The famous Chinese yellow can be seen everywhere on exterior walls
April 2007
I have had the pleasure of visiting China several times over the past few years. There isn’t one aspect of it that isn’t impressive. The ever expanding economy brings more people, more businesses, and awesome new architecture to cities everywhere within the country.
The past is always near in China. It strives to blend the best of old traditions with new culture as it focuses on the future. The techno lights and hyper bright colors of the new cities contrast greatly with the oxided Chinese reds, ancient golds and earthy wood browns from cities built ages ago. There are many treasures and wonders to behold.
Traditional colors in the Forbidden City
With this in mind, China prepares to host the world at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Tourists will be welcomed by a vast new airport, its scaled bronze roofline so vast the eye can’t see where it disappears on the horizon. The new stadium for the Games is designed to be an awe-inspiring testament to the new Chinese power. People will also become intimately familiar with the color and splendor found in the restored portions of the infamous Forbidden City.
The architecture in the new Soho area (Small Office, Home Office) of Beijing takes risks. Buildings slope, angle and slant in daring ways. Some of the skyscrapers are so twisted and irregular they look as if they were lifted from a sci-fi landscape.
Factory 798 in Dashanzi Art District
One of my favorite areas in Beijing is the Dashanzi Art District. It is about half an hour taxi ride outside of downtown Beijing. What was once an ammunition factory during the Cold War, has been reclaimed and turned into a rabbit warren-like maze of studios, galleries, coffee shops, book stores, tattoo parlours, clothing and jewelry boutiques. The most famous gallery is Factory 798, a massive industrial hall with clear light and vaulted cathedral-like ceilings. This place to me embodies all of the young creative energy happening in China today. Here you can stroll quietly for hours. There is something new to see around every corner, and (for now) hardly anyone is there except a handful of western tourists and locals who are in-the-know.
Shanghai holds its status as the country’s most fashionable city: the Pudong District is the newest neighborhood. There are still two French Concessions that have an old world, European flavor. In these neighborhoods, the streets come alive at night. The sound of music, traffic, and voices, and savory aromas of food lend an instant air of festivity. Pedestrians stroll past restaurants and clubs that are open 24 hours, and retail shops stay open until 11:00 PM. People get haircuts on the sidewalk well after midnight, and bikes and taxis are everwhere. It makes places like New York seem sleepy by comparison. I was told in the summer, it can be very warm. Most people do not have air-conditioning, and this is when people literally move out of their living rooms on to the sidewalk, and it becomes a community that lives outside.
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New studios in Shanghai.Riding around colorful vespa scooters, and wearing the latest camoflague togs and tattoos, the young urban Chinese are very fashionable. There are many boutiques and street vendors selling inexpensive, trendy clothes nearly everywhere. In Shanghai I even saw a skateboard shop, completely decorated in tag-style fonts and graffiti artwork. It could have been right at home in Los Angeles or Sydney. |
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Skateboard shop in Shanghai |
Shenzhen was another city we visited in the south. Twenty years ago, it was an agricultural area with a population of around 20,000. Because of its close proximity to Hong Kong, it has since grown into a city of around 12 million. Everything here is new, from the architecture to the streets to the colorful landscaping. I instantly fell in love with the shoes many of the young Chinese ladies were wearing, and found my way into a Shenzhen department store.
For the past several years, I (an avid shoe fanatic and collector) have stopped buying shoes because what I see in the US stores are so unbelievably boring! In China, every color, pattern and adornment you can think of for a shoe is available. Purple wedgies with a spray of grapes on the toe? You got it. Patent leather forest green pumps with a golden anklet to keep them on? There you go. Strappy sandals with a pattern etched into the heels (so you won’t ever see where you skinned it that time you were dancing on table tops!) Chunky boots. Done. Preppy khaki flats with golden bars on the toes…no problem. And of course, everything is priced to move. I could have spent a week and loaded three trunks full of shoes, but I restrained myself and only bought one pair–trimmed in brown leather with a wedge heel, pink and orange patterned tops, jeweled bouquet on the toe. Perfect for summer. And I can actually walk in them!!
The first time I visited Cologne (Koln), Germany was in the mid ’80s on a high school summer exchange program. When you’re a kid far from home in a foreign country, everything is a marvel. My classmates and I were awed by the gothic flamboyance of the Koln Dom (cathedral), the central attraction of the city. The two heaven-reaching towers, multiple flying buttresses, sneering gargoyles and stained glass windows were dazzling in their medieval splendor. It is a masterpiece that took over 700 years to complete. The Dom can hold 20,000 people and covers an area of 8,000 sq. meters. It is a well-known fact that Koln had been leveled during the Allied air raids of WWII. The story of how the Dom survived obliteration and stands today is a miracle.
Koln has changed, of course, in the 20+ years since I had last visited. Despite constant renovation, the Dom looks blackened and worn from weather and pollution. Still, it defiantly endures, and the sight of it pulls fond memories of my younger years. The Koln I experienced this time showed more buildings, more cars, more shops…and of course, more global brands. A Virgin Records store. Toyota automobiles. Stella Artois beer. The Intercontinental hotel chain.
