Memoirs of Beijing

Chinese New Year holiday is a bit quiet for Beijing standards.  My Harbin experience went down the drain as I wasn’t able to get a train ticket back and I’ve been a prat for making plans without taking into consideration my travel buddy who also would like to go there.  Anyway, did you know that…

WIDOW YEAR

As I was having lunch with my friend last month, I was telling her about my friend who’s getting married.  She then mentioned that this year is not a good year to get married. 

The reason?  This year is a Widow Year.

Chinese has a superstition that if the Chinese New Year falls after the start of Spring which happened in early February, the year is considered as a bad year for marriage.  You wouldn’t want to be a widow don’t you?

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I thought China would be able to subsidize the fuel costs for drivers but apparently not.  With fuel prices soaring to at least $70 a barrel, the transport sector is clamoring for an increase.  Compared to the Philippines where each increase in the transport cost will result to strike, China just lay down the law and expect everyone to follow.

Last Wednesday, November 25, the long awaited increase for taxi operators was implemented.  Flag down rate remains at RMB 10 between 6am to 11pm and RMB 11 between 11pm to 6am.  However, if you go beyond the flag down rate, you’ll be charged an additional RMB 1 on top of the metered rate.  This RMB 1 will come out of your pocket and cannot be reimbursed.

I’ve taken the taxi several times since Wednesday and it’s a hit and miss.  Some taxi drivers will ask for RMB 1 more while others doesn’t seem to mind.  So, if you ride a taxi and your taxi fare is beyond RMB 10, don’t argue with the driver if they ask you to pay one kuai more.

I can’t exactly remember the first solar eclipse that I’ve witnessed.  All I know was I was still either in primary or secondary school.  I also remember using a film negative to look at the eclipse without harming my eyes.

When I was riding the bus last week, I can’t help but noticed an ad showing people how to view a solar eclipse.  It’s like, is there going to be one, and when is it?  I remember my colleague mentioned in passing that there would be one soon.  I just can’t remember when exactly it is.

China is no stranger to solar eclipse or lunar eclipse.  They even had one last year but since this country is so big, only a few were able to witness it.  However, this year’s total solar eclipse will traverse through several provinces and can be witnessed in totality by millions of people.

If the ad itself is hyping people up to watch this event here in Beijing where we would only see a partial eclipse, what more in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Chongqing, Wuxi, Ningbo, Three Gorges Dam area, and Suzhou where there will be a total solar eclipse.

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There goes my goal of keeping a perfect attendance this month!  Traffic was horrible this morning on the third ring road going northbound.  Police put a blockade from Guanghua Road to Chaoyang Road on the service lanes as well as the Guanghua Road exit on the northbound highway.  Buses and cars are crawling as everyone would like to see the aftermath of the huge inferno last night.

Before                                                  During                                                     After

At around 830pm last night, the Television Cultural Center at the new CCTV complex was engulf in flames.  The Television Cultural center has a cinema, theatre, recording studios and the flagship hotel of Mandarin Oriental. Witnesses say it was due to fireworks.  One firefighter died due to smoke inhilation.  In the matter of hours the whole building was like the highlight of the firework show to celebrate the last day of the Spring Festival.  When we walked past near the area around 12mn, we can’t see anything due to smoke.  This morning on my way to work, you can see how big it really was and the extent of damage of the fire.

(Photo Credits: Rico Calma, ai de ke flickr photos)

My page rank is still zero and I still don’t get that much traffic. It’s so frustrating! Anyhow, I will still strive and post more stuff about Beijing while I’m still working in this part of China.

Upcoming Events:

• Australian pop diva, Kylie Minogue, will be in town for a one night concert at the Worker’s Gymnasium on December 1. Ticket prices from RMB 280 to 2580. When we bought our reserved tickets this afternoon at piao.com.cn’s office, they’ve informed us that they don’t have any tickets left for the cheapest one.
• The Elton John and Tim Rice Broadway musical, Aida, will hit the Beijing Exhibition Theater stage on November 19 to 23.
• Carrefour Shuangjing Branch will hold a wine tasting and Beaujolais Nouveau on Wednesday, November 19 from 6pm to 1am to celebrate a French custom.  Grab your chance to taste some free wines!       Read the rest of this entry »
  

Starting Nov. 10, the ongoing number traffic scheme will be revised.  Every month the days will be changed in order to give “equal” days off to car owners.  Some people are saying it will be difficult to keep track and it’s “ma fan” to private car owners.  Some people are suggesting that they should just use the odd-even scheme to ban government vehicles.

In any case, the new scheme will see vehicles with plate numbers ending with 5 and 0 off on Mondays, 1 and 6 on Tuesdays, 2 and 7 on Wednesdays, 3 and 8 on Thursdays, 4 and 9 on Fridays.  Penalty for offenders will remain at RMB 100 and those cars will be off the road from 6am to 9pm on said days.

Ever since they started this scheme last month, traffic had a slight improvement.  There are days wherein traffic is still bad but there are days wherein it’s smooth sailing.  Air quality is still not that great but there are more blue sky days now.  Let’s see what other surprises will they do in the future but you’ll be sure that they would implement it with an iron fist.

Photo credit: www.remodelista.com

After two months of being pampered with clean air and less traffic, Beijing motorists were plagued with traffic jams on the first day off of the odd-even scheme during the Games.  Air quality deteriorated badly that government officials implemented a new traffic scheme starting yesterday.

I remember talking to my friend who has a car about the traffic scheme in Manila and how it would be good if it was implemented here before my European trip.  Lo and behold, they implemented it with some revisions.  It seems like they will be giving it a trial run till April 10 of next year.  The number traffic scheme would ban cars whose last digit on their car plates matches the number they’ve selected from 6 am to 9 pm on certain days.  Weekends are excluded on the traffic scheme.  They devised whose off as follow: 1 and 6 on Monday, 2 and 7 on Tuesday, 3 and 8 on Wednesday, 4 and 9 on Thursday , and 5 and 0 on Friday.

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Milk is an important source of calcium which is good for our bones.  Babies can consume several bottles of milk a day as it’s their source of food.  So, when the news reported that some of the milk are tainted with melamine, first thing which came into my mind was, here we go again.

Melamine is a chemical used to produce plastic, inks and fertilizers.  If added in food products, it will increase the protein content.  If ingested, melamine may lead to reproductive damage, bladder or kidney stones and bladder cancer.  To date, 4 infants in China already died due to drinking tainted milk.   Over 12,000 children with more than 90% of them younger than 3 years old are hospitalized due to symptoms of drinking milk with melamine.

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The People’s Bank of China issued a commemorative banknote with a value of 10 yuan last Tuesday to mark the Beijing Olympic Games. This is not a typical Chinese note which features Mao in front because Mao is nowhere to be seen and was replaced by the Bird’s Nest. On the other side of the note, is an ancient Greek marble statue of a discus thrower. The PBOC will only print 6 million notes which would be circulated in the market. Thus, people queued Monday midnight to get the chance to get hold on one of these special notes.  

It’s bound to be a collector’s item and from what I heard it’s already worth RMB 500. I didn’t know about it until I saw it or else I would have waited with the throng of people just to get hold of one to keep. I’ll try the bank tomorrow and ask if they have one. Hopefully, they do as that’s one souvenir that I’m willing to keep.