Here we are! At the Pingyao international Photography Festival!
And boy oh boy is it amazing!

The town itself is mind blowing let alone all of the photography there is to see and things to do here! We arrived on Sunday night, after a 3 hour bullet train ride and a 2 1/2 hour car trip.
When we got here it was very dark and raining quite a bit. But we were greeted by a group of lovely, enthusiastic Chinese volunteers that walked us to our hotel (as cars are not allowed on certain roads in the city). The hotel we are staying at is really lovely and all of the other international students are also staying here!

The opening ceremony was on Monday morning. We were ushered onto little golf buggy type things and driven to the event. The event was MASSIVE! There where big blow-up arch ways that went over a long red carpet that led to the GIANT stage. And along the carpet was 100's of men dressed up in what would have been the formal dress for soldiers in the town a few hundred years ago.
When we were dropped off we were not told anything (as usual) and all decided to get a better position, closer to the stage. Then we where told that we had to return to the back of the event as WE were the ones that were meant to walk down the red carpet!!

The whole event was great and surprising as every few minutes something would explode with glitter or a cannon would be fired or men on para-sails would fly around the sky with giant ribbons trailing behind them! It was all very Chinese!

After this we headed out to get registered and to find our exhibition. Our work is in an old warehouse along with other international students in a pretty good location (it has a roof over the top, that is more than some people can say!). There must have been a few confusions when the work was hung as there was some images hung the wrong way around etc but we got it all sorted out and looking presentable, with some help from the students from Parsons.

Today we hired bicycles and rode around the town looking at exhibitions.

And just an hour ago all the international students got together and we each had 5 minutes to show some of our work to each other - which was great fun and a great chance to see what others in the same position are photographing and creating all over the world! 

The internet hasn't been available the last 2 days- but now we have wireless at our hotel so there will be photographs and more writing to come soon enough!

Everything is very overwhelming at the moment and hard to get into writing - but we all know that this is truly something that we will remember for the rest of our lives!

alice

Right this minute I'm on a bullet train from Beijing to Taiyuan, China. ( I = Aurelia)  It's very much like the trains Brian and I took on our adventure through Europe in 2001 - except for the view out the window.
We keep going through enormous tunnels in the mountains with little peeks at verdant valleys before plunging into another cave.

I met up with Alice, Sundari and Courtney on Thursday evening after a marathon series of flights from Portland to Beijing. I was entirely unprepared for the view of Beijing I saw from the aircraft window as we descended into pink smog. The skyscrapers went on and on seemingly endlessly. The taxi waiting for me at the airport deserves a medal (or a NASCAR membership) for negotiating the peak hour traffic that was my first impression of Beijing. I wanted to just fall asleep in he cab, but all the honking and crazy moves made that impossible. There are many many cyclists in this busy metropolis, and not one of them wears a helmet. Many of them have various children on precarious perches, or drive a laden tricycle. The motor vehicles honk their horns nearly constantly, and the cyclists ring their bells - however I have not seen a single instance of road rage - even at the scene of an accident. Remarkable. It's more of a tootle tootle  "sorry coming through in a bit of a rush - please don't get hurt" kind of bedlam. After a visit to the night market and a stroll through one of the shopping districts the rain bucketed down clearing the air. It's been clear and summery since.

Chinese people have been very friendly to us and eager to help. Our hostel is in an authentic hutong with a lovely peaceful courtyard garden and walking distance to many attractions including the Night Market, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The following day we ventured to the 789 Arts Precinct with our friends Bronek and Pauline from RMIT. I hadn't considered that China might have a bustling Arts community (although of course there must be many!) and it was such a great day. I splurged in the Woo silk gallery, and spent lots of time in small artisan studios and big architectural gallery spaces. My favorite exhibition was Yang Yongliang's work at the Paris Beijing Gallery. We finished off the day with a big banquet on "Red Lantern" street (so dubbed by Pauline).

At the end of each day I've collapsed into bed exhausted & happy.
*reposted from aurelia's blog at ninjakitty.org

Yesterday we climbed the Great Wall; 'Great' is seriously an understatement. Our route was 22 towers, 7km long; ridiculously steep up and down climbs, and took us 3 exhausting but unforgettable hours to complete. The first one to ten towers were rebuilt late last century, but the rest of our climb was over 500 years old and crumbling in a lot of places. I think it pushed most of us beyond what we thought we were capable of doing, but to achieve something so worthwhile in such an amazingly beautiful place was extremely rewarding. I don't think any of us will ever forget this experience.

Today we take the train to Pingyao! International Photography Festival here we come!

On day 3 (Aurelia's day 2) we went along with Bronek and Pauline to the 798 Art District just a taxi ride away from our place.

It was amazing to see all the art galleries, design and book stores, and really cool art institutions. We should definitely have something like this somewhere in Australia (maybe even Adelaide). We spent all day here. Have a look at what we found.

- Sundari

We haven't shared any pictures in Beijing yet. It has been rather hectic and once we get home we are completely exhausted. It's rather fortunate that we really love where we are staying. The Peking Youth Hostel is the perfect home away from home. It's too pretty not to share the pictures with you all.

So we are here!
China we made it, we have just had our first day in Beijing. Sundari, Courtney and i arrived last night at about 1am after 16 hours of flying! Boy where we were tired!But we all slept well (the hostel here is really lovely) and after a late breakfast we headed out and met up with Bronek ( a friend, fellow photographer and teacher at RMIT) and Pauline (another teacher from RMIT). We walked around the city and went to the famous Tian'anmen Square.
Then headed to the train station to buy our tickets for our trip to Pingyao in 2days time. The train station was an experience as there wasn't anything written in English (not that there should have been) but after a long, frustrating conversation with one of the ticket officers, we brought our tickets!
After gettting lost for about an hour, only to realise that we where just around the corner to where we were meant to be!, we had a lovely hot pot lunch!
The weather is quite warm and sticky. There is alot of smog/pollution, so much so that it is hard to see things in the not so far distance.
We all have tired feet and are just hanging around at the Hostel having a break before we have dinner and head to the night markets around the corner from the Hostel..
It has been an interesting day, but i must say that i am looking forward to arriving in pingyao in 2 days, where it will be less busy (there are no cars allowed in the ancient part of the city where we will be staying) and just getting stuck into the photography Festival!
Please forgive the spelling