snapshots and observations

Sunday 16 June 2013

four saturdays ago ( part two )








i had a lot of the saturday in beijing to myself.
the shops near the hotel were all crazily expensive.

for instance everything in the bape store was double the price 
it was in tokyo.

so i just pottered around looking miserable and taking photos.


art in the hotel lobby









and again
the red glass walls were a touch by the way









oh, here's a shot that shows three of the lads
they were very impressive.
in fact, i know i bang on about it but the hotel was very, very impressive.
i'd have preferred it if there were bearbricks everywhere but these pieces
were not bad at all.









there was a ceramic dress on display in the front window of the hotel
wait a minute...









hello ladies
how vain... taking photos of themselves like that.









i've showed you similar pics before i'm sure
the lobby of the opposite house is divided in two by a big perspex wall
containing lots of little boxes. on one side is the walkway to the restaurant,
bar and lifts. on the other side is a lounge where you can check in, out...
or just lounge.









it's a great way to check in
you just relax on a sofa with a drink and one of the girls comes over with an ipad
to check you in.









maybe it's kind of bad that they always have their backs to you though ?
i guess that's a good thing about a traditional front desk.
everybody is facing you.









here's another wider view which shows the other side of the wall a little
and you can see the lads in front of the red glass walls.









a close-up of the wall
i wonder if they keep anything in the drawers ?








lots of photography going on around the opposite house
er...









self-portrait ?
i was in a happy mood so why not ?









the hotel is in a great area. lots to see and do.
and a very interesting place to take photos.









what do you think ?
was this girl just standing there or was she modelling for somebody ?









everybody was photographing these things
i guess they are just some sort of light / art installation.
doesn't the hotel make a great background ?









hmmm...
i was feeling like a tourist by this stage.

then again i was a tourist i suppose.









road crossing lessons or protests
some of the t-shirts had zebras on them. i thought that was good.









the local footy team were playing on saturday evening.
unfortunately i was shooting all evening otherwise i'd have
gone along and checked it out. the area near the ground was buzzing with fans
and some great souvenirs









i was tempted to buy a footy shirt
i love the chinese writing









the little badges were decent
it was all good









in the end i figured a scarf would be the perfect souvenir
but not the two on the left.









these were my favourites
so i bought one. i think i paid about £3
and the stallholder laughed at me for not haggling.









i was thinking about buying a t-shirt
but the quality was pretty shoddy.
shame though. for rarity value it would have been good.









after being the one european walking amongst the football fans for 30 minutes
i felt that i needed to escape to a bit of air con, a rest and a beer...
so i popped into a local place.









for a cheeky tsing tao
and to let the waitress guess where i was from.
after about ten guesses i told her i was from london.
the first thing she said after i told her was
"oh... london... you must be a gentleman then"

isn't that fantastic that we still have that reputation ?









oh, i had a bite to eat while i was there too.
curly fries with chilli con carne and cheese.

it really hit the spot.



and that's all i have to show you from my saturday four weeks ago.


maybe tomorrow i'll take you through my sunday four weeks ago ?



hmmm...















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