Life on the back streets of Beijing

Beijing bric à brac

When grandpa Zhang in Beijng cleans out his attic, he’s likely to find different stuff than grandpa Smith in Smalltown, USA.
No tacky 1950’s coffee pots, no freaky 1960’s hippy outfit, no funky 1970’s rugs.
Instead, your average Chinese might find propaganda pamphlets from the Cultural Revolution, some creaky old chairs that could have belonged to an [...]

Talking taxi in Beijing

Taking a taxi in Beijing is fascinating. I’ve never been to another city where all the taxi drivers listen to talk programs on their car radios. None of them has the radio tuned to a music station or is listening to a CD.
Enter any Beijing taxi, and you’ll most likely be catapulted into a Chinese [...]

What comes after the Olympic fever in China?

If you arrive at Beijing’s brand new Capital Airport these days, you’re immediately confronted with China’s enthusiasm about the Olympics.
And that feeling of excitement is going to stay with you every step that you take in China.
At the airport, you’re likely to see groups of young Chinese all decked out in blue and white track [...]

Sorry, we’re out of dog meat

There will be no dog meat in Beijing restaurants during the Olympics.
According to this weekend’s edition of China Daily (the country’s English language newspaper), the city’s 112 officially designated Olympic restaurants have been banned from selling dog meat during the Olympics.
The paper continues that non-designated restaurants have also been encouraged not to serve the meat.
“Dog [...]

Floored in Beijing

Beijing is fascinating in a million ways. Aside from all the ancient palaces and temples, the shopping and the great dining, there’s one “little” thing that absolutely amazed me during this visit.
It’s a gigantic LED video screen covering a downtown shopping street called The Place. Images of life underwater are projected onto the screen.

The deep [...]

Welcome to the Beijing Olympics – but not yet

The online weather forecast was for sun and blue skies in Beijing on Friday. But on the ground, things looked quite different.
It was so hazy when our plane touched down that I thought we were still high up in the clouds. I could only see the ground a few seconds before we touched down on [...]