The Great Wall of China

Seeing the Great Wall of China was a spectacular experience, not only because it is one of the great wonders of the world, but the dramatic conditions in which we climbed the wall made it even more memorable. The weather in China hasn't been great since we have arrived, a couple of "sunny" days, but we definitely picked the worst day to go to the Great Wall, constant rain. Unfortunately it was the only day that we could go so we decided to drive the 1.5 hours outside of Beijing to Mutianyu, to see if it was raining there..it was...so then we decided to wait it out...no luck...alas we embarked on the Great Wall with half massed determination, dressed in soldiers ponchos & myself an umbrella that turned inside out once we hit the elements surrounding the steep hillside. Invigorated by the mysterious serenity of the stormy day, we climbed & climbed & climbed some more - far beyond the point in which tourists were suppose to stop - to the end of the road where the wall went from an orderly arrangement of bricks to a mess of rocks & dirt. It was very steep in some parts (we had to use all four limbs to climb up) & extremely slippery in others (I managed to almost kill myself, flinging on for dear life to the crenelations of the wall). The rain turned out to add to the experience because there were very few tourists up there, thus it was that much easier to let your imagination take you back to the 7th century when it was used to keep intruders out of China. We ended the day freezing and exhausted...but we still managed to make it out to dinner.  

The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu...soaked with rain, a very cool place.

www.theschoolhouseatmutianyu.com/

 We held a little drawing salon while waiting for the rain to stop.

 Ascending on the Great Wall.

Nunny Boy in his poncho.

 A dry moment looking out over the cherry blossoms.

 Safe House.

 I won! JR finished second.

 The end of the road.

 Grace was less than thrilled to keep hiking but once we reached the top she was very happy!

The yummiest dinner at Dali Courtyard (our second time in one week).

More Photos : HERE


Beijing : 798, Caochangdi & beyond.

Great day in Beijing, the day of the big party!! Rob Minkoff (actually his Chinese American wife, Crystal) threw a big party for the kickoff of the Beijing Film festival. They have had an apartment in Beijing for five years & Rob has become a fixture in the film industry here. Crystal's brother (both of them from LA) moved here in '97 & has become a Chinese pop star of sorts, so we have met some very interesting people over the last week. We spent the majority of the day in 798, the place to go to see Chinese Contemporary Art, comparable to Soho. It is a very polished version of Caochangdi, which we went to later in the day to see the month long photo exhibit that just started. Caochangdi is a small village a little farther out than 798, you have to walk through very confusing streets to finally find this modern art mecca buried in the nucleus of old Chinese culture. Awesome. We left mid afternoon to go back & get ready for the party. One of the best things about China is how cheap the services are, so I was able to have a facialist come to the room, get my hair blown out & then my make up done...I felt like a real woman!! I could get use to it here...The party was very cool in an old China, 1920's sort of way, with many Asian movie stars, models dressed up in ball gowns with masks, cotton candy & far too many "Minkoff's", champagne with vodka & lime (a good drink btw)! To top the night off we ended up at Spark to see Lil John perform, a very random & amazing experience to have in China. To read the LA Times article about the party, click: HERE.

798.

Art Center with crazy Gu Dexin exhibit (more images at link below).

I guess it is normal here to get dressed up in communist garbe for your wedding photos...

Cookie cutter man.

Caochangdi Art Center. 

I like this photo.

Boy playing with tadpoles.

Caochangdi dogs coming to attack.

Before the party.

Yes, cotton candy & a Minkoff.

 Lil John.

More photos : HERE

Beijing : First Days.

We have been in Beijing for a few days ... I am afraid there is a hole in the documentation from the first couple since we were a miserable bunch. It seemed that the feeling of going nowhere in Shanghai was only a teaser for what was in store for us in Beijing. As incomprehensible as any foreign city may seem to a newcomer, the combination of rain, Chinese driving and rush hour traffic made for a mind blowing three hour car ride from Crystal + Rob Minkoffs flat in the "4th Ring" back to our hotel (a ride that should have taken 20 minutes). We wouldn't have waited until rush hour but when we initially attempted our departure it had just began to rain and none of the taxis would take us - it turns out they were hurrying home before the (rain) traffic hit - which at first seemed ridiculously lazy but we soon came to realize the claustrophobic truth. The three hour traffic jam was the icing on the transportation cake and nearly forced us to declare a ban on China (and almost each other). That's when we decided to sleep for 12 hours in hopes of waking up somewhere sunny with less pollution and congestion. Fortunately we woke up to Grace - it was our first day with the Chinese tour guide who turned out to be the cutey pie relief of the trip, she laughs at all my dads jokes, her and i walk arm + arm, she is silly, sweet and fun, dreamboat! Even though the sun still hasn't really come out yet the trip has taken a turn for the brighter.

Our first night in Beijing we ate peking duck in the 1949 dist. @ Duck de Chine.

Rainy day errands with Crystal, Rob, Pietro & Jeff. Envision loud techno bumping "I make your ice,,, cream. You make my lolly,,, pop."

The Rigs at Forbidden City.

JR walking through the Hutong (Old China alley ways) to our afternoon cooking class.

Learning to cook Yunnan food (Southwest Chinese) with a bunch of expats that are living in Beijing. This place is so cool, we are going back Thursday to have a private tutor on chinese herbal medicine..They also have QiGong, tea journeys & acupressure. http://www.thehutongkitchen.com/

We made Yunnan lemon shredded chicken salad with mint, mushroom baked in lotus leaves and Heisanduo. Very simple, healthy and delicious.

Grace (left) and our cooking teacher.
___

btw, if you would like to see more photos go : HERE

Day 2 : Technicolor Shanghai

While Shanghai is known for being the well polished, sophisticated, financial epicenter of China, I think my favorite attraction was the epically dated, technicolor, Bund Site Seeing Tunnel - a pedestrian only tunnel that allows you to go under the river in a glass people mover, from the Pudong (where our hotel was) to Chen Yi Square: "Modern high technologies are applied in the decoration of the interior walls of the tunnel, providing the passengers with pictures, patterns and views about yellow sea stars, pink flowers, strange geometric figures, which are full of dynamic power and full of enchantment." It felt like quintessential China in a city that is very westernized. Needless to say, Day 2 started out like Day 1, with a little trip through the Site Seeing Tunnel, always pleasant, and then to M50 Artist District. To make a long story short, the rest of our day turned into a transportation nightmare, language barrier + taxi's + china traffic = hours of going the wrong way. We did however make it to the artist district which was very cool, a nice introduction to the Chinese contemporary art scene. After that we went spent some more time going the wrong direction in cabs & finally rendezvoused with our local friends to hit up the underground fake purse scene, which was quite exciting since there was a raid in the neighboring shop and we were locked down in the purse dungeon for quite some time. Eventually we made it to the Huangpua River Tour which was a delight on the overcast, rainy night - all sarcasm aside, after a long day on going nowhere it felt like a bit of the same (85 of the 90 minutes we were sitting on a boat looking at the dark banks of shanghai as most of the Chinese tourists were engaged in conversation never looking out of the window), when ALAS we made it to the Mecca of lights and Shanghai beauty, see pictures below.

View from our hotel room on the 70th floor of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, "one of the highest hotels in the world". Across the street the highest building in the world was under construction.

M50 Artist District.

Lai Yu Cheng, Riotous Zebra - Planet Wonderland

In front of H Space

Landscape - 9210 - Plane - 92.

Loft Gallery.

Shanghai Art.

The Cool Docks.

The WATERHOUSE Hotel.

Mercedes Benz Arena.

The old side of the Bund River.

The new technicolor side of the Bund River.

Yay!