"Sports bar" could mean different things to different people

To some, a sports bar is where you'd go to watch a game

To others its a place where people go play bar sports (pool, foosball, darts and the like)

Cuju was the former

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Absolutely ecstatic to hear Arrival will be arriving Jan 20!

After careful inspection of the international trailer (not the one linked),  I can only hope the PLA's air force blows a giant hole in what can only be described as a giant floating metallic tangerine slice -- take that you alien scum!

Hell, I'm even willing to overlook the fact that the movie poster has Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower superimposed in what is Hong Kong's skyline.

"with at least six months of validity" - can confirm this...

I tried to apply just last week upon returning to Beijing...I literally was 5 months and so many days (22 I think) till Visa renewal and the duty manager refused to let me apply Sad

wondering if, after Visa renewal, pending on you using the same passport (same passport number) will you still get through the gates?

W

admin:

It's # 6. We're looking to do a primer on non-taxi transport and I've already mentioned it to our editors. Would love your input on the article (in fact, if you'd like for the work credit, it would be great to run it under your name -- happy to pay you our standard freelance rate to run it as well. Contact me at info@truerun.com)

Cool! I'll be in touch!

But I gotta say some things so my message doesn't get lost in the noise and so we're talking TO rather than PAST each other...so this comment will be mostly corrections...

admin:

Your original statement "this article is biased because this kind of behavior happens in many places around the world, and other places in Beijing or in China, so it's unnecessary to just focus on Beijing Airport" still makes no sense to me.

If I ever make an original statement like that, slap me. This was not my statement. If you check my comment again, you'll notice the quotation marks around it, and the attribution to the poster "i am here". That was a quote from "i am here" that I was responding to without using the blockquote function. My answer to "i am here" is under the requote of his comment. I'll happily own the fault for not making it more obvious. "It happens everywhere so don't focus on it" is a stupid derail at best, and a disingenuous excuse to do nothing at worst. "It happens everywhere so don't focus on it" is crazy talk. Again, this was not my statement, and it makes no sense to me either.

admin:

--> Dude. First, people actually use London's bad air to excuse Beijing's bad air? No.

Yes, in fact i hear it all the time from private individuals and government sources, and have for years.

My statement was:

Dude. First, people actually use London's bad air to excuse Beijing's bad air? No. Nobody credible says that. It was awful then and it's awful now, and we need to deal with it loudly, publicly, and angrily.

Nobody credible uses London's bad air to excuse Beijing's bad air, as in, it is not a credible argument to say that one justifies the other. Pollution is pollution, and it needs to be fixed, period. When I hear people say "but the UK", I hear them saying "I want to choke like the British". Smog is caused by three very simple things - greed, corruption, and a disregard for human life. That was the case in London, and it's the case in Beijing. Any tools that stop those three things and make people healthier, be they reporting, consumer action, shaming, propaganda, regulations, or any other tools in the box are acceptable, biases and China's hurt feelings be damned. Report the hell out of it until China gets its act together and stops.

This is a derail anyway, and I was trying to call it out for being one. The subject is the mafia-run late-night taxi scams at BJ Capital T2, and how that should be dealt with, and that's what I'd like us to stay focused on.

We are thebeijinger.com. Almost everything we do is about Beijing, with the exception of the occasional travel story, and even then we try to write it with a Beijing angle.

It's our mission to talk about Beijing, not about other places. That's why we almost never run the clickbait claptrap from other cities in China that Shanghaiist and That's love to jump on ("Zhejiang MILF Exposes Tits to Bank Teller!" "Look at These Super Cute Pandas Born in Chengdu!" or something like that because it simply has no connection to Beijing.)

To say that we should not be singlemindedly focused on Beijing and Beijing only would be going against the funademental defining characteristic of our business: and that is we are a blog about Beijing.

To me to say we should not single out Beijing's airport is like saying we should not mention bad service in a Beijing restaurant because bad service happens elsewhere around the world. A cockroach leg in your salad is a cockroach leg in your salad, whether its served to you in Beijing or in Paris.

I agree, and I say your mission is to focus on Beijing. I think you wrote this because you misread my comment (I was QUOTING "i am here", not agreeing with him/her), but I want you to know that I'm with you on this. "thebeijinger.com", it couldn't be much clearer.

That's it for my corrections. I'll be back to flesh out my responses to

Nope, you missed it. We reported on it December 5 of last year (the new standards took place on Dec 15). We also reported on the test plan that incorporates the areas surrounding Beijing almost a year ago in February of 2015. The Chinese news aggregators for the most part ignored the announcement of the new standards last month because the AQI was 60 on Dec 5 and therefore it was at one of those days that people like to pretend its not happening, and therefore the story didn't go viral.

and

PatrickLi's comment

later today/tomorrow.

Appreciate the feedback nishta. I really do think it's an interesting spot and that Badr is doing very neat stuff with it.

That said, I'm always looking for new places to cover. What are your top picks for sports bars in Beijing? And when it comes to other sorts of venues, if you had to pick a few overlooked or underappreciated gems, what would they be?

The guy's creative, always up to something new, and takes the time to let us know about it.

You'd be surprised how few bars fail at even that basic task (some places Have had the same happy hour promotion for a year or more running -- or don't do anything at all new -- which makes the same Hutong Hideaway hard to write about more than once.)

Our writers are always looking for new things to write about, and when you're as active as Badr is in trying out new things, then you get written about.

Same applies for every bar out there: do something fresh and creative and let us know about it and we're likely gonna eat that right up.

 

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

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My comment was directed at the website staff, not you. Obviously you'll defend your business. But since you took time to write I'll respond: I appreciate as much as the next man when a business goes out of their way to provide a service. But if crowds don't come then something must be wrong? Maybe one of the things that was wrong is that a sportsbar comes with an atmosphere, that Cuju lacked. You call it unconventional, fair enough. But my point was about the awards, and an unconventional somewhat underground poorly populated bar doesn't qualify for "best sportsbar". This being said, my not being impressed is with the website, not with you. Best of luck with your new venture, sincerely.

As for the ridicusoulsy partial coverage, well it is it ridiculously partial, effectively killing all credibility this site can have when it comes to covering expat places. And in case you hadn't realized, Thebeijinger coverage of Badr Benjelloun is the butt of many jokes around the hutongs these days.

nishta wrote:

Why in hell do you cover this man so much? Between the constant -and much exaggerated- lauding and the questionable awards (sportsbar, really? been to a proper sportsbar before?) it's kind of a blow to your already very low credibility... Sad

I don't usually comment on personal things and won't even go there as far as coverage or cult of personality. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. That said, on the sports side, I beg very much to differ!

When for the better part of 4 years you stay open day in day out, sometimes all night long, giving people a reliable place to watch sports that range from cricket to american football with handball, hockey, tennis and god knows what in between, it qualifies you a sports bar.

When you're there all season long open for games no matter how little crowd they draw so that people can get their fix, and not only during finals and big games, it qualifies you as a sports bar.

Sure enough, cuju was always an unconventional sports bar but it did what most so called "sports bars" couldn't do until recently.

Disagree all you want with merits and whatever... like i mentioned above. Opinions are like arse-holes, everyone is entitled to one.

Cuju was a sports bar and that's not an opinion, that's a fact.

Cheers

I used the electronic channel Tuesday afternoon. There were about 200 people in line for normal customs clearance. There were five for the e-channel. It was done so quickly that when I reached the other side, I was shocked. 

One important note: if you require a visa stamp or record of entry for some reason, like a visa renewal, then you may need to go to the duty desk and ask them to print one for you. Unlike the Hong Kong system, which automatically prints a receipt that indicates you entered the Hong Kong SAR, the PRC system doesn't do this automatically. 

Other than that, it's a dream. I took the train to the main terminal and bought a couple of things at duty-free, and by the time I got to the baggage carousel, the luggage still hadn't started coming out yet. Register at your earliest convenience.

Strangely, I feel the city has become a little more livelier with a crime story like this. Not sure if it's me way too influenced by the American cultural obessession with crime stories. Anyways, I kinda feel more optimistic about the country's future with these delinquent youths --- at least better than a horde of brainwashed wumaos. 

youisatroll wrote:

Reality check, the site your writing for is full of reviews with questionable legitamacy so maybe you shouldn't cast stones towards dianping for an affliction both dianping and thebeijinger share.  If the CTO or CEO of True Run wanted to they could cut down on the "fake" users through more stringent registration of accounts by verifying phone numbers, ID's etc. (though this system isn't perfect it is fairly effective and better than doing nothing, kind of like the "pull-out" method).  Initially, thebeijinger would take a noticeable hit in traffic by banning unverifiable accounts since their forum, reviews and comments sections would grow a lot quiter because let's face it, it's like 1,000 trolls and admin on here.  But in the long run maybe it'd be for the best?  In the meantime I'll keep logging in under various anonymous profiles and talking @$%#......

If a troll trolls, does that negate the trollness?

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BB wrote:

Nice recipe, great photos. However, "zifa mianfen" is not plain flour, it is self-raising flour. The big clue is in the name. 自发 iterally means "Self firing" 

So you want self-raising or plain? Because thats a pretty important difference, self-raising has added baking powder for rise.  

Apologies, I've corrected it, this should be plain flour (饺子粉 jiǎozifěn)

 

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