Beijing!

So here I am! It's taken me a while to post anything to this blog, as it appears there is a block on blogs (amongst other websites) here in China. I think I can post to the page, but I can't view it at all! So I don't know if this will work, or how it will look, but I'm giving it a go anyway......

Here is a quick catch-up of the past week

This is my studio/apt, my bike & me

My studio is on the edge of Beijing in one of 9 big artists communities, it's a gated community. The village is surreal!!! And I mean REALLY surreal, can't really explain why, it just is. Here are a few pictures taken, at dusk in the near by market, on my first day here...





All in all it's true what they say about the air being bad in Beijing. It's not just due to the massive amount of chain smoking that seems to be a way of life, but all of the coal burning. There is this funny smell in the air, at first I couldn't quite work out what it was. Then the handyman stuck his head in my studio and said they have just topped up my furnace with coal so it would be much warmer in the studio soon. Sure enough it's hot in here now. But that smell is coal burning, and they burn it everywhere. I imagine it's like the great smog in London. There seems to be a haze in the air and apparently today is a clear day!!!! Also too many trees were chopped down and now the sand blows in from the Gobi desert. I had been told about the 'Beijing dust', I understand now, it's just in the air.

Looking over the Forbidden City (on a clear & sunny day)!