This summer, I was trekking from Gansu to Qinghai province starting from Xiahe, a famous pelerinage city for Tibetan Buddhism. The trek started from the Labrang Monastery and went through the grasslands. It was a long distance of 67 km so I could not really take time to wonder around too far from the trail. […]
I love discovering historical buildings hidden in Beijing, especially the ones that are located out of the old city center, like the former Tsinghua Yuan Railway Station. I thank my friend Wang Kun for randomly posting a picture of this place on Wechat as he passed by it. I went to check the place out […]
Being a foreigner living in Datong is not as difficult as one would think. Not only is the city (sometimes) less polluted than Beijing, but it is also very sunny. More over, it is quite easy to ride the bicycle around in the countryside to discover interesting ruins like the yaodong cave dwelling or to […]
When I saw this sign, I thought it was too good to be true and had to come closer: this « prosperous industrial company » is indeed currently undergoing complete demolition. There is nothing much to say about this place – one big warehouse where there used to be a lot of construction equipment – except the […]
This is a report about an « unfinished rotten » building in Hangzhou. The city of Hangzhou is now actively preparing for the G20, which means, like for all mega-events in China, that the ultimate priority is put on the city’s image (市容 shirong): everywhere, one can notice large-scale demolition, renovation or rehabilitation of buildings. That is […]
In Datong, I have seen this picture since the first day I moved here. Abandoned and partly demolished warehouses in the city center. The former mayor Geng Yanbo had a very ambitious plan of urban renewal for the city, especially for the center areas. Demolition/construction started in 2009, and was not achieved because the mayor […]
I already wrote a first report two months ago about those strange buildings being currently on interrupted construction: I visited the unfinished Museum of Beaux-Arts and the unfinished Grand Theater. Here is my report about the unfinished-abandoned Sport center designed by the Australian firm Populous (the firm which designed the sport facilities in Nanjing for […]
I discovered this place when I was studying at Tsinghua University in 2007-2008. Wudaokou area is essentially composed of multistorey department stores and modern residential compounds. And yet, at the time, there were still some one-storey village houses and… one real hutong! The hutong still exists today. Hidden in the big city, one can be […]
