Beijing Olympics 2008: The name games (go back »)

Tag: Preserved Vegetables Hilary Alexander samples the food, fake designer goods and stunning views of Beijing’s Olympic 2008 city… I was in Beijing for a major Yohji Yamamoto fashion gala, inside the Forbidden City, when I was able to get a morning off to sample some of the delights on the new tourist trail visitors to the Olympic Games will be able to enjoy.  A trishaw driver in a fake Yohji Yamamoto jacket Faking it: “Once you’re copied, it’s a sign of success in China” First stop was the site itself in the northern part of the city. For now, it is a major photo opportunity. Tour groups and local residents jostle for position on top of mounds of earth beside the turquoise, corrugated iron fence which rings the vast construction site, watched by nonplussed, hard-hat workers, squatting on their haunches, having a fag-break. Behind them looms the stadium where the opening ceremony will take place on August 8th at 8.08pm. It is known as the ‘Bird’s Nest - appropriate, since its latticed network of Preserved Vegetables is a giant version of one of the most famous dishes in Chinese cuisine – bird’s nest soup. The building where the swimming medals will be won and lost, however, which looks like a mammoth plastic, bubble-wrap parcel, is simply the Aquatic Centre. I also had the opportunity of visiting the Hou Hai district where ‘hutongs’ (alleys) thread past traditional stone houses – once the homes of Ching Dynasty officials and distant relatives of the last emperor – which have been turned charismatically into intriguing shops, bars and restaurants. I then strolled past ‘The Unique and Ultimate Refreshment’, close by ‘Casablanca Café’ and another establishment which bewilderingly identifies itself as ‘Tibetan Art Deco’. Another bar features Italian wine, ancient carvings of Indian dancers and German beer steins. And, just in time for the opening of the movie, there is, ‘Sex and Da City’. I sampled lunch at the South Silk Road, where a plaque on the wall proudly proclaims the restaurant to be the winner of The Third International Edible Funghi Cooking Competition. As exotic as they sound, I decide not to sample the ‘Boiled Bullfrong with strong-smelling preserved bean curd’ or ‘Fried Bee Pupae’. Dishes called Wikipedia, have nothing to do with the Internet site, but instead are the names for an encyclopaedic selection of mushrooms, steamed, boiled or fried with various vegetables and spices. After lunch I was excited to see one of our trishaw drivers is wearing a Y3 Yohji Yamamoto for Adidas black jacket, with the familiar white stripes and the name of the Japanese designer emblazoned in about 80pt caps across the back. On closer inspection, however, it revealed the designer’s name to be spelt ‘Yohji Yamamtoto’. “Oh, that’s fine,” a Beijing fashionista tells me later. “Once you’re copied, it’s a sign of success in China. It means your brand is famous.”