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Leave a little corner of old Beijing alone

By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-26 07:33

If the Beijing city planners are serious about turning Qianmen into an entertainment hotspot that is in the same league as Xintiandi in Shanghai or Soho in Hong Kong, they have to build some decent toilets there, for a start.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the 846-meter long Qianmen main street, crowded by throngs of out-of-town tourists, was reeking in a foul smell from the numerous makeshift toilets.

This abomination, together with the rows of non-descript buildings painted in dark gray on both sides of the street, reminded visitors more of a re-education compound for the social misfits than a prospective playground for the social elites.

The job of decking up the place is apparently left to the tenants of the 120 shop units available for renting. Other than the handful of occupied shops, including two post offices, the only colors one can find in that street of gray were the tacky posters of old Beijing scenes, complete with the usual red pailou, or Chinese archways, and lanterns of different sizes and colors.

And, of course, there are the street lights, which, for some inexplicable reasons, have shades in the form of giant gilded bird cages lined in the inside with white sheets of fabric.

As expected, the crowd was not in a festive mood, aside from a few young people taking turn snapping pictures of one another against the backdrops of those uninspiring posters.

If you are looking for refreshment, you'll have to settle for the street-side stands selling drinks and snacks at grossly inflated prices. A bottle of Sprite that can be had for 3 yuan at any convenience store in the city cost 5 yuan in the newly renovated Qianmen.

As you walked down the street, you would have, like me, wondered why the crowd had begun to thin out. The fact was many people had made the turn into a side street marked by a wrought-iron gate, which is commonly known as "Dashilan", or the "lane with a big gate".

Unmolested by bureaucratic meddling, that ancient lane, home to shops and eateries with history dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is scruffy and chaotic. But in sharp contrast to the renovated Qianmen main street, Dashilan, which has always been part of the old commercial district of the city, is the crowd drawer.

Of course, it is too early to write off the potential of the modernized main street as another one of the capital's new shopping and entertainment districts in the making. With the right mix of tenants willing to spend the extra money to doll up the place, it can be a perfect compliment to Dashilan. Scruffy as it is, this narrow street, lined on both sides by old buildings of wood held together by precisely carved joints, embodies the soul of old Beijing.

Much has been written about the shops in Dashilan bearing names that in the bygone era instilled a far greater sense of exclusivity among consumers than Gucci, Prada and the others European purveyors of haute fashion of today. Young people exposed to Western trends may find the design and packaging of the products sold at Dashilan shops to have fallen woefully behind the times. But there is no shortage of highly discriminating Beijing shoppers who would never feel assured about the quality of the goods they bought anywhere other than those they knew in Dashilan.

There is no doubt that some well-known domestic and foreign brands in clothing and catering will set up shops in Qianmen main street. It won't surprise me to see a few US fast food restaurants in the vicinity. But I doubt if a store selling traditional Beijing snacks can afford the rent there.

It really doesn't matter if Qianmen is going to be like the new Sanlitun or the yuppified artist enclave of 798. But please leave Dashilan alone, for old times' sake.

E-mail: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/26/2008 page8)