Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Development

Big, tall, skyscrapers. In the eight months I've been here, I've seen more and more of these go up around Xi'an. A new condo complex is being built right near the campus I teach at. Workers are already digging the foundation to a set of buildings across from where I live. Even my own apartment was officially just finished a few months ago.

Like the rest of China, Xi'an is developing fast. Almost as if architects were farming these new buildings in fields. From the south of the city to north, new apartments and offices are sprouting, making this ancient city feel sleek, and modern at times.

When I ask about the changes in Xi'an, people often will refer to some place I know and say: "Ten years ago, this wasn't here."

"This used to just be a small road," a woman told me while we were traveling on a major freeway, flanked by apartments under construction.

Xi'an is certainly getting richer. With all this development coming in, it feels like a new upper-class is emerging. More people can afford cars now, and often I'll see a Mercedes on the road. One foreign teacher I know judges how developed a Chinese city is by the number of foreign stores here. Already, Xi'an has three Wal-Marts, at least three Subways, a Diary Queen, and numerous KFCs, McDonalds, and Pizza Huts.

But despite all these new buildings coming in, Xi'an is far from a wealthy city. A major problem in China is the growing wealth gap, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Sometimes this is very easy to see.

I traveled to the north of the Xi'an today, where new development is further pushing out the city. I came across a small neighborhood already under demolition. The old wall encircling it was repeatedly marked with the Chinese character ?, which means "tear down."

What's left of the neighborhood is mainly all debris and rubble. Workers, clanking along with their metal chisels, rummage through the remains, scavenging for still whole bricks that they can reuse. One brick home still stands, desolate and abandoned. While there I could taste dust in my mouth.

Only a small walk away is an alley filled with stores and a street market, a place where the Xi'an's new development is only beginning to touch. The buildings here are old, smoked by dirt, what you would call "hole in the wall" shops ; each one selling their cheap goods.

I notice the people surrounding me; many look more like laborers, their skins tanned and hardened. No one here is dressed in business-suits or ties. One skinny man in particular, smiles, and I see the large gap in the middle of his teeth.

At a fruit stand I glance at a line of bananas on display. They descend in color from ripe yellow all the way to a burnt black. An old man, with a nylon sack over his shoulder, looks at bootleg books. Meanwhile, trash piles up on the curb, leaving a mini-land fill of crud crawling with flies and other black insects.

Just nearby this alley, a group of new condominiums is going up. My Chinese tutor says that most people in Xi'an can't afford to live in such apartments. (Average salaries for many people here can be around $120 a month). Instead, these new living complexes are mainly meant for city outsiders, like businessmen who come to Xi'an to do work, and even foreigners as well.

It makes me wonder how different Xi'an will be in ten years time. Will this alley and its shops still be here?