Rouge Baiser

What is it about the combination of French and Chinese style that produces such beautiful things? Not wanting to be out for too long this afternoon, what with packing up the house, and Bella suddenly down with a cough, cold, and fever (yiiiiiikes), I had to make the tough decision between checking out the semi-annual sale at Rouge Baiser, or to schlep out to Houhai to make one last stop at Xiao Fu Xing (no website, sorry).

In the end, proximity (they're 5 minutes away in Sanlitunrrr) and the prospect of a good bargain helped Rouge Baiser win out by a hair. No regrets - they do absolutely gorgeous work there, everything HAND-EMBROIDERED, which normally comes at a fairly steep price, but I managed to pick up a few things on sale. CUTE! And ON SALE! Two of my biggest criteria for buying, well, anything.

A sweet white nightgown and a pretty purple sundress for Bella:
Sweet baby boy bedding with bluebirds (the other choice were these mice in your choice of outfit; which, though still pretty cute, just seemed wrong somehow. I mean, really: vermin in your baby's bed?):

And finally, a duvet cover and a baby cot liner, which I'm planning to transform into a headboard cover, either for Bella's new bed in Singapore, if I can find sheets that can make the whole set seem more "kiddie," otherwise for a guest bedroom:

And here's a sample of what I passed up at Xiao Fu Xing. Picked this gorgeous little number up last time I was there - I mean, really. Have you ever seen such a delicious little dress? It's still a touch too big for Bella, and I had worried, at the time, that it would be winter by the time it would fit her. But now that we're moving to hot hot hot Singapore, as Chandler Bing used to say, the point is moo ("It doesn't matter; it's the opinion of a cow!").

Xiao Fuxing
43 Zhonglouwan Hutong,
Gulou

(In the courtyard between the Drum and Bell towers in the Houhai area; definitely call ahead for their hours as they are notorious for shutting down early, and not being open on certain seemingly random days: 8403-4740)

Rouge Baiser by Elise
5 Sanlitun Xi Wu Jie, around the corner from Jenny Lou's and April Gourmet in Sanlitun North

The enormous, the tiny, and the beeeaaauuuuutiful

I'm in the middle of a bit of a shopping fever, since our imminent move to Singapore (in less than a week, yikes!) will, for the first time in 5 years, remove me from the Fount of All That is Cool and Amazingly Inexpensive (i.e., Made in China, but, you know, in a good way).

First stop, in the Lido area, was Spin Ceramics, which makes the coolest, funkiest, most unique fine new porcelain I have seen anywhere. The pieces were delivered so securely packed and ready to ship that I decided not to unwrap them just to drool over them, but I found some photos online that were similar to what I bought:

The Lotus Bowl (I got the biggest one they had, of course, almost a meter across, large enough to bathe a new baby, in a pinch):

And then the tall skinny vase (mine has the blue paint on it, but the gesture on mine is much cooler), with a big plate that happened to match: There were a few(!) other things, like the strange and probably completely useless object called the Pomegranate Vase (which I couldn't find a picture of in their catalog) but that I had been drooling over for months. Picture to come when it gets unpacked in Singapore, I guess. Plus they threw in some unexpected freebies (which gives you some idea of how much damage I did there) which were actually things I was considering buying. They must've been tracking me around the shop as I aaaaagonized over my purchases.

Here's a link to a cool flickr stream of Spin Ceramics' collection this year.

Then it was on to Nurenjie (Lady Street) Market, where the first thing that called to me were some teeny tiny retro-looking teacups from the second-run porcelain shop (i.e., the reject shop):

I also got to confirm the news that Super Bar Street, across from Nurenjie, is now gone - a casualty of the proximity of the new U.S. Embassy. Not that I ever spent a lot of time at Super Bar Street, but they did have a couple of good restaurants (notably the Malaysian place, Awana, and the pita place, mmmmm) that I would have missed. Too bad for embassy staff.

Then, in the garden section, some enormous earthenware pots - in the Philippines we call them "tibor". I couldn't help myself - I picked up 5 pieces, two of them bigger than Bella. They are so large and heavy that Mik can barely pick up the biggest one, but they do have great acoustics, and he and Bella had a great time throat-singing into them the evening they were delivered. The tibor my grandmother had were all wide-mouthed and kind of squat, but I couldn't help thinking of small kids falling headfirst inside, so except for the one huge one, I stuck with the smaller-mouthed shapes.

Our movers have made the shipping estimate and provided us with the quote, so I can't in good conscience keep going on like this, but tomorrow, the mission is: lamps. It's shocking, but I just realized that all of our lamps are from IKEA, and that's just no way for anyone to live.

Social status goes to a rise

With a week left before our move to Singapore, I thought I should probably start getting things organized for the movers. But I keep getting distracted, not least by some of the forgotten things that I've stashed over the years, that are now making an appearance. Like this ad for another Beijing real estate development.

Social status goes to a rise, lives in to walking low; Be in CBD, same the apartment house being million catalogue, choosing 16th floor's or 6 tiers of courtyards Western-style house by the same token?

I just know the ads in Singapore will not nearly be as much fun.

Little things from Panjiayuan

One of my favorite things to do in Beijing is to spend a couple of hours wandering around the market at Panjiayuan. It's a huge market area with a bunch of wholesale-type vendors, as well as many many random people selling all manner of antique and faux-antique goods. I've had some really cool finds from here over the years, and the trick is definitely to go slow, take your time, and to keep a "look around" mindset, rather than a "must buy something" mindset. I normally gravitate towards the porcelains, but on this trip, nothing there jumped out and screamed "BUY ME!" Instead, I picked up these amazing pieces of embroidery (from the tiniest old lady - I'm 5'3" and she only came up to my armpit), and some tiny animal figurines for $2 apiece. FUN.

Beating the heat, back in Beijing

Running through the fountain at The Village in Sanlitun:
Got a little wet:
Emergency purchase from Mango (This was a women's XS shirt, perfect for 3 year old Bella. That ain't right).How the Beijing ren stay cool:

When in Rome...Incidentally, I'm only posting from Beijing thanks to a $12/month VPN service that reroutes my internet connection through Hong Kong. Seems like a small price to pay to stay connected to family and friends.

p.s. Yep, I'm 6 mos pregnant. Just realized that I had never mentioned it on this blog before...

Chaoyang Park in the Rain

Bella only had Friday off from school for Labor Day weekend here (all of China used to take the entire week off, until it was realized that even China's infrastructure couldn't take the strain of all those people traveling at the same time), and we had our heart set on going to the Forest Park just north of all the Olympic venues. Of course it rained. So we went to nearby Chaoyang Park instead, and when we had enough of being cold and wet, we ducked into the Solana mall for lunch and to marvel at all the empty retail space.

Pingyao, Shanxi Province

This weekend, the Teeny Traveler goes to Pingyao on the sleeper train from Beijing:

View Larger Map

Bella's first sleeper train trip; of course she had to be in the top bunk:View from the train:Mama and Bella at breakfast at our guesthouse the next morning. Not really looking our best, both of us getting a short night's sleep in a narrow bunk with a squirmy bedmate:
About Pingyao, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingyao

Highly recommend the Yide Hotel in Pingyao (you can find it on hostels.com), which Mik first visited in the winter while we were away, and that he was so excited about that he actually wrote a somewhat fruity review for Trip Advisor.

Easter Brunch in Beijing

Once we got over an inauspicious start (carsickness in the taxi and having to barf into a pocket of our backpack), and then the horde of adults completely taking over the egg hunt (what did the Ritz Carlton expect, if they include spa treatments and free nights at the hotel among the "eggs"?), Easter Brunch was quite nice.

And is it just me, or is it not quite right to serve Stewed Rabbit in its own Gravy (we asked Bugs to hold up the sign) at a place where the kids were just petting a bunch of little bunny foofoos in the garden?

Danger danger danger

A photo of the nice young man who brought a Sausage McMuffin and Hash Browns to my door this morning. He wasn't much fazed; I'm sure my reaction ("Deng yixianr, I gotta go get my camera!!") was pretty common among foreigners living in Beijing receiving their McDonalds deliveries for the first time.

I looked at my timestamps - a sum total of 29 minutes elapsed from conception ("I wonder if Beijing McDonald's has Sausage McMuffins...") to fulfillment. And that included looking for the phone number, and getting my delivery profile established (YESS!!!), which took some time because I was trying to do it in Chinese, and, of course, was mispronouncing my own address. Time elapsed between phone order and delivery was, no joke, 8 minutes, and cost? 29 RMB = $3.95, including the 7 RMB delivery fee.

I'll say it again: daaaaaangerous.

Naked Pictures!!!

Bella and I were walking home from school one sunny day last week when she made me pull a neck muscle by saying, "Look! They're taking their clothes off!" Forgetting, obviously, that we were in Beijing and not, for example, in Stockholm, where even grandmothers routinely shed their tops and jump into city fountains at the first sign of summer.

But she only meant the shrubbery, which had been covered in protective green canvas tentboxes for the winter. Spring has finally sprung in Beijing, and will hopefully stick around for more than five minutes before the muggy oppressive heat of summer rolls in.

National Window Cleaning Day

Here's something you don't see every day. Luckily I had some warning when they dropped the ropes down from the roof, so I had some time to change out of my pajamas before the guy dropped in (by? down? through?). They thought it was pretty funny that I wanted to take their pictures.

Not being a city kid myself, yet another thing, like taking elevators and electronic keycards, that weren't part of my vernacular as a child. Strange, though, that Mik says they're cleaning windows at his office building too. Must be an auspicious day for cleaning windows and glass...

We should've moved here in 2008

In the four years we've lived in Beijing, the city, and particularly our neighborhood (the "Central Business District," or CBD) has become infinitely more comfortable, more liveable, more convenient for expats. All within a quarter-mile radius, we now have: dozens of cafes and restaurants , all with wi-fi and english-speaking staff; clothing stores like Zara and Mango, which actually stock women's clothing larger than size 0 and size 2; a beautiful park (which I actually think has reached its zenith and is now in decline, thanks to plenty of pooping doggies); and multiple playground and indoor play area options for the kiddies. None of that existed through all of Bella's first year, when my closest option for getting out of the apartment was to dodge traffic and construction to get to the shopping mall half a mile down the road.

Other proof that we moved to Beijing a few years too early, from the point of view of convenience and availability of Western comfort items? IKEA now stocks Bamse bread, and oh my goodness hallelujah, plain Kalle's Kaviar instead of only the weird Dill flavored kind. Round that out with our usual 8 bricks of medium roast coffee, and I think it was the happiest I've ever left the Swedish blue and yellow box in a long time.

Today's Arf? Alexander Club Edition

Otherwise known as the Ladies' Locker Room, though to be fair, it isn't uncommon to have Ladies hanging about in towels, sipping tea and watching soap operas (they really do have couches, a TV, and tea service in there, not to mention a dimly lit "oxygen room" with fully-reclinable La-Z-Boys):

If you must fall and break your neck, do it carefully:

Anniversary Hair and Body Cleaner:

At the entrance to the locker room, where you're supposed to change into the hideous blue shower slippers:

Isn't it AWESOME that one of the fanciest sports clubs in Beijing still continues to provide so much bad-English-translation entertainment? To their credit, they did take down the rules and regulations posted on the inside of each locker, admonishing members to "guard their treasures," because the club "for anything is not responsible." Awesome.

Double Secret Illegal Camping @ Chaoyang Park

We'd seen other people do it before, and at first we thought that the sign (see second from left, above) clearly indicated that this was, in fact, the place to pitch one's tent. So we pitched a tent on the big lawn on the north end of Chaoyang Park and had a little picnic on Saturday. Eventually a uniformed park guard (who looked approximately 13 years old) came over and told us we couldn't do that there, but couldn't say where it was posted. It's "in the regulations," apparently, that only he was privy to.

Later we realized that we had no idea what these signs actually meant... since there were no generators or potable water nearby; and if camping wasn't allowed... and wait, what's that helicopter and truck unloading all about? At least we agreed that fire (in red) is always bad and clearly you weren't supposed to start any bonfires. Luckily, living in China has made us accustomed to living with profound confusion, so we were able to shrug it off and go on our way.