Before going on Narita airport.
Not sure if Beijing International Airport is Impressive or scary...
Adam and Ahsan, at lunch. Had lots of new intersting food in Beijing, did not try snake, turtle or cock's comb. Chinese people stop eating that weird stuff! Adam knows how to dress himself btw... good trousers, good belt...
Kind of regret that I did not buy posters, bought another picture though that was cool, but expensive according to my local guide... but hey 110RMB for a cool picture, is alright.... 
Wine and Dine, or at least dinner and beer close to a little lake (probably a fake one)
Red, red... wine... lantern I mean... stay close to mee.....
Xiu, Adam and a boy whose name I forgot.
Xiu, Adam and a boy whose name I forgot.
Blury girl, in da hotel room. 
Lunch, apparently they had split up lunch duty between them. Very happy to have been allowed to try normal Chinese lunch food :). Thank you Xui and Chu!
First day in the middle
Airport seemed to be prepared to take on millions and millions. The country side covered in fog, and at that point I already felt slightly negative towards China, and the only positive thing I could think of was that they drove on the right side of the road.
Felt proud of Emma, being brave enough to go here on her own, without doing any more research than asking colleague to write down the address to hotel and the office.
Monday in Beijing,
Breakfast was okay normal hotel buffet. Got annoyed with the bad service outside the hotel when asked them to get a taxi for me; it took several minutes and they were just waiting. Japanese hotel personal would have gone out and stopped a taxi, or at least given me a omataseshimashita. Traffic was pretty okay on the way to the office, but what's with the bad traffic manner? honking of horns, sudden breaks, cars cutting each other off.. Chinese people, get a grip!
Office very nice inside, modern, airy (there is no 26C 55% humidity rules here), got picked up by "someone" in the reception. Or that's what reception lady told my Fiona, when she tried to go there and get me. Manager-san have made it before her.
And then there were work, very good meeting people, putting faces on nice email/communicator talks, and sharing ideas. Watching CNN while writing this, man they are annoying.."is Dalai Lama a peace maker or a political trouble maker?" If labor were expensive in China, would the rest of the world even talk to them? On the other hand, how many other countries is it PC to say that you want to have a religious leader? He has or is a good PR person; how can he not be calling China a totalitarian capitalistic state. Go Dalai! Stop blocking blogger and facebook, yes and free Tibet too! Heard there are work a rounds for the blocking, creative Chinese Engineers browsing the world. Go Geek China!
I like my co-workers, they are smart, creative, hard working, caring and fun, but still the question remains, should we do business with regime that blocks blogger? And jokes aside, it is not just blogger, it is the whole idea of not allowing your citizens access to information, not recognizing the fact that information wants and should be free. Are we contributing to the uphold or the down fold, by interacting here?
It’s 5.45 and everyone is going home… I can wave in a Taxi in Beijing too. Took forever and 35RMB to get home, that is pretty much the same in SEK, why is taxi so cheap in this country? Back at the hotel, bought some fruits for dinner, did not want to go out. Had a shower, and then bed time. Reading and chatting with friends… chatting and NOT updating facebook or blogger….thank you so bloody much Chinese government.
Tuesday
All good, woke up at 7, with a view of a foggy Beijing outside my window. Taxi driver went to Ericsson instead of Sony Ericsson, luckily for him and possibly also for Swedish-Chinese-Japanese future relations, he stopped the taximeter when he realized that it was his mistake. It is really a good training in relaxing for me, I have absolutely no control of the situation, the only thing I can do is to hope for the best. Now I kind of see it as a chance to sight-seeing. Considering going to Tiananmen Square tomorrow. And just for you information, on the subject “Hello world this is KNAS”, you are not allowed to view the Wikipedia on this subject.
Good day at the office, got lots done; interesting meetings with people at the office, and a test leader that had done my alpha report for me. Lunch was much nicer today, tofu, vegetables, a tasty fish, and chili fired eggplant in a sweet and sour sauce. Dinner today, well, a snickers and a glass of red wine.
Could I find the charm with Beijing? I love Tokyo, I love the city, the architecture, yes you know how I feel. But Beijing, there is something with a town that allows starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Subways, Pizza Hut, but at the same time have opinions about what I read, is it there the charm is to be found, in the conflict between wanting to be western and modern, and at the same time, wanting to keep millions of people un-educated about things. And next time I hear them complain about Japan trying to leave out Manchurian history details of their history books I will be the first to shout “Men, e du så jävla bra själv då?” (Okay, but really are you so damn good yourself?). I’m provoked by Beijing, as you can see. Being in Beijing is a little bit like eating meat to me, or at least admitting that there is meat that taste good… meat is evil, China is evil.
Blogging from my phone, maybe it is not that strange, that I react, I want to communicate, and it is partly cut off. Not by choice, by me wanting to spend time with myself, not due to technical problem, but due a government desperately trying to clean up my view of reality. And then my mind slips, into the unimportant, why is Beijing so tempting to use for alliterations? Blogging from Beijing, Banned in Beijing, Bored in Beijing. Beijing Breezer and hopefully on Thursday; Black out Beijing. Bedtime Beijing, will do some reading I think.
Thursday in Beijing
Last evening here and I went out with the team, top 3 disgusting things on the menu sea turtle in garlic (I’ve never been big on garlic you know), cock’s comb fried with veggies, and hot pot snake. There was way too less alcohol for me to try either of them. The local beer was nice though, and the other food too. Taxi home was surprisingly accurate, and not so weird, except that it is apparently okay to smoke in taxis, but hey, he found the way to he hotel and did not seem half as retarded as the other drivers I have had. And when I passed hotel complex and cool buildings with neon lamps, I must admit I enjoyed it a bit. Way to the office, coughing and spitting driver, I know that the evil need to get out, but still. Stop being nasty, stop disturbing the harmony.
Interesting to see that from some perspectives we as Swedes are so much more like them than we are, like the Japanese. We want equality between the genders, we expect everyone to earn their own money, and we expect the government to take care of us, but at the same time, we want to know why all the time, we are not afraid of expressing our opinions. On the other hand, Swedes gets annoyed when people are cutting lines, when people are trying to be better than others, when people make nasty sounds while eating (and yes martin I have taken the opportunity to chew with my mouth open while I was here, because everyone else is doing it). To have dinner with group of Chinese is like eating with your family, if you want something your reach for it, you can use your own chopsticks to eat directly from the severing plates, you do not need to let things land on your plate before it goes to your mouth. Somehow, dinner seem to be a way to enjoy each others company and get nutrition in China, while in Japan it seems to be a complete ritual, to reinforce roles, and put you in a context. All good we have it under control.
Must say that it seems easier to connect with Chinese people, they seem more open, and honest and there, and real. On the other hand, some times you do not want real, you want harmony, you want safety, you want to hear small lies, sweet little lies about who you are and the people around you. Presents and facade.
Tomorrow going back to my home, to Tokyo. I will love every inch o of that town even more. Think I need some time to digest Beijing, before I come back and do tourist things. Have not even looked at a map, not sure how far I am from the big square, and as of now I do not care that much. Want to learn more about China before I go here next, learn more why things are the way they are and why they have been the way they are…. And once again, Im back to the “men e du så jälva bra själv då?” if I hear one word about Japanese text books and Manchuria.
All in all, it has been very good for me to be here, I have started thinking about things I did not really cared about before, since they have not affected me. Before I have been freaking out over slow internet or no connection… now I’m really annoyed that a country are telling me what is suitable or not.
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