the Beijinger

Listen in for an update on the best events going on around town as host Willy Sier talks to editors from the Beijinger about their picks for the coming weekend. Managing editor Lisa Liang recommends heading along to Yugong Yishan to catch the French DJ Wax Tailor. Nightlife editor Jonathan White mentions a few upcoming events including James Pants at White Rabbit and a tour and tasting of the Tsingtao Beer Palace.

Also listen in for this week's trivia question as we give you the chance to a copy of James Pants' Rhythm Trax!.

We first saw this video over at Shanghaiist. It's part of a nice little series of videos that Reuters have put together called Postcard to U.S President from various cities around the world, including what must be an interesting clip from Baghdad. The video above features four Beijing residents talking about what they would like to see from an Obama presidency. The video was filmed just out the front of the Village at Sanlitun on the corner of Gongti Beili and Sanlitun . The video was uploaded on Nov 5 and we're guessing the journalists conducted the interviews while waiting for the election results to come in over at the Rickshaw. Three of the people being interviewed say their piece in English. The fourth, a businessman, uses Chinese to express his hope that Obama can "sort out the American economy and bring the world economy back up." You can view the full translation of what he said in the more info section.

It's amazing how much a place can change. When Room 101 closed its doors with a big bash at the end of October, the grungy 24-hour live music venue felt cramped and gloomy. Now, just over a month later comes Ginkgo, a stylish bar and restaurant split over two floors, that bears little resemblance to my blurred memories of the lovable dive.

The Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card or Yikatong is in need of a nice catchy English name. Beijingologist David Feng's Beijing Super Pass is a good first attempt, but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Hong Kong's Octopus or London's Oyster. Despite the lack of a nifty moniker, the handy little card has proved popular with Beijngers and visitors to the city since it became possible to ride on most of Beijing's public transport in 2006 by simply swiping the card. Yikatong became even more popular when in January 2007 card users were given discounts on the city's public buses (it now costs a minimum of 4 mao to ride if you swipe but 1 kuai if you're paying cash) and when paper tickets were done away with on all of the capital's subway lines. Prior to the Olympics, despite the occasional controversy, close to 20,000,000 cards had been sold.

Earlier risers in Beijing (well on the outskirts at least) would have been able to catch the annual Leonid meteor shower this morning. According to experts from Beijing Planetarium quoted in yesterday's Beijing News, the Leonid meteor shower reached it's peak (in terms of visibility from Beijing) at around 5am this morning and at that time about 120 shooting stars would be visible to the naked eye per hour. See the links below for more details about the meteor shower. The picture above was taken in 2001, during one of the peak years of the shower that come every 33 years or so. According to reports, this morning's show was not likely to be as impressive as past showers due to the brightness of the moon.