June 16, 2010

My time in Beijing has been wonderful and before I leave this Friday, I wanted to introduce some of the folks that have made this experience so special. I have included several pictures below of the hostel staff and fellow travelers that I have befriended. There are also some photos of my visit to the Beijing Zoo. The main attraction there was the giant panda exhibit, but my all-time zoo favorites have always been the lions and tigers.


One of the lesser acknowledged aspects of Beijing is its cultural diversity which is, in large part, rooted in its long and complex history. There's actually a well established and wildly diverse Muslim community in Beijing and I recently ate at a Middle-Eastern restaurant owned and operated by its members. Pictured above are a few of the lamb skewers and local beers we ordered. Many of the Muslims living in Beijing today are from the Gansu area, but ultimately their history (through a long series of twists and turns) traces them back to Silk Road that connected China to the Middle East. It's really fascinating how many layers of history you uncover here through day-to-day activities (like dinner).


Here are several of the fellow travelers I've met at Leo. In the middle is Sarah, a student from Canada and Oscey, a student from Germany. These two actually met each other at the Beijing airport and by the time Sarah left for the next leg of her trip, they were nearly attached to the hip! It made me realize how the backpacking culture really cultivates fast friendships and a sense of openness. It isn't every day that you meet a total stranger one morning and end up spending the next week together. But that seems to be how things work. It's an experience that I'm beginning to think more people should have and I'm glad I've started to experience it now.


This is Sky who works at Leo. She has a fantastically bubbly personality. We've shared a couple funny stories about the misadventures that happen when things get lost in translation, including one time when she was trying to offer someone a coke and inadvertently offered them a "cock". Clearly, this isn't the first time I've heard something like this happen and it probably won't be the last!


And these two are Martin (MaXing, or as David and I like to say, "machine") and David (DaWei). I usually hang out with these guys late in the evening since Martin works the night shift at Leo and David just stays up late. For the better part of my trip, these guys have spent their late nights teaching me Chinese. Martin is a recent graduate from Beijing Geely University and started work the day I checked-in. David, on the other hand, has been in and around China for the past several years. During that time, he's taught himself Chinese and regularly chats with locals at the hostel or other employees at local establishments. One funny story is David's Chinese name, Da Wei, is supposed to mean "big" and "strong," but occasionally people tease him by using the homonym of Wei which means "stomach". Anyway, staying at Leo has inspired me to think about the hostel business in China. I joked with Martin that in the next few years, he should continue improving his English and learning how to run a hostel. So, if I do get into the hostel business, I'll make him the general manager of my hostel chain. I even have a name for it - Red Panda!


This guy was my go-to-guy for my daily dose of soy milk. It's a bit like the relationship between avid coffee drinkers and their barista. At first we could hardly communicate with one another, but now I can order my daily items, including their baked breads. It just goes to show how much my language skills have improved just by being here. Most recently, I've been able to tell him where I was born, where my parents are from, my Chinese and English name and I have learned his name and history as well.


This was apart of the lion and tiger exhibit at the Beijing Zoo. The cages looked pretty dated - they reminded me a bit of the transition between circus exhibitions and modern zoo enclosures. Although it was pretty cramped, I was intrigued by the structure because it reminded me of a scene from Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. In this one part of the story, the main character finds himself at a zoo in Nanjing where Japanese soldiers are ordered to put down a group of tigers. Being in that building and being around those tigers brought me back to that portion of the book and made me wonder whether this exhibit was anything like the one Murakami had in mind and if so, whether (if he were here with me) he would have thought the same thing.


One thing that's very different between China and America is what's allowed at the zoo. In China, visitors always try to feed the animals! In this case, one visitor fed Coke to a brown bear. The hilarious part was that the bear really liked it and stood on his two hind legs so the kid could pour the drink into his mouth, and it was obvious from the bear's reactions that s/he had already had it in the past. Nonetheless, I thought it was kind of ridiculous that the zoo doesn't prohibit people from throwing food and pouring coke into the enclosures.


Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't bring you photos of the giant panda exhibit! These three guys were just chilling, enjoying their bamboo. The one to the very left was so lazy he was on his back the whole time and didn't even sit up to eat! For those who don't know, pandas are loosely related to modern bears and it's actually under debate whether they are more closely related to raccoons. Also, the female panda can only reproduce on one day each year so that, combined with centuries of over poaching, has driven the panda population towards extinction. Thankfully, China's very serious about protecting the giant panda and they've done a lot to bring the panda population back from where it was so I'm hopeful that in the future there will still be "bamboo bears" for others to see!

June 14, 2010

Over the past two days I've made my way to Beihai Park, Jingshan Park and the Temple of Heaven. Both Beihai and Jingshan are adjacent to the Forbidden City, but Jingshan has an elevated view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, there was so much smog we could only see a few city blocks in front of us. After visiting the parks, I returned to the night market to take pictures and to show a friend all the crazy foods that were available.


The Temple of Heaven. We got lost on our way there and what should have only taken us 15 minutes turned out to be an hour trip. Luckily, the area surrounding the temple had nice open space with a lot of small trails where we spent the morning strolling.


Beihai Park is made up of several buildings with a large pond. The pond itself was huge and there were a ton of people peddling boats through the water and just chilling out. Probably one of the nicer parks I've been to in Beijing.


This is yet another picture of Beihai Park. I really liked this walkway and how it provided a nice frame with which to focus your eyes on.


This guy had such a ridiculous hairdo that I had to take a picture of him. He was super cute but when I tried to pet him, he went for my fingers! Talk about unpredictability vicious!


This is the view of the Forbidden City from the top of Jingshan Park. After having visiting something like 6 parks so far, I'd have to say that this park probably has the best view in all of Beijing (not the nicest looking park, but the best view). Also, not meaning to state the obvious, but it was really humid that day so no matter what I did to cool off I continued to sweat profusely.


This is a bit hard to see, but this is me in a packed bus in China. Literally, I couldn't move and if they packed any more people there, I would have been hanging out of the window.


The soldiers that provide security to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.


Finally, I got a little adventurous at the night market and tried sheep testicles. I can't say I was a huge fan... In fact, it tasted somewhat gamey and a bit bland, so I wasn't really too crazy about eating it all. At the same time, how often do I get to eat this in the states? Not often, so I had to try it!

June 12, 2010

Yesterday I saw the Great Wall and ate at the Donghuamen Lu night market. The Great Wall was amazing! They brought us to this secluded portion of the Wall, so there were hardly any tourists. At the same time, since it was secluded, most sections had not been renovated so it was an obstacle to stay standing. Despite this, it was a really unique place that I'm glad I got to experience. Add to it, I met some really cool people from BYU whom I ended up joining for the night market. This market is notorious for its scorpions and snake meat. I had some of both, neither of which I'd recommend. The scorpion had a crunchy feel whereas the snake meat didn't taste like anything!


My morning tradition these past few days include the following: waking up at 5 am to check email and chat on the internet and hit up one of the local restaurants to have my XLBs (xiao long bao), tea boiled eggs and occasionally one of those deep fried bread sticks (you tiao).


As you can see, it was really misty/fogging when we got up to the Wall. Fortunately, by the evening most of the mist had burned off so you could actually see large portions of wall from a distance. One thing to note is that to the left is the Chinese border and to the right is the Mongolian border. They made the Chinese border much lower than the Mongolian side to make it easy for Chinese troops to get to the top of the Wall if necessary.


UCLA and me at the top of the Great Wall!


This was closer to the end of our trip. By then, there were hardly any steps and everyone was falling. I even fell and lightly scraped my skin.


These two pictures are from the night market. The picture above is from the stall that offered scorpions. There were two scorpion options to pick from, a set of three small ones or one large one. My friends decided the only right thing to do was to get it big... And sure enough, we each took a piece out of one of those black scorpions. I can't say there was really much of a taste, but it was super crunchy. Also, at other stalls, the small scorpions were still alive and moving!


I couldn't help but post this one. This picture is of a guy working a pot sticker stall. I thought it looked very documentary-esque and was very excited to share this with everyone!

June 9, 2010

Let the adventure's begin! I left for Beijing last Monday to kick-off my 5 week vacation in Asia! So far things have been going really well. I'm currently staying at a hostel that's several blocks south of Tienanmen Square. Add to it there are a ton of shops nearby, easy access to the subway and really fun people and I really couldn't be any more happy with this place! I'll probably be adding pictures of the hostel later, but for now, here are pictures from my trip so far.


This particular restaurant was recommended to us by Time Out Beijing, a travel magazine. The article raved about King Mutton's popular Mutton Soup, so a few of us made our way here to check it out. The soup was pretty good, despite the fact that I'm not a huge soup fan. Also, as you look through my meal pictures, you'll probably notice that my staple drink of choice has been beer. This isn't because I really like beer, but rather that it's the only drink most restaurants always keep in the fridge. Unfortunately, I'm starting to crave cold water. Who would have ever thought, right?


798, Beijing's art district. Just getting here was an adventure in and of itself. My friends were intent on getting here via public transportation, so after hopping from train to train and bus to bus, we finally found it.


This BMW3 replica was made of stone, beginning from the exterior shell to the wheel and stick shift. They also included real glass for windows, so had it been later in the evening I may have really thought this was a real car!


I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I like to think it's Mao riding on a large dog shooting arrows into the clouds. :)


This exhibit was simply the most interesting part of our trip here. The work is called Feelings are facts by Olafur Eliasson and Ma Yansong. Eliasson, a Dutch-Icelandic artist and Ma, a Chinese architect, came together to create this amazing work. Essentially, it's a large white room where the ground gradually inclines towards the ceiling with neon lights everywhere and fog being pumped throughout the room. It was really great walking through it since you can't see anything that's not immediately in front of you, so for a moment you really feel like you're alone (in a peaceful way). I was really impressed by this and couldn't help but walk through it four or five times. As for this picture, it's one of my hostel mates, Joanna, viewing the exhibit from a lower vantage point.


Despite being so far away from home, memories of San Francisco continue to follow me. This, for instance, is a miniature replica of the Powell and Hyde Street trolley. If you're even remotely familiar with these trolleys, you'll know what I mean when I say it was done really well. Look at the red paint and yellow words, if I didn't know any better I would think this was a picture of a real San Francisco Trolley. Well done!


I found this little guy at a restaurant in 798. His master had just left to run an errand and although the dog wanted to come, he knew he wasn't supposed to so he just sat on the patio waiting anxiously for his master to come back. This is just one example of why dogs are superior companions compared with other pets. They're intelligent, they're always happy to see you and they're always happy to please.


Finally, my room at the hostel.... Just kidding! This is actually a suite at the Yi House, a boutique hotel at 798. For some reason my friends really wanted to see it, so while we were there they also asked to see an available room. It was nice with a lot of amenities, but I just don't know if there are enough visitors that come to 798 to really make this place profitable. In any case, one of the partners was this lady who was born in Beijing but studied in California and worked in San Francisco. She mentioned how there's a large number of people like her who leave Beijing and return and that people have begun to call these individuals "sea turtles" since they come back to the beach (home) they came from. It was an interesting concept and I was happy that she shared that with us.

May 15, 2010

My brother graduated from Berkeley Law School on Friday so Jean and I made it over to his ceremony. The professor who spoke at the graduation ceremony who coincidentally my brother TAs for was hilarious. He was so funny I felt bad for the others who had to speak after him! Overall, it was a cool event and afterwards, Berkeley even held a reception at Clark Kerr. It's too bad my parents couldn't make it, I managed to get some good shots to share with them. Below are pictures from the event and other happenings that I've been involved with these past few weeks. Enjoy!


After one too many champagne glasses, my brother decided to sober up in the company of Korean BBQ. We ended up having a light snack here before heading out for his real celebration dinner at Pizzaiola in Oakland. One thing I like to add is that instead of smiling, my brother likes to smirk.


My brother and his law journal friends...


Although my parents couldn't make it, this still looks like one of those stereotypical graduation shots. I can almost imagine people mistaking Jean and me as Anson's parents!


This is Jean trying to get a game of sudoku in before commencement.


More law school folks.


The first shot we took that day. I'll have to admit, I was pretty excited to watch Anson graduate! I never had a chance to watch him graduate from Princeton, so it was nice to be there for his law school ceremony.


We had a picnic at Alamo Square two weeks ago and I finally saw the row of homes in the opening credits for "Full House". Can you tell which one is the Full House house? There's actually quite a bit of disagreement, but I want to say it's the second house to the left (green one).


These next few shots are photos of the Golden Gate Bridge while hanging out in the Marin Headlands.


Picture of San Francisco from Marin. In the middle, you can see Coit Tower and to the right, the Transamerica Building.


More shots of the Golden Gate from a closer vantage point.


Area right below the bridge.


A week before that, Jean, John and I attended San Francisco's first ever Noodle Fest. At one end of the festival, they had music playing and a whole group of people dancing, including this guy. You can't say he's not having a good time!


John and Jean enjoying a serving of noodles.


Jean preparing to devour some noodles...