On our day of depature, our plane to Ulaan Baatar wasn't until 9:10 pm, so we had one more day in Beijing. In the morning I set out for that private contemporary art museum I had passed on the way back to the hotel the previous day. On the way, though, I ran into a gallery featuring traditional Chinese scroll painting, with both contemporary works and some up to 200 years old, all exquisite. The owner let me photograph my favorite pieces, and we exchanged cards.
The museum seemed more like an extensive gallery--everything was for sale, everything was recent. But here were pieces completely within the Chinese polychrome ceramic tradition of decorative art, but that were infused with originality, achieving a fresh intensity of beauty. Ai Weiwei's conceptual dark humor and politically oriented art and the caustically ironic photographic work I had seen coming out of China seemed to belong to another country. And for all that I've embraced and endorsed these protestations of freedom against a regime whose heavy controlling hand I had now experienced first hand, I found many of these works irresistible. I loved the shadowed three-dimensional effects in the vase painting and the luminosity of the genre scene on paper. There were also some very large red relief bowls with elaborate dragon motifs, and then the same technique was used on a standing female figure, creating something akin to my own virtual sculpture, except that it was real.
I returned to the hotel, rested a bit, then Barbara and I checked out at 2 pm and took a walk to the park immediately north of the Forbidden City. It was Sunday and there was a lot of singing going on in the park. We found our way to the path up to the temples at the top of the hill dominating the Forbidden City, and from there we had the view of the sea of traditional Chinese rooftops, that had been blocked from the Drum Tower.
Leaving the park, we walked through some unrennovated neighborhoods that brought us to the dried fruit and bean market--what a cornucopia! But I had already bought enough.
We returned to the hotel and took our taxi to Beijing International Airport rather early, so we could dine and relax, as it happened, overlooking the immense concourse of the international terminal. I literally couldn't believe how large it was.
We left on time and arrived in Ulaan Baatar at 11:35. I made friends with the young woman from UB who was sitting between us, and she was generous enough to offer us a ride to our hotel.
Beijing international terminal from the Thai restaurant balcony.
The museum seemed more like an extensive gallery--everything was for sale, everything was recent. But here were pieces completely within the Chinese polychrome ceramic tradition of decorative art, but that were infused with originality, achieving a fresh intensity of beauty. Ai Weiwei's conceptual dark humor and politically oriented art and the caustically ironic photographic work I had seen coming out of China seemed to belong to another country. And for all that I've embraced and endorsed these protestations of freedom against a regime whose heavy controlling hand I had now experienced first hand, I found many of these works irresistible. I loved the shadowed three-dimensional effects in the vase painting and the luminosity of the genre scene on paper. There were also some very large red relief bowls with elaborate dragon motifs, and then the same technique was used on a standing female figure, creating something akin to my own virtual sculpture, except that it was real.
I returned to the hotel, rested a bit, then Barbara and I checked out at 2 pm and took a walk to the park immediately north of the Forbidden City. It was Sunday and there was a lot of singing going on in the park. We found our way to the path up to the temples at the top of the hill dominating the Forbidden City, and from there we had the view of the sea of traditional Chinese rooftops, that had been blocked from the Drum Tower.
Leaving the park, we walked through some unrennovated neighborhoods that brought us to the dried fruit and bean market--what a cornucopia! But I had already bought enough.
We returned to the hotel and took our taxi to Beijing International Airport rather early, so we could dine and relax, as it happened, overlooking the immense concourse of the international terminal. I literally couldn't believe how large it was.
We left on time and arrived in Ulaan Baatar at 11:35. I made friends with the young woman from UB who was sitting between us, and she was generous enough to offer us a ride to our hotel.
Beijing international terminal from the Thai restaurant balcony.
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