Beijing, Day Four

Today we toured the Arts District. Mr. Wong picked us up to go there. Artists congregated there during the Cultural Revolution.  The art is all Modern, and there is a lot of kitschy stuff.  But it was interesting. Getting there we seemed to pass through the business district with the high-end hotels.  Very modern.

After lunch, we went off to the WangFuji Dajie Mall by Tiananmen Square.  It is a western styled mall with high-end stores. There was an indoor mall and then brick streets closed off to most traffic surrounded by name brand stores.  It was interesting to see the high end of Beijing after the Hutong section.  We also went into an alley-way where they sold skewers of live scorpions and crickets to eat.  No one was brave enough to eat them.  That alley way led to others where the usual junk was sold and bartered for. 

After the alleyways, we went to a six-story bookstore that was mobbed with Chinese people.  Clearly the brick and mortar bookstore is alive and well here.  As we were walking back to the indoor mall we heard shouting a saw people gathering around a man holding a knife to his neck.  The police came.  We didn’t stay to see what happened. In the indoor part of the Mall was another Starbucks so we stopped.  Two Starbucks in two days.  Yea!!. 

After that Mr. Wang took us to a Carrefour market like a Wal-Mart so we could buy snacks for the next day train ride. Then back to the hotel to pack for Shanghai.

It is hard to reflect on Beijing.  It is a huge city; old and modern; well to do and poor.  The people seem to value their culture, and our tour guide at least recognizes the problems with a one party system, but points out the problems with a two party system too.  Clearly, everyone here is not equal.  In Starbucks and the upper class mall, you see the young businessmen and women; they seem much the same as in New York.  David said that the young people know that the harder you work, the more you will have.  And they all want to have more—sounds capitalistic to me.  In Beijing you can get anything we can get at home.  There is a very large import tax though.  The young lady at the pearl factory had huge engagement and wedding rings.  She said her husband worked 7 years to save for them.  There are Japanese, American, and European cars everywhere.  And cars are very expensive.  David said food was cheap though. The smog is terrible.