Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China

Overnight Train to Xi’an

We are off on the night train to Xi’an in a few hours. A 13 hour journey. I managed to get us soft sleepers rather than hard sleepers or soft/hard seats [which don’t sound much fun!] There are many variables when travelling by train including train speed. Also, you can only book a one-way ticket, and you can only book up to 5 days in advance. As a foreigner it is extremely difficult to know how to book what you want, so you need to have local contacts who can book for you. Again Denise, who seems to be a font of wisdom, had this info.

Xi’an is where the terracotta army was discovered during the early 1970s, so it will be very interesting. I read a great review in the Guardian Online of the 20 or so terracotta soldiers that are currently on loan to the British Museum. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2162551,00.html

Unfortunately I will be out of town for the Beijing Art Fair [20th-23rd Sept] and also the opening of the DIAF – Dangdai International Art Festival.

Cameron, Jake and I have just registered ourselves at the cop shop. Apparently, this is something we should have done within 24 hours of arrival, but we had no knowledge of it. Cathy [Busby] got spot-checked by the cops yesterday while walking along Tuanjiehu Lu, which I think was somewhat alarming for her. Anyway, the process was fairly informal in the end and now we are all legally ‘here’ so mei wenti [no problem].

Mu Tian Yu – The Great Wall of China

Of course we had to see the Great Wall. Mr Shen, who drives for Brian and Red Gate, took us there and back. A great experience, up in the high hills that are to the north of Beijing. Lovely, clear moist air, bird and insect song. Hard climbing at times – high steps in some places and tiny low ones in others. We got there before the crowds and walked to a tip beyond the ‘official’ tourist route. Did a recording from this spot. The mist was thick and the hills were just visible as fading grey outlines receding in the distance.

Talking to locals in Tuanjiehu Park

I decided to try to find out what local people think of crickets and cicadas. I asked Kelly [Song Nan is her Chinese name] to translate a few basic questions and photocopied sheets of these to hand out in Tuanjiehu Park. I did this for a couple of hours today armed with clipboards, stools and pens. It was quite successful and I am eager to find out what people have written. I was doing this close to the water calligraphers, who were interested in what I was up to. One water calligrapher, one of the teachers, was telling me a lot in Chinese which I could not understand, of course, but then a younger man, Min, who has been studying water calligraphy at the park for 2 years, helped to translate. One of the questions I asked was whether there was a correlation between insect song [or natural sounds in general] and Chinese music. The teacher said there definitely was, and that I should look at poetry from the Tang Dynasty, which illustrates this well.

The cicadas – cryptotympana atrata [hei za chan] and platypleura kaempferi [hui gu].

Institute of Zoology

Cam and Jake came with me for a second visit to see Dr Liu this morning. Dr Liu had a number of specimens for me to photograph including gampsocleis gratiosa [guo guo’er]. Ai_ping sent over specimens of cryptotympana atrata [hei za chan] and platypleura kaempferi [hui gu]. Good to see what these creatures look like – particularly the cicadas, which I have not been able to spot in the parks. It is a shame that the colours of the insects do not preserve well in collections, however – the guo guo’er was a dark brown rather than the vibrant green of a living one. Cam helped set up and take the photographs in Dr Liu’s lab. Dr Liu then showed us some of the collection they have housed there. It is a brand new storage system with huge cabinets on rollers with geared handles for easy manoeuvring. Again, she was very generous with her time and took us for a tasty Chinese lunch afterwards – very kind.