Melanie Fischer

School got out for Chinese New Year. Everything got very quiet in Beijing. Restaurants shut down as Chinese people went to their hometowns for Chinese New year. Morton had volleyball practice Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday afternoon we went downtown to check out a market I had read about. We got there just as it was closing early for the day due to the holiday. We didn’t have a back-up plan so we decided to check out a fancy shopping area we had never explored. Kids found some good snacks and I tried on these sunglasses (in the picture), and then Celia took us to the area where she and her friends go out at night. We went to a Mexican restaurant and played a game of pool.

The next day I came down with what I assume was Covid. My home test said negative but I was so terribly sick I can’t imagine I didn’t have Covid. Tuesday and Wednesday I continued to be sick – but not as bad. Kids were spending a lot of time doing nothing (other than Morton’s morning Volleyball practice). I figured we needed to get them out of town.

I booked a room in a nice hotel in Tianjin for Thursday and Friday nights. Tianjin is just over a two hour drive away. I figured even if I was still sick, worse thing was I’d get into a car, drive two hours and sit in a hotel. At the very least I’d have gotten the kids out of the house.

The next morning I woke and felt well enough to head out. We left early to have time to see some of the city. Once we dropped our stuff at the hotel, we walked to the old trading area. Tianjin is a city of just under 14 million people. Beginning around 1860 and going till a little after WWII, Tianjin was broken in to many foreign concessions (areas that were conceded to other nations) for them to live, work and most importantly trade. So walking around the old area of Tianjin was very different that other parts of China we have seen – lots of old European looking buildings – and even the many new buildings, most were made to look like old European buildings. A number of rivers and the Grand Canal come together in Tianjin so all through the city are interesting bridges. We walked, checking out the old European style buildings, and then checked out The Astor Hotel – which is a beautiful old European hotel – the first hotel for foreigners in China. Everywhere we walked there were almost no people. It was crazy cold and the streets were empty. We struggled to find a place to eat lunch and finally found one place open. They put us in a private room, sitting on couches – and they turned on the heat. We all struggled not to fall asleep.

After our very late lunch, we headed back to the hotel, napped and swam at the pool before heading back out for dinner. I had read about a noodle shop. Luckily before heading out I asked the concierge to confirm the restaurant was open. It wasn’t. The owner had gone to his hometown for the New Year. The concierge called a number of other restaurants – the same thing. We ended up just walking across the street to a mall and going to a dumpling shop. But walking across the street was actually quite an experience. People were burning things and shooting off fireworks in the street. It was pretty scary! Chinese are crazy for shooting off fireworks for New Years to keep evil spirits away.

Our hotel room had a wall of floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city. All night fireworks were going off everywhere. For a week it continued – despite the fact that in most cities now it’s illegal to shoot them off. I’m sure there must be many injures every year during the New Years week celebration.

The next morning Dan woke to WeiXin messages about a serious school problem he had to deal with. We went downstairs for an over the top hotel Chinese breakfast. After that the kids and I headed out to the China House. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was but figured it would get us walking in a different areas. As we approached we saw a crowd of people outside the China House – the first crowd we’d seen. Tons of Chinese tourists taking pictures of themselves out front of the China House. The China House first reminded us of Gaudi’s buildings in Barcelona and then we thought of the Mosaic House in Philadelphia, and a similar house I visited with my parents in Cuba. The China House, also known as the Porcelin House, is mosaiced in Chinese vases and shards of Chinese pottery. We loved the over the top obsessiveness of it.

The kids and I spent the rest of the morning walking in the bitter cold around the area, seeing the old colonial homes and agency buildings, and a beautiful old European style church – that felt weird to see in China.

Often as we’ve travelled we’ve seen Jewish stars in advertisements which have nothing to do Judaism. Walking around that morning we saw this one:

After a few hours of walking around, we were iced to the bone. We stopped into the Four Seasons to use a lovely bathroom and then went across the street to a mall to find lunch. The Chinese food court was way too packed, so we put our names in at an upscale pizza restaurant and called Dan to meet us. Every table around us got what looked like a large piece of tira misu with their lunch food – not after, but they had it come with their pizza, pastas and salads – eating it at the same time.

Afterwards we headed to a Buddhist monastery I heard was worth checking out. When we got there there was a small entrance fee that could only be paid in cash. I have never been able to use cash in China, so we never carry it. I couldn’t believe they didn’t take Weixin payment. Struggling through my Mandarin, I explained this to the ticket seller. The monk who was standing next to him waved us through. The monastery was large and beautiful and had been restored not too long ago. We wandered around until someone started yelling and waving everyone out. It too was closing early for the holiday.

We headed back to the hotel and spent a couple hours at the pool, the gym, one of us who will not be named – napping in the room.

That evening the concierge confirmed that the noodle shop was open and that they had vegetarian food. We headed to this neighborhood which we hadn’t yet seen, found the hole in the wall noodle shop that had been recommended. The chef/waiter/maitre d’ (it was a one man shop) quickly told us they were out of many of their dishes. After some failed attempts at communication I broke down and took out my phone. Typed in my translator app: “Is there anything you can make to eat with out meat? We are vegetarians.” He said, “No.” and we were back on the street -late on the Chinese New Year holiday- looking for some place that would serve something with out meat – often not an easy feat in China. We wandered around admiring the neighborhood but being concerned by the passing hour and our inability to find dinner. We walked into what was an old arena with a track that looked like it has been turned into a ring of closed restaurants. Ended up Eric Liddell – the Olympic runner that is a focus of the movie Chariots of Fire – built the sports arena. He had been born in Tianjin and after his running and rugby career, returned there and built the arena. We were starting to give up on finding a restaurant when I saw a painted slogan on a wall about eating vegetables. The next thing you know we were in a completely unChinese kitchy vegetarian restaurant. I wish I had pictures. The place was full of nut crackers and other silly dolls – and everything on the menu we could eat! Crazy in China!

The next day I made us wake early so we could enjoy the fancy ShangriLa brunch before setting out to see more of Tianjin and then before heading back to Beijing.

We then walked around the Drum Tower area – every town so far has a Drum Tower. I had read there were Peking Opera performances in the afternoon but the hotel concierge couldn’t get anyone on the phone. After wandering around, trying to figure out where we were supposed to see the opera, it seemed these performances were not happening – but we walked through the old shopping area – which was pretty quiet.

We then headed towards the Folk Art Museum, which I heard was worth a look. The directions led us to a historic shopping area. There we found all the Chinese tourists. Every single one was shopping: buying trinkets and eating tourist foods along this strip. After buying our obligatory magnet (Celia wants to buy one in every place we visit) we couldn’t bear the crowds and ditched out attempt to find the museum.

We decided to walk along the river to the Italian Concession. There had to be good food to be found there. The old Italian homes were beautiful – but again we had trouble finding a restaurant with appealing non meat dishes. We ended up finding a Thai restaurant that ended up being fantastic and a wax museum (we just took a picture outside) and then we headed back to the hotel to meet our driver to head back to Beijing.

One last thing note worthy from this trip is that on the drive back into Beijing, every car was stopped to check everyone’s ID’s. As we don’t have Chinese IDs, we had to pull over, go to the office and present our passports. Luckily we had them. We had no idea this was required of us. Apparently every time you drive into Beijing you need to present your official ID.

Dan and kids headed back to school on Monday. Tuesday I joined some friends to Jinan – a city of 9.2 million people. What takes over five hours by car, we do in 2.5 hours by the fast train. Our friend Michael has work in the Jinan Biennial art show, so he, his wife Dong, two other friends and I all head down there to check it out.

I was impressed when we got to the museum and there was a long line to get in. I love that there is so much interest in art! As we were with Michael, the museum curators met us out front and brought us into the museum via a side door – bypassing the crowds. The biennial’s opening celebration had been cancelled due to Covid, so a slew of museum staff and promotion people came to interview Michael on film. They then wanted to interview us as foreigners coming to see the show but we politely declined as we hadn’t even seen the show yet. The museum was very nice as was the show.

Before heading back to Beijing, Dong insisted on taking us out for a lovely local lunch.

Train ride home was packed but uneventful until we got to the Beijing station. My driver was picking three of us up. We had planned to meet him at the West Gate entrance where he’d dropped me off. After about 30 minutes of our wandering around – trying to get to that entrance and our attempts kept getting thwarted, we finally got there and there was no way to exit there – only enter as there were security gates and scanners there which were only one way. We spent another 20 minutes trying to find any exit. We ended up in the parking lot but it took us forever to figure out how to get outside without walking the parking lot ramp. We finally got outside and sent the driver a pin of our location. After waiting another 20 minutes watching his location dot on my map drive in slow circles, we realized there were no public cars near us – and the driver texted the roads were blocked. We eventually decided to meet up in the underground parking lot. Another 20 minutes later – trying to figure out where in the lot we were and where he was we finally got into the car – exhausted!

Quick updates since then: I can’t believe I don’t have any pictures but Morton is having a very short volleyball season (as they lost much of the season to Covid). It’s been super fun to see him play. His game has gotten much stronger and it’s nice to see him taking on a bit of a leadership role on the team. Dan is also helping coach the team. I’ll have to take some pictures next week.

Earlier this week my friend Sara had me over to try out some fancy tea she had been given for New Years. I had never seen a tea set like this. Apparently cold or bitter tea you can just pour out into the base. And also on a number of occasions people have served me tea in these tiny cups. Apparently then the tea you are drinking is always the correct temperature.

My friend Sunny gave us special tang yuan – sweet dessert dumplings eaten special for Chinese New Years. They were delicious!

And today with my friend Xin we caught the second of three parts of the Beijing Biennial (every where seems to be doing biennials!). This was located in this newer area of tall buildings that were apparently built with the intention of moving the art area out to this new area. It was odd walking amid this group of tall buildings with almost no one around. The show had some nice pieces and then we checked out some international galleries that have opened spaces in these buildings. We ran out afterwards to grab some warm noodle soup and then I went to Morton’s volleyball game at Dulwich (a British style school in the area) – Morton’s team won! It’s been such a great change in the last two weeks that parents can enter campus (first time in three years!) and students can compete and travel to other schools.

Dan flew off this evening to Shanghai where ISB, his school, is competing against a number of other schools in Table Tennis, Swimming and basketball. Go Dragons (our mascot)!