Bird's Nest | Water Cube | 798

Hello, I am Zi Qian. I will be blogging about this weekend, where we visited three famous places: The Beijing National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) and the Beijing National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) on Saturday, and the 798 Art Zone on Sunday.

This was a weekend of many firsts for me, namely:

- The first time I took the Beijing Subway;

- The first time I entered an Olympic stadium;

- The first time I had a KFC meal in Beijing;

- The first time I ate at McDonald’s in Beijing, and

- The first time I ate Peking Duck (北京烤鸭) ever since I came to the Beijing Satellite Campus.

We embarked for the Bird’s Nest at 7.45 in the morning, taking first the bus, then the subway system.

The Subway system in Beijing is quite similar to the Singapore MRT. There are currently 8 subway lines in Beijing, with plans to build 11 more by 2015. We took the newly-built Olympic subway line to the Olympic stadium from the 北土城 station. The brand new stations are decorated beautifully and are next-to-spotless, while the interior of the train carriages are sleek and clean, and similar to the Singapore MRT too. Here are some photos:

This was the first sight that greeted us when we stepped out of the Subway station:

Although I had been to the Bird’s Nest before, I still reveled in its splendour from afar. In the superficial chaos of the soaring steel beams covering the stadium’s surface, giving it its iconic nickname, there is a sort of majestic beauty that surrounds the stadium. The effect was amplified a hundred times more when I walked around the stadium, gazing upwards into the towering beams that crisscrossed the air.

I was simply in awe as I observed how the steel beams, united as a whole, held up this magnificent structure. This is truly a masterpiece of Beijing’s architecture, a sign of Beijing’s openness towards the world.

Following Ms Cheong’s advice, we forgone the instant food sold outside the stadium. Instead, we went into the stadium to take a look at the interior of the stadium, while waiting patiently for the KFC in the stadium to start selling regular meals. If the façade of the stadium is magnificent, the interior is even more so. To stand in the middle of the stadium, looking at the vast expanse of seats around us, to imagine it filled with cheering and crowing crowds… the effect is overwhelming.

Pictures speak a thousand words. Here are the photos:

We even had a small performance by the Olympic Fuwa mascots (Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yinyin, Nini) and the Paralympics mascot, Lele the Lucky Ox. It was rather entertaining watching the mascots perform as we ate our KFC meal. On a sidenote, the egg tarts in KFC are simply fabulous.

I also took a photo with a statue of my favourite Fuwa, Nini the Green Swift.

We did not buy the tickets for entry into the Water Cube as it is rather not worth it: the Water Cube can only be seen in its full splendour during the night performances. Here are some exterior shots of the Water Cube:

Our trip back to the hostel also marked my first McDonald’s meal in Beijing. I simply enjoyed the peach pie. The burger was way better than those in Singapore.

The next day, about 40 of us from all three classes went to the 798 Art Zone. Located in the Chaoyang District in Beijing, the 798 Art Zone is a hotbed for budding young artists over the world. Housed in a 50-year-old factory complex, the huge warehouses made it ideal for hosting art galleries. It now boasts a multitude of art shows and exhibitions daily.

The art galleries have a particularly striking contrast between old and new: old graffiti praising the Mao Zedong Thought, painted during the Cultural Revolution era, have been retained as per the local artists’ and tenants’ requests, and now contrasts sharply with the avant-garde artwork displayed below. Here are some scenes:

The Bauhaus architecture, with soaring arches and wide illuminated spaces, complement nicely with the artwork exhibited. Here are some street shots:

The first gallery we visited was the Art Seasons gallery, a Singaporean gallery that has exhibitions in 798. A Singaporean lady, Ms Samantha, offered to introduce us to the Art Zone and the Art Seasons gallery. The gallery mainly exhibits “New World” artwork by :phunk Studio, which are dark parodies of the desires and vices of the modern world, expressed through an amusement park theme.

After that, Mr Ang let us visit the various art galleries freely. I walked around with Xuezheng to view some of the art galleries after lunch. Some of the ones that we visited were a shop selling handmade rope art, and a gallery exhibiting “fairytale” artwork. Some of the stores sell artwork at very reasonable prices (for example, a pair identical beautifully handcrafted Christmas bells, made of coloured rope, was sold for only 40 RMB). There are really many gems that could be found within the alleyways of the 798 Art Zone.

I, being one half of a pair of twins, chanced upon an old exhibition poster and found it fitting:

The one problem with the Art Zone was that it was very hard to navigate around: the maps were mostly unmarked, so it was hard to find certain galleries that we took interest in. We went back to the hostel at about 3 pm: most of the people went back as early as 12 pm.

At night, Ms Cheong brought 15 of us to Xinjiulong (新九龙) Restaurant for Peking Duck. The food there was quite delicious. This marked another of my firsts: the first time having Peking Duck since coming to BSC.

Time to sign off now,

Zi Qian