Financial Street in the west side of Beijing witnessed the grand opening of Seasons Place in October 2007, a luxury shopping mall that’s giving Shin Kong Place on the east side of Beijing a run for its money.
Season's Place mall features over 600 brands, including high end labels from both Europe and America like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Stella McCartney, Emilio Pucci, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Marni, Miu Miu and Givenchy. The shopping Center also houses the only Lane Crawford in the city, a popular Hong Kong-based chain that sells high-end designer labels in a chic atmosphere. I.T launched Commes des Garçons' first boutique at Season's Place in April 2008. More than half of its brand portfolio in the mall will be new to the Beijing market.
The basement, 2nd and 3rd floors offer some of the more affordable shopping in stores selling Calvin Klein, Anne Klein, Ports Men, Marc 
by Marc Jacobs, y-3, I.T, Lilyrose, Only, Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Esprit, Guess, Replay, Benetton, CK Underwear, Nine West, Swatch, Enzo, Toni & Guy, Svenson Hair Care Centre, Marie France Bodyline. You will also find Raffles International Medical Centre on the 4th floor, along with services like hom@spa, THANN, BOSE, The IQ Air Store, Euro Home/Villeroy & Boch. The basement level also features one of Beijing's most popular Ole Supermarket that stocks everything from wine to produce to chocolates.
Address:2 Jinchengfang Jie,(between Westin and Ritz-Carlton Financial Street hotels), Xicheng District, Beijing
Phone: 010-6622-0888
Hours: Daily 10am-9pm
Website: www.seasonsplace.com
Source: www.meiguoxing.com/Shopping/Seasons_Place.html
Jenny Lang Ping, a beloved Chinese hero who helped the 1984 women's volleyball team capture Olympic gold, will not return as coach of the US women's national squad.
USA Volleyball announced Tuesday that Lang Ping has chosen not to extend her contract for the upcoming four-year run to the 2012 London Olympics after guiding the American women to a silver medal last August at the Beijing Games.
"At this moment in my life, family comes first and I wish more flexibility to spend time with them," she said. "I prefer a club volleyball season that lasts five months so I can spend the other seven months of the year with them."
Lang Ping masterminded a veteran group of with eight prior Olympians to a podium after the Americans finished fourth in 2000 and fifth in 2004.
"I want to thank USA Volleyball for allowing me this opportunity," Lang Ping said. "It was a very challenging job with the many differences in system and culture compared to the Chinese system. Yet I learned a lot and appreciate this rewarding experience."
Lang Ping guided China to the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics and last coached in China in 1998, then spent six years coaching in Italy before replacing Japan's Toshi Yoshida as the US women's coach in late 2004.
She felt the tension of coaching against her homeland in China at the Olympics.
"Although I was somewhat torn with my allegiance to China, it was very satisfying professionally to lead this team to the 2008 Olympic Games silver medal in my home country and also witness China earn the bronze," she said.
Lang Ping went 90-49 as the US coach, including a five-set victory over China in Beijing Olympic play, victories over Italy and Cuba in the Olympic playoffs and a loss to Brazil in the title game.
"USA Volleyball is very fortunate to have had Jenny leading our program," USA Volleyball executive officer Doug Beal said. "We respect her decision to devote more of her life to family while remaining in the coaching profession. She really performed magnificently under difficult situations."
Lang Ping, known as the "Iron Hammer" in her playing days, was the only woman coach among those guiding the world's 20 top-ranked national teams.
"I will have many fond memories," Lang Ping said. "I believe the US will have another great team during the next quadrennial and I wish them well in pursuit of gold in London at the 2012 Olympics."
国女排２５日宣布，主教练郎平已经决定不再与球队续约。
率领美国女排在今年夏天的北京奥运会上夺得一枚银牌后，郎平决定不将自己的合同延长四年以率领美国女排征战２０１２年的伦敦奥运会。
郎平说：“在这一时刻，我觉得家庭对我来说是最重要的。我想用更多的时间和家人待在一起。我比较倾向于担任一家俱乐部的教练，那样的话一个赛季只有５个月，而我能用剩下的７个月去陪伴家人。”
在２０００年的悉尼奥运会和２００４年的雅典奥运会上，美国女排分别获得了第四名和第五名，郎平的上任终于将美国女排带上了领奖台。
“感谢美国女排给了我这个机会。和中国相比，美国女排在文化和系统方面都有很大的不同，这对我自己是一个极大的挑战。”郎平说，“担任主教练让我学到了很多，是一次十分珍贵的经历。”
外号“铁榔头”的郎平曾率领中国女排获得１９９６年亚特兰大奥运会的银牌。在１９９８年去职后，她在意大利执教６年，于２００４年底从日本人吉田敏明的手中接过了美国女排的教鞭。
在郎平执教期间，美国女排获得了９０胜４９负的成绩，其中包括在北京奥运会上先后战胜中国、古巴、意大利队，并在决赛中遗憾地负于巴西队。同时她也是世界排名前２０的队伍中唯一的一名女主教练。
郎平简历：
1985年郎平退役进入北京师范大学外语系攻读英语专业，1987年赴美国新墨西哥大学留学，并取得体育管理系现代化专业硕士研究生学位，后赴国外打球。
1989年郎平带领意大利摩迪那俱乐部女子排球队获意大利杯赛冠军；1990年回到国家队，带领中国女子排球队获第11届女子排球锦标赛亚军；1991年率新墨西哥州大学女子排球队获美国东部地区女子排球赛冠军；1995年开始执教中国女排，同年率队获得世界杯女子排球赛第三名；1996年率领中国女排夺得亚特兰大奥运会银牌；1997年率国家队获第九届亚洲女排锦标赛冠军；1998年夺得第13届世界女排锦标赛亚军、第13届亚运会排球比赛金牌。
1999年开始郎平远赴意大利执教，同样取得了辉煌的成绩。率意大利摩德纳女子排球队在2000年获意大利女排联赛冠军、2001年夺得欧洲女排冠军联赛冠军、2002年再夺得意大利联赛和杯赛双料冠军；2002-2003赛季开始郎平转执教意大利诺瓦腊俱乐部，率领诺瓦腊女排夺得意大利超级杯和2004 年意大利联赛冠军。
http://www.meiguoxing.com/
China unveiled the retirement studio of Emperor Qianlong after five years of restoration,
showing an architectural masterpiece that sheds light on the philosophy and taste of the
Qing Dynasty's second-longest serving ruler.
The Palace Museum, the state custodian of China's 600-year- old Forbidden City, may
open Juanqinzhai (the Studio of Exhaustion From Diligent Service, Lodge of Retirement),
refurbished at $3 million by the New York- based World Monuments Fund, to the public for
the first time ``on a limited basis,'' said Director Zheng Xinmiao.
``This studio was designed for one man to enjoy his peace and solitude away from the
heavy duties of emperorship, and not for hordes of modern-day tourists,'' said Zheng,
after a Beijing press conference yesterday. ``So, we will have to be very selective in how
we open this to the world.''
Built in 1776 -- the 41st year of Qianlong's 60-year reign -- Juanqinzhai was part of a two-
acre complex of ornate gardens and pavilions the emperor designed for himself as a
retirement villa.
Restoring Juanqinzhai is part of a broader government project to refurbish Qianlong's two-
acre retirement grounds Ningshougong (the Palace of Tranquility and Longevity) by 2017,
said Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem,
Massachusetts, who contributed to the pavilion's restoration. The total cost, involving
another 26 pavilions and gardens, is estimated at between $12 million and $15 million,
said World Monuments Fund President Bonnie Burnham.
Wisteria Pattern
The ceiling of Juanqinzhai's theater room (view theater's pre-restoration panorama) was
covered in silk with an intricate wisteria pattern. In an adjoining room where Qianlong
received visitors, walls were lined with double-sided silk embroidery atop zitan wooden
panels inlaid with the inner skin of bamboo.
The emperor, who ordered a trade route built from the jade mines of modern-day
Myanmar to southern China for carrying jadeite to the imperial capital, would display his
favorite gems, ceramics and artworks in the studio.
Qianlong was deeply interested and involved in every aspect of the Juanqinzhai's design
and construction, said Berliner. The studio was the first time the technique of embroidering
on both sides of a silk screen was used in an interior decor.
The monarch commissioned an indoor theater in the studio, covering the entire room with
silk murals depicting Beijing's verdant hills, palace buildings and exotic fowls using the
perspective of trompe l'oeil, an unusual technique in 18th-century China, she said.
``He was the kind of connoisseur who probably derived as much pleasure from designing it
and conceiving it as actually using it,'' Berliner said.
Unused, Unoccupied
Qianlong never actually used Juanqinzhai. He abdicated in 1795 as a filial act to avoid
surpassing the 61-year record reign held by his grandfather, the Emperor Kangxi.
He never moved out of his formal abode at Qianqinggong even after ceding his throne to
Emperor Jiaqing, and continued to wield influence till his death in 1799.
On his death bed, Qianlong issued an edict for Juanqinzhai to be used as the retirement
house for his successors, establishing perhaps one of China's first preservation laws, said
World Monuments Fund Executive Vice President Henry Ng, after a press conference
yesterday at the former imperial palace. The studio remained mostly unused and
untouched until the last of the Manchu emperors Puyi was driven out of the palace in 1924.
``It was like a wedding day'' when the veils were lifted off the restoration for the first time,
Ng said. ``We can't believe how stunning and beautiful everything is'' once they're all put
together, he said.
Mulberry Paper
Restoration work involved the use of painting and adhesion techniques that are no longer
employed. Restorers also had to reproduce a high-cellulose paper made from the fibers of
mulberry trees -- no longer made in China when conservation began in 2003 - - for
holding up the murals.
``Based on historical records, we know the palace used paper made in Anhui, and after
some searching, we found an artisan who was able to reproduce the material using the
traditional technique,'' said T.K. McClintock, founder of Studio TKM Ltd., a Somerville,
Massachusetts-based paper specialist who advised on the restoration work.
Working according to McClintock's specification, the Anhui artisan laid stone slabs on a
riverbed where he washed his mulberry fiber, to avoid stirring up silt. The artisan, in his
30s, is now the exclusive supplier of high-grade paper to the conservation project's
remaining pavilions.
``He's young enough to last us through the project,'' McClintock said.
Bloomberg
Nov 12, 2008
作为故宫乾隆花园十年修复工程的第一部分，倦勤斋保护工程昨日宣告竣工，预计将在明年对公众有限度开放。
倦勤斋，顾名思义就是倦于勤务、倦于朝政之地，是乾隆皇帝为自己1795年退位后“颐养天年”而预建的，汇聚了最重要、最精美、最奢华的室内装饰。
自从末代皇帝溥仪1924年离开紫禁城后，倦勤斋和乾隆花园内的其它26座建筑内的重要内装饰基本上保存下来。尽管紫禁城许多地方都陆续对外开放，倦勤斋和乾隆花园里的部分建筑从未对外开放过。
http://www.meiguoxing.com/Attractions/Juanqinzhai.html
Financial Street in the west side of Beijing witnessed the grand opening of Seasons Place in October 2007, a luxury shopping mall that’s giving Shin Kong Place on the east side of Beijing a run for its money.
by Marc Jacobs, y-3, I.T, Lilyrose, Only, Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Esprit, Guess, Replay, Benetton, CK Underwear, Nine West, Swatch, Enzo, Toni & Guy, Svenson Hair Care Centre, Marie France Bodyline. You will also find Raffles International Medical Centre on the 4th floor, along with services like hom@spa, THANN, BOSE, The IQ Air Store, Euro Home/Villeroy & Boch. The basement level also features one of Beijing's most popular Ole Supermarket that stocks everything from wine to produce to chocolates.
