CN

FAST FORWARD

Fourth time in China - first time in Beijing.

And I am so lucky. A cheaper and earlier flight across, combined with a cancelled meeting on Sunday, buys me extra time in the Beijing region. And before I know it, the carfreax network has caringly absorbed this lonesome traveler. Although I manage to only catch one hour of sleep on my Moscow-connected flight, I decide to grab my chances - and after a damn' good cup of coffee I find myself on an orange (!) coloured designer bike, trailing closely behind my host, criss-cross past the Beijing highlights. Jetlag is for sissies! A snapshot tour, shooting from the hip. Three hours to go, the clock is counting. Yet, I am so lucky. Thank you Wout!

From the stylish hi-brow residential areas to the city's hutongs is just a fifteen-minute ride. We cross some of the huge circular motorways and before I know it we find ourselves in what feels like an intimate and tiny village. Controversially, this is where the true heartbeat of the giant metropolis sounds. Miniscule houses, tiny shops. Workshops and showrooms on the pavement. Bird and grocery shops give colour to the grey overtones. Streetlife. The bicycle still proves to be an invaluable means of transport to get around - certainly in these narrow streets. 

It is hard to believe that only six years ago, half of the Beijing population lived like this (source: Wikipedia). No sanitary rooms, no electricity. Such confrontation with the speed of development here. Yet, these are real pearls in the cultural necklace that is Beijing. Luckily, the authorities are aware.

We carry on and reach the Drum- and Bell Tower, two towering structures, which are even more impressive with the empty square in between. How different that must have looked, last week, when China celebrated its 'Golden Week' national holiday. This square is where China time was kept and communicated, across many dynasties, 'till way into the twentieth century when modern day clockwork finally replaced it. The soldiers of old are now frozen in time - like ancient Han Solos - while their modern day colleagues are busy exercising drills, a couple of miles away, inside the Forbidden City walls. This is Old Beijing's central axis, no longer the city's main north-south connection but certainly the cultural spine of the city.

We make our way back south, past the beautiful lakes where the top party officials live today. Tons of clubs and bars by the lakeside. I'll be back tonight, when this will be the center of activity. It's now or never.

Meanwhile it's 5 PM and this Cinderella is racing the clock. Sunset at six! We make it in time for the much-anticipated meeting with Chairman Mao, as he is overlooking the hugely impressive Tian'anmen Square. Together with huge flocks of Chinese tourists, we witness the flag lowering ceremony as the invisible sun sets over Beijing - and decide to call it a day.

Three hours after the start of this brilliant bicycle ride we make our way back to base camp. Dodging the swelling waves of commuter traffic and zig zagging back on iPhone generated directions, we zap back through the Beijing of today: the enormous Russian district, an orange-themed Lamborghini showroom and a Tron-esque ring road infarction. 

It's the white against the red this time. Hard to choose sides.

- Geert.

HUTONG WALK

The famous Hutong walks were already topic, but exploring never stops. The basic color in this level is grey but there is so much more although it is not clean and tidy. Actually you can- in contrast to the newly high-rise buildings- feel the vibes of living here in the Hutongs.

- Fab.

798 ONE

One can walk into any international book store at our local railway station and grab an affordable Taschen book to have a view on art now! A full pack of images, a perspective  on the world. Right now, we are in Beijing and tell our cabbie to take us to the art district. This is 798, a time zone out of the ordinary, a formally industrial complex that houses the creative spirits of China.

We will come back several times to soak up the energy, look and enjoy, getting in contact with the east. An endless area full of content and in between some good lunch opportunities. Mao is an icon and a missile at the same time. Temples are yesterday, this is the present. Unfinished business, we need more days to grasp the picture of this wonderful place.

-Matt.

ONION SKINS

Peeling of the onion skins in a Chinese kitchen. We are just visitors. How much can we see, how close can we get? Two weeks in China. This is our perspective, trying to understand this unknown culture. Big to small, the hutongs are the maximum level we can reach in this Tetris game, trying to stack the eastern building blocks onto each other.

Impressions. Within the scale of the city, the hutongs are the very atoms of society. Behind the walls of those small alleys there is some quantum mechanics going on. Every now and then you get a glimpse of that next level, the next onion skin, the neutrons that tie together the social network. Children chalk their dreams on walls, people sell their heritage as souvenirs.

For outsiders, this is the picture of China we can deal with. A scheme that fits into our slide show. It is also a view on the country that disappears as things move on. Modernity is a monster that bites itself into the city's core. Come back within a couple of years and things will look totally different.

Hutongs were yesterday, the future is bright. Once a Golf MK I was an old junker, today it is a classic. Will those hutongs survive the speed of change?  Berlin Mitte is hip for tourists, for locals it is sooo 2005. We are just visitors, trying to spot the Prenzes, and the Kreuzbergs of Beijing. No chance. These are the onion skins one can only peel of as a local or an "alien visitor" that has managed to open a bank account, acquired a driving license and so on. Good luck to our hosts. Show us the Neu Koeln of your capital!

-Matt.

JINGHSAN PARK

Beijing, days full of urban visual input, time out please. It is cloudy and a hot thickening layer of smog crawls across the skyline of the city. Jinghsan Park turns out to be the right spot to relax. High above the Forbidden City we get some fresh air as the fantastic panorama unfolds. Freshly painted temples, an oasis of nature in the epicenter of the storm called Beijing.

I have learned that here there are many shades of red, each with an own meaning. Today we will witness many of them. A walk through the stretched parks, up to the next landmark. The locals dance, paint poems with water on pavements. A mental slow motion in a hectic city.

-Matt.

AT NIGHT

Sometimes the world seems to be black and white.

- Fab.