Rediscovering Beijing: A city with long history and modern skyline
Leading directly south runs Qianmen Dajie, pedestrian-only since 2008, but in my early days a heavily clogged road with buses and commercial vehicles. Today, the environment greatly improved. I headed along West Heyan Street, once part of the capital’s economic heart during late 19th/early 20th century. In recent years, considerable work has gone into carefully restoring some of the early financial houses and incorporating them into a new development of excellent coffee shops and restaurants. A far cry from my early days exploring the area when there was one tiny little bakery serving hot drinks where I would spend long times just looking out over the Qianmen gate towers.
Amazingly, my favorite narrow alleys, crammed with tiny local food restaurants remained. This was the real ‘Lao Beijing’, the heart of 19th century outer city. Dashilar shopping street with its “time-honored” brands was just as buzzing as ever along with local lanes offering textiles and silk produce. Yes, the Beijing of my early days was still there.
In contrast to the traditional historic scenes reminding of Beijing’s story going back many centuries, the rapidly rising new city presents scenes obviously not in view during my earlier days. I today find real fascinating, indeed amazement, standing on the sixth floor outdoor terrace at China World Mall 3 at Guomao. There for several years I have watched the rise of a 21st century Beijing incorporating both futuristic architecture and commercial towers such as China Zun rising up to 530 meters. Yet, I think back to when the area was dominated by factories, indeed much of the CBD occupies land that was originally industrialized through the 1950s.
Thankfully remnants of Beijing’s early period of heavy industry have been preserved and transformed into amazing parks such as the former Shougang Capital Steel Works - but that is a story for later.
Beijing, China’s capital city, retains so much of its fascinating past blending today with one of the world’s most modern skylines. A city I am glad to be rediscovering and one that continues to present me with many stunning photo opportunities.
