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Lunar New Year
Friends from Singapore and Taiwan celebrate the Lunar New Year, of course, but this year’s launch of the annual spring festival makes me nostalgic for my last trip to Beijing, nearly six years ago. March still hung clouds and rain in the skies, but as a treat I roamed through the Forbidden City on my…
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Beijing Duck
When I picked an identifying image for Beer For Strange Climates 60 posts ago, I recalled the mysterious yet everyman’s beer I had to wash down a memorable meal in Beijing several years back. That meal? Beijing Duck–the most famous of China’s exported cuisine. You probably know it as Peking Duck stateside, but that name…
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Yi, Er, Tsing Tao
Towered over by giant cans of the distinctive green, we made our way past tour busses into the shrine of Tsing Tao. The Germans brought beer to the city of Qingdao (the more streamlined Westernization of the name) in 1903, and today, the brewery captures 15% of the domestic market in China. Though the bottles…
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Dirty Martini in the Writer’s Bar
If the cocooning comfort of the room embraced me more completely, I would be loathe to leave. I would conspire to remain in Beijing as long as my yuan would allow. How many writers and travelers had passed through these tall French doors in to the Peace Hotel back in the early 20th century? Now…
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No Pull-Tabs No More
The last time I saw a pull-tab was in a package bar in Nisswa, Minnesota, as part of the gambling game played in dark lounges in the Upper Midwest, especially in the Land of 10,000 Lakes in 1992–at least in my memory. Never much of a gambler, me, even when consuming pitchers of cheap Milwaukee’s…
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Champagne In First
I can’t recall a time, when offered one of those plastic pearly flutes of sparkling wine (so rarely actual Champagne, unless it’s Air France or Emirates or maybe Cathay) …I can’t recall ever saying, “No, just a water, thanks.” And when they’ve truly upgraded you and served you the bubbly in a real glass, I…
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A Heineken In Every Corner
It’s 2 a.m. body time, and I’m checking into a faceless, charmless hotel room hermetically sealed from all life outside. An air-conditioned box where I can let fall away all sense of time or place. I set out my things, and, knowing I don’t have a meeting til dinner time (local time) I drop into…