WOW! Long time no blog!

Oops, seems we have neglected to keep up on our posts, with the craziness of school and all that is going on, I think we have just felt there is little time to do much. BUT, thankfully this week we got a break and spent a few days in Beijing exploring some areas we have not ventured into before. One place being an area called the 798 District. Now, markets in China are fun and all, but they are exhausting, with all the vendors trying to entice you in, trying to haggle you into paying outrageous prices, sometimes even grabbing at arms and bags, its almost like a scary movie when someone finds themselves in a cave of grabbing moaning hands:) So, we have done the usual, and made some connections at those markets, but we decided we wanted to try something new, and 798 turned out to be a GEM! 798 is an area that holds a large number of old factory and industrial buildings. Old brick walls, metal stacks, and strange pieces of heavy machinery litter the 3-4 block area and are now a part of the plethora of art pieces also on display. The area has quite a number of public galleries, along with unique clothing shops, tea houses, leather shops, trinket stores, jewelry stores, and more. What lies within this space welcomes the old and new and modern all together. Everywhere you go the walls are smattered with art and graffiti, people are mulling along exploring each new jewel they find, and the walkways and alleyways are constantly being used for photo shoots (it would seem that 50 percent of asia are photographers with all the latest and greatest in gear, and the other 50 percent are models, quite amusing:) It was hard to believe this place is in China, there was so much appreciation for art and raw aesthetics that it seemed too unpolished to be here, but it really is, and a number of people were there appreciating it. Definitely a place we will go back to, and if any of you ever make it to Beijing, a place you should drop by, but give yourself a whole day, you'll need it:) Here are only a few pics, it was pretty crowded in most areas where there was some really funky art pieces so I couldn't get any shots, it was the holidays so people were EVERYWHERE! More next time.