Beijing – in the fall of 2011

Roaming around Beijing from meetings to meetings is like roaming in my past, some 30 years ago, when I lived here as a diplomat (1979-81)…except that if Beijing was a big city then, it is now huge: more than 18 Million people in the greater area! And things have changed so much – I notice now more than on my previous visits (I have been here many times since I lived here).

A few other illustrations of the changes: They are now building the 7th ring road, when they had just completed the 3rd one when I left in 1981! Sanlitun, then on the north-eastern fringe of the city where Embassies and diplomats were suitably isolated, has become the “trendiest” place in town, with its “SanliTun Village” complex of modern stores, eateries and cinema houses (picture below)

– this is where I attended the opening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in China (at the MegaBox) with the Ambassador, my former colleague with whom I “re-opened” Shanghai 25 odd years ago to a Canadian presence (got to watch a few films of “extreme” adventures – The Longest Way, Fly or Die, and WildWater, the latter with shots of the Grand Canyon water rafting. see http://www.banffchina.com/)

A stone's throw away from where I used to live (Block 2-1 on Sanlitun Dong San Jie),

is this very hype hotel, The Opposite House, built by modernist Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma, a square structure shrouded in translucid glass panels, in various shades of green; I had lunch at their café.

Not far from there is “1949 – the Hidden City”, a series of restaurants and other facilities have been lodged in what used to be a factory in the industrial part of Sanlitun, which has been “retooled” (as they put it!) in 2008 to create this “neo-industrial chic”, commune-like, venue, nested amongst non-descript high-rises. (The Peking duck at the Duck de Chine restaurant is said to be one of the better served in the city…)

The concept is not new as the Dashanzi Art District (or better known as “798”), a little bit further North and further East was also, a few years before, developed on the ground of a disaffected factory. It is now the arts’ Mecca of Beijing were numerous galleries and “ateliers” are established amongst cafés and eateries – I took a moment to meander in the UCCA complex, located in a 1950’s industrial Bauhaus factory, a non-profit art center for contemporary artists (it sponsors all sorts of exhibitions, events and education programs) founded and built by arts collectors Belgian couple, Guy and Myriam Ullens, in 2007 (picture below).

(IP lawyer – he represented Google in China for a while – David Ben-Kay, who attended the conference, a long-time “China hand”, told me he built his house around there as early as 2003 – with Google house allowance, no doubt! – even before “798” existed per se – he now runs a business “incubator” facility there – Yuanfen-Flow New Media Art!) A new boutique hotel, the Yi House (and its Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, Fennel), has very recently opened, on the outskirts of 798.

Would have been fun to go back and visit old staples such as The Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven, but better stay on my memories of these places, which by now must be crowded with visiting tourists (I remember spending a very leisurely afternoon, meandering in the numerous palaces and courtyards in the Forbidden City, with our photography teacher…). Besides, I have to leave the city and go to the site of the conference, Commune by the Great Wall, an hour and a half, westward, on the outskirts of the city…

Beijing, September 17, 2011

P.S. a few restaurants worth apparently to go to (a couple of them I have tried): Dali Courtyard (Yunnan food; rustic); The Courtyard (on the moat of the FC); Maison Boulud (in the former – before 1949 – US Embassy compound); Duck de Chine (at 1949 – the Hidden City); Tiandi (fine dining, on Nanchizi Lu, east side of the FC); Paper (contemporary Chinese; Gulou Dongdajie); Noodle Bar (at 1949); Da Dong (kaoya; 3 restos; go for NanXinCang); Capital M ( M on the Bund owner; near TianAnMen Square, near old gate); Bei (at The Opposite House hotel); should have checked also Green Tea House where I dined with Joseph Caron, Ambassador then, in the early 2000s.