Beijing Has Air Pollution

This surprised me:
Beijing has been producing daily pollution reports since 1999. Even so, until recently officials went on referring to this soul-sapping grey pall as wu, or “fog”, a word that sounded more benign in weather reports. Residents have tended to follow suit, even though their semi-desert climate is too dry much of the year [...]

A Western Performance with Chinese Characteristics

A couple days ago I went to the New Year’s Celebration for Foreign Experts presented by the National Ballet of China and put on by SAFEA.
The program consisted of two parts, a ballet/modern dance to the music of Pink Floyd and Carmen. Rather than talk about the performance itself, let me just say it was [...]

Teas and Teashops in Beijing

I’m a huge fan of tea. Green, oolong, black, white, flower, herbal, scented; Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan, African; hot, cold; plain, milk, sugar, honey. I like them all.
There are some, however, that I like more than others.
Green: Biluochun 碧螺春
Oolong: Ginseng Oolong 人参乌龙, Jinxuan Oolong 金萱乌龙
Black: Earl Grey
Where does one find these teas in Beijing and [...]

The Beijing Planetarium

I went to the Beijing Planetarium a couple weeks ago with Jinjin and some of our friends. It turned out to be a very nice trip.
I was surprised when we reached the planetarium to discover that I was already familiar with the building. It is used in one of the Beijing 2008 Olympics television commercials. [...]

The Meeting of the Cats of Beihang

One cat appeared and then another, another, another and another. The first we spotted was white and black, the second dirty white, the third striped orange, the fourth calico and the fifth jet black.
They came from under the cars, over the lawn and through the bushes and gathered under a street lamp where they began [...]