Mongolia, way back in September

Mongolia.  Mongolia was amazing.  What is there to say?  It was otherworldly and beautiful and wild and bizarre.  The people made the toughest Beijingers look like pansies who spend their whole day catering to tourists, and yet we forgave them because it was all wonderful and the air was fresh and the sky was blue and hills were beautiful and we washed it all down with vodka (the Soviet influence).

We saw the sights, sort of--we hiked over the next hill from our ger camp to see the Turtle Rock, here with a local's ger in the foreground:

We rode horses!  I hate horses!  James made me do it!

The landscape was amazing, here with a view of our ger camp:

And I felt pretty badass up on this rock:

Yeah, it was a pretty awesome Labor Day weekend, only a two-hour flight (followed by a two-hour car ride) from Beijing.

Trajectory of a Tour

So unfortunately, I haven't posted that much from Beijing.  A large part of that is being busy, with a lot going on both at work and in our social lives here.  But probably an even bigger factor is the internet.  Blogspot is blocked, and our VPNs are spotty.  Even earlier, our VPN wasn't working, so I am nervous that it will cut out and I'll lose what I've written.

But I have been wanting to say that I am LOVING Beijing lately.  Maybe it's this past week (blue skies EVERY DAY!), but suddenly I am ready to embrace everything and sad to have to leave in late July.

It is interesting how much time you can waste comparing one post to another.  I don't say this to criticize myself--I think it's human nature, and it just takes time to move through a trajectory of feelings toward a place.  So my trajectory:

-Arrived and saw Starbucks.  Wow, we're not in Dhaka anymore.
-But not everyone wants to be best friends here!  They already have friends!  I don't know who 90% of the people working at the Embassy are!
-Period of aggressive friend hunting.  Spent lots of time emailing promising friends-of-friends and never getting replies.
-Finally, feel like we have amazing friends, the sky is blue, and the Siberian winds have died down.
-Five minutes later, we leave post.

So needless to say, I am trying to pack a lot in before we leave.  Last night we went on an amazing walking tour with Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking, which is a gripping account of the murder a former British diplomat's daughter in 1930's Beijing.  The book is SO MUCH FUN to read, especially for those familiar with this city, and the walking tour was great.  First of all, I can happily listen to British people all day (they just sound like they know things), and second, it was awesome to visit old hutongs, city wall remnants, watchtowers, and the former Legation Quarter (ending, of course, with drinks at Maison Boulud, housed in the old American Legation).  Instead of taking the bus back to the Embassy, James and I headed to the lovely Capital M and had drinks out on the terrace overlooking Qianmen Gate and Tiananmen Square before eating in their dining room.  Yeah, it felt amazing and glamorous, I won't lie.

Today after brunch at home (and maybe a teensy nap as well), we took a walk through some hutongs (I wanted to check out a historic mosque serving the city's Muslim community, but apparently the ladyfolk are not so much allowed inside) before having craft beer at Slow Boat Brewery and a delicious dinner and wine at Palette Vino, a restaurant in a converted courtyard home.

Honestly, I don't think DC will really compare.  But I am trying to keep an open mind, after being decidedly underwhelmed by it the last two times I did training there.  I am looking forward to seeing the many, many friends who will be in town.

But I will miss hutongs, elderly residents and their fluffy dogs, converted siheyuan courtyards and glittering highrises, dumplings and pork buns and noodles, plus excellent renditions of most global cuisines you can think up.  I will miss living amidst a sense of history, as well as a blatant disregard for it that can be maddening.  For better or for worse, Beijingers feel they are the center of the world, and that is something this city has in common with New York, an arrogance that I love and appreciate.

Weekend fun, then not fun

So airpocalypse continues... just when we thought we couldn't take another second of this, we woke up on Friday morning to a beautiful blue sky.  Whew.  I enjoyed the view from our offices on the 28th floor, I saw a sunset, life was good (and plus we had a great pre-Super Bowl event at the Beijing American Center with Reggie Bush (!), former players Jack Brewer and Akin Ayodele, and several Pro Bowl cheerleaders--very fun.  It was incredibly awesome of the NFL to make time in their schedules to send them to the BAC).

Then yesterday the sky was... not blue.  But it wasn't too bad--the air was only in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range, which for Beijing lately is kind of a coup.  I knew it was time to get out.

In the afternoon, we hopped in a cab heading to the Houhai area to check out the ice skating.  Not to actually ice skate, but to, you know, look at it.  I forgot my camera, but I wish I had caught the chihuahua walking on the ice in booties.  It didn't look particularly thrilled about this turn of events. 

We gave up walking there pretty quickly since people kept harassing us about taking rickshaws.  So we turned toward the Drum Tower and walked up to Zajia Bar, hoping for an afternoon drink in the hutongs.  Oops, they didn't open until 5pm.  We wandered aimlessly through some hutongs (my favorite type of Beijing wandering) before settling down in Beiluo Bread Bar on Beiluoguxiang (thankfully much quieter than its southern sister) for beer, coffee, bread, and pasta.  We ended up hanging out there and reading, and it was all around lovely.

Later that evening, we strolled over to Cafe Sambal to meet a friend for Malaysian food.  The place was lovely and the food very good.

But by the time we left, the air was even worse.  And today we woke up to muck (which was partly due to snow falling--but it wasn't just fog, sadly, as the Air Quality Index indicates it's been "very unhealthy" for most of the day).

I am not sure how many more of these days we can take.  Five more months at post, and we like this city when it's nice out.  But this month has been a trial.

Just chewing the air

Okay, guys.  Let's talk air pollution.

Just have to point out that the white octagonal tower in the right foreground of the photo used in Jon Stewart's graphic IS MY APARTMENT BUILDING.  And do you see what surrounds it?? Toxic smog.

A couple weeks ago, the air pollution levels recorded in Beijing hit all-time highs.  No one is totally sure, but with little exaggeration, this may quite possibly be the craziest air pollution EVER EXPERIENCED BY HUMANITY. 

I was really hoping it was going to end pretty quickly--one terrible weekend, and it all gets blown away.  Unfortunately, that turned out to be wishful thinking.  Today we never got up to "crazy bad" (though we were within three points), but we also never left the "hazardous" zone.

The problem with Beijing is, you forgive it too easily.  We had about one-and-a-half clear days last week, and I took advantage of one of them to walk 30 minutes in the brisk cool air, not too cold, and there was a chihuahua in a Santa suit, and it's like, OMG I love Beijing.  (Sometimes this city even earns bonus points for Welsh corgis and the elderly dancing to Lady Gaga.)  But I may have to become more hard-hearted.  There is only so much that can be forgiven.

Thankfully, at this point there are less than six months left.  Time to strap on a face mask and go about my business, preferably while holding my breath.  This is a wonderful city in so many ways, but being able to breathe (and not having pollution cause your entire body to itch) is just too great a feeling.  I miss it.