Monday, November 5, 2007

so we found this apocalyptic dog park...

ross sees this park which faces an above ground subway station on the way to and from work every day. he wanted to turn it into a feild trip for us and we're all pretty glad he did. the park is super strange and packed full of copyright infringement, chinese weirdness, and mythologically themed kiddie rides. there's a small squatter community that actually lives in the abandoned park and the very back is a small dog park with very big dogs.


the entrance gate, and us photographing crazily in eerie disbelief






that brick area in the back is where the squatters live. just in front of that, on what used to be a race track, is a goat pen...i'm not sure if these are goats, or rams, or sheep. there's another area about 100 feet behind me with piles of corn husks. we assumed that's where the people who live there prepare their corn.


lots of overgrowth, and all kinds of poopy on the ground. you also hear a buzz from the power lines suspended above the park held by giant metal towers hundreds of feet tall on the messy fields adjacent to the park.

i'm pretty sure we'll return, we're also all posting about this neat place in the comping days so stay tuned.

10 comments:

almsaffr said...

Finally getting around to your blog. Glad to see that things are working for you in China. The paintings and photos look great. The posh high-rise is nice. Wish I could get out of Miami for a while like you.
Take care,
David.

Silvia Elena said...

This place is so amazing. What a strange life it's had...

about us said...

that place seems unbelievable...the colors of the landscape are eerie(sp?) and beautiful...i can almost feel the wind in my hair...sylvia looks good and so do you!
oh, my...yet another place to visit (when I visit!?!)

Anonymous said...

This is not anonymous...this is your sista!

Yeah... so creepy, you would not catch my ass in that place, ever! Boo, scary Chinese abandonned places.

I miss you soooo much and we have not even been able to talk in a while. Just wanted to let you know that I caught up with ur blog to see how you were.

You should take some pics of your little Chino students, that would be cute. We have to set up a Skype date so we can really catch up.

I love you

about us said...

yo, ariel's sister..: YOU"RE COOL! i love this bit about "your little chino students!" you're so your brother's sister!

harumi said...

apparently, visiting these abandant building is hip in Japan. I was web surfing one day and found some sites.
http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/research.html
They are bit spooky, but really really cool. I am sure there are more place like that in China.
coool!

oyalda said...

OK, this is officially one of those places that you don't have to take us to when we visit. No, no, I insist...perhaps another time we can arrange a whole tour of abandoned parks, but for now, I'll pass. Love ya!

Anonymous said...

wow!! everything looks amazing esp. that circus looking entrance to the dog park and u look super good!! china is bringing out a sparkle in ur eye. i'm miss u ariel...i'm so happy u look so happy lol :)

xoxoxoxo

FORMICA said...

there is a subway in china?,,, is it usefull..

Arielísimo said...

the subway here in beijing is pretty great and goes all over the city. there are the two original lines (1 goes east and west, 2 goes in a ring around the very center of the city). we live on the NE corner of line 2. there is line 13 which is a giant ring that starts and ends on the corner of line 2 where ross and i live and the NW corner of line 2. line 5 just opened in September and runs north and south bisecting all the lines.

there are 3 new lines opening before the olympics in august, and by 2012 beijing will have the largest subway in the world! bigger than NY, bigger than Moscow, bigger than London! it does get hilariously crowded but it is convenient and cheap, it's 2 yuan which is about 25 cents U.S.D. a ride.