Picture of the Day: Spot the Fake

I looked down and thought something looks fishy about this shoe...

This trip to Beijing I didn't have time to hit Silk Street in Yonganli... but the last time I went, which was last spring, I was hard pressed to find anything interesting to buy there, as the fake-branded clothing there is just too obvious or not appealing.

Even bona fide shops like the one that sold Mongolian cashmere had the exact same sweaters for sale -- from 10 years ago. Do they really not have any new designs? Or are they still trying to get rid of stock from a decade ago?

And while this time I was people watching on the streets there were the odd funny T-shirts, I was quite surprised to see this man wearing a funny-looking shoe.

Many young Chinese are wearing sneakers, many of them Nike, Adidas, or New Balance.

I was rushing to Wudaokou to meet a friend, but the interchange between line 2 and line 13 was very long and involved going up an escalator.

The guy in front of me had what looked like a New Balance sneaker, but on closer inspection, the "N" was backwards on the left shoe!

It was a reminder that yes, everything can be faked...

Gargantuan Subway Web

Look familiar? This subway station is for line 6 in Beijing

When I arrived in Beijing in April 2007, there were only three subway lines -- 1, 2 and 13.

Now there are 22, some of which are feeder routes to help commuters get to the main subway lines. The bad part about transferring lines is that it can take as long as 10 minutes to get to the other line.

The complicated map of Beijing's subway system

I once went to Wudaokou and it took at least 10 minutes to walk several long corridors and up escalators before getting to line 13. I had to do the same thing coming back to my hotel.

Something worth noting is that the subway lines are operated by five different companies: the state-owned Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp, Beijing MTR Corp, Beijing MTR Operation Administration, Beijing Public Transport Tramway, and Beijing Capital Metro.

Beijing MTR Corp is a joint venture between MTR and state-owned enterprise Beijing Capital Group.

So it was interesting to see some subway station platforms look very similar to the ones in Hong Kong. Inside the carriages looked similar down to the stickers on the door windows telling people not to mind the gap and not eat or drink.

If this is a no waiting zone, where do we wait for the train?

We almost felt like we were in Hong Kong -- almost.

In the stations there is very little regard for people in terms of enough space to wait on the platform to having escalators and not stairs for commuters to get around. It's hardly about "caring for life's journeys", as the MTR slogan goes.

Nevertheless we found this sign curious. If it's a no waiting zone, how are we supposed to wait for the next train?

Beijing Not Completely Cashless

It's so easy to buy things with your phone -- if you have WeChat Pay or AliPay

Last year I had a heck of a time buying things in cash when I visited Beijing because I didn't have WeChat Pay or AliPay. I remember going to JNBY, a domestic fashion brand and buying a dress there at their outlet in Sanlitun Village, and having to give exact change because they didn't have any cash whatsoever.

You can even take the subway by using your smartphone

But this time paying in cash was not a problem. It turns out in July, China's central bank issued a directive that the yuan was the country's legal currency and no units or individuals should refuse payment in cash.

During this trip some places would ask if we would pay by Weixin (WeChat) or cash, and we'd reply the latter; otherwise they would just accept cash no problem.

In subway stations you had to add money into the card using a machine instead of asking the person in the ticket booth to do it for you. However, at Beijing Capital International Airport (T3), the person there will help you add money to your card with cash.

Some people don't even use the Beijing subway card to ride the metro -- they use an app on their phone that they scan at the turnstile. 

There were only two instances where we had a slight problem -- two restaurants I went to expected us to order our food using WeChat. In one case my friend who lives in Beijing did the ordering (and paying) on WeChat at Beijing WTown -- in Miyun district, way outside of Beijing!

But getting a McFlurry required cold, hard cash

But in the other instance at a dumpling shop in a shopping mall in Wudaokou, we told them we didn't have WeChat so they took our order using a little handheld device and we paid in cash.

And then late one night my friend had a craving for a McFlurry -- even though we had just eaten a full-on dinner -- and made a pit stop at McDonald's near our hotel.

The thing is, their electronic payment system wasn't working so people had to pay in cash! They had to turn away several customers who only had money in their smartphones...