Beijing Third Ring Road Collapses

A sewage pipeline leak in the early hours of yesterday morning in Beijing caused an eastern section of the city’s Third Ring Road to cave in, creating a hole 20 metres long, 10 metres wide and 10 metres deep. “Filthy water leaked out of the pipe and poured into a section of the subway line that is under construction,” Beijing Evening News quoted a witness as saying. Since no one was working there at the time, there were no casualties. The accident also created several cracks on the main road. The area has been cordoned off since the accident, forcing 31 bus lines to change routes. Repair work is still ongoing and is expected to last 3 days.

This happened just down the road from where I live. I should imagine that somebody somewhere has some serious explaining to do!

New Year’s Beijing Style

Well it is now Wednesday and I can safely say that I am now recovered from the weekend. Sunday however was not pretty. Spent most of the afternoon curled up on the sofa unable to focus on whatever it was I was trying to watch. New Year’s eve started with drinks at Jaque’s apartment before heading for an excellent dinner at Cafe Sambal. Lot’s of goof Malaysian food to say farewell to 2005. We had planned to get to Ruud’s house party in time for midnight but after much back and forth with the group, I was out voted and it was decided to spend it in Bed Bar just up the street. Apparently there was concern over not getting across Beijing in time and seeing in the New Year en route in a xiao li (beijing cab) gan bei-ing (cheers) with the driver. Some people have no sense of adventure…. bah!

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New Year done and dusted, we hot-footed it over to Ruud’s penthouse apartment in Ocean Paradise. Things did not look good on our arrival when we met the police in the lift on the way up, but our fears were quickly dispelled once we got upstairs. Ruud and his entourage had done an excellent job of turning his enormous place into a venue to rival most night clubs. Excellent fun with lots of bubbles to keep us in the style to which we are accustomed :)

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Later as things were winding down, we headed on to Suzie Wong’s (with a quick detour for a whizz around Tango) where things may or may not have taken a turn for the worst. Suffice to say I found myself stumbling home after dawn. My name at that point escapes me….

All my photos from the evening can be seen here. Other photos at Ruud’s party were also taken Ruud, Denise and Jessie.