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collection. Natural rock collecting is a very Chinese obsession and a European would have something of a struggle comprehending the rationale behind paying cash for something one might find on the bank of a river. The last place to visit before heading for Tibet is an old poet’s cottage set in luxuriant Oriental gardens. The gruelling drive towards Sichuan Province begins very early the following morning. The landscape may be spectacular but the road works and inevitable traffic jams, coupled with rising altitude headaches, preclude the enjoyment of seeing scenery that few (if any) foreigners get to see. The sturdy four wheel cars bounce like a rowing boat caught in a massive sea squall and we are almost grateful for the regular road bottlenecks that allow us to rest, take pictures and watch in wonder as labourers “live” the road works, sleeping in large tents by the roadside until they’ve completed the job. The absolute dedication to work has an entirely new meaning in China and makes it the global power that it is in terms of consumer goods production and exports. We stop in a small restaurant where rice is served from a giant communal steaming pot, but each table setting is shrink-wrapped to demonstrate cleanliness – i.e. sealed from the factory. Our guides, a mixture of government officials, drivers and the living Buddha himself, order the now familiar array of dishes, some of which we can only look at, others we sample for the first and possibly last time in our lives. The living Buddha doesn’t speak much English, but cuts a solicitous and smiling presence that exudes natural kindness. All the same, it is odd to see him sporting trainers and a mobile phone – a definitive concession to the modern world. Our next stop, after a quarry-like road, is a peak 4500 m above sea level, marked by a monument-like construction adorned with flags. It is where one Beyond Black team member quits, overtaken by altitude sickness, and is sent back to Kangding, a town set amid spectacular mountain scenery. Kangding is an important staging post on the road to Lhasa where the end of the Han Chinese world and the beginning of the Tibetan is palpable. We spend the night at the Love Song hotel, a massive building ran in the best state tradition, where we are welcomed by a small group consisting of a doctor, an English translator and other solicitous looking individuals. Photography by Pearl Lam
We spend most of the following day exploring the market street adjacent to the hotel. This is not a market street such as we know it. Here Khampas come down from the hills to sell slabs of yak butter, Tibetan monks in their distinctive robes walk in small groups, and forbidding looking Tibetan women in traditional dress shop for silk fabric. Kangding was historically the capital of the local Tibetan kingdom of Chakla and later, from 1939 to 1951, the capital of the short-lived province of Xikang. The town has been a trade center between the two cultures for centuries with the exchange of yak hides, wool, Tibetan herbs and bricks of tea wrapped in yak hide from Ya’an. JD and Frederica join us for the 8 hour drive back to Chengdu from where we take a flight back to Shanghai. There we wait for the rest of our intrepid group of Tibet travellers to bring extraordinary pictures and tales of the most challenging trip of their lives – a trip marked by extreme discomfort, yet wonderment at the beauty and purity of a culture untouched by Western civilisation. We let the pictures taken by Pearl, Andre, Linda and Lisa speak for themselves. Gallery opening The Contrasts Gallery was started by Pearl Lam in 1992 and exists in two locations: Shanghai and Beijing. The gallery’s principal goal is to promote contemporary Chinese art and artists who do not pay homage to Western art in their works, but dig deep into their own culture and heritage. The gallery maintains an artists’ residence, called The Plastic Factory, where artists can stay for a night or a year. On the 23rd August, the gallery hosted an ink and calligraphy show, exhibiting the following artists: Yuichi Inoue, a Japanese artist who died in the 80s having refused to show any of his works in his lifetime Lan Zhenghui Wang Tiande Zhang Hao Lao Zhu Wei Ligang Shao Yan Shang Yang In the lower ground floor of the gallery are the works of designer artist Danful Yang (XYZ design), WOKmedia, Shao Fan (exhibiting at V&A at the moment), Peter Ting, Maarten Baas and Jurgen Bey. The gallery opening was followed by a reception at the 18th floor of the Hengshan Road building, where Pearl houses her private art collection, and a dinner at her penthouse. The dinner was attended by gallerists, such as the very first contemporary art gallery owner in Shanghai, Lorenz Helbling, Arthur Solway of the James Cohan Gallery, artists, academics, TV personalities and collectors. A Chinese minority singer and celebrity, Namu, celebrated her birthday on the night by singing a love song and giving one of the guests, a 17 year old boy, the longest, most
memorable kiss on the lips as the other guests watched in disbelief. Last Days Our last few days in Shanghai are spent socialising and shopping. We meet Chinese cultural icon MianMian, whose book Panda Sex has been published in several languages but Chinese; business magazine owner Geoffrey de Freitas; French fashion entrepreneur, Jean-Francois Met; installation artist Qiu Anxiong; and of course our very own printers in the person of The Kangshi Printing Factory managing director, Jeff He. We shop at the cultured pearls market and dine at Mint, a slick expat watering hole and Oriental food restaurant cum dancing club on the top floor of a modern building. Below is our list of resources for anyone visiting Shanghai: Dining: Frank (French), Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore (Italian), Shintori (Japanese), Guyi (Hunan - regional south Chinese cuisine) Clubbing: Mao’s (sleek and exclusive, Mao’s is upmarket, late license and swarming with models and international jet-setters) Mint (thoroughly Westernised but extremely sophisticated club/bar/restaurant),
Le Bar Rouge (debauched expat drinking hole with incredible views looking over the new town’s impressive skyline), Soho (chic disco that would not look out of place in any of the world’s major cosmopolitan centres), Bar 88 (authentic modernday Chinese bar/club insofar as the pseudo elegance on offer is almost entirely bastardised from Western concepts), Muse, M2, Sin Shopping: Huai Huai Rd, Nanjing Rd, Qipu Rd (huge market selling cheap tat for the most part but with some bargains to be found – if you can put up with constant harassment from the salespeople) Art and culture: Contrasts Gallery, James Cohan Gallery, Bund 18 (gallery spaces and cultural centre), Moganshan Rd (street art and a collection of both private and public galleries), Jade Buddha Temple (Buddhist temple and important archaeological site) Getting there: Virgin have direct flights. We travelled via Moscow, by Aeroflot. If you are tempted to use the latter option, don’t. Our return flight was plagued by massive delays, failed air-conditioning and stroppy air hostesses. Drinks are served before and after a meal, never with a meal and if you want any alcoholic drinks, you have to buy them. White wine is not chilled and neither is beer. First class is not much better than economy. F
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Photography by Pearl Lam