Beijing Quickie

Five years living and working in China has seen friends come and go in this very transitory waiting place called TEDA which is two hours from Beijing so it's doesn't have as much holding power.  My husband and I decided to gamble in the Philippines and we now only go back to China for a brief holiday for my in-laws to enjoy their precious precious time with Joshua.  During this last trip, I visited one of my oldest friends who's still living in China, Sophie who was my roommate and classmate in a two-week Chinese bootcamp years back and it turned out, among other coincidences, we were born two days apart.  What are the chances, right?  

I took the two hour bus to Beijing just to have lunch with her and catch up with life stories over sumptuous servings of Persian food and coffee in a Spanish restaurant.  

When she heard I was going back into the field of architecture and before I had to catch the last bus back to TEDA, she gave me a tour of the newly opened hotel at the Village in Sanlitun and parts of the commercial development which were closed the last time I was there.  Beijing amazing!  Designers are having a heyday!