Category: English

Last weekend, I was given a tour of the Linked Hybrid’s construction site out in Dongzhimen, to the northeast of Central Beijing. Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Hybrid is a 8-tower habitation complex, complete which outstanding feature is a “link” of bridges connecting the towers at the 20th floor. These structures will be public spaces: shops, cafés, and even a swimming pool.

The Dongzhimen (东直门) hub sees the 2nd ring road traverse it, is a interchange section for subway lines 2 and 13, and will become the city-side terminal to the new Airport Express to be inaugurated just before the Olympic Games. 1.5km away from Donzhimen is the Sanlitun Embassy Area, making the Hybrid an even more attractive choice for Beijing’s class of international dwellers.

The Hybrid is a scheduled for completion in August 2008.

Flickr set of the walk

This article was originally posted on Spacing Montreal.

Seen near Guloudajie and the Drum Tower, close to Houhai as well.

Taken yesterday in front of the bus stop near Nanluoguxiang, on Gulou Dongdajie

In Beijing, you have two main choices in terms of domestic drinks. Either the watered down beer, usually Tsingtao or Yanjing in Beijing, or baijiu (literally something like “white wine” or “plain liquor”). Baijiu is a 50-60% alcohol per volume, stronger than the vodka we have at home, and would be intriguing to include in any type of cocktail.

This particular brand of baijiu here above, Red Star, is probably the most commonly found/purchased in Beijing. It is an erguotou, an inexpensive type of baijiu.

We saw a bottle of the stuff on a poster of a show in town this past Saturday at the 2 Kolegas bar out in Chaoyang Park. It was a rock show with Joyside, Carsick Cars (both big names), Recycle and Shaka, with an electro (yes, they mix these in China…) set by Sulumi and DJ Dayong.

We are asking ourselves: is Red Star to the Beijing hipster what Pabst Blue Ribbon is to the North American one?

Last week, when I arrived in Beijing, I bought a SIM card from China Mobile to put in my cellphone. It is widely considered as the best brand in China. The SIM card (for the number) cost me RMB280, as well as an extra RMB50 for a first voucher (the time money is not included in your original SIM card purchase with China Mobile). The price I paid for my SIM card was vastly above the normal price, which is around 100 RMB (at most 150 RMB), that I was given or that I found on the web. I suspect that I either fooled myself, because I knew the market price (but had a brain cramp in RMB<->CAD conversion), or that the market price is changing because the Olympics are coming. It needs verification. Special numbers do cost more – usually those with lots of 8s. Mine only had 2 eights out of 11 possible numbers.

There are several plans, and I did not explore them all unfortunately. My hosts suggested that I got a M-zone, specially marketed to young people

The first 50 RMB lasted me a week and a half. This is the second 50 RMB refill that I bought from a nearby florist, and which you can safely buy from anywhere that isn’t necessarily a China Mobile shop. It is a voucher that you tear open for a refill code. In order to refill, you just call the number on the voucher and bear with the heavily accented automated service’s English. For some reason, my voucher in fact gave me 60 RMB worth of time-money.

On Thursday, while walking in the Peking University area, we felt a storm looming upon us. Darkened skies, winds rising. It however never materialized: a few big drops, and a fear of golf-size hail later, a bright light appeared away on the horizon, between the buildings at 1 o’clock in front of us. It reflected messianically on the newly built office towers just across the ring road.