A new residential area old of 3-4 years built near Chongwenmen station on Line 2.
New residential area near Chongwenmen (崇文門) station
Posted onA new residential area old of 3-4 years built near Chongwenmen station on Line 2.
Let there be blue skies above Beijing
Posted onWe 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”
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 2)
Posted onYes, we won! 5-0 in Game 7. I am in Beijing right now. They are honking outside the apartment, but I doubt that it is for the Habs. 🙂
Yes, we won! 5-0 in Game 7.
I am in Beijing right now. They are honking outside the apartment, but I doubt that it is for the Habs. 🙂
Looking for the Habs in Beijing (Part 1)
Posted onThere 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
Posted onIl 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”
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.
Partying it up in Beijing with a Canadian band
Posted onThere 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”
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).
Those WorldVision ads in Taipei
Posted onYou may have seen these ads of WorldVision (Vision Mondiale) in your hometown, just like I did in mine of Montreal. It was almost not surprising that I also saw them in Taipei, at the main MTR station…
You may have seen these ads of WorldVision (Vision Mondiale) in your hometown, just like I did in mine of Montreal. It was almost not surprising that I also saw them in Taipei, at the main MTR station…
Hong Kong’s independent artistic scene
Posted onBande À Part published my last article on the artistic scene in Hong Kong.
Bande À Part published my last article on the artistic scene in Hong Kong.
The Beijing Subway (Part 1)
Posted onSign seen in the Hong Kong MTR Besides that Beijing International Airport’s new Terminal 3 looking totally like a newer, fresher version of HK’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport (compare Hong Kong‘s to Beijing‘s), both the HK MTR (see photo above) and Beijing’s new subway (see photo below) Line 5 look strikingly similar in terms … Continue reading “The Beijing Subway (Part 1)”
Sign seen in the Hong Kong MTR
Besides that Beijing International Airport’s new Terminal 3 looking totally like a newer, fresher version of HK’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport (compare Hong Kong‘s to Beijing‘s), both the HK MTR (see photo above) and Beijing’s new subway (see photo below) Line 5 look strikingly similar in terms of design.
Beijing Subway
The doors and general design looks eerily similar to Hong Kong’s. A noticeable change is the font, whic was replaced with something like Helvetica, that totally does not match, or is a poor design choice.
Perhaps the reason for this was that HK-based MTR Corporation (the private corporation running the rapid train system in Hong Kong) was commissioned by the Beijing government to build its new subway lines, including the north-south Line 5.
Shenzhen’s rapid transit, also MTR-made, has all the feel of the MTR, but with an even worse font set, using just the alphabetical roman characters of the Chinese font… But after Hong Kong and Taipei, any other metro in the world would seem to lack something.
“Go Olympic! Go China!”: Chinese Canadians on Parliament Hill on April 13th
Posted onAnyhow, closer to home, a large demonstration (in French) in support of the Beijing Olympics was held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last Sunday, with demonstrators coming from across Eastern Canada. Zhimin Hu, also the host of CH Montreal’s Sino-Montreal Cantonese-language show, captured moments during the protest and posted it on YouTube. One of the … Continue reading ““Go Olympic! Go China!”: Chinese Canadians on Parliament Hill on April 13th”
Anyhow, closer to home, a large demonstration (in French) in support of the Beijing Olympics was held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last Sunday, with demonstrators coming from across Eastern Canada. Zhimin Hu, also the host of CH Montreal’s Sino-Montreal Cantonese-language show, captured moments during the protest and posted it on YouTube. One of the Montreal organizers of this protest, Jacques Liu was present at the rally on Parliament Hill: “(Our organizers) think that 10,000 people came, but 6,000-7,000 is my estimate . The RCMP thinks it was 3,000, but there were already 60 buses just from Toronto, so it must be more than that.”
There you go. I am in Beijing now, behind the great firewall, blogging on a site that is blocked in China. Reportedly, it is not just because of keywords taken out of context, but maybe a sweep on other sites hosted on this IP, because it was blocked before I ever posted the thing I think would’ve been sniffed out. Besides, this website that you are currently reading is so low-consequence that probably no human sensor would waste his time blacklisting…