Posts from ‘November, 2008’

Well, everyone knows whatever figures the Chinese government releases, they don’t really reflect any reality. But still, I was amazed at the “official” figure of the number of infected AIDS patients. 44,389 people are being reported to be infected with the deadly disease from January to September this year, among which 6,897 people were killed [...]

Yaohe basically means peddler’s call. In old times when Beijing was covered by Hutongs, food and crafts vendors used to use various types of peddlers’ call to sell their goods and services. People could judge the different kinds of goods and services just by the tune. The vendors also tried very hard to make their [...]

You must be thinking, why are you teaching us how to say “buy soysouce”? What does that have to do with the fun of the new Chinese vocabulary? Well, you will re-consider this question after reading the post.
“Da” as a verb originally means “beat and hit”. But we normally use it with the meaning “buy [...]

Hey, we are going to continue our vocabulary lessons with a few more interesting words and phrases.
If you are learning Chinese, you must understand what “dai” means. Have a look at the character, can you imagine a person standing straight, not saying anything and not doing anything? Yes, that’s what “dai” means, dumb, logi, and [...]

Pirated movies vanished all of a sudden from video stores before the Olympic Games. Life became more suffering and dull, until 2 days ago, I found they are now all coming back. Life is full of hope again. You may say this is wrong, I should not buy pirated movies. But please hear me out [...]

On my way to dinner I stumbled upon a food stall selling various roast food. I was pretty hungry at the time but had absolutely no gut or appetite to try these:

Cicada Pupas (I searched a lot on the web to find its English name).

Scorpions in assorted sizes and colors.
Actually you can find more of [...]

Drop of housing price is the hottest topic on the news these days. I guess this is one of the Olympics after effects, which has happened in a lot of Olympic host cities before.
The Beijing 2008 Autumn Realty Exhibition gave the developers a lot of hope. The government’s new measures aimed at exhilerating market needs [...]

Hey, I know the topic is a little tricky. I’m from Beijing, the city just hosted the latest Olympics, and I’m here to ask you the question, which one is the best… I know it sounds a little promotional and all… but trust me, I don’t think the 29th Beijing Olympics is necessarily to be [...]

Behemoth, legendary Polish metal heads, linked up with Bhelliom from Singapore, Truth Corroded from Australia, and an unknown Japanese trash metal band on Halloween at Mao Live House in Beijing.
Check out the vid. You will not find Behemoth’s performance because we were told not to take pictures and videos due to copyright issues. I said [...]