Beijing is big

After unpacking and arranging our house, it was time to do something nice. Why not to go to Beijing for couple of days?

Weather forecast didn't look very promising, but since it hardly ever turns out to be true, we hoped for the best.

We took the bullet train, the (very) fast train between Shanghai and Beijing. It took me some time to get used to average speed of 306 km/h that was displayed in the wagon. But after two hours I stopped thinking about it:)

It is a very convenient way of traveling since it takes only 5,5h and it is 1318km distance. And it is definitely part of Chinese charm and a way of meeting Chinese people.

Our wagon was almost empty, so it felt very comfortable, also with our 4 months old baby. I got very surprised when on the way to the restaurant I passed few wagons fully packed. They were very crowded (obviously), laud and smelled with all kinds of food. In the aisle of every wagon you can find a tap with cold and hot drinking water. The hot water is used by passengers very often to make an instant soup. One soup - ok, but 100 of them give a really heavy mixture in the air. I said to Rodrigo that I am very happy with our places. Of course on the way back from Beijing our wagon looked exactly as I described it above - crowded, laud and filled with smell of all kinds of all kinds of food...

Beijing is huge. It is enormous. Its main avenue is 40 km long and 50 m wide. 8 lanes each way...

One day, me and my mom decided to walk back to the hotel with Marcel in the carriage. He was sleeping and we like walking... On the map it didn't look too far away. And since we like walking...

After three hours walking we haven't even made 1/3 of the distance... We tried to catch a cab, but for some reason any of the empty ones (they were only 5 by the way) didn't want to stop...

We took a bus and two subway lines and after one more hour we got back to the hotel. A very happy moment for our feet :)

Typhoon Muifa spared us...

It didn't feel good when media started warning for the worst since many years typhoon approaching East coast of China. At first it was classified as 'super typhoon' (strongest in 4 steps scale), but then it was still almost 1000 km away from the coast. Later it was 'just' a strong one. They were saying that the waves will reach 12 m and winds will be 160-170 km/h...

The feeling got even worse when they said that about 300.000 people has been evacuated from the most 'risky' places along the cost.

Then we found a letter from management of the compound that we should prepare for the typhoon, close all the windows properly, hide any loose items and stay at home during the whole weekend.

The whole Saturday we were checking the weather forecast and latest news on the Muifa. It felt really good when it turned out that typhoon had changed its path and went more into the sea.

It all ended up in just slightly stronger winds (60-70 km/h), few broken tree branches and some rain.

Thank God, this time, the fact that nature is unpredictable played in our favor...

Let's go to China and buy some milk

When we leave our compound, just outside the gate, 'real' China starts. Hundreds of mopeds, bicycles, small shops and workshops and an everyday life of Chinese people. It makes quite a contrast to the compound. After few walks out there now we say that we go to China to buy some milk. Instead of going to the big grocery stores for small shopping, we simply run to local supermarket, where all the products are local and what naturally follows, everything in the store is in Chinese, so we really need to know what we want to buy :)

Tonight I went with my mom for a walk and after walking inside the compound we got bored very quick, so we decided to go to China. After half an hour we were passing by a square at the quite big cinema and theater building (I guess it is a cultural center of the district, I think I also saw there a library and since it is a huge building there must be much more). I heard a music and after having a closer look I also saw that people were dancing. I had to get even closer...

It was dark at the square, no additional lights beside these from the road. The music sounded like the laud speaker was covered with loads of cotton pads and the Chinese hits were played.

There were about 10 couples on the 'dance floor', ladies dancing with each other, men dancing with women as well as women dancing solo. You have to know that it was not a joke! I wish I had my camera with me (I did my best with phone camera) to be able to capture seriousness on their faces and in every move.

I noticed that few couples were dancing similar routine, so it must have been some kind of 'folk dance'. Some of them were very gracious, some did their best to be gracious.

So, basically you could take five minute for dancing, just after you bought some milk or just on your way home from work...

What was most surprising to me was how natural it seemed to be for them to dance on the street. Specially, that I see Chinese people usually wrapped up in their politeness, rules and defined ways of acting, covering their faces when laughing, like it was something wrong to laugh. And here, out of nowhere this... Loved it :)

(pls, note that I wrote 'speaker' - one speaker... as it turned out later the speaker was placed in something that looked like a part of a bookshelf, with a door covering partly the speaker, so that you can not take it out, without a key to a big locker... The bookshelf was on wheels. It was rolled out from the square, back to the building by the lady responsible for it when the time was over).

I will have to check next Saturday, if this is a regular Saturday event in 'my' China :) Who knows, maybe one Saturday I will get to dance :)

What will I do with my life...

A moment of reflection over his own life... I guess...

From Manhattan to Wisteria Lane

No sky scrapers, no heavy traffic, no business men and women running to their meetings any more… no great view from the window, no TV tower blinking to me every evening, no Chanel or Gucci boutiques…

Instead, a quiet compound (from the traffic), filled with sound of billion of cicadas…

After a month in the temporary apartment in a city center, we have finally moved to the house that we are supposed to live in for the rest of our time here in Shanghai.

I feel like I had exchanged Sex and the City to Desperate Housewives… But the desperate housewives seem to be missing… Right now most of the houses are empty… All families left for holiday to their home countries.

Do you know the feeling when you drive a car and you are the only one driving your direction while on the other side there’s a plenty of cars…? You start wondering if you’re the last one to know about a complete disaster while everybody else run away from it…

This is how it felt to come here. There was nobody, except people working on the gate J

More and more people are appearing and the streets start to become more lively.

I am sure that I (we) will enjoy living here. I haven’t tested yet how complicated it is to get to the city center, but in worse case scenario I can always take a taxi J

Why did I do it to myself?

When you come to a new city with a 4,5 years old son, and

the kid does not have same routines as at home, you need to find many ways to entertain him and make it interesting. So, I looked for most popular attractions in Shanghai... One of them turned out to be an exhibition of wild-life insects...

You can do a lot for your kids out of love :) So, we went there with my mom, Marcel and Vincent...

First surreal thing was a big group of Chinese kids that came directly after us. Kids were divided in few groups, each one with two-three adults with headphones and microphones.

They were talking (shouting) to kids, desperately trying to keep them in some kind of order. They were so loud that Marcel started crying. We waited for them to pass...

When we could focus on exhibition, we realized that the name is quite misleading as there was a seal, small monkeys, alligators, turtles and other animals definitely not being insects... But OK...

I do not like insects, how I don't like them...! But since we came there and Vincent was asking 60 questions per minute I had no other choice but look very carefully at every single bug.

I was just looking at a shining green bugs trying to find an answer to one of Vincent's questions when my mom came closer to me with Marcel and he gently touched my arm. I jumped up like all these green bugs just escaped their 'cage' and landed on my arm... This is how much I don't like them...

Even if I do not like insects, I am still a curious person and like to get to know the unknown

:) But having a closer look, not always is a good idea... Because then you can see what you maybe wouldn't like to see. In general, I must sadly say that the conditions the animals are living there are not the best ones you

would wish for living creatures... It was not a pretty picture... I will save you the details, but I am very concerned before out visit at the zoo here...

On the pictures few examples of what animals you could see there (except the one with Ch

inese kids) :) ...

I am also saving you the most ugly ones...

The heat has hit...

After rainy, cloudy and foggy June, sunny and hot July has come. As Shanghai Daily has reported today, temperature today and yesterday has hit the record level this summer; 38 C. The air stands still and the heat embraces you so tight that it feels like there is no escape... Having a walk outside is far from being pleasant and the only thing you can do is to run into as many stores on your way as possible. They usually has a well functioning AC... But at some point you have to go out and face the heat...

In the evening it doesn't get better... Temperature goes down to... 35 C... The only relief then is that the sun isn't burning your skin...

So, what you do is shower, shower and once again shower...

On the photo Marcel enjoying his shower/bath after spending some time out in the Chinese summer...