The Other William

Funny,  the Venerable Subharo, a monk friend of mine (once known as Dustin), recently moved to Tisarana Monastery in Perth, ON. (Feel free to pay him a visit there). And he bumped into a noteworthy fellow there.

Here's what his email to me says:

I was just thinking of you the other day, and then a visitor arrived, named William Bi (who I had seen a few times at Birken), and after getting to know him a little more, it turns out you have a lot in common with him:
1) He lives in Beijing
2) He's a reporter (for Bloomberg)
3) He not only meditates, but teaches a Theravada meditation group in central Beijing, called "Beijing Sangha" (you can apparently find it in Google Groups).  He also teaches yoga.
4) biking
5) Your first name!
6) You're also about the same age

Hm! How do like that? i'm particularly interested 'cause i didn't konw there were any other peer-led meditation groups in Beijing here.

Anyhow, I'll drop him a line soon.

Run Run Run Run Run, Take a Race or Two

Well, gettin' a bit more running in these days. Two wks ago was the Beijing Long Distance Running Festival, which was a bit of a ramshackle 10km race (check out my story Sweat, Sales Pitches and Scandal at http://williamwangwrites.tumblr.com/post/48030569477/sweat-sales-pitches-and-scandal-at-the-beijing-running)

and then the following wkend was another 10k race, out in the suburbs, weird course starting at a superduper posh international school, which progressed through some of the shittiest, stinkiest, poorest hutongs seen in Beijing proper.

But the exciting news is that Yoyo came out for both of them!

We ran the 1st race together, which was mellow and fun. Then the next race, she was like, "Don't worry about me. You just run ahead." and I was like, "well, yeah, that's what I was planning to do, ha."

Anyhow, 10k was way harder than i was expecting, (longer than i thouht, wanted to puke etc, etc) though i did manage to get my 45 minute goal.  Yoyo was somehow about 10 min faster solo than when she ran w/ me. Go figure. Go Yoyo!

Using Technology to Fix China's Enviro Probs!

http://i.imgur.com/lgK92VJ.jpg?1

Chengde, Take Three

For the third time, i went off to the nearby city of Chengde (not to be confused w/ Chengdu). Tomb Sweeping long weekend, and train tickets were sold out to Shanghai, Wuhan, Qingdao and Shijiazhuang. And i never even heard of Shijiazhuang before.


Well, Chengde's just a 4.5 hours away, which isn't so far unless you can only get standing room tix. Huh.

Anyhow, Yoyo's never been there before, so we hit it, and had quite a bit more fun than i was expecting. Pleasantly slept the first drizzly day away in the hotel. A barrage of Buddhist temples on the next. And a kind of boring last day in the Emperor's summer getaway grounds. Actually i knew it would be a bit dullsville, but if everyone who goes to Chengde wants to see the emperor's grounds, so be it.

Also, after all this overeating i'm getting a gut again. Lame.