PaperTalk is one of my favourite, favourite places in Beijing. Nestled in Fangjia Hutong (方家胡同), this adorable shop specializes in paper products and specialty papers from all around the world. It is all very fitting considering that paper was a Chinese invention. PaperTalk Proprietor Haiyi is passionate about paper, and PaperTalk is a perfect platform [...]
Archive > January 2011
Photos from the One A Day Photo Project
Last year, last year!, I started the One A Day Photo Project, which only made it to two posts before I went on another long, unintended hiatus. The sad thing is that I did take a considerable number of photographs, but never got around to editing and uploading them. But here are some of the [...]
The Secret Boutique: Wuhao
Beijing is not a city particularly known for its fashion or its style, at least, not yet, but sometimes one stumbles across both. Hidden behind a door with only its street number, the stylish boutique Wuhao calls itself a “curated shop”. Situated in a gorgeous siheyuan–formerly occupied by Wanrong, the Last Empress, before she was [...]
Graffiti: Love is Lonely
Every day, I see this little message scribbled on the wall between the two elevators in my building. It is full of sage advice on love. Translation: 很多人 Many people 因为寂寞错爱了一个人 because they are lonely, love someone for the wrong reasons 但更多人 But even more people 因为错爱一个人 because they love the wrong person 而寂寞一生! are [...]
A donkey, a horse, and a tourist climbed the Great Wall…
It’s not entirely uncommon to see farm animals such as horses and donkeys in Beijing, especially as they are often attached to fruit and vegetable carts for farmers trekking in from the countryside to sell their wares. In fact, here’s a horse (or perhaps a hinny, a hybrid from a male horse and a female [...]
The love child of English and Chinese
As seen in 帽儿胡同 Mao’er Hutong, near 南锣鼓巷 Nanluoguxiang. This sign for a bookstore/tea house represents what I like best about Beijing’s–and China as a whole–burgeoning interest in design and language, the way that it cleverly takes both Chinese characters and the English alphabet to create something new. In the Traditional character for book 書 [...]
中国-别无他处 China – Nowhere else
I can’t believe that in 2010 I only updated this blog four times. Every few weeks someone reminds me of how much they love this blog, even through its long silences, so darlings, I am listening. Yes, this blog still lives, and I still live here in Beijing. In the meantime, Beijing has actually become [...]