Morning Commute

Getting to work has never been so much fun. Each morning I join up with my bipedal carpool (i.e. walking group) for the 35-45 minute walk to work. The crew has varied but its pretty much Andrea, Peter and I. This walk has given us a chance to catch up on the latest blogs and other articles we've been reading, new finds, and pretty much anything. The conversation has certainly gotten me to think much more about planning and helped to spur my creativity and interest in planning. But if that weren't fun enough, the detour that we take through Zizhuyuan Park (translates to Purple Bamboo Park) is like the icing on the cake. Aside from the daily escape from the city that the walk provides we get to see throngs of mostly elderly people engaged in some sort of physical activity each morning, including Tai Chi, some modified hackey sack game, badminton, fan dancing, ball room dancing, sword fighting and my favorite aerobics (both jazzercise style and classical Chinese music). The only drawback is that its hot and muggy, but fortunately the office is on casual dress so I don't have to worry too much about arriving in a hot and sweaty mess. And then there is air conditioning in my office to look forward to.

Art tour of Beijing

I'm getting the feeling that China doesn't do anything on a small scale. The Forbidden Palace is huge, then of course there is the Great Wall, and the recently complete Great Restroom. So its no surprise that the Dashanzi Art District would cover 1 square kilometer (or about 247 acres), it is absolutely immense.



I had learned about this place during a presentation given by one of the student interns from USC who mentioned 798 Space in this artist district and showed pictures of some converted warehouses. It looked cool but it didn't prepare me for what I got. Andrea, Peter Jenny and I hopped in a cab on Saturday to visit this place. It was in the cab ride that I learned the area had been featured in a number of articles of late including a New York Times piece, which discussed China and Beijing's growing art scene. What we found when we got there was a huge area dedicated to mostly art galleries exhibiting works form local artists that have moved to other areas as the rents here have increased due to its growing popularity (ah..gentrification..its everywhere). I think I ended up taking more pictures here than I did at the Forbidden City. So I'm just including a few photos here. And you can check out the rest on my photobucket page.

Streetside gourmet

Andrea and I ate what looked like a cross between a falafel and an egg McMuffin, filled with some marinated pork (or at least I think that's what it was) cilantro and onions...mmmm so good.



Next was the Chinese crepe burrito. The process of making it was so mesmerizing...the taste. so so, but if I could get the falafel McMuffin lady to work with the crepe burrito lady they would make a killing.

This mini street feast took place in our attempt to explore the city by bus in our quest for books in English and cheap electronics. With our maps in hand, our limited Mandarin, and Andrea's nifty compass on her wristwatch, we were able to make our way around and get to where we wanted to go. We stumbled on the street food near Book City, designated in our guide book as a good place to find books in English. We were looking for books and found them...lots of them ..including a sizable English section, mostly comprised of the classics, and lots of business and self help books.

After getting our fill of the books, we headed out to find the electronics market. But as we were standing around staring at our map, completely lost, a nice Chinese guy, Alex, offered to help us find what we were looking for. He spoke excellent English, which was amazing, since he said he learned to speak English by himself because he couldn’t get into an English language course. He said he had nothing else to do so he joined us. Since he was also new to town he kept asking everyone we passed if they knew where the market was. It turned out the map showed the market on a corner that was now a major construction site. But it appears the market was moved up a few blocks, practically right next to where started. Alex was even nice enough to help Andrea negotiate with the electronics store vendor in purchasing her card reader and made him giver her a receipt so if she had any problems she could bring it back...wow

We topped the evening off by going out to dinner at this restaurant that we have been passing everyday on our way to work. The decor was imperial Chinese, so what would we expect to have there, but pizza, hot wings and beer right? Well that's just what we had and in fact that was the only thing on the menus so we really had no choice. I think I'll be back there again...that pizza was very good.

Forbidden Palace/Forbidden City

The Forbidden Palace and Forbidden City are often used interchangeably to describe the residence of the Qing and Ming dynasty emperors..and with good reason. This really is a bit of a city all unto itself. The place is huge with numerous courtyards that you can spend days or even weeks exploring and still not see it all.



I went with Andrea, Song, He Wei, and Wang Wei. Song, He Wei and Wang Wei acted as our tour guides and translators, and I must say they were great on both fronts. They got us to the palace and helped us get our tickets.




Though we probably could have figured that out on our own, since they even offer audio guides in 20 languages including Esperanto!


The grandeur of the palace is just not easily captured on film. I could only imagine what it must have been like for the first non Chinese people's to see the palace thinking they had reach the palace only to find courtyard after courtyard after courtyard before getting to either the ceremonial center, administrative center or the imperial residence or those of his numerous wives and concubines. In addition to the grandeur of the structures, we got a taste of the opulent lifestyle when we checked out the clock museum and the precious jewels museums in the Forbidden City.


Some of the buildings are used for museums and the clock museum shows off some amazing examples of both imported clocks form the late 19th century and those produced in China.


One of the signs in the museums describes the clocks as entertainment pieces. I'm not sure I would have ever figured that a clock would be entertaining, but when you see these and imagine them in motion, I'm sure it would be entertaining to see, and I’m sure it's more fun than watching paint dry.


One of the more exquisite pieces was the huge water clock that measured time with every drip. This was an invention developed in China though this technology gave way to the imported mechanical clocks from Europe.

The precious jewels museum was amazing. Lots of gold work, works in jade, and other precious stones, from the small the very large. These were carved from single pieces of stone.




After all that walking we were totally exhausted. And we still barely scratched the surface with the Forbidden City. It’s easy to see why the throngs of tourists pour into here every day. And why the palace has captured the imagination of many a visitor to Beijing.

I feel lik I'm in the not too distant future!

A trip down to Wangfujing Road feels just like fast forwarding 20 years into the future. I stepped out of the subway and was taken aback by the sheer scale of the street life. The throngs of people milling around the street heading into the sleek buildings made me feel like I could be in a much cooler and hipper Universal City Walk.


Now I normally would cringe at the comparison or yearning for Universal City Walk amenities, but this feels so much better. Unlike City walk which is a very manufactured experience, this has some history and connection with its surroundings. The area also reminded me of Koreatown, with its flavor of modernity, sleek buildings and fashionable people milling about, but taken to a whole new level with the scale of the buildings and by having a pedestrian only street.

Grant it the sky matched the color of the buildings (gray), but it still left me totally mesmerized and questioning why on earth we don't have more pedestrian only streets in LA. I thought how cool it would be to have this replicated (in a much smaller scale) on Broadway, and was ready to start a campaign to shut down Broadway when I get home. Fortunately someone else seems to have had the same idea so I can focus on other things.

The whole reason for trekking to this part of town was to eat Beijing’s famous hot pot cuisine. The way hot pot works, is you have a large..well.hot pot..that is has a heating source in the center and is filled with boiling water. Then everyone around the table gets raw meets and vegetables to put in the hot pot until they are cooked, then you dip your meet or veggie into this special sauce and enjoy. This really makes dining as entertainment and very delicious. I can't wait to get back to LA and see if I can find a hot pot restaurant in, its like a Korean BBQ, only with boiled water.


Other interesting tidbit of history on my tour of Wangfujing Road, include this Catholic Church,


and this famous alley where you can get virtually anything on a stick. We stuck to the glazed fruit on a stick, though the more adventurous out there could enjoy everything from squid, crab, scorpion, beetle and locust on a stick.


I think I'll stick to animals with between 2 and 4 legs for my culinary experiences.

The sun came out!!

Wow, the city looks completely different on a clear day. Thanks to the rains we just had yesterday, the smog and the overcast have lifted leaving a beautiful blue sky. I almost thought I would never see the sky as long as I was in Beijing. But amazingly I can even see mountains off in the distance from my apartment window.


And the view from one of the windows in my office show’s of just one of the many construction projects taking place all over Beijing.

I have a job to do...

I just got out of a meeting with my supervisor and her boss regarding the work I’m supposed to do while I’m here. I’ve been asked to do some research on storm water management, eco villages, and wind power, and give advice on the best management practices for this new development they are planning. It’s a cool project. The development will have residential areas that are designed in the style of various European countries, so there will be an England land, Norway land, Holland land, etc. There will also be an amusement park and an industrial zone geared toward creative industries, such as design, fashion, etc. It’s a bit overwhelming to think that my advice will help to determine how this project gets implemented. I just hope I don’t fall into the same troubles that other eco villages built in China have experienced.

First day of work

I am in Beijing as part of an exchange program from UCLA with the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning. Four students form UCLA, including myself, are here as are a bunch of students form USC, one student form Sydney, Australia, and some students form Germany. Though it’s my understanding that all the German students have been sent to Shenzen. Kenetha, one of the UCLA students, arrived about a month ago and she has been great at helping us settle in. She’s given me tons of advice and useful tips.

I’ll be staying about 45 minutes walking distance from where I work. We took a cab to get to work this morning which took about 10 minutes, and cost 3 yuan each…(about $0.50). Pretty cheap, but I guess these small costs can add up, especially if I do it daily each way. I’ll be earning 100 Yuan a day, which seems plenty.

I was told I’d be working in the old building of the CAUP. The building has recently been refurbished and everyone has new furniture. The one problem with this new furniture is that they are off gassing, which spurred my new co-workers to remove about 7 wooden book cases from our office. Aside from that, the building is very nice. There is plenty of natural light from the large windows and you can they keep the air conditioning on, just a hair below comfortable, so sometimes you don’t realize its on until you step outside. No word yet on my actual work here. I was asked to prepare a presentation about myself, including my experience and interests and they would find a place for me after I’ve met the full team. We’ll see how it goes.

I arrived in China

I’ve arrived in China. My initial reaction is wow! Everything looks so modern. However, the sky is thick and gray, which looks like an intense marine layer or heavy fog, but I know better. This thick air is what Beijing has become infamous for, filled with heavy particulate matter from its coal burning power plants and growing fleet of cars. In fact, visibility is so bad, I can hardly see more than a few blocks in front of me before everything disappear in to foggy haze. But in my limited exposure to Beijing, I am amazed with how clean everything looks. The ride from the airport to my apartment is about an hour. We passed tree-lined streets and freshly planted buildings with plenty more under construction.

It’s hot and muggy, but not unbearable. My room is simple with what could have been an impressive view of the city, since I am on the 15^th floor, but all I can see are the buildings that are closest to mine Here are some pictures of my room. I tried to get a picture from my window, but, not surprisingly all I got was a fuzzy gray image.

I have to admit that it hasn’t fully sunk into me that I am in China. I t just feels like I am in some really big Chinatown. I guess I can thank globalization for letting me feel like I am in any modern city anywhere in the world. Hopefully as I get to explore China more I will refine my impressions. But for now, Beijing is pleasant, hot and muggy, clean, modern and fuzzy.