Christmas in Beijing !!!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and that Santa was good to you.  I was excited to spend 3 days including Christmas eve and early Christmas morning in Beijing for the first time.  It was cool because I got to see some of famous landmarks and got to spend Christmas day in two different cities.  

On our first night we cruised down Ghost street and went to check out some music, toy, and designer shops before dinner.  We went to the favorite local rock club Mao to try to catch a show but unfortunately no one was playing.  But it you're in town on the 31st the Queers are playing with Brain Failure and SKO.  I saw the Queers at Che Cafe (SDSU) back in my sophomore year and they killed it.  Don't miss this one yoOur first meal in Beijing was some tasty won ton, tofu, and beef sesame buns.The next day we got up bright and early and hit a few landmarks including the imperial temple Tien Tan.  It was -7 degrees so I was hoping it would snow but no luck this time.  When we arrived there were tons of people outside the temple just dancing and singing tunes with a band!  Couples were doing tango stuff at one end of the park while a few feet away a bunch of ladies would be doing two step routines.  It was pretty festive. This is how you can keep warm while cruising in your bike.  Actually, it's a taxi with a seat in the back too.Next stop was Tiananmen Square.  It's pretty huge and you can imagine how crazy it must have been standing there with soldiers looking up at the emperor.Next we went to the Olympic "BIrd's Nest" stadium.  It was really cool to see how Christmassy it was around town and they even had Christmas trees and a Santa village set up in the area.Even the lamps were designed just like the bird nest.  My favorite place had to be the 798 art district.  It was a factory area that is now filled with tons of small indie to big name art museums.  There is a super cool Christian Dior exhibition  at UCCA, Shu Jie at 798 Underground, and Zheng Rui at Ming Art Gallery that's definately worth checking out.  The CCTV building looks like it's from a Japanese anime.  You can imagine a giant Evangelion robot fighting a monster next to it....haha.Foot & ass message......so funnySince we were in Beijing we definitely had to have the world famous Peking duck.  Authentic ingredients, recipies, and chef.  AmazingAfter rehearsals we had one last chance to run around so we headed down to "The Village" shopping area and looked at the biggest Apple, Adidas, and Uniqlo store in Beijing.  It actually looked just like a mall in the states with a Cold Stone, Starbucks, Roxy and everything.  On Christmas eve I had my first gig in Beijing and it was great to finally play here and meet some cool people.  This was the first and hopefully not the last.....Jonathan Lee 李宗盛 was also in the show and it was a pleasure to meet such a great artist from Taiwan.  Respect! Our last breakfast (6am) at the Beijing airport.  My first time having Korean food this early but sooooo good....Without sleeping the night before we boarded the last flight of the year to make it home just in time for Christmas lunch with the family......yeah!