Lost in China

When I was down, I spent my Thursday cloudy afternoon by walking around the downtown. Walking to the city park, to the back area of the  downtown and spotted that the KFC will do the Grand Opening in Saturday.

Suprised. I was wondering what’s going on at the park at that hour then found out that some old people spent their time doing a game. Is it a ‘put put golf’…? Dunoo the name of this game, but seems those people really enjoyed it. Yeah, sure. Also I recognized some people playing cards and ‘gasing’(?) and some doing the calligraphy using stick and water. I think they wrote poem or something, interesting.

A couple doing the dance excersice at the center of the park and for sure you’ll find young people doing ’something’ at the back. Gosh, it’s hard to get the picture of that ‘hot moment’ hihihi…

In the morning, you’ll find old people doing dancing using flags and fans. And also some are interesting doing excercise using sword, fake one. Children this time playing with their rollerblade, and I think they have a coach. Yup, they have a coach.

Man, I was in the middle of no where.

I’m too lazy to post these stories. You can search all the history of these sites on the internet, free and you’ll find a lot more information. Or maybe Fitrix can help me to tell these stories…?

We visited Forbidden City long time ago, just about a week after me and Suryadi arrived in China. It’s in Labor Day holidays, a week holiday for the Chinese people. So you can imagine how’s the crowd at that time, people came from all around the China and it’s summer already. We walked for a half day and yet there’s still some places that we’re not visited. It’s a huge complex. If you’re really interesting with the history, maybe you’ll need more than one day. The first two gates are free. Starting the third gate you have to pay 60 RMB, then you’ll free to walk inside. The first gate is the special one, once you climb it (with 15 RMB), you’ll face the Tian’anmen Square to the south. As you know, Tian’anmen is the historical place for China reformation. I won’t tell this story, in fact I think no body in China want to tell this story. Dunno. So, back to the Forbidden City. You’ll find the audio tour guide, but I think it won’t help much. You’ll still need a tour guide to walk with you, not just an audio guide.

Almost forget. The China President’ office is located next to the Forbidden City, to the west part. And the Tian’anmen Square is located just across the Forbidden City.

I’m starting to hate visiting tourist spots in summer. It was crowded and hot. First was the Forbidden City, then Great Wall Badaling and now the Summer Palace. Gosh, we’re walking for about 2,500 acres (around 1 hectare) in Summer Palace in a halfday hot sunny day, together with a bunch of people around the world.

Anyway, we met again with our tour guide from the HQ. A little bit late entering the site due to the traffic jam in Beijing, but we’re survived at the end of the tour. One spot we missed is an Imperial Garden. Maybe it’s still under renovation due to the Summer Olympic in 2008. We found the Marble boat, but we didn’t take the tour boat to across the lake. Strange excuse from our tour guide, dunno. The rest, we just walk along the side lake, climb the palace, watching performances, see the historical things and then visit the island at the center of the lake. You can find the whole historical stories from the internet, I’m too lazy to tell you the history.

Every TV show in China has a Chinese subtitle, no matter the shows are in English or in Chinese. Interesting one (for Chinese people, not for me), they usually use dubber to translate the English conversation (except in CCTV 9 as the English channel).

IMO, I will let the conversation still in English and put the Chinese subtitle at the bottom of the screen, so it’ll never disturb the sound of conversation itself. But, hey…lookslike every English conversation was dubbed and…it’s suck (for me). I can not understand what people said because it’s disturbed by the dubber. IMO it’s a silly way to translate, but maybe this is the China way and I have to get used to it.

Actually not just English conversation that was dubbed, but also every western movie. It’s dubbed to Chinese and (still…!!!) has a Chinese subtitle. Poor me. Can you imagine Michael Schumacher or Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones speak Chinese…??? Sometime I enjoying watching TV with Chinese language, but sometimes I just want to throw the ashtray to it.

Well, maybe this is the way how the China Government try to push the un-employment rate. They try to make many jobs for the people. And maybe this is the start point for China to be more open to the world. We’ll see.

A couple days ago we went to Indonesian Embasssy which located in the diplomatic area close to bar streets Sanlitun. We never officially report our selves and last Wed eventually managed to have a visit to Indonesian embassy. A friend of Fitrix who works at the embassy set up our visit and also arrange a meeting with the Ministry of Economic to have a little talk with us. We talked about lots of things, our condition, weather, traffic to tsunami, earthquake which recently hit Indonesia. After that, following the standard procedure, we brought along passports, working permit and photos and report ourselves to the embassy officer. Having a look at our papers, she told us that our staying has been illegal in China. The officer said that we should report ourselves to the embassy within 30 days after the arrival otherwise it will be considered as an illegal stay and will be fined in case of overdue. We are late for two months and the fine will be 5000 RMB or equal to 5,7 million in Rupiah

How surprised we were with this, we thought that everything has been taken care by HR including residence and working permit. So far that i could recall that once i got here, the secretary asked for medical report, passport and visa to administer for all the permits. So when the secretary came up with working permit, i thought everything has been settled down. Apparently, HR here is not quite familiar with the procedure moreover our coming here is a new thing for them. Nevertheless, i still be grateful this problem was disclosed and solved soon. I can’t imagine so much troubles we run into, if by the time we should leave and not having residence permit. Course we can’t leave this country without it.

Another thing we should add from our last trip to Beijing, is that our cost of living (regardless of accomodation, since it’s all has been provided by company whereever we stay) in Beijing probably will be much cheaper compared to living in Yan Jiao. For example, with 10 Yuan you can have a quite nice meal in a mal in Sanlitun area compared to Yan Jiao where at least you need 25 Yuan. Sanlitun is a place where a lot of expats inhabited, just like Kemang in Jakarta. Lots of cafes, bars, mals to be found here. A place for nightlife and entertainment with relatively cheaper prices.   

photos by andam & edwin 

photo by edwin 

Today the sky is so blue and it is a hot sunny day for sure…but is it the hottest day for summer in China…??? dunno…

According to this information, today we have 33 Celcius with 41% humidity…quite hot and clear but still mois I think…we’ll have hot sunny day until Sunday and turn to a little bit rainy on Monday…rain in summer…???

Usually we use ‘Celcius’ or ‘Fahrenheit’ as our guide to scale the temperature. Look what we found here: They use ‘Celcius’ and ‘Rheamur’(?).

photo by edwin 

Look at the picture: at the left side we have ‘C’ as ‘Celcius’. Then look at the right side of the picture: ‘RH’ as ‘Rheamur’…???

Long time ago in Indonesia, some people said in one of the forum that it’s not right if one TV show has an English title but the whole show content is in Bahasa.

For example: ‘Indonesia Solution’, ‘Breaking News’, ‘Famous to Famous’ etc. At that time, I don’t give a damn. I don’t care because I still can understand the show, either in English or in Bahasa it’s no problem for me or us.

But then somehow I got here in Yanjiao, China for months. And I found out that there are some TV shows have an English title. Like ‘English Program’ (damn, they call their show as an ‘English Program’…). At the first time, I’m so excited when I read the titles. I thought it’s a TV show with an English, but hey…!!! You’re not even close. It’s only English at the title but the whole TV show is in Chinese, and don’t forget that they have a subtitle just below the screen. In English…? Nope, still in Chinese.

Then, I just realize the complaints about Indonesian TV shows. Gosh, I miss watching understandable TV shows…

Wang Fujing is the name of the street that you have to visit if you’re in Beijing. Located just about 1 km eastern Forbidden City, near the Beijing Hotel. Remember Beijing Hotel…? The one that our friend Wang said: "This is the place where Real Madrid players stayed during their visit in 2005".

If you want to search original Chinese things, this is the right place. This is the place just similar to Pasaraya or Plaza Senayan Jakarta. Eventhough Wang Fujing has a western landscape, this place indeed is a luxurious city symbol. You cannot say that you’re already stay in Beijing if you never visit this famous street.

Three months stay in Yanjiao, eastern part of Beijing. Three months we have Chinese food as our daily menu, and we miss Indonesian food already. Maybe HaiShi Hotel can give us that kind of food…??? hehehe… :p

Anyway, there is no Indonesian Restaurant in Yanjiao, we have to go to Beijing to get one. Well, it’s quite an easy thing to find Indonesian food in Beijing because there’s only one. And it’s not cheap also, indeed.

This Indonesian Restaurant, located in Chaoyang District near the embassy complex. Actually it’s not originally an Indonesian Restaurant, they called themself "Java & Yangon Restaurant". Yup it’s Indonesian and Myanmar cuisine.

And how about the taste…? Well, it’s good enough to heal our tongue and stomach’s need : ).

Long time ago, the chef was came from Indonesia so maybe you can still taste the originality of Indonesian food. But now, according to our friend’s information, they provide Indian chef. Well maybe because it’s belong to Indian people. Quite nice place to relax and enjoy our back home cuisine.