Hazy/Beautiful

The haze in Beijing can be a bit overwhelming. It is bizarre how fast it can come and go. This is the view from my work, the 15th floor of the Jai Hui International Building. (Our floor is actually one above the 12th, but labled 15th. None of those crazy 13s here.)



I had lunch in a courtyard, and these kids invited me to play ping pong with them. It was fantastic, except I realized later that I had been mixing up my "I" and my "You", and kept asking everyone, "What's my name?".



and finally, here is my ridiculously cute coworker, Ginger.



Now I am about to hop a train to Dandong, China. See you all later.

Inventions and Investments

I have been shooting photo illustraitions for the magazine this week.

The first one is about chinese inventions for the "Did you know..." section.



Beijing has some fantastic backgrounds, so I loaded up my bicycle and went looking for colors around my block.

And then I shot some yuan for an article teaching Chinese investment lingo.





More on the non-magazine stuff later.

Wandering in Beijing

Last night, I bought a bicycle on my way home from work. It is a pretty spiffy ride.



Most of my freetime in Beijing has been spent wandering around the city. Last week, I visited the pearl market to buy a birthday gift for my brother, (they sell pearls, and everything else under the sun), then wandered into the gardens of the Temple of Heaven. It is beautiful. The gardens were lovely.



Bunches of people, like this couple, were playing Chinese hackey sack.



This picture, below, is of my first solo cab ride in Beijing. Most of my end of the conversation was "Wo bu shi dao" or "I don't Know", but atleast I managed to give him the proper location in mandarin.



On Sunday, I wandered into Tuanjiehu Park. Along the edge of the pond, people were fishing for goldfish.





The man I was photographing gave me a chance to fish as well. I didn't catch a single fish. Perhaps in the future, I will give it a try on my own.




and, yes, people were dumping their fish back in the pond. They were not for keeps.





After the park, I hopped on the subway and got off at a random stop. I wound up at the Beijing Railway Station. The building itself is really cool, and the crowds on the plaza were terrific. Tons of people were sitting on the ground, waiting for trains to roll in, smoking cigarettes and loosening ties.

Hello China

After work yesterday, I decided to hop on the train and visit Tiananmen Square.



I was met a huge crowds of people, and realized I arrived just in time to see the flag lowering ceremony.





The crowds were so thick, the picture above shows just about all I able to witnessed of the ceremony. There were much more interesting photo subjects around me.







The man above was distributing fliers advertising trips to the great wall, and the street below is the one parallel to the square.




The shot above is not in Tiananmen, but rather right by my hostel.

and here is the requisite point and shoot photo:


I love Beijing. It is east meets west, new meets old. The people are all friendly, no one has been rude (after I shot my first on the street portrait for the magazine, the girl gave me a hug. Yeah, that's right, a hug).
There are humongous lanes reserved for bikes, and exercise equipment free to use for free in the park. (mostly used by the elderly and the parents with small children, but I am going to go for it one of these days.)
The food is unbelievable, I have a cool job and cool coworkers (more on all of this later).
And everything is so cheap. My dinner tonight cost me $1, and the huge lunch I had earlier was about $4. A 1.5 liter bottle of water is 25 cents at the local 7-11. A trip on the subway will set you back 40 cents, and a bus ride 20. And there is so much to see and do, and photograph.

The only bizarre thing so far is "The Great Firewall of China". The government has taken it upon themselves to sensor any web site that gives the people freedom of speech. Most social networking sites are down, including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and any and all blogs. (I am currently accessing this site via a Proxy.) And while giant sites like Google and Wikipedia are available, you cannot view pages within that the Government doesn't like. (As an example, you cannot search the term "Great Firewall of China" or view the wiki page about the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.)

SW

My sister, brother and I drove through the South West together. We started in Santa Fe, where my sister was living this summer, and then drove west to LA. We climbed the Grand Canyon from top to bottom, hiked the Las Vegas Strip, saw an opera and a Cirque du Soleil show, and ate some tacos. It was a pretty good trip.


Soda Dam, New Mexico


On the Highway, New Mexico


Grand Canyon, Arizona


Crowds at sunset on the South Rim, Grand Canyon.

I am currently in South Korea, waiting for my plane to Beijing.