Smog from yesterday was gone and I could actually have a view of Beijing from my hotel room in the morning. The office was also easy to find since you could see it almost the while way from the hotel today.

At 5:30 pm me and a work colleague (Liew-san) from the Tokyo office, but now expat in Beijing, got on one of the many shuttle busses to go into downtown Beijing. The company provides shuttle busses for free as it is otherwise too difficult for people to get to and from the office. Sony Ericsson is no exception. Big companies in Beijing all do the same.

It turned out that going to downtown tonight was a mistake. It took 1.5 hours to there in traffic jam that was so thick it was faster to walk. Once we got to our destination it took us a while to find the restaurant. It was hidden well on a small back street. But we were not the only ones having trouble finding the restaurant. Just after us arrived a couple that Liew-san and I had spotted a few times when we walked around looking for the restaurant.

Niklas, another work colleague and expat in Beijing, arrived shortly after Liew-san and me. He had recommended this Brazilian restaurant. And it was a good recommendation. I had very tasty lamb racks for main course.

Even though I had a very good time with Liew-san and Niklas, and the food was very good, it was still a mistake to go downtown tonight. Lieu-san lives just around th corner from the restaurant but Niklas lives a few blocks a way from the hotel, to which you need to take a taxi. But there was not taxi for Niklas and me to find this night. We even got on a subway to get out of the most intensive downtown area, but still no taxi in sight.

Finally we got enough desperate to get into a black taxi. It was a young guy that was playing loud music. Surprisingly he was driving quite carefully and we arrived at Niklas place safely. Then the black taxi drove me to the hotel. I had to give him directions once, point and making guttural sounds to make him understand that we should go left and not straight. I arrived safely at the hotel shortly after, and got into bed at 1 am.

Today was a terrible day in Beijing. Someone told me the air pollution was more than 400 PPM, well beyond the limit of what is considered healthy. I kept my breath the whole day – world record!

At the end of the day I walk, as usually this week, to my favorite restaurant for dinner. This night I had the “famous” bean dish and a spicy beef dish. Both were quite tasty.

When I got back to the hotel it was like being a member of a small rock band. There were stage lights. And smoke. And not people 🙂

On my way to the office I passed, as usual, a group of women and men “dancing” around in a big circle to some kind of modernized version of classic Chinese music. Or maybe it is Chinese variant of Country in US or “dansband” in Sweden.

It was a busy day so it was nice to get out of the office in the evening. At least that was what I thought until I got out. Outside it was quite smoggy and the sunset was anything but bright.

I went straight to yesterday’s dinner restaurant. I just stopped briefly to take a snapshot of a perfectly “natural” Beijing forest.

At the restaurant I had a quite tasty sweet and sour pork, though Chie’s is much better. I also had 5 spices rib. Quite hot and very tasty.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to relax with yet another movie. Reading a few pages in Game of Thrones – I am re-reading the George R R Martin books to recap before reading the new book A Dance with Dragons, as well as preparing for the Game of Thrones TV series.

Arrived in Beijing just passed noon and took a taxi to the hotel. Traffic jam! Just before turning off the airport express way it was obvious what had caused the traffic jam. A car on fire. Just like in the movies. First time in real life for me.

Worked at the office in the afternoon and went for dinner around 6 pm. Last time I visited Calle showed me a quite OK restaurant about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

For dinner I tried their “famous” spicy bean dish and their mabu-dofu. The bean dish was really tasty but Chie’s mabu-dofu is a million times better than this one.

Afterwards I just went back to the hotel, took a hot bath and went to bed watching a movie on my iPad. I was still not feel 100% after last weekends cold so I skipped the gym as I otherwise would have visit.