So much more than just one massive 'Chinatown'...

There it was again, that ‘oh my god what have we done’ feeling in the back of the van that picked us up from the airport. Why does the drive from the airport always seem so awfully ugly and not welcoming at all?

I do remember too well the drive from Bangalore airport into town, all I saw was that one big ugly road, the mess, the cows and dogs, the red dust… and all I could think of was ‘is that it?’.

Luckily it never is, but for the next few days it was a somewhat tough introduction to Beijing… grey, foggy, rainy and cold. Is that the pollution, maybe it will always be that grey? The traffic looked very organised and familiar though, which was very different from India ... but it is a rather huge city with far too many cars, a concrete jungle lined with bare winter trees (unexpectedly many though).

The view from our hotel room did not exactly help; we overlooked a huge deserted construction site, but having ‘been there before’ we took it with a bit of an 'oh well', closed the ugly curtains and let Beijing be Beijing for the night, had a beer, watched the news and went to bed.

Found a temporary home pretty quickly... a serviced flat, petty nice and in central Beijing. It was heaven to unpack our suitcases for the first time in over a month. We will stay here until the work permit has been sorted which might take a while. Only then will our stuff be shipped from Bangalore.

The weather turned around quickly and days with sun and blue skies are not rare, even though it was still freezing cold for about two weeks. Now the magnolias and cherry blossoms are blooming, the grass and trees are turning green, Chinese couples are getting their wedding pictures taken everywhere and families are out and about enjoying the spring temperatures.

You can't really go to the post office spontaneously here, I did remember to have someone write the chinese characters for 'Sweden' on a piece of paper, but had forgotten to have them write down 'airmail'... so I ended up imitating an airplane in the middle of the post office. Not great! But it worked. Must be more organised next time.

We spent our first saturday afternoon at IKEA, and yes, it was that same blue and yellow building, the usual products, the same little food store at the end and the same restaurant serving meatballs, salmon and pasta bolognese ... just that those dishes were here eaten with chopsticks... I must admit it did look pretty funny.

People here dress the same way as people in the west do, and religion is not very prominent either, which makes it in some way much more easy to feel 'home'. India felt so very foreign and far away... religion there is embedded in every aspect of life, very visible, everywhere, all the time.

We had our first language lessons in spoken Chinese (= pingin), level 1 'survivor'. Feels like back in school when on page 2... 'My name is Sabine' and 'I am from Germany'.... even Joshua thinks its great fun, so we stopped organising a babysitter for those 1 1/2 hours in the morning. He seems highly entertained observing us trying to speak Chinese. Hope we will ever make it to level 2 'street fighter' and 3 'smooth talker'... right now at least the ambitions are high.

It can be tricky to get around without knowing any Chinese, but for those of us who don't, great books like the 'taxi book' have been published which hold addresses of useful placs such as restaurants, hotels, sights, supermarkets, shopping malls, etc. So it's really just about finding the right page and pointing at it with a friendly smile or nod.

Shopping is great here, for those with size 34 (6) and small feet anyways. I am left shopping at 'long.com' and 'big shoe'....that's so not fair! Zara's opening last months rescued me though.. as they do have European sizes, for about two seconds when hitting the shelves, guess I am not the only 'needy' person here... but I managed to find out on what days of the week the new stuff comes in, so dont try to get me on a wednesday morning.

Found some moms on the 'Beijing cafe' yahoo group I have joined recently and will have a 'mama&baby' blind date with some moms next week, am kind of looking forward to it, but my mind is painting rather weird scenarios... but hey, we can always talk about pampers and poo for 2 hours if all goes wrong!

There is an international newcomers network (INN) here, but I somehow did not feel like going yet, maybe next week for the German breakfast they organised. My days are pretty busy as they are, and being in a London-like city somehow we dont feel like expats in the same way we did in Bangalore. Maybe because expats here are much more diverse, it's not just people on work assignments, but also journalists, many students, artists, etc.

Informtion on Beijing is available everywhere and for free. TimeOut and That's Beijing (TBJ) are just some of the magazines around.

Trying to find a home is a bit tricky when not knowing the place well enough, looked at many places so far and some pretty nice flats ...all very high up, had viewings mainly on floors 26, 32 or 18... and I must say it was not always overly relaxing to stand right next to the full-height windows... having been here for a month or so now we have petty much decided on an area we would like to live in, with nice parks, restaurants, a supermarket, some shops and nice cafes within walking distance... which is more imporant to us and seems a pretty nice thing to have in a traffic-heavy place like Beijing.

We ultimately fell in love with the city when we found 798, Beijing's art zone. This huge area initially designed by east German architects in the Bauhaus style is an amazing ground to stroll for hours on end contemporary art and design, and to hang out at one of the many cool cafes. Especially after India it feels a bit like heaven to be part of this world again, it's something we did miss.





Beijing is certainly not short of interesting architecture either, especially in the run up to the Olympics some amazing buildings are being finalised. This can also be experience by all the construction dust flying into ones eyes ... lovely.

I will write more soon, whenever Joshua's nap time will coincide with me sitting in one of the many free wifi cafes.

Zai Jian for now...