Beijing (May 15-30, 2008)

Forbidden Palace as seen from Tiananmen Square.


Tiananmen Square.


Guarding the Palace of Supreme Harmony, or whatever. I forgot everything I heard on the audio-taped guide through the Forbidden Palace. That place is freaking huge! And the Emperor's room is surprisingly tiny, in comparison. This lion's a femme. She's got a cub under her paw.


Beijing is not a pedestrian-friendly city.


Ernie's bros.


Art in Factory 798 District.


I kind of read a lot into this photo although, as far as I could tell from this series, no such intentions were from the artist. Anyway, to me this kind of sums up China's growing capitalism, continued exploitation from the West, and if those sunglasses were rose-tinted, it'd be a perfect symbol for the people's ignorance of what they're missing.


Dad's last meal, more or less, in China... TGIF! The servers had more pieces o' flare than in the US. That burger tasted damn good. You do start missing burgers.


Inside the Performing Arts Centre, aka, The Egg. It's a beautiful structure. The only one of all these recent new buildings (ie. the Olympic buildings) that I actually admired. Look at the different types of rock/marble they used for the floors. A lot of Benjamins went into this thing.


Itinerant workers building up China's future Olympic legacy.


China is a land of contrasts. What you don't see from this photo is that beyond this make-shift metal gate is a shanty town of itinerant workers from the countryside. They eat instant noodles squatting by the side of the roads and work tirelessly to create an idyllic town for Western eyes come August. Facades are going up everywhere, and where there isn't time to fix up a facade, there are new walls covering the dilapidating hutongs. I don't know why the government uses its money this way; they're not fooling anyone. China is still, very clearly, a developing country.

It's getting there though. Slowly. Just hope for ever-better leadership in the future.