Surviving is hard but oh so much fun (sometimes)
Another “China Views”.
Pretty interesting to explore CBD (Beijing Central Business District) at night. Except for “The Place” (shimaotianjie), with its giant overhead LED screen, the area is pretty deserted.
The lights are pretty nice and it makes a kind of romantic stroll to visit the area of The Place, World Trade Center (the 3 units) and China Hotel.
In my series, “China Views”, see here night views of the north side of the Worker’s Stadium in Beijing.
Festive spirit, Chinese style with ice sculptures exhibition inside the stadium.
Opening time: looks like December – January period at least.
Beijing can be a health hazard because of its dreadful pollution, and horrible traffic.
On the other hand, living near Sanlitun offers us easy access to the many vibrant aspects of a very much modern and diverse world city. So many things to see and do. So many restaurants to try out, basically whatever food you want you can find in Beijing.
Here I show pictures taken during the period April to August 2014, to give some idea. Part 2 is September to December 2014. It is not supposed to give a full overview, just some snapshots. Up to you to explore yourself. I will post more in the future.
The Village, now named Tai Koo Li (dreadful name; also known in Chinese as Taiguli) is probably the epicenter with many shops like Apple, Godiva, Adidas, UNIQLO, Hollister, Swarovski, etc. Plus a long list of restaurants, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Union Bar and Grill, supermarket, shops and more shops on all levels. And the big Movie house, Megabox. The South Area is very animated, the North Area is much more quiet and also sits next to The Opposite House, a boutique hotel with well-known restaurants and exhibitions. Also in the same area is Nali Patio (full of restaurants and a disco too, Migas).
On the square close to the Apple shop there is life throughout the year. In summer the water fountain attracts kids and adults to play around. Or there is a variety of promotional exhibitions with Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, plus indoor exhibitions around the FIFA World Cup, art, consumer goods, …
The shopping and restaurant mall 3.3 also features regular activities, see here vintage cars coming to Beijing.
With the name of the picture you find the date it was taken.
Of course along 3.3 and The Village we have the Sanlitun Bar Street, with the local bars; most have live bands, cheap drinks, heavy smoking and fake booze.
Winter is also special when the whole area is adorned with lights to make it feel like Christmas. It always attracts masses of people to shoot pictures and the unavoidable selfies.
Close also is the small street where some pretty well-known restaurants and bars are located, like Luga’s, Taps, First Floor, Biteapita, and many more in Tongli Studio. Also home to the food stalls and some creative vendors selling whatever, cute postcards, cigars, DVD, … A good place to sit outside and watch the crowd pass by. Most places have waterpipes (hookah).
Next door is Yashow Clothing Market, now closed for renovation (see previous post).
South is SOHO Sanlitun, another huge area that I have not explored well. It has not yet attracted the huge crowds of The Village.
Yashow, one of the most popular shops for foreigners, is closing for renovations soon, and who knows what sort of stores will return. As a result enormous crowds have invaded the store to grab Christmas bargains. The store is on Gongti Bei Lu, next to The Village (yeah yeah it changed name to Tai Ko Li something).
As reported on local websites:
Legal Daily, the source of the news, interviewed a shop owner who has been at Yashow since its opening 12 years ago told the reporter that “all shop owners received a notice from Yashow’s administration that our contract won’t be renewed after this year, and we were asked to move out by December 31.” Now the sweaters that used to sell for few hundred kuai are sold only RMB 35, and the jackets which were priced RMB 500 are sold only for a fifth of that.
“We are just selling as much as we can for we are moving soon,” said the shop owner. When asked whether he would come back after the renovation, he shook his head and said that “he would see.”
The report doesn’t speculate if the renovation will make the place more high-end, but the rent will certainly go up. Mrs. Chen, owner of a socks shop, told the reporter that the rent of her shop is about RMB 40k per year now, and she speculated that it would probably go up to RMB 200k-300k per year. She said that if the rent hike would stay within a reasonable range, she would still come back for the sake of her regular clients and “her attachment to the place.”
A worker at Yashow’s supermarket said, “We only know that the contracts won’t be renewed but we know nothing about what the place will be like after the renovation,” adding “Probably only those shop owners who can afford a higher rent will come back.”
The renovation will be finished next April. Many shop owners said that “they will wait and see.”
I admit we have been part of that crowd to empty the stores. Bought some very good stuff there, at a ridiculous bargain price, one can wonder: fake or genuine stuff? Honestly, the fakes are that good I have no idea at all.
On 5 July Renaat and Susan asked to be the “good Belgian customer” in a program of BTV Sports channel, as they were both in Belgium. I gladly accepted.
We spent several hours in my favorite restaurant, “Morel’s Restaurant”, on Worker’s Stadium North Road (gongti bei lu) with the BTV crew to check out the decoration of the restaurant, some of the many Belgian beers and of course to taste some of Renaat’s signature dishes: “Belgian Grey Shrimps with tomato”, “Belgian beef beer stew”, Mussels, Belgian fries, Belgian waffles and more.
It was fun working the friendly BTV crew, even more having a wonderful tasting event. Once the real shooting was done, we all sat together for a real Belgian banquet with never-ending dishes and beer. My daughter joined us later and we both showed our Belgian colors to support the Belgian football team. Our BTV host did a good drinking job of the many Belgian beers… great performance!
I was so stuffed I needed an extended siesta and forgot about dinner.
The same evening the program came out on BTV, as a runner-up to the World Cup match Belgium-Argentina. OK, we lost to Argentina 0 to 1 but the Red Devils did what they could and, hey! our Dutch friends also did not manage to win… Made us feel a bit better.
Anyway the Belgian team made us feel proud.