20 IN BIKES

The village of Xibai Xinzhuang Cun (?????) is boxed in by Yosemite Villa, the International School of Beijing, and the Gahood Commercial-Resident Villa.

In this shot, you can get a sense of how the traditional village lifestyle might disrupt those in the neighbouring affluent communities. On one side of the wall, a home in the village; on the other, a home in the villa. The need to conserve and recover every last piece of precious material and to make the most of a small plot of land is at odds with the luxury of having a spacious house, manicured grounds, daily garbage pick-up, and suburban parkland instead of vegetable gardens.

These two lifestyles coexist in a peaceful symbiosis: the villagers have jobs working as nannies, drivers and labourers (or as shopkeepers providing services to their fellow villagers), and the villa-dwellers have access to a supply of cheap labour. Note how one group gets to see both lifestyles: the people in the compounds rarely – if ever – go into the villages. (I am likely an exception.)

When I have seen this kind of disparity in other countries, I have been extremely cautious when going about. I feared that gnawing envy might turn into explosive anger, and I have worried for my personal safety. But never in China. Despite its modern, urban sophistication, I worry a lot more about walking in downtown Toronto than I do in downtown Beijing. Women tell me that they never worry about walking alone at night – but they are still cautious. The villages are not downtown, but, apart from the occasional outburst of “laowai!” from a startled senior, people here are reservedly friendly. I have never felt that I was unwelcome.

China is in a great hurry to modernize its society. When I see what has been done here in the 23 years since I was last here, the Chinese should be very proud of what they have achieved. It is only a matter of time before villages like Xibai Xinzhuang Cun will be bulldozed and replaced by the encroaching modern communities. (I recently went on a bike trip to a nearby village that I saw on the current satellite image on Google Earth only to find that the kilometre-wide village was gone! Razed to the ground. I should have taken pictures so I could show you, but there was nothing to take pictures of!)

A visit to Google Earth shows that this picture was taken on Xibai Xinzhuang Cun’s boundary with the Gahood Villa, a villa that was completed in 1998, and that looks rather shabby from the street. While the Villa life has been encroaching on the traditional life, GE reveals a curious thing: Xibai Xinzhuang Cun is one resilient village.

The current satellite images show that Gahood Villa is only half there. It looks like there should be a central hub area surrounded by rings of houses and parkland. Instead, Xibai Xinzhuang Cun occupies the north side of Gahood’s central axis. It’s as if someone started to unroll a ring-patterned carpet from the south, but hit the village wall and stopped. And that’s the area of the Villa has become worn and shabby.

The historical images back to 2003 show little has changed: Gahood’s development has stalled. Those same images show the Yosemite Villa being developed. It started on the western boundary of the village and has been growing westward, away from the village.

So, has Xibai Xinzhuang Cun been encroaching on the Villas, or are the Villas poised to consume the rest of the village?

Day 65

Protect your noggin!

For those of you unlucky enough to stumble upon my 365 Days set, you'd know that last week I was hampered by back problems (initial diagnosis: sacrolitis) and was pretty much bed-ridden all week. Now, I'm lazy- but after a few days cooped up in the house, I'm ready to scale the walls.

Coupled with the fact that I thouroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving (and the consequent leftovers), I feared that my eating habits minus my steady diet of running would only lead to that spare tire around my midsection. So today I bought a bike. A dead sexy bike. From Wal-Mart.

Hey, it was cheap, I'm on a budget and it's got working gears and two full tires.