My Participation in the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, Beijing, China 2019, Part Two

Coming in to land at Zurich airport

It is a month since I flew to China for the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale and I've only found the time now to collate images for my blog, both for my personal account of my trip and also for several articles that will follow over the next few weeks with photos of individual artworks.

For this post I'm adding photos of my journey and the first day in Beijing. It has always been exciting for me because though this was my fourth trip to China (third for the BIAB) I simply love China! I've had a deep interest in Chinese art since I was 11 and spent many hours copying ink paintings of animals and landscapes from library books. I've also enjoyed Chinese films since I was a student.

This time I flew with Swiss Air and changed aircraft at Zurich. I've flown Air France and China Southern in the past and this airline was just as good.

Flying out over Switzerland for a 10 hour flight to Beijing

Though I took off during the day on 28th August, about 5 hours of the final part of the flight was in darkness. Here are a few photos of coming in over Beijing and landing at dawn. We seemed to circle for ages over Beijing and its suburbs and I loved seeing all the flashing colourful lights below. Then as a strip of eastern sky lightened to pale orange-red, we began our descent. We landed just as the sun was about to rise! It was about 5.15am LT.

Beijing at night

Touchdown at Dawn!

It took quite a while to get through Terminal 3 - the first time I've landed at this largest terminal - and this included getting a small train across the airport. Then I collected my bags and walked hopefully out to Arrivals looking carefully for the BIAB representative. She greeted me so sweetly and I asked her to take a photo of me in all my sleepless glory....

I felt worse than this....though very excited

We went out to the bus once everyone had arrived, about 10 of us, and some of the artists were known to me from previous trips. Then we went to Terminal 2 to pick up other artists. Finally at about 9.am we set off on the colourful journey to Beijing which took about an hour. I loved seeing the trees lining the route because there is a particular type of tree with leaves that sway in the breezes like pieces of glittering silver coins. None of the other trees' leaves appeared like shimmering silver and I don't know the name of these trees but they seem endemic to China. I will post a video of them another time.

Arriving at the hotel was quite chaotic because of the time of day. Lots of artists were already in the foyer and we found out that we could not check in till 2pm so it was suggested that we have an early lunch - 11.30 - and wait. I met up with old friends and found two Chinese ladies who I was thrilled to meet up with again because I had lost touch with them since the 2015 BIAB. I was approached by an artist from Chile who told me she reads my blog!

Here are some photos of the foyer area. It is a Theatre hotel, showing genuine Chinese theatrical productions, and beautifully decorated with great attention to detail, as everything is in China.

Part of the foyer

Artists waiting to get their room keys

Entrance to the theatre

When I went for the amazing lunch in the dining hall I met several old friends. Altogether I guess about 150 artists were invited for the 4 days though not everyone arrived at the same time or even on the same day. Some arrived that night, some had been exploring China for several days before coming to the hotel.

Entrance to the dining hall

Some old and new friends

Then I was able to get the keys to my bedroom and it was on floor 5, room 5071. It was a really large room with a huge bed and very large bathroom. Being at the side of the hotel I had a view across a street and I realised that this was the area I had seen from the aircraft as we came in to land because I had noticed shadowy blocks of flats and worked out our flight route from the position of the moon and direction. Every night aircraft flew in over the hotel area though not so low as to be noisy.

It was by then 2.30pm and I decided to sleep for 3 hours because I had not slept for about 48 hours - I had waited overnight at Heathrow on the Tuesday night.

 View from my window

My room

That evening our supper was at an early hour - 5.30-7pm - and I met many more old friends and was really happy to see these artists again. (I will be writing about the artwork of some of these artists in a future post.) Mobile phones and cameras never ceased to take photos....

Our first supper (I am 3rd from the left in green cardigan) with most of this group being artists I knew

After our meal a group of us went for a walk in the area around our hotel. (I was quite regretful that I did not know about the David Hockney exhibition that some of the artists went off to see that evening.) In Beijing there are areas of Hutongs, which consist of traditional old houses called Siheyuans with narrow alleyways.  I really like these old houses and a painting may come from this. One such area was just behind our hotel and we went to explore it. In the past the Hutongs were being destroyed but now some are being preserved as tourist areas because they have such a charm and give a glimpse in to other aspects of Beijing. I could imagine how Beijing might have looked centuries ago with a sea of these grey buildings and their tiled, peaked roof tops. Their brickwork is a very particular grey.

So here is a collection of photos taken in the small Hutong area we walked around.

A Supermarket

A street in the Hutong area

Typical Siheyuan - grey bricks and peaked roof

Siheyuan showing peaked roof

A small restaurant in the Hutong area

Entrance to the restaurant which was full of people

I said to one of my friends that the lighting on the streets in Beijing, the bright, warm colours and the whole lively atmosphere really reminded me of Nicosia. It is quite a different feeling to the vibes of streets where I live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (UK). 

We took a few group photos before returning to the hotel really tired. I slept a few hours and then jet lag set in. I was not able to throw it off for the four nights and spent most nights watching people on the road outside my window, people cycling late at night, a large van cleaning the roads with jets of water, and the sun rise, while drinking jasmine tea. If I am lucky enough to go again I will take sleeping tablets!

I am the second from the left.....

And a view of our hotel, Qiamen Jianguo.

Stay tuned, more to follow!