Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Jazz and giant video screens

Beijing is a very foreigner-friendly place.

One weekend I'm listening to live rock music. The next weekend I'm watching a mixed martial arts tournament. And then in another I find myself at a Jazz club, choosing to drink a Corona rather than pick a Tsingtao beer.

I feel like I'm eating Korean food almost weekly now. Shops with a good hamburger actually exist where I live. For breakfast, I'm enjoying croissants.

In the meantime, Christmas trees are starting to go up at the big malls and hotels.

This is a picture from The Place Mall in Beijing, one of the newest shopping centers in the city. Above the main walkway is a giant video screen. Imagine if you could play a game of Tetris on it.

The other day, my Chinese language partner and I went to the Silk Street shopping center in Beijing. Clothes and accessories of all kind are sold within the stores, which generally feature cheaper prices. As you might guess, the dominant language here is English and not Chinese since most of the customers are foreigners.

When we left the store, I asked my language partner, who is a native Chinese, where she wanted to go to eat.

"I want to try a pasta place," she said.

I protested: we are not going to eat Italian food when I'm in China, I thought to myself.

"Can we eat some Chinese food instead?" I asked.

We did, and it was good.