Dinner at the Pei's

This one will be long, so go to the bathroom, get a beverage and get settled in before starting ;-)

Saturday, January 28th was the eve of the Chinese New Year. A very important evening in the week long celebration of the “Spring Festival.” We had previously received an invitation to go to the home of Pei Ying and her family to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the traditional family way. Pei Ying, the “justa maybe” girl who helped us with our visa process as a fill in translator, works in the Islanders office downstairs from where we live. Apparently, invitations to the home of a Chinese person is VERY rare, especially during the Holiday, which is very family based, so we were extremely honored.

So, she met us at 12:00 noon and we headed out to Center Street first. Center street is the walking street in downtown Harbin with all the shopping that ends at the Songhua river and a park. We had offered to take her out to lunch for her hospitality and all her help in getting our visas finalized. She was insistent on pizza.

After we arrived at center street, we headed down the street towards the river, admiring the snow sculptures that lined the street, like the hockey scene below.


Next, we headed to the big park at the end of the street by the river. Yes, this the same river that carried the thousands of gallons of benzene pollution safely through Harbin downstream into Russia after the large chemical plant explosion. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures below, the river is frozen over, there is ice skating and snowmobiling and other activities. There is even a huge ice sculpture (looks like the castle) that is actually a long ice slide down the bank to the river bed.



After taking in that scene, it was off to Pei Ying’s pizza place, which turned out to be a PIZZA HUT!. We had a nice meal of pizza and next was shopping. We went into Walmart which, other than the Carrefour, was the only place really open. In fact, the city was a ghost town, much like you would expect if you were to go anywhere in the U.S. on Christmas day. It was very interesting, as the only other times I had been downtown, there was a mass of humanity everywhere. It was very peaceful that day. We purchased some gifts to bring for the Pei family as a “thank you” in Walmart.

As it began to get later in the afternoon/evening, the firecrackers began. Men, women, children on the street lighting firecrackers and fireworks of all varying sizes with little regard to any safety. It was not unusual to see them lit off right next to someone unsuspecting on the street walking by who would jump a little at the sound and keep walking as if nothing unusual was happening. I even sa a man on the 7th floor of an apartment building holding a whole string of firecrackers out his window on a stick while they were going off, with pieces landing on people walking below.

Next, we got in the taxi and headed to the Pei’s! They live in what appears from the outside to be a rather rundown part of town. But, their home is very nice and very large by Chinese standards. Pei Ying is 26 years old and still lives at home. She lives with her Father, Mother and younger sister, who is 16. Her cousin also came over to help cook the lamb as apparently he is a very good cook. The home is two levels. You walk in off the street into a foyer/basement/garage area. The bathroom is in the back on this level also.


There are desks and an office type setting in here along with a couple old vintage motorcycles (see Tim on one below).


From there, you take off your shoes and put on the sandals and head upstairs to the living area. The dining/living area is first with a TV/Stereo table and mattress on the floor for sitting on. Off to the left is a kitchen area. Has a stove and a sink, not much table space and quite small the size of an average US bathroom. You go through the living room into the parents bedroom and through and around to the left to the kids shared, very small bedroom, which is really like a hallway. The whole thing is very open and even where there are walls, they are glass so you can see through. We were given the traditional red socks as a gift from Pei Ying, that we were told to wear for this new years eve. Pei Ying also told us that their home is not normal, as most are much smaller for a family of 4 in Harbin. Her father had worked hard and done well to get this home. Her father was an announcer in a school for a long time and now owns his own building supply business it seems.

We started with tea sitting around the table playing cards with Pei Ying and her sister. Her sister is quite smart and learning English so she was excited to talk to us. Actually, she also turned out to be a great Chinese teacher for Tim and I as she would speak slowly and help us learn the Chinese words and phrases. During this, Mom and her cousin were making dinner.

Once dinner was ready and on the table, first we had to head downstairs to light off firecrackers and fireworks. This tradition is to scare away the past year's animal and usher in the New Year, and must be done before eating the “Big Spring Day Meal.” Again it was a dangerous proposition as Tim helped Mr Pei light off a huge string of Firecrackers that were layed out away from the door way and rolled down the stairs to the street (see below). Her sister, was lighting off very high end bottle rockets out of the snow bank.


Dinner was Lamb, Beef and assorted vegetable dishes. It was all quite good. We finished the meal with homemade dumplings which are a traditional ending to this special meal. Throughout the meal Mr Pei drank MANY toasts with us. Luckily, we had convinced him to drink the baijio (beer) instead of the pijio (Chinese devil wine). But, every toast had to be a ganbei (drink the whole thing). Our glasses were only about about 5 or 6 oz in size, but still we had a lot to drink in a short time. Mr Pei was definitely drunk, and we were not far behind. We were told to consider their home our “Chinese home” and this our “Chinese Family.” They were so nice and very welcoming, like most all of the people we have met here. We found out that we were the first "foreigners" to ever come to their home, a VERY big deal as I have said. Below you can see the “Family Photo” (Pei Ying is the one standing).


After Dinner, we again had tea, which was supposed to help us with the drinking we had done. We stayed for a little while longer and chatted with the family. We found out that for the remainder of the Holiday week the tradition is for people to travel around to visit with their extended family, as this evening is usually just immediate family.

Later, they called us a taxi and sent us on our way. The entire family came down to see us off and invited us back some time after the Holiday. We got back to the training center around 10:00 p.m. and the city of Harbin was already lit up with fireworks covering the entire skyline. It was an amazing site out my window, past the lit up ferris wheel. The fireworks were as intense as a fourth of July finale, and constant until at least 2:00 a.m. Now, a few days later, I can still see and hear some being shot off at all times of the day and night. Here are a few photos I took that night.


It was another amazing Chinese experience… And so begins the "Year of the Fire Dog"

A Two Banquet Day: Part II

After returning from our first banquet, we had about an hour before practice. I had set up a Red vs. White scrimmage for the afternoon, our usual Wednesday activity. Tim and I coached teams while coach Ji officiated. Was a good game at 3-1 and we are slowly improving.

After practice the girls all ran for the showers as we were headed out tonight for the Team celebration of the New Year. We all hopped on two busses at about 5:45 to head out. At that time it took us about 30 minutes to get to the first corner as traffic was crazy. After about an hour, we got out the suburbs somewhere and a hotel banquet facility and were directed to our private, banquet/karaoke room.

Everyone connected with the team was there, including the kitchen staff, Mr. Fan from China Hockey and a couple of the Harbin hockey guys. We began with some food and a couple more toasts, since Tim and I clearly had not had enough toasting yet that day.

There was way more food than any 200 people could eat piled onto each of the five tables in the room.


After the dinner, the girls all left to get changed for the “fun” part of the evening. This began, with what can only be described as a fashion show. They came out various times in different outfits, some dressed as men, some as women, walked down the “catwalk” and turned and left. Some pictures are below:



After the fashion show, the singing, dancing, and skits portion of the evening was next. Everyone did something and we were all handed out a stick with a card on the end. One side of the card had a smiley face, the other a sad face. We were supposed to hold up the one that represented what we thought of each act. For me they were all funny or talented, all smiles. Some of the girls gave coach Ji a frown face just to joke with him a little. Some more pictures below.



Tim and I got into the act with a little guitar, harmonica and singing of Bob Dylan. It was only OK, but they all seemed to like it. Mostly, I think they were happy that we joined in. Below you can see the “boys” singing some Karaoke.

After the Karaoke, they gave out stuffed dogs to all who were born in the “Year of the Dog” as this New Year begins the Year of the Dog on Sunday. Interestingly, both Tim and I were born in Dog years.

The night ended with a group Karaoke to a Chinese song everyone seemed to know well. We hopped onto the bus for a much shorter drive home and arrived back at the training center at 11:30 p.m. for nearly a 17 hour day. But all in all, another set of new experiences.



Looking forward to a few days off during the upcoming Holiday…

A Two Banquet Day: Part I

So, I have spoken much about the Chinese Banquet. Today, Tim and I got to experience a TWO Banquet day. A very long day in Harbin, but another experience to be sure. I have broken it up into two posts so that it is easier to read, but it all happened on Wed, Jan 25th:

Our day started as usual with a 6:45 am wake up and 8:00 am Skate. At the end of the skate at 9:00 we were rushed into a car and over to a local school for the opening of the “Charles Wang’s School For Hockey Dreams”

Essentially, as I understand it. Charles Wang, the Islanders owner, has donated some money and equipment to local schools to help bolster hockey and learn to skate programs in the schools. Giving kids the opportunity to try and experience ice hockey.

So we were taken to this immaculate school and brought up to the third floor to a waiting room. There were many important people there from the school and the Harbin sports associations. I took a picture of the room with its very high end décor as we would be in the room three separate times during the morning.


After waiting for a bit, having some tea and meeting some of the English teachers (the teachers were native Chinese who spoke and taught English, so you are not confused) at the school, we were taken to a small auditorium for a presentation. In speaking with the English teachers we found that school was for kids aged 6-10. The school housed 1500 students about 300 in each grade. The classrooms have about 40 kids in each. They go to school from Monday-Friday from 8 am – 5 pm.


So, back to the auditorium. As you can see in the picture below, the important people sat up front, including the Headmaster and Mr. Wang (from the Islanders Office in Harbin, not Charles Wang). They signed and exchanged documents and each spoke along with a few other people.


Also, one small girl spoke. She was an amazingly polished speaker for such a young girl and seemed very excited about what was happening.


After the speeches it was back to the waiting room again. More chat with the English teachers and some of the other men there. It got pretty smoky in there as almost everyone was smoking. After another little wait, we were taken outside into the courtyard of the school where there was an outdoor skating area. Basically, snow banks around the edges and someone had frozen water on the ground.


The young kids were all skating and playing hockey on the “rink” and there were many onlookers and some press.


We got out on the ice at met with some boys and girls hockey players of varying ages and the press took photos and video. At one point the firecrackers began going off behind the rink at the archway entrance to the courtyard and scared a few people.


It had actually turned into a beautiful day at about 15 ºF and sunny. A great day for outdoor skating and Tim and I were bummed we did not have our skates with us.

After the skating, we were whisked back into the waiting room for a bit. After some waiting it was time for a Banquet.

We walked down the street to the banquet and passed a mosque, or as Pei Ying called it “ a church where the people don’t eat the pork.” It was a bright baby blue so I had to snap a photo.


Banquet one was spit into three rooms as there were too many people for one. We were in a room with the Superintendent of Harbin Schools, the Head Master, the Director of Harbin Winter Sports, the The Director of all sports in Harbin, Mr. Wang, Mr. An, and Pei Ying and a couple of other sports deputies.

As usual, there were many toasts and people from other rooms would come into our room to toast with us also. It was a good day for Ice Hockey in Harbin. After the banquet we headed back to the training center to rest and prepare for the after and PART II of our two banquet day.

Buddha

On Sunday, Tim and I took a stroll up the hill towards the amusement park. The Carrefour is down the hill and where we usually go for shopping. We thought we would get some lunch outside the training center and just get out for a while. We stopped for Lunch at the “California Beef Noodle” place. It is apparently a chain as we have seen it in other places around town. We had a bowl of noodles with beef in it in a soup type mixture. So, I guess the name is appropriate except for the California part as it is still very cold here in Harbin.

After that, we took a stroll through a HUGE electronics shopping center. It is at least 4 stories and spans an ENTIRE block. It is filled only with small booth-like stores, all carrying electronics and computer hardware like you would find in Radio Shack, Circuit City or Best Buy. Some booths carried very new out of the box things, while others were simply a guy with a pile of circuit boards and computer components building and welding things together. It was amazing the vastness of the building and number of stores, like having 500 small Radio Shacks all in the same building.

We left the store and turned left toward a walking street and the entrance to the Amusement park. Off the walk street there is also a famous Buddhist Temple, so we took the $2.00 tour, almost literally as it was 10 Yuan to get in ($1.25).


I had not realized that the Nazi’s had taken over the Buddhist temples and was surprised to find swastikas engraved into the architecture. I met a monk while Tim was going to the bathroom and he agreed to have his picture taken. He said it was very cold!


We looked at some of the temples and worked our way to the main attraction the huge golden Buddha statute (can you find the Nazis?).


A famous Harbin photo is the picture of the Buddha from the correct angle appearing to spin the ferris wheel, so I had to get the shot. It is quite interesting…


We left the temple and headed back out on the walking street. As things get geared up for the New Year’s Holiday, all the shops begin selling fireworks and fire crackers. It is amazing the size of some of the fireworks that are for sale on the street. One man had a pile of them that were taller than I am. We decided to go into one of the small shops and browse. The lady in their was nice and impressed by the four Chinese words we tried to speak to her. I ended up with a small Buddha statue for 5 Yuan to take back to my room.

Next, we headed back down the other side of the street to see what we might have been missing over there. We found a place that said in English, “Beer Bar,” so we thought we would see what was inside. It turned out to be very high end pool hall with two girls inside who were very nice and showed us around the six story pool hall. We thought it might be a nice place to come again some Sunday afternoon, and we headed on our way.

The sun was headed down, so Tim went back to the training center and I continued on down the hill for a quick trip to the Carrefour for some snacks for the week.

Another interesting Sunday in Harbin.

Piles of Paperwork

Tim and I are in the final phases of obtaining all the necessary paperwork to live and work in Harbin, China. When we are finished we will have three documents: The Z-Visa (work visa), which is glued into the pages of our passport, The Work Permit which we received a week ago (this looks like a passport but authorizes us to work in China), and the Final piece the Residence License to live in Harbin.

Upon entering China, we had 30 days to file for the other two pieces or we would have had to leave China and start over. Due to some unforseen delays, and the upcoming Chinese New Year’s Holiday (called the “Spring Festival” here), last Friday was the last day we could file for the Residence License.

So, here is what our Friday consisted of:

At 10:00 a.m. I was told that we must file by the end of the work day at the Harbin Public Safety Bureau which was thought to be open until 3:00 p.m. (because we had originally thought we could file as late as Monday). Normally, you cannot file for a Residence License in Harbin on a Friday (Tuesday and Wednesday only). If this starts to feel like a DMV story to anyone, that’s probably cause there are many parallels. However, our immigration partner, Lylian, at Fragomen, called ahead and cleared us to do so. Unfortunately, due to the last minute notification, Lylian, was unable to get from Dalian, where she lives and works, to Harbin, as all the flights were booked. To further complicate things, she had all the filled out and completed paperwork (16 pages for each of us), with her in Dalian. So, the day began with her trying to fax the documents to us. When the office fax machine downstairs was not working, the next attempt was to e-mail the documents to Tim and I. However, my printer is very slow, so we had to transfer the documents to the downstairs computer to print. Then, that printer would not work as their computers could not read PDF files, so we began the process of printing the 32 pages on my 2 page per hour 1990’s Epson Ink Jet printer.

The next hurdle was photos. We had taken all the necessary photos a while back, but those too were with Lylian in Dalian. I was able to find the two that were needed among some of my reserves, Tim was not so lucky. He had to walk up the street to the Kodak store to get more taken.

After that, we found out that we needed to register with the police. That registration form was the last needed form to apply for our residence license. Unfortunately, the only policeman that could register us was not available until after 3:00 p.m. Dilemma? Well it seems that the Public Security Bureau (PSB) was actually open until 4:00 p.m. and they would wait for us.

Enter the tall man! Who, by the way does have a name, Mr. Cui, but when they say it, it sounds like Mr. Tree, so we will stick with “tall man.” He knew the policeman, so he took our passports and headed down to register for us. Unfortunately, he did not realize that we had more papers to file after that, so he did not return until 3:30.

When he returned, Tim and I, accompanied by Pei Ying from the Islanders office, jumped in a cab to head to the PSB. Pei Ying is the “justa maybe” girl from the Islanders Office who speaks barely passable English. So we arrived at the PSB and sprinted for the door and entered at 3:55 (5 minutes to spare), but only one problem, the PSB had moved around the corner and down the street. So another sprint, stopping twice for directions, and we arrive at 4:02 at the PSB. This is where we caught a break for the first time that day, we got the nicest possible police officer. She did mention that she was supposed to close, but would process us anyway. Her father had played ice hockey and she asked us a few questions about our job and stay in China. She threw out about 10 of the pages of the 32 in the application, that took half the day to print, and said we did not need them. So, we were all set, except one thing, MONEY. We were unaware, but Pei Ying’s office mate, whom Tim and I call “Linda,” for no particular reason, was on her way with the 2500 Yuan each for the application. However, she had not arrived yet. Again, with some luck, the officer agreed to wait for her. She arrived at 4:40 with the money, all in 10’s as the bank was out of higher denominations. But we paid and we were stamped with a receipt and on our way.

There was only one small glitch, we were asking for a rush on the processing. This is because they keep our passports during the processing, and if we did not have them returned before the “Spring Festival” holiday, we could not get them back until after the 6th of February as all the offices close down. Without our passports, we could not travel on the train to Jia Mu Si for the tournament that follows the Holiday. Anyway, the office said we needed documentation of our travel to Jia Mu Si to prove we needed the rush processing. She agreed that we could provide that on Monday.

So to end the filing part of the story… This morning, Lylian drafted a letter stating our reasons for needing a rush, and we had China Hockey stamp it, and met Pei Ying back at the PSB to turn it in. We ended up with the same nice officer, who immediately recognized us and we were all set. Now, we wait until Friday morning and we can pick up our Passports and Residence License.

As an epilogue to the this already long novel… On Friday when we came out of the PSB and crossed the street to find a cab, Pei Ying informed us it might be hard as 5:00 is the change over time for cab shifts so it is harder to find them then. As Tim and I were contemplating our tough day, waiting for a cab, we found someone who probably had it worse than us.

There, 8 or 9 stories above us, dangling on a rappelling rope, was a man trying to straighten out a hanging sign on the side of a building. He was doing this task in the pitch black of 5:00 p.m., at about -5 ºF. He had two people at the top of the building and one at the bottom holding his rappelling rope. The man at the bottom may have had it even worse as the guy was barking instructions at him from on the rope and he was in the alley trying to dodge traffic, as cars were flying in and out and whizzing past him. It was quite a site after a long day, I wish I had brought my camera.

Tomorrow, I promise to add some pictures for those people who probably reached their reading limit halfway through this, good night from Harbin!

Still Here in Harbin

Yes, I am alive and well in Harbin. I realize I have not posted for a week. I had a very busy week last week. We are beginning preparations for our trip to Jia Mu Si after the New Year’s Spring Festival Holiday. Tim and I had to continue the filing process for our residency and work here in Harbin, but that will be a blog entry all to itself. I will get everyone caught up in the next few days, I promise. For now I leave you with a street scene from Harbin, gearing up for the New Year’s Festival with lots of RED!

Just Another Saturday in Harbin

So, I had a full day this Saturday. We began the day with another scrimmage versus the men’s former national team players, a group of guys from about 37-50 years old. We had scrimmaged them last Saturday and although an official score is not kept, we lost pretty badly. This week, we played the first half with our top lineup of three lines and were outscored 6-3 in that period but played much better. The rest of the game allowed us to get everyone some playing time. Below you can see the two teams posing for a photo.


Dr. Gao had asked us before we went home for the Holiday if he could take us out to a meal to meet some of his friends. We had never got the chance, but today we had planned a luncheon. So at noon we hopped into the car and headed out to lunch with Dr. Gao and Mr. An, and two of Dr. Gao’s friends. We had to brave some very intense Saturday traffic and the normally 5 minute drive took about a half hour. We arrived at a Peking Duck restaurant and were met by three more of Dr. Gao’s friends and his Niece. His Niece, Xu Lin, and another of his friends Zhang Ran, both spoke English and were happy to speak with Tim and I during the meal. Xu Lin, who will soon turn 24, is in graduate school getting her masters in Linguistics, which she says is very boring. She speaks Chinese, English and a little French. Zhang Ran is older at 28 and is about a year into his job as a cameraman for a local TV station. Both have been studying English since middle school.

The interesting process that we got too see today was the roasting of the Peking Duck over the fire and taken out and carved in front of us before being placed on the table. It is eaten as a type of wrap or taco with a sauce, some duck meat, some and some vegetables in a wrap. You can see the photos of the process below:





Lunch was about a 3 hour affair with much drinking and toasts and Dr. Gao and Mr. An again let us know of their support of our efforts. They are very nice men. You can see them in their fun mode below.


After lunch they asked if we wanted to head for a massage and sauna, so how could we refuse another relaxing day. We spent a good 3 hours at the same sauna I was brought to the first time. It was Tim’s first experience, but almost identical to the one I had the first time.

After some relaxing time, we headed off to the big in-country rivalry game between QiQiHar and Harbin’s Asian League hockey teams. All of the men’s national team players come from one of these two teams. It was a closely contested 3-2 game that QiQiHar ended up winning in the third period. The crowd was rather small for a Saturday night, but we had a good time. We were again treated like royalty in the nice leather seats on the red line just above the benches (but we really could have sat anywhere in the place). They served us some warm tea each period and we were whisked off to the VIP room between periods.

All in all a good day in Harbin, just another Saturday….

Uniquely Harbin Scenes

I have tried to bring my camera with me more as I wander through my daily routine. You never know when an interesting photo opportunity will crop up. Some things that have been there all along, sometimes just need a unique angle, or people to make it something else entirely. Below are a few photos I have had a chance to catch in the last couple weeks. Loaded them a little bigger too, click on them for larger size.

We start with the Harbin Sunrise. Both pictures here are taken from just in front of the entrance to the hockey rink, looking out towards the entrance/exit to the winter sports complex.



Here is another look at the interesting Disney-like tower near the dormitory, with the generators going full blast.


Below, the cold walk to the rink…


Next the you find the fluorescent green telephone booths on right on the walk to the rink. A cold phone conversation for sure, with some kids playing in the snow too.


Finally we come to the Harbin sunset. Both photos are taken again from the entrance of the hockey rink looking toward the amusment park and the “big wheel.” The building the sun is setting over in the second photo is the local police station.



Good night from Harbin!