On Sunday morning with my 'Beginners Chinese' book in tow I head off to Ritan Park for some coffee, exploring and as I was to soon find out...Russian. Ritan park, according to my 'Frommer's guide to Beijing' is a small park which is home to Stone Boat Bar, the writer's favorite place for a Sunday afternoon coffee and a game of Scrabble. I had the resources for Solitaire but not Scrabble so a coffee it would be.
Ritan park is quite small, easily walked around in less than an hour. Though it was cold outside my Patagonia puffy parka didn't let it get to me and I strolled around to take some pics of the place...I even stood on my first emperor's altar.
The Stone Boat Bar was much quieter than I expected with only a European family to boot (not sure 'to boot' is appropriate here but I have always wanted to use the term.) Anyways, they were speaking Russian and English and Chinese. The little boy had a crush on me as most do and so I gave him a few 'Ni Haos.' After coffee I headed out to find the 'Ritan Office Building.' Do not be deceived, this is not place for excel and PowerPoint but 70 humble shops where my best friends Diane Von Fustenberg and Marc Jacobs are supposed to cram the racks (cut tags = good, in-tact tag = shady.) Though I had not intention of shopping just yet (seriously) I was eager to see what all the hype was about.
I had seen a large building (actually not an uncommon site in this City...but anyways) with weird fashion adds including lots of fur and gold details. As I entered the buildi
ng it became clear that I was getting as close to the Kremlin as I have ever been. I had just entered a Russian shopping experience that I wish on no one. Fur, heavily decorated denim, heavy cologne, more fur and lingerie---I mean who could ask for more!? If that wasn't enough the horror film-esque layout consisted of 7 floors of narrow hallways with little Versace wannabe stores, a million Russian mannequins and curtains hiding the 'treasures' behind. To be quite honest I didn't enter any of the curtains because I don't believe in going into fitting rooms without anything to try on.
Ok so that was not the Ritan Office Building, a quick escape and brisk walk later I saw a much more modest three story building tucked beside 'Schindler's something or other' German restaurant (mental note to go there when I need a beer badly). It may have just been an off day but it was more of a Karen Kane scene so somewhat relieved (that I didn't have to have my first bargaining session) and somewhat disappointed (that Diane and Marc did not come to the party) I took my leave.
Later that night I met a friend of a friend...there is nothing better than 'friends of friends' in new places. Particularly if they have good taste and very nice friends (or friends of friends of friends). I joined a lovely group of people at by far the most chic place I have been to yet in Beijing. On the 7the floor (I'm not sure why everything has 7 floors, I thought 8 was the lucky number) of 'Shin Kong Place', a fantastic very upscale mall close by to my digs, we had Taiwanese dumplings. Taiwanese dumplings are similar to dim sum but eaten in large quantities at dinner time. On a good note they were delicious and on another note that I am coming to terms with, it will be very difficult for me to avoid pork (China's favorite meat) in the next six months. I'm definitely going to have to have a pep-talk with my vegetarian brother before his visit. Dumplings were followed by fresh orange juice and red bean dumplings for dessert. Cheers to my friend of a friend.
Ritan park is quite small, easily walked around in less than an hour. Though it was cold outside my Patagonia puffy parka didn't let it get to me and I strolled around to take some pics of the place...I even stood on my first emperor's altar.The Stone Boat Bar was much quieter than I expected with only a European family to boot (not sure 'to boot' is appropriate here but I have always wanted to use the term.) Anyways, they were speaking Russian and English and Chinese. The little boy had a crush on me as most do and so I gave him a few 'Ni Haos.' After coffee I headed out to find the 'Ritan Office Building.' Do not be deceived, this is not place for excel and PowerPoint but 70 humble shops where my best friends Diane Von Fustenberg and Marc Jacobs are supposed to cram the racks (cut tags = good, in-tact tag = shady.) Though I had not intention of shopping just yet (seriously) I was eager to see what all the hype was about.
I had seen a large building (actually not an uncommon site in this City...but anyways) with weird fashion adds including lots of fur and gold details. As I entered the buildi
ng it became clear that I was getting as close to the Kremlin as I have ever been. I had just entered a Russian shopping experience that I wish on no one. Fur, heavily decorated denim, heavy cologne, more fur and lingerie---I mean who could ask for more!? If that wasn't enough the horror film-esque layout consisted of 7 floors of narrow hallways with little Versace wannabe stores, a million Russian mannequins and curtains hiding the 'treasures' behind. To be quite honest I didn't enter any of the curtains because I don't believe in going into fitting rooms without anything to try on.
Ok so that was not the Ritan Office Building, a quick escape and brisk walk later I saw a much more modest three story building tucked beside 'Schindler's something or other' German restaurant (mental note to go there when I need a beer badly). It may have just been an off day but it was more of a Karen Kane scene so somewhat relieved (that I didn't have to have my first bargaining session) and somewhat disappointed (that Diane and Marc did not come to the party) I took my leave.Later that night I met a friend of a friend...there is nothing better than 'friends of friends' in new places. Particularly if they have good taste and very nice friends (or friends of friends of friends). I joined a lovely group of people at by far the most chic place I have been to yet in Beijing. On the 7the floor (I'm not sure why everything has 7 floors, I thought 8 was the lucky number) of 'Shin Kong Place', a fantastic very upscale mall close by to my digs, we had Taiwanese dumplings. Taiwanese dumplings are similar to dim sum but eaten in large quantities at dinner time. On a good note they were delicious and on another note that I am coming to terms with, it will be very difficult for me to avoid pork (China's favorite meat) in the next six months. I'm definitely going to have to have a pep-talk with my vegetarian brother before his visit. Dumplings were followed by fresh orange juice and red bean dumplings for dessert. Cheers to my friend of a friend.
1 comment:
I love all the pics in your posts!
I want to play scrabble with you in ritan plaza...
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