Road Safety, good idea that should be implemented NOW

It would seem obvious but these Solar Powered -LED markers improve road visibility by 10X and in England where installed, have lowered night-time accidents by 70%. Yes, they cost more than the normal reflective ones, but that cost is washed out by keeping an accident from occurring. And I am not talking the tree hugger 'by saving a life, the cost is worth it' but about the cost to tax payers and insurance premiums... Click on the picture to link to original posting on Autoblog.

Now, about Beijing!

First, I apologize for not posting about our part of the trip before but there are some words the Chinese Govt isn't found of and are found in my blog, specifically about Forbidden City from my last trip to Beijing.

Anyway, now that I am in Tokyo - I can blog away and blog I shall.

Beijing is every bit as smoggy* as Shanghai - but very much cooler. One, its much further north so it was about 20 degrees cooler and two, its just cooler than Shanghai. The money is obviously in Beijing. There are over 12 *real* Louis Vuitton stores in Beijing. NYC has four. (*note the photo on the left - the portion of the building on the right is still being cleaned of pollution in Beijing). They have a Lamborghini dealer, Ferrari and Maserati dealers and every other block had a McDonald's or KFC. When they did have a Pizza Hut, the lines were looooong.

Obviously there are Starbucks as I posted in my last visit, but sadly the one inside Forbidden City is closed. In fact, there are more Western brand name stores than not but just as I was about to give up on Beijing having any of a sense of its own, I found this place: the LAN Club. Man, this club/bar/restaurant would never be in the US, except perhaps Vegas. The LAN club takes up an entire floor of a mall all by itself. A ton of money went into making this club happen and its one of many to have popped up in the past 5 or so years.

Eclectic doesn't begin to provide the justice that is this swanky bar. The bathroom is all mirrors and red velvet. ALL MIRRORS and RED VELVET, every surface is one or the other but nothing else. There is a glass (see through) sink with a sweet silver swan faucet that somehow just turns on when you approach the sink (not hand motion sensors anyway). Art is posted everywhere, especially on the ceiling, and some artsy chairs and couches from non-matching sets is also through out.

Then when you are getting tired of the DJ (which we didn't but I am sure sometimes the music might be stale) they pull out some live Jazz AND the DJ and bam, its back to unique and chill. The drink menu was large, the prices were (as with most things in Beijing) reasonable (read: low) and the wait staff well heeled and in a good mood.

I should back up however, as the LAN club was after-dinner and dinner is a story unto itself... We (Maddie and I) were with some friends in Beijing and one of them had some details on where to go and what to see. So for this night after work (this was a work trip after all but nothing bloggable ever happens at work :-P ) we were going to get some Peking Duck where locals eat it, not tourists. This info came from an ex-pat who lived in Beijing for several years so we decided it would be worth the effort.

You see, cabbies in Beijing don't speak/read english so having the english name never helps. That makes you rely upon your concierge for translation and location duties and they aren't always so good at that (see part II of my Beijing blog for more on that, but since this is part I, you will have to wait). The place we wanted to go is Li Qun Duck which, as you can see from this link, Time magazine agreed with our remote guidance - but I didn't have that data before our trek, its here for your information.

We got into a cab, handed him the card and off we went. Around Beijing, through Tiananmen Square and into the hutongs of Beijing. These are back alleys that have almost a 1000 YEARS of dust, dirt and back alley details in them folks. Our cab stops right as we enter the hutong area and tells us we are *there*. "Where is Li Qun Duck?", you might want to ask your cabbie but to no avail. Luckily for us some locals where there from the restaurant to greet us and ask us to climb onto the three wheeled taxi bikes they were driving.

They hand us a card from the restaurant and keep encouraging us onto the bikes. Hutong! Hutong! they clamored as they took off with us on the back through these long, twisty, unlit, narrow passageways. Many of the walls were falling into disrepair, bricks piling up on the road. The bicyclists were adroit at missing the numerous pot holes but as we moved along more and more - Maddie's grip on my arm began to hurt.


She wasn't the only one getting nervous - she and I were the lead bike with our friends right behind us and as some random whistling started coming, they too were nervous as to just where the heck these guys were taking us. Would it be Peking Duck or a Beijing Back-Alley rolling of some tourists? Then, just like our cabbie, these bike cabbies stop and tell us to get off. The point in a direction and say the restaurant is over that way and of course demand payment. They hold out a card asking for 100 元 per rider which is basically $50 bucks! I say no but my friend pulls out the money. Keep in mind we are now lost in some back alley with no Li Qun Duck in sight.

We had 6:30pm reservations and would only have the table for two hours we were told when the reservation was made and now we were now late and not seemingly any closer to wherever this place was supposed to be. The taxi bicyclist urged us left around a corner as he turned and took off with our money.

Well, as you can see we made it there, and as you can tell Maddie isn't that happy to be in the back alleys of Beijing for dinner. After we got inside the tiny place and noticed all the photos of the famous patrons (Al Gore among them) I read the menu: Li Qun Duck is NOT related to any of the Bicycle Cabs, use them at your own risk. We had been had, of course we had, but we did get to see the vanishing hutongs of Beijing and I had a good story to blog about :-P It was a win/win/win (me, as I have something fun to write, you as you have something fun to laugh at and the cabbies, as they got rich in one quick instant) The story ends even better - but first take a look at the next photo...

The photo caption could read something like this: "What the hell? It was right there the whole time?" Yes folks, Maddie is standing where the cabbie dropped us off and that red splotch in the distance is the sign for Li Qun Duck. The bike ride was superfluous as we could have gone directly to the restaurant with a 3 minute walk instead of a 10 minute, $50 bike ride. Oh well, c'est la vie as the say in France.

After this great dinner, we hit the LAN club and I gotta recommend if you ever get to Beijing, check it out - Raleigh says it rocks! Also, if you go to dinner at Li Qun Roast Duck, take the bike ride - just pre-negotiate the trip at say 100 yuan per BIKE first - those hutongs are worth seeing before they all disappear.

(part II tomorrow, there is some Tokyo sightseeing to be done right now) Ciao for now.

Beijing Blast - but that's all I can say for now

well, I should be blogging about this part of the trip but folks, my blog apparently has too many key words someone doesn't like. Expect a post when we hit Tokyo - besides the lack of free speech, this town rocks its hard! Will post more later.

Smoggy Shanghai in a weekend

Maddie and I just left Shanghai and are now in Beijing. We thought Shanghai was smoggy - ugh but Beijing takes it up a notch. But I digress, back to Shanghai for this blog topic. Go check out the shots in the picassa gallery - link over there on the right ------>.

We couldn't get over how SPRAWLING this city is - it just keeps going, and going and ... Well you get the point. Maddie, who grew up in NYC, couldn't believe just how huge this metropolis is - but seeing is believing.

We had a pretty good time except for everyone here wanted to sell us 'Watches Bag' - knock-offs of name brand things. Honestly every 30 seconds we were being accosted by someone else trying to get us to come by their shop and take a look. Finally on Sunday night we did and it was creepy - go through a store, a false shelf that swings open to reveal a back room with all the illegal crappy copies of bags and watches and polo shirts. Do people still wear Polo shirts?

It got so we noticed when we were left along for all of sixty seconds but soon after we'd remark, someone would approach 'watches bag'. If that didn't work they would throw in 'shoes dvd' and finally they would leave. Maddie took to answering in Spanish until we ran into a bunch of Chinese hawkers who knew how to sell in that language too!

Check out the pictures in the gallery of Yu Garden. Fairly funny story getting there. We were dropped off at some side street and the maps I had were not detailed enough to show how to enter to the garden. Well, this little old city block is huge and flanked by tourist trap stores and loads of people clamoring to sell their wares.

Eventually a little old man came up and started talking to us - claimed to be a pensioner who doesn't need our money but wanted to practice his English. He asked us were we were from and what we came to see and offered to show us around. I was nervous about the whole thing, I mean he was an old man but it seemed like we'd just be placed in a position where we'd be stuck and have to offer him money.

We spoke a little more to him but told him we wanted to go into the garden, he wanted to show us around town no doubt leading us to some stores where he was paid a commission but still, he wanted to follow. We firmly told him we were fine on our own and made some distance from him when some young woman came up and whispered to me 'watch your back'! OMG - this young girl telling me this old man is not someone to trust. As we hurriedly crossed the street it hit me - she was saying 'watches, bag' and not warning me of impending backstabbing. I was laughing and sorry that my paranoia perhaps cost us from talking more to this man.

As you can see, like the rest of Shanghai, the entrance to Yu Garden was packed. This zig-zag bridge that leads to an impossible to spell tea house (look it up for your self if you want to know) has nine zigs (or zags) to confuse spirits from following you. This pre-supposes that these evil spirits can only go in straight lines but whatever, we have our own weird folk tales.

We did venture out into the more "neighborhood area" of Shanghai and it was quite nice - loads of trees all along the street and very nice houses behind tall walls and iron gates. The place we ate at was called Yuan Yuan for some Haung Sho (spelling to be checked later folks) - which is roasted pig belly in honey BBQ sauce. If you lop off the huge honking fat and eat the meatier portion - it was great. We also had some friend rice of sorts that was also delicious, although it was sans egg as I misunderstood when the waiter asked me how many eggs we wanted... I didn't realize you can specify the eggy-ness of your rice, but there you go.

We shopped a bit but didn't buy a whole bunch. But that didn't keep Maddie's suitcase from busting - must have been from the flight from Sydney as a piece was broken off. Oh well - we have plenty of people willing to sell us a replica!

Sunrise Down Under

This picture comes from the cabin of our plane as we head 'down under' to Sydney. Not a bad way to see the sun rise, I gotta say. Pictures don't quite do it justice.

So expect some updates as we travel the South Pacific and up to China and eventually, Tokyo Japan.