Changes
This is our last week in Beijing, and as we pack up and get ready to leave it is feeling time to finish things up and ponder our time here.
I think the most striking feature of living in Beijing for 5 months has been the enormous rate of change. Even over this short period dramatic changes have taken place.
Demolished Canteen
The most dramatic changes, and the easiest to document, are the destruction. This is a picture of what used to be one of the student canteens on the BNU campus - the one where I used to enjoy having breakfast because one of the servers spoke English and could help me choose. This whole block of three canteens has now been demolished, and I now eat breakfast in the apartment!
Forlorn Pingpong Table
At the larger city scale thriving shopping streets are suddenly boarded up and whole neighborhoods of the old hutong areas disappear almost overnight, as I mentioned earlier and was also written about in the July 12 issue of the New York Times. (I plan to make one more visit to the Qianmen area to see how much of what we saw at the beginning of our stay remains.)
The destruction is easiest to notice since reconstruction is inevitably slower, and it remains to be seen whether the results are an improvement, an assessment that may well depend on who you are - a visiting tourist or a Beijing native.... But there have been remarkable changes that are clear improvements as well. A dirty channel full of debris and construction equipment at the beginning of our stay has miraculously turned into a river with green banks and lotus plants.
There is also clear progress in the renovation of many of the tourist attractions - the Temple of Heaven was recently reopened and the Summer Palace renovation seems nearly complete - compare these two photos:
Summer Palace in March
Summer Palace in July
The sky was bluer in July too, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to be a real trend!
Another change: probably half of the enormous bus fleet has been replaced with modern air-conditioned vehicles so that it is now much more pleasant to ride the buses. And while we were away in May the system for paying fares on the buses largely changed from getting a paper ticket from the conductor (or from one of up to 3 conductors on the double-length buses) to waving a card at an electronic reader. (The old paper ticket system is still allowed.) The subways are making a similar transition right now. Many new lines are being built too - another cause for the rash of building sites across the city.
I think the most striking feature of living in Beijing for 5 months has been the enormous rate of change. Even over this short period dramatic changes have taken place.
Demolished Canteen
The most dramatic changes, and the easiest to document, are the destruction. This is a picture of what used to be one of the student canteens on the BNU campus - the one where I used to enjoy having breakfast because one of the servers spoke English and could help me choose. This whole block of three canteens has now been demolished, and I now eat breakfast in the apartment!
Forlorn Pingpong Table
At the larger city scale thriving shopping streets are suddenly boarded up and whole neighborhoods of the old hutong areas disappear almost overnight, as I mentioned earlier and was also written about in the July 12 issue of the New York Times. (I plan to make one more visit to the Qianmen area to see how much of what we saw at the beginning of our stay remains.)
The destruction is easiest to notice since reconstruction is inevitably slower, and it remains to be seen whether the results are an improvement, an assessment that may well depend on who you are - a visiting tourist or a Beijing native.... But there have been remarkable changes that are clear improvements as well. A dirty channel full of debris and construction equipment at the beginning of our stay has miraculously turned into a river with green banks and lotus plants.
There is also clear progress in the renovation of many of the tourist attractions - the Temple of Heaven was recently reopened and the Summer Palace renovation seems nearly complete - compare these two photos:
Summer Palace in March
Summer Palace in July
The sky was bluer in July too, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to be a real trend!
Another change: probably half of the enormous bus fleet has been replaced with modern air-conditioned vehicles so that it is now much more pleasant to ride the buses. And while we were away in May the system for paying fares on the buses largely changed from getting a paper ticket from the conductor (or from one of up to 3 conductors on the double-length buses) to waving a card at an electronic reader. (The old paper ticket system is still allowed.) The subways are making a similar transition right now. Many new lines are being built too - another cause for the rash of building sites across the city.
posted by Michael Cross at 10:00 PM
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