earthly tranquillity

next time someone asks me about my hobbies, I should remember to answer ‘biking in beijing, in october’. the simple pleasure of going nowhere in particular, like
nani moretti in the opening shot of his caro diario - "mi piace andare in giro colla vespa, guardando le case..."

sometimes I would bike three quarters of one of beijing's a circular ringroads, instead of crossing it, and turning back for a quarter. beijing is like manhattan, only on the first day you need a map. after that, it's just cruising, on the boulevards of big ideas, the wind of progress in the back.



the hutong are the traditional residential neighborhoods in beijing, one storey walled grey brick brick houses leaving a maze of quirky alleways. they fill up the big areas between the ringroads with quintessential china: the old man on his doorstep, the pharmacy stuffed with weird bottles and spices, the charcoal delivery bikes, the pancake makers, the men in their workshops spitting along, the public toilets, a bunch of uniformed schoolchildren.

'hut' in hutong comes from the same root as 'hot' in mongolian cities as xilinhot, hohhot or erenhot, testifying of the mongolian roots of beijing. 'hot' means water, crucial for stationary mongolian settlements on the high and arid grasslands.



hutongs are vanishing at quick pace. at extremely quick pace, since small chinese families without ownership certificates are no match for big corporations with political connections. entire hutong districts are being knocked down as we speak, and replaced by 'cleaner' office headquarters or residential towers. historical preservation and protection are underway but will probably come too late.
and for whom anyway? chen took me to his hutong home - while I was fascinated by their lifestyle (computers with internet next to charcoal fires in a tiny one storey two room brick house with outside bathroom), he and his family are looking forward to move to an apartment building soon... western expats seem to be the strongest advocates (and even buyers where possible) of hutong residences.


the city government is trying to eradicate spitting in beijing by the olympics in 2008...



tien’an men square is a very strange space, ambiguous in nature, attractive and repulsive at the same time. it is probably the only square in china, and the largest in the world.

a square, typology of democracy, in a society that has zero experience with democracy. whereas the european square reminds the rulers of the power of the people - the place of political discussion and the place of free market - the two largest squares in the world (tien'anmen and the red square in moscow) are used to render the opposite effect. with alternating success...





an unusually large square, so large it is almost impossible to conceive it as one space. at a certain point, it was too large apparently, too large to handle for one man. mao's mausoleum - a giant soviet gym - now sits in the middle and breaks it up in four spaces, not really four squares though. unusually inaccessible, too, as it is surrounded by boulevards on its four sides, detached from the rest of the city, and only reachable through underpasses at the corners, secured locks.
all that is solid melts into air...



"Tian'anmen, literally means "Heaven Peace Gate", and is normally translated as "The Gate of Heavenly Peace". However, in Classical Chinese, the word meaning "Heaven", is also used as an epithet for the Emperor; and the word meaning "Peace" more properly means "a state of undisturbed security". Thus "Tian'anmen" - being the main gate to the palace - also suggests "The Gate to Secure the Emperor's Safety", a meaning not present in the English translation."(Wikipedia)

well whatever... after all I found it just great strolling on tien'anmen square during the festivities for the people's republic's 55th anniversary. the sunset, the kites, the crowd, the guards, so cute.





and the duck... was delicious.


beijing, 2005