Dashanzi 798 art zone

Originally a huge, sprawling, electronics factory complex the 798 North China Wireless Electronic Equipment United Factory was built by East German engineers in the Bauhaus style in 1952. Over the last 5 years, the long-abandoned factory complex in the Dashanzi district of north east Beijing has become the centre of the city's vibrant contemporary art scene.

Scores of galleries and artists studios are scattered throughout the old factory buildings and provide a fitting backdrop to a wide range of Beijing art. The setting is dramatic and the buildings impressive - often more interesting than the pieces being displayed within them. In addition to the galleries and studios a number of art bookshops, cafes and restaurants help make 798 a great place to wander around for a day.

Chinese contemporary art is highly fashionable right now with pieces fetching record prices at auctions worldwide. But don't expect to find any bargains at 798 - the setting maybe shabby-chic but the prices are definitely Mayfair. Art is very much regarded as an investment in China with many pieces going straight to auction without ever having appeared in a gallery or been previously sold and consequently prices have climbed quickly.

Time Out Beijing are sponsoring an 'affordable art fair' this week. We went on the second morning and most of the items had already been sold.

The Chinese love to copy a successful formula and this extends to their art, with the styles of the best known and most successful Chinese artists being widely imitated. So if you can't spring the two mill for a genuine Zhang Xiaogang just get an imitation from a cheaper artist.

New view from my window

This turned out to be a promotion from an ad company offering a discount on advertising space.







No takers for a few weeks and then yesterday the team arrived to put up something new...
China's Silicon Valley Villas. There is a huge property boom in Beijing and prices are escalating rapidly. Well-to-do apartment dwellers and investors are being enticed out of the city into the suburbs and US style suburban villa complexes. Check out http://www.xinguigu.com/ to see if this one appeals to you.

Mandarin lessons

We have finally started our Chinese lessons.

Our teacher is called Zhang Min - or should I say - 我们 的 老师 是 张旼 - (wŏmen de lǎoshī shì zhāng mín). Those letters to the left are called Pinyin. Pinyin is a way of writing Chinese words using Arabic characters and it’s how everyone, including Chinese children, is taught to speak. The squiggles on top of the letters are tones. There are four tones and each tone changes the meaning of the word, but more of that later. Mastering the tones is the first step down the road to speaking Chinese.

And it looks like it’s going to be a long, hard road for me. Especially since I lack two critical ingredients for success. Firstly, I am tone deaf – so I think I am saying the words correctly but I get blank stares from Lucy (Zhang Min’s English name) and everyone else I speak to. Secondly, my memory isn’t so hot anymore so memorising vocabulary is a major problem. Literally minutes after a lesson I have forgotten all the words I have just learned...

At the moment we are practicing introducing our family - where they are from and what they do. I’m pretty good at this because, as far as Lucy is concerned, my wife, parents, brothers and children are all from yīng guó (England) and are all lǎoshī (teachers). I’ll break the news to her later when my vocabulary has improved.

So, back to these tones. The first tone is a flat, high sound and is shown by a horizontal line, as in: bā. The second tone is an increasing sound and is shown by a rising line, as in: bá. The third tone is a decreasing then increasing sound, shown as: bǎ. The fourth tone is a decreasing sound shown as a descending line, as in: bà

Sounds easy. Now watch and listen to someone pronouncing them.

Not so easy, eh? What’s worse is that the each tone represents one or more different words – and I mean different. Bā means ‘dumb’ or ‘eight’; bá means ‘to walk’ or ‘to travel’; bǎ means ‘to hold’ or ‘to grasp’ and bà means ‘embankment’ or ‘stop’.

Is it any wonder that people have no idea what I am talking about?

An army of ants

Like an army of ants, the window cleaning team scales Embassy House - seemingly without a care for their safety - as they pursue their mission of clean windows.

China stock market frenzy

Last Thursday 634,000 people opened stock broker trading accounts in China. This brings the total of new accounts opened since the beginning of the year to 11.7 million!

Chinese retail investors are desperate to get in on the action that led to the Shanghai market growing more than 130% last year and more than 30% already this year despite two sharp falls in February last week.

This has all the makings of a major stock bubble and an ugly ending for many of these investors who probably have moved cash out of savings accounts to these high risk markets and can ill-afford to lose their money.

Travelling from Beijing to Taipei

Don't do it unless you have to. With no direct flights, the 1200 mile/3 hour journey has just taken me 10 hours door to door with a 2 hour stop over in Hong Kong.

Not sure who is being difficult here - People's Republic of China or Republic of China (Taiwan) but it's a real drag. They do allow some charter flights back and forth three times a year during the main Chinese holidays but no scheduled flights otherwise.

Only highlight was the spectacular granite and wood Cathay Pacific lounge in Hong Kong and tasty won ton soup from their noodle bar.

500 days to go

This week we hit '500 days to go'. The occasion was marked with sporting and cultural events across the city as well as the unveiling of the official Beijing 2008 Olympic medals (..the reverse face of each medal contains a coloured jade ring linking western and eastern cultures..).

The marketing momentum is gathering pace and Beijingers will be in a total Olympic frenzy by the time the games begin. Though you can't help being caught up in the tide of enthusiasm surrounding it all. The official Beijing 2008 web site is open and accepting advance ticket registrations for China residents (that's us!) with tickets on sale as of next month. They are promising to make this an 'affordable' games for everyone, though I'm sure the key events will be very expensive and tickets difficult to get.

At the moment, every effort is being made to ensure the city and its people shows their best face to the world.

A massive cleanup of 'Chinglish' signs is taking place across the city. Over 4,000 signs containing dubious English are being systematically replaced. There is even a special website where you can report these offending signs and city workers will come along and fix them. [There is a lovely collection of these sort of signs at Engrish.com - though, to be fair, most of them are from Japan - the spiritual home of Chinglish].

If you can, be sure to visit town on the 11th of the month because every 11th of the month is 'practice how to queue' day in Beijing. Yes, Beijingers are being taught how to stand in line and wait their turn. Not something that comes naturally to them. Queuing marshalls police busy bus-stops and encourage orderly queues in the hope that in 500 days time catching a bus in Beijing will be as hassle free as hopping a tram in Zurich.

Just hope that you don't need to use a public toilet when you get off that bus.