Charles Hecht | China Diary #5

China Diary #5

Leslie was kind enough to offer to take me to the airport. Somehow Continental had lost the plane in the airport, so we were an hour and a half late in departing from Newark. The flight was uneventful, but I was appreciative for the direct flight to Beijing. It was big improvement over stopping over and switching planes in Los Angeles or Tokyo.

Day 1 Monday
August 14, 2006

When I arrived in Beijing I called Li Gang. Gang advised me that he was at a funeral for his mother-in-law. She lived on since April but it was a very painful death. I then caught a cab to the Beijing International Arts Camp, commonly known as SAC. From the past I had learned that cab drivers do not like to go there from the airport because it is too short a trip. They apparently wait in line for a number of hours at the airport just like the taxi drivers do in New York.

When I got there I couldn’t locate the key in the place where Lennart had told me they would be. But David’s studio was open and I knew David had an extra key. David helped me move in. It was nice to have my own place for a change. Since Lennart was a gallery owner he finished his artist studio strictly for living.

As you walk in the living room is approximately 48' x 24' with nice bamboo wood flooring, a stone tile entranceway behind glass doors and ceilings up to 25' high. It ends at a large fireplace which was covered by a Zhang Fan Bu “Eagle” painting. Behind the fireplace is another room that Lennart uses to show his small sculptures and behind that is the small kitchen and separate bathroom with a washing machine and a closet area where Lennart stores his personal possessions. Upstairs are two small bedrooms connected with a passageway along the side which I used as a work area for my wood cuts.

After unpacking I was too tired to even take a shower and I went to sleep for three hours. When I got up we were supposed to go out to dinner at a local place, but David had decided instead to cook dinner. At dinner I met Denise Keele-bedford an Australian artist who was living in the SAC compound. After dinner I went back to Lennart’s place and was able to sleep through the night.

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