This winter break, though, I'll be traveling with my program to various cities, including Xi'an, Leshan, Chengdu (where I'll get to hold a panda!), and most importantly, Lhasa. After I come back, Laurence and I are heading down to Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chongqing. For those of you who know me, I am more than excited to visit Chongqing. I'm dying to go. I can't wait to get on that train and just zoom down. For the first two or three months here, my wanderlust was pretty much non-existent. But now it's been bubbling up again, so I'm excited to travel. I'll definitely be posting (well, I'll probably be emailing the posts to someone and have them post it for me, as I'll be writing these from internet bars).
Anyway, I promise that I'll have more to write soon. For now, enjoy my essay that I'm actually pretty proud of. It's about Sanlitun, which is a very upscale place here in Beijing.
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Talk to any foreigner in Beijing about the best place to be seen, and they will most definitely bring up Sanlitun. The Sanlitun area, with the bar street, Village mall, and nearby embassies and diplomat residencies is now one of the most upscale and hip areas of Beijing. It is a popular area for both foreigners and Chinese alike. Foreigners appreciate the western environment and a break from the hectic streets of China, whereas to Beijingers, Sanlitun is a place to shop for fashionable and expensive clothes. The surrounding areas, such as Gongti, are also home to some of the most expensive apartments in Beijing, and are a popular place to live in for young people. Established only 50 years ago, it has reached landmark status in Beijing very quickly. However, despite its popularity amongst natives and tourists, it is merely an example of cultural resistance against the Chinese. Most of the Sanlitun area actively resists against aspects of Chinese culture that many foreigners find distasteful, such as Chinese food, the Chinese style of parking, Chinese architecture, and even the authoritarianism of the Chinese government. Before Sanlitun’s tendencies against Chinese culture can be discussed, it is important to look at its history. The new People’s Republic of China specifically chose Sanlitun in the late 1950s as the new site for foreign embassies. This is because the government wanted to move the foreigners away from the Legation Quarter to somewhere outside the Inner City. This demonstrates why Sanlitun is targeted towards foreigners. The first bars opened during the 70s, and slowly expanded to what it is today, with Sanlitun Bar Street, as well as more bars on Sanlitun Road (Sanlitun Lu). In the summer of 2008, just before the Olympics began, Sanlitun Village Mall was established on the South and North sides of Sanlitun Bar Street. This analysis will revolve around the block that the north and south wings of the Village Mall, Sanlitun Bar Street, and Sanlitun Road are located on. When one goes to Sanlitun, they would be hard pressed to find a Chinese restaurant. Many of the food options are limited to Western style food, such as McDonalds, Italian food, Spanish tapas, and Subway. Even in the bar street, there is only one Chinese restaurant, and it is Shanghai-style noodles. The closest Chinese options are on the fifth floor of the Yaxiu Clothing Market, west of the Village Mall, or down an alleyway just east of Sanlitun Road. Also, the street corner market and convenience store that is so prevalent in other Chinese streets are not allowed in the Village Mall. The Village Mall only has an American style supermarket, with a complete lack of traditional Chinese ingredients and food. The only thing available there are foreign imported snacks and food. The inaccessibility of typical Chinese food is a reminder to the Chinese customer that Sanlitun is targeted towards more toward foreigners. To foreigners, it is a welcome escape from Chinese food everyday, as well as a haven for satisfying their own cuisine cravings. Food is not the only factor at play. The type and location of shops in the Village Mall, as well as the type of bars in the bar street show a clear bias towards foreigners over Chinese. A walk through the first level of the south wing of the Village Mall will show only American stores, such as Apple, Nike, and Calvin Klein. The only non-American store is a Japanese-owned one, Uniqlo. There are some Chinese boutiques, but they are mostly located in the basement levels, which says a lot about the way Village Mall developers viewed the stores’ status – lower than American stores. In the bar street, most of the bars are targeted towards foreigners, with very little Chinese-named clubs or bars. The only Chinese-named bars to be found are on Sanlitun Road to the east, but mostly have entertainment targeted towards foreigners. Additionally, on signs placed throughout the Sanlitun block, many of the signs have English as the top language, whereas in other areas, such as Dongcheng and Haidian, Chinese is often the top language or the only language shown. This is yet another contrast that is an attempt to bring in foreigners and drive away Chinese. Finally, the Sanlitun area has elements that actively work against Chinese culture as a whole, rejecting both modern and ancient Chinese values. There are many tattoo shops and adult stores in the bar street that reject the ancient values of respecting one’s body and abstaining from sex. There is an infamous head shop with bongs, pipes, and papers, which obviously manages to circumvent China’s anti-marijuana laws. Concrete blocks are set up around the perimeter of the Village Mall to prevent sidewalk parking that is so prevalent in Beijing. The bar street is also a haven for illegal drugs. In 2008, before the Beijing Olympics began, there was a drug raid that saw arrests of over 100 people for possession of various drugs, and also the execution of 4 bartenders who allowed drug deals to happen in their bars. Even today, there are drug dealers wandering openly around the bar street, and it is not uncommon to see drugs change hands in bars. With this overwhelming evidence of counter-Chinese culture, it is any wonder why Sanlitun is still popular with Beijing residents. Obviously Sanlitun is popular with foreigners, as it provides a haven for them to feel at home, if only for a while. However, maybe through a global lens, Sanlitun does make sense: it is more global than it is Chinese. Perhaps Sanlitun is merely part of a new consciousness that circumvents culture and attempts to carve a niche in a global identity. After all, the stores are all global stores, and the international food makes a sense of ‘globality’. The architecture is not necessarily Chinese nor can it be pinpointed to any culture. So, while Sanlitun may seem like it is actively rejecting Chinese culture, perhaps it is merely just trying to move towards a global consciousness.
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