People we met told us to be prepared for it. “Beijing is dull”, they said. Of course they were comparing Beijing to Shanghai and if that is your frame of reference, then yes next to Shanghai, Beijing is dull. It is a government town and government buildings tend to be utilitarian, no matter what the political system.
Beijing also seems to suffer from the same circumstances that make LA so nondescript when compared to San Francisco.
The city is built on large, flat expanse without geographical features to constrain its spread. And so, over time has spread and continued to spread. There are not really high-rise buildings to speak of, certainly not a cluster of them to create the striking skylines we saw in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Beijing is big, flat and sprawling. It is kind of dull.
That is not to say that it's neighborhoods do not have character. Beijing is known for its Hutongs, or alleyways that branch off into courtyards around which modest low-slung residences are clustered. Walking up and down these blocks you have the feeling of having entered a small village in the middle of the city of millions. On the block you will find most of life's daily necessities offered at very simple establishments which appear to have no interest in serving the larger clientele that surrounds the neighborhood. Two blocks from Gucci you can find a store selling dry goods of the most humble order.
The other thing you notice, wandering around, is the city’s ability to transform itself rapidly. My friend Pete had talked of this over the years. How from one trip to the next, neighborhoods would disappear under the bulldozer - eventually a new development rises and takes its place. Up near the Olympic complex the evidence of this is quite striking. In the distance you can see the old, but at the complex itself not a stone is out of place. Everything fits the plan. Even if the plan is a bit flawed.
One of the extraordinary things we saw was at a ‘ghost mall’, just north of the Olympic stadium. Brand-new and completely empty. Acres of (nicely) boarded up storefronts - perhaps needed for 2 to 3 weeks, but no longer viable. You wonder why they were ever built. Oh that's right. They were trying to impress the world. They had the money and if they want something done - it gets done. No pesky neighborhood associations or tree sitters, not here.
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