Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Christmas is upon us again. This year, I’m in Australia, but I’ll be thinking about Christmas in China, which I’ve been fortunate to experience on a number of occasions.

This photo by Keemz of a Christmas tree in Beijing got me thinking about past Christmases in China:

License

I guess I should say that I’m happy to spend Christmas here in Australia, with my family – and I am – but part of me will miss the experience of spending Christmas in China:

• The camaraderie with other foreign teachers as we celebrate a Western festival in a non Western country and find ways of making it ‘like home’
• The excitement of my students, which hardened Western high school / university students don’t want to match
• The bustle of the shops on Christmas Eve
• The fire works that will go off on Christmas Eve
• The general surrealness of Christmas in China

Of course, I won’t miss:

• The absence of family
• The fact that most people work on Christmas Day (even if I don’t have to)
• That Christmas Day is a non event compared to Christmas Eve
• That there’s no such thing as Boxing Day (although the same goes for the US)

I hope you all have a great Christmas wherever you are.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

I recently read a couple of unconnected articles that suggest that now is a good time to buy real estate in Beijing. Prices are dropping. Restrictions on foreigners buying property in Beijing have been lifted. (more…)

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Mario Carvajal posted several photos of Tiananmen under clear blue skies:

Just to offset my last post about smog In southern China, here are some photos of Tiananmen and the Forbidden City in Beijing under clear, blue skies.

I’ve told this to people again and again: In Beijing, the pollution can be horrible (though not as bad as Guangzhou), but you’ll also get some lovely days of perfect wheather as well. These photos prove it!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Magnifique, lizixiang, 璀璨！ posted a couple of superb photos of the Beijing Railway Station at night:

I recently wrote briefly about the Beijing Railway Station, after seeing another photo of it, so it’s timely to come across these photos now.

It looks very impressive at night time and quite different from the previous daytime shot. The building is lit superbly, but that’s not a surprise – the Chinese are excellent at lighting buildings at night.

Full marks to Magnifique, lizixiang, 璀璨！ for some excellent shots.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

flibblesan posted a photo of the Beijing Railway Station:

A photo of the Beijing Railway Station (Beijing Zhan). According to Wikipedia it:

opened in the 1950s, as can be seen from its architecture (which merges traditional architecture with 50s-design). It is located in an extremely central location, just next to Jianguomen, and is within the confines of the city’s 2nd Ring Road.

The Beijing Railway Station is a familiar site to me (and to many other visitors to Beijing), although I’ve never caught a train from here. I used to catch a bus near here and the bus stop was always very busy. You can also see a Beijing taxi in the foreground.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

gongfu_king posted a photo of the new CCTV building in Beijing:

The new CCTV building in Beijing, which has attracted worldwide attention. Note: CCTV stands for China Central Television, which is the national television network of China.

I watched while this was being built, although I didn’t know it was the CCTV building at the time. They built the two legs independently, then joined them up. For some reason, I thought they’d keep building upwards into a spire of some sort. I had an image in my mind of it being shaped vaguely like the Eiffel tower! I’m not sure where I got that from, but I was a bit surprised when I heard it was finished and that was all there was!

However, it is unique and representative of modern Beijing, which is full of interesting architecture, such as this (although most of it designed by foreigners).

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

flibblesan posted some photos of the Beijing International Airport:

…some great shots of the Beijing International Airport. I’ve written about the world’s biggest airport terminal before and I have a half written post somewhere about my personal experience at the airport.

The airport is truly fantastic. The size is unbelievable – it’s huge! The photos can’t quite capture just how big it is. There’s nothing quite like the moment you walk into it for the first time. And I really love that ceiling.

The decorations are first class, as can be seen in the photos of the fountain and the sculpture with dragons (or are they lions) holding up the globe. I guess that symbolic of where the new China sees itself being.

Anyway, I’ll have to find that draft post on the Beijing International Airport and finish it off.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Amatourist posted a photo of the Summer Palace at:

I’ve already included a few pictures of Beijing’s Summer Palace in the Flickr Picks series and I’m sure there’ll be many more. Because there are so many photos taken of it, I’ll only include those which are truly great, or which really capture the essence of the place in some way that other photos don’t.

This one is just a great photo! The Summer Palace in silhouette in front of a brilliant sky.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

INeedCoffee posted a photo:

Starbucks is growing rapidly in China.

I used to occasionally go to the store in the shopping centre at the top of Wangfujing in Beijing. It was always packed on Saturday, although less busy on Sunday. While quite a few Westerners were there, an equal number of Chinese people were there as well, reflecting the growing number of middle class Chinese people, who are adopting somewhat more of a Western influenced lifestyle.

Service was good and staff could speak passable English, although occasionally there’d be a little surprise.

There are already quite a few stores in Beijing (69 stores according to the Starbucks website). I predict more will open in future (even as American and Australian stores close). There is a big demand for the product and the costs of running the stores are much lower, although the prices charged aren’t significantly lower.

There was a bit of controversy about the store in the picture, because it is inside the Forbidden City. There are varying opinions on whether this is appropriate, both amongst the Chinese and foreigners, but I for one would be happy if it was removed.

It may be convenient, but I don’t go to the Forbidden City for convenience, I go to soak up the ambiance of ancient China.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

poeloq posted a couple of photos of a small restaurant / food stall:

It looks like this small restaurant / food stall is serving steamed mantou (steamed buns) or baozi (steamed buns with a filling inside). You can see the stack of bamboo steamers in the picture. There’s a chance that it’s actually steamed jiaozi (dumplings), but it’s much more likely to be mantou / baozi.

For more information on mantou, check out Wikipedia’s entry on the subject.

Anyway, I really like these photos because they capture the subject well. There are thousands of small food stalls like this in Beijing and in other cities across China and they look just like this. Also, I’m a sucker for black and white photos!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed