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Settling into life in Beijing

Having nested down and brought our own place in London, the pharmaceutical company my boyfriend works for turned our plans on their head by offering him a secondment in Beijing for a year. Too good to turn down we signed up and packed our bags. I am lucky enough that my company also has offices in Beijing, and they agreed to sponsor me for a year. In London I do public affairs research, which is a relatively new concept here. So I'm keen to see what kind of work this entails. After an unexpectedly tense wait for results, a few weeks ago the Chinese government deemed us fit to work here. We passed a battery of physical and medical tests and general prodding, a surprise having rather over indulged during a number of leaving dos in the UK. The Beijing taxi drivers are far too scary for us to be confident enough to take to the roads. So we moved near to our offices in the CBD and now have a 20 min walk to work. Although, I have to say that this is in itself pretty intimidating, attempting to negotiate the barrage of cyclists, pedestrians and cars coming from all directions. My team at work are a friendly lot, and all of them speak pretty good English. In fact a couple have studied or worked in England in the past. We get around 80p a day lunch allowance, so I'm trying not to go mad on it! Lunch for the Chinese is the most important meal of the day, and who am I to complain. My only resolve is that with the long lunches and big dinners I'm going to visit the pool near our apartment. Yes, we have a pool near the apartment. It's a very flashy new build, so new in fact its not in last years guide book. We both feel like indulgent (and slightly guilty) foreigners. There are lots of middle class Chinese in the same block, but also so many ex pats that the supermarket downstairs sells an array of foreign goods, from sauerkraut to Kalamata olives. I guess like any cosmopolitan city, there's something for everyone. Jenny Woos sells Tetley tea (although sadly not fair trade!), and there's the favourite Ganges curry house for when we need a taste of home! Otherwise were trying to eat local(ish), and are enjoying the sushi, dim sum, roasted sweet potatoes that are in season, and the odd fish head soup and live scorpion skewer yum! For now we have become adapt at hand signals and body language. But I'm looking forward to starting my language classes and actually being able to communicate with the locals. It's getting embarrassing pointing at maps to the taxi driver, and I would like to say more than ni hao. Our tutor is going to come round a couple of times a week. It's been a long time since I learnt a new language so it's a little scary. Hopefully if I'm forced to use it everyday it'll be easier to learn. I'm particularly keen to refine my bartering skills, as its impossible to ignore the shear volume of shopping plazas and markets. Before settling into work we were taking advantage of the sunny skies to do some sightseeing. Although it's now turned a little cooler the weather is beautiful, with blue skies and just a few rainy days to clear away the smog. The Forbidden City, Beihai Park and Lama Temple are all gorgeous places to spend a day or more. The Chinese architecture and colours are sunning. We tried to recreate scenes from the Last Emperor by running down the red corridors. We also accepted our fate to look like foolish westerners and dressed up as a Chinese Emperor and Empress. Much to our embarrassment the whole of Beijing seemed to descend on us to take photos of the crazy westerners. Still, the view from JainJang park which overlooks the Forbidden city was worth the attention when we made our way up there at sunset. We're listing out our activities for the weekends, with a contemplative afternoon at the Temple of Heaven set for this weekend. Also keen to get stuck in a work, and see how whats in store for me over the next year (alongside lots of short breaks around China!).

Sent by: Naomi

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