Somewhere in Changping

How long have we lived in Changping now? Five and a half years, you say? You'd think that in that time I'd know this part of Beijing fairly well, like where to buy things and what kinds of restaurants we have. You'd think.

Last year we were eating at the new Western restaurant in Changping, Sea Wolf. We don't have many of them around here, so when one opens it is a big deal (remember the French restaurant? Ahhh.) The first time we ate there they offered us gelato for desert. Gelato that was manufactured here in Changping.

Come again?

More after the jump.

I was surprised to hear that there was a foreigner-run gelato company called Dolomiti right here in Changping, supplying a select number of hotels in Beijing. Occassionally in the last year we've enjoyed some after supper gelato when we've been at Sea Wolf. It was the only place we ever saw that had it.

More recently, I searched the internet to see if Dolomiti still existed, and if it did, where we could get it (other than Sea Wolf, that is). Not only did I find their website, but a map to their own gelato shop in Changping, only a few blocks from our apartment. The other day, the kids and I set out to find it.

It wasn't easy to locate, tucked back in an alley, but once we did, we were greeted in English by a foreign man with a vague European accent who confirmed that yes, they were open, and yes, they served gelato there. The factory was in a different location in town. I asked him if he were Italian, and he said he was actually Dutch. Once I sat down, I realized the decor would have given that away.

 

The kids ordered gelato, and we sampled their European-style yogurt (of which we took two containers home). The prices were completely reasonable and less expensive than similar places in the parts of Beijing where more foreigners live.


I asked the owner how long they've been making gelato in Changping. I was not expecting his answer: about eight years. So then I sought clarification of how long the actual shop had been there. Also eight years, he told me.

I expressed my shock that after more than five years this week was the first time I had ever heard of their shop, after only a year a ago even knowing they existed at all. He didn't seem as amazed.

"The first time is always the first time," he shrugged.

If we lived in other parts of Beijing, we would have access to message boards, new-comers' clubs, neighbors, and directories in magazines like the beijinger and beijing kids that list out this kind of information in both languages, even publicize events and places. If something like this exists in English or even Chinese for Changping, I am not aware of it. Changping, for us, is still a stumble-upon kind of neighborhood.