Zoe and I had a nice Christmas here in Beijing, although we certainly also missed everyone back home a lot.
On Christmas Eve I had class in the afternoon, and then I met up with Zoe and we went to Wudaokou to buy some DVDs, walk around and have dinner. On our way to the first DVD store (which is inside a hotel complex) we spotted a Santa and had to take a few pictures with him. We also got a couple with the lights display (and with traffic reflector cones thrown in for some extra brightness).
We picked out lots of DVDs, then we walked to Issin, a Japanese restaurant, for dinner. The walk to the restaurant was interesting and the streets were utterly packed with people. There were people selling Chinese New Year decorations, as well as Christmas decorations, socks, santa hats and even light-up devil horns for sale. Here I am in the restaurant:
Here's the only picture we got of the two of us:
After we finished eating we stopped in a bakery to pick up some snacks for our movie watching that night. Zoe had me pose under this decorated tree in the store...haha.
After we got our baking we headed back to the dorm and spent the rest of the evening in Zoe's room watching movies. We watched the Shrek Christmas special and Home Alone.
Here's the only picture we got of the two of us:
After we finished eating we stopped in a bakery to pick up some snacks for our movie watching that night. Zoe had me pose under this decorated tree in the store...haha.
After we got our baking we headed back to the dorm and spent the rest of the evening in Zoe's room watching movies. We watched the Shrek Christmas special and Home Alone. On Christmas Day I had class at 8am, and I had bought a bunch of snacks to bring to share with my classmates. Hardly anyone came so we watched movies and ate instead of having class.
After class ended at 11:30 I met up with Zoe and we went to the local coffee shop I sometimes hang out in and had lunch. The place had a few Christmas decorations:
Me, not looking into the camera so as to avoid photo face....
Here's the food we ordered. I had tuna and garlic pasta and Zoe had bacon and garlic pasta. It was tasty, but definitely was like an Asian version of standard olive oil pasta.
It's a bit out of order, but here's the entrance to the stairs that lead up to the cafe, all decorated for the holidays.
After eating we headed towards the subway station. On the walk there you have to cross over a river and it is now totally frozen over.
We took the subway to Andingmen and walked South through various Hutongs, exploring in shops and just taking our time enjoying the sun before we got hungry again for dinner.
Me looking at something:
Some of the hutongs had their doors open...sometimes the doors opened on just another alleyway, but sometimes they opened onto Siheyuans (courtyard homes). It was interesting to peek inside, but we also obviously stuck out as it seemed most people in the area were residents and knew everyone else. At one point as we were looking at a map an older man came and helped us with directions. He was quite sweet. We also saw some old Grannies....I wish I could've taken their pictures, they were beautiful.
This picture is of the inside of a courtyard home....there's a broken glass display case just inside the entranceway. You can also see the screen wall (yingbi) just behind the case. The sign on the left says they aren't renting rooms so don't just walk inside...I guess lots of tourists and other explorers must have gone in and bothered the residents before.
Here are some pictures of the main street just outside of the hutong alleyways:
Here's a cute little bar that was inside one of the hutongs. I like the sign, "The Here It ts! Baycafe." Cute.
Here's a view through another doorway. I would've loved to look inside more but I think both Zoe and I would have felt rather weird and intrusive going down such obviously residential lanes.
Down one street we came across what looked like a Siheyuan undergoing total renovations. My guess is that it is being fixed up for a wealthy person, but maybe it's for a shop or something else.
The pile of construction materials outside:
Some old men playing a game...and a sweet dog:
Another alleyway:
On one of the main roads we came across a model shop which sold some pretty fancy stuff, including the creepy Alien head.
After walking through all the residential hutongs we then entered a totally renovated, touristy hutong area on Nanluoguxiang. There were lots of interesting shops with very expensive things. It seemed the mark-up on Chinese New Year decorations was about three times the price I paid for the same things in a different part of the city.
Here are some Chinese gnomes:
After walking around for a few hours we were ready for some dinner. Zoe's boyfriend had kindly researched places for us to eat and found a particular Korean restaurant that was highly recommended and delicious:
The inside was a bit too dark to get any really good pictures, but I did manage to get one of the goldfish stream that split the restaurant in half:
We went with the Christmas set menu for 158 rmb (split between us) which is about $30 Canadian, or $15 each. It was so tasty! The perfect meal for our somewhat unusual Christmas in Beijing!
Here were the tasty snacks we had before the main dishes started coming out:
The salad and the ginseng which despite not looking fabulous in the picture were really delicious.
More of the food....a stew and some fish.
After all the dishes had arrived. Those round cakes were filled with red bean and were SO delicious. Oh and you can see the glasses of mulled Christmas wine that came with the meal.
After eating we walked back up to a main street and took a cab to a place called Ginza mall where we picked up some baking and then, totally exhausted, we took the subway back to the dorm. We got into comfy clothes and then snacked and watched movies until late. We watched Fred Claus and Mamma Mia.
Me, not looking into the camera so as to avoid photo face....
Here's the food we ordered. I had tuna and garlic pasta and Zoe had bacon and garlic pasta. It was tasty, but definitely was like an Asian version of standard olive oil pasta.
It's a bit out of order, but here's the entrance to the stairs that lead up to the cafe, all decorated for the holidays.
After eating we headed towards the subway station. On the walk there you have to cross over a river and it is now totally frozen over.
We took the subway to Andingmen and walked South through various Hutongs, exploring in shops and just taking our time enjoying the sun before we got hungry again for dinner.
Me looking at something:
Some of the hutongs had their doors open...sometimes the doors opened on just another alleyway, but sometimes they opened onto Siheyuans (courtyard homes). It was interesting to peek inside, but we also obviously stuck out as it seemed most people in the area were residents and knew everyone else. At one point as we were looking at a map an older man came and helped us with directions. He was quite sweet. We also saw some old Grannies....I wish I could've taken their pictures, they were beautiful.
This picture is of the inside of a courtyard home....there's a broken glass display case just inside the entranceway. You can also see the screen wall (yingbi) just behind the case. The sign on the left says they aren't renting rooms so don't just walk inside...I guess lots of tourists and other explorers must have gone in and bothered the residents before.
Here are some pictures of the main street just outside of the hutong alleyways:
Here's a cute little bar that was inside one of the hutongs. I like the sign, "The Here It ts! Baycafe." Cute.
Here's a view through another doorway. I would've loved to look inside more but I think both Zoe and I would have felt rather weird and intrusive going down such obviously residential lanes.
Down one street we came across what looked like a Siheyuan undergoing total renovations. My guess is that it is being fixed up for a wealthy person, but maybe it's for a shop or something else.
The pile of construction materials outside:
Some old men playing a game...and a sweet dog:
Another alleyway:
On one of the main roads we came across a model shop which sold some pretty fancy stuff, including the creepy Alien head.
After walking through all the residential hutongs we then entered a totally renovated, touristy hutong area on Nanluoguxiang. There were lots of interesting shops with very expensive things. It seemed the mark-up on Chinese New Year decorations was about three times the price I paid for the same things in a different part of the city.
Here are some Chinese gnomes:
After walking around for a few hours we were ready for some dinner. Zoe's boyfriend had kindly researched places for us to eat and found a particular Korean restaurant that was highly recommended and delicious:
The inside was a bit too dark to get any really good pictures, but I did manage to get one of the goldfish stream that split the restaurant in half:
We went with the Christmas set menu for 158 rmb (split between us) which is about $30 Canadian, or $15 each. It was so tasty! The perfect meal for our somewhat unusual Christmas in Beijing!
Here were the tasty snacks we had before the main dishes started coming out:
The salad and the ginseng which despite not looking fabulous in the picture were really delicious.
More of the food....a stew and some fish.
After all the dishes had arrived. Those round cakes were filled with red bean and were SO delicious. Oh and you can see the glasses of mulled Christmas wine that came with the meal.
After eating we walked back up to a main street and took a cab to a place called Ginza mall where we picked up some baking and then, totally exhausted, we took the subway back to the dorm. We got into comfy clothes and then snacked and watched movies until late. We watched Fred Claus and Mamma Mia. When I came back to my room my roommate was already in bed so I couldn't skype properly with my family, but I did get to see them briefly on Christmas morning...it was a bit weird as I was only able to type but they could speak to me. And then when I got up Scott was over at my parent's place so we all skyped and I opened the gifts Scott had mailed me.
It wasn't a standard Christmas, but I still had a very nice time. Thank goodness Zoe is here so that we were able to spend the holidays together.
I hope everyone in Canada (and in England, Hong Kong and everywhere else) has had a wonderful, happy Christmas. My love to you all.
1 comment:
Love to you too dear. We've missed you today. Thanks for updating us on this special Christmas in Beijing. Very interesting.
Love Mom
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