The Flat & The Smog

Dry as hell and flat as a billiard table, China's capital Beijing sits near the foothills of a desert. The air has an artificial stillness to it - the result of warm desert air filtered through a haze of exhaust fumes - that intensifies your surroundings; the sound and smells of the city amplified to be ever present.

There is no wind in this place - only the smoky heat of cigarettes and exhausts, baking you in your old volkswagen taxi as it slowly crawls through a ten lane traffic jam.

To be in Beijing is to be Inside Beijing. To feel like you are living and breathing every chaotic moment of this place. Relentlessly shaken awake by the ever quickening pulse of China's dark political heart.