The Alabama Expat

From Birmingham to Beijing: A veteran Alabama journalist blogs about her new life in modern China.

[anneruisi]

A fond farewell to the Guild

Members of the Beijing Knitting Guild meet at La Medina Middle Eastern restaurant in the Sanlitun diplomatic neighborhood.

When I leave Beijing this fall after eight years in China’s capital city, I will sorely miss a particular group of people - the members of the Beijing Knitting Guild.

The group, mostly comprised of expats like myself, meets on Monday afternoons and Thursday evenings, and like most of the members who work, I go on Thursdays. 

Since most members go after work, we meet at a variety of Beijing restaurants (with good lighting) to work on our projects, enjoy a meal and good fellowship. A number of our members are teachers, a couple of us work in communications and a few work at various embassies or their spouses do. We even have a member who is an ambassador. 

This group has been a lifesaver for me, offering a regular evening out with a group of fun, interesting and talented women (and sometimes a few men). Their efforts to teach me to knit and crochet were fruitless, but they don’t mind that I work on embroidery projects. 

For the last couple of years I’ve worked on a four-foot long table runner, only embroidering  during our gatherings. After 2.5 years, I completed it.

As is all too common, our member roster changes regularly, as people come and go from Beijing to their home countries or other diplomatic postings. In the past, I’ve waved goodbye to friends who went home to Germany and South Africa, and to new embassy assignments in India.

Now it’s my turn to say farewell. I will really miss these friends.

After 2.5 years, The Alabama Expat’s four-foot long table runner is complete.

[anneruisi]

Not the usual bar decor

A Red Guard steps on the back of an academic in this figurine depicting a common scene during China’s Cultural Revolution. 

This figurine is not the the usual porcelain shepherdess or dairy maid you might have found in your grandmother’s curio cabinet. It’s in a Beijing bar and depicts a harsh moment from China’s Cultural Revolution, the public humiliation of an academic by a member of Mao Zedong’s Red Guards. 

The Cultural Revolution was a complex upheaval, a 10-year purge begun by Mao in 1966 to “cleanse” capitalistic and traditional elements from society and reassert his authority. There is no way it can be described in a few sentences but it was a decade that brought untold suffering to the Chinese people. Among these were attacks on intellectuals and education, as seen in the figurine.

The porcelain is an odd curiosity to find in a bar, but it’s one that serves to remind of a terrible era in China’s 20th century history. 

To learn more about the Cultural Revolution, check out this list of books from The Nation. 

A closeup of the academic shows that he’s wearing a placard that reads “Academic Authority” around his neck.

[anneruisi]

It’s always amazing how much trash and other items haulers can pile onto the back of a small, three-wheeled motorized cart. Here, an older man ties down a stack of flattened cardboard appliance boxes topped by who-knows-what’s in the giant bags on the top. 

[anneruisi]

Headed to the dinner platter

Fish swim in the tanks at Ito Yokado supermarket.

Chinese diners love fresh fish, and at the upscale supermarket at Japanese department store Ito Yokado, there are plenty to choose from.

Not only fish, but clams, scallops, crab and lobsters fill the aerated tanks that draw shoppers. I’ve not seen prepared tartar sauce at the store, but there is mayonnaise and relish to make your own.

[anneruisi]

How would you like to begin your daily shift at work with a military-like pep talk? The manager at a Xiaoguan neighborhood hair salon addresses the “troops” - the stylists and shampoo artists - before they begin their shift. This is a regular occurrence at many small businesses throughout Beijing.

[anneruisi]

You’d think that a major international corporation like Ikea could invest in a good English language editor to make sure their in-house signs are correct. This translation would have you leave one of your hands, instead of items you decide you don’t want, in the bin.

[anneruisi]

Try some beer-flavored chips

“Strong beer” flavor potato chips are for sale in China. (Photo by Ian Morrison)

My friend Ian posted on Chinese social media this picture of a new Lay’s potato chip for sale in the neighborhood market: Beer flavor. 

Actually, the Chinese reads “Strong beer flavor potato chips” and there is a bottle and a glass of draft on the package, just to make sure you know. It’s an unusual flavor to an American but there are endless interesting tastes here. Kit Kat candy bars, for example, come in matcha, a green tea flavor that’s quite popular in China.

While I’m not interested in trying these, I’m sure there are many folks back home who would. Maybe I’ll buy a bag and tuck it in my luggage next time I head home - I just hope the chips make the trip without being crushed.

[anneruisi]

Breaking into my living room

A maintenance man drills through the living room door lock at The Alabama Expat’s Beijing apartment.

Guess what I found out the other day? There are no keys for interior doors in the apartments most China Daily foreigners live in - so when the door somehow automatically locked from the inside with my cats in the living room, I discovered no one had a key to unlock it.

The maintenance man didn’t have a key either and couldn’t jimmie it open. Thank goodness he went and got a drill. It took him about 15 minutes to drill through it and open it. 

The cats didn’t even notice.

[anneruisi]

The honeycomb exterior of the Intercontinental Hotel in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district offers a nightly show as the neon lights are timed to create a colorful scene.

[anneruisi]

These beautiful children greet me almost every late afternoon during good weather when I walk home for dinner break. On this afternoon, the kids were blowing bubbles and having a grand time. They live in on-campus apartment buildings that China Daily offers to foreign and Chinese staff, although not all workers opt to live there.  

[anneruisi]

Delivery drivers take a break while waiting to pick up orders at the top of the alley next door to China Daily in Beijing. There are several restaurants in the alley the drivers frequently go in and out of, like Subway, Lakers and a couple of Chinese restaurants.

[anneruisi]

Holding onto the posts, a little girl climbs along the outside edge of a pedestrian bridge on Huixin Dongjie in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. 

[anneruisi]

No helmets or leathers here, as three men share a ride on a small motorcyle during afternoon rush hour in Beijing’s Lido community. It’s not unusual to see more than two people sharing a two-wheeled mode of transportation and very often it’s a family on a scooter or e-bike, which are prevalent throughout the capital of China.

[anneruisi]

Grocery store caters to expats

A new  April Gourmet supermarket with many Western items is open in Liangmaqiao’s Grand Summit annex.

There are a number of supermarkets in Beijing that cater to Western tastes while offering a regular selection of Chinese products, like Jenny Wang, Jenny Lou and April Gourmet.

One of my favorite places to hang out on a day off, the Grand Summit shopping center’s annex, has added a much-needed supermarket, April Gourmet. 

Chinese supermarkets usually carry a limited line of Western products, like Coca-Cola beverages, candy and some toiletries, like Dove or Safeguard soap. But if you’re hankering for Wheat Thins snack crackers, Smuckers preserves or Campbell’s tomato soup, you’ll need to go to one of these specialty supermarkets.

The annex has my favorite Starbucks to enjoy a brew and a book, my favorite spa (Dragonfly) and a burger joint, Fatburger’s, where once in a while I enjoy a single with tomato and lettuce. 

[anneruisi]

Roly poly fish heads

Fish heads in a Chinese supermarket are only 29.8 yuan for 500 grams (about 1 pound) - that’s $4.62.

One aspect of Asian cuisine that I just can’t make myself try is any dish that prominently features fish heads.

I first encountered them in the late 1990s on an extended vacation to visit a sister who was living in Singapore. We went to one of the island’s famous food halls, where I learned fish head curry is the country’s national dish.

That’s not quite what I was expecting, and it was a hard pass.

Go into any market in China and you’re likely to see not only fresh fish and seafood, but fish heads on ice, ready for the cooking pot.

[anneruisi]

Happy anniversary, happy 1,000th post!

Celebrations abound this summer as China Daily marks its 40th anniversary and The Alabama Expat publishes this, her 1,000th blog post.

A large, red-colored banner at the main entrance to China Daily’s Beijing headquarters marks a major milestone - the news organization’s 40th anniversary. 

The banner’s deep color is appropriate, as red not only signifies good luck in China, but traditionally the 40th year of a significant event is called a ruby anniversary.

Since its beginning in 1981, the organization has expanded into new platforms, such as China Daily Website, 21st Century (a medium for young people) and New Media, a group that focuses on using technology to tell the China story.

The Alabama Expat also is celebrating its 1,000th post since I arrived in China in 2013. Its intent was to serve as a digital scrapbook of my life in China, something that I thought would last only a year or two. It’s almost hard to believe it’s been eight.

[anneruisi]

Delta variant hits China

A China Daily worker sprays sanitizer near the main entrance to the news organization.

Delta has arrived in China and we’re not talking about the airline. 

The highly infectious COVID-19 variant arrived last month, hitching a ride on a flight from Russia, where airport workers in Nanjing, a city in eastern China, were infected. It spread from there, with the first reports of infections in Beijing coming in the last week. 

Since then, it’s spread to more than 26 cities and so far, more than 300 people have been infected. Chinese officials aren’t taking this lightly, with mass testing of millions and extensive contact tracing underway. 

In Beijing people and the authorities are taking this outbreak - the country’s biggest in over a year - seriously. More pedestrians are wearing masks, shortcuts through some office buildings are being closed and many places that had gone lax on temperature taking have set up their monitors at building entryways. 

The city has banned flights and trains from medium and high-risk areas in China and Beijingers are waiting to see what other measures might be introduced.

China Daily, which requires visitors and staff to use a temperature scanner before entering the compound (to check for anyone running a fever, a possible sign of infection), also started sanitizing heavy-traffic areas, like the entrance to the main building.

While these adjustments to daily life are taking place, people are just bracing themselves to see what might be coming next.