The Beijinger Blog - Reid Barrett

Beijing Green Guide

thebeijinger — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:45:07 +0800

To coincide with Beijing's Green Olympics, Immersion Guides has teamed up with wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC and Beijing-based conservation NGO Shan Shui Center for Nature and Society to bring you the Beijing Green Guide.

With detailed information in both English and Chinese, the Beijing Green Guide takes Immersion Guides' most accurate, up-to-date city map ever and combines it with TRAFFIC and Shan Shui’s knowledge of all things green in Beijing to show you the best, most environmentally friendly places to eat, sightsee and shop.

Those Ubiquitous iPhones

thebeijinger — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:30:00 +0800

Experts estimate that there are a million iPhones in China. Based on my last trip to Ghost Street, that’s about right. It seemed like every third Da Ge and Xiao Mei had a silver and black thing placed precariously close to some sesame sauce. I myself live in an apartment where 75% of roommates own an iPhone, putting us in the running for the most obnoxious apartment in Beijing. But, living with two other iPhone users has been great for troubleshooting this sometimes-tricky device.

Mine was bought in the States and brought back for me. I had it cracked by the friend of a Bai Nao Hui stall owner for RMB 200 back when you needed to attach a tape-like chip to your SIM card to use your local number. Now, it’s easy to crack the phone using a wireless connection and free online software. Installing Chinese language ability is also quite easy. The best input software I’ve seen is called WeFit and can be downloaded by the Installer program from the source http://www.iphone.org.hk.

One Night in Beijing Launch Party

thebeijinger — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:45:29 +0800

500 people. Eight Blocks. One Extraordinary Night

December 4th, 2007
After months of preparation, leading up to an exhilarating and exhausting night, followed by two months of photograph selecting, caption writing, fact checking, copy editing, paper picking, cover creating, party planning, sweat sweating, and wait waiting the book finally arrived! After all that work, it was time for a party.

Over 500 people, assembled at Block 8 by Chaoyang West Gate for the One Night in Beijing launch party. This lavishly textured, large-format photo book is a visual feast borne of the cooperation of 30 of Beijing’s most talented art photographers and photojournalists – brought together on August 8th, 2007 – exactly one year before the Olympics – to assemble a rich, unprecedented visual portrait of this massive metropolis and its incomparable residents.