Beijing Round 2

Back in Beijing for a few days before it's on to Hong Kong

Condom ad on the way to Shanghai's bullet train station

so hard to keep up with editing and posting photos.  Already at this point i'm over 2 months behind

a considerable amount of space on the "gao tie", the chinese bullet train.  In 70 years there hasn't been a fatal accident on the Japanese bullet train system but China had one in its first year of operation due to human error.  It was on the circuit from Wuhan to Shanghai.  Way to go China, and then way to lie about it and destroy everyone's confidence in your new train network.  I was going to take the Wuhan to Shanghai bullet train despite its history but ended up getting the semi bullet train cuz it was still fast.  But from Shanghai to Beijing I took the bullet train which you see here.

you forget that shanghai is by the ocean when you're there.

cruisin' at 309 kilometers per hour

I liked the look of this girl.  she looks like someone's tough love older sister who is attending Nanjing university and is a big softee once you get past her tough exterior.

when i got off the train at beijing i walked to the front to the engine and saw this happening.  Man you really get what you pay for.  The train attendant upgrade from a cheap train to the bullet train speaks for itself.

is she gonna get fired a week from now when these photos are on the internet?  an enterprising photographer and an enterprising train attendant.  Wonder what he said to her.  I wonder what any scum photographers say to women

so finally after that ugo got out of the way i got the real photo i wanted.

capitalism abounds back on gulou dong da jie by the hotel.  Gulou dong da jie is a great example.  

ceaser loves this drink.  its like a sports drink, like aquos in japan or pocari sweat in korea.

Caesar's friend, i forgot her name.  These guys are like china's upper class i guess, working for HP and consulting and what not.  by default i would be in the upper class too just cuz of my american dollars.  I mean normal people make a few hundred dollars a month.

some new place that wasn't around when i lived in beijing.  forgot the name.

reminds me of the kitchen in my old place in jishuitan, aka f'ing gross 

you tiao'r for breakfast

intrigued by the youth and the old hair mixed with the old woman at 7am in the morning.

who's that dude?

chillin' on the AC

got him!

no naked flames

some tofu things at Da Dong Roast Duck.  of course i had to eat Da Dong's Peking duck at least once!  I don't remember them having a huge tv screen playing a 5 minute promo of the restaurant last time i was here.  why do they even need to play a promo of the restaurant you are actually in and eating at?  There was a woman on it who took an orgasmic bite that we couldn't stop laughing at every 5 minutes because the video is on repeat.

how many do they go through a day? times all the other duck places in beijing? times all the duck places in china?

Da Dong's famous Sea cucumber, never had it because its expensive (as much as a whole duck) and looks less than appetizing.

hey girlssssss, wait, what is going on

sanlitun bar street at like 6 am with Will and Qing.  Beijinger's like to party til way past sun up.  I can't do it anymore.  I'm old

everyone was selling these cat ears on nan luo gu xiang.  not really into it.

you can't really tell here but often times they fill the bottles up literally to the brim so when you open it it spills over everywhere.  something tells me that's not a totally sanitary practice filling bottles up ALL the way.

a real one of those tibetan prayer wheels across the street from the canadian embassay at this tibetian place.

i wasn't too tickled by the food we had.  check out these bones with a few morsels of meat on them.  I'm sure tibetian food is good and will give it many more tries but at least this time around i was left wanting more, literally and figuratively.

so this is a brothel, all big and huge and lit up right in central beijing inbetween a bunch of embassies and dongzhimen and everyone knows it.

this is the 40 meter long kite i bought from the guy on nanluoguxiang.

the last of these Beijingers on their motley crew of vehicles.  This guys carting coal.  lots of people get asphyxiated and die from this in the winter.

So Beijing hasn't changed that much in the last 3 years.  it's just super hard to get a taxi and the subway is really crowded.  the prices don't seem to have gone up that much.  Fashion and girls are getting better.  It will be at least a year before I'm back in Asia and i don't think any major changes will happen by then.  So until then beijing has still got it, and a special place in my heart.  so long beijing.  see you in the future!