Beijing at Night

Lotus the person who owns our apartment took Leanna and I to dinner and to see Beijing the other evening(8/11/08). So she drove us to Tenemen Square, when she tried to pull into some drive she was stopped by an attendant. So we drove down the road and after a while I realize we were only going about 10 or so km/hr.

This kind of concerned Leanna and I since we were on a main highway where other vehicles were zooming by. So Leanna asked Lotus if she had fallen asleep. To which Lotus replied she had only slowed down to wait for it to get dark, sho she could show us the light at night. This is China (see previous posting on driving in China) so we just sat back and tried to relax.

Lotus was right, the city completely transforms itself when it gets dark. The city lights up buildings, bridges, and attractions with a combination of spotlights, florescent lights and string lights. For the most part the lights are used to accent the area, not to make it look like Las Vegas, so it is not gaudy and very nice.

Some parts of Beijing are interesting during the day. Like the building across the street from our classroom which has grass growing on the roof to help insulate the roof or the CCTV building. There are a lot of building that are somewhat mundane during the day but when the lights are added at night come alive. Then of course there are a few that are interesting during the day and are just as or even more interesting at night. Unfortunately my camera batteries were getting low when it got dark so I don't have many night photos.