Stuck In Customs » Beijing http://stuckincustoms.com Unique photography for unique people. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:25:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en Trey at the Great Wall http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/20/trey-at-the-great-wall/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/20/trey-at-the-great-wall/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:26:09 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/?p=1685 I’m not sure how I got in this position, or how I got the camera on a timer, but I did it. Just afterwards, I cut open my knee when jumping across a tiny gap in the wall to get back to my camera. Getting this shot was a lot like playing Braid, in retrospect.

You can see the Great Wall there on the left (and under me).

Trey at the Great Wall

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/20/trey-at-the-great-wall/feed/ Grabbing Dinner in Beijing http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/18/grabbing-dinner-in-beijing/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/18/grabbing-dinner-in-beijing/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:13:50 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/?p=1683 I had decided to eat out on the streets, since there seemed to be such a variety. The real reason might have been there was this guy with a giant vat of fresh unagi (eel) which happens to be my favorite. I bought enough to feed a small family and ate it while I marched around with my camera, looking for a good spot for the shot.

The second shot below is of a famous Chinese dancer warming up for the Olympic ceremonies by launching himself into the air, just beside the official flag.

Grabbing Dinner in Beijing

Dou Dou Huang Soars up the Beijing 2008 Banner

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/08/18/grabbing-dinner-in-beijing/feed/ The Wall Across a Continent http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/01/27/the-wall-across-a-continent/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/01/27/the-wall-across-a-continent/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:58:01 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/01/27/the-wall-across-a-continent/ The Great Wall sprawls on and on… still the most impressive thing I have ever seen built by man. Four horses can go side by side while walking along the walls. I thought of all the European castles I have built where I would be standing on a wall and thinking, at the time, wow, this is really a big and impressive castle. But then one day you make it to the Great Wall and you think back… wow, I was really kinda out of the loop on this whole magnitude issue.
The Wall Across a Continent

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/01/27/the-wall-across-a-continent/feed/ The Kwik-E-Mart in the Backstreets of Beijing http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/10/04/the-kwik-e-mart-in-the-backstreets-of-beijing/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/10/04/the-kwik-e-mart-in-the-backstreets-of-beijing/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:18:31 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/10/04/the-kwik-e-mart-in-the-backstreets-of-beijing/ I went ahead and bought a cardboard sheet of dried fish even though I was not hungry. It was sort of like getting one of those tiny fried apple pies from 7-11, only completely opposite.
The Kwik-E-Mart in the backstreets of Beijing

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/10/04/the-kwik-e-mart-in-the-backstreets-of-beijing/feed/ The Christian Church in Beijing http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/11/the-christian-church-in-beijing/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/11/the-christian-church-in-beijing/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:25:00 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/11/the-christian-church-in-beijing/ I shot this just after dusk…
Beijing Christian Church

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/11/the-christian-church-in-beijing/feed/ The Back Streets of Beijing http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/09/the-back-streets-of-beijing/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/09/the-back-streets-of-beijing/#comments Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:47:44 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/09/the-back-streets-of-beijing/ I tried to get into Tiananmen Square in the middle of the big pre-Olympic celebration. The military not only had the whole square shut down, but they also had all the surrounding blocks at a standstill.

A taxi dropped me off where the police told him to drop me off - and my taxi driver did not ask questions. It was impossible for me to get over to the square. All of my cajoling and joking with the Chinese government police was absolutely not working. They neither found me charming nor amusing. It was about as useful as when I was stuck in immigration in Canada and trying to get back across the border using only my Blockbuster card as identification.

This left me in an older part of Beijing for about 5 hours trying to find my way back to my hotel or something I could recognize, since most of the car activity was shut down in the central part of the city. I went through a ton of back streets and captured many interesting things with my camera. I’ll post them in coming weeks!

The Backstreets of Beijing

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/09/the-back-streets-of-beijing/feed/ Across the Chinese Countryside http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/07/across-the-chinese-countryside/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/07/across-the-chinese-countryside/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:15:15 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/07/across-the-chinese-countryside/ The green valleys of remote China on a summer day…
Across the Chinese Countryside

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/09/07/across-the-chinese-countryside/feed/ The Great Wall of China on a Summer Day http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/08/21/the-great-wall-of-china-on-a-summer-day/ http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/08/21/the-great-wall-of-china-on-a-summer-day/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:04:19 +0000 tratcliff http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/08/21/the-great-wall-of-china-on-a-summer-day/ The immensity of the Great Wall is something that has to be seen to be believed. I don’t know if this shot can do it justice, but if you zoom in, you can see how this goes off into the infinite mountains of China.
The Great Wall of China on a Summer Day

]]> http://stuckincustoms.com/2007/08/21/the-great-wall-of-china-on-a-summer-day/feed/