The Royal Treatment

Be there Sunday night!

 

The notice said we should not bring cameras, purses or bags because of strict security.  We were good and did not do so, but were sorry later when we saw many other people with cameras.  And there were many Kodak moments as we dined with approximately 1800 others in China's Great Hall of the People.

 

While there are no pictures with this post, someone sent me this link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90785/6769757.html.  The REALLY important people are pictured and part of the speech is reported (in English)! 

 

It was quite a night.

Water, Water Everywhere......

In the past, our domestic water supply was not among the top ten things in my daily thoughts. I used to go to the tap, turn it on, and drinkable water would come out. In the back of my mind, I knew that we are fortunate in the USA to have good, drinkable water issue forth from the tap. But tap water wasn't high on my list of concerns.

Here, water has become a BIG DEAL. I think about it every time I touch the faucet. The water that comes from the tap is not drinkable. Officially, it is "hard" and "needs to be boiled before drinking." This has a few repercussions, like what to do when brushing your teeth, washing dishes, washing produce, etc.

Here's how we are dealing with it so far. Every morning, two large thermoses (thermosi?) of "boiled water" appear outside our door. We reserve some of this water for dishes (and let the dishes soak for awhile so as to avoid frying the flesh from our hands). We transfer the remainder to our huge teakettle (this is China, after all), let it cool, then transfer the water into plastic bottles. We put some of the bottles into the fridge for drinking. One bottle goes into the bathroom for a toothbrush rinse. When I came down with a cold, we decided we needed to divide our drinking bottles, so mine are the label off, Cal's are the label on. (This did not have the fully desired effect. Cal still caught my cold.)

We have not had much produce except for items that can be peeled, but we did soak some apples and peaches in a mild bleach solution. So far, we are still alive. Yummm, clorox.

If We Don't Have It........

 

Imagine every sort of item to which is affixed the label "Made in China." Now, if you can, imagine all those things on display in tiny booths, crowded together on six double-football-field-sized floors in a garishly decorated building. Cram thousands of shoppers into narrow aisles, bumping each other with large packages and stuffed shopping bags. If you can envision it, you are imagining Tian Yi.

Further words fail me.

Now I Know How The Birds Feel

Little kids do it. Older people do it (just not as intensely). It was "Stare at Americans Day" at Bei Hai Park in Beijing on Wednesday. Of course, we brought much of this on ourselves. It wasn't bad enough that we were foreigners in the park; we drew even more attention to ourselves by also staring—it's just that we were gazing through binoculars and we were looking at birds.

Our first big venture out on our own was a five kilometers bus ride to Bei Hai Park to have a look around and hopefully find some birds. Bei Hai is big-- 168 acres-- and surrounds several lakes. In spite of the fact that this is a city of 17 million (plus or minus), we found some trails where we could not see anyone for several minutes (apparently not having learned our lesson from being mugged in Mexico). We saw ten species, of which we identified seven. My favorite was the "scrub jay on steroids," also known as an azure winged magpie.

While we watched birds, many people watched us. This happens at home, too, and I have to admit, it cracks me up when people gawk up at where we are looking through binoculars to try and figure out what we are looking at. It's just that at home, we are not so much a part of the show.