Friends of mine are moving to Paris. Sophie and Ben had been in Beijing for a long time. They invited for a goodbye BBQ party.
It was nice to see them before they leave. It was a beautiful day today and great to be outdoors. And they had chosen a great location to have a BBQ in the city center. Some of their friends had children that enjoyed the playground. There was so much nice lawn that people sat on blankets.
As every year around Chinese New Year we went for the first outdoor rock climbing in Beijing. It is not outdoors (in nature on real rock) but at least it is in the center of Beijing in one of the traditional parks, the Ritan Park. I remember 2005 being really cold that we had to wear down jackets and extra thick gloves to warm our finger that would cool down immediately after touching the icy cold climbing wall. This year the weather has turned warmer the past few days so it was actually very pleasant. As the climbing wall was not open yet we had to lead climb to get our ropes up. It was the first time for Xiao Ou to lead climb.
As we were standing around climbing and belaying an elderly Chinese guy came closer and closer and watched us. I found it wierd when he was standing between us so I said „hi“ to him. It usually scares such people away when a foreigner talks to them. He did not reply. He just looked at me with his not very friendly face and he kept standing there. He especially found it interesting to see us give lead climb theory lessons to Xiao Ou. Eventually (after a very long time) he quietly walked away. It did not annoy us. That is just how it is in China.
We all went together with the father of Xiao Ou for lunch. It was not easy to find a restaurant that was open. It is still the Chinese New Year festival and most shops and restaurants are closed.
During lunch my Chinese friends started to discuss what is wrong with me because I currently have a pimple on my right cheek. They concluded that I eat too many things that warm my body up from the inside. They say I am too hot (yeah, I think I am a hot person too ;-). They suggested that I need to drink a special tea that cools me down and also take care to eat things that also cool down my body. And that does not at all mean drinking icy cold drinks. That is in any case considered extremely unhealthy. The Chinese people all know about yin and yang which resembles hot and cold or male and female. Yin and yang can be viewed as complementary pairs. The Chinese believe problems arise when there is an imbalance between them in the environment. Certain foods are thought to have yin or cooling properties, while others have warm, yang properties. The challenge is to consume a diet that contains a healthy balance between the two. So maybe I should look into eating and drinking more of the yin food.
As the weather had been cold till yesterday we decided to go ice skating on one of the lakes of Beijing. It was strange to see that the one side of the lake was not completely frozen. But it was open for ice skating.
They started charging entrance tickets to get onto the frozen lake last year. But I found this year it is even more horrible as they had put up a fence around the whole lake and even at the section for the swimming. but it was nice to be outdoors in the sunshine.
As always there was hardly anybody ice skating. Unfortunately the few Chinese guys who could actually ice skate were not there. They might have been at home as it is Chinese New Year. But there is enough other things for the Chinese to play with on the ice. The most popular is the ice chairs with the screw drivers welded to poles:
This year there were also more ice bikes seen:
If you feel like an emperor you can also be pulled around the lake on a yellow cushioned sheep sleigh, even though we did not see anybody do that:
Maybe you need to be wearing the new hat fashion like these 2 Chinese guys to be able to sit on the sleigh:
This year they also started to close the lake at 4pm. We used to skate at night. When we were leaving we only left our skate rink circle behind:
Wow, again the clouds stayed at the 1300 meter altitude! What a great last day!
We went off piste again but there had been many people by now so it was not that much powder left. All in all we had loads of fun.
Roman is master of getting his skis on in an impressive way. he jumps and lands in the binding. I tried it a few times but still cannot land with both bindings closed.
These and more pictures of this great week of skiing are in this picasa webalbum.
Now I can return to China satisfied. Even though I would like to do back country skiing somewhere in China this year.
How beautiful it was with the fresh snow everywhere and the sun shining the whole day! We went off piste in the morning and made our marks in the powder.
It was extraordinarily beautiful as the clouds stayed below an altitude of 1300 meter and we stayed above 1300 meters the whole day. So while the people in the valley were under gray clouds we had pure sunshine!
Those clouds made it look like an ocean or huge lakes between the mountains.
At the end of the skiing day we look the long slope all the way from the highest peak of the ski resort all the way down to the valley. It was a magnificent feeling like flying in a plane above the clouds and then dunking in.
In the evening Roman came to visit again. Hartmut cooked a 4 course meal with a salad with duck, an orange and carrot soup, pork cutlets with coconut basmati rice and a raspberry orange cake. We had some nice Austrian white burgundy wine as well as German Riesling Auslese with the dinner.
The morning started still snowy with bad visibility but in the afternoon the snow ended. The slopes were again very empty as most people chose not to ski on that day. Better for us! In the late afternoon we could sometimes get a sneak preview through the clouds and see the sun lit mountain range north of our skiing resort.
I am so happy! The shop did have my vintage skis ready for me this morning. So today I could again do my old school style of skiing with the legs tight together making fast small turns with hip movement. This was especially great as it has been snowing heavily since early morning hours. They slopes were not prepared so we had great powder on all slopes. I have the impression that it did not bother me as much as it did the other skiers that for most of the day the visibility was quite low. I just used my old school technique to ski through the patches of snow and the bumps that started emerging on the slopes. It was huge fun!
This first picture is me prepared for the day, the second one after 2 hours of skiing:
Hartmut was collecting snow and ice on his sunglasses to be able to ski in complete darkness. Even his eye brows were icy:
Talking about old school style: In France I had seen quite many people on Telemark skis this year. It is even older than my style skiing as it is what the first people who skied did. I had rented Telemark skis in France 2 years ago. It is challenging. I asked the ski shops in Austria if they have Telemark skis for rent, but unfortunately they did not.
Yesterday we decided to look for new ski boots as we both have really old ones. We went to one of the sport shops and tried on quite a few pairs. We both found aggressive ski boots that were seemed very comfortable. Mine feel like there is a very thick and soft carpet inside. I asked for a discount but only got the offer to rent a pair of skis for free after the shop assistant saw my vintage skis.
So there I go my first day with my nice new ski boots having to ride on carving ski. It was actually okay to try out the carving feeling, but anything else was dangerous as the skis are so wide in the front and the back. They often overlapped in the front in the back making me fall. It make me feel like a duck with huge feet and skiing felt like I made in my pants as I had to keep my legs spread apart. When I went back to the ski shop they could not find my vintage skis. They told me “they are probably still in the workshop” and I should get them tomorrow morning. I do hope they are not broken or lost as nowadays you cannot buy these kind of skis anymore. And I love them. Or maybe they sold them to a museum…
Hartmut really enjoys his new ski boots. He now has more grip with the edges of the skis. And I enjoy that Hartmut loves cooking and prepares the meals every day.
What can I say? Again so much sunshine, same snow, not many people. It was the same inverted weather where it is colder in the valley than at high altitude. The smoke from the factories did not rise, it stayed pressed down in the valley.
We started again quite early to enjoy the freshly prepared slopes as you can see on our long shadows.
Again we had such a gorgeous view of the surrounding Alps of Austria, Italy and Slovenia. This area is where these three countries meet. The mountains around vary in there style too making it a very interesting landscape.
Today I chose to wear my pink sunglasses. Some like them, other don’t. For lunch we rested in comfortable beach chairs.
Today we also went skiing off-piste in muggles. This actually made my pulse go higher. And after the 4th time down the same long muggle slope I actually felt like I was sweating a bit.
What great weather! Sunshine, great snow, nicely prepared slopes and not many people. And this on a Sunday! We started early to make get as much of the fresh slopes as possible. But the weather continues to be extraordinarily cold: It was -15 degrees Celsius at our apartment. Fortunately but uncommonly it was warmer at 2000 meter altitude. But the temperature was still not really high.
Hartmut and Roman started with high velocity and kept that up throughout the day. It was interesting to see that the majority of people here in Austria all ski very fast. And now about 70% wear helmets. We did go to a ski hut to see if there would be a crowd watching the with big ski race. But there was not even a single person so we sat outside.
Roman and I realized that we had been skiing together before. But that was about 18 years ago! Wow… Time really flies. And he still can ski very well.
