Tomorrow is another day... another year... another decade

Every December there is an onslaught of year-end lists to pore over. “The most…” and “top…” fill the pages. I don’t want to do the same here.

What makes 2009 different is that a lot of people I know got married: friends, relatives, colleagues, clients, friends’ friends… It is said that 2010 is not a good year for marriage because there’s no spring on the lunar calendar. Believe it or not. I guess for most couples, it’s time.

2010 is my 10th year in Beijing. I’m not going to make a to-do list as I never like to be bound by plans. I’ll just let nature take its course.

Cold air

North wind howls,
Draining the last water molecule from my skin.

Spine chills,
Teeth tremble.

Hair smells of dust,
As though I have been to the desert.

Saltless tears roll down,
They are not tears of joy or sorrow,
It’s all because of the wind.

Dec

“One, two, three!” The MC was counting when I walked out of the elevator after work. “Bang!” Paper crackers were exploding. It’s another Christmas light up ceremony @ Landmark.

The calendar was turned to the last page.

Dec is the busiest month, trying to rush out everything before the year ends. As usual, I’ll write a brief “summary”. It’s become a habit. The year will pass, but words remain.

Low carbon living

I’ve been isolating myself at home for 3 days due to the cold. Finally I flipped through all the magazines I bought last season and noticed a new buzzword “low carbon living”. Here it goes:

50 ideas for shrinking your carbon footprint

Here are some recommendations to get you started. Avoid overwhelming yourself with drastic changes. It’s best to view this process like you would if you were adopting healthy eating instead of going on a crash diet. So do one thing new each week or each month and see your carbon footprint shrink over time.

At home

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Use our house calculator to find out how much CO2 you use. You can also get advice from the Energy Saving Trust. You might even be eligible for a grant to improve the efficiency of your home.

Heating conservation
•Draughts waste a lot of energy by losing heat. One quick and relatively cheap win is to put a brush or seal on your doors to prevent air escaping round the edges. Letterboxes and keyholes also lose heat and can be covered too. Gaps in floorboards and skirting boards also let in draughts; you can fill in these gaps with newspaper, beading or sealant.
•Stick aluminium foil or reflective panels behind radiators. This reflects heat back into the room rather than being absorbed into walls.
•In winter close your curtains at night to stop heat escaping.
•Make sure your loft has loads of insulation. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest ways to save energy and will pay for itself in hardly any time.
•Consider insulating your cavity walls.
•You can reduce 50% of your heat loss through windows by installing double glazing, which in turn could cut your heating bill up to £90 a year. Make sure they are properly installed though, as gaps around the outside will lose heat. (Visit the Energy Saving Trust for more details)
•Turn your thermostat down to 18°C and put on an extra jumper.

Electricity conservation
•Switch to a renewable electricity supplier
•Buy A-rated electrical appliances.
•Switch to energy saving light bulbs, when your old bulbs break. They last around 10 times longer than ordinary light bulbs; they will save you money and come in loads of different styles.
•Items left on standby can use up to 85% of the energy they would use if fully switched on. Turn them off at the wall – it doesn’t take long.
•Electric tumble dryers use a huge amount of energy. If it’s a nice day dry your clothes outside or even inside if it’s not so nice.
•When using a washing machine ensure there is a full load and turn down the temperature.
•If you have lights in your garden use solar powered lights that charge during the day and don’t require electricity.
•Take your phone charger out of the wall. It uses energy even when it’s not charging your phone.

Water savings
•Make sure your hot water tank is insulated with a thick jacket. It will save you lots of money not to mention reducing emissions.
•A dripping tap can be not only annoying but if it is a hot tap it can cost you in both water costs and water heating costs. Remember, water also has a carbon footprint associated with it from processing.
•Always use the correct size saucepan, and when heating water only use the amount you need.
•When making a cup of tea, only boil the amount of water that you need.
•Turn off the tap while cleaning your teeth.
•If your toilet cistern holds more than 6 litres of water (likely if it was installed before 2001) put a Hippo Water Saving device in it.
•Have a shower instead of a bath, which uses far less energy and water.

Food and the fridge
•The location of your fridge can make a difference in how energy efficient it is. Make sure it is out of direct sunlight and not close to the oven. Keeping it against an outside wall will help the heat it generates escape easily, and always make sure that there is a few inches’ space all around the fridge so that air can circulate.
•Make sure you defrost your fridge and freezer on a regular basis.
•Only set your fridge to as cold as you need it and avoid keeping the door open for long periods of time as the more cold air that escapes, the harder the fridge has to work. You should check the seal regularly as well, if it is damaged then cold air will be escaping.
•You should never put warm or hot food into the fridge as this will make the fridge work extra hard to try and keep it cold; always allow food to cool down first.
•Defrost frozen food in the fridge as this helps to keep it cool as it thaws.
•Buy locally produced organic food.
•Eat less meat; producing 1 calorie of meat requires a lot more land and energy, compared to 1 calorie of vegetables.

Driving Tips

Cars are generally very energy inefficient and travelling by train, bus or bike is much better for the planet. If you can’t manage without a car, changing your driving habits can help reduce its greenhouse emissions. Find out how much your car produces with our car calculator.

•Anticipate road conditions and drive smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking. This saves fuel and reduces accident rates.
•Plan your journeys to avoid congestion, road works and getting lost.
•Drive away immediately when starting from cold - idling to heat the engine wastes fuel and causes rapid engine wear.
•Check your revs - change up before 2,500rpm (petrol) and 2,000rpm (diesel).
•The most efficient speed depends upon the car in question but is typically around 55 - 65mph. Faster speed will greatly increase your fuel consumption.
•Check your tyre pressures regularly - under-inflated tyres are dangerous and can increase fuel consumption by up to 3%.
•If you're stuck in a jam, switch the engine off if you expect to be there for more than a minute or two. Cutting the engine will save fuel and reduce emissions.
•Use air conditioning sparingly as it significantly increases fuel consumption.
•Avoid short journeys - a cold engine uses almost twice as much fuel and catalytic converters can take five miles to become effective. Cycle or walk instead.
•Accessories such as roof racks, bike carriers, and roof boxes significantly affect your car's aerodynamics and reduce fuel efficiency, so remember to remove them when not in use.
•Get your car serviced regularly to keep it running efficiently.

Flying

We realise that sometimes people have no choice but to fly but the best thing for the planet is if you don’t fly at all, the resulting emissions can often represent the biggest chunk of your carbon footprint. Many short haul flights can be replaced by other forms of public transport such as trains or buses. In the meantime, if you have to fly you can offset your flight using our flight calculator.

•If you are feeling adventurous and have the time there are many options for travelling long haul without flying. There are many websites available offering advice on how to travel all over the world without flying.
•When you have to fly, always consider if you can combine trips.
•It’s best to fly direct rather than stopping over, aeroplanes use a lot of fuel taking off and landing.

At the Office

A lot of the things you can do are the same as you would do in your home, but if you are feeling adventurous, you can always have a go at persuading your boss to go green as well! Why not point them in the direction of our business calculator?

•Only use the lights you need. Turn off lights in unused rooms. Better still; get your building to install occupancy sensors.
•Turn off your computer monitor when you leave the office at the end of the day.
•Do you really need those hard copies, or can you save it on your computer instead?
•Print double-sided.
•Open up - if you have windows you can open, use them to intelligently save energy.
•Can you share a lift to get to work?
•Perhaps see if you can teleconference and work from home occasionally.

Doing all the 50 can be a big challenge, but I do love the last item "working from home". I just checked my emails via outlook web access while on leave. It's cool!

A stolen Monday

The weather is so abnormal this year. The first snow fell on the 1st of Nov. Two blizzards followed. Winter came before I was ready for it.

I have a cold. “You should rest.” My boss said. I’m actually fine except for the sore throat. Anyway, I’d better not stay in the office.

It’s a nice and quiet day at home. I made myself a pot of stewed pear and papaya with rock sugar. It’s easy but tastes great and good for the throat. In the afternoon I had a sound sleep and squeezed a moment to update my blog.

It’s REALLY CHILLY outside. The harsh climate alone convinces me that Beijing is not a city for ordinary humans. It’s for supermen. Think of the manual laborers working outdoors. They leave their homes for the big city and struggle for a better life. They suffer from the cold weather and things we may not know. Ah! Life is hard.

Biz trip to Shanghai

Every time when I’m on a biz trip, lying in bed in a strange hotel, I always feel myself going off track of my normal life. The messes and unhappiness seem like a million miles away, a million years ago, as though they were not mine but someone else’s.

这次住在郊区，周六一早忙完收尾工作便赶到市区，和好朋友聚一聚。又一次来到淮海路，去了新开的Barbie旗舰店。每次到上海总能发现北京没有的东西，也算不枉来一趟。

昨天下午地铁里还开着冷气，而北方这时候已经来暖气了。

A Language of Smiles

An interesting article from the NYT:

Say “eeee.” Say it again. Go on: “eeee.”

Maybe I’m easy to please, but doing this a few times makes me giggle. “Eeee.”

Actually, I suspect it’s not just me. Saying “eeee” pulls up the corners of the mouth and makes you start to smile. That’s why we say “cheese” to the camera, not “choose” or “chose.” And, I think, it’s why I don’t get the giggles from “aaaa” or “oooo.”

The mere act of smiling is often enough to lift your mood; conversely, the act of frowning can lower it; scowling can make you feel fed up. In other words, the gestures you make with your face can — at least to some extent — influence your emotional state.

(The notion that facial expressions affect mood isn’t new. Edgar Allan Poe used it in his story “The Purloined Letter”: one character reports that when he wishes to know someone’s mind, he attempts to compose his face to mimic the expression of that someone — then waits to see which emotions arise. And the idea was developed, in different ways, by both Charles Darwin and William James. But telling stories and developing arguments is one thing. Showing, experimentally, that making a face can make a mood is harder; it’s only in the past 30 years or so that data have started to accumulate.)

Exactly how frowns and smiles influence mood is a matter of debate. One possibility is classical conditioning. Just as Ivan Pavlov conditioned a dog to associate the sound of a bell with the expectation of food, the argument goes, so humans quickly come to associate smiling with feeling happy. Once the association has been established, smiling is, by itself, enough to generate happy feelings. Another possibility is that different facial gestures have intrinsic properties that make them more or less pleasant, perhaps by altering the way that blood flows to the brain.

But here’s what interests me. As anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language will know, different languages make you move your face in different ways. For instance, some languages contain many sounds that are forward in the mouth; others take place more in the throat. What’s more, the effects that different languages have on the movements of the face are substantial. Babies can tell the difference among languages based on the speaker’s mouth movements alone. So can computers.
Which made me wonder: do some languages contain an intrinsic bias towards pulling happy faces? In other words, do some languages predispose — in a subtle way — their speakers to be merrier than the speakers of other languages?

As far as I can tell, no one has looked at this. (It doesn’t mean no one has; it just means I haven’t been able to find it.) But I did find a smidgen of evidence to suggest the idea’s not crazy. A set of experiments investigating the effects of facial movements on mood used different vowel sounds as a stealthy way to get people to pull different faces. (The idea was to avoid people realizing they were being made to scowl or smile.) The results showed that if you read aloud a passage full of vowels that make you scowl — the German vowel sound ü, for example — you’re likely to find yourself in a worse mood than if you read a story similar in content but without any instances of ü. Similarly, saying ü over and over again generates more feelings of ill will than repeating a or o.

Of course, facial gestures aren’t the whole story of emotions; moreover, languages can potentially influence emotions in many other ways. Different languages have different music — sounds and rhythms — that could also have an emotional impact. The meanings of words may influence moods more than the gestures used to make them. And just as the words a language uses to describe colors affects how speakers of that language perceive those colors, different languages might allow speakers to process particular emotions differently; this, in turn, could feed into a culture, perhaps contributing to a general tendency towards gloom or laughter.

Separating these various factors will be difficult, and the overall impact on mood through the facial gestures of a language may well be small, if indeed it exists at all. Nevertheless, I’d love to know whether some languages, by the contortions they give the mouth, really do have an impact on their speakers’ happiness. If it turns out that there is a language of smiles, I’d like to learn it. In the meantime: have a giggle with “meeeeeee.”

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/a-language-of-smiles/

This Is It

Michael Jackson’s This Is It premieres at 12mn. As staff members of Sony Pictures, each of us was given a movie ticket.

MJ’s fans must be dying for such a chance. But I won’t go tonight because it’s too late for me. I’m never a night owl. I can’t imagine myself wandering in a deserted street in the wee hours of the morning.

And I’m not alone. It’s even more unbelievable that some of our clients, who are of my age, also refused the offer saying the time is not good. Yes, it’s right the middle of the week and people are working tomorrow. My ticket finally goes to a colleague.

A wonderful night I dream of is staying at home, making a fire in the fireplace (if I had one) on a cold day, listening to the sounds of firewood crackling and spluttering, watching the little sparks in the dark and going to bed early, drifting into sleep with an unfinished book in my hand…

This will be a perfect end of a day.

Drag Me to Hell

For so many years, horror movie has always been my favourite.

Turn off the lights. Switch off the mobile phone. Allow me 90 minutes in a make-believe world, where all the real annoyances are forgotten.

黄昏

初秋是北京一年中最美的季节，而黄昏又是一天中我最喜欢的时刻。

初秋的黄昏，空气中还残留着夏日的余温，萧瑟的秋风和枯黄的落叶仿佛还很遥远。

天色渐暗，华灯初上，路上行人的步履也不像清晨般匆匆忙忙。

国庆将至，昨天下班回家的时候发现马路上每隔几十米就站着警察，加上九月份以来隔三差五的交通管制，给平淡的城市平添了紧张气氛。

九月这最美好的时光如同黄昏般昙花一现，在不知不觉中被湮没了。

Cloudy with a chance of mooncakes

The other day I was taking a box of mooncakes back home. The concierge saw me and said: “Why is everyone carrying mooncakes today?” Of course, it’s Mid-Autumn!

Every August, our team would brainstorm a non-mooncake yet presentable gift to our clients. Still, the majority would yield to convention. Just like dumplings for the lantern festival, chocolates for Valentine, mooncake is a deeply ingrained part of the Mid-Autumn festival. That is the strong power of tradition.

For a whole week, I’ve been eating the high-sugar, high-protein and high-cholesterol food for breakfast. But I wasn’t so lucky to discover a bottle of wine, a crab, or a Buddha bead in it, which are sometimes incorporated in the elaborately packed box.

Every time when a festival approaches, the streets become more crowded than usual. Maybe people are busy exchanging gifts. Actually the festival itself doesn’t really matter; all I expect is a long holiday.

City Rouge

The national day celebration rehearsal is held on this cloudy Friday. Traffic on main roads is blocked. People whose offices are near the Changan avenue don't need to go to work today. Our office is closed at 3pm. I went to the 7-11 at 4pm, only to find the door locked. Last year when the opening ceremony of the Olympics was held, we also had one day off. Special “holidays” – it's one of the priorities of living in the capital.

As the 60th anniversary approaches, cinema schedules are full of historical/political mainland Chinese films. They should be categorized as film rouge. We’d seen a lot of them at elementary school as part of our education. Two decades is gone. Are they still preachy? Are they more attractive with a cast of big stars?

The national day and the mid-autumn festival overlap this year. Moon cakes, red banners, red lanterns… the holiday is coming.

Oh…one more thing. Sally, my elder sister, a couple of months older than me, is engaged in Italy. Since she left for the UK, I haven’t seen her for how-many-years-i-don’t-remember. We just choose differently and grow so different. Congrats~

Where have all the DVDs gone?

The DVD store used to hide in the backroom of an obscure clothing boutique beside the north 3rd ring road. From the hottest Hollywood blockbusters to the hard-to-find European art films and documentaries, it’s a treasure trove of movies. And the price is probably the lowest in Beijing. As the saying goes, “Good wine needs no bush”. The small store always gathers movie buffs.

One day last spring, the store had moved and became my downstairs neighbor. Good news, isn’t it? But two months ago, I was surprised to find the store had disappeared overnight. The door was tightly locked and the shelves empty as if it had been raided. Or it was.

The pleasure of enjoying a movie isn’t just in the movie itself. It’s not like going to the cinema and see what is allowed to be shown, which is likely to be a deleted version. To me, half the fun lies in accidentally spotting the DVD I’ve been looking for, even if it might be a disappointment.

Look what we have in the cinema this summer: Terminator, Transformers, Harry Potter, Ice Age... Maybe the film studios purposely scheduled to release them at a time when people’s minds are sticky as the summer air. It's autumn. No more fluffs. Hope the DVD store will reopen soon.

立秋

雷雨过后的天气格外潮湿闷热，仿佛伸手在空气中抓一把便能挤出水来。
院子里的孩子无忧无虑地荡着秋千。
老头老太太们悠闲地散着步。
打开窗户，公交车一辆接一辆地呼啸而过，马达声震耳欲聋。
路边的垃圾箱里散发着西瓜皮的恶臭。
蚊子像吸血鬼般肆意地捕食着猎物。
这就是夏天。
年年如此。
整个城市都躁动不安。
大脑似乎停止了思考，根本无法concentrate。
七月终于过去。
立秋之后天气依然闷热不堪，不过总算看到些希望。

Blind date 2

Back in 2007, a friend of mine said she would introduce a “帅哥” (literally meaning a handsome man) to me. I was expecting a very good-looking guy, but I was over-optimistic. When I met him in person, I realized I had misinterpreted the meaning of “帅哥”. It was stupid of me to relate the word to its literal meaning. No, it’s simply a substitute word for man. I learned a lesson that day: words can be deceitful and misleading.

A few weeks back, my aunt’s friend introduced me to another guy. “A Beida graduate, an MBA degree in Germany, a chief representative of a German company… sounds like a “diamond bachelor”. Then I received an email with his picture attached. Remember how you felt when you first saw the news of Michael Jackson’s death? Shocked; wondering if it was a joke; couldn’t believe it was true; sad. That’s exactly how I felt when I saw his picture.

I was sorry for myself. For those who know nothing about me but want to be a matchmaker, thanks for your kindness. You know, when I was desperately in need of a job some years ago, if you could help me with half the enthusiasm, I might be working for the UN today. But nobody ever helped. I came to where I am today all by myself.

I understand match making must be very rewarding and can bring a strong sense of satisfaction. But do a little research before you do it, please.

Summer days in bloom

记得去年夏天这个时候,，每次打开新加坡同事寄来的FedEx，盒子里总是冒着热气，仿佛快递把新加坡湿热的空气也一起带到了北京。

又是一年盛夏。

很喜欢最近一段时间北京清澈蔚蓝的天空。每天早上灿烂的阳光洒在身上，有种很温暖的感觉。白天办公室里的温度是Forever 21。不忙的时候，泡上一杯红茶，看一看节目，一个小时便匆匆而过。傍晚下班的时候，太阳依旧在烘烤着大地，迟迟不肯离去。

热。心却静如止水。

Bon Vista

My 6-year-old laptop hasn't been working well for a couple of months. Despite all the criticism I heard about Windows vista, I bought this new computer with the new operating system pre-installed. It doesn’t seem so bad. I just need some time to get used to it.

Starting July 1, all PCs sold in China should include a web-filtering software called Green damn. Oops! Sorry, it’s green dam-youth escort. Whatever, maybe I’m over-sensitive about “filtering”. Trust me, I’m old enough to judge what is “healthy” and what is not. But the new rule did hasten my decision to buy a new laptop. It’s a pity I can’t wait for Windows 7 to go on the market.

Now what shall I do with my old laptop? It’s still usable; it just works slowly, like an old man gradually losing his agility. However old it is, I love the rhythmical sound made by the fingertips tapping on the keyboard. It’s been with me for too long to be let go.

Big city, small world

Cloudy. Suddenly feel unsafe without wearing sunglasses. I’m avoiding eye contacts with people different from me. The sunglasses shield the impolite gaze from strangers and the crowds of mingongs staring at urban dwellers with curious eyes.

Just bumped into an old coworker. I thought the chance of running into a friend in a city as enormous as Beijing was zero. But the world turns out to be so small. Yesterday I was chatting with some friends on msn, and I realize they actually are living in every corner of the world. Our communication is amazingly easy.

But right here blogspot remains blocked.

The not-so-old classics... and Coraline

Not going anywhere

A 4-day holiday is too short to go out, yet too long to stay in. This time last year, I was on a biz trip to Shanghai. Today, however, due to the bad economic situation, marketing events are either postponed or cancelled. My workload is somewhat lessened. The hot weather coupled with the risk of contracting H1N1 makes traveling not so appropriate. So I’m stuck.

I received a friend's wedding photos this Monday, followed by another friend's wedding invitation. 2009. Friends getting married. Alas! I’m so left behind.

Blooming flowers

All pictures taken at the Beijing Botanical Garden in late Apr.

Spring is ephemeral. Summer arrived before I had a chance to try my new spring dress.

It’s not exaggerating to say Beijing is a city of two seasons: winter and summer.

Flashbacks in May

From a stack of old textbooks, I dug out Introduction to Literature.

On a cool autumn morning, in a classroom in the newly-built Yifulou, the professor was reading Shakespeare with his royal British accent:

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou are more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date…

A final exam paper was lying in between the pages. The last question was to analyze a poem by Robert Frost:

The Road Not Taken

… Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The poem was like a prophecy that foretold the choices I was going to face after graduation.

It’s been five years. I can barely remember the meanings of the poetry terms, but my understanding of the poem has become much deeper.

The other day I came to 中国书店 (Cathay bookshop) by chance. It sells and recycles second-hand books, most of which were older than me. It reminded me of our school library, and the encyclopedia which would raise a cloud of dust with a turn of the page.

It’s hard to find a decent library outside the university. All around are glittering shopping malls and fancy star hotels. But I’m glad to see my bookshelf getting full and pleased to say I’ve read each book.

"Sorry, the number you dialed does not exist."

“… Would you consider selling or renting your apartment?”
“No.” I must have received a million calls from these real estate agencies.

“Hello, blah blah blah…”
When I heard the word “insurance”, I hung up the phone.

“… Are you interested in joining our equestrian club?”
“What?!” I still can’t figure out how my number fell into the hands of an equestrian club.

“Brand new BMW: 50,000RMB, Toyota: 30,000RMB…” the text message read.
Come on! Are you kidding?!

“You have won a laptop in the lucky draw. Please remit 200RMB to this bank account as postage.”
“Really?! When did I become the lucky dog?”

“Zara, MNG, Nike… 50-70% off!”
Hum, is this good news?

I’ve had enough. Last month I changed my cell phone number and it works, at least for now. And I also get of rid people whom I don’t want to contact anymore, for example, stalkers. Next time when a stranger calls, the only thing he will hear is “Sorry, the number you dialed does not exist.”

H&M finally opens in Beijing

The opening of H&M’s first store in Beijing must have created quite a sensation. I can imagine that.

I’ve been to the stores in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanjing. It’s become a must-shop during my travels. I like it not just because it’s cheap and chic. What matters more is I couldn’t have it in Beijing. It’s the rarity that makes it more alluring. People are always desperate for things they cannot get, and things they have lost or missed.

Today the store is right on Qianmen strip, adding another page to our shopping list.

Walking Bruges

Picturesque scenery, nice music, great acting, witty dialogues and a juice story… what else can I expect from a movie?

HBO Asia is airing the fairy tale version of In Bruges, as all the f-words have been surreptitiously deleted. It’s more fun watching it on DVD.

Spring

Willow leaves are gently dancing in the wind;
Cherry blossoms are silently drifting to ground;
White clouds are smiling in the sky;
Bright sunshine is shimmering on the river.

I’ve been walking a lot recently and my foot hurt. After seeing the doctor yesterday morning, I was in no hurry to go to work. Slowing down, I discovered the peaceful scene. It’s right around our office building beside Liangma river.

A week in the south

Xitang

Wuzhen

Sunset, Hangzhou

Leifengta equipped with elevators, omg!

Taiziwan park, Hangzhou

Suzhou

烟花三月下江南

也许因为2月只有28天，所以一直感觉3月是一年中最漫长的一个月，于是休假去了南方。

第一站是南京。阴沉的天空，破旧的建筑，这个城市给我的第一印象是一个落寞的古都。中午刚到就遇上雷阵雨，天空瞬间犹如夜晚，正好被困在新街口的商场，逛了久违的H&M。南京并没有江南水乡的细腻和浪漫，如果不是好友从上海赶来做伴，这将是一段单调的旅程。临走前一天晚上特意去吃了朋友推荐的鸭血粉丝汤，没有留下遗憾。

然后来到苏州，小桥流水，白墙黑瓦，一个很精致的小城，只是人工雕凿的痕迹太重。苏州人怎样，短短的一天或许不足以公正地评价。但是下了火车就不断碰壁，甚为扫兴，于是第二天一早便踏上下一站的旅途。

非常幸运，到杭州头几天一直阳光明媚。一下车看到马路两边绿绿葱葱的大树，便明白了上海人为什么会把杭州称作他们的后花园。在路边看站牌的时候，有人问我要去哪儿。其实我也不知道，只想随便走走，看看沿路的风景，碰到有意思的地方进去探个究竟。漫无目的的旅行才放松，而且导游书里介绍的景点未必是我的兴趣所在。于是就这样误打误撞地来到太子湾公园，满园的樱花仿佛世外桃源，美不胜收。

从杭州去了乌镇和西塘。两个小镇的旅游业都已经很成熟，巷子里挤满了卖特产和手工艺品的小店，而原汁原味的古镇却随着游客的增多在渐渐消失。在乌镇看了皮影戏，吃到了热腾腾的青团。想起去年这个时候在上海也见到过，但那时觉得把糯米团子做成绿色实在太奇怪，便没有尝试，这次可不能错过了。

知道西塘，是因为几年前那部Mission impossible 3。如今西塘的西街仿佛是北京后海的翻版。一路上吃了很多小吃，一口粽，芡实糕，麦芽糖。。。最惬意的是在春日温暖的午后，停下脚步，在烟雨长廊的河边饭馆儿晒晒太阳，尝尝当地的特色菜。

古人说：“读万卷书，行万里路。”前者对现代人来说可能真的是mission impossible，而后者还是可行的。走过这么多地方，回来抬头一看，日历还停留在3月。回到北京，天气干燥阴冷，不过心里很踏实。

A story of innocence in a world of ignorance

Cubicle rules

For Chinese working in foreign companies, one should understand the following rules, which cannot be found in the employee handbook.

1. Salaries are confidential. We usually print on blank paper in the office, but the other day our environmental-friendly HR lady put some used paper in the printer and I happened to be printing ahead of her. Then I turned the pages and noticed something I shouldn’t have seen. It was part of last year’s headcount list, our salaries included. Well, I’m actually very happy to know that. But be careful, sometimes this might be hurtful.

2. Emails are in English. I was interning at a French company before graduation. Once my colleague asked me to translate an email she wrote to the China club, one of the top four clubs in Beijing. But I asked a stupid question: “we are all Chinese, then why bother to write emails in English?” “You know…” Oh I see. If you don’t want to be disdained, use English. It’s a little bit hypocritical, isn’t it?

3. Handwriting is important. You are what you write. I often connect people’s faces with their handwriting and would wonder to myself how such a good-looking person can write so poorly. By the way, I’m no calligraphist. This is merely my personal opinion, no offense.

Finally, just a reminder: No baozi, boiled eggs or garlic in the office. Imagine the fragrance of perfumes mixed with the odors from the foods in a closed room.

Basically, that’s what I’ve learnt in the cubicle.

Moment in Peking

... But Mulan was a child of Peking. She had grown up there and had drunk in all the richness of life of the city which enveloped its inhabitants like a great mother soft toward all the children’s requests, fulfilling all their whims and desires, or like a huge thousand-year-old tree in which the insects making their home in one branch did not know what the insects in the other branch were doing. She had learned from Peking its tolerance, geniality, and urbanity, as we all in our formative years catch something of the city and country we live in. she had grown up with the yellow-roofed palaces and the purple and greenroofed temples, and the broad boulevards and the long, crooked alleys, the busy thoroughfares and the quiet districts that were almost rural in their effect; the common man’s homes with their inevitable pomegranate trees and jars of goldfish, no less than the rich man’s mansions and gardens; the open-air tea houses where men loll on rattan armchairs under cypress trees, spending twenty cents for a whole afternoon in summer; the enclosed teashops where in winter men eat steaming-hot mutton fried with onion and drink pehkan and where the great rub shoulders with the humble; the wonderful theatres, the beautiful restaurants, the bazaars, the lantern streets and the curio man’s shop credits and poor man’s pleasures, the openair jugglers, magicians, and acrobats of Shihshahai and the cheap operas of Tienchiao; the beauty and variety of the pedlars’ street-cries, the tuning forks of itinerant barbers, the drums of second-hand goods dealers working from house to house, the brass bowls of the sellers of iced dark plum drinks, each and every one clanging in the most perfect rhythm; the pomp of wedding and funeral processions half-a-mile long and official sedan chairs and retinues; the Manchu women contrasting with the Chinese camel caravans from the Mongolian desert and the Lama priests and the Buddhist monks; the public entertainers, sword swallowers and beggars, each pursuing his profession with freedom and an unwritten code of honor sanctioned by century-old custom; the rich humanity of beggars and “beggar kings,” thieves and thieves’ protectors, mandarins and retired scholars, saints and prostitutes, chaste sing-song artists and profligate widows, monks’ kept mistresses and eunuchs’ sons, amateur singers and “opera maniacs”; and the hearty and humorous common people.

Mulan’s imagination had been keenly stimulated by her childhood in this city. She had learned the famous Peking nursery rhymes with their witty commentary on life. She had, as a child, trailed on the ground beautiful rabbit lanterns on wheels and watched with fascination the fireworks, shadow plays, and Punch-and-Judy shows. She had listened to blind minstrel singers telling of ancient heroes and lovers, and “big-drum” storytellers by whom the beauty of the Pekinese language was brought to perfection of sound and rhythm and artistry. From these monologue declamations she had first realized the beauty of language, and from every day conversations she had unconsciously learned that quiet, unperturbed, and soothing style of Pekinese conversation. She learned through the annual festivals the meaning of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, a system of festivals which regulates life like a calendar from the beginning to the end of the year, and enables man to live in close touch with the year’s rhythm and with nature. She had absorbed the imperial glamour of the Forbidden City and ancient institutions of learning, the religious glamour of Buddhist, Taoist, Tibetan, and Mohammedan temples and their rites and ceremonies and the Confucian Temple of Heaven and Altar of Heaven; the social and domestic glamour of rich homes and parties and exchange of presents; and the historic glamour of ancient pagodas, bridges, towers, archways, queens’ tombs, and poets’ residences, where every brick was fraught with legend, history, and mystery...

-- An excerpt from Moment in Peking written by Lin Yutang in 1939

Qingdao, 1931

It was more than a decade ago that I last visited this old house where my grandparents used to live. The blue door plate writes the address from which I once received LETTERS in the 90s; the red wooden spiral stairs lead home on the second floor; inside, the big family squeezed in the bed as the room was too packed for chairs; the black-and-white family photo is still hanging on the wall, but the old generation in it has long gone and the babies grown up.

Today the coal stove in the room has been changed to an air-conditioner; we no longer write letters on paper; the old pictures have been scanned and saved to the computer.

This house built in 1931 by the Japanese listens to the firecrackers blown up every Chinese new year and it has witnessed the changes upon people over the years. It can be nostalgic and also a reminder of how we used to live.

2008 in pictures

Been to some interesting places during the past one year and here they are:

Cambodia, Dec.

Outside the forbidden city, Beijing, Oct.

Houhai, Beijing, Oct.

Duolun Road, Shanghai, Mar.

A journey across time

It happened to be Christmas Day when we arrived at Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It was 9pm, humid after the rain. There was no trace of the festival. The streets were quiet and dimly lit and scattered with stalls selling local foods. The scene suddenly reminded me of my hometown in the 80s.

The journey began the next day. After a six hours’ drive, we were in Siem Reap. The bumpy and dusty road, the strange words, the ocher-red soil and the wilderness of the land made this place like Xinjiang in the tropical world.

Angkor was swarming with tourists and you could hear a polyglot of languages. Near each scenic spot, there were kids selling knick-knacks. Young as they were, their bargaining skills surprised me. “One dollar, yi kuai”, “I don’t have money to go to school…” That was their cue when you turned away.

Needless to say, the temples are formidable. People may marvel at the mystic sculptures and centuries-old trees in the jungle during daytime, they can also have fun in the pub street at night. Clusters of lights from bars and restaurants lightened the sky. It was just as vibrant as any other bar street in the world. But locals were seldom seen, except the tuk-tuk drivers vying for business.

A few miles’ distance separates the ancient and modern world, locals and foreigners. Here, everyone seems happy-go-lucky. There are no high-rises, no glittering shopping malls, no fast food chains, no financial crisis. It’s a temporary haven, or heaven.

Back to the hotel, I saw a commercial of Discovery channel, it says “The world is just awesome.” Yes, it is.