---(Pictures from Ariel)---

Our living room.

From the living room looking at the kitchen and one of the balconies.

The studio.

Me.

Ancient Observatory. (A beautiful, small garden with ancient star charting equipment littered about as well as a star gazing tower.)

Fading Quality

China has terrible export quality goods. What's worse, is that China has far, far poorer quality domestic goods. We are being sold some terrible quality over in the East. Besides the obvious issue of food safety, there is also questionable structural integrity in new construction, outright lies rather than misleading advertising and virtually no consumer protection. The last few years has seen a lot of false accusations made about foreign "flawed" products in order to boost local business, since more well heeled Chinese truly prefer to buy Japanese lipstick or German cars. The sad truth is that even the Chinese don't trust their own products and must be compelled to buy them. If prices were the same, I'm very willing to bet that Chinese would buy imports exclusively.

Years, years and years ago Chinese goods were considered fine and valuable, which is basically unthinkable now. Every single thing is now made on the ultra-cheap. The Chinese have lessened their standards to the point that they have products for sale that don't even serve their intended purpose, or, at worse, are completely dangerous. I understand that Chinese cannot afford, for the most part, quality goods, but how is it that "Made in China" goods in America are of substantially higher quality yet the prices can be fairly similar?

From my experience alone I've had spoons that break in half on first use, counterfeit shampoo, pans that transfer metal grit to food, rotten food being served as fresh, plastic bags that instantly tear, a couch that has completely collapsed after 4 months of use, plastic hooks with weak adhesive, an unusually dull "new" knife, plastic water bottles illegally "recycled" using tap water, mattresses with no cushion and heavy springs, a clothes dryer that breaks after using it once, a freezer that randomly shuts off, clothing that bleeds and shrinks once it's washed, fruit that tastes as though it were picked out of the garbage...

I love this country, which is why I see the strong need for change. Of course this is just one of a host of incredibly immense issues in the mainland. The bottom line is that Chinese people want the cheapest of everything, and with no real enforced safety regulations businesses will take as many dodgy shortcuts as possible to get a product to a ridiculously low price. It's a cycle that creates garbage over and over again.

Miamians and Otherins,

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn festival day, or 中秋节，which is the celebration of the fullest moon of the year, among other things. The streets were packed, especially around 6-8pm, and Ariel and I walked a lot marveling at the hideous crowds and traffic, then had pizza and Belgian beer for dinner. Later this week most parks will be dressed up with many red lanterns and people will continue to burn joss to bring money to the dead and release red balloons into the air for ancestor spirits. Still, this is a much quieter holiday than Chinese New Year, and it's mostly a time to spend with families.

Annoying news; I was just told today that I'll have to work the weekend since we have a few days off next week. The thing is, we only have three days off, so they are giving us two more days to make it a full week that we'll have off, although I'd rather just work those weekdays so I don't have to work a weekend. Confusing and kind of stupid.

Ariel made some short videos of our apartment and the view from our balconies yesterday. The video below is a view from our living room balcony. (Note the giant "in progress" buildings right in front.) Our place is cute but not gussied up completely yet, as you can see from Ariel's blog.

东直门内大街 （This video is first overlooking a local mall and housing complex then pans to 鬼街，or ghost street, which is a major restaurant district.)

Folks,

My postal code is listed as 100000 on a legit government site, however on my contract it's listed as 100007, so I'm not sure. Apparently if you mail to 100000, it should be completely fine, since it's the general code for Beijing. I've checked on government websites and gotten many, many different codes for my district, which isn't large, so I'm baffled. So, for now, hold off on mailing until I figure this out for sure.

Isa - Sorry about any possible issues, but I'm sure I'll get your post card. I think it's close enough, you have the rest of my address correct and the post offices really work here. My complex, street and district are all clearly named. Lets use it as a test, anyway.

However, there is more postal drama as my "mail key" actually doesn't fit at all in the key slot on my mail box. So many little issues...

On another note, if you haven't read BBC's Changing China series, it's a must. Especially interesting is the article on China's "brain drain," a tremendous problem that will affect the future generation.

Ross & Ariel
Dong Nei 1-1-1002
Dongzhimen, Beijing 100000
People's Republic of China

-or-

Ross & Ariel
东内1-1-1002
东直门，北京 100000
中国

NOTE: I had typed the wrong postal code before, so this one is the correct one.

This is where I live. I'm the white/grey building attached to the left of the world's most tremendous construction site ever, which is clearly visible on this map. Actually, that site now houses the most tremendous building ever since construction is almost complete. It's so big that it almost hurts your eyes. (Honestly)

Dongzhimen used to be home to the ancient eastern most gate of the city. The name itself means "Eastern gate," although that gate along with nearly all others were removed to expand and modernize the city in Mao's day. Beijing now extends far, far from it's original four gates in every direction. The ultimately baffling Tian'anmen area has an original and preserved gate as well as the largest palace (Forbidden City) in the world. This, in turn, is matched by the largest public square in the world and the largest opera house in the world, all of which are in the same area.

这是辣的吗？
(Is this spicy?)

Lamb and beef noodles

New friends

It's colder today. I borrowed Ariel's grey sweater with thin, Lifesaver™ candy stripes and treked, a little late, to work. Outside of the Dongzhimen line 13 subway station a gaggle of grandmas were fan dancing in chaotic rhythm to the sound of crackling speakers. Because of the morning rush, there are always street vendors selling onion pancakes, plain steamed buns and boiled soymilk. After electromagnetic fare machines, tight spaces, halitosis, one episode of This American Life and eleven stops, I'm at work.

Power outage. The whole work day was spent in the dark. No one seemed terribly worried, but there was a fire in the "control room" (or whatever) The smoke was seen outside the building.

I'm writing. Subjects like indian casinos, conversations between co-workers, yard sales, Alaska and Hawaii, fabricated restaurant conversations, the history of LA (for a few students traveling there), geography, the Chinese in America, pot lucks, old cultural fads like paint-by-numbers, photo booth pictures, state parks, Wiki-fueled briefs on the American judicial system, immigration, small religious groups, etc. (All in the name of learning English, of course.)

Sadly, the weekend's over. Saturday night Ariel and I took a terrifying motorbike taxi ride to Silvy's apartment and then to a 粥 （zhou1， it's like an oh-so-delicious rice porridge） restaurant and then a ghetto, but cheap, beer garden. Yesterday we met up with an acquaintance of Silvia's who is working with a luxury hotel company and traveling all over Asia. His company is building a hotel directly on the grounds of the Summer Palace, so a new crop of incredibly wealthy people can live in controlled opulence just like the Dowager herself. Other than that, some painting, resting and homey time.

I came out of the subway station this morning to find the grey sky even more grey than usual and rain pouring down in a steady stream. I started walking quickly, but soon a man came and held his umbrella over my head and asked me a few friendly questions. Another lent me an extra umbrella he had so I didn't come to work soaked. Very kind.