Yesterday, we went up to Wudaokou to visit Sven. Wudaokou is a cool college-town area in northwest of the city, Propaganda is down the street, and a Pizza Hut, and an English bookstore. Our favorite Indian restaurant, Ganges, is just down the street. As soon as we got off the subway, I started to feel a bit jealous of Sven. Where we live, in Fengtai, is where you end up if you’re going someplace interesting and accidentally get on the bus going the wrong way.
We wanted to check out a coffeeshop and library near the Old Summer Palace. The library’s called One Way Street (not to be confused with my Yantai haunt, the One Way Ticket), and it’s separated from Beijing traffic by a garden of the Old Summer Palace, and shaded by trees. Not newly-transplanted saplings in a row, these were big shady climbing trees, with hammock-style camping chairs underneath. We got some coffee and tea from nearby Mima coffeeshop and played with the bookstore cats. I understand the summer palace much better now that I’ve used its old grounds as a peaceful escape from frantic Beijing.
I had a fantastic afternoon talking with Sven and Stick, so good that I had Harry Potter open on my lap the whole time and didn’t read it.
