Beijing

Beijing started snowing on saturday about a month earlier than scheduled. The heaters in Beijing are usually switched on on the 15th of November this year the central controlled heating started about 2 weeks earlier. About 3 days after the snow storm (5 inches of snow fall from a cold front and moist front), the energy generating plants started kicking up and the smog also started appearing. Not bad that for the 6 days I was in Beijing we did have 3 days of sunshine.

Luckily I was staying with Sharon and was able to borrow real winter gear, a big coat that I used for several days. Sharon and I also hit the Thai restaurant for hot hot Tom Yam soup twice during this trip.

The one thing I felt about Beijing this time round is how big everything is, the buildings are truly big... One night when we were there, my friend sharon bit into a rock and broke her tooth, there is a mouth hospital emergency room that we headed to around midnight... it was clean and professional and the cost was was only US$ 5 for the consultation.

The picture of the buildings are of the Beijing central library... the cab driver told me its halfway across the city and the subway would be faster so I tried it, the fare is only RMB 2 (less than US$ 0.50) and 20+ stops later I got there. Needless to say the library is humongous.

The stairway has a side ramp for people to push their bicycles up and down the overhead bridge.

Here is the boys at a halloween party with dada who played Mr. mom for 10 days.