Cow Stomach And Smog

After walking around the hutongs for a while, we were ready for some refreshments, so from there we caught the subway to the Sanlitun (三里屯) area for some tea (for them, for me: red wine!) before meeting some more friends for dinner at this hot pot restaurant where I didn’t recognise all of the food.

Squid

It turns out I was eating cow’s stomach which I thought was squid. 

Why would you eat cow’s stomach?

The other food was lovely though, washed down with beers so I was feeling pretty mellow now (remember I’d not had any sleep on the plane and we’d been out and about all day), and afterwards, fully satiated on lamb, pork and stomach, we head out to the Grand Hyatt Hotel to get some drinks on the rooftop bar. 

A few more friends met us there, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed into the bar as we were completely underdressed (all wearing shorts and flip-flops) so we had to settle for the bar a few storeys down, which was really nice too. I am not use the couple trying to have a romantic dinner appreciated the 10 of us descending on the place, 'oo-ing' and 'wow-ing' at the views over Beijing...

The view would have been amazing had it not been for the smog: it looked a bit eerie with the traffic disappearing into a smoky abyss...