Archive > August 2008

China via Fodor’s, circa 1979

Now that the Olympics are over, and we in Beijing have nothing to talk about, it’s worth taking a look at how China was perceived through American eyes back in the day. Recently, I was given a copy of Fodor’s People’s Republic of China, published in 1979. Written by John Summerfield, “a long-time resident of [...]

Continue reading

how Beijing is different during the Olympics

1. There’s no street food. This bothers me the most since I’m always hungry before and after work, and even though my commute only takes half an hour, I need to eat something on my way to the subway. The informal vendors who used to hang out by the Dawanglu subway station are no longer [...]

Continue reading

two chinese characters teach you how to say 加油!

While I was doing research for this post for CNReviews, I came across this rather funny video on how to say 加油, which is what all the cool kids say when they are cheering at the Olympics–and anywhere else that people need a little bit of encouragement.   For instance, I live opposite an elementary [...]

Continue reading

quirkyBeijing reads (the self-promotion version)

· quirkyBeijing was mentioned as one of the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the China Blogs” for August 15th! · I have been blogging over at CNReviews.com on what it was like in Beijing during the Olympics opening ceremony and how to get Olympic · tickets for “sold out” events.  The second post is also [...]

Continue reading


beijing natives – 北京土著

Beijing is changing, Beijing is gone, Beijing will never be the same again. It’s only been a year since I arrived in Beijing. I only know what I know, the Beijing of today which has catapaulted itself into an Olympic city. Even the city that I know now is very different from the city I [...]

Continue reading

spread the Olympic culture

The Olympics are nearly here, just a few hours to go! In the past few weeks, there have been more Olympic slogan banners around town. Political slogans in China have an interesting and turbulent history, used to spread Maoist thought and disseminate the dreams of the government to the minds of the people. Here is [...]

Continue reading

加油北京!LEGO style

Photos from the HKLUG 2008 Olympics Flickr Set. In the grand tradition of Lego versions of Lord of the Rings, The Bible, and “Thriller”, the Hong Kong LEGO Users Group (HKLUG) have created the Beijing Olympics with Legos. They say that it took 300,000 bricks and 4,500 mini figures to create. Some of the projects, [...]

Continue reading

a relaxing day at longmai hot springs

The main hot spring pool at Longmai. For weeks, we’d been thinking about getting out of the city. It was hot, it was humid, it was polluted, and Beijing was simply getting on our nerves. Dalian was our first choice, but the airfares were too high. We didn’t want to take a train trip anywhere–the [...]

Continue reading

, , ,

quirkybeijing reads

· China’s Female Artists Quietly Emerge from the New York Times · If you love Chinese indie music, or just love indie period, then check out NeoCha’s NEXT streaming music application. · Hong Kong-based model Elyse Sewell’s blog has been on my reading list for a long time. She has a great sense of fun. [...]

Continue reading

,

the view from within

I particularly love being in the front or the back of the subway. Here is the view of the subway station and the interior of the conductor’s cab in a Line 1 subway train. Check out the old-fashioned black telephone on the counter–it’s not quite what I expected to see in 2008!

Continue reading

,