Spice Me Up

Like any other country, the first hazing foreigners receive starts with the food. Located at a shopping center next to NCUT, the very first restaurant that my fellow grad students and I went to along with our newly acquired Chinese friends showed us what real spicy food taste like. Printed on their menus are these four different spicy levels: using one pepper as less spicy and four peppers as the spiciest. The middle picture shown on the right sums up what a 4 pepper-level food looks like. Literally half of the wok was filled with peppers. One thing for sure happened after the dinner, our sinuses cleared up and several of us had few trips to the toilet.

It didn't take that long for me to try out one of their bizarre street food. On my first night in China I ate couple scorpions at Wangfujing, one of the most vibrant shopping streets in Beijing. The scorpions were fried, of course, or else I wouldn't have done it. 

The streets of Beijing and other urban cities all throughout the country provide the cheapest belly-filler food you can find. Most of these street side restaurants are specialized on one type of food - whether it's noodles, dumplings, skewers or something else. Of course, our Chinese friends made sure that we get to eat at several types of these restaurants. These restaurants might not have the decor and furnishing one would hope for, but there is something about sitting out there next to busy streets that made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable and homey than the restaurants at the mall. There is nothing more satisfying than having few beers and skewers with your friends at one of these street side restaurants - I suspect that locals feel the same way. But as more and more developments turn local streets into huge commercial areas these street side restaurants are now starting to dwindle.

Shopping Streets

Chinese, by nature, are very entrepreneurial; and nowhere else this quality can be seen but at the shopping streets of China. The most interesting items – and by that, I mean souvenir items – are located at these streets. Some cities separate them by districts. In Beijing, Luilichang market sell antique items; Wangfujing and Dazhalan sell a little bit of everything; while Nanjing Road in Shanghai is the busiest and largest shopping street in China. Nanjing Road is very comparable to Champs Elysees of Paris, France – both streets are places where high end designer items can be found. Some of these streets are centuries old but have gone several restorations and/or renovations; and had developed from being previously open for traffic but are now only open for pedestrians. Also, some of the stores within these shopping streets are family-owned like the ones you will find in Liulichang. (Photos A and D - Liulichang Market, Beijing; B - Cheng Miao, Shanghai; C - 
Wangfujing, Beijing; E - Suzhou Canal at night)

But in street shopping, there is nothing more enjoyable than the art of bargaining. There is a saying that “everything in China is negotiable”. But just like any other skills, bargaining is one that needed practice - in fact, a lot of it. Sometimes bargaining can be very friendly and funny; other times they are confrontational and stressful. For an instance, in Beijing, in Luilichang market area, a store owner got mad at me and yelled at me with “I don’t want to see you here anymore!” after I made my friend realized that he was being overcharged for an item he was about to pay at that store. In Shanghai’s Cheng Miao Market, as I was trying to walk out of the store, a sales lady was pulling my backpack in and would not want me to leave without buying anything. I was like in a middle of a tug-of-war game. Once I perfected my skills of bargaining, I came to realize that a 100 yuan item can be bargained all the way to 15 to 20 yuan. Also, once you play the game, you have to stick with it - meaning don't back out after several negotiations and the store owner agrees at your own negotiated price.

Shopping streets have always been part of Chinese urban landscape. But the difference now is that lately the traditional markets are now been replaced by more contemporary and branded stores. There are still those stores that continue to sell hand-painted fans and figurines, only now their number is shrinking due to urban developments.  

1.3 Billion People

I’ve been to a lot of crowded places. But nothing prepared me to what I encountered in China. It might seem to be an exaggerated observation to say, but every crowded place I went to it felt like the entire population of China was with me. 

Forbidden City was the first Chinese urban space that I got the first taste of this type of crowd. I can’t deny that I was astounded by its grandeur and attention to details, but Forbidden City is all about sequential experience. But unfortunately when everyone else is moving through the same direction it makes the whole experience a lot harder. The hot and humid summer weather didn’t help either. In my case, it was an overwhelming experience, and as a result, I had a hard time enjoying one of the most historical sites in China. (photos A: Forbidden City, B: Shanghai Pavilion, C: Great Wall)

Shanghai’s China Pavilion is another architectural marvel. Its massive scale attracts a lot of foreigners and locals. But here, the experience starts outside the pavilion where visitors wait in line, standing for at least 2.5 hours to get into the pavilion. It was interesting to see how the Chinese cope with the long wait. Of course, some confrontations also result from the long wait especially when few try to cut in front to get ahead. Once I was in, maneuvering in the building was as difficult as standing outside the line to get in. Just like the Forbidden City where one move along in a sequential manner, the Pavilion is no different. At the Pavilion, the sequence starts with contemporary, fast-changing China; then through classical Chinese city and finishes with vision for the future city. Just imagine when hundreds of people moving in the same direction as you are to get through all the exhibits. 

Every now and then, you will find your own escape from the massive crowd. Unfortunately, such places are hard to find in China's urban cities. 

Around the Clock

While constructions everywhere else in the world had slowed down due to global economic meltdown, China on the other hand has not shown any slowing down. When I was there, it seemed to me that everywhere I went there were constructions going on - particularly in Beijing where new developments and subway lines are being built. The fascinating side of their construction is that some of these projects are being built continuously around the clock – that, I am sure is one that cannot be found in the U.S. (Photos A - new constructions in Beijing; B & C - new constructions in Shanghai)

With all the contemporary developments that are being built in China, juxtaposed with traditional Chinese buildings, you can’t help but wonder if China is beginning to blur their cultural identity as well. The challenge for the Chinese in today's demanding society is how to inject contemporary architecture and planning styles without sacrificing their traditional and culture means of life. (Photos D & E - Jin'an Temple, Shanghai; F - Temple of Heaven, Beijing)

For an instance, air conditioning units are very prominent feature on their building facades. While their main purpose is to cool buildings, they also identify social status: the bigger air conditioning unit or the more air conditioning units, the higher the social status. As China starts to use less wall units and more of other practical and more efficient systems of cooling, what then becomes the social status indicator on their building facades? 

These air conditioning units might be providing comfort to the Chinese, but we all know that they have negative effects to the environment. These units are big contributors to China’s infamous status of having some of the most polluted cities in the world. But as China starts to adopt new technologies and systems, sooner or later these air conditioning wall units will soon fade out on China’s building façades. 

Controlling the Crowd

When you have crowded urban spaces it only makes sense to have the presence of security personnel everywhere; in fact, security is paramount. I even suspected them to be present in subways since Chinese do use their subway system as one of their primary modes of transportation. But one thing I was not expecting to see was security scanners in subway tunnels. These scanners are similar to the ones you see at the airport. Basically, everyone’s bags are subject for screenings. In some cases, some underpasses even have security personnel and scanners too, like the ones in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (Photos A - Tiananmen Square; B- entrance to subway tunnel; C - Forbidden City)

From Point A to Point B

To a certain degree, understanding China’s urban development begins with their transportation. Public transportation is one of the urban aspects in which China made some of their biggest investments in the past few decades. Like some of the biggest cities in the world, China’s urban cities utilize buses as their main public transportation. In addition to buses, Beijing and Shanghai have subways that are equally utilized. Based on interviews we did of the local residents, while older residents tend to use the bus more often than the subways, most of the younger residents consider subways as more convenient than any other means of transportation they have. (Photos A - public bus; B - on a subway; C - a moment before train departs)  

Subways in Beijing are unique in many aspects: they're simple and yet complex at the same time, and most especially can be very crowded. Our research findings indicate that the government has a comprehensive plan to expand their subway system - increasing from today’s 9 subway lines to 16 by 2015. Beijing subways are considered to be very convenient since they involve no traffic, transfers from one line to another are easy and the fares are pretty cheap.

Today, Beijing and other urban cities in the country do possess a significant amount of traffic jam on their roads – thanks to continuing increased of private and commercial vehicles, as well as increased of government-operated buses. But a recent law might suggest that a shift is perhaps about to occur. This year, the Beijing government adopted a lottery system that limits the issuance of new car licenses per month. 

China’s busy thoroughfares are incomparable to any other countries – at least from my experience. Before coming to China, I have never seen intersections where buses, motorcycles, bikes, private cars and people all crossing at the same time. You can't help but just wonder why traffic lights are even needed. I have seen videos of car accidents in China’s urban cities before – they are quite popular on social websites and youtube - but luckily and surprisingly, I never witnessed any of those accidents while I was in China.  

The trips that our group made outside the capital city of Beijing allowed us to experience the different types of passenger trains that China has. The newly opened Jinghu High Speed Train that took us to get from Beijing to Shanghai in about 5 hours was a remarkable ride. The overnight train from Beijing to Xi’an was a smooth ride as well, where maximum of two passengers are in each room with plenty of space and with its own toilet compartment inside. In contrast, the train back from Xi’an to Beijing was meant to show us how typical Chinese would travel for long distances; in which everyone gets a compartment not a sleeper, everyone gets a small space with very little room to maneuver. One of my fellow grad students and I were lucky enough to be in a cart with no other foreigners but us. (Photo: an overnight train from Xi'an to Beijing)

 

Life in Hutong

Most commonly associated with Beijing, hutongs are the narrow alleys shaped by traditional courtyards called siheyuans. Here at these neighborhoods is where I found some of the most interesting social dynamics in China. 

Even though they are not well maintained like the major arteries of Beijing, hutong streets are very functional in a lot of ways: they are places for gatherings, eating, playing games with friends and even for conducting small business transactions. They are very narrow that only one car can pass at a time; and therefore considered to be more pedestrian-friendly arteries. Also, residents of these neighborhoods have a lot of control on what they allow to happen on their streets. For example, residents make their own markings on their building facades that indicate where people can and cannot park their cars. (Photos A,B,C - main activities in hutong streets)

Another noticeable feature of these hutong neighborhoods are the things that are found immediately off the streets. One can observe vegetables vining up on the wall; or piles of stuff as if the street is a storage area; or even clothes hanging, making the streets look like closet spaces. As a result, the boundary of public and private is now becoming harder to define as more and more of these typical things and activities that are normally found inside our residencies extend out to the street. (Photos D,E,F - things found immediately off hutong streets)

People's Space

China’s urban spaces are used in a variety of ways. The usual activities of reading, eating and observing others are always visible. But local residents tend to use these spaces, particularly the urban parks, as places to relax and unwind after a long day. Sometimes the residents have so much liberty that some men are even half-naked walking around. Surprisingly, this liberty of walking around with no shirt can also be seen in subway trains. (Photos A,B,C - People's Park, Shanghai)

Chinese residents do know how to take advantage of their parks and plazas throughout the cities. For instance, in NCUT campus, the young ones love to use open spaces as playground for their favorite pass time activities (E); at several open plazas next to malls and in Summer Palace, middle-aged women love to follow their dance instructor for hours as their daily exercise (F); while older folks at Jingshan Park get their daily therapy by performing tai chi (D). (Photos C - Summer Palace; D - NCUT Campus; E - Jingshan Park -- all in Beijing) 

Some of their urban spaces are places where old folks form groups to socialize. Women play friendly game of cards; while men are more incline to play different traditional board games. Most of these activities are tucked away from the busy crowd; while some are next to exit gates of these urban spaces like the long covered walkways located next to the east exit of the Temple of Heaven. (Photos G,H,I - east gate of Temple of Heaven, Beijing)