Hectic Wednesday

I was at Carrefour doing grocery shopping when I received a call from Kimberley's kinder teacher Ms Liu saying Kimberley was complaining about her stomach pain. On way to Kimberley's kinder, Kristine called, saying she too had stomach pain. Upon reaching Kimberley's kinder, she was already asleep (her usual nap between 12-2pm). So another taxi ride to Kristine's school and she was in the admin office with Sonia who had a headache waiting for a parental pickup. Kristine wanted to shop for candies at a shop near her school but I didnt let her. We took a taxi to Kimberley's kinder. kimberley had a fever. She could not walk the distance home.

Kristine did her homework, ate a pastry bread and some candy (secretly in her bedroom), and then decided she wanted to walk to Yamaha Music School by herself('it is so embarassing' --- that I had to accompany her) while Kimberley had a dose of Nurefen. 90mins later, they were both downstairs heading to Scarlet's home.

Whos That one?

On way to Kristine's piano practice after school, we took the wrong elevator which went down to basement instead of up to Yamaha Music School on 5th floor. At B1, a young lady and a Caucasian girl about Kristine's age came in and the lady said 'Ni Hao!' to me. I replied 'Ni hao!', and my mind raced to figure out who this young lady was. Maybe she was the mother of this Caucasian kid, but where did I meet her? I could not figure the answer. She was well dressed, with matching shoes and blowse, and she did not look like a typical local mother.

When we got to the 5th Floor, the answer was evident: she was a piano teacher at Yamaha and the Caucasian girl was there by herself for a piano lesson with another teacher!

Similarly, on Saturday when were on our way to the bus stop, on way to attend a birthday party (Kristine's classmate), a fashionable pretty lady called out to me:'Giam!, Giam!'. I could not recognize her from the diatance. 'Who is this lady calling my name?'. On closer look she was Auntie Edith!!!!!!!

Sonia's Birthday

Sonia is Kristine's classmate who came to help Kristine when she was bullied by a male classmate a few weeks ago (see Kristine's post early April). Sonia is from Russia. I was surprised by how many of the Russian parents who attended the party speaking Mandarin. Sonia's parents speak English too. Their apartment is located adjacent to Auntie Viv's office, close to Kristine's school and close to Russian Market when many Russian traders sourced their China products for export to Russia. Sonia is the one with blonde hair in floral dress in the photo.

BBQ on Rooftop

We were honoured to attend Uncle Wayne and Auntie Cindy's first rooftop bbq of the warm season. Wayne and Cindy, together with Taotao occupy the top floor of an inner city apartment building, with private access to a rooftop balcony. It was a real treat to be able to enjoy an outdoor BBQ in Beijing. While Wayne's forte was roast duck when we all lived in White Plains, his specialty now is rooftop BBQ.

Home delivery

Another practice not found in Melbourne: milk delivery. After a recent neighbourhood product sampling, Grace decided to order San Yuan (三元）milk for Kristine and Kimberley each morning, supplemented by fresh milk from supermarkets. 2 glass bottles of 200ml milk are delivered to our front door each morning around 630am. Kristine finds drinking fresh milk directly from a glass bottle through a straw fun and it has become her after-school drink, but Kimberley still prefers her milk in a milk bottle with teat, on a coach in front of Nickelodeon in the morning or in her bed with Grace reading her nighttime stories.....

Photo taken from 6 floors up, shows how the milk gets delivered.

On trial for a month. To replace my supermarket milk runs completely, we need 6 bottles each day. The lockable milk box they installed at our front door can only hold 3.... One drawback from this convenience: the delivery guy ring our lobby door bell even on weekends, leaving no scope for sleeping in.

Kristine's halloween Costume

Too early yet, but the LCD gifts from Auntie Rebecca, at whose home we spent a Sunday afternoon, will be featured in Kristine's next school Halloween party. She created the white Satanic tail herself.
Next chance for her to dorn her costume will be Jackie Chan's concert at the Birdnest on May 1 with Grace. Kimberley, being 120cm, is not allowed in. I excused myself for the ocassion and chose to be with Kimberley somewhere quieter.

Foot and Mouth

Kimberley's kinder is again inspecting hands and mouths at the gate each morning. A few cases discovered in Beijing are making everyone nervous. As usual, kimberley likes some drama: One morning last week, as she was being inspected, her nose bled... Then there are these perpectual insect bite marks on her forehead which appear to be similar to symptoms of Foot & Mouth. Every nurse and every other teacher who saw her bite marks got worried!

Local health department came to inspect too. Kimberley again stands out for not having an immunisation record in Chinese that they can read.

Photo shows he favourite Saturday morning breakfast: Mommy Grace's pancake with GENEROUS splash of maple syrup

Kristine's daily news

todays daily news is a boy called qiu yin lei, hurt two girls called kristine and sonia. the two girls could not go to pe and excuse, so they didnt, and the boy he could not either.

When kristine was in the middle of wiping the blackboard, He Asked kristine for the duster and snacked it of kristine and even liede to the teacher that kristine gave it to him!!!!
When the two girls go to wash the duster, he was lying on the window sill and was always looking at us. Kristine was talking to Sonia and laghing, qiu yin lei came to strangal kristine, when he was strangaling her, sonia punched him because she wanted to save her friend, kristine, and really save her!!!! And so, the two girls told the teacher.

by Kristine Giam!!!
**You now, this news is real!!! This bullying happen durring pe class.

三元鲜奶 SanYuan Fresh Milk

The low fat fresh milk from Carrefour last Saturday turned bad on Sunday. I felt my coffee tasted a little funny but it was Kristine's full cup that revealed the off taste. Called their QA hotline this morning. A young lady from SanYuan manufacturing came by at 2pm, took the 'mutated' milk away and left us with 2x2ltr cartons packed this morning. Excellent customer service, happy customers.

San Yuan is a Beijing brand, a brand that literally emerged untainted from the melamine poisioning scandals in 2008.

The young lady explained as the days get hotter (now in the high 20's), fresh milk quality tends to get compromised because most supermarket freezer shelves get warm too (around 10degC instead of below 5degC needed to store fresh milk). Coming to think about it, I once bought fresh milk of another brand at the same Carrfour. Production date was as fresh as it got (day after production, as it takes 1 day to reach the supermarket shelves), but the cartons were at room temperature. They must have been sitting in the receiving warehouse for a long while before being stacked onto freezer shelves. It was much cooler then.

On the subject of supermarket hygiene, supermarkets (Tesco, Carrefour, Walmart too) here allow naked hands to touch and select pieces of exposed meats (chicken parts including fillets, various cuts of beef and pork). You can buy those packed on trays over-wrapped in clear PVC sheets too but they cost roughly 50% to 100% more. I saw fruits and vegetables being packed that way, taking the fruits and vegies from the same trays that multiple hands have ruffled through. I am not sure if the packed meats were packed BEFORE the rest were put on open trays or they were picked from the same trays anyway.

No problem for me with fruits and vegetables from open trays but I have big emotional hangups with those meats from open trays in smkts. My usual meats come from butchers in the open markets, always early around 630am, when the meats were just delivered. I always get my cuts from bigger pieces stacked at the back of the chopping table where other customers cannot reach.

I have problem with meats that million fingers have squeezed through. Then again, I have been sleeping on hotel beds which...........

More Lasagna

With Grace bed-ridden and kncked out by her coughs, we had dinner at home after meeting Vivien and Lisa in the afternoon. I first met Lisa in Wuhan in 1994, last met her in Beijing in 1998. Each time together with Vivien. Viv sprang a surprise on me by bringing Lisa along. It has been a long 10 years. Dinner was a quick lasagna, with grilled pork ribs and panfried breadcrumbed King George Whitings. Lisa helped by taking charge of a salad dish. Photo taken by our temp Ayi. Grace was sound asleep in bed. and I was surrounded by beauties!

Taekwando

After a break of two weeks due to sickness and travel, kristine resumed her taekwando this morning. Her body is not pliable compared to her classmates there. More practices needed. However she could kick high with her right leg.

Halfway through her class, I saw 8 parents surrouding a lady who seemed like the 'manager' of the class. Voices were raised, quite a scene. I thought the parents were unhappy with the young lady coach who beat a few of kristine's classmates with a belt (gently, I must add). I later ask one parent what the hoohah was all about. They were lodging a complaint with the manager that they were promised an extra coach now that the student size has exceeded 20. Good point.

If that was a complaint, I cant imagine how a real fight will sound like.

On that subject, I forgot to attach a photo I took at a watering hole halfway between Dunhuang and Jiayuguan where our express coach made a convenience stop. While Grace stayed on the bus with Kimberley asleep on her laps, I took Kristine to a public toilet. Always a scary experience but her nose is now well adjusted. While waiting for Kristine I took a photo of a scuffle at the bus terminus. Two guys appeared to be fighting over something. Sorry I couldnt understand what they were shouting about. They were pulling on each others' shirts, with many other hands trying to pull these two guys apart, and even more hands folded as sightseers. No punches were thrown. They were angrily pulling each others shirts from front of bus to end of bus.

Beijing Carrefour

This is now our fav supermarket chain to source western food ingredients. The one closest to us is 7 bus stops away. Took Kristine and Kimberley there while Grace went to visit a doctor on her coughs. Kristine and Kimberley were allowed to select their respective choice reward for Y15 or less. They did well during the week in executing their daily chores, so a weekend run to hunt for their 'presents' is always fun.
Kristine's pick: refillable pencils Y9.80
Kimberley's pick: foot-shape lollipops Y5.10

Others we jammed my backpack with:
200gm Mozzarella slices Y15
200gm Parmasan shredded Y33
6 french bread sticks Y13.20
500gm instant lasagna sheets Y28
2 cans of peeled tomato pieces Y14.80
600gm lean beef mince Y11
800gm meaty pork bones Y9.80
2ltr Pepsi Y4.70
2ltr Iced Red Tea Y4.70
4x100gm of Lays potato chips Y16.80

I always ask the staff at the bakery to cut the frech sticks into halves so they would fit my backpack. Twice out of thrice the woman there refused, but obliged when I explained my objective. Only once was it straight sailing. Truly pleasant to see someone upholding the motto of satisfying customers' needs. For the rejectors, the same response was 'We dont cut them into halves'.

The halfed french sticks are now partially cut, spreaded with homemade garlic butter, wrapped in alum foil and sealed inside our freezer. We had one for breakfast. No more any need to bring garlic breads from Melbourne!

Travel the Silk Road -Kristine's version

名沙山are sandy hill. I rode a camle with my mum when we went up,and with my dad when doun.I saw someone wereing high heeld shoe. when I rode the camle, it was very bumpy and my but hurts. Anyway, they step on their own poo! On 名沙山I did a star angle (angel)! To do a star angle, you wave your hands and legs up and down on the sand. lan 宝石 (Sapphire) hotel is a very big hotel. The people who work there are very nice. Whe I go to zhang ye from jia yu 关we took a bus. we were going by train but the bus was right in front us before we can get to the train stop. It took 4 hours to get there.

homemade pizzas

Pizzas are pricey in Beijing. Today we tried our first homemad pizzas using local pastry, a frozen dough that bakes or panfries grease-free into crispy 'Nan' bread.
Tomato paste is from Carrefour, some shredded tasty cheese from Australia (mozzarella next time), some Italian spices, pieces of ham, fresh mushroom, red onion, and pineapple. Kristine and kimberley took turn spreading tomato paste and then putting their favourite ingredients on the pastry base. 6 pieces to feed 3 of us. Kimberley had her dinner in kinder. About Y38 for 6 pieces. Grace is planning a pizza party for Kristine's friends on her birthday.

Travel the Silk Road - Zhangye Train to Lanzhou

We took a train from ZhangYe to Lanzhou. We bought some pears for the kids' coughs, so a fruit knife would come in handy on board. I packed the small knife inside a cabin bag together with the fruits and put it through the scanner, expecting at worst it might be detected and confiscated, as with Kristine's pair of art&craft scissors at Beijing airport. As I bent down to collect our bags after the Xray scanner, a male police shouted at me wanting to see my ID. The police just wanted to check my ID randomly. The two lady guards attending to the scanner screens let our baggage through. They scanned the baggage but not the passengers, just like Beijing subways. Unlike Lanzhou train station where passengers had to go past a metal detector, Zhangye didnt have that. Not that it mattered anyway. The passengers before and after me while passing through Lanzhou train station all triggered metal detector alarms. Yet we all went through unchecked.

The journey took 7 hours. We had two middle berths. Chatted with a young lady at the bottom berth. She was an English teacher from Xian, visiting her husband , an airforce officer in Zhangye. He is entitled to 68 days of annual leave a year (48days for singles), to be taken all at once, so they don’t get to meet often. Yes she had tears flowing down her cheeks when we first met her on board.

I asked her how her students like learning English. She said they disliked the subject, finding it difficult to remember the vocabulary. Her job focus was to prepare her students to pass English exams. Her job was considered satisfactory by her boss as long as her students scored above 100 out of 150 full marks. Interestingly, a letter posted at the Yamaha Music School where Kristine practises piano urges local parents NOT to pressure kids to take music exams. How true! Appropriate but not practical in China.

Kristine had some time catching up with her Chinese homework on the train. Kimberley focused on jumping from one berth to another. The train arrived in Lanzhou at 00:10. Kristine and Kimberley fell asleep at 1030pm.... Had to wake them up when they were sleepiest.

That concludes our tour of the Silk Road, a small section of it. With that end, Kristine and Kimberley left their bedtime coughs in Lanzhou. If it was not due to the super dry air, it must be the cig smokes.

Travel the Silk Road - Zhangye

Next stop after JiaYuGuan is ZhanYe. The bus we took went on local roads (not expressways). The journey took 4 hrs to complete 240km. Kristine, Kimberley and I took the back seats, bumpy but they could both lie down and stretch out comfortably. With Kimberley and Kristine still coughing badly, and Grace starting to yield to their viruses, we cancelled all tours around Zhangye and just roamed around the hotel/town centre. Nothing exciting to report but everyone was happy and relaxed. Some happy hours at an amusement park near our hotel (Y160/night, with b/fasts). Zhangye was the last stop in our journey where we had a lamb dish for dinner. The desert landscape to the west apparently produces good lamb (or goat, I cannot tell from the Chinese menu but they were tender meats). Zhangye demarcates the desert to the west from agricultural land to the east.
We went to a Sichuan restaurant just next to the hotel, our initial and final choice after a long walk to check many restaurants out. We ordered a tofu/vege dish for Kristine and Kimberley. Grace and I specifically asked if that dish was spicy. The waitress replied no. When the dish arrived, it had redhot cut chillis. I asked the waitress why she told us it was not a spicy dish. She replied:”The chillis are hot but the vegetable and tofu are not, and this is not a hot dish’. Not spicy compared to a Sichuan hotpot maybe. It is all relative! Excellent dishes tough.

Travel the Silk Road - Jiayuguan 'Grand Canyon'

Another scenic attraction in Jiayuguan is China's northwest ‘Grand Canyon’. Deep and wide ravine carved by a river carrying fresh water from melted snow from a mountain nearby. Gentle sloping mountain slopes and deep vertical cliffs make impressive scenary. Kimberley was initially scared but quickly adjusted to walking on her own across a high suspension bridge over the canyon. Kristine was interested in the mocked villages recreated to reflect ancient army camp and peasant residences.

Travel the Silk Road - Jiayuguan 嘉峪关 - Last Fortress to the wild wild west

A fortress guarding a mountain pass during the ancient overland Silk Road period. Much of the region decayed after the overland Silk Road was overtaken by the modern marine Silk Road, but JiaYuGuan survived and thrived due to its rich iron ore deposits which supported a big steel mill, 15th largest in the country, directly employing 10% of JYG population of 220,000. We had a nice lady tour guide taking us through JYG fortress. The walk through the fortress is more interesting with some history tales. She earns Y800 a month doing shift work in a cement factory, and supplements her income guiding tourists through the fortress for around Y500-800 more a month. Our double room in the best hotel in town cost us Y140 per night, breakfasts inclusive. A tour guide, plus a driver and his car to see Jiayuguan and adjacent Great Wall cost us Y125, plus Y121 of entry tickets. The visit to 'Grand Canyon' cost Y80 more plus Y42 tix. Basically a dedicated tour guide plus a driver and car cost us Y205 for 6 hrs. The driver we enagaged on day 1 in Dunhuang cost us Y500 for 11 hrs.
A spring next to Jiayuguan fortress used to provide drinking water to the garrison guarding the fortress but these days, the reservoir is artificially flooded, by tanker trucks. The whole region is harsh, dry soil and arid conditions make the whole place barren. Add the infamous sandstorms that blasted across the region and all structures will be pulverised to sand in due course, thus the creation of spectacularly beautiful sand hills. We saw heavy efforts planting trees on hill slopes, and even greater efforts irrigating the trees. Residents in Jiayuguan are taxed Y120 per year for their tree growing efforts. The challenge is not Y120, or human efforts, but the restriction imposed by the artesian water sources. What is drawn from one place to irrigate trees in and around towns depletes water levels somewhere else. For a region with annual precipitation around 50mm and evaporation around 2000mm, keeping trees alive is a big challenge. We often see pipes spraying water at trees on hill slopes in broad daylight. Most of the water will be evaporated before reaching the roots. It is a big challenge. This is gigantic effort to fight against Nature. I dont know which side will win in the end.

The whole region looks like outback desert Australia (think land around Uluru), possibly more arid, but as in Australia, the land is rich with oil and ore deposits. Harsh for those who had to travel pass it 1000 yrs ago carrying silk to europe.

Travel the Silk Road - Dunhuang Sandhill 敦煌鸣沙山

The visit to a sand hill just walking distance from our hotel was the best part of our Dunhuang visit. It was a spectacular sight from the rooftop of our hotel where we had breakfast, but it was even more impressive from the top of the sand hill. Two camels took us up the sand hill. Kristine and Kimberley were thrilled. Then it was another 200 steps by a steep slope to a ridge where Kristine and Kimberley ‘swam’ in the fine sand for almost 1 hr. A cool and sunny day with cool breeze. Cannot imagine how hot the place gets in summer. It was then a slide down the slope on a bamboo raft. Physically demanding to climb those 200 steps again for another slide down. Today was a happy day for Kristine and Kimberley, having too good a time with the camel ride and sand they refused to leave..

We were planning on taking a train from Dunhuang to JiaYuGuan. A hotel taxi cost Y50 to the local train station, A taxi from roadside cost Y30. Because the hotel is somewhat remote at the bottom of the sand hill, we could not get a taxi easily so we hopped on a local bus for Y2 which took us to an express coach station (we didn’t know that. We were walking to take another local bus servicing the train station). The express coach just pulled out of the station and a lady conductor hopped down and asked if we were going to JiaYuGuan. We were ‘hijacked’ but ended reaching JiaYuGuan 2 hrs ahead of our planned schedule。

A photo shows an oasis which ran dry several years ago. Through conservation measures, the spring is coming back to life. Notice the camel photo the exposure of which went haywire. Possibly caused by sand inside the control knob. I could hear sand grinding each time I turned the control dial. Took many heavy puffs to blow the sand grains away. It wasnt a windy day, and I took grear care with the new Lumix, yet the sand grains went in. Our camel guide kept advising us to be careful with our belongings as once they fall into the sand-dunes, it was almost impossible to recover anything intact.

The hotel we stayed in was built at the foot of MingShaShan. Shaped like a fortress, surrounded by several smaller 'fortresses'. Y420 through a local agent, versus Y480 through internet. Free broadband inroom, sumptuous breafasts inclusive. For visitors with young kids, forget the ancient Buddhist grottos, and especially the long journey to see whatever is left of 'Han dynasty' great wall and limestone landscape. Those are too boring for them. Just stay at that fortress hotel (1 of 2 4-star in Dunhuang) and either walk ro cycle to MingShaShan. I reckon Kristine and Kimberley could tolerate the camel rides up the sand hill and play he sand dunes for a week. During peak seasons, they even ferry guests to the sandhills for breakfasts, and campfire dinner.

Travel the Silk Road - Dunhuang 敦煌

Our overnight train from Lanzhou to Dunhuang took 14 hrs. We booked all 4 berths in our cabin so it was private. 9 of the 12 cabins were occupied by some senior local politicians and their entourage. There were 5 conductors (instead of the normal 1), and 2 police dedicated to our car. Everyone appeared nervous. There was a TV crew filming on the train and on the station platform being greeted by local political leaders. One male train conductor kept telling Kimberley to stay inside our cabin, even not to poke her head of out of cabin door. These guys smoked through the journey in a non-smoking train, despite the PA clearly asking passengers NOT to smoke. Their cabin was just next to ours. There were rules for us the commons and there were rules (or lack of) for them.... The smoke triggered Kimberley and Kristine to do a severe coughing sonata for over an hour at bedtime. I asked a conductor and a police who the dignitaries were, they evaded answering my question. On the train, I felt Kimberley running up and down the aisle probably made us a nuisance to train crew. I knew they were nervous but I couldn’t tell if it was all Kimberley. When we got off the train in Dunhuang, the politicians disembarked before us. By the time we got off the train, the conductors and police were beaming with smiles. Two of them even chatted with me. Everyone was happy we reached Dunhuang..
Our local tour guide met us at the train station. First stop was MoguGou, ancient shrines caved into hillside. We were taken by a young lady guide to see 10 of the 492 shrines. The rest were closed for preservation. A highlight was a special hidden compartment where 50000 ancient scripts were discovered, with 2/3 taken and dispersed through much of the western world. Our lady guide talked how an American came to find more ancient scripts nearly 100 yrs ago only to discovered all had been taken away. He then crated a few Buddha statues which are now housed at Harvard University.

Interestingly, hotels and scenic parks in the region still retain pricing discounts for locals, or more appropriately 'pricing surcharges for foreigners'. Grace is the one who buys tickets while I took the kids away from the ticket counter.

The visit to see limestone landscape carved by eons of sandstorms took 2 hrs of car ride. Kristine was not impressed.