125th Street - Harlem

Fittingly in sync to the previous posting below; another type of dawn is upon us…

November 4th 2008 – 125th Street, Harlem – at about midnight!

Another day, another dawn...

It was early, it was cold, the sky was clear and the air was thin... but it was worth it. One of the many spectacular sunrises I was lucky enough to witness whilst trekking in the Himalayas.

Sunrise over Nuptse viewed from Kala Pattar at 18,000ft (5,500m) Mt. Everest is on the left.

Bye Bye Beijing!

Sad to say Bye to Beijing, however, I have a feeling I will return... I managed to do most things, although there is more to do in Beijing than could be done in one month. I spent most of my time in the villages meeting people I couldn't communicate with... but somehow it all worked out. I come away with a mass of images and research. I met some amazing people and have been inspired in many ways.

Now a quick stop in Hong Kong... considering I arrived without a hotel reservation (!) it all went amazingly smoothly. Great to see the bright lights and breathe fresh air. I didn't realise how much I had gotten used to the thick Beijing air until I was at Hong Kong harbour this morning! I also found a superb place for dinner last night! Following my instincts I went to a place with only locals... there was no English menu or pictures to order by! I have been ordering food by pictures this past month; sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Alas one lady could speak English and said 'do you trust me I'll order for you'... of course I said 'yes, that's great' fortunately it worked out well, I ate everything. But I did fear that she would order me some fired chicken feet, which I would have to eat.

Having just spent the last 23hours here in Hong Kong, where it all seems so glamorous, I think I will miss the Beijing I came to know.

Now off to rendezvous in Kathmandu...

PS: sorry no pictures...bad connection!

What wall?

So I made it to the wall, The Great Wall, here's a picture to prove it...


I know... cliche picture, but these things have to be done!

I figured this was better than posting a picture-perfect-postcard-image, and my Mum wanted to see a picture of me...

Been out and about!

It's a lot of fun here so far. The locals are all really friendly and even though there is a language barrier my charades is getting really good, and a big smile gets you a long way!

I've been out and about exploring Beijing and there is still so much more to see and do. I've taken thousands of photos, and I mean literally thousands! It will take quite some time to sieve through them all. I've managed to get to some places that I probably shouldn't have been... I just keep walking (looking like I know what I am doing) until someone stops me, or at least gestures that I shouldn't be there! We (me and and a couple of other artists) got into the construction site of the CCTV (Rem Koolhaas's new building), we took a walk along the railway tracks... all the locals were doing it, and it was the only way across the river (although the police didn't like us taking pictures), and we went to the top of a building due for demolition; we were trying to get a good view of the Koolhaas building, but the windows looked out the wrong way! I've been to the underground city, which is a maze of tunnels that Mao had built in anticipation of Russia. No pictures were allowed, but the guy didn't say anything about video!!!

The Hutongs (the lanes) are full of character and have the feeling of a film set; where it seems that at every corner you turn there is a stage set up, with props in place. Many Hutongs are being flattened to make room for new skyscrapers... ideal places for drawing!!!


Here is a video of the Olympic site as I passed it on the bus...hope it's ready for August!



I've been making many drawings, which when I get around to it I will photograph and add to the blog thing... but for the meantime I'm also finding myself also doing video. Here's a picture of how my studio looks now (there are drawings on the walls, you just can't see them). In case you are wondering... that is a projector next to the computer, it's balancing there projecting on the celling!

Firecrackers...

There is still a background noise of firecrackers, remnants from the New Year celebrations. The village was like a war-zone on Wednesday night (for the year of the rat)! The recycling effort was impressive... soon enough, the guys with the three wheel bikes were around collecting the cardboard packaging for recycling. I'm pretty sure the environmental side of recycling the leftover fireworks was not at the forefront of the their mind. Making a few Yuan seems to be a bigger incentive!

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)!