Forbidden City @ Night

I went to see The Expendables today. It's a movie made by Sylvester Stallone, starring Sylverster Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li and a few other action guys. All these guys in 1 movie!! It's like mixing all different varieties of spice in 1 bowl and then see what you get. I didn't expect it too be very good but sure hellova entertaining!

The movie was dubbed to chinese and there were no english subtitles but then again the dialogue in this movie wasn't very difficult to understand no matter what language :P

There was a car in my yard with window open and doors unlocked. Hope nobody steals it

On the way home from the movie I passed the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park, looks amazing in the evening when it's lit. It's

also supposed to be the most beautiful spot in Beijing, i totally agree!

Stylishly arriving to the club!

On weekends there is not a chance in hell that you'll could find a cab around midnight when everybody goes TO the bars or coming FROM them. Solution to this, take a rickshaw!

The guy actually took more money than the cab 1,5 euros but the weather was awesome and probably faster than a cab since there are no queues on the side of the road :) If you take a short rid with a cab it's only about 1 euro or 10 yuan.

We arrived stylishly to Coco Banana in this awesome eeem vehicle :)

Karaoke with NSN

Went out to a Karaoke place just next to the office called Tang Guo. We had 2 big rooms reserved for us 20 people. There was a buffet including when being there but it didn't really have that much to offer, just enough to cure the hunger :P

People didn't really sing any english songs but I did Bon Jovi's - Living on a Prayer with some extra drama and everybody was thought it was funny :) Also manage to sing along some simple chinese songs as well, need to start studying more chinese songs for next round of karaoke!

The girls in my team sang pretty well (like most chinese do). It seems like all people in China can sing (many songs!!) and when going singing people don't drink themselves drunk like back home. Here they order some Ice Tea and just keep on singing for hours totally sober. I'd like to see that somewhere in some bar in Kallio (a place in Helsinki with a lot of hobos or as we like to call them DEEKUJA!) :D

Lunch

There is a Xinjiang style restaurant just next the my office where I go almost everyday. They have huge bowls of noodles with meat for just 7 yuan and BBQ meat for a few yuan a stick. Today's lunch looked like this. Total price about 3 euros!After eating I went to cruise around with my scooter for half an hour, the weather is awesome today. blue sky, sunshine and wind enough not to sweat. Wish everyday would be like this in Beijing! About 25-30 degrees here :)

My new Scooter!

I've been looking to buy a second hand scooter for 2 weeks now! The first one I checked had some brake problems, the blinkers didn't work and the locker on the seat was broken. The second had the foot brake which I couldn't use because of my long legs.

Third times a charm and I found the perfect match! The seller was pretty far on the 5th ring road which is about the same as driving to the airport from downtown but everything went well because the traffic wasn't bad at all.

The battery lasts for about 40 kilometers and has to be charged now and then. It weights about 30 kilos so walking long ways with it isn't that plesant. I charged it at my office for the first time yesterday and now the bike runs really fast. I guess the speed is between 30-40km/hour. And yes Mom, I will buy myself a helmet! I love driving around in small alleys and finding shortcuts with less traffic. The morning traffic here in Beijing is horrible. Cars, Bikes, Scooters and PEOPLE everywhere! People don't care how they cross to road or where they drive either, everybody just want to get to their destination as fast as possible without caring that much about the traffic rules...

Tao Bao - China's best store!

There is a online store in Mainland China called TAOBAO. You can buy almost anything there for a VERY affordable price. Traveling bags for 5 euros, anime fan stuff for a few bucks or even a Nikon lens coffee cup or USB refrigerators!

One piece stuff
USB Fridges
Nikon camera lens coffee cup

These are just a few examples what you can get! If you find something you like just send me an email and I will order it. You can later transfer the money into my credit card or bank account. Have a nice time shopping!


Link to the site main-page ---> www.Taobao.com

Day of the Ghosts

Today China "celebrates" the day of the ghost and dead. This tradition is to respect and remember family members, friends or other close people who have gone over to the other side. So how do you pay your respect to the dead this when living in a huge place like Beijing where there are no cemeteries like in the west? People go out in the street here and light up paper and keep a small bonfire burning for a while. On my way home from the gym I caught a group of people saying their prayers to their long gone love ones...

I also found a place where they have evening "street dances" every night from 20-21 for anyone who wants to join. Half of the people dance, the rest half just comes to watch the other people dance. A lot of curious people in this city :) Mom, you should try one of these when you come here next March! Almost all the people are women in your age :)

Take 5 - The one and ONLY Finnish restaurant in BJ

There is 1 Finnish restaurant in Beijing just next to the Silk Market, it's called TAKE 5 and was opened in 2003. The menu is really cool, they got Pyttipannu and Lihis!

Had to get my Lihis Makkaralla for about 5 euros. The place had Iltalehti, Iltasanomat and HBL and other Finnish magazines as well. Food was alright and the Finnish owner seemed like a nice guy. I'll give you the adress for this place Stefan so you won't starve here in Beijing with all the Chinese food :P

Traffic and Rain

When it rains in Beijing the traffic is impossible...Everybody takes out their car and all taxis in the city are out. People are corssing the streets randomly to avoid time out in the rain. This makes the city pretty chaotic and had to wait in 1 crossing for about 30 minutes before it was moving at all...
I went to check for a second hand electric scooter yesterday pretty far away from home. Everything was alright about it BUT it had a footbreak instead of handbrake and my feet were too long to use it so I couldn't buy it. So I spent a total of 3 hours in the traffic because of that brake, just great.
In the evening I went to a Tibetan styled restaurant that played music so loud that I couldn't even hear what I was eating. Great day...Not.

Huai rou 怀柔 - Shan ba 山吧 , the suburbs

Last week was really busy, getting off work after 18 everyday and coming home about 19 doesen't leave much spare time. So out of the city for a while to visit the suburbs. Huairou is a popular place for people to get some time of the busy downtown. It's located in the mountains of Beijing. Driving from downtown takes about 1h so it's not that far.

In Huairou there is a place with some cottages and resaurants where you can eat, relax and just hang around. The view from the cottage was pretty cool, in the distance you can see old parts on the Great Wall and the mountains. You can also play "CS" with paint ball guns and shoot some birds, after shooting them you can barbeque it and eat it...I guess they just have the birds walk around and you can give it your best shot and finish it off...

I went horse-riding for the first time of my life but it was terrible. My horse was so exhausted it almost keep falling, the hoses front legs kept stumbling and I was worried the horse would collapse. The owner told me many times "its normal, don't worry" but I could tell the horse was NOT feeling good. I felt really bad for it the 25 minutes I sat on it's back, will never again ride a horse here and support these people who keep pushing the animals to the limit.

They had a lot of fruits growing in the trees here, a picture of some unripe lychees, was really sharp and easy to cut your hand on it. Would be cool to come back in the autumn and pick a few :) Along the road they had a lot of "fruit stands" where you could buy freshly picked fruits. Prices were higher than downtown but at least these SHOULD be fresh, one never know's here...

I had the BEST bbq pork ribs in my life!! They were so good that I had to order it twice and ate until I was about to burst. SERIOUSLY want to have this stuff again!! It only cost about 10 euros for a huge hunk of meat.

On the way back home we stopped by one of Beijings water reservoirs, today was a really clean! Blue sky and clouds, haven't seen many days like this year...Last year was a lot better! Outside the restaurant they had some funny ASS chairs :D

Solana

A few years ago they opened a shopping district in Beijing called Solana. It looks just like a western shopping compound with shops and restaurants. Most of the restaurants here are Buffet styled for about 100 yuan. I went to one of them at James birthday around last year. Drink as much beer as you want and eat as much steaks for a mere 10 euros...I was thinking we would go here when you come next month Hede :)

Found some interesting shops and stuff in the stores. Good old Army Bata :D Also Horny Weeds...Some (probably) western badass also did some graffiti on the wall

Bowling @ Beijing

A friend of mine had his b-day yesterday and reserved a few lanes to roll ball on. It didn't go that well, ended up with about 100/300 score...We started a second round but the personnel closed down the game because we had been 5 minutes "overtime" there. In Finland I remember that your at least allowed to finish the game even though the time runs out but obviously not here.An easy evening because tomorrow teaching in the morning...

On the way to the bowling alley I saw a ridiculously huge limousine park outside Mix and Vicks clubs, wonder who's... This is some serious Pimp My Ride!

Lovely Beijing

There are many kinds of places around here. New as old! I went to my tailor today which is just in the center of the city and found this "ruin" just next to the Tian an men Square...lol

Got a real bargain price for my shirts today since I've been going there often. I guess I didn't count my money well enough or understood the price wrong because after I left the store the shop keeper came running calling my name and gave me 100 Yuan back. Never changing tailor, that's for sure!

My old office building is "occupied" by guys just sitting there guarding the wending machine. Ever heard of something called a DOOR or LOCK guys? The building is completely empty for renovation in near future...Jaaajaa, dehär e Kina.

Finally a weekend with free time

The english school is on a summer break for this whole month which leaves me a lot of extra time to do what I want on the weekend!

In 1976 there was a huge devastating earthquake in Tangshan, Central China which ended up in 240.000 casulaties. The earthquake hit the city at night when everybody was sleeping and destroying over 90% of the while city. Now they made a movie of it called "The Aftershock 唐山地震 － Tangshandizhen", it was said to be very good so I went to see it. This 134 minute film clip was the best Chinese movie I've seen so far (not t

hat I've watched very many but still). The visual effects were good and then the storyline is about the peoples lives after the earthquake and how people find own family members over 30 years later because they thought they had died a long time ago...If you have a chance to watch it, Do It! Trailer can be found HERE

My Xbxo 360 needed to be patched because the Cd-Rom cannot recognize newly published games. I took it to the electric city called Zhong Guan Cun where I actually used to live with (Good times James and Sam!!) In China they can patch everything, took 5 minutes for this guy to open it and connect some wires to it and update the software, awesome work!

Also bought the new Finnish game called ALAN WAKE and it's awesome!!

I found a Pizza place where they add cheese and sausage to the crust, was really good and meaty! I remember we had this in Finland like 10 years ago at Pizza Hut but it wasn't much of a success so they stopped doing it...

The weekend was much cooler than the weekdays, only around 30 or so and air less humid. It was even humane to go outside...Can see the CCTC tower from my window. A 403 meter high tower :)

Everything here is 24 hours! The Pharmacy has this little "window" made in the wall where you can get your medicine even at late hours. Most medicines here don't need a prescription like in Finland or other countries. You can get pretty much everything from them as long as you know what your looking for...