Tag Archives: beijing

Summer Palace In Beijing

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The Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) is a must visit tourist destination in Beijing. It’s huge (290 hectares or 716 acres) and lies next to the Kunming Lake.

My favourite part is the Marble Boat (Shi Fang). You may recognise it from various movies. There’s a story behind it. The Empress Dowager was supposed to put the money towards rebuilding the Chinese navy, but spent it on this instead. She had many critics, although I remember reading that one Chinese academic said that any fleet China put together back then would have been easily destroyed, but the Marble Boat is still there, so it must have been a good decision!

There’s a lot more to see and it’s all very worthwhile. Along with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is part of the top 3 tourist destinations in Beijing.

08.08.02 Summer Palace (111) The Summer Palace in silhouette in front of a brilliant sky – by Amatourist

There are always a lot of tourists at the Summer Palace – any popular tourist destination in China is certainly going to be packed with people, which is a pity really. It’d be great if you could get the Summer Palace to yourself!

Beijing Metro (Subway)

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The Beijing Metro has a name for being efficient and cheap, but my last experience with it was one of overcrowding and frustration.

One of our friends explained that the government had recently dropped the price on the subway (in about March), leading to a sharp increase in passengers. Apparently the overcrowding was a direct result of this. I hope they manage to find a solution to this before the Olympics.

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A picture of a Beijing subway train by jcortell.

As I said, the Beijing Metro has (or had) a good name and is the recommended form of transport in Beijing. I haven’t used it much, but I’ve heard enough people say that to know it must be true (and let’s face it, it’s not hard to beat the Beijing traffic).

Anyway in this photo, the train appears pretty crowded, but believe me, I’ve seen worse, especially on other forms of transport.

I have a half written post somewhere, titled Bush Crush, about an experience where I couldn’t even get both feet on the ground (yes, I was standing). I’ll have to finish that post off!

Beijing Silk Street Market

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Silk Street Market in Beijing Image Source: P1050094.JPG by jcortellLicense

This post started off a a Flickr Pick, but was promoted to the main area of the blog, as the Silk Street Market just proved to be too important.

The Silk Street Market is a landmark in modern Beijing and a popular shopping destination for tourists. It’s also called the Silk Market or Xiushuijie (in Chinese). Continue reading →

Beijing Olympics – Fuwa Statues

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gongfu_king posted a photo:

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Giant Fuwa statues ready to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. They seem to be wrapped in plastic, so I guess they are brand new, ready for the celebrations.

The Fuwa are the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics. There are five of them and their names are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. Drop the doubles and string them together and it makes Beijing huanying ni, which means welcome to Beijing (literally Beijing welcomes you).

Everyone in China seems to love them and their image is everywhere: on billboards, posters, school bags, keyrings, products, everywhere! You can’t escape them. It’s amazing the enthusiasm they inspire.

If you want more information on Fuwa, check out Wikipedia’s entry on them.

Dancing In Public

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People dancing in public is some that happens a lot in China. People just gather together in a public square and dance. It must be a little more organised than that, because there is music playing over the load speakers, but it has a spontaneous feel to it and it’s a great way to pass a summer night.

Dancing In A Public Square photo by LuxTonnerre

A nice photo of some people dancing in a public square.

I found an interesting story from the China Daily, called It’s time to bring out the dancing shoes. Here are a few quotes from the article:

It’s summer in China. And for millions of residents, that means it’s time to dance.

True, they come out of the woodwork at summer time. Here’s a little more detail:

Rather than frequenting private clubs or dance halls, many Chinese prefer to shake their groove thing outdoors, where the dancing is free. Many throw impromptu open-air dance parties that have the feel of an ice rink in reverse: The more advanced take to the outside while the beginners wobble about in the middle.

But even though it’s common, it’s still not seen as acceptable by everyone:

Still, many Chinese men consider ballroom dancing too feminine. “So we have many all-female pairs,” said Yin Guochen, general secretary of the Chinese DanceSport Federation. “People are traditional. Many think that having an unmarried man and women as dance partners might cause problems, like an affair.”

Very traditional thinking that. I’ve seen quite a few dances in public and there are always men there – although I have seen men dancing with men and women dancing with women.

It’s not always ballroom or traditional Chinese dancing. Sometimes it’s modern dancing too. Well sort of modern. One memory has stuck with me from 2002, when after watching a fountain (that’s another story), the following words rang out across the square:

Boom Boom Boom,
Lets go back to my room,
So we can do it all night,
And I can make you feel right.

That song is from the mid 1980s… I’m not sure if anyone understood the lyrics! I’ll assume not. Regardless, they all had a great time dancing.

Beijing Street Scene

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This photo of a Beijing street scene has a lot in it:

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photo by myuibe

  • The volleyball advertisment: I’ve always thought that this advertisement is cool. Looks great.
  • The KTV Hotel: which you can find throughout in China – although I’m not into Karaoke myself, KTV is an important part of everyday life in China.
  • Bicycles on top of a hut: which seems to be UPS hut, providing bicycle couriers I guess. Modern China.

But the real value in this photo comes from the couple sitting on the bench. Their positioning is great: leaning against each other, while the mother nurses the baby, her leg up against the plant holder. Its a classic!

The other stuff in the photo is interesting, but without the couple, it would not add up to a photo I’d pick to highlight on JobsInChina. In fact, the photo would probably benefit from cropping the rest out and making the couple the focus of the photo.

Click on the photo to see the bigger image at the Flickr site. You’ll be able to see the details much more clearly.

Xizhimen District In Beijing

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The office buildings in the Xizhimen area of Beijing are a fairly notable landmark.

Xizhimen
photo by denn

Accordint to Wikipedia’s Xizhimen entry:

formerly a gate in the Beijing city wall and is now the name of a transportation node in Beijing. The gate formerly was the entrance of drinking water for the Emperor, coming from the Jade Spring Hills to the west of Beijing. The gate itself was demolished in 1969.

The 2nd Ring Road currently links with Xizhimen Outer Street, which has recently been transformed into a city express road, linking the western 2nd Ring Road via Beijing Zoo to the 3rd Ring Road. A triple-arched highrise building is a noticeable landmark at the intersection.

It’s also has two underground stations (one for line2 and one for line 13) that are close together, but not actually connected.

Also of note in the photo are the ubiquitous Beijing taxis, which every visitor to Beijing is probably familiar with.

Birds Nest Olympic Stadium

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The Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing is one of the most photographed structures in the world. I’m sure I’ll come across many more photos of the stadium in the coming months, leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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Birds Nest  IMG_5881
photos by céd

In terms of capturing the stadium itself, these photos aren’t that great, especially when compared to many others that I’ve seen. You can’t see the whole stadium. The fence is in the way. You can’t see much of the sky, but it seems to be smoggy.

But despite that, these photos really work.

I really like the way that céd has captured people and vehicles in the foreground. That adds a lot of interest to the picture. I especially like the photo with the soldier and the one with the bulldozer.

These photos definitely work well as a set. Each picture works well by itself, but together, they add something to the whole.

Beijing Olympic Relay Torch

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leah.jones posted several photos of the Olympic Relay Torch:

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Amazing photos by someone who actually got to hold an Olympic Relay Torch. It doesn’t look particularly Chinese to me, but it does look really cool. All I can say is that it looks amazing and I’m jealous!

It’s hard to believe that these torches have been the centre of so much attention. It’s a real shame that there’s been so much negativity around the Olympic Relay – this should have been a really joyous event.

Beijing Supermarket Awesomeness

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This is fantastic. A supermarket with lanes painted down the aisles! This supermarket is obviously getting into the Olympic spirit. I’m sure we’ll see all sort of craziness in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics.

supermarket awesomeness
photo by Denn

The posters of athlete jumping hurdles, hanging from the ceiling, really make this picture.

On a side note, that aisle is really wide. I’ve certainly seen supermarkets in China with such wide aisles, but it’s not the norm. More often than not, the aisles are pretty cramped. I wonder if they widened the aisles especially so they could add the lanes? I wouldn’t put it past them.