Another Look at Beijing after The OlympicsPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
The Olympic Games changed Beijing forever. To welcome the Games, the city administration invested 283.89 billion yuan (US$ 41.75 million) in infrastructure from 2002 to 2006. Some billion yuan went into the development of a mass transportation system, while the rest went into the public service sector that included everything from new roads and highways to cleaning up slum areas and beautifying the city.
But that’s not the full story. Beijing, in fact, changed the moment the Peoples’ Republic took over in 1949. The changes then were perhaps far greater than they are today. For one thing, the ancient wall around the city was torn down to make room for a motorway. And Tiananmen Square, that we hear so much about, was merely a small open space pre-1949 that stretched out in front the Forbidden City. The Square was enlarged and made into what it is today. A hundred other changes took place.
But I don’t think visitors should fret about these changes. Old Beijing will always be there.
There will always be complaints, however. One that is causing a rumble is the destruction of the back alleys of Beijing, called Hutongs. It’s true, they are rapidly disappearing. But some things have to change in the name of progress. I remember old Singapore, with places like Sago Lane and Bugis Street. Sago was a macabre place, home to funeral parlours or death houses where old people went to die. Bugis Street had a reputation that was hard to live down for the new Singapore that was emerging. Tourists liked these places for their “picturesque poverty” but tourists didn’t have to live in them. The same with the Hutongs. The government feels they have to go.
Of course, like all others, I hate to see the passing of the Hutongs. When I went to Beijing to study in 1946, when Beijing was Peking, we were advised to keep out of the Hutongs. Anything could happen there, and did. I went anyway and at a great risk. Now, every time I return to Beijing, I make a trip to the Hutongs. Some of the best Chinese food I have ever eaten I find in the Hutongs. Today visitors can tour the Hutongs by joining THAI’s Royal Orchid Holidays programme. That is progress.
I have a copy of a small, paperback guidebook that I prize very much. It’s only 26 pages long, and very tattered, with the inscription PEKING on the cover. Inside is the date: 1946. It is the guide I used when I was in Peking studying Chinese after World War II. What makes this small guidebook so unusual is that I can use it today. The reason, of course, is that it lists only historical sites and places, not restaurants, hotels, or shopping plazas. In 1946, there were few restaurants for foreigners, even fewer tourist hotels, and certainly no shopping plazas.
The book, actually, could have been written long before 1946, during the reign of Emperor Yongle in the15th century and we could still use it today. It describes, for example, the Temple of Heaven built by Emperor Yongle.
There are sites in Beijing that won’t change and these remain tourist attractions. The Temple of Heaven, for example, is an architectural wonder, one that anyone who travels to Beijing should visit. The emperor would renew his mandate with heaven here at every winter solstice. First he would enter the Imperial Vault of Heaven where he meditated. Then he crossed the “Bridge of Vermilion Steps” to the “Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests,” a magnificent edifice with its three-tiered blue-tile roof and intricately decorated wooden walls and ceiling. At other times he would worship at the Round Altar. At this round stone in the centre of the altar one can stand today, as Emperor Yongle did, and if you call out in a loud voice, you will hear your own echo, while no one else can. It’s quite amazing.
There are, of course, some differences, like Tiananmen Square that I mentioned. The Square today is one of the most famous squares in the world. In my old guide it was hardly mentioned. The reason: Tiananmen is a 20th century creation. During the Ming era the site was contained within red walls and partly filled with buildings. The walls were pulled down during the 1911 revolution and gradually most of the buildings were cleared to make way for a vast concourse that has served as a venue for some momentous occasions beginning with the 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic. It was patterned after the Red Square in Moscow.
The square occupies 40 hectares (99 acres) at the southern end of the Forbidden City. It can hold a million souls, and it’s the place to go to watch people. People come from every district of China: Tibetans and Ugurs, Kazakhs and Mongolians, soldiers and civilians; they come in their tribal dress, in bright uniforms, in strange costumes. I watched a Kazakhan carrying a ram's head with great horns, and peasants from somewhere wearing straw sandals driving a few sheep before them.
My 1946 guidebook went into detail about the Forbidden City. I compared it to my Lonely Planet Guide where the information is much the same. Although officially known as the Imperial Palace, Westerners prefer the name Forbidden City with its evocation of a secret, exotic world. If we had but one word to describe it, it would be “vastness”. It's huge. It had to be, for here the Ming and Qing emperors were served by 9,000 maids and 200,000 eunuchs in a complex of 800 buildings with 1,900 rooms, great courtyards decorated with carved marble and secret gardens where lovers and conspiring princes met. It was forbidden to all but the imperial court and the only foreigners permitted were Jesuit scholar-priests who resided here in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the ambassadors who sought in vain to trade peacefully with Qing China.
Today everyone is welcome.
Down through the years I had not forgot the Forbidden City and now, after the passing of time, I find it is even more grand than I remembered. It's massive, hectare upon hectare, one temple after another, each one more overpowering than the last, which is remarkable considering the roofs and beams were all made from wood.
I am not disappointed either when I revisit the Summer Palace. The original summer palace, the “Garden of Gardens,” was built by Emperor Yongzheng between 1723 and 1735 but was completely destroyed by British and French troops in 1860. The present summer palace, the “Garden for Cultivating Harmony,” was created by the Emperor Qianlong and rebuilt by the Dowager Empress.
Another place I like to re-visit when I go to Beijing is Zhoukoudian, a small village some 50 kilometres southwest of Beijing.
It was here in the 1920s that startling archaeological discoveries of human remains were found, remains dating back from 200,000 to 700,000 years ago. The discovery by Chinese paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong attracted worldwide attention. German anthropologist Franz Weidenreich and Canadian anatomist Davidson Black together with Pei led several excavations at the site unearthing many Peking Man fossils including five complete skulls.
The archaeological work at Zhoukoudian was interrupted by the Japanese occupation in 1937. In1941, the scientists tried to get the Peking Man fossils to safety in the United States in the safe keeping of US Marines who were about to evacuate the country. Unfortunately, the plan was disrupted when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and all the US troops in China became prisoners of war. The skulls mysteriously disappeared, with no trace of them ever since.
Zhoukoudian was of a particular interest to me for when I was at the University in 1946, the authorities were attempting to piece together the strange disappearance of Peking Man, and it was known a Marine officer was involved. Being a Marine, I accompanied a team to the site to see what they could uncover. I wrote about this in detail in my book Take China. I mentioned that there wasn’t much left, except for the excavation pits. When I returned bow after five decades I was pleased to discover that the historical and cultural value of the Zhoukoudian site has been acknowledged by its listing as a World Heritage Site. There’s even a museum there now.
I know when I visit Beijing next I will be anxious to see The Asian-Olympic New Zone, where the monumental Bird's Nest Stadium and the Water Cube are located. But that will not be my focal point. I will always be thrilled that remnants of old Peking are still there.
Next week we will look into the Moon Cake festival that will take place throughout Asia and South East Asia.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ. Dear Sir, Regarding the name Beijing, in the Twelfth Century the city was called Slbungtu, the name Genghis Khan gave it when he captured the place. Later his grandson, Kublai Khan, rebuilt the city and changed the name to Cambulac—The Great Capital. Then came the emperors during the Ming Dynasty and they called her Peiping, which means "Northern Peace” in Mandarin. For some reason in 1420 she became Peking, or Northern Capital. The name stuck until 1928 when General Chiang Kai-shek moved his capital to Nanking and the city reverted to its former name, Peiping. In October 1949 the Peoples' Republic changed it to Beijing. Albert Henderson, Washington, D.C.
A. Dear Mr. Henderson. Thank you for the explanation. –HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.
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