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Qin Shi Huang, the Boy King Tut and Me

After you've racked up a few years, you gather more than a little moss, rolling or not.

Very few people seem to own seven things and are able to flit about, come-what-may with no encumberances. I know one woman who pared everything down to about five things, including one pot and knife and fork. There was a whole article I read last week about improbable people who live minimally. 

No amount of convincing will tell me these people do not have a condition.

Looking at decorating magazines, these rooms are dead impractical because it is obvious to me these people have NO STUFF.

I have a couple of passions ... books and books.

In conversation about it with Dad today, he said, "I like women and books, and I don't like either on an ipad!"

So there you go.

This, combined with a pretty sizeable collection of movies and music begins to take up some space, but not so much space unless your space is too small.

Forced to empty storage during the recession, all of my stuff is now with me. In around 700 square feet, things are a little tight. I have joked to my friends that its like living in a Chinese tomb.

I have to move.

Luckily, I found a bigger space in the same apartment complex that is twice as big and still within my budget.

These are some rough pics I took one day while measuring. It should be perfectly adequate.

Now, IKEA beckons ...

 

Winter on the Other Side of the World

You wonder why figurative art of nature from Asia looks that way ... BECAUSE IT REALLY LOOKS THAT WAY.

Since I have been really busy with unpacking my storage and work and the holidays, I have been falling behind in blog postings, so I thought I would outsource this one to China.

My friend Darcy was on vacation over Christmas and went hiking at a place called Xiling Snow Mountain in Sichuan, which rises to nearly 17,600 feet in elevation, nearly as high as Popocatepetl in Mexico and 2/3 as high as Everest.

He really has a fantastic eye for composition and I wanted to share some of his shots of the hike with you.

This one above I assume was at the base of the mountain. As they climb higher the snow gets obviously thicker. 

They took a funicular to the summit, but it still must have been some hike!

"All the Lights are Shut Off"

 

My China correspondent Darcy Zhang writes from Chengdu about the eclipse:

Paper said it is the biggest eclipse in this century and we have to wait 500 years if we miss it , also they said this eclipse are moving along with the chang jiang river, which is the most densely populated area in the world. but tooooooooooo bad. the weather is horrible , Shang hai and Nanjing are heavy raining , and we got black clouds , i wake up early but didn't see anything , but i still peak a sign of the eclipse when their are a little gap between the heavy clouds, i didn't use the glasses cos the clouds have block most of the light and you don't have to do any more protection, even from a gap i still feel shock and amazing , the sun is like the crescent ,and suddenly , all the lights are shut off , it feels like in the 9 pm, all the roadlamp are open ,the dark continued about 5 minutes and then feel like the god turn on the light again , all becoming normal , we are kidding can we get double paid in the eclipse day.lol.

(photo: Eclipse over Chongqing - Xinhua news agency via cctv.com)

Front Page News in China

... and whyyyyyyy not?

Ziyi Zhang on the red carpet in Cannes.

Letter from Sichuan

Darcy Zhang writes a follow up to my story about how the Chinese are manic savers:

You must know that Chinese always save money instead of consuming, one big reason is the education , medical, and housing are huge burden to us , we are almost crazy about education , even the poor family would like to give everything for their children's better education, and the social medical is not perfect since we have toooooooo many people, (especially old people) so we are not afford to having any disease, often a patient can drag a whole family 's financial down. the housing is another one , too expensive for normal family. maybe that help you understanding one aspect of why Chinese like saving money.

A gaze into our own future, or will we ever wise up?

I thought this was kind of cute ...

Now that the financial crisis is finally hitting China, and we in the U.S. are flat broke and stuck at home watching reality television, the Chinese government is encouraging its people to pick up the consumer slack and go shopping more to help pick up the economy.

But it's not that easy, because you see, the Chinese people just save too much.

Ni Hao, Neighbor!

Chinese Tourists Go House Hunting in U.S.

LOS ANGELES -- Chinese visitors have been seeking to buy foreclosures and other bargain properties in the US plunging housing market in recent months, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The trips are part of a broader trend of individuals and businesses in China seeking greater investment opportunities abroad, the Los Angeles Times said.

"With housing prices crashing in the United States, home-buying trips to America are becoming one of the more popular tour group packages in China," the paper said.

Overseas Chinese have been buying US properties for years. What is different now is that they are starting to do it in large groups and quite openly, said the paper.

"Before, it was kind of private, a quiet thing among friends," Jamie Lee, a Chinese American who runs the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau office in Beijing, was quoted as saying. "Now it's full-blown... It's huge."

The Chinese do have a lot of cash to spend. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that there were more than 391,000 millionaire households in the Chinese mainland last year, up from 310,000 reported the previous year.

Home prices in the United States have fallen more sharply than in China, and many Chinese consider the American market a highly alluring place to invest and live because of the United States' developed economy, the paper said.

Source: Xinhua agency

Yeah, amazing what a culture that saves and invests can do ...

Just Amazing

Zhang Ziyi, taking a moment from her hectic and glamorous life just so she can look beautiful.

Ziyi MORE Watch (mai yu wachi :-P)

I don't know, between the election and these pics, I may be addled for the rest of the day.

These were done for an Asian version of "In Style" magazine and for more, check out the unofficial Zhang Ziyi website.

 

Ni Hao!

This is a really wonderful feature that I meant to tell you about long before now.

Called "Sexy Beijing", this is done by a California Jewish girl who speaks Chinese and lives in Beijing, and the structure of the show is modeled after "Sex and the City".

However, it goes much deeper than that, becoming more of an anthropological delve into the differences and similarities between Chinese and Americans. It's a real eye-opener!

Watch it, you'll love it!