China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

In Northern China the central heating is switched on from mid of November to mid of March. That is much better than having no heating like in places South of the Yangtze River. When I came back from Germany I found out that our apartment complex did not have any hot water since March 24th. Today I asked the management office when they think we will have hot water again and they said they are not sure but maybe in May. In May??? I hope this is not true. This is not funny being in a cold apartment with no hot water. So today we went to get a shower in a near by swimming pool. It belongs to a school. Even on a Sunday it is still closed between 8am and noon. When we went there after 12 they said „sorry the water in the pool is cold“. We went swimming anyway and at least the showers were hot. After that we wanted to go for lunch. The first restaurant we decided to go to was closed and the building under renovation. The next one we went to  had a huge construction fence around it. So we could not see if the restaurant was still there or not. The third restaurant was now turned into a special massage and spa club. I was so hungry and tired of walking around and discovering our neighborhood restaurants vanished that I actually suggested to try KFC as I have never eaten there in China. It was not as horrible as I expected. But you can get much better and more Chinese food for that price.

Lunch at the revolving restaurant of the TV Tower of Beijing. That is the highest restaurant in Beijing. There would have been a beautiful view on a normal day. Unfortunately we had huge fog which slightly limited the visibility. I could not quite see my apartment, but at least there were precise maps on the windows so that I knew exactly where I was.

But nevertheless my toastmaster friends and me enjoyed the sashimi and other foreign food.

The lunch ticket included a visit to the Underwater World. I have been to the TV Tower with visitors before but never heard or saw the Underwater World. It was nicer than expected and I took some pictures there.

It was actually quite crowded in the Underwater World. The only empty place being the ship wreck. There was an open pool with gold fish. Chinese love gold fish and some of the visitors started using their caps to try to catch some gold fish. I am not really sure how they would have transported their catch on their tour bus…