A final weekend in Beijing?

The family and I took a short trip to Beijing over the weekend. I needed to pop by the Social Insurance Fund office to sort some things out. This was the first time I had been to Beijing in more than a year (the previous time was itself the first time in almost a year before that) and it will likely be quite a while before I am back again. So what does one do when one is planning a "final weekend" in Beijing?

First, arrange for some babysittng for the elder child: Mrs Chen, who used to see Hannah on a weekly basis when she was in Beijing cried when she heard she would be able to look after Hannah for a few days - and then promptly went and stocked up on chocolate and sea food! Second, schedule to meet some friends - not that many are left, but the all-encompassing We Chat serves its purpose well (even for Hannah who met her first best friend with whom she had played almost every single day for the first 3 years of her life, though it was not very successful with the friend not showing much interest in Hannah any more). Third, arrange a hotel - hotels are cheap in Beijing in mid-December. It is winter (a few degrees above zero in the afternoon, a few desgrees below zero the rest of the time), it is coming up to Christmas and Chinese New Year, the air is polluted... anyway, with a large supply of hotels, and few domestic or international tourists or business travellers, a good 5-star international hotel can be grabbed cheap.

We had to eat Peking Duck, of course, with our oldest Chinese AIESEC friends, most of whom now have their own kids, or are soon to have them, though many have also moved to Shanghai or overseas. The private rooms eaily available in Chinese restaurants are fantastic (and also necessary when the main rooms get very loudy and/or smoky) and more Western restaurants should consider this!

Andrea and I did some Hutong walking with Leah - from the Lama Temple past the "in" hutong of the beginning of this decade (Wudaoying) all the way to Beiluoguxiang and its older sister, the "in" hutong of the previous decade (Nanluoguxiang) which suitably enough was being renovated again. When I first went there in 2004 there was one cafe on an alley way, and that was it. A few years later it went though successive transformations with literally a hundred new cafes, bars and shops as well as a dramatic widening of the alleyway, and then this spawned out into all the neighboring alleyways. Then the subway came and now the latest renovation.

We couldn't walk down it due to the latest renovations (also including electricity grid upgrades) so we sauntered off down some of the neiboring ones which have not yet been dramatically changed, past a great little market, past the original Great Leap microbrewery and alongside a newly renovated canal to reach Hou Hai, the lake. Hou Hai was "in" even before Nanluoguxiang... originally a short strip of some upmarket bars, and then a hanfdul of lower market bars, it exploded into line upon line of lower market bars, cafes and shops. And it is still going strong actually more than a decade after that explosion began. The upmarket things have moved into other hutongs near by to be more hidden and exclusive, while the rickshaw drivers consider to ply their trade offering to take guests on tours of the hutongs and the lake. 

The transformation of the hutongs are well commented on--from the original large mansions a century ago to smaller dwellings, and now spruced up again in some parts (and destroyed in other parts). The latest change seems to be a policeman on every other corner in the hutongs. The liveliness of the hutongs in this trendy and in-demand area has certainly diminished but a community feel remains in some of them. 

We had lunch in one of the coutyard houses at the far end of the lake, close to Deshengmen, which typifies some of the changes... the courtyard house is now a nice restaurant serving food from South-West China, with a glass roof over the actual courtyard, a children's playground in a small house accoss the alleyway, and lots of small water features and shrubs in the restaurant. Some of the food was great--some soups, eggplant, toufu, lamb and the mijiu (low alcoholic sweet rice wine). The company: former colleagues from BSR, many also now with children. 

Next--a bus. Alway the best way to see a city: with the locals and with a high view. Bus number 5 in Beijing is one of the best, going through the heart of Beijing from the north-west of the hutongs down past the Forbidden City and sweeping past Tiananmen Square to the South-east of the hutongs where we alighted. These hutongs are the polar opposite to those in the north, and in fact we find these ones fascinating. Some of them, alongside the street running South of Tiananmen, have now been totally rebuilt--and are somewhat derelict. The main street populated by upmarket chains and some old local brands; the neibouring alleways to the eat were knocked down and re-built to a plan that has clearly not worked and much of it is now abandoned after being populated a year or two ago. To the west are some of the remaining community hutongs, very tightly nested together and shooting off in all directions with lots of live (in Summer at least) and a nice local feel to them - we enjoyed the walk through as re reminisced of the previous walks.

To the east of that area, is huge trathes of hutongs that have been demolished in readiness for something big. It has taken more than 5 years to get the existing reidents out and to knock everything down. A strange site of rubble and trees with the odd resident/house remaining; and then further east some hutongs that have been superficially restored by plastering a thin layer of additional bricks around their outside to make them look modern. And then eventually out to Chongwenmen, the shopping area that is where almost all chains start their entrance into Beijing, from H&M to Burger King and much more.

And lastly, to wrap up the Hutong tour, via a detour to get a coffee and waffle, to the South, heading towards the Temple of Heaven is our favourite hutong of all, Ciqikou. A small slice or rual China existing in the capital city: residents from around China living, working, selling, buying on one narrow hutong. We loved the feel, and especially the guy selling some of the best BBQ steak found anywhere. But now, white barriers have been laid down the middle of the hutong, and along both sides, restricting any of the shops from setting out their wares. So no more vegetables, no more street snacks, no more outside eating. No more community. No more favourite Ciqikou hutong. Maybe there is a good reason, or maybe there is not. But on our last trip to Beijing we could say RIP to our favourite hutong. Indeed the hutong had only been found once we realized the best places were hidden behind newly built walls designed to hide the best places! At least that insight remains with me. Where there is a nice wall that looks out of place, go look behind it!

And then another bus - the 43, a classic that goes north-east from the Temple of Heaven passing the old Beijing City Walls and train station, up along Jianguomen waidajie past the legacies of old Beijing, such as the Friendship Store (which seems to somehow still exist from what we could tell, despite zero market for it, and no actual sign on the outside anymore), past the modern Beijing: the tall luxurious apartment and office buildings around Guomao and the CBD complete with giant TV screens as roofs for shopping malls as well as glass pyramids for malls, and where all the 3 BSR offices were that I had worked in.

Up to Sanlitun, the original bar area (though the actual original street, Sanlitun south street was knocked down shortly ater I arrived in 2004, the north street and back street remain in various forms) that has constantly re-invigorated itself with new malls, hotels, and bars; flagship shops and more besides. Dinner had to of course be Western if it is in Sanlitun, in this case some Tapas and then American at Home Plate BBQ, the scene of my "leaving Beijing" party 2 years earlier. With perfect timing one of my oldest friends in China, Chris, with whom together we had studied Chinese, climbed mountains, trekked the Southern and Northern borders of China, donated alcohol on trains, and many more adventures besides, was back in China having left a few years earlier to puruse a PhD. A last meal with him and his wife was perfect.

And if that was not enough for a day, there was still time to go all the way out to Shunyi, the home of the rich, the land of the spaced-out and the villa, to meet another of my eldest friends in Beijing, Ben, with whom we had shared thousands of moments on the football pitch, for a drink and a disappointing viewing of a football match (it really was not a good idea to try to play on a sunday night in december in beijing!).

We'd covered so much of Beijing in that day and a half I was vey satisfied. There of course are many places we could not pack in, but much of the best was ticked off. All that remained on the third day was to spend some quality time with the family, thank Mrs Chen, and to enjoy the wonders of the Hai Di Lau hotpot which we'd enjoyed just a few weeks earlier in Shenzhen too. You cannot have a winter in Beijing without having hotpot.

A quick walk around the Lidu area--one of the oldest foreign business districts in Beijing and one that has dramatically changed with new shopping malls, business parks and art districts--ticked another box. Then a final breakfast at the hotel with another old friend and 72 hours in Beijing was complete. Lots of calories consumed, some burned, lots of friends met, and lots of memories stored.