Sad Bear
This is what I felt like after a long day of walking around Beijing's hutongs. Hot, dry, and smelly at turns, several hours on my feet outside just was not the way to go.
I spotted this handsome thing while walking along Nan Luo Gu Xiang street behind Hou Hai. They're trying to save this place from destruction as the city government is planning to tear down the decrepit buildings and make it look like Qian Men - i.e., empty and with no sense of history.
They really shouldn't as the place is thriving as it is. Landowners and tenants alike should just ante up and renovate their units so that there are no electrical and water hazards while keeping the place "real". Beijing should learn from Shanghai's Tai Kang Lu which is doing well although it does receive threats of being shut down every now and then.
Sometimes, it's the stuffed animals on display who really know how we feel.
Bing Tang Hu Lu
Nature's version of the candied hawthorn snack of Beijing. I wonder what that frozen fruit is though underneath. Some starving animal will sure be happy to see sustenance in an icicle.
This photograph was forwarded by a friend in one of those chain emails so she has no idea where the photos originated. Supposedly it is one of the National Geographic backgrounds but I can't find who to credit. Would also love to know where this photograph was actually taken and what that luscious looking red fruit is.
Dining at Capital M, Beijing
This is the view from the balcony of Capital M, nowhere as great as the one in Shanghai but impressive nonetheless. As usual, the interior decoration is superb and we enjoyed the bathrooms thoroughly, even lingering for a while.
Service though, in this M branch, was still not up to snuff, with the waitstaff fumbling about regarding our orders and even serving the coffee cold because they had not warmed up the milk first. The food looked delicious, but the taste was just average. We'll chalk it up to birth pains as the restaurant had only opened for less than a month when we had lunch there.
