Red Beijing

My friends and I went to Beijing last week for a four-day trip. One night, we decided to explore the city a bit, to see what it's like when most of the tourists have gone to their hotel rooms, tired from all the walking and touring they did for the day.




From our hotel near Forbidden City, we walked towards Wangfujing to check out the street food at Wangfujing Market. Now, Wangfujing is a shopping center so the neon lights-lit area's dotted by bright, shiny, colorful stores. Save for the old folks dancing in groups (there are so many of them in Beijing), the area looked pretty much like any shopping district in any developed/developing world.

After eating dumplings, fried silk worms (ugh) and a spider that cost US$14 (!) we walked back to our hotel, this time, taking a different, quieter route. If the previous route felt like being in Singapore/HK/Makati, this one felt like being in the residential area of Malate. Like this old Manila suburb, this particular part of Beijing was serene, had wide, tree-lined streets and old houses sandwiched in between relatively newer ones. Except that Beijing emitted this red glow.

at the Alley Cafe