Bike Hotel

Owners leave their bikes here so they won't get lonely while they explore the Forbidden City.

Everything tastes better with 腐乳

Pickled tofu 腐乳 (fu2ru3) aka Chinese cheese is awesome! It tastes great on bread, egg, rice, veggies, ham, etc. It's China's equivalent to ketchup; everything tastes better with 腐乳!

Here's the 腐乳 I ate with my toasted bread (gotta be toasted) today 王致和-香辣腐乳, can be found in any supermarket and keeps forever. I'll be trying out these 腐乳 recipes later.



If I ever build a fallout shelter, I'll be sure to put a box of 腐乳 on the shelf between the AA batteries and Ritz crackers.

Snowboarding season's ending

Went to Nanshan on Friday on my own, legs are still wrecked.

Weekdays @ Nanshan are great! No people, no lines, less than 10 people on the park. Oh and the all day lift ticket was super duper CHEAP! only 22 RMB! They now have a 90% off deal since the season is almost over!!

I can't believe I spent a whole day snowboarding for less than 100 RMB including bus, ticket, food. Good times :)

Last official day for Nanshan this season is March 10th....gotta find another hobby...sigh

Spring visit to 798

This Sunday, paid a visit to one of my favorite places in Beijing - 798 art district - after a long hiatus (too cold in winter to walk around there). If you don't know what's 798, you can read my previous posts.

Unfortunately, many large galleries were empty, I think because not many people went in the winter. Here are some highlights of what I saw:

Incredibly life-like animal/person/aliens lounging around in their space pods, awesome!

Artist name is Unmask, find out more about the gallery & artists here.

Yum, I love cabbage

Main reason for visiting this time, is the opening of a friend's shop on 798 street west 西街.

Caicai's shop is called Gezidian 格子店 and she sells small locally hand-made nick-knacks great for souvenir or gifts. Please visit her shop if you get the chance!

Here's another cool sculpture exhibition, theme is about the 5 elements: wind, water, fire, wood, earth. But I'm not sure which element this one is :P

This one is wind, very cool

Fire, the pile of black stuff is all charcoal.

Another circle of elements

Be sure to haul your ass 798 if you come to Beijing!

Satellite View of Forbidden City

Here is a great satellite view of the Forbidden City. Home to former emperors, it is at the very heart of Beijing. It is the world's largest surviving palace complex. There are 980 surviving buildings covering an area of 72 hectares. What an amazing architectural achievement.

I visited back in autumn and walked and walked until my heels ached. This place is HUGE. I'll have to go back later and take some cool photos.

Don't have time to come see the city yourself? Checkout the next best thing: virtual Forbidden City by IBM.

Key to China's economic miracle - don't sleep

Here is a picture taken around 10am this morning from my balcony window. My those guys are hard at work at a new luxury apartment complex here in Wudaokou.

Here is the same picture taken last night at 2:30am! The trail of trucks is even longer than in the daytime! Sleep, who needs sleep?? I have also heard them working in the middle of the night on a Saturday!

Microcosm of China's insane rate of growth. If Chinese people are willing to work around the clock for just an apartment complex, we'll have this aircraft carrier sooner than the world thinks!

Accomodation in Harbin - Mudanjiang Hotel 牡丹江宾馆

Looking for a cheap, clean & decent place to stay in Harbin? Forget the tourist traps in Zhongyangdajie 中央大街. Look no further than Mudanjiang Hotel 牡丹江宾馆 located right in downtown, about 5min ride to Harbin train station.

This place is a very good 3 star hotel comparable to any business hotel abroad. Carpeted rooms with TV, shower, hot water kettle, tea, slippers, etc. Best thing about it is the price, just 150 RMB per night for a double! What great value! We just walked in and got a room, didn't even need reservation. Will stay there next time I'm in Harbin.

牡丹江宾馆
哈尔滨市南岗区马家街188号
T：0451－8257－4000