Picture of the Day: new 798 gallery Art Bridge's logo

It's a good one:

The character 拆 -- "demolish" -- in the shape of a house with a tree in the front yard.

Changes abound in this city of ours

We can talk about big changes all day, but it's the little stuff that's more likely to sneak up on us and one day to make us exclaim, "Holy shit, that happened?" Take note of the neighborhoods between Dawanglu and Shuangjing, i.e. between Carrefour, Today Art Museum and Beijing City International School. There's some shit happening.

Two people kicking around a shuttlecock.

If you ever want to buy property, look here. It's still somewhat affordable -- by which I simply mean it's not in the millions of usd as a place near Second Ring Road might be -- but the area's nice enough that prices are probably only going to increase.

Even if i know that tomorrow the world would go to pieces I would still plant My apple TREE

Also see: still LOVE U.

Pictures of the Day: Beijing SantaCon

Pictures by Ben Redden:

Picture of the Day: China at 61

The People's Republic is 61 years young. Here's to progress.





Pictures taken tonight, so not technically on the country's birthday, but close enough.

Picture of the Day: Group exercising

Beijing Today calls them "radio exercises" because the moves are done to music that is broadcast over public radio. If you've biked around Guijie near Dongzhimen, you've probably seen it: entire kitchen staffs of fancy restaurants outside doing collective exercises. Or if you've worked in a Chinese office, perhaps you've partaken in these exercises as well (they're awful). Here's what it looks like:



China Daily's Metro Beijing section editorialized on this last month in such ridiculous terms that I almost left a comment. (Essentially: forced collective exercising relieves boredom; I think that was the crux of the column.) I can't find the editorial now, despite spending way too much time just now navigating its search function. Here's a news article instead.

POSTSCRIPT: China Daily's editorials were never good by any definition of the word, but now that they have METRO Beijing columnists "working" as well, the entire op-ed section is now just a complete and utter embarrassment. Here's someone writing about rain -- about average for an editorial. There are better and there are worse, but I can't stand linking to anything else.

Picture of the Day: Firetruck chasing

I got a tip this evening about a building on fire near Sanyuanqiao. After a bit of internal deliberating, I decided to hop on my bike and check it out.

Alas, firefighters work quick in Beijing, as I saw these firetrucks departing the scene before I got there:


And not a trace of smoke. So I went to Lady's Street instead, for no particular reason:

Picture of the Day: Waiting at a stoplight

Picture of the Day: This happened just now

still LOVE U...

Graffiti found near Weigongcun yesterday.

Picture of the Day: Obamao

The Tea Party may get a chuckle out of this:

Available at Nanluoguxiang

Sandstorms in Beijing

The capital city has seen better days.

Spring City?

It was awfully cold in Kunming on Wednesday, the day I left. Figured these pictures, taken from around the city, sum up my mood.

UPDATE: Also see: Kunming travel article in the Beijinger.

How many ways of looking at Tiananmen?

Pictures from Feb. 15, 2010