from walled-in to wide-open. Contrasts abound
China is a land of perplexing contrasts and I think you would have to live here for a long time to really understand what makes this place tick.
Take this area where we are lodging: it’s called the Hutong and it is a fascinating area of ancient clustered dwellings. These dwellings are tiny buildings, connected together by a complex grid of narrow ally-ways but all surrounded and protected by high walls. Entry to these buildings is via ornamental doorways leading into (often) some sort of courtyard. Every thing is incredibly cramped and yet they close themselves off with high walls. Here in the Hutong it appears that peasant type folk live, in the heart of a modern bustling city.
Then there is the ‘Forbidden City’ – another ancient complex hiding behind high walls’
So they love their privacy and seclusion.
So you would think they would respect other peoples privacy, but quite the reverse is the case. I have never come across such open, in-your-face curiosity as we are experiencing in this country. I have actually been shouldered out of the way so that someone could get a closer look at one of the kids. People don’t just stop and view you –they come up to you face to face and peer over your shoulder! It’s quite bizarre.
And then on the other hand, for special occasions they love a show of wide open spaces’. We went to Tiananmen square the other day (supposedly the biggest public square in the world)and roamed around its vast open wind-swept spaces. We dutifully noted that the monument in the centre is the largest monument in Asia (why is that important? I still dont know what the monument commemorated) and looked at the sculptures of the people’s struggle.
Then yesterday we went and had a look at the ‘Birdsnest” and the “Cube’ at the Olympic Games complex. Staggering amounts of space. The paved concourse area is so long that it just disappears into the haze in the distance (although with Beijing’s haze that does not have to be that far!)
But in such a crowded city it is surprising to see all that space. But this isn’t space like Western Springs or the Domain. These are vast areas of concrete with a heavy sprinkling of army and police personnel scattered around the place.
These are not places for a family picnic or a game of cricket. These are places to remind you of the power of the State and the success of the country. There may be parks around this city, but I dare say you will have to pay to get in.
The contrasts continue. The Birdsnest and the other Olympic buildings are a magnificent feat of modern engineering.
There is plenty of modern technology here so the country is not at all backward in that sense. Cutting the city into blocks are 5 or 6 lane highways – always jam-packed with frantic traffic with a healthy smattering of Audis, Mercedes, Porsche etc,
Under the streets runs a sophisticated network of subway trains as smart and efficient as anything around today. And the inter-city trains are clean, smooth and efficient and run exactly on time. I read an article the other day saying that China is going to enlarge its fleet of 200 Bullet trains with another 600 over the next 10 years!
The logistics of a big, densly-populated country are mind-boggling to this Kiwi, Meanwhile, sharing the streets above are ancient tri-cycle goods carriers carting anything and everything to goodness- knows where
To finish my ‘contrasty’ comments, let me tell you about the work site just around the corner from us here. On this work site a group of 20 or so workmen are producing heavy timber structures. We assume these are either in preparation for a traditional building to be erected on the site, or maybe being used in the Hutong Renovation project which is evidently in progress here. The fascinating thing is to see the old-time methods they are using
The logs are first de-barked by hand, and then planed into perfectly straight and round logs – that you would swear had been trued on a machine. Then the logs are fashioned with jointed interfaces using axe, adze and bow saw, We stood and watched them this morning – marking out a log using caligraphy pen and ink, and a black chalk string. These fellows are real craftsmen, fashioning buildings the way it must have been done over 2000 years ago.
And nearby similar techniques are being used to re-roof one of the Hutong dwellings.Small clay tiles painstakingly laid by hand in black mortar.
Carefully pointed and brushed down as they go with a grass brush. End result quite exquisite. So it seems that the ancient skills are being preserved alongside the modern technology. You’ve got to be happy about that.
Tags: 1, Observations, Oddities, Transport, Travel, Tag Index
kiwijoe
March 31st, 2009 at 8:27 am
[…] It’s quite interesting to consider that here in this modern city (where you can see major feats of engineering wherever you look), old time skills such as taking a tree trunk and turning it by hand into beams and planks of wood are still practised. Snap – the Grandpa wrote exactly about this today as well – he’s got some more great building pictures too (especially the very last one – a close-up of a guy tiling the roof) if you’d like to take a look here. […]
March 31st, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Hey Grandpa! Boy the Great Wall sounded like hard work.
The Birds Nest is incredible! And the contrast between the old and new is awesome.