rancuret abroad

It's over

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:36:00 +0000

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the hospital in Shanghai. Shiqi is sleeping. She is recovering from the birth, which took place yesterday evening.
It was a sad and difficult experience. Especially sad was the fact that she had to go through so much pain, knowing that at the end of it, we would not have a small healthy baby in our hands to compensate for it.

When the baby was born, it was dead already. I decided that I wanted to look at the baby, because I was hoping it would help us later in processing and accepting the situation.

I think I will never forget the site of this tiny, helpless, and lifeless creature. The belly of the baby was extremely big, and the fluid inside was clearly visible. It was clear to me that this baby did not have a chance.

The future will tell whether looking at the baby was the right decision or not. At the moment, I feel glad that I did.

Shiqi decided that she did not want to see the baby, and I think that was right.

Right now, Shiqi, even though tired, is doing well. I hope she will recover quickly and we can be back home in Fuzhou together soon. We are looking forward to that very much. And we are sure, we will be fine!

I want to thank you all for the kind and warm words we have received in the past days. It was nice to know that the thoughts of our dear friends and family were with us.

"... I had je graag heel even
1 seconde laten leven
ik kan je nu alleen niet laten gaan
nu je net voor dit leven al
dood bent gegaan ..."

("...I wanted to let you live for a moment, just for 1 second; I cannot let you go, now that you died shortly before this life ...")

These lines, from a song by the Dutch artist Maarten van Roozendaal have been going through my mind often during the past few days. I never thought they would mean so much to me one day.

May you rest in peace, little baby .....

Sad news

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:14:00 +0000

It's a fact of life: there are good times and there are bad times.
Around 4 months ago, we were very happy with the fact that we were expecting a second child at the end of July.
During the first routine ultrasound check, last week, however, we were informed that there is something wrong with the baby. A large amount of water was discovered in the abdominal cavity of the baby, pressing away the inner organs and in this way influencing their development negatively.

At the moment, it is not clear yet what it is exactly, or what the cause can be. Fact is, that it's a serious matter, and the chance is big that we will have to terminate the pregnancy in the coming week.

We will go to Shanghai for the final tests on Tuesday, after which we will have to take the decision.

I can only hope that all will go well next week, and that we can put everything behind us soon.

Dragon boat festival

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:10:00 +0000

This year, the Chinese government decided to cut down on the so called 'golden weeks'. During these golden weeks, practically the whole country is 'off-duty' and enjoys a whole week of free time. In previous years, there were 3 golden weeks: Spring festival (Chinese new year), the week around 1 May, and the week around 1 October (national day). Because most Chinese have very few days of annual leave, these golden weeks are traditionally used by many Chinese to go back to their hometowns. Consequently, an enormous amount of people is on the move, which results often in big congestions in public transportation, especially trains.

Therefore, the Chinese government decided to skip one of the three golden weeks, the May holiday; only 1 May is free. As a compensation, there are 3 extra national holidays, the Tomb sweeping festival (to honor the passed away relatives, on 4 or 5 April), the Dragon boat festival or 'duan wu jie' (5th day of 5th lunar months, this year on 9 June), and the Mid-autumn festival or 'Zhong qiu jie' (15th day of 8th lunar month).

In a previous post I already wrote something about the the Dragon boat festival.
This year, we did have a day off so we could go and watch the races. Actually, we did not plan to go and see it, because of the crowds, the races would undoubtedly draw. So instead, we went out with the Aguinaco's to check out a village in the area around Fuzhou. We never really made it to the village, but we did run into a Dragon boat race , as we were just on the ferry, crossing a river. The race was probably organized by one of two of the small villages in the area where we were. It was lovely to see, without the crowds we would have encountered in Fuzhou for sure.

Olympic flame reaches Fuzhou

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Today, the Olympic flame also passed through Fuzhou. It was a great day for this event: sunny, a blue sky and around 25C with a little breeze.
The event drew big crowds. Already around 5 A.M. 10.000 people had gathered on "Wu-YI square" from which the 28km walk with the flame would start. Anywhere near the route, the traffic was thick.

In total 208 people ran a distance of arond 200m with the flame. The oldest 'runner' was 94 years old!

At the moment, there is a lot of positive excitement about the Olympics here, for a while already.
Today, we saw many people with a small Chinese flag sticker on their cheeks, small flags on their cars or in the garden of their houses.

And even the Carrefour has become extra careful and supportive after the recent protests against the supermarket giant. On a banner over the entry of the Carrefour closest to our house it was written in Chinese "Cheerio, China, another 89 days!".

Besides the Olympic flame, also the Olympic fever has reached Fuzhou.

Censorship

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:27:00 +0000

Recently, the army of censors and propaganda officials of the Chinese government have been extra busy. Normal nuisances were blocked websites (like blogspot and wikipedia) and extremely slow connections (<5 kB/s)to foreign websites. Typically also is the news on TV in which critical reports about the developments in Chinese society are generally lacking. But since the start of the riots in Tibet, the censor and propaganda have become extra explicit and disturbing.

CCTV was very quick in reporting from Tibet about the riots. But soon after the riots started, it was announced that life went back to normal again. Normal Tibetans who were interviewed on the street, all confirmed to be happy that everything was fine again, together with some bad words about the protesters.

During an item about Tibet on CNN, the TV image was suddenly gone; right at the moment the Dalai Lama appeared. A minute or so later, the image was back again with a speech of prime minister Wen Jiabao. Less than 2 minutes later, the image disappeared again when it was reported that some European countries are studying the possibilities for boycotting the Olympics.

Today, it seems that all foreign reporters were sent out of Tibet. The only news that comes out of the region, comes from official, government controlled channels. It is clear that the Chinese government is very concerned about the stability of the nation, especially so shortly before the start of the Olympics, a milestone in the road to a modern China. And it seems to believe that strict information control is an essential ingredient of their recipe to maintain stability.

Usually, there are ways around the censor; the routes to information on the net are plenty. But for sure it's getting harder. And sadly, I don't have the time to look for new and creative ways. So, I guess like many others, I digest, what's provided to me by easy-to-access media and these are controlled by the state for sure. It seems to me that the many hours of overtime of the army of censors has not been without result. Alas!

Spring Festival Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:36:00 +0000

For those of you who are interested: a selection of pictures that we took during the Spring Festival holiday can be found here on Flickr.

National forest park Qi Shan

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:45:00 +0000

During the spring festival holiday, we drove to the Qi Shan (Qi mountain). Qi Shan National Forest Park is located to the southwest of Fuzhou city. It's an easy half hour drive from the city to the foot of the mountain. Once there, however, a 22 km extremely curvy and pretty steep and narrow road leads onto the mountain, to the park entrance. That 22 km road takes around 45 minutes, provided their are not many slow cars in front of you (sometimes they drive so slowly that walking up would have been faster for the passengers).

The tiring ride is rewarding, though. Qi Shan is a beautiful mountainous forest area with a few well marked wandering trails. You will be welcomed by many guides offering their service for around RMB 50 per two hours. It's not really necessary to use a guide, but if you want to concentrate on the beauty and not on the route, it's a good option. The park entrance is RMB20 per person. We took the three hour round trail, which leads past a couple of pretty spectacular water falls. You can even climb up to the highest one, with an extremely steep stairway (one way only: up).

We were lucky that the weather was beautiful (although cold) so we could enjoy a few very nice panoramas of the mountainous scenery.

After the long walk, we drove down the mountain again and had lunch in a famous "farmer food" restaurant at the foot of the mountain. This was an interesting place for itself. Many Fuzhounese come here in the weekend to eat, drink, sing karaoke, and play ma jiang. The food wasn't great, but the scenery and an empty stomach made up for that.

Conclusion: Qi Shan is good news for those of you who are afraid there isn't much to see or do around Fuzhou. Very nice!

Happy New Year ... again

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:05:00 +0000

The year of the rat -my year- has started. A quick reference to some online information about rat years shows that a rat year is a year for hard work, and renewal. But also of opportunity. A good year to start something new, like getting married (I am not aware of a year during which it was recommended not to get married, by the way) or starting a new venture. The latter appealed to me of course, because with the construction activities for our new factory well on the way, it seems to be the right year to build up our company. And with that, I expect a lot of hard work is waiting indeed!

But now we are enjoying the Spring Festival holiday. Two weeks during which most of the country is not working. Even most shops are closed, which is a rare occasion in China. Sadly, it's not the weather to do a lot outside. As you probably have heard or seen on the news, it's cold out here!!

So we are spending most of our time inside. A good opportunity to clean up and reorganize. Besides that, we do what most Chinese are doing: eating, watching TV, and watching fireworks. There is no way around that. And if the weather stays liks this, there should be some time left to write a bit more about what's going on in China, or more specifically in Fuzhou, during the Spring Festival 2008.

Weather year

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:05:00 +0000

The problem of posting with such a small frequency is that it's difficult to take a decision what to write about. It's not that nothing is happening here, but rather the opposite: no time to write.

But when you don't know what to talk about, there is always the weather as a last resort.
So, here we go!
Perhaps it helps to get some inspiration on the way for the next posts.

In fact, it's not even such an uninteresting subject. We've been here a little over one year now, so we've experienced all seasons. Time to look back on the past year, weatherwise.

Oct'06 I just arrived in Fuzhou and what a wonderful weather it was! Sunny and comfortable warm
Nov'06 Still very comfortable, but as I was mostly looking forward to the arrival of Mylene and Shiqi, I don't remember very well
Dec'06 The temperature went down quickly, but still some T-shirt days. I remember very well sitting outside in a short armed t-shirt with Xmas.
Jan'07 Rainy, colder and colder.
Feb'07 Unpleasantly 'water cold' Couldn't get my feet anymore in the office. Chinese new year in Fuzhou was cold and rainy, with the first couple of days with comfortable weather, though.
Mar'07 The cold weather disappeared, and the temperature is gradually climbing.
Apr'07 Quite a couple of warm days already. But a jacket every now and then, especially for Mylene is still at hand.
May'07 Warm
Jun'07 Even warmer
Jul'07 Hot
Aug'07 Hot!!
Sep'07 Still hot, although getting more comfortable by the end of the month!! Haven't been outside for most of the summer. With temeratures above 40C and a high humidity, it was just not pleasant. Yet, it wasn't as humid as I was afraid it would be.
Oct'07 Yes! Definately the best month of the year. Sunny and comfortable. Anyone wants to come to Fuzhou? Book October!!
Nov'07 Still great.
Dec'07 Almost unbelievable, still comfortable with only a few bad chilly days. Little rain. The year is over. Even though a couple of typhoons were announced, we haven't experienced one yet. What will 2008 bring?
Jan'08 Some really cold days. Finally found the solution against cold feet: long underpants!! But still some days above 20C. Still little rain.

Looking back on 2007, I noticed there was too much I didn't write about and too many pictures I didn't take. But I guess that will always be like that.

I did get some inspiration for the following posts, though :-)

Happy New Year!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:32:00 +0000

First of all, a happy new year to all of you!!
May 2008 bring all that you desire, and may your new year's resolutions be carried out this time!

We celebrated Xmas and new year in quite a different way and in quite different weather than usual. During Xmas we were in Singapore, where the temperature was such that we could walk around in bathing suits all the time. We were guests at Paul and Judith's place. Also Eelco had come to Singapore. It was great to see them all again. Thijmen, the son of Paul and Judith had changed so much! And it was even the first time for us to see their daughter Milou, who is 6 months old now. With new year, we were on the island Koh Samui in Thailand with the whole group. Leon, Waihan and Joost, friends of Paul and Judith who also live in Singapore, were also there.

If you are interested to see some pictures, please go to Flickr, on the usual place for some snap shots with beaches and palm trees.

It was a great holiday!! But with 3 small children to take care of, it was quite hectic as well. Luckily, I can go back to work again tomorrow ;-)

Fuzhou art scene

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:34:00 +0000

The other day we were invited to come to "Rose Garden", previously a restaurant and now the gathering place for the Fuzhou art scene. It is housed in a beautiful European style villa which seems to date back to the nineteen twenties and thirties, the last period during which China attracted many foreigners. In fact, the whole neighborhood around the Rose Garden is filled with villas in the similar style. For a Chinese city, the houses are standing quie far apart, the streets are very narrow, and with the many trees and bushes growing the gardens, the area is an oasis of tranquility in this noisy city.

We were invited to listen to a German artist, who organized a chamber "concert" in one of be big reception rooms of Rose Garden. Well, it wasn't really a concert. The man had selected a number of his favorite songs which he sang for a small audience. As anywhere in Fuzhou, most of the people present were Chinese except for our group.
The guests were mostly artists from Fuzhou who had met each other in Rose Garden. This is what we were told, because from their appearance the artists could just as well have been civil servants or business men. Not a trace of extravagance in their outfits.

The atmosphere was very nice, cosy and relaxed. After the songs were sung, we hung around for a while for some Chinese wine and a chat with some of the artists. It is amazing what is happening in the art scene in China at the moment. The prices of the art pieces are sky rocketing. Almost anyone with only a slight interest in art, seems to be investing in this newly discovered industry. Paintings of the most renowned contemporary Chinese artists are being auctioned for millions of dollars per piece already. Even the works of several of the guys we met are being sold for 5 digit numbers easily.

These days, gold digger mentality is reigning in China, regardless of where you look. Even art is an industry, and big big business!

Chinese brands

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:24:00 +0000

Even though the English on billboards, traffic signs and other public publishing media are improving rapidly, it is still possible to find some very interesting translations of Chinese words and sentences into English (a hobby of many expats in China by the way).

Also, one visit to a department store will get you in touch with a great number of brand names that you previously had never heard of before with wonderful names.
One of the nicest I have seen so far is the "G-Point" (see picture). It is a chain, I believe. I can already imagine the following conversation:

"Do you know where the G-point is?"
"There are many! Which we one do you like the most?"
"I like them all, but my boyfriend cannot find any"

The name could have been one step nicer, "G-spot", but you cannot have it all ;-)
Another example I saw the other day was a badminton racket. "Entire people practise athletics 5501" was the model.

Who invents those names? Does the process of deciding on those names involve many people and endless discussions, like in Europe? If I find more interesting examples, I will share them with you.

Fuzhou street life

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:10:00 +0000

One of the most irritating, dangerous, annoying, but also interesting things about Fuzhou is the traffic situation. I wrote about it already more than once. I also don't want to keep reporting about it, but there are simply so many unbelievable traffic situations here that we experience on a daily basis, I decided to make some pictures of it every now and then. You can find them in the set "Fuzhou street life" in Flickr.

Here an example of a situation I saw the other day. This one was pretty serious; we see accidents almost every day here, but is not often that we see vehicles that landed on the roof after an accident.

Flickr Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:58:00 +0000

After receiving several complaints that we are not sending enough pictures, I decided to upgrade my Flickr account. At least for the coming year, I will be able to create an unlimited amount of photo sets. Together with the fact that uploading pictures to Flickr is much easier now with our new iMac, you can be expecting to see more photos here. I hope you will like them.

Moon festival

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:53:00 +0000

Last week, on 25 September, was Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important Chinese festivals. On this day, the 15th day of the 8th month (according to the lunar calendar), the full moon is at its brightest. And as the Chinese are very much fond of the moon, they celebrate this day with a special festival. The origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival seems, as many other Chinese festivals, not completely clear. Quite plausible to me is the explanation that the Chinese originally celebrated the harvest on that day. And what better day to celebrate it than during a full moon night?

Of course, on the evening of the Moon Festival, a special dish is eaten. This one is a particularly interesting one for me, because as far as I have been able to investigate, almost no Chinese likes the Moon Festival speciality: the moon cake. The funny thing is that before the festival, beautiful gift packages of moon cakes are spread by almost everyone, where in fact nobody actually eats them. And they are not cheap! I got a few boxes that probably costed at least 200 RMB per box (20 Euro). The Sheraton in Beijing had a big problem this year, as it was found after an official inspection that the moon cakes they had been selling, did not meet the required quality regulations, as defined by China's food authorities. I don't want to know what happened to the person responisble for the moon cake project this year in the Sheraton.

Another tradition is that on many places, quizzes are organised. Many question cards are hung on a line for everyone to see. On these cards, questions are written down. The one who comes up with and presents the right answer the quickest to a jury, wins a small prize. The questions often require quite a bit of knowledge about Chinese culture and language. They reminded me a lot of the questions you have in Trivial Persuit. Also in our cantina, a quizz was organised. Sadly though, I was not qualified enough to even try to answer one of the questions. Better luck next year???

Looking for antiques

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:23:00 +0000

We are looking for some Chinese antiques, especially furniture. The problem is that Fuzhou is not a very good place to buy old Chinese furniture. The recommended spot was the flower and bird market, where we want a couple of weeks ago. It was a very interesting place, and we will definitely go again. But there wasn't that much decently looking old furniture to be found. The choice of antique porcelain was significantly larger. Luckily, that interested me a lot as well.
The shop that offered the most promising furniture collection, told us that they had another shop, somewhere else in Fuzhou. So, after strolling around for a while, getting an idea of the merchandise to be found here, and checking out some of the prices (not at all cheap!!!), we left again with the plan to visit that other shop in the near future as well.

Last week, we went out to find the shop. We found the address and were surprised to see a very big building, that carried the name 'Oriental antique mart' above the main entrance. That looked promising.
Indeed, the place housed many oriental antique shops, selling porcellain, paintings, stamps, etc. Funny enough, there were many shops selling fishing gear. But we only found one shop selling some furniture, which was a bit of a disappointment. On the third floor of the building we suddenly saw a very interesting place with the name 'Oriental collection club'. The doors were closed, but after peeking through the windows, a friendly lady opened the doores for us and we entered. The place didn't look like a shop, but the lady told us that they were actually selling antiques. So, we looked around a bit. After a while, a man followed us and asked what it was that we were looking for. As they mainly had porcellain items, I said that I was very interested in them, and asked for some prices. After having heard the prices, we realised we had ended up in a rather special shop. There were items from almost all dynasties, with prices ranging from Euro 100,- to Euro 90.000,-.
We got into a conversation with the man, who turned out to be the owner, not only from the shop, but also from the entire 'Oriental antique mart'. He told us that many of the items were bought in Europe, as the prices there were low in comparision to China (who would have thought that). He showed us some jade pieces that had values of several hundreds of thousands of Euros!
We were stunned!! Not only because of the prices, but mainly because of the place where we were looking at those priceless pieces of art: a rather simple exhibition room with standard vitrines and hardly any visible security system.

We were invited for a cup of tea and chatted a bit more with the owner. He had set up an organisation that is active in spreading Chinese culture by means of many international cooperation projects. And the place we were having tea, amongst those fine works of art, was the office and reception hall of his company. You can find some more info on the website.
Unimaginable in Europe, but in this region of China, these places still exist.

We didn't buy any furniture that afternoon, and for the porcellain we had seen, our budget wasn't even remotely sufficient. But the trip was worthwhile anyway.
Quite an unexpected and remarkable discovery!

The weather

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:43:00 +0000

I thought it would be a nice idea to provide you with a bit of -live- information: the weather in Fuzhou.
So from now on, you can see whether we walk around in shorts or jackets, any time of the day. I picked up the code from Weatherbug. What you see on top is the current weather situation. Underneath that, the forecast for the whole day and for tomorrow. You can click on several spots in the window for more detailed information.

There is still one problem, though. Currently, it shows the weather in Xiamen, even though Fuzhou was specified. I hope to solve that soon. Xiamen is not so far away from here, though, so the weather situation is approximately the same.

The Starbucks index

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:22:00 +0000

After a meeting in Shanghai today, we had a couple of hours to spare, before the plane took us back to Fuzhou. We ended up in a bar to meet up with Jon, an acquaintance of my colleague, and a couple of his co-workers. We had an interesting discussion about the differences between cities in China. Jon was wondering how we could stand living in a city like Fuzhou. He knew the city from many years ago and was not very impressed by it, to say the least. After explaining the fast development Fuzhou has gone through during the past few years, the question was "...but does Fuzhou already have a Starbucks?". And with that, he made an interesting point.

Fuzhou does not have a Starbucks yes, indeed. There is an "SPC Coffee" and we have the "King Buck", but no real Starbucks. Supposedly, Starbucks or some of its franchisers have checked the situation in Fuzhou but found the city not ripe for the famous coffee chain yet.

In Europe I wouldn’t directly link the presence of Starbucks in a city to the level of development, but in China there really seems to be a correlation; the Starbucks index.

Cooling down

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:10:00 +0000

It's still hot here! Last weekend we had 40C and a sun that is standing so high that even Lucky Luke would have trouble finding his own shadow.

The only time you can have a walk outside is very early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The rest of the time is spent inside, anywhere with airco. Summer is really not a season to look forward to in Fuzhou.

So what do the locals do to cool down? A short inquiry amongst colleagues taught me that most of them also spend there free time within the four walls of their homes.

There are some people who seek the waters to cool down, just like in Europe. Even though Fuzhou is close to the sea, and there is even a sandy beach, for most people it's too far out of town. Luckily, the city government has made some beaches in town, on the river banks, so people don't have to go far to enjoy some beach life. The fact that the the river water in China is not to be trusted in my eyes (not even considering the large amount of litter in the water, see picture) doesn't seem to bother many people, as they go for a swim in Fuzhou's Ming Jiang river.

Sun bathin, however, is not done yet. Because for most Chinese, the most beautiful skin is still a white skin.

Dragon boat festival - Duan We Jie

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:32:00 +0000

On the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, last Tuesday, the dragon boat festival is celebrated in China. Even though a national festival, most people have to work on that day. Sadly, so did I. So I was not in the opportunity to watch the races that were held on the Ming Jiang river in Fuzhou.

Supposedly, the origin of the dragon boat festival goes back to times when the protection against diseases was still poor. During the summmer, diseases are spread easily, and to drive away evil spirits and pestilence, dragon boat races were held. Currently, the dragon boat races are not the only main characteristic of the festival.
During the dragon boat festival, the famous Chinese poet from ancient times, Qu Yuan, is honoured. Qu Yuan drowned himself while in exile from a corrupt court. At that time, Qu Yuan was a very much beloved poet, and to protect his body from being eaten by fish, the people threw so called 'Zong zi' in the water for the fish to eat, on the location where Qu Yuan drowned himself. Zong zi are small, pyramid shaped, pieces of filled sticky rice, wrapped in bamboo leaves.

At the moment, there are discussions going on to make the dragon boat festival a holiday, in an attempt to reduce the travelling chaos during the 3 three existing national holidays.
That would be good. Perhaps I can go there next year to experience it myself.

Lotus flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:31:00 +0000

One of China's national flowers, the Lotus, is flowering at the moment. This is the first season I actually see it for real. Before, I only knew it from Buddha sculptures, oriental paintings, and the menu card (the latter one being the root of the Lotus). After seeing it, I can understand the enthousiasm; it is indeed a very beautiful flower.

Sightseeing: Xichan temple

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:10:00 +0000

A while ago we visited the Xichan temple in Fuzhou. Just like after visiting the Yonquan temple on mount Gu Shan I was deeply impressed. And perhaps even more so. I didn't expect to find another very beautiful temple complex in Fuzhou, because this is a city that is not exactly recommended by travel guides as a must see in China.

The temple structures occupy a very large area, and as the temple is surrounded by walls, it is shielded off from the noise of traffic. Beautifully renovated and partly rebuilt, the buildings and the temple park are well worth visiting.

I wanted to find some information about the temple, but sadly though there is very little to be found on Enlish websites; a result of the fact that Fuzhou has so far been mostly neglected by international tourism. This is a shame, because getting to know the city and its surroundings without being able to read Chinese is therefore so much more difficult.

What I could find is that the temple was originally built in 867 AD in the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). Together with the Yongquan temple on mount Gu Shan and four other temples in Fuzhou, it belongs to a group of important national temples. One of the landmarks is a 15 storey pagoda, a new concrete construction from which you have an excellent panorama over the city. Also interesting are the Lyche trees on the temple grounds, that were planted in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and that are still bearing fruit.

It was an enjoyable visit; a must see for all of who are planning to visit us here in Fuzhou.

The wedding banquet

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 27 May 2007 15:00:00 +0000

UPDATE:
Gina, the bride, sent me some pictures of our little performance. To give an idea of what we looked like, here's the picture. Try to figure out, which of the three is me ... please don't go for the middle one.

Yesterday night, we attended our first Chinese wedding here in Fuzhou. A co-worker of mine got married, to, believe it or not, a co-worker of Shiqi. It was a nice and interesting evening. Even though, the wedding of Chinese couples nowadays contain many elements you also find on weddings in Europe, there are still some differences to be found.

The guests were all invited at 18:00 in the big hall of the Fuzhou Shangrila hotel. The bride and groom welcomed the guests in front of the big hall. There were already many people when we arrived. In total, the couple had invited more than 500 guests.
After having taken a picture with the newly weds, we were invited by one of the bride's maids to go to the 'registration' table, where we had to sign behind our pre-printed names in a book that contained the names of all invited guests. Also at the table, the money was collected. It's very practical: on Chinese weddings, you don't need to go out and find a gift. It is expected that each guests brings money (at least 300 RMB per person). A nice envelope or a card to put the money in is not necessary. The money is collected as if you are paying the bill in a restaurant.
After the money was paid, we received a small envelope each. 'For luck' said a person behind the table. After checking, we found 30 RMB in each envelope.

After that, we could go into the hall. It was gigantic, which was also necessary to fit in those 500 guests. There were approximately 50 round tables (10 people usually sit around one table) and each table was numbered. The highest number did not represent the amount of tables, though. Because for the Chinese, the number 4 is bad number, table numbers containing a 4 were omitted.

It took a while before all the guests had arrived and the bride and groom entered the hall. Around 19:00 the lights went down, a spot light was directed to the main door, and the bride and her father entered. The father handed his daughter over to the groom, and the couple walked to the big stage in the front. This was the official starting point of the party.

After that, the program items quickly followed each other. First, there was a short slide show of the couple, including some cute childhood pictures. Then, the fathers and the best men held speeches, each not taking more than 2 minutes. Then, the groom said something nice to his wife, and the rings were exchanged. When the rings were on, the couple cut the cake, lit some candles forming a heart, and poured in the champagne. After this series of events, the first dishes were brought in by the waiters and waitresses. This was the moment, the newly weds left the hall to change clothes. It is usual that at least two sets of clothes are worn by the couple during the wedding. The first set is often white: a white dress for the bride and a white suit for the groom. The bride then usually changes into a traditional Chinese 'qipao' and the groom changes into a western style suit.

René and I also went out to change into our popstar outfit, because we had to perform. Together with a Chinese co-worker, we sang the song 'You are my superstar' (in Chinese) for the newly weds. This was the only performance that night. Hopefully our act was not too strange for the Chinese.
Immediately thereafter the dinner really started. After René and I came back from changing back to our normal clothes, the bride and groom together with their parents, witnesses and wedding personnel went round to drink with each table. This is something that at some weddings can easily be the end of the party for the couple, if many of the guests insist on 'bottoms up' with the bride and groom. Just imagine having to do that with over 50 tables! Luckily for them, the guests were very considered and mild this time; the couple survived the round easily.

Right after the first tables were served with water melon, the usual final dish of a Chinese banquet, the guests started leaving. Within fifteen minutes after that, the hall was empty. That was around 21:30. Banquets generally end rather abruptly in China.

It was a nice and interesting evening, and very typical for a Chinese wedding banquet: short and intensive.

Construction work

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 27 May 2007 13:48:00 +0000

I wrote about construction work before. But when I saw what they are doing with the hotel in our neighbourhood, I felt I had to add a picture here. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding: this hotel is not old, and it is not going to be torn down completely. They merely carry out a small renovation. I am seriously curious what the end result will be.

Riding the bicycle

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 20 May 2007 15:30:00 +0000

In a time where riding a bicycle is almost becoming rare, I bought one. A real Chinese bicylce: black, old fashioned, and very very heavy. It's a "Forever" or "YongJiu" in Chinese.
Together with a colleague, I ordered a set of bicycles in Shanghai and shipped them to Fuzhou. The reason we ordered them in Shanghai, was that the size we needed was not available here.

Because the bicycles came as CKD kits, I had to assemble the bike myself, something I hadn't done anymore since I was a student. Nonetheless, all went well. However, during the assembling, I noticed that the quality of the bicycle was not that great; I destroyed the threading of one pedal. Since I could not get the part here in Fuzhou, I had to ask my father in law to get it for me in Shanghai.
After it arrived earlier this week, I could finally finish my bicycle today! And to make a test ride on it, I rode around in the neigbourhood for a while.

I also took my camera to make some pictures on the way. And then I noticed that some left-overs from the past are still present in China. A westerner ... with a big camera around his neck ... riding a bicycle ... and making pictures of what are definitely not tourist sites, was obviously suspicious.
On the 30 minutes ride, I was stopped three times by 'officials' who wanted to know what I was doing.
On such occasions, it's better to pretend not to understand any Chinese. In that way, the conversation remains short. And since the 'officials' did not find a proper way to deal with me, I could continue my ride.
'No problem, sir,' they told me.