China Spring 2013

Forbidden City, Beijing
We went visiting our son and his girlfriend Lin Dan in China, he will study compuersciense for 3 years at Tsing Hua university Beijing , He lives in the modern part of Beijing, close to Wudaokou. Everywhere you always see people walking. In the beginning we didn't dare to bike in the traffic, but after a few days, you learn the Chinese way of thinking "go with the flow" , then it feels almost as safe as home. There one child-policies gives a lot of peace in their society, it is a great thing that they could get a consensus about such an issue.




Swiss Girl from Beijing Language University

Several paintings made in Sams Appartment, close to Wudaokou, portrait of a Swiss girl, learning Chinese in the canting of BLCU-university.

Dinner with Sam and Lin Dan in a traditional Chinese hot-pot restaurant at HouHai.

The food in China is really good, we are vegetarian, they have a lot of different kind of tofus, vegetables, etc.



Xiamen In the guesthouse.leyoinn.com, they invited us for dinner. MrB. the owner asked for a painting on the wall.It became the girl of the night-guard.



Posing for the artist.

She and MrB. made a delicious Chinese dinner.

The last color.

Dinner with Mr B, the night-guard and his girl-friend.

The sea in Xiamen in front of the guesthouse. The fishermen build their own boats using polystyrene blocks, bamboo and steel.

Day-trip from Xiamen with the boat to Gulanyu island. Still a lot of man power is used to haul goods from the ships.

Painting in the Sand, Xiamen Beach. When we arrived in Xiamen, a chinese student (right on the photo) insisted to be our guide, he wanted to improve his english. It was very helpfull, because most chinese dont speak english.

A Chinese Marriage.

We went to a real Chinese marriage of The Nephew of Lin Dan, Sams Girlfriend, in the countryside of Fuzhou.

In the end everybody got a little bit money in a red paper, you had to put it under your pillow for luck.

They celebrate it twice, one day, only the family of the man, the other day, only the family of the wife.

A smart solution to do it this way.

Grandfather of Nephew and Lin Dan, 92 years old, it must be the Chinese tea and food that keeps you healthy. Left, the mother of Lin Dan and the father of Lin Dan.


The house were Lin Dan has grown up in the countryside of Fuzhou, real authentic Chinese, preparing the meal for the spring-festival.
Below the greenfield and mountains in front of the countryside house, when you walk along the path to the mountains. you come along a new build temple with Buddha.

Back in Beijing, Spring was in the air, all the trees were in blossom.
Sams Apartment had a balcony for drying the wash. It fitted well as atelier, it was very quiet, you didn't hear any traffic. Cars are not aloud to drive in the neighborhood and every neighborhood has a guard at the opening-gate, maybe one of the reasons, it is relative safe in these big cities.

A small lake at the terrain of the old part of Tsing-Hua University.



Right, The old main-building of Tsing-Hua University. A Chinese man taking a little nap during lunch-time, you see often in China.

A tree standing at Tsing-Hua University.

In the evening, a live-painting session of the tree on the terrain of BLCU, close to Sams apartment.


The first blossoms, blossoms, Beijing.





Woman with Flower.























Two girls walking in the forbidden city.





Shanghai

Model from the north, we met in Shanghai hostel, she had found a job at a model-agency in the French-Connection-neighborhood. She stayed for one month in a dorm-bed. A Lot of young people in the hostel, stayed there, looking for a job. THe hostel was situated in the last old neighborhood of shanghai with a very lively market, but around this hutong, there were only big skyscrapers, in 5 years,this neighborhood will be disappared.











Close to the Shanghai-hostel was the Confucius temple, we got there a tea-ceremony, with a tea-ball, that became a flower, after giving it hot water. Right under, demolishing of the last old neighborhood in the center of ShangHai.



Woman, 3 trees and a lake.

New Palace Garden Beijing. Behind Sams Apartment, you can bike through the Tsing-Hua- Campus. then you reach in the north the new palace garden, it was March the trees were bold. Rain is seldom in Beijing.The air is very dry, it is almost like the dessert.










Hangzhou, end of Winter with snow.

We stayed in the apparment of sams friend. A high skyscraper, with a lobby and guards, view on some old chinese buildings.


On the BLCU-Campus, live painting- session of the small bridge, close to Sams Apartment.


Bamboo-park, Beijing

In the Haidian district, where Sam worked at a Chinese company, there was the Bamboopark, where we met an old Chinese guy, who made paintings with water on the stones.

Mountains in the North of Beijing.

When you bike, from Sams Apartment to the north, you will see the mountains, we walked with our bikes up to the top of the mountain and on the way down we came along a beekeeper, where we got some honey tea and wood-honey.


Mountains in the North of Beijing.

The sun is sinking through the haze.




The Beekeeper in the Mountainsm North of Beijing.

After 2 hours climbing to the top of the mountain we walked down and came along a beekeeper, he makes very good wood-honey, we got some honey-tea and bought some special honey. Following the way down we came into the Botanic garden park, it took 3 hours to get in at the backstage-entrance of the park.



Girl from the Canting

Several places, where we have eaten, Helens Bar, Canting at Tsing Hua, Breakfast at 6 o'clock in the morning, in front of sams Apartment, just for leaving to the airport.






Bye, Bye, Beijing.