Apartment Adventures and Miyazaki X Beijing

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the fourth installment of Astronomer in Beijing! For all of you who reached out to me about the blog, thank you so much for the comments. I really appreciate the feedback in any form you prefer. I’m glad so many of you liked seeing the pictures of the Great Wall of China. It really was a magnificent trip and writing this blog was a fun way to reflect on it. Before I dive into my thrilling apartment search and other fun stuff that I did at the end of September, I wanted to remind you all that if you’re interested in getting notified about future installments of my blog, please click the subscribe button on the right. Also, I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe and healthy! I know that my life appears to have returned to normal, but the impact of the pandemic is still being felt in China. This week (in real time), there were 6 new cases of COVID in Beijing (thankfully about 20 miles from where I live) and because of that, the government has put some restrictions in place on large gatherings. Additionally, masks are still (and have been) required on all public transportation and inside most non-eating venues (and obviously people are required to do all of the quarantines to come to China to begin with).

Finding an Apartment

Although I had a lovely time staying with Roberta & Ted, I didn’t want to overstay my welcome and was also a bit anxious to finally get to unpack my suitcases. As such, much of my time when I wasn’t doing the fun things that I’ve previously shared was spent trying to find an apartment. The last time I actually had to look for a place was before I started graduate school and although I really liked my apartment in Boston (Go Brighton!), I knew that I didn’t want to just settle on a place, but could afford to be picky. Because of this, I took my time finding a place. In terms of the actual rental process, it is pretty different here in China. Unlike in the US, where the person searching for an apartment has to actively look through Craig’s List or on a realtor’s website and contact an agent to find out if a place is still available, here, you need to contact an agent and tell them what you’re looking for. The agents will then send you possible apartments that may (or may not) meet your needs. Over the span of the three weeks that I was looking for an apartment, I was in contact with three agents and probably saw thousands of pictures of a hundred or so apartments. All of this is done on WeChat, so I’d get lots of sporadic messages at all hours of the day about if I was interested in a given apartment. As I said, I was trying to be a bit picky, so in my mind, the things that I wanted were a one or two bedroom furnished apartment with a living room, a kitchen, and an oven.

Although many of the apartments and houses I’ve seen during my time in China look pretty similar to the west on the interior, there are a few key differences that I’ve seen that made it trickier for me to find an apartment. For starters, when I was looking for a place in the US, it would be unheard of to make sure there is an oven. However, most traditional Chinese homes do not have an oven. I’ve had a few discussions with different people about this and I think it boils down to differences in food cost and what is the overall priority of different things here in China. Specifically, I’ve had friends who are Chinese say that it isn’t because they don’t like to cook, but rather, they cannot fathom why someone would spend the time cooking when they can just get a good (and relatively inexpensive) meal from the university cafeteria or restaurant. Given that a meal on Tsinghua’s campus can cost as little as 20rmb (~ $3), I can understand this point. However, for me, I really like cooking and although I enjoy Chinese food (as this blog has shown), it’s also nice to make some Western food that I can’t get as easily here. One of the other features that I desperately wanted to avoid having in my apartment was a loft. Since I’m 6ft2in, I’m a fair bit taller than the average Chinese person and many of the lofted apartments that I saw pictures of have very low slanted ceilings, which would be unusable to me. Although I saw a lot of pictures of cute apartments with them, I wanted to be able to take full advantage of my entire apartment. Another major difference between the US and Chinese processes is that in the US, a realtor won’t show you an apartment that is under construction. That’s not the case in China. I was sent at least five different apartments that looked more like a demolition zone with mountains of concrete that I’d be told would be ready in a few days. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t love the idea of renting an unfinished apartment and thus asked the agents to not send me those.

Although it was nice to see so many different apartments via weChat in so many different parts of the city, I must admit that the Chinese rental process was exhausting. Because I was always at the whims of the agent and interacting with multiple agents, it felt like the process would never end and was a constant barrage of seeing less than desirable housing. After my trip to the Great Wall, I was hoping to be able to find a place within the next week or so. I spent much of Wednesday and Thursday rejecting apartments until I was told by the agent that I ultimately used that there were no more apartments that met my specifications in Gulou or the surrounding areas. Although this felt unlikely to me, I definitely was a bit dejected and started to try to figure out if there were other areas I might want to live. However, later that afternoon, he sent me an ad for the apartment that I ultimately ended up renting! When I saw that there was a kitchen (with an oven!), bedroom, and living room, and that it was in Gulou and in my price range, I knew I needed to visit as soon as possible. (Ironically, two agents sent me the ad for my apartment almost simultaneously, and was a bit tricky to figure out who to use). Above are just a few pictures of my apartment before I moved in and unpacked all of my stuff. Although you can’t see it in any of the photos, I did get my oven, as well as a separate living room and bedroom (and yes, that is a washing machine in the kitchen – that’s pretty standard here). I also have a really cool rooftop deck (see the first picture above). Although autumn has definitely begun in Beijing and I haven’t had the chance to enjoy it a ton, I’m planning to make the most of it in the spring and summer! Because the entire process was so stressful and I didn’t want to lose out on the apartment, I ended up signing my lease on the same day as I visited the apartment. Although I still didn’t have a bank account at this point, I was able to have Jesse pay my first 3 months rent and my realtor fee (Thank you so much Jesse! And yes, I’ll be paying you back soon).

Although I didn’t end up moving into my apartment until a week later (the landlord needed to do a little bit of painting and cleaning), I was able to get the internet set up for my apartment so that once I moved in, I would be able to actually live in it. You can see a few pictures of my apartment from when I finally moved in here (I’ll share some more next week, too)! For those of you with eagle eyes, you’ll notice a lot of mementos from Saratoga, Boston, and everywhere in between! Although schlepping all of those suitcases through the Shanghai airport was a pain, I’m really glad that I did as it has helped transform my apartment into a home. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with moving all five suitcases by myself from Roberta & Ted’s to Gulou. Ted was able to drive me over and help me to put them into my apartment, which made the transition infinitely simpler. Again, I really need to stress just how welcoming, helpful, and generous Roberta & Ted were to welcome me into their home and help me get situated here in Beijing. The Kehillat Beijing community has already become an integral part of my Beijing identity and I really can’t imagine living here without it.

Miyazaki X Beijing

Beyond my apartment search, I also got to visit my first Chinese Art Museum. As you’ve probably discovered from reading this blog, I’m a huge anime fan! When I discovered that the Today Art Gallery in Beijing was hosting an exhibit on the work of Hayao Miyazaki I knew I needed to check it out. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Miyazaki’s name, you’ll probably recognize at least a few of the characters below. Miyazaki is arguably the most famous and important animator in Japan and responsible for the elevation of anime beyond television into movie features. Some of his more famous movies (at least in the US) are Spirited Away, Nausicaa, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro (I think all of the Miyazaki Catalog – and all of Studio Ghibli for that matter – is available on HBOMax, so if you’re inspired from these pictures, check them out). The exhibit took over three floors of the museum and captured Miyazaki’s entire opus.

The exhibit started out with a retrospective of all of Miyazaki’s movies through hundreds of movie posters. It was really cool to see which movies I recognized and also realize that there were so many that I still need to see. After the movie posters, the exhibit opened up into a detailed description of Miyazaki’s working career. Although I had to use Baidu translate to translate the descriptions into English, it was really cool to see the giant cutouts of the different characters and take some selfies.

The next section of the exhibit was one of my favorites! Here, the had recreations of story boards, original character designs, and animation cels to show how anime comes to life. It’s really cool to see how the rough sketches become the polished masterpieces that wow us on the screen. One of my favorite thing in comics (and comic book social media) is when you can see the full creative process, so this was really cool! Beyond the pictures shown here, the also had an entire floor showing the original art from a variety of Miyazaki’s work! Hands down, this was my favorite part of the exhibit. I’m so used to see the crisp, clean lines that define Miyazaki’s animation, so it was fascinating to see the original pencil sketches and watercolor work. I really enjoyed seeing the early designs for characters from Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa, and Spirited Away. While I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of original comic art (and I even own a few pieces) at Boston Comic Con, it’s pretty rare to get to see unpublished and early sketch work from manga (at least when I was in the US). It was really cool to see the evolution in the way the sketches were done. Much of the early work was pencil and watercolor sketches, while the later work was definitely more pen and ink.

I really wish I could share all of the amazing art with you, but unfortunately the museum asked people not to take pictures in this part of the museum. Thankfully I’ll have all of these other photos and my memories of an amazing exhibit. If this exhibit or another similar one ever travel to a city near you, I highly recommend it!!! However, it is worth noting that the no photos signs didn’t prevent many of the Chinese patrons from taking pictures. However, I didn’t want any of the docents to single me out. I will say that one of the major differences that I found between US/European museums and this museum in particular is that in the US you don’t touch the artwork (or the glass that is covering it). Here, many of the patrons were touching everything to the point that it looked like the exhibit should be more interactive than it actually was.

The last part of the exhibit was a life size recreation of some of the scenes from My Neighbor Totoro. Given the first two parts of the exhibit, this was definitely a huge change of pace, but still a lot of fun. I was a bit surprised by how many kids were at the museum until I saw this section! This was definitely made for them! The large scenes reminded me of something out of Disney World! It was also reminiscent of a Beatrix Potter exhibit that I remember seeing when I was 6 and we visited the Lake District (Mom, feel free to correct me here). It was really cute to see all of the kids getting photos with Totoro and even I didn’t want to miss out on the fun!

Wandering Around Beijing

Between visiting my apartment, going to Tsinghua for work, and the Today Art Museum, I also got to see a lot of really cool stuff here in Beijing. As I’ve mentioned previously, one of the things I really enjoy about Beijing is that all of the subway stations have a unique artistic flair. Here you can see imagery from three wildly different subway stations. The two right hand side images are from the Olympic Park subway station that I walk through everyday on my commute to Tsinghua. Because it is the nearest subway to the 2008 Beijing stadium (which will also be hosting some sports for the upcoming 2022 games this winter), all of the imagery is tied to sport. The bottom panel shows some of the sights from the Gulodaijie subway station near my apartment including a brilliant golden inlay of the Drum Tower.

The city art isn’t just limited to the subway stations. After signing my lease, I wandered around and saw some really cool statues and traditional Chinese architecture. I also saw some pretty cool skyscrapers and what appears to be an observatory of some kind – I believe it might be associated with a science museum, but I need to double check. I also really love see seeing the various street ads, especially those highlighting the Chinese Olympic team or cute cartoon animals.

While exploring the area near my rental agent’s office, I wandered into a pretty cool mall filled with smiling faces! The yellow logo wasn’t the only fun thing I saw, I also saw some cool in store advertisements (like the giant cartoon kid and red dog wearing sunglasses). Again, astronauts made another appearance in marketing, further highlighting the cultural cache astronauts and space have right now.

On my trip to the Today Art Museum to see the Miyazaki World exhibit, I started to get the sense that I was approaching the museum because the amount of abstract/modern art started to increase the closer I got to the museum. One of my favorites was the giant red caged T-Rex! I don’t know if this was an homage to Jurassic Park, but that’s the vibe I got. There was also a really interesting statue recreating The Last Supper with Pigs. Based on the connotation of “capitalist pigs”, I’m sure this was a political statement, but I thought the piece was quite clever. Furthermore, there were a number of cool sights including a cat cafe and a rather creepy/intense series of metallic statues that seemed to be screaming out to people.

Also, when I was setting up my internet, I saw the first real signs that the Olympics will be here in a few months! Although I don’t yet know if I’ll be able to attend any events, I’ll definitely be commenting on the state and attitude of the city this winter, especially during the Games in future posts.

Wandering Around Tsinghua

As I showed in my second blog post, Tsinghua’s campus is really pretty! It has a very curated park feel and the more I get to wander around, the more I see picturesque sites. One of the things I really like about the campus, which I hope all of my pictures capture, is the juxtaposition of new and old architecture and design. Obviously the first three pictures I posted show off the hyper modern, but other areas of the campus highlight an entirely different atmosphere and transport me to a much calmer and quieter headspace. I also did manage to find the Tsinghua Bookstore/Gift shop, so I’ll hopefully be able to get some Tsinghua swag pretty soon!

Food

No Astronomer in Beijing blog post would be complete without a few food pictures to whet the appetite. After successfully signing my lease, I decided to treat myself to a wonderful lunch at a vegan restaurant near the rental agent’s office. I got a delicious mushroom dish (I’m really a fan of these long thin mushrooms!). Because it was a cold and rainy day, I tried my first noodle soup, which was lovely. It was jam packed full of tofu, mushrooms, greens, and noodles. It wasn’t ramen, but it was definitely reminiscent of ramen. I also got a lotus root meatball dish with potatoes that was delicious, too! Now, you’ll probably notice a fourth dish. Unlike restaurants in the US that give you bread as a free appetizer, this restaurant gave me hawthorns, a little apple-like fruit that is super popular here in China! I also saw some really pretty cakes when I visited the mall later that day! I didn’t try any, but I thought you’d all like to see what a Chinese bakery display looks like.

Animals of Beijing

As this was my last week staying with Roberta & Ted, I made sure to spend some extra time with their dogs, Mimi and Honey. I even got to take them for a walk when Roberta & Ted went away for a weekend. I can’t remember when the last time I took a dog for a walk was and while it took the dogs a little bit of time to decide that they actually wanted to leave the house, once we got started, they knew exactly where they wanted to go and what to do.

I also saw a number of other animals while I was exploring Beijing and the Gulou area specifically. I want to highlight the outdoor fish tank that’s near Roberta & Ted’s house. I’ll let you know if they stay out there all winter. I also caught a photo of a bird by the vegan restaurant I went too. One of the things that most excited me about living in Gulou is that there are a lot of neighborhood dogs and cats! I’m especially a big fan of the cat, who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a few times sitting right outside of my apartment’s front door.

East Meets West

As I explore Beijing, I’m always on the lookout for recognizable western influences. When I was at the mall, I wandered in to a Chinese bookstore half hoping they might have English language books, but also to see what a Chinese bookstore was like. I didn’t find any English language books, but I did see Harry Potter! I also found a movie theatre that had at least one non-Chinese movie playing (Free Guy – the Chinese movie industry is a big deal and it definitely dominates what is playing). I also saw two of my favorite Disney characters in Chip n’ Dale. When I was at Tsinghua, I saw an ad for an airing of the British National Theatre production of Frankenstein from a few years back staring Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller. And right by my apartment is a super Chinese looking McDonalds!

One of my favorite aspects of China that I’ve been wanting to highlight for a while are international foreign import grocery stores. Although Chinese grocery stores occasionally have Western products (mostly candy, Oreos, and soda), when I want to get Western products like cereal, canned beans, ketchup, tomato sauce, peanut butter, or tortilla, these markets are the place to go. Unlike typical US supermarkets, the stock is a little bit more fluid. You can’t always be sure that the market will have the exact brand they had last time, but it’s been a godsend for when I’m in the mood for a little taste of home.

Anime and Comics

Beyond the Miyazaki World exhibit, I also noticed a lot of other cool anime things. While I did see One Piece and Demon Slayer figurines and manga at the bookstore (whether it was in Chinese or Japanese, I’m not sure), I also saw some “anime in the wild” like the One Piece stickers on the computers at the realtor’s office and the ads for My Neighbor Totoro and another anime film on Tsinghua’s campus. I think my favorite find was the DragonBall Z soda that I found at the import store. While I didn’t buy a soda this time (hopefully I’ll see them again), it’s really cool to be perusing an aisle and notice some of my favorite characters.

Beyond the anime characters, I also saw some cool DC comics and Marvel figures (yes, that’s a display of the same DC figurines I bought last week). Although anime is definitely more popular than superheroes here, I’m glad both have a presence.

And with that, I’ve put a close on my first month living in Beijing! I hope you enjoyed getting to read all about my adventures here in Beijing in September. Next week, I’ll be switching to the first of my monthly format, so you’ll get to hear what I’ve been up to in October, all about getting adjusted to life in Beijing living on my own, and how my research is going now that I’m finally settled in. I hope you’re enjoying the blog, and if you haven’t subscribed yet, please click the button on the righthand side of this post! Let me know what you think! It’d be great to hear from you!

In Peace,

Emmet