Hutong

Walking out from a nice meal, I ran into these three older gentlemen taking their evening walk. Their backs slightly bent forward; arms behind their backs. I followed them for 20 minutes, 偷聽著這三位老先生的京片子。(eavesdropping on what they were saying in their thick Beijing accents.)

They looked to their right at this shop with classy interior design and bright red lantern lights.

第一位老先生說：「這是甚麼？」
第二位老先生說：「不知道，吃飯的吧。」

(The first gentleman said, "What is this?"
The second gentlemen said, "Don't know. Probably a place to eat.")

They slowed down just for a bit to look at it, and having given it the attention they think it deserved, they went on. I wasn't able to hear much more because they soon discovered me.

In a Beijing that's changing on fast-forward, three gentlemen taking their evening walks in their own neighbourhood finds new adventures everyday.

What websites are Banned in China as of today

NOT BANNED: NYTimes, CNN

BANNED:

- BBC, Wikipedia (Because they both have Chinese content I was told by someone from the Canadian embassy.)

- RTHK Chinese News (everything else: TV programmes, english news, other web contents etc are not banned)

- hk.yahoo.com

- strangely, Oriental Daily (a left-leaning paper, though some would say it's more of a tabloid than anything else)

Fortune Magnets

These days, when you shop at a convenient store, you get one of these collectable magnets, it could be Winnie-the-Pooh in a strawberry costume, it could be Snoopy’s day out on the beach.

Like everyone else, she gets one of these. But unlike everyone else, she looks to them for signs: how's her day going to turn out? Will she get that modelling job she casted for yesterday? Will she get a call from that guy she kind of fancies?

Today she is on her way to meet up with a boy she likes. It's their second date. She took extra time to put on her eye shadow, she is wearing her new button-down shirt that discreetly hugs her curves.

At the cashier counter inside 7-11, she unwraps the packaging to one of these Winnie-the-Pooh magents. And there it is, a Prince.

She walked out of 7-11, beaming.

Skipping Man

I saw a man today, holding a crutch, back bent slightly backwards, there's obviously something wrong with his legs, but when he walks, it looks like he is happily skipping along. So it made me happy too.

Though I don’t think he’ll appreciate my magical-realist-romantic interpretation of his misfortune.