Well, another year has gone by, the older you get the faster they seem to go, and it was time once again to venture north to meet up with my good friends in China. There was an auction planned for the weekend of the 8-9 September, and it was a good opportunity to attend a meeting of the Beijing Camera Collectors Association and pick up some cameras for my collection at the camera centre, markets, or perhaps the China Guardian Camera Auction being held on the Monday. The flight from Australia was uneventful, getting me into Beijing at about 3.30 on Friday afternoon. The organisation was good and my ride was waiting to take me to my hotel in the centre of town, near the main railway station.

I had arranged to meet up with my good friend Allan Ho who was taking me to his house for dinner with his family, so after a quick clean up and a much needed cool drink we set off to the estate Allan lived in to meet his wonderful family and enjoy an excellent home cooked meal. Thanks to Tala for her hospitality. I am always amazed at the generosity of the people I meet when travelling, their willingness to put themselves out to make sure that I enjoy my stay in their country. Massive thanks must go to Allan & Tala Ho for looking after me and driving me around all weekend, Aimin Li who picked me up from the market on Sunday and translated, then took me home to his apartment to show me his wonderful collection, Zhang Hong who helped translate at the auction, Liu Zhijian who looked after me at the camera centre and Gou Tia from Shen Yang who kindly gave me a camera that was made in his city, and everybody else who was there and made me a part of their camera collecting family. 

The Saturday was spent with Allan inspecting the auction and going around some of the markets in search of cameras and gifts to take home to the family. We also attended the Beijing building exhibition. Beijing is going to be virtually rebuilt before the 2008 Olympic Games, and all the companies are out there pushing the new housing developments to a very eager Beijing crowd. There seemed to be about 5000 new housing estates or apartment buildings under construction in Beijing while I was there. Early on the Sunday morning Allan picked me up from my hotel to go to the dirt market at Panjaiyuan. When I say dirt market I really do mean dirt market, with all the stall holders spread out under umbrellas on the ground. When I was there last year there was a large section that was housed in a large open sided canvas roofed area with an asphalt floor, but this has been pulled down and the stall holders are just spread out in what is little more than a large paddock. Panjaiyuan is the largest flea market in China with over 3000 stalls, 10,000 people working there and up to 50,000 visitors on a busy day. You can buy all sorts of trash and treasure at this market, including Chinese and foreign brand cameras, you just have to search for things, and then be prepared to negotiate an acceptable price. 

It is a great spot to find all things that relate to the cultural revolution and Chairman Mao memorabilia. As a part of my take home goodies I managed to pick up a number of Cultural Revolution posters, a Chairman Mao alarm clock and watch, some old chops (personal stamps), and of course cameras. Of note in my camera finds was a very early Shanghai folding camera. This camera is the precursor of the Shanghai 201 and differs from the later models in that the viewfinder hood is screwed to the top plate rather than being moulded in to the top plate, and there is no camera designation on the top plate, the later model has "Shanghai 201" engraved into the top plate. 

I had not heard of this camera or seen one before so was quite excited, but managed to contain myself enough to negotiate a good price for the camera. As is always the case once I had purchased this camera I then saw another 3 or 4 of the same model during the course of the weekend. My price however was the best of all those that I saw, and the best condition, so I was quite happy. I now believe that I do have the complete set of the folding cameras from the Shanghai Camera Factory. The cameras are Shanghai (no designation), Shanghai 201, Shanghai 202, Shanghai 203, Seagull 203, Seagull 203 -B, Seagull 203-1 and Seagull 203-H (black). Aimin Li from the Beijing Camera Collectors Association had arranged to pick me up from the market at 9.30 so we headed for the exit, and there was Mr Li as promised. Allan headed back into the market to finish his shopping and I went with Mr Li out to west Beijing to an area known as Wukesong to the camera centre. When I was there last year there was a dirt road going past the camera centre, this year there was a full 4 lane freeway going in each direction and service roads on each side. It was just amazing to see the amount of work completed in under one year. Inside the camera centre I met up with many friends from my previous visit including Mr Liu who is the General Manager of the centre, Shen Ming who is probably the most prolific writer on classic cameras in China, Zhang Hong,Guo Tia and many others. Following a short introduction from each of the participants it was down to business discussing classic cameras, and the impacts of digital photography on classic cameras and collecting. 

Camera collecting is very much alive and well in China, with members travelling some distances to attend the meeting, and there wasnÕt even a flea market to sweeten the trip. One of the members to travel from outside Beijing was Guo Tia, who comes from Shen Yang. Shen Yang is a small city to the north east of Beijing of some 6.2 million inhabitants. Mr Guo opened the first second hand camera shop in Shen Yang back in 1998. I had met him last year and he had come this year with a gift for me. Mr Guo had bought me a camera called a Shen Yang, made in his city, and was very rare. In 1959 the Shen Yang Camera Factory was formed to produce a twin lens reflex camera based on the Ricoh cameras from Japan. The factory eventually closed in 1966. During the time that the factory was operating it is reported that under 2000 cameras were produced, although the highest serial number found to date is 562. This means that each year the factory produced somewhere between 80 and 300 cameras. Each camera was made by hand, and because of material shortages during this period each camera was different. The cameras that were sold were sold in the Shen Yang area, and sadly not many have survived. There are now only 4 of these cameras known about, so I feel very privileged to have been given this camera. The serial number on the camera that I have is number 269. 

Lunch time! And the Camera Association had arranged a lunch at a famous duck restaurant not far away. Judging by the number of people who were in the restaurant eating, and lined up outside waiting to get in, this was going to be quite some meal. I was certainly not disappointed. I was placed beside a very distinguished gentleman in his late eighties who had been collecting cameras since the mid 1950's, and whose collection consisted mainly of leica and Zeiss cameras, over 500 of them! 

Following the lunch I had the opportunity to wander around in the camera centre and seek out some more Chinese cameras for my collection. Some items that I needed to complete sets of cameras surfaced at reasonable prices so they ended up in my bag for the trip home. These included a Great Wall SZ-2, Xing Fu I and Xing Fu II, Youyi and a nice black Huaxi SLR from Mr Liu that is quite rare. 

All to soon it was time to go. Aimin Li, who is a collector of Russian and Chinese cameras had invited me back to his place to have a look at his camera collection, so we set off, dropping Shen Ming at his place along the way. Mr Li has many cameras in his collection, all with very interesting stories about how he managed to get them. His wonderful family made me feel so welcome, and it was an honour to be able to look at and photograph some of his cameras. 

The Monday was my last day in China, and the day of the auction. I had viewed the items on the Saturday so was well prepared for when the auction started. Mr Hong was there to help out with any language issues I had. While meeting with the camera club the previous day the Assistant Manager, Li Xiao of the camera centre had shown me some of the very interesting items he had in his collection. He collected items of historical interest that related to the Chinese camera industry, and pulled out a very special instruction book for a Shanghai TLR. This instruction booklet included 2 pages of Chairman Mao's sayings before the camera operating instructions. He also had an original auction catalogue from the very first camera auction held in China in the late 1980's. When we met again at the auction Mr Li Xiao presented me with some special fruit from his garden that in the past only the emperors could eat, and a photo of a rare camera he had inn his collection called "Meihualu" which means dear, as in antelope. On the Saturday I had identified those cameras that I was going to bid on, unfortunately there were others in the room who also wanted the same cameras, and a good natured and spirited bidding contest took place. I did manage to pick up a couple of cameras including this Panda SLR and a Shanghai 58II. 

I was naturally disappointed at not getting all the cameras that I wanted, but my sorrow turned to joy when a young man tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to purchase a Seagull 501. When he pulled the camera out of his bag I was immediately interested as it was the rare version of this camera with "Long live Chairman Mao" and other slogans around the lens bezel. The money changed hands and I packed up all my goodies, said my farewells to the group and headed back to my hotel. 

This was my second trip to China, and as before the people could not have been more helpful, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I am looking forward to returning again next year. I had purchased or traded a further 12 cameras for my collection, and had been given another very special one. I renewed old friendships and made some new ones. Camera collecting seems to be a very unifying pastime that crosses over social, economic and cultural boundaries. I for one am very proud to be a part of that worldwide community. I arrived home in Australia on the morning of the 12 September to the news of the terrible tragedy in America....