Posted on January 17th, 2009 by aj
I managed a 7 hour layover in Beijing, so all I managed to see was the forbidden city. Tienanmen Square is a huge empty expanse of flat stones. Mao used to stand a million people in there just to have a chuckle at being leader of all China. Its surrounded by soviet inspired architecture and [...]
Posted on January 17th, 2009 by aj
Geoff and I took the train into Shanghai for the weekend. In between Chinese cities the landscape alternated between abandoned communes, and freshly stamped out planned communities. Five hundred units of the exact same house arranged in maddening tessellation. The families I saw on the streets and in restaurants were odd inverted pyramids of attention. [...]
Posted on January 17th, 2009 by aj
I went to China for work a couple months ago. It was my second time in China and I got to visit much more central urban places. My workplace was in Hangzhou, a small city of six million people built around an enormous lake. It felt like walking around a city of one million in [...]
Posted on January 8th, 2004 by aj
As we walked over the bridge, China looked like a wilted Vietnamese plant finally getting water. Tall glass, shining steel and strobing asian neon loom over the border. On entry, our bags got scanned with color coded 3D X-ray gear. The cities were clean and investment firms held up by giant stone columns took up [...]