Day 2: Beijing

We started off the day bright and early meeting Michael Crook, a long-term Beijing resident for a tour of a hutong, which is a traditional Beijing neighborhood of narrow streets and one-story houses with courtyards. Michael was kind enough to tell us his knowledge of all areas of life in hutongs: everything from architecture, how to tell the status of the family living in each house, electricity and heating, and how the neighborhoods have changed over the years. We walked in a group through the alleys listening to him, observing the houses and small shops around us, and dodging bicycles.

As part of the tour of the hutong, we visited the Beijing Social Work Development Center for Facilitators, which is a non-government organization that offers parenting education, community building, and integration into city life for migrant workers and their children. It was really interesting to learn about how the system of free public education and other social benefits in the place where they are registered to live does not work for migrants, who move from their hometowns into cities to find work. An unintended consequence of privatization and China’s rapid economic growth!

Right after visiting the NGO, we met with the Qi Tiao Community Residents’ Center and spoke with an official there to hear how the local government is helping social issues in the neighborhood, and then traveled to a restaurant to eat lunch as a group with Michael. We had spicy tofu, fruit, meatballs, roast duck, and more!

The group then left Michael and went to the Forbidden City. This is just after passing through the Tiananmen Gate! We walked through for two hours, admiring the imposing buildings, courtyards, and gardens. The symbolism in every detail of the palaces was very impressive: the Forbidden City is built on an exact north-south axis and is called the Purple Forbidden City to evoke the emperor’s connection to the stable, shining North Star. Symbolism like this is central to the Chinese and plays a role in almost all building. From the Forbidden City we climbed enormous and beautiful flights of stairs up Coal Hill to sightsee from the pavilion and see the tree where the last Ming emperor supposedly hanged himself in 1644. It was beautiful, but sad to see so much smog obstructing buildings and the sky.

We had the opportunity to take a ride on rickshaws from Coal Hill to Hohai, careening through hutongs behind the bicycle drivers, and then had rest of the night free to see Hohai, a street full of restaurants and bars.

Impressions of the day:

• Beijing’s hutongs were surprisingly dedicated to fuel efficiency and eco-friendliness. After seeing the smog, I didn’t expect to see solar heaters on roofs in such a poor section of town! But the local government encourages fuel efficiency with subsidies.

• The local government and non-profit organization we visited had some ingenious solutions to problems they faced – for example, the non-profit turned to theater to let migrant children express their own stories, which is highly unusual in China. In addition, the existence of programs like this suggest that some people are aware of problems caused by the Communist Party’s outdated policies, which has some interesting implications.

• As we were walking through the Forbidden City looking at the palaces, other people were looking at us, staring openly and taking pictures of us and with us. The Chinese have a slightly different sense of personal space!

• It was somewhat surprising to see much of the Forbidden City converted into museum shops and vendors. Capitalism is everywhere in China!

Overall, our first day in Beijing was long but informative! It gave me a strong impression of the balance and symbolism in Chinese culture, and questions as to how much of that culture is connected to the past versus looking forward into a rapidly changing landscape and bright economic future.

-- Maddie S.