When I went to work yesterday I got the only gift that I had asked Santa for this year: My work visa.

It has been over 2.5 months since I started the process of acquiring and then filing the paperwork and running all across Beijing to various ministries to get required documents. Lots of trials and tribulations were experienced, including: I had made a stupid mistake that got my 1-year/2-month-per-entry tourist visa cancelled. I got some bad information from the Security Bureau that caused me to have to pay some “renewal” fees twice. Then my company delayed filing for the visa last month causing me to have to fly to Hong Kong to get a NEW tourist visa.

Honestly, I was starting to think that my insanely good luck here in China had finally run out, or that all of the good fortune that I have experienced was going to be balanced out by a denial of the visa, or maybe just interminable delays.

Not only did this not happen, but the date of issuance on the visa ended up being December 25. My own Christmas miracle.

When I got that visa in my hands last night I was so giddy! I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. It has been impossible to think about the future without it. I mean, how can I plan vacations, or ask friends to plan trips to visit me, if I don’t know if I will be here after my next 30-day window of tourist visa validity?

I sure as hell haven’t spent any money buying things for my apartment, such as pots and pans, curtains or any other accoutrement of life. I haven’t bought a stitch of clothing because everything that I have just barely fit into my luggage when I came over in August. If I’d had to travel home suddenly I wouldn’t have been able to bring anything back with me. Why waste the cash?

All of that ends now. I am an official, legal resident alien with a permit to hold a job. And so long as I am gainfully employed I can renew that visa every year.

I’ve got the next 5 days off. Tonight is New Year’s Eve. I’ll be heading out with a huge group of friends to a massive warehouse to party in style. Tomorrow, Friday & Saturday I’ve got plans to party as well. I really, really have something to celebrate this year. My future in China begins now.

Here in Beijing Christmas is still in the air, along with excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. I’ve spent my first holiday season overseas and I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that it has been one of the best Christmases of my life. (NOTE: As usual, click on any of the pictures below to see my complete photo album from Christmas with lots more pictures and details.)

Of course, China being a communist-ruled country, the state is officially atheist, and, officially, so are all of the people. Practically it doesn’t quite work that way, as I’ve met plenty of Chinese who identify as Christian, Buddist, etc. But you can forget seeing and stars of David, nativity scenes or crosses around town. As for peoples’ homes? Well, lets just say that there are no rows of houses that are so lit up that people drive from miles away to see them. Look at the typical apartment building and you won’t see multi-colored lights filling any windows.

Christmas is conspicuous here only by it compartmentalization. That is, you can expect to be assaulted by gaudy displays in front of modern office complexes and malls, but forget about it anywhere else.

There is no mad rush of shopping. The city doesn’t shut down as people trek home for family gatherings. The highways are as crowded as ever.

Every culture has some sort of seasonal holiday celebration. In the West we had pagan solstice festivals that were appropriated by the Christians 1,700 years ago. Here in China they still set their winter Festivus by the lunar calendar. As a result, the “Christmas Season” is a cultural curiosity here rather than a reason to actually celebrate anything. It’s a time to hang pretty lights (which the Chinese love anyway) and listen to some cheesy and cheerful Western music.  Check out this blurb from a recent article in the Globe:

Although many Chinese have come to love Christmas, decorating trees and windows, piping the ubiquitous Christmas carols into elevators and stores, one thing they don’t do is shop. The big consumer holiday here is the lunar New Year, and parents buy clothing and shoes for their children, not toys.

 

“All these toys we make are for the foreign children,” said 40-year-old Long Sunjun, who runs a small shop near the closed Smart Union toy factory. She says that even the children of the toy factory workers seldom were given toys other than squirt guns or balls. “Chinese kids can make their own toys. Besides, they should be studying, not playing with toys.”

Practically it is just a regular day. Everybody goes to work. The banks are all open. Restaurants tend to be a little more crowded, but that’s just because Westerners like me all go out to eat, and we tend to drag along some of our Chinese friends with us.

I was surprised at how much of a relief it was to be in this environment. Sure, we as humans tend to need some seasonal excuses to re-connect with friends and family. This is valuable. And I’ve been socialized to recognize the winter solstice as my time to pine for this affirmation of life, so I won’t lie: I was looking for some stuff to do. But over here you are forced to strip away all of the “normal” accoutrement of gift-buying, excessive home decorating, card-sending (try finding Christmas cards here) and hosting/visiting etiquette, leaving you with a simple proposition: Let’s hang out.

So that’s what we did.

For myself, it was a 3-night celebration. On Christmas Eve, my friend Alain organized an outing for several of us (1 Chinese, 1 French, 1 Quebecois, 2 Americans & 1 Filipino) to have dinner at the Ritz Carlton.

It was really nice- the camaraderie was warm and comforting while the food was wonderfully varied. Ironically, the turkey was the worst thing they had, so I “settled” for some curry, some barbeque chicken, amazing stuffing, ham and dumplings.

My friend Catherine went for the crab.

It was a great time. Unfortunately for me, I had to work my regular overnight shift so I was not able to stay with the crew for the drinking and dancing that followed but I made up for it later.

Through a quirk of my work schedule, I actually had Christmas Day off and planned a much longer outing. My night began with a wonderfully eclectic group of us gathering for dinner at a fun Russian restaurant in Dongzhimen. The countries represented this time? India, China, France, Scotland, the US and the Czech Republic. Awesome.

There is really great food here so the restaurant was packed; there was a line to get in (we arrived early enough that we did not have to wait) and the decorations were obnoxiously gaudy.

There was bad live “jazz” complete with a Russian in a cheesy, sparkly jacket that some lounge player from 1970s Vegas was probably missing.

And there were incredibly rich, typical Russian dishes that were unbelieveably bad for us, like this bowl of beefsteak covered in carrots, potatoes, cheese and mayonnaise. An “Aorta Bomb,” as an old friend of mine would have called it, accompanied by imported Russian beer. It was delicious.

After dinner a bunch of us headed on over to Nanlouguxiang hutong, an ancient alley filled with small, fun bars that the Chinese flock to (unlike the big dance clubs in Sanlitun that cater to mostly Westerners). There, we hung out with the locals and enjoyed the pleasant, welcoming atmosphere. There was karaoke on display from drunken, over-enthusiastic Chinese,

And we played my favorite Chinese drinking game, Dai Wa Sik, or “Liar Dice.”

I didn’t fare too well.

Overall, it was one of the most fun Christmases that I have ever had, namely because I wasn’t busy running from place to place or wrapping (or even buying) gifts. I wasn’t a slave to tradition. Everybody just wanted to have a great time and it didn’t matter how we accomplished our goal. At one point, I turned to Deepesh and said, “What the hell is going on? It’s Christmas and I’m eating in a Russian restaurant in Beijing with an Indian guy?!” So surreal and so much fun. I had thrown my old holiday rulebook out and I was reveling in the freedom that I never knew I had been denied by my old habits. There were no seating arrangements to cause the least amount of friction. No planning to arrive late enough and leave early enough so as to spend the minimal amount of “acceptable” time. No having to listen to racist jokes.

Luckily for me it didn’t stop there. Due to another scheduling quirk, I only had to work the afternoon shift on Boxing Day, so I was able to rally a large group to go out for a night of drinking and dancing.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a “normal” Friday night out, but perhaps with a little more thankfulness at the chance to be together. The hugs that I got from friends -both old and new- were a little tighter and longer than normal.

It was a wonderful stretch of days, a wonderful holiday season. Of course, there was a wistfulness at some moments for the familiar trappings of Christmas back home, but it felt like the same kind of pining that you get for an old pair of shoes. I had these great new ones, but my feet really were used to the familiar, worn pair that I just shoved into the back of my closet.

No matter. I’ll survive -and thrive- in the new shoes that I’ve got.

Right now I’m sitting with this insanely hot Equadorian chick in Lush, a pub/café in the trendy college neighborhood of Wudaoku. This joint could be in Cambridge, for all of the dark wood tables, scuffed floor, low ceiling and cramped raised stage in the corner. They offer movie nights on Mondays, trivia on Wednesdays, an open mic night on Sundays and live music scattered throughout the week. There are a thousand of these places scattered around the colleges back home. But the one thing that this place has that all of those don’t is smoke.

Smoking bans are popping up all across the world. Boston introduced theirs a half decade ago and after a recent study showed that it has directly led to a decline in deaths from heart attacks, it was recently strengthened.  But here in China, you can light up almost anywhere.

[Right now, the hot Latin girl is putting her tongue in my ear. It's hard to focus, but I shall soldier on.]

Sure, the subways are smoke-free, as are all Starbucks, but almost all restaurants and bars either allow smoking or only have small No Smoking sections. The sidewalks are filled with smokers. Some estimates say that almost 400 million Chinese smoke; a number so high that even the government here was unable to institute their own ban in bars and restaurants earlier this year. For somebody like me who absolutely hates smoking and is mildly disgusted at the very scent of a puffer nearby, it is like Hell on Earth. The only thing that makes it tolerable is drinking heavily.

Good thing that booze is cheap here.

I’ve been blogging in or about China for over 5 months now. I’ve written close to 70 posts so far adding up to tens of thousands of words and 19 photo essays (so far).  Annie Osborn of Boston Latin Academy has basically summed up my entire website in this single 500 word op-ed piece in Monday’s Boston Globe.

Good for you, kid.

Today, NPR’s Morning Edition wrapped up a 3-part series of reports from China’s Guangdong province. They’re tracking how the eponymous “global financial crisis” is affecting the engine of China’s growth: The Pearl River Delta. That’s where a majority of the factories that make all of the “Made in China”-labeled products are situated. Over the past 28 years it has seen the largest migration of human beings in the history of our planet.

In 1980, Shenzhen, the main port for the region, and the 2nd-largest port in China, was a small fishing village of 30,000 people. Today it is a sprawling metropolis of 12 million. That’s half again as large as New York City; and that’s just one city in the region. As a whole, Guangzhou Province is home to 115 million people.

To get a sense of just how insanely astounding this evolution has been, imagine the American government trying to engineer the creation of a single city and region like that. The Pearl River Delta area is about the size of New England. So we’d have to move 1/3 of the population of the US into that space. Boston would have to grow to 12 million people. Providence, RI? Try 8 million. Portland, ME will see at least 4 million. Manchester, NH will have to absorb another 5-7 million. Burlington, VT goes from a sleepy college town to a city of 10 million.

Sound impossible? Well, it’s not. The Chinese have done it. In less than 3 decades.

With this context in mind, listen to part 1 of the story here, and then follow the links to continue on with the 14-minute series. You can begin to understand why the idea of a large-scale economic slowdown here gives the government the jitters.

The reporter, Anthony Kuhn, also writes an accompanying essay that you can read here. It is very enlightening and even-handed.

He rightly points out that both the Chinese & US economies have been living on borrowed time. That is, thanks to Americans’ insatiable need to overspend and rely on debt to finance their dreams, both countries have gotten drunk off of the seemingly endless supply of cheap “stuff” that has been flowing out of China. The people in the US got more things to buy so that they could validate their cushy standard of living, while the Chinese got 300 million people raised up out of crushing poverty, political stability and mega-cities.

China also needs to replace energy-wasting, heavily polluting factories with hi-tech and service businesses. And while U.S. households have to save more and spend less, Chinese families need to do the opposite. So every iPhone, patio furniture set and Barbie doll that China exports to America means one less of that product available for Chinese consumers to buy.

How the relationship between our countries will evolve given the new realities that are dawning on free-spending Americans is anybody’s guess. And that, in and of itself, is a frightening thought.

Just wanted to post this evidence of my coolness/mad skills. I was playing darts at the Goose and Duck sports pub a few weeks ago when I totally nailed this shot:

I hit my first dart dead-on with my second dart, impaling it. The odds on this? I have no idea, but it’s gotta be pretty astronomical.

Needless to say, I started shouting to all of the people in the bar to come and see what I had done. And I would not get out of the way of the people waiting behind me to play until everybody in the bar had come over to check it out and I had a chance to take some photos.

Full disclosure: I wasn’t actually aiming for that dart, or even in the same area that the dart was in on the board. It is yet another example of my amazing good luck here in Beijing.

I should’ve bought a lottery ticket right after it happened.

An interesting short piece about Beijing’s air quality appeared on Boston.com this Sunday. Instead of just saying that the air in China sucks, the writer makes a very accurate point:

Since China’s capital slipped out of the world spotlight — and away from its Herculean efforts to unclutter the air for the Games by closing factories, halting construction, and removing half of the cars from the roads — the air quality has bounced between looking a bit better or far worse than what you’d suck up in Los Angeles.

A fair assessment. I have most certainly noticed some amazingly clear days as well as some smoggy ones. The reason for the improvement from the past (as inconsisent as it is)? Many of the worst-offending factories and foundries that were shut down in the run-up to the Olympics were permanently moved out of the city. Also, thousands of old, inneficent, exhaust-belching trucks that were used on construction sites and to haul all sorts of good to and fro were permanently retired.

I haven’t really noticed any adverse effects from the air quality here yet, but, to be fair, I haven’t been out to play a hard-core game of frisbee since I arrived. I do, however, walk at least 1 hour per day and I do not feel winded. I may feel differently come spring time when I play frisbee again and start taking kung-fu lessons. We’ll see.

Anway, you can check out the rest of the article here.

Beijing is a tourist mecca, not just for foreigners, but for Chinese as well. It is filled with countless historical sights, ancient neighborhoods (hutongs) and cultural institutions. Consequently, there are always picture-taking throngs walking about and the expats who live here will often slip in and out of these crowds. Every now and again I will join them and post what I see.

I won’t try to give you an exhaustive history lesson here; there are plenty of great websites and guides that can do this much better than I can, and I will provide you with links to them. What I will do is point out what I think is great about these spots, what is unusual or illuminating, or if a venture to any particular spot is a complete waste of time. I’ll also be using this space to post the photos that I take for the groups that I go with, if any. Of course, as usual, a complete photo collection with more details will appear on Flickr and can be accessed by clicking on any pictures that I include.

Last weekend, I was part of a group of expats and some Chinese transplants who banded together for an afternoon walking around Hou Hai Lake and its surrounding environs. These include the Drum and Bell Towers and several hutongs.

The entire area is like a preserved section of ancient Beijing. The streets are all narrow, twisting and confusing. The buildings are all squat and uniform, but they are thrown together like a jigsaw puzzle, making the whole area seem chaotic and homey at the same time. Its like standing in the middle of an organically-grown city; it feels right somehow, like this is how people in cities should live.

This could be my Boston heritage talking, as there are many areas in my home town that seem to have grown haphazardly, just like a hutong. Even with this familiarity, though, I still had moments where I felt like a rat in a maze. Even the few modern buildings that have been put up are all built to match the old structures that surround them, maintaining the old feel. Whereas in Boston new buildings will often reflect the era that they are built in even as they strive to “fit” into their neighborhood.

Near the center of the hutong is Shichahai Bar Street. The roads in this area (which line the shores of the lake) are almost all taverns with familiar signage. During the summer this area is supposed to be really jumping. I’ll have to come back to check it out.

The best part of the day for me was when we found a little café beneath the Bell Tower where we could sit out in the warm sun and relax with some good coffee and good conversation.

After this, we all headed up into the Drum Tower to catch the stunning view of the surrounding area as the sun set. It was amazing and I was moved at the beauty of it all. I was so happy to be surrounded by great friends who could enjoy it with me.

As it so often does, the day ended with some of us grabbing dinner together at a small restaurant around the corner from the Towers.

The food was pretty good, though the prices were a tad high. (What do you expect in a touristy area?) I had a blast and went home to grab a nap, because soon it would be nighttime, and I would be off to my next adventure…

There was an interesting piece in today’s Boston Globe. Writer Christopher Muther was bounced from a nightclub because he was wearing sneakers.

Dress codes in Boston, according to the article, can be restrictive:

Boston’s dance clubs can be a harsh place for a guy who tries to wear something besides the standard thick-soled shoes and untucked dress shirts that are the nightlife norm. Most of the city’s dance clubs have a list of verboten clothing, which usually includes sneakers, baseball hats, work boots, and team jerseys.

The piece goes on to say that the dress code is really just a tool that lets bars control their crowds and to maintain “the ambiance of the place.” This is code for “we don’t want trouble-makers or people who aren’t pretty/stylish enough.”

I guess that this is fair, but since I have no real desire to be “stylish” and I have never cared to be out amongst crowds of people who seem to be pre-occupied with such concerns, I tended to shun the bar and club scene back in the States, save for a few regular hangouts in Boston & New York where the concern over style was never trumped by the concern for having a good time.

In China, the concept is completely different. I don’t own a pair of “nice” shoes. I have a pair of black sneakers and a pair of brown sneakers. I’ve been out to some of the top dance clubs and bars in Beijing, and I have never been denied entry. Many times, I’m just in jeans and a t-shirt. Frankly, my passport into almost any club is my white skin. Obviously, I’m a foreigner and I must be rich. (It’s sad, but racism is alive and well here, and I’m a huge beneficiary.)

The only place that I have ever walked away from without entering was a place called China Doll in Sanlitun. They have a sign on their door that stipulates a dress code and a regular cover charge. No dice for me… even though I’m “rich.”

(To be fair, this club sits on a street lined with identical bars that cater almost exclusively to Western tourists. Its sister location is around the block and does not have a dress code or a cover. I’ve been there several times and have always had fun.)

Here in Beijing, when clubs want to weed out “undesirables,” i.e. poor Chinese, they resort to a cover charge. This is usually something cheap to a Westerner (50 RMB at China Doll translates to a measly $7), but will keep poorer Chinese away. Of course, the fee is waived for pretty girls.

But even this practice is rare. Food and/or drink prices inside the hottest, trendiest places can often be deterrent to “regular” Chinese all by themselves. The end result is a class of bars that cater only to Westerners and the nuveau riche Chinese. I tend to stay away from these places because I’m more interested in hanging out in thoroughly mixed crowds of people than just with white folks.

The style thing just isn’t a big deal here and I’ve never seen it be the determining factor as to whether or not somebody gets access to a club. Outward displays of wealth are frowned upon and seen as wastes of money, not to mention not in line with Communist ideals. I have hung out with some rich people here -VERY rich people- but you would never know it by looking at them. They don’t wear flashy clothes or jewelery. Their cars are sensible and if we go out to eat, it is always at a “regular” restaurant that anybody could afford.

This is one of those cultural differences that really suits me and is yet another reason that I’m having a blast here in Beijing.

I mention it often, this CouchSurfing thing. If you’ve ever bothered to click on the hyperlink embedded in that name then you know what its all about. If you haven’t, then do it before going on, because if you don’t you might get a little lost. (NOTE: Click on any of the party pictures below to jump the complete photo album from that night. Believe me, there is a LOT more to see that did not get posted here.)

I first got involved with this community last October. I created a profile and offered my services in Boston as a local know-it-all. I gave walking tours of downtown full of stories that you won’t find in guidebooks, as well as a local’s perspective on the history that my home city is so rich in and proud of. I didn’t attend any meet-ups in those first months and my experiences were limited. It is one of those very first experiences that illustrate the amazing connections that can be forged via this website, and how, last weekend, it ended up helping me have one of my most fun nights out since arriving in Beijing.

Back in November, I met my second CSer, Marie-Line. She’s from Belgium and was working as an Au Pair on Long Island so that she could live in the US for a couple of years and travel around a bit. I gave her a tour of downtown Boston and took my baby brother Nick along for the ride. We all got along famously. On a whim, we ended up going to Blue Man Group (which I had never seen), and we had am awesome time. We hit it off so well, that when new Year’s Eve time rolled around Marie-Line decided to come back to Boston to check out First Night with me.

At the same time, Christine was a new resident in the city attending graduate school. Her best friend from college back in Buffalo, Liz, was coming to visit her for New Year’s and she posted an inquiry onto the CS Boston message board: What is this “First Night” thing all about, and what, exactly, should we see?

I replied with some basic info on what was going on and my recommendations on which events would be best/easiest to attend. There was some emailing between us, and we eventually decided that Christine, Liz & I, along with Marie-Line and another CSer that she was bringing, Darren, would all go out to First Night together. We would hop between art events and bars and have dinner at a really nice out-of-the-way restaurant to avoid the crowds.

It was, quite simply, one of the best New Year’s Eves that I’ve ever had. All of these disparate strangers had come together with a similar mindset and a willingness to meet new people and learn all that they could about their backgrounds and experiences. It was very welcoming and affirming. But even more, from it sprang a whole new path of life for one of the attendees.

Liz was fascinated with Marie-Line’s choice to become an Au Pair as a means to living overseas. She peppered her with questions about the job and her experiences throughout the night. Eventually, after some subsequent back-and-forth, Liz decided to take the plunge herself and she moved to Geneva, becoming an Au Pair and taking every opportunity to travel all across Europe.

While in Geneva, Liz has, of course, made many new friends, and one of them, Rafaella, took a trip to China recently for her job. Liz told her that she knew me, figured that we would hit it off, and told her to look me up when she arrived in Beijing.

Boy, was Liz ever right! Raffy & I clicked immediately and it was an immeasurable joy to hang out with her. And here the miracle and tragedy is illustrated most clearly: I never would have met Raffy had it not been for Liz and Marie-Line, two people that I never would have met without CS. But now that I have met her, she is gone just as quickly as she arrived.

I still keep in touch with both Liz & Marie-Line, as I am sure that I will keep in touch with Raffy, and I consider both of them to friends. Marie-Line has moved back to Belgium and Liz has visited her there, and I hope to be able to see them both when I take my hoped-for trip to Europe next year. Now, hopefully, I can add Rafaella to the list.

I hadn’t really given it too much thought to this whole social network thing until a fellow CSer back in Boston posted this article on the site. Its quite illuminating and I was interested to read that what I am living right now is a pretty new and evolving phenomenon. Nobody is really sure over the long run how our newfound ability to forge and maintain connections with so many people all over the world will effect us as individuals, within societies, or if we are seeing the first stages of the creation of a new kind of society.

Its all very exciting. I mean, this weekend I met with this crazy cast of characters who were all different sizes, shapes, colors and creeds and we all had an awesome time…

…We were all pretty much strangers, with only the Beijingers knowing each other, but we got along like we were an established group of friends. We vamped it up with each other.

We took embarrassing photos.

We demonstrated feats of strength.

And we most definitely danced together.

Some of us even danced with an old guy.

I really hope that I’m able to keep in touch with as many of these great folks as possible.

Anyway, I guess that what I’m saying is this: This whole social network thing -and CouchSurfing in particular- is pretty awesome. This really is a great tome to be alive… and it’s a great time to be in Beijing.