Beijing: ‘The Sanitized City’?
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 07.22.08 | 11:35 AM ET
As we’ve noted, China has been tidying up its restaurant menus—both in terms of ingredients and language—in the lead-up to the Olympics next month. But, says the Globe and Mail’s Geoffrey York, the clean-up is about more than food, and it’s going too far. “China’s capital city is being sanitized and sterilized to within an inch of its life,” he writes in a recent blog post. “It’s being cleaned and tidied and swept up to the point where it feels like an artificial replica of itself.”
I was especially interested to read his lament for the loss of Beijing’s more chaotic side, since I’ll be visiting the city for the start of the Games. I’ll be a first-timer in Beijing, and though I enjoyed York’s post, I hope he’s wrong when he writes: “If you happen to be visiting Beijing during the Olympics, you won’t really understand what this city is all about.”
Photo by Montrasio International via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Dave 07.22.08 | 2:21 PM ET
It shouldn’t be that hard to still find the original China. Just get away from Beijing towards smaller cities or talk to people that live there. I can easily ask people from China in chat rooms about what it is really like over there. They wont lie about it, theres no reason to.
AppetiteforChina 07.23.08 | 4:42 AM ET
Or just head out beyond the tourist spots and subway lines. Beijing is an enormous city, and most visitors see a tiny percent of it. While many major roads have been cleaned up and hutongs somewhat sanitized, there are still many spots whose sights and smells will tell you, yup, this is the real China.
Dave 07.23.08 | 8:09 PM ET
Yeah, definitely the smell is a “dead” giveaway. Same with china town and all. I dont even know what the smell is coming from really but it cant be good. Someone from a chat said it was the mix of trash with dead animal that was lying out but it could be worse.
AppetiteforChina 07.25.08 | 11:30 PM ET
I think it’s the same stuff that’s in Western sewers, but with antiquated plumbing and sewage treatment. Areas near open grates in Seoul smell the same.