Tags: aggressive inline, asia, back to school, beijing, brian aragon, brian aragon beijing live update, brian aragon touring china 2011, china, colin li, competition, cx games, cx-games, franky zhang, franky zhangchi, live update, live-update, rollerblading, rolling, skate, skating
As we pulled up to Tsinghua University in Beijing the college looked more like bustling city than a college. Driving through the enormous campus we came across banks, grocery stores, clothing stores, and of course mass amounts of college girls. Franky informed me that this University was the most prestigious university in all of China and that only the best students are accepted to further their education here. He made the comparison to Harvard in the United States. I was impressed to say the least but in the back of my head I was imagining the consequences of skating Harvard which might possibly lead to an arrest or heavy fines.
Write-up by Brian Aragon
Photos by Colin Li
After parking the car we took some time touring the campus and taking pictures at some of the oldest landmarks on the campus, Tsinghua University is over 100 years old. I've been to a lot of college campuses around the world and I can say hands down this was by far the biggest campus I had ever set foot on as well as one of the most beautiful. As the tour continued, Franky took me to spots that he thought I might want to skate as well as showing me parts of the school that had never been skated. After heading back to the car to grab our skates and camera equipment we got to work in no time!
The first spot we hit was a mellow square drop rail that was absolutely perfect except for the motorcycle at the bottom which had an alarm that would sound every time I landed. Next, we went to a new building on the campus which was still in the process of being built. There was a perfect down/flat ledge that had never been touched so we figured it was time to break it in! Once we got the shot it was around 2pm and everyone was hungry so we made our way back to the heart of the city to grab some lunch.
To end the day I recommended that we hit up some small ledges that we had previously skated earlier in the week when we didn't have a photographer. Though my suggestion may have been a little selfish due to a Starbucks on the corner of the ledges I knew we could get quality photo. After getting my coffee fix we had an amazing session as the sun went down and the traffic jams began!
-Brian Aragon
Check out all live-updates of this tour here.
Reppin the Chargers aaaaand the Raiders? Shouldnt you be a Broncos fan anyway?
OH WELL must be a fag fashion critic... Shot your damn pipe dumb ass.
Anyway, Aragon is doing an amazing job showcasing blading in the biggest market on earth. I am sure this will mean amazing opportunities for the sport in spite of the narrow minded opinions of the fag hipsters polluting our scene these days.
the skate shots of brian are all sick
GIANT DOUCHE.
GET RID OF THOSE GLASSES THEY ARE NOT HIP ANYMORE.
THEY MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A FAG.