210 Beijing Old and New

It was almost 20 years ago when I first visited Beijing and the Forbidden City.

Back then the entrance fee was under 10 RMB, now it's 60.

Back then there weren't that many people, now I could barely walk inside the imperial garden and being push by people.

Back then the palace was worn out by natural forces; now although many of the buildings were restored, yet they're already wearing out again by human force, by the huge number of tourists who don't care much about the artifacts.

The palace is still grand and sumptuous even with all the wearing bits and destruction here and there. Yet it's sad to see it not being cared and loved by its own people.

Don't be fool by the following pictures, the palace wasn't empty at all, I was just there early enough to be among the first few who entered, and I ran so hard to the main palaces to take these pictures. The sea of people was just behind me when these pictures were taken...






The new things seems to be not much better.


I went to the Olympic park the same day in the late afternoon. The 'Water Cube' and 'Bird Nest' look great from a distance. When I get closer, the Water Cube itself is still very interesting, the surface material is truly one of a kind. Yet it looks like it has not opened yet, like I was there looking at a building a few months before the Olympic. It was all surrounded by fences, and workers are still working on pipes and lines and floor in front of it. So surreal a scene.




Well, one really impressive thing to me, is how the city of Beijing managed to keep the Olympic park on the same axis as the old Beijing city. From the central walk of the Olympic park, which is right between Bird Nest and Water Cube, if you look to the south, to the direction where the Forbidden City is situated, you'll be able to see the Bell Tower鐘樓 and Drum Tower鼓樓 of the old Beijing city, which lies on the same axis as all the main halls of the Forbidden City. So the Bird Nest and Water Cube are on the same line with Meridian Gate 午門 , Hall of Supremem Harmony 太和殿 and all other main gates and halls. This is a very ceremonial design.

the Bell Tower and Drum Tower is right at the centre far far away, you can still detect the shape of it.

The bird nest basically share the same status with the water cube, all surrounded by high fence. Those fences were put to the ground by forcing openings on the tiled floor in front of the stadium, and their existence totally defeated the grandeur of the architecture of the stadium.

And many of the attaching points of the massive interlocking steel structure have appeared worn out already. It wasn't even a year after the Olympic and the main stadium is already deteriorating, how sad...


Luckily, after the Olympic park, I went to had dinner and had ordered a dish I've been fancied for years: 三不粘 (which literally means won't stick to three things - the dish, the chopsticks and your teeth). It used to be an imperial dessert adapted from 河南 Henan province, it has only 3 ingredients: egg, green bean flour and sugar. The three ingredients were then heated and stirred rapidly to form a mass which is soft like a dough yet won't stick to anything.

This dish of 三不粘 is from 老北京炸醬麵大王, very nice indeed.