Beijing Olympics Site Arcitechture Videos

Here are a few short clips from early June of the Beijing Olympics site. The architecture is phenomenal. To say the least, it will be interesting to see how the Opening Ceremonies go.

Beijing Photos on Flickr

Okay, here's a link to some Beijing photos I uploaded to Flickr. If all goes as planned, I should have some more pics from my visit to China on Flickr soon.


Photography by Chris Osburn © 2008

Shanghai Graffiti Photos (Juxtapoz)

Photos: Graffiti in Shanghai, China
Chris Osburn, London Correspondent
Juxtapoz
Tuesday, 24 June 2008









Generally speaking, graffiti in Shanghai is an extremely rare sight. Buildings come and go at such a rapid pace that, even if an intrepid artist had touched up a particular wall, there's a good chance that said wall would have been demolished soon after ... The exception to this rule is Moganshan Road, where you can hardly take a step without spotting some graff. The area around Moganshan Road is Shanghai's art district where, luckily, the art isn't just confined to the galleries and shops.

Click here for complete post and all the photos.

Photographing China (PhotoBox)

Photographing China
Chris Osburn, PhotoBox blogger
PhotoBox
June 24th, 2008










A recent three week trip to China (mostly for fun but with a little business thrown in for good measure) provided an overabundance of photo opportunities and a range of fascinating experiences to impart with readers of the PhotoBox blog. With the Olympics soon to commence in Beijing and unprecedented economic growth stimulating a building boom the likes of which the world has never seen, the difficulty wasn’t deciding when to snap a photo but having the wherewithal to put the camera away at all!

Click here for complete post

Shanghai Photos on Flickr

I finally got a few of my pics from Shanghai up on Flickr, and I hope to upload more from my time in China soon. Click here to check out some of my Shanghai pics.



Photography by Chris Osburn © 2008

Emiana's China Photos on Flickr

How does she do it? I'm still Photoshoppin' around with my pics from our trip to China and my better half, Emiana, has already posted a whole China set on Flickr. In fact, she's already been contacted by a Chinese blogger who posted one of her pics as part of a fulue.com post about the similarities of cinnamon and the Beijing Olympic torch. Neat.

Click here to view Emiana's China set on Flickr.

Photography by Emiana © 2008

Beijing Graffiti (Juxtapoz)

Photos: Beijing Graffiti
Chris Osburn, UK Correspondent
Juxtapoz
Friday, 13 June 2008














Osburn reports, “Similar to Shanghai, Beijing doesn't appear to have much graffiti, particularly for a city of its immense size. Still, if you know where to look, there's plenty to see. One brilliant part of town to view street art is the 798 Art Zone, an abandoned military electronics complex that's now one of Beijing's handful of thriving artist districts.”

Click here for complete post and all the photos.

Western Tourist's Report of Protest in Lhasa, Tibet

Lhasa eyewitness: 'City in cinders'
After days of violent street protests, a Western tourist in Lhasa, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes a tense, deserted city firmly in the hands of the Chinese military.

BBC News
Last Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008, 18:12 GMT

Some tourists who were in the east were forcibly removed from their hotels and hostels. Police turned up today and tried to forcibly remove all of us to a hotel further out west ... Our hostel was largely occupied by Chinese people and they were panic-stricken. They armed themselves with anything they could find; beer bottles, meat cleavers. They started to break chairs and windows to arm themselves.

Click here for complete article.

Deputy Mayor of Delhi Killed by Horde of Monkeys

Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor
Delhi's deputy mayor dies after falling from a terrace while trying to fight off a horde of wild monkeys.
BBC News
Last Updated: Sunday, 21 October 2007, 21:33 GMT 22:33 UK










SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.

Click here for complete article.

Girlie Men of the Taliban

I originally saw this video from Slate.com posted at Inner Diablog. Fascinating and definitely worth a look see.

The State of Foreign Tourism in Japan

Land Of Rising Tourism Hopes
A hip reputation offers a chance to boost lagging traffic—if Japan will seize it
By Ian Rowley
Business Week
SEPTEMBER 3, 2007

Tourism accounts for just 2% of gross domestic product in Japan, compared with 11% in Spain. While the number of visitors from other Asian countries has been rising, Americans and Europeans are getting scarcer. That's perhaps in part due to a problem that Doyel faced: The language barrier is close to impenetrable, and many streets in Tokyo don't have signs—even in Japanese, let alone English.

Click here for complete article.

Photography courtesy of Johnia!'s photostream on Flickr.

Air Travel on the Rise in China

Air China profits rise three-fold
Air China has seen its profits increase three-fold in the first six months of the year, thanks to passenger demand and a stronger local currency.
BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 29 August 2007, 10:34 GMT 11:34 UK

The number of people flying in China has grown significantly as its continuing economic boom creates a growing middle class prepared to spend more on travel.

Click here for complete article.

Photography courtesy of zzathras777's photostream on Flickr

London to Mongolia ... in an ice cream truck!

Rum, raisin and rotten roads
To drive from London to Mongolia takes some doing. To try it in this ice cream van, stopping to serve cones to passers-by and border guards along the way, is one step beyond.
BBC News
Last Updated: Tuesday, 24 July 2007, 12:24 GMT 13:24 UK

Backpacking just isn't for me. Everyone goes backpacking, or so it seems, I want a proper old-fashioned adventure and to do something nobody has ever done before. And so we are pushing back the boundaries of ice cream vending.

Click here for complete article.

No More Starbucks in Forbidden City

Forbidden City Starbucks closes
A Starbucks coffee shop operating on the historic site of Beijing's Forbidden City has closed down after huge protests.
BBC News
Last Updated: Saturday, 14 July 2007, 06:26 GMT 07:26 UK

An online campaign arguing that the shop was trampling on Chinese culture had drawn more than 500,000 signatures.

Click here for complete article.

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Photography courtesy of ellesil's photostream on Flickr

No Slutty Chickens!

This post is courtesy of a Mystery Contributor from Shanghai:

A friend went to Beijing recently. As he perused the menu he noticed that the Chinese characters for "young chicken" were translated into English as "chicken without sexual experience." I can't believe he didn't steal the menu.

Okayama, Japan's pedal-powered roller coaster

TreeHugger-Style Roller Coaster in Japan: It's Pedal Powered
by Lloyd Alter
TreeHugger
03.14.07










Here is the future of the green amusement park: The Skycycle at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama, a pedal-powered roller coaster. They clearly have some dramatic topography to take advantage of here, and it looks truly frightening.

Click here for complete post.

The Borat effect

Borat causes tourism boom
Kazinform
05.03.2007/12:24

Kazakhstan - ridiculed in the smash hit movie featuring Sacha Baron Coohen's outragegous TV reporter - is having the last laugh as tourists flock there to see what all the fullss is about. The Central Asian republic, the ninth largest country in the world, was virtually a tourist-free zone until the film's success.

Click here for complete article.

Photos of daily life in Iran

Here's a link to a webpage with lots of photographs of fairly mundane stuff from Iran. I thought it was interesting since we as westerners rarely get a glimpse of such scenes.

Images of Iran
News of Interest.TV

2007

Click here to view the site.

Merry Christmas from Shanghai

The Blue Tree © Kimberly 2006

Guide to design and pop culture in Tokyo

Thanks to a tip from a good friend, I learned about this great blog by Jean Snow, who "lives and breathes design and pop culture in Tokyo -- sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes." Among Jean's impressive list of doings is his recently started new podcast series called Tokyo Boy, "which are recordings done while out and about in the city, recorded on my iPod with the iTalk recorder."

jeansnow.net