An hour or so ago (our Tuesday around 11am)a message came up in my neighborhood group chat. We have been locked into our neighborhood. One person in a batch Covid testing came up positive – who lives in our complex. We are all locked in while they test this person. Hopefully they will be negative otherwise who knows how long we’ll all be locked in. There are around 430 houses and one small apartment complex in our community – so that’s a lot of people locked in.
Dan and the kids’ school – and many others in the area- were shut down as of Monday. Yesterday was prep/pick up books/computers/supplies day and today online classes have begun.
Our large local market has been shut down for a number of days due to a close contact person having shopped their. Yesterday I needed to pick up some food so I went shopping in the mini supermarket/bodega like store in our complex. It was a bit of a grab what I need and what I might need and not worry so much about the cost – that brought me somewhat back to early Covid in Brooklyn – with the panic buying. So depressing! In the last few weeks more and more people are being required to stay home as someone they had contact with might have had contact with someone who has Covid. And schools are closing. And so are restaurants and stores and services – as there aren’t enough people to run them and as people are having to quarantine at home – or in Covid government facilities. So discouraging to be back in these circumstances.
To catch up on what we’ve been up to since I last wrote:
HanBin and I having tea in artist Li Jiangfeng’s studio
My friend HanBin took me out to Song Village – about 45 minutes away – to visit a couple artists in their studios. It was discouraging to hear how stifled the art Beijing art world has become in the last five years, but it was lovely to meet some artists and see what they are working on. Unfortunately they don’t speak English and my Mandarin is still pretty minimal.
Artist Xioa Hong with his painting in his garden with HanBin and me
Li JiangFeng invited us back for a barbeque at her studio the following weekend. The weather was lovely and the food delicious. It was really special.
After this lavish lunch, I ran home to get ready for a dinner party we were hosting. I decided to have everyone break up in groups and have a short time to find commonalities and then act them out. It was a super fun way to quickly get people to know one another.
Acting out commonalities. Send me your guesses!
Our complex used to have a large American population and although the number of Americans is dwindling there is still a strong tradition of celebrating Halloween. Our complex moved the holiday to the 29th (the Saturday before). I thought this was great ( so much easier than a school night) but there were some purists who held out and insisted on doing their own trick-or-treating on the 31st. We enjoyed answering the door for kids who came by – it was funny that we had very few American kids knock on our door on what I think of as such an American holiday.
The following weekend a parent I’ve gotten to know invited us to her twin daughter’s horse back riding competition. One of her daughters is hoping to make the Olympics. We made a nice day of it. We biked to a local market and had a fantastic Chinese snack lunch. I had buns with vegetables in them – so yummy! They sell everything at the market. Celia loved the fish!
Then we biked over to the horse back riding club. It was super impressive – with lots of indoor and outdoor areas to train and compete. And so scary the horses jumping so high! One of our friends daughter was on one of her sister’s horse who was really worked up. It ran up to a hurdle and stopped – refusing to jump. The daughter riding the horse went flying – hitting the bars of the obstacle on the way down! It was frightening – but she was okay – other than being very disappointed.
The weekend before Morton’s birthday, he spent camping with the Boy Scouts.
Saturday night Dan and I met some friends in Beijing’s 798 art district. We saw a New York Art in the 80’s exhibit. I hesitated going as I just moved from NYC but friends suggested going together. It ended up being a really interesting show and a lovely evening – going out to what felt like a typical American Italian restaurant afterwards. (Funny how small the world is.)This piece (below) from the show was really interesting to me. Reminding me of Roberto Lugo’s current work but this was done in the 80s as a collaboration between Basquiat, Haring and a few other artists.
On Morton’s actual birthday we made our traditional birthday signs (my Dad’s tradition) and went out for sushi – Morton’s favorite.
At a local Japanese restaurantBirthday boots from Grandma!
I recently decided I should start the process of getting a Chinese driver’s license. The first step is to go out to a local hospital and get a physical exam. I biked out to the hospital – went to a few wrong buildings until I figure out where to go. They had me look at one picture which had two numbers written in pale colors. I had to read the number – I assume to make sure I am not color blind. Then I was sent to another office to pay – again I got lost a few times – then come back to get my official papers to sign up for the test. Pretty funny. On the way home I biked by these ladies just performing for whoever happened to be in the park.
The Sunday after Morton’s birthday was “Morton Day”. We did things he wanted to do. I asked around about bagels and was directed to Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe. Our driver drove us to the pin on the map and dropped us off. We then proceeded to walk around for 45 minutes trying to find it – Dan attempting to follow where Apple Map was directing us. After about 40 minutes, Dan and Morton left Celia and I where we started and said to wait -they’d continue to look. As they set off, Celia and I decided to try asking someone working at a meat cart nearby. Celia showed the name of the restaurant to him and he pointed to what looked like a locked barracaded fence across the street. We walked over and were confused. I then asked someone else nearby. He pointed to the same spot. We decided to push on the gate. It opened and inside was a lovely courtyard and restaurant. We called Dan and Morton and explained where to go. Later the owner of the restaurant explained they were forbidden to have a sign in English (I have no idea why they didn’t have a sign in Chinese). It ended up that Dan knows the owners of the restaurant. They also own an organic farm and were trying to get the school to buy the farm for educational purposes. The restaurant was like a taste of home. We all ordered bagels – three of us with lox. It was lovely! Unfortunately the restaurant is closing next month. The property is being taken over by the government – a frequent occurance here as the government owns all land. And all businesses here are very slow due to Covid, so they won’t open another store at the moment. Such a shame!
Afterwards we went to a record store and bought some very expensive records to play on our new record player, and then we walked around 798 – going to a bag store Morton wanted to go to – getting his school bag fixed and buying a new small bag for his new camera.
Streets near us
Just an interesting (to me) note. Along many of the streets near our home there are these beautiful willow trees. Recently I noticed they are chopping them all back. I guess this makes them grow better (?) – I’ve never seen this before.
All the tree branches have been cut off.
This past week the kids only had school on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were Parent Teacher conferences “Jia Zheng Hui”. Thursday was professional development for the teachers. The day ended with a party for faculty and staff. People were asked to sign up to bring food from their country/culture. We thought we’d support the lovely Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe restaurant and ordered an insane amount of bagels, lox and cream cheese from them ( unfortunately not pre assembled). I showed up a little early to start making the sandwiches. I wish I had taken a picture. The school printed large banners to go at each station. Ours said, “New York Bagels” and had a picture of bagels. As I walked in a bunch of teachers were outside playing beach volleyball, Dan was in the pool playing inner tube water polo. Another teacher told me they just took a yoga class. Pretty great professional development. I assume they did work earlier. Next to our booth was a teacher also from the U.S. He was making fried Orios. Nasty – but so delicious! Canadians to the right – they were serving a drink that was some kind of version of a Bloody Mary – but they insisted it wasn’t. Super spicy!
Friday we drove up to the wall. We met a few other families and rented a little house there and spent the weekend hiking, eating, drinking, and just hanging out. It was really nice.
Walking along the wallAt places the Wall is crazy steep!Our group, walking on The WallSign at our obligatory Saturday morning Covid test Barbecue dinner in house courtyardDancing horse show at Saturday night restaurant
What else? Without thinking I plugged my beautiful Cuisinart food processor into an outlet – right next to a transformer – and it went POP! I assume it needs to be opened and put a new fuse in it – but finding someone who can do that or who has the right size fuzes isn’t easy – maybe impossible. So sad! I love that Cuisinart – and you can’t buy them -even online -here.
Also, somewhere in here, we bought what “wei gua ren” (foreigners like us) call a tuktuk. A friend is moving away from Beijing and was selling hers. It’s an electric vehicle which drives like a motor bike and feels like you’re in a tin can. Going over any bump you are sure the thing will break – and the other day driving it the back door did fly open and, we didn’t realize until later, the back closing mechanism fell out from the car so now the back door won’t stay closed. I stopped at a store and had Morton buy a candy bar to get a plastic bag to help hold the door closed as we drove home.
I was very skeptical we’d use the tuktuk but it was quite inexpensive so Dan thought we should try it out.
Me driving the Tuktuk
Ends up it has really come in handy! We’ve use it when we have to haul stuff from not far that is too much to carry on the bikes.
Since I started this blog entry, everyone in the neighborhood had to go to the central area and get tested.
Morton in long line to get tested. Morton checking in before being swabbedGuy spraying around us (killing germs we may have left on street??!!)While I was heading out to get tested my friend dropped by this incredible cabbage she picked! Ate a bit of it for dinner last night – YUM!
A quick addendum: now is the next day from when I started writing. We were released last night! We are free to go anywhere that’s open (which school sadly is not).
Now I am planning Thanksgiving. I’m hosting on Saturday. I dragged my feet about it. Hard to imagine celebrating without all of you – not to mention kids told me the holiday’s only good aspect is being with family and friends – otherwise it’s just about the massacre of the Indigenous Peoples. I’m going ahead anyway. Now I’m searching for where I can get ingredients. Not always the easiest to fine what we’re used to.
I hope you all have lovely Thanksgiving. We’ll be missing you all!
Despite getting terrible a cold this week, I had some pretty amazing experiences.
Tuesday two of my tennis buddies, Coco and Rose, took me Stand Up Paddle boarding. We loaded their inflatable SUP boards into our minivan and drove to the Qinghe River next to the Summer Palace. Although when the Palace was built it was in the country, today it very much in the city. Rose told me the water wasn’t clean – but we wouldn’t get wet – but when we got to our put in location, there were tons of Chinese swimming in the river. Apparently they swim there all year round. She then corrected herself and said it actually wasn’t so unclean. I am not sure how clean the water actually is. We inflated our boards in the parking lot and then dropped them off the wall embankment – three feet down to the water – keeping on the ankle leash so as not to loose the boards. We then slowly lowered ourselves down on to the boards so as not to fall into the water. Rose does competitive SUP racing so the board she loaned me was narrow for speed – hard for me to balance on. I didn’t fall into the water, but by the end of our paddling my feet were pretty tired from keeping me stable on that thin board. Although the river ran between busy roads, it felt really peaceful. We paddled for a couple hours and found ourselves in an area of the river where the embankments were being renovated so between the roads and the river ran a make-shift wall – keeping visitors to this part of the river out – but also – keeping us in. We kept paddling and looking for openings to get out. Rose and Coco would ask workers when the fencing would end. The workers either didn’t know or said not too much further – but the end never came. We finally saw a temporary hole that some workers made to get themselves and their materials in. We climbed out of the river there and dragged ourselves and our boards over the rubble and out the hole in the fence. It was a fun adventure. Dan is now fantasizing our spending a summer sometime kayaking the entire 1000 miles of the River. Sounds fun. We’ll see.
On my knees, hoping not to get toppled over by tourist boat. Coco and I going under an old bridge
Thursday Celia submitted her Early Action and Early Decision applications! First one in her grade. And she did an amazing job! I am very proud of her.
Celia finishing her applications – Dan – I don’t think that will cover the cost!Final go over with her college advisor and hit the submit buttons!
Last night we had another crazy adventure! Morton arrived back at school yesterday, Friday, afternoon from an eighth grade sleep over camping trip. He then participated in his after-school volleyball class and then was heading back out for a weekend Boy Scouts camping trip. I ran to school to say, “Hello” and “Good bye” to him and most importantly to give him a bag of snacks.
Dan and I then headed out for dinner. Someone had invited us to what we thought was dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Our driver drove us downtown to the fancy hutong that we had walked around with the kids. We got off, scanned to go into the hutong (- our every move scan that shows our recent covid test – and also keeps track of where we go) and looked for the restaurant. When we didn’t see it, Dan pulled out his phone to look at the directions he had been sent. There were pictures with arrows. We back tracked out of the hutong and went around the corner. We walked past the KFC into the dark parking lot next door. People quickly asked us where we were going – they must have been some kind of security – and then quickly led us half way back into the parking lot. They touched something hidden there that slid a panel open to expose an opening. It opened to reveal an elegant room with a sunken sitting area with a gas fireplace going. Our host, who we had never met before, was there to greet us, along with another friend who has set up the dinner. A fourth guest arrived shortly after us. The fourth guest was an American who has lived in Beijing for twenty years and is the owner and curator of a museum here – and he grew up not too far from where I did. Our host explained that she owned a good chunk of the real estate of the hutong and had recently built this private area to have guests where they wouldn’t have to scan to get in and she was trying to figure out how to utilize the space. She gave us a tour. I am sorry I didn’t take photos but that felt like that might be tacky. Aside from the room we were sitting in, she showed us a large living room type area, then an open central area where beautiful bamboo grew in a large glass shaft that ran from a flight down to above the ground floor where we stood to get exposure from the skylight above. There were two bedrooms around this area – she said in case guests were too tipsy to drive home. Then there was a narrow outdoor area. Inside this outdoor area she had a crane bring in a couple trees and a large stone to make a tiny but magnificent Japanese garden. She then took us downstairs. There was a lovely staircase but we took the elevator with glass walls, passing leaf papered wall paper on our way down. Downstairs looked like a good sized Chelsea art gallery, with a large beautiful bar and a glassed in wine/liquor cellar. In the middle was the glass shaft with the bamboo growing up to the skylight above. It was all magnificent. She asked for our ideas what to do with the space and said she was not interested in it being a money making venture. That was not the purpose.
Afterwards, we went upstairs to the dining room (also lovely) where we sat around a round table with the loveliest lazy susan I have ever seen. There was a back door out of the dining room which abutted to a Japanese restaurant’s back door which is one of her tenants. From this door the most elegant Japanese food I have ever seen slipped quietly into the room and was placed onto the lazy susan.
The only picture I took. Lovely – but doesn’t do the meal justice.
At first we weren’t really sure how the company would be as we felt a little thrown together, but it ended up being really interesting conversation – hearing about the museum owner’s trials and tribulations getting Matisse artwork into the country when suddenly countries were boycotting China – concerned China was going to support Russia against Ukraine. And hearing about our host’s different business ventures and traveling and quarantining with her thirteen year old son. The only bad part of the meal was when the museum owner started talking Philly sports and I shamed my brothers by having no clue.
At some point Dan and I got frantic texts and calls from Morton. The BoyScouts had driven the couple hours to their camp sight and then were forbidden entry. We believe there was a case of Covid in the region and so they were not allowed to enter. It sounded like there was an hour or two of going back and fourth discussion- could they stay or not -and then they got back into the bus and were driving back to school. Not an unusual story in China. Around 8:45 we had to say, “Goodbye” to go meet Morton’s bus – ending another amazing, eye opening evening. Not the China I thought I was coming to experience, but definitely amazing.
Soon after my last update we had “Back to School Night”. The middle school one started with the middle school orchestra playing. They were amazing. By far the best middle school orchestra I’ve ever heard – and they were just two weeks into school – so very few practices.
A couple days later a parent named Melody invited me to join in a group she organized to go to the Forbidden City. Melody and her business partner, Claire, had started a company that provides the ever increasing number of extremely affluent Beijingers with activities to entertain then and fill their time. We were going to an art exhibit in the Forbidden City and Melody and Claire had organized an amazing array of experts to lead the tour: there was the leading Forbidden City expert on their antiquities, there was the lead curator for the biggest art fair in Beijing, there was an artist who had one of a few contemporary piece that were included in the show … of course they all spoke in Mandarin – well above my one year old level of Mandarin. But Melody either translated or had Rose, a lovely woman who works for her, walk around with me and give me the gist of what was being discussed. The old paintings were stunning and it was interesting to learn that every person who has owned these works would add their personal stamp and often add a few lines of a story to the scroll. I had never noticed before but some of the scrolls had tons of stamps – some owners had stamped the pieces right in the middle! Kind of cool to have this history of where the piece has been right on it – but the idea of past owners of a Michaelangelo, stamping their name in the middle of his piece is pretty crazy from a Western perspective.
After the art tour I started talking to Claire. She was explaining how Chinese parents only want to send their kids to really famous schools they have heard of: Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and she has been holding meetings introducing parents to fantastic small liberal arts colleges in the U.S. – as she went to one. Ends up she went to Carleton College – my Alma mater. Such a small world! As we laughed about this crazy small world meeting, we strolled over to The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where, on the roof, our group had drinks and an amazing multi course dinner – where the chef came out and discussed his inspiration for each course. Quite a night!
A gorgeous and delicious desertFantastic wine – and what a label!
The walls in our house are all cement – so hanging artwork is a major challenge. I want to have some flexibility in hanging artwork, so I decided to get picture hanging trim. That arrived two Fridays ago – so I am starting to get work on the walls. I am still figuring out the proper hooks to use so the artwork hands flat on the wall – but I’m excited to be reunited with some artwork I haven’t seen in over a year! When the hanging is a worked out a little better I’ll post some pictures – but it was nice to get some work up on the walls before we had a school leadership party to kick off the Chinese October Holiday.
My kids had off the weekend – Wednesday this week for the holiday. We can’t leave Beijing without risking getting stuck out of the city -if where ever one visits has one case – your return to Beijing will be delayed – possibly for a long time. But we had lots of little adventures.
We went out to dinner – and this was a tofu dish we were served! Sprinkles on fried, eggy tofu. So strange! (but funny)
I heard there was a driving range behind our local supermarket. I couldn’t believe it- but Dan and Morton checked it out and had a great time.
Another day we wandered around a traditional Chinese neighborhood with small wandering streets, called a Hutong- most of these neighborhoods have been replaced in the last twenty years with big green wide streets and large apartment buildings. We found a vegan restaurant for lunch. They had this tofu duck on the menu. So crazy!
And then Celia found some candied tiny crab apples to eat along the route. The weather was ideal -and we had a lovely time.
Last day off from school, Morton and I were invited to join a family volleyball game. It was a fun way to get to know some new families.
Morton’s in the middle with the orange shorts.
Since the kids have been back in school – and over this past weekend, I went to the big Beijing Picasso show – which was a bit odd with some copies – but there were some lovely pieces and I enjoyed getting to know a couple women I went with.
I also played some tennisOur new table in the shop
And went shopping at a furniture store that I wanted to buy everything – there were so many beautiful things and for similar prices as IKEA. I wish I had a bigger home in New York – I’d buy everything!
We had a great weekend – so want to get it down before I forget all that happened.
Us with Acrobatic troup, Mr Li, director of school in white, Chris, from ISB in light blue, small older woman in polkadots I believe is director
Starting Friday:
When we first arrived, Celia was super excited to be reunited with her bass guitar. She quickly plugged it into our amp, then plugged the amp into the wall – no converter. 220 V into an amp set for 110 V. Fried. She didn’t realize and plugged our second amp into the wall. Same result.
Apparently our large amp was a big hit for karaoke at school parties at the house last year. We are hosting a staff party at the house this coming Friday – so people thought our lack of a functioning amp was a major crisis.
Dan told me someone from the school was coming to fix the amp. Mid day Friday five men showed up to fix our amp – two department heads and three other men. After changing the fuse and messing with it a bit, they took the amp back to the school with them. Promising we’d have a functioning amp for the party.
Saturday:
Celia and I went food shopping. She hadn’t yet been to a local,what the foreigners call, wet market – so I wanted to bring her to one I’d been to a couple times. They are apparently called “Wet Market” because of the fish tanks there – where fish splash water onto the floor. I haven’t noticed much splashed water, but they do sell fish in tanks – both for eating and for pets – along with everything else possible : from produce stalls, to fresh baked Chinese delicacies, to toilet bowls, plants, antiques, …. And the only foreigners I’ve seen there were the one time I went with a few others. I really wanted to do some tasting, and figured Celia would indulge with me.
Celia driving me on her scooter
In the past I have biked or gotten a ride to the market. This time Celia offered to take me on the back of her scooter. I have to admit I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t too scary. She did a pretty good job of driving safely. We bought a lot of produce and some barley, and some snacks. Having to do all our communicating in Mandarin and not recognizing everything we see, made it more of a fun adventure than a chore. Plus we had a couple super yummy Chinese fried dough filled with some greens! I wish I had a picture of it!
Sunday morning:
Celia and I did some frantic cooking for Rosh Hashanah dinner. Then we got ready to go to see some acrobats. We weren’t sure exactly what we were going to. Dan had told me someone had invited us to see some acrobats. Other than that he didn’t have anymore information. Dan had put it on our calendar at 10 am – I didn’t realize that was just a place holder. Wednesday I received a message from his assistant that the show was in the afternoon and the director invited us to join him for dinner. I was in a bit of a panic. I had no idea who had invited us, what they exactly invited us for and I didn’t want to insult anyone or be ungrateful but it was also Rosh Hashanah and I didn’t want to cancel our evening holiday plans of services and dinner at Roberta and Ted’s. I explained all this to Dan’s assistant – who also didn’t know anything about the acrobat plans. She got back to me saying it would be okay to go to the show and have dinner another time.
We headed out in the car around 2:15. Dan quickly noticed we were going in the opposite direction from Roberta’s – not the direction he had expected – so our already tight schedule suddenly seemed impossible. The driver told us it would take an hour to get to the acrobatic school (which is apparently where we were going). We were supposed to be there in about half an hour. Not only were we not staying for dinner – we were also now running half hour late. WeChat messages were quickly sent and then we tried not to stress about it too much as there was nothing more we could do.
The director of the school, Mr Li, and Chris, a man who works at ISB, Dan’s school, who was the intermediary for this invitation, met us at the school gate. They walked us through, telling us a little about the school. It’s a boarding school for kids who are training to be acrobats. They enter at age 10 and live and train and do their schooling there. Professional acrobats also train at the school. We then got to a large building and as we entered, the crowd inside stood up and applauded our entrance. It was overwhelming – and I felt like a complete jerk that we were half an hour late, weren’t staying for dinner, and they were applauding our entrance. – not to mention – who the heck are we that they are applauding us? They had set up chairs on the stage – just for us. All the performers circled around the performance space. A group of female performers were spinning plates on multiple poles in their hands.
We then watched one of the most amazing acrobatic performances I’ve ever seen on the floor below the stage. The young men performing were already professional acrobats. After they performed for half hour or so, they had us get up and they moved our chairs to the floor in front of the stage and the show continued on the stage. The girls who had been spinning the plates when we arrived were still spinning the plates. Their arms must be burning! They were students. They performed for next half hour or so. Also mind bogglingly amazing – walking up and over one another while still spinning the plates. At one point they were dancing on their toes without toe shoes – in shoes similar to ballet slippers. Celia wondered what it does to ones face – smiling all that time. When it was done, the performers came around us and the director said a few words in Mandarin, which Chris was translating to Dan, about how it’s such an honor to have us here, how Dan is the head of this very important school… And then he asked Dan to say a few words to his students. Luckily Dan is good at making speeches off the cuff. We then asked the performers some questions – which the director and a woman I assume was the choreographer – answered. Then they walked us back to our car.
Driving to Roberta and Ted’s was faster than expected, so we made it with a few minutes to spare before the service started. In all communication about the Rosh Hashanah plans, the location was obscured, no one would say where it was. We were confused for a while and then realized they didn’t want authorities to crack down on the gathering of so many people – despite there are currently ZERO cases of Covid here in Beijing. It’s a different world here.
Roberta led a lovely service in her side yard and then we carried our chairs inside for dinner. Roberta makes incredible challah and Ted made a fantastic vegetarian matzah ball soup. Food and company are always lovely there.
This morning, Tuesday, there was a breakfast for parents of juniors and seniors. It was lovely but one thing that I struggle with at these things – and Celia says it is the same at school- is how not to have events segregated. I walk into the small restaurant and there is a buffet set out for us. All but four of the parents appear to be Chinese. The few Westerners are seated together. I don’t want to insult anyone but decide to sit with some Chinese mothers I don’t know. They are lovely and we chat a while but their level of English is varied and my Chinese is certainly not enough to hold a meaningful conversation. Eventually they start talking on their own in Mandarin and I turn to a Western father to my left and chat with him. I try to reengage with some other Chinese parents, but it’s hard to enter when they are engrossed in conversation in Mandarin. I then go talk with a couple Western mothers I know a bit. At one point I look up from my conversation to notice I am talking with the only other person woman in the room. We are here to experience China but integration is hard.
To change our visas from a short stay visa to a long term visa I had to go get an official medical exam. I had to go downtown to the official medical facility. ChangYang, who works at ISB, and I waited for the place to open and then hurried in, to get ahead of the line. We ran in, she registered me on the computer and then we waited my turn. After being called, I signing in, appropriate green codes were checked, paperwork completed, questions answered, and I payed the fee. Then I was sent upstairs to the medical maze. I was sent from area to area – a rat scurrying through – to get the appropriate stickings and scanings. One spot they took blood, another – a chest x-ray, another they put circular stickers all over my body with wires that connected to a monitor (any doctors out there know what this was for?), yet another they took my blood pressure … It was all very officiant and felt quite crazy! With that completed, a few days later the kids and I went to the Chinese visa office, had our official pictures taken, met individually (I couldn’t be near desk during kids meeting and vice-versa) with the visa agent. They took our passports and said they’d return them when the process was over. That was a bit unnerving but a week and a half later or so our passports were returned with our new year long visas. We need to reapply every year – though I believe without the medical experiments.
On a completely different subject, a couple Fridays ago we went to Roberta and Ted’s for Shabbat. Roberta had just come back from going to a more remote area of China to have many women (I forget the number but it was impressively high) get tested for the HPV virus. She told an incredible story of how they got so many women tested. Normally we get undressed, go onto the table, put our feet in the stirrups, and a doctor gives us a papsmear. Using this method would take too long to get so many women through the process. To be more efficient, they had a large number of women come into a room and get into a circle around a table. Then, through some laughter and group encouragement, they would get the women to drop their pants and under garments, squat and take their own samples. So amazing, crazy, and brilliant. Why don’t we do that?! – though not sure about the group aspect. All the more incredible as I have learned that tampons are not part of this culture – they are very difficult to find here. … . .…. OTHER RANDOM EVENTS:
MY NEW LOOK
I went to the hair salon. They insisted on blow drying my hair. They promised they were drying it curly. This is me with ”curly blown dried hair”! The kids couldn’t even look at me. I took some silly pictures then quickly washed it out.
New Family Member
Celia finally got a cat! Celia picked it up from it’s foster home one evening. We had guests over and they knew the cat. It had been rescued not far from our home and had been through two foster homes. It came with the name Toto – which Celia instantly switched. Dan wanted to call it Chairman Mao ze Dong. I suggested Chairman Miao. Celia calls the cat Milo. The cat doesn’t answer to any of these things. It spent the first few days hidden inside a tiny bathroom drawer. We couldn’t find him for about 24 hours – when Celia opened her bathroom drawer and yelled with surprise. Now Milo comes out to pester Celia at night, but spends most of his days hidden in bedside tables or the back of closets and he’s very skittish. On a regular basis we are doing something like putting our clothes in our bureau and the cat comes bounding out in a fearful panic from the tiny crack below the dresser. Hopefully he’ll adjust to us. But Celia is thrilled to have him.
First Day of School
Two weeks down of new school. Kids are overwhelmed with how nice the school is. I have never seen a school with such nice facilities! I am enjoying the beautiful indoor tennis courts and swimming pool. Kids are enjoying the fantastic school food – breakfast, lunch, and endless snacks – and being able to go hang out and eat free snacks in Dan’s beautiful glass cube office. Celia can’t believe how light the schedule is: four classes a day with a couple study halls and no PE, vs. the eight classes a day she had in Brooklyn. Of course the real school work hasn’t really started yet – school eases kids back for first two weeks – so we’ll see if her tune changes once the real school work kicks in. Celia is also enjoying that her classmates are, across the board more academically engaged, than in Brooklyn. Morton has signed up for a plethora of at school after-school activities: volleyball – indoor and out, table tennis, golf … They kick in next week. And he’s trying to get a biking club set up.
At Forbidden City
A couple Friday nights ago we invited a few families over for dinner and to watch The Last Emperor. I hadn’t seen it since it’s release in late 80s. We projected it on the wall of our playroom and took breaks for dinner and dessert (it’s a long movie). It was a great prelude to our Sunday morning trip with the Rubin family to the Forbidden City.
Celia in an Olafur Eliasson art installationAnd who doesn’t love a cat video?
After going to the Red Brick Museum, and getting a wonderful tour from a curator there, I returned to show Celia the place and the show. There was a beautiful Olafur Eliasson installation and then a really interesting video show. And then we walked through the small garden and ate in the restaurant there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more beautiful, well thought out garden. Ever step we took there is another magical surprise – every viewpoint has been considered.
Last Thursday I went to an art show of an adult class where they copy traditional Chinese silk paintings. The care with the brush strokes were unbelievable – like Indian miniatures. It was so interesting to see. And everyone was very warm and inviting to me. It was lovely. The gallery space is in a mall and the manager ran after me as I was leaving to offer me a tour of the building. There are many fancy restaurants in the building, a small art gallery, a Japanese food market, and an entire area of fish tanks where fish wait to be ordered by customers at the restaurants upstairs. The building was finishing being built when Covid happened, so a lot of the building that looked like it would be a fun farmers type market and another area that should have been a beer garden, sat empty. It was a shame. The next night I did bring Dan back to have dinner at one of the restaurants. We had these amazing croquettes.
This past weekend was Zhongqiujie – Mid Autumn Festival. Everyone eats moon cakes – which are usually individually sized cakes that come in many flavors. Many people gave them to us. It was so nice – though Celia and Morton may have eaten a few dozen too many! Sunday the Wang Family, the dad is on the school board and one daughter is a school graduate and the other is an eighth grader, invited us to a fabulous 10 course vegetarian meal. Most of the dishes I couldn’t recognize, but were so beautiful and delicious. Morton opted out of this meal. Sitting at a meal for three and a half hours didn’t sound bearable to him.
This week I took Morton to have his eyes checked. Maybe they do this in the States, but I’ve never seen it. They figured out his new prescription then had him wear the new lenses in these funky glasses for ten minutes or so before we could go to make sure they didn’t give him a headache. I thought they were super fun science time travel type glasses!
While most people in the U.S. hardly remember there is (was?) a pandemic going on (we checked the online front page of NYT yesterday – nothing about Covid was even mentioned that day) – here it a major part of life. Apparently there currently are 15 cases in Beijing (in a city more populated than NYC) – so all schools had to put up plexiglass between students in the lunch room. Feels horrible but I just have to remind myself – as long as they don’t make school go remote – I should/will be happy.
Lastly for now, Yesterday a friend, Hanbin, took me to another local art museum – the Song Art Museum. The grounds were also beautiful. The museum was showing an exhibit of very young contemporary Chinese artists. Hanbin knew one of the artists’ fathers, so the artist, Zhang Ji, agreed to meet us near his work to discuss it. His work was really engaging – more emotionally driven than much of the work I’ve seen here so far – which I appreciate. Ends up he studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as I did, and under at least one of the same people. His concepts about his art and insights into the current Chinese art world were really interesting to hear about. He had some large scale paintings, with amazingly varied and yummy textures, and he had some more quick whimsical drawings. Below are some drawings he did on tiles that he then baked onto the tiles. I love that idea of the quick gesture becoming a solid permanent object.
The next morning Celia woke early and said she needed to see a doctor. Her throat was killing and she was achy all over. Dan called the local clinic and they directed us to the hospital downtown. The doctors there put Celia on more antibiotics and sent her home. She went directly to bed.
Three days later, no improvement – possibly worse – so I took her back to the ENT at the hospital. He wanted her to stay at the hospital for three days and get intravenous antibiotics. I suggested we go home at night and return for the treatments. Celia got up to go to the bathroom, then turned around, went pale as a ghost, eyes rolled back and passed out. Luckily the doctor saw it coming and got her to an examination chair to land on. A couple doctors and nurses ran around her speaking in mandarin – a bit scary to watch having no idea what was being said. This gave me more pause about taking Celia home but after a half hour or so Celia’s color came back and we decided to stick to the plan: three days of coming to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics, steroids, and glucose and go home at night and then see where we were.
Again, no real improvement and her throat looked worse. The doctor then wanted to keep her in the hospital for five days giving her some completely different antibiotics through IV. I again pushed for going home at night. The doctor spent a while on the phone with another doctor and a pharmacist and then decided there was a different strong antibiotic that Celia could take at home – five large pills to be taken every six hours. Almost immediately after starting the pills, Celia started feeling better and making tons of plans – making up for lost time.
Two nights later was Friday night and Celia was up for going to Roberta and Ted’s house: American’s who have lived in Beijing for many decades and have become the gathering spot for the Jewish community here. They host Shabbat dinner for anyone who wants to attend every Friday night and made Dan feel very welcome during his solo year here. The community was also very welcoming to us and were so happy for Dan that he was no longer separated from us. It was a lovely gathering.
A group shot someone took at shabbat dinner
A few days later, Celia felt up for going to The Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall about an hour’s drive from our home where one can take a gondola up to the wall, walk for an hour or so, and then take a toboggan ride down. It reminded my of going on a similar ride I believe in the Pocconos where my possibly four year old brother, who was riding with my mother, told her not to be scared, to let go of the brake and hold onto him. On the way home we stopped at the local town and got lunch. It was an assortment of inedible (by us), odd, and tasty dishes. One of the dishes was spicier than anything any of us had eaten before.
It was a super fun day!
A little fun in one of the towers along the wall.Toboggan ride down from The Great Wall. MOM – turn your computer volume on and hit the triangle in the middle of the picture above!
Other highlights from last couple weeks:
Checked out the local Sam’s Club. Pretty different foods than in US but the largest chip bag I have ever seen!Dan and I were invited to a sari party. When I mentioned the party invitation, Dan actually thought we were going to play the game Sorry. Despite there being no Sorry playing – the party was really special – a wonderful welcome to the community here!Kids and I went to the Summer Palace. Trying to purchase the tickets was crazy difficult. I told Celia to purchase the “combo” tickets as I understood they were for the grounds and the buildings. When our tickets didn’t get us through the front entrance and someone was found who spoke some English, we learned we had bought tickets for the next day as there were no Combo tickets for Monday, as the buildings are closed on Monday. We decided to explore the less developed part of the grounds, as we figured we’d return on another day to go into the buildings. The grounds and the day (not to mention my company) were incredibly beautiful!A bridge on the Summer Palace grounds.Kids are at the top of this crazy steep bridge.Unbelievable lilly pads that were blowing in the wind.
A couple days later Morton and I went to the Temple of Heaven.
On Friday we all went to the kids new school before heading to the visa office to apply for our permanent residence visa. The school facilities are AMAZING! – like nothing we have ever seen before. I have been enjoying the indoor tennis courts. The rock climbing wall looks fantastic. Dan brags about the choices at the cafeteria and all the playgrounds are unbelievable!
Us in the school’s new Great Wall play houseJumping on the trampolines in the school playgroundOn one of the swings
Friday night Dan and I went out on our first real date in about a year and a half! We went to Stanliton – a very hip neighborhood – which preCovid was full of weiguaren (foreigners) – but is now mostly full of locals. We went to a lovely restaurant and wandered around. The buildings lit up in crazy lights in alternating patterns and the stores were top notch designers. Dan has his eye on a flying car that was on display – an actual full scale flying car!
Saturday I biked out to a local ”wet market”. Apparently they’re called that due to the live fish splashing around. It was fun to check out all the local foods and other merchandise for sale. Unfortunately I have found that when I speak to local people I can’t keep hitting “Replay” to hear and then decipher each word as I can when I am studying Mandarin. I look forward to bringing the family back there to sample more of the foods.
And Today (yeah! I’m just about caught up!) Dan, Morton, and I biked out to a local neighborhood where I had been told I could do some shopping and there would be no other waiguaren. It made us feel a little sorry we aren’t living – at least for a little while- in this area. The conditions are a lot less posh than where we are living – but it felt like the real cultural experience we came here for. Again, we struggled a bit conversing, but we enjoyed ourselves exploring a bit and tasting a few different snack.
Days are passing/events happening and I am not writing things down.
We have now been in Beijing for two and a half weeks. Definitely the most challenging part of being here is getting the WeChat app to work so we can function. Everything is done through WeChat. Anytime you walk into a neighborhood, a store, or chew some food – you need to scan a code and show that you have a green health code which indicates that you have tested negative for Covid in the last 72 hours – and as we learned at the Shanghai airport – things don’t always run flawlessly.
Celia getting her regular Covid test across street from where we live.Morton exiting Covid testing area. Apparently lines used to be terrible. Now I have never taken more than five minutes to get in and out.
On our first day here we put new Sim cards in our phones, got our new Chinese telephone numbers, and then Dan and I went to a local branch of Chinese Construction Bank to get my WeChat hooked up to pay for things. Ends up joint accounts are not legal in China. We spent a couple hours setting up an account for me – we needed to use my phone to do this and it wasn’t getting reception in the bank – made it difficult – but we eventually walked out my having a bank account and what looked like a linked WeChat pay.
Maybe the next day Celia wanted to go meet a cat. She had been cat shopping online while in quarantine. Ended up the cat owner lived about an hour drive from us so I thought we should do something else on the trip so we weren’t just driving an hour, meeting a cat and then turning around. The famous Beijing art neighborhood 798 was some what on the route, so we went there. We planned to wander the area for two hours then go meet the cat. We were so excited. The neighborhood looked like it would be fun to wander around and Celia quickly had me photograph her to show her friends how cool it was there. Then from that high moment, it all went down hill.
Checking out a funky chair in the 798 district.
We spent the next two hours struggling with our phones. We wanted to go into a store and our GreenCode wasn’t working.We had to call Dan to send pictures of our passports to try to reset the app. That worked and it seemed like we were back in business. We went into a couple stores with no problem – other than the annoying delay of having to open our phones, get to the correct program within Wechat and then scan the stores’ sign and bring up our Green Code – AT EVERY STORE – and often at the entrance to an area too – anyway…. Celia found an awesome pare of sunglasses at a hip second hand store and we were feeling good – and then I went to pay. My WeChat wouldn’t work. We stepped back out of the store, called Dan, and the three of us struggled to get the WeChat to work – no luck. At this point Celia and I were running out of time at 798 so decided we should stop fighting with the app and see a little of the neighborhood before we would get picked up. The weather was super hot and we really wanted something to cool us down – Celia saw a sign for ice cream. I figured I had emergency cash in my purse and this felt like an emergency. We went in to the ice cream shop probably five times being sent out of the store as our scans weren’t working. When we finally got our apps working correctly we went to order and they said they didn’t accept cash – only WeChat. We were out of luck. We were hot and incredibly discouraged. We listlessly wandered around the neighborhood, popping into a few galleries until it was time to go see the cat. Unfortunately, by this time the traffic had gotten terrible and getting to the cat was going to be an hour – and then another hour to get home. Celia decided to postpone.
The next day, a new plan. We’d go out as a family, have dinner and meet the cat. This plan worked out better. We were given a restaurant recommendation. It ended up being a fancy vegan restaurant. We were brought to a curtained off table with silk flowers covering the ceiling, and although we weren’t exactly sure what some of the things were we were eating – it was all really good.
Eating at fantastic vegan restaurant.Not exactly sure what it was – but delicious!
Afterwards we went to meet the cat. It took us a while to figure out how to get into the neighborhood. The map brought us to a permanently locked gate. Texting back and forth with the cat’s owner, Celia found out we needed to go to a different side of the neighborhood. The owner met us there and walked us through a maze of her neighborhood and up to her sixth floor walk up apartment. The lights were out on the first few floors of the stairwell. We got into her apartment where she, her husband, their cat, at least one roommate and her dog lived. To say we filled the apartment was an understatement. It was nice to talk with the owner of the cat who was lovely and to see how she lived – much tighter than we are used to even in New York. Unfortunately the cat was freaked out by our arrival and wouldn’t let Celia anywhere near it. We waited for an hour and then told the woman Celia would come back over the weekend. Unfortunately Celia woke the next morning quite sick and wasn’t able to get back.
Celia’s still in the market for a cat.
Did I mention Celia got an electric scooter? She’s very excited about it.
Sunday at noon we were scheduled to finally be released from quarantine. That morning all of our Shanghai Green Codes – that allow us to enter the airport – had turned Red. After a number of frantic messages on WeChat, the app that is used here for everything, we were assured it would turn back to Green in the next couple hours.
At 10am, I was chatting on the phone and trying to finish the above painting – before having to pack the painting into the bottom of one of my bags -when the haz-matters came to our door and said we needed to get out NOW. We frantically started throwing the rest of our stuff into our bags. We dragged our eight humungous bags out into the hallway and were waiting for the Michael/Boyle family before loading everything into the elevators. Then another haz-matter showed up and said we couldn’t go until noon. We left our bags where they were and we hung out in groups, reconnecting and waiting to be released.
At Noon we dragged all our luggage downstairs and were told to quickly go outside to do our checkout – they wanted us out of the building as quickly as possible. Outside it was bright – sunny and 96 degrees. Walking outside the hotel – which looked post apocalyptic – we realized the hotel pre Covid must have been quite posh with a golden camel out front.
We spend the next hour outside the hotel, trying to deal with paperwork and what happened to the SIM cards we ordered, where was the van that was taking our luggage, and making sure we had all the correct paperwork and green codes on the appropriate apps. Once all was in order minus our Shanghai codes which we were told would turn Green, we were told we had to leave the hotel grounds. They pushed us out to the sidewalk to wait for the airport shuttle bus. We waited out front, gulped our water and tried to crouch in little areas of shade to evade the extreme heat.
Eventually the bus showed up. The next hour was quite a lovely drive, looking out at Shanghai.
When we arrived at the airport we needed to scan our Shanghai Green Codes to enter but our codes were still red. We sat outside, in the 96 degree heat and sweat.
After a little while, the hazmatted guards allowed us to enter just inside the door. Two guards began to go through all our paperwork which showed that we had repeatedly tested negative for Covid and were released from the quarantine hotel. Eight of us, three pieces of official papers from each of us. Two guards. They each needed to check and photograph each of our three official papers. Then each guard needed to repeat the process – asking to rephotograph all eight of us – each of our three papers again. And then a third time. And then a fourth – at which time we sat down. A number of hours had gone by. It seemed like they were just killing time – making it appear they were doing something.
After about three and a half hours one of our codes went Green. We call cheered. Five minutes later, another person’s. Five more minutes another – until all but Leo, the son in the Michael/Boyle Family, had gone Green. Forty five minutes passed. Leo felt terrible. Then Dan started receiving messages saying he had been a close contact and he should not travel. He started to panic. ”If we don’t get through security quickly – we are going to get taken back to quarantine”. He started yelling and trying to push our way through. It didn’t help get Leo in. Security did tell us those with Green codes could go in and get some food and bring it back out. Dan, Celia and Carolyn, did just that. Like a miracle, Dan also returned with beer. Just as we were settling in to eat and passing around a beer, Leo’s Shanghai code went Green. We quickly dropped our drinks – which couldn’t go through security – and ran in. We had long missed our flight but were able to get tickets for one a few hours later.
And from there – things were actually smooth. Short flight to Beijing. Some colleagues waiting to welcome us and Driver Li waiting to take us home.
Just a couple things when looking back I want to remember so putting here. The first is when we were going through security Morton’s bag was pulled out to go through. We couldn’t believe it when we saw the contents!!
I also loved the shower in our hotel. It was a small NYC apartment!
Travel Path NYC->Detroit->Seoul->Shanghai->Beijing Arrive August 7th
8700 miles, 23 days, 5 cities (For reference an old 19th century Clipper ships could cross the Atlantic in 21 days)
10 days in quarantine in Shanghai, which is basically sitting in a nice hotel room for 10 days straight.
Not so funny quirks of COVID China travel—We spend a lot of time getting COVID tested, retested, and proving we have the right testing and a lot of direct flights are impossible due to flight crews not wanting to quarantine.
We’re travelling a bit heavy: 600 lbs. of luggage in 8 bags—don’t ask about the extra baggage costs—and 6 carry-on bags. Going to and from the airport is a total pain. In our defense, we thought the family was traveling in 2021 and thus purchased many things in NY to live for the year and didn’t want to part with them.
Looking forward to getting back to Beijing and being in our own house! Celia has been targeting a new cat (mao in mandarin) which we’re planning on calling Chairman Mao Zecat.
