Tag Archives: Beijing

Best Skirt in the Worst Spot Possible

You may have seen my post about the Red Restaurant, where dancers, singers and audiences recreate and celebrate the years of famine and starvation of the Great Leap Forward, and the torture and slaughter of the Cultural Revolution. Something I left out was this lady. While many were dressed in the red guard dress of ...

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

AO Events, Theme Parks

Return to Fake Disneyland? Sweeeeeet!

This past weekend, AO hosted our third BeijingObscura outing: a return to the magnificent Copyright Infringement Park, aka Fake Disneyland! Thanks to everyone who made it--it wouldn't have been the same without you, and your absolute awesomeness!!!

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 1 Comment

More GameSpot Logo-Theivery

I found a flyer on the subway, for Beijing's "岭郡ONE: Tuscany Romantic life" apartment complex, units from 430 sq-ft. Clever... looked like an ipad. WAITASECOND!!! Is that Ethan O'Brien or James Cheung's GameSpot logo, promoting "No limit loans" (不限贷)??? Oh yeah, it is. Nice work, Chinese bootleggers! Reminds me of that sweet Wii-knockoff "Wü Music Kit" ...

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Lost in Translation

Disgusting Chinglish from a Tasty Buffet

Not that many nights ago, WooLand and I were thrilled to be invited to one of the great linguistic banquets of the season. Government ministers, foreign diplomats, prominent magazine editors -- it was a real who's who of language and culture. And then we saw what was for dinner... Oh, boy... ...

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 3 Comments

Lost in Translation

Non-beach Things from Beijing’s Fake Beach

They're strict about this.... They were out of this.... We didn't understand this.... This was the only way out.... All this, and more, at Crab Island.

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

AO Events

Sat July 30: Join us at Copyright Infringement Park (aka Disneyland Beijing!)

Update: it's gorgeous out, so get your suntan lotion, your sunglasses, and camera, and prepare for an amazing day! There's no reason to travel all the way to Hong Kong, when Beijing has it's own Disneyland right here! Sure, it's fake, and weird, and... crumbling, but it couldn't be more fun! Discover the unlicensed ...

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 3 Comments

Extraordinary Eats

Red Onion-Flavored Red Wine

"It's not terrible." "No, it's not terrible." "Yep, it's onion alright." "Hrm." "Ew." "服务员，来一听可乐。（Waitress, can I have a Coke?）" "Every time my dad pours a nice glass of wine, he always says 'magnificent color.' Hrm. This doesn't have that, does it? Not at all." "It is a bit watery, isn't ...

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 1 Comment

Other Obscura

Man on Bike and Chicken on Beer

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

AO Events

Crab Island Revisited

Oh, what a day! Perfect skies, plastic palm trees with rubber coconuts, terrifyingly rusty water tubes, toxic water, and incredible meat on a stick. All in the flight path of Beijing International Airport's, just a few miles away. (Vroooooom!) Only one person actually howled, "That was the best day of my life," but ...

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism

Video of the Cultural Revolution Restaurant

I gave all the juicy details of this restaurant where you can make merry, while celebrating the best of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, earlier this week. But here, for your pleasure, is some video of the mad show and the flag-waving audience. For China: For elsewhere:

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism

Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing)

Update: read the story below, but don't miss the video of the performance! "Two foreigners in the RED restaurant?" Reverb howled, "I think this will be more fun than the restaurant itself!" Red Restaurant, in the east of Beijing, is an opportunity to relive the passion and pain of China from the late 50s through the late ...

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 3 Comments

Other Obscura

Creepy Beijing Murals… in a Playground

Over at Beijing Kids, Mike Wester just posted photos of the great (and whoa-disturbing) murals from the Beijing Fundazzle play center. "Fundazzle, the indoor play warehouse," he writes, "has undergone a bit of a facelift, with a new coat of paint, new carpets and a general sprucing up for 2011." So was it John Wayne ...

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Red Detachment of Awesome

This Wednesday thru Friday, if you're in Beijing, you shouldn't miss the best of the "model operas," The Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军). Playing for three nights only at Poly Plaza. It's called a model opera, but it's actually a ballet. The eight model operas were, during the height of the cultural ...

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Comments Off

Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities

Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods

So the rapture left you behind, eh? Feeling cheated? Looking for a new deity? Try Taoism. These gods will kick your ass! Okay, maybe not all of them. Some, like this swarthy fellow, will just make sure when you're reborn, you'll get your deserved rank. Fail to accomplish enough good in this ...

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments

Offbeat Museums

Chinese Tunnel Warfare and Sexual Escapades, Together!

Jiao Zhibing is 70 years old. He's spent his entire life in a tiny village called Jiaozhuanghu (焦庄户). As a child, he handled missives and reconnaissance for liberation fighters. Today though, carrying wood-carved grenades and a red-tasseled spear everywhere he goes, he's a living tourist attraction. Between 1943 and 1948, China was in ...

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Strange Tourism, Theme Parks

Fiendishly Fun Photo Ops at World Park

While we were busy on our own adventures, Chinese tourists flocked to Beijing's glorious World Park of their own accord. Some of them with entire camera crews in tow. Wedding photos, engagement photos, bff shots, they were costumed, posed, and so immaculately arranged. Here's a couple of our favorites! Even those who didn't ...

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

AO Events

AsiaObscura at World Park: The Experience

Rickety rollercoasters, useless tour guides, and rather offputting cross dressers. Everything you could want in a Chinese theme park! What an absolutely glorious & outlandish day! Thanks to everyone who made it to AsiaObscura's inaugural event, A Trip to Beijing World Park! 世界公园, where Fengtai brings you the world! (A few pix nicked from A cuppa and ...

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

AO Events

A Trip to Crab Island – Sun, June 12th!

When the summer hits Beijing, there's nothing like the feel of the sand, waves lapping at your feet, sweet dolphins hopping at the horizon. Yep -- this summer, it's time once again to visit Crab Island, the best beach in Beijing! “But Beijing’s in the middle of the desert,” I hear you cry. "There are no ...

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Fashionista

Amazing Skull Haircut on a Four-Year-Old

From the front, our 4-year-old neighbor appears to be sporting just another Mandinka warrior buzz.... But from the back.... I really hope this 8-bit-skull-shaved-into-the-back-of-the-head catches on. Reminds me of my old Troma pal Noah Scalin's Skull-A-Day project.

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Our Weird Projects

Vodka Bottles Taxidermied Into Mice

Now that we have our Chinese taxidermy certificates, Woo and I needed to get stuffing.A woman in Qingdao, after hours of discussions, agreed to send a friend to Beijing with a box of frozen rats. He took the all-night bus, and showed up with a dripping styrofoam box. "I got confused, and lost, and they ...

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Lost in Translation

Cute Subway Sign

I thought this was so endearing...."Please take care oldster and child" on the Beijing subway escalators.

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Modern Ruins, Theme Parks

Another Abandoned Beijing Amusement Park

What is it with these half-built, then abandoned, Beijing amusement parks? We're old fans of The Romance Park of the Heart, which is filled with Swiss chalets, Siamese pagodas, and packs of wild dogs looking to tear your legs off. But we kept hearing about another one, in the opposite direction... Wonderland! Just ...

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments

Animal Stuffing

Easter at a Chinese Taxidermy School

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Modern Ruins, The Occult

Fake Graveyards outside Beijing

The Beijing suburbs are expanding like mad.We spent the last ten days living in a small Tongzhou village, an hour east of Beijing, and construction was non-stop. Every day we were there, a ramshackle house was torn down and replaced by a building site. New walls would go up in hours. Bricks and dust were ...

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 1 Comment

AO Events

AsiaObscura.com presents A Trip to Beijing World Park – May 7th!

Saturday, May 7th at 1pmWhy go all the way to Badaling when the Great Wall is right here in Beijing? Join AsiaObscura.com, as we spend a day exploring the eccentricities of Beijing World Park (北京世界公园), the city's quirkiest amusement park. Experience the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the pyramids of Cairo, and even the Taj Mahal of ...

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Extraordinary Eats

Fish Heads in the Hutongs

Walking through Beijing, I'm never sure whether things are to be thrown away, or if they're the meal being prepared.

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments

Theme Parks

Outsider Art Kangaroos at the Beijing Zoo

I wasn't much impressed with the Beijing zoo. Quite the contrary... I was absolutely horrified. We left depressed. (See this story for a hint of the madness.) But on the upside, while we saw no live kangaroos, we did happen on these lovely grazing sculptures, made from pieces of found wood. It felt more like something ...

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 6 Comments

Lost in Translation

Now that’s just rude…

(At the Beijing Zoo.)

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Offbeat Museums

The Best Stamps from Beijing’s Incredible Stamp Museum (including 3-D North Korean stamps!)

Continuing on from yesterday's post, here are my six top favorite collections from Beijing's wonderful stamp and post museum.... Sorry for the spoiler above. But it's just... too weird. 6. Table Tennis What's there not to love about table tennis? Mao adored it, so did Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. Plus, there's always the ...

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments

Offbeat Museums

Incredible Chinese Stamp Museum (first of two)

I'm not a stamp geek. My dad is, my nephew is... but to be perfectly honest, I had some low expectations for the Beijing Stamp Museum. Even with free admission, four floors, over one million stamps, and "for rent" magnifying glasses, Michelle and I were the only visitors. But I have to admit, this museum is ...

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Cute & Kawaii, Somewhat Perverted

And we’re back…

Sorry for the silence. China got wise to the VPN, and issues had to be resolved. But we're back. Hopefully for a while, at least.While we pop the bottles of silkworm baijiu and seahorse bourbon, here's a photo from last night's dinner at Beijing's newest maid cafe. (Sure, Japan had sexy 19th century French maids ...

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 1 Comment

Extraordinary Eats

Kiev: The Weirdest Ukranian Opera Restaurant in Beijing

Missing those classic Yevhen Hrebinka hits? Desperate for a Chicken Kiev and a bottle of Stoli? But sick of those stern Soviet babushkas slapping down watery bowls of borscht? I hear you, brother. The closest I'd gotten to good Ukranian in Asia was in a subterranean Beijing nightclub. The bouncer outside was a scowling mohawked dwarf in ...

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 3 Comments

Extraordinary Eats

Blood Hair Strength Stew

When they heard I'd never tried 毛血旺 (maoxuewang) Stew, my coworkers were horrified. Absolutely aghast. "What, you have to try it! You'd love it! It's my favorite dish," said Ginger. "In English, it means 'Blood Hair Strength.'" Oh, I knew I'd like this. And it was pretty damn good. Fat solid ...

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment

Beijing’s incredible (and completely fake) Disneyland

I was always sad Beijing didn't have a Disneyland for weekend fun, but it turns out we do. Well, a fake one. Not far from the center of town, at the Bajiao stop on subway Line 1, is the incredible Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park (北京石景山游乐园). Admission was about US$1.50, and what a ...

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 3 Comments

Lost in Translation