Beijing during the summer is very foggy and warm. The locals call it the 'sauna weather'and, after living in it, I have to agree. Most of the time the sky is gray because of all the steam that rises when the sun comes out. Even so, the UV radiation is no joke-- I'm a lot browner and I've the patterns of my 'Greek sandals' burnt onto the back of my feet. Some of the people carry parasols.
Let's see...ah yes, one of the things that have made me somewhat depressed was the rate of change over there. Everything is being remodeled for the Olympics I know but, as I've remarked already to Christine, sometimes there're so many tourists and so much English in all the labeling that if it weren't for the famous historical landmark I can see right outside I'd think I'm in America. It's that bad. A lot of things are changed and a lot of memories I have of places are wiped out so that I feel like there's less and less that I recognize each time I return.
For instance, my old elementary school (division in the universitiy of aero&astro) had moved into the old middle school building and the old middle school has moved into the old university building and that part of the university has moved into the new building which looked like something out of a sci-fi novel. The old elementary school building was demolished and something else's being built there right now. One of my favorite parks from back then opened a water park, the old water park area was dry and filled with the stuff from the playground area, all jumbled up, and the old playground area was turned into a golf course!
Grief, and not very good grief at that.
Did I mention also that the other favorite park had its old stone and glass wall torn down (it was so pretty!) and replaced with a white-washed fence for no apparent reason? Or the fact that the building that my grandparents (m) had been living in since before I was born is going to get torn down and they're going to get reassigned somewhere else? The roads are changing so fast along with the bus routes that even the locals have problems keeping up with it and let me tell you, it can get to be quite a mess.
Ye Gods, I don't know what the city will look like in another year. My mother had 9 months between when she was there and a lot of the things were new to HER.
On a slightly happier note, I'll launch off onto a little discourse about the place where I spent most of my time while I was there: my maternal grandparent's house.
i.e.: I was living in the 302th division of the PLA military hospital, which also happens to be the division for contagious diseases. My grandparents live in the veterans (my grandfather) and staff apartments area. There's the little things each day that remind you that it's the military, such as the wake up call by the electric trumpet at 6:30 AM on weekdays, go to work call at 8:00, lunch break call at 12:30, return to work at 2:30, and return home call a 6PM. And the fact that there're soldiers doing their morning drills in the morning and two guards contantly standing guard duty in front of the main entrance, and having to show your entrance pass every time you go in. Once I saw a staff coming out of the main hospital building while I was wandering around in hospital scrubs and pushing a surgery cart (empty) and I was sharply reminded that oh yes, I was living in a hospital.
Fun things.
End of the second long entry. Still present? Mentally all there? Good.
1 comment:
ah the remodeling :/ they do it a lot in armenia too. and what's worse the common people get horribly cheated through some of it. like someone with money comes along and tears down old buildings in the downtown and the people living there are promised an apartment on the 12th floor of the new building that will be built.
..the building ends up having only 9 floors. yo-ho.
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