A Night Out at the Q Bar and the Old Man

One of the things I have been looking forward to in my move to Beijing is the cosmopolitan social scene. Now, I know few of my friends will be rolling their eyes as they recall many a late night at some less the reputable drinking establishments, but I have always said the my drinking preferences are a dichotomy. I either love dives with cheap beer or swanky bars with martinis. So for our first night out, LS and I decided to enjoy the warm Beijing evenings and go to a nice rooftop bar. 

A Lovely Night with my Equally Lovely Wife

The Q Bar is on top of a hotel with a nice view of the Chaoyang District. The bar consisted of an indoor restaurant with a roof top bar above. The bar has a lounge theme with private tables for two or group tables for 6. The bar also had small private rooms filled with pillows that you could lay on with low-lying tables.

Bartender at the Q Bar

This should be easy, but can you guess what drink the bartender is preparing?

Old Man and Busy Intersection

On the way back from the Q Bar there is intersection where people frantically catching and exiting cabs. On a Friday night the place is packed with people going to a variety of clubs and restaurants. While waiting for the traffic to ease so I could cross the street, I noticed this old man just standing and watching the commotion. I looked at the old man and thought about all of the things he must have seen China go through in his life and I wanted to ask him what he thought of the recent rapid and dramatic changes. However, I reminded myself that I could not speak Chinese and he could not speak English so I would never know.

Subway and Rickshaw (Pedicab)

The best way I can describe transportation in Beijing is that there are 20 million people and everybody needs to go somewhere. As you can image, there are numerous varieties of pedal, motorized and hoofed transportation methods.

Subway - Line 1 (Red Line)

Riding the Suway in Beijng is a 

The subway is a fast, efficient and inexpensive way to travel around Beijing. A one way ticket costs about 0.34$. The downside is the subway is always jammed packed and just when you think it cannot fit anymore people, someone will run in just before the door closes and push everyone together as if it were a mosh pit.

Rickshaw (Pedicabs) and Beers!
When you visit the embassy or tourist areas of Beijing, you will see a multitude of rickshaw drivers transporting tourist and drunk expats around. Since LS and I are not tourist, we decided to buy some beers and take a ride to the Guomao Subway stop. To be fair to the expats, sometime a few beers are needed because the rickshaws will weave in and out of traffic, go down one way streets, drive on and off the sidewalk and do just about anything to get you to your destination as soon as possible.

Rickshaw and Driver

Rickshaws, Beer and Good Times

Chinglish, Silk Market and Chinese Medicine

Signs are one of the more amusing parts of life in Beijing because of the translations or “Chinglish”. Usually you can figure out what the sign is trying to communicate but the ungrammatical or nonsensical English can be a challenge.

Beware of Grass

This picture was taken near an outdoor café in downtown Beijing.

Walmart Bathroom Sign

This picture was taken in the bathroom at Walmart. I thought it was funny because of the concern for the potential thief’s future and reputation.

Sign at Entrance of Silk Market

This sign has nothing to do with chinglish, but I thought it was funny because it was in the entrance of the Silk Market. The Silk Mark is probably the most famous market in China for selling fake hand bags, watches, shirts, jackets etc. An interesting note is that people were selling a variety of fake Columbia clothes. I did not know Columbia had an international market. The best part about the fake jackets was that they said Made in Portland Oregon and had Gore-Tex, neither of which is true.

Chinese Muscle Pain Relief Medicine

As most of you know, I hurt back before I left for China, which has made sight-seeing difficult at times. When LS’s coworker took us for a tour of the hutongs and Tiananmen Square, I had to often stop and rest my back. The next day at the office he gave to LS some Chinese medicine for me to use on my back. It was really thoughtful of him and the medicine did in fact help my back.

The Chinese believe different parts of animals are important for health and wellness. The Musk Strength Bone Plaster was one such medicine that had deer pheromones. It worked like the Icy Hot Patches you stick on for sore or pulled muscles. The plaster had a strong smell, which consisted of a mix of vics-vapor rub and the deer scent you put on when you go hunting. When the plaster is applied a hot a heating sensation is felt and the muscles relax, thus the pain relief.

Ingredients and Warnings

I included a picture of the back of the Musk Strength Bone Plaster because I thought the ingredients were interesting and the Chinglish was funny (The Contradictions section is the best).

Food, Walmart, Steamed Buns

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to check out the local markets or stores. I think stores give an insightful unbiased representation of the character of a community. Plus it is fun to try new things. On second thought, maybe in China there are a few things better left untried.

Isle of Various Mushrooms

I was impressed with the multiple isle of mushrooms in the markets and the various shapes and sizes of them. The vast variety of mushrooms reminded me of mushroom hunting in Oregon with Chris and Jeff at Fall Creek.

Egg Pictures for Jeff and Sue

I was also impressed with the multiple isle of eggs in the markets and the various shapes and sizes of them. They had white, spotted, brown, gray, and blue eggs from chickens, ducks and geese. A popular snack you can buy in any convenience store is a boiled chicken egg infused with green tea or other liquids.

Dragon Fruit or Pitaya

Here is a picture of a pitaya or dragon fruit LS and I bought at the local fruit “store” The fruit store is a guy with an electric bike with a trailer that rides around our neighborhood selling people fruit. Fruit is very popular in China and somebody is selling fruit on almost ever street corner or marketplace. Anyway, the dragon fruit tasted good. It is lightly sweet with a white mushy inside and has little black seeds.

Durian Fruit or "King of Fruits"

This is a Durian Fruit or “King of Fruits” and is imported from Southeast Asia. It is supposed to taste like almonds but smell like stinky socks. I have not tried it yet, but will have to post an update when I do. Anyway, I thought it looked cool. 

Silk Worm Pupae (Silk Worm Chrysalis)

Silk worm pupae (Silkworm chrysalis) are a common meal eaten at outdoor street vendors and for sale at Walmart. I have not tried one yet, but I plan on having a few after more then a few beers one of these days. I will post an update as to how they taste.

Dried Duck at Walmart

In Walmart and most stores there is a section of dried meats which include whole ducks, whole fish and various other parts of animals I cannot recognize. I hesitated posting this picture on the blog because I wanted to keep the whole dried duck a secret. The reason being is that on every climbing or backpacking trip there is a time when everyone shares some food and there is always someone who waxes on about how there food is special in some way. It is either local or fair trade or organic or vegan or blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I thought it would be cool to reach in my backpack and pull out a whole dried duck and pass it to the person next to me head first and ask them if they wanted to tear of a piece.

Fish Spine Snacks

These are fish spines and are a common stack. Meat with lots of bones or attached to the bone is popular. Also, meat with a lot of fat in it is considered high quality. This is hard for me since I prefer lean meats. 

Hand Blown Caramelized Sugar Animals

A vendor in the park was selling hand blown caramelized sugar animals as snacks. Basically, the vendor has a tube and blows the caramelized sugar into various animal shapes with a technique similar to blowing glass.

Steamed Bun or "Baozi" or "Bao"

One of my favorite things about living in China is how the food is delicious, hand made fresh every morning and inexpensive. When you walk or ride your bike to work, you will see long lines of people behind these circular trays buying steamed buns or “baozi” or “bao” for breakfast. The system they use in ingenious. Each ring has two handles and has a bottom that is made of crisscrossed sticks in a wicker fashion. Dough buns with various filling are placed on the circular racks and stacked as seen in the picture. At the bottom of the stack of rings is boiling water or a devise that produces steam. Stream rises through the holes in the whicker bottom of each ring and cooks all of the buns. The top piece is tightly woven wood so the steam is trapped. When a layer or circular ring of buns is gone, the ring is removed and set aside for washing. (I will have to add a picture that shows the buns in the ring).

This setup is used for many dishes in China. Lunch boxes are designed the same so that when you want to heat up your lunch, you pour hot water bottom of the device and the different levels of food can be heated from the steam. Finding hot water is never a problem since tea is such an integral part of their culture.

Delicious Stream Bun with Meat and Vegetable Filling

My morning streamed bun breakfast for 1 Yuan (0.17$). For my information on the various type of steam bun types, fillings, and names visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baozi

Traditional Chinese Dinner

One of LS coworkers took us out for a traditional Chinese lunch. The food tasted amazing and it was fun to learn  about the history. Notice how little it looks like Chinese food in the US, I am still trying to figure out what the story is behind that. The food is amazing, what else can i say.

Architecture, Apartment, Office

It is probably worth starting this section with our drive from the airport. A typical airport-city drive starts in the suburbs or a township with the view of the downtown in the distance. This fairly natural transition is not the case in Beijing where a suburb is in the form of a high rise, creating a very defined edge to the city. With a population estimated around 20 million you can image that high rises are a fairly standard design requirement in this city.

View from our office

This image is taken from my office window and gives you some idea of the scale and density that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  

Local Chinese Restaurant

Many of the local restaurants have very ornate entrances and the Chinese lanterns are a favorite décor item.

CCTV Building

The CCTV building (Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA) in Beijing is definitely a landmark. The sheer size and shape are pretty ingenious. However, there are rumors that the usability is in question.

Our first home 

Fraser Residence, our first home in Beijing. This serviced hotel was definitely a luxury pad that JDK and I became very used to. JDK was particularly partial to the weekend pizza and the boiled coffee for breakfast. 

China Central Place

I works on the 24th floor of the tall building in the background.