Beijing Today

Guided China Tour Beijing Today For an outsider to people watch in one of Beijing’s sparkling modern new shopping centres fresh from Olympic funding is to look upon a city in transition. Beijing today is very different from how it used to be and this can still be seen in the habits and attitudes of the local people; one particular tell is that people here are only recently beginning to buy ‘western’ consumables such as nappies for infants. The rich traditions and Chinese customs have become watered down over the years, perhaps this could be said for many countries however it is particularly noticeable here with the new generation’s vastly more western views and lifestyle. Beijing teenagers are furiously fashionable, their technology is world leading and their clothes are expensive. Still they face massive censorship and in Beijing sensitive news is regularly blocked from social media and on-line news sites. The government have embraced technology with a great caution, something which in 2009 caused protest due to the government insistence of internet filtering technology being automatically installed in new computers. The young people, who had been often described as apathetic, finally had a reason they cared for to protest about. You still however are unlikely to have complete access to many of your favourite sites here in Beijing. Despite the affluent class of people in Beijing there is still a very low average wage in the city itself. Like many major cities it pulsates with workers from elsewhere; most commonly poorer rural areas. These are the people who drive the construction and the lower paid jobs – there is a tangible and visible class divide in Beijing. The city, especially since the Olympics, has attracted heavy investment in construction which has needed driving by cheap manual labour. The class divide is such that these are now the people who locals consider as responsible to some of the petty local crimes and so on which happen in the city. The government are expressing concern however the wide gap shows no signs of closing between the two communities. In recent years, despite a lot of investment in roads and buildings, they remain insufficient to cope with the Beijing traffic. The industry around the city itself is not under the same strict regulation as we are used to in the west in terms of environmental controls and therefore, as was noted by many commentators at the Beijing Olympics, the city still experiences quite a bad problem with pollutions. This has visibly reduced the number of cyclists that you used to see around the city at a time when the government was keen for exactly the opposite to happen. The motor industry is a growing factor in the city, and those who can afford it do not hesitate to have two or more cars. The problem is that the population is so dense in this area of China that the roads and infrastructure struggle to cope with these changes and a return to the bicycle would be far more beneficial for the cities pollution levels.