lost or what?

Xidan

I dont have too many photos from this evening, so feel free to bitch and moan.
Xidan barely rates a mention as a place to go, but it turns out its about 10 times busier than the much hyped Wangfujing. This may be because its largely completed construction (probably only 20% under construction at Xidan vs at least 50% at Wangfujing.
The subway ride to get there was only 3 stops, but it was the worst crush I have ever experienced on the subway. I saw deep into the guy next to me's earhole, and I had no choice in this matter as I could not move, and it was hard to breathe.
Perhaps worst still, the subway train made a lot of loud screeching noises whenever the brakes were applied, and then an almighty clunk once we started moving again.
I was pretty much resigned to the fact I would be staying on the train until such time as the 400 people closer to the door got off, luckily everyone emptied out at Xidan.

Theres lots and lots of restaurants, generally on the upper floors, where there are also cinemas. The lines for these restaurants were ridiculous, so I ended up eating at Yoshinoya, one of at least 6 on the street, generally found in the basements.

In addition to regular style malls (with useful shops to most people, no Gucci or Rolex), there were also a few indoor junk markets.
The one above and below the subway station was quite interesting, a lot of strange cosmetic and beauty products as well as angry birds themed lunch boxes.

I did notice back near my hotel that it was a lot busier also, I guess Friday is a going out night in Beijing, in places like Hong Kong and Shanghai, I couldnt really discern a difference between Friday and Monday.

Finally, the pollution this evening is awesomely bad. It went from no pollution to can hardly see across the road in 24 hours. I guess the wind changed? I am now inhaling a rich soup of di methyl tetra hydro fluoric xylene.