A 20-minute cab ride away the uber-hip art district of 798, an alley way cigarette shop adds its own craftiness to Beijing's usually beige street-scape.These pinwheels, folded out of used cigarette carton containers, line the cast iron* fence behind the Novotel Hotel at the Chongwenmen subway stop in Beijing. My hotel room looked out on this alley during the March week I spent in Beijing. No doubt the alley was cleaned up because of its proximity to the international-class hotel, but it's still a dusty, grey alleyway, nondescript and slightly blighted. Though the hand-folded pinwheels are not the avant-garde art shown in the now international galleries of the 798 District, this touch of beautification made a big impression on me.
**I thought this fence was wrought iron, which I misspelled. Thanks to the reader who caught my typo and corrected me--it's not wrought iron; it's cast iron.
2 comments:
rot-iron
Should be wrought-iron (as in iron fashioned into a fence by forging)
BUT, that fence is cast iron. The iron was poured into a mold, and the fence was assembled cold, with no heating or working of the iron.
My stars! Thanks for catching my typo. Furthermore–cast iron, duly noted. Thanks!
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