From “Visit Miyun“:

Yunmeng Mountain National Forest Park extends over 2208 acres of land in the western part of Miyun. The main peak is 1414m high and the forest is lush with abundant plants and wildlife.

Last week I was out and about quite a lot until the weather deteriorated towards the weekend. On Sunday I decided to go walkies and ended up getting a long distance bus to Yunmeng Mountain ((云蒙山)) in Miyun District (密云) – which is a lovely scenic rural region to the north of Beijing. The mountain is over 1400m in height, amongst the highest of the mountains surrounding Beijing. Despite much lack of exercise recently, I still managed to stride up to the top despite the hot sun beating down and covered what should have been a three hour route in just an hour and a half – obviously my lungs haven’t been completely smogged out yet.

On top, I ran into some Chinese students who had just finished their exams and were also out for the day. We chatted for a while and in the end I walked down the mountain together with them. It turned out that they were local to the area and one of them had a house just by the entrance to the park. They invited me over for lunch and we all enjoyed an assortment of homely Chinese dishes along with some ice-cool beverages. It was lovely to meet such hospitable people and I think they also enjoyed chatting to a foreigner as most tourists don’t like to venture that far out of Beijing.

Motorway all the way

The Peak

Knackered

At the summit

Made it

Some students I met

Tricycle Ride

Out for a ride

Me and Zhou

Local Farm

Delicious Lunch

Jingshan Park is situated just north of the forbidden city and is a must-visit on a “Blue Sky Day” if you want a commanding view over the entire city (well most of it anyway). There is a very strong Chinese feeling about the place – what with all the Chinese grannies and grandads gathering there to sing, play music and dance… or simply out for an afternoon stroll with their grandchildren.

After that there was a necessary bus trip to be made to Xinjiekou (新街口) where we had a super spicy Sichuan meal in our favourite little restaurant before retiring to the little tressle tables and chairs outside for a sample of some of the finest Xinjiang kebabs in Beijing.

Grand Day Out… This is the way things should be!

成都小吃

North Gate, Forbidden City

Beside the moat

晒

North of Forbidden City

Gate of Forbidden City

Forbidden City Behind

Before the Forbidden City

Forbidden City from Above

Forbidden City Behind

Blue Sky Day

Superb Sky

Magpie in front of Beihai Park

Walk in the park

Looking out over Beijing

Sunbathing

景山 Park

Kebab Eater

馋～

Kebab Time

Xinjiang Restaurant

膀爷 Beijinger

Anway, to let off the steam me and Siqi and Ajun headed out to a nice restaurant where you can sit outside and enjoy some great food along with a nice cool beer. My studies in Beijing have in some ways reached a climax now… it’s downhill now right through to September when I pick up my studies at Leeds once again. So I might as well enjoy myself for the time being!

情侣？

感情深... 一口闷

"我不喝酒"

肉串狂

大排档

酒鬼

香死了

吃光了

It was strange to spend yet another birthday here in China – in the end I took some friends out for a meal and then for some Karaoke later on. There are some interesting cultural differences with regards to birthdays over here…

Whilst in the UK it is often the birthday boy/girl who gets treated to a free meal, free drinks and is generally looked after for the evening, in China things are quite the opposite. Not only did I have to pay for all the food and drinks (there were ten of us, lucky food is cheap over here!) but it was also my responsibility to fuss over my guests during the evening, making sure their drinks are poured and that they have had enough to eat! Certainly a change from the drunkenness of the average 21st birthday bash back at home.

I guess that the Chinese see birthdays as an opportunity to thank friends for being there and give something back – whilst in the west it’s our friends who celebrate us being there and make sure we have a good night. Another thing to note however is that in China, the more money you have, the more friends you can afford to invite along and the fancier a birthday party you can throw – some invitees are not necessarily there for your birthday but just for the great food and entertainment (a bit like weddings maybe?). In the UK, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, normally only your closest friends go out with you on your birthday and maybe it’s more of a genuine experience.

Anyway, the food was excellent, we ordered far too much and still managed to eat it all. After slackening our belts, we headed to the KTV (Private Karaoke Club) nearby where we sang until the early hours of the morning to a mixture of Chinese and Western pop music. Photos below!

Nice Presentation

The Round Table

Plenty of Dishes

Ajun and Siqi Singing

Karaoke

The Girls

Subtitles and all

Xinlong

Xinlong and Duyong

Duyong and Ajun

Me and Sandy

Hong Kong and Macao Girls

Birthday Hotpot

Me, Siqi and Ajun headed over to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷) a few weeks ago to pay a visit to a nice little restaurant there that does some delicious fish dishes.

You get to choose your fish in the restaurant (all alive and swimming in tanks) and are charged according to the fishes weight. They then first roast the fish in some seasoning before placing it in a spicy oily hotpot sauce and adding any extra things you ordered (vegetables, tofu, meats etc) and putting the whole lot in a candle-heated hotpot dish to serve.

It was slightly more pricey than our average meal but it tasted great!

There are many different types of fillings for chinese dumplings, some vegetarian and some with meat, we decided to go down the healthy path and made Fennel and Fried Egg dumplings (茴香鸡蛋饺子）. Whilst at first glance dumplings may look quite simple, it does actually take a while to get the nack of wrapping up the filling into the neat little parcels – Ayi (it’w what we call our landlord and actually means Aunty) made it all look so simple, but then again she has probably been making these since she was about 8 years old and so has plenty of experience.

Finally, after producing the dough, rolling it out and making up the little bundles of fun, it was time to rock and roll. Not rocket science here – dump all the dumplings in a pan of boiling water and boil for about five minutes before draining in a colander. As for the rest of the story, I think it had something to do with a bowl of dipping sauce (vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil) and shortly afterwards a rather empty looking plate… yum!!

Siqi + Ayi

Rolling out the dumpling wrapping

Expert Advice

Filling Dumplings

Filling Dumplings

Learning from the expert

Here's one I made earlier

Boiling Dumplings

Bowl of Steaming Dumplings

Of course, it wasn’t as good as mum’s own but it was still delicious and went well with Siqi’s Smoked Tofu and Celery stir-fry.

Dinner

Omelette on Top

Smoked Tofu and Celery Stir-fry

Spiced Rice with Prawns

There was plenty of flipping going on and pancake mix flying in every direction. We also had the luxury of ‘confit du beurre au chocolat’ which I brought back from France and which was smeared on our pancakes in suitably ridiculous amounts.

By the end of breakfast we were absolutely stuffed and resolved not to eat any more pancakes for a good few weeks to come… we’ll see!

Chef at work

The Flip

So far so good

The cook

Made with love

Chocolate Heart

Happy Pancake

Perfect Pancake

Delicieuse

Last night I then invited some more friends round for a Thai Red Curry (Hannah, Amy, Jess) which was another success.

All in all this week has been busy in terms of culinary creation and whilst its lovely to have people round for dinner I can safely say that I’m glad that me and Siqi only have to cook for the two of us tonight!

Cola Chicken Wings

Chicken wings cooked in a cola sauce with plenty of spice to go with it! Yum…

京酱肉丝

Pork strips cooked in a hoisin sauce on a bed of 豆腐 (Tofu Skin). Traditional Beijing dish.

Next on the list is my favourite dish: 宫保鸡丁 (Kung Pao Chicken) – but that’s going to take some serious practice to get right!