A month in Beijing

Running behind on the blog as usual... so as a quick wrap-up, there was a month in Beijing, and the company arranged me this huge luxury apartment to live in. Never lived in such a thing before and it doesn't feel comfortable, especially not in a country with as much poverty as China. Plus it does get lonely in a huge place, listening to the echo of your own footsteps. So I filled up the place with couchsurfers. And cats, four of them at best, former stray cats for temporary housing. And weekly milongas. Here's some pics.



Then a few restaurants that need mention:
1) The Vegan Hut -- a great vegan restaurant in Jianwai SOHO, right off the Guomao metro station. Probably the only place in China with vegan ice-cream. Excellent stuff. They're open also for breakfasts during the week. And have wireless internet. There's a take-away stand downstairs, the restaurant itself is on the 2nd floor (or 1st floor counting the British way). The Vietnamese dishes are particularly good. They also don't add MSG, although it might exist in premade sauces.
2) The other side of love, another vegan place with a more extensive menu, and less fake meats than most Chinese vegetarian restaurants. It's north from Xizhimen, at Mingguangcun west stop of bus line 16 from Xizhimen. In Chinese: 彼岸爱心素，艺海大厦，明光村西站。

And to the end, the first cake I've ever baked, at least if I'm not forgetting anything... it was pretty tasty, just should've had something nice for a topping.