Just Another Millenial Travel Blog

China really hits differently – what a day, what a trip. First stop of the day I directly wanted to try a classic, old Beijing dish: Lu zhu. Never heard of? If you are vegan, vegetarian or have an issue with giblets I recommend to stop reading here. Still here? Welcome to the world of Lu zhu. The key ingredients are pork, pork lung, pork intestines, pork liver, tofu and some may add fermented bean curd and it is served with bing bread. The whole meal is topped with garlic and coriander. Even though I grew up in upper Franconia (coming home always includes a welcome black pudding bread, thanks mum) and have a hunting background I was sceptical.

Short anecdote: Whilst I was doing my hunting licence in spring it was inevitable, as those are exam questions with zero tolerance for mistakes, to learn the organs of the animals and their illnesses. I normally do not breakfast in my everyday life but I very much enjoy my morning coffee from my beloved Gmunder ceramics deer mugs. In order to be prepared for the oral exam I have established the routine to repeat at least 30 organ pictures each morning (went well during the exam) – sometimes I miss this rigid routine.

So as you see I am not shying away from these things but anyways I was asking my self when queuing up, as only foreigner and European, whether this was the right decision. The employee of the restaurant who was coordinating the queue was super friendly and was speaking English. He was asking where I come from and it was such a nice atmosphere in general. So your girl entered the restaurant. After another queue I had my soup. In the beginning I was starting a bid timid – but after some bites I recognized I really like the taste. It is a very dense broth and the varieties of giblets have all a very different consistency (I am definitely in favour of when you eat meat you should eat up the whole animal so I sticked to my own promise here). The garlic and the coriander add a fresh note. The waiter and all the people in the restaurant were incredibly kind and helpful. Another waiter also spoke English and I think he was sceptical whether this young European woman really knows what she does and they seemed to be really happy that I liked the dish so much, and eat everything up. So once again it was completely worth it to leave my comfort zone and I had a great experience.

After this genuinely happy experience I was reaching to visit the Capital Museum. By the way isn’t it wild how quickly perception can change: it was a very positive experience that two employees of the restaurant were speaking English and I was over the moon to able to communicate at all. One week ago in Singapore it was completely normal to me that everyone was perfectly fluent in English and I had zero language barrier. That is the right key word here. After some difficulties I have received my audio guide in the Capital Museum, which exhibits on the history of Beijing, and was heading of to start on the first floor. I was already recognizing that I was becoming quite tired and in general overwhelmed of all the impressions. As the first floor was about Stone Age etc., which is not my main agree of interest I unfortunately have to admit, and I was already not fresh as a daisy I was reaching of to next floor. Unfortunately the audio guide wasn’t matching the topics of the exhibition, almost everything was in Mandarin and tiredness hit hard. I tried for some time to continue, passionate learner you know, but I had to decide to leave. This is not what I am demanding from myself but sometimes you have to make decisions. That is what makes the China experience for me so far: having great frustration and great experience within five hours. I could definitely only imagine to move to Beijing with very good proficiency in Mandarin and was missing Singapore in that moment.

That was the moment I needed a safe harbour to keep up the spirit once again. So I was heading, as a child of globalization, to one of those island you could find in every world city, where all the big chains are and it is reliable clean, safe and predictable: Sanlitun. After a Matcha at Black and a nice conversation (the third person who spoke English today!) with a Chinese car design student I was myself again.

So let the non stop analysis of everything around me begin again (personality type INTJ-A might explain that). As I didn’t really had anything planned anymore for the day I was walking pleasantly aimless around Sanlitun. As someone who works in retail, a store check is my best friend, today I wasn’t targeting a supermarket but discovered a complete new world: Chinese lifestyle brands. And when you know I am pretty familiar with all European brands, went to all the stores and in generell have a déformation professionell in this field.

First stop was „to summer“ a, to the extent of my knowledge, Chinese Parfum brand:

The second store, and please tell me if that is not the case, that should also be Chinese was Beast:

Both shops were delivering a full strack perfectly orchestrated lifestyle experience. For me personally to summer was more suitable regarding design etc. and I probably will do some major shopping damage there (already asked, they also have a Shanghai store) but the composition of the assortment of Beast (flowers, Parfum and silk sleepwear) to me was even more remarkable. What both stores had in common is that they are lifestyle brands that were built in China, completely independent from everything what is happening in the West. And even though all Western brands are still represented in China this might could give a first glimpse into a shift in direction away from the classical luxurious brands of the West to homegrown Chinese brands. China is definitely not the workbench of the world anymore but is strategically taking over highly skilled fields (AI, robotics, automotive). Nonetheless I do believe it is still an inevitable sales market for all the Western brands. As they will face increasing pressure now from homegrown Chinese brands, that do not copy anything but deliver an extremely luxurious and own genuine experience, with amazing product quality and packaging, these brands could face tough times. As China changes so quickly I do believe we are always a bit behind in its perception in the West (and sometimes still supercilious), and this is what I can say state of the art August 2025.

What do you think of Chinese brands: is it the next big thing? Do you think my assessment is justified? Will they expand into the West? Looking forward to your opinion.

Interesting side aspect of the day: referring to yesterdays hardcore symbolism excursion to the Forbidden city. Here is a picture of the floors of my hotel, from the elevator (something is missing right?):