Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /nfs/c02/h03/mnt/27226/domains/jeffhock.com/html/gallery/06_07/index.php:13) in /nfs/c02/h03/mnt/27226/domains/jeffhock.com/html/global.inc.php on line 38

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /nfs/c02/h03/mnt/27226/domains/jeffhock.com/html/gallery/06_07/index.php:13) in /nfs/c02/h03/mnt/27226/domains/jeffhock.com/html/global.inc.php on line 43

Photographs of Beijing China

CHINA 1996: Gone are the military policeman in their drab green uniforms policing ever intersection and circle. Gone are the big dusty dirty trucks spewing out clouds of deisel with engines roaring making your ears bleed, replaced by modern shiny tourist buses and sparkling black Audi A6's. Gone are the masses of people on ancient bicycles all riding in drab and dreery uniformity, outnumbering cars 20 to 1. New to the scene, Starbucks, plenty of em, McDonalds, KFC and even... sex shops. There's actual hand holding, conversations, mobile phone talking, window shopping. Any two foreigners who ran into each other 10 years ago were buddies for life, now foreigners are a dime a dozen, you can't find a place sans foreign tourists or expats. Communism? This is communism? Magnetic rocks you toss up in the air and they clang together in increasing vibration on the way down before catching them was all the rage, anything to snap the typical tourists attention and wake them up from perpetual brain fog. The chinese will now come up and make conversation with you on the streets, of course it's a sales pitch. Food still dribbles from the mouth to the plate. It's funny as an American, we were brought up believing.. "eat your food, there's people starving in China". But now, the Chinese leave more left over food at the table than any culture I know. Gone are the ubiquitous gray drabby clothes, clean bright clothing has made it's way. The gray dull sky is still the same, exactly the same. I know why Chairman Mao had visions of a beautiful Red Sky... I guess, without ever seeing a blue sky, one is free to imagine it as anything other than gray. Not so much spitting going on, a few spits, but no more long gnarly hawking up of lougies. And gone is the incessant horn beeping of taxi cabs. It's sad to walk the streets and no longer be stared at like a freak of nature, us foreigners now just blend in, there's still the super long rows of coiled metal fences to prevent jay-walking, the men still walk around with their shirts pulled up exposing their mid-drifts in summer to cool off, the women still wear their ankle high nylons, both men and women still squat and sit on their heels as a seat, which I think most Westerners would do if their knees didn't weld shut in that position. Basic conversation is still loud as hell. China was all about survival, just getting by.. now it's about luxury, the pursuit of wealth, health and happiness, siteseeing with camera, vacationing, relaxing, there's now a middle class in China seeking all the comforts of Western life and driving nice cars while the tourists are the only ones riding around on the traditional bicycles. There's that distinctive smell of China still in the air, you can find it once you get off the plane, but then it's harder and harder to come by. It's as distinctive as the smell of a baby, it's a sweet, flowery moldy smell, only China has this smell, it's the smell of old China, and won't be around for much longer.

Beijing fashion	Enjoying an ice cream	Green River Red Sky
Caged cabbie	Endless bumper to bumper	many guards on duty
Blocking the UV rays	About as boring of a monument as it gets	Many pictures of boring monument
The male mid-drift exposure fashion trend	Unbearably boring job	Tiananmen square guards
Not a very comfortable lifestyle	Rocky Dennis cranking vids	Even the landlocked fisherman is bored
Scrutinizing suspicious suspects	Gateway to the Forbidden City	Guarding the perimeter or something
Gotta love Chairman Mao	More peeling red paint	Not sure exactly what he is guarding
crreeeaaak	Cool Chinese roofs	Just when the boredom peaked
Forbidden City fist fight breaks out	recyclable bottle collectors brawl	Cop breaks it up... guess again
Whack, beautiful solid connection	Looking to reclaim his bounty	Now the cop is pissed
This one is for the judge to decide	nananana heey yeaya good bye	Korean girls loving the action
Not the great wall, but big	More cool Chinese roofs	Great Western influences
Commercialism taken hold	Checking the bank books	That wasn't chicken you just ate
Not a whole lot going on here	Alley way work in progress	Local community kickin it
Front door	more doors and bikes	Practicing to be a guard
Angry flight cancellation mob	Evan loves cake	Apropos shower location
Ah, the great outdoors	and fresh air to boot	Hillary patronizing Starbucks

Beijing China July 2006

Photographs of Beijing China

Name:	Website:	Country:
Comment: Validate: Type word in image above to validate




Copyright © 2002 - 2008 www.jeffhock.com. All Rights Reserved The copying or reproduction of any image contained within this website is strictly unprohibited. No prob, just tell where it's being used and contact me to obtain a larger uncompressed version. Home \| Gallery \| Photographs \| Quotes \| Contact \| Blog \| Sitemap Most viewed images of all time \| Most viewed images this year \| Least viewed images of all time Least viewed images this year \| Most voted on images of all time \| Most voted on images this year Least voted on images of all time \| Least voted on images this year \| Highest rated images of all time Highest rated images this year \| Lowest rated images of all time \| Lowest rated images this year Most commented on images of all time \| Least commented on images of all time 59/8 Moo 9, Soi Sukiyaki, Chao Fa Road, Tambon Chalong Muang, Phuket 83130 Thailand PBS +66 76 384 005 \| PBH +66 76 383 614 \| AC +66 76 288 937 \| HKT +66 8 1476 0380 \| SIN +65 9016 7909