Beijing Local Custom Tips by mke1963

- Replace the last consonant of any word with the letter 'R' and pronounce it in a long drawn out way. (e.g. Sanlitun becomes Sanlitur)
- Don't add English or foreign emphasis to words because this confuses the Chinese tones of words?
- Turn left .... zwor gweye
- Turn right .... yo gweye
- Straight ahead .... yi-chuh zo
- Stop .... dhow-ler
- I'm not a bloody tourist! .... Wo boo shur luyoda!
- Slow down! .... Man man man!

If you have any real serious problem with taxis (it almost NEVER happens though...they may drive badly, but they are mostly very friendly and very honest) make a real show of writing down their ID number (it is written on a card on the dashboard).

Note that in many taxis, the rear left door (behind the driver) doesn't work.

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A particularly fun activity - and one which you can tell disbelieving friends back home - is skating on the frozen moat of the Forbidden City. The entrance is in Zhongshan Park and you can rent skates there for a couple of hundred kuai deposit. It can get very busy in at the weekends, but it is a good way to warm up.

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Beijing folk just love sitting outside in the street playing games. You see it everywhere in China, but it seems to be particularly prevalent in the streets of Beijing. On every corner, on every street, there are people sitting out playing mahjong, chess or cards.
No matter how cold, no matter how hot, people of all ages and social classes will just pull up some old chairs, a rickety table and play.
It's all serious stuff, and usually draws a crowd of onlookers. These onlookers are all far more expert than anyone playing and feel free to offer advice on how the game is going and what move should be made next. This advice often turns into raging arguments between the spectators with raised voices, animated waving and gesturing. This draws more people to join in, and these are even more experienced players who can always offer more and better advice.
Meanwhile, in the background, the players just get on with it.
Peking opera is best watched on the street, whenever someone pulls up some old chairs and a rickety table.....

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China is constantly being swept. If you set foot in a mall or hotel, you risk being brushed into a heap by a uniformed lady bearing a huge flat mop.
Outside, the streets are maintained round the clock, year round by men and women in orange suits or jackets, removing dirt, dust and leaves, but curiously able to leave paper, litter, Coke bottles and plastic rubbish intact.

These sweepers, indoor and outdoor, are usually migrant workers, actively ignored by the sophisticated urban litter-dropping Beijing people and foreigners. However, if you stop for a while to say 'Hello' (and perhaps even Xie-xie) they open up with big smiles and an uncommon warmth.

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Karaoke was developed as a way to test peoples' abilities to tolerate others. So Chinese sales promotions take karaoke a step further by taking amateur entertainment out into the street where the tolernce of innocent passers-by can be thoroughly tried.
It is difficult selling anything in China, because there is no such thing as brand. Few Chinese companies have any brand loyalty or even any brand knowledge,so companies resort to smple gimmicks to attract people. Presumably they are relying on at least one of the audience buying the product out of sheer boredom.
Small stages are set up with enough sound equipment to operate a U2 stadium gig, and a passionate, if unintelligible MC, bellows into a microphone. The audience gathers, watches in silent bemusement, then moves on.
In this particular example, the MC has dressed up in Qing imperial costume to reinforce the ridicule. Note the totally expressionless faces of everyone in the audience. These people are cold, bored and don't have enough money to buy anything.

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The Chinese love to replay their history, and one of the best times for this is always at the temple fairs that occur during the Chinese New Year celebrations.
There is a strong sense of 'belonging' in China, and whether it is as part of an office, a school, a university or a local district, people will actively take part in cultural activities.
Cultural traditions remain strong in China, despite (or perhaps because of) the Cultural Revolution. Until very recently there was little television, and entertainment was what people put together themselves.
At the annual temple fair, everyone braves the cold (and this year...2004...it really was bitterly cold in Beijing) and joins in the fun.
A temple fair in China is surely one of the great entertainment spectacles in China, largely put on by local people for local people. No expense is spared in designing and making the costumes, many of which recall epic tales of China's earlier dynasties.
The new century has brought so many changes to people's lives in China, that nostalgia is becoming a key element in people's lifestyles for the first time. Until very recently, few would look backwards to any time in their past with any sense of longing, but now nostalgia is driving TV programming, popular entertainment, restaurant styles and museuem exhibitions.
Catch China at its very, very best during the Temple Fairs.

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Although not as cold as much of northern China, Beijingers do need to keep out the sub-zero temperatures for five months of the year.
Everyone wears thermal underwear and then use multiple layers of clothing to keep the chill out. When it gets really cold, many take to wearing cotton face-masks.
These two ladies at the Temple Fair in Ditan Park have added some optional extras to their designer 'warmth kits'.
For visitors, the face-masks, wizards hats and swords are not mandatory.

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They can see it, they can touch it, they can smell it. Brightly lit underground corridors and banks of escalators take the new urban Beijing comrades into a luxurious warren of Western luxuries. They can walk from their homes and see what luxury means: to get rich is glorious. And you get a Rolex.
Seeing, touching, smelling wealth is not enough fro Beijing: they want to have it, have it all, and have it now. This is the realm of Gollum - wanting 'my precious' without ever knowing what they have now that maybe means so much more. Haughty, chirpy and ridiculously inept shop-girls stand idly awaiting their next customer - and at these prices, the next customer will pay the way for the entire shop for another day. Just one in fifty thousand in Beijing have the money to keep China World and other luxury plazas in business.
Most Beijingers have absolutely no idea that most of the luxuries found in the bright basements of the China World Centre are equally unattainable for the vast majority of those in Europe, the States or Japan.
The new Forbidden City is definitely China World, and as further down the road, the contents are largely an illusion.

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