First Week in Beijing

We’ve officially spent our first week in Beijing, and what a jam-packed schedule it’s been!  Our goal the first week was to get the kids acclimated to the time change, select an apartment to live in, and begin to get familiar with our new city.  This week has been so productive, and we’re on our way to getting to know what Beijing is really all about.

The minute we stepped off the plane we knew we were in a massive city.  The Beijing International Airport is HUGE!  You can definitely tell Beijing went all out to prepare for the ’08 Olympic Games, and the airport is an impressive reminder.  The other thing we noticed immediately was the air quality.  For the first two days, there was so much smoke in the air that it was noticeably harder to breathe, and our clothes smelled like we had all been smoking all day.  Thank goodness we had some rain and wind to send that pollution on its way on our third day here, and ever since it’s been very pleasant and warm outside. 

Our hotel has been such a nice escape from the exploring we’ve done during the day.  Between the free breakfast and happy hour buffets, the swimming pool, friendly staff (who speak English), and wonderful maid service that supply us with extra bottled water, juice, towels, whatever, we’ve been able to transition VERY comfortably.  We’re finally getting adjusted to the time change, which suddenly shifted 15 hours only 7 days ago.  Unfortunately this has meant some very odd sleeping patterns the last few days.  Our kids were waking up at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 am.  Only today did they go to bed and wake up at their usual times.  My only advise to others travelling internationally with kids is to keep them busy and engaged while they are awake that they are worn out and ready for bed by the end of the day.  We’ve tried to get out an about as much as possible and we’ve been able to shift their inner clocks about an hour or two each day. 

Jacob zonked out during a midday nap

The area of Beijing we’ve been able to explore the most in is called the Chaoyang District.  This includes the central business district, and it’s also where Sonny’s school, the embassies, and our prospective apartments are located.  What’s so interesting to me about this area is that there are the massive, architecturally innovative, and modern structures you’d expect to find in a globally significant  metropolis, but if you walk a block or two off the modern streets, you see layers of old Beijing still a very prominent cornerstone of the pulse of this city.  Hutongs, for example, are alive and well in Beijing, where families live in compartments of large, very old buildings, and share common areas for washing, cleaning, going to the bathroom, etc.  (Going to the bathroom, by the way, has taken on new meaning.  I definitely remember to “go” before leaving our hotel, because the best I can expect in a public bathroom is a hole in the ground that is at best enclosed with a privacy stall…Note: Bring your own toilet paper!) 

A glimpse of Beijijng's CCTV Tower

The tallest building in Beijing, Guomao

A quick visit to the flower market

Beijing Lady's Street Market (couldn't find out why it has that name)

A cleaner view of a typical toilet...to be found in public park, restaurants, less "western-style" homes

The older, less affluent areas of the city are definitely a far cry from the apartments we have seen in our house-hunting, which have modern amenities like western style toilets, granite countertops, wood floors, open layouts, flat screen tv’s.  Beijing is very much “A Tale of Two Cities”.  While it possesses the most modern features to accommodate those that can afford the highest level of luxury, it also is a city of several million hardworking families who live far below that lifestyle.  It is eye-opening, and I have noticed that everywhere we’ve been so far, the wealthy and not-so-wealthy areas, the people we’ve meet have ALL been friendly and hospitable.  Every time we’ve been on the subway, at least one person gets up and gives up their seat so Isabelle can have a rest  as she’s been walking almost as much as Sonny and I.  We’ve tried different restaurants, taken taxis across town, and shopped in several local markets, and we’ve not yet had a negative experience with the patrons we’ve met.  If anything, it seems that people go out of their way to help us, which I attribute to the fact that we have kids.  People seem to be very aware of and also very approachable to our kids.  It’s not as typical for us in America to see our kids interacting this much with complete strangers.  Part of this is I know we look like westerners, and I was warned before we got here to expect a little more attention while out in public.  Our kids are just eating that attention up.  We went to Chaoyang Park, Bejing’s equivalent to Central Park in New York City, only Chaoyang also has an amusement park that the kids LOVED!   While we were here, the kids were approached by several other groups of Chinese kids and adults just wanting to take their pictures with them.  I could have predicted that Isabelle was going to love being the center of attention, and she would join them in flashing her smile and a peace sign for the camera. As long as my kids don’t mind the attention, I guess I don’t either.

Beautiful Monument in Chaoyang Park

Isabelle and Jacob are rolling around in Chaoyang Park

It was a beautiful day for flying a kite at Chaoyang Park.  Isabelle picked the mermaid kite of course!

Kids working on their teamwork

Jacob is always trying to "help"

The kids were stopped by some kids for a photo-op

Jacob met a new friend to blow bubbles with

One of our few opportunities to use the jumbo stroller

Not only have we been able to visit some of Beijing’s many parks such as Chaoyang and Tuanjiehu Park, but we’ve explored some of the local produce and meat markets, flower markets, shopping malls, restaurants, the Olympic Village (including the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest).  We’ve watched the senior citizens of the community gather to perform exercise routines, vendors selling and bargaining in the outdoor markets, people in mass getting on and off the subway, and rush hour traffic (which includes just as many pedestrians and bicyclists as there are cars).   I feel like this has been such a productive first week, considering the fact that we’re also adjusting to getting around the city with the kids.  We have a double jogging stroller, which in the U.S. I considered my go-to piece of equipment for lugging the kids around town.  There isn’t a lot of accommodation for people with strollers, so unless we knew we were headed to a park, we really haven’t used it.  Rather, Sonny’s been carrying Jacob in the baby backpack we brought, and Isabelle has come to get used to doing A LOT of walking.  I’m so proud of how well she is transitioning.  The kids have enjoyed trying new foods, which came as a shock to me.  MY picky eaters actually love the noodles, tender beef and pork, and vegetables like grean beans, bok choy, cabbage, and leeks.  CRAZY!  And we've found that the more local the restaurant, the cheaper the bill.  In the restaurants pictured below we spent around 70 RMB for our meals, which is about 10 bucks.  That includes beer! 

The Birds Nest

Dig In!

Isabelle in front of the Water Cube

Exploring the Olympic Village

Inside the Bird's Nest.  The top floor has a great museum exhibit with artifacts from the opening ceremonies.  For you engineers out there, there's also a pictorial progression of the construction phases, complete with CADD drawings showing the buildings' load distributions.

Jacob with his first Chinese souvenier

Learning our way around the subway on a very quiet day

Stopping for a rest at another great Chinese restaurant

Bon Apetite!  Pork Ribs, Kale soup, a dried green bean dish, and a bowl of pork noodle soup.  Isabelle and Jacob tried everything!

For those of you curious about our house-hunting progress, we have definitely selected our favorite apartment.  We have to finalize our contract and make sure everything we want is included in our lease before we officially have a home.  So far we’re very happy with the place we’ve decided on.  I’ll definitely be posting more on this soon as our selection is finalized and we get to move in.  During our exploring of prospective apartments around town, we’ve been able to track down western-friendly grocery stores that surprisingly carry things like Pampers, baby wipes, common western brand toiletries, and familiar foods that down the road will be a welcome break from Chinese food.   This is a huge relief to me to know that key necessities I’m accustomed to and the creature comforts of home are readily available…for the most part.

All in all, we’ve had such a great experience this first week in Beijing.  We’ve tried a lot of new things and gotten around town to discover all the wonderful things this city has to offer.  This week really could not have gone better with the kiddos, and I’m really confident they are going to feel at home very soon!  Thanks for following us guys, and stay tuned for updates on our new apartment.  Also, we will be heading to some of Beijing’s most well-known historical sites very soon, so keep an eye out for our blog on that.

PS.  The Easter Bunny came to Beijing!  Happy Easter everyone!