Greetings from Beijing

[Chacal]

Hello all, I am in Beijing for a couple of weeks. I visited the Forbidden City on last Saturday and shot a few interesting textures and objects, including a centuries-old sundial!

The challenge was to find a piece of floor or wall without a little Chinese person on it. The Forbidden City was closed to Chinese people for centuries, and now they're making up for it. At any given time, you're sharing the place with around a million of them. I stood at the main gate for 10 minutes and I estimated that roughly 2000 people got in during that time. When you get out, you have to shake your clothes and belongings just to make sure you're not unknowingly kidnapping whole families.

Here's a link to some low-res examples:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/bruno.guay/B ... 9WhofXuBQ#

I also went to the Summer Palace but that was a formal social event at night, so no textures.

[Aikijitsu]

very nice. Have a good time there. Bring back lots of souvenirs for us.

[Robert The Rebuilder]

Oh, he does give us souveniers, Aikijitsu - wonderful textures!

Chacal: one way you can make a little room for yourself is to fake a coughing/sneezing fit, drop on all fours, and start oinking. The place will clear out, guaranteed. But you might find yourself sealed in a plastic tent soon thereafter, so use this technique sparingly.

[Jojon]

O-ho, the great zero - right in the zhong of the guo.

Similar iron...err..."brackets" (failing to think of the proper word) were used to lock stones together, by Greek and South American cultures, as well, apparently - great minds think alike, or something. :)

Careful with them thousand-year-old eggs... :9

[Chacal]

Last night I crossed a river in downtown Beijing on a very old stone bridge, and similar iron brackets could be seen holding stones together.

[Aikijitsu]

Ages could always use iron brackets. Makes everything looks old and well built.
I wish I could be there. Some day, I'll get a chance to go.

Keep enjoying your trip.

[ametist]

Thanks for sharing those nice pics - textures! Those doors... awesome! And what a light! You must have a fast 'camera-clicking-finger' - no little chinese person in sight

[Chacal]

I went to several other places but sadly, not many new textures. The part of the Great Wall I climbed today was all grey bricks. The temples I visited are similar to the forbidden city.

[Karkadann]

the Palace Museum and IBM got together and made a virtual world version

Show Spoiler

http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org

[Chacal]

Cool.