The Beijinger – August 2014: The Great Outdoors
Our August issue is an ode to the many glorious and varied outdoor locations around the city and the things you can do there. It might not always be at its best, but when Beijing smiles its iconic locations are the envy of the world. Camping and hiking are two subjects we called on some friends of the Beijinger to help us out with, but we took care of the shooting, archery and golfing as well as preparing the perfect summer picnic.
Elsewhere, we checked out what all the fuss is about at the city's busiest restaurants – some of them don't seem worth the queues. Kipp Whittaker and his brave buddies tried the "pick" of convenience store packet chicken leg options – truly disgusting, and Jessica Rapp discovered some of the more exotic ingredients at play in Beijing's cocktails.
We spent a lovely day wandering around West Gulou with DJ Peipei Sun, scoured the interwebs for the best camping equipment on the market, and got the latest on the timely demise of shark fin soup.
We also bring you a pick of the best new F&B places in town. We checked out the new Pizza Express in Sanlitun, as well as Patois and the incomparable Un Livre cafe. We got boozy at new cocktail joint Maltail, and took in the selection at Java+ Terrace as well as Yin Bar at New World Hotel. We tried our hand at hula dancing and checked out the latest bespoke men's fashion store to hit town. Dining Editor Robynne Tindall tells us about her culinary capers beyong the 38th parallel, and we spoke to Shagi Defoe and Hannah Ren about being cool.
We grabbed a word with Ellie Goulding before her Beijing concert on the 14th and spoke to DJ Boflex, Alec Ash and Diana Hu. Finally, Peking Man gives us his ideas on how to keep the subway nice and affordable at RMB 2.
As usual, we bring you our handpicked choices of the best things to do in the city in August.
Look for the magazine around town and don't forget: the Beijinger's latest incarnation is optimized for reading on iPads; you can download it directly from our website or browse this month's edition on Issuu.com.