As Seen by TV

As I mentioned in my last post, I had to follow (and capture) a Russian delegation from Moscow’s Skolkovo business school, on their Executive Exchange program through 3 Chinese cities.  They were a real riot… to say the very least.  The 9-day trip was a packed agenda of visiting companies, government institutions, meetings with high-level executives as well as cultural walks and landmarks.  This is a “best of” selection of the images taken during that trip.

Companies/government institutions visited: Lianhua Group, China Telecom, Huiyuan Juices, Metersbonwe, Zendai Group, Frog Design, Science & Innovation Center, Lenovo, Geely, Xizi Group, Cybernaut Captail Management, Alibaba, Suzhou Government Industrial Park, Suzhou Venture Group, Silikron, Innolight Technologies and Snail Game.

For 9 days in mid-November I had to document an Executive Eduction Tour by a Russian delegation visiting China (more pics on that to follow).  Touring around Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou we visited companies and tourist attractions.  This set of images was taken at a Chinese Opera performance on and in Hangzhou’s mystical West Lake, while it was raining.  It was quite beautiful to say the least.

…and with that I wish you all a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Just got back from 5 days of shooting a seminar in Hangzhou, a picturesque city just over an hours train from Shanghai.

We were staying in a hotel in the tea village of Meijiawu, where the seminar was taking place. Don’t let the night exposures fool you, it was dark as hell… all of these images were taken with 15-200sec exposures.

For lunch/dinner we had some interesting stuff, it was my first time to eat goat, pig heart + tongue, and bullfrog… not to mention the regular stuff like river eel, pig intestine, tree fungus (delicious!!), and cooked chicken blood.

On one of the last evenings we were treated to a… interesting show which was located on a piece of land that can only be described as a Chinese Disneyland.  Fake mountains, over-priced “authentic” food, and all the staff walking around in traditional wardrobe from the various dynasties.  The show was pretty ridiculous… although it was nice to see a whole stage filled with beautiful Chinese girls belly-dancing followed by Indian-style dancing in outrages costumes (everything from full-on warrior battle gear to girls dressed as butterflies and lily pads).  I will also never forgive my colleague Kevin (aka “King Jian Ren”) for telling me not to bring my camera along!  Thanks jian!

The post title comes from the Chinese saying: 上有天堂，下有苏杭 which translates to “Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below.”