When people ask me my favorite place in Beijing, they often expect to hear something like The Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, or, because I’m a foreigner, Sanlitun (Beijing’s bar area). These areas are often used to represent China or an American’s experience in China. They’re nice, but none of them make the cut. My favorite is a small, beat-up two-room grocery off a random alleyway in Beijing, a place my girlfriend Flora and I lovingly refer to as the 法国胡同 (French Hutong).
Walking by, you’re likely to miss Chez Gerard Boucherie Francaise (杰克拉精选店) among the long chain of regular-looking hutong shops. Even when you walk through the rickety sliding glass doors, it’s like entering any Beijing mom-and-pop corner store: Cement walls, cement floor, two cramped rooms, goods from ceiling to floor overflowing their shelves.
The first difference you’ll notice is the smell. Instead of the usual vague sterility of Chinese convenience stores, the French Hutong smells of bread and fine cheese. Then, as your eyes adjust to the dim lighting, you notice starkly different products. In place of Japanese candy and pickled chicken feet, you see chocolate and granola bars. A small back room is stocked full of wine and liquor, and a second, unattached room featuring cookies, chips, deodorant, and international beers.
It’s kind-of French, but caters all international folks in the area as well as lots of curious Chinese. The mini-Epcot is often full with people from all over the world, speaking all different languages, as they pick up foods from their home countries.
Whenever I was homesick in Beijing, instead of visiting the fancy, overpriced international food chains, I would find my way to the French Hutong, buy some ice cream and an American beer, and be happily on my way.
But the best part is not the hard-to-find goods offered in the store. What excites me is the crowd – a shirtless middle-aged man watching the Chinese and non-Chinese yuppies walking in and out of the store as he slurps on noodles, a young french couple complaining about the poor quality of French products available in China, a Chinese girl checking out all the weird brands on sale, or Flora and I bedazzled by the variety of Ritter chocolate bars.
Reading article after article about Chinese nationalism and state-driven capitalism, one can forget what’s happening on the ground across China. Even if only on a very small scale, vibrant communities like the French Hutong – at once Chinese and international – are slowly popping up across the country. They aren’t the grand or well-polished symbols we often hear about. But to me, more than anything else, they represent the living, evolving Chinese culture that drew me there in the first place.
You can check it out for yourself here:
Chez Gerard Boucherie Francaise 杰克拉精选店
40 Jianchang Hutong, Dongcheng District 东城区箭厂胡同40号
当人们问我，我在北京最喜欢的地方时，他们往往希望听到的东西像长城，天坛，或者，因为我是一个外国人，我会说三里屯（北京的酒吧区）。这些都是外国人对北京容易留下深刻印象的地方，它们是很好，但是对我来说都不是最印象深刻的。我最喜欢的是一个小小的，充满两开门杂货店的小胡同，我和我的女朋友Flora都喜欢亲切的称它们为法国胡同。
行走在其间,看着胡同里面的各色店铺，你可能会开始想念杰克拉精选店。即使走过的是摇摇晃晃的滑动玻璃门，也不妨碍那扑面而来的地道北京味儿的街头妈妈桑流行小店的感觉：水泥墙，水泥地面，两个狭小的房间，从天花板到地板摆满了他们的货架上的商品。
你会注意到的第一个不同是气味，并不像传统的中国便利店里的那种模糊的味道，法国胡同充满了面包和精致的奶酪的味道。接下来, 当你的眼睛适应了这里的昏暗的灯光, 你你会发现截然不同的产品。在放置日本糖果和泡椒鸡爪的地方，你看可以看到到巧克力和燕麦棒。后面的小房间摆放的葡萄酒和烈性酒，另一个独立的客房设有饼干，薯片，除臭剂，和世界各地的啤酒。
这像极了法国风格,但是依然吸引了很多国际友人，以及很多好奇的中国人。这迷你的世界小屋总是充满了说世界各地语言的人，人们会在这里购买本国的食品。
每当我在北京想家了的时候，我总会来到我的法国胡同，而不是去那些看起来精美，但是昂贵的国际食品连锁店。在这里买上一些法国冰淇林和一些美国啤酒，整个回去的路上都是美滋滋的。
法国胡同最好的地方不仅仅是它提供了很多难以找到的好东西，更是因为在这里的人们：这里有赤裸上身，一边吸着面条，一边看着中外人群来往的中年男子，这里有一对抱怨在中国买到的法国货质量差的法国夫妇，这里有一位查看售卖的怪异品牌的产品的中国女孩，或者是痴迷于这里的巧克力棒品种的我和Flora。
阅读一篇篇关于中国的民族主义和国家驱动的资本主义的文章，我们很难忘记在中国这片土地上发生的事情。即使只在一个非常小的规模，但充满活力的社区，如法国胡同，也可以窥一斑见全豹：一旦中国本土和国际融合的场景慢慢遍布全国各地，我们会发现它们不再是那些我们经常听到的精心打磨的符号。但是对我来说，这些比符号更重要，因为它们代表这生活以及不断发展的中国文化。这些都深深地吸引着我。
你可以亲自体验一下这些地方：
杰克拉精选店
东城区箭厂胡同40号