Burns' Night in Beijing...

.... and we ended up at a Ceilidh in a hutong - with David on the bagpipes, natch!

Beijing: Jingshan Park

Behind the Forbidden City to the North is a small (and presumably man-made....) hill in the middle of Jingshan park, from where you get a fantastic view:

Wangfujing Snack Street

Just off Wangfujing (the main "shopping street" in Beijing, although I don't know quite who shops there...) is a snack street (this is different to the Night Market), where you can buy a wide variety of chuan'r () - see below for the delicacies on offer! It's a bustling little street, and has a surprising number of people actually purchasing and eating the food - though it has to be said that the normal meat skewers seem to be the most popular, no matter what the stallholders tell you.

A little interesting aside is that the character for chuan is 串which looks just like a skewer....Here are some candied tomatoes and small apples - you often see them being peddled around on the back of a bike:This chap has a selection of candied everything!Some of the more normal skewers...And some of the more unusual! (Though I'll admit I have never, ever seen anyone eating a seahorse or live scorpion....)This lady is selling the homemade yogurt that comes in small clay pots and is available from small shops all over the city - the chap in the right is the star of one of the above photos, and was a very keen subject!

Photo shoot

Every so often around town, you will spot a photo shoot with a moody/nonchalent/freezing model. I love these!

In action:
Off camera and freezing cold!

OCCB Christmas Ball

Dave and I had organised tickets to the OCCB Christmas charity ball, in aid of Smile Train (which, incidentally, I think is fab and urge you to donate to) - and it was a chance to get dressed up nicely in a city that is usually so casual!

We had a Christmas dinner, which was all very nicely presented but the turkey was too dry, which was a shame eeing as this is practically my only festive event pre-Christmas! There was an auction, and a speech by the British ambassador about his time in China, spanning c. 30 years, which was fascinating - so much so that I was prompted to introduce myself and tell him exactly that!Then, OBV, it all went a bit downhill... or uphill, depending on how you view it!

Karaoke (cont.)

What is life without a warble? Lisa, Sophie, Dave and I have been joined by various others at Cashbox Partyworld, our KTV joint of choice, at several recent outings, lasting 4-5 hours a time. If you estimate about 45 minutes per person, everyone should leave satisfied!

Classic tunes turned out to be My Way, Macarena, My Humps, Mambo Number 5 (the machine is a little difficult to use, so it seems we worked our way largely through the Ms...). And while we attempted some Cui Jian, it has to be said that, on my part, it was only my stance that resembled him.

I'd like to pay tribute to the efforts and stamina of all involved, as evidenced below - take your bows please!

And my personal favourite.....

798 District - Beijing

The 798 district of Beijing seems like miles away from the centre, but once you're in a cab it's only about 20 minutes, and it has a completely different feel to the rest of the city. I first visited in 2007 with Christina:

It hasn't changed much, although it is growing quite fast! There are hundreds of small galleries, with exhibitions by international artists such as Antony Gormley and Martin Parr (of whom, incidentally, I have become a big fan, since seeing his video "Think of England" which was possibly more funny because I watched it c. 15 years on and from so far away... but still!) and modern Chinese artists, many of whom make political statements in their art.

Ai Wei Wei had an interesting exhibition on, in which he explores China's relationship with the world in terms of trade (this world is made out of stacks of sheets of cotton), for example, and the notion of the individual vs. the collective, which has obvious connotations in a Communist society.
The buildings in and around 798 are a little reminiscent of Shoreditch, and the whole area has an East London vibe. I particularly like this huge and interesting old warehouse, complete with Communist slogans, in which exhibitions are put on:

There is generally a nice mix of sculpture, photography and paintings, and the surrounding streets come complete with their own unusual items...:

It even encouraged Ben's artistic flair:Canon photography exhibition - fabulous pics of China, here are just a few of my faves. Thanks Canon!

Capital Mmmm

Back in September, you may remember that Dave and I attended the "soft opening" of Capital M, a new restaurant in Beijing that "overlooks" Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Well, since then I have been back twice - once for dinner with Ben, and once for Sunday brunch with my parents and their friends, Matt, Laura and baby Annabelle.

Here I am with mum on Qianmen Dajie which runs South from where Capital M is located and which has been revamped in the style of a "traditional, grandiose" Chinese street:

Dinner

Ben and I had just eaten at LAN (see previous post) a few days earlier, and were just about ready to eat our fill again when we arrived at Capital M. We had delicious cocktails, and I had a raspberry cosmopolitan which was delicious! Ben had the dubious Hurricane that he always orders, always forgets he's had before, and always enjoys, which is a strange mix of rum and fruit juices. But he liked it. As always!

I didn't have a starter, but I managed to make significant inroads into Ben's parsnip soup to compensate. It was really tasty, which was a bit surprising seeing as I have yet to see a parsnip in China! I had the lamb as a main, and it was tender and juicy, and a huge portion. Ben had the duck, which he enjoyed. It was served as a breast and a leg (v. fashionable, don't you know...).

And on to the desserts! I had tried miniature versions of these at the opening, and was impressed (Lemon meringue pie! Crumble! in CHINA!! Amazing.) Ben had the Tarte Tatin, and it was delicious.

We were particularly pleased by the option to order wine by the caraffe, which meant that we were able to indulge in our individual preferences for red and white, without having to order an entire bottle of each, and then feel obliged to drink them both... (Yes, I know....). It was about GBP including our wine and 2 cocktails each, so better value than LAN, better food and a more enjoyable experience overall!

Brunch

Due to political crackdown (/other miscellaneous technical incompetencies, perhaps on my part....) I have now been to Capital M twice for brunch since I started drafting this post. The second time was less of a success due to a mammoth 5 hour karaoke session with Lisa and Soph (more on this later...), and I only managed to eat half an egg, and I had to give away my cocktail... So - we'll concentrate on the first time!

The Capital M brunch menu is a choice of 2 or 3 courses (c Y218 and Y268 respectively) and includes a cocktail - the Sunday Pimms was refreshing, and perfect for an early Sunday afternoon! The starter of poached egg and asparagus was delicious, although I am not quite sure where they found asparagus over here at this time of year!

There was a good variety of starters and mains on offer, and a nice choice of lunch and breakfast foods. my choice of Chicken Saltimbocca did not disappoint, and I finished up with a delectable Tarte Tatin!

I will be returning, just not with a hangover. That made it a very expensive (half) egg!

I am running a bit out of steam on this already long post, so am going to call it a day for now!

LAN Club and Restaurant

Ben and I booked a table in the restaurant at LAN, after hearing about its renowned Philippe Starck design and having read some interesting and mixed reviews.

We went on a Thursday evening at about 7.45pm, and on arrival the first thing that struck us was the decor - it's completely unlike anywhere else I have seen in Beijing: over sized thrones, a ceiling littered with huge, horizontally-hung portraits, an array of velvet-covered furniture and a selection of gigantic, ornate mirrors. You can get an idea from the pictures on the website, but decor and the lighting create a decadent and plush atmosphere in this enormous venue. Sweeping curtains create several smaller rooms within the club, which is fortunate seeing as when we arrived there were about 10 people there in total. Even with these divisions, the dimensions only served to highlight the lack of clientele, and this is probably LAN's most trouble. It is near Yonganli subway station, which is nowhere near any other evening venues (erm, i.e.: nowhere near Sanlitun), so that's a pretty big hurdle to start with....

First, we had a cocktail in the bar. I have developed a penchant for apple martinis, and this one did not disappoint (but at Y70+ I would have hoped for nothing less...). When we moved through to the dining area, we were pleased (and relieved!) to see that the restaurant was about two thirds full. The decor in here was much the same, the only thing that wasn't over sized, was the table, which meant that there was not much room to wield the cumbersome menu. Not only was it unwieldy, it was also very confusing. I had to worry about whether I was going to knock over my wine glass, while trying to decipher how much it would be appropriate to order.

Ben and I chose an appetiser each, and decided to share a prawn dish (Y100), a lamb dish (Y100), some vegetables and rice. This seemed a sensible choice, so I was quite surprised when we were advised to order two of each of the lamb and prawn dishes - especially given the price.*

In the end our starters and desserts (chocolate fondants) were delicious, but the mains were average and, disturbingly, served one after the other in quick succession, on plates so enormous that you had to finish the first before the second could be placed on the table. This was irritating, but not quite as irritating as the lack of free water served (I firmly believe this should be available in all restaurants and bars) and the small bottles of water priced at Y60+ a go. *grr* The total bill was Y1,400 for two, on top of our cocktails. However, the toilets were pretty cool - each one is an individual, mirrored room, complete wing back chair and free-standing dressing table housing a sink, whose taps cleverly turn on when you step in front of it.

The bar livened up after dinner with a jazz band playing in one section and a band playing covers in the main bar area, and this was by far the most enjoyable part of my evening. Overall, I can see the appeal for entertaining guests or for a fancy night out (drinks only), but I imagine it does not get many repeat visitors - especially to the restaurant. Apparently, it cost RMB300 million to set up and open LAN in 2006, and I wonder how long it will last given the prime real estate it occupies and lack of customers to fund ongoing expenses....!

*In China, this is very expensive!

Ben's visit!

I have out up a couple of posts about Ben's visit, but also wanted to write a little about the rest of our week in Beijing...

Luckily for me, Ben is a sucker for teen drama, and wholeheartedly embraced my new found Gossip Girl addiction - to the extent that we finished off season one and ploughed through all of season two during his time in Beijing. We might have felt a bit guilty, were it not so cold outside!

Ben also became the third member (yes, Dave's the other....) of my "I love Xiao Wang" fan club, and we ate there, or ordered in from there, regularly.

On these two counts, it seems that Ben will be very well suited for life in Beijing, so it bodes well for his 11 week sabbatical starting in February next year! :-) Very exciting.

I took Ben to Yaxiu market, which I regularly frequent for extra layers to fight the freezing temperatures. Ben splashed the cash on a variety of items, including a jacket, a coat, 4 tshirts, loads of DVDs, a hat, 4 belts and more, all for less than GBP 140, aided by my haggling. Now - a word of warning for any future visitors to Beijing - if someone else (ie: ME) is haggling on your behalf and secures a (if I may say so myself) fantastically low price, please do NOT add an extra Y10 to it after negotiations have closed - if you want to pay a higher price, you can haggle yourself!! I'm not sure what it is that compels Ben to pay over the odds for something, but it seems to be in his genes.....

We also treated ourselves to a few fancy dinners (more on these later), manicures and massages, and visited several other markets and the 798 art district (more on this later, too). A great week, all in all. Thanks for coming, Ben, and I'm looking forward to February!

X-O-X-O!

Beijing's first snow of winter 2009/10 - updated

Updated: I'm pretty sure you will have heard about the cloud-seeding and weather-fixing that is all the rage in China, so I thought I would update this post and include some info/links. The snow I posted above was Beijing's earliest winter snowfall since 1987 - and an unusually heavy one at that. The Times had a pretty interesting article which you can access here, and Time.com wrote with a slightly more techy focus - see this link.

Inevitably, there is a lot of controversy and debate (both informed and baseless, as far as I can tell) about the safety and morality of inducing rain and/or snow and playing with the weather in general. Silver iodide is the chemical of choice, though any of you trying this at home could substitute this with dry ice or salt, and then just find yourself a passing plane or rocket to do the business. Wikipedia doesn't say it's toxic, and I can confirm that the snow is white and does not glow in the dark or have any other peculiar qualities. I have a tendency to believe that such experiments are safe, or they wouldn't have been done... Any chemists want to offer enlightenment or invoke fear?

I understand that the 1st November snowfall was manufactured in order to combat Northern China's drought problem. However, I also heard that the snowfall was meant for the area northeast of Beijing, and the intention was not for the city itself to be covered in half a foot of snow, so maybe some fine-tuning still needs to be done. However, from past experiments, artificially inducing bad weather can certainly be effective in producing brilliant blue skies - for example, just look at the 2008 Olympics and this year's National Day celebrations!

More snow fell yesterday and still more is forecast for tomorrow, which is obviously pretty strange for a city that usually sees only 3 to 4 snowfalls per winter. However, word on the street that the government is keen to show off Beijing at its sunny best when Obama arrives in town on Sunday….. Oh to have that kind of influence when I go on holiday! Check out this weather forecast if you still aren't convinced - a coincidence? I think not.

Race of Champions

This year was the first time that the Race of Champions took place outside Europe. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's some kind of race between top F1, rally and motocross champions (and perhaps others) in which the drivers all race buggies and strange car-type-things to discover who is the champion of champions. As most of it was in Chinese, I still don't really know what it is after despite having sat through 4 hours of it, so your best bet is to check out the link above...

On the plus side, it was held at the Bird's Nest Stadium, which I hadn't been to before, and which is pretty cool, though no beer and too many pot noodle stalls!
Here is an action shot of a buggy and the track... It may or may not be Michael Schumacher (see the flag): Schumacher was a bit of a hit with the crowd, although I was cheering for Jenson Button all the way. In the end, after 3 round of heats, a semi final, an art auction, some enthusiastic but mal-coordinated student cheerleaders (see below), and a tense final with Schumacher, Mattias Ekström was crowned champion (for the stat-seekers among you, that's the third time in his career).

Spotted in Sanlitun: a very lost black cab!

Ahhhh, China!

Last weekend was a bit of an "I-heart-China" affair - I'm not sure why, but I imagine it was largely to do with the beautiful warm weather that came as a surprise after the threat of imminent ice age conditions! I've not been able to post about it until now as I've been quite busy at work (the injustice!), but here goes....

We took a stroll along Nanluoguxiang, where there was a street festival going on. Lots of tourist tack and a huge number of people, but tasty Chinese food in an open air rooftop cafe and pretty decorations all the same - *snappity-snap*:

Then we hit the outdoor gym for a workout. I love these outdoor gyms, and this one even had weights and a massage machine! Genius. We attracted some funny looks, but this is all part of the fun of being a redhead in China....

These gyms are often to be found in the central area of apartment buildings, and families gather there in the mornings and evenings to enjoy the outside space and take some exercise. Ben's friend has been importing these for use in the UK. Coming to a town near you! Thoughts on whether they would be used? Or how long until they'll be vandalised? I'll get a project update and let you know.....

Also popped by* an enormous fruit and vegetable market, where I bought the biggest youzi known to man. It's about twice the size of my head! This in itself made me very happy, but then, when I was looking for a link to describe this fantastic fruit, I found this website - and I am thrilled! An entire youzi festival! Life just got a little bit sweeter.

* read: "eventually-stumbled-across-after-2-hour-wild-goose-chase-led-by-Dave"

To the left, to the left....

Dave bought me a ticket to see Beyonce for my birthday - thanks Dave! Here we are enjoying ourselves....:
And here is Beyonce, giving it her all:
What was weird about this concert is that there was no support act and no encore - despite the HUGE efforts to encourage one, that rendered us hoarse. Apparently a "get them on, get them off" attitude is the norm for China, which is a bit of a shame! Other than that, it was a great concert - she has an amazing, strong voice, and I was suitably impressed.

It was also entertaining to see the usual tricks fall a bit flat on a non-English speaking audience ("Say my name, say my name........" [silence]). It must have been pretty tough to perform in such a foreign environment, especially without the benefit of a warm-up act, and with the added encumbrance of enhanced security in the area directly in front of the stage, where standing up, dancing or generally having a good time seemed to be prohibited!

Finally, it has to be said that my enjoyment of the evening was certainly enhanced by my three male companions, who spent the entire evening with their tongues hanging out and their eyes out on stalks, letting out involuntary giggles and yelps of pleasure and excitement as Beyonce reappeared in a variety of sparkly, revealing outfits. You can but imagine how this enthusiasm for her, ahem, "talent" was magnified by the close-up projections on an enormous screen!

Wowzers!

Champagne brunch - Sofitel Beijing

Sunday brunches are quite poplular among the expat community in Beijing, so to round off my birthday weekend, we thought we'd treat ourselves. As luck would have it,VIC in the Sofitel (10 minutes from my place) has a Pink Sunday on the last Sunday of the month - fabulous! Free-flowing pink Mumm and a huge spread of Western and Asian cuisine certainly perked us up after our Saturday night out!

There was also a pink chocolate fountain and candyfloss. FAB.

I liked it, and I enjoyed the food and drink on offer, and especially the fabulous desserts! However, there was no live music, so that was a bit of a let down. Dave rated it slightly lower on food due to "lack of traditional brunch foods on offer". Once we have finalised our rating scheme, I will post the results here……