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I’m combining the next two days into one entry, mainly because Tuesday really only consisted of a quick stint at the Summer Palace and band practice for Offering. Wednesday however, was chocked full of eventfulness, consisting of not only a visit to the Great Wall, but also Offering playing a Beijing coffee shop – which from its sign I think was called Coffee Bean Tree 200.25 – as well as facilitating artistic discussion amongst local artists. Good times.

First off was Tuesday and the Summer Palace. For some reason that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put my finger on, between all the grandiose names for so many of these locations, I had a real issue getting this one’s name to stick in my consciousness. From time to time I’d incorrectly call it the Palace of Happiness, The Summertime Palace, or the Kingdom of the Traveling Pants… all wrong. All this aside, what I saw of this massive place was nothing short of breathtaking. I wish I’d had more time to explore it.

Once Wednesday rolled around however, it was off to the Great Wall of China. The day looked to be a dreary one, being the first of our trip to forecast heavy showers. I packed my poncho, cut a slit in it so I could use it to protect the camera while still being able to take shots, and off we went.

When we arrived, what had been a bit of a downpour had tapered off to a light drizzle, and by the time we had ascended the mountain and stood atop the wall itself, the rain was nonexistent – the sun even came out for a small cameo at one point. What was left in the storm’s wake were beautifully atmospheric clouds gliding along the mountain tops – a perfect compliment to the majestic Wall itself – and I can’t say enough about the wall. To think of how it was built so long ago by so many hands bringing materials up a mountain to create something this vast and expansive – it’s simply mind-boggling.

We walked along the top of the wall for a mile or more, encountering some pretty cool insects, water salesmen, and on occasion some pretty steep inclines. Eventually we reached our planned spot to come back down the mountain and were presented the option of taking the same type lift we took up the mountain or the entirely more fun gondola. I chose the latter.

On the way back to our bus, we had to travel through the same set of shops we came through on our way up to the wall, only this time, something caught my eye. It may have been inauthentic, it may have been mass-produced, but sure enough, it was a sword, and I was in China visiting the Great Wall. My curiosity got the better of me and I found myself haggling with the vendor over this 2600 yuan sword ($372). I didn’t have that kind of cash, and couldn’t pay more than 250 ($36), but with a bit of approval from the shop’s boss in the back, I managed to talk them down to just that… and I got a SWORD! There will be self-portraits of myself with this soon enough. Promise.

After a trip back to the hotel for a shower and change of clothing, it was off to the Coffee Bean Tree 200.25 in Beijing. While the band was setting up, I took a moment to wander off and shoot the busy city streets and the many street vendors outside. I was amazed at the varied styles of the urban Chinese. I could easily spot the native hipster stylings.

Later at the show, many local artists showed up, and in addition to performing, Jeanine Guidry held a discussion on art as a means of helping the less fortunate and invited those in attendance to our Chinese rendition of Arts in the Alley, on Friday.

Tomorrow we’d be visiting a variety of Beijing art galleries – one which Offering would perform at followed by a trip to the Bejing Opera to perform as well, all leading up to our last two days there and Arts in the Alley. See you tomorrow!

After our Sunday at Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, Monday was another jam-packed day. The first portion consisted of a trip to Beijing’s Pearl Market and (for those that could manage to pull themselves  away from shopping) a trip to the Temple of Heaven across the street. Later in the evening Offering would play at Illume, and at the Theatre Without Boundaries.

First however, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Beijing subway system – which we used a day earlier and used again to get to the market. I’m used to the T in Boston from my college days and instantly it had a very familiar feel. However, the differences started to stand out as time went by. The map system they had in place was much more intuitive – even in Chinese – and that was a good thing. However, probably as a direct result of a culturally smaller need for personal space, when the subways got full they resemble nothing short of a sardine can. I’d have taken a picture, but I was too busy being a sardine. Here’s a YouTube link for reference however. Yea… it’s like that.

So, I guess the Pearl Market is famous for the quality and low price of its pearls. I mean, the whole market is comprised of so many other goods being sold at whatever price you manage to haggle them down to, but it’s for this one item that the market itself derives its name. I, however, don’t wear pearls. So I looked at and haggled about other stuff – albeit not well.

In the thirty or so minutes I spent in the market, I walked away 500 yuan ($71) poorer, and with a Chinese chess set, a fan, a stamp with my name engraved, and two pairs of shoes that didn’t fit. I was being eaten alive and my difficulty using the word ‘no’ wasn’t helping anything, so I retreated to the Leymo Coffee shop just outside the market – which had a suspiciously familiar color and branding scheme. Hmmm.

From there, I met up with the others from our group who had managed to pull themselves out of shopping mode in a hope of visiting the Temple of Heaven. We only had a short time within it’s borders, but what we found there was nothing short of… well… heavenly. Lush green trees. Beautiful people, singing, dancing, making art and music, and having conversations. The same ornate architecture we saw in the Forbidden City, but with an added life and energy that was just remarkable. I could’ve spent a day there sitting around and communing with everyone here – but lunch time was coming, and we had a schedule to keep.

After lunch we took cab rides to the Theatre Without Borders where Offering would rehearse for the evening’s performance. While they were doing their rehearsal thing, I took the opportunity to wander off and visit some of the surrounding area, which resembled a series of alleyways in width, but accommodated two-way traffic (uncomfortably). Within these narrow corridors I found a number of local shops and a large number of people shopping. Still feeling the sting of the Pearl Market from earlier, I stuck to my photo-journalistic guns, solely.

Soon the Illume event was ready to start. The theme of the night’s presentation was one of ‘sound’ – hence the inclusion of a live band. Additionally, as Offering played, two other members of our group painted live murals, and there was a certain energy about the entire place that just radiated. Offering played the beginning and end of the Illume presentation, with other acts including an orchestra of cell phone ringtones, a skit equating emotion to tap dancing, and a choir of blind Chinese children singing in Chinese as well as English(!). Amazing.

The entire Illume presentation was really incredible, and interestingly enough had its roots in the Boston area. Having spoken with one of the coordinators, I even found we knew some of the same people. Small world.

Overall, it was a great day, filled to the brim with continually amazing places and events, and leaving me spellbound with not only what I’d seen but with the prospect of all that was to come.

Well, if you’ve been following along on facebook at all, you know that I just spent nine days in China. I had the pleasure of going alongside the band Offering whom I work with often be it via photography, web design, album design, etc. They have some friends in the Beijing area, and there had been a dialogue about how incredible it would be to come over, play some shows, and even bring Richmond’s Arts in the Alley (one of lead singer Jeanine Guidry‘s varied projects) to a migrant worker community there via connections with Compassion for Migrant Children. Thus, from August 14th through 23rd, myself and a group of eleven others (Offering’s a big band), struck out on a fourteen hour flight to Beijing.

I’ve been thinking a lot since returning on how to digest and share this and the 5000+ photos that resulted. The experience was amazing, simply put, but to talk about why it was always manages to result in a long diatribe that resembles nothing respectful of another person’s time. So I’m breaking it down into a series of blogs: one per day about each day of the trip with twenty or so accompanying photos from that day.

So with the background information out of the way, and format explained, I give you…

Day 1: I’m going to condense the evening of Saturday when we arrived and the following Sunday into one entry here. Saturday evening was your basic land at the airport, travel to a hotel, have dinner, and crash song-and-dance you get on any air travel trip – with the added elements of a world similar to the one you’re used to while being so strikingly different, and the jet-lagg that’s caused by an instantaneous switch of AM to PM (it was a 12-hour time difference). We met some of Jeanine’s friends at the airport and from there they escorted us to our hotel, aided in translation, and even showed us a real, legitimate Chinese restaurant (which could’ve been the Chinese equivalent of Hardeez for all I know, but it was in China and quite ornate, so it felt classy and unique to me). It was here that to my shock I found that the good General Tso – whose armies so often led successful strikes against my hunger – was not a native Chinese resident after all. Dreams. Were. Shattered. Still though, real Chinese food: amazing.

The next day, I woke up bright and early at 5am. I had been tipped off about a local group of people that did early morning Tai Chi in a local park. I grabbed my camera and set out to find them. After a few twisting blocks however, I wandered through a very literal hole-in-the-wall and into a small migrant community. I didn’t know that’s what it was at first though, and when I asked about it later, the best description I could manage was, “It was like a landfill, and people were living in it.” It was my first encounter with the stark difference between people living below and above the poverty line and a foreshadowing of later in the trip.

Later that afternoon, we worked in a bit of good, old fashioned sightseeing in Beijing, visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (which is anything but forbidden apparently – unless you can’t afford admission). We did the latter first, which was a seemingly endless array of courtyard and palace after courtyard and palace. I wished I’d had the time to travel deeper within its walls, as I’m sure at some point I’d reach the center, but… well… it’s huge. Really huge. Across the highway in front was Tiananmen Square, and it too was enormous. Being the equivalent of walking down Washington DCs Capitol Mall, the landscape was dense with people and littered with national governmental landmarks. We finished the night with food at yet another wonderful Chinese restaurant.

It’s interesting looking back at all the impressions I have. I could talk at length about how jovial the culture of people seemed. How, as a photographer, I started off extremely timid in my photographing these people and places – intimidated by my lack of potentially necessary communication skills – but ended up feeling really comfortable. How odd it was that, for children under three, pants were a completely optional accessory. But like I’ve been trying to say, I’m trying to keep these stories in digestible chunks. Feel free to ask more questions in the comments, via email, or in person! I’m a bigger fan of of a two-way dialogue anyway.

A couple days ago I had the privilege of shooting the wedded union of Nathaniel Ball and his new wife Amy, and seriously… these kids know how to throw a party.

As I laid out my suit and tie, and buffed my shoes to a mirror shine, I recalled that this was to be a more casual affair. I called Nate up, and my suspicions were confirmed: my normal, full-on three-piece suit would probably stand out. Flip-flops would be a little more appropriate. And that’s just what they got.

Until I had a blow out halfway through the ceremony and was forced to shoot the rest of the night barefoot. No worries. haha

Aside, from this little snafu however, the night was really amazing. A forecast that called for showers ended up only producing slight and sporadic rain, and the payoff was a brilliant rainbow over the lake at Arbor Landing that helped make for a really lovely portrait. There was an open bar until 2am, and I got to take the night off and socialize with new and old friends around midnight. Really a great time all around, and the whole affair really stood as a prime example of why pomp and ceremony should never overshadow celebration. Congrats Nate and Amy!

Enjoy a few shots, below…