Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re doing well and that this post finds you enjoying the summer and not having to deal with a crazy heat wave. As you should know from my last post, I’m not writing this from Beijing. As of June 22, I no longer live in Beijing and I’m no longer a postdoc at Tsinghua University. Instead, I’m writing to you from Padova, Italy (also known by its English name, Padua), where I’ll be a postdoc at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatoria Astronomica di Padova (or the National Institute of Astronomy – Padova Astronomical Observatory). For those of you who are wondering, Padova is in the northern part of Italy as is ~ 30 – 45 minutes from Venice. However, as this is my Astronomer in Beijing blog, I wanted to let you all know how I spent my last month in Beijing (just a heads up, this isn’t the last post, I’ll have one more post later in the summer/early fall where I reflect on my time in China, but because of the time commitment required for the blog, I’m not planning to continue doing the blog in Italy).
Since you’re all obviously reading this after I left, I will start by saying that Goldie and I made it safely to Italy! For those of you who’ve never traveled by plane with an animal, it isn’t the most fun for the pet (Goldie was not a happy camper). For starters, June 22 was an extremely long day. I woke up pretty early because I needed to finish up packing my backpack (and then realized that I was going to need to put things in my spare duffle bag – thanks Jesse for the duffle bag!). I also wanted to walk around Shichahai and see the Drum Tower & Bell Tower one last time. Additionally, I was still waiting for Roundabout to come collect some of the items that I couldn’t bring with me and that I was donating (thank you so much to my friend Kevin for helping me coordinate that and get all of the stuff out of my apartment).
Since I was moving with five suitcases (you can see some of them behind Kevin in the above photo), a carry-on duffle bag, a backpack, and Goldie, I’m super grateful that my friend Richard was able to come with me to the airport! I have no idea how I would’ve managed without him, especially getting the suitcases into the minivan that I had arranged to take me to the airport and then getting those suitcases into the airport – we needed two very full carts. Thankfully, because I have Silver Sky Blue status with Air France (a few trips to Europe from China will do that!), I was able to skip the lines, which was great as Goldie much preferred when her carrier was on solid ground and not slung around my shoulders. Once all of my bags were checked (and four were overweight, so that cost a lot of money!), the ticket agent had to check Goldie’s paperwork. Thankfully that was all in order (there was a bit of a concern earlier in the week that there might be an issue as the Beijing customs office did not include my address or phone number on the forms, but nobody seemed to mind). After that, we said goodbye to Richard and then Goldie and I had to go through customs and security. Thankfully, I didn’t need to put Goldie through the X-ray machine, but she didn’t want to leave the carrier, so I had to drag her out. Once I got to our gate, I covered her carrier in a blanket and that seemed to calm her down a bit (although she was definitely hyperventilating). Thankfully on the 12.5 hour flight from Beijing to Paris, there was nobody sitting next to me, so I could put Goldie on the seat and so I could pet her to try to comfort her a bit. I flew Premium Economy and while it was a bit pricy, on such a long flight, it was definitely worth it! About 6 hours in, Goldie started to lick herself, which I took as a good sign, but at points, she got very antsy about being in the carrier and tried to push her way out. When we arrived in Paris, we had to go through customs to enter Europe. Although they didn’t need to see any paperwork, I did have to put Goldie through the X-ray machine, which I wasn’t thrilled about. We had a three hour layover in Paris, so just long enough that Goldie got used to not flying for us to then take the 1.5 hour flight to Venice. Unfortunately, on that flight, I did have someone sitting next to me, so Goldie had to go under the seat. Once we arrived in Venice, it took a surprisingly short amount of time to get my luggage. Since I had so many suitcases, my friend Daniele had helped me to book a van, which was super helpful (especially since I had 2 luggage carts again)! We then drove to my AirBnB and finally Goldie was able to leave her carrier. However, Goldie was definitely rattled. I had gotten some cat litter and food that I had sent to the AirBnB, so I knew she’d have something to eat, but it took her about 6 hours to calm down. However, nearly 4 weeks later, she seems to be doing quite well. The only thing that seems to have impacted her is that she is much less interested in eating her usual dry food (it’s the exact same brand of Royal Canin food she ate in China). I found two wet foods that she seems to love (though I don’t love the smell), but I’m hoping she’ll go back to eating a bit more dry food soon (I took her to the vet last week just to check that everything is ok and will be going back to do some bloodwork in August). In terms of the entire travel experience, everything really did go quite smoothly. I have to say how night and day the differences are in the airport in Beijing vs in Paris. In Paris, the international terminals (even at 6am) are bustling with people, shops, and food, whereas you can still feel the after effects of the pandemic in Beijing as there was only one duty free shop and a Starbucks open. Beijing Capital Airport definitely didn’t feel nearly as bustling as Charles de Gaulle Airport.
In terms of my new set up here, I’m really enjoying getting to explore Padova! It’s so different from Beijing (obviously), and I like how walkable the city is. It’s nice that everything is relatively close and I’m struck by how old things look. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of Beijing is historic and old, but because the architecture is so different from what I grew up with, it doesn’t hit that way. Also pretty much wherever I went in Beijing, there were modern roads, highways, and subways, while here, there are a lot of cobblestone roads where you can forget for a second what year it is. For those of you who’ve never been to Padova, it has a bit like Bath in the UK (if you’ve been there) – lots of old architecture and history. I’m definitely enjoying trying gelato (lots of vegan flavors) and other Italian food (it’s easy to find vegetarian options, but a bit harder for vegan options – although the grocery stores are quite easy).
Also, although not about Beijing, I do want to say that I had a wonderful time at my cousin Robbie’s wedding to his wife Stefanie just outside of Boston, MA! While it was exhausting to travel from Padova to Boston only a week after moving to Padova, it was so great to see Jesse, my parents, and so many of my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins that I hadn’t seen in years. Although I hope my next trip back to the US will be a bit longer than four days, it was wonderful to see everyone!
With all that said, I think this is going to be a very long post because I did a lot in my last month in Beijing and definitely got quite sentimental when it came to including photos, so I hope you all enjoy reading and seeing all about it!
Vegans of Beijing May Cooking Class
So this is going back a bit, but since my last post focused on my family’s visit to China, I didn’t want to leave out an amazing Vegans of Beijing cooking class with Chef Chao that I went to in May, the week before my parents came to China! This time we made two different delicious variations of Zhajiang mian, Beijing’s famous noodle dish. Although we didn’t make the noodles from scratch this time (Vegans of Beijing did a biang biang noodles class this July that I was super bummed to miss), we did make all of the sauces from scratch and a crazy wide array of toppings! As you can see from the photos below, the two sets of noodles were pretty different. The first was made using a delicious eggplant sauce and the second was more of the classic Zhajiang noodle (I’ve had it a few times, including with my friend Lu a few weeks later – see the More Vegan food section), which we veganized using mushrooms. However, despite not making the noodles from scratch, the prep work took a ton of time! As you can see, we had to chop tons of mushrooms, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers! If you look closely, you’ll also see some delicious edamame, which we seasoned with chili for a delicious topping to the noodles.
Once we finished chopping everything, we got down to cooking! We starting by boiling the bean sprouts and spinach to prepare them to be toppers for the noodles. After that, we moved on to our mushroom sauce. We started by sauteing all of the mushrooms (we used king oyster and shiitake) before adding our sauce, which was a mixture of sweet flower sauce, gan huang jiang (a spicy bean sauce), and soy sauce. It was a delicious sauce and could definitely be put on anything! After that, we moved onto the eggplant sauce, where we needed to saute the eggplant, potatoes, and peppers separately before we added them back to the wok to finish them off! One important thing to note is that unlike Italian pastas, where you’ll finish the noodles in the sauce, you don’t do that for these noodles, the sauce and toppings are ladled on top. Also, the noodles are definitely not al dente! Chinese noodles should be served much softer than typical Italian fare.
And now, the piece de resistance, two amazing bowls of noodles! Each of them were so good! I think my only complaint is that for those of you who’ve never been to China, noodle dishes are a much bigger serving than in Italy, so it was a lot of food and I was very full afterwards!
This was such a fun cooking class! Now that I’m not in Beijing, it’ll be interesting to see how easy (or hard) it is to get different Chinese ingredients. There are a few Asian markets in Padova, so I need to go check them out soon, but hopefully between them and Amazon, I’ll be able to make these dishes soon!
Dragon Boat Festival – Races & Exploring Tongzhou!
The weekend after my family visited was the Dragon Boat festival. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Dragon Boat festival is a national holiday that commemorates Qu Yuan, a beloved Chinese minister from the Warring States period, and people celebrate by eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings – see the Vegan food section) and racing dragon boats! Unlike the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, the people racing in Beijing aren’t professionals (or even elite college and high school rowers). From what I could see, the teams were collections of amateurs ranging from adults to younger children. Also, the races aren’t super long, only ~ 100 – 200 m (at least in Beijing), so it’s a sprint to the finish (I did see some pretty amazing videos online of some very different dragon boat races along narrow rivers in other parts of China – almost like kayak racing in the Olympics). To watch the races, I had to trek out to Tongzhou, which is ~ 1 hour from my apartment. After getting the recommendation from another friend in Kehillat Beijing, Kevin and I decided to check it out! As you can see below, we had some pretty great seats and saw some fun races! However, the most excitement came from a crash! Don’t worry, nobody was injured and everyone had life jackets on, but we saw a boat turn 90 degrees and accidentally hit another boat! The other races were also fun to watch, too!
In what can only be pure luck, as Kevin and I were setting up a spot to watch the races, we ran into our friends Dan & Melanie from Kehillat Beijing (which I think is still only the 5th time I ran into people by accident in Beijing)! After watching some races, we all decided to explore a bit more of Tongzhou and explore the area surrounding the Tongzhou Canal! You can see one temple that we stopped by, as well as the pretty spectacular Randeng Pagoda, which dates back to the 6th Century! All in all, it was a really fun day! I’m glad I got to experience the full Dragon Boat Festival since I’d missed out my first two years in Beijing.
A Visit to Kings Joy – The Three Michelin Star Vegetarian Restaurant in Beijing
One of the things that’s been on my Beijing bucket list since arriving has been to experience the amazing Three Michelin starred vegetarian restaurant, Kings Joy. To my knowledge, I’d never been to any restaurant that had received a Michelin star before and Kings Joy was the first Vegetarian restaurant with three Michelin stars. It also is right by the Lama Temple, so very close to where I used to live. However, I had been holding out for a special occasion because Kings Joy only does dinner sets and the least expensive option is ~ 1000rmb (or $137). However, with my time coming to an end, I felt like now was as good a time as there was going to be. Since I knew Kevin also wanted to try Kings Joy, we both went and had a pretty spectacular meal. They specialize in small plates and this is definitely fine dining, so quite different from the Chinese food I usually eat (though you could see a lot of Chinese influence). We also got to keep post a copy of the set menu we chose and the cloth napkin (I chose red) as a souvenir. Before I dive into the meal, I want to highlight that the ambiance of the restaurant is amazing. There was someone playing the harp the entire time and the large windows allow for a ton of natural light (which created a cool atmosphere, especially as there was a thunderstorm later in the evening) and all of the wait staff was immaculately dressed and our waiter spoke fluent English. In terms of the meal, we started with citrus juice and honey dew, which were then followed up by crudite with a variety of dipping sauces (with the exception of the crudite and the desserts, all of the other dishes were individually served). We then had a trio of small bites, featuring an avocado roll, a vinegar mushroom, and grilled sticky rice. After that, we were served a delicious Shangri-La matsutake mushroom broth served in a tea pot. This was then followed up by a plate of hawthorn jelly (hawthorn is a small Chinese crab apple) with mountain yam rolls. We then got an energizing fruit enzyme (kind of like a kombucha) and then a pastry with sauteed gorgon fruit (which is a species of water lily) with sweet peas and cashews. This was followed by a pan fried bamboo with asparagus tips and a clay pot wild mushroom stew. We were then served a passion fruit vinegar drink as well as a Nepal truffle with quinoa tofu. After this, we got a plate of morel mushroom with seasonal greens and then a peach resin mushroom with braised rice. We then were served a cold noodle with sesame sauce as the final entree. For dessert, we got a few different pastries, including an imperial osmanthus pudding, almond mung bean cakes, a red date rice roll with red bean filling, mountain oolong tea, a black sesame cake, and a rose crepe cake. The entire meal really was amazing and the mushroom dishes were my favorite! They even had us write a comment card at the end of the meal (though I doubt we’re famous enough to make their guest booklet – I took some photos of people who I recognized). All in all, despite the price, it was well worth it. While I love the more traditional Chinese vegetarian food, I’m really glad I got to experience this!
Vegans of Beijing June Cooking Class – My Final Cooking Class
The last weekend before I left Beijing, I had one final Vegans of Beijing cooking class with Chef Chao. As I’ve said before, I’m so glad that I was able to go to so many cooking classes during my time in Beijing! Chef Chao is an amazing teacher – if any of you ever go to Beijing and are interested in taking a class, let me know! – and I’ve loved being able to create some lasting food memories and understand Chinese culture a bit better through food! Also, I’m really grateful to my friend Mariya for organizing the classes and for making sure that the June class was the 15th, so that I could attend one final class!
As you can see from the very full table below, we went all out and made three pretty incredibly dishes in June!
The first dish we made was a cold noodle, but pretty unlike any of the cold noodles I had. This had a full noodle both (which we chilled using ice!). We started by chopping up a pretty amazing array of veggies including onion, tomato, cucumber, apple, ginger, and garlic, which we then combined with rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and water before finishing them off with vegan kimchi and fresh noodles! It was a super delicious and really refreshing noodle dish – although the chopping took a long time!
We then followed it up with the classic cold vinegar mushroom dish. I’ve had this dish a few times (most memorably at the banquet at the Guo Shuojing conference – this was one of two dishes Jesse and I could eat of 15+ dishes). It’s a mix of wood ear mushrooms (also called black fungus) that have been rehydrated and combined with carrots and onion and some delicious fried peanuts! Again, we were chopping for days! But it was so worth it! To make the vinegar sauce, we combined chili powder, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, and Chinese black vinegar. It was a super delicious dish and very refreshing in the Beijing heat!
Our last dish was another favorite of mine, tofu! Specifically, we made fried tofu with a chili sauce! For the sauce, we started by chopping garlic, ginger (the staples of almost all of the dishes we’ve made – and real staples of Chinese cooking in general), a spicy green chili, scallions, salt, sugar, soy sauce, black vinegar, and a bit of water. We then cut the tofu into small blocks and covered them in corn starch for frying! While I’m still a bit terrified by frying in hot oil, I was able to conquer that fear and fry up some delicious tofu (though if I make it here, I’ll probably try to either bake them or pan fry them). The corn starch made the tofu deliciously crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and it was so delicious with the chili sauce!
As you can see, the classes weren’t just fun for the cooking (here are some photos with me, Chef Chao, and Mariya, too), but also featured a wonderful group meal with all of us that was always fun. We had a nice mix of people new to Beijing, new to vegetarianism/veganism, and just new to the cooking classes (we even had someone who I introduced to Kehillat Beijing and who came to the Shabbat the following week)! I’ll really miss not only the social aspect, but also the cooking aspect, but I’ll do my best to try to recreate that in Italy!
A Visit to an Amazing Cat Cafe!
After my last cooking class, I was walking back to my apartment and since it was really hot, was looking for a place to cool off about halfway through my walk and I passed this amazing cat cafe. I’d seen it before walking back from the cooking classes, but this time I decided to stop in and I’m so glad that I did! While I love Goldie, it was really cool to be surrounded by all of these cats. Unlike the other cat cafe that I went to with Richard in May, this was very much not a normal cafe, but more of a cat paradise, where customers were encouraged to play and pet the cats, but also just be quiet and sit with them (whereas the other was more of a typical cafe, but featuring cats). You can see that the cats looked so different from Goldie. Some of them were huge! I think they must’ve been Maine Coon cats! They were all super friendly and very affectionate towards humans (especially when being fed). It was really relaxing and such a fun way to spend an afternoon!
Vegans of Beijing Japanese Buffet at the Tokyo Lounge!
The next day, I had one last Vegans of Beijing event. This time, my friend Andrea (that’s me with Andrea and another friend, Alex, who is another Vegans of Beijing organizer) organized an amazing Japanese buffet at the Tokyo Lounge! I’d been wanting to try the vegan menu at the Tokyo Lounge, so I’m so glad that this was able to be my final Vegans of Beijing event! We had about 30+ people and the food and ambiance was pretty amazing! The menu included udon noodles, fried rice, mapo tofu, mushroom ajillo, fried asparagus, fried bean sprouts, kitsune bean curd, pumpkin croquettes, spring rolls, pickles, lotus root pickles, tempura, gnocchi, hot pot, jiaozi, and jooma vegan yogurt! It was all super delicious! I haven’t had a ton of Japanese food while I was in China, and this was all really delicious and it was so fun to see so many people and have one last fun Vegan even before I left! Between the cooking class and this dinner, it was like a big vegan sendoff for me!
A Quick Visit to the Deshengmen Arrow Tower!
One of the things that was very near my apartment that I’d passed hundreds of times, but never gone to was the Deshengmen Arrow Tower. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t actually able to visit the tower because it was closed for much of May and June for some kind of construction, but because it was so close to my apartment, I really wanted to walk by and see it up close. For those of you wondering, the Arrow Tower is exactly what it sounds like, it is a remnant of the ramparts that were part of the second ring wall that once surrounded Beijing – yes, the highways that mark the rings (there are currently 5) – specifically the first and second, used to be actual ring towers, some parts of which still exist (including Beijing’s Ancient Observatory) – although this was rebuild built in 1951. These walls and this arrow tower specifically, would have been used to defend the city from invaders coming from the north. You can see that the tower not only includes part of the wall, but a towering structure filled with multiple vantage points to shoot arrows. Although I couldn’t go in the tower, it was still cool to walk right next to the wall and see it in all of its glory.
Life at Tsinghua – An Astronomy Update
As is probably not a surprise to anyone, the last month at Tsinghua wasn’t filled with as much actual Astronomy as I’d like. As I mentioned in previous blogs, I was required to submit a postdoctoral thesis to conclude my contract at Tsinghua (for those who are wondering, I’m not entirely sure what the consequences would have been if I didn’t do that, but I don’t really care to find out). As such, much of the time before and immediately after my family’s visit to China was spent compiling the thesis document. Since only one of the two papers is completed, I had to spend more time than I wanted to finishing up a draft of Project Morphology (though that will be useful as I write the actual paper this month). The most frustrating part was that the style file for the thesis (Astronomy papers are typically written in LaTeX) required me to reformat the tables from my previous paper and those tables were really long! All in all, the final version of the postdoctoral thesis ended up being ~ 130 pages (thankfully only the title and abstract had to be translated into Mandarin – thank you Lu for your help with that!). I think the most frustrating this is that nobody (and I mean nobody) will ever read that thesis. At least with my PhD dissertation, there is the illusion that someone might read it, but that is not the case for this.
Outside of the postdoctoral thesis, I didn’t have much time to work on actual science since I needed to pack up my apartment, figure out where to donate stuff that I wasn’t giving away (thank you Kevin for the suggestion of Roundabout and for helping me with the actual donation) – I also donated some cat stuff to a local animal shelter (thank you Hongming for helping me with that), and fill out a lot of paperwork for Italy! While my scientific output wasn’t super high, I did get to coordinate a lunch talk given by my friend and colleague Lu Shen, who was visiting her family in Beijing! Lu’s an expert on high-z galaxies and using JWST and she gave a great talk! It was also fitting to see her on campus as she came and visited me about a month into my time in Beijing.
Outside of that, the majority of the rest of my time was spent making sure that everything was in order for me to leave China. I had a lot of forms to fill out for Tsinghua (thankfully, Limei was very helpful in filling these out) and I also needed to make sure that I was going to be able to transfer my savings outside of China. To do that, I approached this from multiple perspectives. I made sure that my Chinese debit card was set up so that it could be used at ATMs in Europe (though only ones that accept Union Pay – I have yet to find one of those). Additionally, I withdrew ~ $500 USD in euros (~ 450 euros) from my Chinese account (you can do this from any Chinese account and I figured having cash would be useful). Outside of that, I was able to transfer most of my savings to my US account (thank you Ted for the help!).
Outside of the bureaucracy, I did get to have a very nice “Special Coffee” hour to celebrate my time at Tsinghua. You can see the cake below! We had a pretty strong attendance from the department and I even gave a speech! I tried to thank everyone I could think of (hopefully I didn’t miss anyone). Also, the students from my research group gave me a nice gift! And you can see some last photos of my office as well as some photos with some of my office mates (Hongming, Jianan, and Siwei) as well as with Limei.
As I was getting a bit sentimental knowing that I only had a few more days left in Beijing, but also to be on Tsinghua’s campus, so I wanted to take lots of photos of the campus, especially given how pretty the campus is. I hope you all enjoying seeing Tsinghua University through my eyes one last time.
Jewish Life in Beijing
As you all know, Kehillat Beijing was one of the most important things during my time in Beijing! It was my second home and I remain eternally grateful for being a part of the community that Roberta & Ted fostered and getting to impart my own Jewish identity on the communtiy. As such, I was really glad that I had three wonderful final Shabbats in Beijing, even if Fridays became a bit bittersweet as a countdown for when I was leaving. However, when I was picking flights, I made sure to pick a Saturday flight so that I would be able to go to one final Shabbat! But before we get to that, we had an amazing Dragon Boat Shabbat in the beginning of June! As you can see from the dishes and the names, Ted went all out making some amazing “dragon” themed dishes (that cucumber is amazing!). I also made some delicious chocolate tahini cookies for Shabbat!
My penultimate Shabbat was Pride Shabbat (as well as a Birthday celebration for Roberta)! This was also my friend Sam’s last Shabbat (though he’ll be in Hong Kong next year and will be back to visit Beijing far more frequently than me), so we co-led the service. This was also a special week for me as it was the 20th Anniversary on the Jewish calendar of Jesse and my B’nei Mitzvah (we had the portion Naso). Since we have a community led D’var torah each week, I took the opportunity to re-read Naso, which I don’t think I’d done since my Bar Mitzvah. While I don’t have any insights to share, it was fun to reread it and note a lot of the things that I didn’t remember at all (I only remembered about the decorations of the tabernacle and dolphin skin). As always, Ted really outdid himself again with an amazing Shabbat spread that was perfectly themed! This week, I pitched in with some delicious sea salt chocolate chip cookies (using the Lunch Room’s Recipe – if you’re from Ann Arbor or have visited, you know what I’m talking about). This was also my final Shabbat with Roberta. Unfortunately she had to be in Shanghai the next week, but I made sure to make sure she knew how thankful I am for the community and all she did for me while I was in Beijing.
Lastly, my final Shabbat at Kehillat Beijing (at least until I find a way to come back and visit) was the Summer Solstice Shabbat (Ted asked if I could think of any Astro-food puns – I thought sun chips and sunchokes!). I had a lot of friends who came to make sure to say goodbye to me (both at this Shabbat and the last three Shabbats), which made it a wonderful sendoff. It was also pretty emotional since I knew, at least by the end of the night that I had less than 24 hours left in China. It was really so wonderful to cap off my China adventure with one final Shabbat at Kehillat Beijing (I even got an shoutout on the weeks flyer). It was a wonderful service that I co-led with Kevin and Ted again really outdid himself with such a wonderful Shabbat dinner. And as I’d done the last few weeks, I made some of my favorite chocolate brownie cookies to share with everyone!
I don’t think I can say it enough that I cannot imagine my time in Beijing without Roberta & Ted and Kehillat Beijing and the community they created. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Kehillat Beijing was my second home in Beijing and I’m so glad that I could be part of such a wonderful community and do my part to help the community thrive. Since I’m still on WeChat with everyone, I’ve definitely been a bit blue when I see the Shabbat announcements since I know I won’t be able to join. I will miss seeing all of the creativity that Ted puts into all of the meals and getting to try all of the wonderful food! But, I also know that I will forever cherish my time at Kehillat Beijing and that given how many people travel to Europe, hopefully it won’t be too long before I run into some KB friends in Padova. As a thank you to Roberta & Ted, I wanted to do something that was definitely from me, so I made for them a drawing representing our “Cosmic Motzi”, where we have everyone connected (hand on shoulder) when we say the blessing over the Challah. I did my best to bring that to life and I hope you all (and everyone at Kehillat Beijing) enjoys it – I know Roberta, Ted, and everyone who was at Shabbat really liked it (I’ve included it in the China Drawings section below)!
Exploring Gulou – The Last Few Walks Around Shichahai
As I think you know, Gulou is the area that I lived and gets its name from the Drum Tower. Although I’ve posted lots of photos of the towers and the surrounding area in previous blogs, it just didn’t feel right not highlighting and looking back on the vibrant area that I lived in and got to walk around on a daily basis. I’ll start with the Drum Tower, Bell Tower, and the surrounding areas. While not all of these are taken in my last few days, some represent my final hours in Beijing (both of the Drum Tower, Bell Tower and Shichahai) and are places that I felt a special attachment to and wanted to say goodbye to.
Similarly, I had to highlight the Shichahai lakes (Qianhai, Houhai, and Xihai) for being just a beautiful place to walk around and a great place to go running (I still haven’t found as great a location in Padova – although the 90+ degree weather hasn’t led me to look too hard). Although Padova has a few lovely rivers, it just isn’t the same as these amazing lakes.
And of course, you can’t enjoy Shichahai without the Shichahai Dragon! I’m still amazed that the lantern dragon is still up, but every time I saw it at night, I just can’t imagine the lakes without it. Since next year is the year of the snake, hopefully they’ll make a lantern snake and someone will share pictures of that lantern snake at the lakes for me to marvel at!
Lastly, I wanted to include a few photo memories of Qianmachang Hutong, the hutong that I lived in for nearly three years, my apartment, and even the grocery stores that I used to go to. While my apartment wasn’t perfect (especially when it came to getting packages, not leaking during rainstorms, and having natural sunlight), it was a great location to live in and I’ll miss seeing all of the neighborhood cats near my door (I think Goldie misses them too, though she likes looking out the windows in our AirBnB). I still don’t know how my neighbors managed to park their cars in that narrow hutong street!
Shichahai at Night in the Summer!
As I said before, I really loved living by Shichahai and getting to run around the lakes and enjoy their splendor. Because I knew how magical the Shichahai Dragon looked at night, I wanted to make sure that I saw it one more time. However, I was surprised by just how lively the lakes were (even compared to when I went to the lakes with my family a month ago). It really felt like one big party (all of the karaoke bars and their neon lights really help with that). It was definitely a lot of fun! And everything looks really cool lit up! Especially the dragon and the butterflies!
And of course, I needed to highlight the Shichahai Dragon! Still my favorite lantern display in Beijing! I’m so glad that people were able to really celebrate Lunar New Year this year and that this was the result! It really enhances the entire ambiance of the lakes and transports you outside of the typical Beijing hustle and bustle.
A Stroll Through Wangjing Park
If you remember the earliest blog posts from Beijing when I was staying at Roberta & Ted’s home, I went running a lot in Wangjing Park (and even saw some miniature horses that they use to mow the grass), which is right near their home. Before one of the Shabbats in June, I made sure to get there early so that I could walk around the park one last time (a lot of the other sentimental last times were done when I got to visit all of the sites with my parents, though, as you’ve seen, there’s been a lot of sentimentality in this post). It’s still super pretty and I hope you enjoy the photos!
Lots & Lots of Vegan Food!
Not too surprisingly, in my last month in Beijing, I went out to eat a lot (I wanted to get a few last meals with lots of friends). It was really nice to be able to say goodbye to so many friends and have lots of fun and delicious meals!
Right after my family left, I had a lovely meal with my supervisor Zheng at Yue Family Kitchen. While there weren’t a ton of vegetarian options, the pastries, beans, bok choy, and watermelon (not pictured) were great and it was really great to sit down with Zheng and discuss some potential science ideas and what I’ll be working on in the future.
While Lu was visiting Tsinghua, I was able to get lunch with her at Tianchun Miaoxiang (I went there a lot in the last month, since so many final meals were with collections of Tsinghua friends!). We got cantaloupe juice, stir fried cauliflower, Zhajiang noodles, and spicy vegetarian mock fish! It was all delicious! And it was fun to get the noodles after learning how to make them! It was also really nice to get to see Lu in person a few times this month as so many of our meetings over the last three years have been entirely on zoom!
I also had an amazing vegan feast at Xian Lao Man with my friends Andrea & Casey from Vegans of Beijing! When I was in Shanghai, my friend Alex had organized a Vegan discovery dinner at Xian Lao Man, which is a non-vegetarian restaurant, with the goal of showing all of us what options were available at typical Chinese restaurants. As none of us were able to go, Andrea decided to organize our own! We got a delicious cold sesame eggplant, sesame cabbage, vinegar spinach & peanuts (which we actually made in my first cooking class), sauteed hot peppers, sword beans (my absolute favorite), dumplings, and fried corn starch chips! It was a delicious meal (thankfully Andrea’s Mandarin is much better than mine and she could verify that everything was vegan)! We also topped it off with gelato for dessert! I got pineapple & blood orange!
That same weekend, I met up with Daniele and David for a delicious meal at Yebozhai! Unlike when I went with my parents, we got to have the full menu. So, we got sour plum soup, Beijing style eggplant, crispy mushroom balls, seitan strips in a sweet sauce, spicy seitan with mushrooms and bamboo, baozi, and vegetable pancakes! And we topped it off with gelato (I got strawberry and mango-key lime)! It was a lot of fun to just hang out and eat good food and we walked back to my apartment afterward so that Daniele and David could raid my apartment (mostly for clothes hangers and snacks).
As I mentioned when I was talking about Dragon Boat festival, Kevin and I ran into our friends Dan and Melanie at the races and ended up spending the day with them exploring Tongzhou! After walking around, we got a delicious meal at a Vegan restaurant in Tongzhou called (in English) Bear Hugs the Earth Vegan Space – which is an amazing name! We got a delicious meal featuring both Western and Chinese food. We got orange juice, an avocado salad, a sweet & spicy tofu, sauteed greens, a tofu & cauliflower bowl, and a veggie burger (which we cut into 4 pieces)!
Before Miriam left to spend the summer in the US, I met up with her and her husband James for a delicious Italian lunch at Annies, which is a Beijing Italian institution, especially when it comes to Western-style restaurants! It was lovely to catch up with them, hear about their summer plans and them getting a car – that’s a whole lot harder in Beijing than in the US, and to see Miriam again before I go! Miriam’s been one of my closest friends in Beijing and also been super helpful with my lack of Mandarin – including, at least a few times, calling delivery drivers for me so that I could get them to come back and drop off packages since I wasn’t home when they initially came. This included the week before I left when my final suitcase arrived – I originally thought four, not five, suitcases would be enough. I am super appreciative of both her help and friendship. We got a house salad, grilled vegetables, orange-pomelo juice, bruschetta, spicy pasta, and some biscotti for dessert. Also, although I didn’t get it, I had to take a picture of the “Saratoga Cooler” on the menu! You don’t hear much mention of Saratoga in Beijing and I’ve never heard of this mocktail – although according to Google, it may pre-date the Shirley Temple, so if anyone knows the story and if it is connected to my hometown, please let me know!
During my last week in Beijing, I had a few more farewell meals to see me off. On Monday, Richard, Daniele, Josh, David, and I went to Tianchun Miaoxiang for a lovely farewell meal (unfortunately Pablo was already in Spain – don’t worry, I’ve already seen him here in Italy since he, Daniele, and David were here for the EAS meeting and Tom wasn’t able to make it, but we did get lunch on Friday). It was really fantastic to just chat and hang out, hear how Richard is enjoying married life, and all be together one more time. Oh, and the food was delicious! We got passion fruit juice, spicy Sichuan mock meat with veggies, a tofu skin dry hot pot, tofu skin rolls, spicy mock meat, flame tofu, and delicious sauteed mushrooms. It was a fantastic. And to beat the heat (it was REALLY hot in Beijing my last week), we got gelato and I got passion waxberry gelato (waxberry is also called Chinese bayberry)!
On Thursday, I had a farewell lunch with Kevin (although I also saw him at Shabbat on Friday and to help with donating various things from my apartment on Saturday) at Toast by the Orchid for a delicious Israeli meal. Although we chat all the time at Shabbat, it was nice to hear about the end of his semester, his summer plans and for me to tell him what I’ll be up to in Padova. I got a passion fruit soda, muhammara, a falafel & hummus platter, and capped it off with a bake shop chocolate chip cookie.
On Friday, I had one final farewell meal with Richard and Tom at Tianchun Miaoxiang. It was great to catch up with Tom and see both him and Richard before I go (I hadn’t seen Tom since RIchard’s wedding). Since both expect to be back in the UK at various points in the near future, hopefully either I’ll go visit Jesse and them or they’ll swing by Italy! We had a delicious meal featuring passion fruit juice, fried lotus root, eggplant & chickpeas, spicy Sichuan mock fish, and karameshi tofu! It was all delicious and a fitting final Chinese meal for my entire time in Beijing! I’m so glad that between my family’s visits and all of these goodbye meals, I was able to enjoy so much amazing Chinese vegetarian food in my final months in Beijing!
Although I didn’t eat out again before leaving China, I knew that getting food at the airport might be tricky, so I wanted to bring something to enjoy that would travel well. Baozi were the perfect choice! I got both eggplant and leafy green veggie baozi from Wutai Yun! They were delicious and they travelled really well!
Although I ate out a fair amount, I was also trying to empty out my fridge and pantry (I really tried to throw out as little as possible and gave stuff to Richard, Kevin, Daniele, David, Andrea, and Ted!). In my last month in China, I made a delicious peanut butter & guochujang lentil curry and a guochujang and peanut butter mushroom sauce to serve with homemade seitan. On the sweet side, I also did a lot of baking for Shabbat (and for my last group meeting – I made chocolate brownie cookies). I made jam squares, chocolate tahini cookies, chocolate brownie cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. Additionally, I enjoyed a few different vegan zongzi (the traditional sticky rice dumplings eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival) from Tianchun Miaoxiang. For those of your who haven’t had them, zongzi aren’t super sweet, but rather a very dense rice ball with some kind of nuts, berries, or paste in the middle and though they aren’t anything like a western pastry, they’re still quite good. I also couldn’t not get a few more sugar covered strawberries during my last few walks around Shichahai (they are my favorite!)!!
China Drawings
As I mentioned in the Jewish life in Beijing section, I wanted to give a gift to Roberta & Ted as a thank you for the friendship, generosity, hospitality, and kindness while I was in Beijing. It only seemed fitting for me to do some kind of drawing. While it took a while to come up with an idea, I finally settled on a representation of our weekly “Cosmic Motzi” where everyone is touching someone who is touching the challah as we say the blessing over the challah. Although I went for a more realistic looking Roberta & Ted, I didn’t want anyone else to be a direct representation of people in the community since I didn’t want someone to feel left out and photo-realism is hard! I hope you like this drawing! It took a lot of time, but I’m really happy with the end result!
Although on a much smaller scale, I did do a few other drawings that I wanted to share with you all. Although only the Goku – my tribute to Akira Toriyama – is done, I wanted to share some of the other sketches that I’m still working on with you all, too! Enjoy!
Goldie!!!
Unsurprisingly, this was a big month for Goldie. While she really enjoyed meeting my parents, seeing Jesse again, and exploring all of the suitcases that appeared in my apartment, I think she could tell that something was happening when stuff started disappearing (either because it was getting packed or it was getting donated). However, despite that, she remains super cut and loving and definitely wanted to be with me at all times (especially when I was packing). Here you can see her lounging around the couch, in my bedroom, and even trying to get Richard’s attention (this was right before we were going to head to the airport).
Despite all of the changes in the apartment, she still loved being able to burrow under all of her favorite blankets. I feel really bad that they weren’t able to come with us (they were just too big). Despite that, she still loves to burrow in the AirBnB and I hope that once I have my own apartment, I’ll be able to get some nice soft blankets that she likes.
Also, and I felt this was pretty special, Goldie even got to say goodbye to the hutong cats in our neighborhood before we left. Not only did I see all of the cats stop by my apartment, but we even had one last skylight visitor! I know she always liked to get their attention and let them know that this was her territory, but this time, it felt a bit special and a bit like a way to say goodbye to Goldie from all of her “friends”.
As I mentioned earlier, the move was quite the ordeal for Goldie. Even before the plane ride, I had to take Goldie to the Beijing Tongzhou Customs Office (about an hour from my apartment in a cab) to get her exit paperwork. To take a cat out of China, it’s treated as if it was a valuable good. She had to get all of her vaccinations & rabies shots certified by the Chinese government and then be weighed. While she hated being in the carrier, we were able to get all of the paperwork done, despite nobody in the office being willing to attempt to communicate with me in English when I arrived (I know translation apps are a pain, but I cannot be the first foreigner who’s shown up there). The second photo is from the airport. You can see Goldie is not a happy camper! I’m glad she was with me the entire time and happy to report she’s doing well now, but moving across continents is tough for a cat who’s spent nearly 1.5 years in a 2 room apartment. Thankfully she’s loving the AirBnB with its large windows and spacious interior!
The Aftermath of a Storm!
While I was in Shanghai, Beijing was ravaged by an ~ 30 minute crazy wind and rain storm! I know that seems short, but the it was incredibly violent and there was a lot of damage in that time. Thankfully, my apartment was fine, but as you can see from the photos below, a lot of Tsinghua’s campus (as well as the area near the front of Qianmachang hutong) was pretty badly impacted with tons of trees down. And to top it all off, when Kevin and I were at Kings Joy, there was another freak 30 minute storm that did even more damage! It’s pretty scary that all of this damage happened in so little time!
Exploring Beijing
During all of my time running around Beijing and seeing different friends, I still saw lots of other pretty things that I wanted to share with you. Despite the extreme heat in Beijing (90 – 100 degree weather), there were still a few very pretty flowers! Most of these are from Tsinghua’s campus, but a few are from Qianmachang Hutong and other areas in Beijing!
As I get a bit sentimental, one of my favorite things in Beijing are all of the ornate door handles and lion sculptures that are spread throughout the hutongs (and other parts of Beijing). I took lots of pictures of them, so I hope you enjoy them!
And beyond all of that, I also saw lots of fun signs and statues that I had to share with you!
And there were also some cool architectural buildings and landmarks that I wanted to highlight, too!
As I’ve shown a lot here, I really miss the creativity of the bikes (and the bike compartments – those are used for deliveries in China). Although there are a ton of bikes in Padova, I haven’t seen nearly the creativity when it comes to decorating bikes, or really any kind of decoration. I hope you enjoy seeing them from Beijing!
Animals of Beijing
Although Goldie remains my favorite cat, I did see lots of other cats and dogs during my last month in Beijing (outside of the cat cafe I already showed you). You can see the usual neighborhood cats, who I gave lots of food and water to in May and June – I hope someone else is giving them some extra treats now. I left a big bowl of food for them when I left that they seemed to enjoy and were scarfing down. Most interestingly, you can see a cat on a leash and another cat in a little hat! I was a bit taken back by both of them, but they seemed to know what to do. And of course, I got to spend a lot of time with my favorite puppies in Beijing, Mimi & Honey at Shabbat! I really miss seeing them begging for food and lounging around on Friday nights. I even saw a few birds this month too (who stood still long enough to take a photo), including a tiny bird that Josh saved from attack by larger birds.
What am I Reading/Watching?
As it’s been quite a while since my last blog post, I have read and watched a fair amount. On the reading front, I finally finished Artemis by Andy Weir. It’s far more hard science fiction than The Martian, but its also a really great book and I definitely enjoyed it! The characters were quite interesting and I loved how he made life on the moon feel totally dis-similar to life on Earth. Also, I finished the 9th and final volume of Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet graphic novel. This is an all-ages series about a family transported to another world and the fight for survival, featuring magic, giant robots, and so much more. It’s a fantastic series as a whole and Kibuishi really sticks the landing! I highly recommend it.
On the tv front, I finished a number of shows. I finished Jeopardy Masters on ABC, which as a big Jeopardy fan was fantastic, especially since I can’t stream the daily episodes in Italy (I couldn’t in China, either). I also finished the most recent season of Top Chef, which is always fun, even if I never got terribly invested in any of the chefs this season. I also finished Dark Matter on Apple TV+, which was fantastic. It’s is a sci-fi show based on the novel of the same name about a Physics professor (played by Joel Edgerton) who is abducted by an alternate version of himself and is flung to a parallel world and his journey home to his wife (played excellently by Jennifer Connelly) and son. I definitely recommend it! I also finished the 2nd season of Bosch: Legacy, which was fantastic! I’ve loved the Bosch universe from day 1 and this is filled with tons of twists and turns with the various cases and courtroom drama. I also really like how they’ve elevated Bosch’s daughter from a supporting role into a fully-fledged adult cop lead character. Lastly (in terms of non-anime), I finished Bodies on Netflix. Based on the Vertigo comic book mini-series by Si Spencer, Tula Lotay, Phil Winslade, Megan Hetrick, and Dean Ormstrom that came out in 2015, it’s a really fantastic murder mystery that spans 4 distinct timelines (one in 1890, one in 1941, one in 2023, and one in 2053). They weave together the parallel narratives excellently and it’s just a really fantastic show! On the anime front, I finished the 3rd season of Blue Exorcist, which tells the tale of the son of Satan as he works to be an exorcist in Japan. It’s really great, with a lot of crazy characters and this season really upped the ante on the drama! I finished elDLIVE, which is an anime about alien space cops on Earth. This is another crazy sci-fi anime and while they didn’t get to adapt the final arcs of the manga, was still a lot of fun! I also finished Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, which is an anime about an ordinary Japanese office worker who’s life is turned upside down when the zombie apocalypse breaks out. The characters have a ton of heart and the show is super fun and zany! I finished Onimusha on Netflix, an anime about Miyamoto Musashi (the real life peorson) in which he is thrust into a battle fighting Japanese demons and ghosts from his past. I’m a big fan of Musashi’s story (particularly Takehiko Inoue’s manga adaptation Vagabond) and this felt like its supernatural cousin, which made for a great background. This was another great anime. Lastly, I watched season 2 of My Adventures with Superman! This is a very anime-inspired DC superhero show and for my money one of the best new animated superhero shows in a while. If you’re a fan of My Hero Academia or just looking to get your Superman fix before James Gunn’s Superman movie next summer, I highly recommend it!
I’ve also had the Olympics on in the background the last few days and while my Italian is not at the level where I can follow the commentary, its cool to see what is airing here and see a look at some of the more obscure sports – I’ve seen judo, fencing, and kayaking along with swimming and tennis – Vamos Rafa!
Also, with three international flights in the last month (Beijing to Paris, Paris to Boston, Boston to Paris), I watched a lot of movies, too! On my flight from Beijing to Paris, between sleeping a bit and petting Goldie, I watched Eddie the Eagle, The Holdovers, and 42. While Eddie the Eagle and 42 were fun sports movies, The Holdovers is a great movie. The characters felt very real and very raw. Its a great film and I definitely recommend it. On my flight to Boston, I watched Killers of the Flower Moon and Wonka. I thought Wonka was a fun, albeit ridiculous, movie. I did not care for Killers of the Flower Moon. I found it to be far too long, move at a snails pace, and also be super problematic and racist – basically none of the non-white characters have any real agency. Given Martin Scorsese’s diatribes against comic book movies, it’s nice to know he can make his own version of the Snyder cut. On the way back to Paris, I watched American Fiction, Game Changers, and Fargo. This was a much better movie selection. American Fiction is fantastic and I highly recommend it. It definitely felt like a movie for today given its identity politics and deft use of identity politics. Game Changers is a documentary about game shows in the US that was narrated by the late Alex Trebek. As a big game show fan, this was a fun watch! Lastly, although I’ve enjoyed the Fargo tv series, I’d never seen the movie and I really liked it! It definitely had the same vibe as the show.
East Meets West
As I did throughout my time in Beijing, while exploring this month, I was always on the hunt for fun semblances of the west! This month, it was a lot cartoons (Lilo & Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Toy Story, classic Mickey Mouse, and Tom & Jerrfy), but also a but of classical music, NBA, hipsters, and McDonalds! Enjoy!
Anime & Comics
And of course, no Astronomy in Beijing blog post would be complete without all of the comics, anime, and manga paraphernalia that I saw in my last month in Beijing! I really miss stumbling on all of the fun bike stickers and random anime figurine displays (although I did buy my fair share, so once I have my own apartment, I can get about setting those up). In case you’re wondering, I have seen some anime and comics paraphernalia in Padova, but mostly at bookstores and comic book stores, not random grocery stores and convenience stores! In my last month, I saw a lot of Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Pokemon One Piece, DC, Marvel, Studio Ghibli, Doraemon, Naruto, and so much more. I’m still always on the lookout, so hopefully my explorations of Padova will yield some more fun manga, anime, and comic book finds, too!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading my penultimate installment of the Astronomer in Beijing blog – I know this one was a long one. I really hope you all enjoyed hearing a bit about my move to Padova and seeing all that I was up to in Beijing during my final month in China! It was really a great nearly three years in China (I arrived on August 4, 2021) and while I’ll reflect more on my time in a final blog post coming later this summer/in the early fall, I’m so glad that I could share all of my experiences with you! As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out either directly or by commenting below! It would be wonderful to hear from you! I hope you all have a wonderful summer and enjoy the Olympics!
In Peace,
Emmet
