I went to Beijing for work for a week from 4th May to 10th May. This is my 2nd trip to Beijing, the last round was 5 years ago in 2003, where I spent the first 10days touring before starting the week’s work trip. There are more high rises and the Hutongs (胡同) are no where to be found (I heard only a few selected ones were kept and turned into tourist attraction). I’d not seen any one spitting and smoking in public places is now banned (that doesn’t mean people can’t smoke in restaurants though but there’s dedicated smoking area). The air is thick with dust and exhaust fumes, making me cough every time when I walked the 10minutes journey.

We finished work most days between 7:30pm to 8:30pm. I have another 2 colleagues who also went along from Singapore and Hong Kong, and we spent our after work hours shopping, dining and chi chatting. This round, I only managed to do a little shopping because shops including supermarkets close at 9:30pm in most places.

As usual, I took a lot of photos of food which we ate for lunch and dinner. I have to say, Beijing food is rather good and cheaper compared to Malaysia.

Here are the photos…

Tian An Men, the imposing Mao’s portrait.

Tian An Men square from a far.

Around Tian An Men. The soldier is not doing a friendly wave, it fact, he was saying “NO” to my camera.. but too late.

Dishes from 渝乡人家 (Yu Xiang Ren Jia), a Sichuan restaurant; where we had our first dinner organised by the Chinese colleagues, and lunch where my users from my previous program treated me. Pics : fried glutinous rice cake; steam dumpling made with glutinous rice flour; fried flat bread; the spicy but delicious dishes we had for lunch.

On the 2nd night, we had the nicest roast duck in 大董烤鸭店(团结湖店) (Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant). It’s way better than the overly commercialised 全聚德(Quan Ju De). We found the size of the menu ridiculous though. Look at this.. (notice my watch at the lower right bottom)

The beautiful and delicious dishes : Asparagus Soup with sea urchin; Orange soup; Calamari in salt and pepper; Fried winter bamboo shoot.

Bean curd; Cod fish with vege; Fried millet (done like fried rice); duck soup

And the best Beijng Roast Duck. All these for RM230.

Group lunch dishes in 娃哈哈 (Wa Ha Ha). Stuff lotus root; shredded bean curd; cold vege; duck soup (so delicious).

Lunch at 中发宏 (Zhong Fa Hong) : Stir fried vege; Jelly with chili oil (凉粉辣油); Salted egg fried pumpkin; Red bean pan cake.

Lunch at 中发宏 was so good and reasonably priced, we went again on our last day. Duck stew; chicken fried with green chili (Yums!)

This is the view around the office. Decorated compressor; Rush Hour cyclists; The unfinished CCTV building; Buildings around Chao Yang District (朝阳区).

On our last day we had dinner at a nice restaurant in an old house with a court yard. Inside 那家小馆 (Na Jia Xiao Guan)

Roast Duck cold dish; Crispy prawns; Steam sweetened Shanyao (山药); Stir Fried chives, black fungus and egg.

Fried vege; cod and mango with goose liver sauce; spicy fish pot; and some Dianxin (点心).

And if all this good food doesn’t appeal to you, you can check out the Olympic food from the stalls in WangFuJin (王府井)…..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Deep fried Sea Horse and Scorpions

Deep fried Star Fish

Deep fried Scorpions, crickets, silk worms, and lizards

I didn’t bought or try any, and got scolded, “你买不买啊？？你不买就走开” (Are you buying, if you are not buying get lost). Your cup of tea?