Construction Update

It's been a long time since we've written about the construction that spent months keeping us from getting a good nights sleep, but once they finished pouring all the concrete supports the movement about the site slowed down dramatically. We talked about how they had just recently started digging down and doing more work to build a retaining wall, but now they've stepped the levels of production back up so that they are working full 12+ hour days. Where one of the workers lodging buildings had been torn down, there were two new ones put up in its place.

When we returned last week we saw that they had even set up a crane on the property.
Now they're starting to section it out and it looks like they have poured some small concrete walls. I'd say that the sections are approximately 15'x20', and their are stockpiles of bricks laying all around the site that we will get to see put to use soon...
So, once again we have something interesting going on right outside our window that we can talk about, only this time we believe that the work will be much quieter...

Construction update.

It's been a while since posted an update on the construction that's going on outside our window, so since we've got nothing else new we decided that it's time for an update.

A while ago they started lining dump trucks up as the sun went down and then would truck the dirt away under the cover of darkness.
As the time goes by they keep getting further and further back in the digging, to the point that they've almost emptied the entire lot down to the lower level.
Once they get this all down to an nice flat level I'm sure that we will be able to start getting photos of them building upwards.

General Construction update...

Its been a while since we've talked about the construction that going on in the lot outside our apartment, and since we've been relaxing since Emily left on Saturday we don't really have too much else to write about....

All that we can really say is that we really appreciate the quiet. But it doesn't seem like they are really getting a lot accomplished. They've managed to dig down the whole area, but they haven't started to do any real construction as of yet.The U shaped area in the center of the lot is brand new - maybe they are making a moat...

Construction update

It's been a while since we've updated you about the construction going on outside our apartment, so here's a quick update....

Not much is happening.

When we returned from Mongolia the constant noise had stopped, and all of the equipment was moved out of the construction site. Since then they've moved in a few backhoes and they are digging out the entire site.
In some places we can see where they spent all those months making noise digging holes into the ground to fill with cement, and in other places we can't figure out what happened.
All we know is that it's quiet now, and we like that. I slept until 14:00 yesterday and 11:00 today, who could really ask for more?

Peace and Quiet....

Last week when we returned from Mongolia we were shocked by lack of construction noise from the site next to our apartment. It was a pleasant surprise to have quiet after 7 full months of listening to them work from 06:00 to 22:00 every single day...

Outside they dismantled their equipment, painted them a nice new orange color and loaded them onto trucks so that they can take them someplace where they can annoy someone else.
They've started to dig down around the concrete posts that have been poured all over the site. I've tried to show that in the lower photo, but now they'll knock down approximately the first meter of concrete and then tie the rebar into more rebar and then pour some additional concrete for a base or whatever.
Just this last weekend, the digging really began as the dump trucks have been lining up to care away truck load after truck load of dirt.
We love the quiet, as we had begun to believe that we would never see the end of it. Maybe now the construction will really kick into high speed and we will be able to get back into regular updates...

Back to the present day....

Alright, back to what has been going on in China for the last few weeks since we've been back....

We were back in China on Sunday, August 17, and then just five short days later we had good friends Art & Judy stop in for a few days. If you'd like you can go back and read their posts here (this should actually link to all of our guests - at least those that have been properly tagged).

Other than that, not much has really been going on here. Seriously, there hasn't been anything exciting. We've relaxed on our balcony on some of the cooler nights, we've taken to wandering the alleys again and taking lots of photos. I spent a few days two weeks ago up in Shanghai, somewhere in the south part of it I think, to work with a vendor. Tina took that opportunity to do some deep cleaning of our apartment.

One thing that hasn't changed, although we wished that it would have, is the construction going on outside our apartment. The annoying noise of metal on metal that permeates every inch of our place still starts at daybreak, which is now at the ungodly hour of just before 06:00. As we've mentioned several times before, this noise continues all day until around 22:00 with only a break of about a hour and a half at noon.



If you look back at all of our old construction photos - they almost look identical. We don't ever really see any progress, they just pound a hold into the ground, fill it with rebar and cement and then move the equipment to a new location and start again. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that this may just be a construction training site that is used to turn country farm workers into finely skilled hole drillers....

...and we're off.

Today we leave for a few weeks of much needed holiday...

For the next two weeks we will be touring through the western world of Europe, beginning in Austria, then up through the Czech Republic and ending up in Germany. The first part of the trip is with some of Tina's friends, two of whom are celebrating a birthday and felt that not only did they want a nice party, they deserved to have it in a nice location. Fair enough, these are some of the friends that I was allowed to tag along with when Tina and I were first married and we went down to Argentina. It was nice that they let me join their trip then, and I suppose that I'm glad they liked me enough to invite me along again.

The second half of the trip we will be in Germany, where Tina's mother was raised, visiting her aunts and cousins. As an added bonus, Tina's father is flying over from Canada to meet us.

So, that all said, we aren't sure how much posting we will be doing in the next few weeks. We know that we will have internet connection the first week as we are staying in nice hotels, but the second week we are crashing with family - so most likely no computer access. On top of that, as much as we love posting stories for everyone, we will most likely rather be wandering the streets of Prague then writing about them. We can save those posts for when we return.

And for this holiday, we leave you with a post of the construction still going on outside of our apartment here in Xiamen. It'll be nice to be able to sleep in without having to listen to this.

The noise is near constant now, they've stepped it up to a new level. This is pretty much always in the background from 06:00 until 22:00, other than the 90 minutes they take of for lunch in the middle of the day. We can only hope that this extra effort they are putting in will help them to finish before we return.

Construction update

I know that its been a while since we've provided an update to the construction going on right outside our place, but that's because there really hasn't been any noticeable changes...
You can see that they've set up an additional living quarters in the right corner of the lot, and they've also brought in some additional equipment to help them make more noise.But not much really seems to be moving quickly. We've had a lot of rain recently, which just makes it a general mess at the site. I did find it funny when they managed to get one of their trucks stuck in the mud.
Who knew that rain would make the ground soft? They stood around and looked at the truck for about an hour. We left before they pulled it out, otherwise I would have taken photos of that too.

One thing that is nice, but we don't fully understand, is that they seem to be taking more time of lately. Wednesday they didn't start working until the afternoon so Tina was able to sleep in, and they didn't work today either which allowed me to sleep in to 11:00. It was a deep and very much needed sleep...

Finally, progress....

Well at least some progress in our little corner of the world...

I'm sure some of you may remember how we were amazed when we first moved into our apartment that the building was probably around 60-70% empty, and that most of the units we still under construction. There was a lot of work going on, and slowly but surely units were being completed and people were moving in.

Apparently last weekend we crossed some sort of work completed threshold, because when we went out all of our elevators looked like this:

That's a standard elevator with wood up covering the walls so that people can move in without damaging anything. We had presumed that we would never see this protection come down, but when we returned home the other day we found this:
An almost new looking elevator. Wow, it's like living in a whole new building.

Of course, the one construction elevator is still set up to carry bricks, but 2 out of 3 is definite progress. On a side note, whomever owns the unit directly across from us has decided that now would be the best time for them to start working on their unit.

This photo is from our front door, you can see the mats that they've put down to try and catch all the dirt. They aren't helping.

Happy May First....

Ah, the first of May already - how the time is flying by....

Today is a holiday is China, actually the holiday covers the first through the third - Thursday through Saturday. Most companies are working Sunday to make up taking Friday off. This is the first year that this is only a three day holiday, previously this had been one of China's golden week holidays where everyone gets a full week off, there are a lot of people that really don't seem happy with this new change to their holiday schedule.

We will use these extra days to run some errands, and just hopefully relax a little, we got a trip planned to the botanical garden with Siew and her kids, but nothing much else. Standard short holiday planning...

Since Tina posted the changing of the guard at our apartment complex yesterday, we decided that we should post another photo of this uniquely Chinese way of motivating their employees.
Most of the time we see this we don't stop to take pictures, but since this time they were all trying to coordinate a dance routine we felt that it was acceptable to pull the camera out.

In other news, the construction outside our place is continuing at its maddeningly slow pace. This photo, taken today, is almost identical to one that we took 4-5 weeks ago - only the location of the equipment has moved slightly. We are hoping that they will soon be completed with this part of the work, for as we have mentioned several times the noise is quite disturbing, especially since it continues non-stop from 06:00 to 22:00 every day of the week...
Actually, they do seem to be enjoying their May holiday; Construction started as usual around 06:00, but they stopped today just before noon and haven't worked since. Hopefully they are allowed to sleep in tomorrow.

Finally, a nice relaxing Saturday...

Well, relaxing in the fact that we didn't have any plans, or anything pressing that needed to be completed. Annoying and not relaxing in the fact that the construction outside of our place continues daily from 06:30 until shortly after 22:00, the noise from the site is quite annoying and makes it impossible to enjoy sleeping in...

Construction - Week 5

This is a quick photo of week 5, and other then having a few holes it does not appear that any great progress has been made. We can only hope that this stage is nearing completion and that soon the work that they are doing will be somewhat quieter...

So, awoken early on a Saturday we do what we always enjoy doing - walk through the markets. Actually we had to head over to the local police station so that Tina can get some new passport photos, they are the only place that will meet Canada's strict passport photo requirements, but the market was between our place and the station so we took advantage of it...

Crowds at the market

Of course we forgot that it is a holiday weekend, so the station was closed and we will have to try again next weekend. The markets were full and Tina had to push her way in to one of her favorite stalls so that she could buy some oranges.

The rest of the afternoon was relaxing, just wandering the streets, the alleys, the park, and around the lake. It is so nice that the weather has finally broken and has started to warm up.

Street cleaning.
Family trip to the park

Quick Construction Update...

Just a quick post today with an update on the work right outside our windows. They've managed to get most of their equipment set up and are now working seven days a week from 07:00 until 22:00. This is most annoying, as it is not at all quiet.

The video shows the noise associated with their work, it is just an almost constant squeal of metal on metal... We thought that the jackhammering in the apartment buildings was terrible, but being awoken at seven on a Sunday morning to this noise is just as bad...

In other news, we have added a word verification to our comments section, as we have started to get quite a bit of spam comments and I'm getting tired of having to go in and delete them, hopefully that won't discourage any of you from continuing to comment.

China Construction

The weather has finally started to turn to a comfortable spring temperature, 21C (70F), so we took advantage of this weather to talk a walk along the street where they are building the flyover and take some photos.

They really have gotten a lot of the roadway completed, and it was nice to see the various stages of construction.

Lifting the sections of the road

Raised sections

Working on the supports

The construction on this project started back in October just before the National Holiday, and it was originally planned to have been completed by the New Year Holiday in February. That deadline was missed and we were told that the new completion date was in April. Looking at what is completed and what is remaining, we don't see how an April date is possible.

In other construction news, in the lot next to us they have finished the temporary housing and build some other buildings that we presume to be bathrooms and a kitchen. They have also brought in some digging equipment which, from watching them work on the roadway, we know will annoy us to no end. We will post video of this as soon as they are up and running...

We will keep posting on this as changes happen so that you can watch us slowly lose our view...

There goes our view...

When we moved into our apartment we were happy because we could look out our balcony and between a few apartment complexes see the water and we could relax as watch the container ships head out to the ocean.

However, we were looking across a open lot to see this view, and we figured that it was only a matter of time before construction was started on that lot to build yet another 30+ story condo building. Apparently, March 1st was that day, as today they started by building the workers lodging, the small two story white building in the corner of the lot. The are setting up another one of these in the other corner, so we can probably expect that in the next week they will begin excavating. The workers will live in these tiny houses, several to a room, for the entire project.

This is at least a chance for us to watch the construction and take photos as they build up and our water view is slowly taken away from us.

We also expect this to all happen fairly quickly, as things like this happen in China at a much faster pace then we are used to. They call them China years, and at the current pace of change in China 1 year here is equivalent to 4 years in the States. It still amazes me that in somethings they are 4 times faster then us, but it other things it seems to take 2-3 times as long as we would expect....