Living La Vida Tai Tai (太太)

As I still wait for my job to start, I’ve had lots of time on my hand. Essentially, I am what you call a “man of leisure” or “lady of leisure”. In Chinese, Tai Tai (太太), means wife, but is also a nickname used to describe a woman married to a wealthy man, who has plenty of time to enjoy her hobbies. Hence, influencing the title of this blog entry. During these few months, I’ve learned tons about Chinese culture through different classes (i.e., Qi Gong, cooking and Chinese language), experienced my first winter in Beijing (a very cold and grossly polluted one), made new friends, and with Matt, transformed our new place into our home. Overall, things have been great and I feel truly blessed.

Beijing-China’s Political and Cultural Capital

IKEA: Families sit down, dine and/or sleep in the furniture.

Chinese cities are full of hustle and bustle. There’s always some construction noise in the distance, someone selling something (e.g., trinkets, stinky tofu, “iPhone 5”), some factory making things (and producing lots of pollution), and some new restaurant to try.  The spirit/smells/sights of development never dies. This is no surprise given that China is the world’s second largest economy. Chinese cities are massive in population (5 cities are larger than NYC) and all have quickly developed in the last 10 years. Although many Chinese cities look similar, Shanghai and Beijing have distinctive characteristics. Shanghai looks like New York City on steroids look (with distinct landmarks, like the Pearl Tower); whereas Beijing has a combination of high buildings, skyscrapers and historic sites.

Bird's Nest: 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Upon arrival, it becomes visually obvious that Beijing is China’s capital. Everything is HUGE. The blocks between buildings are long and sometimes one building will take up an entire block. The city is literally one continuous skyline. The city is planned on a concentric circle system. The inner-most ring, the first ring, contains the Forbidden City where the Emperor used to live. With increased population and modernization, the city has expanded outward to six rings.  There has been talk to add a seventh one. This city plan began in the early 1400s just after the Ming dynasty had deliberately burned down (their predecessor) Mongol planned-city.

Beijing has been China’s capital for a little over 600 years under Han Chinese rule and over 700 years including Mongol rule. Before, the city functioned as a Northern fortress to keep invaders out. It’s amazing how much this city (and country) has been through in the last 100 years where it went from an imperial to republic to a social state. And even in the last 50-60 years, so much changed with the Great Leap Forward (an attempt to transform Chinese agrarian society to a “modern communist” society, leading to 18 million + deaths), the Cultural Revolution (academics and elites were persecuted and/or sent to “re-education camps”; cultural/religious sites were ransacked or destroyed; millions died of famine) and the recent industrialization (really bad pollution; endless skylines; China becoming the world’s largest consumer of luxury goods). [Source: Wikipedia] It’s truly impressive how quickly the Chinese people adapt.

Beijing’s Famous and Historic Sites

Forbidden City Entrance

Tiananmen Square
Of Beijing’s historic sites, Matt and I have been to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. They are massive in size and are reminders of the scale Chinese people build and think. Tiananmen Square is a large flat square, where in pre-Tiananmen Square massacre days, people were allowed to protest, hang out and sleep overnight.  Today, there’s high security and really nothing to do other than take pictures and soak up its history. Most pictures taken from Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, as pictured to the right.

View of the Forbidden City from atop a hill.

Forbidden City
Directly across the street from Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City lies at the center of the city and center of the city’s axis. It contains the imperial meeting halls and living quarters. For 500 years, the Forbidden City was only open to the imperial family, court and workers. It opened up and became a museum after the last emperor was evicted in 1925. Much of the precious items were shipped to Taiwan at the National Palace museum. You can find important imperial temples and modern monuments along the city’s axis, such as the 2008 Olympics Bird’s Nest.

Mutianyu, the middle section of he Great Wall

The Great Wall
For our anniversary (coinciding with the Lunar New Year), we stayed at a boutique lodge, called the Brickhouse, formerly a pottery factory. Each room has high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows. Your view from each room is the Great Wall.  It was pretty romantic! I’d highly recommend anyone to stay there.  During our night stay, we helped the lodge staff set off over 250,000 firecrackers, ate hot pot and dumplings, watched fireworks and hung out with a couple Embassy friends. The next morning, we took a cable car ride up to the Great Wall and walked around a bit. With little pollution, we were fortunate to have decent visibility of the wall. Visiting the Great Wall inspired us to see more obscure parts of the wall. I’m also considering participating in the Great Wall Marathon one of the years I’m here in Beijing. I’ll probably opt for the shorter distance, considering my knee problems.


Weather: Cold Winter, Sandy Spring

Beijing is typically cold and dry during the winters. Our first winter has been much wetter (i.e. snowfall at least twice a month) and colder than others. Although it’s been wetter, it is still pretty darn dry. Because of winter weather inversions, the pollution also gets trapped causing the air-pocalypse (link) that happened in January.

Impending sandstorm....pretty eerie.

We also experienced our first Beijing sandstorms. Two weeks ago, it got really windy, which is usually a great sign that the air pollution is about to clear up, but it didn’t. It still looked pretty hazy out. I didn’t realize we were experiencing a sandstorm until I went outside and felt the sand granules hit my face and see thin layers of sand collect everywhere. With deforestation, vegetation has disappeared, leaving little buffer between the city and the desert (northeast of Beijing). In 2010, a sandstorm dumped a couple inches onto Beijing. On the flip side, we’ve been starting to get 60 degree weather, which is a surefire sign of Spring! Time for outdoor seating!


Getting to Know Chinese Culture

Chinese Steamed Buns made in class.

Even though I lived in Guangzhou last year, I didn’t really take advantage of learning the local culture. There weren’t any places that offered cultural classes and most locals primarily spoke Cantonese or Fujianese dialects. Both of which I know nothing of. With a large expat community in Beijing, there are several schools where one can take classes on Chinese culture, tea, language, qi gong, cooking, art, etc.  It’s also a great place to meet non-embassy people and make friends.

Matt and I enjoy taking classes at this school called the Hutong. So far, Matt’s taken a couple photography classes. I’ve taken a course on making Chinese steamed buns, and currently taking a five-week class on Qi Gong , which is kind of like Tai Chi. The Qi Gong class also gives an introduction to Chinese medicine and health practices. It's really interesting and I'll devote a future article to it. For now, I’m very eager to learn. In the coming weeks, I also plan to take other Chinese cooking courses and on Chinese tea.


Let's Get Domesticated

We moved two and half months ago and have been quick to settle in. Since we’re posted here for four years, we wanted to quickly make our place our home.  We hired a housekeeper, who comes twice a week to cook, clean, do our laundry and iron our clothes. During our week off for Lunar New Year, we painted our living room, dining room and bedroom. We ordered new bedding and things to complement our newly painted walls. We bought an aquarium with cute, colorful fish. We've dog sat for a friends.We’ve also gone further domestic by making our own yogurt and ice cream. Because I’m still waiting to work, I’ve learned how to cook Chinese BBQ pork buns, and simple Mexican food. After a two-year hiatus, I am back at the gym, at least four times a week.  We also have had friends over, which we seldom did in Guangzhou and DC because our places there were so small. We love our home and are excited to add more to it.

Before and After: our living room and dining room.

Grilled pork to go into Char Shao Steamed Buns (Chinese BBQ Pork Buns).

Say hello to our pet fishes!

My first attempt at Mexican food. Not bad!

Upcoming Travels
In the next month, we plan to see friends in Shanghai and Taipei. Because Matt cannot take much leave (since he’s in language training) and I haven’t started my job (no money), we’re delaying much of our travel. Once that’s done, we look forward to exploring other parts of China and Asia and, of course visiting our favorite places (i.e. Hong Kong, Thailand).

All photos taken from my iPhone