Panjiayuan

"The biggest flea market in the world" did someone call the Panjiayuan market, 潘家园, which is a little funny an proper name.

Panjiayuan is a really big market that sales both used and new things, and all things are pretty genuine Chinese stuff. You will definitly not find any Ralph Lauren- or Gucci-copies here. The markets main customer is the locals, but these are also mixed up with a few foreigner that found there way here. It is a very pleasant and nice place and does not feel like a tourist trap.

The range of stuff is very wide. Jewellery, decorations, furniture's, watches, paintbrushes, paintings.... You can spend an eternity here if you like this type of shopping. The prices is of course negotiable, but not in the same way as at the tourist markets. The first told price gives an acceptable hint of what the final price will en up.

You can find both cheep "junk" and very exclusive things. A bracelet or a vase can cost both 20 RMB and 20 000 RMB, so it can sometimes be a bit confusing if you are not familiar in the line of business.

The selling is both outside (under roof) and in small shops at the side and in big buildings in the middle, The market is located between the 2:nd and 3:rd ring road in southeast. Only a short way to the west of "Beijing Glasses City"

Panjiayuan-market

Huaweili 18, Panjiayuan lu

潘家园

朝阳区潘家园路华威里18号

Chinese vases in all types and price ranges.

All type of "junk" mixed with nice things. Just in the lower edge of the photo you can see printing templates in wood to print chinese characters.

VERY exclusive furniture's that cost a year income.

Pearl bracelets. These are in the higher price range and cost a few thousands RMB.

...but who the f..ck care?

As mentioned a few times, this year the rules for the fireworks is more strict then before. Specially inside the 5:th ring road. A lot on information posters is to be find everywhere that tells what is allowed and not, so nobody can have missed this.

There are time limitations. Only the first and the last day of the year, you are allowed to shoot 24 hours. After that it is from 7 AM until midnight for the 15 first days of the year. The rest of the year it is totally forbidden - included 31 december. I am actually writing this post before 7 AM, and I have already started to hear the bombs outside.

You are not allowed to shoot outside schools, hospital, bus stations, train stations, historical buildings, embassies, military buildings, electrical centrals, gas stations and a row of other listed places. I am living next to Beijing's military hospital, this is not a peaceful zone. The even shoot inside the hospital area.

You are only allowed to shoot at open spaces, and not close to houses or from balconys. There are also "soft" restrictions about respect towards other peple, and that children only is allowed to shoot with supervision of grownups.

That means pretty reasonable regulations and limitations - but who the f..ck care about these rules?

I think actually that pretty many tries to follow, but there are still enough number of firework-crazy Chinese to make the streets feel like anarchy from time to time.

For a while I was wondering why they often places there bombs in the middle of the street, and now I have the theory that they try to follow the regulation about shoot on open spaces...

This type of posters about the fire works regulations is to be find everywhere and an many different versions.

To buy glasses in Beijing

I normally use contact lenses, but I also use spectacles, 眼镜, yǎnjìng, in evenings and mornings. During the years I have bought a lot of glasses (and also contact lenses) i China because it is so cheep and simple. I have paid from little more then 100 RMB and more for a pair of glasses.

The communication is as usually the biggest problem, but I have successfully bought glasses also at the time I only could say nihao (hello). I have used three way to define the strength of the glasses:

1 - Classing eye-check. Thumps up or down depending on if the picture get better or worth. An interesting project.

2 - Bring a pair of existing glasses and they can measure the strength.

3 - Bring the recipe in figures that define your strength.

Normally they create your glasses very fast like in an hour or so, but if they are very busy it can take until the day after.

Optician can be found all aver Beijing - just take a walk and you will soon run into one. If you like to get a real over dose of spectacles, then go to "Beijing Glasses City", 双井眼镜城, (Shuāngjǐngyǎnjìngchéng) that is an area totally full of Optician and also a multi level building with only glasses for sale. "Beijing Glasses City" is located just east of Panjiayan-market

Beijing Glasses City

Dongsanhuan Nanlu 64

双井眼镜城

朝阳区东三环南路64号

Example of glasses for 260 RMB. Sometimes is the price only for the frame, and sometimes for the complete spectacles. This prices are always negotiable.

I making a mirror-portrait of my self in one of all glasses-shops at "Beijing Glasses City"

Dingling

It use to be poplar to combine a visit at the Great Wall, with a visit some of the Ming Tombs, because they are located "on the way". I have previous written that the only tomb that is a bit special to see is Dingling, 定陵, because this is the only one where the underground tomp is open. The rest 12 is not so interesting since the only thing you can se of the tomb is a big pyramid of stone or soil, even if they are surrounded by a nice park with soma classic building that of course can be a little interesting.

When they during the 50:th dig up the Dingling, they did not know how they should handle the body of the emperor, (Wànlì, 万历), so he more or less directly become rotten together with his cloth when he come in contact with the fresh air. Because of this scandal, no more tombs have been opened.

Even if there is no emperor to see, it is still a very powerful feeling to go down in the tomb. The tomb include several halls, and have suppressing less of decorations. Not as much of all this typical Chinese details that we are used to see. The grave is also located pretty deep below the ground level.

Close to the tomb there is also a museum that very detailed describe the very complex process to open the tomb. The tomb had an advanced looking system that was closed from the inside(!). It was also a risk that the tomb was graded by "Indiana Jones-type" of traps, so the first thing that was done was to let some chicken enter that tomb to see what happened.

Down inside one of the halls in the Dingling tomb. The only Ming Tomb that is oppen.

Longxing Gorge, 龙庆峡

Longxing Gorge, 龙庆峡, (Lóngqìngxiá) is a very nice nature area with mountains, ravines and water some tens of kilometer north of Badaling, that is told to be Beijing's no 16:s best tourist attraction according to some judger. The real nature park is closed during the winter, and open in the middle of april.

On the winter the Longxing Gorge is something totally different. Now it is hold a "Ice-lantern-Festival", 冰灯节, (bīngdēngjié). The main attraction is a "village" that is build only by using ice and in classic Chinese style. Complemented by a lot of ice sculptures of famous objects. Beside the ice attractions there are also some music and smaller amusement attractions. This year it is bigger then ever according to the Chinese media.

This place shall definitely be visited at evenings when all lights are on. In true Chinese standardm it is very much lamps in a total mix of colors. The place is surrounded by mountains, and on the mountain-sides they have with help from lamps reproduced an image of the Great Wall, which become very nice according to me.

I can not really recommend the short time tourist to spend one of the days here now during the winter. Maybe at the summer. For us that lives in Beijing, I judge this as a nice weekend outing.

Later this year I am planning to return to also discover "Summer Longxing Gorge", that in all important aspects will be something different. Then you can go by boat in the ravin, or take cable car op to the mountain peeks.

The very lighted ice-village at Longxing Gorge. It is obvious bigger then this picture shows and you can enter the most of the houses.

Me - in front of one of the classic Chinese ice palace.

The park with its total mix of colored lights. In the background you can see the visualization of the Great wall towards the mountain side.

It's easy to Read - but hard to Write

I have just finished my second book in school, so this week I have gone through hard tests to see which level I have reached. In two days I have been standing at the "black board" and written 500 random selected Chinese characters. I did 90% correct which actually is very good. I am definitely satisfied with my self. It is easy to forget the word that is not daily used.

One thing that not so many people outside the Chinese language educated group have reflected over is the gigantic difference in complexity between read a Chinese character compared to also be able to write it. It's easy to believe that it have similar complicity level, which is NOT the case.

Think about how many daily seen symbols, example logotypes, that you can recognize compared how many you can write or describe in detail without see them. For example the logotype of United Nations, Motorola or The Beijing Olympics. Can you draw them? Or describe them in details? It is very easy to recognize them when you see them, but a bit harder to remember how they look if somebody ask you.

This symbol example above is describing the difference between being able to read and write Chinese characters. "Easy" to read, but much harder to write. A big part of the Chinese language students select a level to "only" be able to read, and some even dont.

This is how happy I was after finished 90% of the Chinese characters in my test. As I maybe(!) indicated, I belong to the group that have easy to write Chinese.

iPhone launched in China....exactly....NOW!!!

This is (likely) my last posting about the way for iPhone to China.

Exactly now, 2009-10-30 at 8:00 PM Chinese time is the iPhone official launched in China.

The price for the 3G/8GB will be 4 995 RMB (unlooked!). Please note that this variant dont have "normal" WLAN.

Long or Short menu?

To make a big generalization of the west world, you can say that the more nicer a restaurant is - the less dishes in the menu. The physical menus in real nice restaurant also use to be in the minimalistic spirit, so sometimes just a simple white paper, or a writing on a blackboard. Pictures of the dishes are also totally forbidden in a high class west restaurant, and is only to find in low class tourist restaurants, that also have obvious more dishes in the menu.

In China, this things is the totally opposite. In the to of line line restaurants, the menu is like a book with an impressive huge number of dishes. The presentation is often in a leather frame with art-like pictures of the food. Only the real simple small restaurants have menus without pictures, and also not so many dishes. Totally the other way around compared to the west world.

The saying "I would never eat in a restaurant with pictures in the menu" maybe can be valid in China also, but then likely told by someone in the lower salary level. (The restaurants with no pictures is the cheapest)

Ping, with an example of a real nice menu at the "The Dazhaimen Restaurant"

iPhone soon official for sale in China

My small serial from this spring about iPhone's way to China seams to have found its end.

China Unicom (one of the three big operator in China) have now the deal ready with Apple, which means that iPhone soon will start to be sold official in China. During long time it has been possible to by imported iPhones with its origin from Hongkong or USA in the electronics markets, but so far not in Apple's own stores.

The rumor says that the selling will start "early Q4" which means october, and that China Unicom initial have bought 5 millions units for the introduction. Because the number of cellphone user in China is more then double the complete USA population, this is of course a very good deal for all involved, even if the bigger part of the cellphone market in China is the low cost models.

It seams to be the older iPhone 3G and NOT the new iPhone 3GS that will be launched, and also without WLAN and later will be delivered with China's own wireless standard WAPI.

The Silk Street

The Silk Street, 秀水街, Xiùshuǐjiē, is Beijing's and Chinas biggest and most famous shopping center with focus on tourists. There are a line of competitor, but The Silk Street is the one with the biggest range of products, and is most clean. The other ones are a bit smaller and sometimes have a little more narrow product range. If you only have time to go to one market, then I propose to select The Silk Street because it is a tourist attraction in it self, and it have "everything".

The market is located on the east side between 2:nd and 3:rd ring road along the main street in Beijing, Changanjie, 长安街, that cut through the complete city from east to wets. You easy reach the place by subway Line 1, and jump of at station Yonganli, 永安里.

During the spring 2005 the market moved in to todays location. Before that it was an outdoor market in the hutong's. Today the market has about 200 000 visitors every week, and during the olympics it was close to 2 000 000 customers! The selling is separated into 1 500 small shops with totally 3 000(!) employees.

The building has selling on 7 floors, and the 2 highest have a bit more luxury shops, that I dont really think fit into the concept. The product range is more or less everything that a tourist want, and a big part is copies of famous brands. Today is the Chinese government a bit harder towards the selling of copies, so all brands are not shown open - but there are there to be find if you just mention the name.

On first and second floor sells cloth in all types. Jackets, trousers, skirts....

Third floor fit best into the name The Silk Street since it is here you can by the fabric, but also ties, scarfs and underwear.

Fourth floor has mainly piece of jewelry, watches, sunglasses and electronics.

In the basement you can find shoes, bags, belt and wallets.

Besides the main categories there are also a lot of other stuff like toys, the, decorations, pens etc.

The selling environment is very tiring because the sellers always shouting at you and sometimes try to grab you. It can be funny in the beginning but not in the long terms. The sellers has pretty strict regulations how they are allowed to act so for example they are not allowed to be rude.

Every previous published text about The Silk Street has a "school" about how to bargain and lists of what things shall cost, so I shall be the first without. You will learn pretty fast anyway. In general is the prices (after long bargain) considered pretty low by us from the west, so many comes out with much more thingt then initially planed.

How about the quality? Can be both very good and very bad. The thing is to look very careful on the thing that you will by, and then also try to be a bit lucky.

The south entrance of The Silk Street. Outside here it is always a full row of tourist busses that are waiting for there shopping passages.

My friends on floor F2. I have done pretty much shopping at there shop, so during the years we have become friends, and I dont have to bargain with them any more.

One of all seller of watches on floor F4. She is not so happy as it seams since I did not by her "Rolex" even if she told me "A-Quality, No Problem"

Chinese - The language without Yes and No

The Chinese language is very big. From time to time I become a bit depressed when I just learned a Chinese word for something, and then find out that it is a long row of alternative to say the same thing. Or if you look up a word in a dictionary and find 25 different proposal. Which one to choose? And which one is relevant to learn?

A funny paradox is that there are no clear translation for "Yes" and "No" in the Chinese language - words that is usually very clear defined in other language. In general the Chinese language is so different from for example English, that many phrases dont have any direct translation. Many Chinese sentences can have many translation, and need to be put into a situation to become understandable. It is funny to look in different "fast-guide-to-Chinese" that of course need to have translations of Yes and No. There are always different proposal, just because there are no exact translation available.

So - How to express Yes and No in Chinese?

There are a lot of different "Yes saying" and "Denying" phrases that express the meaning of Yes and No. Some example of words that can act as a "Yes"

好, hăo - OK (good)

行, xíng - OK

是, shì - To be

对, duì - Correct

可以, kěyǐ - Possible, Allowed

有, yǒu - Available, Have

To make corresponding phrases Denying - "No", you often add 不, bù or 没, méi before the phrases above.

不是, bùshì - Is not

没有, méiyǒu - Have not

What is the largest building in the world?

How to define what is the largest building in the world? The meaning of "large" can for sure means different things. The Video clip below shows some different example of what can be the biggest building depending on definition.

Three of the mentioned constructions is located in China. The Great Wall is of curse the longest one, but the other two is maybe not so expected. Casino Venetian in Macao in the biggest building if you calculate floor space, and the biggest structure based on surface area is the new Terminal 3 to Beijing's International airport. When you are standing in the long taxi zone outside the check in counters it is hard to see the end - and then you are standing at the short edge. The design of the terminal is inspired by a dragon.

Beijing Internationa Ariport Terminal 3 - Dragonstyle from above

The entrance to Terminal 3 from inside.

One, for me, highly interesting category in this subject is "The highest building in the world". The highest building in China, Shanghai World Financial Center, with its 492 meter in number 2 of completed buildings today, but will soon drop down to place 5 because several new high object will be completed during 2010. Burj Dubai will take the first place with incredible 818 meters. China has never hold the title of "The highest building in the world" but have many places in the top list. Of todays 20 highest buildings in the world, 11 are located in China.

Introduction

My name is Krister Blomberg and lives normally in the small city Kalmar in Sweden. In May I will move to Beijing (Peking) to learn how to speak Chinese. I have tried to learn the language in Sweden from time to time, but the progress is very slow. If you shall learn this language, you need to be at the place where this language is spoken.

A good side of the finance cries is that you get a good reason to do an adventure like this, that you did not have the time to do before. An adventure that is thought to be a good investment. Now when the big Chinese Financial Shark is on his way to swallow the world - then it is really good to know how to talk to them if you like to survive.

I have during the last seven year been pretty much in China - both as tourist and for business. It is an understatement that I love China, and I like Beijing the most. After I was working here 2005/2006, I could never stop thinking of moving back here, and now I will do it.

In this blogg I will tell you my story, and also pretty much about funny Chinese behavior and culture differences. Also some traveling advices and hint about what to do here.

Please forgive my bad English!

Krister Blomberg