China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

My Chinese friend Echo and me planned to host a party together. Due to the public holiday we decided to have a Sunday evening dinner party.

The preparation was longer than for parties I used to host, because of the preparation of the food. Echo arrived at my place more than 3 hours before the start of the party with lots and lots of ingredients like all kinds of vegetables, various kinds of meat, shells, tofu, spices, pots, bowls… and another friend who wanted to help cock but decided that my kitchen is too small. So she went back to her place to cook some dished herself. After about half an hour Echo’s brother and wife arrived in suit and tie to help cook. After first taking some pictures with the huge flower bouquet that they brought they got started with the cooking. I went out to buy the drinks. When I came back I found them all just relaxing on the couch because of multiple problems. Some kitchen utilities were missing so they asked a friend to bring them when she arrives. The bigger problem was that the vegetables could not be washed because my household did not have a good quality vegetable washing fluid and the nearby supermarket did also not have anything satisfactory. And the most frightening: There was no gas (for the stove and oven). We called a worker to check our gas meter and he found out that the batteries of the gas meter were just dead. So with new batteries we could start cooking the meat, but not the vegetables.

When the door bell rang 20 min before the start of the party my heart jumped for joy as I was expecting our friend with the vegetable washing fluid to arrive. But no – it was 3 guests that all arrived early. But the next door bell ring was the washing fluid. Now it was slightly more chaotic to cook as there were now quite some people in my small kitchen. But it was a lot of fun to cook and prepare together – „da jia yi qi“. Echo and some other Chinese friends said that it felt as happy as on Chinese New Year. Thank you all for the great evening!

Echo showed all of us a video of the school for mentally challenged people that she volunteers at one day per week. That was very moving and I am happy to see that my Chinese friends are helping others in need. There are way too many people on Earth that just think about themselves and what kind of new car they should buy.

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…