Finally made it to Beijing, 9 hours to Hong Kong, and 3 hours to Beijing. Managed to write some thoughts for Uwe Koch’s Berlin project Takatako while in transit [see www.takatako.de].
Brian Wallace the director of Red Gate Gallery picked me up from the airport with Zhen who does the driving for the gallery [difficult to negotiate if you are not a local]. Right hand drive. Beijing is a boom town – the airport was re-built only 5 years ago to allow for all the extra traffic, but it has already outgrown itself. There is Olympics fever here and the day it starts is an auspicious day as it must be for the Chinese – 08.08.08. The main stadium, aka the birds nest, is on the north sida of the city. An artist with Red Gate Zhou Jun has done some interesting photographic work about it. This afternoon is an opening at the gallery of Zheng Xuewu’s work and here I will meet everyone. Afterwards a meal for about 40 of us – no problem for restaurants here. Apparently there are about 5 or 6 new residents at this time, so it will be interesting to meet everyone.
Have already found the cicadas singing [it is hot and humid] – outside the flat and also in ‘Exquisite Park’ [Tuan Jie Hu Park] nearby. Outside the park about 30 orange dragonflies were flying around – couldn’t work out why. Along the street where my flat is located a fruit and veg market operates between 6am and 10am everyday – so handy, and great to be in the middle of things. Have to get up to speed with some basic Chinese again – Ni Hao [hello] Xie xie [thank you] zai jiang [good bye] etc etc Havn’t seen many foreigners about this part of the city.
