China, Beijing 2.5 (lecture, pub crawl)

October 14, 2010: Oops, I completely forgot to tell you about the day before the Great Wall of China. That day, too, was all about cultural education. With a few people I went to a lecture in English on the history of China. Interesting and funny at the same time: the content was interesting, and some of the goings-on were funny.

Next to me, for example, sat a woman with a video camera who was filming everything, the audience included. After she’d spent more than 10 minutes filming me sitting there fiddling with my camera, I simply started filming her back. Kind of funny, the two of us pointing our cameras at each other… After a few seconds she finally gave up and turned her camera on the other people.

After the lecture we went out on the town and ended up, among other places, in Soho Village and the popular Sanritung Village – a well-known bar district.

Alongside Beijing’s really modern districts, streets and buildings, a bit of „original“ China pops up every now and then. I often ate tasty soups and skewers – some with fillings I couldn’t identify – in one of the really narrow side alleys. Those places were mostly frequented by local Chinese, taxi drivers and ordinary folk. And once again it was incredibly cheap: a complete meal for less than 1 €. Interestingly, I haven’t had any stomach trouble or anything like that so far. Rare, but a real treat to watch, are the „original“ means of transport – right in the middle of modern Beijing.