Art... creativity... inspiration...

My old editor at City Weekend took me around Beijing after a business lunch that we had with the Brand Manager. I wanted t0 use them as an expat media partner for the conference, but they gave me some better ideas about partnerships with other organisations that they know and will hook me up with - in short, very helpful!

Lee Mack, my old deputy editor, has been promoted to Managing Editor for the whole of China, and he tried to rehire me (w/o any luck). So he gave up and took me to see some new developments in the area. It's great exploring with artists and writers, cos they always find the craziest little nooks that noone else would think of going to.

First stop: the Legation Quarter.

This is a new development just behind Tiananmen, still in construction, but will be great when the Olympics start. At the moment there is only an art gallery, Beijing Centre of the Arts, a Patek Phillipe showcase, and a very good French restaurant with a Michelin starred chef. My friends went there the other night and said it was amazing, I cant wait to try it.

Anyway here is the entrance:


We walked around the whole complex but most of it was still in construction, but looked very promising...


I love taking pics of contruction workers, people on the street. It reminds me of the real China, minus all those champagne parties and pretentious clubs...


The exhibition on at the art gallery is deptly titled "Where are we?" I think it captures social contructs in modern Beijing very well. There was a very nouveau short film on display that was so captivating! We stood there and watched it over and over again and argued for ages over what we though it was trying to convey.

Gallery courtyard:


One of the themes was modern pictures of Tiananmen. There were some really good pieces shot with a really wide-lens camera that I liked:



But this one was my favourite. It is the only one shot from the perspective of Mao (as in, looking out from the direction of the Mao photo at the entrance of the Forbidden City). It is facing a very large crowd of the masses, and looking at a picture of Sun-Yet-Sen (that is no longer there). It is almost like a tribute that they are making to each other, joined by an ocean of the people of the PRC. I think it has great meaning, and I really like the photo and wanted to buy it:


I asked about the selling price - 80,000RMB.

Sigh.

The girl said she would email me if there is another enquiry on it, and that I would get first dibs if such a situation occured.

Yeh.... *cough*

Here are some other works that I liked. I have detailed descriptions of each, and also a personal analysis, but it will take me too long to write it all up, so if you are interested just ask me!








At the top of the gallery, there is a rooftop that is completely empty. I had a great idea about opening a bar there (like the Emperor - see post below), but I am quite sure that someone has already gotten in first...



It was such a lovely day that day - I actually saw blue sky and some clouds! Apparently it was the nicest day in Beijing for like 2 years.

We then went to a funky hutong in 东城 called 南锣鼓巷 (nanluoguxiang). It is right next to the Drama and Arts Academy, and has lots of funky students and arty-farty types, as well as some very interesting cafes and bars.

It was really cool, cos I always get taken to the posh places, and noone ever takes me to the weird places cos they think I wont like it, but actually I love it!

I have discovered a very deep obsession with taking pictures of hutongs and "real life" Beijing, so this was a great place to do it:

This is so cute! Beijing's smallest bar - 12 square metres, only one table and a couple of stools at the bar:

All the cafes look like this, but each of them are themed differently, like bookshops or with courtyards or kitsch furniture:

Hey, what can I say? I love kids :)

This is Collin Crowell, the old Managing Editor when I was still at City Weekend. He is leaving for a 1 year sabbatical, and then moving to Vietnam to start City Weekend there. Lee is taking his place. He has the craziest house hidden at the back of a hutong off an alley on this street. It's really cool, cos all my friends live in these realy posh apartments and then Collin invited us over and I was like.... "you live in a hutong?? Awesome!"
He made us shandys and we sat in his couryard talking about the media industry in China. It was really fun :)

We also went to Bed bar (in another hutong) and some other funky cafes but my camera ran out of batteries :(

LAN club

It was on the same night as Saddle Cantina, Song and White Rabbit, but I love this place so much - it really deserves a post of it's own.

This is LAN club - pretentious, full of classy people, and totally hot decor. AJ holds a gay party here every Thursday:



The toilets are really fun. Each one is a different colour, and is a large themed room and very lush. There is a yellow one, a green, blue, white, etc...

This is our fave, the red one:


HAHAHAHA... I love this pic of me on the toilet! I wanna put it as my profile pic on facebook but I think I better ask Froggie's permission first.. its a bit risque...!


The sink is a swan's body and the water comes out of the mouth. Its so cute!


Ok the other great thing is the themed rooms. You can have dinner or drinks in any of the rooms, each is a different decor. Here are some of them:

But the BEST bit are the chairs. All the chairs are different! I didnt get around to taking a picture sitting on every single one of them, but here are a few:

LOL... AJ likes to do this pose with me all the time, he's such a Queen:

Here's the other Queen-slash-Goddess Amy ... we are on my favourite chair! Only for Royalty :)

Saddle Cantina, Song, White Rabbit

Ok I really dont have much to say here, I think it's all self-exlanatory.

Here is AJ, Nana (editor of Harpers Bazaar Beijing), Amy, Juan and Me at a Mexican bar called Saddle Cantina - these are the same guys that opened Rickshaw, and one of the owners is an Australian that speaks perfect Mandarin and is from Manly and has a place in Coogee! Talk about nostalgia hehe:





Yes, I forced them to do it heehee


Next stop was the Fashionista party at Song. I really like this club, and there was a paparazzi guy taking shots of everyone, and he took heaps of me! I will post them up later when he sends them :)

Vicki the clever Freshman:

We bumped into Amy's boss LOL, how embarresing:

There was a guy giving out promo sunnies and we were the only ones that got one! Haha Juan wasnt cool enough and they ignored him


For once, we didnt end up at Suzie Wongs! Hooray! This is White Rabbit, Lee's favourite club. It's not realy my scene but I can see why he likes it. Lots of arty people and a little pleb hehe...