Davis' Thoughts on Beijing

Hi y'all,

Ludell and I are in Beijing for about 1/2 of the summer. In this brief email update, I'll write about a few of the things I've found most striking. If you're interested in an "on the ground" perspective of Beijing (and to some extent, mainland China), maybe you'll be interested in reading on.

• The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the Only Game in Town and You Have to Play Ball

The CPC invades every element of life for Beijingers. 

They are in the neighborhoods. For example, when I was in Beijing in 2008-2009, I noticed the ubiquitous black Audi A6s. At first I thought that they were simply chosen by a lot of the upper middle class Chinese citizens, but I was wrong. These Audis are government-issued cars to those individuals who are high up in the Party, and in 2012, I still notice that they're all over the place. 

They cripple the internet. When you are in China, without sophisticated networking tools your communications are crippled. Some of the most fundamental information sources for modern society are blocked by the firewall, radically changing the information available to a normal Beijinger. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, NPR, and virtually every major international newspaper are difficult to access from the mainland. So it's no wonder that at least two Beijingers I've spoken with (one former Chinese professor at Rollins College in the States and one small business owner) say that the pollution in Beijing isn't pollution at all: they say that it's "fog." That's not to say that everyone drinks the CPC kool-aid, but most do and if you don't, there's virtually nothing you can do about it.

They pervade business. Recently, I was lucky enough to interview Aaron Fang, a young start-up entrepreneur here in Beijing who is a native of mainland China (see the interview by clicking here). Ludell and I went out to dinner with him after the interview and he told me something I found shocking: at many large companies in China if one doesn't join the CPC, access to high-level positions is impossible. So the entanglement of medium and larger Chinese enterprises and the CPC is extremely intimate. 

• There is a lot of Work to be Done in Beijing

Generally, Beijing is still very dirty. Did you have the idea that Beijing would be somewhat clean because of the frequent media reports about China's rise and eventual economic dominance? If you did, that is not the case. Though I cannot speak about other urban centers, it almost goes without saying that Beijing is one of the most important cities in China and it is still very dirty and rough. I find that there are sink holes in many of the sidewalks and that pavers are often out of place. There is often trash on the ground and the city still lacks modern waste management systems; trash is still collected by individuals on bikes. 

Beijing's transportation infrastructure is overwhelmed. Yesterday, Ludell and I tried to take the subway at about 7:30 pm. At one interchange, there was literally a sea of people attempting to use a particular subway line. There was a long corridor that was perhaps 100 yards long and ten feet wide that lead up to the subway line itself, and in the corridor there was not a space to be found (see the picture enclosed). If I had to guess, I believe that there were somewhere around 35,000 people moving in a massive group towards that particular subway line. The roads are overwhelmed, too. We have witnessed some of the most epic traffic jams in history. This shouldn't have surprised us, because I remember seeing that Beijing had a traffic jam that was 9 days long in 2010. The CPC is encouraging people to use the public transportation systems, but they are clearly as overwhelmed as the roads. Interestingly, the entrepreneur I mentioned in the previous section told me that official figures say that Beijing has around 30.5 million people. When I was here in 2008, it had around 27 million people. So, that means that the city is adding roughly 1 million people per year. 

Counterfeiting is Still Rampant in the City. Recently, Ludell and I visited Beijing's famous silk market. The market is located just a few blocks down from some of the most famous brands in the world: Prada, Bottega Veneta, etc. At the silk market, it's possible to buy everything counterfeit: handbags, dresses, shoes, shirts, watches, DVDs and anything else you want, and it's a big business. In front of the market (we've been twice), there are usually 10 - 15 tour busses who have brought bus loads of tourists to come and buy the counterfeited goods. Clearly, counterfeiting is still a huge business and there are no signs of it needing to go underground, despite the incredible proximity to Beijing's most up-market shopping areas.

• There is No Clean Air Left in Mainland China's Major Cities

When Ludell and I first arrived, the pollution (or "the fog" as some kool-aid drinking Beijingers say) was overwhelming. We both were bed-ridden with painful headaches for the first three days we were in Beijing. Looking for alternative solutions to the problem, I wanted to see if we could take a quick trip to a nearby city where the pollution wasn't as bad. I was astonished at the scale of the pollution problem. When I came across this map of China's air quality, I realized that no major cities on the mainland had access to clean air. There is no city in mainland China with clean air. 

Anyway, these are just a few of my reflections. Perhaps they will be of interest to you.

Wishing you all the best,

Davis Jones