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Ni hao! The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony commencing at 08:08:08 pm at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China. Some events, including football(soccer), sailing, and new 10 km marathon swimming events will be held in other cities of China. With the equestrian events being held in Hong Kong, this marks the second time the same edition of the Olympic Games has been hosted by two National lympic Committees(NOCs). The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing, China by the IOC on July 13, 2001. The official logo of the games, titled "Dancing Beijing," features the character jing(meaning capital), referencing the host city. The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa, each representing one color of the Olympic rings. The Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit. Athletes will compete in 302 events in 28 sports, just one event more than was on the schedule of the Athens games of 2004. Several new NOCs have also been recognized by the IOC. 
The Chinese government sees the games as a chance for China to highlight its economic rise and emergence as a world power. Despite the efforts of the Communist Party to tightly manage press coverage of the event, there will likely be issues over the environment, human rights violations, and Tibetan independence. This being so, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has still boasted that the Beijing games will be "the best in Olympic history." Now here´s what I do think about this. I think China is already emerging as this world power in all aspects without the olympic games. The olympic games will only be a feather in the hat! But you will have to rememberthis is a very large country with many people living there, and it is difficult to totally control all things going on in all corners of this enourmous country! Many chinese are already very much aware of the environment questions. They are truely working on this and the future process will show it to the world. Now to the point of my blog post! Unlike many large cities in the world there are a lot of bicykles in this city, 
and also a lot of the local distribution go on bicykles. There is also the question of the hutongs being taken away. Now of the remaing 3000 hutongs some 1000 will be renovated and left for all to see, visit and live in. But my main point here is how has life been living in these old hutongs? You must remember that there are no toilets in the houses, and the fire brigade can not go there in these narrow streets and so on. So all of this is not bad. I think the government of Beijing is really trying to find a working solution for all living in the hutongs as well as for the future and the tourists! But you must cooperate with them or this will not work for you. It will be bad to go against this developement. Though we do really need to preserve the hutongs for the future generations, so they can know how life has been in Beijing. Liping´s home in Maoer Hutong is now becoming an alley street going straight through this hutong. So we know what it is loosing this living. But still the solution is very good. But these some 1000 hutongs must be preserved for the future generations to see and live in. Now, when in Beijing, we are living in the old Dong Yang Wei Hutong at Dong Yang Wei Jie!Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao!
Coming home late at night from a long days sightseeing in Beijing, this is what we see walking home from the Dongzhimen Subway Station.There is always a very special feeling about coming home after a hard days work! And going sightseeing and shopping all day is the same kind of feeling. It means now you can relax! We come up on the long stairs from the Dongzhimen Subway Station, and are now on the Dongzhimen Wai Dajie side of the 2nd Ring Road. First we stop directly at the stairs ending part, because here they 
sell souvernirs and vegetables. We buy some vegetables for eating later at home. I wanted to find somewhere to buy some chinese CDs, so we entered the building you see at the left of the first picture. It is the Oriental Kenzo Building. It is a residential building with a shopping center at the lower floors. It is really super stores here. They have many different stores, but they are looking very expensive too! So we leave after a while, and walk into a side street looing for my CDs! We ask some girls if they know where we can find a CD shop. We find some in the area, but when entering I feel I do not know enough about he chinese artists to be able to buy the right CDs! The price is very low by a westerners eye though! We wait, we do not buy today. The search will go on later during our stay here, and 
I can tell you that the end of the story was that I bought 6 double CDs with the different top chinese artists. Both male and female ones! And by the way one of them is Wei Wei, who has sold over 200 million CDs in the world. Mostly though in China. She lives in Sweden since 9 years ago. Now she lives in Stockholm, my home town. After this we walk across the 2nd Ring Road to the Dongzhimen Nei Dajie, the restaurant street! Also the southern border of the Minan Residential Complex, Minan Xiao Qu, where we live. Here in the corner of this street and our home street, Dong Jang Wei Jie, we can buy some fruit to eat at home. More street salesmen! This area was earlier called Dong Yang 
Wei Hutong, but now it is named after it´s northern border Minan Jie! The western border is Dongzhimen Beizhong Jie with my local favourite restaurant next to the Nan Guan Park. I will tell you about this street now. It begins from Zhenxian Hutong in the west and ends at Dongzhimen Nei Dajie in the south. It´s about 520 meters long and 22 meters wide. It was called Yangweiba Hutong in the early Republic of China and Dongyangwei Hutong in 1947, and remained so after 1949. The west part of the alley was named Dongyangwei Hutong in 1956, and renamed Dongzhimen Beizhong Jie in 1979. In the northern tip of the street, there was the mansions of the Prince Lu and the 
Prince Yunqi, which became the Russian Orthodox Eastern Church and the General Church of the Orthodox Eastern. It became the former Soviet Embassy after 1949. Today north of the northern border, Minan Jie, is the largest embassy area of one country in Beijing. The Russian Embassy is our neighbour here! Back to the eastern border. It is the Dong Yang Wei Jie, where our home and apartment is situated at number 1! The last picture shows you ou home street seen from the south. You can not see our house from here, but you can see directly on the left in the middle of that house is the place where we cut our hairs. And right to the left after this house is the local street where we go and buy our food and Tsingtao beers! Outside this to the east are some tall buildings and the 2nd Ring Road. Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao!How about the beer distribution in Beijing on bicykles with three wheels, or the sales of easy street food also on bicykles with three wheels and with an oil can as the barbecue cooking place between the two back wheels, or how girls sit riding back of a bicykle! What ever you do don´t park your car on the street! It will be very exspensive and your car is gone when you come back for it. The police takes away your car very fast! So when you walk on the pavement you should better watch out because the cars
drive on them to park! Don´t relax or you will be runned over! Don´t throw you cigarett end in the street or pavement. It will cost you 50 yuan in legal fee from the police! These are some of the things you will notice during your visit here. It is better to know them before you go here! In another earlier blog post have already told you about the toilets! Always be prepared for these things. Don´t forget to bring your own toilet paper and so on. Another thing is that I was told before going to Beijing was that the taxi drivers can fool you on the money by putting on the night fares as you don´t understand the chinese sign for night. Maybe they do this, but it´s no money! If I were you I would rather know the shortest way to your destination, because they try to take you there the longer way! 
I have seen them doing this also with a chinese person in the taxi, though without a major success! Some people they would better not try this thing with! Like Liping! And I tell you again that the chinese people in Beijing have a very hot temperament, goes away and all is forgotten very quickly, and are very nice and friendly to all, specially the foreign guests in their city! I almost get the same feeling as being visiting southern Europe, and specially Rhodes in Greece! Everything here seems and works the same way. Don´t get fooled by the fact that this country is a communist state, as it is much harder in the USA! In this country half of the enterpises are privately owned, and you are confronted all over with the capitalistic way of living and thinking! A word of warning here though. This country is growing right now to become a capitalistic society within the communistic system. Don´t criticise the chinese government, only do as they tell you to do. And you will feel like at home! You´d better let the chinese develope their own country in their own special way! They do it in a very unique way! Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao! You know I have seen most of the famous sights in Beijing. There are still some more left to see! The most famous are the Ming Tombs, the Temple Of Heaven, The Peking Man, many other temples, muslim and christian churches, 
many other parks, the underground city. I have seen the some of them from the outside, but it´s not the same thing. There is also the Drum and Bell Towers, visiting the Nanjing Brewery, and many different market places. I would also like to visit some museums, other than the Beijing World Art Museum, the different Beijing Railroad Stations and the CCTV Tower. I have seen the tower though. Just like many other of the sights. There is also a Botanical Garden and the Old Summer Palace ruins. So get ready for some more interesting reports of my next visit to Beijing!Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao!In this blog post I will try to show you a litle bit more about general advice during your stay in Beijing! First you have to understand that everybody is very nice, curious of us westerners(Lao Wei) and friendly. Most of the times when somebody seeks contact with you, they want to take your picture or talk to you so they can practise their english and learn more english from you! The chinese, specially the younger ones, are very interested in you as you are a westerner. You both look and behave different to them, and you really have to understand this as they come on to you all the time. Need a break from this, don´t come to China! My advice is take your time with them, talk to them, let them take a picture together with you in their mobile phone! You will make new 
friends and learn a lot about how the chinese people are! I will tell you about some examples of this, but firstly I want to tell you about the bad side also. It never happened to me during one months stay, but must have happened to others as I have heard about it. As a man you may be contacted by young female students that wants to sell sex or make you go to very exspensive restaurants with them. This is what I have heard from others. but as I said it never happened to me. Maybe I was in the wrong places or what ever. Just a warning as everybody wants your money. The same when you buy something, don´t buy at their price. Always negociate and you will get a much lower price! Now I will tell you about one day when I was sitting down on a chair in a hutong street next to a bank. Now the bank on the picture here is not this one. In every bank I visited you have two guards. Liping was cueing at the bank, and during that time a guard came up to me and asked if I speak english. He sat down next to me, and he could all the time see the bank, and we started talking. We talked for 30 minutes about almost everything. 
His country, my country, how would I find t-shirts with chinese text(I only see with english text as it´s very popular in Beijing), and most interestingly we talked about world environment questions. His english was very good. A very nice young man with, I think, a very good future ahead as he was very clever too! Another time I was contacted near our home by a very nice young woman. Maybe she was some 30 something years old. We talked for also something like 30 minutes about most things in the world, though not about environment issues. I understood that she wanted to improve her english with my help. I met her two times later during my stay during my walks in the Nan Guan Park, and then we only said hello to each other. My advice is always be open to talk to the chinese interested in you, because they always are that! You will make many new friends in this wonderful country. Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao!
In this blog post I will give you some tips on toilets in Beijing. You wonder why? I will tell you why! You only have to visit one of them to really understand why I am telling you this! Now you are in a hurry going to the toilet and you have just now found the place to go to. Number one you will find out that there are only porcelain toilet holes in the floor inside every door you open. They are called squat toilets in english. Now you will have to learn how to use them. Time is running out! I really needed to go here! The next thing you will do is to look for the toilet paper holder. There is no holder, 
and still worse there is no paper! This is what can happen to you if you do not read this blog post! My number one tip to you is: always bring your own toilet paper with you! If you do not have paper with you, you will find it very difficult to ask anybody for it, because your chinese language is very poor! My very useful and good second tip is: where ever you are in central Beijing and in need of a toilet, you just walk into a Hutong street. Why! Because within the next 150 to 200 meters you will find the toilet that you are looking for. In the Hutongs they do not have their own toilets at home. They are all shared by all living there and you must respect that too. You are welcome to use them free, but remember you are the guest here. Also the toilet signs are mostly with english text and international symbols on them. My third tip for all western visitors is: in all newly built toilets you will find the toilet chair to sit on behind the handicap signed door! If you are unlucky like me, I at one time found this one occupied by a man using the chair and the lamp light just sitting there reading his newspaper. Out in the street there was no light to read. Bad luck as I could not speak to him in chinese! I had to use the squat toilet. You also will get very strong legs using them! I know! And finally I will also tell you that in our apartment in Beijing we have a sitting chair toilet with duoble flush choice! Home sweet home! Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao! My local restaurant and late night pub at Dongzhimen Beixiao Dajie is my favorite restaurant to go to. It is my local place to go for beer and talking to people at night. I go here after my 
busy day touring all over the Beijing sights and walking the Nan Guan Park. After that eating at home or at another local restaurant. The personal is very helpful and service minded. They all speak chinese and some also speak russian. For me as an english speaking person this was a little bit more difficult. As I do only speak very little chinese. However the personel there had four persons working there that could speak some english. I give you some nique pictures of some of them. This place became something like a second home for me at late night. Here I could really sit down and relax after eating and Bejing sightseeing at late night. I used to go there something like 9 o´clock at night, returning home like 11 o´clock. 
In my regular way of sitting here included listening to the Beijing Music Radio while drinking beer. I usually start my evening at this restaurant with a chinese draft beer for 5 yuan, sometimes buying two! The next beer would be a Heineken for 20 yuan. Anyway one night we where eating at a local restaurant at Dongzhimen Nei Dajie only 6 minutes walk away from home. We where eating a Sichuan Hot Pot and I was very happy about this evening! Later I go to this local restaurant. The other restaurants at Dongzhimen Nei Dajie tell me I can go there, but it is much more expensive! It is, but for a westerner it is a price level that is ok! Here I also meet 
westerners from countries like Russia, Italy, White Russia, Rumania, Spain, Germany, USA, England and many more countries. I must confess one thing that I did not do at this restaurant! And I do really regret it! But first you must understand anoher thing in life in Beijing! At our apartment Liping´s mother is living, and she wants to give us free food all the time! This is very nice and free, but we also have to eat out during our stay. This is the main reason I did not eat at this restaurant, but I can tell you that all other persons eating here was more than satisfied with the food and service here! Everybody was happy with their food and the prices of it! I talked to many peoples during my nightly visits. One night I talked to a man in english and he also talked to Liping in chinese. Then through her I found out he spoke german and we started talking as I know fluently german. 
After some 20 minutes we both found out that his family was from Denmark, and now we started talking swedish! It´s a very small world we live in! He had been living in Beijing for 6 years and working with selling apartments in Beijing. We talked for a long time about everything, but also some of the value of Liping´s apartment. Now we know that it has in one year gone up to at least three times the original value! So I strongly recommend this place for dining out at night! Also we where very lucky with the local wheather during our 30 days in Liping´s home town Beijing. The summer started 10 days earlier than in 2006. So we had hot summer with temperatures between 25 to 35 degrees celsius during all our stay! We could sit outdoors at night every night here. Lucky ones we are! Zai jian!Peter
Ni hao! 
The Chinese government sees the games as a chance for China to highlight its economic rise and emergence as a world power. Despite the efforts of the Communist Party to tightly manage press coverage of the event, there will likely be issues over the environment, human rights violations, and Tibetan independence. This being so, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has still boasted that the Beijing games will be "the best in Olympic history." Now here´s what I do think about this. I think China is already emerging as this world power in all aspects without the olympic games. The olympic games will only be a feather in the hat! But you will have to rememberthis is a very large country with many people living there, and it is difficult to totally control all things going on in all corners of this enourmous country! Many chinese are already very much aware of the environment questions. They are truely working on this and the future process will show it to the world. Now to the point of my blog post! Unlike many large cities in the world there are a lot of bicykles in this city, 
and also a lot of the local distribution go on bicykles. There is also the question of the hutongs being taken away. Now of the remaing 3000 hutongs some 1000 will be renovated and left for all to see, visit and live in. But my main point here is how has life been living in these old hutongs? You must remember that there are no toilets in the houses, and the fire brigade can not go there in these narrow streets and so on. So all of this is not bad. I think the government of Beijing is really trying to find a working solution for all living in the hutongs as well as for the future and the tourists! But you must cooperate with them or this will not work for you. It will be bad to go against this developement. Though we do really need to preserve the hutongs for the future generations, so they can know how life has been in Beijing. Liping´s home in Maoer Hutong is now becoming an alley street going straight through this hutong. So we know what it is loosing this living. But still the solution is very good. But these some 1000 hutongs must be preserved for the future generations to see and live in. Now, when in Beijing, we are living in the old Dong Yang Wei Hutong at Dong Yang Wei Jie!
