Residential vs Commercial - On the Road with Thomas 😎

Thomas (9) knows more than his mom about communities and zoning. At school he's recently been learning about what services (for example electricity, water, and sanitation) communities need, and he's also been building massive constructions in good old SIMCITY (see Thomas' blog). Thomas may also already know more than the Chinese government (no offense, dear censor) about urban development as he knows what residential, commercial, and industrial areas are, what they are good for, and why some need to be close together (commercial and residential) and others (industrial) perhaps a bit apart.

Still, he is only nine, so I was allowed to come on his field trip to explore a little patch of Beijing called MaiZiDian.


The last preparations in the classroom. Every morning the kids get instructions like this that are actually posted on a blog, just like this.

 

  
Here we are, in MaiZiDian. Time to find out what tasks to complete.

  
Thomas on a mission to mark down the types of businesses on the street.
 

 
Marking down the teashop (shown on right).
 

 
We had a chat with the ladies. It was supposed to be an interview...but let's just say that they loved to chat! They also asked the kids to sing a song, which led to a lot of consternation within the team!
 

 
More individuals in the community! Notice the various transport services.

 
I bet you haven't seen one of those in a long time! The picture on the right shows a little Kodak (柯达 or keda) Express shop.
 

 
I guess this guy is taking "bringing your smoking to the cleaners" too literally.

 
Delivery services and a long-haired blond Dutch-American.

 

 

More peeps in the community.

 

This lady was so kind to fix her hair for the photo.

 

 

I think this guy can break out into a Gangnam style dance any second. The last picture shows Thomas' school again, upon return. Also a very nice community!

 

In het Nederlands: I was gisteren even op excursie met Thomas. We gingen naar een wijkje met de naam MaiZiDian. Daar hebben de kinderen de gebouwen in kaart gebracht en met de bewoners gesproken over de veranderingen in hun wijk. Die veranderingen waren er wel, maar de dames waren meer geinteresseerd in kletsen met de kinderen dan in het beantwoorden van hun vragen!  

Dutch "Prinsjesdag" in Beijing

About two weeks ago, on Wednesday September 17, Thomas went on a field trip with a few other Dutch kids from school to the Dutch embassy. Just the day before it had been "Prinsjesdag," an important day for the Dutch government on which the king or queen of the Netherlands, currently King Willem Alexander, addresses the Dutch parliament with a "Speech from the Throne" (Troonrede).

 

For Thomas I bet the highlight was the sausage rolls and raisin buns for lunch, or perhaps even a short chat with Dutch ambassador Aart Jacobi. 

 

Thomas as the third "yellow" kid from the right, next to the platter with raisin buns.

 

Thomas and a friend in yellow. (Hhm, was he supposed to wear orange that day?) The yellow outfits are the school P.E. uniforms.

 

Some more pictures of the trip are posted on the blog of the Rode Leeuw, the Dutch school in Beijing.

 

In het Nederlands: Thomas was laatst even op bezoek bij de Nederlandse ambassade in Beijing. Nou komen we daar wel vaker, voor een paspoort, Sinterklaas of Koningsdag, maar niet altijd krijgen we dan een krentebol!

 

 



Blue Sky = Post All Your Pictures Online

Whenever it is a blue sky day in Beijing, all of the sudden it seems Facebook and other sites are flooded with  photos of people living here. We don't really want to show you the polluted skies - we want to show you how pretty it can be when you hike on the Great Wall in the Spring.

 

This is us (three of us) last Saturday, when we started our hike in the little village of Zhangdaokou (40° 24' 51" N, 116° 19' 39 E). Everyone has a camelback with water. :-). You can already see the Great Wall in the distance following the tops of the mountains.

 
In 10 minutes we were up on the Wall. You could go left or right... but we choose to go through the gate in the middle into the valley behind. 

 
A beautiful day.

On the other site of the valley we popped up in another little village.

 

It's a big sight to see two little blond waiguoren (foreigners) in your village. On the picture on the right, Simon walks into a very old walled village where the guards of the Great Wall used to live and sleep when not on duty.

 
Inside the walled village.

Little courtyards ("hofjes")

 
Red signs for good luck (a leftover of the Chinese New Year).

Simon finds a "fish print."

 
A great view on top of the wall that surrounds the village.

 
East meets west, old meets new.

 
From the walled village we go back into the valley and orchards to find a path to the Wall.

The landscape. You can see the Great Wall and one of the watch towers on the hill in the back.

It's Spring! Hurrah! Blue skies and pink flowers, what can be more pretty than this?

Maybe this?

We could look down at Xiangshui Lake where the Great Wall dips into a lake.

The tour guide.

 
 

 
Gege (big brother).

Anna & Wall.

 
Never a dull moment. On the way back the hike actually got pretty tricky. We followed the Wall all the way back to the begin point (close to the bridge and parking area on the right) but the Wall was crumbling down and it wasn't always very easy (or safe) to walk on top.

 
We're still on the trail though.

Oops.

Going back down through Zhangdaokou.

Back at the bridge.

Some firewood left from winter.

 
Spot the difference! (Zoek de 10 verschillen)

Well, these were all my blue sky pictures for this week! On Sunday the weather turned overcast again and since Monday a huge wind has been blowing dust in my eyes. Still, Spring is here, I saw it with my own eyes.

In het Nederlands: Afgelopen zaterdag was het supermooi weer en dan moet je er meteen op uit. We hebben heerlijk gewandeld bij een mooi stuk van de Chinese Muur vlakbij het dorpje Zhangdaokou. Tijdens de wandeling bezoeken we een oud ommuurd dorpje waar vroeger de wachters vertoefden als ze niet op de Muur aan het werk waren.