shadow song (Part 2)

bird song (Part 1)

old homes - hutong part 3 - Bird Kite

old homes - hutong part 2

Outside wall of the hutong where people wrote things in chalk and played games (like x's and o's?). It was sandwiched between another wall and discovered once the other buildings had been brought down.

old homes - hutong part 1

green carpets

I came across this place one Saturday afternoon as I was wandering around Beijing. It is an old hutong district that is being torn down. After poking around for an hour someone actually invited me into their home and asked me to take pictures. Thats when the magic started and I found all sorts of wonders. They offered me lunch too but I was just gettign over a stomach flu and sadly wasn't up to mystery meat sausage and noodles.

More mixer

This guy goes fast

He was stoked to get his picture taken. I really wanted to show you the back of his vehicle with all it's nobs, spitting sputtering pipes, and bare driver belts. It's a video I will have to hunt down another day.

Worker home and detail (the destroyed room)

Yes, we are watching you

Just in case you can't read there is a picture. Just in case you can't see the picture there is a camera. You should really watch out...or, look for what's so valuable, grab it, and run.

small office, two men

You might not be able to see him but there are two people in this booth. It was barely enough room for one person but they seemed super keen on it as it must keep them warm.

mix a lot

There is a man behind the cloud of smoke in the second picture. He was very excited to see me and wanted to show me how his machine worked. Now I need to find a way to print him a picture as I went again last week and he made a big commotion about my camera. I had the feeling he wanted a picture. It reminded me of this horrible situation I got into 5 years ago when I ended up in Tibet for a month. I was wandering about near the Potala Palace on a very cold day and this poor tourist came rushing up to me and wanted me to take his photo. After I did this he ran over to me and thought I could print him a picture (Polaroid cameras used to be very common.) It was really sad, especially since all I could do was haltingly explain that my camera didn't print pictures and being the dead of winter (everything closes in winter as tourism basically stops up there) there wasn't anywhere I could see to do such a thing. The story gets even more tragic as I got him to write down his mailing address with the thought that I could mail him a picture. how great it would be! He scribbled some things down very enthusiastically on a piece of paper and when I got back to Beijing I had a friend translate the writing. He wrote his name and the city he was from. That's it!