Time "Marches" on

This peach tree was very popular with passersby while its flowers bloomed

Get it? "Marches on" because it's the end of March and...oh, forget it.

Life has been relatively quiet since we returned to Beijing 北京 from Japan in the middle of February. In the subsequent days and weeks, we've seen the freezing temperatures gradually warm up as spring slowly approached, with the season officially arriving sometime between the 21st and 23rd of March. What follows is a photographic roundup of some of the activities we engaged in as time continues on its inexorable movement toward an as yet unseen ultimate end.

And with what better moment to start things off than with the final snowfall of winter, a sight I didn't expect to encounter after I woke up on the morning of the 21st of February and made my way to work in the cold:

My daughter bonds with Timi, our Siamese. He will have to stay behind with us when Amber sets off for college in the fall, but the plan is for the two of them to eventually reunite once she's out of the dorms and living in a hopefully pet-friendly apartment or rental house:

Keeping an eye on a cat threatening to enter his territory:

Winter sun:

Weekend traffic on the 4th Ring Road 四环路:

On the occasion of the Lantern Festival 元宵节, the three of us took a walk after dinner, lamp in hand:

We ventured over to the SOLANA shopping center...:

...where a drone show featuring flying phoenixes was staged over the lagoon that separates the mall from Chaoyang Park 朝阳公园. The performance was basically a repeat of the event we witnessed back in December:

A small market had been set up outside SOLANA. Generally speaking, the Chinese still have much to learn from their Taiwanese cousins when it comes to nighttime outdoor vending:

If you don't know by now what year this is according the the Chinese zodiac calendar...:

Indulging in a daquiri at Moka Bros in SOLANA. Nothing to see in the area around my waistline, move along:

Trying out Luckin Coffee, a Chinese chain with sales outperforming those of Starbucks. Unfortunately, the branch we stumbled into didn't have seating, so a full comparison couldn't be made:

In the end it was like McDonald's vs Burger King. When it comes to fast food caffeine poison, it's six cups of one, a half-dozen of the other:

Lunching at yet another Japanese restaurant on Lucky Street 好运街 (across from the Japanese Embassy). The cushion reads "Little Tokyo":

I would like to get one of those cups with the sushi illustrations on them:

Edomae Sushi 江戸前寿司:

In search of a shop supposedly selling unique souvenirs, we found ourselves yet again on Nanluogu Xiang 南锣鼓巷:

"Old Beijing Quick-Scalded Tripe". I passed:

I did regret not eating at Jiggly Wiggly's, however. How could I pass up "True British Fish & Chips"?!:

It turned out the store was no longer in operation (not the first time to encounter this in Beijing), so we headed down a side street to check out something the wife wanted to see. In the Mao'er Hutong 帽儿胡同 there were welcoming signs from the local authority:

At this point the waterways were still covered in a thin sheet of ice:

According to the sign Cat Cafe features "flower path", "numerology" and "cat purchase". We passed:

Coming into that brief but glorious stage in one's life when it's just possible to look cool, if only for a fleeting instance. For me, that time has long rescinded into the annals of ancient history:

Qianhai Lake 前海:

Coffee break at Red Boat:

Waiting in line to get skewered:

Shu-E wanted to go to Qianhai to see a dragon that had been erected to celebrate the new lunar year. I'm sure it looked more impressive at night when it was lit up, but in the daylight I came away feeling somewhat underwhelmed:

Being judged by Timi after forcing him to wear the beret our daughter picked up for him in Japan:

These days find me at the main international hospital seemingly so often I have breaks long enough between appointments to go and have a cup of coffee between them. Which is what Shu-E and I did one morning, killing time at a cafe called P.P.F. that turned out to be similar to the TARDIS in that it was much more interesting on the inside than its exterior was suggesting:

One shelf in the cafe was set aside for the words and wisdom of the Kim Il Sung Kim Jong Il Xi Jinping 习近平:

Not far from where we live is a lamb hot pot restaurant called Yangdaye ("Uncle Sheep") 羊大爷 that describes itself as having "bad ass lamb hot pot". Shu-E had lunch there with some friends recently, and suggested the family should check it out as well. The interior:

The serving implements shaped like weapons did add a certain air of bad assery to the proceedings:

The dipping sauce for the meat came with a design of the character yáng 羊, meaning "sheep". It resembled an espresso, but obviously didn't taste like one:

How the meats we ordered arrived at the table:

The wife loves hotpot. I don't mind it, either, except that it seems to require a lot of effort to first cook, and then locate in the pot, the delectable items...unless for some reason cabbage is your most favorite food in the world. The best hot pot restaurant I've ever been to was in Tongxiao 通霄, in Taiwan. Set up like a a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, customers could select the foods they truly desired, and dispense with those unnecessary dull veggies. Naturally the concept didn't catch on:

Our neighbor's cat (the imaginatively named Meow-Meow) likes to stop by on occasion to stare at Timi. There's more below:

Visiting the Fuxiaoguan vegetable market 福小关菜市场:

Almost from the time she was weaned off of baby food and mother's milk, Amber's favorite snack has been strawberries:

The market, popular with both locals and expats, has a wide range of fruits and vegetables...:

...along with meats...:

...and seafood. Points for not shying away from the gorier aspects of preparing the food for market:

There was also a small restaurant area where we had lunch:

The same tree that appears at the top of this blog post, with the sun setting on yet another winter's day in Beijing:

Dinner at yet another SOLANA restaurant, this one called Nord. Recently we've been trying to eat out at least once midweek, both to give Shu-E a break from cooking, and to avoid the crowds that descend on the area on the weekends:

How my cat usually regards me...unless he's hungry, in which case his expression changes considerably:

In Chaoyang Park stands this symbol of the close relationship between China and Thailand, the latter no doubt wanting to ensure the money tap of Chinese tourists keeps flowing, despite some examples of extremely poor behavior:

A symbol of another close relationship, this one far more threatening to a certain country fighting for its survival from a far larger neighbor intent on restoring a long-dead colonial empire:

Another shot of the peach tree surrounded by admirers:

On school spirit day, our daughter tipped her cap to her heritage by rocking her mother's qipao 旗袍. Timi, with more important matters to take care of, appeared less than impressed:

Every year, during the 13th to the 16th days of the first month according to the lunar calendar, a small village called Wangmantian 汪满天 in Anhui Province 安徽省 holds a festival during which the villagers carry fish lanterns around the community. The celebrations have a history spanning some 600 years. A small contingent of residents came to Beijing from Anhui to demonstrate the proceedings:

For some reason the performance scheduled to be held next to the Liangma River 亮马河 on this Friday evening was canceled. No worries as we would return in a couple nights' time:

On the 16th of March the temperatures in Beijing broke the 20° Celsius mark for the first time this year. To celebrate I quite literally dusted off my hibernating bicycle and went for a ride. The AQI was a pleasant 72, though the wind gusts of up to 16 mph/26 kph at times made cycling the 3 miles/4.8 kilometers to Taiyanggong Park 太阳宫公园 a challenge at times. Once at the park and deciding which path to take:

Before you start consulting your guidebooks, you can rest easy knowing that while Taiyanggong Park is pleasant enough, there's no reason to go out of your way to visit, unless you're looking for a relatively close destination to an IKEA where you can shake off the rust your legs have accumulated over the winter:

The wind claimed several victims, like this one:

Timi has been less than enthusiastic about the imminent arrival of spring despite our attempts to take him out into the "fresh" air:

Timi and Meow-Meow don't always agree on the issues of the day:

The scattered trees with their blooming flowers situated along the Liangma River attracted the photographers on the weekends. Apparently some of the current fashion trends have been inspired by Japanese high school girls:

On Sunday we returned to the fish lantern festival...:

...and this time were treated to a somewhat stiff demonstration. I assume the real festival is much livelier:

Erin go bragh! The cafeteria at work observed St. Patrick's Day with a special lunch featuring corned beef, cabbage and soda bread:

For what I presume were promotional reasons, several Indian motorcycles were displayed on the embassy grounds for photo opportunities:

Dinner at a Sichuan/Taiwanese fusion restaurant on Lucky Street. It sounded better in concept than in presentation and taste:

The drink shelves were impressive, but the actual refreshments available for diners was disappointedly limited:

A recently discovered perk of the job. With the ending of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, official visitors have been flocking to China in recent months (though for some annoying reason they often choose to arrive on weekends and local holidays). Of course these delegations are not going to stay at the local equivalent of Motel 6. On one recent afternoon I was part of a planning team taken on an inspection tour of a certain five-star hotel to examine its suitability to host fussy customers from overseas:

Looking towards the 法国 and 日本 embassies from an outdoor patio:

Visible from one of the bedrooms were several foreign missions, including 美国, 印度 and 以色列:

For those of you keeping score at home, the hotel proved itself to be sufficiently suitable:

A weekend lunch at Lao Zhang Beef Noodles 老張牛肉麵, a Taiwanese chain with a branch in the Sanlitun 三里屯 shopping district:

It wasn't clear what the cosplayers were lining up to see or do:

My wife and daughter leave me in their wake as we cycle back home from Sanlitun:

The weather last weekend wasn't so pleasant, but with Amber spending more time with her friends and Shu-E preferring to relax at home, I nonetheless resolved to get outside for more of that "fresh" air (the AQI was 154). This time I cycled to the Water Supply Museum 北京自来水博物馆:

"The Museum of Tap Water" (the more literal translation of the Chinese, though there is some debate as to whether it's safe to drink tap water in China's capital) is devoted to the history of Beijing's piped water supply. Alas, it was closed on a Sunday, but I could get a glimpse of some of the early 20th-century structures peeking above the walls:

Magnolias in bloom:

The modern waterway near the museum proved to be less alluring:

At the end of a reception for graduating seniors held by the ambassador. Our daughter is standing to his left in the back row:

Following the reception we went out for dinner at an izakaya 居酒屋:

The penultimate day of March (i.e. today) was a beautiful one. The temperature reached a high of 22°C/72°F, while the AQI was only 47 (to give you an idea of why that's good, a couple of days ago the AQI for PM2.5 was 188, while that for PM10 was an unbelievable 1117!). Apparently mountain peaches 山桃 in the area around the Great Wall 长城 are in full bloom, and so my wife the night before suggested the three of us should go for a drive to see the blossoms. 

And so today we...did almost nothing at all. Amber had a headache and I was feeling lightheaded all morning, but mostly it was Shu-E who couldn't decide whether or not to head out. In the end it was the knowledge that the roads to get there, and the trails once we arrived, would be absolutely choked with humanity that convinced her not to give it a go. However, feeling more grounded after lunch, and deciding the pleasant weather was too rare an opportunity to remain indoors all day, I went for a walk, taking in modern Beijing in all its tacky glory:

 

Luxury condominium complexes featuring gauche neo-Greco-Roman statuary out front are a common sight in China's urban areas:

Beijing in the early decades of the 21st century brings to mind Tōkyō 東京 at the height of the Japanese bubble economy バブル景気. There's something about a city enjoying unprecedented economic growth and prosperity that creates an environment of "anything goes" when it comes to architecture. Case in point: the Phoenix International Media Center 凤凰国际传媒中心. Modern architects might misplace their bodily wastes over the design, but with the Chinese economy slowing down (and on the verge of its own massive plunge in property values), nouveau riche mistakes such as these may become a thing of the past. One can only hope:

I returned home to find this vehicle blocking our driveway. It's a common occurrence in our complex - why not park in front of someone else's driveway? The opportunity to prevent a resident from getting into their car to go on an errand is just too good to pass up. Our community WeChat group frequently has posts asking a vehicle owner to please move. A call by my wife to the property manager soon had the owner of NMK115 showing up to insincerely apologize and allow our driveway to return to its unhindered status:

And on that note this post comes to an end, along with the month from which the title is derived. I can always tack on a postscript should we end up doing something of note on the 31st*. Otherwise, the next time you are drawn to this site should be to read about our visit to Shenyang 沈阳 in the upcoming week, during the Tomb Sweeping holiday 清明节.

Yes, you read that right, Shenyang. 

*And here's that postscript. On Sunday afternoon (the 31st) the three of us went out to have lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant called SUSU 苏苏会:

Taking the Slow Boat to my stomach:

Chicken phở:

Shu-E tries to get in some final photographs of the bloomin' flowers:

That's all folks...honest: