Shadow play

There were a couple of puppet shows on across the street last night. The first, 'Value of Nothing' by Serge Onnen and Daiguo Li at Three Shadows Gallery

and 'nothing of value' our neighbours building being torn down and carted away in the middle of the
                                                                  night. All suspicious like.

Here Today Gone Tomorrow

 

Solstice brought a night out with the boys, Gordon, John, Ed, Chak Man and wo3. We did a drive thru of an exhibition of new media work at a new restaurant, Kara. The demi monde was there to christen it as the new hip destination. They put on a huge banquet to thank everyone for bestowing their imprimatur.

Yesterday the neighbours across the street put up some scaffolding

and today the building is gone. Poof! CaoChangdi is changing daily. I wonder what it will look like in a year

Getting blurry on sake

STUDIO VISIT IN THE STONE MARKET

Lei Chak Man has his studio in the stone market. He does amazing paintings with smoke. Check out his work online.  It turns out he knows Andy Patton, another great artist. 

Art growing in 798

Chak Man

rocks for sale

view of part of the market. Landscape stones, ornate troughs, stone bowls, mill stones and bonsai are all on offer

wagons too

scarecrows (not for sale)

The Great Wall

The Great wall is not what we think. It isn't a single wall that you can walk end to end. It was built over the centuries, spanning many dynasties. It looks more like a subway map. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Great_Wall_of_China.jpg

Don't quite believe the claim that Abramavic and Ulay walked the whole thing. No disrespect, but...

We spent an exhilarating two days up at the JianKou portion of the Great Wall. This particular section has not been restored so along with the amazing views it provides the thrills and chills of mountain climbing. Scrambling up and down shear cliff faces can sure get your adrenaline pumping.

I thought I would start off this entry with a map of our journey to date. Just ignore the dot in Calgary and the one on the equator. Not quite sure how they got there

Fish farm at the foot of Jian Kou
There are a number of restaurants where you can catch your dinner

Yi Shen, Wee Lit and John, The Intrepids

                 

The lilacs and mock oranges in bloom filled the entire area with a sweet fragrance

Tower view

If you look closely that dot is J

Looking down from where J was in the picture above

My Lucky pet

The new wing of the hostel. The family that ran the place were amazing

Scarcrow

the begininng of Day two and our 7 hour trek up and back to Jiu Yan (nine eyes) the highest point on our visit

Tower interior

view out and down

J just beginning to climb down a 25 metre cliff face where the wall had completely collapsed. Still smiling

The way around. The route not taken

Jiu Yan. I count more than nine eyes.

Views from the top

Back in the village

the ride back to Beijing

More BEIJING

Well we may be on the edge of town but it is the cutting edge. The CaoChangdi is great. Mostly working but trying to take in some sites and sample what Beijing has to offer at night.  Before CaoChangdi there was 798, the first incarnation of the 'artzone' here. It is one ring road closer to the centre. Like all 'artzones' the boutiques are poised to take it over. Nonetheless it is the 'go to' place to see contemporary work and is pretty amazing. Very near us is the brand new architectural bauble, the National Film Museum the home of all things dealing with Chinese cinema. 

798 Art Zone is housed in an old munitions and military high tech district.

Alley way CaoChangdi

The great spiral ramp of the hall at National Film Museum. The walls are illuminated by LED and change colours, running through the entire spectrum

A hair and makeup department dummy

J with a maquette of the Monkey King set

A painting based on the making of a re-enactment historical film

Mosquito cam

diorama

Movie sets and maquettes 

There are two sets of figurines of famous Chinese films. These are about 24 cm  high.   In another part of the museum there are larger Madame Tussaud's-esque versions. I prefer these ones. Pictured above is the White haired girl

movie stars have talent

Street scene

Zoetrope

Fish drama

pet bird on the street in 798