The Art Scene

This past weekend Peter and I, with Andrea and Guillermo, two other students from UCLA who are interning with the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, went to the Dashanzi/Factory 798 art gallery district. It's a former commune/microelectronics factory converted (partially) into a huge arts gallery/studio complex. The scale of the place is oh-so-Chinese, and the faded Communist slogans all over the factory walls are great. The art was actually really good. Photos, sculpture, paintings, all types of media. The pictures below include a funny take on the famed Terracotta Soldiers of Xi'an, with a pregnant lady soldier, whom I couldn't resist standing by to compare bellies. I'm already planning my next trip, and maybe also to Caochangdi, the next great arts complex outside Beijing, where China's most famed artist, Ai Weiwei, has moved to (formerly in Dashanzi also).

Despite some super modern gallery space that rivals New York and a cafe which served dumplings with a pork and pate filling with a garlic butter sauce, you definitely knew you were in China because there was no air conditioning in the 90+ degree weather, and there was still commune housing and everyday Chinese life mixed in. We saw, for example, clothes hanging out to dry, a litter of newborn kittens being fussed over by an old man, and shirtless old guys hanging out playing chinese chess right outside the galleries. So wonderful.

Dashanzi/Factory 798 gallery district

Big Statements and Little Discoveries

We still haven’t checked out the Olympics sites, which are supposed to amazing architecturally, but I did go to the new Capital Museum. It’s less than a year old, and really a gorgeous building. It’s a little lacking in “wow” art and artifacts, which reminds me of the Getty, but I did really like some aspects of the museum. For one, it’s huge, which allows them to display whole hutongs. They had a cool exhibit of all sorts of different kinds of gates which lead into traditional courtyard houses, and explanations of how they represented different status levels. They had a reproduction of a traditional Beijing opera house, complete with all the two story seating and a two story stage. It really gave you the feeling of being there.

Beijing makes lots of big statements, like the museum, but there’s also so much little stuff to discover. Peter’s colleagues have been taking him to all sorts of hole-in-the-wall yummy places for lunch. They took us to a Hunan-style banquet lunch at a beautiful restaurant in some nondescript building the other day where we had course after course of wonderful food, and Peter had too much erguotou, a lethal Chinese very high proof rice alcohol. They were impressed by his ability to drink at lunch, but he definitely paid for it later.

Beijing Capital Museum

There are a lot of people in China

There are a LOT of people in Beijing. We keep jokingly saying this realization to each other, as you can have an intellectual sense of that before you get here, but the visceral feeling doesn’t really hit you until you’re at the popular Summer Palace on a weekend in the height of tourist season.

The Summer Palace is in the northwest of Beijing, not too far from our apartment, where the Empress Cixi used to while away her time without a care while the empire crumbled around her. It’s really a beautiful beautiful park, originally a birthday present from an emperor to his mother. I’ve since been dropping hints to Peter about what sort of comparable present I want for my upcoming birthday.

For you gadget geeks out there, we then subsequently went to the Hailong Electronics Mall, a six story complex that sold nothing but electronics. Peter was quite excited, and is looking forward to geeking out on electronics with our friend, Bill, when he comes in August.

Finally, as you’ve probably noticed, I still haven’t figured out how to rotate my vertical pictures so they look right on the blog, sorry!

Summer Palace

The Great Wall at Jingshangling

So, there are four access points to the Great Wall within a few hours' drive of Beijing. I vetoed going to tourist-overrun Badaling, and have been to Simatai, so we decided to embark on a subway to bus to taxi adventure to Jingshangling, the most remote access point. A crazy transit adventure only Peter could love.

So worth it. We nearly had the place to ourselves. Except for two local ladies who helpfully tagged along to help us up and down the steep steps, give us some information and history about this particular segment of the Great Wall, and of course, sell us some stuff at the end.

Pictures of Our Apartment

Newbies in Beijing

Well, we're getting settled in here in Beijing. Peter had his first day at the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning, after which he was told the rest of his department would be gone on a business trip for the next few days and so, why don't you take the rest of the week off? Supposedly he'll get to go on a business trip sometime during our stay here too, and it gives us a chance to get settled in and explore a bit. Two trips to the crazy Carrefour supermarket later, our new furnished apartment is home. Check out some pictures! We're on the top floor of a 15 floor building, in a bigger apartment. The CAUPD generously arranged for us to have a larger apartment given that it's two of us. The other interns are calling it the "penthouse."