Me and my CCF in Beijing Day 12

I HAD SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND =) Really saw different sides of Beijing, and I'm realizing it's a very exciting city! I am not determined to go somewhere every night, anywhere, as long as I see something different each time.







For the better half of the day, I went to visit the 798 ArtSpace in Beijing, which was really fabulous. (http://www.798space.com/index_en.asp). 798 is named as such because the area was originally factory no. 978, and the factory buildings were reconstructed into many art galleries. It showcases contemporary art work for free with a very wide variety of displays, including both international and local artist, paintings, scuptures, mixed media display (this was a fascinating first-time for me!), vidoes, photography, computer art work... Trust me when I say, even if you are an art-idiot or hate art, you will find something you enjoy there. In fact, THINGS.

It's so big, and there are so many things that we walked til our calfs ached.



I am really so glad my colleagues took me to 798; it's the kind of place I probably wouldn't visit by myself. I had to see it to realize how fun it was. The good 5-6 hours we spent walking together was also a good chance for me to practice my mandarin (I've insisted they only speak to me in mandarin from now on), as well as get to know my colleagues a bit better, learning more about China, and answer their questions about Singapore. They're really a fun group of people, just that I've no choice but to devote my lunch breaks to piano, so I can't hang out much with them.



I just can't reiterate how much I enjoyed myself! I'll have pictures to show when I get them from my colleagues!





After we disperesed, I went to wang fu jing, the busiest, central district of Beijing. I was there briefly two year ago, and I alraedy found it to be vibrant, modern, happening. Today, I got a shock when I saw it. IT IS COOL SHIT. I merely walked through one level of the first shopping mall I saw, and I was so intimidated - vivocity doesn't feel huge anymore. So much space, such huge stalls... and international labels, all so expensive, such big stores, and some I haven't even heard of! Many of them are not even available in Singapore. I got out once I finally found the other end of Level 1, because I felt so intimidated, in such a high-class, huge space. I ignored all other shopping centres after that and settled for walking along the 'walking street', a long pedestrian space in between stores...

Just walking was exciting enough. I was a lone ranger, a purposeful wanderer walking stright, straight, straight... absorbing the lights, the colours, the noise, the vibrancy. Amazed by the huge storefronts, the people drinking at the pubs in between. And the 'food alley' has been revamped, very nice, with so much interesting food, along with little alleys selling crafts. Truly commercialized, hyperorientalized, olympic tourist district, but still, amazing. As I walked along wang fu jing, I recalled a line I wrote for my eco-city assignment during wotk, 'many countries have the ability to build and eco-city, but only the Chinese have the will to do it.' I thought it was one of the government's way of showing-off, but no - I finally saw it for myself, and then understood that there are so many people, that they can do so many things when the government wants to do it. As many locals have told me, 'Beijing looks different everyday, we all can't keep up.' Construction sites pop up everyday, and reconstruction works are completed in breakneck speed. Buildings, roads and highways are built in a matter of months, or even weeks at times, simply because there is an endless supply of manpower. I'm in... awe. China is fascinating in it's own way.

Anyway, I discovered the international book store - four levels of books, cds, dvds, and just every kind of book I would think of. I didn't have that much time to shop there, because I ran into a Russian couple trying to buy chinese cds (probably to sell) and spent ages translating their very rudimental Eng to Chi to the sales assistant. (see, I can act as a translator now!) That took forever because they were flashing cds after cds in front of me and wanting to know what it was, and whether it was popular.

That was near the piano score section. THE PIANO SCORES ARE SO CHEAP. I didn't even have time to finish looking, but I was tempted to just buy everything, every collection, every compilation. I managed to buy the Yellow River Concerto Duo Piano Transcription and a collectio of Chinese Duo Piano works - happy! NUSPE will have new things to look at, even if it's just for exposure. Also got stuff like Chopin's Polanaise (SGD 5.50), a collection of 220 piano masterpieces (10 SGD), another collection (35 SGD) etcetcetc... and I'm going back tomorrow after work to continue looking. I still haven't looked through the textbooks, the books and the foreign language books - just imagine, ten shelves of German language books for learners! I need to get some Chinese-English books as well - my spoken mandarin seems to have been improving almost as quickly as Beijing has, and I'm determined to keep it up. I'm actually considering getting a Chinese novel to see what it's like. To think I used to have such a bad attitude to Chinese classes! I now wish I was good, and am glad I've learnt so many words in just a matter of days of non-stop Mandarin.

I've walked at least 12km in the past two days. Tired! And it's back to work tomorrow. I rather go exploring =(.