Rolled Formed Walls
Beihai Park
27 June 2015
After leaving the The Temple of Heaven, we headed towards Beihai Park. The visit park marked my first visit to a garden in China. In the park, I saw a lot less foreigners than I did at the Temple of Heaven. The park was very lush and full of greenery. There were bridges leading up to an island inside the lake and many boats driving on the water.
Shichahai
27 June 2015
After taking a tour of Beihai Park, we moved on to Shichahai. We took a rickshaw ride through the Hutongs, which are narrow streets and alleys. We hopped on the rickshaws and the drivers took us out for a fun ride. Most of the ride was filled with laughter as the drivers began joking around with us and each other. They began by flipping the red covers of each others rickshaws, exposing the passengers. They began racing, trying to pass each other and bumping into each other as we cheered them on. We all, both passengers and drivers, laughed along the way and had a very fun ride.
Shichahai | hutongs
27 June 2015
Rickshaw drivers joke around and bump into each other.
Beijing | Olympic Green
4 July 2015
One of the places i was looking forward to visiting in Beijing during the China trip was the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Visiting Herzog and de Meuron’s Birds Nest was one of the highlights of the day and was one of the places I had been wanting to visit during my stay in Beijing, along with the CCTV tower by OMA. The Bird’s nest was massive and the facade much more grand than I imagined. It was so beautiful it moved me to tears. Ok, maybe not but it was a very impressive structure. We walked in and walked around the inside. I began to see the bad side of these structures: the quality of construction. The building was showing signs of deterioration. This was a lot more visible, though, in the adjacent structure: The Water Cube. Though the Water Cube did not attract me the way the National Stadium did, I was still exited to see it. When we walked in, however, I was in for disappointment. The building had deteriorated far more than the Birds Nest. The panels were warped, various elevators and escalators were non functional, and the structure just looked old despite how recently it had been built. China’s rapid growth has taken its toll on the buildings. Since there is constant development and buildings are constantly being built, the quality of their construction suffers. Buildings are not made to last, as they will probably be torn down for something else in the near future. This was evident not only in the construction of these two iconic buildings, but in the construction of modern buildings everywhere we visited. After visiting the two main buildings on the Olympic Park, we went further north into the park to get something to eat. At the north, there were many people crowded around. The space was used to great extent by visitors. There were many people playing music, games, and overall just socializing. We only caught a quick glimpse of it and grabbed food to go since our time in the site had run out and we had to run back to the bus. On our way back we saw the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube begin to Light up. The Water Cube only had one of four sides lit up since it was still not completely dark when we passed. The Bird’s Nest was not completely lit either. Instead it had commercials projected onto it. Again, I was disappointed that one of the buildings i was so excited to see had just become another billboard.
Tongli
6 July 2015
During our first travel outside of Beijing, we were to travel to Suzhou. Along the way, we visited the town of Tongli, a water town just outside of Suzhou known for its system of canals and nicknamed the “Venice of the East.” We begun by touring a garden in the town of Tongli. The garden here was very different from the previous gardens we had seen back in Beijing. These gardens were smaller than the large imperial gardens in Beijing. The gardens were within courtyards rather than out in the open. These smaller scale gardens seemed to have more human scale and emphasized the occupant rather than the grandness of the garden itself. The gardens were broken up into multiple courtyards within the building. They were very lush and green and there was a lot of moisture on the ground. There was a certain beauty that came from the moss growing on the floor and walls that added to the greenery of the planted vegetation. There was also a greater emphasis on the use of rocks and water in the gardens. Virtually all of the gardens we visited had rock features which included caves and staircases to vantage points above the rocks which provided more extensive views of the gardens.
Suzhou | Lion Forest Garden
7 July 2015
After the Suzhou Museum, we visited the Lion Forest Garden. The garden was a rock garden full of extravagant rocks. The rocks contained passages which led into other parts of the garden. Many contained holes, framing views into the garden as well as bringing light into the dark tunnels. This garden, like the gardens in Tongli, contained changes in elevation that created vantage points for the garden. The garden had many visitors and was full of life.
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allsadnshit
Lesson for today… You can’t stay mad with squeaky shoes…
OK THIS IS SO CUTE
