We spent a Sunday exploring the area around Hou Hai, where
there is a beautiful lake and some refurbished hutongs. In China they love doing things in an extreme way and ice-skating is no different! As we walked around the lake we saw people with your average ice-skates on but then we discovered…ice-skating on wooden chairs! Possibly one of the weirdest things out there but it looked fun, if incredibly dangerous! If you don’t know already Chinese people have a lack of personal space and well if you see them drive you’ll understand the extent of their lack of patience. Thus chair ice-skating is no different! They were crashing into each other, yelling to get out of the way and it looked like utter chaos! Although very tempted to do some extreme ice-skating the thought of being crushed by a wooden chair put us off, especially when we started teaching the very next day! So we continued around the lake, enjoying the atmosphere and the lack of traffic, well tut tut drivers were on the loose so we still had to keep our wits about us. Further round the lake we saw bouncy castles on the ice, some ice slides and some crazy little boat type things which looked just as unstable as the edge of the ice. A child’s dream…definitely! We picked up some spicy hot bread and found a little Reggae Bar on the corner of the hutongs. This bar has become one of our favourites in Beijing, they have happy hours from 5-7pm and their cocktails actually have alcohol in them and they simply play Bob Marley tunes from dusk to dawn. They also have two beautiful ginger cats which curl up in your lap as you sip your drink and watch the world go by.
there is a beautiful lake and some refurbished hutongs. In China they love doing things in an extreme way and ice-skating is no different! As we walked around the lake we saw people with your average ice-skates on but then we discovered…ice-skating on wooden chairs! Possibly one of the weirdest things out there but it looked fun, if incredibly dangerous! If you don’t know already Chinese people have a lack of personal space and well if you see them drive you’ll understand the extent of their lack of patience. Thus chair ice-skating is no different! They were crashing into each other, yelling to get out of the way and it looked like utter chaos! Although very tempted to do some extreme ice-skating the thought of being crushed by a wooden chair put us off, especially when we started teaching the very next day! So we continued around the lake, enjoying the atmosphere and the lack of traffic, well tut tut drivers were on the loose so we still had to keep our wits about us. Further round the lake we saw bouncy castles on the ice, some ice slides and some crazy little boat type things which looked just as unstable as the edge of the ice. A child’s dream…definitely! We picked up some spicy hot bread and found a little Reggae Bar on the corner of the hutongs. This bar has become one of our favourites in Beijing, they have happy hours from 5-7pm and their cocktails actually have alcohol in them and they simply play Bob Marley tunes from dusk to dawn. They also have two beautiful ginger cats which curl up in your lap as you sip your drink and watch the world go by.