A Few Days "Off"

It’s the Qingming, or “Tomb Sweeping”, festival here right now.  This is one of the official national holidays in China, and the purpose is to remember and celebrate ancestors, originally by cleaning their tombstones.  Nowadays, people visit the resting places of their family or friends, bringing gifts of fruit, bread, paper money, and yellow flowers (to connote joy and happiness). 

An expat newsletter that I subscribe to pointed out the interesting juxtaposition of this major spring holiday with the Western/Christian counterpart.  Whereas the Qingming Festival is a holiday to celebrate the dead, Easter is a holiday to celebrate life.

Another difference between the notion of holidays that I’m used to and the ones here is how the Chinese government structures time off for their national celebrations.  Apparently the concept of the three-day weekend is just too radical for the Chinese.  Instead, for official holidays, workers get weekdays off, but must make up that time by working weekends around the weekday holiday.  Thus, Matt just worked a seven-day workweek (Monday thru Sunday), now has 3 days off (Monday thru Wednesday), will report back to work for two days (Thursday and Friday), and then resumes his normal schedule with a two-day weekend.  This is so confusing, even to local born-and-raised Chinese, that offices post elaborate schedules explaining day-by-day when you should show up and when you should stay home.  Insanity!

In any case, we are going to enjoy this little three-day holiday, the newly-arrived warm weather, and a kid on the run, by visiting lots of parks and play gyms.  And by thinking joyous thoughts about our dear family and friends, wherever they may now be.

Jing'an Temple

Matt’s office moved in January; unfortunately this meant the end of the ten-minute walk to work and the beginning of a subway journey across town everyday.  However, it also means the discovery of a new neighborhood, and some interesting new neighbors…

Tucked in between mega-malls and grand office towers in the new-construction-crazed Jing’an neighborhood is a spectacular Buddhist temple.  And although Matt passes under it daily (the subway station sits below it), he had never visited the temple.  So yesterday we decided to explore it on his lunch break.  It features a gigantic silver Buddha, amazing white marble railings, and many gold-leafed roofs.  However, the highlight for me was the woodwork, ranging from intricately carved doors to the main temple itself, composed entirely of teak from Myanmar – and no nails! 

Jing'an Temple main courtyard

Silver Buddha

amazing eaves & railings

that's Matt's office building barely visible through the glare of sunshine

a tree grows in Shanghai

huge adverts peeking through the serenity

Burmese teak columns inside the main temple

Sunshine

In mid-March, when Matt was traveling back in the states and I was suffering through yet another bout of illness, Shanghai started seeming like not such a fun place to live anymore.  I woke up each morning and looked outside and thought, man this town is dreary.  And then I read an article in the local newspaper (English version) about how Shanghai had just experienced a record-setting period of cloudy days, which started right around when we returned from Hawaii, and was predicted to end that week.  Apparently the skies haven’t been this gray since 1980.  It dawned on me that no wonder this place was seeming so gloomy; it literally had been for the past six weeks!

Well, I am happy to announce that the seasons have turned, the sun has come out, flowers are blooming, Tyler and I are finally ceasing the sniffles, and things are all-around cheery.  Let the sun shine!

our courtyard, announcing the arrival of Spring

Gender Bending

I got into a taxi today with a female driver.  As we pulled up next to a big city bus, also driven by a woman, I started thinking about the jobs women in China occupy that they typically don’t back in the US.  In my six years in New York City, I think I saw a female cabbie once. They’re in the minority here, but definitely not uncommon.  In NYC there were some female bus drivers, but not typically, whereas here I’d say it’s about 50/50.  In New York, I never once saw a female construction worker or utility repairwoman.  Yet I’ve noticed many construction crews here with women in the mix, and utility crews in the streets fixing water or electrical lines almost always include at least one woman.

This whole reflection in the taxi reminded me of an experience Matt and I had when we first moved into our apartment here.  Our sliding glass doors leading out to the balcony were broken, so we called the complex’s maintenance office and they said they’d send a worker right up.  When the doorbell rang, Matt opened it to discover a very petite, middle-aged woman dressed smartly in a satin floral blouse, black slacks, and black high heels.  He turned to me and shrugged; surely something had been lost in translation and the management office didn’t understand the nature of our request.  As he and I wondered how to rectify this, she kicked off her heels, went over to the door, opened her toolkit, and commenced banging and poking and screwing until the door smoothly slid open and shut.  I was impressed, and then embarrassed to be impressed, and then excited to live in a place that was clearly going to break down some stereotypes – in both expected and unexpected ways.

Many Americans make the mistake of assuming that China’s developing economy and non-democratic government have resulted in a society that surely isn’t as progressive as ours.  But as I read the American news (with political gaffes, racially-charged crimes, and woeful business reports), I think my female taxi driver might begin to challenge that assumption.

Character Study: Cry

So far my (very amateur and sparse) study of Mandarin has focused on functional words and phrases, just the simple pronunciations for me to navigate taxis, markets, and instructions for our ayi (literally “auntie”, the woman who helps me with cooking and cleaning).  I’ve been intrigued by the written characters, but have found them to be less pictographic than I originally imagined, and thus have a hard time learning any.

Well, I recently found a character that conveys its meaning perfectly.  I present you with the Chinese character for “to cry” (in Mandarin, pronounced kū).  It might be my new favorite!

simple font

calligraphy version

Baby Steps

She’s walking!  And we caught it on camera!  Amazing!

Oh, Beijing

First, the bad: TJ did not like the hotel’s crib one bit.  She didn’t like sleeping at night either.  Her nose – well, all of our noses – plugged up with all sorts of treasures collected from the super-polluted air.  She decided to scream at many inopportune times, like at a sacred temple, stuck in the rain, and in quiet restaurants.  Matt headed off to a day of important business meetings with sleep deprivation and a massive headache.  Val & TJ got stuck on a busy boulevard, unable to flag a taxi.  Val forgot to pack socks.  Our intended brunch spot was overbooked.  Our intended dinner spot was too far away.  Due to some bigwigs in town, security was heightened to a ridiculous degree.  It took us 45 minutes just to cross the street near Tian’anmen Square.  We arrived at the Forbidden City only to find out that they stopped selling tickets for the day just ten minutes prior.  We walked way too far for way too long.  We had a bunch of pesky little issues with our hotel room.  And to end our trip, we were subjected to the most annoying security screening ever at the airport. 

Now for some good: TJ loved the hotel’s baby pool.  We loved the working cable TV.  Matt sailed through his various business presentations.  Val found an awesome mall with the worlds longest/biggest escalator and a store with a massive sale on socks.  We got to enjoy a delicious dinner of Peking duck and other Chinese delicacies (like sea cucumber – not a vegetable!).  Val learned that she can nurse TJ anywhere, in any conditions.  We ate a delicious brunch with wonderful friends.  We bargained down a bicycle cabbie, using our limited Mandarin and local negotiating tactics, until we got way better than the typical tourist deal on a sweet rickshaw ride around an old traditional neighborhood.  We stumbled upon a quaint little Vietnamese restaurant with intriguing décor and satisfying food.  After so many trials and tribulations, we moved through annoyance and past anger into delirium, until every new obstacle gave Matt a clever punchline and sent Val into giggles.  And due to our troubled hotel stay, we now have a deluxe suite waiting for us . . . if we ever dare return to Beijing.

Temple of Heaven, where TJ provided a soundtrack

A rare moment: TJ awake for a photo

The Weis with Chairman Mao at Tian'anmen Square

Forbidden City lived up to its name for us

Did I mention it was freezing cold (literally)?

 

 

 

Peking Duck dinner with delightful hosts was a trip highlight

Lovely rickshaw ride reminded us of our Dhaka days

Enjoying ourselves against the odds