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First of all, don’t be deceived by the name – this restaurant is a lot more than just cakes. It is actually best known for its dry-aged steaks! Tucked back and away into the dining plaza of Glorious Plaza (大都荟) in Gaoxin, this restaurant featured a glitzy and higher-end collection of gastronomic delights. Greeted by clear glass walls, wooden tables and green tropical plants, we were quickly shown to an upstairs table.
The word traditional gets thrown around a lot here. It’s a word that is used so often as to lose its meaning, rending the awe and reverence that the word is meant to evoke a moot point. Nevertheless, when it comes to the tea café and restaurant True Blue, traditional is the word that first springs to mind, but in the most positive of ways. Located on the 6th floor of the LAFONCE center on Fengcheng Er Lu, it’s not a place that you would immediately know was there looking from the outside. However, once you arrive, you are instantly transported from the world outside to a place that feels different. Soft lighting and a delicate fragrance fill the space. And it is spacious. The restaurant and tea house fill what seems to be the entire floor, with dedicated rooms for both tea and dining. Upon entering the main reception area, you will find a long table, topped with various relics and statues, including a replica of a carriage of the first Emperor of Qin that becomes animated when a crank is turned.
When it comes to partying and enjoying the nightlife, Xian is a city that’s not shy to show off. There are bars and night clubs galore. Options are endless.
But what if you can go to a bar, a place of familiarity, that feels like your own, where friends become family. A place where the food is delicious, the drinks are tiptop, where the energy is vibrant, the rum flows freely and beautiful people fill the dance floor?
It’s a tale as old as time. You are ready to go out, see the town, and enjoy the night. Maybe it’s you and a couple friends, and you are polling the room for what to do. Inevitably, you realize that some of you want good drinks, others want good music, and the rest want to club a bit while the night is young. Then, of course, you realize you have to choose 1 of these 3 options, because most places don’t really deliver on all them at the same time. That is until On/Off Bar arrived on the Xi’an scene.
Halloween approaches! Soon the dead will walk and ghastly ghosts will gather for ghoulish and gruesome fun!
As much as our favourite holiday is the time of year to dust off your creepy cosplay, hit the city, and get funky like Frankenstein… it’s also the perfect month to immerse yourself in that most malevolent and monstrous of cinema genres – HORROR!
Get ready to hide behind that cushion and scream for your lives as we take a peak through petrified fingers at my top five film picks for Halloween!
南阳宋定伯，年少时，夜行逢鬼。问曰：“谁？”鬼曰：“鬼也”鬼日：“卿复谁？定伯欺之，言：我亦鬼也。”鬼问：“欲至何所？”答日：“欲至宛市。”鬼言：我亦欲至宛市。”共行数里。鬼言：“步行大亟，可共迭相担也。”定伯日：“大善。”鬼便先担定伯数里。鬼言：“卿大重，将非鬼也？”定伯言：“我新死，故重耳。”
The monsters of Chinese folklore haunt the underworld Dì Yù 地狱, the backyard during the rainy season, and everywhere in between— including your stomach. Here in China, ghosts and goblins in fables fuse the bizarre into scenes of normalcy. Ancient fables often show the beasts as the “other”, exposing the shortcomings and paradoxes of human nature. The monsters cross the bounds of living and dead, intruding and upsetting the lives of humans.
For the first time in 6 months, it was wheels up and we were in the air! After quarantine, work from home, and living behind a mask, travel seemed like a dream come true.
Every culture has its superstitions, or 迷信 (MiXin). As Englishman, I can’t walk under ladders, cross knives, or say ‘Bloody Mary’ in the mirror three times in a row (literally daren’t). With the onset of Halloween, I see no reason why we shouldn’t discuss ways in which we may avoid tempting fate, or worse dishonour our hosts, while here in China.
With international travel not possible for foreigners living in China, some have felt that their travel options are somewhat limited, with many avoiding travel all together. However, domestic travel has been an option for several months now, but many are still unsure about what it would be like traveling in China post-COVID. What do you need to do? Is it possible to travel wherever you want? What loops with you need to jump through in order to do so.
