A Tyger On The Loose: February 2005

A Piece of Heaven Down Under

Some day I must visit Australia when there is bad weather. Because everytime I've gone, it's been spectacular - sun's rays comfortably bathe my face in warmth, breeze gently moves my hair, air smells sweeter, food tastes fresher.

I was in Sydney/Wollongong to see some family and friends in between work - don't ask me what I did for my work, because it pales in comparison to what I did for fun. The Highlight, aside from visiting my dad and catching up with my brother (and his girlfriend - nice girl :), was to see old friends I haven't seen in a while.

A delicious dinner by The Rocks with my old friend AJ, who when I first cast eyes on after a gap of 14 years, burst out with the same comment as I did "You haven't changed a bit!!"

And a fantastic awe-inspiring walk from Bronte beach to Bondi beach, with Kat. The 2 hour walk covered topics including the locale, religion, religious books, love lives, families, kids, Australian-born Chinese, politics, etc. Really everything except the meaning of life. Then again, I suppose we already covered the meaning of life. :)

The longer we walked, the more I was tempted to set my feet firmly on the path towards a real estate office to buy a place by Bronte beach. Azure waters, craggy oh-so-climbable wave-carved rocks, smooth sand, relatively well-behaved seagulls... it was so beautiful I almost forgot that real estate here would cost me something I may not ever be able to pay. But hey, a girl can dream :)

Yeah, this streak of good luck over my visits Down Under must come to an end at some point, because Murphy may not be alive, but his law is just rounding the bend to whack me in the face. In the meantime, the pictures of this visit document another breautiful break in the little piece of heaven down under.

In the Capital of the Middle Kingdom (I)

Photo compilation from a long weekend in Beijing. Temperature a frigid -3 degrees celsius, stayed with friend Weelim, ate well and partied hard. It's a true capital city indeed. I have separated my pictures into themes... not necessarily in the order I took them, but the way I felt them. Such a strange city. There is a level of surreal I felt oddly intimidated by - one of the few places that I actually felt like I could get lost in. I never completely got my bearings in Beijing - it never left my consciousness that this is one of the largest land masses in the world, and that every person I see on the street is only one out of a billion.

Greeted with irony:
Immigration guards that were smiling and polite.

Young professionally suited men squatting by the luggage belt sending sms on little metallic mobile phones.

Airport exit, billboard of a frosty scandinavian blonde in furs and stillettos, slogan says in Chinese "XX-brand welcomes you home".

Passing a central govt munitions plant letting off excess fireworks, apparently common practice for leftover fireworks, at 10 pm on a snowy Wednesday night.

Snowflakes suspended in midair, not going anywhere. Featherlight but frozen in action.

Downtown:
Smog, haze.

Human crowding into other humans, rosy cheeks, inky black hair, smiling eyes, lifeless mouths.

Ill-fitting poofy winter jackets and bad haircuts.

People squatting at the bus stop, looking at luxury sedans chauffering nouveau riche.

Strong women, stern men. Singsong language.

Wangfujing – shoppers there are like a mass of kids that are slightly delirious over the many flavors of ice cream presented in front of them, and are in a hurry to try everything at the same time without caring about bellyaches or brainfreeze.

Well-dressed yuppies buying street-side shao bing (pan-grilled crispy buns stuffed with a fried egg, cured meat).

Scale - everything's big...broad long highways of 10 lanes, separated by a delicate garden fence-like knee-high divider.

Wide walkways, palatial underground passages instead of pedestrian street crossings, gargantuan buildings with large footprints and tall towers at the same time. Space is NOT at a premium.

Shining sterile new buildings were dulled by dirt and sand into grey shell hulks, nothing organic about this city. Urban sprawl. Square grey buildings next to ornamental noodle shop roofs.

Crazy free-for-all cyclists cheek to jowl with bus drivers, everyone is fully confident that they had the right of way, including jaywalkers. Stalled street traffic.

Tiananmen Square:

Cold, hard concrete slabs, angles everywhere.

Grand, imposing, power of the authority.

Poor Red Guards to stand still for so long in the cold.

Nowhere to sit down – why? People stand around awkwardly – must look up with crick in neck to admire buildings and flags but nowhere to rest and properly appreciate.

Query: benches + square = park?

No green! No birds!

Ironic since the painting of Chariman is one that is a life-like oil representation of warm and fatherly face, half-smiling on the descendants of the dragon. But there is nothing warm about the capital. Reminds me of the reason the original architect designed Washington DC the way he did – to intimidate foreign visitors.

See: Beijing the City