Shanghai

During the Spring Festival (the week off after Chinese New Year) we decided to go check out Shanghai.  The kids and I hadn't been yet, and we heard rumors that there was a Krispy Kreme donut shop there :)  And sometimes it is all about the food :)  Plus, Shanghai is a bit warmer than Beijing this time of year.

We hopped on a short flight there and rode the famous Maglev train from the airport into town.  The Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) is a high speed train that uses magnets to lift and propel the train, so you're kind of floating along the track.

We went 300km/hr (about 186 mph).  Although I read that it can go even faster than that.  Fun!

In front of the Jing 'an temple.

Donuts are the one treat the kids (and Rob) have missed the most. There are some places in Beijing that try to make donuts, but so far we haven't been able to even finish one of these imposters!  I'm pretty sure we ate at least one donut a day while we were there!

 

 

 

We were able to meet up with some friends of ours from Austin who moved to Shanghai just a couple months ago.  It was so fun to see them!! 

 

 

AND to make things even better we happened upon a Stubbs Bar*B*Q restaurant!  An Austin, Texas original!

Street shopping for Tibetan treasures.

Hmmmm...that panda looks a little familiar...

My favorite place in Shanghai was an area known as the French Concession.  The atmosphere here was so quaint and inviting - I could have spent the whole day here if the kids would have cooperated.  They were ready to go swim at the hotel, go figure.  But this area was full of small shops, restaurants, cafes, and small narrow roads that you could wind your way through all day long.

We had some crepes with Nutella at this little cafe (although the kids said my crepes were better). And the cheesecake was amazing!

"The Bund" is Shanghai's most famous mile.  Here we walked along it and you have a great view of the skyline.  Shanghai is a cleaner, more modern city than we are used to seeing in China.

Yes, fireworks are still going on.  This was the view out our hotel window at midnight.  I wish I had taken a panoramic photo because this was just one side.  You could see several more firework shows throughout the city looking the other direction.  I can't believe the kids didn't wake up!  It sounded like a war zone!

 

 

My favorite photo of the trip - snuggling at the hotel :)

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese New Year at ISB

The kids had a week off of school in celebration of Chinese New Year.  It is the biggest holiday for the Chinese.  So it was a little strange taking another week off after having three weeks off during the Christmas Holiday.  I am definitely not complaining though!  I'm already looking forward to Spring Break in April!  :)

 

The school had some fun activities to celebrate the new year.  I took Jake and we hung out with Keely for the afternoon.  I got glimpses of Zak every once in a while, but I think he was okay with hanging out with his friends :)

 

 

There were many games set up for the kids.  These were all traditional Chinese games.  This one was like a top and you have a stick with a string attached for "whipping" the top to keep it spinning.

 

 

This is a Chinese Yo-Yo

And here is a fun hoop game

Jake trying the yo-yo



They also had traditional Chinese snacks (we got some more Tanghulu) games where you guess riddles, and some special performances done by the kids.

Jake had a special performance also, put together by his Chinese class.  They made snakes (this is the year of the snake), danced with lanterns, sang songs in Chinese (well, he rolled around on the ground while the teachers sang), and had Jiaozi (dumplings). 

Gongxi Fa Cai!!

(wishing you good fortune)

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Chinese New Year is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements.  This year it fell on February 9.  There were celebrations for a week leading up to Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year itself is a week-long celebration called the "Spring Festival", and there were still fireworks and temple fairs for a week after that week.  China takes a whole week off and the week of Chinese New Year is meant for the Chinese to go to their hometowns and visit family. 

We had originally planned on taking a trip out of China because of the crazy crowds, but because of poor planning and procrastination we didn't book early enough. By the time we sat down to book our trip, flights were expensive and hotels were all sold out!  So we decided experiencing Chinese New Year in China would be a fun way to spend our break.

 

During Chinese New Year all the temples hold "Temple Fairs."  People come to worship and celebrate.  There is food, shows, and lots of arts and crafts...but, it's cold!

 

 

We chose to go to DONGYUE TEMPLE in Beijing.  We heard that it was family friendly, so we bundled everyone up and drove into the city.  The Dongyue Temple was built in 1319 by Taoist Monks.  It is the largest Daoist temple in northern China.  Daoism believes that life is generally happy but that it should be lived with balance and virtue, and needs a peaceful and harmonious environment.  "The Dao" means "the way" - but cannot be defined because it exists beyond all forms.
Taoism is an ancient Chinese religion also called the water course way, for it believes that life flows in much the same way as a river. And like the river, though we are able to have influence over our lives, we are never able to take total control.

 

 

There were two fenced-off statues of horses that people were walking around and touching.  My friend Hilary and I figured it must be good luck so we touched the horses too :)

There were games for the kids to play.  For this game you buy these "special" tokens and try and throw them through the hole.

 

All the kids wanted in on the action!

 

There were also Chinese acrobatic shows.  It was fun to see but hard to enjoy for too long because it was so cold standing there!

And of course we always enjoy sampling the local food choices.  I can't remember what these were called, but they were like balls of funnel cake, with sugar to dip it into.  And then the meat on skewers.

 

 

 

Afterwards, we stopped to warm up at Burger King, and finish off the days entertainment by taking pictures of ourselves in this funny mirror :)

Chinese New Year wouldn't be Chinese New Year without FIREWORKS!  They were everywhere.  We stood outside Friday night and it honestly sounded like a war zone...for hours!  There isn't just two or three big main firework shows hosted by someone in particular like our 4th of July celebrations.  But everybody does their own huge firework show.  I walked out on the balcony of our second floor at one point that night and heard explosions all around me close and in the distance.  I also saw about 8 different firework shows at one time!  I wonder how many fires they have during Chinese New Year?  It was interesting to watch the pollution index that evening too -- it spiked off the charts around 1 a.m.

Of course we had to participate in the fun too!  The boys love Roman Candles.

 

And fireworks here are super cheap.  They look just the same and are even sold in little stands along the road :)

XIN NIAN KUAI LE

 

 

Avocado Tree

Speaking of food...here is one of my favorite (non-Chinese) places to eat!

 

Not sure how she (the owner) did it, but this is one of the best Chipotle knock-offs I've ever had!  Maybe she used to work there, or got their recipe somehow.  But when I get tired of noodles or fatty chicken, I come here.   The ingredients are always fresh and it's just plain good.  Plus, she also makes awesome smoothies (AND they deliver)!

The sign on the inside is awesome - "fresh, hand-crafted, local farm supporting, cylinder of deliciousness. 

And ironically the name is Avocado Tree, but it you want avocados on your burrito or taco it will cost you an extra 3 bucks!

My lunch buddy :)

Bonus:  Baskin Robbins right down the sidewalk!

Cooking in China

 

Cooking meals in China has been more difficult than I had planned! 

 

There are many little grocery shops in our little bubble that have a variety food.  There is (of course) a variety of ingredients for cooking Chinese dishes, a lot of imported European foods (German chocolate - yum!), and many imported American foods as well.  So the problem I'm finding is that just because they have a certain ingredient one week, doesn't mean they will have the same thing next week :) 

 

For example:  One of our family staples is Enchiladas.  I have a quick, easy recipe that everyone seems to like.  The key ingredient in this recipe is green chilies - they are not good without the chilies!  I was so excited to find cans of green chilies on one of my first shopping trips!  A few weeks later I was making a dinner for a friend and planned on making these enchiladas.  So that afternoon I ran to the store and could not find them anywhere!  So I ran to the next store - nada.  One more store - nope!  So now when I see them in the stores, I buy them all :)  Cream of Chicken soup was nowhere to be found the whole month of November, weird.  So I learned to make it from scratch.  Much healthier anyway!

 

 

 

The other problem is that buying foods we are used to are pretty expensive.  You thought everything in China would be cheaper?  So did I.  I was wrong!  Besides paying $12-14/gallon for milk, this pretty little can of green chilies cost me $4.00!  I think I can get the same can in the states for less than $1.00.

The solution is learning to try new things!  We still eat our comfort foods (almost costs as much as eating out!), and we also eat out a lot more than before because it's not that expensive.  We also eat authentic Chinese once or twice a week that our Ayi cooks for us (more on her later - can you say - awesome perk to living here?! Google Ayi and you might find a mom's picture of a little piece of heaven).

Beijing Pollution

 

 

 

 

 

When the opportunity to move to Beijing arose, our little family put a lot of energy into our decision.  We prayed, we discussed, we talked a lot, prayed some more and ultimately all came up with the same answer and choice.  It wasn't until the decision had already been made that I turned to the internet...which was a good thing because by the time I had spent a short time online I was calling Rob to see if we could back out :)  I read post after post about Beijing's pollution problem and got really nervous about the effect it would have on my already weakened lungs, and on the health of my children's developing lungs.

I turned to Google again and came across the blog of a woman expat in Beijing who I happened to share religions with.  After spending hours reading her blog I was comforted and reminded of the reasons we had decided to do this for our family.  It wasn't really anything specific she said or even a specific post, but maybe the reality that hey, there are actually families like ours that are doing this, we will be okay...

So, we went shopping...for these :)

We have a few of these beauties scattered throughout our house that add to the decor :)  They provide great white-noise and even greater air! 

I decided to focus on the things that I could  control.  I may not be in control of the outdoor pollution situation, but I CAN control the air in my home and car.  We can wear filter masks outside when the air is bad.  My kids go to a school with one of the most advanced air-filtration systems in China.  They don't go outside for recess when the air quality is above a certain number.  The school built two massive "domes" that the kids can have recess in with air quality control.  They still get to play and exercise, and I have peace of mind that I'm not damaging their health.

I have an app on my phone where I monitor the pollution.  It might be a bad habit and unnecessary, but I check it first thing in the morning (looking outside is a good indicator also!)  This app gives the reading from the US Embassy and the reading from the Chinese government.  The Embassy's reading is almost aLwAYs higher.  (We also live out of the city a bit so the air is slightly better).  I took a screen-shot because it makes me laugh.  The US and China have oBViOus differences in the way we categorize the severity of air pollution :)  Notice how our classification is "Very Unhealthy" Protection recommended, and the China one says "Lightly Polluted"

 

 

Honestly, since moving here I've been surprised that it hasn't been "as bad" as I was anticipating.  We have had many more "blue sky" days than I thought we would see.  The trend is usually bad air for a couple days then a wind or rain storm comes and cleans it up for a day or two and then it gradually builds back up over the next few days.  Until January :)  There was a particular weekend in January where we saw the pollution climb to 1000 (number explanation follows).  A record. The chart tops out at 500, the embassy stopped reporting at around 750.  It's been bad.  Hazardous actually.  We stay indoors as much as we can when it's in the purple box.  That was a couple weeks ago.  But the last few days haven't been so good either.

 

Here is a chart from the last 7 days...

 

 

 

And the last 24 hours

 

 

 

(it "snowed" or something like it last night, so we have beautiful blue skies today!) The government "seeds" the clouds sometimes to make it snow or rain - yikes! (that's a whole other issue!)

 

 

This summer my plan is to climb the highest mountain near me, camp-out for a few days, and just Breathe......

 



 

*****Send some clean air vibes our way, okay?*****