Beijing

A few pics of my 2-day trip to Beijing:

Zhongnanhai; China's White House, Kremlin, Buckingham Palace

Terminal 3, which just opened last month; world's largest airport terminal (3x the size of Heathrow)

Shanghai's Pudong from the air; despite the clear sky quite hazy, probably because of the pollution and the fact it was taken through the plane's window

Chunjie Kuaile!

Just got back from Beijing and on my way to Malaysia, but here's a quick Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

Business Travel

While traveling an average of two times a month to China's major cities, you see so many places and moments where you wish you had your camera handy or could stop the taxi to have a closer look. Below a few pics of recent trips to Beijing and Tianjin.
- At the Beijing airport; taking the bus to the plane
- The Bird's Nest, Beijing's new Olympic stadium
- Over Pudong
- Plenty of comfort inside the new Beijing-Tianjin speed train
- A three-wheeler in Tianjin

Emperor's Territory

Last week we stayed at Peking University, where I lived and worked more than 15 years ago, so it was a sort of homecoming. As a matter of fact I stayed in the exact same building as when I was studying Chinese. Right across the street is Yuanmingyuan, a palace garden built for the emperors two centuries ago, but it was destroyed and looted by 8 western countries. Just slightly NW is the Summer Palace, an almost 3 km2 park built in 1750, and also destroyed by foreign powers. Both parks are now major tourist attractions and well worth a visit.

Happy Chinese New Year

The Year of the Pig is only a couple days away. I am in Beijing for work, but my family will join me tomorrow and we will celebrate the new year with relatives and friends here with fireworks and good food (pig out). The weather is quite good (11C), so if I can manage to rent or borrow a bike, I'll explore the city and get some good cardio exercise (and sweat like a pig). Because I'll only give up biking when pigs fly!

From my hotel room I can see a few old Siheyuans (a courtyard surrounded by four walls), which are very typical of old Beijing. They are disappearing fast as they are making room for skyscrapers and residential buildings, but there are still plenty around. To read more about this, check Wikipedia.

Forbidden City

Rushed past Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City while in a taxi on ChangAn Ave, only managed to take a couple pics of the gate with Mao's portrait. For more info and photos of the more than 8000-room Forbidden City, see this site.


Google Earth view of The Forbidden City on the left and Tiananmen Square on the right. Click on the picture for more detail.

Bikeless in Beijing

These past two weeks work has taken me to Beijing and it looks like next week will be the same, leaving me bikeless for a few weekends and slowly falling out of shape...
Having lived in Beijing in the past, however, it's great to see old places again. While in the Haidian district for work, I did take out half an hour to visit Peking University, where I spent a few years both as a teacher and student. Mainly regarded as China's number one university, it has a unique campus with fantastic architecture.



"Beida's" West Gate



Weiminghu or "No Name Lake"





The "Russian Building", where I used to teach