Progress: The Enemy at the Gates

Those who have visited us here in Beijing would have been taken on a Guihot tour of The Village - that big Lego-land shopping centre a Beijing city block away from the Australian Embassy. It’s modern in design, was opened just in time for the Beijing Olympics and although it took a year to get the emerging Chinese capitalist middle-class excited, these days it is packed to the brim on any given weekend with locals wanting to buy all the big-ticket fashions, stuff their faces with McDonalds and Starbucks, or just ‘hang out’ at what is (or was) Beijing’s first official Apple Store - crazy night out. It’s the heart of Sanlitun – the kind of place that the young locals are happy to be seen (and even happier to spend their money).

Sanlitun Apple store this week - the iPad and iPhone 4 had arrived 

Directly to the north of The Village and separated by nothing more than a 10meter wide street is a vastly contrasted scene. It’s old Beijing, made up of a main street/alleyway running north-south with all the visual characteristics of an economy just waking up from a long socialist sleep, only to find capitalism lying in the bed next to them. One side of the street is made up of a series of “30 square foot basement bars” lined up one after another (where the only thing different is the name), the obligatory rip-off DVD shop, a run-down Chinese supermarket and a few tobacco stalls that sell more than just tobacco smoking devices. Add in one or two sex shops, a bike repair stand and a smattering of tailors and you have the type of street you'll find in many areas of the more westernised Chaoyang district, but maybe you’d have to look down a side alley for.

The other side of the street sees itself as the more highbrow. Sure the doner kebab shop is there, but the Frenchies have also moved in to cater for those wanting a taste of frog’s legs from home. Then there are the ‘trendy’ cafes offering wireless for those new iPhone/iPad customers that migrate from Apple Central across the street, while they dine over a pitabread platter and Turkish coffee. Off to the side in an even smaller alley is Beijing’s only Fish 'n' Chip shop, an old Bavarian pub turned pizza joint and a few more bars including one that has changed name more times than I’ve changed underwear since moving to China. The main ‘street’ is hardly wide enough to fit two cars in side-by-side, but that does not stop the new car-owning and driving elite of Chinese society from turning down the road and head-to-head into the path of an oncoming car. Many a time has the street been blocked while the two drivers argue about who should give way, eventually resulting in one having to reverse back trying to miss the pedestrians as they go (making weaving through on a bike a lot of fun). As a vehicle thoroughfare it is next to useless, but given that private car ownership is really only 15-20years old in China it’s not surprising (and as a side note, it could handle two of the China old-skool three-wheeled bikes side-by-side quite well).

All up this main section of street runs only 200meters or so in length before it runs right into the original Village’s newest sibling, Village North and a whole other colourful block of designer shops. In fact, on three sides of this little street the architecture designers seemed to have caught up with the present (and maybe beyond), and rumour had it that this old remaining bastion of old Capital in Sanlitun was merely the next cab off the rank in Beijing’s plan to knock down and rebuild, or renovate beyond recognition.

It wasn’t really a surprise then to discover last night that the scaffolding has moved into the old street, and the next phase of Beijing’s modernisation had commenced. It was no less disappointing though, and a tad sad. Why? Well aside from a personal protest against the Beijing Government’s demolition of all older parts of the city (Hutongs going bye-bye), there are a few other things about this old Datsun 120Y in a carpark of new Ferraris that does it for me.

The scaffolding has arrived.  Does it signal the end to this last section of Sanlitun with old Beijing character?

Up until now (and ironically thanks in part to the drawing power of The Village across the street) this little lane has really become a communal meeting place for the locals and the visitors during the evenings of the warmer months. On Friday and Saturday nights in spring and summer this short piece of cracked, potholed Beijing pavement hosts a long string of mobile hotpot stands running up and down either side. Sure I’ve never actually stopped to give it a go, but I, along with the other westerners, really appear to be missing out on something. Language barrier aside, I’ve often seen and heard whole groups of locals sitting down on the tiny stools (think kid’s tea-party tiny) and talking very loudly while their calamari and shrimp ball kebabs stewed in the curry-like stock. The conversation's often animated and jovial  -  a far cry from the conversations going on at the French Restaurant dining tables just over the ballast raid. Whether the locals have just planned a night out shopping with friends and selected the cheap meal option, or whether they are eating before heading to any of the multitude of popular nightclubs in the area, it has always been a happening place which really gave me a last dose of real China before heading back into the protected walls of our western apartment only 800 meters away as the crow flies.

The renovation of the street will likely result in a huge hike to the rents of those businesses who operate from “the strip”. One of the bars there (can’t even remember the name) makes a killing on any night of the week with a whole menu of 15rmb cocktails - around AU$2.20. OK so the Pina Colada I sampled there probably had more methanol than ethanol in it, but the prices certainly beat the double or triple prices elsewhere (even if the music’s too loud to talk and there isn’t enough room for a toilet let alone a pool table, dance floor or dart board).

The old alley really is the OTHER Sanlitun Bar Street, with recessed doors leading customers down into small, smoky holes where the entertainment isn't much chop but the drinks are cheap.

But it’s not a rose without thorns, and in fact this rose doesn’t even have a good scent most days. In warmer weather the alley regularly smells of rotting vegetables, a slight hint of stagnant water and sometimes a slight waft of rancid cooking oil mixed with urine (see comment above re: bars for one possible reason). There are often beggars trolling for gullible foreigners, some of who pimp out their kids to do the begging as it often brings more money in.

But it’s real China, warts and all, and when we head on down to The Village on our bikes (like we did last night) we always lock them up right in the middle of this madness just to be able to take it all in. Except this weekend the vendors might not come, as the scaffolding has taken over their set-up spots. The familiar traffic jams will be a thing of the past, as the scaffolding has encroached beyond the sidewalk and reduced the street width to a distance just big enough to fit a 3-wheel bike through. Those who prefer the bourgeois side of the alley will be turned away as the outside dining areas are now all hidden behind sheets of plywood, and even if they sit inside the construction noise that emanated today would drive the most tolerant diner insane. The current eateries (including the fish n chip shop which we like) will be starting to reassess their viability post-renovation, when the fancier premises will demand higher rent. And while the potential disappearance of the AU$2.00 (+ GST) Pina Colada is devastating, the real loss will be felt by those who enjoyed the area for what it was – a perfect contrast to the progress that lays siege to its borders, and which will inevitably bring with it the sad demise of an ever-shrinking old Beijing.

The chalk and the cheese.  The old street in the foreround, against a backdrop of the new Village, where western lifesyles are sold at more than western prices.