Now we are in 2009

24:00 25th Jan 2009, now we are in 2009 according to our Chinese lunar calender. the year of OX.

At this moment, we all chinese light the firecrackers and fireworks. since I am on 17th floor, its good place to have good view of these fireworks. ha ha. but this year, there are not many good big fireworks in front of my window, I only saw one, it was really great and beautiful, but it was on the side of my building, so I only saw part of it, and could not get a shot of it.. and last year, it was beautiful fireworks and just right in front of my window. ha ha ..

Here are some photos I took.

The Sun in the middle of the night.

The rain in the middle of the night.

Rain with some wind

A little heavier now

The harvest

Charming

The spot in the dark

The Passion in the night

The green peony

Colorful stars.

.

The Spyder

The wallpaper style Spyder, its from the back of my vest.  

The Spyder on the chain, its the Spyder on my chest pocket zipper.

I am on training in Business Center.

My second day in Business center, HARMONY and HAPPY.

Its the view from staff desk. right side is the entrance, left side is the way to computer room and small meeting room.

Finally I can say, I enjoyed my meal at work.

Its our special menu for Christmas, Fried noodle with XO sauce, sliced Turkey, Wok cooked pork with Soy sauce, and some vegetable, honey melon as fruit, and congee with red bean and peanuts, and Chocolate muse (gone from the small white plate). but usually the food is very bad at staff cafeteria.

Merry Christmas Day, but Blue Frank

24th Dec, Its a Happy day to European and American, Merry Christmas Eve. even in Beijing, You can see that many local peoples are crazy for it.  since shopping malls, restaurants, bars, close later than usual, Malls and Restaurants are still busy around 10PM, even its 12 midnight now, you can still see many people heading home from little party with friends. as I work for an International chained hotel, its big day in our Hotel too.  in our ball rooms, we hold a Christmas eve party, all ticket sold out to Chinese(280 Tickets), and our foreigners went out for nice dinner, but also we have few guests who stayed in hotel for easy evening. 

Even most of the hotel guests head out for nice dinner with family or friends, but we still have few guests who kept me so busy, one gentleman was very nice to me and appreciated my work very much, but rest several guests, they requested many extra help from me at work, but it seems they did not really appreciate my work. I worked off my ass, but nothing in return, so I feel blue from my day, and honestly, I do not like to work during the winter time, because you meet more demanding people than nice people at work. 

And one more bad thing happened today, it was busy in the city, many people went to shopping and eat in restaurants, it was hard to find taxi from my hotel area(center of the town), so I took subway to north 4th ring road, then I got off the subway which I had to switch to taxi, but even that place, many people were waiting for taxi, so I tried to get myself luck to find a taxi, then I walked around the traffic light cross, big cross, it seemed hopeless since every side of the cross, you can see people waiting for the cab, but I gave third try to walked to another side of the road. after five minuets,  there was a cab heading to me from my left side, but one white girl was running to me from my right side and she did her best to stop me, my hand almost reached the cab door, but she stopped my hand, and opened the door, said, its her cab, then I said BITCH.. at same time, I was talking to my friend on the phone, and one second later, her sister jumped in cab already, and she is almost in cab too,  then it seemed she did not care what I said, but insisted to jump into taxi, so I said BITCH loudly, then she was shocked and looked at me, at that time,  her mom just walked to cab and waving to someone, then I notice young girl's dad was trying to get taxi from the other side of the road, then he run to them, got on cab too, I thought maybe he would be mad and may want to have a fight with me, but it did not happen, and after he jumped in taxi, there was another cab in front of me, so I jumped in too. its my first time to be so RUDE to foreigners, but she was the real bitch, two young girls both in their 16s I think, I am sure she told her mom what I said to her, but the mom was quiet, and the young bitch was shocked by my WORD.. for god sake, do not be rude next time, then there will be no one to call her bitch.... so its my story...

But I am glad I am home now, and just had several phone calls with good friends, and some email communication, now I smile again.

Merry Christmas to my friends.. I feel lucky to have you guys in my life.

Cheers

Christmas is coming soon.

Time goes so fast, Early 2008 seems like just yesterday, but now its December. holiday time already.



During this month, my company puts up Christmas decorations, usually from early december, for a month. now business is slow, so I took some pictures. and its time for me to go shopping and spoil myself. GRIN....
Some ornaments

New Toy: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Today I bought my new toy: Logitech llluminated Keyboard to replace my old one ( Logitech Wave Keyboard), My old one is very top model too when they put it in market, wireless and fast connection, quiet, easy click, full function key and thin, but why did I buy new one today?? Because the new one is slimmer, with lights on key, this two spots caught my eyes, so I did research online, in US market, its 80USD, in Beijing, its 550RMB(81USD), its same price, but before this year, we used to have different price, for instance, in USA market, they put price 100usd for a nice keyboard, and when you check in China Market, they would put 120USD on price tag, which I did not like it at all, but glad now, Logitech put same prices on different country now. at least same price between China and US.



After I tried this keyboard at home, I like it even more, it looks like Laptop keyboard, very thin, but key size is same as regular desktop keyboard, key is flat like laptop keyboard, when you click on it, it offers you great stroke feeling, it does not like desktop one which you have to click deep and hard, and not like the laptop one you can not click too much (laptop keyboard feels like click on a board ), this one just offers perfect stroke feeling. plus the lights on the key which you can adjust 3 levels, and cool design and ultra thin, its just a great product(toy). I just love it so much. :)

James bond VS Austin Powers

Hooray. its my day off again. so I could catch up some rest and relax myself a bit.

Usually I catch up my sleep first, then I may watch some movies.

Today I picked James Bond 007, Name is: "Quantum of Solace", as many people are, I am big fan of James Bond too. but it seems less fun to watch it now. "The Royal of Casino" was kind of disappointing people. so I expected this new one can be better?? After almost two hours, I finished the movie, hum, I must say. The reason for me to watch this movie, Its the Name of this movie serie, its like a famous brand name, 007 James Bond, even without knowing the story, I would go for it, but after I watched it, I did not get the story, but from the begining to the ending, there are full of Fighting, Running and Chasing, and some high tech gadgets. only these things kept me busy whole the time, but no story. its like hollow, no story, but only action. hum. not a good movie to watch if you are looking for action with story, but if you only want to see the ACTIION only, it might be an okay movie, but nothing special.

Then I watched second one. a little bit old movie, name is: "Austin Powers International Man of Mystery", movie was producted in 1997, its 10 years old movie now, but its an happy movie, some strange sense of humor in the movie, but it makes you laugh, but story was kind of boring too. anyway, it was an okay comedy. but I would not play it again either.

Cold weather, Slow business.

It was another sunny day, but it was cold. it was too windy to jog or run. because when you have one leg in the air and the other leg on the ground, the windy can blow the leg (in the air) to the other leg, and if they are crossed, then you are in big trouble.. maybe you may give a nice kiss to the Global. ":P... by the way, I run from my apartment to neighborhood main entrance, it was about 400 meter, and glad I did not kiss the land. :P


Work was very slow today, so I took some pictures from work.

One is day time from the window, one is the night time from the window. both framed same place, but it was different period of the time.

Pictures are from my mobile phone, so the quality is not that good.

How to get a mobile phone and number in Beijing

For mobile phone, you can buy them From Mobile phone shops, GOME home appliance store and Da Zhong home appliance store. the price is quite similar. but I like to go Da zhong and Gome than seperate small mobile phone shops. because GOME and Da Zhong are two main home appliance chain stores, and they are all over the city.

For Mobile service company, I recommend china mobile (CMCC), this mobile carrier has good signal coverage, good service, good products and package.

In Beijing, we did not have many China mobile service center years ago, so it was easier for people to buy mobile phone sim card in local mobile phone shops, they sell mobile phone, also sim card. The price can be varies, If the number sounds good, such as with number 6 or 8, it will be more expensive than the number with 4. Because In Chinese culture, number 6 means good luck, 8 means good fortune, but 4 means death, that is why if the number with 6 and 8 but without 4 would be more expensive, and the other reason we used to buy sim card from local mobile phone shop is we can choose the number from the big list, usually these small shops has many numbers for you to choose, so we have many choices, and easy to find some number we like. But it’s the history now.

Now our time, China mobile has built up many service center in the town, so it’s very easy for you to find one, then you can buy the sim card there, because they have ATM machine, you can choose the number from their list, easier than you check the number from the books, and enter your preference about the number, such as number end up with 6 or 8 or 5, if they have it, it will be listed on the screen, if they do not have the number to match your preference, then you have to enter different preference, so you still can have many choices, and the benefit to buy the sim in servicer center is, all these numbers are sold one price. So if you are lucky, you can find really good number with really cheap price.

What type of number do you need?
As China mobile has 3 different products for their customers. so let me tell you which one is good for you.

One is called Go Tone (Quan Qiu Tong) for business people.
it’s good for business people, makes a lot of phone call, use it to access the internet, but also travel around the world, because for this product, you can have roaming service, internet service, low price phone call package, also good customer hotline service, make the phone call first, then pay at end of the month. And for this product, you must pay monthly fee.

The next product is Easy own (Shen Zhou Xing), good for visitors.
It’s good for people who only stay in Beijing for short period of the time, they just buy the sim card, and charge the prepaid balance the this number, then make phone call, when balance goes to zero, then you cannot make any phone call before you charge more prepaid balance (you can easily buy these prepaid card in every newsstands), and they do not charge you monthly fee, you can call from inside China to anywhere in the world. Also SMS to many countries, and you can trash the sim card after you spend all your balance. So they make it easy for short stay people.

Last product is M-Zone (Dong Gan Di Dai), for students.
Its mainly for the students, they have SMS package, so you can send many sms with little price, low price phone call, but not good for business people or short stay people, because no roaming service, nor good internet service for business people, as short stay people would use more voice call than SMS, and you cannot trash the sim card when you leave the country, because you must go to customer service center to stop the service. So it’s not good for visitors either as they do not have time for such things.

After all. For business people, Go Tone is good choice. For visitors, Easy own is good choice.

Useful tips for Xmas.

Yesterday, I received a message, I think it would be useful to many people, so I will share it with you here.
=======================================================================
My friend:
Ask Frank: I want to buy a bunch of Christmas gifts for friends and family in America. I want them to reflect Chinese culture, and they must be easily transportable. What do you suggest and where should I go for the best deals?

Here is the Answer:

1, You can buy some top quality Tea, I recommend Green Tea and Jasmin Tea. Green tea is light and fresh, and especially good for summer time,,Jasmin tea has great smell and good flavor, good for winter time. I would say, try Wu Yu Tai, its very cold Chinese Tea shop. they sell fresh tea which they produce present year.

2, You can buy very nice chopsticks from Hong Yun shop, one is located on Wang Fu Jing Walking Street. Opposite of KFC (easy to find??). second place is located on 6th Floor in Shin Kung Place. subway stop is “Da Wang Lu”.

3, you can buy some Jade. Its very nice gift too.

4, Chinese traditional clothes, but Trendy type, you can visit Shanghai Tang or Shanghai Xu, both carry some cool clothes. Chinese traditional style, but trendy made. I put this one at the end, because these clothes are expensive, but cool gift.

We are in Winter now

I finally feel the real cool air today.

I usually take public transportation to work, but from My Condo to Neighborhood main entrance, I have to walk about 5mins. its about 600 meter route. I was feeling so cold, it was very windy outside, even the sunshine and fast running can not make me feel better. and first time to feel the real COOL air running through you. guess we better put on more clothes and stay warm. or maybe get more bear hugs? HA

Yu Xin SiChuan Dish (Yu Xian Chuan Cai)

It was my second visit to this Si Chuan Restaurant, I went to this restaurant about two years ago, the Xi Dan Branch, Today I went to Worker Gym Branch.

As its famous Si Chuan restaurant, so we expected something HOT. and since we have several different Si Chuan restaurants which they carry some similar water boil fish with hot small red chili, we ordered the other type of spicy fish instead of the common one, first I ordered fish, Name is "Long snout catfish " (we used to do Mandarin fish), No small bones, just one main bone, and fish is very tender. so it was good fish for this dish. they fried the fish first, then they put it in the big bowl with lots of pepper and red chilli, oil and vegetables, also some Chinese chili sauce I think. oh my gosh, it was super HOT. I must say, If you are not Si Chuan people, you better not try it, but I also have to say, Its very delicious, but just too way to HOT..I was feeling like having fire in my mouth. HA. and when I spoke, I was feeling like fire drake, also we have some egg, they put raw egg with shell in calcareous powder and wrap it up for a few days, then its cooked. so they peel it first, then put some soy sauce, ginger and some garlic, it was delicious too, worth to try it since you can only find it in China. not in The USA or Europe. plus some nice cold beer. hum, it was a great meal, atmosphere is easy, they use many bamboo to decorate the restaurant, feels different from common restaurant, but there is something that I got very much irritated. that they asked you to pay the bill before you finish the food, because they could not take more order that hour, so they start to ask people to pay the bill, then the cashier counter can finish the work. its not nice way to run business. but they make some good food, and the waitress were sweet too. so anyway, it made up the things.. and worth to try it. they do make several type spicy fish, so you do not have to worry that you can not take really hot spicy fish, they do have some fish dishes which its not that spicy, and if you are not big fan for fish, they also have spicy frogs and prawns. its a good place to go, I think I will go back there again in the near future...

A place to find Soy bean milk and Deep Fried Twisted Dough Sticks

Today, I stopped by at a small restaurant for dinner, I used to go there for evening snacks after late shift, but since I have not worked late shift for a while, so I have not visited to this restaurant for almost a year now, so I decided to have some easy food here, the name of the restaurant is called "Yong He Da Wang". They have some traditional chinese food. Which I think you might like to know about it. First they have old chinese traditional hun dun soup, the dumpling filled with pork or vegetables, but I personal also like lamb one. It all depends on your taste. Also they have some noodles, which its not as good as hun dun soup. They also have some rice cooked with beef or chicken, but same as noodle, nothing special. For drinks, they have fresh soy bean milk, its very healthy drink and traditional drink for breakfast.they sell it plain cold, also have hot with sugar or salt inside, for me, personal i like it warm with sugar.more taste than cold plain one. Also they have deep fried dough stick, its really famious chinese tranditional breakfast food. And they make great deep fried dough sticks. usually we eat it plain, or dip in soy bean milk or hun tun soup, So if you want to try some real good chinese breakfast, it's a nice place to visit. So they mainly server old chinese stuff breakfast food, also carry some new flavor food. So its small restaurant, cheap price, but you can find something special. Which the old traditional chinese breakfast. Soy bean milk, deep fried dough sticks, hundun soup. And some noodles.

South Beauty Blues

They used to sell "Fish in big bowl with oil and cherry" by fish's weight, now they sell in portions, its much less than you buy by weight and its not full of good fish meat only, but also include tail part and rise up the price too, so its no longer a good one to order anymore.not the best quality, but the most expensive. they also have some new dishes which you can find from the other restaurants too, so its not that exciting place to go anymore, also there are still many people who smoke in the restaurant, and their staff has no idea about wine, we ordered a white wine, but it was corky "sour", their staff said, it was newly imported wine and should not be a problem, we asked him to taste it, he said it was normal and showed us the lable and reference on the back, but gosh, we are not idots, we know wine, so after all, he took that wine back and did not charge us, and we afterward ordered another different bottle. gosh it was okay one...