From high-tech to hutong...

What a day Sunday was. It began with a change of plans: Walti had planned to go cycling with Phil (a friend from our world tour in 2000), but when we woke up it was raining - for the first time since I arrived in Beijing 6 weeks ago...

So, we made a "Plan B", which also evolved as the day progressed. Our first stop ended up being the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, opened in late 2004, which was wonderful. With a huge bronze of the Old City of Beijing ca. 1949 on a scale of 1:1,000 (10m high, 9m wide, depicting > 118 000 houses, 60 000 trees, but no skyscrapers), a wooden scale model of the Forbidden City's 9 999 rooms and - the absolute highlight - a huge arial photo of Beijing, printed on nearly 1,000 lit glass floor panels, the center of which is covered by a 302 m2 model (at a scale of 1:750) of the Beijing facelift scheduled to be completed by 2008, when the Chinese capital will host the Olympic Games, it was a fascinating exhibition (we spent 2 hours there). Most of the projects appear already in place or nearing completion, including the Olympic venues themselves. The model is detailed enough to pick out the features of individual buildings, such as the Lee Garden.

By then, the rain had more or less stopped, and we went wandering through a doomed hutong, half already destroyed, South of Tian'anmen. It was obvious that the area was in disrepair, as the remaining residents awaited the final bulldozers. We stopped for lunch at a 1-room house/ restaurant for a bowl of noodles (with egg, tomato and vegetable) and a beer, served by a migrant worker and his 20-year-old son (the wife and sister were back in Shanxi). We saw recent wedding photos and took some of our own - a very friendly encounter.

We eventually wandered along the length of the Dazhalan Jie, a local pedestrian shopping street. Mom even bought a pair of pants, which we had to take for alterations (these little everyday chores are somehow much more interesting here in China than back at home). By then, we were getting quite tired, and it was already 5 pm, so we took a taxi back to the apartment. After a bit of relaxation, we were invited for an apero at our the apartment of our "neighbors", the Schoettli's, and we ended the evening with a foot massage and quick snack back at out place.

Lots of impressions for a single day, from a high-tech planning exhibition to lunch with the locals in a destitute hutong...