New Adventures In Old Beijing

Old Beijing--
This term applies to both an actual area of this massive city, and
also to the social climate that has become associated with it. Old Beijing usually refers to the lakes district of Beijing and more specifically to the Hutongs that surround it. Hutongs are small and extremely narrow alleyways of houses joined together by open courtyards. Many "Beijingers" still live in this type of neighborhood that started all the way back in the Yuan dynasty (the first one to make Beijing it's capital.) The other thing Old Beijing could be applied to is the type of community living and activities that happen all over the city but especially in these areas.

The first encounter I had with this was in the 后海 Lake district of Beijing. After eating some awesome noodles and wandering around the beautifully lit up lake shopping area, we walked through a large public square to a nearby Hutong. The Hutong felt like a completely different, almost forgotten part of this city. Surrounded by small, cramped houses, we walked deeper and deeper into the dark alleys passing groups and groups of people sitting around playing Chinese Chess and Majong (domino type game.) After stopping of at a storefront for some candy and warm drinks (it was really cold,) we made our way back to the public square...but much to our suprise it had completely exploded with life. With shocked looks we made our way across the street watching the group of about 300 people that had gathered in this square. And they were...dancing! Apparently, someone had set up a stereo set complete with well-known Chinese ballads and within minutes a massive group had amassed for an impromput dance session. We watched as they moved from a couple dance to a type of individual line dance that apparently everyone knew. I was completely baffled at the type of group present--weathered faces that had lived through the entire civil war and communist takeover, young urban couples with designer clothes, children happily running through the crowds, quiet middled aged men looking for a woman to dance with, and teenagers texting on their cell phones while still hitting all the moves with perfect precision. Off to the left of the dancers were groups of kids playing hackey-sack, and old men smoking pipes and talking about the good old days. It seemed like everyone in the surrounding area had come out on a thursday night...simply to be together. Oh I forgot to mention--it was about 40 degrees.

This awesome moment turned out to be far from an isolated event. The next day at the park beside the Temple of Heaven we were lost among probably thousands of people (no exxageration) playing games, telling stories, dancing, exercising, and singing songs. The thing that hit me the most was as we walked into the Temple of Heaven I saw a couple hundred people gathered in a group all singing in perfect unison following the leadership of a very charismatic volunteer. They were singing the official Olympic anthem for the Beijing 08 games. Upon questioning, i found out that this wasn't an official group or even a normal meeting time--this was just a group of people that gathered to sing with pride for their city and their country. As I was frozen watching their faces and listening to their chorus of voices, I was filled with goosebumps and pride for this country. As weird as this sounds, I was proud of their culture, their grand past, and their exciting future.
(There was some other cool singing going on in the other parts of the park--revolutionary songs from the 1960's that everyone still knew...)

This community was not limited to just Beijing. Here are some quick highlitghes we saw from Xi'an

• 25 people dancing together...to the music from a girl's cell phone! (She was strategically placed in the center.
• 20 people watching and getting into a pretty intense Chinese Chess match. (Chinese Chess is so different from International Chess in that it is a truly a group activity-where everyone watching tells eachother what to do! It's pretty fun to watch.)

I have almost no equivalent in my own culture with which to compare these experiences. It think it is obvious to you by now that the Chinese are an extremely communal people. The group is valued, the family is important. In the West, it feels like we are just a big group of semi-connected individuals akwardly relating to eachother through our hobbies or careers. Honestly, it has been refreshing to be a in a culture that does not worship the self to the extent that we tend to do in our culture. Here, it is not always about, "What i want," or "What I deserve," it tends to do more with the overall good of the group. This seemingly insignificant difference bleeds into a myriad of realms including religion, business, family, and government. It also bleeds into simply the way they interact with eachother...
Here parks become places for people to interact, not just beautiful places to look at

People need eachother--i think we tend to forget that.

Im still processing all this, and there is a lot of elements involved. Im kinda of ranting now. This trip has given me a lot to think about...

Until then,

马修
（Matthew)

Late night dancing

Chinese Chess Baby!