Beijing

[kully]

I'm going to be there for the whole of October with work. I'll have the weekends (and hopefully the evenings) to myself.

Anyone from Beijing on this board? Anyone been and recommend places to go / photograph.

The other thing is I'd like to develop C41 over there rather than bring it all back - anyone know of any places? And what's the price like?

 

[steamer]

Kully
You lucky dog, there are more pictures waiting to be taken there than you can shake a stick at, there is always something going on. Great food, great nightlife,
lots of swell folks both expat and locals, and as soon as you get too comfortable some one comes along and rips you off. All in all, a great place to spend some time. Sorry but no clue on the film and I haven't been there in two years so I have no Idea if any of the places where I used to eat are still there.
good luck
Steamer

 

[Rayt]

The sites you can find in a guide book. For photo related needs the pros go to a place called Photo City which is a huge mall with nothing but shops selling anything connected to photography. You can get processing there.

 

[kully]

Thanks Steamer and Ray, I am a lucky dog - I'm still smiliing.

A little gutted that you can't hire a motorbike or car (or even a tiny scooter) in China unless you're a resident.

So, no Beijingers on the board?

 

[Avotius]

FYI you can rent a bike, scooter even if you are not a resident. I do it all the time although im in Chongqing not Beijing. Color dev should be about 30-40 RMB depending on if you get prints, that price there is for a whole set of 6 inch prints (4x6, they just say 6 inch). For the most part places that do color devloping or film devleoping in general suck, ask to see negatives that already have been developed there first. Try to stick to larger camera stores for developing and printing although you still may strike out with that. Expect to get ripped off somewhere, if you go into a used camera store and see some old chinese rangefinder or something keep in mind that for the most part they sell for less then 150 yuan (good clean one) and less then 50 for a user one. For black and white devloping you may have to be carefull, some of the places dont hand process and if they do they reuse the chems a billion times. Same story for color, like I said, try to see some other negatives first.

Also expect to see people who dont know how to stand in line, that is the one thing I see forigners in china complaining about more then anything, its just mobs of people cramming into eachother.

ps. I would not dare drive a car around, chinese car drivers are insane by american/british standards and you would have a heart attack just sitting in the back of a taxi let along watching a bus full of people driving into oncoming trafic just to get ahead of the person in front of him.

 

[Macpod]

apart from the usual places, go walk around in one of the 'hu tongs'. they look really seedy but is what 60% of beijingers lived in 20 years ago. heaps of national geographic type shots.

 

[Avotius]

oh and my number one travel tip for china. if it has a price to get in the door of some touristy cultral oddity its probably not worth it

 

[kully]

Arrr.. it is true Avoitus - for 99% of cases.

Thanks for the scooter info, I was reading up on China and the info was that any motorised form of transport required a licence and that needed a residency. I don't mind hiring from a dodgy bloke down an alley though. As for the traffic 0 I learnt to ride a motorbike in the Punjab and I've driven in Lebanon - China holds no fear over me in that respect ;-) Actually, I've always found the crazier the driving the less chance of an accident as everyone is super-aware, rather than brain-dead driving as they do here in England.

I'll do some research on Chinese cameras, I wouldn't mind bringing one back as a souvenir.

 

[markloy]

Beijing Photo city

Beijing Photo city

The photo city is near to the Wu-Ke-Song metro station. From the entrance of hte station, take a taxi or a three-wheeled scooter (5 Chinese yuan) to the shopping complex which is about 2 kilometer away.

Been there a few times. Nothing much you can get from there unless you are interested in vintage cameras - I could not find any Canonets, Yashica Gs, Olympus rangefinder. Only a few Canon P, Vi, Contax G2s, and they are not cheap.

 

[kully]

Cheers Markloy, I'd buy a chinese camera if I bought one - no point in going all the way there to buy a Contax or a Canonet.

 

[kully]

Just a few more days until I fly to Beijing for five weeks.

My kit is already packed:

R2a (CV 40/1.4 & Jup 85/2)
iiia (I-22 50/3.5)
D70s + (50/1.8 & 18-50/2.8)

And Sensia II 100 (11), HP5+ (6), Tri-X (7), Reala (4) and some odd rolls of Provia 100/400.

I'm finally getting hyped up, wondering whether anyone here lives in Beijing and fancies a meet? First round on me.

 

[EmilGil]

Don't miss the buddhist temple in the north-west part of town, it's a kilometer from a subway stop in the north-west corner of the ring-line. Lots of incense and praying chinese.

 

[photocrazy]

Hi, I can give u some tips. Hou Hai is a good place to shoot, which is behind the Forbidden City. Then in Dong Si, you can find a photo store called Hui Feng Hang. You can develop slide for £ 1 per roll there. Quality is good and you can take your slides in three hours. Also you can buy films there which are bargain compared to UK prices. Then I do suggest you get up early a day, say 6:00 A.M. and go to the main entrance of the Forbidden City where you can shoot people doing morning exercises. Qian Men used to be Beijing's major shopping district in ancient time. Now, possibly you can draw some inspirations from the industrial-scaled demolition process. The first week of October is China's National Day holiday season. You will expect a very crowded Beijing as millions of people from all over the country rush to the city for a tour. October is the best season in Beijing. Plenty of sunshine and not stifling hot. Towards the end of the month, you could encounter autumn sandstorms.

 

[kully]

Lovely photocrazy - I've printed out your post and stuck it in my notebook. Do you have any more specific information on the Hui Feng Hang shop?

Emil - I'll be popping into that temple then, thanks.

 

[photocrazy]

By the way, I could go back to Beijing in the latter half of October. So possibly, we can have a meet. Sorry just a correction. The photo store is called Xiang Sheng Hang, which is located near the National Gallery. Its English name is Photochance. If you can't find it, just ask for San Lian Book Store. They are in the same building. Here is the link http://www.photochance.com/en/
its location
http://www.photochance.com/en/xshpath.php

 

[newfinder]

forbidden city of course, bring some B/W films for street shooting;

Enjoy your stay in Beijing, very good photography city🙂

 

[kully]

Well, one week here, fou more to go.

I found the shop, they did a good job of my test roll of C-41, ~£1.90 for 36 frames with 3.5x5" prints, cheaper without the prints.

Went there and bought some refrigerated Lucky B&W film, ~51p/36 for the ISO100 and ~72p for the ISO400, although looking at the development times in the pack, it seems like the ISO400 is just the ISO100 pushed two stops.

They still have the photo exibition in the back with some old folders, RFs, an ALPA, a chrome MP and even an olive anniversary edition Bessa-T with 50mm heliar on show.

A little down the road from the main shop they have a smaller shop with LF gear, B&W processing equipment, 2nd hand photo books and B&W processing at ~£1.80 a roll (or ~£2.80 with contact) and that includes pushing it (I have HP5+ @ 1600). This shop is futher down the road (50 yards).

The main place opens at 09:00 and closes at 21:00 - 22:00 and the smaller place closes at 18:00 - which knackers me as I finish work at that time.

Beijing is great, polluted, but clean and even the people asking you if you want "ladybirds and lady massages" are friendly.

I'm going to have a shag load of scanning to do when I get back....

Now I just need to spend this time getting over my immense shyness of taking photos...

 

[nico]

Hi Kully!
I missed this thread. I'm happy you're enjoying your trip 🙂!
The good news is that this morning I finally did the payment 🙂!!!
Hope to see some photo soon!
Have a nice trip.
Bye
Nico

 

[photocrazy]

you can also visit 798 gallery which is located in northeastern part of the city. The surrounding area is regarded as Beijing bohemian corner.