Apples for Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. It is increasingly a big deal in China, since there are more than 100m Christians here, and lots of commercial drive. This year was the first year I was swept up by the apples for Christmas craze. I think its a smart move by some apple farmers to create a link to Christmas. Everyone in our department got a few apples as a gift and there was as many messages on social media featuring apples as there were Christmas trees.

The tenuous link is as follows: Christmas eve is known as the silent night in China (I'm not sure where this comes from, apart from the hymn, silent night), as I'd never heard of Christmas eve being anything other than Christmas eve. The word for peaceful (close to silent) is "ping an" and since the word for apple is similar (ping guo), everyone now gives apples to each other on Christmas eve. So there you have it. Amusingly last week at one of Shenzhen's shopping malls the image accompanying the giant Happy Christmas sign was one of Pink Panther. I wonder where that came from? Maybe he is going to take over Father Christmas (and his saxophone, a Chinese peculiarity) sometime?

China is typically full of these kinds of word plays, with some fantastic puns. Well it was full of word plays. Now the government has banned puns, because people are using them to insult the government as well as get around censorship. Its quite amusing that at the same time as they are trying to downplay Christmas (they don't like religion much, and they are not too happy with Chinese people going crazy over western festivals) they are also trying to crack down on Chinese culture too. Well its all part of a strange atmosphere in China's political and media sphere linked to power and corruption that seems to continually be getting worse. Thankfully Putin is a few steps ahead of China in Russia so China does not seem so bad in comparison!

Come the end of the year, it is the usual time to open new subway lines in Beijing, with around 4 opening or being extended, including a new station opening near our house, though unfortunately one of the two lines that should go from the station has not been finished yet, and so they we'd need to wait several months for that (rather useful) line to go the extra two stations to us. And the other line, that will be open, is not going to have an interchange at a different line nearby because it is predicted to be too busy and thus dangerous. Oh well, we can get over the disappointment anyway so we don't really live there anymore anyway - the date has been set for Andrea to move out of the Beijing apartment at the end of January. I'll go back for the New Year one last time.

One of the benefits of Hannah being at kindergarten the last few months has been the acquisition of new friends. It will be a shame she will have to make new friends once she moves down, just as this has happened, but hopefully it will be ok. I expect we'll get quite a few tantrums about wanting to see Wanwan or Ciongciong or someone else for a short while.

Yesterday i called our nanny to confirm the dates Andrea is leaving Beijing, and thus her last day working for us. We'd already told her a few months ago this would happen, and for her, with us being at least her 3rd or 4th family, she's done this before, but for us it is the first time. To have someone look after your children and be in your home 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 years and then never see them again is fairly emotional. Well it was for me. I'll hopefully get to see her when I am in Beijing next week one last time, but there is only so much "thank you" can express.

Meanwhile Shenzhen's between 10 and 20 degrees, and occasionally wet. I suppose its preferable to Beijing's weather of between -4 and +9, but at least its dry there and there is heating inside. In Shenzhen I've not bothered using the air condition's heat setting to heat things up, and its just about ok. When we move things down from Beijing we'll also move down our two portable radiators, though by late February they might not be needed any more.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.

Wanke's Fifth Garden

Another week or two goes by – alone. It’s kind of strange for the first time in more than 6 years to be sitting at home alone without a wife or kids, and for this to be the “normal” at least in the short-term. The evenings have a certain routine: get home from work, speak to Hannah and Andrea on skype before Hannah goes to sleep, then “cook” (depending on the definition of the word) dinner, then read or watch a movie or something (it seems really hard to find fake DVDs anywhere near where I live) and go to bed. On the weekends though there is a lot of time in a big apartment to myself, even after sleeping in a bit and going for a run. Well, it won’t be for too much longer!

It seems Autumn finally came to Shenzhen in the last week or so with the temperature dropping to around 12 degrees at night, though it is still around 18 or so in during the daytime. It’s actually a little chilly at night since there is not much point installing heating in places like Shenzhen when it’s only mildly cold for a month or two. It’s just a case of wearing some more clothes and getting cosy under the duvet, though I expect my air conditioning machines can also do hot air if need be.

The community I live in is great; there is a lot of grassy areas just downstairs for lying around on (for adults), or playing on (for kids); a few different playgrounds for kids, some fancy water and landscaped features, a table tennis table as well as a floodlit tennis court (which I presume requires a fee to use) in addition to the swimming pool of course (which also requires a fee and is currently closed until around April time, since it is an outdoor pool). It is quiet and green. Sitting on my balcony I can see out to the mountains that separate downtown Shenzhen from the suburbs, and I can see one of the several small reservoirs at the foot of the mountains. I run around another reservoir nearby which is popular with people cooking BBQs in little holiday homes, as well as fishing. The province-wide cycling path number 5 runs nearby so there are often mountain bikers taking a break having just (presumably) come up and down from the mountain.

It is a ginormous community (the name might relate to a nearby subway station called 5 rivers, or it might just be the 5th community built by the Wanke company) built in 9 different phases; each with several 20 story buildings (though a couple of phases have been built with townhouse-style 4 story buildings). It takes a good 10 minutes to walk through several of the phases to get to the local village which is buzzing with locals dancing on the street, local restaurants, street vendors, a good food market and a large supermarket. It’s great to be able to have the quiet of our community and then the buzz and “reality” of the local town—there is also a decent size supermarket and a few restaurants just downstairs too to save walking all the way over to the town. The community is so big that it has its own bus station with at least 6 different bus lines starting there. Fortunately there is also a bus stop on the main road by the side of the community where I live which has several buses heading north up it to my office in case I don’t cycle, and heading south onto the highway that goes downtown.

On Thursday, Andrea, Hannah, Leah—and even my Dad who is passing through on his way to the Philippines—will see it for the first time and I’m sure next weekend won’t be as quiet as this one.