(there isn't really a first day as all I did Day 1 was eat a fried pancake with egg and lettuce, and fell asleep with jetlag at 7pm)
Day 2
10/30/2008
Guess what? My classmates in China will not have been able to read my blog due to internet censorship regulations, currently in place.
How unfortunate!
Therefore, I doubt they have seen my introduction video:
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10/31/2008
Day 3
Woke up early, and ate some Red Bean and Coconut yogurt for breakfast. Probably would have been better had the yogurt itself been firm, instead of watery. I'm a big proponent of Greek Yogurt. Worth the try though I suppose.
Did some Skyping, and finally left the house mid afternoon to enjoy the city on the first day of sunshine since my arrival.
After having an amusing time trying to describe to the girl at the counter what I wanted, mostly consisting of pointing at the plates of other patrons, I was able to get a meal.. When I got it, it was really oily, and was temporarily convinced that the meat was dog.. pretty sure it was actually beef.
Decided to go to Dongsi at the recommendation of some kids wearing Undefeated shirts and cool sunglasses. Sneakerheads (the closest description of my advisors) seem to be a rare fixture here.. just like any off mainstream culture.. Beijing isn't super attracted to being hip. Living in New York City, I struggle with the idea of dilution. Here, there is not much to dilute. Feels kind of like a small town in a way. This feeling leaves me to one conclusion: I'm clearly missing something.
Anyway, went to Dongsi- saw lots of Nike shops.. Lots of random generic fashion stores.. Went into this store with a strange logo of a figure with a diamond sticking out of its head. The kid running it was super excited and friendly, and asked me if I was a professional skateboarder. I said "No" but asked him if there were any skateshops nearby. He led me, almost by the hand, to the corner, and told me "'Flyshop'- 1,000 centimeters" and motioned to the left. I think it was a bit further, but eventually I found it and bought a complete skateboard for 390 CNY, about $60... My trip improved about 400% just in that one move!
From there I went all over- Chaoyang... some other places.. Went to Workers Stadium, saw all of the cheesy dance clubs appropriately named "Angel" and "Babyface(check out this link if you want a hilarious description)," and other winning titles.
Found the crazy counterfeit mall, went to Bookworm- it was full of tourists on their laptops.
Didn't even eat dinner- lunch kind of killed my appetite I guess.
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9/1/2008
Day 4
Went to the Olympic village, got to see the birdsnest from about a half mile away- everything was on major lockdown.
Honestly, it was kindof in the middle of no where- nothing that stood around it seemed to be open.. and everything was brand new. Creepy honestly.
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9/2/2008
Day 5
Today I did a day trip outside of the city to see the architecture at The Commune By The Great Wall. I was expecting kindof a lot.. so naturally I found myself a bit disappointed. The 2002 Venice Biennial selection for Architecture (the first ever recognized piece of Chinese Architecture as "art" apparently) looked a bit more like Miami Beach, rather than a great example of contemporary avante garde work, where apparently budget and legality never hampered the desires of architects nor the curator.
The work looked rather dated (beyond 6 years), and was definitely ill produced. Details, people! Don't get me started on the fucking bugs, either.. I saw the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of a cage in one of the kitchens. Yuck!
Check out the photos here, and if you are curious about the Commune, watch this video with goofy German narrators.
I did get to go up to the portion of the Great Wall on their property which, was unexcavated and totally beautiful.
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9/3/2008
Day 6
Late afternoon yesterday, my entire group showed up allowing me to have a bit more personable interaction with fellow beings, and yet a sad end to my privacy.
Today we went on a tour of the cities many gallery centers. At Caochangdi Arts we visited the The Suoluo Gallery, AMT Gallery, and we visited the studio of a South Korean painter. Following, we went to Pekin Fine Arts, however, most of the galleries hadn't opened yet as it was a little early in the morning.. I did get to see the amazing live work space of one of the artists in residence there- amazing.
Following, we went to 798, to have lunch and spend the afternoon. 798 was something that I'd initially planned on visiting on my own. It was pretty fantastic, upon arrival. Too many things to see really. In summery, I saw an Andy Warhol show, which featured paintings of athletes (for the Olympics), next door I saw another contemporary arts show- also featuring Warhol, but also Jeff Koons, Takahashi Murikami, Jean Michel Basquiat, Chuck Close, and a slew of famous Chinese contemporaries... amazing show. Additionally, Nike had done a giant instalation, where I was able to view everything from Prefontaine's diaries to videos of my old coach Alberto Salazar winning the New York and Boston Marathons.. as well as some more aesthetic multimedia instalations.
Following we went to meet with one of my professor's former pupils Xiao Yong- this years Olympic medal designer! Pretty impressive guy- he told me he had lots of friends in New York, and if I knew any of them... Stephen Sagmeister, Milton Glasier, and a few others whose names I obviously knew or recognized. He's a professor at the Central Arts Academy- and a very notable Beijing resident all around.
Later- we went back to 798, like I said- big place.. for as much great stuff that I saw, it was a bit too trendy.
After, we went to the impressive professor's studio in a more up and coming arts district (I can't remember the name offhand)- which was awesome.. he was meeting with clients the whole night, but was supposed to meet for dinner at this nice place.. in the end he never showed, but had prearranged the meal and payment! What a guy!
Check the entire photo set here (unfortunately I lost a lot of them due to a data transfer error)
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9/4/2008
Day 7
Today I spent the early portion of the day at “The Forbidden City,” a site that was closed to the general public for something like 700 years. It wasn’t opened until the Communist Party came into power, hidden as a cultural relic as it is the former residence to several Dynasties. Anyway, interesting place- but absolutely jammed packed with tourists. I must have taken a million photos, but in a very sad twist of fate, my camera erased all of these among the last couple of days…
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9/5/2008
Day 8
We spent much of the day at the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful park where the emperor would voyage outside of the Forbidden City only twice a year to perform rituals to the gods. I loved the blue tiles, versus the golden ones of the Forbidden City… for some reason, it made the structures look that much more majestic.
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9/6/2008
Day 9
Today I hiked the Great Wall. It was an incredible hike through a popular region of the wall, filled with steep climbs and descents, through well preserved and almost entirely destroyed portions. We climbed through an estimated 30 towers- believe me, that would be enough for most. We concluded at Simatai, considered the most beautiful part- I even took a zipline over a ravine to get down. Awesome!