After really badly polluted days, we are having some very nice blue skies in Beijing. My friend James has been running in the Summer Palace where he took the pics of the floating duck (real or fake duck, I give up by now!).

Others head to Tiananmen Square, to face the long queues to pass security checks, then to find the recycled big flower pot: seems the fake flowers are leftovers from last year. Oh, tastes differ.
Then having my usual “pit stop” in The Den, the pretty well-know pub in Sanlitun, mostly frequented by aging expats (like me? except I don’t have a beer belly). One table was preparing for a birthday drinking party, all Chinese. They made such a ruckus, shouting and screaming that most guests tried to move away from their table (or left). For Chinese, consideration for others: ZERO. I imagine a bunch of expats doing the same in a Chinese restaurant. That would be a source to lambast them. Reminds me of the following quote from the local news:

The image of Chinese abroad
“They make loud noises in public, scratch graffiti on tourist attractions, ignore red lights when crossing the road and spit everywhere.”
You could think this was said by a Chinese-hater. Nope.
Said Mr. Wang Yang, Vice Premier of China, September 2013

But, we are facing a major problem during the holidays: my favorite KTV is closed. See how it looks like, it is Japanese style. Sitting with one of the girls who is an old friend. Just during a quiet moment before the Japanese customers came in. Usually I sing 15 or more songs (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Chinese…)

We will try to survive the holidays. In the meantime, will play around with my new toy: a SONY NEX-6 digital camera. Looks great, some of the pics here taken with it in low light conditions.