Beijing, Beijing

After a hectic few last weeks in London I have arrived in Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China, city of 15 million people, administrative and political centre of what will surely be the world’s next superpower, centre of China’s cultural scene, city of Olympic mega construction and – unfortunately, less and less – back street hutongs and, perhaps most importantly a million and one restaurants, from the grandest award winning French eateries, to countless bubbling hot pot emporiums to the teeming, back street chuanr and stirfry holes in the wall.

I left London for two simple reasons:

1) The UK economy sucks at the moment
2) The economy in China sucks a lot less


So, here I am, in China...for maybe the 10th time in as many years. Its changed, of course it has, but I don’t want to dwell on that. I don’t want to dwell on China’s staggering economic growth, its stifled democratic ambitions, its pollution problems, its sudden lack of bicycles and appearance of BMWs or its post Olympics comedown. I want to talk about food and I want to talk about daily life and what it is like to live as a laowai in this buzzing, exciting metropolis of 15 million.

Let’s see how long I can keep this up...