Beijing Alley Dame NOIR

Beijing Alley Dame

As per Roy's suggestion (thank you very much) I give you Beijing Alley Dame NOIR! The question is, dare I post it in The Film Noir Mood? Yes, I did take the photo of the alley but I shopped her in and that part is rather corny. They take their noir pretty seriously over there.

Alleys at night

Dusty old Beijing alley at night
from last autumn

It's nearly 2 am. I can't sleep. I've been skimming the news. Had some peanut butter. Sometimes that helps. It didn't. Now I'm in the front room. When I look through the sliding glass door to my right I can see the amber lights of the town through the bare branches of the trees. I can hear the cheap clock ticking from the kitchen and the ringing in my right ear. When I look directly up from the screen I stare into pure black. I can't detach. Can't drift into sleep. Now my eyes are adjusting a little to the room. Light reflecting off the glass of a picture hanging on the wall opposite me emerges from the blackness. I can see the outline of the dark ceiling above the white walls. I'm restless inside. Unused. Disconnected. The I Ching tells me I must endure this eclipse.

News at 7:01 PM (CST)

Qihelou Jie street

We've been staying in a small hutong house off Qihelou Jie street just across the moat from the Forbidden City. Tomorrow we leave for Thailand and M. Lee's mom returns to the States. We are just three weeks into a 10 week trip and I've already taken about 5000 photos, around 24 GBs worth. I don't know if my camera will last. It's on the verge of expiring. I must be insane.

Little white cat in the hutong

I find it very hard to write anything here. I don't have the time to organize my thoughts which are, by nature, impressionistic. As usual, the prospect of leaving tomorrow fills me with dread. 

Hacking the Great Wall

Hacking the Great Wall.

Yesterday we hacked the Great Wall. It began with a very vertical hike on a forested mountain trail out of a remote village. When we got to the wall we climbed a handmade ladder to get into a decrepit beacon tower. It was all downhill from there and much of it over surprisingly rough, sometimes dangerous, terrain. It was wonderful. We ended at what is the usual starting place which was, of course, choked with souvenir stalls spread out over a nice wide rebuilt walkway.

So...rushed as usual. M. Lee has sounded the five minute bell. Gotta go but more photos to follow.

Dirt Market

Swami and Vincent at Art Zone 798

Today, and very soon, we are leaving for the Dirt Market, Beijing's giant, stupendous, "world's largest" outdoor flea market. Luckily, pollution levels are down from yesterday's extremely hazardous levels in the 300s to a lovely 50. Well, it's up to 55 now and climbing but that's still better than yesterday.

Another day, another 300 photos

Beijing 798 Art Zone

We were out all day. I'd like to post better notes about this trip for future reference but every day, by the time we get home and I finally, finally wind down enough to get around to it, the details of the day are lost or faded into irrelevance the way things do. We went to Art Zone 789 but I did take photos. Lots of photos. And posted more to the Beijing album. And tomorrow we'll get up early and launch out again. This time to a massive street market. It will be interesting. Again, I will take far too many photos to manage. And the day will fade again, like this one has faded.

Maybe I'm depressed. Maybe it's the air. Pollution has been at the extreme hazardous level for the last two days.

Beijing photo update

Practicing my Chinese style photo posing technique

 I've added a Beijing photo album. The link is in the bar at the top of the page. So far there's only a few but more to come.

Lion at Lama Temple

Forbidden City

Went to the Forbidden City today. It used to cost the uninvited their lives. Lucky for us, these days it's only few yen.

Some friendly guys at the Forbidden City.

Beijing

Sunday is maid's day off in Hong Kong. It's the law. Mostly they hang out all day in the street as they have no where else to go. It's sad. But yesterday was special. Big international festival in Kowloon. Last night I posted some photos here but no time for words.

Star above the mid-levels.
Hong Kong

Okay. It's 5 AM. We're leaving for Beijing in a few minutes. M. Lee is giving me that look. Gotta go.

Tung Ping Chau

Yesterday, we went to the island of Tung Ping Chau. I'll post photos when I get a chance. We found old graves in the undergrowth in the middle of the island, guarded by biting ants. Naturally, I did the dance to get the photos. The island also has a new graveyard down by ferry landing but they weren't cool at all. More to come. As usual, gotta go.

Hong Kong photo link

Hong Kong photos here.  Yesterday we went to Macau so the ones I uploaded this morning are from there. You won't find much of the regular Macau. As usual, I am attracted by obscure corners. We started at a very popular temple, but I

didn't get one photo of the main alter. Instead I photographed the dieties I found tucked away in a closet in a courtyard were the workers store their tools, buckets and brooms.

Ok. Gotta go. Must meet M. Lee and his mom downtown.

Outtakes

Three dragons

 

Doggie business box

Lama Island

Jackhammer morning

It's not as bad as it sounds. The jackhammers are not in my head. They are part of Hong Kong's eternal ambiance along with bamboo scaffolding and the sharp echos bouncing between the virus like residential spires rising up from the island rock of the South China Sea.

As usual, M. Lee has us on the run like rats so gotta go but here are a few photos for now. Have a great day.

View from the "courtyard"

Saddest street sign I ever saw

Hong Kong, day two

Sunny the dog

Hong Kong. We're here for 11 days, renting an AirBnB apartment located in the mid-levels which we're sharing with Sunny the dog and Yu Lee the maid. She lives and works here and takes care of Sunny when the owners are gone. All that's fine except that when we're around she stays in her windowless, closet-size room off the kitchen. This morning I mentioned that she doesn't have to do that. I don't know if that will make a difference. Maybe she's just shy.

Morning from the mid-levels

Some 100 years ago, when the British gained control of this island, they considered it a useless, hilly desert but, as is their style, they got busy conquering it and somewhere along the line, someone or other built the world's longest system of consecutive escalators. Good thing. Our apartment is located at the mid-levels but, even with the escalators, it's quite a trek down and back so crafting plans for the full day is all the more important. Yesterday's main event was visiting the Hong Kong History Museum. I give it a C+. It was nicely curated but there were no outstanding works and a lot of replicas. However, the various groups of school kids visiting definitely get an A+. They were quiet, attentive and well dressed , diametric opposites of the screaming, out of control, iPhone waving hoards of American school kids unleashed upon the Smithsonian.

Morning descent

As for the flight over, it was...doable. I want to say dreadful but I reserve that category for United's so-called "food". That was dreadful. Bring.Your.Own. Other than that, I just pretended I was a larva for 14 hours. Once we landed I focused on being calm as a lizard until we got to the apartment and I could finally sleep. Lucky for us, we got there about 7 pm so it was easy to pretend that it was night instead of 7 am. All in all, travel time was about 28 hours.

Hong Kong waterfront from the ferry.

I feel surprisingly normal abut I know I'm not entirely over jet lag yet. I popped up this morning at 5:30 so we shall see how the day goes. We're headed out pretty soon and down the escalator. The day's big adventure will be to check out a couple of markets and then lunch at a convent. Also, today is Yu Lee's day off, so we get to walk Sunny. There are bottles of water in the dogie bag to wash the pee off the street and newspaper to catch the poo. Apparently people can sue dog owners if they don't wash up after their dog.

Street scene from the tram