As the title suggests, Lacey and I plan to go back to Beijing multiple times, but here are some pictures from our first trip last month. We arrived right when spring did!

A flag at the edge of Tiananmen Square, on an unusually crystal-clear day.

 

The south-facing front gate of the Forbidden City, complete with Mao’s most famous likeness.

 

It’s hard to capture the staggering size of the Forbidden City in a photograph (or even many photographs), but that’s what I was trying to do with this shot of an inner gate, one of many in the ancient palace complex.

 

A more intimate view? The menacing handle of a giant Forbidden City urn.

 

 

 

I imagined these tourist groups were ancient invaders, pouring through an inner gate.

 

The gardens at the back of the city show a softer side; this one was reportedly the strolling-ground of countless concubines.

 

But I kept trying to capture the complex’s overwhelming dimensions.

 

From all kinds of angles!

 

North of the Forbidden City, we relaxed in Beihai Park while Chinese tourists took pictures of us taking pictures of flowers.

 

The next day, in a more modern venue, we admired an enormous selection of art in Beijing’s avant-garde art district, known simply as “798.”

 

A different breed of dragons than those at the Forbidden City.

 

Lacey with art.

 

 

 

 

Our friends Henrik and Hedda enjoy their coffee.

 

 

We rounded out the day at Club Mao, where a screaming punk band and its delirious fans proved that life in modern China is anything but simple.