pool no larger than most people's fish ponds - very wrong, but not like there is anyone to complain to here about animal rights.

With our stomachs full we headed off to feed another hungry pack at the Siberian tiger park.  Although the temperature was already getting cold by this point we jumped on the little tour bus for a trip through the enclosures, and got to see the live animal feedings which is a bone of contention with many Governments around the world and with many animal rights groups.  Whether this had anything to do with it is unknown, but Amy and I were both very impressed with how well the animals looked and although there were large numbers of them in an enclosure it was good to see the local and National Govt putting so much effort into saving them.

One of the big cats with a 'live' pheasant that it had just caught.

For one large concrete one the live pheasants weren't enough, so he took a bite out of me.

With the daylight fading fast we headed back to the hotel to checkin and get a short rest before meeting the group again to head to the Ice Festival.  What a great night out.  Although the temperature was now hovering around the -35deg C mark we had a great night of riding the tubes and the ice slides and checking out the sculptures and locals dancing before heading out to dinner at one of the most well known Russian restaurants in town.  I know I talk alot about the food in these posts (I did mention the food reviews at the beginning) but this meal was one of the best I have had on a CCC trip (which are, based on previous experience less hit and more miss).  The meat was plentiful, the vegetables were existent for those who cared about them (Amy) but non-existent for the saner ones and the tour guide even splurged and bought a couple of bottles of wine for the table before disappearing for the night (unheard of on previous CCC trips).  Just the thing to defrost the ice that was forming on our eyelashes while we shot down the tube rides at the Ice Festival.

With dinner done and the hotel being centrally located at the end of the main Harbin pedestrian street it was a nice albeit very cold walk back to our room with a detour for coffee on the way, and a late call from my friends on the parallel tour to bail on the planned Ice Bar shenanigans as they were on the tired side (and didn'yt have the luxury of a bus driver like we had to taker the stress out of the transportation arrangements).

Front entrance to the Harbin Ice Festival at night.

On the Sunday morning the tour group members were given a choice of going to either the Germ Warfare Experiement Base out of town, or heading to Polar land to check out what wouold likely be more animals in small enclosures.  Not being down on the whole depressing moments on holidays thing Amy and Maddy headed to the Ice zoo, while I headed out to check out what sounded like (as actually was) the Japanese Army's own version of German POW camps - the types where the locals were involuntarily made to donate organs before they had been given the opportunity to pass out.

Afterwards (feeling somewhat depressed about the supposed antics of the Japanese ocupying forces during WW2) we headed back to town to meet with the othher half of the group at a dumpling restaurant for lunch.  Not only did the dumplings come in 1000 different flavours (and man, did they keep coming), they also had the open kitchen so you could look in and see how the pros put a dumpling together in record time.  I think the best was three seconds to pick up the casing, pack it, and stack it for cooking fresh.

The afternoon was the best part of the whole weekend as we headed of to see the locals do some ice swimming in a cutout pool on the river.  The water was so cold that when the swimmers aren't using it they need to keep a pump going to stop it freezing over (in the 30min it was off the corners were already starting to crystal up).  Not only did we get to see the crazy locals do it, but when the kiwi teacher from our tour group came out in his grundies with a glint in his eye (or was that just ice?) we knew that his earlier offer to dive into the pool was something he was wanting to follow through on - at the time we thought he was only joking as no one from a CCC tour group has reportedly done this before.  There was no mucking about, and after a short halt to proceedings to remove his watch, in he jumped and swam to the other end before getting out and reaching for the towel.  Unfortunately he really started to feel the shivers soon after getting out as the wind picked up.  So what does a Maori do when standing in his undies in North China in the middle of winter after going for a swim in below-freezing water?  He does the Hakka.  Now that was strange, and dare I say it somewhat surreal (and would have been available on video for you to watch had my phone camera not been affected by the low temperatures).

After being loaded on the bus again, we were back to the hotel to have a rest and enjoy some free time before heading out to the airport for the 7.30pm departing flight back to Beijing.  With a few options up our sleeve we decided to join some of the others in the tour group and head along to the Shangri-la Hotel a short taxi drive away where the Ice Bar was well known as a tourist must-do.  In the end it was more a tourist must-not, and was more a novelty than a full working bar as nearly every drink we ordered had to be brought in from the main bar and only the hard spirits were available over the counter.  The sculpting was again amazing, with the ice piano in the corner and the accompanying ice violinist next to it adding a real Mozart concert feel to it.  Any awe we felt though was soon replaced by shock when we got the bill, having been charged (and paid) 270rmb for two gluhweins and a hot chocolate.  I haven‘t paid that amount for three drinks since we were sitting out the front of a Paris cafe looking at the Notre Dame over a drink (and a Fosters at that) with Lynnie and Wouter.

JD over ice？

Maddy Mozart and the Ice Strativarius

Getting a cab back to the hotel was a challenge, but after half hour wait and a 150m drive down a three-lane street head-on in the opposite direction we were back and on our way to the airport. In one last surprise though we checked in only to find our plane had been delayed. According to the bits of information we got from those in the group who could speak the local lingo was that our plane had actually been commandeered by the Chinese Governmentt to move troops out to Xinjiang to deal with massive snow storms in the area. So after a long delay we finally made it out on the last departing flight for the night and got back home at 2.30am (with Maddy enjoying another day of school due to being very tired).

It was an absolutely fabulous weekend, and we are already looking to go back next year on our own and spending more time at a few places rather than trying to fit a lot in like they tend to do with the CCC tours.  This though depends on how much more of China we want to see, as the list of CCC trips that catch our attention tend to increase with every newsletter they send out.

Down to Earth

Whether it was the changes in temperature on the body, something we got from the tour group or something we picked up back in Beijing, we were only back from Harbin for three days before Madeline came down on the Wednesday night having brought up her dinner.  So it was another day off for her on the Thursday, and while she recovered temporarily on the Friday to go to school Amy and I both got it in the early hours of Frday morning and spent all that day lying and dying on the sofa bed trying to hold down water (at one stage around 4pm the SOS centre up the road and their IV machine was looking really inviting). 

Lucky it didn't hang around for long (although Amy got a second dose more recently), as the first few months of this new decade are looking to be busy as we seek to try out some of the eating establishments of Beijing beyond our own immediate suburb.  We had planned to head out on the Saturday night after Harbin with some friends to a place which is a reknown fine dining spot but had to delay it to the next Saturday due to our inability to keep anything in until late on Saturday.  We did finally get there, and the dining was so good that it was the first time I really felt like I wasn't dining in China.  So if you are reading this and live in China, then SALT is a fine choice on any day of the week.

In addition to the dining we also joined in with some friends on a quiz night and managed to come in 2nd which was a great achievement, especially since Amy and I contributed very little (there were some brains among us).  Last Saturday night we also made a return trip to the Xinjiang Ruby Rose restaurant that we mentioned in the last post, complete with beautiful female dancers and this time with the live snake dancing show.  Was it glorious?  Oh yes, it was (and if you are keen to see a bit of video footage of the show then watch my Facebook space).

On the social front I'm still heading out every Thursday night for a game of darts and a few drinks with friends.  As the bar manager of our social club I've managed to get a dartboard up at the bar, which has resulted in a lot of closet dart players finally being able to dust off their arrows.  While backing up on Friday night after a later night on the Thursday is a challenge, the 2 days of intensive practice does seem to be helping (and I'm not only talking about the drinking).  The fact that I am now groaning about split darts flites when I use to groan about punctured MTB tyres was something made clear to me recently, but unfortunately the lack of any real decent trails within a 15min ride here is making it more tempting to go for the darts and drinks with friends especially when the bars are only 10min ride away.

Right now it is getting into the Chinese New Year celebrations here in China, so we have bailed on what last year was a noisy Beijing and come to Hong Kong for a few days.  While we have no solid plans we are just looking forward to enjoying the warmer weather and getting a bit of shopping in as well as some hiking which we have been told is great here.  So 'Kung Hei Fat Choi' everyone (Happy Chinese New Year in Cantonese) and Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year in Mandarin) and Hou Nian Kuai Le (Happy Tiger Year in Mandarin) and "1 tiger steak please" (in my language - it is the year of the Tiger this year),  and we will talk again in the next blog posting.

No reason for this picture - just a massive hamburger that they serve up down the road.  While it is meant to be an 'Aussie Burger', it really is missing the vital beetroot. Heathens.  

The Russian Church we visited as part of our Harbin trip.  I don't know anything about architecture, but I do like this church. 

This little ice character was along the sides of many major streets and roads in Harbin.  And here I was thinking that Pac Man was long forgotten.