Wednesday, June 6th, we had the day off because of some emergency situation at our office. So Fernanda, Jeff and I decided to head to the Forbidden City to finally be tourists. Since I had a flight to catch later that day, we went first thing in the morning so we’d maximize our time there. Which of course meant that we were crammed into the subway. Which then resulted in us losing Jeff. We tried to reconnect with him but in the end Fernanda and I wandered by ourselves. The day was reeeeeeeeeeeeeally polluted which unfortunately made visibility kinda craptastic but it was still a spectacular sight. The forbidden city is the former palace area in Peking. It’s huge and it’s awe-inspiring. Definitely worthy of being BJ’s top tourist attraction. This is one of those situations ... read more

I've decided to be the new David Letterman and post weekly top 10 lists. Next week's will be a guest entry by none other than Fernanda! But for now, lest you think from my previous list that I have only negative views of BJ, here's my list of the best things about this hilarious city (top 10 funniest things is coming soon): 1. The subway system, despite stoping early, is really extensive and awesome. You can zip to all corners of the city for only 2 yuan (about 30 cents US/CDN) which is amazing. Plus it's modelled after Hong Kong so you KNOW it's good. 2. The people are REALLY friendly. Even though we don't usually understand eachother, people on the street always try to be as helpful as possible. And at restaurants there are LOTS ... read more

With the Olympics just around the corner, it's always interesting to consider the things that we all share in common, no matter what language we speak. I just got back from the skating rink and it amazes me how I can just walk into a skating rink anywhere in the world and not even realize I'm in a foreign country. Sure, everyone else is Chinese. And the lessons on the ice are all in a language I don't understand. But when I'm out there, everyone understands eachother. We know what other people are working on, even if we call it a different name. We can tell when someone's having a good day or a bad day at the rink. We know how to look out for someone who's music is on or who's setting up for ... read more

Dear faithful readers, Sorry there hasn't been an entry for a while! I will post a full entry this weekend with lots of fun stories. But for now, a list that I've been working on the past few days. Beijing is a mysterious place, and I can tell all the ex-pats and tourists that stick to the East side that it gets even weirder West of the second ring. Here's my top 10 list of things that confuse me about my life here: 1. Why clip your nails in the office? I guess this explains why Chinese people clip their nails on the subway in Toronto 2. Why think diapers are so expensive and annoying that you would rather your children get horrible diseases from split pants? Cloth diapers have existed for a long time now. ... read more

We had our first day of work on Wednesday, May 16th. Fernanda and I are in different groups and in different buildings. I'm in the environmental planning group while she's in the countryside planning group. Hopefully they're both interesting! My supervisor is very friendly and he had me sit in on a meeting (all in Chinese) about a project they're just finishing up in the South. They're building a whole new tourist area and relocating a lot of locals in the process. Apparently the locals are happy because they're poor farmers who will be given new homes and jobs at the the tourist spots. As someone who's been trained now to be totally against central planning, it's hard to get my head around this idea. My supervisor then took me for lunch to a restaurant nearby ... read more