Dogs of China - # 11

Photo credit Rachel

Kui Yuan Gallery - Yuexiu District

Head down Xuguyuan Road to number 9 and you'll find a wonderful building and gallery space called Kui Yuan Gallery. At the moment there is a great exhibition on by Mo Lijia - a local Guangdong artist now living and working in Beijing. This exhibition is restrained and stunning -beautiful inky lines and the works sit perfectly in this exhibition space. Go see it.  On until September 16.

http://www.kuiyuangallery.cn/index.php#1

What the city looks like when you turn left - Yuexiu District

After receiving some solid local advice that had me turning left down the street in front of my apartment, as opposed to right - a friend and I spent a delightful afternoon exploring the wonderful streets of Yuexiu district. And kids, let me tell you, this really is the place to be.  You head down busy Huacheng Avenue for about 30 minutes, navigating a big overpass and a kind of bus interchange, and then suddenly the busyness slips away. 

You'll find yourself on Bao'an Front street and as this turns into Yun Dun road, your surroundings change. Quiet tree lined streets, beautiful old buildings, quaint cafes, vintage stores and galleries. Guangzhou, you are turning into my kind of town.

China - week 8

This week there were visitors from the South, but they didn't stay so long.  After that a mix up with calendars made way for a fun evening at party pier and meant I saw a different side of town. I love the old repurposed factory spaces - lots of concrete and geometric shapes.

Language class, then grocery shopping and cooking at home gave me some sense of routine, but really it's not quite there yet. An evening of table tennis, pizza and singing around the piano helped though. New friends, new laughs, new memories.

Writing now and thinking back, this was really a week of fun highs but some lows. I've started running again and felt on top of the world, like everything was falling into place - feeling strong and focussed on new opportunities. Also some random quiet moments of feeling contented and happy, you know...when you pinch yourself to see if it's all really real. But then there is all the other stuff that gets in the way from time to time, edging out the good things to the margins. But you know what? I'm edging those good things right back in.

But really, things are pretty good...though they could be better if there was LSR coffee downstairs. Just saying.

Dogs of China - # 10

"Her name is Jo Jo. She doesn't like having her photo taken"

Party Pier

Accidentally on Party pier. Wasn't much of a party (or a pier for that matter). 

Dogs of China - # 9

Street dog near Redtory

Watching people talking photos of photos

Yao Lu and Hong Hao exhibition Redtory

This exhibition is described as Hong Hao integrating Chinese traditional scroll with his thought and feelings about time, whilst combining western photographic medium.  Yao Lu's work is apparently illustrating the theme of replacement and masking of contemporary arts by pretty much covering surfaces in plastic crap.

I just liked the assemblage of the objects, and really the scale of the photos was quite beautiful.  The other works I just liked the horsies because they reminded me of a friend back home.

Ginger flowers

So it wasn't so much that three bunches of flowers was 12 kuai. Or that the flowers smelt divine. It was that when I was watching two girls bargain for flowers they looked up and asked if they could help. When I asked them how much they were paying and then I said I'd get the same - those girls without hesitation made sure the flower seller charged me the exact same price for three bunches. And after they were long gone he took my 12 kuai without a question. And as I walked home with my beautiful flowers underneath the skyscrapers, I thought...I like it here. 

Dogs of China - # 8

"Her name is Phoebe"

Dogs of China - # 7

"His name is Clive"