Posting on behalf of Deborah Rutherford, Operations Leader for HOK in Canada’s Corporate Accounts Practice and President of ARIDO.

December 6th – First Day in Beijing

Deborah, Theo + Ted

On our last day in Shanghai it was the clearest day we’ve seen; the heavy pollution seemed to be gone and there was little traffic as we left for the airport early in the morning. It was a sunny end to our four days in this vibrant city. Beijing is completely different with its wide boulevards and shorter buildings with very large footprints. It is like Washington and Shanghai is like New York.  Luckily we’ve had wonderful service at the Grand Hyatt hotels in both cities. Kenny, the coordinator assigned to us by the hotel had us all checked in, luggage in our rooms and maps in hand ready to go out on the town within 30 minutes of when we drove up.

Art Gallary – Originality Square

Twelve of us decided to head to the 789 Art District for the afternoon and took 3 taxis out there. It is a series of blocks of 50-year old decommissioned military factories that have become a thriving artist community. The buildings were unique and the art installations were fascinating. It is hard to believe that there has ever been any repression here when you see the variety of art presented as well as the amount of it on display here. It was blocks and blocks of galleries and we certainly didn’t see it all. At one point I wondered if we would ever see the other two groups of four, because we were dropped off at different entrances to the district. Eventually we ran into one another, but we only saw two of them at the final meeting spot at the end of the day; it was easy to miss one another in this vast complex.

Brick Faces

Most of the people wandering through the area on this cool winter day were groups of young Chinese kids, often posing in front of the unique sculptures as they wandered between buildings. At one point some teenage girls came up to me and asked if they could have my picture taken with them. I wonder if I’m already posted on a facebook page of a Beijing teenager?

Tomorrow we’re back to work as we visit the Canadian embassy.

TO BE CONTINUED…