I feel the need to write an apology for those people (particularly MJ, who has been the most vocal) for my tardiness in updating my blog. My only excuse is that I've recently got a job in Beijing and I've been in my "settling in" period, where I needed to get used to getting up early again and going into work (quite tiring when you haven't done it for 8 months!) ...   more »

About a two hour drive to the north of Beijing lies a resort called Nanshan where, for very reasonable rates, it's possible to ski or snowboard. Rising early on Saturday morning, a group of us travelled to Nanshan in a tour minibus to see if we could get through the day without serious injury and possibly come away with a new skill to boast about to friends ...   more »

Hutongs (a Mongolian word meaning "water well" - many homes like this were built around wells thus providing a constant source of water) are the traditional living arrangement in Beijing. They are courtyard style houses clumped together that make a maze of alleyways leading from one Hutong to another. To the untrained (i.e. western) eye it does look like a mess of houses surrounded by walls, with access to a particular courtyard only possible by first having to negotiate the labyrinth successfully ...   more »

People do recognise and celebrate this end of year festival in China, but not quite in the same way or with the same amount of marketing fervour. Christmas lights get put up everywhere; shop windows, big malls, across high streets and in the windows of apartments and houses. However, there are no adverts informing us where to buy our presents from or shops trying to ram their products down our throats by suddenly devoting half the store solely to festive goods. There are Christmas trees put up outside malls and people queue up (young and old) to have their photos taken with ... a penguin (well, not a real one, but a grown man stuffed into a big fluffy costume). There is no sign of a jolly, white bearded fat man clad in red anywhere. In his absence, people jostle and push (the Chinese do not queue) to buy tickets so that they can stand by a huge and lavishly decorated tree and be photographed with the flightless bird. Well, at least penguins exist ...   more »

Recently, Hannah and I were eating at our favourite restaurant (well, favourite until we eat at any of the other many and varied restaurants near where we live and discover an alternative) when a spot of trouble broke out. We were enjoying stuffing our greedy little western faces when we heard the unmistakable sound of something smashing in the near vicinity. Looking round we saw a local sending a volley of harsh words into the corner of the establishment (well, I assumed they were harsh, especially given the response he received). Some screaming followed his words, as did some more crockery, shattering just over his head. Foolishly he decided that the best course of action was to make immediately for the trouble spot and see if he could sort things out ...   more »

After spending hours scouring the various markets and supermarkets of Beijing in an attempt to find a replacement part that would enable me to plumb in the washing machine, I was beginning to feel a little despondent. Would we ever be able to live like modern humans in China and possess a working washing machine? It seemed like a distant pipe dream and believe me, if having a working washing machine becomes a dream for you then you know things are not particularly rosy ...   more »

Well, it's been a bit of a chore getting all the utilities on our new place (photos of which to come soon) set up and working. Electricity and gas, on the face of it, seem to be quite simple; they both work on a prepayment system. Put money on a card, put card into meter, get two of the necessities of modern living piped into your lovely abode. Not quite so simple, sadly. For instance, where do you go to fill up these cards? Quite strangely, no one seems to know. The leasing office were unable to help, they didn't know. Management couldn't supply the information (which seems insane, surely the management of the apartment complex should know these things!) ...   more »

Sorry for the absence, folks, but it's been tricky trying to get an internet connection. I've been asking various different people at the management and leasing offices where I can get connected, both in English and (very) broken Chinese ("Wo xiang shangwang"). Someone at the leasing office who spoke English managed to tell me that I had to go to Xibahe and apply there. My first question was the rather obvious "where is Xibahe"? I was curtly told that any taxi driver would take me there. So, emboldened with the knowledge that internet access couldn't be far away, I got a taxi and said in a fairly confident voice "Xibahe". He had no idea where that was ...   more »

A lot of restaurants sell food that isn't actually much different from the sort you'd buy in many western Chinese restaurants. It's pretty much all rice and noodle based, with an assortment of vegetables and whichever meat you've chosen in whichever flavour ...   more »

After a 10 hour flight we finally arrived in Beijing. In need of some sleep, perhaps, but excited all the same to be in the city that we will now be calling home ...   more »

Well I'm finally up and running even though I've written nothing of value just yet (some of you, cynically, may suggest that I'll never write anything of value) ...   more »