Let's toast Beijing

[adrianlondon]

I won't upload the photo as Roddy may want to keep his carefully-crafted anonymity.

 

I haven't been on here for a few years as I'm no longer learning Mandarin.  I do use it during my annual (bc - before covid) trips to Taipei, and to attempt to show off in local Chinese-run restaurants, but apart from that it's stagnated.

 

What's interesting though, is that a one-semester intensive course at BNU in 2006/7 has given me better Mandarin than 10 years' living in Switzerland has German.  True, they speak funny German here, but even so.

I miss Beijing - not been since a short visit in 2011.  I'd love to get back and see what's changed.  And what hasn't.

[Jan Finster]

2 hours ago, adrianlondon said:

better Mandarin than 10 years' living in Switzerland has German.

 

That is like going to the Vatican for marriage counseling... ? 

[zhouhaochen]

On 2/25/2021 at 4:05 PM, adrianlondon said:

I miss Beijing - not been since a short visit in 2011.  I'd love to get back and see what's changed.  And what hasn't.

Its a dangerous undertaking. Literally everything has. And whatever fond memories you most likely will barely find any traces of them. There are new things that replaced the old things, but if your memories are from more than 10 years ago, be ready for it to not be there anymore. The Beijing we came to back then to learn Mandarin does not exist anymore.

There was a Facebook group last summer that memorized the "old" Beijing (well what that is of course very much depends on the person, but mainly it was 1995-2010) and it was amazing to watch with all the pictures posted, memories shared etc. and probably the only place for a few minutes a day to re-experience something thats not there anymore.

Like all facebook groups, it got a bit too big for its own good after a while and I left, but that was good at the time.

Going to Beijing today to look for memories is most likely not going to be a satisfying experience.

Checking out the new place can be pretty fun though - the subway really is much better and the whole place way more fancy and cleaner. 羊肉串儿 and 燕京 being sold on the side of the street has become impossible to find though.

[adrianlondon]

That's a good point.  As you say, seeing what's changed is very interesting.

 

I remember hating what they'd done to Nanluoguxiang between me studying there in 2006/7 and re-ivsiting a few times until 2011.  I have friends living in Beijing and it seems some other hutongs went the other way.  The one near the Lama Temple, which was full of cool bars and youth hostels is now dead.  I assume air b&b and couchsurfing (and young people simply getting richer) has put paid to most dirty non-official youth hostels.

 

I studied at BNU and want to visit again precisely to see how it's changed.

 

If cities didn't change then they'd be boring.  There's some excitement to standing outside some new apartment complex and reminiscing about the fruit & veg market and jianbing stall that used to be there, for example.  Although I'd miss the jianbing :)