Houhai Lake
We recently visited Houhai Lake in northern central Beijing. It’s part of Shichahai, a historic area consisting of three different lakes northwest of the Forbidden City.
You can see it on the Google Map below.
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It’s a nice area and I took a few photos, so here they are:
This is the south side of the lake. There’s a lot of people just hanging out playing hacky sack and walking around. The lake is surrounded by restaurants and bars — most relatively new, from around 2003. If you look at the left side of the second photo, you can see a Starbucks.
Here is a close up:
In the far right window (under the glare, sorry) you can see the standard logo. Starbucks is pretty much the same price in China, maybe a buck cheaper, which really sucks because I have a serious caffeine addiction and I pass one every day on my way to work. It’s so tempting, especially the green tea lattes which are amazing. They taste like the green tea ice cream you get at sushi places in America.
Here is a shot from the western side of the lake:
It’s kind of pretty, but not the kind you think of when you imagine lakes. It’s not serene, at all. China doesn’t do serene.
For example, here is one of the alleyways leading away from the lake:
Oh look, it’s a crowd of people.
Speaking of crowds, I saw a bunch of people gathering around a little bird so I went to check it out. He was the most amazing little guy ever. He would take money from people and drop it in a little birdie bank.
And while we’re on the subject of cute animals. Look at how fluffy and goddamn cute this Chow is: 
Hey guys, there’s a reason Chinese dogs are called chow. I’m kidding! Well, not really. But I’m pretty sure nobody ate this dog.
Let’s change the subject. I found a little shack along the lakeside selling propaganda posters. 
A lot of children were depicted in the posters, not really surprising.
I think this set was my favorite: 
I love the farmer holding the Little Red Book aloft, which is hilarious to me. Look how happy he is to be starving to death! Maybe he’s just happy he found his copy, otherwise Red Guards would be beating him. Next to that we have the red fist smashing some guys, I’m not sure who. If you can figure it out let me know, otherwise I’m just going to assume they are capitalist pigs or members of the liberal bourgeoisie. And finally, a smoking ad! Of course.
Alright, I’m going to wrap this post up on a good capitalist note: 
You’ve Been To China You Know How Things Work
So yesterday Anderson and I were thrown into the fire. Our placing agency had me demo at 3 schools and Anderson 2…on our second day…of being in China. The first school Anderson and I both interviewed at was pretty intense considering we had both had about 20 minutes of training the day before. After leaving the guy who took us for our interview informed us that they were more interested in me and that I basically had the job if I wanted it.
About 5 minutes later the school called and informed us that even though the teachers liked my demo better the students preferred Anderson. This meant that I had to go next door and demo at another school, while our liaison told Anderson to wait either at the McDonalds or the KFC (apparently that’s the US embassy). I interviewed at the next school which went well and it seemed like they liked me but our contact was pretty vague on if I was going to be working there.
