Hustle & bustle in the popular lanes of the Wangfujing district of Beijing. Busy with tourists & locals alike & alive most hours of the day, but especially at night, this is where you come to find such delicacies as fried scorpion, spiders, snakes, cockroaches and whatnot on a skewer (mostly dead). Yes, & their growing affluence aside, the Chinese will (still) eat anything and some foreigners will, too. Me? No chance. Beijing, China. February 4, 2015.

A guard in Tiananmen Square fronting the Tiananmen Gate, or Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to the Place Museum, a.k.a. The Forbidden City. Tiananmen Gate is one of the symbols of China – it appears on the Chinese National Emblem. First built in 1420, the gate is 66 metres long, 37 metres wide and 32 metres high. It serves as the entrance to the Imperial City, which is the location for Beijing’s famous Forbidden City. It was from Tiananmen Gate, on October 1st, 1949, that Chairman Mao, the leader and co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party & whose massive portrait famously hangs from the gate, delivered his liberation speech, declaring that “the Chinese people have now stood up”. Mao, who you can read more about from my 2004 entry from Beijing, was addressing his subjects situated in Tiananmen Square, the famous square of the same name that the gate overlooks. One of the largest public squares in the world, it is infamous as the site of many mass movements, most famously in 1989 when students and workers peacefully protesting for democracy and against corruption & oppression were savagely suppressed. The guard here is just one of many all over Beijing. It seems like one can’t walk 100 yards without encountering a security check. What they are securing against I’ve no idea. It’s more people management than people security. Oh China. Beijing, China. February 4, 2015.

I hadn’t been here since my very first visit to Beijing back in 2004 so I decided to pay a visit to the so-called Forbidden City, now officially known as the Palace Museum. Located in the middle of Beijing off of the equally famous Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420 and was the Chinese Imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). It’s a vast complex consisting of 800 buildings housing over 8,800 rooms and covering an area of over 7 km². It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. It was called the Forbidden City because it was forbidden for the average citizen to even approach the walls of the city in the days of the various dynasties. No such issues these days as anyone can wander around taking in its grandeur. This is a picture of the hordes in the courtyard fronting the Tai He Dian (Hall of Supreme Harmony), the first & main hall of the three major halls of the outer court of the Forbidden City. Beijing, China. February 4, 2015.

Buildings in the Place Museum, a.k.a. The Forbidden City, in Beijing, China. February 4, 2015.

The inner courtyard of the Lu Song Yuan Hotel, my home on this, my 6th visit to Beijing. The hotel itself was nothing to write home about but its traditional central courtyard was certainly photogenic (and it proudly displays a ‘The Most Distinctive Courtyard’ award, dated June 2009, from the Beijing Dongcheng Tourism Industry Association). The hotel is located in a traditional hutong, a narrow, residential lane synonymous with poverty, bad plumbing and decay. This hutong, Banchang Hutong, which has survived the modernising wrecking ball, is 457-metres long & 6-metres wide and its claim to fame is that No. 19 once housed the embassy of DPRK, a.k.a. North Korea. So there. Lu Song Yuan Hotel, Banchang Hutong, Dongcheng District of Beijing, China. February 4, 2015.

The main body of the National Stadium, a.k.a. the Bird’s Nest, is a colossal saddle-shaped elliptical steel structure weighing some 42,000 tons. The stadium is 333 metres long, 298 metres wide and 69 metres tall and can seat 91,000 spectators. A modern-day Beijing landmark with a unique interwoven architectural appearance, construction started with a groundbreaking & cornerstone laying ceremony on December 24, 2003, but it wasn’t officially completed until August 8, 2008, mere days before the Olympic’s Opening Ceremony. The National Stadium, a.k.a. the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing Olympic Park, Beijing, China. February 5, 2015.

Walking past the National Aquatic Centre, a.k.a. the Water Cube. This place hosted the 2014 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 10th & 11th last and even today, some 3 months later, the place is still setup as such – one can still pay to have their picture taken on the stage, placed on top of the Olympic pool & in front of the APEC sign, where the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin & Stephen Harper stood. Given that, I assume this place doesn’t actually get utilised much as an aquatics center. Beijing Olympic Park, Beijing, China. February 5, 2015.

The entrance to Harbin’s pedestrianised Zhongyang Dajie, a.k.a Central Avenue. The street, restored & cobblestoned as part of a 1998 beautification effort, is dotted with with European-style, pastel coloured buildings reflecting the most influential architectural styles of the day – Renaissance, Baroque, Eclecticism & Art Nouveau styles are all represented. Seventeen buildings along its 1,450-metre long stretch have been granted historic status (a plaque on the street claims it to be an open-air Architectural Arts Museum) with each building displaying a plaque detailing its history as either a colonial home &/or business. Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

An obvious remnant of Harbin’s Russian past, the redbrick Russian Orthodox Cathedral, formally St. Sofia’s, was built in 1907 after the completion, in 1903, of the Trans-Siberian Railway which connected Vladivostok in Russia, not too far from here, to northeast China. It’s not a particularly large church but it was big enough to serve the some 100,000 Russians who lived here in the 1920s, a third of the city’s population at the time. It was closed for good following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 (the victorious Communists outlawed Christianity). It received First class Preserved Building status in 1996 and in 1997 its interior was turned into a museum, the SO-CALLED Harbin Art & Architecture Centre. The Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom of God, a.k.a. the Russian Orthodox cathedral or formally St. Sofia’s, in Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

The Harbin Art & Architecture Centre inside the compact, musty interior of Harbin’s 1907 Russian Orthodox cathedral is nothing more than a collection of old photographs from Harbin’s past stretching back to the days when the city served as a Russian railway outpost. Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

I love this. This guy, who looked remarkably like Psy, was really pushing the selfie boat out and I spent quite a few minutes watching him trying to get it right. At least he didn’t have one of those selfie sticks (although unfortunately they are still here in China). Selfie time in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom of God, a.k.a. the Russian Orthodox cathedral or formally St. Sofia’s, in Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

An ice structure in Zhaolin Park as part of the annual International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

Little & not so little feet on the ice piano in Zhaolin Park as part of the annual International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, China. February 6, 2015.

Carriage 4 of the high-speed D26 train en route from Harbin to Beijing in China. My assigned seat, 7B, is down there somewhere (to the right) but I’m choosing to spend the majority of the 8 hour trip to Beijing up and about taking pictures and smiling at the cute girls manning the dining/snack carriage. February 7, 2015.

Oh I see. The provided HSR (High-Speed Railway maybe?) Traveling Safety Guide tells me I needed to have spent CNY420 (€59), CNY114 more than the CNY306 (€43) I did spend, for a business class seat in order to get a power socket. And no doubt with that would come more space & a will to actually sit down. On the D26 train from Harbin to Beijing, China. February 7, 2015.

Overlooking skaters in Hongshan (Red Hill) Park, Urumqi, northwestern China. February 11, 2015.

Wintry scenes in Urumqi’s Renmin/People’s Park, a park that runs right through the geographical centre of the city. Built in 1884 and renamed People’s Park in 1950 after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it’s full of pavilions, cottages, lakes, bridges, & monuments (and snow & ice this time of year). According to the sign fronting the park, it provides ‘a centre of relaxation, culture and entertainment’ while playing an ‘active role in enriching citizen’s life and promoting the construction of material and spiritual civilization.’ So there. Urumqi, northwest China. February 10, 2015.

Not surprisingly given its remoteness, Urumqi used to a bit of a backwater prior to the railway reaching here in the early 1960s. Now it’s just another big (population over 3 million), booming Chinese city, one with a slightly different look & feel – signs are written in Chinese & Arabic. Being China’s most westerly industrial outpost makes it an important city, so important in fact that in 1992 a bizarre decision was made to officially decree the city as a port, the idea being to attract investment through lower tax rates. As a result, it’s safe to say that the city is probably the only, ahem, port that is situated so far from the sea or ocean – 2000 kilometres, or there abouts. Indeed, the city claims to be the largest city in the world furthest from any the sea or ocean. This is a picture of Urumqi, the skyscrapers that have sprung from the plains, the haze that hangs over the city (even on a nice, sunny day like today), & of course the ever-present traffic that you find clogging the roads in any large Chinese city. It was captured earlier today from Hongshan, or Red Hill Park, a hilly & attractive park (a sign at the entrance to the park claims it to be not just a park but a ‘famous tourist resort’) not too far from People’s Park and one that offers great views of the sprawling city and the far-off snowy peaks of the Tian Shan mountains. Urumqi, northwest China. February 10, 2015. Urumqi as seen from the highest point in the city’s Hongshan (Red Hill) Park. Urumqi, northwestern China. February 11, 2015.