Week Three: Dragon Boat Festival

Where is the time going?  It feels like I stepped off the plane yesterday and yet my trip is nearly halfway over.  This week I continued work on a few projects at the office and assisted with an ACCA recruiting event on Wednesday evening.  However, it was an abbreviated work week due to the Dragon Boat Festival.  This is a national holiday in China and is also celebrated in other countries around the region.  In some areas there are boat races held and people throughout China will eat a food called “Zongzi” which is mainly rice stuffed with other fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves.  The origins of the holiday seem to be debated, but everyone enjoys the extra day off.

After having visited most of the major tourist attractions in my first few weeks here, I wanted to spend this weekend getting to know some of the less touristy spots.  On Friday, we visited Panjiayuan Antique Market.  While this is a market that is well known, it is far less westernized than the others we have visited.  I neglected to take my camera, but may visit again and will try to get some photos.  The other markets we have visited (the two most popular ones for westerners) are both indoors with nearly every vendor speaking some level of English.  Another major difference is the items carried.  Many of the markets carry items similar to what you would find in any mall in America, but this one carried mostly locally made jewelry, art work, and antique reproductions.  It was the type of market I’ve wanted to visit ever since arriving.  The crowd was almost exclusively locals so it was a completely different experience and very enjoyable.  However, I do not want everyone reading my blog to think that all the shopping in Beijing is done in small markets where locals haggle over prices.  Really I’ve been trying to get in touch with the traditional side of the country, but it is very westernized.  Malls are everywhere.  In fact there is an entire mall underneath the world trade center complex where I work, and I have to walk through it daily to get to the elevators for the office.  There is another mall directly next to the subway I take daily.  They also have every western restaurant imaginable: McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. right next to the Subway entrance.  While I love all the amazing food I’ve had since I’ve been here, it’s sometimes nice to get some western food.  I haven’t taken advantage of it yet, but McDonalds actually delivers food 24 hours in Beijing so that’s one thing I may have to try while I’m here.

Yesterday, we visited the 798 Art Zone.  It is basically a huge compound of buildings and small tree lined roads with a mixture of indoor and outdoor art.  We saw some really interesting pieces.  There were also some small galleries mixed in where you could purchase art and some small shops and restaurants.  It seemed to be exclusively modern art and like virtually everywhere I’ve seen in Beijing so far, I would love to go back again before I leave the country. You never really knew what you would see as you came around a corner.  Below are some pictures of a few of the more interesting pieces of art.

At times I found myself wondering whether some of the art was actually commissioned or if street artists are more or less welcome to come here and create.  We saw this painting on a wall almost immediately upon entering.  The face was so lifelike that my camera actually recognized it as a face with it's facial recognition system and auto-focused the shot.

Continuing the movie trend, we saw this Transformers inspired piece a little further down the road 

and this one a little later on.

Here's a group photo of me and a few of my new friends.

I really liked this piece.  From a distance it looked like it was painted on a wall or perhaps just a flat cutout.  However, as we got closer we realized that it was actually three dimensional.

This may have been my favorite one because it was a little interactive.  We saw a few locals climb inside to take pictures so we weren't going to miss out on the fun.

As soon as we got in, the locals went crazy with smiles and photo taking.  We are completely used to this by now though.  We draw a fair share of curious glances even in the areas frequented by foreigners such as the Forbidden City.  Many locals have asked us to be in a picture with them as well.  I haven't quite figured out why they love taking photos with us, but we never turn down anyone who asks.  Some don't even care to be in the picture, but will simply snap a photo of our group.  In fact when we asked someone to take our group photo above, several other locals turned around and started taking pictures with their cameras as well.  It was kind of funny really.  It always makes me smile.