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Pollution: A Western conspiracy?

November 4th, 2011 by Johanna | 1 comment | Filed in China, Current Events, Life

I’ve spent the better part of this week not believing air quality data provided by one U.S. Embassy, as suggested to me by this Chinese official. From Caijing:

“China’s air quality should not be judged from data released by foreign embassies in Beijing,” Du Shaozhong, vice head and spokesman of Beijing’s environmental protection bureau, said in an interview in Weibo.com, the twitter-like microblog in China, referring to U.S. embassy’s monitoring data.

After getting stuck around “hazardous” for a week, it’s back down to a more manageable “unhealthy” level. But they’re probably just trying to make China look bad. Even though China does look bad. I mean, seriously. It’s been this poopy color of grey for a very long time now. On Sunday, flights couldn’t even land (I asked the airline representatives, who dutifully told me the delays were caused by bad weather conditions) and I was stuck at the airport all day, waiting for a flight that was no longer coming until the next day.

But South China Morning Post seems to have uncovered the reason why Chinese data paint much rosier pictures, and why officials have done little to correct this minor environmental problem.

According to the Broad Group, a Hunan-based air-conditioner maker, at least 200 air purifiers are installed inside Zhongnanhai, the top leadership compound where President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders work and live.

“They are everywhere in Zhongnanhai, from living rooms and meeting rooms to swimming pools and gyms,” the website of one of the company’s Beijing dealers said. “It is a blessing for the people that our purifiers have created a healthy and clean environment for state leaders.”

They even have portable ones that they take around when they have to leave their purifier-fortified compounds. They are so out of touch with reality that they even give air purifiers as presents to visiting officials, as if they need purifiers wherever they’re from.

China doesn’t even measure the most harmful particles, PM2.5, because “the time is not ripe,” (via James Fallows) which is basically the Chinese way of saying, “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH.”

Sigh. China. It’s like this.

Snapshot of life

October 15th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Life

Last days of autumn.

The evolution of a street at lunch time

October 11th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life, Work

If I ever had any doubts about the reality of a rapidly developing China, they may be tempered by the explosion of lunch time choices available to me right in front of my office. When I first started working here food carts parked on the sidewalk carried little more than unappetizing pre-prepared he fan, a takeaway box of rice with two or three kinds of dishes, usually a meat and stir-fried veggies. And back then, there were maybe one or two people with a Styrofoam ice cooler.

Fast forward 1.5 years, and now this place is teeming with vendors. There are still hefan sellers, but they are competing with 10+ other vendors who are selling much more creative things. We’ve only gotten more and more options as time went on.

The veterans:

  • Upgraded hefan carts that allow you to choose which dishes to go with your rice; usually there are six or so dishes to choose from.
  • Roujiamo, a Chinese version of the hamburger, which can be filled with anything from chopped up pork to Chinese sausages.
  • Jianbing. Actually, this just appeared today (or recently), which I’ll explain in a minute. But for some time now, there has been a giant jianbing maker. Imagine making a crepe that’s the size of an XL New York-style pizza, then filling it with the sauce and fried dough and onions and cilantro and stuff. That’s how big these jianbings are. I tried one once. It was not very good.
  • “Sushi.” Just rolls with vegetables.
  • Fruit.

The ones who made it:

  • Liang fen/Liang pi, which is a cold dish with glass (starch) noodles, sliced cucumbers and other vegetables, tossed with a peanut sauce and oil.
  • Dumplings, now both steamed and fried, as well as fried baozi.
  • Cheap ice cream. This is gone now as the temperature has gotten colder.
  • Deep-fried squid balls, a Taiwanese street snack.

The noobs:

  • Wonton noodle soup. Seriously, what? I can’t even find wonton soup in most restaurants, and now it’s being sold on the street.
  • Chuanr. The ubiquitous skewers that are everywhere.
  • Roasted sweet potatoes. Technically, this is a seasonal snack, and they’ve been around before, but I’m putting it here because it’s just come back.
  • Roasted chestnuts. MMMMMMM.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten one or two things. Every once in a while, the police will come and I’ll get caught in a stampede of flatbed tricycles fleeing the scene, with still-hot metal plates trailing heat and oil behind them.

These carts are also in addition to a revamped bloc of restaurants next to our office, which all got facelifts or were shuttered and replaced with fancier, chicer restaurants. This facelift, of course, meant that my kiosks selling breakfast/lunch street food, such as jianbing and shaobing jia ji dan, and bubble tea were both dismantled. But today, as I mentioned earlier, I saw an extra jianbing cart out on the street in front of my office. And who was running it? The same lady who used to work at that breakfast stand. Good to know she’s back in business.

Speaking of bubble tea, when I first started working here, there was no bubble tea. That changed last year when the bubble tea kiosk on the small street next to my office. (Perhaps you’ll remember it as the one that got knocked down and came back as a tent at the start of summer.) Since then, two more ‑ or three, if you count the one going in the opposite direction ‑ have opened, which either shows the popularity of the drink in China or the lack of imagination of Chinese business owners. But I can’t get enough of the stuff, so I’m not complaining.

And the best news: my tea shop is closed temporarily again. Seems they are building a sturdier structure made of wood and metal. Might be good for my tea shop boys come winter.

The Blue Devils come to town

August 23rd, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Life, USA! USA!

Two-and-a-half years after I saw them last play in person, the Dookies still stir up some feeling of contempt and hatred within me. There they were last night, a whole new class of players, in Beijing of all places! I wore a white top with a light blue skirt and proudly stuck a Tarheel sticker on my cheek. Maybe a hundred Duke alum congregated at Wukesong Arena to cheer on their alma mater, which was playing in a series of friendly matches between U.S. universities and Chinese professional teams. Another large group of UNC supporters also showed up for their chance to root for whoever isn’t Duke. In this case, it was the Chinese Olympic team. All I have to say is, zhong guo jia you!

Alas, wow, Chinese professional athletes are pretty bad. I mean, they seemed slow and a little confused against the Duke players. They were also sloppy: more than once, a Duke player just poked the ball out of a Chinese player’s hands while he was deciding his next move. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, the Dookies were a very athletic team with a good chemistry. Lots of theatrical dunks and alley-oops for the crowd, which gobbled them up with generous applause. There was a time when Duke was up 13-3 and another time, a short time after the first time, when it was up 28-6. But China did battle back, coming to within three points in the third quarter. But they lost 93-78.

Of course, what everyone was hoping for didn’t happen. My friends and I were sitting nearer to the top, 24 rows back from the court, so we couldn’t hear what was going on, on the court. But according to a friend of a friend, who works for a U.S. broadcaster, there were cursing, dirty looks and rage, especially on the part of one Coach K. There also were, like in the Georgetown/Bayi match, an unusually high number of fouls called, especially on Duke. In the end, the only heckling came from us, when during a quieter period, we resorted to college antics and yelled a two-word phrase containing a curse word and “Duke.” And lest anyone take us too seriously, trash-talking is just a light-hearted way to stir up one of the country’s greatest rivalries in sports. It’s fun.

Speaking of light-heartedness, what’s up with the video game sound effects they use? A made free throw provokes a sound reminiscent of Mario getting a gold coin on Super NES or leveling up. A three-point attempt gets a pheeeeewoooop swooshy sound. And then, during play, they blasted snippets of random songs. They included Jibbs’s “Chain Hang Low” and — I’m not kidding — a sort of techno’d version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Now I wonder if this is something they do at all matches, or just these friendlies, to you know, make it seem friendly.

Signs of life!

August 17th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life

At some point last week, I peered into my basil pot and saw that the soil was all dry and had receded. I mean, the soil line was, like, a good inch lower than it was when I first filled the pot. I’m not really sure why.

I panicked. I was so busy keeping the temperature constant that I’d forgotten to water my plant! So I swooped up the pot and ran to the kitchen sink and blasted the tiny, helpless seeds with water. Ugh. Now there were water holes in the soil, and I’d flooded the seeds. There really is something wrong with me. Dismayed, I tried to smooth out the soil with my fingers and un-bury my future basil plants.

Then, on Sunday, seven days after I’d sowed the seeds, I tentatively peered into the cup. I thought I was seeing things! So I put on my glasses and looked again. Something’s totally growing in there! Look:

One week old.

I did it! I got something to grow! My killer green thumb is now doing the opposite. Onto the next step. Something about selecting the stronger-looking ones and getting rid of the pussies. Right. When am I supposed to do that?

Exercising my green thumb

August 8th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life

I’m growing basil. Well, I’m TRYING to grow basil. I have a notorious killer green thumb. I bought this basil pot in, like, February, so I hope it’s still growable. Anyway, now you can follow its progress with me!

Please, please something grow.

Here it is, at planting time. Maybe I should name it? But I’m going to eat it, so maybe not.

The instructions say that basil will begin sprouting after about seven to 10 consecutive days of temperatures between 21 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius. And that’s it! Not very instructive. Unfortunately, it’s about 10 degrees Celsius warmer in Beijing. Does this mean I should turn on the air conditioner to make it a constant 25 degrees? Or will it be OK with the temperature fluctuations? Help! I need advice!

Things I have eaten recently

July 16th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life, USA! USA!

A few weeks ago, I wished for decent goi cuon, the delicious, wonderfully fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. This is a summer staple in my family, and my mother made me all jealous and homesick when she told me they were making some on their beach holiday with a bunch of family friends. But HA. Enter Susu, a new upscale Vietnamese restaurant hidden in a hutong near the heart of the city. For less than 100 kuai, I can roll about eight of these babies myself. So last week, I did!

Clockwise from bottom left: Rice vermicelli, leafy veggies and rice paper wrapper, pork and shrimp, and the finished product.

Unfortunately the noodles were too crunchy, the pork and shrimp were tasteless, and the fish sauce was too sweet. (Plus I had to ask for more fish sauce after every single roll because they only gave me a tiny bit every time. WTF?) But still good enough to eat.

I also got around to having my Fourth of July hot dog about five days later. This is the same chili cheese hot dog that I got two years ago, on my first July 4th in China.

Yay America!

And finally. I returned from England with just a box of wine gums, to my dismay, and none of the other goodies England has to offer. But one morning, on a convenience store breakfast run before work, something caught my eye:

"Jia fa dan gao."

It’s a box of Jaffa cakes with Chinese characteristics. This cannot be good, I thought. Especially since it’s got blueberry jam, and not the usual orange. So I bought a box because I love Chinese bastardizations of Western crap, and sure enough, it was awful. Very crumbly. It was so bad that I can’t even remember what it tastes like, just the general feeling of regret for putting it in my mouth and chewing it. Oh well.

China is not cheap, part 2

July 13th, 2011 by Johanna | 1 comment | Filed in China, Current Events, Life

China’s rising cost of living has been dominating the news lately, if not overseas, then definitely domestically. First-half figures just released show that food prices alone jumped more than 11 percent over the first six months last year. When I first came to Beijing, my shao bing jia ji dan was 1.5 kuai; it’s now 2 kuai, or 33 percent more expensive. I’ve watched as zha jiang mian at Hai Wan Ju rose from something under 15 kuai two years ago to 16 kuai last year to 19 kuai now. Sometimes I skip meals just to save money (and who am I kidding, also because I’m lazy).

So it really comes as little surprise that Beijing ranks No. 20 on the newly released 2011 Worldwide Cost of Living survey by Mercer. It actually fell four places from last year. At any rate, it still ranks above New York, the only U.S. city in the top 50, Paris and Rome. This makes me feel slightly snobby, and I wonder if this might be the reason why I like living in Beijing, despite how horrible it is. Because it’s expensive. Probably!

The day I swam home from work

June 24th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Life

There was a bout of torrential rain in Beijing last night that started about an hour before work ended. I’m talking super big rain. Rain that caused flash flooding like this:

China News Agency

I did not have to wade in water that deep, and actually I wasn’t even going home. I was going all the way across the city to meet friends for dinner. Auspicious! Let’s count the ways in which I was subverted:

  1. I splashed through a gigantic puddle up to my ankles that spread from my office building to the bus stop.
  2. And then because traffic wasn’t moving in that direction, I headed to another bus stop, where the bus never came.
  3. So I hopped onto a different bus an hour later, which ended up stuck at a single intersection for about half an hour
  4. to get to the subway station, which was closed. Luckily, it was just that particular entrance that wasn’t letting people in, so I found another entrance.
  5. Transferred lines, but too many people were waiting to get on and didn’t want to walk three giant Beijing blocks (it’ll take a good 10-15 minutes each) in the pouring rain.
  6. Hopped on another line and ended up stopping at each station for five minutes because they couldn’t turn them around at the final stop fast enough.

What should have taken roughly an hour turned into a three-hour journey. In the pouring rain. Crammed in with people on the bus and train who were all soaking wet with wet umbrellas making me even more wet. Although, it was a good metaphor for my life right now.

At the bus stop. I swear, the water was deeper than this looks.

The quest for bun, or how my food cravings can be satisfied in Beijing

June 15th, 2011 by Johanna | 1 comment | Filed in China, Food, Life

I love Vietnamese cuisine, especially in the summer when its refreshing dishes are often served cold. And its use of uncooked dipping sauces for flavoring is a great alternative to the greasiness and saltiness of Beijing fare. (I really love fish sauce!) As of late, anything Vietnamese has been my favorite food.

You’d think that, with Vietnam so close to China and its food sharing many similar ingredients with some regional Chinese cuisines, that good, cheap Vietnamese wouldn’t be so hard to find. You would be wrong, like I was, though. I mean, why would you pay more than 6 bucks for a bowl of pho? You don’t even have to do that in the U.S., and if you do, it’s a total rip-off. But alas, any foreign cuisine, even if it’s Asian, automatically means developed country prices, so my limit for a bowl of pho is 40 kuai. They can be 60 RMB or more here.

There are actually quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in Beijing, including two popular ones in my second home of Sanlitun. One is pretty expensive and not worth the price; the other has French influences and a hefty menu that makes it too easy for me to run up a pricey tab. There’s also a couple of sketchy-looking banh mi shops that have gotten decent reviews. At any rate, I’ve never really cared for banh mi, but now that I think about it, I’m kind of craving one.

None of these places beats my small neighborhood Vietnamese dive. This is exciting! We’ve been frequenting this place near once a week since we moved. The first time we went, it was just us. The second time, one person came in for takeaway. Now, every time we go, there seems to be more and more diners. It’s affordable: a large bowl of pho is 20 kuai ($3.08) and if you get a combo meal, you get a tiny side and drink for about a buck more. The dish itself isn’t as amazing as what you’d find in the U.S. because the quality of ingredients in China just isn’t there, and the ratio of noodles to beef always errs on the side of the noodles, but I am more than satisfied with the broth (never too oily or sweet) and the fact that $3 still gets me all the trimmings (basil, bean sprouts and a lime wedge).

My only complaint about this restaurant is that its menu is rather limited. It has three kinds of pho (with beef, beef tripe and chicken) and a rice dish that came with grilled pork. It has sides of include chicken wings, spring rolls and fish cakes. Basically, I only eat the pho.

But then, to my delight, when boyfriend and I went last night, the place was nearly full and they had expanded their menu. (They also raised their prices slightly, but not by too much.) In addition to pho and rice dishes, they had bun, which is pronounced like boon and you have to inflect your tone up. I’ve been craving this dish ever since I had it in Yunnan at my mommy’s second cousin’s house. I’ve actually had it, or similar, a couple of times already (in London and last Friday at Muse), but my craving just won’t go away! MMMM crispy lettuce and vegetables, cold rice noodles and grilled pieces of pork. I could eat this all day. Bun is also really fun to say, like a balloon inflating.

Now if only I can find a place that serves banh cuon, banh beo and decent goi cuon…

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