Huton and other thoughts on Beijing

Written on October 23, 2009

When we arrived in Beijing, I noted that even though it is the most populous city (I think) in the county, the apartments don’t seem so densely packed in as in Shanghai. The city is very clean and the roads are in great shape. Along the roads, there are many plants to help beautify the area. Water trucks drive by, when needed, in the very early hours of the morning to water the plants. The streets, at least the main roads, are regularly swept with a spray and sweeper truck. Every morning since leaving Shanghai, I have not been able to get out in the early morning to see people out doing Ti Chi. I get up around six a.m., shower, get dressed, gather everything that I need for the day, go down for some breakfast, and get on the bus and head out for the day. It is a slightly different schedule for Mom. She gets up at six or a little before, showers or cleans up, then fusses over hair and make-up until there is no time for breakfast, goes down to the breakfast buffet, grabs a few pastries or fruit into a napkin and jumps on the bus. I would have liked have been able to go to the park again, but as I get to bed at midnight or later, my ambition to get up and 5 a.m. is just not there like it should be.

Beijing, like Shanghai, has construction of high rise apartment buildings going on everywhere, but it is mostly in the out-skirts of the main, old city. I see that some of the old house, made of red brick, in the center two rings of the city have not been torn down, but some of them should be. Unlike the old (1940s or 1950s) houses of Shanghai, which have some of the old style pagoda type roofs, many of the older houses here look like they should be torn down. I imagine that some time soon they will be. There are now movements to protect historically significant buildings, such as the ones in Hutong.

Speaking of Hutong, I want to mention some of the things that the “groupies” (aka lackeys) got to do, while the choir was in rehearsal. I believe I mentioned already the trips to the Shanghai Museum and the Jade Buddha Temple. In Beijing, the choir was rehearsing prior to the concert in the Forbidden City concert hall, so we went to Hutong. If I find my memory card adapter for me cell phone camera, I will send a couple of pictures. The Hutong area was founded many, many hears ago my Mongolians (I understand many still speak Mongolian) during the Kan dynasty (I believe they are descendants of Gankas Kan rule). The ones that founded that little area, which is around a lake, called the lake a “sea” which is the meaning of one of the parts of the word in “Hutong,” as the people from Mongolia had never seen the sea. The houses are fairly uniform in construction, with a small square in the center, so it is a small square house with a square yard in the center. The houses have, if I recall correctly, the boys room on the east side, the girls room on the west, which has a lower ceiling, the family rooms on the north and the parents room on the south (I could be mistaken on my directions, but you get the idea). And the bathroom? Oh, that is down the block, as there are only communal bathrooms. And the cost? If you want your little piece of heaven (with tourists continuously wondering around the streets, try $3,000,000 US. What a bargain. In the age of 40 plus story high rise apartment buildings, the price of land is out of this world. If you buy one, however, you get the property in fee simple (its yours, no strings attached) where as if you buy an apartment for $250,000 to $500,000, it is yours for 70 years, then you have to re-purchase it (you never know, things could change dramatically before many of the terms vest (too much legalese?). The streets around the houses are so narrow that cars are not allowed. We toured the area in a bicycle rickshaw. It was a cool experience. According to what I was told, when the Communist Party first came to power, the families in these houses were told that all things were now in common, so instead of one family per house, there would now be about eight. After a time, the government bought out the owners, then are reselling the properties to those who can afford it. My own suspicions: there must be something else involved such as a down payment and a 70 year, low or no interest mortgage... I just don’t know. Really, I don’t believe everything I am told, even though I think the people that tell it to me believe what they are saying. It was a cool little tour, and fun to take a short rickshaw ride. About the price of the apartments, however, I do believe that, but again question the repayment method.

Sorry about all the typs I typed it on the bus, and proofed it at 1 am, with only one eye open as they were going cross-eyed from sleepingness.