Beijing Main

Marcy and I went to Beijing in February 2009, arriving from humid and hot Hong Kong one day after the first snowfall of the winter (and one that the Communist party took credit for, as they had spiked the clouds, apparently, to bring it on). The snow was actually quite pretty, and the cold and brilliant winter weather was welcome. Nonetheless, I found Beijing quite bleak in most respects, an unapproachable and unlovely city of walls and gates and guards.

Photo List (Total 482 Photos)

Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour

Central City (129 photos) - Though these photos are not arranged in the order we saw the city at all, here we start with Tiananmen Square, and then move through the Forbidden City (which is really a long set of palaces for the Emperor, no "city" here at all). After that, the photos move west through Zhongshan Park, to the stunning National Centre for the Performing Arts, and on to a shopping district a bit further west, which we visited during our last day in town. After that, the photos move south of the square. Marcy and I walked through what is called the Legation Quarter, which was rather a disappointment, though we did find a cafe there for lunch. After the district, we went to the Beijing Urban Planning Museum, with its enormous model of the city. Finally, we ended up on a completely artificial pedestrian walkway that runs off the south end of the Tiananmen Square, called Qianmen Street, with completely rebuilt buildings, an artificial streetcar. Almost none of the businesses in the street were open, which made it even stranger. (See below for a short video of our jitney ride to the National Theatre).
Olympic Green (23 photos) - Site of the 2008 Olympics, the Olympic Green is a vast space dominated by the Beijing National Stadium (aka the Bird's nest) and the Beijing National Aquatics Centre (aka the Water Cube). These two dramatic buildings do not make up for the sense of overall emptiness and a crushing scale that we found here. Perhaps it was because we were thirsty and needing of food, and there was nothing, nothing around. Our long walk to the Pangu Plaza that seemed nearby was overwhelming and inhumane, and we were forced to take a cab to a subway to more amenable quarters.
Central Business District (34 photos) - I forced Marcy to this area out on the eastern Third Ring Road, where Beijing is building the majority of its tallest buildings. Unfortunately, as we arrived the sun left us, plunging the city into a grey miasma, which render these photos depressing to my eyes. Perhaps it is the unhumanity of the scale, or the excessively high ramped traffic? Nonetheless, a highlight of the visit was the remarkable CCTV Building, and I discovered that architectural photos of this edifice normally omit the two-storey high sheet metal fence surrounding it. I would skip these entirely if I were you.
Hutongs (35 photos) - Hutongs are small scale, traditional alleyways that are rapidly being cleared in Beijing to make way for official buildings and apartment complexes. When Marcy and I wandered off the strangely false Quianmen Street and found ourselves in a busy, small-scale commercial street that was the heart of a Hutong, we were thrilled, it was the first time in Beijing that we felt at home in the city. So what if the area was squalid? So what if it smelled? It was unique and lively and inviting, and we found an internet cafe no less! The first 23 photos are from that first visit to the Hutong, and the remainder are when we returned to the area, and bravely wandered through its many alleyways, finding our way back to the restaurant with internet by a completely different route.
Dashanzi 798 Art District (84 photos) - This very famous arts district, located in a group of industrial buildings (some of which were originally built by East Germans), was a huge contrast to the rest of Beijing. Smart cafes, smarter art, galleries, small walkable streets, the whole place was a balm to the rest of the city. These photos show our stay there, including cafes, buildings, scenes and of course, art just everywhere. I loved in particular the contrast between the industrial buildings and their modern additions - again and again, a merging of the two that was as good as anything I've seen anywhere.
Near our hotel and out on the ring roads (71 photos) - The first photos in this group are taken from our hotel room window, and during the brief walkabout that introduced us to Beijing. Notable is the Purple Bamboo Park. As our hotel was some distance from the city, and not close to a subway, we spent quite a bit of time in cabs being shuttled around town. The remainder of the gallery are photos, mostly of buildings, taken rather widely across the city. It includes the Beijing Tower, some interesting museums, and many buildings that I haven't a clue what or where they are. The photos are often not ideal, as they were shot from a moving car, but they represent an attempt to come to terms with this vast and unknowable city.
Outside the city (79 photos) - This group of photos documents our day with Alice, our guide, include the Great Wall, but before that a Cloisonné factory, the Ming Tombs, and a jade carving factory. See below for a very short video from the Cloisonné factory.
Transit Photos (27 photos) - Finally, subway and airport shots, with a few in-cab photos as well. The Beijing airport was lovely, but struck me as being terribly overbuilt. The subway was pleasant enough.