The God of Wealth 放鞭炮！

The fifth day of Chinese New Year is the arrival of the God of Wealth. Many families will do a small ritual this fifth morning of the lunar calender for the God of Wealth. After the small ritual, fireworks will be set-off to invite the God of Wealth into the home.

Almost every business here in China has a similar ritual. I have heard that the ritual has someone dressed up as the God of Wealth enter the company. He is welcomed in and given a red envelope filled with wealth. Hopefully, he will bring wealth and prosperity all year long. Last year, I had a morning conference call and was unable to see our company's ritual. This year I will be sure to see and let you all know what happens during this ritual.

Just so you all know, the red envelope is known as a Hong Bao (红包). It has a monetary gift inside and the amount should never contain a four in it. the word for four and death have the same tone. The envelope is red to ward off evil spirits.

Many fireworks were set off last night after midnight and during the day today. Everyone is welcoming in the God of Wealth!

Suzhou Times Square at Night

I was still in search of the Largest LED screen in the world located at Times Square. The last trip it had eluded me. I was still determined to find it. I would make a night trip to Times Square to see if it would be visible.

So I decided to take the family out to dinner to a new restaurant in Suzhou, Burger King! This restaurant is located in Time Square and it is the only Burger King in Suzhou. It would also be the first time I eat at Burger King in China. The last time I can remember eating Burger King was in 2007 in Seoul, Korea. I can still savor the Whopper. It was probably the closest I had come to the real thing. Today, I ordered the BBQ Burger. I really didn't like the sauce. I think it was not the hickory BBQ sauce I like, it was a very different sauce. It did not taste like it does in the US. I should have stuck with the Whopper. Oh well, better luck next time.

Times Square at night has many lights and also many decorations for the new year. Below are some pictures of Times Square at night.

Well, I was running out of luck looking for the biggest LED screen in the world, but I now know where it is located at.

In this picture, you can see a long canopy over some of the stores. I have been told this rainbow colored canopy is the largest LED Screen in the world. Each side of the canopy is rainbow colored while the middle section is the LED Screen. It was not turned on tonight. I will have to continue my search to view the screen in action. When will it be turned on?

A Ride to Nowhere

Wednesday Aik Peng and I decided we would go riding. We had a small breakfast at McDonald's and decided we would try riding to Kunshan. Armed with a google printed map we were off on our adventure. We had chose some streets to head in the general direction. Since we were on mountain bikes, we decided to go off-road and see if we could find some shortcut. this idea was short lived due to the fact that the we hit the lake and there was no way to cross it by bike.

Some of the local fishermen actually live right on the lake. They're home can move to different parts of the lake if necessary. We also noticed that all the restaurants on the lake were also boats. These restaurants can also move to different areas depending on the demand of the lake food.

Our shortcut took us very close to the train tracks and we were able to see many trains passing. I was very surprised at how quiet these trains are as they pass. Nothing like what I think about when I think about trains.

After returning to the main road and getting back on track, not on the train tracks. We made our way to G312. This road is a country road and there are motorbikes, cars, and bicycles making their way between the cities. There were not to many electric bikes. Electric bikes can only travel 50 km on one charge. We made our way to the YangChengHu resort area. There were alot of brand new high end homes in this area. The homes were very beautiful and cost about 5500 RMB($803 US)/ Square Meter.

We made it to the restaurant area and we were ready for lunch. Because it is Chinese New Year, there were no restaurants open. We saw just some dried meat hanging outside of some of the restaurants. This sight is not typically something we would see in the US.

We did find a little local store and had a few snacks before making our way around the lake. We tried to take another off-road shortcut that also led right to the lake. The country side was very nice and pleasant.
We saw quite a few farms growing different vegetables. All in all, the ride was long but peaceful. It would be an 80 km ride around the lake. It was nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air and wander around the countryside. We also were able to discuss the usual male topics of business, politics, finance, sports, among other things. I really like riding, I get to see parts of China that most people who visit will never see. Below is the map of our ride courtesy of Aik Peng. The black dot represents home.

过年好！恭喜发财！

Today is the first day of the Year of the Ox. To celebrate and bring in the New Year, last night we ate homemade dumplings made by my wife and then we went out and set off fireworks.

The dumplings have a special significance in Chinese tradition. The dumplings boiled in water signify a long lost good wish for the family. Also, some families will hide a coin in the dumpling and the family member that ends up eating this dumpling (hopefully not the coin), will have good luck throughout the whole year.

The fireworks also have special significance in the Chinese tradition. It is said that the exploding news from the firecrackers will scare and drive away evil spirits and stop them from coming into the New Year. As I write this entry, new spirits are still being driven away! When we think of fireworks in the US, we do not get very big fireworks. Those are reserved for the city. Here in China, you can purchase very big fireworks to enjoy the festive event. We purchased many small fireworks for this event and even these are much bigger than the fireworks allowed in the US.

Fireworks will be heard for the next fifteen days of the spring festival ending with the lantern festival. Maybe I will buy some larger fireworks for future days. The fireworks display around town was very beautiful with many lights and the sound of fireworks all around.

Basically from what I could tell, the main rule was to be at least 50m from the houses. This rule was not observed all the time. As you can see above some nice fireworks were done between the buildings. I think the rule calls for more common sense. Some people have it and other don't.

Happy New Year to all and may the Year of the Ox bring your family health, prosperity, and happiness! 新年快乐！

赤壁下 Red Cliff 2

Yesterday we went to the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center to see the second part of John Woo's Red Cliff. Since I regularly buy Chinese movies I had seen the first one on DVD at home. We had no idea it was the first part of a series until the end of the movie. We have waited with anticipation to see the second part. Last week, my son took the first movie to school where his Chinese class had a chance to enjoy the the first movie.

The movie is based on a historical battle around 200AD during the Han Dynasty. The prime minister at the time used the emperor as a puppet to create a war and try to wipe out the kingdoms of the South. His intentions were to make himself emperor of a unified China. It is a real battle of wits and wisdom as Southern warlords battle in a war where they are completely outnumbered. This war is one of the most popular historical wars in Chinese history.

The movie is subtitled in English and the translation is pretty good. This movie is a must see. It has alot of action, a very good story line, and cultural value. Below is information about the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center.

If anyone knows any other new released Chinese movies with English subtitles at the theatre, please let me know.

Suzhou Times Square

Yesterday we decided to go to Times Square. This time was the second time we would be visiting Time Square. The first time was before the grand opening and many stores were not ready for shoppers. This time things have changed. There were quite a few of stores open for shopping and also a few more getting ready for opening.

I would call Times Square a high end shopping area in Suzhou. It has many name brands. You can find anything from electrical appliances and gadgets to clothes. It is very modern and has alot of the foreign eating places. I do not recall seeing any local food or local restaurants yet. There was a Papa John's Restaurant, Pizza Hut, KFC, different coffee houses, and a Burger King. I think this is the first Burger King in Suzhou.

As far as shopping, you can get all the high end name brands that we all know and a few high end European name brands the we don't all know.

From the two pictures, it seems like the area was completely empty. It was a cold 0C, 32F outside so many people were inside using the gateways between the different shopping building. Inside the shopping center was a different story. Outside, you could see the special decorations for Chinese New Year, which by the way begins on Monday.

The first picture shows various oxen frolicking around a sign that reads Happy New Year. The second picture shows a pair of yellow fish and a pair of red fish. The word fish (yu, 鱼) has the same sound as riches or abundance. Therefore fish signify never being without.

I was looking for the worlds largest LED screen. It is suppose to be in this plaza, however I could not find this TV screen. What I did find was a women playing a harp. I found this interesting.

I would have to say the most enjoyable place for my son was called Family Kingdom. This place has many video games and other games like a typical Chuck E. Cheese Pizza place. This place does have a restaurant, but I can not remember what food it served. Also, it has mechanical rides for some of the smaller children.

As far as location. It is right across the street from the Shilla Hotel and Modern Plaza. When I find the largest LED Screen, I will be sure to let everyone know.

The Fly Swatter

Well, this is a very clever item which is used here in China to kill any type of flying bug. It is an electric fly swatter. It uses two AA batteries. When you press the yellow button, a white light comes on and the electric field is created to completely shock, burn, melt the bugs away. Flying insects will surely not enter your home when they see this in your hand. Especially since with their eyes, they would see 18 electric fly swatters.

I have wondered why this item has not been sold in the US or other areas. Maybe it is sold around the world, but China is the first place I have seen it. Well as you can see in the picture, there is a tiny white label where the racket starts. This label has some important warning information. This label is the only warning label on the swatter and it is in English, not Chinese.

Well, each member of my family has accidentally touched the wire side and you do get electrocuted. Just for the post on this blog, I tried it and it is quite a "shock"!! So if you happen to get one, please do not leave it around children and don't touch the wire side.

Great Wall Half Marathon or Yangzhou Half Marathon

Well, a group of guys who ran the Great Wall Half Marathon are planning on making a trip back to run the wall again. They have invited me to run with them. I few years ago when I would come to China on business, I thought about running this half marathon. It really interested me to think about running on the wall. This year the marathon will be run on May 16th.

There is another spring half marathon that is run closer to home. It is the Yangzhou Half Marathon. This half marathon will be held on April 26. It is located about an hour away from Nanjing.

The Great Wall half would be something special to run. Not everyone gets to run the wall. The only downside to this event is that it is suited mainly for foreign runners. I consider the price to be quite high and definitely out of budget. As an expat living in China, it would cost me 6155 RMB ($898 US) to make the trip to Beijing by train, stay in a four star hotel for three nights, do the recon trip and then do the run. For this price, I am sure I will not be running with many locals. I would hate to see the price people pay for this trip just to come to China to run the wall. It is truly sold and costs like a once in a lifetime event.

The Yangzhou half is an annual event. It starts and finishes inside a stadium, with a tour of Yangzhou. This race will definitely have many locals running along side many professionals. I calculate the budget to be below 1500 RMB ($219 US) to make the trip by train or bus, stay one night in a four star hotel, and then do the run. I could consider this a once in a lifetime event. Maybe with the present economic crisis, I won't be here to run it next year.

Well, I am considering running Yangzhou. I would be able to run with the locals. In these economic times it is the frugal and correct event to choose and it could quite possibly be a once in a lifetime event.

What would you do?

Back Street Bar

Friday night I had the opportunity to explore a different bar in Suzhou. This bar is called Back Street Bar. I really don't recall where it is in Suzhou, because I wasn't paying attention to the route as we were going to the bar. The bar had a nice warm feeling to it. On the wall were pictures of different alternative artist like U2 and Pink Floyd. It brought back some old college memories of the music I use to listen to. It would have been nice to see some REM and Rush pictures hanging on the walls. It really is a nice cozy place. Very simple and warm. There was a live band playing some good Chinese rock music. In the US this place would be called a hole in the wall.

To my surprise upstairs was much bigger than the downstairs. It was just as cozy with a few sofas, nice seating, and a bar with bar stools. We had the bar special to drink, five Budweiser's for 100 RMB ($14.60 US).

When we arrived we ordered some street food. There were three choices so we got a little bit of lamb, pork, and beef. We would enter the bar and the outside vendor would bring the food to our table. This service was pretty cool, because we could eat and drink at the same time. All three meats were deliciously spicy. We had a total 100 sticks and between three of us we devoured all the food brought to our table.

After eating, we played the same dice game played during our New Year Celebration. A new rule was added to the game which made it a bit more difficult. You could only look under your cup one time. You had to remember all possible combinations you could have made to be able to keep up with all the changing numbers.

It was a nice place to sit and drink, enjoy the music, eat some local street bar b cue, and play some dice games. Also, I thought it was pretty cool that I was the only westerner in the bar.

Second New Year Ride

Well, Saturday was a bit warmer than Friday and I really did not know how my legs would feel with two days of consecutive riding, especially after 131 km. Today would be a mountain bike ride with a considerable amount of climbing. We would climb Chizi Shan （七子山）. This mountain is a pretty difficult climb with many switchbacks and some steep areas.

The temperature would be 2 C to 7 C. I would still wear a base layer, long sleeve jersey, a light windproof jacket, glove liners, gloves, and shoe covers. I chose this lighter jacket because it can go sleeveless as the body heats up during climbing.

Today I had invited Bill to join us. It would be his first mountain bike ride in Suzhou. We would meet at the Trek shop in SIP and then ride out to the mountain. In total there would be 10 riders. It would supposedly be a short ride with no lunch. As allows, it would be a 16 km ride out to the mountain and then we would start riding up the slopes.

My legs actually felt good and it was a joy to be climbing. It had been a while since my last ride at Chizi Shan. All the climbing made me feel on top of the world. No worries, just pure effort, joy, and satisfaction.

Bill climbs up the mountain followed by a local who decided to wear summer gear. The ride would be a 18 km ride with many ups and downs. There would be extremely difficult slopes which would have us walking our bikes up.

Above Zhang attempts to climb one of the steepest parts of the mountain. Out of the 10 riders that day, he was the strongest rider. Today was his third consecutive day of riding. He rode two days on the road and this day up the mountain.

We stopped for a brief rest and took a group picture. In total, there were three foreigners including Freddy, the strongest in the group.

One of the most beautiful things about being up in the mountain, is the view of the city. Each slope gives one a different view of the city. Below is a view of the houses in the valley from one of the slopes. It was a day enjoying the beautiful scenery.

We would do a down hill section to descend the mountain. We would be riding through a Chinese cemetery. I could not ride the whole section, but I felt pretty good because I had managed to ride most of the downhill. Home is really pancake flat, so this type of riding I am still learning. I think I am getting better each time I try.

First New Year Ride

The first ride of the year would be a long road bike ride. I would ride from my house to the Trek Bicycle Shop in SIP. There we would meet a group of guys and ride out to Tai Hu Lake. This ride would be 131 km with five complete hours of riding. There would be eight road riders.

We would ride all the way out the island on Tai Hu crossing the three bridges and then doing a short loop around part of the island. It would be very nice scenery and a very pleasant ride. We would average about 26 km/h with spurts up to 40 km/h.

We would eat lunch on the island before our return trip home. I have a few more food pictures of some new items that we consumed. The first is a nice and spicy fish, followed by the restaurant specialty. Their specialty was an eel or snake dish with pork. The eel was very good and supposedly good for men.

It was really a cold day with temperatures ranging from -2 C to 7 C. I would use full winter gear which includes two jerseys (one with an integrated hood), a wind resistant cycling jacket, glove liners, gloves, and shoe covers. It always feels cold, but the guys say that when we start riding at 30 km/h+ the cold goes away. I agree.

New Year Celebration

Well, Happy New Year to all! I know it is a little late to be wishing everyone a Happy New Year, but better late than never.

New Year's Eve, we got together with a few families from our complex. We all decided to spend this evening doing something that the Chinese really enjoy doing. We decided to go and sing Karaoke. It would be family fun even for the youngest members. My Chinese teacher would join us and reserve a room at Haoledi Karaoke.

Haoledi is a very nice place to party with friends. Once you get your room, the next stop is the one stop shopping store. Here, you decide on what you will drink and what snacks you will eat during the night of partying. If you run out of food or drink, you can return for more. We decided on some chips, nuts, popcorn, fruit, cokes, a bottle of Johny Walker Black Label, and green tea to mix with the scotch.

Now its time to mix drinks and start singing! Our room was equipped with three microphones for our singing pleasure. My son had taken his PSP. He enjoyed the atmosphere so much that it was left in his jacket pocket and not used the whole night. He would sing and dance. There were Chinese songs, English songs, Spanish songs, and even some kids songs.

My Chinese teacher and her friend taught me and my wife a Chinese drinking game. We would all have a cup with five dice in the cup. We would each individually mix our dice up and then look at what we had. From what you had under your cup, you would try to determine how many of a certain number were in all the cups combined. The next person would either say their are more of the same number or more of a different number or disagree. In the case of disagreement, everyone would uncover their cups and we would count the dice. If there were at least the amount you said or more the person who did not believe you would have to drink. If the next person said there were more then the following person would have to disagree or determine if there were still more available of that number or any other number. It's little complex, but pretty fun.

Everyone enjoyed the evening and we will probably return sometime soon for some more singing fun. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera and have no pictures to show. Next time I will remember to take my camera!

Street Food

Well, Tuesday night the guys decided to go out and have some fun. We ended up at one of the local bars for a few drinks. The highlight of the night was trying the local street food.

There is all kind of food that can be grilled for any taste. They have food for vegetarians and meat eaters. You can have a sausage, lamb, fish, chicken wings, green beans, cauliflower, tofu and many more. All items on a stick! First you chose what you want you want to eat. Then, the cook will place your items on the grill and pour some special spice over your choice. As far as i can remember, the spice was the same for every selection. When it is cooked eat up!

I tried the chicken wings, cauliflower, green beans, tofu, lamb, and also the fish. It is very difficult to eat chicken wings on a stick. It is even more difficult to eat the fish on a stick!

After a night of drinking and having fun in China, don't forget to try the street food! It is very delicious. I recommend you try the fish. This inexpensive treat is a must try for anyone in China.

Haircut

Last Monday, I went for a haircut. It is something I have done for months now in China, but it would probably be something new to people that move to China or have an extended stay and need a haircut.

When I started to get my haircut in China it was a little difficult. Why? Well, the majority of the hair stylist do not speak any English. This communication gap makes this activity fairly difficult to complete. In the beginning, I would take either my passport picture or my drivers license and use these two pictures to describe how I wanted my haircut. Luckily for me both pictures were taken recently after haircuts.

When you arrive at the salon, you have a few options for the person who will cut your hair, as well as the price. The options for a haircut are the Junior Stylist for 48 RMB ($7 US ) or the Senior Stylist for 68 RMB ($9.93 US). I usually chose the Junior Stylist. By the way, as mentioned in previous posts, you can get your hair cut for as little as 5 RMB ($0.73 US). Usually hygiene has a lot to do with the price of a haircut.

Next, one of the attendants will come and wash your hair. Very different from the salons in the United States. The attendant will use a squeeze water bottle and spray your hair at the same time shampoo is being lathered right in your seat! When the shampoo is complete and your hair washed, you are taken to the basin to rinse out the shampoo. Then you return to your seat for a short back massage. In the United States, this activity is completely done in the basin.

After the massage, the attendant is replaced by the stylist of your choice. Now, you must tell him how to cut your hair. I have learned enough Chinese to get either a trim （只修一修）or a short hair style （我要短的发型）. As far as how short we usually communicate with signs. No more photos required. Then he will cut your hair. The attendant later returns to give your hair a rinse after the cut.

With the shampoo, massage, and cut, it usually takes at least an hour for the haircut. You must have enough patience and time to relax.