Notes on Eating in Beijing

There are a few oddities for westerners when dining at a Chinese restaurant. At nicer restaurants, between one and four identically dressed girls will be waiting at the front of the restaurant to open the door and usher you to your table. One menu is provided for the table, and the waiter stands there waiting for you to read the menu and order. At really fancy restaurants, orders are taken on a PDA. At normal restaurants, they are written on a carbon copy billpad, and one copy is left at your table. As dishes come out, the waiter will cross them out on the copy. Water is rarely served with a meal, even if you ask for it. If you do get it, it usually arrives hot and in a 4oz glass. Napkins are available at the table about 50% of the time, or one small one will be brought along with the food. If you need anything, don’t bother waiting for the waiter to come by and ask how things are going (never happens). Rather, you wave your arms and yell “Fu Yuan!” at the nearest one. When you are ready to go, you do the same thing and yell “Mai Dan!” You inspect the bill closely, pay it, then immediately leave. Tipping is unheard of.

Food in Beijing is OK. Not great. Microsoft provides meal cards (600RMB/month), so on weekdays I usually eat with coworkers in the restaurants in the basement of our office building. There is a Chinese restaurant (not bad), a Japanese restaurant (also not bad, but coworkers never want to go there), a “western” restaurant (terrible), and a cafeteria serving Chinese food (pretty bad). So more often than not we end up eating at the Chinese restaurant.

For dinner, I usually have some kind of western food since I’m already eating Chinese food a lot. I’ll usually eat somewhere in the SanLiTun area, which has a lot of expats and the restaurants to feed them. The costs are fairly high; most meals end up being about 70RMB (10USD). There is a fine variety, and the quality is respectable. Some nicer places (>100RMB) have some really good food, not just relative to Beijing. I am somewhat constrained in where and what I can eat by the availability of English or picture menus. Although I speak survival level Mandarin, I cannot read Chinese characters. Surprisingly, most good Chinese restaurant menus are picture menus.

Western restaurants are similar, but not the same as the real thing. One consequence of eating so much Chinese food is the embarrassing fact that anything that tastes like home is great. Which means that I eat at McDonald’s (in Chinese, “Mai Dang Lao”) once a week, which is about 5-10 times the frequency as when I lived in the US. And I’ll be damned if McDonald’s doesn’t have the best damn coffee in China. Before I left I swore to myself I wouldn’t eat at McDonald’s. But I have caved. I love it. I love McDonald’s now. Once a week, I experience a piece of heaven in those 10 chicken nuggets, large fries and a coke.

This is not unique to me. Some Americans at the office have organized a daily (yes, daily) delivery from McDonald’s to the office for lunch. Orders must be placed the night before because McDonald’s serves so many desperate Americans this way that they need to know well in advance to satisfy the demand.

I just hope I can stay to only going once a week.

Formaldehyde Furniture

I received this email recently:

Hello,

You are receiving this mail because you are or recently were a resident in
a new apartment unit of Oakwood (No. 55 Northeast 3rd Ring Road – Chaoyang
District – Beijing) .

It was brought to our attention recently that there was an unusual odor
emanating from a piece of furniture in one of the apartments. An
independent environmental test concluded the piece of furniture had a slightly
higher-than-acceptable level of Formaldehyde. This chemical may cause
health problems for some people so Oakwood immediately removed the piece of
furniture. You may wish to speak with your healthcare provider if you have
specific questions or need further information regarding healthcare.

Based on the information above, Microsoft Relocation wanted to make
available some options for your personal consideration.

1. Have the piece of furniture removed from your apartment
2. Move to another apartment in the same complex that does not have this same
   type of furniture
3. Have your current apartment tested
   

Please contact me or XXXX if you have any questions or would like to
pursue one of the options in the above mentioned list.

Regards,

XXXX
Director, Microsoft Global Relocation

Around the World in 90 Hours

The process to obtain a visitor visa to China is pretty simple. You fill out a 2-page form and pay the fee and you’ve got it.

The visitor visas are only valid for 60 days, and do not technically allow one to work, so I am in the process of obtaining an employment license (EL). This visa requires a Z visa, a special single-entry visa for the purpose of obtaining an EL. The Z visa is much difficult to obtain, requiring formal company sponsorship, a health exam certified by a doctor in Beijing (including ECG, chest X-ray, and full bloodwork), etc.

Further, due to the tight controls surrounding the Olympics, the process of obtaining a Z visa has gotten more difficult. Previously you could get one at any consulate outside of China, including Hong Kong. They changed this rule the week I arrived in Beijing; now you can only get one from the consulate in your country of origin. This means a flight back to the US for the sole purpose of getting a visa to fly to China.

I did this this weekend. From the time I left Beijing to when I returned was 90 hours. Of those 90 hours, 38 were spent in transit, eg, in taxis, airports, and planes. It was one of the strangest and most absurd trips I’ve taken. It’s hard to believe all the money and other resources that went into satisfying one stupid rule.

On the upside I got to see Rob, Neville, and Janette. And MC Hammer, of course. Neville invited me as his second guest (his +2) to a pretty cool Facebook party at the Metreon. I think 80% of Facebook employees are younger than I am. For some reason, MC Hammer was at the party as a guest. We got a picture, natch.

My next trip to the US is only a month away, for Armen’s wedding. Unfortunately I’ll have to fly coach. I’ve been spoiled by business class and I dread the downgrade. But it’s gonna be a lot of fun and I’ll get to see even more friends.

Money

China is very much a cash culture. Some shops, restaurants and bars take credit cards, but many do not. Chinese currency doesn’t come in denominations larger than 100 (about USD$14, probably because of fear of counterfeiting). Furthermore, many small retailers and taxis complain when you try to pay for a small item with a 100RMB note, so you have to constantly aim to keep a variety of denominations at your disposal. All denominations 1RMB and over feature a portrait of Mao, naturally. The nearly worthless Jiao (10 Jiao = 1RMB), colloquially called a “Mao,” does not feature Mao (obviously).

I’ve been told that a trip to a bank is a harrowing experience, so I have so far only gotten cash from ATMs. ATMs frequently run out of money on the weekends. Often times when I arrive at work, I see people in military fatigues with machine guns and spiked clubs (really) re-filling the ATMs in the lobby. Most uniformed officers are not very intimidating, but the dude with the spiked club is pretty scary.

Hong Kong Dollars are minted by private banks such as HSBC, and are significantly more colorful than RMB. Both currencies are sized based on the denomination, which makes a lot of sense to me.