Art Class

The area in north west Beijing where Peking University and Tsinghua University are built is about 10km from the city centre. It has, over the millennia, seen several incarnations of the Imperial Summer Palaces and both university campuses are built on parts of imperial parkland, with Tsinghua keeping its parkland character better.

Just north of PKU, about 10 minutes from my hotel, is Yuanmingyuan Park, also part of this imperial construction, built in the 18th and 19th centuries and apparently once called the 'Versailles of the East'. That doesn't seem right to me, but there is certainly evidence of 18th century western tastes for grottos and follies and the romanticising of natural forces.

Anyway, while beginning to explore in a short gap in my schedule, I cam across this art class. A few more on Flickr for now.

In other news I have just killed a mosquito - let's hope it was working alone ...