Final Major Project.

As much as I don't want to dwell too much on the past, it's perhaps a good idea to show you my Final Show.

I have to say, I'm really proud of it, and I worked my ass off. I don't mean for this to be the best I can be though; the sky's the limit! I think it's very worrying if you don't love the products you make, show and release, because then you aren't sharing your best. It's very important to show you love you work. Besides, if you've put your all in it, you have every reason to be proud of it. For me, this is the beginning of my career. I have to, have to, have to grow. I need to grow for the rest of my life. There is never an ultimate best.

N.B. Hanswan gets loads and LOADS of credit for taking all the pictures of my shirt, because she's the luvvlies. That includes my blogger wall, and my picture.

Inspirations: Shanghai, Hangzhou

As much as Shanghai is this shining, towering city of moneymoneymoney, they are undeniably a sight to behold. Aside from those sites though, there are always those little streets full of people, full of mess, telephone cables strung up like laundry and damn those atmospheric clouds. They make everything look so dramatic and 'inspirational'. Tucked away there's also a garden/palace/ grounds type thing that is seriously an oasis in a desert... it's a little ocean of peace amongst the crappy touristy places. I guess Shanghai is a place of shapes instead of colour, a shining metallic wall of silver, against off-whites, beiges, dark browns dulling the whole thing. But in that sense, there's a lot of silhouette going on which is pretty lovely.

Hangzhou is perhaps the complete opposite. As I mentioned in the last post, I LOVE the water lilies, and there's literally as much greenery in the water as there is water. We saw a lot of wedding photography going on, and I don't blame them because it's pretty picture perfect. Here there's both shape and colour, the rippling leave are just...the BEST shape. They feel like paintings.

Chen Zhinong.

In the Capital Museum in Beijing, there was a small exhibition talking about the 'hutong' which is the name for a style of living, and literally translates to 'lanes'. There was a little cabinet showing illustrations of scenes in the hutong by Chen Zhinong and I just fell in love. I was dying to find a book of his illustrations, or at least something on the internet, but alas, nothing came up. I'll try my best to find something better. But all I have to show for are my terrible photos of the originals. However, they are just so lively and beautiful, I couldn't not put them here.

Hangzhou.

Our last stop was a place called Hangzhou, which is famous for The West Lake, which funnily enough is a big lake.

We did a lot of cycling which was pretty nice, and the scene was rather lovely, although perhaps a little 'made up'. What I did love though was the patterns and placement of things, and waterlilies. Waterlilies are the bomb.

Inspirations: Beijing

One thing that China does not lack in is colour! I really love the bright red especially, even though perhaps its supposed to symbolise the whole Communist movement... although red has always been the colour of happiness, prosperity and good luck for Chinese people. I also never really realised how much Chinese love their patterns. Aside from the typical silk type patterning, I found that the roofs of the ancient heritage sites and museums had such delicate carvings and paintings. Although the colours sometimes seem somewhat artificial, it still doesn't half put on a show for you.

Shanghai.

In the second week, we had planned to move on from Beijing somewhere, and we ended up going south to the sparkly Shanghai for 3 days, before moving on again to Hangzhou.

Shanghai is very much one of those places where...you only go once. In all honesty there isn't much to see, but it goes without saying that the skyline is rather stunning. Again though, the Chinese love for modern building is completely evident, shiny building cropping up EVERYWHERE, which makes for interesting shapes, but its perhaps less interesting that way.... I love buildings with history and story which, towering skyscrapers built next to each other just don't quite possess.
Nevertheless, Shanghai actually has some colonial buildings left, not unlike Hong Kong. I'd say that the two cities are siblings to be sure, but I feel like the way HK is laid out and how it is used is far more interesting to look at and experience.

However, one of the days consisted of a day trip out to a place called Zhou Zhang, which has often been described as the 'Venice of the East'. To this day it has somehow been overlooked by both natural and man made disasters, evading earthquakes, floods, war, and the Cultural Revolution alike. It can only be accessed by boat, and despite it being another tourist bonanza, there was a charm there that none of us had seen thus far. There really is something quaint about bridges and buddhas and people selling their wares.

China.

Gosh, it's really difficult to recall a trip in hindsight, but I'm going to just crack on and get on with it... I have missed out on a whole two weeks of blogging, all the while having material! It's quite frustrating really, not being able to do this properly, but there's nothing we can do about it now... so yeah, I'll get on with it.

BEIJING.
I feel like the easiest way to talk about the trip is by destination...

We flew with Swiss Air and they were pretty cool and gave us chocolate with some swish graphics. It certainly made the experience of eating chocolate that much more satisfying when it looks like this and not just like...a block of chocolate.

Beijing is one of those cities that just has tons of places to see. By the end of the week, I only felt I'd seen a smidge of Beijing; we did get all of the touristy destinations crossed off though, thanks to my Dad who is cunningly efficient with the schedule. It is definitely a place that will be visited again in the future.
What's nice is that quite a bit of old China has been retained here, although it isn't particularly well looked after. The Chinese really love their new shiny buildings, and there are a LOT of them, standing alongside such heritage sites as the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. I think that attitudes to historic venues and tourist attractions are certainly very different to that in England...which I think is a shame. These places are stunningly beautiful and just awe-dropping in many ways, and it's a shame that they are so difficult to take care of.
The people themselves are of course, still themselves, and its funny to see how people act differently. Everywhere there are people napping, singing karaoke, dancing, eating, talk/shouting, posing, spitting.... Had it not been for my trips to Hong Kong all my life, I don't think I'd have half as been prepared. To an extent, there's still a little culture shock. And there are a LOT of people. Perhaps more than I've ever seen in my life. I haven't really captured them in my photographs, but it's literally a sea of people and umbrellas, all shouting over each other, having a conversation from two different sides of the Great Wall...no kidding.