September 13 (Monday): Liulichang (琉璃廠), 798 Space (798藝術區) & Houhai (後海/什剎海)
MC and Carmen first took us to Liulichang (琉璃廠) where there’re plethora of book shops, calligraphy suppliers, galleries and curio sellers. And we spent most of our time at various outlets of the famed Rongbaozhai (榮寶齋). Joined by Carmen’s friend we’d lunch at the Old Beijing Noodle Shop (老北京炸醬麵) which we missed three days ago. In the afternoon we went to the 798 Space (798藝術區) or Art Zone in Dashanzi Art District (original 798 Factory), the heart of a growing art and culture community in Beijing. 798 Space is the center and the biggest space that provide cultural, artistic and commercial activities in the area. It was designed by the East German's architects in the Bauhaus style in the early 1950's. Through the reconstruction and redesigning with the contemporary aesthetics by artists, the space combines the past, present, and future of the "New China" and the unique meaning of the socialistic culture. Since its Monday a few places were closed including the movie museum. While you may not like or accept the works displayed but it was quite an interesting experience. Afterwards MC took me to the Beijing Book Building @ Xidan (西單), claimed to be the world’s largest bookstore, for some DVDs (Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin).

In the evening we’d Hakka (客家) cuisine at the Houhai (後海/什剎海). It is Beijing's newly developed old town of funky nightlife full of small bars and pubs with character.


Camera Equipment:
Camera: Nikon D3 & F6 plus Panasonic LX3
Lens: AFS 17-35/f2.8 (mostly on F6) and AFS 70-200/f2.8 (D3)
Singh-Ray Filters: i) Gold N Blue Polarizer, ii) LB Color Combo Polarizer, iii) Daryl Benson ND-3 Reverse Graduate and iv) Galen Rowell ND-3G Hard Step.
Film (for F6): 8 rolls of Kodak Ektar and 1 roll of Fujicolor – all 100 ISO

NB: Photos without metadata were taken by Nikon F6, the film camera