Beijing Apartment and Snow

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Hello everyone,
well its been a while since I have updated this site. Since my last TravelBlog entry I have moved to Beijing, China where I have started a job teaching English to adults and a training center here.

I will be posting photo updates to this site periodically. One of the main reasons I will be using this site is that travelblog, unlike many other popular blogging sites, is currently accessible to all in China, not just those with the right software.

In this update I will be posting some pictures of my new apartment here, my commute to work, and the Hutong neighborhoods around my apartment. For those of you who are unfamilar with the term, a hutong is a narrow traditional style street that typically is lined with houses built around a courtyard. The hutong provide a sharp contrast to the wide high-rise lined boulevards found in many newer districts of the city.

I live very close to the divide between the older Hutong, and the newer districts of the city. My builidng is an older low-rise surrounded by traditional courtyard homes. I am only about a 5 minute walk from the subway, and very close to the boundary with Chaoyang district, one of the most modern districts of Beijing.

Stay tuned

Steve

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Photos

My Apartment
Looking toward the dining room and living room

My apartment
Looking toward the bedroom

Bedroom 3
During the day this time

Apartment
During the daytime

Apartment
Although the exterior of my building is in need of some maintenance, everything in the apartment was brand new when I moved in.

View
View from my window looking north. My apartment is surrounded by traditional Hutongs. However, it is very close to the 2nd ring road, which forms the border between the older part of Beijing and the more modern neighborhoods.

View
View from my window.

View
The subway stop is just behind these larger buildings in the background - about a 5 minute walk away.

Front Entrance
Leaving my apartment to head to work.

Exterior
The outside of my apartment building.

Walking to the Subway.
This is the hutong I walk down to get between my apartment building and the subway.

Hutong views
The newer districts of Beijing begin at the end of this Hutong.

My commute
This is the street where my English center is located. It is located in an outer district of urban Beijing, close to the Bird's Nest Stadium where the Olympics were held.

Grand Place
I work on the 16th floor of this building.

Snow!
It snowed yesterday morning. Apparently this was the first precipitation Beijing has seen since October.

Hutong
I decide to walk to my Mandarin class and take pictures of the snowy hutong along the way. It is about a 20 minute walk, entirely through the Hutong.

Siehyuan
Traditional style courtyard homes line the Hutongs. While these were once how nearly all Beijingers lived, in recent years many Hutong have been replaced with high rises, and the process of suburbanization has begun.