Beijing, its a cool place to be...

Howdy

Beijing has started to get cold, we are now planning to get ourquilts for our beds, warm clothes and everything. I guess autumn isending soon :(. i discovered we have no control over our heating.The city decides when to run on the heating, and i think that is nottill november 15th or 25th. I was also told that once they turn theheating on everyone has to open their windows cause it gets so hotinside..don't know what their reasoning is, i guess until theyswitch it on they are saving energy. Anyway, its lots of layers forus!

Back at work, and I have been at a swanky hotel for a couple of days(not the evneings though) for an ethical investment conference;interesting and useful (generally) -it was my first experience ofusing headphones to listen to the translators, felt kinda cool! I'vealso been out shopping in preparation for the 'British Ball' onSaturday, so kitted myself out with a nice traditional chinese suit,i guess i'll upload some pics after the ball. Also ordered atailored suit -still very cheap compared to UK.

All the bigwigs go to the ball (Ambassador, Heads of BP...that kindof thing). I have been told they will be leaving around 11, so thenwe can finish with the networking and enjoy the freeflow bar :)Kindly a 'survival breakfast' is provided between 1-3am to keep usgoing -a fantastic idea! A shame that on the sat and the sun I am afacilitator at a mini-conference all day both days ... maybe thesunday I won't be so 'efective'!

I finally found a chinese student with a car! the first (its rare!) -u'd be mad to drive here, drivers have 6 senses i swear, swervingand weaving between lanes without using mirrors. Noone knows howmany die on the roads because the gov has all that info, and noonereally believes the numbers they give out, but i haven't seen many(serious) accidents. Its one thing creating an extra lane when intraffic (i.e. fitting 4 cars in 3 lanes), its another when doing itat 60 mph...as they say: OIC -Only In China!

I have been sampling the CBD -Central Bus, District here, and itsbetter than i expected (Shanghainese pooh-pooh it in comparison);even here (when generally new business is all in shanghai) half ofbeijing is still being built, upwards, and in glass! I have alsobeen sampling the nightlife a bit more -Hou hai is an area around alake -its fantastic, highly reccommended and still pretty cheap.Although did I tell you the newsagent type shop in our 'lobby' sells640ml of beer for 1.6 RMB, thats about 12p!! Joy oy joy :)

other intersting observations: korean food is more individual (youdont all grab from the same plate) but they have metal chopsticks -areal bitch to use. The chinese love the outdoors and nature (its abeautiful country outside the cities, so why are they destronying itso much? I am shocked by how bad it is, with coal, litter, refuse,waste, pollution etc. And it is much better now than it used to be.A

nyway, work is going well, I'm off on a CSR focus now, which isgreat, gonna stay working for aiesec till early feb i guess (visaspermitting). Soon it will be 4 of us in the appartment, instead ofjust 3 -should be even more fun -more fighting for the internet :)

Let me know how you are all doing.