Beijing Glasses City Leads Us to Restaurant #9

In our awesome Insider's Guide to Beijing Guidebook Mike and I read about this magical place called "Beijing Glasses City", in which shoppers can peruse 4 floors of glasses frames at bargain prices. Seeing as how the last time I got new frames was freshman year in college, I was really excited to get some new glasses up in here. Mike, Jessica and I hopped the gold #10 train line to the other end. Unfortunately, we did not check the guidebook and realized upon arrival around 5:55pm that Beijing Glasses City closes at 6pm. :( We hopped across the street and looked at a few glasses shops that had some frames that appealed to me, however at US$50 they were a little pricey compared to what the guidebook promised. I did find out that slightly cat-eye type frames actually look really good on me. We decided to return to Glasses City tomorrow after the group tour of the 798 Art District.

We decided to check out another glasses store listed in the guidebook, which promised "superfly frames". The store was on a street that was next to the CBD (Central Business District). The street was actually this really funky and cute neighborhood, with hutongs off the side and trendy clothing shops that cater to Beijing's fashionable. We never found the eyeglass store, but we did find the most awesome restaurant.

We found a little hutong and wandered down it, and noticed a neat little restaurant called #9. We asked to see a menu, and it had plenty of vegetarian options for Jessica so we decided to eat there. The owner was quite solicitous and was very attentive. We ordered an incredible amount of food, including a tofu dish that mimicked scallops, a huge fried shrimp dish, pork ribs, fried potatoes and Chinese bacon, scallion pancake and fried green beans. The food was AMAZING, and we got the owner to share a beer with us. We had a nice chat about Mike's and my Chinese moms and how we were studying at Beijing Daxue. The total was so incredibly cheap and the food was so delicious that we absolutely plan to return!

We also were celebrating the fact that we got our Accounting problem set done this morning about 13 hours early. All the other fools in our class are cranking away right now and Jess, Mike and I are free and clear. Tomorrow we are off for a tour of the 798 Art District, which is supposed to be amazing.