To An Inspiring Woman: A Mother’s Day Message

Dearest Mother of Mine ~

You are truly the kindest, strongest and most beautiful woman in the world!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I love you

A Very Green Great Wall

On my last trip to the great wall, it was covered in snow.  Yesterday was a bit overcast and I knew it would start raining at any time, but with a few new friends from the MTV crew in town for the MTV Push & CK ONE event this Wednesday, May 11 at Star Live (see here for details), today was their only chance to go to the wall.

I opted to take them to one of my choice picks – the Mutianyu section of the wall as it’s way less touristy and crowded compared to Badaling section and it’s not as far as Jingshanling and Simatai. But the real incentive is that I just can not get enough of the toboggan slide run down the wall!

A perfect route for the Mutianyu section of the wall is to take the cable car to the top and walk about 30-45 minutes down to the toboggan slide.

And the best part of it all? As we were walking back to the parking lot after a perfect day on the wall, it started to rain.  Couldn’t have asked for better timing!

*A nice suggestion for anyone who is making a trip out there, you should stop by The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu on the way there or back for a bite to eat and if you want a weekend getaway, this is a great option for you to spend a few days out of the city.

With a running theme of sustainability, The Schoolhouse uses existing buildings, they hire and train people from the area, support other village businesses, source ingredients locally, and make their food homemade from scratch. Schoolhouse Art Glass offers glass created in their own workshop and they showcase original works in their Art Room.

Unfortunately, we were unable to stop in for a hot cup of tea since they were not serving a la carte for Mother’s Day brunch.  So instead, I introduced them to local jianbing!

LumDimSum Snapshots of A Green Great Wall:

Last year around this time, the Great Wall was in full bloom with pink and white cherry blossom trees covering the landscape.  I was a bit bummed not to see any this year, did I already miss those precious few weeks?  Does anyone know exactly when the cherry blossom trees are in bloom?

If you’ve never seen this sight, it’s breath-taking.  Here’s a photo from a trek I did last year at the beginning of May (see below).

Great Wall Trek May 2, 2010

For more awesome photos of the Great Wall’s cherry blossom trees in bloom, click previous article here: Beauty in Bloom at the Great Wall.

From Cellars to Penthouses: Beijing’s Disparity of Wealth

Everyday, I park my bicycle underground in one of the apartment buildings in my complex, and I walk past a few undergound “cellar” rooms where families live.

The apartment I currently live in is not a luxurious apartment by any means – it’s actually quite a basic 1 bedroom apartment, but still catastrophically different from those who live just floors below me, in the underground of the same apartment building…but in rooms I can’t imagine were originally built to be lived in.

Thanks to Migrant Children’s May newsletter, an article caught my eye that gave me a jolt back to reality – a reminder of the vast disparity in the standards of living you see on a regular basis in China. After almost five years of living in Beijing, I have almost become numb to the same sights that used to shock me when I first arrived to this complex and still developing city I now call home.

Examples of extremes in poverty and wealth are blatantly seen everywhere.  Just the other day, I saw a brand new Lamborghini speeding past a peddler lugging a mountain of recyclables piled high beyond comprehension and just across the street from my local corner selling chuar and jian bing is one of the most expensive apartment complexes in Beijing’s CBD.

If you have a few minutes to spare, check out this article The Cost of Success: Life in Beijing’s Cellars by Spiegel Online for eye-opening insight into a side of Beijing not often spoken of.

Another article on this topic – Newser’s article: For Many in Beijing, Home Is Deep Underground.

CelebRABBITions: Happy Chinese New Year!

After a passionate year of the Tiger, I welcome the tranquil, considerate and wise characteristics of the Rabbit year.  This Thursday, February 3 brings the beginning of a new lunar year or Spring Festival, the most important of traditional Chinese holidays.

For those who are unfamiliar with Chinese New Year customs, the Chinese New Year is celebrated quite differently than New Years Celebrations in Western cultures. It’s celebrated a different day for starters and rather than focusing on glamorous, sparkly parties and scrambling to find someone to kiss at midnight, the Chinese New Year is a time for family.  Why does Beijing become a desolate ghost-town overnight?  Because everyone is rushing back to their home town to spend the new year with their families.  It’s a cherished time spent indoors with home-cooking, stuffing your face with copious amounts of jiaozi and let’s not forget the endless drum of fireworks and firecrackers…nonstop…for a week.

This year in particular is the year of the rabbit, an animal both adored and loved, symbolizing mercy, elegance, and worship of beauty. This is a year to catch your breath and calm your nerves.

“The year of the rabbit is a time for negotiation.  Don’t try to force issues, because if you do you will ultimately fail.  To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children.   Make it a goal to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, so you will be able to calmly deal with any problem that may arise.” – Chinese Zodiac

This light-hearted image is is devoted to all things funny, bunny, hilariously hare-brained, or perhaps just a bit rambunctiously rabbit .

*Courtesy of my brilliantly creative friend Jennie Glorey.

Happy New Year LumDimSum Friends!

I wish you all an abundance of good fortune, success, love, health, and happiness this year of the rabbit.

新年快樂!

恭禧發財

With Love,

LDS xx

LumDimSaying: On Ringing In 2011

“Ring out the old, ring in the new

Ring, happy bells, across the snow

the year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

2010 has been a blast!

Thank you all for your support, inspiration, guidance and the good times we’ve shared over the course of this year.

May this new year bring you an abundance of joy, opportunity, good fortune and happiness!

Wishing all a very HAPPY 2011!

Sail Away With Me…

For the very first time, my family and I are breaking lifelong traditions and spending our Christmas holiday a world away from California, on a cruise ship sailing down and around South America’s coast.

I’m usually a stickler for keeping with tradition, but after spending my Christmas day trekking through the beautiful terrain of Tierra Mayor National Reserve in Ushuaia, Argentina, I couldn’t be happier!

Watching the world news on the ship about America’s east coast and London’s record snowfall, I feel a little guilty spending my winter holiday break under the beautiful blue skies of Chile and Argentina.  The sun here doesn’t even set until close to 10PM.

And hey, even if I’m not waking up to presents under a giant Christmas tree, my family and I still got into the groove of holiday festivities on the ship!

LumDimSum Christmas Family Pic 2010

Wishing all my LumDimSum friends a wonderful time with your loved ones!

See you in 2011!

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

~Dr Seuss

Christmas!  The very word brings me so much joy and holiday cheer.  While some dread Christmas shopping and the hassle of travel, I cherish all Christmas traditions from putting up lights, decorating a tree, baking cookies for Santa, spending all day in the kitchen, and most of all – feeling the same warm, giddy feeling I had as a child waking up on Christmas day.

A day of meaning and traditions, Christmas has always been a cherished holiday spent in the warm circle of family and friends.

More than just a good time, Christmas is a kind, forgiving, charitable, and loving time.

Open not only presents, but open your hearts and remember that the good you do for others is good you do yourself.

May the gladness of Christmas give you hope,

The spirit of Christmas bring you peace,

The heart of Christmas grant you love.

LumDimSaying: On Surviving Winter Months

“Winter is a time for comfort, for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:

It is the time for home.”

- Edith Sitwell

It’s about that time of year – when most return home for the holidays to spend with family and loved ones.

This year will be my first year spent traveling with my family rather than congregating with relatives under a Christmas tree.  Although I will not exactly be “home” this year, I’d rather say that my family is my home and I’m pretty stoked to spend my winter holiday with them basking under the sun in South America!

Don’t fret my dear readers, even though I’ll be away the next few weeks, LumDimSum will continue to be updated daily throughout!

LumDimSum Family Pic at the top of San Cristobal Hill (Santiago, Chile)

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

LumDimSaying: On Gratitude

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

– Melody Beattie

More than just a splurging, coma-inducing turkey feast, Thanksgiving is a day to be grateful. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the one day a year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty, but living in a cosmopolitan city like Beijing, Thanksgiving day can be interpreted and enjoyed by all nationalities as a day to gather loved ones over a merry feast.

As much as we ought to express our love and gratitude to all of our loved ones on a daily basis, the truth is that we don’t.  So it is a truly wonderful thing to have a holiday like Thanksgiving to remind us to take time to count our blessings and reflect on the wonderful people in our lives and express our many reason to give thanks.

To all of LimDimSum’s dedicated followers, friends and family, I want to sincerely say thank you to each of you. Every minute of every hour of writing each and every post is dedicated to you.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support, your invaluable feedback and advice, and for giving me the motivation to continue writing everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

Trick or Treat?

“Trick or treat, Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat.
If you don’t, I don’t care
I’ll pull down your underwear!”

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

10/10/10 = Saul Diaz’s 30th Birthday

On this momentous day – 10/10/10, my dear friend Saul Diaz turns the big 3-0!!

Get it?

10 + 10 + 10 = 30

EPIC.

Not only is Saul Diaz one of the most talented DJs in town (resident DJ at PUNK in the Opposite House), he is one of the kindest, most thoughtful, fun-loving and genuine people I know.

…and not only is Saul a fellow foodie, his love and appreciation for good food almost rivals mine.  Almost.

Celebrate with Saul on this special day @ Migas from 8PM-late TONIGHT.

Happy Birthday Saulyyy!

Here’s to you Saul and to many more years of adventures, Sunday brunches, and great times:

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.   ~William Penn

Mason Kalei Turns 1

Ladies, eat your heart out.

Baby Mason no longer, this little man is growing up at lightning speed.

By the age of 1, Mason is already more accomplished and definitely way cooler than many of us:

• So stylish, he’s already a candy&caviar sponsored model (check out that hair and how good he looks in candy&caviar’s Elliot Tie?)
• He’s traveled all over China, made trips to the US of A and even made time for a vacay in Thailand
• He spent most of his birthday grooving to his very own private concert, music courtesy of Uncle Eli.
• Has women fighting over him – I for one am madly in love with this little monster.
• He has everyone who lays their eyes on him instantly wrapped around his little finger.

This future rock star is already making waves and well on his way to taking the world by storm.

From July 23, 2009 – July 23, 2010, here is a LumDimSum Photo Gallery of Mason Kalei aka the Cutest Baby in the Whole Wide World:

Crazy Beautiful Clouds

After a week of intensely polluted air, Beijing finally cleared up for the weekend with blue skies and some of the coolest clouds I’ve ever seen.

Like the ripples you see when you make a splash in water, white clouds were waving outwards from the sun, revealing a truly beautiful landscape, especially at sunset.

Living in Beijing just a few years really has given me a new-found appreciation for the little things like blue skies and clouds that I desperately miss from sunny California.

If only the skies here were this pretty every day…a girl can only dream.

LumDimSum Photo Spree:

Beijing Sunset: A Sight for Sore Eyes

Beijing Sunset above Jianwai SOHO

As I was speed racing on my bike across the city yesterday in a rush to another meeting, I did something I rarely do.  I stopped and for good reason. Not for traffic.

I stopped on Chang An Jie to take out my camera and take a snapshot of the sunset spread across Beijing’s skyline.

Such a shame that it is such a rare sight to see blue skies and white clouds through Beijing’s constant muggy overcast sky, much less sunsets. So you can imagine my immense happiness to witness such a sight for sore eyes.

Last time I saw blue skies and clouds, I went a little bonkers.  Click here to see some proof that blue skies, clouds and clean air can exist on occasion in Beijing.

Flipping through old photos the other day, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia when I saw some snapshots of some stunning sunsets in Santa Barbara, California.  These photos were all taken from my apartment’s balcony, which overlooked the ocean.

A glimpse of the beauty that is Santa Barbara:

LumDimSaying: Father’s Day

Fathers are wonderful people
Too little understood,
And we do not sing their praises
As often as we should…

For, somehow, Father seems to be
The man who pays the bills,
While Mother binds up little hurts
And nurses all our ills…

And Father struggles daily
To live up to “HIS IMAGE”
As protector and provider
And “hero or the scrimmage”…

And perhaps that is the reason
We sometimes get the notion,
That Fathers are not subject
To the thing we call emotion,

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

But he’s so busy every day
In the grueling race of life,
He leaves the sentimental stuff
To his partner and his wife…

But Fathers are just WONDERFUL
In a million different ways,
And they merit loving compliments
And accolade of praise,

For the only reason Dad aspires
To fortune and success
Is to make the family proud of him
And to bring them happiness…

A real life hero,
He’s a guardian and a guide,
Someone that we can count on
To be ALWAYS ON OUR SIDE.

~ by Helen Steiner Rice