798 Artists' Colony

Back home in Tulsa, folks tend to say things like "bigger than Dallas" or "everything's bigger in Texas." I wonder if the locals say things like "bigger than Beijing" -- because everything in here is BIG, and the artist's colony known as 798 is no exception.

For the record, I have been flipping through my book of Chinese idioms with English translations that I bought the other day -- hoping to find some saying along those lines, but no luck yet. I have found a few other favorites though:

   *mount the clouds and ride the mist (to feel giddy)
   *a jeweled palace on the mountain of the immortals (a dreamland)
   *to try and fish the moon from the bottom of the sea (strive for the impossible)
   *a thousand words flow from the pen, but ten thousand li (miles) away from the theme (long winded and irrelevant writing...)

So, to get back to the subject at hand, 798 is an old factory area in the outskirts of Beijing, where a small group of artists moved to in the 1990's to open workspaces and galleries. Today there are over 150 galleries sprinkled through the collection of low-slung brick buildings and large, abandoned factories with high ceilings and gorgeous, huge windows. Here are just a few photos of the area and some of the art we saw:





Gallery space


Old factory floor / empty gallery



The lunar calendar meets the Cultural Revolution


Pop terra cotta soldiers

The Kindness of Strangers

It seems somewhat cliche to say this, so I'll avoid a sweeping statement about the Chinese people and use an "I statement" instead: I've encountered some of the most generous and warm-hearted people here. In general, I've had positive experiences with people throughout my travels, but it seems that everywhere we go here in Beijing people are eager to welcome or help in any way they can. Complete strangers! I'll give you a few examples:

1) Girl on the bus: Guillermo and I were on the bus discussing where the CarreFour (like WalMart, but French. Though I'm sure the French won't approve of being likened to anything as brash and decidedly consumeristic as WalMart) might be, and a young girl (early 20's) shyly turned around and told us we were not going to pass the market on this bus. We thanked her, and would have chatted more but she quickly turned back to her friends and giggled nervously. Then, just as I was leaving (i.e. trying to squeeze myself through the packed bus), the same girl turned, thrust something into my hands and quickly blurted out "Welcome to China!" It was a small key chain-type thing of Jingjing, one of the Olympic mascot characters.

2) Alex, basketball player and new arrival in Beijing: Again, Guillermo and I were out wandering around -- trying to triangulate our location from a collection of maps (We regularly have to consult various guide books and tourist maps to cobble together an idea of where we are. The quality of available maps seems to be mediocre at best, even for those published in Chinese. Some conspiracy types say its another way to limit information access, but the city is also changing rapidly and the system they use to name/number their streets is much less regimented than ours. Street names change often along the same road, and address numbers vary widely -- though generally in the same general direction.) At any rate, suffice it to say, we looked lost. Enter "Alex" (his English name) -- a tall guy in complete basketball garb, who moved to Beijing just that week! He had his own map, which turned out to not be so helpful, so he started asking locals to help find the destination (an electronics mart) and we finally got pointed in the right direction. Generally, this is where most people would exit stage left, but Alex insisted on walking us to the market, and then came in to help me find what I was looking for (card reader for my camera) and then he even insisted that the vendor write up a receipt for me, "in case it doesn't work."

3) Boy in the restaurant: One night Guillermo and I decided to try a new restaurant down the street - and did not have our extended crew with us (several of whom speak Mandarin). We weren't too worried about being out on our own with our limited vocabularies, which basically consist of the following words/phrases: "hello", "thank you", "excuse me", "I want/don't want", "I'm American", "Let's go eat together", "How much?", and -- Guillermo's favorite -- "cars flowing like water and horses creating a solid line looking like a dragon" (a flowery idiom for traffic).

Despite the obvious lack of menu and food type words, we had managed on our own before by pointing at pictures in the menu, and I had my phrasebook if all else failed. It didn't really worry us until we sat down and opened the menu. No pictures! Uh-oh. So Plan B -- except that instead of struggling through the menu alone with G-mo and my phrasebook the waitress was standing right there expectantly waiting for our order. I now know that it is customary here for the waitress to stand and take your order as soon as you arrive. I'm sure this is comforting for locals, but it only hightened my awareness of how long it was going to take to "read" this menu or at least find the characters for "beef", "chicken", etc., all the while with the waitress peering down at us.

So, we decided to try and communicate that we would like five minutes to read the menu. I knew the word for 5, so I looked up minutes and was trying to pronounce/show the woman the word. By this time the entire restaurant was watching the crazy "laowai" (Chinese for gringo), and about this time our next ambassador arrived on the scene: a freshman in college who was home having dinner with his family. At first he just helped us tell the waitress that we needed time to read the menu, and then he went back to his table. But we must have looked lost still, and he reappeared to help us order as well. We ended up just getting the same thing that he and his family had (plus a beer. I have learned the word for beer too -- of course). It was tasty, and Guillermo and I used my phrasebook to write a note to his family that "Your son is wonderful!" They seemed pleased when we gave it to them as they left.


So, in summary, maybe its just that I've never been quite this lost in a place. My Spanish certainly isn't award winning, but it was passable and I was never completely in the dark when traveling through Latin America. But in China, I've certainly had to rely on the kindness of strangers and it has been a good experience so far. And, of course, my charades skills are getting better and better every day!

More Park Photos

If it wasn't for the oppressive heat and humidity (oh and lugging my laptop), this walk would be perfect. Here's a shot of the afternoon sun reflected up onto an old stone bridge, and a few others that sum up the speed and frenzy of beautification projects going on all over Beijing for next year's Olympic games. The bamboo poles and lanterns all along the edge of this lake arrived in the span of 2 days, and the large flower display/entry gate in just one.

First Presentation

I think I mentioned previously that I was asked to put together a presentation on TOD (For all my non-planners: that's transit oriented development). Well, I gave the presentation today, and it went pretty well, though it was incredibly hard to put the presentation together. Of course, the language hurdle is enough to think about, but I also was given very little direction (other than "TOD please") and didn't feel like I knew my audience at all. How much did they already know? They seem to be mostly designers -- will I insult them if I talk about basic TOD design concepts? (Which as a non-designer, is about all I feel comfortable speaking about).


In the end I decided to focus on one case study of successful TOD in the U.S. (Arlington, VA), and that seemed to go pretty well. Most of the department came and one group stayed through the whole thing and had TONS of questions. Turns out they are currently creating a master plan/design for a new city on the periphery of Beijing (also along the new high speed train to Tianjin), and are very interested in station development, phasing, economic impacts, etc. I didn't have all the details they wanted, but at least I now know what they are interested in, and a little bit more about the projects they are working on.

All in all, I was happy with my presentation -- especially because it has given me some concrete things to work on, and it seemed to break the ice with some of my colleagues. Maybe now they won't ignore me as much!

Forbidden City & The Paparazzi

Song and two other office mates (also interns: He and Wang Wei) offered to take Guillermo and I to the Forbidden City -- one of, if not the, main tourist attractions here. All in all I think it was a fitting way to spend our first weekend here. The sheer scale of the space and the temples is awe inspiring (somewhat indicative of the city itself), and it offered a brief history lesson of China's imperial past
Here are just a few photos of our day:


At the main entrance.



Nine dragon screen wall.



Fancy hat. Reminded me of outfits/costumes created by a friend of a friend for the Castro parade every year...



Just after we took the pictures at the Nine Dragon screen wall, someone came up and asked Guillermo and I to take a photo with them -- not of them -- but with them. With one of us on either side of him. We obliged, but we were definitely somewhat surprised and confused. I felt like a B-movie actor, "Who me? You want to take a picture with me?"

Even though a growing number of tourists flock to Beijing every year, there are still parts of the city (like the neighborhood where we live) that rarely see non-Chinese faces -- and the combination of Guillermo and I certainly causes a fair amount of curious and cautious stares. Just the other day we were on our way home in a taxi and caught a guy in a minivan peering in at us. We both smiled at him, and then he gleefully turned and announced our presence to the rest of his compatriots. Soon the entire minivan was leaning out of their windows, smiling and waving at us. I definitely feel welcomed, and I think I can handle the paparazzi for the next 2 months.

Beijing Hot Pot

Tonight my officemate, Song, insisted on taking us to the Wangfujing area for a traditional hot pot dinner -- a popular communal dish where diners order raw vegetables and thinly sliced raw meats to cook in a boiling pot in the middle of the table. Once your items are cooked, you fish them out with your chopsticks and dunk them into a sauce before eating. A tasty and entertaining dinner. I borrowed the picture below from Guillermo's blog (Feel free to visit his blog from time to time for an alternate view and his stories/pictures), and you can see the hot pot (and steam) in the middle of the table, along with a nice plate of raw beef, which I am holding up for the camera.



Song, my office mate, is also a student intern, and she has been wonderful all week -- helping translate for me and brining me treats to work. Sadly though, today was her last day at work and she returns to her University outside of Beijing on Sunday. Below is a picture of us in the middle of the main drag in Wangfujing -- a huge street completely closed off and for pedestrians only. The whole area is incredibly chic, with tons of high-end retailers and bright flashing lights.



This area also has a very popular collection of street food vendors who sell a wonderful array of food on sticks. For the most part, the items on sticks are not for vegetarians or the faint of heart. Among the things I saw available were: scorpions, crawdads, squid, starfish, livers (unknown origin), centipedes, bugs, and fresh or candied fruit. Song told me that she thinks "the only thing we (Chinese people) won't eat are other humans." We stuck to the candied fruit for now (we *had* just eaten), but I hear the scorpion is mostly just a crunchy outside shell, so maybe later.


Guillermo lining up for the delicacies






There is also a gorgeous cathedral along this street, which I was not expecting, but despite the rift between the Chinese Catholic Church and the Vatican caused by the government's insistence on controlling the church and ongoing religious oppression in general, there are an estimated 15 to 20 million Catholics in China. (Just finding and reading that article required a virtual private network (VPN) connection to UCLA and an anonymizer to circumvent the web filters here, so despite many of the apparent signs of change and a movement towards a capitalist system, certain things are still very much controlled by the state.)

New Digs

I moved out of the lap of luxury and into my new, permanent Beijing home last night. Very comfortable digs, and it is nice to be with all of the other students now. One can only lounge around in plush robes for so long. Here are some photos of my new place:



The view.



View into the room from the front door.



One of the best parts about my new home is the walk to work -- about 50 mins and a good part of that is in the most beautiful park, called the Black Bamboo Park. Its a huge park with amazing landscaping, a stream that connects a few large lakes with tons of lotuses (loti?). Its definitely a popular park. In the morning there are easily hundreds of people playing all sorts of games or exercising. Plenty of wushu and tai chi groups, but also large groups of women dancing/aerobicizing to music, groups playing a sort of hacky sack game, and -- my personal favorite -- the ladies practicing with their swords! In the evening the feel of the park is definitely more subdued and languid -- couples dangling their feet in the water, families in boats on the lake, and seniors chatting under gondolas. I'll post more pictures of life in the park soon, but for now here are a few of the lake.

First Day

Today was my first day of work the Academy. Guillermo, and the other students (UCLA and USC) met me at the hotel, which is about a 5 min walk from work (the apartments are farther – approximately 45 mins). The Academy has two buildings, one of which is brand new (no more than 4 years old) and another – about half a block away – that is older (someone said it was 50 years old, but the inside seems to be newly refurbished).

Both Guillermo and I have been assigned to departments in the older building. He is going to be working on a water quality project, and I have been assigned to the transportation planning group.

I apparently arrived a bit early, but after some general confusion and running around, I was ushered into a large conference room, where I got to meet some of the people in the group. After a general welcome from the head of the institute, everyone went around and briefly introduced themselves – including me. Then the director had the managers describe their projects and asked me to indicate which project I would like to work on. This was somewhat difficult to do, both because I didn’t want to offend anyone by not being excited by their project, but also because it was hard to tell figure out how the groups and projects differed from each other. (Perhaps the details were lost in translation, but each manager basically said they were working on transit planning and or transit-oriented development (TOD) land use planning.) I tried to be equally interested in each project, and ultimately indicated that I could prepare some case studies of TOD projects in the U.S., as that appeared to be a recurring theme in their work. They seemed to be interested in this and agreed to have me give a presentation this Friday (though this was later, and thankfully, changed to next Tuesday).

I also briefly mentioned that I had done quite a bit of research and work on carsharing, and that I could also include that in the presentation. There was not much response to this during the meeting, but afterwards more than one person indicated that I should focus my presentation on TOD development and not the “taxi research.” So apparently, there is indeed a bit lost in the translation! I will probably still include something on carsharing, as it is a strategy increasingly used in developments near transit stations, and hopefully I will be able to differentiate it from taxis.

After the meeting, I got settled into my office (see photos below), and used my phrasebook to ask for a pen and paper, and later to write a note (in Chinese characters) that “The internet not working. I need a key?” (the translator had left by then, and my small phrasebook does not include the word for password). It’s 5 pm now and the internet issue has not been fixed and it does not look too promising. The IT tech that came up mentioned that they use a special proxy that monitors your usage (at least they are honest!) and that it only works on PC’s. So, I might not be able to get my Mac online – but he said he would look into it, so let’s hope something works out since I can’t really do much on this presentation without being able to do research on the web. (I spent most of today practicing my Chinese and writing this post).


View from my office -- lots of smog!


After the rain.


A few of my co-workers invited me to lunch, and we went over to the cafeteria in the new building. Lunch was served buffet style with bright orange plastic bowls for noodles or soup and silver compartmentalized plates for everything else. Lunch was fairly tasty as institutional food goes. I chose some fish (good but bony), bok choi, green beans, squash, rice and a few dim sum-type buns. Lots of basic chit-chat over lunch and Chinese lessons. One of my coworkers tried to help explain the 4 tones in the Chinese language with me -- the key to proper pronunciation -- and she used these hand signals that were very helpful in illustrating the differences between the tones (particularly the third tone which goes down then up again). I imagine these hand signals are somewhat akin to what a conductor might do, which frankly, till today, just seemed like frantic waving to me. (The Osgood’s are not known for their musical ability. Some might call us tone-deaf.) My lunch partners seemed impressed that I could use chopsticks so well, and were tickled pink with my story about how Americans have watermelon seed spitting contests (watermelon was also on the menu today). There was much giggling after I relayed that tidbit, and I even told them about my special rolled-tongue-as-cannon technique – but alas we were inside and it seemed inappropriate to demonstrate.

Arrived!

I made it! I arrived in Beijing around 2 pm local time. The flight was long, but the views of the landscape below were amazing. As we made our way along the western coast of North America, you could see long stretches of snow capped mountains and pristine coastlines. We then crossed over the Bering Straight and into the vast plains of Siberia. Sadly, I didn’t have a window seat, but I peered over my seatmate from time to time, and got up often to stretch my legs and to peek out the window in the back near the restrooms.

Once in the Beijing airport, I went through customs, which was incredibly easy and painless. They even had these cute little consoles at the counter where you could indicate your satisfaction with the officer. The rating buttons were in English, Chinese and the universal language of emoticons or smiley/frowny faces. I gave the police officer who stamped me through a big “Very Satisfied or “:)”.

After unsuccessfully trying to figure out where Guillermo’s plane might come in, I figured I would just go down to the baggage claim area and wait for him there. (Due to a plane malfunction I was unable to rendezvous with him in Vancouver, but instead got a direct flight to Beijing. He was out all night saying goodbye to Los Angeles the night before, so somehow I don’t think I missed out on much conversation.) We he finally arrived, we hugged, grabbed his bags and headed outside to the crowd of people waiting to welcome new arrivals. We spotted our handler in the crowd holding a big sign, “Guillermo Jaimes and Andrea Osgood” and we were soon off to the parking garage,

At the garage, the driver started loading our four bags into the trunk of a smallish sedan, and when he got to Guillermo’s hard suitcase, it became clear that the suitcase would not fit enough to allow the trunk to close. Just when I was thinking that he would have to unload and rearrange the bags, the driver took one of the many straps that was dangling off my backpack and tied it to Guillermo’s bag (presumably as the last bag packed, Guillermo’s would be the first to fall out, so tethering it to mine solved this problem) and we were off -- cruising down the highway, with the trunk hood gently bobbing up and down (sometimes fully up and blocking all rear views, other times nearly closed). In general, there is quite a bit of honking on the streets here, but I think we got a few extra toots on the horn, as passing drivers drove by – as if to say “I’m here, hiding behind the hood of your trunk, don’t hit me.”


Photo in the car -- see the hood in the background?


The dormitory/apartment building where we will be staying for the duration of our visit did not have a room ready for me, so after dropping Guillermo off at the apartment, another driver took me to a hotel where I will be staying for the next two days. At first I was a little apprehensive about being separated from the group, but got over that fairly quickly after arriving in my posh, if temporary, digs. The apartments are nice enough – loft design with new IKEA-esque furniture and a small kitchenette – but nothing beats a swanky hotel with a sitting room, big fluffy robes, and complimentary house shoes/slippers! After my long day travel, it was totally divine to take a long shower, curl up in a robe, and check my email/call home. After recouping, I went to the restaurant downstairs in the hotel and ordered water and “fried pork” from the translated menu. A steaming cup of hot water arrived (I found out later, thanks to Google, that the Chinese believe that hot water is better for the health. This is probably because water in most of China, and historically in Beijing, has to be boiled before drinking. However, the government now claims that this is no longer necessary in central Beijing – part of the preparations for the Olympics next summer. For now though, I’m going to keep using the electric teakettle to boil drinking water). The fried pork turned out to be bacon with a delicious medley of shallots, chives and/or leeks of some kind, and black beans.