What does it take to make our Best of Beijing issue? Try a pedicab pimped out with a wicked stereo system. Keep trying, people, maybe you’ll make it next year!

Best Bartender to Spill Your Guts To

Never a Dull Moment with Luga

“Where’s Magnum? Is Magnum here?” asks an eager but misinformed customer actually looking for Luga, Beijing’s bartender extraordinaire, who is most often to be found pouring beers at Rickshaw (Sanlitun Nanlu and Gongti Beilu, Tel: 6500- 4330), when he’s not at The Saddle or Cox. Like all the greats, Luga is modest to a fault. But ask anyone else and you’ll hear about the time he ran after a drunken college kid trying to get him to clean up his own vomit, or the rumors of the Luga fan club, composed only of girls, who follow him to wherever he happens to be working (there are even t-shirts in the making). Perhaps the most telling fact is the sheer number of customers Luga greets in his bar and how many customers ask for him when he’s not around. When confronted with his obvious popularity, he simply shrugs, smiles and says, “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!”

Best Bike Repair Man

A Lil Elbow Grease

“I don’t know whether I am the best, but I have been in business the longest,” says Yang Shifu (southwest corner of Dongzhimen Nanxiaojie and Menlong Hutong, near Haiyuncang Hutong), who for the last 14 years has never moved shop nor taken a holiday. “Bikes are not complicated,” Yang says. “You put time into thinking about it and playing with it and you’ll figure it out.” He's so famous as a bike guru that foreigners have been known to take RMB40 cab rides just to bring him their bikes. What’s the secret of Yang’s success? Modesty. “If you have been doing this for 14 years, you’d be pretty damn good at it too!” Yang concludes.

Best Drunken Buy

The Man with the Basket of Insects

We’ve all seen him, the old guy who sells his frogs, dragonflies and other plantmade insects in Sanlitun every weekend. Wang Zhuxing, the man with the million kuai smile and basket of oddities, is a real artist with the certificates to prove it and has been weaving leafed magic for over 15 years. “I needed to make a living,” Wang explains, “so I decided to do it the only way I knew how.”

Best Doorman Under Four Feet Tall

Just Don’t Call Them Midgets

Beijing has no shortage of street walking touts hurling catcalls after unsuspecting passers-by. But proudly guarding the doors of Zanjia de Caiguan (433 Chaoyangmen Nanxiaojie, Tel: 6527- 777), a kitschy, tourist-friendly Chinese restaurant off Chang’an Dajie, is the well mannered, but vertically-challenged pair of Misters Zhang and Wang. Decked out in a natty bow-tie and suspenders, Mr. Zhang says he's been working the door for almost a year now. “I sweep, I sing, I smile,” he says with a shrug of his tiny shoulders, “work is work.” But Zhang’s colleague and roommate, Mr. Wang, new to the job, has taken a shine to it. “The work’s not bad,” he says, “of course it’s hard to find employment as a ‘zhuru,’ but I don’t mind what I do. After all, I’m an uncommon sight in Beijing so maybe I bring the restaurant a little more business.”

Best Hike

Bells in the Wilds

“The Silver Pagoda Hike is the most beautiful in the Beijing area,” says Sun Huijie, of the Beijing Hikers (Tel: 139-1002-5516, www.beijinghikers. com). “The panoramic view from the top of the mountain is breathtaking and everyone loves the pagodas.” A loop hike of about 12 kilometers in Changping district, it goes over a holy mountain as it passes by 300 year old temples and shrines, finishing at the Silver Pagodas, named for the silver bells that were to be heard ringing in the breeze in centuries past.

Best Guitar Shop

Rocking on the Stairway to Heaven

“A guitar to a guitarist is like a gun to a soldier. Being professional doesn’t mean you have the most guns for sale, but that you sell the right gun to the right guy,” says Gao Shuo, of Hengyun Musical Instruments (105 Xinjiekou Nandajie, Tel: 6618-0745, www.hengyun.com). Hengyun has been around for 15 years and supplies equipment to many of the smaller shops around town as well as outfitting some of China’s most famous rockers, like Xu Wei. “What makes us excel is our service,” Gao says. Hengyue boasts a line of specialized technicians and stocks over 30 brands. They are also completely dedicated to the local rock scene. “China has gotta catch up, man,” Gao insists. One guitar at a time.

Best Party on Three Wheels

He Brings the Party to You

“I do this to make a living!” Bai Cao exclaims as he dances exuberantly to Russian techno music blasting from his souped-up, pimped-out pedicab which brings the party to you for a change. You’ve probably seen him around Sanlitun any given night, boogying to his favorite ‘80s jams, but he’s a hard man to track down if you’re actually looking for him. We finally found him outside of Shooters pre-gaming for a night out on the town. Bai Cao, also a clear favorite for Beijing’s most flamboyant pedicab driver, spent the hour-long photo shoot giving strip-teases, being shooed away from various corners and constantly moving from bar to bar. If you don’t mind a drunk driver, Bai Cao is just the man for a rowdy ride down Sanlitun. “I welcome everyone on my pedicab … as long as they can give me a little xiaofei,” he says with a wink.

Best Place to Splash Around

Shunyi’s Fountain of Youth

It seems natural that Beijing’s best place to splash around should be called the Splash Recreation Club (Sino-Swiss Hotel, 9 Xiaotianzhu Lu, Tel: 6456-5588 ext. 1217, [www.sino-swisshotel. com]http://h(ww.sino-swisshotel. com)), because if you make the trek out to Shunyi, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing. With indoor and outdoor pools (connected during summer), a sauna, natural hot springs and tons of water slides and swings for the kids, it’s a whole day of aquatic adventures for RMB100 (￥50 for kids under age 16). If you can’t keep up with the kids, order cocktails and sandwiches from the hotel diner and chill poolside with a good book. Shuttle buses also run to the city seven times a day.

Best Mozzarella Sticks

Deep fried bundles of joy

Before coming to Beijing, most people are entirely unaware of how difficult it is to construct an edible mozzarella stick. This point is driven home by the culinary mishaps served up to unsuspecting, beer addled laowai at The Saddle and Cox. Fortunately, there is a place for genuine lip-smacking version of that most Olympian of appetizers right here in the Olympic city. The American Cafe (1/F, Blue Castle International Apartment, 3 Xidawang Lu, Tel: 8599-7428/9) makes the city's best mozzarella sticks. Their medley of textures and delightfully un-ketchup like marinara sauce are as authentic as it gets.

Best “Mingpian” Maker

The fork ran away with the mingpian

When Spoony Feng graduated from college, she and two designer friends started their own design studio, adopting the monikers of Spoony, Forky and Knife, making a full dinner set. You might have see the promo posters Spoony did for Mix or China Doll. “I've done a lot of commercial work,” Spoony explains, “but I want to return to the fine arts. I’m looking for clients who will let me exercise my creativity.” From mingpians with serrated edges to ID badges that could double as credit cards, if you want a card that will really set you apart check: www.vaporcube.com

Best T-Shirt Maker

A lil local flavor on your back

“I’m a superstitious person, and ever since I’ve been in Beijing it’s been rammed into my head that eight is a lucky number,” says Dominic, owner of and chief designer for Plastered T-shirts (61 Nanluoguxiang, Tel: 139-1020-5721, www.plastered.com.cn). In the past year he’s seen Plastered grow in popularity and publicity. Plastered’s t-shirts boast Beijing flavor. Not surprising considering that Dominic has lived here for the last 14 years. “I’m addicted to walking,” he explains, “and I’ve just taken a lot of the images I associate with Beijing and used them in my designs.” His line features icons such as the Beijing’s skyline, taxi meters and gongbao jiding. If you have your own idea for a t-shirt, Dominic is more than happy help realize it.

Best Qipao Maker

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

The story of the Bayunxiang silk clothing shop (90 Zhonglouwan, Tel: 6402-9512) is the story a Beijinger’s love for China. Ma Xiansheng grew up at the foot of the Bell Tower, and wanted to open a little store near his childhood home. “Something really Chinese,” he explains. The result is this quaint little tailor shop. Ma himself traveled to Hangzhou to handpick material suppliers and to Jiangxi Province, the home of Chinese embroidery, to source China’s best tailors and embroiderers. The shop stocks more than 100 types of silk and even more qipao patterns. Making one qipao takes an entire fortnight, but it’s worth the wait. In the end you get a one-of-a-kind dress you can wear your whole life.

Best Yogurt Shop

Sweet Treat Any Time of the Day

Nestled in a nondescript nook is Wenyu (49 Nanluoguxiang), Beijing’s best yogurt shop. This mom and pop operation’s sweet custard-like dessert comes in a variety of flavors and is extremely popular morning, noon and night. “Everything we sell is freshly made and we keep the business in the family,” say the owners.

Best Sneaker Shop

Get Your Kicks Deal

(280 Gulou Dongdajie, Tel: 6402-8262, www.dealkicks.com) is one of only two sneaker shops in all of China where you can buy pairs of limited edition Nike sneakers. “To me, each pair has a story, is a statement and screams certain belief,” says owner Casper Lin.

Best Toilet for Meditation

Be One With Nature

The Buddha once said, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, just concentrate the mind on the present moment.” In this wonderfully unique outhouse at the Mima Café (www.mima. com), featuring glass floors and a koi pond overhead, you can do just that.

Best Make-Out Spot

Kissy-kissy by the Canal

For most laowai in Beijing, the alley outside Tongli Studios in Sanlitun is pretty much the best make-out spot ever. But take your sweetie out to the Yuan Dynasty Relics Park (Yuan Dynasty Relics Park, Zhicun Lu and Xitucheng Lu, just north of the Beijing Film Academy) out in Haidian and you’ll find where the Chinese lovebirds go for pecking. This one kilometer stretch of lush greens and flowers along the banks of an unpolluted canal has numerous nooks, grassy knolls, pagodas and benches perfect for a little rest during a romantic stroll. Throw in a nice sunset and the fact that the park never closes and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a moonlight rendezvous.

Best Candy Store

Not Just Eye Candy

Zhang Binggui made this candy counter famous in 1955 with his magical ability to measure any weight of candy by hand. He was a shining model of sales service in the '50s and '60s, and people used to line up in front of his counter (No.255 Wangfujing Dajie, Tel: 6512-6677) to see him perform his magic. Ask for any amount of his over 100 difference types of candy, and the amount that ends up in your bag is always what you asked for. Nowadays Zhang’s son, Zhang Chaohe is carrying on the tradition, only with a much larger selection of sweets. People still come from all over China to admire the family that has devoted two generations to perfecting the art of making life sweeter.

Best Pearl Dealer

Pearls of Wisdom

Zhan, Shawn to her clients, is the preferred pearl vendor of many a Beijing expat (Hongqiao Market, 3/F, stall 91-A). She’s widely praised for her honesty: If it’s not a quality pearl, she’ll tell you up front. “I know that maybe I could get a lot of money from some people who just come to Beijing once,” she says, showing off her thick book of business cards, “but I like it when people keep coming back. I make a little money on every piece and am always busy because they buy many things and tell their friends to come here.”

Best DVD Shop for Obscure Art Films

You’ll find no Hollywood clap-trap here

Tucked away in the west side of Bejiing Film Studio City, in a nondescript room that resembles a prison cell, is a small DVD shop whose walls are stocked with obscure art films (west side of the Beijing Film Studio, Jimenqiao, North East Ring Road). Copies of “Tsotsi,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and Woody Allen box sets adorn the shelves that are constantly picked over by students from the Film Academy just next door. Don’t let the half-empty shelves fool you, there’s a wealth of art DVDs in back. When asked why he doesn’t stock “Pirates of the Caribbean 3” or “Ninja Turtles,” the proprietor, who’s been running his shop for eight years now, responds, “The film students wouldn’t be happy with me.” The shop has no official relationship with the academy, but students clearly drive demand here. Lots of them are on a first-name basis with the owner. Meimei, a frequent patron, enthuses, “It’s the only good place to get DVDs. I found my copy of ‘Casa de los Babies’ here.”

Best Hutong To Get Lost In

Getting in Is the Easy Part

Literarily meaning “Nine Turns Hutong,” Jiuwan hutong (between Qianmen Dajie and Zhushikou Xidajie) actually has 13 turns, nine out of which are right angles. Connecting Qianmen Dajie and Liuxue Lu, this hutong is also one of the oldest in Beijing. The hutong starts with a 103 year-old Christian church, Zhushikou, which was the first church built in Beijing by the American Methodists in 1904. This blue-white Goethean building often hosts romantic weddings on Sundays. Walking through this hutong you will find buildings made with the characteristic grey bricks with a few colonial buildings in between. The bricks are so old that there is grass growing up through the cracks. In every cluster of grass there is a sleeping fat cat. The narrowest spots always have a pomegranate tree or a feather-fleece tree covering the sky. Like many other hutongs in Beijing, you have everything you need for daily live in the hutong– a tailor, a drug store, small dumpling places and tiny personal gardens. You also get the perfect taste of the Beijing summer taste–slow, peaceful and just happy for no reason.

MY BESTS

Dr. Hedy W. Lee (李文), critic, author, stunning beauty, celebrity personal rights advocate, TV host, English professor, etiquette advisor and committed VIP has some very definite standards when it comes to the best. She’s just come out with her new book “Chasing Justice in Beijing” which details the many court cases she has launched against unscrupulous businesses in Beijing (she once sued President Bush!).

Best Makeup

Most VIPs fly to Hong Kong to escape the hefty import tax, but people stuck here have to make do. The best makeup counter is at the Shin Kong Department Store. Finally a spacious makeup counter in Beijing!

Best Blow Dry Most Chinese

stylists can cut and style but can’t blow dry to save their lives. Wing ( 134-01 16-4863) and Why (135-2114-3060) are from Macau and they do house calls.

Best Nails Nail shops here have

come a long way, especially now that OPI and Orly are finally in China. But my favorite is Tian Tian Yui Zi (6500-6657) near silk street. Parking is hell but it has an award-winning manicurist.

Best Facials I’d rather pay for a

good beautician that makes house calls, but when that’s not an option I head to Clarins at the Palace Hotel or Oriental Beauty, a domestic chain out of Xiamen.

Best Cashmere

Eighty-percent of cashmere is exported from Mongolia, but it’s the processing that counts. Shops

3009 and #1009 in the Ritan Park

Shopping Building have export-quality “leftovers” that probably fell off a factory truck. I also tracked down a small place in the Gulou area (6404-3002) that makes the famous brands sold at all the Bergdorfs and Macys.

Best Foot Massage

The Regent Taipan. Always ask the manager David to recommend their best masseurs, since staff is easily lured away to other places.

Best Court House

The Chaoyang court is easily the best in Beijing. The Jiuxianqiao one has no metal detector, one dingy security station and you’ re surrounded by gawking farmers

If anyone has the right to be a music snob in Beijing, it’s D-22 co-owner, Mike Pettis. His rock pedigree stretches back to the punk scene in 1970’s New York when he used to book in bands like Sonic Youth.

Best Rock Band in Beijing

There are too many bands I really like to say who the best is. Some of them would definitely be Joyside, PK14, Carsick Cars, Queen Sea Big Shark, Hedgehog and White.

Best Drunken Rocker Mumblings

Since a lot of our regulars tend to show up after other gigs, there should be a lot of decent answers to this question. Sadly though, I’m a pretty old guy and my memory is weak.

Best Show

There was one night earlier this year where Bu Hao Chi's bass player, dressed as a bunny (or maybe it was a kangaroo), jumped Fat Mike on stage during NOFX's after- hours show. Musically, it didn't amount to much, but the visuals were pretty spectacular.

Best Reason to Check out the Scene

In 10 years, you’re going to be bragging that you were there when it was all happening.

Best Thing about Owning a Bar

Finding young artists in the city and giving them the space and self-confidence to improve is one of the most amazing things about it.

Hatsune, Kagen, and Haiku are the brainchild of one of Beijing’s most prolific restaurateurs, Alan Wong. From design to construction to recipes, Wong ensures that every detail is perfect. Is there anything that is good enough for this adventurer and perfectionist?

Best Place To Get Wet

Anyone who lives in Asia should learn how to scuba dive. I recommend Steve from Sino Scuba (www.sinoscuba.com), who teaches his classes in shark tanks. Once you can get past that, you are ready for anything.

Best Place To Get Away

When things get tense I like to take one of my motorcycles out to Huairou. It’s the perfect place to get lost and let your motorcycle do all the screaming for you.

Best Seasonal Sport

Snowboarding. It’s like professional snowboarder Sean White said, “There’s a time when you are neither rising nor falling, and it feels like you are just floating in the air.” That feeling is why I love snowboarding. In the winter I spend a lot of time at Nanshan Mellow Park (www.mellowparks.cn).

Best Place To Fix Your Wheels

Extreme Motoring Division Sports. If you need anything car-related, rims, tires, engines or modifications, this is the shop.