Mid day, I find groups of men like this gathered around watching a Chinese chess game.
You can’t tell by my picture, but the woman in purple is wearing tights as pants. They have a polka dot design up to the upper thigh where it stops and by the seams, you can definitely tell these are tights, not pants.
This guy was smoking on our subway train late one night. He moved from car to car so at each stop, when the subway employee came looking for him, he was sneaking past them into the next car and they couldn’t spot him. He seemed obviously inebriated with something (not sure if drug use happens here in China) or mentally unwell.
No one old enough to be in a romantic relationship should also have a giant bunny backpack.
Grocery shopping: At our local grocery store, in order to buy something from the office supply section (ie: a 28 cent roll of tape) you have to get this ticket and wait in line at a register across the store from the office supply section. Mostly, this encourages me not to buy office supplies at our grocery store. On this particular day, I had to wait in line behind four people in order to buy tape. Tape!! It was a bad China day for me.
I was trying to capture the little girl in red sitting side saddle on the back of her dad’s bike, but they were too speedy for me.
Electric scooter with a little seat.
Toddler in army coat carrying a gun.
When Princess Sparkley and I travel to youth activities on Tuesday nights, this guy is out in front of our store with his turtle on a lease. He rotates between two different turtles. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but one time he had a plastic tub full of small turtles, so maybe he’s selling turtles?
For a youth activity, they did a photo scavenger hunt at Solana mall. They had to get a picture of a weird translation sign.
A few weeks ago they tore up the sidewalk in front of our grocery store and re-tiled it. Then a week later this tractor came in and tore it all up to retile it again.
Paining characters on the sidewalk with water.
My favorite candy bar (milk chocolate with sea salt and caramel) is only at one of our stores now. And for some reason, it’s Y12 (about $2) while all the other flavors are Y9.60 ($1.50). Not a huge amount of money, but I’m already justifying 1) buying candy and 2) buying a more expensive chocolate when I could have a Snickers for Y4 or a Dove milk chocolate for Y7.
Mmmm… this is one of my favorite street foods. Breakfast at our subway stop. It took awhile, but I figured out it is called Jidan guanbing 鸡蛋灌饼. A bread, fried with an egg cracked in it. Then a hot dog-like sausuage and potatoes with carrot and peppers. Oh, and some sort of sauce painted on… probably fermented soy bean paste or something similar.
More street food info: http://beijinghaochi.com/suzhou-egg-crepe-jidan-guanbing
and http://www.meatlovessalt.com/2014/05/beijing-breakfasts/
A fun infographic of Beijing street foods: http://www.timeoutbeijing.com/features/Food__Drink-Food_Features/149867/Beijings-best-street-food.html
Yes, this is an adult woman with a cell phone case that looks like a baby bottle.
After going to the Ancient Observatory (which is just above this station), I finally understood the tile art of the Jianguomen station.
This is not a car accident. This was deemed a successful parking job by the driver of the black car.
I like that the Max. 3 Persons sign looks like they are dancing.
My new favorite orange (tangelos, I think) because they peel easily and are 99% seedless.
The white fluff in the stroller… this is a dog.
Notice the little girl riding in front of her mom’s legs. (Three gals, on a scooter.)
I think this is the only stop sign I ever saw in Beijing.
Typical fire extinguishing set up. Axes and buckets.
Chinese Mileposts 