A Night Out in Beijing · A Handful of Sunset

After work on Friday, I suddenly got a call from a friend saying, “Let’s explore Beijing at night.” I figured it would be a pretty novel experience, so at ten that night, off we went.

Our first stop had to be Tiananmen. Before, I’d always walked right up to it, but this time we drove past. Hahaha, a whole different feeling. Compared with the daytime, there was hardly anyone around Tiananmen at night. Even though we couldn’t get right up to it, the experience was a huge step up: at least when we were looking at Tiananmen, there was practically no one between us and it. That felt fantastic, unlike before, when even taking a photo meant spending ages finding the right angle.
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It was already really late, but there were still people cycling past Tiananmen. In this weather, aren’t they freezing?Still, being in a car is more comfortable, hahaha. We even deliberately drove past Tiananmen twice, just to give ourselves more time to soak up the atmosphere.

After Tiananmen, our next stop was Shichahai. Once we got there, everywhere except the area around the bars was pretty deserted. That was quite a surprise; I’d thought it would still be lively at this hour. Looking at the pitch-black water ahead, I tilted my head up and actually saw loads of stars. Wow, I really hadn’t expected that! I’d never imagined being able to see stars in Beijing, let alone seeing them in Beijing’s Second Ring Road area tonight. What a lovely surprise. All the photos below are straight out of the camera, with absolutely no Photoshop edits.
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I’d happily call the photo above god-tier.****

Of course, the brightly lit shops across the lake also cast some lovely reflections on the water.

By the time we’d finished wandering around here, it was getting pretty late. This outing also happened to give someone who hadn’t been behind the wheel in almost two years a chance to enjoy the thrill of driving.
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