Welcome to our hood! - a bike trip around the block

We live by the south-western corner of Chaoyang park. Apparently the biggest park in Asia! I'd like to show you around our neighbourhood.

Women qu ba - let's go :-)

At the end of our street is the building which I call "the doughnut". Apparently it houses the Hong Kong TV channel "Phoenix"

Turn right in this street and you'll go straight to Sanlitun. A lovely, lively area which also offers western style shopping and eating

But I go down to the Tuanjiehu area. I like this area because you find everything here! Shops, services, snack places and a big market.

Where you can buy a lot of rubbish - but also useful things

The vegetable market

The seafood market (and fresh turtles market)...

...and the pet market. These kittens have been there for a couple of weeks now. On Saturday we went to see them and told the owner of the shop that they had no food nor water. The same thing happened today! I could just about tell her in Chinese that they needed food and water. She replied but I didn't understand what she said. It makes me so mad to see how animals are often treated here!

Trying to forget about those kittens I got my favourite snack! Sold all over the city. It's a huge pancake with spring onion, sauce and some crunchy stuff (still haven't figured out what it is).

Men playing cards. A very common activity in Beijing. And they were happy to pose :-)

And here it is! Chaoyang park! Where you can sail, swim, take rollercoaster rides, climb trees, eat and even shop!

At the North west corner of Chaoyang park, you'll find the Solana shopping mall. A very nice indoor-outdoor mall which also has cafés and restaurants that face one if the lakes in Chaoyang park.

Altogether, our neighbourhood offers a bit of everything: from authentic Chinese streets and markets to western shops and restaurants. Come see us! 😉