ahhhhh, sorry...

That's the sound of all the countries apologizing for annexing parts of Beijing, back in the day. No hard feelings, I guess, since the Chinese returned the favor economically (zing!). Anyway, those annexed parts were called the Legation Quarter (history), and they led to an interesting little out-of-context group of walled neighborhoods. Lena and I went for a little tour of the Legation Quarter, and ended up strolling through Tiananmen for a bit.

This building wasn't part of the tour, but it was visible from the subway exit and fit the theme of the tour.

On our way from the subway to the Legation Quarter, we passed a little park in the style of traditional Chinese gardens, with their rocks and stairs and fancy gazebos. This one didn't have a pond, but it was nice anyway.

It also had an informational area: China's technological history! Here's the nuclear bomb. Apparently the invention of rockets was preceded by radio by only 3 or 4 years. Sounds dangerous to me...

Continuing the tour, we passed our first oddly-Western-looking building. Lena was a big fan of the wrought-iron.

Saint Michael's Cathedral wasn't open today, but it was nice looking from the outside. I particularly liked the angel statue out front. You know what WAS open, though? The convenience store between the church and the street.

Classy AND respectful.

Next up was the old French post office. What is it now? A Sichuan Restaurant, of course!

After that was the former Yokohama Specie Bank. Now it is some kind of private establishment, with guards and such. I really liked the way this building looked on the corner, so I took way too many photos. This is the best of them.

The Yokohama Bank is on the corner of a wide, tree-lined street with a park in the middle. It's a lot like Portland's park blocks, so Lena and I really enjoyed walking up and down.

So here is the first Legation, and it's British (those jerks, always Legating). It took us a while to figure out that "Legation" mostly referred to the walls themselves. That is to say, it's not so much about specific buildings (as many are no longer original) as it is about the demarcated territory. The British Legation was pretty big, and included this monster:

That's the Ministry of State Security. I didn't ask any questions, and I suggest you do the same.

This cool building used to be the National Bank of New York, but now it is the Beijing Municipal Police Museum. It didn't seem free or interesting, so we passed on it. Sweet building, though.

Seeing the bank clued us in that we were approaching the American Legation, but we only really knew we'd arrived when we spotted all the red brick with white trim.

it reminded me of Jamestown.

Minus all the glass buildings and cars, this is apparently a pretty faithfully maintained historical compound.

There are a lot more miscellaneous photos from our walk, and they'll be on my facebook page. Til next time!

CBD, nbd

that's Central Business District, no big deal... btw.

Lena and I are making it a point to walk around Beijing to get to know the city a little better. The first of our many jaunts was a little stroll around the Central Business District. It doesn't sound very interesting, and I'm sure there are more beautiful or historical areas in the city, but we were already planning on being in the area, and there are definitely some things to see.

When we got out of the Guomao subway stop, we spotted the CCTV tower almost immediately. It's hard to miss. I really like the design, but I've always been a sucker for Moebius strips. Apparently Chinese folks aren't fond of it because they think it looks like underpants.

As we got closer, it became harder to see the building, because it is completely surrounded by an enormous banner. This is a pretty normal phenomenon here; lots of tourist/historical sites are partially or entirely blocked by large photos of the very same site.

The other notable building in the immediate vicinity was the World Trade Center tower, but it's really only notable for being the tallest building in the city. Actually, I thought it was more interesting that 330m is all it takes to be top dog in Beijing. Small pond, apparently. We walked around a bit more, and only when we were several blocks away did I notice the giant building right next to the CCTV moebius building. This other CCTV building looked to be under construction but, upon closer inspection...

That's right, it's a burned-out husk. This is a big inside joke here, because everyone saw it burn up, but it was never reported in the news. (Riddle me this: if CCTV is the only news here, who would be available to report on the CCTV building fire?) I'm not sure what the official status of the building is, but it's certainly not a very well-kept secret.

Our next stop was one of the countless "SOHO"s here in Beijing. I'm assuming that the simplest explanation is best, so I think that they're just named after the famous NYC neighborhood in order to seem a little more respectable, but it seems like that would lose its appeal after the 50th development named SOHO popped up. Nevertheless, if I was a particularly homesickness-prone Westerner, I would totally want to work/live here.

As you can see, huge modern art installations are pretty much ubiquitous when it comes to urban greenspace. It really did seem like a nice place to be, if not a cheap one. After this stop, we strolled through "the Place," which is an unbelievably opulent outdoor shopping mall. The pictures I took don't do it justice, so I'll just leave it up to your imagination.

On our way back to the subway, we hit up a couple more SOHOs, and here's a picture of the most interesting one. Until next time!

working out... BEIJING STYLE!!!

It has been too long since the last blog post, but I wasn't sure what I wanted this blog to be about, anyway. I have really enjoyed Jenny's blog about her stay in Seoul (the ever entertaining Not Just Kimchi), and I thought Beijing deserved the same treatment. There is a lot here that I'm getting used to, but it's fun to enjoy the novelty of it all, too. So here is part one:

Just about every neighborhood in Beijing has an exercise yard. They're part gym, part playground. I'm certain that a playground equipment manufacturer got the exclusive contract to outfit all of Beijing, since they're all the same colorful plastic and metal apparati, no matter where you are in the city.



If you thought we weren't dressed to work out, you'd be wrong. Street clothes all the way. We were doing one thing wrong, though: trying. Effort is frowned upon in these yards. Par for the course is mostly wandering around the open space and, if you meander too close to one of the machines, you're obliged to half-assedly fiddle around on it for a minute or two. Afterwards, have a chat with a friend as a reward; you earned it.

798 Arts District

Lena and I went to the 798 Arts District this weekend, took some photos, and had an all around good day. Here is a slideshow of some of the art we saw:

It was a little bit of an adventure finding the place, as the bus number was different in each of our guidebooks, as well as the website of a gallery (it's the 401 from DongZhiMen, fyi).

Weekend Chalupas and the Zoo Market

This is a weekend Chalupa, as I call it. It's basically the Chinese Gordita plus a crispy rice center, and just a little bit more of all the ingredients, so it's bigger, crunchy, takes longer to make, and costs 3rmb instead of 2. I like the Chalupa better; Lena prefers the Gordita.
Also, here is an interesting find at the Zoo market: a Portland State "parkb and service" shirt. Way to make it international, PDX!

China's answer to the Gordita

I really do need to figure out what these are called, because they are my breakfast every morning. It's basically a crepe/pancake, brushed with egg + amazing mystery sauce + hot pepper, then folded and filled with diced onions and lettuce. It's insanely tasty and filling, and it's only 2rmb (~ 30 cents). It's going to be an eggy year for me.

…and sometimes you need spaghetti.

TAFI for the win! Fixed-price set menus let you put together a 5-course italian meal for 50rmb and pick the food you want. The wine is more like fruit juice, but tasty nonetheless, and the desserts are delicious! This is a must for anyone in the WDK area jonesin' for some pasta.
Next door is the intriguing and most excellently-named tasty-taste cake factory. Had we not just eaten cake and panna cotta, we would've tried this ourselves.


Also, here's some pictures of the oddly-mod street that leads to our apartment. It's kinda blurry, so it's hard to tell, but there is a traditional victory gate at the end there.