CCTV

The first picture is of the CCTV building here in Beijing. It is probably one of the most photographed modern buildings because of it's unique design.  CCTV stands for China Central Television.  There are a lot of channels but I think most of them suck and not just because I don't understand anything they are saying but it is just really, really different.  Pretty much everything is controlled.  Programs consist of a lot of drama-soap opera style programming and a lot of concerts and talent competitions.  There are always programs on with kids, adults, and music groups competing for judges.  The judges usually consist of a person famous in the entertainment business and a few military officers. I usually have my TV on the music channel but I am convinced that whoever runs that station decides what he/she likes and then forces everyone to listen to it because there is little variety.  I also usually watch channel 14 or 15 too because they will play classical music sometimes (actually I guess I don't really watch it but will have it on and listen while I do other things).  There is a channel that plays English movies and some of the HBO programs (United States of Tara, Whatever the Larry David Series was called, and a couple others that didn't interest me) in the evening. The movies usually suck and I don't watch them but every now and then there will be a good one on.  Another channel sometimes shows BBC programming so I finally got to watch Tess of the d'Urbevilles and the Candleford series.  Anyway, I miss all my American shows.  DVD's are cheap here and I bought both seasons of Glee for about 8$ the other day and caught up on that.  I'd love to get cable or something to have more access to English and American programming but oh well.  Sometimes I'm glad I don't have access to it because it allows me to get out more and experience Beijing.