Breakforth

No one in the right mind would go to Edmonton in January. Well, no one except me and two other friends from my church. We went to Edmonton to attend Christian conferenced called Breakforth. I heard this first from my friend in Edmonton. Since this is one of the bigger conference in Canada and I haven't been to much, I figured it was good experience (and I got free accomoation too :P) The conference turned out to be quite well, in a different way than I expected. I was expecting it to be a revival conference and I would come out like a new person. I didn't come out as a new person, but there are some interesting speaker that gives me inspiration. I particular liked a guy named Dan Webster. His session is about leadership, especially church leadership. May be I felt a bit lost on how thing should be done lately and I am not particular like how thing is. His talk set my focus back to the ministries. Everything is about the heart. I also really like the worship part. Those worship leaders can just bring the passion from people. That is what worship really is than just singing songs. This weekend I thought I would come back having more confirmation on my decision, but instead, I got inspired in a quite different way. But I do pick up my passion to do the ministries again.

Does Anybody Hear Her

I came across this video while surfing the web. Very powerful lyrics. It was a good reminder for me on how we all just too self-absorbed in our own problem and get too comfortable with our own friends but forgot about the people around us. As a church, we are no longer approachable but rather just show people that they are different.

Food from Beijing

This is a Chinese style crepe I got from the street. They wrap some crunchy stuff inside the crepe and put lots of sauce in. Yummy breakfast for freezing morning.
I ordered this noodle from a Muslim restaurant (I went in for the lamb kebab). This tasted a bit like noodle with very watery tomato sauce.
Mushroom with pine nut from Quanjude restaurant. Very tasty but I wonder if they used duck fat to add the extra tastiness :)
It is sushi. That is right. I ate sushi in Beijing. This was my dinner after meeting with my cousin. He suggested several places around his university. Since I wanted something light, I went to a Japanese restaurant. I ordered a salmon don and hoping that it would remotely taste something like Maruwa. And it was not. It had no taste at all and was expensive. The beer was cheap though (only RMB 12 for a big bottle of Asahi). I found out later that this was not the restaurant that my cousin recommended. Oh well, too late.
And I had Korean food in Beijing :) I found that I was a bit tired of Chinese food but I don't know if I could find good western food in China. I was actually craving for a grilled cheese panini when I found this Korean restaurant. Turned out quite surprising good. I ordered a spicy tofu hotpot and it was pretty yummy. Warmed me up to finish my walk.

Sunday Sermon

I found out that there is a church around my hostel. I was kind of surprised because I was staying in the older part of Beijing and I totally didn't expect that there is a church. So I decided to attend the Sunday service as usual. They have 4 different time and given that I am a lazy bum these days, I picked the 11am one (I could have gone to the 7pm one!!!) The most interesting thing is the pastor wasn't even there physically. They have TV set and they are just playing the video tape of a pastor preaching in another location. I found it quite interesting. I thought I may know some of the hymn back from the elementary school years, but apparently not. There are a lot of different age group in the church, even some like grandma ages. The pastor preached in Chinese. I already have difficulties with listening to Mandarin and listening to sermon in Chinese is another challenge. I soon started to zone out :P I felt a bit bad because my neighbors were all madly taking notes and my mind wandered off to thinking where to go next. I should have search for an English sermon and may be that would be easier for me not zzzz :P

Beijing Duck

Since I was travelling alone, I wasn't sure if I should go eat Beijing Duck. But then everyone keep saying that is something you can't miss. I figure why not. So I went to the most famous place Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (全聚德) for lunch one day. I ordered half a duck and a veggie dish since I haven't eat anything green for like....7 days :(. I actually found it quite disappointing. The veggie dish I order was actually quite tasty. But the whole time I kept wondering if they use duck fat to cook the mushroom cause everything on the menu seems to contain duck. Then came the main dish. They first gave me a small dish of skin only. I had two pieces. I swear that those two pieces could have given me a heart attack. IT IS ALL GREASE! And it doesn't even have much taste. All I can taste is oil. Then the rest of the duck. You have to order the side dish separately. So I only order wrap and sauce. The duck meat is actually quite dry. I was not very impressed after all, especially it is the most famous restaurant. I think I make a better duck than them :P The whole meal cost me RMB 200. I almost cried when I paid and want a refund.

Forbidden City

The first day in Beijing I chose to go to Forbidden City. Mainly because A, I really want to go there and spend as much time as I want. And B, I know exactly how to get there so I don't need to look up a map or anything :) Though after Chengde, I was a bit afraid that I would be disappointed in Forbidden City as well. But I ended up spending two days there.

I picked up one of the audio guide so I could learn more about each place and still travel at my own speed. I didn't find out till the next day that if you get the Mandarin one it is cheaper (RMB 40 vs RMB 10) and it has more detail description. It is an automatic machine so it picked up the signal when you are in the area. The annoying thing is the machine is very sensitive. It picks up the signal even though you are not at the place yet. So there was one time I was in washroom and my stooopid machine started talking!!!

I successfully avoided to use the Chinese washroom in Chengde because my hotel was very closed to everywhere. But I didn't get the luxury in Forbidden City unless I wanted to kill my bladder. The ones in Forbidden City is actually 4 stars :P The only challenging thing is to go to washroom with your day pack and wearing a down jacket. I bet the cleaning lady must think I drowned in there somehow because it took me a freaking 15 minutes to get out the stall. :P

If I complained about how few tourists in Chengde, then Beijing is PACKED with tourist everywhere. There are tour groups from everywhere around the world. I ran into a group of Japanese girls on the first day. The interesting thing is they all wear kimono. I didn't dare to go ask why but I did take a picture of them :)

The whole time I walked around listening to how each place is used, I keep thinking, how could ONE person use that much space! I always thought my tiny 700 square feet is pretty big for one person. But when you look at the Forbidden City, there is a hall for the emperor to dress, a hall for the emperor to prepare to enter the main hall, a hall...man, that is all for one person!! Another thing I found interesting is, how could the empress and concubines walk in those shoes back then. Here I was walking in my runner and I almost fall every now and then. And back then, their small feet....how could they even stand up?! and walk without falling head over heel?! I guess the same skill set that some ladies master to hike in high heel. :)

Eight Outer Temples

I spent the next day in Chengde to visit some of the temples in Chengde. It is supposed to be very famous because it is part of the Mountain Resort. I picked only two temples to go because I knew I wouldn't have enough time to go to all eight. I picked the largest one called Puning Temple(普宁寺). Unfortunately, I found it rather disappointing. It has one of the biggest Buddha statue which is two storey tall. But that is about it about the temple. And it cost me RMB60!!! Totally not worth it.


The only thing interesting is they have a "band" outside the main building. Whenever you donate RMB100, they play some music supposed to be wishing you luck. Other than that, it is relatively boring.



The second temple I went to is a resemble of the Potala Temple called Potuozongchenge Temple (普陀宗乘之庙). I found this one more interesting but unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice so I couldn't take a good picture of the place. The main temple has some "lama" to greet people. One of the lama in the temple was telling me he could preform some sort of trick so by looking into my eyes, he could tell my birthday and he and his master are the only two people in China that could do it. Another lama wanted to preform a ritual on me to wish my luck. Somehow that freak me out and I kind of ran out the door while keep saying no. Other than that, the temples are pretty much a rip-off.

Food from Chengde

Food is the most important part for my trip. I actually travel to eat. Here is some of the food I had in Chengde. Most of the time I just wander around and walk into a place where it has tons of people.

I didn't know that "seaweed wrapped rice" mean sushi! I felt I got ripped off. But then it is only RMB 12. I guess I can't complain.
The wonton is okay. Just pork. RMB 4 only. What more do you want!
Congee and steamed bun. I refused to stay in my hotel and paid RMB 15 for a breakfast buffet. Instead, I found this congee place next to my hostel. This is only RMB 4 :D
This is from a dumpling specialty store and it is seriously YUMMY dumpling. It is a bit more pricey though, RMB 30. But it is because of the content I picked. It is 桂花鱼 (a kind of fish but I don't know the English name). I would say this is well worth it! Just looking at the picture make my mouth water again :D
I was freezing my bum bum off while walking down the street so I decided to have hot pot for dinner. The waitress thought I was nut to eat hot pot by myself. I didn't order much though. Just lamb :) For some reason, they seem to use less sauce than what I am used to, but I guess peanut sauce is enough for lamb.

Mountain Resort

After I complained numerous times to my cousin for telling me to bring an extra thick jacket for my trip when Beijing is really just like Vancouver weather, my extra warm down jacket come in pretty handy in Chengde. I spent two days in Chengde to tour around and to be honest, I am quite disappointed the first day in Mountain Resort (避暑山庄). It is supposed to be a royal summer resort several hundreds years ago and it should be even prettier than the summer palace in Beijing. However, since it is fire hazard season, half the resort is closed. A lot of displayed only has Chinese explanation and they don't even have enough light on. Everything is so dark and old. Since it is not exactly travel season for Chengde, I am almost the only tourist in there. I wander around thinking if they closed the gate without checking to see if everyone left, would I be locked inside. However, the garden is extremely pretty. You can see the people put a lot of effort to make sure all the scenery tied together. And then you have to wonder how can people be that rich (I know it is a royal resort) and have so much time. I wish I could retire like that!

Bus Mates

I met this couple Alan and Linda, on my bus ride to Chengde. It was a 15 people minibus and they keep talking in English. Linda was actually knitting the whole way too!!! Eventually I was curious enough to talk to them. They are from San Francisco and will be here for a month. They already been to DaTong and PiuYiang (I was so excited when they told me that cause that was the place I was going to go originally but have to change my plan because lack of time) and will spend next few days in Beijing. They were commenting the reckless driving of our minibus driver. It is kind of reckless and I am glad I wasn't sitting in the front cause I would totally freak out. It is a single lane highway. And whenever he want to pass people, he basically drive on the incoming traffic lane. It is okay if it is straight flat road. But we are talking about driving between mountain, where it is curvy and wavy. And it is not a quiet road. He basically would shift back to his lane LAST MINUTE before hitting the incoming car. I am glad I arrive in one piece and not knowing better. I am slightly disappointed that my bus ride didn't stop at the Great Wall, which my book said they would, or use the new highway which would only take 2.5 hours. But I guess my bus has a load of people wanting to go home. Once we arrived at Chengde, it seems like Alan and Linda are going to the same hotel as me. So we took the bus together. Since I am the person actually speak more and better :P Mandarin than either of them, I asked the bus driver where about we should took off. She said 6 bus stations. After stopping at 3-4 bus stations, I forgot exactly how many were there left. So I ask the lady beside me and she thought for a bit, and when the bus stopped, she quickly told me to get off HERE. I was like...errr....but...and without giving me anytime to to say anything, she dragged me off the bus and then showed me on the board at the bus station to take another bus that would take me directly to where I wanted to go. The problem now was that Alan and Linda were still on the bus and it was so crowded that they didn't see me get off. I haven't seen them since then. I hope they are okay. :(

Joy Ride

I decided to wait after the rush hour to take the subway with my backpack. The girl in hostel told me to go Xizhimen to catch the bus there. Silly me forgot to ask about the exact address and bus schedule. When I arrived at that subway station, no one seemed to know there is a bus to go to Chengde. So I tried to get closer to train station and tried to find if there is a long distance bus station to ask. I found a ticket booth next to a bus parking lot. The lady at the ticket booth told me the earliest ride to Chengde is 3:00pm, and it was 9am at that time! She also told me to go to Beijing station and they have an earlier ride. I quickly hopped onto the subway to go to Beijing station and was slightly annoyed with myself that I forgot to ask the bus schedule when I left the hostel. I took out my lonely planet and it mentioned there is two long distance bus station and have bus leaving every hour. Now I am in dilemma. Should I trust lonely planet, or try what that lady told me. I figured I had enough time to check out what the lady said first. And I was a bit worried that the lonely planet information is out of date since it is not travelling season. When I arrived at Beijing station, I found I made a bigger mistake. It is a HUGE station and I had no way to know where to find the bus station. I figure I would check the train schedule first since I am this close already. The lady at the ticket booth told me the earliest train is leaving at 12:30, which is exactly what the other lady at Beijing north station told me. I finally realized I have been talking to train ticket people the whole time!!! She gave me a very annoyed look and I figured I will get a ticket since I am here anyway. After I got my ticket, then I remembered that that train is actually that super slow train and it would take 6-7 hours to arrive compared to a 4 hour bus ride. Here I am standing at Beijing station again debating if I should suck up with my mistake, or really see if lonely planet is correct. Since I had another 2 hour to kill, I rather went check it out than standing at the bus station guarding my belonging. Once I arrived at one of the closer bus station that Lonely Planet mentioned, I found my bus. It is leaving at 11:30am and will take 4 hour. So after I wasted 2 subway ride ($2 each) and 1 train ticket ($20 and I should have refund it if I know better) and 3 hours of running around like a mad woman, I am on my bus to Chengde.

PS. I just checked the train schedule and apparently it is just a 5 hour ride for the ticket I got. I should have taken the train instead since the bus ride took closed to 5 hour anyway. Oh well.


PPS. What is a trip without me injuring myself. Here is the bruise I got from tripping in Beijing station while trying to figure the bus situation. I swear I will bring my hiking boot to travel next time. The whole time wearing my backpack, I feel that i will trip anytime. Good thing is that my laptop survived the fall with me landing on it :)

Starbucks Guide

Before I left for my vacation, my friends teased me how am I going to survive with no Starbucks in China. There was a 2 second panic and then I remembered reading something about Starbucks opened in Forbidden City. So I am sure there is Beijing at least have Starbucks. Today started off with me waking up at 4am because of the stoopid jet lag. After trying for an hour to go back to sleep, I gave up and did some reading and MSN. Then my coffee addiction kicked in. It was 6am in the morning. I didn't know if the Starbucks in Beijing open that early. I made use of my free Internet to find the closet store open at 9am! (why can't they open at 6am like Vancouver!) I figured I would go for a walk anyway cause I was starving already and I really didn't feel like eating another granola bar (Note to self, always bring granola bar to travel from now on. It saved me twice already on this trip :P) When I opened the hostel door to go out, there was a guy, Ryan standing wanting to stay at the hostel. But all the receptionist were still asleep at that hour. So he just dropped off his bag inside and walked with me. He happened to come back from a trip to Dalian and knew where the Starbucks around the hostel is!! My friend said I always have a weird instinct to find all the Starbucks. But never before that when I opened the door and boom, a Starbucks guide :p So we chatted a bit and apparently he is from St Louisiana and came to work in Shanghai for couple months. And now wanting to move to Beijing. He looked abit like my friend Wes but I didn't say that out loud. (sound too much like a pick up line). He studied architecture (I was going to say my cousin is doing that here too! but found that sound a bit weird too) and just trying out to live a different life. I found that quite interesting cause he apparently doesn't know a word of Chinese and not having any friends or relatives here and decided to just come and see. I guess he is still young to do that.

One World, One Dream

I arrived safely in Beijing and writing this from my hostel room. The flight was pretty uneventful. I was so tired from trying to get everything done for work the night before. I basically work the whole night and some extra time while waiting for boarding. My neighbor on the plane is a guy from Winnipeg going to Zhengzhou. (No, Ray. He is not hot. So keep praying :P) He was an okay neighbor until he decided to be talkative. He almost didn't shut up for the rest of the trip even though I put up the face that I am doing some serious reading (well, I guess you can't say reading "The Devil Who Wear Prada" seriously) I guess one good thing is I get to practice my long-lost super broken Mandarin.

Compared to last year in Vietnam, I am surprised when I walk out the airport, I wasn't surrounded by tons and tons of people asking if I want taxi or ride. In fact I was only approached by two people and once I said no, they leave me alone. Beijing is totally different than how I remember it. It has such a big cities feel now. Very metropolis like. People are different than I remember too. They are really polite and helpful. Compared to several years ago when I went to Shanghai, people actually lined up here. When I went out for dinner last night, I saw one of the traffic controller yelling at one of the biker who tried to run a red light. I am pretty amazed by that. You can actually follow traffic light (and other people do that too!) without worrying getting killed. Last time crossing the traffic was the biggest challenge for me in China. I guess at least in Beijing I won't be killed in car accident this time.

PS. The hostel I am staying is pretty neat. I will try to take some pictures in the morning.

Reckless

So my trip is coming up soon, real soon. Like this Sunday :) I am actually pretty excited about the whole trip. I have it all planned out (first time ever I am sooo organized before the trip!) Even when I talked to my friend on Saturday, I am very looking forward to my trip. There are so many things I want to see and China is always the place I really want to go and just wander around in all the historical places. Even my parents are super worried about me travelling by myself, they actually are the one who nag me the least. Some of my friends keep telling me horrid stories about robbery. When they found out I am planning to stay in a hostel in Beijing, they totally freak out (and the funny thing is my parents actually didn't :P) They keep saying why I am staying in hostel (cause it is cheaper :P) and why sharing room with people (cause it is cheaper and it is just another girl) They go on and on about hostel in China isn't like Europe. Though I understand they only care about my safety, I think I know what I am doing. When I travel by myself, I usually play it more safe too. So it is not like I would recklessly go around the cities to the unsafe area. And when I compared to my other friends, I am totally the safe traveller and can well take care of myself :) Tonight make me kind of miss my friends who I travelled with cause they would understand and just get excited for my trip :(

Purpose of Life

I finished watching a Japanese drama called "One Litre of Tears" last night in one go (which by the way is bad idea if you need to go to work the next day). The story is based on a real life story. A 15 years old girl was diagnosed spinocerebellar ataxia, a disease that the patient slowly lose the ability to move and talk and there is still no known cure. The drama basically showed the girl's life starting when she got diagnosed with the disease till she died. It is a very sad story cause her body started to deteriorate but yet she stayed conscious the whole thing. It is a very brutal disease. And then she started to wonder the purpose for her life. For us, it may be friends or family. But for her, her only focus is to stay alive. She questioned what is the point for staying alive when you can see your body slowly dying. What should be the purpose then? It is not even an easy life to live. Every movement you rely on someone to help you. Any moment now you can die from the smallest thing like eating or drinking. You lost control on everything that you take for granted. It is almost easier to die than live. Never give up, it is easier said than done. But yet she did. She found the purpose for her live and she tried her best to keep on living. Her courage really astounded me. I don't know if I am her, I would be to live like that. Now I am interested to read the original book which is the diary that the girl wrote during her years of sickness.

Super Fun Trip Planning

So I actually started planning my trip. Given that I am leaving in 3 weeks, it is "normal" for everyone to plan their trip, book the hotel, etc, etc. But not me. I usually do the planning on the plane :) What else can you do on the 8 hour flight? :) But this time, I actually started planning. Partly because my parents decide to tag on part of my trip. And I also want to take a look what I can do in China. Then I realize how big China really is!!! I mean I always know it is big, but every place I want to go take 6 hours train! :( I was searching online and reading people recommendation on places. And then I started to feel exhausted reading how long each places takes and 6 hours is already the short trip :( Now I realize I am really old! When I backpacked in Europe back then, overnight train is nothing! But now....Anyway I got more excited to read about all the places I haven't heard of. I started to re plan my whole trip. Now I regretted getting my Shanghai to HK flight ticket so early because I want to go to Xian instead. Oh well, I guess I will have to do another trip again :)

Accomplishment?

I have been thinking alot lately and I also got asked alot lately: how does I like being project manager compared to developer. I seriously don't know. I like the coordination work and feel that I am on top of things. But then I also miss the coding part. I feel that I don't use my brain anymore. I guess I am using more soft skill with people now instead. But then you don't feel a sense of accomplishment. When you finish working on a piece of code, you see that piece of code. But now when I finish replying email, I....replied the email. It just feel so lame on the accomplishment. The reason I keep thinking about this is that my customer requested that I quantify my work. I was like, how do you put "I reply email and handle whatever crap my architect doesn't feel like doing" in a nicer way. The more I think about it, I really don't know what I do. I go to meeting. I write meeting minute. I keep track of task and ask "nicely" if there is a delay. Now come to think about it, I feel I didn't really achieve anything.

PS. I found this link online while trying to quantify my work. I find that kind of funny. http://decker.typepad.com/welcome/2005/05/what_a_project_.html

Another Year Wiser :)

I think time flies by quicker than I ever remember. Before I realized, summer is already over and I am another year older. Wait. This year I decided I will stop aging. Actually I decide I will stay at certain age and just won't grow old. May be wiser every year, but not older! :) One of my friends refuse to grow older after 13. So compared to him, I think I am doing pretty good. There is nothing really exciting this year. Just hanging out with friends. Don't get me wrong. I had fun. Just lately I have been so stressed and tired so it is nice to have a break. And didn't get drunk this year. That is good too. And on my birthday I just ate with my parents. The most exciting part probably is I had been having a fight with them on various things. So the dinner was just "excellent" :) I guess you can never get parents to see you point of personal space and they can never get you to see their point of your lack of availability. So our conversation goes from how I am always busy to how uneager I was with them coming with me on my Beijing trip. Anyway, I still have some good chat with my friends. And my friend made me a Totoro cake. :) And I got some funky toys. :) It is all good :)

Friend Forever?

Ever regretted that you shut a friend out of your life? I never thought I would, but I do now. There was a friend that I was very closed to but we had a big fight way back then. Even though we reconcile after, but we lost our closeness. Every time we saw each other and we would nod and chat about random stuff, but we don't let each other into our lives anymore. I never thought I would regret that. Friends come and go. I lost this friend, but I made some other new friends. Who care about one? So some of us are trying to schedule dinner next week since we haven't seen each other for awhile. And today when I am chatting with my friend to check if my friend going. Then I realized a lot of thing happened lately and I really regretted that we didn't talk at all last while. Some kind of friend I am! We shared so much with each other before, about our goal, our view in life, our plan. And nowadays we just don't do that anymore. So today I just found out that my friend has been struggling alot with work, family and relationship lately and I really regretted that we never truly reconcile after the fight. I never stand on the side to support my friend when needed. I am glad I had this chance to chat today and hopefully our friendship changed again.

Tough Luck?

I had the worst luck as a project manager ever. Within a month, I have one developer's wife who needed to go to hospital because of stomach problem, one tester who needed immediate operation, one developer who had lung problem and waiting for operation, another developer who had diagnosed with virus. I mean how many project manager had to deal with that many people got sick in a month and all of them are serious sickness. :( Problem is I can't just replace them because developers need time to ramp up. Last project, both my tester and developer left the company. I have only one conclusion. The problem is me.