The blahs of spring

 

Cruising the waterway between Chaoyang Park and SOLANA 

In our last episode I shared with the world the news that after months of uncertainty I had been offered, and accepted, a Consular position at the consulate in Guangzhou 广州. The initial excitement at finally having an onward assignment, and especially one that returns me to the world of Consular work, has since worn off. Frankly speaking, it was never my intention to have so much of my relatively short career in the Foreign Service to be devoted to China. While my wife is happy to be staying in this country for the next three years (due to Guangzhou's closer proximity to Taiwan when compared to Beijing 北京), I had been hoping to finish out my stint in the State Department with a job in a different exotic locale, ideally still in Asia but I certainly would not have minded Africa, Europe, Oceania or even the Americas. Instead, three years in China will be doubled to six (eight if you count our two-year tour in Shanghai 上海 in 2013-15) by the time I reach retirement age, unless I have a mental and/or physical breakdown in the upcoming years (not outside the realms of possibility).  

While some people might consider me fortunate to have this Sino-centric career, I've never considered myself, nor ever wanted to be considered, as an "old China hand". In these current times, with the many issues roiling the U.S.-China relationship, serving in the Middle Kingdom may not carry the same cache that it once had. But a job is a job (for now, at least), so I'll strive to make the best of this "opportunity". 

In my last post I hinted at an overall feeling of ennui since returning from Hokkaidō 北海道 and Taiwan, exacerbated by being on my own in Beijing for almost a month while Shu-E was in her homeland. Though she eventually came back on the last Saturday in March, ennui has turned into malaise with the onset of several issues (both health and non-health-related). Nevertheless, I still managed to get out and do some things. For example, the day following Shu-E's return, while still cool temperature wise, was clear and sunny. My wife had read about a bread market being held in Chaoyang Park 朝阳公园 so she suggested going there as a Sunday outing. We first walked around the SOLANA Shopping Park in search of somewhere to eat. However, being the lunchtime peak hour all was crowded, and in some restaurants we were informed that we would have to wait for up to 14 or 15 tables to turn over before we could be seated. Eventually, though, we found a taco place where we could sit without waiting (hint: if one exists try using a restaurant's rear entrance). The food was unexceptional but the Slow Boat IPA was good:

In Chaoyang Park we came across this work of art:

Shu-E, while looking at her phone discovered two inconvenient truths - 1.) the market was a further 18 minutes away on foot; and 2.) entry was by ticket only, at 39 RMB ($5.40). And so we opted to give the market a pass, and ended up going to a German-style bakery near our house instead. Which was probably a good call, too, as WeChat revealed a long line of people waiting to get inside the bread market. My wife contented herself with taking photos of flowers in the park:

Soon after we got home two uninvited guests showed up, one right after the other. Meow-meow (middle) lives next door, while Tom (partially hidden on the left) resides across the road, but spends most of his time outside. Both frequently drop in to snoop around, but this was the first time for the pair to show up at the same time (there's also a third cat that visited while my wife was away). In true feline fashion the trio spent most of the time ignoring each other.

Friday, April 4 was Tomb Sweeping Day 清明节, a public holiday in China (and in Taiwan). It was Shu-E's suggestion following lunch at home to visit Haitang Huaxi 海棠花溪, a part of the Yuan Dadu City Walls Park 元大都城垣遗址公园, to see the begonia blossoms. The day was warm and many people were present, but not in overwhelming numbers: 

My wife crouches to get a shot of the blossoms with the bridge behind it. Her knees are in better shape than mine:

And here's the shot she worked so hard to get:

The temperature that day got up to 22°C/72°F so it was finally time to break out the shorts and sandals, to the distress of those around me who couldn't avoid having to look at my legs:

Shu-E says this amusement park-looking complex is part of the China Ethnic Museum 中国民族博物馆, exhibiting the People's Republic's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups (including the "Gaoshan" 高山族, which lumps into one the 16 officially recognized aboriginal groups in Taiwan). It should be noted that one of those 56, the Han 汉族, makes up 92% of the population (though the Han is not a homogeneous grouping of people as the term encompasses different dialects, customs, cuisine and so on). The other 55 are expected to dress in colorful native attire and sing ethnic folk songs for the benefit of Han tour groups, but are not permitted to bring up topics that might disrupt "ethnic harmony":

IYKYK. I didn't realize until later I was being (unintentionally) photobombed:

Walking in the direction of the Beijing Olympic Park, or what Wikipedia calls Olympic Green 奥林匹克森林公园:

Approaching the National Stadium 国家体育场, aka the Bird's Nest 鸟巢, site of the 2008 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, as well as track and field and soccer events. It was extremely windy in the open plaza:

The Olympics site attracts many tour groups even though there isn't much to see or do unless there's a special event taking place. In the souvenir stores you can buy Beijing Eight Scenery Cakes to bring back to family and friends in your hometown:

Some kind of alcoholic drink in time for Easter. I would not want to see this visage staring back at me after downing a few shots:

My wife wanted to go on despite the long walk from the Haitang Huaxi because she wanted to see more begonias, even though we had already visited with Amber two years before:

We detoured into the Xin'ao Shopping Center 馨奥购物中心 for a beer and some black fried chicken: 

Lining up on the stairs to get that perfect shot:

I was surprised at the number of cosplayers at the park. The term was originally coined in Japan - コスプレ at one point started to have negative connotations as Japan's extensive porn industry began to incorporate it into storylines and videos, but its growing popularity among overseas fans of anime アニメ and manga 漫画 has made it acceptable again:

Violet Evergarden?

Note the young woman in the foreground - despite hostility (much of it officially-generated) toward Japan many young women in Beijing like to dress as Japanese schoolgirls. Could Japan's AV industry be a way to ease tensions between states?: 

One afternoon while visiting an optician's shop to order some new glasses I noticed this hair salon sign. "Fujino Styling - Tokyo's Latest Fashion Hairstyles" 藤野造型 mixes the Simplified Chinese characters 东京 for Tōkyō 東京 with Japanese kanji 藤野 and katakana ファッション (even if they didn't get the font size right on the latter): 

"Sheeple, Zombies and Kool-Aid". I saw this shirt while on my home from the office one afternoon, and my initial thought was that is Chinglish. It turned out, however, the design came out of the winter 2022 Paris Fashion Week so this guy is way cooler than me:

A couple of weeks ago the news came that winds with speeds of up to 150 kph/93 mph were predicted to hit Beijing over the weekend, the first such warning by the authorities in over a decade. As a result, we were allowed to leave work an hour earlier on Friday, presumably to go home and batten down some hatches. The authorities also warned that people who weigh less than 50 kilograms/110 pounds could be "easily blown away" There was no need for me to worry about that, unfortunately, though a friend warned of the danger of flying children in our residential compound.

 

That Friday evening Shu-E and I went to a favorite izakaya 居酒屋 with my wife's friend Shoyu (visiting from Taiwan) to fortify ourselves for the coming onslaught. One early casualty of the approaching windstorm was having to cancel plans to drive up into the mountains to visit a temple that weekend.

Tempura 天ぷら:

Orion Beer オリオンビール, a favorite since visiting Miyako-jima 宮古島 (on my first visit to Okinawa 沖縄) in the summer of 1993:

Shu-E and Shoyu (I have no idea if that's the proper Romanization of her name):

Nikujaga 肉じゃが:

As is usually the case the actual windstorm the following day appeared to be much less dire than the warnings were suggesting. Still, the three of us stayed indoors until the early afternoon, when Shu-E and I went out for lunch (Shoyu was taking a nap). Instead of the typhoon-like conditions I'd been expecting, we only encountered the occasional gust. I went out again later for a walk, where I did encounter some strong bursts of wind. The only casualties of the weather that I could see were all the bicycles and scooters that had been blown over: 

For us, other than the boredom resulting from a disrupted Saturday, the biggest impact was the sudden drop in temperature, going from the mid-20s C/high-70s F we'd been enjoying earlier that week to a high of 12°C/54°F, with a wind chill factor making it feel like 2°C/36°F! This article gives an idea of what it was like while we were (mostly) hunkered down indoors on the Saturday. 

Even though we have access to an underground parking garage, we prefer to keep our car in the driveway in front of our duplex. Because of the strong wind warnings, however, we were advised by the compound's management to move our Geely below ground. Although I've been in the garage a number of times already (we have a storage room in there), that weekend was the first time for me to notice one section of the garage is separated from the rest with a pair of thick, vault-like doors. Why?:

Day two of the windswept weekend was just as gusty as the day before, but more people were out and about on the Sunday compared to the Saturday. We ventured out to have lunch and to run a couple of errands (including picking up my new spectacles). Though thankfully I've haven't heard or read of any serious injuries (or worse) due to the strong gusts, the same can't be said of Beijing's two-wheeled modes of transport, which appeared to have borne the brunt of the wind's fury:

My wife and her friend pick up a milk tea for me from one of the many branches of Mixue Ice Cream & Tea 蜜雪冰城 that can be seen all over the city. My drink was only RMB7 ($1) - and tasted like it:

Shoyu and I having a post-dinner ice cream one evening in SOLANA: 

Speaking of SOLANA, this past weekend there was a small outdoor market operating, something that happens from time to time. As usual there wasn't much to write home about, though these pairs of stalls briefly piqued my interest. 

 

The one on the left was selling "Omedi Craft Beer" 奥麦帝精酿啤酒, though I couldn't find any information about it online other than it's an American-style wheat beer. The same vendors were also offering "Taiwanese Oyster Egg Omelets" 台湾蚝蛋烧. My wife and her friend had stopped by earlier in the day and discovered the stall had run out of oysters and was substituting shrimp and squid instead. The stand on the right was selling "Taiwanese Salt Crispy Chicken" 台湾盐酥鸡 - the ladies didn't buy anything from them because according to Shu-E the chicken meat didn't look fresh: 

A deceptively idyllic-looking sliver between SOLANA and Chaoyang Park:

For Shoyu's final night in Beijing the three of us went to an izakaya 居酒屋. I'm pictured drinking a peach draft beer, which was literally a glass of beer with peach pieces floating in it. Menu options also included yogurt beer (which Shoyu can be seen drinking) and cucumber beer. Yes, cucumber:

The restaurant specialized in anglerfish アンコウ but my favorite of the dishes we ordered was the grilled eel ウナギ:

The establishment was called Nishiki Shokuya 錦食屋. Sogai そがい is the restaurant's head chef (at least according to both the signboard and the menu):

While apathy, health and malaise may have affected my desire to go out and do much of anything of interest, the same can't be said of my wife, especially while she played hostess to Shoyu for the fortnight she stayed with us. What follows are some photos she shared of some of their activities, many of which took place while I toiled away in my bureaucratic cubbyhole. 

With her friend in tow Shu-E (again) traveled overnight to Gubei Water Town 古北水镇. It was created for the purposes of tourism but my wife likes it - this was the third time for her to visit. She went there for our first out-of-town trip following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, then returned when her brother and one of her sisters recently visited us in Beijing: 

On another afternoon the two of them went to Shichahai 什刹海: 

Dressing up at the same restaurant where we celebrated our daughter's 18th birthday last year:

Visiting a Starbucks on Qianmen Street 前门大街:

The pair made another overnight trip, this time to Tianjin 天津, staying in the same hotel where Amber and I lodged on our visit back in September 2023:

One place that Amber and I didn't visit while in Tianjin was this library:

Last weekend in Chaoyang Park:

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean from us, our daughter shared some recent photos of her life in Oregon

According to Amber, the weather in Corvallis is often like this...

...but when it isn't raining it appears to be glorious: 

Capturing a rainbow:

On one weekend she drove to visit the open house being held at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. Amber had visited the aquarium with us back in the summer of 2018:

She seems to like Newport as she had earlier driven out there just before the start of spring break:

It must be the resident sea lions that brings her back:

Amber's lunch in Newport. At first glance I thought this was taken at an Ivar's but it turned out to be at Oregon's equivalent, Mo's:

Back in Corvallis and sampling Oregon State's own creamery ice cream:

Our daughter appears to have adapted quite well to life in a college town, and that knowledge goes a long way toward compensating for the sense of loneliness at not having her around. I suppose some people choose to fill such voids by focusing on their work, but my job these days is keeping me busy in ways I would rather not be occupying my limited time with. Advice from Google suggests New Age-like methods such as "digging deep down within yourself to understand your feelings", "committing to loving yourself", "connecting with a higher power" and other peace, love and granola suggestions. The one thing that does resonate is "get involved in activities that make you happy". For me, that would be traveling. And next month I plan to embark on a long-awaited journey that hopefully will help to put things into clearer focus. Until then, I just gotta bear down and do what needs to be done, both here in Beijing and in preparation for our eventual move to Guangzhou. 

Assuming, of course, that I'll even still have a job in the months to come. 

Damn, that ice cream above looks really good...

I've never liked this song but it seemed appropriate several weekends ago when the air was dusty with sand despite the aforementioned gusty conditions:

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