Gary Anglebrandt CommunicationsThis building has become in my mind a symbol of my time in Beijing. It’s the first thing I found myself absorbed in when I first arrived. It’s across the street from where I work and was right outside the window of the first place I sat down at there, at a little hallway table meeting with an HR person. It was visible from the roof of the first apartment building I lived in, where I’d go at sunrise to stretch and drink coffee. It’s visible from my current apartment.
Throughout China’s capital are red street banners with white lettering urging people to be more civilized, root out dark forces, not smoke, and engage in better behaviors.
Stuck an old iPhone in my shirt pocket and hit record for my commute to and from work. That’s it. Raw, simple way to preserve a period in my life and to give the curious an idea of what it’s like to commute in Beijing by shared bike.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while: Stick my phone in my shirt pocket and let it record while I ride a bike through Beijing traffic.
My second apartment in Beijing is, despite its sometimes prison cell-like feel, much better than my first. It’s tiny but was redone from floor to ceiling before I moved in. The floors are covered in big marble-like tiles that are so polished and new they have a mirror effect. The cupboards and sinks and windows and everything are new.
How public rules are expressed in China.
The Dongyue Temple in Beijing — one of the most astonishing things I’ve come across in my years living in Asia.
This is one of my surrealist video works.
Public servants man the corners of busy intersections, dressed in a yellow uniform. The video is 30 seconds, but note that he was already engaged in his uncivilized behavior prior to my arrival and showed no sign of letting up by the time I got tired of documenting it.
Many times I have ridden a bicycle from my apartment past the Palace Museum (Forbidden City). After three years living in Beijing, it was time I went inside. And I finally hit another spot I long needed to see, the Olympic Park in Beijing.
When I signed the lease for my first apartment in Beijing, I knew the place needed some cleaning up. Walls a little grimy, kitchen and washing machine area needing attention. I looked forward to it. Get in there and tear shit up. Make the place my own. Get things done and restore my confidence here in a new country where even acquiring pillows and kitchen utensils has required getting advice from people.
After I moved in, closer details of the place emerged. It would be two months before the full scope of its filth was revealed.
Gallery: Beijing’s Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) park
Beijing’s only real street food worth mentioning, the jianbing is a worker’s breakfast of tasty, greasy, slightly spicy, fried batter, egg, meat, and other fixins. I got a video of it being made on my way home from visiting the Public Security Bureau in Dongzhimen to pick up my renewed work permit for my second year in China. This street vendor was right outside the entrance to the Dongzhimen subway station.
My apartment is in the Shuangjing neighborhood of Beijing.
