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