3/8 - Beijing national university

spent one afternoon here in 1998 during one of my business trips. it was cold grayish weekend afternoon, not many people left in campus. I remembered trying to recall all the famous people and events occurred In Chinease modern history which I studied in my school years and finally got to visit it first time then.  now I am here again and glad to find that it has been kept as it was for the most part of campus.

j

student cafeteria

one of the cafeteria menu choices - Hotpot - one is mixed stew of chicken, duck, dove, rabbit and wild chicken. The other one is as the displayed picture - dog meat....each costs 58 yuan per pot.

I thought of Binker and Mattel and settled with mixed veggies for lunch.

3/7 - at 18th floor my niece's 40 meter squares new flat

she moved in right after the construction was completed 8 months ago and a couple months later the new metro line 6 extended to the basement of her building, the building she lives in is called south #6 is one of 18 buildings this particular builder put in at this location.  it has 25 floors, 35 units per floor ,each unit is 40 to 50 square meters studio with a built-in bathroom at one side and kitchen counter on the other, rest of open space with a sliding door to separate living area and bed room. it's perfect setting for one, but little crowded for two. houndred of traditional and modern style stores opened one after another since she moved in; food markets, banks, Gym, McDonald, Kentucky, mobile phone store, library kiosk, restaurants, speciality eateries. a new town was born. 

building # 6

18 th floor with 35 units

50 squares meter home. sweet home.

mail boxes are obsolete or for future use?  no regular postal service is provided here.  but the same day express ( within Beijing) and next day express( from the rest of china) services are provided and it is delivered to your door.

taken from building #6 18th floor

another corner

basement to metro station

3/6 - Beijing east district, 18th floor , my niece Joyce's new 50 square meters flat

woke up in a sunny warm flat, 70 f indoor and blue sky outside, hard to imaging its 20f out there.

surprisingly the famous pollution haze is absent today.   some said the factories are shutting down in the surounding areas to reduce the pollution while congress is In session? if so , is it voluntarily or involuntarily? or the usual chinese unspoken way - you just know the RIGHT thing to do?

from the bedside window

3/5 - arrives Beijing international airport 10pm

the 12th annual Chinese National People's Congress is in session from 3/5/2014 to 3/13/2014

on the last express train from airport to city center, the lady next to me looks like knowing the city well, so I asked if it's safe to take taxi along after midnight. The replied  "Beijing is very safe city, especially when all leaders are in town""  ....everyone will be on their best behavior.." a little different from western contries....

Beijing airport before custom

my first blog ever

In the past few years of traveling I have made many stops at my daughter's Kansas house for no particular important reasons (except one for her wedding in 2011, I think).  and again I am in transit this week from Taiwan to china and landed at Kansas City for a few days...naomi (my daughter) asked me about my trip and there were nothing special popped out of my head to tell her, it was all just a simple everyday living stuff.   Bruce (my daughter's husband) think I am crazy just traveling around the world.(in a way I have figured out to be sustainable for the rest of my life as long as I can enjoy).  he think I am doing all kind of crazy stuffs which I am surprised that he really has no clue at all.  but that will be a long talk to make him grasp what it is like or not like....Naomi suggested that I should try to blog( like writing a dairy she explained) , for the least, help them get a picture of what my traveling life is about, and may be interesting for the others. I doubted why would anyone be interested in someone's normal life. but I do think naomi may be benefit from what I have consider "a good living". so here it is, my first blog ever.