A week and a few in review.

Saturday, February 2nd: Hooliganism at IKEA.

Marion and I went for Swedish Meatballs at the IKEA Restaurant tonight, and like adolescent young adults that we are, we were playing with our food, placing the balls and fries around our plate in such a way that it resembled a face or an island, using the parsley for trees. It all started off quite innocently, of course, but I went straight for the gutter once I found another way to use parsley to represent a different kind of bush. The meatballs and fries were just too easy.

It was nice shopping at IKEA just thirty minutes before closing, as it was pretty vacant. We were free to roam around to our heart's content without customers getting in the way of our outlandish acts of 'living' within the showroom suites and taking pictures as we moved about. From the bedroom suite to the kitchen suite, and the living room suite to the office suite, we posed for the camera on ten-second-timer, pretending to argue, fight, work, eat, and drink wine. Reviewing the photo just after it was taken, we burst out laughing with chants of "Again! Again!" Hooliganism is fun!

We crashed at Leo's for the night and consumed his prized tequila while watching a movie called Once Upon A Time in China. I couldn't keep my eyes open beyond the first ten minutes, falling asleep on a pad right in front of the television.










Sunday, February 3rd: Olympic Park.

Lee, Leo, Filip, Rafi, Marion, and I took a trip out to visit the Olympic Park in the afternoon to survey the new developments and compose our shots through the viewfinder. It was a pleasant day out with just enough chill in the air to keep us moving briskly along. As we were gathered around one of the gates to the Birds Nest, aka National Stadium, a reporter and a cameraman from CCTV approached us for an interview. She wanted a foreigner's perspective on what the Olympics means to us. Lee and Leo were all too happy to tell her (and in essence, to Beijingers) what they wanted to hear.

2 Minutes of Fame.

Monday, February 4th: The Cheap Drunk.

After looking and comparing laptop computers at Zhongguancun for Marion, we moved on to The Red House for some pizza, beer, and socialising with Kyle. The gourmet pizzas served here are decadent, with high quality ingredients such as prosciutto and mozzarella cheese for a mouth-watering experience. Basked in the warm and social atmosphere of The Red House with the lights dimmed down to its minimal, we got carried away with the cheap Tsingdao beers and I found myself taking one after another during a game of "Waterfall". Soon after, and as a testiment to how intollerant I've become to alcohol, Kyle and Marion had to pick me up from the restaurant floor.

I was in no shape to head back to my own apartment, so I'd spent the night over at Kyle's.


Tuesday, February 5th: PATTHECAT.

A new CouchSurfer by the name of Patrick (PATTHECAT) arrived at my door today, by bike. Cycling from his hometown of Barcelona, he made a stopover in Beijing on his around-the-world trip to which he'd given himself 2.5 years to complete. Check out his website at www.imagineonbike.com/


Wednesday, February 6th: Rastafarians in the Spring.

Yet another CouchSurfer, this time by the name of Diana (DINOVY) arrived at my door this afternoon. I had met her first when I was in Guilin at a CS dinner gathering back in October of 2007. As this was the eve of "Chun Jie" (Spring Festival) and on the day of Bob Marley's birthday anniversary, we were in for lots of fun tonight at a club called Yu Gong Yi Shan. The Jamaican Embassy had put on a reggae night in honour of Mr. Marley to bring Rastafarians together, and when the clock struck midnight, the crackling and booming sounds of fireworks were in full swing to announce the arrival of the year of the rat.



Thursday, February 7th: "Willst du Deine Pömpel?!"

Leo requested to borrow my plunger a few days ago so I brought it along with me today as we made plans to get together for a trip up to Jingshan Park. I had brought my two CouchSurfers, Patrick and Diana, with me and met up with Leo (who's a local CSer) at Tian'anmen West subway station. Just then, I got a call from Lee (another local CSer) who was having lunch with a CSer he was hosting from Australia just next to Jingshan Park. Our group of five CSers balooned to six with Shuichi (to whom I also met at the CS dinner in Guilin) joining us for lunch. At the park, we met Elle and her cousin, and a photographer who a visiting CSer met on the train ride to Beijing not long ago. Talk about a small world.

Our group expanded to the point that it became hard to move together as one heard amongst the crowd of tourists in the area. We didn't have the yellow flag that organised tour guides are often seen with, nor did we have matching yellow ball caps for everyone, so the plunger I was carrying became the replacement for the flag, to which was met with an uproarious laughter. Lee took the lead, holding the plunger high up in the air, and did a wonderful job as our leader, guiding us to the bar and cafe street of Nanluoguxiang. And that's where a new CSer by the name of Brie (BRIOS) joined us.

The night just kept getting better and better and we finished it off with a dinner gathering at a Chinese restaurant near the Bell Tower.





Friday, February 8th: Mutainyu, Conquered.

Mutainyu: an incredible experience. Diana, Brie, and I took to the walls this morning arranged by the Far East Hostel. Just see the pictures to see how happy we all were to have conquered it!

I was invited to a Crepe party tonight. Joanne, Nico, and Marion (the Frenchies) were hard at work in the kitchen with making the crepes, while I was in the living room chatting it up with the others at the party and waiting for the crepes to arrive. I filled mine with peanut butter and Nutella, and also tried another one with a jam concoction. It was definitely savoury and I was begging for more!





Saturday, February 9th: Madamme Legume.

I welcomed Alberto and Daisy, a couple from Shanghai, to surf my couch tonight. We went out for Hot Pot with Leo, Kyle, Marion, Brie, and Madamme Legume, which was around Xizhimen (across the street from where we had the Crepe night at the Frenchies), then moved on to show them Sanlitun, and finally wound up at the Bookworm for a chillout. A hard days' night, indeed.





Sunday, February 10th: Funned out.

Finally, a day of nothingness! Chillaxed. Woke up at 1530. Said my goodbyes to Alberto and Daisy, and watched YouTube videos at Lee's. Sometimes, I too, need a break from all the fun in Beijing.

An Eventful Week.

Friday, January 18th: 80s Night @ Alfa.

A wonderful gathering of about 15 members at a great hot pot restaurant called Little Sheep was followed by some ass-shakin' hippidy-hoppidy, hand-swaying, head-sliding, hip-checking, and hollering to the flashback 80s night at Alfa. Let the good times roll!


Wednesday, January 23rd: Doling out the Dumplings.

Like the many social events I've hosted in the past, this one was just as entertaining. Aaron, the man of the night, brought his culinary skills to life by showing the rest of us how to make our own jiaozi, preparing the meat, shrimp, and vegitable mixture in the kitchen, taking a small spoonful in the palm of our hands, and wrapping them up in skin for the boil. Everyone had a go at it, creating little dumplings of joy, some bursting at the seams.

Ghetto Dumplings!

Saturday, January 26th: Alles Gut zum Geburtstag, Lee!

Lee gets a little bit older, but is he wiser? The jury is still out on this. In celebration, a group of us CouchSurfers joined him at Vivian's Bar in Chaoyangmen for Beijing Improv.


Monday, January 28th: Beijing Acrobats.

Su Fang had organised a wonderful event exclusively for CouchSurfers to see the famed Beijing Acrobats do their thing at the Chaoyang Theatre. While others not in the loop had to shell out hundreds of RMB for a ticket, CSers only had to shell out 30 RMB, making our visit even more pleasurable. With plates and bowls being tossed up into the air and precariously balanced on the head of another acrobat standing on yet another acrobat's shoulder while spinning two plates on sticks in both hands, well, that was a sight to behold. From jumping though hoops in miraculous ways to watching over a dozen female acrobats riding a single bike around the stage, it was a breathtaking experience not to be missed!

Beijing Acrobats.

Wednesday, January 30th: Ice Skating on Houhai Lake.

Leo and I got together over the frozen Houhai Lake to take part in some ice skating in the Jing. Though it had been a few years since I had taken part in any form of skating (my last time must have been with the VSC back in 2006), I did pretty well on the rough ice and was speed skating like a true Canadian in no time. Leo from Argentina, on the other hand, had a little more difficulty, and had to use ice picks (which were simply screw drivers with a long piece of metal welded to it) to stabilise himself.

Leo got progressively better with each tumble to the point where he actually made plans to fall on his ass after wobbling on skates for a few minutes. "I have to fall now." he would say.

Marion joined us in the evening at the Starbucks overlooking Houhai, where she took her story-telling skills to new highs using candy animals on a stick as props and giving voices for each. We just stared in awe, as did the other customers at the café.

Leo on Ice.

Marion and her Friends.

Jilin, Harbin, Changchun, and back.

Kim and I decided to take a weekend excursion to visit Harbin for The Ninth Harhin Ice and Snow World. What we did not anticipate (though we should have) was the huge crowd of Chinese people also travelling to Harbin for the same reason. Train stations were littered with them like a colony of maggots festering on a dead animal's carcass, and as a result, we had to contend with queuing in long lines and hoping for the best where ever we went. To aggravate the matter, you can't purchase train tickets online, nor can you buy them all at once or check for seat availability for your return trip. You can count on the Chinese to find the most inefficient way to do anything.



By the time we got to the ticketing window, no direct trains to Harbin were available anymore, so instead, we bought a ticket to Jilin which is roughly the half way point from Beijing to Harbin. From Jilin, we queued in line again and found ourselves on a train bound for Harbin at last.

Fortunately. the Harbin Ice and Snow World made up for the trouble of getting to Harbin. I had never seen anything like it in my life! These sculptures were massive in scale, some towering at twenty-feet high! There were many recognisable structures replicated in the form of ice such as the Arc d'Triumphe, the Parthenon, and the Forbidden City.



At temperatures dipping below -20ºC, not only were our hands and faces freezing stiff, the camera and mobile phone battery kept dying as well. I had to take it out periodically, cup it with my hands, and breathe into it to warm it up to continue taking pictures. As for sending SMS messages on my mobile, it was as slow as watching molasses drip. The menus faded slowly in and out of each other like a trippy transition!

Midnight rolled around and any warmth from the sun that had blessed us during the day was now gone. We walked all over Harbin and found another attraction worth visiting: The church of St. Sofia. This Byzantine-styled church clearly has its Russian influence on Harbin.



Changchun had nothing much to offer except for Puppet Emperor's Palace, which was very impressive. Pu Yi, China's last emperor, lived an interesting life here during an uproarious period in China's history. This palace is now a museum to which I had thoroughly enjoyed my visit, but I would have had a greater appreciation and understanding if I had watched Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor beforehand.



Here's an excerpt from my DK Eyewitness Guide:


The Last Emperor

Aisin Gioro or Pu Yi ascended the Qing throne at the age of three in 1908 after the death of his uncle, the Guangxu emperor. His brief reign as the Xuantong emperor was brought to an end on February 12, 1912, when he abdicated the throne in the Forbidden City to make way for the new Republican government. The powerless Pu Yi continued to live in the palace until 1924, before furtively escaping to live in the Japanese concession in Tianjin. He was later installed as the Japanese puppet emperor of Manchukuo, residing in his palace in Changchun. At the end of World War II, he was arrested and handed over to the Chinese Communists, who imprisoned him in 1950. In 1959, Mao granted him amnesty. Pu Yi never returned to the Forbidden City, and he died of cancer, childless and anonymous, in 1967, after working for seven years as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens.

Goodbye and Hello.

2007 ended with a delicious dinner at what is quickly becoming our favourite hot pot restaurant: Little Sheep. The food was great, and so was the company I was in.



We moved on to Kokomo's as the final hour of the year drew closer and closer. As the minutes moved along, we grew even more excited. Sparklers and cocktails in hand, we counted down the remaining seconds in chorus and reigned the new year in. This is the year we've all been looking forward to and now we're finally in it. Big talks about how 2008 is going to change China forever is at it's loudest and hopes and ambitions are growing with intensity. It's all happening this year. Will this prophecy live up to its hype? Only time will tell...

New Year '08 at Kokomo.