The Raish Bros Gain access to the Forbidden city! (......for $8 each)

the post office in china is super drab.

my box got f'd up. i mailed this to myself 2 weeks ago. No one was home so they left it at the post office in Jianguomenwai which is a 20 min taxi ride away! it weighs 60 lbs and cost $220 to ship priority mail.


and boy did they treat my package well. it looks like it rolled down the himalayas. it also had a sticker on it saying that it arrived in that condition and was repacked by the Beijing post office. Probably after they took some of my cool stuff out for themselves!

I didn't know which one of these shots i liked better. I like them both. there are lots of interesting colors used here, and lots of sprawling walls that are perfect to frame your subject on. and what better subject than bob drinking his morning coffee so he will stop complaining about how tired he is.


they gave us our buns in these dainty little bags. perfect for our dainty little hands.

this kid had on crotchless and arse-less pants.

we decided to give these chiken and burger things a whirl at "Q mart" or watever its called, it's like 7-11 which they also have here. boy was it a mistake we took one bite and were totally disgusted. by far the worst food we have ever had in china.

we finally made it to the Donganmen night market. its basically a super long line of carts selling gross and weird stuff. here you have scorpions, sea urchin like things, octopus, squids, even star fish!


this is the biggest foto post ever because this is the day we went to the forbidden city. this is where the emperor lived. it is mind blowing. there are just levels and levels of stuff to see. We would think we got to the good stuff only to walk through the next door and see even more good stuff. we went on a picture taking rampage and our bodies and minds were completely destroyed at the end of the day. I made the mistake of wearing my new fake shoes also that provide 0 cushioning and support.


i'm going to buy one of those mini-racks of weapons so i can have them at my house and assault my guests when they come over with various tiger forks, gwang dous, swords, spears, etc....

china's people power at work. forget chemicals and high pressure sprayers. how about putting part of your huge population to work on the sidewalk scraping off that black stuff with just putty knives and chisels?


guys with riot shields and billy clubs "training". there were lots of people laughing and smiling and standing around while they paraded around the fact that we are still here and can and will beat you down if we have to.

this got in here somehow. its not the forbidden city, just the street somewhere. construction is happening everywhere all the time.

i joined the sleepers next to the forbidden city wall.

shot from the night market. also squeeked in there somehow.

this is a 4 star rated toilet. its the first time ive seen a rating on a bathroom here. its was pretty ok though. i used a 0 star bathroom yesterday, it of course had no rating but thats what im giving it.


i will be posting a stolen portraits post soon with all the shots i got of unsuspecting people posing for someone else.


me and bob thought this turtle was so cool. we bought bronze replicas of it at the store. we will face them towards each other wherever we are in the world to reinforce our brotherly bond.


this crane piece was particularly engaging and the detail and texture is insane!

icecream break


these kind of guys walk around everywhere.

this thing looks pretty scary

i love this deer sculpture so much i bought a replica of it at the store also.

phone booth in the middle of the forbidden city. I heard they recently denied renewal of starbucks in the forbidden city so it wasn't there when we went.

they had a courtyard with lots of these cool twisted trees.

one of the many red doors with gold knobs. these are the doors that warriors bust through in chinese movies like curse of the golden flower!!!

and this is what the storm!


thats bob there in the back wearing a white t-shirt. i put him there for scale. these are the outside walls.

this was the moat around the whole thing.