Local Time

Kashgar, China
So my Uighur pal didn't show up last night, which was a bit of a relief. Not sure if I got the time right or not, since they have that weird "local time" thing here. But I waited across the street from the "Newlywed Fast Executive Hotel" at what I believed to be the appointed time, and no omarjun.

A word on Chinese beer - every Chinese province has their own cheap brand of identical tasting watery lager, produced by a state run brewery - so in Gansu you get "Landmark" beer, in Tibet you get "Lhasa" beer, here in Xinjiang you get "New" beer. Most of it is drinkable if cold and if it's hot out, which it pretty much always is, except for one brand which has a picture of a horse on it and smells way too much like cat urine. Anyway, last night, since I'm a dark brau guy at heart, I jumped at the chance to grab a bottle of 'New Black Beer" from the hotel bar.

So as you may have noted, I've been somewhat critical of the Chinese tendency to euphemistically label things - however when I got "New Black Beer", I got exactly what it described. Watery chinese lager - with black food coloring added. Be careful what you wish for I guess.