Dr. Mark Nan Tu

1: Beijing 798 Art District

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Best Photographic season:All Year Round
798 is an art district, similar to New York’s SOHO district and Minneapolis’ River Walk. The factories were built in 1950s and had German style architecture. Most of the factories in 798 went out business in the 1980s and have left empty through out 1990s. Since 2002, individual artists started to rent empty factory floors and turn them into show rooms. However, most of the activities were grassroots and the rumor of immediate demolition of the area was always on the background of the area development. In 2006, Beijing municipal government decided to put in resources to build this area not only as show rooms for individual artist but as a creative and design center for clothing manufacturers. Today, this area is filled with artist

XiuFeng Temple

XiuFeng Residence is one of the historical remains

Located only 30km on the north east of Beijing, JiuFeng (Eagle

For the past few months, I have been using the south and east 4th ring to get to and back from work. Today, I used the north 4th ring at 6pm and I spend 1.5 hours to get from ZhongGuanChun to the Bird Nest (national stadium). The distance is less than 7 km. If you do the math, you will know that the speed is about 5km/hour, slightly faster than walking.

I started off at the ShiJiQing qiao at the north west of the 4th ring at about 6pm.. The car came to a stand still in ZhongGuangChun along with thousands of other cars.. After 1.5 hours stop and go, I went pass the Birds Nest. All of a sudden, the traffic was smooth again as most of the vehicles exited to the Birth

Workers are putting the final touches to the outside square, the parking space and the streets.

The Beijing National Stadium, also known as

The entrance to the BaiWangShan Forest Park

The Statue on the BaiWangShan: Mother looking for her son coming back from the battle field

BaiWangShan which directly translated into English is: Hundred Looks Hill, is a national forest park located in the north of the 5th ring road in the HaiDian district. Because of its proximity to the city and well designed trails, it becomes one of favorite hiking spot for the beginner hikers. The name came from a Chinese fork lore in the Song dynasty. The mother of the famous Chinese worrier YangJiaJiang was standing here watching the road and hope her sons came back home with victory in the battlefield.

Covering an area of 150 hectares (371 acres), the forest park has a great variety of mature trees, including common smoke trees and torch trees.

I was there during the weekend. The entrance ticket was 6 RMB and it is well worth the price. There are several trails to the top of a mid-sized peak and additional trails from there down several ridges behind the mountain. At the top there is a tower which offers terrific 360 degree views. The park is only 3.5 km east of the Yiheyuan. On a clear day like today, I can see the temples on the WanShou temple and the Kunming Lake in the Yiheyuan. The park were very nicely landscaped and there were few people, much less intense than at Xiangshan.

During the autumn season, the park offers great view of the red maple leaves.

How to get there:
Bus routes: 330, 716, 718, 722, 752, 903, 933, T4, T6 and Yuntong 112

The deadly earthquake (7.9 magnitude) in Sichuan, China on May 12th took at least 12 thousand precious lives so far and the death toll is sure to rise since some of the towns in the quake center are still not accessible at this point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/asia/13china.html?bl&ex=1210910400&en=4350a6cfda5b8c73&ei=5087%0A

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/china.quake/index.html

There are several ways to donate online if you want to help the people in suffer:

Online donation links:
— American Red Cross (Southern Arizona Chapter), Chinese Earthquake
Relief Fund.
http://www.redcrossarizona.org/site/PageServer?pagename=appeal_may08disasters

— American Red Cross , Chinese Earthquake Relief Fund.
https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=1894939365&df_id=3198&3198.donation=form1
— MercyCorp
http://www.mercycorps.org/chinaearthquake/

— Hong Kong Red Cross (choose China Relief)
https://www.redcross.org.hk/donation/user_donation.asp

And it would be greatly appreciated if you could forward the links above to other people that may be interested to help.

Thank you!

I attended a marriage ceremony and wedding reception today. The groom is my nephew. The wedding ceremony was attended by the couples’ immediate families and their friends.