Today in China

Yeah! 5 years ago - on the 17th of August 2006 - I arrived in China, expecting to stay here for just 2 years before moving elsewhere… and I’m still around and probably for at least 2 or 3 more years!

5 years… Here come the TOP 10 changes that I noticed:

[1] I’m not sure if there are less taxis than five years ago but there are much more private cars. Five years ago, the roads in Beijing were red because of the color of the Beijing Cabs. Today, a lot of people buy their own car. The direct consequences are a taxi fare that went from 1.2RMB to 2.0RMB and a much worse traffic.

[2] Talking about traffic, the city evolved a lot to compensate the growing number of cars. Lots of roads have been widened from 2 lanes to 4 or 6. And Beijing has now a fifth and a sixth ring road!

[3] I also remember going out for lunch with my colleagues for a mere 10RMB or 1EUR. Now, you’d better count twice as much, something like 25RMB. Today, we went to a Sichuan Food Restaurant for 30RMB.

[4] There are much more bars and discos. When I arrived in China, THE Bar Street was Sanlitun (三立屯) and you could hardly find any bar outside of this area. Now, we have bars all over the place with Houhai (后海), Gongti (共体) but also the West of Beijing in the Universities District as Hot Spot.

[5] More than half the old Beijing Hutong (胡同) were destroyed and it continues… Lots of them were destroyed but some are getting renewed. The problem for the people who used to live there is that the rents increased and only the wealthy ones may stay. The others are relocated in huge dormitory cities in the suburbs.

[6] Two new lines of subway are in service. The first allow you to reach the North of Beijing from both DongZhiMen (东直门) and XiZhiMen (西直门). The second one is an extension of the horizontal line, going further east from SiHui (四惠). However, the line that we are all waiting is still missing, the one going from DongZhiMen (东直门) to the airport!

[7] This one might be the most noticeable change for someone coming back to Beijing after a few years. There are much more skyscrapers than before. Most of these buildings are apartments compounds, especially in the east side of Beijing where you have the embassies and foreign companies. As an example, the tower where I live is a new tower of 26 floors. Ermmmmm… well… Of course you have no 4, 13, 14 nor 24 because of some superstition based on the pronunciation of the number 4 (四, similar pronunciation as the death 死) and therefore, my tower only has 22 floors.

[8] Am I still in China? Besides the fact that Beijingers are now used to foreigners and stopped staring at them in the street, in some part of the city and especially in some bars and restaurant there are so many foreigners that one may have difficulties to remember that they are in China.

[9] Thanks of course to the government triggered artificial rains but also to the trees and flowers that are planted on the side of the roads, Beijing gets greener and greener. This morning on my way to the office, I even had the surprise to feel the scent of the grass freshly cut.

[10] Last but not least, since May 2005, we finally have a decent choice of Belgian Beers in Beijing, with the Beer Mania!

Anything I missed?