Beijing pollution is so bad unless there is strong wind. Last Tuesday, Dec 6, as CNN reported, hundreds of planes including my own, flew into Beijing airport airspace, but then turned back (mine all the way back to Hong Kong!). We simply could not land due to severe smog and pollution. Wow - in all my years of flying, I've never gone there and back (total 10 hours) in one go. It scares me when the pilot announces he's "going to go for it" despite being warned to turn back to HK mid way...
I made it there on Wednesday eventually, had several meetings then went to Spice Spirit (a Sichuan food chain) with colleagues. They didn't serve any beer besides Bud Light (I'm serious), so we gave them some cash to go outside to buy Tsingtao :) On Thursday, again more meetings followed by dinner at Banana Leaf Thai in Zhongguancun. At -10C, my hands almost froze off but thankfully I wore boots and heattech top. I wandered around aimlessly in circles after eventually making it to the restaurant (it turned out behind a mall with which I am most familiar). The food was so-so but there was a live filipino band that comes around singing to each table -- in any language too! Impressive.
Back in Hong Kong life, we are thinking about our first year and starting to relax more. We also may move homes if the right unit comes available in Kowloon - where the food is more plentiful, better tasting and faaar cheaper. For example, we had (reverse) sticker shock after a hearty dim sum lunch at a pretty nice restaurant in TST for only $108HKD (about $13 USD)! When you dine with locals once, your standards are higher on taste and much lower on price. I like that! In fact we often travel "across the water" to TST and Mongkok for meals and food because the taste is simply better (at least for Asian fare).
This weekend, we're planning to hit Sanya (Hainan Island, China), which is China's Hawaii. The latitude is near tropical and its the southern most point in China. Maybe some golf, swimming, R&R and resort-ing. I really wanted to do Chengdu but time just isn't enough.
On a personal front, my friend is moving back to NYC from Hong Kong soon so we had a good bye Korean BBQ for her :-( Also I've been matched with an MBA student from Russia in the Women's Foundation Mentoring Program, and meeting wonderfully accomplished women along the networking journey. Truly humbled. Finally, we look forward to seeing some friends and family before flying to Toronto for Christmas on Dec 24 then off to Whistler on Jan 1. Can't wait!
Have a wonderful mid Dec week everybody!
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