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Opinion / Commentary
A stroll, and a bus ride, across modern China
By Arvinder Singh (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-14 07:15
Despite having been advised against using "bus number 11" (or "on foot"
if in China), I did take it all the time this summer in Beijing until the
morning I decided to try out a bus, just for the sake of it.
The only problem was I did not know where to go.
The lady in white and blue behind a counter on the eastern side of
Tiananmen had noticed me struggling with my torn map of Beijing and gave
me such a sympathetic look, I had no choice but to walk up to her and ask
for help. "Ma-Ju-Qiao," I said like a lost child, while making up a
destination for myself as she asked me where I wished to go.
On my way to Langfang a few days earlier, as we were leaving Beijing, I
had noticed a particularly interesting cluster of typical suburban
activity. That was Maju qiao. I would be back here, I had told myself.
I love suburbs, suburban towns and especially new towns, cities, and
urban settlements. The new Chinese suburbs literally smell fresh. That
feeling of "in the making," is palpable and exciting. There is plenty of
land and a sense of space. The literally sprouting markets that make
these new habitats breathe, are a delight for shoppers and scholars alike.
Much of China's reconstruction over the last two decades or so is
actually planned suburbanization - planned expansion of the peripheries
of the cities - and creation of attractive urban spaces in the
countryside. It has happened in nearly all provinces and not just in the
provincial capital cities. The expansion of Beijing itself over the last
10 to 20 years is stupendous. Of course, the Chinese could do it easily
as the land belongs to the State. But that does not take away from the
meticulously planned efforts on the part of the Chinese and the majestic
vision of an urban and urbane China.
The Chinese have shown remarkable foresight in creating new towns and
cities, instead of just trying to improve existing ones. The Chinese have
made a choice to invest in the cities and they have had the resources
recently to do it.
To use a historical analogy, if imperial Britain invested the colonial
surpluses in its countryside, and France in the cities, China seems to be
investing its own vast surpluses in urbanization. As a whole, China seems
to be doing it more efficiently and on a much higher scale than what
Western Europe and North America did in the 19th century and in the first
half of the 20th century.
The scent of urban China, that has over the years led me to countless
number of towns and cities, old and new, far and near, in this huge
country, took me to Langfang for the third time. This little young town
off Beijing just does not cease to amaze me. Langfang must be the best
new suburban town in the country today. Interestingly, in the beginning,
neither Beijing nor Hebei was prepared to own it. A part of Hebei
Province now, it stands out, rather shines, amongst the whole bunch of
nearby Hebei towns surrounding Beijing. In comparison, for instance,
Zhuozhou, Guan, Xianghe and even Baoding seem to be rotting if not in
ruins.
Like so many other new towns like this in China, Langfang literally
sprouted from the farmland. It is well built, clean and well organized.
It looks like it will last. If Shenzhen is the miracle city in the South,
the mainland's Hong Kong, representing China's grand urban aspirations
and the breed of new big cities in the country, Langfang is the face of
the new smaller suburban cities dotting China.
My friends in Beijing did not exactly think I had gone mad but were
certainly amused when I told them I had walked up to and around Wangjing
in the north-east. That I had walked miles along the Batong subway line
around a series of new apartment complexes in and around Guanzhuang,
Baliqiao, and Guoyuan, some of which were named "Rotterdam," "Seattle,"
"Toronto" and the like. That once I drifted to Fengtai, from Hepingmen,
meaning to reach Lou Liuliqiao. That having roamed in Daxing for hours, I
was still asking the way to Daxing.
Newer suburbs like Wangjing and those along the Batong subway line
certainly have a future but older suburbs like that of Fengtai and Daxing
are not in good shape and may meet the fate of Beijing hutongs sooner or
later.
Beijing is special. The Chinese seem to have put their money on Beijing
over Shanghai, as the number one city. Beijing, having been the seat of
imperial power for centuries, is today meant to embody New China and its
might. Shanghai, all said and done, is commercial, no matter how
sophisticated, urbane, or glittering it appears. Interestingly,
historically, the Chinese seem to have kept commerce and industry at a
distance from the seat of power.
Thankfully, construction level has come down in Beijing, as the Olympics
near. Those little red taxis that ruled Beijing's roads for so long have
disappeared. In fact, the entire city's public transport system has been
overhauled with swanky buses and taxis and newer lines of trains are
almost ready. Hutongs are more tucked in, less visible behind the newer,
taller and glitzy constructions. Hutongs' names have appeared in pinyin
with meticulous directions for tourists. And the rickshaws are in place
to take you for a look-around, especially in major hutong areas like
Qianmen.
Beijing's physical makeover apart, its qualitative transformation as a
city has also been striking. It is a new refined Beijing. Having visited
the city frequently over the last 10 years, to me, this time, Beijing
looked more urbane, posh, disciplined and ordered.
But is it getting a little monotonous, predicable and indifferent? Not
really!
The lady in white and blue told me that I could take bus No 9 and then
976 to reach Majuqiao. She not only showed me the bus stop but sent a boy
and waited with me for the bus and ensured I boarded it. She had given me
a slip of paper on which she had written in Chinese that I was to go to
Majuqiao and needed to catch 976 from a place close to where 9 would
terminate. Once inside, standing awkwardly in a corner amidst the curious
crowd, I tried to explain the same to the lady conductor by handing her
the slip of paper.
It began to rain and I did not remember it had been particularly cloudy.
As bus No 9 approached its terminus and passengers scrambled to get down
and run for cover, the conductor didn't let me leave the bus. She told me
to wait. She ran in the rain and came back with an umbrella. Not just
that. She actually led me all the way, some half a kilometer, as showers
eased, to the bus stop from where I would get 976, waited for the bus
with me and maked it a point to see me off, along with the umbrella. I
thought being nice to foreigners would have its limits. No way.
Interestingly, I am back being called Alibaba in China's streets. A
turbaned and bearded Sikh, the Chinese, often mistaking me for a Muslim.
I am glad the Alibaba thing has endured. I don't mind their ignorance
about the Sikhs, as long as they call me Alibaba. It comes with such
warmth.
I am back home, in Delhi. But my heart is in Beijing and my soul is in
Lang Fang.
The author is an associate professor and fellow at the Center for the
Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India, and runs the Chinese Economy
Program at the Institute of Chinese Studies therein.
(China Daily 09/14/2007 page11)
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