Not sure but most of Beijing Lu is a mess now and quite a death trap for bikes and scooters since the buses have to swerve in and out of the bikelanes, they're building on both sides and noone seems to know quite how and where to drive. Take care if you go there on your scooters.

Funny coincidence. I was planning to find a bank to make an account this week. Can anyone recommend one? I have heard that some banks in China used to give you trouble if you try to withdraw from a branch in another city, is that still the case? Any idea on the yearly fee here if I want a Visa or a mastercard? Thanks.

Bassets, Bloodhounds, Great Danes and German shepherds are banned? How stupid is that. All 4 breeds are with just a little training great family dogs. Seems like they've heard that the big ones can be dangerous so they just banned them all but how does the basset fit into that? And why allow those sha peis without their bad reputation for aggression?

Yup. The government doesn't think that we know how to mourn properly so they do us the favour of shutting down every entertainment venue. Cancelled the Inter-Barcelona Champions League semi final last night on cctv 5 as well.

I feel like trying the Baiyun Lu one today or tomorrow. Sadly I don't know much about Xinjiang food apart from the bread (don't know the name in Chinese) and the yang rou chuar. Can any devotees recommend a couple of dishes? The only time I tried it before was in Beijing some years back and we had the naan bread submerged in some kind of tomato sauce,, very delicious.