Here in Beijing my apartment is right on Ghost Street. This is one of the most well known areas in Beijing for restaurants. There is about a 3 block stretch of Dongzhimen Jie (street name) of wall-to-wall restaurants. Outside of each restaurant red lanterns are strung across the sidewalk, and at night it is quite a spectacular sight. The photos above don't do it justice at all. You can get all kinds of food here, and I've already posted a number of pictures. I have one more week in Beijing so expect a lot more.
The restaurant area is actually known as 簋街 ("gui jie", or "food vessel street"). This sounds similar to 鬼街 ("gui jie", or "ghost street") so most people just call the area Ghost Street. This kind of pun is the basis for humour in Chinese.
It's a common sight to see the restaurant crew doing some kind of routine at the beginning of the day. Either they'll be getting a pep talk from the manager, or doing some kind of exercise routine. I even saw one crew doing Gangam Style with full music blaring. I see something different pretty much every day. I think this is a good idea and it's something I'm going to try to introduce in Canada. For example at Sierra Systems, each of the Practices can start the day with a different routine. Next time I talk to the VP Solutions I'll suggest this and they she cam implement it in each of the Practices!
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