Our First Post

Well, as some of you have perhaps noticed, we haven't posted anything on our phoenixandcliff.com website. We are resigned to the fact that we have fallen victim to the Great Fire Wall. We are working on this problem and hopefully we will get things up and running, since Cliff put so much time and energy into building that webpage (thanks be to Mr Dreamweaver too). As some of of you know, I flew the coop first...I had some in-processing in Tokyo and I touched down in Beijing over a week ago. Cliff took a direct flight from DC and due to all of his business travel, was upgraded to B-class. Needless to say, he flew in style.
Cliff giving the thumbs up to the Red Carpet Club

Look at the spread...

Make sure no ones looking....

Have way with spread...

Hide morsels in backpack...and....repeat.

If some of you haven't seen Cliff in awhile, he has transitioned into his new spouse status in style. He has not cut his hair or shaved since leaving his old job. He has the facial hair growing capacity of the average asian, but God love him, he is trying. Since Cliff was tying up loose ends in DC, I tried my best to get things in our new place taken care of. This experience has been exhilirating and frustrating at the same time. I'm proud to say that I've arranged to get water delivery, satellite TV turned on, registered at the Public Security Bureau and pick out new furniture. These were all small victories and really made be feel as if my last year of language training had served me well.
I've also had some ego-adjusting moments that have been embarrassingly funny. For instance, in the bank here, the service windows are at the front of a 30 seat waiting room. At each window, bulletproof glass divides customer and teller and the teller communicates thru a microphone that can be heard throughout the entire waiting room. No problem. I can read enough Chinese to fill out an account application form...I fill in my name, passport number, address, phone number--I even write it in chinese. When my number is called, I stride up to the appropriate window and push all my paperwork through the little slot. In my mind, this transaction was to go smoothly...the teller would compliment my written chinese, give me an account and and my atm card and I'm in and out in 10 minutes--tops. However, I must have been smoking crack to think it would turn out so well. Granted, the teller didn't seem confused by anything that I wrote or said, but it became clear that I haven't refined my bank vocabulary...words like checking account, dual savings account, cash or wire deposits, international money transfer, SWIFT code and intermediary bank didn't exactly role off my lips. Actually the awesome thing was that I could speak softly into the window microphone, but the teller had a speaker and the speaker was loud and the whole bank was privied to our conversation (and by conversation, I mean my chinese baffoonery). And so it goes.

As I said earlier, Cliff arrived a couple days ago and I let him choose his first meal in China. Ummm, yeah, I can say I'm that proud of this moment, but here we are:

No kidding, the food was not bad. They have this spicy chicken sandwich here that has a crust like you would find on Popeyes spicy chicken. It was good. They also have coconut pies (vice the apple pie you find in the US), which looked good. Conversely, the red bean pie did not look so good. I don't know what it is, but I just can't get used to all the sweet red beans here. They have red bean yogurt, red bean ice cream, red bean filled crossiants--I could go on and on forest-gump-style about all the the different variants of sweets that I don't have the stomach for. I suppose that asian must look at the western way of using red beans (chili for example) and be equaly horrified. Speaking of great foods, the Chinglish here is legendary, and we ran across this next picture. No comment.

Given the title of our blog, we actually lived up to that billing today. We needed to buy bicycles...we were sick of walking everywhere. So, the big question is whether to buy a new or used bike or buy a electric bike? We need to have bikes for our apartment and another set for school to get from the metro to uni. I had heard that Wudaokou, the uni area on the north west side of town had a couple of cheap, used bike shops, as well as a bike street. Cliff and I metroed up to the "Wu" to check things out. Eventually we were directed to Qinghua University, which has quite a few bike shops on campus. Because we were alittle lost on where to go, we asked a nice student for some quick directions and she ended up walking us around the campus to three different bike shops and helped us look for used bikes. We found out that used bikes run about 90 RMB (roughly $12.50) and new ones start at 180 RMB ($26) and up. The trick is how to get the nicest bike you possibly can, that won't get stolen. Her advice was not to get something too new or too shiney. I've heard that you can't live in the 'Jing without getting your bike stolen at least once, but that is an indoctrination we don't have the patience for right now. The girl that helped us (who was studying in QingHua's PoliSci Masters program--majoring in Marxism) was very helpful and typical of what we have encountered so far in China. Most people are very friendly and willing to help, and willing to chat, given the time to do so. Most importantly, she told us that if we went out of the West Gate of Qing Hua, we could find a place that sold electric bikes. Cliff and I definately wanted to get electric bikes...they are sooooo very helpful in getting around in the city. I also feel like we are doing our job not to add to the pollution, which was very bad today. We settled on two pretty boss-looking diandongche, or electric bikes...we paid 2000RMB for each, which comes down to about $290 a piece. Typically they last for about 50 charges and you can go about 30 KM on a single charge...that equals out to about 2 years, so we might have to buy a new battery, but it was well worth the cost. The bike goes 35 km/h, has an alarm, wheel lock, horn and LED lights. Its like the BMW of the bike world, or so I pretentiously like the think.

There were two major problems with our electric bike aspirations...first, I was incredibly intimidated by the notion of driving one of these things in Beijing traffic. There are no rules of the road, or so it seems. Also, the last time I drove a motorcycle, I dumped it...and...the last time I rode a scooter, I also dumped it. If you are wondering how this is possible, then you don't know me well enough. The second problem, is that we wanted to buy the bikes in Wudaokou, but had to get them back to Dongzhimen. Cliff and I decided that we would have to drive the 10-15 odd miles between the two. Given the fact that the very first time we would ride motor bikes in traffic would also probably be the longest and most dangerous trip we would take on the bikes (given that it was rush hour and the best way to get back was via the fourth, third and second ring roads), we proceeded with caution. By the grace of God, and other more experienced road warriors, we made it. There is something very sobering about weaving in and out of buses, taxis and crossing ten lane roads in a small bike. It makes the fact that there is no behind-the-wheel-portion of the chinese drivers license test, way, way more important than when I was just a run-of-the-mill pedestrian.
But, when it was all said in done, we came home with some new, shiney, blinged out bikes.