Because the oil paintings for my exhibition were send to China in a big roll they have to stretched and framed again here in Beijing. Gallerist Abraham Lubelski who lives partly in New York and partly in Beijing knows of course his way in China. So we were send to a workshop in the neighbourhood where they could do this for me. This was a new experience.
Don't believe to much about the stories that more and more Chinese have some knowledge of the English language, even in a very basic way. No one of the people in the workshop spoke one word of English. Well, may be 'goodby'. But then there is a simple solution: just use your mobile to phone the English speaking coworker at the gallery, explain to her the problem and she will translate that the other. In this way we solved problems about the costs of the framing and the date of delivery. Even the big boss came out of his invisible office where he had been consulted several times by one of the guys in the workshop. One of the advantages of this kind of experiences is of course that you learn in a quick way about the Chinese manners in doing business.

In the meantime our taxidriver had been waiting for us to bring us to a few other places we had planned to visit today. One of them was the Today Art Museum, a really nice and new museum for modern art. Another goal was the Art District 798, a huge complex of old factories that has been renovated partly in the last few years and where a lot of galleries, cafes and restaurants have found a place. This center is becoming more and more famous around the world, especially now Chinese art is so booming. Business seems going so well that also the rest of the other empty spaces is renovated and even partly rebuild. It's a very interesting place where we couldn't spend enough time. Therefore I'll report about it after a next visit that probably will take a whole day.

Another interesting aspect of today was that the taxidriver who took us around all day did cost

€ 20. Taking into account that Beijing is a very big city with really large distances between the different districts this is really no money. Therefore we probably skip the idea of renting a bike or even buy one. The taxidriver knows where to go, a bike doesn't.

Tomorrow I'll have my first meeting with the group of artists I would like to work with on the banners. On one side I'm looking forward to that, on the other side it's rather thrilling because I don't know them yet and don't even know what kind of art they make. So new adventures are waiting!