Beijing is to hold the 2008 Olympic Games in the near future. In order to impress all visitors from home and abroad, the government has decided to renovate old and traditional architecture and build modern-looking buildings. As known to all, Beijing once had a famous and fabulous bar street - Sanlitun Bar Street. Small and unique bars came out spontaneously due to its foreign feature - a lot of foreigners and foreign compounds are located in that area. Now the government wants to renew it and make it more international. So houses have been torn down and big ad boards have been erected to hide ugly construction areas. On those eyecatching boards, they say that "you can find Tokyo, Paris, London here" as well as some other cosmopolises. So my question here is "where is Sanlitun?" "Where is my hometown, Beijing?"
The government has also destroyed the Hutongs in the Qianmen area. Construction is being undertaken there too in the name of presenting the "original and traditional" Beijing. But if the original is gone and the new is erect, how can you present the long tradition and rich culture?
Now the government has been seeking a grand title for Beijing since cosmopolises always relate to their features - Paris is said to be the city of romance, London is the city of fog, Milan is the city of fashion. So what is the feature of Beijing?
Dusty, dirty, dangerous, and destroyed. Ah, 4D must be a good name for Beijing, which represents four-dimentional - sounds pretty advanced, doesn't it? (The Beijing government should entitle me "Good Resident" for positioning the city)
But the sad fact is that Beijing is no longer Beijing. It is packed with waidiren while real Beijingers have to seek homes outside the country. New buildings, strange-looking theaters, seemingly-miserable stadiums, mean-spirited waidiren are taking over Beijing. Even the Beijing government consists of few Beijingers. Who can give Beijing a new direction and correct all the wrong?
We Beijingers should stand up and say "this is our city!" and get it back! | 