How to reclaim the city and make Beijing feel like Beijing again

Now that the Olympic Tourists are out of our hair, City Weekend takes back the city, visiting the hutongs, people, places and smells we love most about this city. From sunrise at Jingshan Park to sunset in Tiananmen, then to sunrise again amongst the booming bass of Gongti, we take a look at the places and faces that makes Beijing a city unlike any other.

By Lily Kuo, Juliana Loh, Blake Stone-Banks

Beijing Spaces

Sites FOR Sore eyes
With a view of Beijing’s entire landscape, from Chongwen’s standing city wall to Bei Hai’s White Dagoba and the mountainous horizon in the north, Coal Hill (jingshan) is the ideal location for a Beijing sunrise. From the peak, one can see the sun’s rays cut through the morning fog, reflecting off the city’s latest steel architectural marvels, as well as the tile roofs of Dongcheng’s hutongs. The literal high point of Beijing, Coal Hill has boasted the best view of the Jing ever since it was built in the 14th century.

For an up-close view of contemporary culture in Beijing, there is no better spot than the Caochangdi art district. Here amidst dirt alleys lie the city’s most cutting-edge galleries, as well as studios of artists like Ai Weiwei, one of the masterminds behind the Bird’s Nest.

To recapture the simpler rhythms of The Jing, never forget your parks and temples. Renting a pedal boat at Beihai Park costs only ￥40 for two hours. Spend an afternoon exploring the waters with lush imperial gardens as your backdrop for less than the cost of a drink at Gongti West Gate.

Exploring a new temple is another way to reconnect. Wash out the bad taste of your 26th visit to the 26 m-tall Buddha in Yonghegong by visiting one of Beijing’s best kept secrets: Dongyue Temple. This 700-year-old Daoist temple located southeast of Chaoyang Gate covers 4.7 hectares and includes 376 rooms. We love coming here for the wildly morbid illustrations and sculptures in the “Department for Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death” and the gallery of photos documenting its painstaking renovation and reconstruction.

After living in Beijing for years, Tiananmen Square still has this uncanny power to deeply connect us to the city and make us feel like fresh-off-the-boat tourists at the same time. The secret to avoiding the hoards of young locals offering tours, paintings and tea dates is to arrive for the raising or lowering of the flag each day at dawn and dusk. At these times, throngs of locals and visitors from the provinces crowd in to witness the ceremony. Amidst the snapping of camera flashes and elbowing for better views, the rabid fervor they take in watching the flag rise and fall with the sun makes us appreciate Beijing a little more every time.

Beijing Faces

Our Hutong Homeboys
Whether it’s the crowd of octogenarians that line-dance outside our office every night or the high roller Gongti partiers, our Beijing experience is defined by wild characters that never cease to amaze us.

Anyone who’s spent a late-night in Sanlitun knows Luga, the owner of his eponymous late-night Mexican joint. This small-framed man with a big laugh might not know your name but he recognizes your face. His formula for making friends and doing business in Beijing is simple: “If you treat people well, they’ll treat you well. That’s how you do people and that’s how you do business.”

Another local on the expat circuit is Tailor Ma, a youngish man from Shanghai who’s made suits on the third floor of Ya Show for seven years. His entirely foreign clientele knows him for pulling out all the stops for his customers. Ma says, “We do it better and faster.” He works till midnight and goes anywhere, even the airport, to get his clients their suits.

In the hutongs of Hou Hai, we have to thank the candy guy who blows sugar into glass-like figurines too pretty to eat. Or, at least that’s where we used to find him. He hasn’t moved back to Hou Hai just yet, but he can be found around Jiu Gulou Jie, selling his candied animal sculptures. “A lot of people moved off Hou Hai during the Olympics,” our candy man tells us, “but people still like them here.”

Dominic Johnson-Hill is the man behind the iconic Plastered t-shirts, which feature colorful Beijing subway maps, trademark address plates and other classic hutong images. “I like to use imagery the Chinese are familiar with and throw it back at them and show them that it’s cool,” Dominic says. Last year Dominic turned Nanluo Guxiang into a fashion show cat walk. This year he’s planning a sweet music festival for October.

Beijing Nights

Back to our Gongti Games
The Olympics wrought serious changes in nightlife, from the closure of Gongti North Gate to the swarms of foreign tourists that crowded the stellar international parties we attended. Now that the maelstrom has passed, we’re ready to settle back into the nightlife we knew and loved before our nights revolved around celebrity spottings.

Whether love it or hate, a night at Gongti North Gate is a Beijing tradition our city sorely missed over the Olympic months. For the best Gongti game, we love the VIP rooms at ReMix. With three-meter-high ceilings and Chiva’s-fruit plate galore, a night handing out our cards to co-eds at ReMix is always time well spent.

Gone for even longer than Gongti, Tango disappeared months before it anti-climatically re-opened as the Olympic-only Club P. Fortunately, it didn’t take Tango long to morph back into the Beijing club we were missing. We’re especially excited about the return of the BaiCai tech parties. The first one is Paris DJ Phil Weeks, who will throw down on Sep. 19 (see listing p. 26).

Another casualty of the Games was the Stone Boat’s outdoor concert series. This Ritan Park hang was shutting down at around 9 p.m., far too early for our blood. Returning to the Boat post-Olympics for an ice cold Belgian ale was unforgettable.

Beijing Buys

DVDs and Shopping Sprees
The awesomeness of the Games wasn’t the only reason we weren’t watching as many DVDs as usual this summer. Our neighborhood DVD shop mysteriously shut down until the morning after the Closing Ceremonies. We can’t wait to step back into Tom’s DVD Shop in Lido, stop by Jenny Lou’s next door for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and then not leave our apartment for a full week.

Year’s from now, Beijing will still be known more for its gifts to culture than to sports. And, 798 has all we need. A stop at Timezone 8 will help us stock up on the latest stories and images from Beijing’s trendiest art district. Top on our shopping list is 798 Beijing: Reflections on “Factory” of Art, edited by artist and 798 pioneer Huang Rui. Afterwards, a stop at the Sugar Jar will keep us plugged into the latest in the Beijing underground music scene. When you make your stop, don’t miss out on PK-14’s latest, City Weather Sailing.

Beijing Bites

The Tastes of the Town
We all missed the gargantuan portions of Kro’s Nest after they closed for August with the rest of the Gongti funky bunch. Now they’re back in action, you’ll see us there, eating more than our fill at the next free-beer Tuesday night.

Peckish after a late drunken night in Sanlitun? Get some chicken chuan’r in the back street by Poachers or go a little further west to Snack China on Chunxiu Lu for some of the city’s best chuan’r. The strange vertical electric drills they cook their meat in retain juices in ways that coal grills can’t.

The pleasures of Hou Hai in the fall are manifold. Sinking one’s teeth through the cold candy coating on a kebab of tang hulu (candied hawthorne berries) is one of September’s greatest pleasures. Share one on a date while strolling down the charming banks of the lake. Finally, head over to Pipe Street to dare your friends to bite into the “stinky tofu” sold on the street. Re-energize with a cup of “horoscope coffee” at Tarot Café, which serves up special concoctions to complement every star sign. Plus, their resident “Red Witch” gives tarot readings (in Chinese and English) should you want a glimpse into the future.

The close of the Olympic season also means we can find a seat again at one of our favorite indulgences: Champagne brunches. One of our favorites is the Bubbly Sunday Brunch in Senses at the Westin Beijing Financial Street, which serves an astonishing array of sushis, sweets, meats and free-flowing Champagne for just ￥368.

Olympic Venue Redux

The architectural stars of the 2008 Olympics are transformed to meet local needs
It’s time to put the Games to rest, but with Olympic-sized reminders like the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, forgetting this little affair won’t be easy. Seems people in charge have the same idea. City officials and investors are already busy transforming major Olympic venues into useful city facilities that won’t turn into just another dusty stadium.

With hotels, restaurants and malls, the Olympic Green will soon be hot property. You’ll get to watch glow-stick crazy pop concerts and Beijing’s Guoan Football Club at the Bird’s Nest, that is, after 300-million USD worth of reconstruction. The neighboring Water Cube is being converted into Beijing’s coolest public pool with water slides and tennis courts. The best part is the promise to charge the same as an average city pool.

Owned by China’s NBA, the U.S. entertainment giant AEG and a state company, the Olympic Basketball Stadium has already booked over a hundred sporting events and concerts—including City Weekend’s sweethearts, Avril Lavigne and Kanye West. There’ll be an ice-skating rink and of course, shopping options.

The Olympic Forest Park just north of the Olympic Green was designed as a refuge for athletes and spectators. We mean that literally. In the case of a terrorist attack, the 680 hectares of land was the planned evacuation route. Luckily, all went smoothly, and soon field hockey and archery sites will be added onto the land, making it the city’s largest park when it opens in May to the public. Breathe easy, only electric cars and bikes are allowed.