Change and Observation

We may sound like we're complaining and laughing a lot about the Chinese but, let me tell you, we are in awe of them as well. As I've said, the changes in Beijing since I first came in 2000, then revisited in 2003, are unbelievable. The progress is disorienting. Entire city blocks-previously hosting parks, hotels, retaurants-have been demolished and rebuilt. Sometimes I think my memory's playing tricks on me but even the guidebook (published this year) leads us to places that have been leveled.
It's hard to articulate the change in the landscape and culture, so I'll make a list in no particular order:

1. Taxi drivers don't cheat us anymore. Their cars are all snazzed up and clean. Some of them are driving Volkswagon Jettas.

2. There are public toilets every few blocks! And the smell of human waste is found only within designated bathrooms! The only people allowed to use streets as toilets are the babies (they wear open britches instead of diapers.)

3. More English everywhere. On signs, phone cards, in taxis, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc...

4. The new architecture is beautiful, some of it based on "green" principles. (Yesterday, we stumbled on a colossal canopy about five stories high and a block long with a cantilevered video screen as big as two basketball courts. On both sides of this structure were western boutiques and coffee shops. Jim and I felt like yokels bumbling around in a cosmopolitan landscape.)

5. Foreigners are everywhere! Used to, you'd only find them in their designated areas and seeing one on a bike was a huge deal. Now, they're in every part of town we've visited and most of them look and act like they know the ropes.

6. Women are smoking more. When I taught here in 2002, smoking was clearly a man's luxury. Women who smoked were either old or promiscuous. I know this isn't a good change, but it means something for women.

7. Women's attire is not as conservative as before. I brought clothing that amply covers my knees, bust and arms. Boy, do I look like a school marm next to the young girls in sundresses and tight pants! A lot of young women look sophisticated and intimidatingly stylish, with full makeup, hair and accessories.


Things that haven't changed:

1. Elderly people are astonishingly active, riding bikes and pushing through the streets and public transport with the rest.

2. Water, streets and air still dirty.

3. The Chinese still possess a simplicity and sweetness. Friends hold hands or put arms around one another while walking.

4. Endless and seemingly arbitrary levels of paperwork and beaurocracy in any and every given situation.



There are more, I'm sure. But I stop here.
All in all, China's a beautiful, hopeful place that's important in our modern world.