Invierno in Beijing I

it’s Day 21/36 now, and despite my FB/ Twitter cold turkey, I’m still surviving alright thus far!

Many of you have been looking forward to my posts on Beijing- well, although I’m mainly hanging around the conservatory most times busy writing/ sleeping/ eating/ daydreaming/ watching drama serials, I did try to conscientiously try and take more pictures of my usual haunts whenever I’m here in Beijing. I’m not very good at introducing places to visit per se, whenever I travel it’s really more about just experiencing life and soaking up the atmosphere…

My next post will be about this really really cool place called 798 which I visited recently- it’s a huge former industrial area that’s been converted into a super niche arts town- not unlike 田子方 in Shanghai, for those of you who know of that place. Just that it’s not as commercialised yet, and it’s much much larger!

Meanwhile, here’re some of the random things that I’ve been doing…

To start things off, I’ve never really introduced the place where I’ve been coming to annually since 2006 for my studies- I used to spend 4 months a year here in Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, during my undergraduate days at NIE, making use of the summer vacation breaks to further my training on the sheng.

Since then I’ve been returning every year and in more recent times it’s more for lessons on composition than anything else.

The school (which is at 西便门 Xi Bian Men for those of you interested in visiting) is not large in itself, but there is a very nicely preserved/ restored residence at the back which is now the conservatory’s concert hall.

When I first arrived here this year in mid-November, it was still relatively warm (around 6 degrees-that is warm to the locals here :p) and I still managed to snap some nice pics of the last bits of Autumn before Winter set in proper.

Most of the time I’m here in the conservatory I don’t actually have lessons, I mainly have been hiding in my room writing, reading, listening to music, attending the millions of concerts available and occasionally gatecrashing classes with other foreign students who are doing their undergrad studies here.

Here is a picture sneakily taken during a mass lecture conducted by one of China’s leading young composers/ teachers, Qin Wencheng 秦文程.

I couldn’t help but snap a pic of this super fail fashion disaster at one of the erhu 二胡 concerts I attended recently- trust me, the students here are usually way more hip and cool and this is really an anomality!

Fashion Sense Fail

Some of you may wonder if the food is to our tastes- well, to be honest, I usually find myself eating at joints that are actually more of the Southern or Taiwanese variety, which the Beijing-ers say are not as ‘heavy’.

Here is my favourite 红烧牛肉面 Beef Noodle joint (Taiwanese, I believe…), Master Kong 康师父！It’s a super must-have everytime I’m here. In fact, I just had it for lunch today..

Ok I was too greedy and finished my meal way before I remembered to snap a pic, so here’s me trying to foreground a free calender instead :p

When it’s still bright (the sun sets at around 5pm during Winter) I take a walk around the neighbourhood near the conservatory, and just soak up more of how locals here live.

This little boy’s english name is Neil, and he was so cute I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of him eating those sunflower seeds:

I love watching concerts/ performances here because there’s just so much vibrancy in the arts scene here, plus there are so many gorgeous performance spaces that are a sight to behold in itself.

I recently caught a modern opera with music written by the legendary composer Qu Xiaosong 瞿小松, one of the post-1979/ Cultural revolution composers who went international along with other classmates like Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Ye Xiaogang, Chen Yi etc…

I even managed to snap a pic with the man himself, smitten like a 16 year-old seeing some superstar:

It’s december now and I awoke one morning to this gorgeous sight that we ‘Equatorians’ never get:

Of course, I’m still very much the music geek and I’ve been snapping away for my music musings scrapbook:

fancy a flutey snack?

or how about a scented flute?

Ok this one is not really THAT music related but I saw this really cool iPhone cover and I snapped a pic of it!

Look out for my next post coming out soon! ttfn!

¡adios mis amigos!