About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

I remember the good old days of the 1980s, when there was nary a traffic jam, nor were there so many cameras around trying to second-guess what you do. These days, I’ve done probably more work at the Beijingology Network of sites (including the 2008 2008 book coming up — think of it as a photo album, 2,008 photos in number!) than is healthy for me. Subway articles revised — time and again, as new standards are all the rage. Choosing the right photos. Heck, even doing a subway map — the way the network would be come the Olympics. Did I tell you that to me, Chinese New Year is a non-event after Danian Chuyi (大年初一), or the first day of the lunar new year?

Amongst those things I remember the most were those bridges going up all over town. I left Beijing in 1988 for Switzerland, but that didn’t mean that I forgot about the capital of the PRC for 12 years straight! Nope, beginning from 1991, I’d make trips back to Beijing every now and then. When I was really homesick, I made three trips a year — stacking up quite considerably on those frequent flyer miles. (This was why I flew back to the capital in style on Swissair Business Class one August 25, 2000!)

Out of the bridges I remember the most, one particular bridge is Xiaojie Bridge. I used to head back to Hepingli (which is now served by Subway Line 5) to grandpa’s place for soup, watermelons (which I used to stick a spoon into!) and toying around with a half-dead VCR. Xiaojie Bridge sprung up in 1991 (or thereabouts); it was a rude surprise for the cars (due to the construction site), but once it went up, traffic flew over it smoothly at about 80 km/h (or 60 km/h when you were heading down those days).

I like those newer, glitzier bridges they’re building, but a bit of me still long for the older bridges. They’re now only reality in faraway places like Fangshan in southwestern suburban Beijing. The signs — they’re what they used in the city center. Still holds a special place in my heart…

Buildings, too, will always have a special place in my innards. Those buildings that looked so new when they were completed in the early 1990s now look like remnants from the 1980s. I used to study at the University of International Business and Economics; their white building, built in the 1990s, still has that “daredevil-ish” look that graced 1990s buildings, no longer perfectly square in form. And yet every time I head to the public conveniences (or even hear the flush — perfectly from the next room), I’m reminded that this is something more like a building that was built around the time of the Cultural Revolution. They look so old and so new at the same time!

As more and more buildings are built, they will serve their tenants / owners / __fill in the blank__. They will look new when completed and will age as they go — as time goes by. Beijing is no longer about those big, boxy buildings of the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. Crazier, slicker and neater buildings are all the rage — as Beijing grows up, more and more.

To many an incoming visitor, Beijing is what you see — the Beijing of 2008 (as things now stand). I feel pretty honored seeing the capital — which is also my cradle — grow every year. People talk about the city as it is in one moment; my story’s more like a continuous tale that I’m all too happy to share. And already, I’m already looking forward towards the capital, post-Olympics…