The march of progress

Amongst the Weeble's many strange and violent prejudices, I discover, is a bitter, bitter hatred of  Shuangjing.

I'm not a huge fan of the area myself. Even with the opening of the Line 10 subway three years ago, it's still a little bit of a pain-in-the-arse to get to. And it's about as dull and soulless as any of Beijing's other new suburbs. But... well, unlike many of those suburbs, I find it... inoffensive.

And, with its post-subway blooming into a major laowai ghetto, it has in the last year or two thrown up a few worthwhile, foreigner-friendly nightlife options. It now boasts at least one decent bar (The Brick, that is; Grinders, I'm afraid, is a 'fail' for me; I still haven't got around to trying The Loop; and Mako, alas, doesn't open regularly enough to count), a more-than-decent American-style diner (Lily's - the best place of its kind in the city), and a very good event venue (Mako Live - it's just a pity that their programming is so erratic and so poorly advertised). As I noted to Mr Weebs the other day, that puts it ahead of Sanlitun on at least two counts out of three (arguably three out of three, because I can't think of a really decent bar around SLT these days - except maybe The Tree), and mounting a decent - if still rather limited - challenge to my own Gulou/Nanluoguxiang neighbourhood.

The Weeble refuses to be persuaded. He is, it seems, still traumatised by his unhappy experience of living there 5 or 6 years ago.... when it still looked like the picture above. If I mount an expedition out beyond the East 3rd Ringroad this weekend, I shall be doing it Weeble-less. Boo!