*beijing Olympic apartment

*Beijing Apartment rental

*Beijing short term Apartment

2008 Beijing apartment

I found a squidoo page online that suggests some really interesting alternative options for where to stay in Beijing during the Olympics.

2008 Hotel Frenzy
Are you coming to Beijing for the Olympic games? You might have a harder time booking a hotel than getting a pair of opening ceremony tickets. Hotels rates are going up to 600% during the olympics. And a good size of hotel rooms will be reserved for Olympic officials, athletes and families, Chinese officials, and a lot more Chinese who has good Guanxi. So how can an average Joe get his ass in a hotel?

Act early and think about alternatives!

If you book now you will have a better deal and better chance to get a room. However, only large hotels are taking reservations for next year. You might need to use you negotiation skills with smaller hotels.

Alternative ways to stay for cheaper price.

1. Homestay: A variety of organizations and individuals are getting willing families open up their home for travelers during the olympics. You can choose from a traditional court yard home or a modern apartment. Make sure the location is close to subway stations and bus stops.

2. Renting your own apartment: With the money you are paying for 10-15 days of stay in a hotel, you can rent a fully furnished apartment for 3 months. You can also save money by cooking dinner instead of going out to restaurants to eat every day.

3. House swap: Just as you want to come to see the olympics, some Chinese family or expat family might as well want to get out of China to avoid millions of tourists. You can post your information on listing website such as craiglist to find the willing families.

4. When all fails: When all fails you can try nearby cities and remote Beijing district. Beijing city is surrounded by vast rural area. You can stay in Miyun, Huairou, Shunyi districts. A bit far out but you can enjoy the beautiful scenery. Tian Jin and Tang Shan are only 2-3 hours away from Beijing. Trains and coach buses are abundant.

Good luck getting your rooms in Beijing. If you need help, you can email me. i am thinking about renting my apartment out as well.

So now the question is how to get flight tickets and tickets for the games!

“Zhong Qiu Jie” probably began as a harvest festival. The festival was later given a mythological flavour with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.

According to Chinese legend, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life but to save the people from his tyrannical rule, his wife, Chang-E drank it. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the 14th century, the eating of mooncakes at “Zhong Qiu Jie” was given a new significance. The story goes that when Zhu Yuan Zhang was plotting to overthrow the Yuan dynasty started by the Mongolians, the rebels hid their messages in the Mid-Autumn mooncakes.

During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Song dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each mooncake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, mooncakes are eaten to commemorate this event.

This year’s line up is especially awesome. Including two of my personal favorites, Wan Xiaoli (万晓利）and Nin Inch Nails. Wan Xiaoli’s new album got a lot softer than before, a little bit too commercial for my taste. Let’s see if he can still rock this time. Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer” and “Hurt” have long been on my top rated playlist. I am excited to see them in person this time. So if you are in Beijing for the weekend, head to Chaoyang Park and enjoy the best music event of the year.

This park will be the second theme park opened by the OCT Group. The first “Happy Valley” has been successfully running for years in Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, the group plans on building two more “Happy Valleys” in Shanghai and Chengdu.

Happy Valley Beijing is located near southeast 4th ring road at the Beijing-Shenyang Highway entrance. Telephone: 010-67201818

If it rains heavily on that night, some elderly Chinese will say it is because Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, is crying on the day she met her husband Niulang, or the Cowherd, on the Milky Way.

According to the Chinese lore, a cowherd lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law who disliked and abused him, that he was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company. The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form. One day the cow led the cowherd to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was a weaving maid, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress. The two fell in love at first sight. They ignored Heaven’s strict rules and were soon secretly married. They had a son and a daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China. Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden. He sent the empress to fetch the weaving maid. The cowherd grew desperate when he discovered the weaving maid had been taken back to heaven. Driven by the cowherd’s misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died. The magic shoes whisked the cowherd, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole, off on a chase after the empress. The pursuit enraged the empress, who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky creating the Milky Way which separated husband from wife. The cowherd was stopped by the surging river. But all was not lost as magpies, moved by their love and devotion, agreed to let them meet one day (on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month) each year. All the magpies in the world, according to lore, gather on that day to form a bridge spanning the Milky Way so the lovers can reunite. Even the Jade Emperor was touched, and allowed them to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month.

In bygone days, Qixi was not only a special day for lovers, but also for girls. It is also known as the “Begging for Skills Festival” or “Daughters’ Festival.”

In the past, girls would conduct a ceremony to beg Zhinu for wisdom, dexterity and a satisfying marriage in the future.

This was not the case all over China, as the festival varied from region to region.

In some parts of Shandong Province, young women offered fruit and pastries to pray for a bright mind. If spiders were seen to weave webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed the Waving Girl was offering positive feedback.

In other regions, seven close friends would gather to make dumplings. They put into three separate dumplings a needle, a copper coin and a red date, which represented perfect needlework skills, good fortune and an early marriage.

Girls also held weaving and needlework competitions to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind, both prerequisites for making a good wife and mother in ancient China.

Young women in southern China used to weave small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread.

Afterwards, they competed to pass a thread through the eyes of seven needles in a single breath.

The long line attracted a lot of attention from the passersby. Some of the best overheard conversations:

Old man: “Hey, what’s the line for?” (eagerly wants to get in the line)
Fan:”The new Harry Potter book”

Old man:”Ohh. I thought you were waiting to buy bread or something.”

Woman: “Hey what’s this line for?”

Fan: “Harry Potter’s new book.”

Woman:”Oh, is he signing the books?”

The Chinese version of the book will be released in October.

The taste of Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to give it a special flavor, varies greatly across China. Zongzi is often made of rice mixed with dates in Northern China, while Eastern China people like to stuff Zongzi with pork, ham, chestnuts and other ingredients, making them very rich in flavor.

Duanwu is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, because dragon boat races are the most popular activity during the festival, especially in Southern China. A dragon boat is shaped like a dragon, and is brightly painted in red, white, yellow and black. Usually, a dragon boat is 20 to 40 meters long, and needs several dozen people to row it. Boatmen row the boat in cadence with the drumbeats, as the captain standing in the bow of the boat waves a small flag to help coordinate the rowing. Before the race gets underway, a solemn ceremony is held to worship the Dragon King.

Dragon boat racing is quite a spectacle, with drums beating, colorful flags waving, and thousands of people cheering on both sides of the river. Nowadays, it has become a popular sporting activity in Southern China. International dragon boat races are held in Guangzhou and Hong Kong every year.

For thousands of years, the tradition of the Duanwu Festival has been passed down from one generation to the next. But where did it come from and why did people eat Zongzi and race dragon boats?

There is a common legend in China says that the Duanwu Festival honors the great poet, Qu Yuan, who was born in 340 BC, during the Warring States Period. At that time, there were seven states struggling among themselves to unify China. Of the seven states, Qin was the strongest and Chu the largest. Qu Yuan was a noble of Chu. During his lifetime, the powerful kingdom of Chu fell into a decline.

Early in his life, Qu Yuan won the confidence of the King of Chu, and was his deputy prime minister, helping draft laws and determine foreign policy. When he saw the danger posed by the ambitious Qin State, he proposed government reforms and an alliance with the neighboring Qi state as a way to ensure Chu’s safety.

But the King of Chu was surrounded by self-seekers, who were jealous of Qu Yuan. They accepted bribes from the Qin’s envoy, dissuaded the King from taking Qu Yuan’s advice and brought about the poet’s estrangement from the King. Qu Yuan was finally sent into exile for 20 years.

During those desperate years, Qu Yuan helplessly watched his beloved country become weaker and weaker. In the year 278 BC, the capital of Chu was stormed by troops from Qin. In great pain, Qu Yuan wrote “Lisao” (“The Lament”), the greatest of all his poems. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, he drowned himself in the Milo River, because he was hopeless about his country’s future.

People grieve for those who have grieved for them. Each year, during the Duanwu Festival, the day of Qu Yuan’s death, people race dragon boats to commemorate him. This is believed to be a representation of how the people of Chu tried, at the time, to recover Qu Yuan’s body from the Milo River. Pyramid-shaped dumplings by the name of Zongzi were thrown in the river to feed the fish, so they would stay away from Qu Yuan’s body.

Qu Yuan’s life was tragic but, as a poet, he achieved great success. In fact, he is considered to be the first poet in Chinese literature. Before his time, there were only folk songs. Qu Yuan created a new style of poetry, which became known as Chu Ci.