Some of my friends told me that they would like to see more pictures of my Beijing and China experiences, and this blog entry addresses that request. I was quite inspired by the many beautiful days last week in late fall/early winter in Beijing. I decided to give you a pictorial view of what I typically saw on my way to work every morning. I feel grateful to the invention of photography. You can benefit from my simple digital camera, which adds a whole new dimension in documenting human experiences.
First, this is the Innovation Plaza building where I work everyday; it's the destination of my 15-minute walk. It was an incredible shot using my simple camera.
Please note that most of the days, especially in summer, Beijing is more like this smoggy picture.
This is a shot from my apartment living room's sliding door. Since this is a premier spot for the new white-collar working class and is close to a subway station, the real estate is very expensive now. My rental agent quoted me 23,000 RMB per square meter for my apartment now. When it was first built 6 years ago, that number was 6,000 RMB. Now we are talking about unaffordable housing prices for the locals. And imagine the pressure to the middle-class people.
I'll walk by a kindergarten, and I can often watch the students follow their teachers doing some exercises during the morning break. It was a cheerful sight. You see the future of China in this happy and innocent crowd.
Now you see the innovative sidewalk advertisement for making (often times fake) IDs. Forgery is everywhere in the world, Beijing is not too much behind. From time to time, you'll see a special crew scrubbing these stickers from the sidewalks. You probably ask the same question I have, "Can't an undercover agent just call the number to get an ID and then arrest these crooks?"
Pedestrians ignore traffic lights and automobiles ignore pedestrians. Automobiles do not yield to pedestrians when they do right turns, even when the pedestrians have the green light to walk. This is probably my number one frustration in Beijing since one feels dehumanized.
Here you see a mobile recycling center in a tricycle - Chinese style. There are enough unskilled laborers who would do this difficult job for the time being.
It is interesting to note that commute buses provided by some Chinese companies in the Tsinghua Science Park are an attractive employee fringe benefit. This is specially common for state enterprises and for government agencies.
By the way, a flexible parking style is sometimes seen in the Science Park. Chinese are very flexible in many ways.
A Sun logo is at about the 25th floor level in one of the outside building in the Science Park, and is visible from a distance. It is pretty cool to see this since the district government now has strict rules on signage for the new buildings.
Check out the huge smoke stack in the background. This is typical in Beijing. A boiler room is often underneath it to supply central heating and hot water.
When you enter the Innovation Plaza building, the atrium is 3 stories high. It is quite nice to start a day this way.
First, this is the Innovation Plaza building where I work everyday; it's the destination of my 15-minute walk. It was an incredible shot using my simple camera.
Please note that most of the days, especially in summer, Beijing is more like this smoggy picture.
I'll walk by a kindergarten, and I can often watch the students follow their teachers doing some exercises during the morning break. It was a cheerful sight. You see the future of China in this happy and innocent crowd.
Pedestrians ignore traffic lights and automobiles ignore pedestrians. Automobiles do not yield to pedestrians when they do right turns, even when the pedestrians have the green light to walk. This is probably my number one frustration in Beijing since one feels dehumanized.
Here you see a mobile recycling center in a tricycle - Chinese style. There are enough unskilled laborers who would do this difficult job for the time being.
By the way, a flexible parking style is sometimes seen in the Science Park. Chinese are very flexible in many ways. 
Check out the huge smoke stack in the background. This is typical in Beijing. A boiler room is often underneath it to supply central heating and hot water.
When you enter the Innovation Plaza building, the atrium is 3 stories high. It is quite nice to start a day this way.
