the three bartenders practicing their English with each other … “no problem” … “VIP” … with Irish music over the speakers. Beer in hand as well.
Update: Irish band has showed up along with a small crowd…gone from listening to Chinese practice English and drinking a beer to listening to a great Irish band and drinking a beer.
The quiet in Beijing only lasted about 10 hours. I guess most people stay in their homes on new years day (sleeping in due to the night before, preparing dinner, etc…). The city is still fairly empty…most foreigners leave, people aren’t coming here on business trips at this time, many of the 100K + construction workers have attempted to make it home for the holiday as did the many Chinese who are not from Beijing.
The fireworks started up in Beijing around 8pm. Though no where near the craziness of Shanghai the night before (not sure what Beijing was like on new year’s eve), there were still a lot of flashing and popping around the city. Bars had decent crowds too.
Spring Festival (of which the new year is a part of) will last for 13 more days. On the fifteenth day, there is the lantern festival. I wasn’t here last year for that and don’t think I’ll be here this year…trip to Bangalore on that day.
Happy New Year! Today begins the year of the rat.
This year was my first New Year’s Eve/Day in China, what a great experience. I went to Shanghai for a couple days and didn’t expect it to be what it was. I’m really talking about the fireworks when I say that…unreal. Felt like I was in a war zone, seriously. More on that when I get some of the videos up this weekend.
So, I returned to Beijing this afternoon…landed at 1pm and was back at my apartment by 1:35pm … that’s unheard of. Usually takes at least 1 hour & 30 minutes from time of landing to home.
Wandered over to “The Place” next door for some Indian food…empty, but everything was open. After coffee at Starbucks, I figured I’d wander down to the DVD shop near Silk Market that I usually go to. WOW…streets were empty. I mean, completely empty. DVD store was closed, Silk Market was closed (didn’t think that place ever closed, for anything). Where were the DVD guys? The socks ladies? The Olympic hat ladies? The watch guys? None to be found…their usual hangout of the cross-walk to get to the market – empty. But wait… a couple hundred feet down from the market, there was a lonely socks lady … she quietly asked …”socks?” … I should have bought a pair just because, but I didn’t. I’m sure she called it a day after that attempt.
So, Beijing is quiet. I’ve gone from a war zone in Shanghai to the sounds of nothing in Beijing… no cars, no construction, no snot rockets, nothing. On top of that, blue sky day.
I have to say, this is probably the best day I’ve had in Beijing so far…it’s peaceful.
Watch last minute or so…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7pb2c1szRw
Just arrived in Shanghai to spend Chinese New Year (eve is tomorrow). Last year I wasn’t in China, so I’m looking forward to seeing what goes on here. I can be rest assured, it will sound like a war zone in Shanghai. Saw a bunch of fireworks going off on my way from the airport…they have strips of fire crackers over 10 feet long. It’s crazy.
Captured a great video in the Beijing airport too…a semi-brawl in front of the Air China Customer Service counter…lots of angry people for some unknown reason (to me). Will get that baby up by week’s end.
My sister moved to Berlin a few months ago to start her first real job (after graduating from FIT in Manhattan). She landed at lexposure.net … It just launched a couple days ago…
“Lexposure.net is the first social and business platform custom-built for people in the fashion and creative scenes. We designed it to be the leading networking and information website for the fashion and creative scene. Whether you’re a photographer, model, designer, hair or makeup artist, editor, booker or producer – anyone can have his own account on Lexposure.net. Elegant, intuitive and easy to use, Lexposure.net is where work connects with your online life and your ideas come alive.
Users can upload portfolios, share information and link with potential partners. They can check individual activity feeds, featured members and wall posts in user profiles or mini portfolios, and communicate through the message centre, forum and pro forum or their friends’ and partners’ networks.”
I think it’s a great idea with tons of potential. My sister is working on the “un-discovered talent” piece (yet to launch).
Good luck Meg!
This information comes from a taxi driver I had late night Wednesday, he was very cool…
1. Cannot purchase gum in Singapore, period. Importing is illegal. People have gum only from bringing it back when they travel.
2. I was wondering why I didn’t see any police officers the entire time I was there. The majority of the police in Singapore are under cover.
3. Fines – SG$100 for littering of any kind. Piece of paper, cigarette butt, anything … these fines are handed out by the under cover cops.
- Singapore is amazingly clean – everywhere. Couldn’t believe it, but there’s the reason.
4. How they limit the # of cars on the roads…
- Driver’s license can cost as much/more than a car ($20K plus)
- “Peak hour” tolls, all over the city. Taxis also charge “peak hour” fees on top of the fare
Back to Beijing this evening and thought I would give youtube a try, still accessible.
As of 31 January, 2008 – any web video site that is not either State owned or State controlled was not going to be allowed to operate. Youtube (owned by Google) is neither. Suspect there are/will be some loop holes, but a bit surprised youtube.com isn’t actually blocked yet (has been before).
So, because it’s still open, I can share this with you … a video I saw a few days ago at a kick off meeting for a large IT project … very funny and very similar to things I face daily.
Youtube link embedding not work now, so here’s the link…
Southern China has been slammed with snow this week and is causing chaos across the entire country. 200 million people travel across China to their hometowns for Chinese New Year (lunar). That’s a lot of people and most of them travel via train. Well, there are cancellations all over the place. It’s not easy in the first place to get tickets – they change the rules every year… wait 10 days before the holiday, 5 days before, etc… otherwise, you pay a lot more for the tickets.
Compare this to travel delays during Thanksgiving in the US – 10X.
Meanwhile, I’m sweating here in Singapore – it’s humid as hell here. Oddly enough, I’m looking forward to get back to Beijing Thursday night (just hope Beijing doesn’t get slammed with snow before then!)
Heading to Singapore today…from 20 degrees to 80 degrees in just 6 hours, will be a nice change. This week officially starts a project that is going to be most of my life for the rest of 2008. I like these kind of projects, many challenges and many changes…makes for interesting days.
Back in Beijing on 31 January.
