What is TaoTie (饕餮) you ask? Is it mythical beast capable of swallowing you whole? A fierce and cruel person? A voracious eater? A gourmand? Well, it’s all of those things. But now, TaoTie is Laonei’s fresh look into fine dining in Beijing. We’re not talking about the old expat standby’s like Kro’s Nest or The Tree (don’t get me wrong…these are both great places). But we are more interested in authentic, healthy, clean, and relatively cheap Chinese food that most expats aren’t aware even existed. And it can be quite hard to find a restaurant that fits all the criteria. So we have scoured the streets to find the best of the best.

There are strict requirements for a local restaurant to be chosen for TaoTie; the food has to be exceptionally good and offer something that you can’t find at just any run-of-the-mill restaurant. Before we shoot a TaoTie episode, we sample a wide variety of dishes to make sure they are up to our 好吃/不贵 standards.So keep your eye out for new episodes of TaoTie coming soon and let us know what you think!

A film about Chinese democracy (no, not the new Guns n’ Roses album), Please Vote for Me is a documentary with a  deep look into a 3rd grade class that elects their 班长 (class captain) instead of having the teacher appoint one. The candidates take the whole process very seriously and things get crazy when the parents get involved, who serve as campaign managers for their child’s bid for class monitor.

Check out the clip below or watch the whole film on YouKu.