Jay Gindoff in da House

Jay Gindoff came through here on Sunday evening. I picked him up at the airport, which was a fiasco already reported on, I believe. Then we had dinner downtown. Next day he and I tooled around Beijing. We went to a frigid Tianamen Square, walked all around but not into the Forbidden City, then took a cab over to Little Sheep, a great hot pot restuarant for lunch (the same place I wrote about months ago). Man, that is some good stuff and Jay is the perfect guy to eat it with. If you come visit, make sure you ask me to take you there.

Then we hit the Drum Tower, where I have probably been more than anywhere else in town, and walked around Houhai Lake, a really nice area. There, we visited a great tea shop, where I refilled my stash of Lychee black tea I have been sucking down since our trip to the Guilin tea plantation and Jay bought a bunch of tea sets for christmas presents. The owner, pictured here with Jay, was very nice, and he gave us a rather extensive tea tasting ceremony and explanation.

We came back home for Mr. Li’s ribs, put the kids to bed and went back downtown to Centro, a nice martini bar that isn’t all that local but is a pleasant place to warm up on a Monday night.

Tuesday morning, Jay flew off to Gunadong for a week’s business trip.