Best of the Beijinger Blog 2010: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly

2010 saw plenty happen in Beijing and the Beijinger blog was there all through the year, charting the best and worst of what the city had to throw at us. As usual restaurants and bars came and went, Beijingers saw some great music and missed out on a whole lot more (at least of the foreign variety), continued to battle unending pollution, and were offered the world’s worst theme park. The fate of the area around Gulou hung in the balance all year and endless food safety scandals did the rounds.

As the end of the year approaches, here’s a run down on our top-10 most popular blogs posts of 2010 – starting with number 10…

10. Central Perk: The Café from Friends Comes to Beijing

China is known for knock-offs but this one seemed to impress everyone with a complete re-creation of Friends’ Central Perk coffee shop in Chaowai SOHO. The place comes complete with the handwritten menu on the wall, the brick interior, and of course, the iconic orange couch.

9. The Full Guide to Thanksgiving in Beijing 2010

This shot up to the list in just a few weeks, showing just how many North Americans there are in Beijing these days. The long list comprised almost every single Thanksgiving event around, and became the go-to guide for anyone in search of some Thanksgiving goodness.

8. Laowai: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Nothing guarantees hits like sex – or in the case of this blog, a disdain for certain couplings. A Chinese blogger made it her mission to warn Chinese girls off hopping into bed with the bad Western guys allegedly flooding into the city with the sole agenda of finding a “[wife] to be a three-in-one combination of maid, cook, and sex worker.” Seems wide of the mark given how cheap aiyis are in Beijing.

7. Beijing Air Pollution and Your Health

A continual problem for anyone living in Beijing. This interview may have been popular for making pollution seem like more of a hassle than a health issue. A user point blank refuted the doctor commenting, “WHY is he is sugar coating the issue? Maybe he forgot what he researched [for his URBANE article].

6. Meet The Killers: Interview with Ronnie Vannucci

Four short days after this interview was posted the Killers’ tour was canceled, due to a family death, reminding everyone of all the big names that never seem to make it to Beijing: Dylan, BB King, Jimmy Page, Oasis…. Ok, Jimmy Page DID make it 2010 but he didn’t actually play.

5. Diners Beware: Toxic Chopsticks and Recycled Oil

If you’re not breathing it, then you’re eating it. China is determined to make you ingest as many toxins as possible. Just like the list of no show music acts, the list of tainted foods goes on and on and on….

4. The Winners!! The Beijinger’s 2010 Reader Bar and Club Awards

A presence on every yearly top ten list, this year it moved up a spot. A sign that Beijinger’s were drinking even more in 2010?

3. Gulou Area Facing Demolition?

There is nothing expat Beijinger’s love to hate more than the wrecking ball. The plans to knock down the hutongs around Gulou have been on and off all year – our Dec 6 post finally closed the book on this saga announcing that the hutongs around the Drum and Bell Tower were safe. Unfortunately Nanlougu Xiang is another story.

2. Confirmed: Beijing has World’s Worst Theme Park

This hilarious account of Beijing’s Green Dream Park on the Olympic Green over the summer included a deserted, desolate park, the “chance to recline on a folding sofa... made entirely of recycled paper,” “a statue of the Transformer Optimus Prime,” “air conditioners blasting away right next to plaques that explain the importance of the conservation of earth,” and a fun claw game of grab the empty beer can.

1. The Winners! Beijinger’s 7th Annual Reader Restaurant Awards

This year’s top post! Seems a toxic food supply doesn’t dissuade anyone from actually eating, and the ever-popular Beijinger Restaurant Awards once again clawed their way to the top of this year’s blogging charts.

Other notable stories included the Show of Peace saga, that saw Jimmy Page drop into town to announce a grand festival that inevitably never happened. Originally announced for April 17, it was “postponed” to October… and we never heard from promoter Rick Garson again.

Then there was Kro being pushed out of his well-known Kro’s Nest Restaurant chain, only to mount a comeback as 2010 drew to a close.

And finally, our personal favorite, the story of the modern world being stopped by a naked Chinese man. Given the way the traffic problem in the capital almost reached breaking point by late 2010, we think we could do with him in Beijing.