the Beijinger

Yes, we know it's not actually Tuesday, but due to the fact that The Incredible Hulk is being released today, we've held our regular Tuesday film roundup back to today. Keep reading below for a comprehensive list of all the films showing around town this Wednesday.

First the bad news, after Julian Marley’s show last Saturday at Star Live a lot of people have been looking forward to the Sean Paul show that we listed in the August issue of the Beijinger as taking place at Star Live on Aug 23. Star Live have since informed us that the show has been cancelled. Fortunately, the post Olympic live music scene is starting to shape up and a lot of big-name international acts are going to be passing through town in the coming months.

Sep 4
George Benson & Al Jarreau
With 18 Grammy awards and over eight decades of performance between them, George Benson & Al Jarreau are touring together in support of their highly acclaimed album Givin’ It Up. RMB 380-1,280.
8pm. Beijing Exhibition Theater (6835 4455)
 

Sep 25
Kanye West
It seems that everyone from British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe through to China's most famous piano impresario and star of the Olympic opening ceremony Lang Lang is a fan of rapper/producer Kanye West. He’s coming to Beijing as part of his Glow in the Dark tour. Accompanying him will be an eight-man backing band, DJ Craze and special guest star Will Pan. If you can’t make the Beijing show, he’ll also be performing in Shanghai. RMB 280-1680 (tentative).
Time TBA. Fengtai Stadium (6381 1576)

Qianmen Dajie

After extensive renovation Qianmen Dajie has arisen from the construction dust as a Qing Dynasty Disney with only a few laozihao shops and restaurants to keep it going. At the northern end two trams provide the first photo stop, with posing and cries of “qiezi” also culminating from outside the Quanjude further south of the Dang Dang Che. As over ninety percent of the shop fronts currently lie vacant, the street only really offers one very long photo opportunity, if you’re after some shopping turn right onto Dazhalan (Beijingers say da shi lan'r), however, card-carrying philatelists should continue down to number 84 for the China Post Philately Hall. Unfortunately, we found that the few restaurants on the strip had already been booked out for lunch by 11.30am on a Tuesday, so it’s best to eat elsewhere. Although tea and jade stores seek to be the main draw, we preferred the scattered old black and white photographs, birdcage streetlights and door stone trashcans.

Liu Xiang's exit from the 110m hurdles due to injury left audiences shocked.

Just a little over half way through the games and China has already surpassed the number of gold medals they won in Athens.

Authorities are stepping up their attempts to prevent any scalping of tickets at Olympic venues and that applies to foreign scalpers too.

Last week as part of a roundup of ways to get your hands on Olympic tickets, we mentioned a Beijing resident calledXiong Wei who was his ten Olympic tickets to anyone who was willing to give up smoking. The People's Daily have details of the people Mr Xiong decided to give his tickets to, the list includes a 14-year-old girl from Hunan.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the zeal displayed by Olympic organizers in making sure that non-sponsors are not getting a chance to display their logos at the games. According to the report,

in media centers, dormitories and arena bathrooms, pieces of tape cover logos of fire extinguishers, light switches, thermostats, bedroom night tables, soap dispensers and urinals.

To coincide with Beijing's Green Olympics, Immersion Guides has teamed up with wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC and Beijing-based conservation NGO Shan Shui Center for Nature and Society to bring you the Beijing Green Guide.

With detailed information in both English and Chinese, the Beijing Green Guide takes Immersion Guides' most accurate, up-to-date city map ever and combines it with TRAFFIC and Shan Shui’s knowledge of all things green in Beijing to show you the best, most environmentally friendly places to eat, sightsee and shop.

Come the Games, come the parties. They dubbed it the "No-fun Olympics,” but after waking up this morning with a couple of snow leopards, a mariachi band and a Cadillac parked in my front room, I beg to differ. Beijing is awash with parties, events and more beer than I can get my clammy little hands on – no wonder there are so many empty seats at the Olympic venues. But before my liver quits and I’m lost to an August of indignity and iniquity, I’ll give you an update of the goings on and ongoings at some of Beijing’s hottest Olympic party spots. Well, two of Beijing's hottest party spots – The Heineken House and Club Bud. These two places have two things in common: a hop-based beverage and location. But other than this, they're very different venues.

photo Daniel Schwartz

booking DANCE FESTIVAL beijing 2008

Beijing Modern Dance Company, as well as artists from the prestigious National Ballet of China, will be performing alongside some of the most innovative dance companies from America including Odyssey Dance Theater (Salt Lake City, UT), Kim Robards Dance Company (Denver, CO), and Silver-Brown Dance Company (New York, NY). Styles will vary from contemporary ballet and modern dance to hip-hop. RMB 120, 180 and 60 for students. For additional details, visit the official site. Tickets available through this site or on 6417 7845.
7.30pm, and a 2pm performance on Sat, Aug 16. Chaoyang Culture Center/TNT Theater (8599 6011)

The festival begins tonight and we thought it timely to reproduce Alice Woodhouse's interview with festival organizer Alison Friedman which first appeared in the latest Aug 14-27 edition of agenda.

Listen in for the the Beijinger's picks for the best events going on in town this week. Deputy managing editor Lisa Liang gives us some tips about attending Olympic events, Jessica Wang fills you in on which celebrities are staying where and the best places to go to spot a VIP. Matt P. Jager recommends the Mr. Salud Beauty Pagent and agenda editor Iain Shaw recommends some quality music shows including the Julian Marley show at Star Live on Saturday.

Keep listening as Martin Connelly finds out what Beijingers think about different country's Olympic chances at the Beijing Olympics as part of this weeks Vox Box. You can also win a bottle of vodka on Friday night if you enter in our trivia challenge and send the correct answer to Lisa's question to podcast@thebeijinger.com before noon on Thursday.

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.

Weren't in town for round one? Thought you skip the rigmarole of round two and just buy direct in round three? Get caught on a page that never finished loading during stage three? Only find out about round four when it was too late? Whatever the cause, you now have to endure countless conversations revolving around who's got what and are forced to listen as friends and colleagues brag about that great game of beach volleyball they watched last night or how they're really looking forward to watching the 110m hurdles live. To add salt to the wound, when you watch the games on TV you see hundreds of empty seats smiling mockingly at you from the screen! No matter how it came about, if you've found yourself in the Olympic city without a ticket and you still want to see some events, keep reading below for some tips of how to get close to the action:

If you're not so obsessed with the Games that you have to see everything on a live feed or if the various online options are proving difficult to access, you can always keep track of the various highlights of the days events on Youtube's Summer Games Channel. The collection of videos includes news, recaps of the days highlights, athlete profiles and a series of clips on the "color and culture of Beijing" from various mainstream European and American media sources that include: Associated Press, The New York Times, Getty Images, Reuters, Euronews, France 24 and others. Naturally the roundups tend to focus on the medals won by athletes from the country of the broadcaster and the "color and culture" videos are a little cheesy. If you turn down the volume on the above video, you can enjoy some nice shots of Beijing's Underground City which is reported to be closed during the Olympic period. For more information on Beijing's hidden underground world, see Eric Abrahamsen's description of his trip to the tunnels below Nanluogu Xiang over at Beijing by Foot blog or if you can wait till Friday, go and buy Beijing by Foot itself.

I took a brief glance at two of the Chinese Youtube equivalents, Youku and Tudou, but they don't appear to be offering a similar channel, however, Tudou does have a special channel devoted to all thingsBeijing called 北京这个城市 Beijing zhege Chengshi.

Red Cliff Breaks Record

By passing the RMB 300 million mark, the first installment of Red Cliff has surpassed Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower to become the highest grossing domestically produced film in Chinese history. The films producers have hopes that it just might pass the RMB 360 million mark and knock Titanic of its perch to become China's highest ever grossing film.

Mummy 3 Popular in HK and Taiwan

But it hasn't been getting very good reviews. The China release date is now set for September 2.

Faye Wong Pregnant

According to China Daily Faye Wong (Wanf Fei) was recently crowned the Sexiest Asian Vegetarian in the world. Well now you can make that the Sexiest Pregnant Asian Vegetarian, with gossip mags reporting that the celebrity and her husband Li Yapeng (who was recently caught on film kicking paparazzi) are expecting a second child. China Daily's gossip columnist reports that Wong's husband Li Yapeng was so excited by the news that he went out for a night on the town in Beijing and was spotted at Coco Banana.

Keep reading below for a comprehensive list of all the films showing around town this half-price Tuesday.

Films Around Town

Screening Times for Films in Beijing – Tuesday Aug 12

The hottest kitchens in town are the ones where you get involved. With a ton of new restaurants opening each day, diners are looking for a new experience – and I don't mean one with good service and food, Beijing already has that. Cooking classes where diners meet other like-minded foodies while enjoying a scrumptious meal afterwards has attracted a huge following. A few favorites include Hutong Cooking, Black Sesame Kitchen - www.blacksesamekitchen.com, Chef at Work, and The Hutong, all of which are set inside traditional Chinese courtyards. They offer relaxing environments, experienced chefs, and a chance to put your cooking skills to the test. So what are you waiting for? Get ready, get set, cook!

But if you’re looking for some prepared food, head to the newest branch of El Fogoncito on Dongdaqiao Lu – this Mexican restaurant dishes up some of the city's best burritos, tostadas and tacos. Huajia Yiyuan, a fantastic restaurant that has made a name for its exceptionally well-prepared home-styled cuisine, has also opened a new branch on Jianguo Lu across from Wanda Plaza. One of the Beijinger staff's favorite Cantonese finds, Herbal Cafe, will open another branch in the new Sanlitun Village. This healthy Cantonese restaurant serves herbal teas and an assortment of dim sums that is always fresh and always good. The beloved Element Fresh from Shanghai will also make its debut in Sanlitun Village this month, dishing up healthy recipes with fresh ingredients for the health-conscience eaters out there.

Update: NBC have also published a photo gallery of images from last Friday's Opening Ceremony.

Over at ESWN you can find some amazing images of the ceremony plus some translations of some responses from Chinese bloggers. Shanghaiist has collected some videos of the ceremony as captured by people on the street in various locations and also offer a handy compendium of news reports and initial reactions to the event from media around the world. Chinese blogger Wang Jianshuo has made some interesting observations and explanations about the finer details of the ceremony that you might have missed the first time round. Also, if you thought that really cool shot of the fireworks exploding along the central axis of Beijing was fake - you were right.

When the new number 10 subway line opened last month, it was without a wireless and phone network that would allow passengers to receive a signal on the mobiles, it also meant that the nice flat screen TVs wouldn't be able to screen live feeds of Olympic events. The hardware had all been built, but according to news reports, mobile phone providers China Mobile and China Unicom were unable to reach any kind of agreement with the Beijing Subway Company. However, as of yesterday it appears that the three parties have come to some kind of agreement that will at least see mobile phone coverage along line 10 during the Olympics. Today's Beijing newspapers report that people were able to receive a signal from both China Mobile and China Daily while traveling on line 10 yuesterday.

If you do take a spin on the new line, it might be worth keeping an eye out, todays Beijing News has an article about a woman who was injured by a section of the plaster roof falling on her at the C2 exit of Sanyuan Qiao station. For a detailed map of the new line check out this new site or visit David Feng's Beijingology or CN Reviews. The latter site features a handy how-to guide for anyone still confused by the new swipe card system, a similar guide can also be found on the official Beijing government website.

Speaking of line 10, I thought this would be a good chance to republish this helpful little guide to the new subway line that Jennifer Conrad put together for the August issue of the Beijinger magazine.

So, it's almost 10am and the swimming finals are about to start. If work demands that you have to be in the office, you can still watch live feeds of the events online. CN Reviews have done a nice little roundup of various sites that are broadcasting events in both English (NBC) and Chinese (CCTV , Sina etc) – you can take a look at it here. If you run into technical difficulties, maybe look for a Suning store by your office.

Confused by the schedule on the Official Beijing Olympics site? Take a look at the NYTimes events tracker which has any easy to use interface and gives you the option of viewing local or US times. Also, if you're a not a regular reader of the print version of China Daily, it might be worth getting your hands on a copy as they've been including a handy big pull out schedule of which are events are being screened on the three Chinese channels broadcasting events.

"Jiayou Zhongguo! Jiayou Aouyonghui!" so goes the official Beijing Olympic chant. Testament to the One World, One Dream mantra of this year's Games, it's a Korean who has been charged with teaching these words (plus a few nifty dance moves) to some of China's top cheerleaders. Cho Soojin is her name, and this August her girls will be performing at two of the Games' biggest events.

Cho established herself as go-to girl for cheerleading in China after her squad of dancers turned heads at the 2002 World Cup. The use of Chinese elements in their dance and costume attracted a lot of positive attention, and since then her studio, Soojin Dance, was designated the official cheerleader-training center for the CBA from 2002-2004.

the Beijinger met this hot Korean cheerleader captain to talk about her unusual career.

the Beijinger: You started your career as a gymnast, how did you get into coaching cheerleading in China?

I originally brought RMB 40,000 with me to come to Beijing Language Culture University to learn Chinese. I planned to spend only half a year in China, but I really liked Chinese culture. I am an extrovert, but in South Korea women are not allowed to [behave like] this … I feel more comfortable in China. I soon noticed that there were no cheerleaders in China, so I decided to organize my own cheerleading squad. In the beginning I taught classes in the park for free.

Sitting and watching sport just isn't as easy as it used to be. Owing to the strict security measures being taken at this year's Games, there are a number of no-nos that spectators should keep in mind when attending events. While the more obvious ones are stated on the official Beijing 2008 website, those who attended any of the Good Luck test events will know that they need to leave more than their crossbow and collection of daggers at home to gain entry to Olympic venues.

For example, don't think about packing a picnic, since food and drinks cannot be taken into venues. Nor, it seems, can sunscreen. Lube up beforehand and take along a long-sleeved shirt to protect your from the August sun. Conversely, Beijing at this time of year can be a rather rainy place, but forget about bringing an umbrella (umbrellas, it seems, fall under the same category as crossbows and daggers). A poncho should be attire of choice when the clouds roll in. Discerning ladies should carefully consider what they pack in their vanity cases. Security officers are likely to take umbrage with items such as nail scissors/clippers, or anything else that could be deemed as sharp and stabby, no matter how small. Flags are allowed, providing they're not attached to a flagpole measuring one meter or over (anything bigger could be misinterpreted for a clobbering stick). They shouldn't be too big, nor should they represent a country that's not taking part in the Games. It's probably not worth taking any flags adorned with words or lettering, no matter how innocent. With all the rifling through bags that’s likely to take place at the gates, expect queues. Venues are open two hours prior to the beginning of events, so get there early.

Avoid Nanluogu Xiang The Dongcheng District authorities plans to show off our cool little Houhai redux as a designated Olympic Lane (no one knows what this means), so expect this place to be swamped with out-of-towners.

Just don't leave your house, okay? You should have already charged up your electricity meter, and your balcony ought to be stocked with enough booze, chow, and water cooler refill jugs to last you through the closing ceremonies.

But if you have to venture into the madness …

Speak Chinese Even if you can’t.

You’re an expatriate. You can read faces and expressions, and respond accordingly. It'll impress the visitors, if no one else. Also, sprinkle your English with Beijinghua.