Tag Archives: photos

The Temple Of Heaven In Beijing

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unfoldedorigami posted several photos of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing:

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The Temple of Heaven is another well photographed tourist destination in Beijing (and is well worth the visit may I add). These photos are quite artistic! The angles are great and the photos work well as a set (apart from one being the wrong shape!).

My favourite is the first one, although you probably can’t even identify it as being the Temple of Heaven. I love the door framing the photo and the people in the courtyard add action to the shot. I also love the rich, deep red paint. It so strong, and for me at least, identifies that this must be in China.

The other photos are great too. The one take from a distance has NO people in it! The photographer must have waited a long time to get the shot, because the Temple of Heaven is normally packed with people. The closeup of the interior is great too, showing the decoration in detail.

Burger King In Beijing

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China does have has Burger King stores (or Hungry Jacks as it’s called in Australia – but that’s another story).

Burger King is nowhere near as popular as McDonalds or KFC, which is the clear number 1 in the Chinese fast food market, but most of the major international fast food chains are present in China to some extent.

I’m a bit worried about the increase in obesity in China. There are a lot more overweight children in China now than when I first arrived in 2002. It’s a worrying trend.

Why is it happening? I’m pretty sure it’s related to the increase in Western dietary habits in China, ie fast food restaurants and snack food. There’ll be other reasons involved as well, but this will be the main reason. They should get Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me translated into Chinese.

Anyway, as an expat, I eat at fast food stores more often than I would at home, simply because it reminds me of home. It’s still not very often – maybe once or twice a month. I prefer Chinese food most of the time!

Beijing Olympics – Opening Ceremony

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The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was just astonishingly beautiful. It took my breath away. I’ve been waiting for some photos of it to turn up on Flickr, and here are some courtesy of ..· ✈Katherina ➳·..:

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Absolutely great stuff. Katherina has a whole heap of photos of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on her Flickr stream. I couldn’t fit them all here, so I just grabbed a couple. Click on one of the photos above to go back to her home page and check out the rest!

As for the Opening Ceremony itself, well it was just breathtaking. I loved every moment of it, well except for all the teams coming out, because that took just too long.

The Olympic rings in lights, which were lifted up into the sky (ie the first photo), were just beautiful. And well so was the rest of it! I won’t gush too much here, but I will just mention the last photo – I don’t know how they got the people to have the correct angle!

Well Done China! Great Show!

Soldiers Near Forbidden City

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These are the soldiers who patrol the area between Tiananmen (the gate, not the square) and the Forbidden City.

DSC_0193 photos by unfoldedorigami

The photo of the guards practising their gongfu (kungfu) martial arts skills is a classic. Click on the photo to go to the photo’s home page on Flickr, then click on All Sizes to check out their expressions!

DSC_0199  Marching Guards photos by unfoldedorigami

When marching they look pretty impressive, but you’ll also see the human side of them. I once saw them lined up on parade, but they were all holding a variety of boutique shopping bags! Presumably the bags contained their dinner bowls (at least that’s what I was told).

They also have a basketball court there and occasionally you’ll see them out there playing. This is in-between Tiananmen and the entrance to the Forbidden City, one of the major destinations for tourists in Beijing. There are thousands of tourists there at any given moment.

In the West, these sort of things happen away from the public. In China, it’s all out there in the open. For me, that adds to the charm.

The Forbidden City And Tiananmen

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The Forbidden City is one of the most photographed places in China. I see many, many photos of it on Flickr, and I normally just ignore them. I’ve chosen to post these ones, because they present the Forbidden City in an interesting light and they work well together as a set.

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  DSC_0269 photos by unfoldedorigami

Only the second one looks like the normal photos of the Forbidden City. Even that has some extra energy, coming from the people in the foreground of the photo.

I really love the first photo, of a lane in the Forbidden City – the angles are wonderful. I instantly associate the picture with the Forbidden City, because similar lanes are featured in the The Last Emperor – Director’s Cut, which is a fantastic movie. I saw it long before I actually visited the Forbidden City, which really added to the experience. Now I want to see it again!

The photo of the garbage bin is a classic. The colours, the chipped paint, make it art! The last photo is also great. Click on it to go see the original at Flickr. I’m not sure what effect unfoldedorigami is using, but there are some serious angles in the photo.

Beijing Olympic Games and Pollution

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unfoldedorigami posted a couple of photos of the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium:

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There’s a lot of pollution evident in these photos of Beijing, and the photos further down, which is a real concern only two days before the 2008 Olympic Games start.

I won’t be surprised if it rains before the games, which would really clear the pollution up. The Chinese are masters of cloud seeding, so don’t be surprised if it happens.

Leaving pollution aside, I think these two photos work really well together, especially the angle of the gutter. I also like the guy on the bicycle in the front left of the first photo. He really adds some action to the photo.

Here a couple more photos showing the pollution in Beijing, this time by madiko83:

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Here the pollution looks even worse. The story is all over the Western news and in the press, which is a real shame for the Games.

Having lived just outside of Beijing, I can tell you that some days the pollution is terrible, but the next day you can get blue skies.

The pollution is much worse in the south (ie Guangzhou), and I’m hoping that they’ll get clear skies for the majority of the Olympics.

Beijing Olympics – One World One Dream

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myuibe posted a couple of photos:

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You can tell the Beijing Olympics is almost upon us. The number of Olympics related photos on Flickr is increasing!

These photos appear to be of the Wangfujing area and they show billboards sporting the One World One Dream slogan. This was chosen as the Official Olympic Slogan after a competition a couple of years ago.

I know this well, because one of the word processing worksheets I wrote for my students, when I was teaching ICT in China, was centred around a passage announcing the slogan!

Anyway, expect to hear this slogan a lot more in the coming weeks as the Olympic Games begin. One World One Dream!

Summer Palace In Beijing

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The Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) is a must visit tourist destination in Beijing. It’s huge (290 hectares or 716 acres) and lies next to the Kunming Lake.

My favourite part is the Marble Boat (Shi Fang). You may recognise it from various movies. There’s a story behind it. The Empress Dowager was supposed to put the money towards rebuilding the Chinese navy, but spent it on this instead. She had many critics, although I remember reading that one Chinese academic said that any fleet China put together back then would have been easily destroyed, but the Marble Boat is still there, so it must have been a good decision!

There’s a lot more to see and it’s all very worthwhile. Along with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is part of the top 3 tourist destinations in Beijing.

08.08.02 Summer Palace (111) The Summer Palace in silhouette in front of a brilliant sky – by Amatourist

There are always a lot of tourists at the Summer Palace – any popular tourist destination in China is certainly going to be packed with people, which is a pity really. It’d be great if you could get the Summer Palace to yourself!