I'm in Beijing for about 36 more hours. I have been here for weeks, so there is a chance I will already know the answer but ask me a question about how people live in Beijing and I will either answer it or spend part of my last day answering it or figuring out how you answer it and giving you information that way.

So the topic title was slightly misleading in that I don't know much, but I will tell you what I dare you and I'll spend up to a few hours finding an answer to what you ask tomorrow when I am out.

In Beijing the center of the city isn't very defined beyond the forbidden city which is the center of it really - but all kinds of districts pop up all around the city regardless of its geographical center. There is a cbd with all of the skyscrapers and stuff which is roughly north east to east of the forbidden city, which is also the area most of the expats live and hang out. That doesn't mean those groups are predominant - even in Beijing a white fucker is 1 in 100.

No, most places aren't open all night apart from a few restaurants and covenience stores. Kind of similar to any western place but the restaurants which are open serve more specific and varied food although a lot of it is still crap. In certain parts of the city, like the Qianmen area for example, there are many places open all night, but these are very tourist heavy areas (chinese tourists also not just foreigners - in fact foreigners are still kind of  rare) - so they don't represent the actual city.

What exactly is actual authentic Chinese food like?

It varies extremely between regions so I can't give a real answer to that but I'll tell ya that Beijing restaurants regularly serve up some bland and awful crud so I doubt all our favourites are coming from this regions. Alot of shitty corn soup, a lot of black fungus where it doesn't belong.

Okay I'll express it in pounds

If you can speak some basic mandarin, and can recognise the items on the menu, then you can go into any old place and have a very good three piece meal including a beer or two for i'd say about 40 yuan which is £4. if you want to go a bit more upmarket and eat in a place with higher hygiene standards, and better presentation, it won't be that much more - i went to some fucking cool ass place which looked stupid and it was only 75 yuan and from what i gather that's a decent price for a mid-range restaurant for one. i had a main course, a starter, rice and a beer.

in supermarkets though, well, everything can be up to ten times cheaper than the UK equivalent unless it actually COMES from the west, in which case it costs almost as much. for example, a box of any kind of western cereal would be from 40-100 yuan, where you can find it any, while any kind of box of chinese porridge, savoury or sweet, would be much less. eating out in general is much cheaper especially for the westerner who doesn't know what is up and is likely getting ripped off.

Did you like the place?

Is it really dirty?

What are some of the best things you've seen?

yeah i do like it. it isn't that dirty - some places stink like shit, they have a different toilet system than we do. a worse one where you can't flush toilet paper it is worse and stupid and they should improve it that's for sure.

i'll answer more questions in the morning including the one from you that i didn't afura cos i am tired.

did you go in the underground city place at all?

where do people hang out? inside/outside, on streets steps etc

did you go in the underground city place at all?

where do people hang out? inside/outside, on streets steps etc

the underground city is completely sealed up and i can't find any ways in.

people hang out in the streets yeah. especially old people - you must have heard about the huge formations of old women who dance together to any variety of music - i've seen that many times. old guys tend to sit out in the streets in deck chairs and just watch the world go by, i think later on they are some of the ones who come together to play mahjong and cards, also in the street. the restaurants also spill out into the streets as the day goes on, bbqs and stuff. there is a lot of bicycling, i think for economic reasons cos it isn't convenient or safe on these roads (horrible accidents are frequent although thankfully i haven'y seen anything except a few bumps)

also no-one will ask me this but chinese men do this throat clearning HAWWWWCCCKKKK thing every 5 minutes and it is repulsive. i wonder it they would do it on a date?

the underground city is completely sealed up and i can't find any ways in.

people hang out in the streets yeah. especially old people - you must have heard about the huge formations of old women who dance together to any variety of music - i've seen that many times. old guys tend to sit out in the streets in deck chairs and just watch the world go by, i think later on they are some of the ones who come together to play mahjong and cards, also in the street. the restaurants also spill out into the streets as the day goes on, bbqs and stuff. there is a lot of bicycling, i think for economic reasons cos it isn't convenient or safe on these roads (horrible accidents are frequent although thankfully i haven'y seen anything except a few bumps)

that sounds pretty nice. you'd say the streets more lively there? I know our small chinatown is one of the only true neighborhoods in the city, and I really like the street life there that is absent from most of the city

well it's disappointing, but yeah mostly just english and pointing and grunting. i've only actually had to resort to the few phrases i know and my phrasebook a few times, because most of the people i've had reason to talk to speak functional english, since they are involved in the tourist industry. i haven't really been able to eat at any places where i can't point to pictures of what i want or see the food and ask for it, and the people here sometimes ramble on at me in chinese despite the fact neither of us are pretending i can understand it.

it's shitty to come to a country where you can't speak the language. it had been a while since i was in such a place, until last month when i went to france and everything just becomes kind of stilted and i always feel a sense of hostility, although i'm probably making a bigger deal of it than it is. it isn't fun pointing and grunting at things like an idiot. i think if i'm going to go to a far away place again, i want to be able to actually communicate before i go and not just basics. i made some effort at learning chinese before i go here but it's been pretty useless - i didn't study it hard enough or for long enough at all. does anyone else really dislike this kind of thing? it really kills any sense of fun for me because i look around and almost everything i want to do it partially closed off to me. this is probably just a social anxiety thing so if you're okay with doing whatever it probably doesn't bother you.

as for the height thing, i haven't actually noticed it. there are quite a lot of people around my height. i'm not that big, i'm 6'2. i definitely haven't gotten any sense of being of different proportions to anyone except some of the other foreign tourists who for some reason all seem huge. i think they might mostly be germans. that's a thing right?

Do they have banannas? Do they have the red ones?