Full of bicycles, that was my...
by l_joo
Full of bicycles, that was my first impression of Beijing. A local girl told me peoples in Beijing are different from other Chinese because of their relations with their Imperial ancestors. After the collapse of Imperialism, most people here can do nothing but only selling their properties for living. That's what I was told. Another local woman told me about her long hair 'because in Beijing guys like to see girls in long hair' so that's why she had long hair. Another story was, outside our Beijing roasted duck restaurant, two guards just pretending stupid 'Wow ! can I have a look at Malaysian coins ?' they never return my coins after that. At night we accidentally found restaurant inside a small alley near Kempinsky hotel for the most delicious 'Chiao Zhi' Inside the Beijing National Art-museum we saw some Picasso paintings for the first time. We went to the National Zoo for Pandas of course, they are an extremely cute and lazy animal. Also I bought a local made skin-medicine cost me RMB150.00.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
by ntm2322
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival celebrated in the Chinese World, no matter in which country, on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. In the Western calendar it usually occurs between the 2nd week of September and the 2nd week of October (in 2007 it was in September 25th but in 2008 it will be in September 14th).
On this day the moon is full and its round shape represents reunion, therefore, this festival is also known as the Festival of Reunion.
In this special day all family members try to get together. If not possible one should at least be outside at night and gaze at the moon, thinking of his family and friends, this way they could still be together.
This is a really good time for children, they are all happy. Their parents carry the bags with the fruits, moon cakes, drinks, etc. and the children carry the beautiful shaped lit lanterns. After founding a nice place and have settled down, people play for a while, chat with each other, tell jokes, sing, etc., and then start munching away and enjoy the full moon.
The Mid-Autumn Festival was originally a harvest festival and on this day people used to eat all kinds of fruits and round moon cakes.
Special foods eaten in the Mid-Autumn Festival include:
- Moon cakes
- Cooked taro
- Edible snails from the taro patches
- Water caltrop (a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns)
- Rice paddies cooked with sweet basil and
- Fruits (apples, oranges, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates, melons, pomelos, etc.)
There are several versions about the Mid-Autumn Festival and the origins of the moon cakes; you may read them in the link I provide down here.
Places in Beijing where you can sit and gaze at the moon include:
Shichahai (the oldest water area within Beijing)
Yangtaishan (the Balcony Mountain)
Baiwangshan (situated 3 kilometers to the north of Summer Palace)
Minghui Teahouse (in Dajue Temple with its more than 1000 years old ginko tree)
For basketball funs
by ntm2322
While in Beijing you can attend matches of the premier professional basketball league, known as the CBA and composed by 16 teams. There is also a WCBA for women.
The Beijing team is called the Beijing Ducks or Beijing Jinyu and they play their home games at Gongren Tiyuchang (Workers' Stadium).
The basketball season runs from November to April.
Have a little patience with the vendors !!!!
by jlanza29 about Silk Market
ok, first of all don't ever take there offer for the first price they give you on anything !!!!! Cut them by at least 80% and stay firm. They give you a calculator and tell you to put in your best price...but in your best price and stay firm, start to walk away and they keep cutting the price and don't budge, stay on your price and eventually they get there......if you don't have the time just walk away......It's a bit frustrating because when you start to walk off, they grab you and cut the price in half but nowhere near the price you want to pay, so that gets old, until you get the price you said, example: I wanted some hats at first he told me 240 RMB for 1 hat...I told him 10 RMB for 1, I started to walk away 4 times before he setteled on the 10 RMB for each hat. it took more than 10 minutes to get this done !!!! why because dumb people still pay through the roof for items that aren't worth it. and as long as the vendors could get away with it, they'll continue doing it !!!!!! You name it they have it there except the 2008 Olympics items, it seems the government has strict control on these items, and can only be bought at government stores !!!!!!
house + techno underground dance club
by vigi about I think the name is Zia or Zen, I forgot
This is an underground dance club. Small dance floor wit DJ spin mostly house and techno. Upstairs is the chill out room with velvet sofa and dim lightings. Good music, good place to hang out in late night.
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Tai Qi in the Temple of Heaven park
Walk this way to see...
Walking around Tianamen square with my sister
Some of the delicacies on offer
