"real" Beijing vs Real Beijing

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I was just re-reading the article that I posted about car restrictions in Beijing, and it's made me aware just how skewed the media can be.

It was the line in there about how, "several new subway lines have opened in the last year," or whatever it said. It was then that I realized this "sports writer" has never lived in Beijing, nor has he done his homework.

Only one new line has opened in the past year. Line 5 makes things much more convenient and its structure is superb. Line 10 is set to open soon.

I keep seeing the subway stops in the new areas of the city, though, and it throws me off.

And it makes me realize that the little places that are not-so-well-known to the tourist's beaten track will become all the more popular.

Like how a Fodor's review can essentially ruin a great little restaurant by having it over run with a million and a half more people who have "discovered" it.

I feel like that is what is happening with this city, with Beijing. All of these tourists - both Chinese and foreign, will descend upon - dare I say - my city, and they will see the wide, clean boulevards, the trash cans every several meters with recyclable options, the street cleaners, the new flowers that have been planted everywhere, the new busses, the taxi drivers who attempt to speak English, the new subways, the clean air, the lack of construction, the lack of migrant workers, the improved English signs...

They will eat some Peking duck and see some Peking opera and watch the acrobats and gongfu shows and marvel at Tiananmen and take photos eating strange foods at Wanfujing snack street. And they will climb the Great Wall at Badaling and take the luge down and they will feel like they've discovered the "real" Beijing as they walk through the renovated hutongs around the Drum and Bell towers and eat in a courtyard restaurant....

And they may or may not meet some native Beijingers, or dare to enter the hole-in-the-wall shops for a Y5 bowl of noodles.

The westerners will most likely be astounded with things like ashing cigarettes on the floor and spitting bones on the table and the way Chinese men walk around with their shirts rolled up above their beer bellies in the heat of the day, and they will pretend not to notice the hacking and spitting on the street or the noises made when eating a bowl of those Y5 noodles.

Instead they will take photos of the old men and the children so they can show how they met "real" Beijingers, but then they will go back to their airconditioned hotel rooms and the safe restaurants that their hotel has recommended and they'll shop at Wanfujing - and maybe even the Silk Market where they will inevitably feel proud of their "bargaining" skills while still paying 4x too much.

And then they'll tip the waitresses and the bartenders and the taxi drivers, even though no one tips in this country.

They won't meet many resident foreigners, though, who could help them tremendously, because the Chinese goverment has made it nearly impossible to renew visas for the expats, so they're all being sent home.

And the Games will come and it will be China's Coming Out Party to the world....

And then the Games will be over, and it will be September. The city will empty out. The cars will all be back on the roads. The construction will start up again. The factories will reopen. The migrant workers will come back to work on all the above. The air will cloud up, SARS mask warnings on TV will resume, and schools will be looking for English teachers. The fuwuyuan'rs will realize that they are not going to get tips out of the expats who have been allowed back into their city.

And life will go on.

And all over the world people will remember Beijing as it was during the glorious summer of 2008. But when they return to visit again, maybe years down the road, they will see Real Beijing, and the illusions of '08 will be shot through with the stark reality of this vibrant, dirty, pulsating capital of China.

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Comments

[Wife]

aren't you just a ray of globalized sunshine
hi wifeth, i hear you on all of that. feeling resentful of all the superficiality and all the dumbfuck travellers that don't actually know how to travel. yes, it is frustrating when people do what we do...but not as well but think they're doing it better. and look! i'm stalking you!