Archive > March 2008

the birdcage in the middle of the city

Whenever I pass by this large birdcage on Xi Dawanglu (西大望路)just outside the Blue Castle complex, I have to wonder who thought of putting a large birdcage in the middle of the Central Business District of Beijing.  Did a developer look around and think, “What this city really needs is a birdcage?” On a more [...]

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trader zhou’s

Trader Joe’s, meet Trader Zhou’s. Trader Joe’s in America, a grocery store mostly known for its excellent and cheap natural foods. (And two buck chuck.) (Image from Business Week.) Trader Zhou’s in Beijing, a wine shop. No two buck chuck in there!

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beijing public toilets, the video game

Alas, I’m just kidding. But that is exactly what I thought when I was walking out of the Dongsishitao subway station and saw this handy map. Lights on this electronic map randomly flash to draw attention to the various locations of the toilets; in the picture it is at the top right hand corner. I’m [...]

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tea at the black market money exchanger’s

If you’ve lived in China for any amount of time, you know that exchanging RMB for the currency of your home country can be an awful hassle. There are considerable restrictions on money exchange, and this also applies to Chinese citizens as well. I’ve found it easier to give my parents RMB for them to [...]

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more quirky pastries

We here at quirkybeijing are dedicated to finding interesting pastries and breads. So here are the latest and greatest: A bear-shaped pastry at a Holliland bakery. Not very good, actually, although it tasted nicely of eggs. When bad titles happen to good breads–Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon at the Ginza Mall branch of Bread Talk. Did [...]

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stingrays and rainbow fish at Tesco’s!

We went to China’s first Tesco supermarket for the first time on Sunday. While Scott swooned over being able to buy a can of Tesco brand Spaghetti Hoops for the outrageous price of 11 RMB (they are 30p in the UK, according to him), I was particularly excited over the lively seafood section. In fact, [...]

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be part of the Olympics by climbing the stairs on Wednesdays

The Cure song “Friday, I’m in Love” has it that on Wednesdays you can be grey, break my heart, have a heart attack, or stay in bed, but no such problems for Beijing in its Olympic year. On Wednesdays in Beijing, you can take part in the Olympics in your own way by climbing the [...]

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a very happy pastry

For me, bakeries are fun places to explore. You just never know what you might come across. One of my favourite bakeries, Tous Les Jour (despite its name, is actually from Korea), used to carry a Totoro bun. They don’t seem to carry this any more, to my eternal sadness. The other day I was [...]

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MSG is everywhere!

Scott and I once went to our favourite Sichuan restaurant Ba Guo Bu Yi 巴国布衣 as part of a series of kid-friendly restaurant reviews. As part of the review, we asked for the restaurant to make our food without MSG, which is often used as a substitute for salt in China. As the meal went [...]

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pet crickets for sale

I came across this cricket, one of three, being sold in a music shop in the Gulou area. According to this fascinating article on the “king of insects”, crickets were kept for a variety of purposes. They were kept as pets, as fighters in bouts, as gifts to be sent to the emperor, and as [...]

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