Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Bricks

Very soon, one of my favorite restaurants will become this: a pile of scattered bricks.

As I said last month, one of the neighborhoods near where I live is undergoing redevelopment. Recently, some of the first buildings were knocked down.

The former shops, selling household products to "massage" services, were there one day, and then reduced to rubble in the next.

Now my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood seems to be surrounded by stacks of bricks. I went there to eat yesterday. One of the workers there told me their business has about another month before it goes like the rest. They plan on moving to a new location somewhere else. I'll just have to enjoy the restaurant while I still can.

Spring

Yes, it took a while. But the winter is finally gone. And thus no more need for these sweaters or wrapping myself in a blanket when sitting in my apartment.

It must have been one of the longest winters I've ever experienced, Beijing's first snowfall coming on the first of November. For months, it felt like a ceiling of gray clouds was perpetually looming over this city; the trees barren and the overall color of the place dormant and drained.

Yet, now with the weather better,  it doesn't exactly feel like spring. Instead, it seems as if Beijing just skipped that season, and went straight to summer. This past week the temperatures in the city have reached 70 and even 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I hope this weather lasts for a long time; the skies look pretty.

Redevelopment

The old neighborhood located on the way to my school received some news last week. The entire place is slated to be bulldozed.

The municipal notices were mysteriously pasted on a few walls within the neighborhood last Monday. People crowded around the posters, silently reading the details of how they had no choice but to move out. Within a few days, both notices were torn down, perhaps due to unhappy residents.

The neighborhood is admittedly an  eyesore for the area. Whenever I pass by, its hard not to notice the trash that piles up on the streets, leaving the faint smell of sewage in the air. At the same time, this neighborhood is the only one I know of in Beijing where so many stray dogs run about.

So as China continues to develop, neighborhoods like these are often the target for new development. Residents living in the neighborhood, however, will be compensated for their lost homes and businesses. People can expect to be paid around $824 for each square meter of their residence; a "1 to 1 ratio" in terms of compensation versus the cost for a new residence according to local news reports.

While this all meant to be fair, I'm not sure what kind of apartment this will be able to buy or how moving will be arranged. The starting cost for most new apartments in Beijing averages around $3000 per square meter. Older apartments can go around for $1000 per square meter.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold in neighborhood as the weeks go on. Residents have six weeks to agree to move  out in order to be awarded the fair compensation. One government official was quoted as saying they are taking a "move out first, then receive benefits" approach in regards to the residents. Holdouts will not receive special treatment he added.

As of now, nothing has changed in the neighborhood. In the morning, the streets are still lined with vendors selling hot dumplings and fried bread. At night, people sit outside and enjoy sticks of cooked meat.

But I know things can change very quickly. When I was living in Xi'an, I witnessed the same thing with another rundown neighborhood where I lived. One day people were living in the old apartments there. The next day, the place  was evacuated and abandoned. And within a week, the bulldozers had come and completely leveled area.

Tianjin in photos

Only a two-hour drive away from Beijing is Tianjin, another one of China's largest cities.

I ventured there with my classmates during a day-trip last weekend. Our tour of this vast city of 12 million was short. So I didn't feel like I really had a chance to understand Tianjin. But I did come away with some nice photos. Above is a picture of the cityscape with Tianjin's television tower on the left.

Our first destination was the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, located next to a river that leads out to the sea. The area was crowded with people enjoying the warm weather. I took this picture of some bing tang hulu, a common snack sold on streets in China. The bulbs of red are sugar-coated hawthorn fruits.

We toured the city in our bus, enjoying the views of people and places we passed by. I think we were just as much of a curiosity for this small boy.

One thing I'll always remember about Tianjin are the numerous traffic signs hanging above the city's streets. They range from those reminding people to not throw trash out of their windows to this one about drunken driving. "Drunkenness is in the alcohol, ruin is in the cup," this sign reads.

Tianjin has one very unique attraction. The city is the only one in the world to have built a Ferris wheel on top of a bridge. People can ride the wheel while drivers below can look up at them. It's appropriately called the "Eye of Tianjin."

Meeting squelched

Last weekend I was set to go to a public forum. Organized by preservationists, the event was suppose to discuss the protection of the city's Bell and Drum towers (pictured above), which are slated for a controversial restoration.

I was excited to go because it would be my first time attending such an event in China. But hours before it was to be held I had found out that the forum had been abruptly canceled.

Event organizers would only say the event was canceled for "various reasons" and refused to elaborate, acting as if it wasn't a big deal. But clearly more was going on, with other news outlets speculating that the police had forced the shut down of the meeting.

This shouldn't have surprised me. Protesting isn't really allowed in this country (though it still happens), and the government will often try crack down on dissent when it can, even hauling away activists to be tortured.

But in reflecting about this, I couldn't help but make comparisons to my time as a city government reporter Kansas. Back then I'd often find myself writing about development projects that would alarm and even anger city residents. But always the public had a direct line with the city to state their concerns, usually by appearing at a city council meeting. At the same time, the city process of approving the development projects was transparent, and the people involved were most of the time available for interview.

Here in Beijing it's completely different. There is no avenue for residents to express their views. Instead, such rallying of public support is apparently seen as a threat. All the while, the exact details of the development project are shrouded in secret.  (I remember calling the key developer behind the project, only to get the secretary who was surprised that I had found the company's phone number. I left a message, which was never returned.)

The group of preservationists is still hoping to stop or reduce the impact of the restoration project. In the near future, they plan on stating their views more publicly via the media; currently the group's leader calls the plan akin to building hotels in the Forbidden City.

Still, I find it strange and somewhat disturbing to live in a place where you have no say, and you have a limited access to understand what's going around you. The decisions are being made by people behind closed doors. This is way of things in China: capitalism without democracy. I suppose it's more efficient, with the government able to easily override certain obstacles to achieve its goals. As for accountability, I don't know. At times it can feel like it's the government versus the people.

Seriously?

It seems my worst fears have come true. Just a few hours ago I noticed that none of my Google searches were working. Even searching for "hello" results in an error. Now the news is reporting on the disruptions. Come on China! Seriously?

For a moment I've had to contemplate what life would be like without Google. It's a scary thought. I haven't used another search engine since years ago when I was back in high school. Fortunately, as I stated in my last post, I can still visit Google through the use of paid proxy I recently bought. (My Gmail account also seems to be unaffected so far. What a nuisance that would have been.)

But regardless, this is ridiculous that Google searches have now been blocked. Do we not live in the 21st century? In America we would never stand for this. But here in China the government does what it wants, and people often end up just enduring it. I can only expect that more flowers and chocolates will be laid on the front steps of Google's Beijing Headquarters tomorrow.

UPDATE: Google is now working again in China, although the reasons as to why there was a disruption seem hard to pinpoint.

Google

At first, it actually didn't occur to me to write about this. Mainly because in terms of web surfing nothing's really changed.

This week, Google decided to shut down it's China website, signaling a "retreat" from the country. Instead, all of the company's Internet traffic is rerouted to its Hong Kong website, where search results are not subject to censorship.

In response, the Chinese government has very quickly clamped down, censoring Google search results through its own web filters. (When I search for "Tiananmen Square Massacre" I get an error.)

I've just returned from Taiwan, where I had the freedom to browse whatever I wanted to. But now I've come back to the mainland, where Facebook, and even my friends' blogs are blocked (Sorry Wednesday Weekly and I know, right? but China does not like blogger).

So I have to give a big thumbs up for Google's symbolic stand. Just in class this week, one of our teachers asked who is Google's main business competitor. The answer she was looking for was Baidu, the most popular search engine used on the mainland. But a few classmates and I couldn't help but say to ourselves that the Chinese government was Google's real competitor. I just hope the government doesn't eventually decide to completely block Google's website, in the same fashion it did to Youtube and Twitter.

Not like the censorship really matters. Internet users in China have always found ways around the Great Firewall, whether through free or paid programs. This week I decided to pay for a stable proxy service. I feel somewhat ridiculous in buying it; essentially I'm planting down money so I can log on to my Facebook account. But in China, freedom is not exactly the country's strong suit.

(Above is a picture of Google's sign outside it's Beijing headquarters. Earlier this week, people were placing flowers and chocolates on the display in response to Google's departure.)

Five days in Taiwan

Upon leaving Taiwan I found my arms covered with mosquito bites. It's been two days later since I left the island and I'm still itching the skin.

A small price to pay for good weather. It felt like summer while I enjoyed my short 5-day stay in Taiwan. The temperature was around 80 degrees, and I had no need to burden myself with a jacket all the time. Instead, I saw people wearing shorts and sandals, their hair looking limp and moist in the heat.

Probably the best thing about Taiwan is the food. This is a picture of some salt-and-peppered tofu. So good!

Even the fried rice looks pretty.

I stayed in Taipei, Taiwan's capital. And while I was there I had the pleasure of visiting with an old childhood friend.

Tim is  a Chinese-American like me. Last year he decided to quit his job, leave America, and then move to Taipei. When I saw him for the first time in months, I gathered that Tim was quite pleased with his new life: I found him hungover, resting his head on a girl's shoulder, and holding the end of a hookah pipe in his hand.

Tim's goal is to find a computer programming related job. But in the meantime, he's been working as a club promoter. He told me that from about Wednesday to Saturday he's out all night. I asked him when he goes to bed. "It depends. But sometimes around 6 a.m." he said, somewhat proudly.

To no surprise, I ended up hanging out with him until the very next morning. For six hours we sang at a karaoke place. All the while he told me stories about his adventures and shenanigans in Taipei. Now I understand why he has that big grin on his face.

(And yes, that is a toilet above Tim's head. It's the sign to Taipei's toilet-themed restaurant. Go Pee-Pee or Go Poo-Poo, the website reads.)

There was also plenty of banter with my family. My grandmother says I need to set a goal and get married within five years.

"I didn't quite understand what you just said," I replied.

Still, I wish I could have enjoyed Taipei more. During the trip I found myself busy with work, only to later feel my efforts were for naught; story of my life.

But I did have time to enjoy this wonderful view.

So long Taiwan. Until next time.