Did six days in Beijing, writing for Travel3Sixty, AirAsia’s in-flight mag.

Pleasantly surprised with Beijing. It’s clean, very green, and organized. Pretty good for a city with 17 million people! I had heard before that its pretty messed-up place.

The Chinese have cleaned up their act, especially since the Olympics two years back.

Tried all sorts of food, bought all sorts of stuff. The tour didnt really include drinking, so did a lil on my own.

The common beers there are light in alcohol and taste, like Beijing Beer and Tianjin. Prices vary, average 5 to 10 bucks a large bottle, tho i did score a large cold Tianjin for $2.50 from a fruit stall! The ABV hovers around 3.8%. Good for brunch or as accompaniment with lunch.

Managed to tapau two bottles of iced rose wine, a plum wine, a cherry wine and some clear liquid that came in various bottles sizes, up to the five-liter cooking oil-style plastic ones. The percentages varied between 40 and 67%. I went for 42%. Will test & report, but it’s probably like Lao Lao and Langkau. But i think Chinese people dont drink very often. Sure lose to Malaysians.

Hit dis top house club there called The World of Suzie Wong. It’s styled like a big ol opium den for most parts, and a club on the second floor.

Have always been fascinated with the Great Wall, so it was a real trip being on it.

Well here are some of d pictures.

The exterior of Suzie Wong

Beijing Beer, a typical that Chinese prefer. Light & a lil creamy

A very efficient way of cleaning a huge-ass place like Tiananmen Square

Mao's always watching. Entrance to Forbidden City

Backdoor, Forbidden City

Trishaws that give you tours of Bar Street

The awesome lake by Bar Street. Yes, many bars here

An old Chinese mosque

Some street food i had - loaded with spinach leaves i think. The ones on the far side looked like chapatti

A common dish of the Xinjang people from up north, who are mostly Muslims. Everything has shitloads of capsicum in it

View of Great Wall, from Great Wall. Goes on forever. Well, about 3000km

View from d top

It gets pretty steep just to walk, dont even talk bout building it way back!

Damn tourists

Souvenirs. L-R: Rose wine, cherry (haw) wine (2002), moonshine

U get to relearn English

Brain damage: 1/10