Like a WW2 POW on the River Kwai

Boss

Surely no one has worked as hard since they built the Death Railway back in the day, but it's business as usual here at the workplace in Beijing. About 4 people have left in the space of a week and a half, the boss is not best pleased, and my client is still gunning for a seat as a permanent member on the Supreme Council of the Harpie Beatchood.

My colleague and I spent most part of yesterday out of the office. We were really not looking forward to it...

We spent hours walking around the grounds and taking pictures of the architectural monstrosity that is the Beijing Chateau Lafitte, located on the outskirts of the city in Changping District. I mean, I know that the Chinese culture has absolutely nothing going for it ever since they shot themselves in the foot with Mao and the Cultur@l R3v0lt10n, but is there really need to copy and paste large chunks of foreign culture and identity as crassly as they do?

Its promotional brochure reads as such - The Laffitte [sic] displays the essence of French culture: wine, architecture, sculpture, painting and gardening. The 24,000 sqm building complex consists of a main castle and two wing castles. The main castle is developed from the French Laffitte [sic], one of France [sic] ten royal castles. The architecture recalls the Baroque style of latter Renaissance Europe...

...and a unique French Duke-style veins parterre stands at the front of the main castle. A fountain featuring sculptures of figures drawn from ancient Greek mythology is inside the parterre. The two wing castles are created based on the French Palace of Fontainebleau. The castles and Roman columns surround a 10,000 sqm "wine culture plaza".

This is where my team and I are going to commute to and from for much of the next 30 days in preparation of a project. The picture on the way back from the Chateau says it all...