Light up The Sky

The first night of the Chinese new year here in Beijing was absolutely spectacular. From 7 pm until daylight the next morning, fireworks and firecrackers were going off nonstop all over the city. It actually sounds like a complete war-zone. The fireworks are in these big boxes that you light and run away from just in time. As for the firecrackers, they leave behind thousands of little red cartridges and the day after new years, there are huge heaps of them along streets.

The most incredible thing is seeing all these fireworks that go off almost in the middle of intersections! I'd love to see the Montreal police respond to that one...

Overall, I never thought it would be as amazing as it was. I thought Disney had pretty good fireworks. . .

Designer Hong Bao

Spending Chinese new year in Beijing has been one of the most amazing experiences ever. I'm used to spending summers in Beijing and so it has been amazing to see the difference between summer time and winter time in this city. As I've been busy every day trying to soak up all the new year festivities, I've fallen behind on what I would like to post.

On new years eve day, I went shopping to catch some of the big sales. I walked into The Gap and was handed an envelope. Then I realized it was an envelopes full of red envelopes (红包 hong bao - usually filled with money and given as gifts for the new year). 

Unfortunaly, they were empty... 

But overall I thought it was a really cute gesture made by The Gap.

...Even though I wish it had been somewhere like Alexander Mcqueen giving them out. Imagine designer hong bao?!?! I think I'm on to something . . . 

新年快乐！ 

ps. more celebration pictures to come!

Semo Namu

Sunday I stayed at a Pension called Semo Namu. Pensions are beginning to be very popular in Korea and the best way that I can describe them is that they tend to be beautiful getaways that might look like villas and that are relatively cheap.

Semo Namu is a little outside of seoul and is in a quite space away from the city bustle. There are only five rooms and each room is its individual modern looking fully furnished cabin. They even provide dinner upon request that is served on your mini private terrace. It's winter time so the pool is frozen over and being outside for more than 5 minutes isn't the most enjoyable but I bet summertime here must be really great too!

*Pictures in this post except the last one are taken from their website www.semonamu.com

W Concept

For those who don't know, I'm currently in Seoul, South Korea. The next 8 months are going to be very exciting and I can't wait to start posting my adventures and thoughts as I should have kept doing even when I was at home!

So.

Seoul always excites me because it is one of my favourite cities to shop in (if not my ultimate favourite). Last June I blogged about the Joseph & Stacey bags that I had fallen in love with. I found the bags at a store named W Concept. This store sells many items from luxury brands from Proenza Schouler's PS1s to Tod's driving shoes but also holds countless other brands from all over the world. Most of the time they only have one or maybe a couple of each item which kind of makes everything that much more special.

When I went a few days ago, I fell in love with the W Exclusive line that was made in collaboration with  Kaal E. Suktae. I loved the colour palette and the special attention made to design details, especially on the jackets. My favourite was the black leather motorcycle jacket with gold details. It fits incredibly well and looks even better on than in pictures.

Take a look for yourself!

Two Wheels

I've been back home from Asia about a month now and I can't help but miss the super cool bikes and scooters I'd see daily when I was abroad.

In Taiwan

In Taiwan

Super typical in Beijing

The classic Beijing bicycle and butterfly basket

A twist on the classic bike...look at the wheels!!

My all-time favourite bicycle. 

His friends let me take a picture of him napping on the job

10cm

I've been listening to 10cm, a korean band, for a few weeks now and I lovelovelove their sound. I especially love this uncut video of them playing on a city bus. It reminds me a lot of the Take Away Shows that I love for showing artists' raw talent.







Here's another really good song by them.


10cm 십센치 - 안아줘요

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Happiness Village

Last weekend, two friends and I decided to spend the day exploring some of Beijing's back streets.

My friend suggested we check out the area right behind her apartment that is right next to Sanlitun Village. Sanlitun Village is a relatively new and affluent area where many tourists go do brand name shopping and eat western food. The area we went to, 幸福二村 (roughly translates into happiness village), is just a 2 minute walk around the corner from the last street that is part of Sanlitun Village yet you would never think it even existed. Walking through the maze of little alleys, you never know when you're accidentally walking into someone's house...(I'm serious...it happened a few times).

Next we went to the 鼓楼 (Gu Lou, Drum Tower). After climbing the steepest staircase of my entire life, we were greeted by a great view. We were also very luck that it was one of those rare smogless days! We waited around for a bit to see the drum performance. It was good but I couldn't help but be distracted by the main drummers massive wedgie.

Obviously I took several a picture.

Zoom in to Hou Hai, where we went next 

 

Our last destination was 后海 (Hou Hai, litteral translation is back sea...i think they meant lake but wtv).

This is a typical night spot and I'm sure I will be blogging about that aspect later on in my trip but this time we were there during the day and explored some of the back streets that tourists don't seem to wander off into. 

The famous Beijing squat. Btw you can see one of the main tourist streets in the back, surprising nobody really turns onto this one.

CUTEST DOG EVARRRR

These two little girls look cute and innocent. They're not. One of them spat at us and told us to get lost. ouch.

Last but not least, it was a hot hot day. I guess people go through extreme means just to shade themselves a bit...

...it's a big leaf...