The Chinese blogosphere is abuzz with news about the impending National Day holiday, which this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. Last week, central Beijing closed down for rehearsals of the parade that will take place at Tiananmen Square. Chinese news agencies reported that the military would be celebrating the [...]
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Called China’s “coming-out party” by too many journalists, the Olympics brought heaps of new construction to Beijing. (Continuing the cliched metaphor, you might think of the new buildings as a deb’s new wardrobe.) The most famous examples of Beijing’s new architecture were, [...]
After 36 not-so-short hours of transportation (plus an additional 24 hours offline), I’m back in the land of delicious noodles and blocked websites. Unfortunately, my blogging routine will have to change to accommodate the new post-Xinjiang Chinese Internet. Not only is Twitter blocked, again, but Picasa is gone too. Frustrating!
Surprisingly un-frustrating was flying to Beijing [...]
Ask an American kid what he knows about China, and you will probably hear about the Great Wall, potstickers and, of course, pandas. The lovable, cuddly image of China’s national mascot makes a visit to the Beijing Zoo quite tempting. So it may seem odd that I would suggest — nay, beg — that you [...]
Beijing is a city that rewards repeat visitors. The first time you visit, the scale of the city is overwhelming. From the Tiananmen Square to the Second Ring Road, everything seems to be 10 times bigger than anything you’ve seen before. Add to that the fact that the street names change every few blocks, and [...]
On Monday, I wrote about a cooking class I took in Beijing last month. On Sunday night, I took a crack at preparing a couple of the dishes that we made in class. The main attraction was gongbao jiding, or “kung pao chicken.” (A bit of Googling suggests that the name means “Imperial Governor’s Diced [...]
This is the first of two posts about learning how to cook Chinese food. Come back Wednesday to read about when I tried it at home.
If I’m honest with myself, my love for Chinese food is at least part of why I signed up to move to China for two years. One of my original [...]
Beijing’s terrible summer weather is not a recent development. Just a few decades into the Qing dynasty, the emperors decided they needed a summer alternative to the Forbidden City. For their Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), they chose a site approximately 10 miles northwest of the city center. A 2.2 square-kilometer man-made lake was excavated to provide [...]
I took a cooking class during my brief stop in Beijing last week, about which more will come. But first, a brief story to illustrate the difference between Chinese food in China and American “Chinese food”:
After the first part of the lesson, we were all about to dig into our gongbao jiding (better known to [...]
Starbucks stores in Beijing are taking on the local milk tea market this summer. In addition to black tapioca balls, many Chinese milk tea vendors put sweet flavored jellies in the bottom of their drinks for an added dose of texture and flavor. Now, the coffee chain is offering its own variation on the jelly-drink [...]
