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Rediscovery of ancient commercial roads in western Beijing
Rediscovery of ancient commercial roads in western Beijing

Located in western Beijing, the West Mountains have long been known to provide stunning sights for visitors. But what’s less well known isthat these mountains used to contain coal, and because of that were once part of an ancient trade route.

Up to Bashang for a northern-frontier excursion
Up to Bashang for a northern-frontier excursion

Only 200-some kilometers from Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province is an accessible city and the nearest urban center to the Bashang Plateau, a natural grassland where one can camp, view sunrises and sunsets and go horseback riding.

Weekend

Vogue event celebrates China’s emerging fashion chic
Vogue event celebrates China’s emerging fashion chic

ā€œFashion is another way for Westerners to now Chinese culture, though it is just the beginning for us,ā€ Wang Wei, the first Chinese fashion designer to appear at London Fashion Week in 2006, said at aVogue celebration last Friday commemorating the magazine’s ffth year in China.

Friday, September 3
Friday, September 3

Taiwan indie-folk duo katncandix2, founded in 2007, released its second album, Goodbye Prince, this year and is in Beijing as part of its eight-city mainland tour.

Book

Heart of ice – Andrew Miller finds a way to continue in his novels
Heart of ice – Andrew Miller finds a way to continue in his novels

“My novels are love letters to the world. A lot of what motivated me to write is a feeling of astonishment and a love for the extraordinary things in life. Darkness and anxiety exist in my work, and not by my choosing. You cannot separate one from the other.”

Capitalism as natural no more
Capitalism as natural no more

The economist idol Adam Smith said capitalism was a natural outgrowth of human nature and inevitable, but Joyce Appleby sees its rise as unlikely from the start.

Center Stage

Beats of the land – Artist’s persistence saves ethnic heritage
Beats of the land – Artist’s persistence saves ethnic heritage

Percussion instruments are the oldest of any traditional instrument in China.
The earliest archaeological evidence of Chinese percussion music was discovered in Shanxi Province, where massive drums were made to celebrate the triumph of Li Shimin’s army durig Tang Dynasty (618-907). Drumming in Shanxi Province can be dated back centuries earlier to Xinjiang County, the ancient name of Jiangzhou, in present-day Shanxi Province.

Time to return – Leading artists assemble to define contemporary art
Time to return – Leading artists assemble to define contemporary art

The China Avant-Garde Exhibition, held at the National Art Museum of China 21 years ago, was the first time many in the West saw contemporary Chinese art. Critics of the day called it the final curtain for the ’85 New Wave Art Movement, a vague period of time in the mid-’80s when Chinese Avant-Garde emerged.