Story & photos by Joshua Berida
I met a traveler who once told me, “if you haven’t been to Beijing, you haven’t been to China.” I’ve been to different parts of the country from Yunnan to Sichuan to Qinghai to Gansu and to others.
The capital wasn’t the first choice, I knew it was a big city with plenty to offer, but I postponed going anyway. However, it was inevitable, I had to visit Beijing and when I finally did, I discovered that it was a city that was both modern and ancient.
Link between the old and new
BEIJING exemplifies everything that is to say about a capital, a quick walk around reveals the city’s affluence: car dealers that offered the latest sports cars, a luxury hotel and several shops. But I’m looking for specific destinations within the city limits, so I made my way to the subway and boarded the train right away.
The Temple of Heaven is a sacrificial building that was a vestige of the Qing and Ming Dynasties. The complex is centuries old and displays of ancient religion, philosophy, culture and history.
Walking into the temples along with several other tourists and locals, I imagined walking with emperors and their officials as they went to the altar with their sacrificial animals, and prayed and worshipped for good weather and a bountiful harvest. With these thoughts in mind, I was taken back to the present with clicking sounds, tour guides’ lectures, people’s small talk. I left soon after.
That evening I headed out to see the Olympic Park and the Bird’s Nest immediately caught my eye from a distance. For lack of a better way to describe it, it really does look like a nest, thistles and all while it illuminated a reddish and yellowish light. Standing a few meters was the Water Cube, or the National Aquatics Center. This gigantic building looked like bubbles strung together, a marvel in modern architecture. I liked the fact that these are not just two relics of Olympic glory, but are now attractions, event venues and parks.
Gugong or the Forbidden City is a city within a city. Inside Beijing’s urban jungle, this ancient complex dates all the way back to the Ming Dynasty until the Qing Dynasty’s end, spanning almost 500 years of history.
The courts and rooms displayed the elaborate ceremonies and mundane activities the emperor does before showing himself to the public or handling state affairs. Imagine the hustle and bustle of scholars, ministers, servants, maids and concubines. Now fast forward to today, tourists and guides while modern day Beijing is filled with traffic, fast-food chains, skyscrapers and city limits that extend beyond its ancient borders.
The Great Wall
Walking up the Great Wall in Mutianyu was easier than I thought. This massive and long structure that stretches all the way to far west China was the line of defense against invaders. Now, it is nothing more than a tourist attraction. Ironically, instead of keeping people out, it has drawn them in, the wall being one of the most iconic landmarks in the country.
As I moved from one tower to the next, I can’t help but imagine the fierce battles that took place just below it. The wall section I walked has undergone extensive restoration, but I saw some battle scars on it. The serpentine wall, undulating with the rise and fall of the hills stretches as far as the eye could see, is a proud testament of a country’s long and rich history.
Hutongs in the Big City
Beijing is an ancient city, but now is a concrete jungle with a latticework of hutongs. A hutong is a narrow street between courtyards that are just as old as the Forbidden City. These enclaves are like foreign lands amid the glitzy entertainment and shopping districts, skyscrapers and urban sprawl with a hint of the past despite their restored and commercialized state. Some are actual neighborhoods, with their worn walls, torn posters, missing shingles and smelly garbage, while others are designated attractions.
Traditional homes, whether really old or newly built, line the streets. Some are now shops while others are hostels. Others are cafés offering Western or stalls selling the most exotic food on display (do locals really eat bugs and scorpions or is it a show for foreigners?), and kitschy souvenirs.
Within the hutongs, Beijingers are at their most honest. Bikes and cars are double parked, people come and go, clothes and underwear have been hung just outside doors or windows, mothers nurse their babies, workers sit down to drink tea, and friends congregate to gossip or outside their homes without pretensions at all.
Beijing is a city that has an old soul with a modern flair, It is a metropolis in every sense of the word dotted with intimate spaces and time warps to its traditions that makes it what it is today, a vibrant city ready that’s fast mapping a nation’s future.
Image credits: Joshua Berida