Restaurant Review: The Peak (Haidian District)

I live in Beijing, inside the city limits. However, I live on the edge of Beijing. So, my area looks more suburban than urban. As a result, finding foreign restaurants can be difficult in my neighborhood. Actually, finding more than a handful of restaurants of any type can be difficult but, that’s another post. Anyway, this is why I am happy to have found a great Western restaurant called The Peak.

The Peak is owned/ managed by a Chinese man named Henry. Henry lived in Toronto for several years. Because of this, Henry speaks good English and has a good grasp of North American food.

I know, many people find it odd that I came all this way and go to American restaurants. However, sometimes, you just want something familiar. Food that doesn’t require an interpreter and a sense of adventure can be nice sometimes.  Also, the Peak did a great Thanksgiving dinner and a great Christmas Eve/ Christmas dinner.

So, when I want a taste of home, I go to the Peak.  If you come visit me, I’ll take you there too. 

Here is a map of Beijing. I live on the left, in the red rectangle. The neighborhood with all of the cool restaurants is on the right, by the orange star. It takes me about 90 minutes to get there using public transportation.

Source: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/beijingmap.htm

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A Cheeseburger from The Peak.

Bruschetta from The Peak

Calatini (Calamari) from the Peak

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* Buses: 308, 212, 10, 958, 597, 546, 450

Ride the bus to the Lu Gu stop. Walk west for a few minutes, past the Disney English. You’ll see the sign.

* Subway: Babaoshan on Line 1

* Phone Number: 010-6864-7263

* Hours: Sunday to Thursday 11am to midnight

              Friday and Saturday 11am to 1am

If you read Chinese, here is a map and address for The Peak.

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Here are the buses that go by the restaurant.

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An Expat Christmas

Since I’ve been living abroad for a while, I sometimes get asked about holidays abroad. Specifically, most people want to know about celebrating Christmas outside of the West. I’ve thought about this and the only thing I can come up with is this: Christmas in Asia is sorta like how your birthday is for other people. It’s a special day for you but, not really for anyone else.

See, on your birthday, you want to celebrate and do something fun. But, people still have to work, go to school, etc. So, you celebrate with your friends and family and the rest of the world gets on with their lives. Only a real narcissist would expect the world to stop for their birthday. After all, every day is somebody’s birthday.

Christmas in Asia is like this. You want to find something fun to do but, most of the people around you will be having a regular day. You might even have to work that day. So, you do your best and come up with something. It probably won’t be like what you did back home but, if you wanted everything to be just like back home, you should have stayed there.

This Christmas, I happen to be off from work. However, my students will still be at school. My Chinese co-teacher will just handle the English lesson for the day. My husband, however, will be working. So, our Christmas will have to be adjusted to accommodate his schedule. It’s not like back home but, it’s the norm for here.

Merry Christmas!

Find something to do on Christmas. It's super depressing to ignore the holiday you've celebrated your entire life. 

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Pic: http://onfirefastmovement.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-fire-being-lonely-is-choice.html

A Clean Office is a Happy Office

Working in a Chinese company is a bit different than working in other places. This year, when I arrived at school, I was told two things: lunch would be provided to me and to bring my own dishes. The lunch thing was good news. The dishes thing was weird. I asked what they meant about my own dishes. I was then shown a large cabinet that was filled with mismatched Tupperware type containers, porcelain bowls, and chopsticks. Apparently, I was expected to bring in my own dishes and cutlery to “make sure they are clean” when I use them. So, I went to Wu Mart (a Wal-Mart type store) and bought my own Tupperware type container and travel cutlery set to bring to work with me.

At my first office lunch, I watched my coworkers carefully to see what the office etiquette was for lunch. It’s different but, straightforward. Everyone brings in their own container and cutlery. They use them daily and wash everything before putting it back into the cabinet. I, too, did this for a little while until I realized just how watered down the school provided dish soap is. Now, I bring my stuff back home each day to wash with my own, undiluted soap.

At school, we foreign teachers and our bilingual, Chinese co-teachers share an office. In October, I started to notice that the office floor looked exceptionally dirty. Then, I saw one of the Chinese co-teachers sweeping and another taking out the trash. This happened again a few weeks later. Finally, I realized that we are expected to clean our own office. I checked with the Chinese co-teachers and they confirmed it. So, now, every few weeks, I take a turn cleaning our office floor and dusting the communal surfaces with wet wipes.

Although I’ve searched around online, I can’t find how common or uncommon my school’s habits are. However, the Chinese teachers seem unfazed by everything. Therefore, I assume this is at least somewhat common in China. So, if you come here to work, bring your own dishes for lunch and be ready to sweep the office floor.

Office Supplies

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This looks almost exactly like my cutlery set. The chopstick pieces screw apart to make the set more portable.

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Like my lunch container.

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Lights Out!

Friday was quite a night. It started out calm and then turned into a Chinese adventure that I’d rather not repeat.

So, while watching Netflix, the electricity went out. I opened the apartment door to check and see if the lights were on in the hallway. They were. Plus, the elevator worked. I figured out that it was just my apartment that was out. Well, this could only mean one thing: we were out of electricity.

I know, that sounds weird. In Beijing, China, however, this makes sense. See, in the other places I’ve lived (the US and South Korea), you use electricity and then get a bill for the month. Not so in China. Here, you go to a bank and load up a card with money. Next, you take this card home and insert it into a card reader slot on your electrical meter. Then, your account gets recharged and you have electricity. You don’t have to wait until your electricity is used up. You can add money to your account at any time. I, however, am not used to this system and I let the balance get too low. Thus, my electricity went out on Friday.

After figuring out why my electricity was out, I took my card to a nearby Bank of Beijing branch to load money onto the card. While at the machine, I got a funny message that said “See a bank employee.” The bank was closed so, this was not possible. I ended up calling a bilingual staff member from work, Sophie, to help me. Originally, I thought the recharge machine was broken. It wasn’t. It turns out that my job forgot to give me a new electricity card. See, recently, our building got new electrical meters. We were also so supposed to get new cards. My current electricity card was useless.

Sophie suggested that I go home and either get the serial number off of my meter or get my electricity account number. She thought that with this information, she could go online and add money to the account for me. So, I trudged back home and tried to get this information.

I couldn’t get the information. Since my apartment was pitch-black, I couldn’t find my key to the meter closet. Also, since I can’t read Chinese, I couldn’t figure out which of the many bills, papers, and receipts we get was from the power company.  At this point, I thought that I would have to wait until Monday to get electricity. I decided that a weekend without power was simply not an option. I needed reinforcements. 

I called Sophie and told her that I had a plan. I was going to knock on my neighbor’s door and give him/her my phone. Then, Sophie would explain the situation, in Chinese, and see what the neighbor could do to help me.

I knocked on the apartment next door and waited. An older man answered. I said “Nihao,” and handed him my cell phone. To his credit, he looked confused but, he took the phone without hesitation. I guess Sophie explained things well because he immediately put on his shoes and got a flashlight and his meter room key.

The man, Mr. Wong, read Sophie the serial number off of the meter. Then, I gave him several utility receipts. He kindly sifted through them until he found one with the electricity account number. He also gave Sophie that number.

It turns out that Mr. Wong speaks a little English. He told me he was leaving the meter closet unlocked for me and to knock on his door if I needed more help in the future. All in all, he spent about 20 minutes helping me. It’s nice to know that I have such a good neighbor.

Well, after all of this, Sophie was able to add money to the power account and the lights came back. I will now be checking my meter balance every week to make sure I don’t have such an adventurous Friday night again.

Here is my gas meter with the gas card in it. 

(The gas also uses a prepaid system.)

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The Recharge Machine

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The Zero Balance That Started  It All

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Counterfeit Cabs

Recently, I was running a little late to work and I thought that I would take a cab instead of waiting for the bus. So, I walked to an intersection and tried to hail a cab. Since it was rush hour, all of the cabs were full. Then, I heard someone yell “Hello!” I looked over and a man is motioning for me to get into his car. I told him “No thank you,” and continued to try to hail a cab. Well, he just wouldn’t go away. After I refused him a second time, another man tried to lure me into his car. The two of them continued to pester me and I became very uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure I don’t look like a prostitute or a hitchhiker so, I couldn’t figure out why strange men were inviting me into their cars. In the end, I walked to the bus stop so, I wouldn’t be alone anymore. Then, the bus came and I went to work.

At work, I told my coworkers about my creepy encounters. It turns out that I was not being propositioned. I was being invited into a counterfeit cab. Beijing, home of counterfeit everything, is also home to a giant fleet of counterfeit cabs.

A counterfeit cab (aka a black cab, an illegal cab, or a gypsy cab) is an unlicensed vehicle acting as a taxi cab. I’ve heard that a lot of the counterfeit cabs are driven by former licensed taxi drivers. They just use their own vehicles for a side business. However, it is not safe to take one of these. There is no way to know if the driver is a violent criminal, a thief, a safe driver, etc. Plus, their prices are usually 2-3 times what a regular cab would charge.

It’s easy to distinguish between a regular cab and a counterfeit cab. The regular taxis are distinct looking. They are usually painted in a red/yellow, green/yellow or blue/ yellow combo. There are a few other designs but, these are the most common. Plus, they have a light up sign that says “taxi” on the roof. Another way to tell if a taxi is legal is to look at the car’s tag. All taxis in Beijing have a license plate that begins with B. Plus, real taxis typically don’t have tinted windows and counterfeit taxis usually have darkly tinted windows.(Hence, the name “black cab.”)

If you’re ever in Beijing, ignore the counterfeit cabs. Your wallet and your nerves will thank you. 

Counterfeit Cabs Outside of the Yuquanlu Subway Station on Friday Evening

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An Example of a Real, Licensed Cab

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The official "Beijing B" Taxi License Plate 

(The Chinese character says Beijing)

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For more information, here is a website I found about illegal cabs.