Ignoring Beijing

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Visitors to Beijing will quite understandably high-tail their way to the major sites of interests as soon as they get off the plane. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall and so on. These places, whilst spectacular and popular will only give you a certain perspective on this immense and complex city. In the meantime, like in any metropolis, life carries on unabashed and uncensored. In the hutongs (alleyways) and suburbs, ordinary people go about their ordinary lives in happy seclusion. Shunyi County, approximately 17km NNE of Beijing proper is unremarkable in many ways. This though to me is part of it's appeal both sociologically and in terms of images that can represent it. Apart from the airport, gated communities, golf courses and Starbucks (yes, really), Shunyi is a largely agricultural place. Its scenery is not breathtaking but neither is it ugly.
As many visitors to Beijing have told me, part of the real pleasure in coming to a place like this is in seeing how other people, ordinary people live. Shunyi, with its traditional villages and ex-pat enclaves is as good a place to experience that as any.
Certainly it does not describe city life, but when you get into a village like Baixinzhang at 7am, see, hear and smell the market, watch the kids going to school and old friends talking at the side of the road, you quickly realize that you are in one kind of ‘ordinary China’.
The two elderly ladies you see had no understanding of what a digital camera was but were happy to sit for a photo (just as I was happy to promise them a print tomorrow!).
This journal marks the start of a new phase in my life. I want to learn Chinese properly because I want to interact and learn. I am studying Chinese again and I am going to use that new knowledge to discover in part what China is and where I fit in, at least that’s the plan!
Is this a travel journal? Kind of.
I am on a journey but my destination is not a place but a person. Maybe through learning about China I can get a clearer picture of me.

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Photos

Wenyu river 1
expats call this the 'stinky river' because of the pungent aroma of hydrogen sulphide in the deposits from factories up stream. Things are getting better though, no smell today

Wenyu river 1
the old gentleman farmer growing this sweet corn was not keen on being photographed but happy to tell me how bad the water was in the river. He had a nice smile

Wenyu river 3
this country road separates the river from the expat gated communites. it'e either blissfully quiet or filled with thunderous, soil moving trucks

Gahood
This is one entrance gate to the Gahood Residential compund. Land, orginally owned by the state was sold to farmers who formed a collective. They in turn leased to developers but the one compound is managed by four separate farmers owners groups. The reult is that most of the project is derelict and uninhabited. It\'s quite, quite surreal

Kids in truck
waiting for their dad, very happy to be snapped

Elderly man
actually was not saying hi, but please no photo....but it was too late, and he looks happy enough!

Hutong 1
Quiet sleepy lanes and very fresh sunshine. Sights like this are common

Gate 1
The gate, and the lions (or lack thereof) to a Chinese house traditionally tells you of the occupants status.

Market 1
In Beijing, markets start early. Breakfast is served, kids are off to school and goods are ready to be bought. It's very....nostalgic. Reminds me of England when i was a kid, same routines, different appearance.

Elderly ladies
I really need to get that print to them!

Car Cleaning boy
what an attitude!

pool table
Asia has the most outdoor pool tables of any continent, I believe!