Memoirs of Beijing

Located in the hidden courtyard at the back of Pacific Plaza in Sanlitun. Duck De Chine is one of the new Peking Duck restaurant which opened up in Beijing. Ken, Bianca and I ate there after attending a birthday drinking session.

The area where the restaurant is located is quite nice and perfect for a garden wedding. It has a homey feel and serenity that is hard to find in a bustling city like Beijing. The ambiance inside the restaurant is one of elegance and quiet beauty. Brown bricks, red lamps, champagnes in cabinets and black cloth tables. It’s a good place to impress your friends and enjoy Beijing’s famous duck.

As for the food, it was superb and perfect! A gong sound accompanied the start of the duck cutting. They have several fill-ins to put along with your duck which wasn’t oily and was cooked just right. The sweet and sour pork reminds me of my mom’s cooking. The only downside is the rice we ordered never came out.

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If Shanghai is considered as the financial capital of China, Beijing is considered as the cultural capital.  Beijing is in northern China surrounded by Tianjin and Hebei.  It is the seat of the national government and has been the capital of numerous dynasties.  That’s why, wars were fought in Peking, former name of Beijing and numerous cultural structures abound in this municipality.

Here’s a list of the cultural marvels which you can visit while you’re here in Beijing.  I will be posting the most frequented spots which tourists visit.

1.  Great Wall of China (长城) – “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man”.  This is one of the famous sayings which is associated with this landmark structure.  This wall is a must-see place and what’s the point of going to Beijing if you don’t visit the Great Wall.  There are 4 parts of the wall which you can visit: Badaling (tourist bus aplenty), Mutianyu (fewer compared to Badaling), Jinshanling/Simatai (hiker’s haven!) and Huanghuacheng (with a lake view).

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Milk is an important source of calcium which is good for our bones.  Babies can consume several bottles of milk a day as it’s their source of food.  So, when the news reported that some of the milk are tainted with melamine, first thing which came into my mind was, here we go again.

Melamine is a chemical used to produce plastic, inks and fertilizers.  If added in food products, it will increase the protein content.  If ingested, melamine may lead to reproductive damage, bladder or kidney stones and bladder cancer.  To date, 4 infants in China already died due to drinking tainted milk.   Over 12,000 children with more than 90% of them younger than 3 years old are hospitalized due to symptoms of drinking milk with melamine.

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Dropped by again at the Starbucks near my home and they have the autumn and the Halloween collection already. I tried taking pictures with my camera-phone but it didn’t look good. So, I just downloaded the ones from their website and will post it here.

Let’s start with this year’s anniversary blend tumbler and mug (picture on the right). The tumbler design is brown in color with a mermaid. I’m not sure if this is available in other countries but my cousin has it already. They’re selling so fast so if you want one, you better grab one already!

Then we have the Autumn flower collection. The mugs on this collection has both painted and embossed flowers. I’m not a fan of the bluegreen color but the red one is ok. Also, it’s not as striking as the anniversary tumbler but if you’re into collecting, might as well buy one. Hehehehe!

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The lead up to the Olympic Games brought a flurry of construction in Beijing.  Buildings sprung up left and right as if everyone’s in a mood to construct.  Here’s a list of the modern marvels which you must see when you’re in town for a visit:

1.  National Stadium aka Bird’s Nest – This 91,000 seating capacity stadium is located north of the 4th ring road at the southern part of the Olympic Green.  It’s the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Olympics and Paralympic Games.  It is also where the athletic events are being held.  Rumors said that it will be the home of Beijing Guo’an after the Games.

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I’m invaded by small, round cakes everywhere I go.  I give away a box, I receive 2 boxes.  When I walk in the street, everyone’s carrying boxes of these cakes.  The usual clothes sale counter at the mall is filled with this mooncakes!!  I can’t seem to hide from them.

Anyway, enough about that drama.  Seriously, I received 2 boxes, gave 1 away, the next day got 2 more boxes, gave 1 away, then the next day got 2 more boxes again.  Some boxes are fancy like the one in the picture to your right which I received yesterday.  Some contain 4, 8, 12 mooncakes.  Some give away tea (Papa.. I have tea for you again!), while others give away the stinky Chinese wine!

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I love cute, tiny, short haired dogs.  In China, you can only have small dogs as if they are bigger than the allowable dog measurement set by the government, they have the authority to keep your dog and kill it.  So.. most dogs in my neighbourhood are small.

Anyway, as a dog lover, I can’t understand how people can stand to eat dog meat.  I remember once after church, Marco and I were walking along the west gate of Chaoyang Park looking for a place to eat.  We entered a Korean restaurant and was looking at the menu.  Marco chose something based on the picture.  When I asked him if he was sure, he replied, “Why? It looks good!”  I told him, “You want to eat dog meat?”  After telling him that’s it’s dog meat, he veered away from that page and ordered other stuff.

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I slept late last night knowing that I can wake up late this morning. However, around 6am I was awaken by a loud blast similar to cannons. I thought we were in a war or something with the matching lights outside my window. Then, I heard the rain falling and I guess it’s just a thundershower which is common in Beijing. I went back to sleep after a few minutes of tuning the thunder out and woke up around 1030am to my alarm.

I was planning to go to worship but was still groggy and by the time I got ready and left my place, the service is almost over. Instead of heading on to 21st Century, I got off the next bus stop and went to my next destination, Tesco Supermarket.

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When I posted the previous two entries about the latest mugs & tumblers of Starbucks, I thought it was just a new release.  However, as I get to know the baristas at the store near my home, they told me that each city hosting the Olympic Games in China has a new design for their mug, tumbler and demitasse collection.  It’s not really with the Olympic logo and all as that’s copyrighted and Starbucks ain’t a sponsor.

The 6 Olympic cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shenyang (Qinghuangdao) and Hong Kong.  Of course, the country where they are located has it’s own design as well.

The demitasse set is a 2 mini-mug (3 oz) set of a city and the country design.  The different sets are available in Beijing.  The city tumblers are quite difficult to purchase but you can be assured only of the Beijing, China and Tianjin.  The mugs are a hit and miss here in Beijing.   Some store carry all mugs while the others just carry Beijing, China and Tianjin.

For my friends in the Philippines who would like to collect them, I have a friend going home on the 28th of September.  I would be willing to assist you with your collection for a minor increase to cover my expense in purchasing and sending it over to the Philippines.  Send me a comment for details.

Photo Credit: Alvin, ebay sites and http://jackilin.pixnet.net/album/

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Crocs China-Beach Limited Edition

Marco’s sister Bambi and her husband John arrived in Beijing yesterday and to welcome them, we had dinner in Wangfujing. As a shopping spot in BJ, we enjoyed browsing at the different stores in the walking street. In one of the several malls along the street, we found a Crocs store.

Bambi was gushing how the price of Crocs in Beijing is cheaper than in Manila and the US. (*hint* buy it here!) The sales lady approached us and said, they have a limited edition Crocs which supports the Chinese team in the Olympics. The price is half of the regular ones and the color is a nice blend of red and yellow (Chinese flag colors).

So, we all tried it out to find our sizes. They didn’t have a S and the XS was too tight with my foot. I came out empty-handed but John bought one for himself and two of his kids. Marco, on the other hand, bought a pair of Crocs which are on sale and came out wearing it as he said it’s too comfortable.

I went to another Crocs store today to buy one for myself, my sister, my dad and for Bambi. She said the whole family will be wearing the same Crocs. Hehehe! As for that store, they still have the complete range of sizes for this edition. So.. what are you waiting for? Grab one for yourself. If you want I can grab one for you for my friend to bring back home.

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