Today I Have a Dinner in Huguosi Snack Food Store

There is no better illustration of what Beijingers eat during the Spring Festival than food offered by traditional snack food (xiao chi: small eats) stores throughout Beijing. The Huguosi Snack Food Store is a great example of the

festive food shops.
The present location of the store was formerly the site of a famous temple fair in the western part of the city where the most famous "small eats" food brands flourished. In 1956 a state-owned traditional snack store was established.
Today the store is one of the few old brand-name state-owned businesses that still continue this tradition.
According to Li Qiuhua, manager of the store: nian gao (glutinous rice cake), dou bao (steamed buns with smashed red bean stuffing), xi zi bing (a cake with the Chinese character for 'happiness' on it) and mian yu'er (a cake shaped like a fish) are some of the most popular foods at the store during big holiday shopping.
Most of these foods carry auspicious meanings. For example, nian gao literally means: “better this year than last year”. The fish cake is considered auspicious because fish in Chinese (yu) means surplus. The Chinese hope they are prosperous and rich in each New Year.
Other foods available include many kinds of traditional Beijing 'small eats.' Some of the most famous treats are lu da gun (rolling donkey): a soft yellow rice and soybean cake, ai wo wo: a white glutinous rice cake with a variety of stuffing, wan dou huang: a smooth tasting yellow pea cake and jiao quan: deep-fried crispy flour ring.

The South Beauty In Beijing China

In 2000, the South Beauty Catering Management Group (South Beauty Group) was founded with its headquarters in Beijing. The Group has three luxury restaurant

brands: South Beauty Restaurants, Lan Club and SUBU. They represent the greatest development potentials for this Chinese international catering service management group.

The South Beauty Restaurants mainly serve traditional Chinese Sichuan-style Cuisine, in addition to the Cantonese-style Cuisine series of the Southern School, Tanfu Private, exquisite French Cuisine and attractive Mexican Cuisine. All these cuisines bring their own features to reveal the supreme art of cooking. 

Exploring Art in Lan Bator-Beijing Landscapes

The Monastery-Museum of Choijin Lama is a storehouse of jaw-dropping papier, mache masks and elegant bronze sculptures.
At the heart of Ulan Bator is an art-lover's paradise waiting to be discovered. Chitralekha Basu looks beyond the usual tourist draws and finds a trove of art and culture around the city's central square.

If you stood in front of Sukhbaatar Batbold's now cellophane-wrapped statue in Ulan Bator's central square and drew a circle with a 1-kilometer radius, you would be at the hub of a never-ending exhibition.
Granted, most of Ulan Bator's potential tourist lures - from the Roman-style colonnaded buildings often colored an unlikely shade of dark peach to the multi-tiered pagoda-roofed monasteries - are located right here, but the volume and variety of art on display is truly extraordinary.
The best part of visiting UB's arts hub is that the intense concentration of thangka paintings, appliqu panels showing menacing mythological gods, bejeweled bronze sculptures, quaint hunting tools and masks and costumes worn traditionally by tsam dancers seems inversely proportional to the number of eager connoisseurs.
Miles and miles of art objects stand solemnly in unpeopled galleries. Even the staff, supposed to be looking out for the chance visitor, is hardly ever seen. But don't let that give you ideas. A warren of closed circuit cameras is tracking your moves, just in case you thought of clicking a shot or two on the sly and not paying the fee (see box).
First up on the list is Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, by far the most representative collection of Mongolian art, from prehistoric granite sculptures to early 20th-century landscapes by the legendary Mongolian painter B Sharav (1869-1939).

Choose One Courtyard Restaurant for You ?

Chinese food you should not miss during your Beijing tour. In ancient times, people lived in Hutong Courtyards. The quadrangles, also called Siheyuans in Chinese, in Beijing have a long history, and they are traditional residential compounds with houses around courtyards. Now I will recommend some famous courtyard restaurant to you. 

 

Dali Courtyard Restaurant

Located in Xijiaochang Hutong, Dali Courtyard Restaurant is famous for cooking Yunan Cuisine. View from the outside, Dali Courtyard Restaurant does not look magnificent, even a little old. However, it covered with plants and beautifully restored. It is one of the most romantic places to eat in Beijing for that it is in the subtle flavor of the cuisine of southwestern Yunnan province together with the beautiful setting.

No restaurant like Dali Courtyard Restaurant captures the atmosphere of laid back Yunnan. Sitting in this beautiful courtyard restaurant and watching the views in the courtyard, guests could easily image sitting the real town of Dali, particularly in the summer month as the sun streams through the surrounding trees.

There is no menu at Dali Courtyard Restaurant. Diners pay a fixed price of around US $15 for a meal of whatever was freshest when the chef went to the market.

Yi Zhan Restaurant

 

Yi Zhan Restaurant is well-known as a typical restaurant cook the traditional Hunan Cuisine. If you want to save your money, it is a good place fit for you. Though this restaurant is hard to find, it does offer delicious food with lower price. Even more, the food provided here may not be found in other restaurants.

While entering Yi Zhan Restaurant, you may feel that you have been out of the city and enjoying a kind of country life for that the environment of this restaurant is quiet. In addition, the service in Yi Zhan Restaurant is quite good. It provides various entertainment facilities for its guests, such as a projector and musical instruments.

Yunnan Restaurant

Hidden within the Hutong of Huairou, Yunnan Restaurant is covered with green and famous for its delicious dishes. The restaurant is comparatively quiet though it locates at a noisy area.

The materials of food are transported from Yunnan to Beijing by air regularly. So there you could taste the freshest quality of food. According to different seasons, the menu in Yunnan Restaurant is different. In different seasons, customers can have different Yunnan authentic dishes.

All these courtyard restaurants have their own characteristic, so you can choose one to taste Chinese food. Besides, you will have an essential taste of Beijing history during your Beijing tour.