News Tidbits and Upcoming Events..

My page rank is still zero and I still don’t get that much traffic. It’s so frustrating! Anyhow, I will still strive and post more stuff about Beijing while I’m still working in this part of China.

Upcoming Events:

• Australian pop diva, Kylie Minogue, will be in town for a one night concert at the Worker’s Gymnasium on December 1. Ticket prices from RMB 280 to 2580. When we bought our reserved tickets this afternoon at piao.com.cn’s office, they’ve informed us that they don’t have any tickets left for the cheapest one.
• The Elton John and Tim Rice Broadway musical, Aida, will hit the Beijing Exhibition Theater stage on November 19 to 23.
• Carrefour Shuangjing Branch will hold a wine tasting and Beaujolais Nouveau on Wednesday, November 19 from 6pm to 1am to celebrate a French custom.  Grab your chance to taste some free wines!      

Apartment Hunting for Dummies

Which type of people usually look for an apartment? There’s the newbie who just arrived in Beijing for their newest adventure, the oldie who’s lease just expired, the businessman who’s sick and tired of staying in an apartment. In any case, finding an apartment in China needs your haggling and language skills. Also, a Chinese friend would be the best to do the translation for you.

Here are some tips that may help you in your apartment hunting:

• If the ad says “near the subway”, never believe it till you’ve seen it.
• Most apartments are now equipped with western toilets.
• If you don’t like cleaning your apartment, go for service apartments such as Oakwood, Palm Springs, HQ Ritz, etc. However, be prepared to pay for a higher than usual price.
• Decide which district do you want to live and your budget.
• Best place to live in would be walking distance to the subway or bus stops. The price on these places are usually higher.    

Sukhothai Imperial (粟库泰泰式餐厅)

If you’re a Christian expat, you might be worshipping at BICF 21st Century.  If you’re like me, you would be one of the people who attend the 1130am worship service and thus will come out hungry afterwards.  Luckily, Lucky Street (好运街) is just beside 21st Century Hotel.

Lucky Street is a block of restaurants and bars for the hungry and night owls.  In this stretch, Sukhothai beckons to all Thai food lovers.  They have the traditional Tom Yam Kung Soup (RMB28/bowl), Som Tam Thai (Green Papaya Salad, RMB 29), Pad Thai (Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Peanuts, RMB 36) and Rung Nok (Sweet Bird’s Nest with Thai Coconut Milk, RMB 68).  The food their is tasty with a twist of Chinese to cater to the local people.  The interior of the restaurant is typically Thai and they also sell Thai jewelry and gift items.  Oh yeah.. slide the door to your right and not push when you enter the restaurant.

Traffic Scheme Revised!

Starting Nov. 10, the ongoing number traffic scheme will be revised.  Every month the days will be changed in order to give “equal” days off to car owners.  Some people are saying it will be difficult to keep track and it’s “ma fan” to private car owners.  Some people are suggesting that they should just use the odd-even scheme to ban government vehicles.

In any case, the new scheme will see vehicles with plate numbers ending with 5 and 0 off on Mondays, 1 and 6 on Tuesdays, 2 and 7 on Wednesdays, 3 and 8 on Thursdays, 4 and 9 on Fridays.  Penalty for offenders will remain at RMB 100 and those cars will be off the road from 6am to 9pm on said days.

Ever since they started this scheme last month, traffic had a slight improvement.  There are days wherein traffic is still bad but there are days wherein it’s smooth sailing.  Air quality is still not that great but there are more blue sky days now.  Let’s see what other surprises will they do in the future but you’ll be sure that they would implement it with an iron fist.

Photo credit: www.remodelista.com