The Beijinger – December 2015: Beijingers to Watch: Movers and Shakers Ready to Roll Into 2016
Did the year go by quickly? It seems like it was Christmas only recently, but Beijing’s spring and summer don’t seem like they were just a few months ago.
For our cover story this month, we thought we’d do a variation on Beijing’s Most Interesting People, which we did in 2013 and 2014. This year, it’s more a list of people we’re watching for 2016, along with folks we thought stepped up their game over the last 12 months.
As always, we were surprised by who finally made it. There’s a big UK influence this year, and again, we’re disappointed by how few women seem to be making their mark. Regardless, they’re people with whom we’re happy to share a city.
In our LGBT feature, Margaux Schreurs talks to Wang Ruoyu of the Beijing Queer Chorus. She also interviews Dutch journalist Fokke Obbema about China’s relationship with the West. Kipp Whittaker takes us on a martini tour of Beijing, from Morton’s of Chicago to James Bond, and visits a new cocktail bar that didn’t try to drum up business by taking crabs for a walk around Sanlitun. Robynne Tindall talks with EAST Beijing Executive Chef Rob Cunningham about why chefs run marathons and steps out of her comfort zone to try Da Dong Duck, the new duck burger place from another of Beijing’s best-known chefs.
Elsewhere, it’s quite a mix of the old and the new for our last issue of 2015. There’s the app, PingoSpace, which sees itself as “Uber for everything else ,” and a look at Beijing’s first Pizza Hut, still operating in the exact same location after more than 20 years. There’s also newly-opened Capital Training Center, current home of Fight Camp China, where some people are getting a head start on their new year’s fitness resolutions. Finally, we bid farewell to the Peking Man, George Ding, whose final column appears in this issue.
As always, you can check the issue out online over at Issuu.com or grab the PDF here. Enjoy!