Hello there, Since the chastization (is that a word?) I will be taking over for copying and pasting the ever so interesting blogs from Ms. Jo that we all anxiously await daily.  I will stop myself from what really I love doing best which is checking grammar spelling and format (always put two spaces after a period and one after a semicolon).  My name is S and I will be your new guide.  Enjoy.  As always check out www.flickr.com/budbug for photos.

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I dunno, was it something we said?  Maybe, but since we can’t see what we actually said we can’t really come to that conclusion.  No, I’m sure it wasn’t anything like that but for a brief moment we likened our situation to the French Resistance movement or the White Rose Pamphleteers but then we remembered we’re only writing about food, adoption and how much we love China.  So it’s not us, it’s our link to WordPress and everything that it stands for and because of that our blog is no longer available to us (however temporarily).  Never fear! The delightful Ms. S is working this for us.  (Thanks Ms S!, and thanks to all those who offered to pick up the torch).

Yesterday there was no entry but we’ll let you know how that went.  It was an ‘administrative day’, our first appointment at 9 a.m. at a downtown clinic to get our darling daughter poked and prodded at to see if she’s worthy to come to our great land (she is).  She’s been declared physically healthy but has the usual delays that a change of environment and time should fix up just nicely.  As for her teeth and the plaque that comes with them (which we affectionately refer to as ‘Zombie mouth’), also fixable.  Of course the doctor clucked that her teeth should have been brushed at the institution but we just thank our lucky stars for our dental plans.  Baby screamed at the indignity of it all (we were so proud) but then she calmed down once we got her back into the car, on our way to the Canadian Embassy.  Funny thing there, we don’t actually go INTO the Embassy, but rather our guide runs to the back building, hands over paperwork to someone in a stall and Voila! two days later a visa appears.  Magic.

We took a walk through the streets around dinner time.  The sun goes down earlier than we’re used to –around 5, 5:30 or so it’s already dusk and the rush hour chaos is well underway.  And it’s pandemonium.  It’s not that long ago but I don’t recall this kind of insanity when we were in Hong Kong, and although I do recall more cars and the wider boulevards in Guangzhou, Beijing is insane for pedestrians.  There are way more cyclists here than we’ve seen elsewhere in China and they do have a separate wide lane for them, but they go in each and every direction down that lane.  Which brings us to the lowly pedestrian.  Pedestrians have NO rights here and they behave as if they have no rights.  You can be crossing a road with no traffic coming but if someone driving a city bus, truck, car or anything else with wheels decides it wants to go down the road you’re crossing you’d better move it because they don’t slow down.  They may beep if you’re lucky, but you’re virtually taking your life into your hands each and every time.

Intersections are chaotic and if a car beside you decides it wants your lane it just moves into it and you have to get out of the way.  People rarely signal and if you delay and don’t move your car forward, three other cars will take up the space between you and the car ahead.  Those little lines between lanes have no meaning, so no one seems to care and everyone just lets everyone in, which is nice but the things that seem to piss off other drivers is if someone stops when they could be running a red light or, if someone decides to let someone out of a car at the curb, the horns will be a-blaring.  We’ve done a lot of traveling but neither of us has ever seen anything quite like it.

Our guide stared at us blankly when we tried to explain that in Toronto, pedestrians don’t have to run for their lives when crossing and technically cars have to stop for them everywhere except, maybe, the 400 series highways (correct me if I’m wrong).  I’m not suggesting that cars all stop politely for all pedestrians all of the time but we didn’t get into that with our guide – nuances are difficult.  To wit:  when we passed a bunch of highway workers on our way to the Great Wall, we noticed they were all working (as were the mannequin sign-holders that keep them company – really, they have traffic mannequins here).  We commented on how at home any government contract highway construction usually displays a 20 to 1 ratio of those watching to those actually working, and then she asked, “doesn’t anyone complain to the government?”  We laughed appropriately at the irony of her question until she told us that in China, people are good because they all listen to the government.  If the government tells them what to do, they do it.  Which is why, in Beijing, you are only allowed to drive on the days of the week according to the numbers presented on your license plate.  You may not be able to drive on Mondays, he’s not able to drive on Thursdays, etc., which is how they control the traffic in the big city (not to say this is a bad thing – why doesn’t the municipal government in Toronto take such a stand?  Oh right, Rob Ford would have to take the TTC or worse, ride a bike.)  So, during the Olympics, it was super-easy to get around Beijing because the government told people they weren’t allowed to drive for those weeks, and a whole lot of businesses just shut down for the occasion.  Including government offices.  Imagine that?

Back to last night’s dinner.  Luckily we made it to a restaurant that we’d been eyeing for a couple of days if only because it looked decent and it had English translations of its menu.  It was awesome.  The spicy fried rice was delectable with a dried turnip omelet and cold salad with the ubiquitous bok choy and blanched walnuts, spicy red and yellow peppers tossed in a light garlic and ginger sauce.  The tofu was stirred fried with a spicy medley of green and red pepper, and the texture was perfect.  None of the dishes were oily and we know that because yours truly cannot pick up anything over-glazed or slick with plastic chopsticks.  I always do better with the wooden peasant chopsticks but mastered this meal.  Bravos all around.

Which brings us to tomorrow.  Tomorrow is ‘shopping day’ which means we’ll be ferried to a market where all kinds of deals can be had provided we bargain appropriately to the approval of our guide so we can leave the stalls with our heads held high knowing that we got the best deal for the little trinket that we could.  Wouldn’t want that stall owner who makes the equivalent of about $5K Canadian annually rip me off.  No way, not us.  I have to say that shopping has been one of the few low points of my experience in China.  Firstly, I suck at haggling; secondly, I cannot stand, I mean I CANNOT STAND, being followed around by store clerks who invade my personal space.  And they do.  They are at your heals, so close you can smell them.  I’m not a good shopper at the best of times but it makes my skin crawl knowing my every move is being watched and monitored and when someone comes up to me to tell me that an item is ‘authentic’ when it’s obviously not, it makes me want to scream. Never shop for antiques in China unless you’re Warren Buffet, because they don’t exist for people like you and me.  The second time a young store clerk came up to tell me an obviously plastic wallet was made of leather I laughed and said, “no it’s not” and left the store.  Then I felt bad.

T, Kman and our DD love to shop leisurely and at our own pace.  We’re also not ‘organized tour’ type of people and like to explore and discover when we feel like it.  We log many miles doing this and love it.  The Forbidden City is beckoning, but we daren’t go there before our scheduled visit on Thursday, with our guide.  It is within a short walking distance from our hotel, but since we’ve already rearranged her schedule a number of times, we feel compelled to wait until Thursday.  She’s a wealth of knowledge and clearly loves Beijing and Chinese history, so it would do us good to wait.  Until then, the Forbidden City remains, to us, forbidden.

Thanks for following us around.