Beijing

A quick and dirty picture post today; having spend the weekend doing the tourist thing, I’m spending the day battling with Beijing tailors, braving traditional foot massages and eating congee while Dr W is whisked around a dairy and a pharmaceutical company. (Rather him than me.) We’re staying at the gargantuan (it’s the largest Marriott outside the US) and very plushy Marriott City Wall, which has a superb Chinese restaurant charging prices which seem more London than Beijing, where I’ve been gorging on dim sum. I’m on the hunt for the perfect Beijing duck, which, if everything works out and I manage to avoid accidentally booking one of those cultural show places with no Chinese people in it, I’ll post about later in the week.

Incidentally, if you’re one of my Twitter followers, you’ll find me uncharacteristically quiet this week. The Great Firewall blocks access to Twitter (and to every Twitter client I’ve tried), so I’m not able to update.

Photography is tricky here in the city, because of the smog which hangs over the city and does very peculiar things to the light – it’s useless trying to take pictures with any depth of field because the haze turns everything yellow and blurred. Here, anyway, are three holiday snaps to keep you entertained until I can write about some of the eating we’re doing.

Inside the Forbidden City
Inside the Forbidden City
Forbidden City doorway

 

Great Wall
Great Wall

4 Replies to “Beijing”

  1. I know BJ quite well and in mid June am moving to live there.

    Hope you’re having a good time exploring the city. You’ve probably had it by now but IMHO the best BJ Duck is served at Da Dong – there are several branches… the chef who started the restaurant was originally a senior duck chef at Quanjude the first of the big duck restaurants (and still very popular) but he wanted to take a more modern approach to the formula. I think a branch of Da Dong would be a wow in London!

  2. Thank you H! As you’ve probably noticed, we did make it to Da Dong (Quanjude was also recommended to us, but there wasn’t time to go, chiz chiz). I shall be sure to bother you for restaurant recommendations next time we’re in China! *Very* exciting about your move.

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