Saturday - Revisiting the Trip of a Lifetime - CycleBlaze

August 25, 2018

Saturday

From a 2012 visit to Li Qun's. It doesn't look any different now versus then.
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Somewhere around the crack of noon everyone had woken up and showered and coffee had been made. Myf bought it in Taiwan about three weeks ago so, of course, it was "horribly stale" coffee. It was still a whole lot better than the stuff I picked up in Haikou. (On the other hand, it cost about 10x as much as the stuff I picked up in Haikou.)

We got some sharebikes and rode to the Qianmen area for duck at Li Qun's Hutong Duck. It didn't feel like we made any detours along the way but somehow, by the time we were there and able to get a place in line, it was already 4pm. At this hour, it was still almost entirely Chinese tourists. By the time we had a table and had finished eating, a few westerners were beginning to be seen.

On of my favorite things about Li Qun's versus other "famous" brand restaurants in Beijing is that he's never seen the necessity of licensing a chain of shops; he's never started an online store with packaged goods that have a picture of his face; he's never fancied the place up. It is what it is and that's what it is. Nothing fancy. Nothing like that. The only hint that it's touristy is the sheer number of tourists waiting outside to be called in to eat.

From Li Qun's we took the subway back to Myf's and Zaiming went off to meet a client or colleague of his (I was never sure exactly which). After a short rest Myf and I headed out again to meet some Beijing friends of his for a a Freestyle Hip Hop competition. There was also talk of eventually going to a PsyTrance rave but, given that I'm going to try to wake up at a reasonable hour on Monday morning, and given that I'm definitely going to be doing work from my hotel room Monday evening, being responsible adults and going to sleep before dawn eventually won out.

Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 16 km (10 miles)

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