Beijing Expats Living in HK

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  1. #1

    Beijing Expats Living in HK

    I'm a BBC (British born) who lived in HK for several years before embarking on the ultimate adventure -- moving to the motherland in 04. I'm leaving Beijing after the Olympics in sept and its a sad sad ocassion cos Beijing and China has been AWESOME. I'm hoping to bring together a group of like-minded expats/anyone who has experienced the AWESOMENESS of living in Beijing - and still miss it terribly.

    If you can relate to the following experiences, we should definitely meet up and reminisce:

    - Haggling/fighting at Yashow and Xiu Shui Jie for the best prices (and still end up being cheated)
    - Studying Chinese at the BLCU (or other schools), trying to sound like a beijinger by stressing the 'er's, mispronouncing every word and being laughed off the face of the planet by locals while they tell you 'Ni de putonghua hen hao a'
    - Great food from every Chinese province, esp. Shui zhu yu, pai huang gua, baozhi/jiaozhi
    - Chuanrs and beer for less than 15RMB, noodles for 10, subway rides for 2 kuai, bus 4 mao - or for the more upmarket - a great meal at Hatsune for under 500
    - Split pants
    - Riding your 'Flying Pigeon' with viser, long gloves and the occasional full scarf wrapped around your head (only kidding)
    - Propaganda news, folk dancing and patriotic concerts everyday on CCTV (hey - it grows on you)
    - Camping on the great wall, riding bikes in Tiananmen, taking rickshaws thru the hutongs, Yiheyuan etc
    - Travelling to totally obscure but beautiful places you never knew existed till you came to China such as Inner Mongolia, Lhaksa, Ningxia, Yangshuo, Xishuangbana, Pingyao, Gansu, etc...

    If there's anyone out there, please drop me a note

    Cheers


  2. #2

    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    40

    oh a few more places to add that i really miss
    -sanlitun jiuba jie bar hopping
    -chilling out at houhai in the summer

    i was in working in BJ for 1.5 half before relocating to HK...so would def love to catch up with you when you are back in HK...


  3. #3

    I did a 6-month internship in Beijing 2 yrs ago, I had the greatest time.

    What I miss apart from the things the two of you mentioned:
    - Cycling to work
    - Illegal mian bao taxis
    - Talkactive taxidrivers

    I've been working in HK since Feb, I still think about my time in Beijing, Hopefully i get the chance to work there for a few years.


  4. #4

    Thanks for the replies and lets keep in touch. My email is [email protected], yours? Some updates from the jing

    - They got rid of the illegal taxis/mianbao cars and since last year, all fares have been jacked up to 2 kuai (remember they use to be 1.2)
    - Most taxi drivers can talk to you in fluent english!! now - they've been learning in prep for the influx of tourists for the games
    - If you were in Sanlitun pre-07, you will hardly recognise the place now. They knocked down most of the bars, and have built a new shopping mall called 'The Village' opp 'Taiping yang bai huo gongsi' (next to 1001 Nights Restaurant)
    - Hou Hai is now THE place to hang out - but a lot of Hutongs nearby have been destroyed cos of 'modernization' - such a shame.

    Its nice talking to like-minded people - look forward to meeting up soon