Fall in Beijing

September 21 marked the beginning of fall, and the temperatures in Beijing have already started to drop. I was still wearing flip flops and shorts two weeks ago, but alas, I finally pulled out my sweaters and jackets this week. Although the temperatures are still pretty mild during the day, it has gotten much chillier at night in Beijing.

In the past, whenever the weather changed patterns and turned cooler, I always found myself changing as well. Physically, I'm usually more tired and my appetite starts to increase, while emotionally, I tend to turn inward and undergo periods of self-reflection.

We have a couple more days of work before the October National Holiday in China. Oddly enough, it feels like last year's National Holiday was just yesterday. A year ago, I was still a newcomer to China and adjusting to my new life in Shanghai. Classes ran for about a month, and my teacher colleagues and I were finally getting accustomed to standing up in front of 20+ children everyday.

Last year was also the first time when Ashley, Lauren and I traveled for the first time together in Asia. We went to Yangshuo with the Lesters and Kate, and that was also the first time I rode a tandem bicycle :) . Of the six SHSID teachers, only three remain in China (including myself), while the others have moved home or elsewhere to pursue other opportunities.

A year ago was also the first time I ate dinner at Sun with Acqua, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in Shanghai. The conversations from that night would later lead to a series of debates and discussions that would open my eyes up to an eventual understanding of modern Chinese culture. These conversations soon became my source of inspiration for thought leadership, cultural exchange and the continuous pursuit of pushing myself beyond my limits.

So much has changed over the past year, and it still amazes me how different my life is now compared to my life in New York or even in Shanghai. I used to be the type of person who didn't exactly love change, but I have certainly undergone many lessons during these past 12 months over the idea of embracing change. For a person who used to map out her 18-month plan, I now only want to focus on the present moment, and I'm simply happy if I make it through one day.

Anyway, in a few days this year I will be heading off to Qingdao for some rest and relaxation with my friends. My flights are booked, and I'm ready to experience the city's annual Oktoberfest and China's beaches. It'll be interesting to see the German-influenced architecture and hoards of locals invading China's shores. Somehow the environment I just described doesn't sound as serene as this:

Goodbye Ziggy

I'm going to briefly get off-topic and write a short message to my favorite hei go go.

Rest in peace Ziggy. We'll miss you.

KC Tang Comes to Beijing!

Ok - so I'm very behind in blogging. Way to keep up my new hobby. To all of you avid readers and zero followers out there, haha, I was actually busy hosting a friend and traveling over the past two weeks. So please bear with me, because I have a lot to catch up and update everyone on.

First, let me start off with my childhood friend Kathy who came to visit me last week. Kathy and I bonded 20 years ago (wow) on the playground when I kindly asked her to shove my toushie on the swing set. Since then, we basically grew up in suburban Jersey together, and went thru many ups and downs. We lit our chemistry papers on fire, competed against each other in orchestra competitions, chatted endlessly about nothing over the phone, played pranks on people we didn't like, and did all sorts of crazy things together. Twenty-years later, Kathy is still one of my closest friends, and I'm glad we had a chance to experience life in Beijing together. Here are some pics to start off with:


Where do you bring a friend after a long plane ride? Din Tai Fung of course! Ok, so this wasn't real Beijing food, but the soupy xiao long baos never ceased to delight me nor my guests.

Eat your heart out! Mini xiao long baos...yum!

Hong shao neu rou mian (beef noodle soup!)

Two Jersey girls catching up over beer in Beijing.

When we came home, we found my doorman passed out on the couch. I guess he had a late night.

Chilling out in my bedroom after dinner and beer.

Since Kathy got in late, it was pretty much a low key night. After all, we had to run around the city and sightsee over the next couple of days! Here was the itinerary I planned for her:

Day 1 - Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square, Temple of Heaven, Houhai
Day 2 - Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Peking duck dinner at Da Dong
Day 3 - Summer Palace, Kung Fu show
Day 4 - Shopping & the Paralympics Wheelchair Basketball game

More pics to come!

Tea Eggs

When I used to live in New York, I cooked pretty often. There was a time period when I would stay in every Sunday night, flip through my Food + Wine magazines, pick a recipe and make a nice dinner. I always found those days to be quite therapeautic, and over time, I enjoyed the idea of cooking and creating something from scratch. Unlike many other Chinese families, cooking was never a big deal in mine. My parents both worked long hours, and my mom, being the career woman that she was, was not your type to be whipping up dishes in the kitchen. The only person who cooked really well in our family was my grandmother, but unfortunately, when she passed away, she took all of her knowledge with her. Sometimes I wish I had the chance to watch and learn, because my grandmother made some of the finest Vietnamese and Chinese dishes I've ever tasted.

Ever since I moved to China, my cooking passion has died. When I lived in the school dorms at SHS, my kitchen was so dinky that I didn't even bother to cook. Plus I never had the intention of staying longer than 10 months, so I figured there wasn't any point to buy kitchen utensils anyway. I literally had 1 bowl, 1 plate, 1 fork and 2 pairs of chopsticks for the entire school year. Now that I live in Beijing and have a "grown-up" apartment with dishes and all, I'm thinking about picking up this hobby again and taking a serious interest in it (just like blogging haha).

Anyway, to kick-off my hobby, I decided to post this recipe for making tea eggs, a typical savory Chinese snack . A close friend of mine from New York recently sent me this, so I'm going to try to make it next week.

Tea eggs

8 eggs

water

3 tablespoons salt (can be quite liberal with salt)

2 tablespoons Chinese five spice powder

1 star anise

1 tea bag (any kind of plain black tea)

Directions

1. Bring the eggs to the boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes.

2. Drain and cool. When cool enough to handle, gently crack the egg's shell all over without removing the shell.

3. Place back in the pan, cover the eggs with water, add the remaining ingredients and bring back to boil, turn down and simmer on low heat for an hour or more, this helps the flavors infuse the egg.

4. Drain once more. Eggs can be eaten hot or cold and should have an attractive marble effect.

The Daily Commute

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Beijing, I live in Dongzhimen, at the NE corner of the second ring road. My office, however, is located all the way in Zhongguancun, which means my daily commute takes an hour and 15 minutes each way. Tiring? Actually, I don't mind it so much. Some people would rather wake up and walk to work, but I've always been the type of person who likes to separate my work life from my personal life. Besides, I personally can't imagine living in Zhongguancun as a new expat in Beijing.

So anyway, here's a snapshot of my daily journey...

This man stands around the corner from my apartment building and swings this weapon around every morning. Unfortunately, you can't see this picture clearly, but there's a sharp blade at the end of the wooden stick. This is something you don't get to see in the States.

According to this poster, a new Beijing leads to a Great Olympics which leads to a great subway for me to ride in every morning. Haha.

Man reading a paper on the subway. But take a closer look at this picture. Someone spray painted his or her dog with the 5 Olympic rings. Don't ask me why, but the locals like to color their dogs. I once saw a purple poodle in Xitang.

Street vendors selling everyday knicknacks outside the Xierqi train station. You can find anything here, from mp3 protector sheets, to fruits and ladies underwear (no joke).

Mickey D's? Nope! Just a street vendor selling chicken wings. This is like the McDowells in Coming to America...


A dumpling restaurant near my office. For 25 - 30 rmb ($3-$4), you can eat 40 dumplings.

Now here's a business idea. For 450 rmb ($66), you can rent one of these bicycles for one year. One year!! That's $0.18 a day. You can basically ride them around the city, and there are various drop-off points all over Beijing.

So there you have it - snapshots of my daily commute. Oh, and I paid a guy 5 rmb today to ride the back of this motorcycle to work!! It was so much fun..