Jottings from the Granite Studio

I took advantage of the sunny skies to do some urban hiking through the legation quarter, up through Tiananmen Square and back over to Wangfujing.  Some random TGIF thoughts:

Today was a BLUE SKY day.  We’re talking 蓝 freaking 天.  First one of the Games and well timed too as track and field preliminaries kicked of today.

The square was busy with every available piece of shade filled with resting bodies.  I’m not kidding.  There was a row of people lined up squatting on the concrete in formation, perfectly aligned along the 6″ x 6′ shadow of the light post.  Who says Beijingers don’t queue?

The visible security at the square didn’t appear out of the ordinary.  The square always has its share of personnel, and today I didn’t feel like there was a huge increase in the security presence.  Quite a few visitors though, and walking around I was treated to a cacophony of languages—Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, and those were the ones I could identify from snatches of conversation, there were more to be sure.

No scam artists on Wangfujing!?!? Or maybe there were so many foreign visitors that they didn’t get around to me before I moved on.

The Foreign Language Bookstore on WFJ pretty much sucks, no? Great for coffee table books or to get your Jane Austen on, but substantive reading…Forget about it.

Han children in costume posing as minorities during a made-for-CCTV gala? Fake fireworks? Lip syncing? A Chinese athlete falsifying their age? I am SHOCKED! Shocked that there is gambling going on this establishment.  Where’s Claude Rains when you need him?

Checked out the new Legation Quarter entertainment complex recently opened on the site of the old pre-1949 US embassy.  It’s nice and has an open, unfinished atmosphere with a set of concrete stand-alone western buildings around an empty grass quad.  The place feels like a New England prep school during summer recess.  On one hand, there are so many great buildings buried in the neighborhood, misused as bureaus and offices, and the new complex could be a model for utilizing the unique and attractive architecture of the area.  On the other hand, it was clear going in that only a certain class of people would be admitted.  The nice green quad in the middle isn’t likely to see Old Wang from the hutong teaching his grandson how to fly a kite any time soon.  The whole set-up is clearly geared for the well-heeled laowai and the well-pleathered Beijinger.

More to come.