A Day or So in a Life

Feeling exceedingly drowsy and lazy. Think it's a combination of the weather, and a lack of sleep and exercise.

It's been raining loads here. We're being assaulted by flash thunderstorms. Our plane back to Beijing was delayed for 3 hours due to 'bad weather conditions'. When the plane was making its descent, there were flashes of lightning that made everything outside the windows flicker. And since I had the beginnings of a cold, my nasal passages were stuffed up and caused my ears to be put through agony before we finally made it to the ground.

Ever since being back in the capital, the skies have been gloomy and wont to open up and dump rain down upon us, creating disgusting pools of water in the streets and sending the scooter alarms ringing outside my window. There's quite a lot of flashes of lighting and rumbling thunder, as well as the occasional startling crack of thunder. Apparently all this is very uncharacteristic, as Beijing is usually skin-crackingly dry all the time. Well, I actually rather like it this way. I really quite like rainy days, and this is definitely way more pleasant than scorching sunshine and brain-numbing 40 deg cel heat.


Funny thing is that it's raining loads back home as well! So much so that the main shopping area flooded! I saw videos on FB and followed the buzz on twitter! We were actually trending for a good few hours because of that! Above the world cup hash tag as well! Was rather surprised and impressed by the number of tweeters and tweets we produced.
Anyway, it was pretty serious. Saw the Starbucks where people seem to like to lie in wait to ambush me (hahaha) with water up to the table-tops. Sleezy relic from the 80s shopping centre had a swimming pool of murky brown water in its basement. Swanky new shopping centre packed full of Omotesando/Selfridges-grade shops apparently had its basements filled with water as well.

Quite surreal, as I used to pass through the area practically everyday last year. It was also my most convenient and laziest hang-out spot. And to think I missed the monumental event of it being submerged. The relevant governmental department is 'still investigating the cause'. HahahaHAH!


Anyway, it was a public holiday here yesterday, for Duanwu Festival (端午节), the Dragon Boat Festival, or Dumpling Festival, depending on whether you wish to put more emphasis on tradition or your stomach.

I woke up at 5 something as had fallen asleep with the lights on. Couldn't go back to sleep, so I powered up the old, abused laptop to get my fix of internet.

But holy cold turkey! The internet was down!! After a few minutes of desperate CPR clicking, I gave up and decided to watch Ayabie's 2008 Spring Tour Live DVD instead.

Which finally brings us to the main picture of this post.

I absolutely love it when Intetsu goes berserk! ♥♥♥♥♥

He's got what they call the 'gap' aesthetic right down to a tee. (●´ω｀●)ゞ

Hikonyan-chan approves as well. I bought him from a kiosk in Kyoto Station after seeing Aoi waving a larger cousin of his around on stage at the end of the Kyoto gig. ^^;

Anyway, I sat around in my pajamas, mostly in front of the computer, following the flood on twitter, doing the random shit I usually get up to online, waiting for someone to wake up in London so I could wish them a happy birthday. That done, I felt obliged to go out.

And now, patient reader, for making it through being bored to numbness by all that's come before this, here're some pictures as a reward! Haha. :p


We went to this hutong that I'd never been to before. Hutongs (胡同) are streets, usually rather narrow, but they come in a variety of sizes, formed by lines of courtyard houses, siheyuan (四合院). They're the distinctive features of old Beijing, and hence are mostly found in within the Third Ring Road.
They're also what were being bulldozed by the hundreds (?) in the lead up to the Olympics, that had foreign and local conservationists up in arms, emotionally-attached how-many-th generation residents in tears, and, uh, me rather ignorantly bordered between being swayed by the indignation of the foreign press and impassivity, as I'd never been to a hutong then.

I'm not going to delve into the whole 'Redevelopment with progress and money and new, modern living for the residents' VS 'Conservation, retaining tradition and history' debate here, though. Don't really think I'm entitled to pass judgment, as I'm not a resident or even a Chinese citizen.


Whatever it is, the government has definitely caught on to the tourism potential of hutongs. There's one particular lane that is wonderfully done up with many chic and funky shops, bars, restaurants and cafes. My guidebook calls is 'bourgeois bohemian', and it really is a rather apt description. Where we went yesterday was in the process of being redeveloped.

I arrived early, and so snapped some pictures of the place, with a lovely menacing sky as a backdrop. The particular hutong we went to was near the Lama Temple:



I went there last spring. It was pretty cool and interesting. I rather like the architecture. Had lovely flowers when I went as well.

And this is the hutong




As you can see, a lot of not-so-traditional looking additions to the buildings.

And there're now a lot of new and quirky looking shops like these:



Nice naming-sense here:



Spotted a kitty staring at me. Hiiii!! Times like this when I wish the GR Digital had a zoom. >.<;

Really cool looking bar:




This is what it looks like from the entrance of a couryard residence:



At some point of history, a single household would occupy a single courtyard residence. Up to the point when the Qing Dynasty fell (1911 I think?). A huge number of households then crammed into a single residence, carving up the space and putting up flimsy dividing walls and such.
Now there's a trend back towards a single household in a single courtyard, with wealthy Chinese buying out entire courtyards and refurbishing them. This is really costly, as they have to buy out the many, many households living in there!

The signs of redevelopment were all around along the hutong yesterday:



You can't get more visual than this:




There were still quite a lot of locals living along the hutong, though. I can't imagine what it must be like for them, seeing these swanky shops, restaurants and bars sprouting up in their midst, while they go on subsisting on incomes that won't buy them a meal in one of those places even with a month's (or more??) work.

We were part of the invading army, I'm afraid, sipping on milkshakes in chic cafe.


Anyway, was pouring down after dinner, so took a cab back. The windows were misted up, and there was a point when the driver went down a really poorly-lit road that seemed to be lined with trees. Got me slightly worried for a while. But being driven through a rainy night with lightning and thunder was rather atmospheric.


Was really dark when I woke up this morning, and then it started to pour again. Was really tempted to go back to sleep, but I valiantly got out of bed and fed myself and put on some clothes and made it out the door. Whoo.




I miss London. Boo.

And my kitty cat. Triple boo.