July 2012

the Beijinger – August 2012: The Hair Issue

Beijing’s a scary place. Expats have to deal with the language barrier, the throngs of people, and the obnoxious pop music blasting away at full volume – and that’s just the hair salons.

In all seriousness, whether you’re here in Beijing for a good time or a long time, there comes a day when you wake up and realize that you’re overdue for a haircut. Where to go? Who to trust?

Some people (our staff included) are too scared to even enter the local hair salons for fear of what ills may come. This is no way for anyone to live, so we’ve spoken to the city’s top stylists for advice. We’ve also put together a cheat sheet of hair care vocabulary so that you can make yourself understood in a Chinese salon. Facial hair has not been neglected – we’ve put our necks on the line by asking various barbers for an old-fashioned wet shave. Basically, we’re putting you on a fast track to follicle finery. It’s all here in The Hair Issue. We want you to look your sharpest.

What’s going on in the rest of the issue? In the FOOD & DRINK section, you’ll find a DIY guide to cooking your own chuanr in the Dining Feature. We also go for a drink with Shane O’Neill, Beijing’s only classic-barber-slash-DJ, hear about Brendan O’Kane’s apocalyptic final meal and put ice teas to the taste test. We also spotlight ice cream sandwiches, sober sips and all of the best new bars and restaurants.

Our GO section is packed with haircare gadgets and apps, and reviews of new shops and venues around town. We give you an overview of the uptown gypsy trend, a preview of white-collar boxing, a feature on real-life Escape-the-Room games and the biggest giveaways we’ve ever managed to squash into a single issue. The size of these prizes will make your hair stand on end.

Meanwhile, we have a few more people we’d like you to MEET. Cocktail wizard Paul Mathew mixes tunes instead of drinks, Elements’ Cici Fang divulges the skeletons in her wardrobe, curly-haired Hutong head Josh Kernan shows us his bookshelf and CRI’s Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer tries to prove how clever he is. We’ve also taken a lesson in Britishness, gotten some dating advice, chatted with two top-class Brit Lit authors and tried to puzzle out the Chinese Olympic stars.

Plus, there’s Ecology telling us about Chinese business going green, the Peking Man’s worst salon experience, and enough Events and Directory to guarantee that your weekends are never as flat as a cabbie’s buzz cut.
Get a copy around town or read it right here, right now.

the Beijinger – July 2012: Get Out Of Town

It’s the perfect time of the year to get out of the city – even if it is just for a few hours. We sent our intrepid street team out into the field to take on Beijing’s best field trips. If you ever wanted to find out more about bees, learn the secrets of watermelons or spend an hour nun-spotting, then we’re here to school you and offer you the daycation of your dreams.

Look past the Cover Feature and you’ll see a very different issue of the Beijinger than ever before. And we're not just referring to the fact that we’re jam-packed with brand-new content every month. The July 2012 issue marks the debut of our brand-new design. Allow us to explain.

We've been seeking your opinion and counsel in the form of reader surveys and online feedback. We’ve listened to what you have asked for and we’ve rolled it all up into one handy-to-use magazine.

We’ve expanded our Food & Drink content – in fact, we’ve even combined the two into a super-section. One that includes reviews of 12 new bars and restaurants, a Dining Feature on picnicking in Peking, a Drinks Feature on better qi through cocktails, and a Taste Test of fruity ice pops.

Most differently, we’ve got new sections:

Go is our catch-all section for everything that you can go do in Beijing. It could be shopping, live music, sports, photography, anything at all. This month, we put air filter masks through their paces, we give one lucky reader RMB 7,000 of Muay Thai lessons and we meet our new Instagramming friends at IgersBeijing. We’re also giving away tickets to Yen’s 8th Anniversary, we're getting the Americana look for the Fourth of July and we’ve sharpened up on our knife skills.

Meet is our new section filled with interviews, profiles and Q&As with the people who matter in Beijing. This month we catch up with 8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman, we chat with a trio of Brazilians crazy enough to attempt Beijing to London over land, and novelist Sheng Keyi tells us about the trouble with breasts. We’ve also got Adam Goodman’s Playlist, we’ve found the skeletons in DJ Blackie’s closet in Uniformity and we peek at a pastor’s passages in Bookshelf.

Lastly, there’s even more Events and Directory listings than ever before so you’ll know what to do and where to do it. Get a copy around town or read it right here, right now.