China Stories

An update.

19th May 2008 14:30, Gerald

We've been using 偶 然 拉 普 top in 偶 然 room up until now 佛 日 调 和 色 updates.

AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

The above was supposed to say "we have been using our laptop in our room up until now to write updates" but the computer here in the business suite in the hotel keeps writing everything in Mandarin. However, I think it is sorted now.

We are going out in 20 minutes to do some more filming (GV's around Beijing- you can never have too many) so I will have to be quick.

Just wanted to give you an update of our last few days because some of the video stuff will reach you later and we might mention something which doesn't make any sense at all because you are missing out on that info.

Maria and I arrived ok, Doniel didn't as his passport went missing on the airplane or at the airport in Amsterdam, he had to go back to Glasgow to get a new one. But it was all going to take too long to sort out and so he wouldn't make it out here on time. Argh! Alastair is coming out instead. Should be here on Thursday - with the camera we were bringing out to do the diary stuff. We filmed a couple of days - it went well but it is hard when people don't speak English and we speak (very) little Mandarin. Working long days and doing diary stuff in the evenings. Crew are great. Everyone is really nice. We were stopped from filming one day by an official. Very odd and heated arguments ensued (our crew and the official as they felt he was being unfair - we looked at our feet)! Filmed with a doctor - went well. Hospital smelled strongly of herbs. Day off yesterday was welcomed. I have never been so jet lagged.

Must dash. Bye for now.

The end.

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3 minute silence.

19th May 2008, Maria

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3 minute silence #2.

19th May 2008, Gerald

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Nightshooting.

19th May 2008 21:30, Maria

Beijing looks stunning at night. Lots and lots of neon lights everywhere. We'd already decided we wanted a blue hue to our urban stories and JP understood what kind of a feel we were going for and shot some beautiful stuff tonight.

We ended up filming at a night food market. It doesn't open until late afternoon and shuts at 10pm. Little stalls with red lanterns are set up along a street and food from all over China is sold here. Everything is really cheap (less than £1) and most things seem to come on sticks or in giant brass pots. The smell was amazing - some really yummy and others pretty rank. We filmed mostly handheld along the stalls and no one seemed to mind, in fact the stall owners seemed quite used to film crews and were very natural in front of the camera.

Among the food being sold were (the obligatory) scorpions, millipedes, starfish, eels, snakes, fruit dipped in hot sugar, pancakes, dumplings, sea urchins, stew with frogs (I think) and lots of other bite size pieces of meat which I wouldn't like to hazard a guess which part of the animal they came from.

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