Look ma, no net

Health and safety often takes second place to getting the job done in China. We were walking down the street and looked up to see these two repairing a vast neon sign half way up a high-rise. With no nets, cables or other form of safety equipment they fearlessly scampered up and down the structure doing their stuff.

Now it's really over

Olympics over; paralympics over. On Saturday 20th all cars are back on the road and construction begins again. It was good while it lasted.

Wheelchair basketball

Team GB and team China line up for the start of their group wheelchair match during the Beijing paralympics. The 'dancing fan' (National Indoor Stadium) was packed to the gills and we were also graced with the presence of China's president Hu Jintao. Unfortunately for the home crowd, their team went down 34-81.

Team GB went on to take the bronze medal - adding to their spectacular 2nd place finish overall and more than 100 paralympic medals in total.
GB practicing at half-time

Every day is a blue sky day

Is it the fact that more than 1M cars have been off the road for the last six weeks? Or that all construction work across Beijing has been halted? Perhaps its because some high polluting factories have been shut down? Or maybe simply because we are coming into autumn..and Beijing's best months.

Whatever the reason - and I'm sure its all of the above - we have enjoyed truly spectacular weather over the last few weeks. Normally August is horrible...grey, overcast skies all day and temperatures over 35C. This year we have had plenty of blue sky days with the occasional, wispy, clouds. We even could see STARS on some nights!

Last Sunday was one one of those perfect, wish they never end, days. A round of golf in the morning under glorious skies and a light breeze. Even though I lost - normally the cause of a grumpy rest of the day - it failed to dent my spirits.
Da Li Courtyard

Then onto my one of my favourite restaurants for a lazy lunch with friends. Da Li Courtyard is a small, hard to find, restaurant in a Beijing hutong (don't expect any help from their website...) near the Drum & Bell towers running out of a renovated courtyard home. The food is from Yunnan province in south west China - so more south east Asian flavours than classic Chinese - including spring rolls, grilled goats cheese and terrific grilled fish. There is no menu and no choice. You are served 8 or 9 dishes of whatever they have cooked that day which is great because you end up trying things you might never have ordered. This is especially true in China where our limited language skills mean that we often go with safe menu choices.

It was just a perfect lunch..every dish was wonderful and we drank delicious Grace Vineyards chardonnay - a Chinese wine (yes, they exist but most are called things like Great Wall or Dragon's Seal and aren't up to much).
Da Li Courtyard

You can't get those big red fire engines down Beijing's narrow hutongs...the fire brigade take a rest on Sunday afternoon in Nanluoguxiang