Not Four But Seven Seasons

I may have already alluded to the fact that Beijing doesn't have four regular seasons. Spring barely seems to happen at all here. From a deep cold winter, we plunge straight into a hot summer. One day you are wearing heavy Ugg boots to keep your feet warm; two weeks later you are in flip flops.

What’s more, a year in the international expat community where we live is not really a year. It’s just ten months at most, basically as long as school is in session. Simon and Thomas’ school is closing next week so people are already packing their suitcases to go “back home” or on a long vacation (and then “go home.”) And some of the families won’t even come back at the end of the summer. They might be moving on to a new country, continent, and school.

I love my life in Beijing, but this summer-going-home-saying-goodbye ritual is both fun (lots of parties) but also quite disturbing (does anyone actually live in this place?). Here’s my perspective on the (somewhat overlapping) seven seasons in a year in this odd but lovely place I now call home…

Leaver’s Season—Time to say Goodbye

Mid-May to mid-June
To start out, right now we are in the middle of "leaver's season." As the summer rains are starting to pick up, everyone is preparing to leave Beijing—either just for the summer or forever. From the end of May to early June you may typically spend your Friday and Saturday evenings at “goodbye parties,” sometimes even two on one night. And if you are not busy being at a party, you are probably out shopping for a gift for a dear friend who is leaving, or you might be preparing for the end-of-year parties for your kid's class room. (Presuming of course you don’t actually have a real job!) It’s a time of memories, parties, and sad goodbyes to the friends that are leaving forever.

 

Simon's end-of-year party for his fourth grade class (left). 

Thomas enjoys his end-of-year celebration (right).

Early Summer Calm
Mid-June to early or mid-July
In early summer, you forget Beijing is pretty much a desert. Instead of walking around with cracked skin, you now actively worry about the mold taking over your house. If you didn't leave the very second the school doors closed, this is your time to relax and profess that Beijing really is your home (“See! I didn’t catch the first plane out!”). It’s rainy, but the community pool is open and summer camps are in session.

Deep Summer "Desperation"
Mid-July to early August
From mid-July to early August, it seems only the poor souls who have no other choice remain in the neighborhood. Either they have to work (someone has to pay the bills) or it is winter in their country of origin (think Australia, Argentina). If you choose to stay, you dwell in a community of mostly men. But some families stay put and the few kids and women will often head to the pool to make the most of this time of year.

  
Simon receives a medal for participating in school sports activities. Just one of many celebrations at the end of the academic year. On the right is a piece of fourth grade art by the master himself.

New Arrivals
August
From the beginning of August onward, families are starting to return to Beijing and new families are arriving in time for the new school year. Imagine that a third of your neighborhood is new. New people are everywhere and soon you can’t remember if you already asked them where they are from. Or how many children they have. How long they plan to stay. And where there husband works. It’s a happy social time and great opportunities for new friends await. You still miss your dear friends who left before the summer (in fact, you miss them for the first time now, since in the summer they would have been gone anyway), but a new year has begun and it’s time to reach out...



Simon shows off his art work titled, "Femur" (as in "femur bone"). 

First Half Year
Mid-August through mid-December
Finally, in mid-August the first real half-year of school and life in (expat) Beijing takes off. School is in session and life is returning to normal. This “half year” is really only four months. And if that's too long, you just take a little break around the October 1 National Holiday. It’s a time though of hope and promises. There are new friends, new teachers, and new activities. Sports clubs are in session and the weekends are packed with swimming, soccer, and social happenings.


Balloons at Thomas' end-of-year class party.

Winter Vacation Season
Mid-December to mid-February
As you are just getting the hang of it all (school schedules, activities, work), everything comes to a grinding halt around mid-December. This mid-year vacation season begins with a three-week winter or Christmas holiday, followed by a few weeks of school, then completed with another week of vacation for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is not always on the same date every year, but typically falls somewhere between mid-January and mid-February. If you think you just got started after Christmas, Chinese New Year will remind you of the fact that you are really in China, as pretty much everyone in the country will travel home for ten days or more.  

Second Half Year--“Are You Still Going To Be Here Next Year?”

Mid-February to mid-June
Mid-February is a good time to pick up the pace again. But all of the sudden you realize it’s just another four months till the end of the school year. Cruise control time is over and you need to start thinking about next year. The most often asked question at this time of year also is: “Are you guys still here next year?”

And that question actually takes you right back into "Leaver's Season"... A year has whisked by. People will be leaving and new friends are bound to arrive. If you are coming to Beijing you can leave your Spring clothes behind. But if you move into an expat community, just be prepared for these other kinds of seasons.




More fourth grade bone art.

Panda World

On our recent vacation in Chengdu (see also the story about Leshan Buddha) we visited the Chengdu panda reserve. We had registered as "volunteers" for the day, so when we arrived a friendly member of the education staff took us to the panda area.

The panda's were amazing on all accounts. They are cute and adorable and kind of weird looking in their black and white outfits. Apparently though, they are not too bright. And from what I learned from the zoo keepers it seems a wonder they they are surviving at all...

Of course, as we all know, their habitat--the wild bamboo forests--are rapidly disappearing and that is their biggest problem. But their physiology is also not helping the survival of the species. Because of their bamboo diet, they apparently don't have a lot of energy to do anything at all. So they just eat and sleep, eat and sleep... with very little energy left to have sex perhaps a few times per year. This means that in a year, there are just not that many opportunities to create descendants. And even if a panda becomes pregnant and a panda cub is born, the cub's chances of survival are small.

But we quickly forgot about all these depressing details when we fed and played with the pandas. They seemed fun-loving animals and definitely enjoyed the apples we give them on a stick.

We fed them apples...

We cleaned up their bamboo. (If the panda's don't finish their bamboo, it's taken out of their cages and replaced with fresh bamboo. They are picky eaters and will only eat the fresh stuff. Every day, loads and loads of fresh bamboo from the mountain areas around Chengdu are wheeled into the panda reserve.)

We read a book with panda. 

We felt his fur. 

In het Nederlands: Tijdens onze vakantie in Chengdu, in de provincie Sichuan, een aantal weken geleden, gingen we ook op bezoek bij de panda's. Wat een mooie dieren. Maar het is geen wonder dat ze met uitsterven bedreigd worden. Niet alleen gaat hun habitat (ze eten alleen bamboe) eraan, maar ze hebben gewoon bijzonder weinig sex (dat kost te veel energy en dat kan je je dan op basis van die bamboe niet vaak veroorloven) en als er al een kleintje komt heeft die ook bijzonder weinig overlevingskansen. Maar de panda's die wij zagen maakten het goed, zoals je op de foto's ziet. 

Leshan Buddha

China is home to a couple giant Buddha's. And when I say giant, I mean giant. I guess to be sure that the Buddha will look kindly upon your mortal soul, you better build (or carve) him big enough to be spotted from space. There are for example some huge Buddha carvings in Datong (near Beijing (hint hint), Luoyang, and in Leshan.

Just south of Chengdu (meaning a two and a half hour drive), visiting Leshan was a perfect day-trip on our recent visit to Sichuan Province and Chengdu, and of course we went to see the famous and humongous "Leshan Buddha." 

What I loved about this place was actually the story surrounding it. The version that I was told--as we were climbing down on the right side of his body--is that a monk, Mr. Haitong, with great energy and inspiration started raising funds in 713 AD for his idea to build a Buddha, which he thought would bring calm and safety to the wild and crazy water currents of the convergence of the Ming, Dadu, and Qingyi rivers in front of it. 

Lo and behold, after many years of work and 71 meters of carvings, a benign and rock-solid Buddha appeared on the shore. And as the works had progressed, the rivers had actually calmed down because of all the rocks and sands sliding into the river from the construction. A miracle! The Buddha didn't even have to use his build-in safety features; the mere construction of him already had brought peace to the river.

What a great story. However, when I just read this other version, A Short History of the Leshan Giant Buddha, I realized that Mr. Haitong might have started the whole project knowing very well that the construction of it would slow down the river. Or as the article says, it was a "half-flood control, half-religious project." I suppose that takes a little bit away from the miracle of the Buddha, but it does show incredible foresight by the monk (not to mention an apt for marketing techniques, if you read the article) to be able to solve a flood-control problem and at the same time use it as a way of funding his desire to honor the Buddha!

The monk didn't live to see the final result, but exactly 90 years after the project was started, the statue was finished in 803 AD. In 2012 AD, a bunch of Dutch tourists came see it with their own eyes.

The three Buddha's.

For a sense of scale. The boat in the foreground is not a toy.

Captain Haddock and the Buddha.

Buddha and Goofball.

In het Nederlands: Van de zomer waren we op bezoek bij de Grote Boeddha van Leshan, in de provincie Sichuan in het mid-westen van China. Wat een monster! Samen met nog zo'n duizend andere toeristen daal je een smal trapje af, van het rechteroor van de Boeddha naar z'n teen, en dan weer omhoog. Maar mooi is het wel. Ook leuk is het dat door de constructie van de Boeddha, en dan met name door alle stenen die in het water vielen, de rivier een stuk rustiger werd en er dus minder schepen vergingen dan voorheen. Dat is nog eens een effectief beeld!

Trip Down South: Bangkok

Recently, through a lucky chain of events, I was able to join Paul on a trip to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. What a place! It is a big city with lots of traffic, but still it seemed fairly easy to get around--at least if you are willing to use a combination of trains, taxis, motor bikes, bikes, and boats. You want to cross the river? Just pay 3 baht (a few cents) to hop on the ferry. Tired from biking? Carry your bike onto the Sky Train. Oh, you are hungry? Here's your fresh mango, right here on the street!

I spent one day biking through the city, on a Co van Kessel bike tour. (Believe it or not, this is a Dutch guy who has now been organizing bike tours for about 30 years. Apparently about 90 percent of his customers is Dutch. )

The next day, I mainly walked through the city (though I also hopped on a ferry and got a massage...) to see some of Bangkok's main sights. On the last day, Paul and I spent a couple hours at the Grand Palace and then strolled past some more temples and through neighborhoods.

(Barely) lifting my bike up and into the train. During the bike ride we had to get our bikes in and out of trains, onto escalators, and into a boat. No wonder ninety percent of Co's clients are Dutch I thought. We are the only ones who put up with this kind of thing and in fact even enjoy it. :-)

We biked on a lot of these narrow paths along and above the water. I stopped and got off to let this motor bike pass.

Our tour lead through some of Bangkok's outskirts. Luckily the city has (until now) protected some green space.

The "icecream truck."  (De ijscoman!)

Locals hard at work.

On the boat. Our tour guide (in yellow) was Thai, but spoke a very interesting blend of English and Dutch.

Getting on the Sky Train.

Be sure to get up for monks!

Biking through all the lovely alleys in Bangkok we also crossed through the "recycling neighborhood." Never in my life have I seen this many engine parts. The whole neighborhood was kind of wild, with thousands of parts neatly organized in gigantic piles. I can barely organize my paper clips, let alone a pile of parts.

A temple in Bangkok's China Town. I almost felt home again.

Wat Arun. This picture doesn't really do it justice. The whole temple is decorated with pieces of broken Chinese pottery. Back in the days, ships from China to Bangkok were carrying Chinese pottery as ballast, but the pieces have been put to very good use.  

The whole outside of the temple is covered with Chinese pottery pieces.

Temple man.

Temple woman.

View across the Chao Phraya River from Wat Arun towards the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.

What a city. Still the view from Wat Arun.

Anna & the Giant Buddha at Wat Pho.

Bigfoot pales in comparison to this guy.

After my visit to Wat Pho, I hopped in a cab to go to the Bangkok National Museum. I learned a lot about Thailand's history (occupied, but never colonized!) and found that of course the Dutch had a long history in the area. (Is there any place we haven't been?) Notice the "The dwelling of the Hollanders" reference on the map.

At the museum.

Catching up with a friend!

After all that walking I needed a rest at the pool.

Bangkok by night. This is the view from the Sky Bar, all the way at the top of the State Tower. If you know Hangover II (the movie, not your Saturday morning last week), you might recognize the view...

In het Nederlands: Ik was laatst een paar daagjes met Paul in Bangkok. Dat kwam toevallig zo uit en de kinderen waren blij dat ze even uit logeren mochten. Een leuke stad vond ik. Als je ooit gaat moet je ook maar eens met Co van Kessel gaan fietsen! :-)

Greetings from Macau

Because one Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong) is not enough, on our recent trip we also made a little side-step to Macau, China's other newly acquired property. It's a two-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, though it feels like you spend the same amount of time getting through all the customs lines, getting out of Hong Kong and into Macau.

 

Macau has a long history, but in 1557 was settled by the Portuguese. (Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, those Portuguese were survivors of a self-inflicted massacre of the Portuguese by the Chinese. ) Portuguese is still one of two official languages--the other one being Chinese--so it was funny to see the various street names and signs in Portuguese.

Paul might have been the only one who actually understood them because it didn't look like Portuguese was still much of an active language. Our guide, who had grown up in Macau, didn't speak any. He said that while they had to learn it in school, everyone focused on English. (His English was excellent.) Our guide's Chinese, by the way, was Cantonese, which is very different from the Mandarin Chinese I've been learning. Cantonese is spoken in the South of China, such as in Guangdong province, just a little swim across the channel from Macau. (Which is how our guide's dad had made his (back then illegal) escape to Macau.)

Trying to recover from so much language education, we had lunch in a cute Portuguese restaurant. Lots of colors, four pairs of friendly eyes focused on "the foreigners," and taste dishes. We had ensalada mixta (mixed salad), peixe (fish), and camarão (shrimp).

The afternoon we zipped around the Macau, enjoying the views and soaking up the mix of cultures.

The ferry from Hong Kong. We arrived at a part of Macau that is on China's mainland, but there are bridges to additional islands that are also Macau. I think these islands mostly have hotels and casinos--Macau today is most famous for gambling--but we didn't really explore those parts. We were interested in the old Portuguese culture, hoping to feel a little bit like in Brazil :-) 

Our guide and driver for the day.

In The Netherlands? Like Las Vegas, Macau seems to want to be all things at once. Here we are in one of the casino/shopping areas. It was around 11:00 am and this place could not be more dead. We quickly took a couple pictures and left.

Side-walk Portuguese style.

I had bough some fish food (why?) so I was happy we finally came across some hungry fish.

The fish themselves.

The Portuguese restaurant. Nice and colorful, just what I had hoped for.

We went up in the Macau tower to get a good view of the city. No Brazilian beaches though.

 The tower was pretty cool. I still feel my stomach sink if I think about standing on just a couple inches of glass, high above the ground.

 Those with stronger nerves could actually go bungee jumping of the Macau tower.

No problems for this guy. 

After the Macau tower we visited the old A-Ma temple. The story goes that the temple was called "A-Ma Ge," (A-Ma temple), which the Portuguese picked up and changed into the name "Macau."

Wall paintings on the way to the temple give you helpful advice for life.

   

Wishes for good luck at the temple.

The local tourist agency welcomed us with a lion (or dragon?) parade.

No animals were killed during the production of this movie.

A-Ma temple.

If you like incense, this is the place to be. This is the first time I saw it in these huge triangles. I thought of buying one to take home--that would teach those mosquitos a lesson.

Temple fun.

Talking to the gods. I once learned that without the incense, there's no temple. The building, altars, and statues are nice, but the gods (presumably high up in the sky) really need to see the lit-up tip from the incense to see where the temple is and be able to communicate with you. (I might remind the gods that at home I have a bed light.)

 Come'on baby light my fire.

More praying. ("I hope my mom will let me play the Wii when we get back from vacation."

And some more. Can't skip a Buddha.

Walking out of the temple, back down to the square.

Friend Randy from the U.S.

Local culture :-). In fact, it was funny: from the temple you could look down upon the square and see the Chinese lions dancing on the Portuguese-style black and white floor, against a backdrop of reindeer and Santa.

 The ruin's of St. Paul's church, a Portuguese cathedral from the 16th century.

With your back to St. Paul's church. 

I just think this is so brilliant. Where in the world do you have Portuguese and Chinese on one sign?

And this, hahaha. Mr. "Yip Sek" has translated his salon name into Portuguese. Doesn't sound like Mr. Sek himself has Portuguese heritage.

And isn't this just like Curitiba, Brazil?

I wouldn't have included a picture of this normally, but it's just so rare to see this these days. Growing up there'd be one on every square, classroom, and home (I am not even talking about church). Just a little trip down memory lane.

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At the end of the day, we left Macau to go back into China, to Guangzhou. It was the weirdest experience and the first--and probably only--time I walked into China.  On the other side, we took a looooong ride to a train station, and hopped on the train to Guangzhou. Incidently, this was the desolate train station I reported about earlier.