Update
I feel like it's been forever since I gave a detailed update. I should at least tell you about my weekend and share the latest round of photos. The net is pokey this afternoon, but I'm sure we can muddle through.
Saturday saw an organized trip to the summer palace. We had the same tourguide that we had the previous week. I wonder if BeiDa has a whole staff just for this purpose?
The Summer Palace was, well, another big palace. I don't want to say that I can't tell them apart, but not knowing much about the architecture, I have to admit that all the buildings start to look the same after a while. I don't think I could explain the difference between the eunich's quarters and the opera house.
Friday night I traveled with the pack. I could have lived without the American bar food, but overall it was a good night out. The scale of the expat scene is really something to behold. Saturday night, as mentioned earlier, was another trip. I really enjoyed the Korean liquor, and our 'host' for the evening is a character. Not only is he a great KTV singer, with good showmanship and a strong voice, yesterday I came home to him playing saxophone in the hotel. And playing well. If you've seen Lost in Translation, you've got a pretty good idea of what the KTV is like. You take an elevator up to a floor in a non-descript commercial building and enter a lobby made up like a 1970s casino. The staff is all in matching uniforms, which for us was red pants, vests, and ribbon ties. Men and women. The room itself is like the VIP room of a tacky disco: mirrors, vinyl couches, low table. There's a button on the wall to call the waiter--beer and snacks are on offer. And then you sing.
Sunday I took the train into the city and then walked to the China Art Gallery. This walk made me realize that we're not staying in the best neighborhood that Beijing has to offer. The street meat was of a much higher quality. The view down the street was closer to Vancouver than Bangalore: many, many small shops on the blocks with larger places on the corners. Even the public toilets were of a conspicuously better quality than those on offer around here.
I even wandered into Hutong (and got quite a giggle from a couple kids, who were astonished when I passed them a second time and said "这八没 有出口" [here there is no exit]), which was non-touristed, but still cleaned up and livable.
So I wonder if this was a middle class neighborhood or something more? I have so little sense of what is 'average' for around here.
The China Art Gallery wasn't huge, but it was very nice. Two photo displays, one a National Geographic-ish show of Tibet (and I mean that in the nicest possible way. 赵红 has a great sense of the dramatic) and the other a heroic-worker-building-the-Olympic-Stadium show. Two rooms were filled with contemporary American and Chinese artists playing off of each other. 王南飞 （Wang Nanfei) had a couple great table-top tableaux, and Linda Girvin had some really nice lenticular photos that fascinating to the kids in the room. One striking thing in the museum: despite the warning sign at the entrance, no one was stopping people from touching the art.
There was also a big blockbuster show of Enlightenment paintings from a collection in Spain. It was wall-to-wall packed. There was some great stuff, and the Chinese were eating it up.
After the museum I practiced my bartering skills by buying a new bag for school. I really need to improve this skill. So later I bought a cell phone. This will keep me in better touch for making appointments--it's amazing how busy daily life has become after being here only a couple weeks! On Monday I visited with a librarian on campus. Our speaking skills are at about the same level, so the conversation didn't go all that far. But he was incredibly warm and welcoming, and said I should stop by anytime. So it looks like I have another conversation partner. And he even has AC in his office!
Random news / events:
Saturday saw an organized trip to the summer palace. We had the same tourguide that we had the previous week. I wonder if BeiDa has a whole staff just for this purpose?
The Summer Palace was, well, another big palace. I don't want to say that I can't tell them apart, but not knowing much about the architecture, I have to admit that all the buildings start to look the same after a while. I don't think I could explain the difference between the eunich's quarters and the opera house.
Friday night I traveled with the pack. I could have lived without the American bar food, but overall it was a good night out. The scale of the expat scene is really something to behold. Saturday night, as mentioned earlier, was another trip. I really enjoyed the Korean liquor, and our 'host' for the evening is a character. Not only is he a great KTV singer, with good showmanship and a strong voice, yesterday I came home to him playing saxophone in the hotel. And playing well. If you've seen Lost in Translation, you've got a pretty good idea of what the KTV is like. You take an elevator up to a floor in a non-descript commercial building and enter a lobby made up like a 1970s casino. The staff is all in matching uniforms, which for us was red pants, vests, and ribbon ties. Men and women. The room itself is like the VIP room of a tacky disco: mirrors, vinyl couches, low table. There's a button on the wall to call the waiter--beer and snacks are on offer. And then you sing.
Sunday I took the train into the city and then walked to the China Art Gallery. This walk made me realize that we're not staying in the best neighborhood that Beijing has to offer. The street meat was of a much higher quality. The view down the street was closer to Vancouver than Bangalore: many, many small shops on the blocks with larger places on the corners. Even the public toilets were of a conspicuously better quality than those on offer around here.
I even wandered into Hutong (and got quite a giggle from a couple kids, who were astonished when I passed them a second time and said "这八没 有出口" [here there is no exit]), which was non-touristed, but still cleaned up and livable.
So I wonder if this was a middle class neighborhood or something more? I have so little sense of what is 'average' for around here.
The China Art Gallery wasn't huge, but it was very nice. Two photo displays, one a National Geographic-ish show of Tibet (and I mean that in the nicest possible way. 赵红 has a great sense of the dramatic) and the other a heroic-worker-building-the-Olympic-Stadium show. Two rooms were filled with contemporary American and Chinese artists playing off of each other. 王南飞 （Wang Nanfei) had a couple great table-top tableaux, and Linda Girvin had some really nice lenticular photos that fascinating to the kids in the room. One striking thing in the museum: despite the warning sign at the entrance, no one was stopping people from touching the art.
There was also a big blockbuster show of Enlightenment paintings from a collection in Spain. It was wall-to-wall packed. There was some great stuff, and the Chinese were eating it up.
After the museum I practiced my bartering skills by buying a new bag for school. I really need to improve this skill. So later I bought a cell phone. This will keep me in better touch for making appointments--it's amazing how busy daily life has become after being here only a couple weeks! On Monday I visited with a librarian on campus. Our speaking skills are at about the same level, so the conversation didn't go all that far. But he was incredibly warm and welcoming, and said I should stop by anytime. So it looks like I have another conversation partner. And he even has AC in his office!
Random news / events:
- No, the power wasn't out in my room last week, I had turned off the outlets on the control panel. The switch marked 'TV' controls the outlets.
- L really wanted me to post the fever dream I had last week. So if you want to hear about it, you'll have to comment.
- 张丽：我认为 中国人不可以 'post a comment' 因为blogger.com限制。 所以你能看whatsgrowing.com你不能blogspot.com.
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| More Beijing scenes. |
2 Comments:
At 4:41 AM ,
Jon said...
I want the fever dream!
And it's good to be following along with your exploits.
At 5:03 AM ,
Alan Cordle said...
FeverDream please!
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