Study Abroad Student Blogs

Jeffrey Bilik, NU in China, Summer 2014

If there’s one thing I can recommend to do in Beijing on your own, it’s to wander out and find as much as you can. The city is full of layers, and every neighborhood can be a different world into itself. A thirty minute peek through Beijing’s central Sanlitun neighborhood can get you through Persian and Turkish restaurants, the Egyptian and Syrian embassies, bright lit malls selling every kind of knock off, Arab cafes – all next to extremely modern, see-through-glass luxury brand stores. Signs for Chuanr (street-food lamb skewers!) light up every back street, the crowds rush by.

Walk around Hohhai – one of Beijing’s most popular public lakes – at night, where Chinese bands play live covers, blasting music out of nearby restaurants, groups of men and women play hackeysack better than anyone you’ve ever met, and the world is lit with neon through the commercialized Hutongs.

There are neighborhoods with guitar shops and bars lining the streets, huge plazas amid high-rises, old men walking by wearing radios that play dramatic sounding classics. There’s so much more to Beijing than just its deep rooted culture – and it’s up to you to find it.