sugar water medicine at the tailor's

What happened this week? At work I was busy from Monday to Wednesday because we had an external audit. Seems that it went very well.
Apart from that, Agnes brother Jakob who's on a visit needed a new suit so we went to "my" tailor shop. Hidden in the basement of a Chinese style apartment house nobody would ever find this tailor by coincidence, but only based on recommendation (in my case from a Taiwanese colleague). However, they are always quite busy.
The owner is a woman in her late 40s or early 50s, maybe 1.5 m or 1.6 m tall, from Shanghai and very nice! She talks in quick Chinese to all her clients, evento Agnes brother who doesn't understand Chinese yet. Well, the effort she does is what matters. She is just so attentive and helpful. Suddenly Agnes felt a little bit weak, so our tailor immediately knew the medicine for that: "tang shui" - sugar water! Agnes drank it out of a small cup and she soon felt a little bit better. Our order showed our appreciaton:
one suit, a blouse, three trousers, five skirts. We can't complain about the prices neither. Don't want to make you envious, just for you to have an idea: one pair of trousers: 100 kuai, a skirt: 100 kuai (100 kuai is equivalent to 10 EUR).

Rural escape - Cuandixia

Today we (Agnes, Claudia, Ines, Jakob and me) drove out of Beijing to Cuandixia. I'd like to quote: "Nestled in a valley 90 km west of Beijing and overlooked by towering peaks is Cuandixia, a gorgeous cluster of historic courtyard homes and old-world charm. The backdrop is lovely: terraced orchards and fields, with ancient houses and alleyways rising up the hillside." We climbed up the hill opposite the town and enjoyed the fantastic view. Then we enjoyed a country meal in one of the house's courtyards, which was simple but good. After lunch a walk to the temple and through town (lanes decorated with dried corn hanging on the houses) gave us more impression about this "lovely" Ming village. When we saw a swing in the form of a bucket (Schaufel eines Baggers), we didn't want to restrict the child in us and went on it :-).

Beijing everyday news

Olympia is approaching very fast. Now Beijing municipality placed new traffic signs with indications to the Olympic venues and places. Well, the sign "Olympic Village" is quite clear and easy to understand. But what place does the "IPC/MPC" sign lead to? "Idiot Parking Centre" "Maniac Parking Center"? The best guess so far goes for "International Business Center / Media Press Center", because that's what many people here wish the Olympics are going to be: good business and positive media coverage.
After weeks of heat, yesterday evening and night we had thunder and lightning in Beijing. Quite heavy to be honest and also some rain. Today it's still raining and the air is fresher which of course I appreciate. Wishing you a nice weekend!

And into the desert!

Wow! Amazing! Great! Awesome! - I think these were the most-used words during the last two days in the desert. Some of the photos taken are so much kitch that nobody would believe they are real (if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes...).

Already the way to our desert (called Alashan Desert, the fourth biggest desert in China, part of the Gobi desert) was so much fun! Of course driving through the sand dunes we had to go on special means of transport. In our case a military truck. And then up and down, ahhhhhhh!, yeah!, a feeling like in a rollercoaster, but even better. Traffic signs in the middle of nowhere, huge sand dunes, panoramic desert views and a little bit hurting bum later we arrived in our hotel in the desert at a lake (called Moon Lake). The mosquitos were welcoming us, but not only they, but also we had some nice dinner and minority dancing & singing.

In the morning we went on a camel ride. Don't think camels are nice animals, at least mine was naughty and some others as well. The camel ride through the sand dunes to a nomad family's house was offering amazing views, but I was mainly concentrating on trying not to fall down the camel and didn't dare to use the camera too often. Back at the hotel, I did a go kart ride in the sand and then it was already time to go back by military truck. The way back was much more challenging to the trucks and in some cases, we needed three tries to succeed to drive up a sand dune...

Alashan desert was a unique experience. Why? Not touristy. A real desert with amazing sand dunes. And last but not least the military truck was just so much fun!

Rock paintings around the world unite!

On our second day in Ningxia new adventures were waiting for us. In the Helanshan (Mount Helan), a very penurious mountain, we visited rock paintings which are over 2000 years in age. Back then the people who lived there painted animals, humans and human masks into the mountain caves. Amazing are the analogies in world history: human beings painted quite similar rock paintings in America, Europe and Asia. That's astonishing given the distances between the different places!Back then human beings used to be nomads, but that's just too far a way to walk...

Another highlight of the day were the Xixia Tombs. Ming and Qing Tombs in Beijing are not the slightest comparison. The Xixia Tombs just look like a huge pile of stones. The emperor of a time when China was split into different kingdoms is said to be burried there.

Chinese Grand Canyon and Chinese Winnetou

Why go to Ningxia? In most travel guides you don't even find this province. It's one of the smallest, newest and poorest provinces of China. One third of the population belong to the Hui minority (yes, they are really called 'Hui') who are muslims. The silk road also used to go through Ningxia.

Ningxia was most surprising to me. They also have the Great Wall there, but it's earthern there and doesn't look like it could last for more than 20 years, but well, they built it in the Ming dynasty and it's still there. This Great Wall was just so different from the Beijing Great Wall! And the most astonishing there is the surrounding nature... they even have a 'Grand Canyon' there and the atmosphere feels like any second there could be Lucky Luke coming around the corner singing a cowboy song. Or Winnetou. Wild Wild West.

Our hotel was in the old town (our Chinese guide saying that, but old to her means from the 1980s :-)). Our driver was a Hui whom our guide considered to be 'very handsome' as she said. Just in case they ever come together and get married, she as a Han Chinese would need to convert to Hui and their religion and they would fall under the exeption of the birth control law. In China there's a law that families normally are only allowed to have one child; exeptions i.a. are minorities which are allowed to have two children per family.

Have a look at the photos to have an impression yourself...

Mountainyoga in the Western mountains

After the long travel on Wednesday I decided to spend a quiet, relaxing weekend with a little bit of sport. So when I had read an article about http://www.mountainyoga.cn/ who offer weekend yoga retreats in the Western mountains of Beijing ("Xishan"), I had spontaneously registered.

It worked out perfectly. Not only was the weather a mere pleasure, also the place (an old buddhist temple in the Western mountains which is not being used as a religious place any more) was great. Compared to the Fragrant Hill (Xiangshan), the Western mountains offer especially one thing more: a terrific mountain panorama.

We did not only yoga, but also climbed a mountain in order to enjoy the view. Up the hill there were hardly any tourists and from the pavillion we could see as far as the Beijing skyline. We went down on another side of the mountain, so we had to walk back to the temple on a railway track. which was also being used as a hiking track. Well, maybe you also still remember your parents telling you not to play or walk on a railway track. There it was quite different: plenty of people were walking the railway track and when the train came, you just went to the side and waited until it had passed. Just have a look at the photo to have an impression yourself (of course the obligatory umbrella to protect the skin from the sun was also frequently to be found among Chinese women hikers...).

Since I have done hot yoga for the first time I really like yoga! It even stabilises my back where I had some problems at the end of last year. This weekend we did many yoga styles - most of them I liked and I would call sport.

But we also did 'Yoga Nidra': "Yoga-Nidra ("Yoga sleep"), is an expression widely used to denote the highest state of consciousness. Although yoga nidra means yogic sleep, it is actually a wakeful state of deep introversion. ." Imagine you lying on the floor with a blanket over your body. A voice tells you to find a comfortable position, to relax all parts of your body, to not fall asleep, to really not fall asleep, to totally relax, to relax your fingers, to not fall asleep, to really not fall asleep etc. Of course it's a little bit more than that, but to be honest everything my body wanted was to fall asleep in order not to have to listen to the monotoneous voice. Well, now I at least know which yoga style I don't like...