the Beijinger

August’s issue of the Beijinger has hit the streets - and to celebrate, armies of journalists, the world’s finest athletes, thousands of tourists, and heads of state from around the globe have descended on our fair city. They might even stick around for the Olympics.

If they do, they can find all the information they could possibly need in our latest issue – the best places to watch the Games if you haven’t tickets, and, for those have, things to keep in mind when you go to the venues. Of course, the Olympics aren’t just about sport – they’re a celebration of humanity and getting wildly drunk at every opportunity.

Adriane Quinlan gives her tips on the best international houses where you can go and raise a glass to the Games, while Matt P. Jager recommends bars that will offer some respite from the Olympic bedlam. Likewise Venus Lau reminds visitors that the Beijing art scene isn’t all about 798 and Eric Mendel previews the top concert events for August.

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1949 The Hidden City, the hip entertainment complex located in a renovated factory behind the Pacific Century Place at Changhong Qiao, can now boast two new nightlife venues: the 1/5 (pictured above, and not to be confused with the 1/5 Taverna next door) in the only original building on the compound, and an outdoor beer garden called Well Bar.

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Lisa Liang fills in for Paul Pennay on the 31st episode of the Beijinger podcast. Hear some of the Beijinger's picks for the best events going on in town. Matt P. Jager recommends 2 Kolegas and gives warning about Bling, dining editor Jessica Wang unveils Beijing's first tapas restaurant, while managing editor Oliver Robinson gives us some tips on how to enjoy the Olympics.

Martin Connelly continues to find out what's the word on the street with the latest edition of Vox Box.

So if you're not sure what to do next weekend, plug in your headphones, sit back, and enjoy the entertaining ephemera that is ... the Beijinger Podcast!

For those who'd like to download the podcast and listen to it later, click (right-click to save in MP3 format) on the icon to the left or click
here.

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Despite the bloody fistfight that marred its opening, UCCA’s (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) new exhibition, Our Future (which runs until October 12), is well deserving of the spotlight. The show is a testament to the massive size of the UCCA exhibition hall – there is probably nowhere else in 798 that can display more than 90 works at once – and attests to the impressive diversity of the Guy and Myriam Ullens collection, which includes Chinese contemporary art works from the last few decades, ranging from the late oil painter Chen Yifei’s works to emerging female artist Cao Fei’s Second Life project.

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Batman, the 20/50 Question, and Harry Potter and James Bond vs. Wall-E

The domestic version of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight, which has been breaking box office records in the States, is yet to pass through the censors here in China, but we’re still anticipating its Beijing premier some time soon. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Wall-E, Pixar and Disney’s new animated feature about a futuristic garbage collector. Chinese audiences might not be able to watch the critically acclaimed film because of the anticipated release of two other movies 007: Quantum of Solace and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which have both been booked for November premieres in China, thus postponing any possible China release date for Wall-E until early 2009, according to The Beijing News.

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Beijing’s big coming out party is just days away and with it comes a flood of new folks who will need to know their way around town. Here is a quick rundown of the preparations the capital has made to deal with the influx of foreign visitors.

Hotlines:

12308 – Multilingual Olympic Call Center
Want to know more details about the tickets, games, venues, security checks, and just about anything related to the Games? Over 1,500 volunteers are on-call to answer your questions, providing all kinds of information in 34 languages – even the southern Fujian dialect!

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Experts estimate that there are a million iPhones in China. Based on my last trip to Ghost Street, that’s about right. It seemed like every third Da Ge and Xiao Mei had a silver and black thing placed precariously close to some sesame sauce. I myself live in an apartment where 75% of roommates own an iPhone, putting us in the running for the most obnoxious apartment in Beijing. But, living with two other iPhone users has been great for troubleshooting this sometimes-tricky device.

Mine was bought in the States and brought back for me. I had it cracked by the friend of a Bai Nao Hui stall owner for RMB 200 back when you needed to attach a tape-like chip to your SIM card to use your local number. Now, it’s easy to crack the phone using a wireless connection and free online software. Installing Chinese language ability is also quite easy. The best input software I’ve seen is called WeFit and can be downloaded by the Installer program from the source http://www.iphone.org.hk.

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by Paul Pennay




When Olympic visitors begin to start streaming from the exits of T3 in the coming week, it's likely that one of the first Beijingers that many of them will meet is going to be a Beijing cab driver. Well aware of this, taxi drivers have been busy learning English and city authorities released a set of rules covering the behavior and appearance of Beijing's taxi driving gemen'r and jiemen'r. Late last week it was reported that come the Olympics, all of Beijing's taxi drivers will be required to wear the same uniform. Until now, each company had its own uniform, and drivers appeared to interpret this uniform in their own unique way. From Aug 1, cab drivers will also be required to wear the new uniforms pictured above. The clothes are provided free to the drivers, but they face a fine if they don't wear them. Read more...

by Paul Pennay, image Simon Lim




Despite the introduction of a range of measures intended to improve the Beijing's air quality earlier this month, for the past four days measures of the the city's air pollution index (API) have remained above the official target of 100. According to this report in today's China Daily, in the event that the capital's air quality fails to improve by the time the games begin, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau has drawn up emergency plans to implement even stricter air quality-control measures. The measures could see up to 90% of vehicles removed from the roads, all construction sites and more factories closed. Read more...

It seems that Avril Lavigne is going to be the first major international music act to perform in Beijing after the Olympics. CRI reports that the Canadian singer has added six China dates on to the tail end of her The Best Damn Tour 2008. Although there is still no confirmation of the dates on her official website, Emma/Ticketmaster have already posted information about the Oct 4 Shanghai show on their website. Tickets to the Shanghai gig will go on sale tomorrow. Lavigne will perform in Beijing on Oct 6, though we're still not sure at which venue. Her other China dates include Macau on Sep 26, Shenzhen on Sep 28, Chengdu on Sep 30 and in addition to the Shanghai show, an interesting stop over in Lijiang on October 2.

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Olympic Ticketing

Following on from yesterday's post about the swell of crowds that gathered to get their hands on what appears to be the last of the Olympic Tickets, although the Official Spectators Guide (you can finally download the English version here) does mention something about tickets to events also going on sale three days prior to the start of the event, we can now tell you that tickets to all of these events have already sold out. A report on the Official Beijing 2008 Olympics’ website mentions that there are still tickets available for athletics and baseball at the main ticket booths of Beijing Olympic Center, hockey at the Olympic Green ticketing booth, volleyball at the Capital Indoor Stadium, handball at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium and boxing at Beijing Workers' Gymnasium. For full details of sessions available and links to maps of the various ticket booths, see the comments section of this earlier post.

More Visa Problems

Reports of another tightening on visa rules began to emerge this past week. It seems that the restrictions mainly apply to foreigners who are trying to visit China on a business visa during the Olympics. One article, referencing the Associated Press, quotes a Beijing government official as saying "Beijing has suspended approval of business invitation letters for visits to the capital unless the trip was for signing a contract. Visas would not be issued until after September 20 for attending conferences, visiting factories or other negotiations." The Australian has more details.

Air Quality

BOCOG hosted a press conference devoted to revealing more details about the city’s efforts in controlling air pollution at the Main Press Center (MPC) earlier this morning. The official report makes for some interesting reading.

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The above photo was taken on July 16 and is part of a great 24-image gallery that was published on Boston.com earlier this week. You can view the rest of the gallery at Beijing 2008 Preparations - Three Weeks to Go

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According to Reuters and local media reports, a crowd of 40,000 people swamped the main ticket booth of the Olympic Stadium early this morning. Reuters report that tempers started to flare as the heat built up over the morning and that security began to remove anyone they considered too "aggressive" from the lines. Reporters also recorded long lines at other Olympic venues, including over at the west gate of the Workers' Stadium where people queued for the last of the Olympic football tickets. To give you some idea of what it's like, the above video was taken yesterday at Wukesong!

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A familiar site in malls and airports around the world, the Auntie Anne's pretzel chain has now landed in Beijing. Adopting the Chinese name Anti'an (安缇安), the franchise opened their first store in Zhongguancun's Gate Mall (right by Jackie Chan's café) about two weeks ago. According to one forum user, the "almond encrusted soft pretzel with caramel sauce" sells for 12 kuai. They're set to open a second outlet in Yansha Mall in the next few weeks. However, we're still not sure how to say pretzel in Chinese.

Auntie Anne's
Daily 10am-10pm. Bldg M, 1/F, The Gate Mall, 19 Zhongguancun Nandajie (just south of the Zhongguancun Carrefour), Haidian District (no tel) www.thegate.cn
安缇安, 海淀区中关村大街19号新中关购物中心1层M楼

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Riviera Pool Party

After what appears to be a long history of organizing pool parties down south, the Rivera people have woken up to the fact that Beijing is in need of some cooling off this summer and have organized their first pool party in Beijing. Originally scheduled to take place last Saturday, due to the capital's unpredictable weather, the first of what will become a regular Saturday event, was postponed to this coming Saturday, Jul 26. They promise tunes, sunshine and Mumm Champagne and advise people to come dressed in "glam swimwear". More details available here. RMB 100 (includes one glass of Champagne).
1pm-midnight. Sunstyle (6431 0020)

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Ever wondered why Liu Xiang can run so fast? Why Guo Jingjing is so agile and can enter the water so smoothly? Why the Chinese women's basketball team spikes the ball so well? The answer was inadvertently revealed on CCTV last night. A report that followed Chinese president Hu Jintao and a few other party and government representatives as they toured the training facilities of China's Olympic athletes leaked the tightly kept secret that has puzzled competitors for decades. While some have put the achievements of various Chinese athletes down to a mixture of a grueling training regime, innate ability, rising living standards and perhaps even (see the adidas ads) the support of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens, we can finally reveal what the secret ingredient really is. The video editors had been doing so well too, they'd edited out the "secret move" from the China's synchronized swimming team's performance for Hu, so that competitors wouldn't be able to cull any clues as to what wonderful and unimagined moves the girls are going to be pulling out come August. They also remembered to make sure that the men's basketball team were seated when they chatted to the officials, but they forgot to snip one important section from Hu Jintao's visit to the athlete's canteen.

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Today's New York Times features an in-depth article about the much discussed transformation of Beijing's old hutong districts. The story is accompanied by a slide show and a detailed map. It also links to a related article about foreigners who are renovating their own siheyuan in the capital, which also comes with an accompanying slide show.

Another place to find some well-researched and authoritative writing on the changing face of Beijing is the latest issue of China Heritage Quarterly. The issue is titled Beijing, the Invisible City and as the introductory essay explains,

At a time when the city of Beijing is more visible than at any point in its dynastic, Republican or recent history, we consider the heritage of invisible Beijing, aspects of the city that cannot so readily be discerned. This issue is also about a Beijing unrealized, as well as the lost city and its heritages.

It also features some amazing photos from Lois Conner (above).

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To help you keep track of all the changes going on around town, we present you with the first, in what will hopefully become a regular series, Beijing Digest. We aim to offer interesting, funny and useful snippets about what's going on around town.

Olympic Tickets

People started queuing for Olympic tickets more than 40 hours before they go on sale at 9am this coming Friday. The Beijing News reports that a 25-year-old guy from Dongbei was at the head of the line, arriving at the ticketing booth at about noon yesterday. By 11pm last night, more than 400 people were camped out at the main ticketing booth. Those who fear that they now have no hope of getting their hands on a ticket, can breathe a sigh of relief as the official ticketing agency will not release all the tickets on the first day and each customer is limited to a purchase of two tickets. For more details of how to get tickets, who is eligible and what's available, see this earlier post.

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