Beijing: The End of 8 Months

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Beijing In a Photo
I was looking for a photo that really represented Beijing and China for me, and this is definitely it. I love the fact that on one hand you have a little girl's balloon which sums up the colour, vibrancy and positivity that floats around the place at the moment. But on the other hand you still have Mao, and his old ways, keeping a watch

Reflections on my Time
As I finished the drink and looked round for the nearest bin I fell straight into her stare. The stare was piercing, and came from deep inside her eyes. I knew immediately what the old woman wanted. She wanted my empty plastic bottle.

While I sat outside that tube station waiting for my friend I watched this little old lady as she scanned for passers-by who looked like they might be finishing a drink. When someone dropped a bottle in the nearby bin she would wait 10seconds for them to pass, then walk over and pick the bottle out of the bin to add to her collection.

A couple of minutes later another elderly lady slowly walked up and rummaged through the bin, only of course to find it empty of bottles. Dispirited she would slowly move on.

I would be interested to know how much they can earn recycling each bottle. It won’t be much.

It’s sometimes easy to forget that Beijing is the capital city of the world’s biggest developing nation, but moments like these force you to pause and consider where that. They also make you reflect on the place as a whole. The contrasts and the diversity. I was in a particularly reflective mood today because today I bought my train ticket out of Beijing. That means I have 10 days left, 10 days out of 8months.

Thus I feel I should end with some thoughts on a city that has been such an interesting, and multidimensional place to be during that time. I have some i’s to dot and some t’s to cross.

Beijing
Beijing should have everything - it should be easily the most incredible city in the world. It should have a real sense of moment and impending greatness - being in control of the fastest growing economy in the world, and the second largest. It should have a wonderful mix of imposing, shiny new sky scrapers and low rise areas of town where life hasn’t changed for decades. It should have an equally rich mix of social groups that stem from a culture that is ancient but kept alive by the people and their language. It should beat any other capital of ancient civilisation hands down for shear amount and time span of history - be it Rome, Constantinople or anywhere else. It should have such a unique and vibrant place in world history, and in the world’s future, that no other city on earth would be able to match it.

But it doesn’t, not quite at least. There is something about Beijing which is the nearly city.

That said it does have many great qualities. It really does have a fascinating and diverse social make up, from the fun-loving, cosmopolitan young Chinese who are relishing China’s developments, to migrant workers who come from the surrounding provinces to work, and work hard they do - all to send a bit of money back home. It has successful businessmen with more cash than they can conceivably spend, but it also has an underclass who have no social provision - those who pick bottles from bins.

And it genuinely does have growing self-confidence of its place in the world. It would be hard for anyone to argue against the fact that decisions that happen Beijing over the next century will be the most important anywhere in deciding the destiny of that century.

It does has an energy. It is a noisy city that pulsates along, sucking everything and everyone into it’s grasp and dragging them along too. It’s intense and it’s exciting.

Yet for all this it is a tainted city. One that has been pushed and shoved around, and despite a layer of make-up it is struggling to cover up the bruises. Its ancient history has been sacrificed, and it’s left Beijing lacking the sense of unity it deserves. There are fantastic, but isolated, monuments to the past surrounded by a grey, concrete feeling of what could have been.

A trip to the Urban Planning museum is worthwhile on many fronts (not least for fantastically blatant propaganda - all the issues associated with urban sprawl are now a thing of the past in Beijing, apparently), but the most incredible thing is a 3D video of the city as it would’ve been in 1949. It was incredible.

Where Beijing used to have a city wall over 10m high and 30km in length there is no just a ring road - the only reminder of the imposing towers every couple of hundred meters is now an array of place names end in men门 - gate. Inside the walls was an ancient city that had developed over centuries and dynasties into an incredible collection of ancient buildings. Beijing’s city centre, for square kilometre after square kilometre, was an epic walk through time.

Then, of course, the cultural revolution arrived. Whole areas of the city were flattened for drab concrete tower blocks and factory units. Only items clearly attached to direct tourist money were saved. Of the 30km of wall only a 100m of the wall now remains, and few of the guard towers do - and even those are very restored.

Yes, there is an argument to say that the history that has destroyed the history is history in its own right but nonetheless whenever I’m walking the streets of what is, undeniably, still a great city and I am left with a feeling of great shame at what could’ve been.

And the worst thing is for all the progress and liberalisation that the government has gone through recently, it still doesn’t get it. The underground station I was meeting my friend at was Gulou DaJie, just north of the Drum Tower. The area is easily my favourite part of Beijing, there are still old Hutongs (alleyways) where locals live and work. The place has history, not only in the imposing drum and bell towers, but in every house. On top of this it has some great restaurants, cosy bars and interesting niche shops. It’s how Beijing should be. But sitting in one of those bars with my friends the other night I casually picked up an Expat magazine lying around. The second page carried a headline concerning the 730million RMB that the government is spending to “redevelop” the Gulou area.

By redevelop it means “turn into a Chinese Disney land”. It will be kitch and tacky, cheap and soulless. It will destroy the character of the place, the homeliness of the area and most importantly the authenticity. 730 million RMB is a lot of money to go backwards.

The way Beijingers, and Chinese in general, are able to press on regardless of the endless change happening around them is one of the saving graces of the city. There are a lot of people in planning offices across England protesting against a neighbours conservatories who could take some real lessons in resilience, spirit and tolerance from this place.

I really will miss living in the place. Of course the friends I have made here and the good times we’ve shared, but also I’ll miss all those things in daily life that light up where ever your gaze happens to fall. The locals having raging arguments over nothing, before sharing a joke at the end of it. The man in the restaurant shouting at full volume for a waitress’ attention. The ease of business - umbrella sellers who pop out of nowhere at the hint of rain. The cheesy Chinese pop that blares from shop fronts that’s become rather a guilty pleasure of mine. The ripping sound of someone clearing their throat pre-spittle. The women in face masks. The couples of matching t-shirts with ridiculous English sprawled across them. The whole family riding one bike, the whole rubbish tip balanced on one truck. The dogs with shoes. The blokes with t-shirts rolled up and bellies hanging out. The people who spend their days just sitting on street corners. The empty, flashing police box on that street corner... I could continue all day...

Mind you, there are a few things I won’t be missing; attendants in karaoke toilets who try and give you a back massage while you pee for one.

So given all this would I stay in Beijing long term?

As much as I love the place, and have loved living here and as interesting and dynamic as the city, and the country is, the answer is no. And I’ll tell you for why. There are two things that would prevent me considering it a place to live in for years at a time, and they outweigh all the dozens of good things.

For Smog’s Sake
The first is simple - the air. Not the climate, I don’t mind the bitterly cold winters and the scorching summers, I perversely quite enjoy the challenge of the extremes (though a bit of a longer spring would’ve been nice), it’s just the air. Beijing has always had a reputation for dry dusty air being blown in from the deserts in the North. Every dynasty that has had Beijing at it’s capital has complained of the same problem. But of course now it is made worse by the products of Beijing factories, coal power plants and exploding vehicle population. Yes things have improved leading up to and since the Olympics, but actually as it stands 2010 has taken a backwards step and is one of the worst years on record.

For a month around July there was barely a clear sky; a combination of dust, smog and increased summer humidity hung over the city. The place becomes so claustrophobic. You can only see 200m at a time and the sun plays the insistent hermit. I didn’t mind too much for the first few months of my stay, but it has slowly warn me down and a recent trip to Inner Mongolia reminded me what fresh air was, and now I can’t look back.

Size Matters
The second reason is that it’s too big for me. Like the pollution this is something that I didn’t mind at first, but gets increasingly frustrating. Ok, I live just out of the fifth ring but it’s frustrating having to leave an hour and half early to meet a friend for dinner somewhere in the centre. I’ve sat in enough traffic jams, biting my nails and watching my watch as time ticks past and the buffer I allowed for my train or appointment gets eaten up. The size of the place can really prohibit the enjoyment of the place.

Additionally and practicably I can’t afford to stay. I never came to China to make money, and I deeply appreciate the invaluable experience it’s given me but at the end of the day I’ve made a loss from my time here. 4 years of hard work to gain a Masters in Engineering and I’m now earning £2 an hour (minus cost of flight, visa etc. and the £XX,000 I spent on gaining my degree). If I worked for the next 40years on the same wage and saved 15%!e(MISSING)verything I earn I would still not clear my debt accumulated over 4years at uni.

Working in China
The company have offered me a permanent position, but even with my relatively frugal lifestyle (travel and food is pretty much all I spend money on) recent graduate pay in a Chinese company isn’t enough to start making serious inroads into the student debt hanging over me. (Note the Chinese pay pyramid is very strong - leaders in Chinese companies earn comparable amounts to managers in Western companies, but graduate pay is very low).

And my company is a good, relatively forward-thinking company - most other Chinese companies wouldn't be so good. Which is a shame. I admire so much about the way Chinese businesses and employees go about their work. I think western companies have so much to learn from the way Chinese companies work - but similarly that Chinese companies have a lot to learn from western ways of doing things. I feel passionately that if those two opposing cultures could be combined successfully then results would be incredibly powerful.

But it needs co-operation on both sides. There’s nothing worse than foreigners who come charging into the place determined to change everything Chinese companies do to Western ways - quick as a flash they will get nowhere. It needs international people not just working for Chinese companies, but working with an open mind, a degree of patience and an understanding for the things that local companies are so good at. But on the other side it needs Chinese companies to invest. I know very few foreigners who are working and plan to work in Chinese companies full time - not for greed, but for mathematics. They take big pay cuts for the chance to live in Beijing, but its unsustainable and the Chinese companies risk loosing this invaluable skill base. But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked...

The End
I’m genuinely sad to end my time in Beijing. I could not have asked for more supportive colleagues, and I’ve learnt a lot about workplace culture, communication and wind turbine design to name but a few. I’ve been stimulated the whole time, both in and out of work, and I have of course met a wide range of charming and interesting people. But now is the time to move on, to take to the railroads of Asia in the search of the new, and I can’t wait.

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Comments

[Charlotte]

Does this also mean the end of the blog?!! What am I supposed to do when I'm bored in work now?...............