In the afternoon, I headed to the noodle bar restaurant recommended a couple days prior at the hutong cooking class. I wanted to experience hand pulled noodles expertly prepared. So far, the Android "Trip Advisor" Beijing app had been my main source for directions and for information along my way through Beijing. It was awesome; however it failed miserably when it came to the Noodle Bar. The description read that it was in courtyard 4 of the 1949 "hidden city". I followed the map and found the walled hidden city. On the map the restaurant appeared to be in the center so I circumnavigated the wall twice for over an hour trying to find an entrance that was not guarded by soldiers. I finally gave up and walked another twenty minutes back toward the subway station. Near the entrance of the subway I stopped in the Beijing Palace hotel and asked for directions. The receptionist called around and then told me the restaurant was over twenty-five minutes away by taxi. Turned out the wall city I was trying to enter was among other things, the French Embassy.

I finally got to the Noodle Bar (Chaoyang, worker's stadium north road, Tuanjiehu Metro stop) three hours after I had planned. It did not disappoint in hipness. The 1949 hidden city was quite trendy but at 4:30 on a Monday afternoon it was empty. The Noodle Bar had only 12 seats set in a horseshoe around the preparation area. The menu consisted of only of beef soup, your choice of thick or thin noodles and a few side dishes. Everything was prepared in front of you. I had soup with beef brisket and a side of sautéed greens. It was delicious and though the thin noodles were impressively thin for being hand pulled I regretted not ordering the thick noodles. They would have had a little more bite to them.

After the Noodle bar I headed to the summer palace to catch the sunset on hills above the surrounding lake but by the time I transferred metro stations and reached the palace gardens the sun had already set. I walked toward the entrance, paused, looked up at the rapidly darkening sky and then turned back toward the hotel to pack and go to bed. The summer palace would have to wait for a return trip Beijing, for my focus now shifted toward Malaysia.