I Am Dumb and Deleted My Original Blog

Post Olympics

2008-08-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Now that the Olympics are over, I plan to post some older stories that were in the pipeline soon, keep checking for new posts!

Olympics Day 8

2008-08-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Its my last day in Beijing, and probably time for some reflection. But first, some observations.

Last night I managed, after some jockeying in line and some encouragement from my buddy Andrew, to get into "Club Bud" which was set up in a section of the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. It was, as expected, packed with athletes, coaches, officials, friends, and moochers like myself from all nations. Drinks, seemingly limited to beer (Harbin which is owned by Budweiser, and imported Budweiser) and water, were free. In other words, it was a giant international frat party minus the keg stands (to my knowledge). The dance floor was packed and throbbing, the lounge area couches taken, the floors sticky and full of people getting their grove on. After the place closed at 4, Andrew and I went to the Sanlitun bar area where the party continued. Pooped from the night before, I left at around 5.

What I have not really discussed has been the sheer promotion of the Olympics in Beijing along with the hurried construction of buildings in order to make the city look presentable . Below is a shot of the new CCTV Tower (My apologies for the poor picture quality, it was taken from inside a taxi). Note how it looks pretty much finished, though a number of cabbies (notice a trend that all of my Beijing know-how seems to be sourced from taxi drivers?) asserted it would take at least 6 months to one year to finish work on it, outside and inside.

"Yeah they rushed to make the outside look nice. You know, for the Olympics; it'll take like a year to get everything done though." If you look closely you can still see a crane at the top of the building. Other buildings that were not completed or had abandoned apparently, according to my friends were quickly covered by scaffolding or huge Olympics advertisements.

The banners and ads promoting the Olympics are also everywhere. Bridges, roads, buildings, inside the airport, etc.

Reflections: I have to admit, despite the fantastic experience I had going to events, seeing different parts of the city, old and new and partying late into the night, I felt a sense of emptiness. This just wasn't the Beijing I knew, the real Beijing. Yes I appreciate clean air and relatively efficient traffic as much as the next person, but to me its such critical issues that define China's economic development. Additionally, a number of areas I visited were stunningly quiet and devoid of action. While the example of my old neighborhood is probably a poor one (given that the Team USA was staying nearby). However, ordering food in a restaurant and being told it was not available along with a number of other dishes "due to the Olympics" and not seeing the usual action of construction, fruit sales and other activities on the sprawling Chinese capital's streets, both big and small, that I feel give it a certain character that I have grown accustomed to love were missing. Or I'm just sad that I couldn't buy DVDs.

That being said, the air hasn't been incredibly clean (it has by Beijing's standards); smog was still visible on some days, and traffic has been slow at times, despite the odd and even numbers rule, though far less congested than normal. While the Olympics were a success on most fronts and provided the moments of glorious victory, crushing defeat, controversy along with the spectacular (this is putting it mildly) shows and facilities, I'll be glad that the next time I travel to Beijing, it'll be back to normal, whatever that may be.

Olympics Day 7

2008-08-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

Was out and about last night and noticed that Sanlitun seemed to be more crowded than a typical weekend night. Up at Bar Blu's terrace I had the good fortune to speak with a number of Olympics athletes and coaches representing Russia, the US, Germany and the UK. By the time I left Bar Blu at 5 am, the place, unlike on most weekend nights to my memory, was still hopping and filled with people.

What some the athletes said about Beijing:

"People have been brilliant and I can't complain about the facilities, but the rest is a set up, its fake, I know it, the air and the traffic especially," said a UK Athlete with her two colleagues nodding in unison.

"Its very nice, everything is." - Russian Athlete

"Actually we missed the Opening Ceremony; we were in Macao training and relaxing, and just got here one week ago." I pressed to ask if this was as a precaution against potential air quality issues.

"No, I don't think it was that. We were just there in a relaxing atmosphere, lots of teams were down there" - UK Athlete.

This morning at 945am I was awakened by a knocking on my friend's front door. I stumbled and opened the door only to see a police man and another man in plain clothes, asking to see our documents (mine, my friend's and his roommate's). Passports, visas and residence registrations were closely scrutinized for a few minutes, and I was asked when I would be leaving Beijing, though I was not required to show my plane ticket.

Olympics Day 6

2008-08-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

I was recently having dinner with some friends when I heard an incredible story about getting tickets to the Opening Ceremony and other high profile events.

There have been widespread complaints in these Olympics regarding sold out events having numerous empty seats available. While this does happen at most sporting events worldwide, it has not been just the odd empty seat or two but apparently large noticeable numbers of unoccupied seats at events that have been deemed "sold out". To assume that all of these are no-shows would be naive.

The story I heard last night may be able to explain some of that. While there is no way I have the talent or to coherently put together a winding and complex 30 minute story involving over twenty people purchasing tickets and attempting to make deals with three different high profile scalpers, I can say that businesses bought seats for the opening ceremony at about $8000 USD per seat (nothing really unusual there) on the morning of the event.

However, this same businessperson discussed in length about how company staff had collected bank money, reaching well over $150,000 USD in cash in RMB ($1 USD = 6.8RMB) to secure opening ceremony seats from organized scalpers, despite banks being closed (the deal was struck the night before). Frantic calls were made to colleagues and business partners to rush to ATMs and use other methods to secure large amounts of cash which were then collected and help. Deals were struck in a 5 star hotel lobby, after other sources with similar demands and prices, had fallen through... In one of the secret locations, apparently an office in one of Beijing's office towers was literally, stacked with tickets to all kinds of events with a number of high profile clients screening through and selecting tickets for various events.

While I am in no position to comment about the source or the tickets or the practices of such organizations, it is most certainly sheds some light on how some high profile events have not been filled to anywhere near capacity. I only wish I could have seen "stacked tickets" with my own eyes.

What I did see, however, at the Bird's Nest in my two visits this week was the government/VIP section was nearly empty both times.

Olympics Day 5

2008-08-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

Note: No photos today, I'm afraid.

"When the Olympics were in Seoul, you knew it. It was a very festive atmosphere all over the place. Beijing looks very quiet compared to what I see when I have visited other times for work. It seems like nothing special is going on, but it is much quieter with far less cars and people on the street," a colleague of mine noted.

And it seems to be very true. Special thanks to him for beautifully dumbing down my blog into three sentences.

Last night, I decided that I wanted some kebabs. I took a cab from the Bird's Nest to my old neighborhood restaurant, hoping to get some quality food and some good conversation with the owners. I got there at about 1215 AM and saw that the street was completely dark and empty. No activity, whatsoever. This being summer, it's very common to see people sitting on stools, drinking beer outside and chatting well into the night while munching on kebabs. The old neighborhood was no exception, and my favorite restaurant is usually open until 130am. As I stayed in my cab and looked on in surprise, the driver remarked, "must be the Olympics."

I was puzzled to say the least.

Today it dawned on me that last night, I had been near Beijing Normal University, where team USA is currently residing. I have heard from friends who are currently students there, that university is a fortress and one cannot get into the grounds without proper ID (something to do with team USA or being affiliated with the university). My guess is that authorities want to keep the area safe and quiet and have closed down surrounding areas early in the evening.

Another aspect I referred to in yesterday's post (when talking about construction) was the lack of availability of certain goods. Apparently there are numerous checkpoints outside the city of Beijing in which the flow of goods and people are heavily restricted. I had lunch with a friend a few days ago at a relatively upscale Japanese restaurant in downtown Beijing. My friend ordered something that the waitress said was not available. She tried to order another item only to be told that it too, could not be prepared. As my friend looked up, mildly irritated, the kind waitress pointed to a number of dishes that were currently unavailable. The reason, she said was, "due to the Olympics."

We ate our lunch with puzzled looks on our faces, though its a bit more clear now.

Olympics Day 4

2008-08-20T01:43:00.000-07:00

Went to Cao Chang Di a new-ish art district near Beijing's famed 798 Art District. It's an area that's off of the Airport Expressway and its an series of hutongs and low lying buildings, though more on the outskirts of Beijing. Walking through the hutong, it was clear that daily life had not changed, not even on a temporary basis.

When eating lunch, I noticed that I was the only one in the restaurant besides 3 waitresses and a cook, who were busy cutting chili peppers and watching a daytime drama on TV. I asked the waitress why they weren't watching the Olympics, instead.

"We watch it at night, sometimes," she said.

I went off to see some art galleries. It was in one of them I met "Mary" who was working the front desk. After looking at the art, and discussing with her our favorite pieces, I started asking questions: where are you from, what did you study, etc, nothing unusual. Then I asked how the Olympics had affected her daily life in Beijing thus far.

"Are you a journalist? You seem to like asking questions."

After assuring her I was not a journalist, and that I am asked questions in China all the time (usually the same ones), she said that there wasn't much time to watch the Olympics, maybe on occasion when at home. Because of her two-hour commute and only one day off per week, she didn't have the chance to watch the games. Mary did mention how her commute has been affected for the worse due to heavily increased traffic since her route to work goes near/past the Olympic Complex. Besides that she said the games had not really affected her daily life much.

I walked onto other galleries. At another one, I met "Shelly." She also didn't have time to watch the Olympics, though she argued, her commute to work was better given the automobile restrictions.

I then crossed the street to a complex that was currently being constructed to house additional art galleries. Two men were mixing cement with another watching on, as I walked in. The work was nearly done, save for some final touches and interior finishing and a pile of trash and rubble in the middle.
I was informed by one of the foremen (both pictured above) that if I was to sign a contract today, the interior could be finished along with electricity, water and internet/telephone in less than a month. Although the two men stating the complex was nearly done they informed me that full blown construction would not start again until October, after the Paralympics.

"Not only do we not have migrant workers, we cannot get materials, since they come from outside Beijing (something I will cover in tomorrow's post), there's a ban on construction and we're not even allowed to get rid of our trash," the manager explained. "I mean if we were to pick up all this trash/rubble and take it away to dump we'd be stopped." He then went on to show me how thick the walls of the place were and welcomed me to take a look around.

Finally I stopped in one last gallery and asked the two women working the front desk about the Olympics and its effect on their daily lives in recent weeks. While their responses were the same as I had heard from others, as in not having enough time to pay attention to the Games, and their lives not being affected by it, one pipped in and mentioned, " my commute is far easier." When I commented that Beijing was different, given the lighter traffic and the clean air, one of the women noted, "well not quite so clean today, is it?"

Though I had to agree, the air, as a "black cab" driver pointed out, was far cleaner than it usually is. When asked about the effect the Olympics had on his personal life, he stated "oh everything." When I pushed him to give me an example, he grinned, "well I get to rest every other day!"

My "rub it in" Olympic photo today is that of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who broke the Mens 200m world record (by .02 seconds) and took gold with his nearest competitor half a second behind him.

Olympics Day 3

2008-08-19T02:58:00.001-07:00

Woke up today and and made my way into downtown. First stop was Tiananmen Square. Predictably, security was significantly tighter than in other areas. Rather than hand checking bags, there were x-ray booths at every entrance, in addition to a fair number of police and security guards on patrol.

Additionally, there were a number of gardens and fountains in the square, which were clearly placed there very recently and beautifully maintained.

Something I found shocking or interesting was the lack of foreign tourists in the square. Maybe it was lunch time or they were watching the Olympics, but proportionally, there were far fewer foreign tourists that I previously had anticipated.

Walking out of the square, I proceeded to go to a side street parallel to Qianmen Road East. It was here that the Beijing Police Museum was located along with the People's High Court. Alongside the one of the streets were police and security cars in a row (they were empty, pictured below). I did get someone with a safety volunteer badge to pose for a photo though. The man in white and his friend (below), happily posed after smiling and pointing to their arm bands, saying "public safety volunteer." The neighborhood was so quiet, one could have thought it was any ordinary day, though with such buildings in the area, I'm sure things don't get too exciting. It was here that I saw my first SWAT vehicle, a black Hummer. I was too scared to take a photo though.

I next went to a hutong nearby which has been in the process of being razed for at least the past year. What caught my attention was that the outside walls were newly painted and there was an abundance of grass and new trees planted on sidewalks (none of which had been present a few months ago), but upon entering nothing had changed (save for a few more demolished houses/shops, when compared to a few months ago). Perhaps fewer people lived there, as they had probably moved out, but life went on as normal, quietly and peacefully. I saw groups of senior citizens speaking in groups, but decided not to bother them with annoying questions about the Olympics or taking photos. It was here that I felt a sense of solitude in the middle of the city. Silence enveloped the surrounding area and save for an occasional security volunteer and a few Chinese flags (both pictured below) one would have thought nothing out of the ordinary.

On my taxi ride back, I did get to pepper my driver with questions. his response was similar to most people I've spoken to about the Olympics. He's a little busier with work, traffic is better due to restrictions, but he really hasn't been affected personally. Though he was proud China was hosting the Olympics and it showed the world China was developing.

As expected, traffic was significantly heavier on the 2nd and 3rd ring roads, particularly around the Central Business District and Tiananmen, though the only private vehicles on the road had license plates ending in odd numbers. Air quality was good, though not as good as yesterday. There was definitely some haze/smog in the distance.

Olympics Day 2

2008-08-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

Breaking news, it has been announced that Liu Xiang, former world record holder and gold medallist in Athens in 2004, who represented China's great hope in the 110m hurdles has pulled out due to injury. Liu had been suffering from injuries, the most recent being in his right achilles tendon and pulled up lame in qualifying heats.

The press conference was interesting as journalists from all over peppered his coaches with difficult questions, with one of them bursting into tears at one point.

The rumors are true; besides buses, taxis and the odd law-breaking vehicle, today was an "even number" day. The only privately owned cars that could be on roads today had license plates ending in even numbers. Note the light level of traffic below during afternoon rush hour. While the area I am in (Wangjing for those who are curious) is certainly not central Beijing, it's hardly the boonies and there's usually a fair bit of traffic in this part of town, especially during rush hour. A look at the fourth ring road (not pictured) confirmed my thoughts.

While the roads may have been nearly empty, subway stations were not. The shot below was taken at a transit point from subway line 10 to line 8 (the Olympic Line). Along the transit point hallways and the streets outside, there were numerous scalpers and ticket purchasers openly conducting business. There were, to my knowledge and observation, none at any of the Olympic venues.

Security though, has been beefed up significantly, starting almost a year ago, when every bag coming into Tiananmen Square was searched by hand. Reports from my friends who live in Beijing have stated they have seen SWAT teams, increased police and military personnel everywhere. Personally, I've noticed no change (this is probably a result of my not having been downtown yet). Although there were numerous volunteers and security guards at the Olympics Area, they were certainly not intimidating. I am certain there were loads of plainclothes officers, but it's not like I know how to tell them apart from normal fans.

What I did notice was a high increase in "security volunteers." These are ordinary residents and shopkeepers (I was in a mall this afternoon), but wear a sort of red security armband on their elbow. (No picture, sorry, working on it). I don't think they really have any authority besides the ability to tell on someone, though I could be wrong. The mall did have some screens set up with chairs for people interested in watching live Olympics coverage though.

Anyhow, as I entered the Wangjing West subway station en-route to the Bird's Nest, I was faced with the sign below. The bottom sign sets two entrances: "without bags, enter station" (on the left) "with bags security check." There was an x-ray machine, but having no bag, I simply walked to the left.

Another interesting bit: subway tickets. When I left Beijing this past January, one-way subway tickets were little strips of paper like the one below. One would go to the ticket window, pay money, and get this piece of paper . Upon entering the stairwells leading to the platform, one would had this ticket to the ticket collector who would sort of drop it into a trash can.

Now however, and according to a friend, for the last month or so, one way tickets have changed into a card. Same payment procedure, but the passenger scans the card at a turnstile, uses the subway and slips it into a slot at the destination station's turnstile at which point the card is eaten up and presumable re-used. There's also a convenient map on the back of each ticket in English and Chinese (see below).

In order to use the Olympic Line, one had to go through security check in addition to scanning their Olympics tickets. Below is a photo of the lines waiting. Lines were separated once again, by those who had bags and those who didn't in addition to going through metal detectors. Although I showed the nice girl my phone, camera and wallet, my lip balm set her sensor off when I was being patted down. She asked that I use some to prove it wasn't dangerous and I gladly did.

Nothing too crazy, besides actually watching the games, and simply being in the massive complex. Below are are a few photos of the Bird's Nest (inside and out) and the Water Cube. The "mass hurdle" event (2nd photo down) is the men's steeple chase.

Oh yeah, watching the Russian Elena Isinbaeva break the world record in pole vault in her final attempt despite having already been guaranteed the gold and the US men make a clean sweep of the 400m hurdles was pretty awesome. I just had to get that out.

On a more serious note, I hope to get into the city center tomorrow and get a better feel for what's going on in other areas.

Olympics Day 1

2008-08-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

This is the first of what I hope to be daily posts while I am in Beijing for the Olympics.

My apologies in advance for the sub-par photo quality

Arrived in Beijing tonight and noted a few points of interest. Upon arrival and just prior to immigration in Terminal 3, there was a help/welcome desk manned by three Olympics volunteers clad in blue shirts. They weren't particularly busy, though. Immediately following immigration, there was a long series of tables on the left, manned by a few Olympics volunteers (it was nearly 930PM, so I figure most had gone home). At the end of the tables was a computer station where one could check Olympics information, such as scheduled events, results etc.

Customs presented an unexpected surprise. Upon exiting, each passenger has to place his/her hand baggage through the x-ray machine. This measure, however, has been in place for a few months now, so no big deal. As is common (due to my tendency to over-pack), my bag was flagged and I accompanied it for a hand-search. Presuming, as usual, that my toothpaste and contact lens solution (neither in a clear plastic bag) were the culprits, I was surprised by what followed.

After a cursory look at my passport and visas and the usual question (in Mandarin) "Where in China did you study?" the customs agent proceeded to open my bag.

I had two books inside, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and "Shantaram" both of which were pulled out, and examined briefly. I took the opportunity to tell him that the latter was a story about India. Satisfied, he placed both books in my bag and I was allowed to leave.

Upon exiting customs, I saw that I was walking on an oddly colored floor. Looking down, I noticed that leading from the exit, was a melange of strips colored pink, green, white and blue. The pink strip led to an elevator 35 yards away where there was a large sign "Olympic Family Members". The other three strips led to a nearby escalator, with green being designated for "Accredited Media", white for "Technical Officials" and blue for "Athletes and Team Officials"

Did I mention there was a mega-screen television showing the Olympics in the Arrivals area near the switchboards?

Olympics

2008-08-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

I will be trying to blog on this site starting tomorrow, while I am in Beijing for the Olympics for one week.

Participating in Class

2008-07-27T05:55:00.001-07:00

Ayub and I set the date and made our plans: we were going to sit in on a random class on a Friday morning.

The procedure:

1. Look for class with no Western students
2. Casually walk into said class speaking quietly in English
3. Take seats in front row
4. Wait for class to start and get ready to answer possible questions from teacher
a. Pretend not to understand anything
b. Do not speak Chinese or if needed, speak as badly and as slowly as possible
5. Do not giggle, laugh or make people more suspicious

With that, we found a class and walked in, just muttering gibberish to each other. The students looked at us for a second and went back to their conversation in Korean/Japanese. We took our seats and waited for class to start.

The teacher walked in a few minutes later and everyone became quiet. She looked at Ayub and me for a few seconds, kind of gave a nod and said "上课!" (Which is along the lines of "Class has started")

Hmm, this was weird. No questions? Nothing?

We had walked into a newspaper reading class and that there was a student presenting his translation and views on an article. A thin and frail looking Japanese kid ambled up to the front of the class and started distributing copies of his assignment. (Aside: usually its a copy of the article you choose in the newspaper, with words you don't know listed and translated into your language, your summary of the article, followed by your opinion and then two questions to ask classmates in order to facilitate discussion).

The student handed out sheets to everyone except Ayub and me, and he started to present.

The teacher cut him off immediately, and as he turned to look at her, she made a motion with her chin, pointing at us. The kid blushed and gave us copies. So his report went; it was a pretty good one too, something about computer viruses and the internet.

He asked his second question and seeing no one raising their hand to respond, I decided to take the initiative to do so. The student looked surprised and pointed at me. I answered the question and discussed it for a minute or so, at which point he followed up with another question. I cracked a half joke at which point he thanked everyone for their time and sat down. We all clapped.

As he sat down, I motioned to Ayub and we got up from our seats without saying a word and walked out of the room. As we passed the kid I grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. We closed the door behind us and waited for a few seconds just out of view. Silence.

Then we heard some loud laughter followed by, "Yeah I also have no idea who they were!"

Sitting in on Class

2008-06-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

In December, my buddy Ayub and I walked into the wrong classroom by accident after our middle-of-class break. (Aside: classes are 90 minutes long, so you get a 5 minute break after 45 minutes) We stood in the doorway for a moment and were confused since we didn't notice any of the kids in the class but were sure that we had walked into the right room. We had actually just stopped short by one room, and were therefore, next door to our classroom. During the confusion, which lasted at most, for 1 minute, the Korean and Japanese students were in total shock; I mean the look on the their faces was priceless. They had all been conversing and as a few noticed our confusion, they all turned silent and turned to us.

Of course they were far too polite/awkward (you choose the word, I'd say the former rather than the latter) to say or do anything but stare with open mouths. It was then we came up with an idea.

The plan: To sit in on a random class that didn't have any westerners and see what happened. We would walk in without saying a word, as if everything was normal, take our seats and attend class. We anticipated that the teacher would start asking us if we were in the wrong class or lost. If asked anything by students or teachers, we planned to politely smile and pretend not to understand or speak Chinese, or to speak it at the lowest level possible. In other words, we planned to be as awkward and as difficult as possible for everyone.

My Bike

2008-06-07T05:21:00.001-07:00

After one year of intense pressure (read: nagging from Zayd, Andrew and all of my other bike-riding friends), I finally caved and bought a bike last fall (I've since left Beijing).

I wanted to buy the cheapest bike since I didn't plan to ride it long distances, just to classes and back. I went to two stores, found the cheapest bike possible and bargained for it. I didn't get much knocked off, but it didn't matter. I had a cheap, dumpy bike that I could ride to school. I was thrilled.

My emotionally blissful state lasted for approximately 3 minutes. It was then I realized a very important thing: my bike sucked, like much more than I thought it would. Little did I know what I was in for.

As I rode away from the store, I noticed that I had a hard time peddling. The bike just would not move, regardless of how hard I pedaled and how much I sweated. About 20 minutes later, exhausted and convinced it was not just my wickedly out-of-shape body rejecting some much-needed exercise, I gave up. I looked down and saw I had a flat back tire (Yes I know, it should have been obvious, but it had been like 10 years since I had actually ridden a bike, sue me). I went to a store, filled it with air and was off. The next day, the tire was flat again. I went back to the store where I had bought the bike, complained, and got a new tire installed for free. I was happy once again.

The next day, my front tire was flat, and I had to buy a new one. I was starting to think maybe this whole cheap bike scheme wasn't such a great idea in the first place. But I got to class without a problem. Things were smooth.

Until, a few days later when I was riding and I braked to avoid a fellow student crossing one of the university's pathways. Only the bike didn't stop; so I had to get my brakes replaced (Thanks to some expert bike maneuvering, like using my feet as makeshift brakes, I did not hit the student).
Then, the next day, my brake handle flew off my bike without warning as I was biking along campus, almost hitting some poor Korean girl in the face. I got that fixed for free though since I complained yet again. The shopkeeper's grin said the whole story, but he simply had to rub it in my face,"Well you bought a cheap bike."

On a ride back from the Beijing Film Academy to my apartment, I heard a click and a snap. My pedal had somehow become dislodged and I could not fix it with my bare manly hands. This meant that I had to push my bike all the way home. A relatively pleasant 20 minute ride in the thick smog on a dark and chilly November night became a 50 minute walk. The guy at a repair shop took one look at it, smiled, and then got his wrench. A nut had fallen out, so he replaced it and then hit the side of peddle as hard as he could with his wrench. " 行 (Good, in this case)" he yelled with a wide grin without asking for any money. I was off and happy again.

One week later, I went to ride my bike to class and found that my rear tire was flat again; I didn't bother to fix it. I always liked walking through my neighborhood anyway.

Fake Interview Part 3

2008-06-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

The other students gradually filed out of the room leaving me alone and kind of nervous, and wondering what kind of guy the GM would be.

The door suddenly opened and he walked in, cool and confident; it was clear that he had been educated abroad, and before he opened his mouth I could tell that he smelled a rat. I had no real choice but to play it out and stick to the original story.

I stood up and we shook hands as we greeted each other. And then the questioning began.

His English was flawless and had no trace of an accent. Impressive.

"So you're Jamie from Beijing University?" he asked, looking at my resume.

"Nope, that's Jamil and I studied at Beijing Normal University."

"Ok is there anything else you're lying about?"

I knew this one was coming and was prepared. I usually went by Jamie the last few months in Beijing since no one could ever pronounce my name properly, " Nope, my name is Jamie in China, because no one can pronounce my real name."

"Hmm. Ok. And how did you get here?"

So I told him the whole fake story.

"Ok now who from HR at headquarters emailed you to come here today?"

"I don't know, it was from the department, but did not have a specified contact name. I replied with a confirmation and then left the United States and came here as scheduled. I really am surprised that no one told you. Believe me, if you think this is awkward, I can't even begin to tell you how strange this is for me, but that's life, you know."

"You know we have a very rigorous process at this company and it would be unfair to the other students here for me to just give you an interview. I can send your documents to HR back in the United States."

"Go ahead, I've already passed everything in the U.S. including assessments and had a general first round interview."

"Okay."

We stood up, shook hands, and I left the room. Pretty anticlimactic, huh?

My buddy was waiting back in the room, and as I finished changing out of my suit and prepared for some final day sightseeing, he slapped a 100 RMB note in my hand. Well worth it.

As we came back to the hotel about 5 hours later, the company staff was standing around awkwardly in the lobby waiting for something or someone. As they turned to look in another direction, I sprinted past them and hid in the gift shop for a solid five minutes before hopping quietly into an elevator.

Fake Interview Part 2

2008-03-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Note: I only spoke in English the entire time. Sometimes it helps if people don't know you can speak Chinese, so you can eavesdrop.

The girl in the business center couldn't believe it and started giggling. I was too nervous to really entertain her.

And so we went back upstairs to wait for me chance. Knowing it would be obvious if I kept walking by an open room every few minutes, my buddy decided to scout for me. I stood in the corridor, shifting uncomfortably, while my buddy would walk by the room and take a peek. A few times he opened the door to our room and went inside in order to keep cover. Forty minutes later, the girl being interviewed exited the room. Taking a deep breath, I walked into the room.

"Hi." I handed a bewildered man in his early-to-mid 30s my resume. After which point I shook his hand.

"Uh?"

"Yeah I'm here to interview today, funny story, but I made it."

"Uhm hello,uhm yes, do you know who you are interviewing for?"

"Of course, Company X. Why else would I even be here?"

"What function?"

"Sales and Marketing."

"Oh I see. Uh, Uhm, why don't you go to room 670, down the hall, where Human Resources is arranging everything. I only do engineering."

"Thanks."

I left and walked down the hall. I knocked on the door, and a woman came out.

"Yes?" She looked surprised.

"I'm here for the interview. I believe headquarters back in the U.S. should have informed you."

"Excuse me?"

"Well you see I had received an offer for an interview in the United States for Sales and Marketing, but as this trip to China was a gift for me, I told them I was unable to attend and why. People are headquarters were very reasonable and asked for my itinerary, and when they found out I would be in Xi'an on this day, they told me to come to this hotel and that the necessary arrangements would be made for my interview, really just a fit interview is what they said, rather than technical." (I repeated the first half of this story to pretty much every applicant).

"Oh... Yes. I see. Please wait for one minute." She went back in the room, leaving the door open. I could see her with two of her HR colleagues discussing the situation as they shot me glances. Being more than happy to play dumb foreigner, I just smiled. "Please come inside and sit down. What would you like to drink?"

I couldn't believe it. "Erm, yes, water will be fine, Miss, thank you very much."

The two other HR types came over and asked me the same questions. I restated my story while making sure to use plenty of hand gestures and big words. Everyone likes big words.
Sitting near me were a bunch of other local students, some cute girls, geeky guys, and I got to speak to all of them. The girls, in typical Chinese style, kind of giggled and were shy, but opened up as I talked to them. There were some pretty priceless quotes from the guys though.

"You are interviewing with us?! I see and hear you talking to them, I think you are big boss of Company X, maybe head of all of China! Or I think you will be my boss in the future!"

"So what's your talent, you have to impress them, blow them away. What's your talent?"
Suffice it to say, this kid was just annoying. So I decided to play around with him.

"Well I can sing and dance." I smirked.

"Ok," He didn't seem to know how to handle that answer. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, I tell great stories." Silence.

A few minutes passed and the students left the room little by little. Soon it was just me and one HR woman.

"The General Manager of the Xi'an branch will be speaking with you soon," she said.

Fake Interview

2008-01-07T08:19:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: I did not aim to gain employment from this experience. This story is also best told in person.

It was our last day in Xi'an when my friend and I (this was back in October) noticed that a job interview was taking place in the room right across from ours, and that the door was wide open. We thought it was a job for the hotel in which we were staying (a 4-5 star joint), so we shook it off and went down to the business center to take care of some things. But not before my friend remarked, "Wouldn't it be great if you put on a suit and just walked into the room when the next interview finished, equipped with your resume ?" The thought was intriguing and I paused for a second to think it over. Then came the clincher. My buddy said, "I'll give you 100 RMB to do it." Deal sealed.

My buddy and I had already made friends with the cute employee at the hotel's business center the previous day. As we were running some errands, she printed out a sign and asked us what we thought of it, saying that she had to place it on the 6th floor of the hotel (the floor on which we were staying) as a company was doing campus recruiting that day. Let's call the company, a Fortune 500 giant, "Company X". We probed her further, asking if Company X had booked a lot of rooms on the 6th floor and if her hotel was interviewing that day. She laughed and said that her hotel was not interviewing. It was then that we told her what I was going to do. She was amused and disbelieving at first, and then she turned really serious when she saw that I would go through with it.

In no less than ten minutes, I was dressed up in my suit with resume in hand and went back down to the business center.

Prostitution

2007-11-24T19:43:00.001-08:00

Warning: Naked butt below.

"Yeah she is kind of hot, isn't she, in a slutty way?" said the cabbie, as Zayd was ogling a girl in a magazine ad. Like many Beijing taxi drivers, he was a short and squat man, dressed in a blue short-sleeved collar shirt which was worn at the edges. His face was stout, accenting an impish grin that lasted for our entire journey. "So you guys study here huh? You guys have Chinese girlfriends?"

"Nope, our game sucks," we replied.

"Well I can introduce you to some. They're really beautiful and they'll help you with your Chinese! Yeah I can take you to a great KTV place, they're great in bed too and not that expensive. Then you can get their numbers later too, and its near where you live, not far at all. And the KTV joint is really clean!"

This was getting interesting. "What about the girls on the business cards?" I asked.

"No no you don't want the business card types, they'll quote a price and some girl who's not that attractive, will come to your place, then before she leaves, some big types will burst in and demand more money. Foreigners like you must be protected. It can be dangerous. But these girls I'll introduce you to, they'll be the best!"

Business cards with photos of attractive girls on one side and with a slogan or list of services on the reverse, are popular (see photos below). In Korea they're a bit more explicit and you get to see frontal and sometimes full nudity. I picked a few up in Korea off of cars, but the Chinese ones were literally thrown in my face as my taxi had stopped at a traffic light. This guy walking by flung a bunch of business cards in the open window and walked off.

Then there are the ubiquitous hair parlors. Barbershops open at night with neon pink lights and women sitting in the front, most often do not provide hair styling services. Usually there's a back room where things happen or the girls take you somewhere else. A friend of mine, recalled his first few months in China years ago, when he was walking down the street to his apartment and saw one of these places open at 11pm. Needing a haircut, his thought was, "China's great, I can get a cheap haircut at this hour? Sweet!" Not being able to speak or understand Mandarin, he boldly entered and indicated to the astonished women inside that he wanted a haircut. When they awkwardly put the haircloth on him, and grabbed a pair of scissors, he inquired whether or not they were going to wash his hair. He got the idea that it wasn't a traditional place to get one's hair cut when the woman indicated that they didn't have shampoo. On a second glance, he noticed that the women were wearing relatively revealing clothing and were giggling.

Korean Business Card

24 Hours, Massage and Event

Chinese Cards

The one on the left reads "Idle Massage"
The one on the right (in yellow type) reads "Feeling of Western Love." Below that (in red) it reads "Star Service"

The one on the left reads "Models, Young Students, will look after you. Below "Massage" it says something like "Pretty girls who are adept at tightening men's clock springs." Hey its what the dictionary gave me, make of it what you will. You can all read the English "The whole body cares to massage, the foot bottom cares to masssage, the that health cares massage, the Russian young lady massage. What's interesting is the Chinese beside it is completely different. It says, "Full Body Massage, Korean girl massage,Thai style massage, Russian girl massage," so the last bit matches up. Finally it says, "5 star service is a successful person's first choice." Oh and for everyone who wants to keep track of such essential business expenses, you know when handing in those tax returns and expense reports, they "provide real tax receipts"

Ok the one on the right is far easier, not only to translate but also because the Chinese and English actually match up. Top left says, "List of Services." Way bottom part says, "Models, Young Students."

In the end, we got the cabbie's phone number, but haven't called it. Seriously.

Photos from when Harith came

2007-11-08T08:06:00.001-08:00

A buddy of mine from back home visited China a few weeks ago, and I got some pretty good photos out of it. More will be posted on facebook as I get more free time. Until then, enjoy!

Recently cleared area in what was once a hutong (a traditional Beijing neighborhood) in order to make way for a larger road, in downtown Beijing. Although surrounding hutongs remain intact for the time being, residents have been notified in the past year that their homes will also be torn down to make way for high rises and wider roads. While the people we spoke with (who were mostly older) seemed sad but resigned to the prospect of moving from their historic residences, much of the younger generation is looking forward to receiving its compensation and new housing assignments from government authorities. While still a touchy subject for many residents at first, they soon allowed us to take their photos while speaking to us openly. One couple even invited us to join them for dinner.

The Great Wall at Jinshanling. While the area in focus is restored, most of the section leading to Simatai, a 10 Km hike that Harith and I did, and is shown in the photo, is not. Photos such as this are simply unable to capture the true beauty and tranquility that one experiences on this section of the Wall. Another fantastic aspect of standing on an unrestored part of the Great Wall is that one can close his/her eyes and imagine what it must of been like to have been a soldier in the past stationed on the Wall.

The Bell Tower in downtown Xi'an.

Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Not exactly what one has in mind when thinking of the former British Colony, but breathtaking nonetheless.

Newspaper Reading Class

2007-11-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's my second year studying in Beijing, which means that in addition to reading/writing, listening and speaking classes I also now have newspaper reading class. I know what most people think when I tell them this: "Whoa, you read Chinese newspapers now?? Wow your Mandarin must be really good! blah blah blah!!!"

I'll be the first to say that my Chinese is most certainly not awesome, since most conversations still begin with, "You speak Chinese very well! Where are you from?" Now I know that Mandarin is a more difficult language than English, but, when one hears a foreigner speak English well, no comment regarding his/her command of the English language is made. It's when we run into people who don't speak well that we say "No you speak well!"while grinning and staring at them like a retarded donkey trying to make out what they're saying.

But I digress. Anyhow, the class itself is one of the most boring classes I've had. I don't think there is a way to make it interesting. We just go over a passage in the book (an old newspaper article. Coincidence? I think not), review the vocab and answer questions that the teacher asks us (regurgitating the passage).

Where it gets interesting is the homework. Each week, we have to choose an article from a newspaper, then write a summary of it, along with our opinion and then pose two questions at the end. In addition we have to make note of any characters we don't know and write them out and their equivalent translations. Every Thursday, two students are picked to present their articles to the whole class.

While each article can take up to six hours to do (we don't even choose long ones), it's a rewarding experience because one learns so many new terms, phrases, words and grammar patterns, as well as abbreviations that are commonly used. It's also great because I can see how much my Chinese has improved and that I can grasp the basic meaning of the article, sometimes without even looking at the dictionary (though there are always at least 15 characters I have to look up to understand major details).

Apartment Photos

2007-10-10T01:20:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are photos of the apartment. If you think everything looks nice, give credit to my roommate, Zayd. If you believe that the apartment is flamboyant looking and potentially ugly, well, blame Zayd; he pretty much took charge of decorating the place. We live on the 21st floor of a 22 floor building so we get a nice view.

Which one's my bedroom?

Apartment Hunting

2007-10-10T01:19:00.001-07:00

Posted September 22, 2007 on the old blog.

It took 12 days of seeing numerous apartments in various states of disrepair, fielding 100 phone calls per day from people I couldn't understand and walking all around northwest Beijing in pursuit of a decent place to live.

Why all the phone calls? I decided to give out my phone number to any and every agent on the west side of Beijing, in addition to text messaging random agents and landlords based on classified ads on the web. It's safe to say that I learned a lot and am pretty jaded about the whole process.

1. If there's an internet posting about an apartment and its an agent, every agency in town probably has the keys to the place and is shopping it around. Proof: I saw an apartment 4 different times with 4 different agents. The place sucked.

Aside: If said place has been on market for more than a week (apartments get re-posted every few days) it's probably a dump. Don't waste your time. Good places don't stay on the market for long.

2. Anytime an agent says that the place is well maintained or good in any way, the place is either way out of your price range (agents don't seem to understand price limits when it comes to foreigners), or it's literally the landlord or previous tenant's landfill. To be more specific, I've seen garbage strewn about in the living room, bathroom and kitchen tiles missing or held together with duct tape and old beer bottles collecting dust in the bedroom.

3. Know the right questions to ask agents when they call you. How big is the place? Where is it? What's the rent? If you don't, the agent will take you on a wild goose chase to places far away that don't come close to fitting your criteria and then when told that you won't rent, ask with a dog eyed face, "What's wrong with it?"

4. Agents are scum. Even the Chinese hate them. Avoid them at all costs if you can (not an easy thing to do).

5. Some Chinese don't like renting out to foreigners. Every agent that called asked me the same questions (as expected), What's the location/number of bedrooms/price you desire, which would always be followed by, "Are you Chinese or foreign?"

Aside: Listening to my Chinese, its obvious I'm foreign. Race as always, plays a big deal. The Chinese are notoriously racist (then again who isn't? I know Indians are, that's like 40% of the world's population right there). I was getting so sick of random agents calling that I even told one agent I was from Africa. She paused, said she'd find a place and then get back to me. She never did. (Note: If you have too many pesky agents bugging you, and this sounds horrible but I'll say it, tell them you're from Africa. It will scare a bunch of them away and it will save you lots of grief).

6. If you're visiting an apartment and there are more than two agents from the same company there, run away faster than you would from a pack of angry bulls. As you walk in, the place will be in great disrepair. The landlord will look at you hopefully as a hound of agents will circle you like bloodthirsty sharks and begin firing questions at you. And when you decide (rightly) that the apartment is a dump or has deficiencies, they'll see their commission fees (you) walking away and they'll get pissed and all of the politeness and smiles will disappear in a flash.

But it ended well. My buddy, Zayd, and I found it in the same complex as our friends, Andrew and Ryan. The apartment's rent was significantly less than that of other places we had seen and even better, the previous tenants had maintained it very well.

Zayd's been going on a decorating kick (painting walls, buying furniture etc), so there's still some work to be done. It's going to be great though and I'll post up photos when I can.

New Blog

2007-10-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the title, I stupidly deleted my old blog by mistake and could not recover it. So I'm starting a new one.

As promised, pictures of the new apartment will be posted very soon, as will some other posts.