Category: English

Ourselves Beside Me at Beijing’s D-22

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Ourselves Beside Me’s Li Yangfan On last Friday, we went to the D-22 in Northwest Beijing, near Peking U and Tsinghua, to catch the You Say Party! We Say Die! show. Perhaps more well-known to the Beijing audience was the opening band, Ourselves Beside Me (sic), a girl trio formed in early 2008, notably by … Continue reading “Ourselves Beside Me at Beijing’s D-22”

Ourselves Beside Me's Li Yangfan
Ourselves Beside Me’s Li Yangfan

On last Friday, we went to the D-22 in Northwest Beijing, near Peking U and Tsinghua, to catch the You Say Party! We Say Die! show. Perhaps more well-known to the Beijing audience was the opening band, Ourselves Beside Me (sic), a girl trio formed in early 2008, notably by ex-Hang On The Box bassist Li YangFan. I first heard of HotB last summer, in Beijing Bubbles, the documentary film I always quote when talking about the Beijing rock/punk scene. It was only after reading up on Ourselves Beside Me that I realized that one of its members was with HotB. The name of the band in fact comes from the last track of the last album released by HotB in 2007, prior to its demise.

>> Listen to the entire Ourselves Beside Me show at D-22 on 2008-04-18 – 14 Mb.

Their music is not as loud as HotB, if it is a measure for comparison, and it actually reminds me of stuff that I used to listen to way back in 2001, like Buffalo Daughter. From what I gather through the articles, OBM is so new that they don’t sound the same at each performance that they had so far.

Tous les jours 多乐之日 is in fact a Korean bakery

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In fact it is. Based on what my expat friends said, and the Korean music that was being played inside, cafe/bakery chain “Tous Les Jours” is in fact a Korean-owned business. The bakery section resembles the self-service places that you find in Hong Kong, and to a certain extent, Chinatowns around the world. The branch … Continue reading “Tous les jours 多乐之日 is in fact a Korean bakery”

Tous les jours 多乐之日

In fact it is. Based on what my expat friends said, and the Korean music that was being played inside, cafe/bakery chain “Tous Les Jours” is in fact a Korean-owned business. The bakery section resembles the self-service places that you find in Hong Kong, and to a certain extent, Chinatowns around the world. The branch that I went to was outside the Wudaokou subway stop on the 13 (the stop you use to get to Tsinghua and Peking U), where there is also a relatively large population of Korean students.

It is basically a cafe like would find in Asia. They serve you sandwich which bread is sub-par for the tastes of a Montrealer (it’s like sliced bread, but slightly sweet), but which fillings are familiar (ham and cheese) yet exotic (something else that tasted kind of sweet). It’s a little pricey for the average Beijinger, but totally affordable for the visiting Canadian (32 RMB for a lunch).

The interesting anecdote with Tous Les Jours, was that protesters against France’s stance on China and the Olympics, who protested in front of the many French businesses in China like supermarket Carrefour, were also seen in front of the Wudaokou branch of TLJ, as testified by one Beijing expat blogger, and another satirical blogger (who had a picture – which indeed shows the plaza facing Wudaokou station, where Tous Les Jours is, with full of people on the street + security guards).

The Beijing Subway (Part 2)

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One of the bizarre things with the Beijing Subway‘s interchange stations, like Xizhimen (西直门) in the northwest of central Beijing, is that you need to walk an incredible distance between the stations on both connected lines. Xizhimen is the station that connects Beijing’s original circular line, Line 2, or the Blue Line, with its new … Continue reading “The Beijing Subway (Part 2)”

Evening rush hour at Xizhimen station 西直门

One of the bizarre things with the Beijing Subway‘s interchange stations, like Xizhimen (西直门) in the northwest of central Beijing, is that you need to walk an incredible distance between the stations on both connected lines. Xizhimen is the station that connects Beijing’s original circular line, Line 2, or the Blue Line, with its new Line 13, or the Yellow Line, which is a city rail line that takes more than an hour to semicircle to Dongzhimen (东直门), its terminus near the East corner of Line 2 (also future hub for the Airport Express to be inaugurated in June 2008). This previous photo shows the station at rush hour, on a Thursday evening at around 5:30 PM.

The Line 13 and Line 2 stations of Xizhimen are actually separate stations. From the newer (inaugurated 2002-03) Line 13 station, you have to walk a good 10 minutes to get to the Line 2 station. below a shopping mall, outside through path like you find at amusement parks). If it’s rush hour, they would also make you walk outside, across the Xizhimen interchange/overpass to get to the subway stop’s opposite eastern exit.

Tunnel at Xizhimen station 西直门

If you don’t have to walk across the overpass, like I did on Wednesday, you then go through tunnels that seem to belong to an old or undeveloped interchange station. These are a little eerie, and may’ve been useful in case of a nuclear war. In fact, whereas the new subway lines make you feel like if you were in Hong Kong, the old ones (especially Line 2) definitely make you feel like if you were back in the Cold War era.

Let there be blue skies above Beijing

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We had two beautiful blue sky days on Tuesday and Wednesday, after two days of rain. A quick look now indicates that the haze is starting to come back. A friend living here says that Beijingers love it when it rains, because it usually means that a strong wind on the next few days would … Continue reading “Let there be blue skies above Beijing”

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We had two beautiful blue sky days on Tuesday and Wednesday, after two days of rain. A quick look now indicates that the haze is starting to come back.

A friend living here says that Beijingers love it when it rains, because it usually means that a strong wind on the next few days would carry away the pollution. Pure blue skies are a rarity in modern-day Beijing, for entirely different reasons than Hong Kong.

Looking for the Habs in Beijing (Part 1)

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There may not be a part two to this post… I have been following hockey from Beijing as well. On Sunday morning, I watched Game 6, with a distant relative, also a Canadian-born Chinese from Montreal, and another Quebecer expat. It was pretty awesome, even though it was slo-mo at times, and even sound-less in … Continue reading “Looking for the Habs in Beijing (Part 1)”

There may not be a part two to this post… I have been following hockey from Beijing as well. On Sunday morning, I watched Game 6, with a distant relative, also a Canadian-born Chinese from Montreal, and another Quebecer expat. It was pretty awesome, even though it was slo-mo at times, and even sound-less in the last part of the third period, when the Canadiens lost their grip on the game.

Tomorrow morning, I will be watching Game 7 of the Bruins-Canadiens series.

I was told that the Rickshaw bar is open 24/7 and might be willing to switch you to a channel showing hockey. But, unverified info, and I am not going to verify it tomorrow morning.

Regarde les Chinois : Duggar Parrish

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Il y a deux semaines, j’étais à Kenting dans le sud de Taiwan pour Spring Scream. J’en ai profité pour m’asseoir avec Duggar, le propriétaire de mon auberge, pour ce prochain Regarde les Chinois. C’était le jeudi soir juste avant la fin de semaine du Spring Scream, et je venais de débarquer en ville, et … Continue reading “Regarde les Chinois : Duggar Parrish”

Duggar Parrish

Il y a deux semaines, j’étais à Kenting dans le sud de Taiwan pour Spring Scream. J’en ai profité pour m’asseoir avec Duggar, le propriétaire de mon auberge, pour ce prochain Regarde les Chinois. C’était le jeudi soir juste avant la fin de semaine du Spring Scream, et je venais de débarquer en ville, et nous nous sommes rencontrés dans sa minivan transformée en magasin de brocantes à saveur d’Hawaii au bord de la rue, à la limite est du village touristique de Kenting. Nous avons parlé de la petite histoire derrière son arrivée à Taiwan via ce petit centre de villégiature peu connu à l’extérieur, la vie d’étranger à apparence occidentale à Taiwan, ses origines hawaiiennes, de politique locale, et bien sûr de bouffe.

Two weeks ago, when I was in Kenting in the south of Taiwan for Spring Scream, I sat down with Duggar, the owner of my hostel for our next Regarde les Chinois. It was the Thursday before the Spring Scream weekend, and I had just landed in town, and we met in his minivan revamped into a road-side store, which he parked at the east-end of the Kenting town to sell his Hawaii-themed things. We chatted about how he first arrived in a small resort town little known outside of Taiwan, life as a Western-looking foreigner in Taiwan, his Hawaiian origins, local politics and food, of course.

Continue reading “Regarde les Chinois : Duggar Parrish”

Partying it up in Beijing with a Canadian band

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There were people on stage, their lead singer visited the crowd, and the mosh pit was particularly brutal (it was a tiny tiny venue), but noone else thought of stealing the set list at the end of Vancouver band You Say Party! We Say Die!‘s concert in Beijing at D-22, yesterday night. The opening bands … Continue reading “Partying it up in Beijing with a Canadian band”

You Say Party! We Say Die! in Beijing at D-22 on 2008-04-18

There were people on stage, their lead singer visited the crowd, and the mosh pit was particularly brutal (it was a tiny tiny venue), but noone else thought of stealing the set list at the end of Vancouver band You Say Party! We Say Die!‘s concert in Beijing at D-22, yesterday night.

The opening bands were Candy Monster, Guai Li, Ourselves Beside Me (sic).

My photos | QuirkyBeijing’s article