Factory 798

I've been wanting to visit the Factory 798 district of Beijing since we first arrived in China, but we didn't really have a good time to explore the place until last week. The galleries were on par with the Great Wall for me. That's not my characteristic hyperbole, either.

Liking 798 shouldn't be too much of a surprise for me, since I'm a sucker for a good gallery, and a giant sucker for an entire conflagration of good galleries. One of my favorite things was this gigantic installation we saw. I don't even know if installation is an appropriate word--it filled a room the size of a small auditorium. All of the parts of the room tied into the piece. The artist used the existing girders and beams in the room, all of the floor, and every part of the wall space. There was also a sculptor Erin and I were into named Li Chen. It's hard to get across the scale of his sculptures. They're gigantic. They make you feel dwarfed by them in the best possible way.

The good thing is that the gallery district exceeded all of my expectations about what we'd actually find. The bad thing is, I now want to go back there about 8 more times before we leave in the first week of July. Wait, do I even have eight weeks left? That's a strange realization. I can't believe we've already lived in China for almost 8 months. It doesn't seem possible. In any case, here are some pictures from our trip. Erin and I are both excited to go back to Beijing this weekend and get a chance to hang out with a friend of hers from Lawrence.

picture day

Apparently, Chinese High Schools have something that's sort of like a Yearbook. The book is only for the graduating seniors, though. The teachers asked me if I would get my picture taken so that I could be in the yearbook. The flurry of activity surrounding picture day has been very interesting. The teachers fixing their hair, the students being fascinated by the teachers fixing their hair, etc. One of these pictures is of some students who were, ostensibly, visiting the restroom, peeking into the room where the pictures were being taken.

Mysterious Chinese Fruit, Part 1

One of the most amazing things about living in China is the low cost of fruits and vegetables here. We buy them all the time from the open market area in our neighborhood. Chinese pomellos are the most amazing fruit I've discovered so far. They're different than the pomellos you can buy back in the states--I think they're a little sweeter, and taste a little more like your average grapefruit. Also, they're juicier and not quite so mealy. I love them. You can buy whole pineapples on the street here too, and the people selling them will peel them and core them for you, while you stand there. Sadly, it's no longer pomello season, so I figured I should try all of the fruits I can't eat, or have never eaten, back in the states. I pantomimed to the woman selling this first one, asking her if I eat it like an apple, or if I should cut into it. She conveyed that I should cut into it. I don't know what the names of these are, but they're starting to come into season here. They're little melons. They taste like a cantelope to me. It's kind of cool that they're small enough for one person to have their own little melon. Using the asian Pomello as a perfect 10, on a 1 to 10 scale, I give these little yellow melons about an 8.