4 posts tagged with "Beijing Life"

Lao Li felt that this Qingming short holiday was simply more mentally taxing than going to work. His retirement pension arrived monthly, neither high nor low, enough for basic needs but far from affluence. Supposedly, it was time to enjoy a peaceful life. But how to enjoy this "peace" had now become a field of study, perhaps even bordering on metaphysics.

"Old man, don't just coop yourself up in the house all the time!" Mrs. Li shouted from the kitchen, her voice accompanied by the clatter of pots and pans. "Look, people are saying on their phones, the best way to rest during a holiday isn't sleeping, it's getting out, doing something, clearing your head!"

Spring in Beiping, the wind was still stiff, slapping against the face like a stepmother's hand. But somehow, the streets exuded a certain bright energy. Take the newly opened "Butter & Bread" on the corner, for instance. Its glass was polished so bright, like newly fired porcelain teeth, gleaming almost blindingly white. Old Li stopped right there, at the shop's entrance.

Old Ma lived under the southern city wall, in an area of gray, nondescript tenement buildings. Truth be told, Old Ma hadn't weathered any great storms in his life. He'd spent half his youth tightening screws in a factory. His pension wasn't much, but it wasn't too little either – enough to get by, he wouldn't starve. His only attachment, or rather, his only source of "face," was his Corgi.

Beijing's early mornings always carried a hint of coal smoke and the sour tang of dòuzhī, seeping under the grey sky into every hutong. Zhang Ma, as the neighbors called her—what her actual name was, she herself had almost forgotten over time. Her day began with dressing her son, Ming'er.