Playing with Bubbles
This was a fun group to watch — the older brother or cousin was doing the bubbles first, then the little guy took over. In the next shot, note that the young lady snacking is around the back of the Vault of Heaven, where you saw SO many people in the earlier shots: just goes to show, if you find the >right corner, you can be pretty secluded even in a crowd.
Public Guards in the Park
Guards in these uniforms are virtually omnipresent in Beijing. It seems they’re always male, usually young, and usually pretty friendly — none of that Buckhingham Palace reserve for these guys. I’m not sure quite what their title or function is — they seem more public security than police per se, and I’m pretty positive they’re not military. At some point perhaps I’ll engage one in conversation and find out where they fit in the organization of public order and security here in the PRC. For now, enjoy this shot of several of them standing proudly on duty during National Week at one of Beijing’s major attractions…followed by two shots of different groups of them being a bit more relaxed.
Beijing Hutongs: National Holidays
After exploring Tiantan Park, I wandered through some of the small streets just north of the park. The street pattern in Beijing is basically large through streets set fairly widely apart, and large city blocks of small alleys and little streets in between. Far fewer cars, and it’s mostly on the little streets that people live. These are called Hutongs (translates as lane or alley), and on them you see aspects of Beijing you’re less likely to see on the big streets. With urban renewal going on and the city preparing for the 2008 Olymic Games, many of the old streets and houses are being bulldozed to make way for newer buildings. The critics — which seem to include most of the Westerners I speak to, who claim it’s only in the Hutongs that you see the “soul” of the city — say Beijing is losing its character. Others – myself included – note that the new buildings will likely have better plumbing(meaning residents won’t need to walk down the street — in winter, even — to the odorific public toilet), and probably be somewhat cleaner and better built in general. Yes indeed, Beijing is losing some of what used to define it as a city…but isn’t that the nature of cities since the industrial revolution? And how can I, at heart still a New Yorker, criticize Beijing when I think of all the great and historic buildings we tore down in the 50s, 60s and 70s? In honor of the fact that it’s the national holidays here (anniversary of the founding of the PRC), I’m kicking off with a patriotic shot of a flag and plants on the roof of a small hut. Then you’ll see shots of blankets hung out to dry — it was such a clear day I guess everyone thought it was a good day to air out the laundry before winter socks in. After these, you’ll see shots of urban renewal in my own neighborhood, where the Hutong buildings are already being marked for destruction.
Cooking Noodles
This is a very common sight all over China: people cooking noodles on little >gas flames hooked up right outside the shop where you sit and eat what they’ve cooked up. Walking the streets and alleys (and hutongs) of any Chinese city, you’ll also see people with woks set up over little gas burners cooking their own lunches and dinners right on their stoops. By American standards possibly an odd sight, but yet another of thing that you get really used to when you spend time here. Sorry it’s fuzzy…I was trying to be discrete.
(so much world, so little time....) 