Saturday, November 20, 2010

China, Day 8

Day 8, Wednesday, October 27, 2010

KS and I decided to explore Beijing and find the Silk Mall. Except we went the wrong way on the Beijing subway where KS delighted in being a minority for once. Having killed a little too much time, we swung quickly by the Olympic Park and saw the Bird's Nest and Water Cube up close. We made it back in time to change and run to the theatre.

The show went decently - doing a show through translation is a different beast entirely. Also there is no such thing as backstage security in the theatre so we had people wandering through backstage at the oddest times - though thankfully they skirted the stage itself. And pretty much as soon as the curtain hit the deck, it was time to strike. We (stage management) had to pack up the props which was a new and fun adventure. To add to our fun, the government shut the water off at 10pm which mean no water to do laundry, or worse yet, use the facilities. Thankfully, we were done in about an hour and escaped back to the hotel around midnight and collapsed into bed.

These pictures are mostly from our day walking about for a few hours in Beijing. We took the subway (a new thing for us) and ended up in the wrong part of Beijing - meaning no English anywhere and we were definitely out of place.

Chinese Subway

Subway

North Beijing

Food Carts

Overloaded Cart

We ended up going back to the Olympic park:

Pagoda Tower

Water Cube

Bird's Nest

Water Cube

Water Cube

Bird's Nest

On many stairs outside of subways, there are these ramps for hand carts or the like:

A Ramp for Handcarts

Here's more life in Beijing:

Taking a Break

Bike City

And remember that building I said to keep an eye on:

Collapsing Building

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