As we celebrate America’s independence, I thought it would be fun to post my pics from my trip to China, a place where there is restricted freedom. As you might have noticed, I haven’t been around for a while. Well, that’s because I took a trip to China with 8 of my photography students. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it was seriously one of the best trips I have ever taken! Not only did I get to explore an unfamiliar place, but I got to give my students the opportunity to discover the love of traveling. With their camera in hand, I got to watch them do what I have taught them, which was my favorite part of the trip.

I took so many photos that I absolutely love that they will be divided up into five posts, spread out throughout the next couple of weeks. The first post is dedicated to our first city, Beijing.

There is a building boom in China. Cranes adorn the skyline. The national bird of China is a crane, which I thought was so apropos.Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square. We were the only white people. People gave money like sacrifices to the statues.
If our door-knocker in Fullerton looked like this, we’d probably get fewer girl scout cookie sellers.
Ancient bathrooms perched a couple of kilometers up on the Great Wall of China (and there was a guy sleeping inside!)
I love the color contrasts here, but I also think it represents metaphorically what’s happening with China, how these bricks are the basic building blocks for their construction frenzy.Not umbrellas . . . parasols! For keeping the sun off. And to make you look beautiful.We got diagnosed by Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, and they prescribed herbal remedies, all of which were kept in these tiny bank vault boxes. If you want evidence that China is growing so quickly it can’t maintain its infrastructure, look no farther.At the Bird’s Nest and Aquatics Center in Beijing, which held the last Olympics, vendors sold these multi-stage kites. You don’t just buy one string and one kite, you buy DOZENS of kites on a string. If Benjamin Franklin had strapped a key to every one of these, he would have been fried to smithereens.