China Crumpet

One of the great things about China is all the things one is able to do here. I have had the pleasure working as a freelancer for Swedish National Radio for almost five years now. It is great fun and I am able to express all the great things about China with background noise and everything which is a great China vent and a good way to focus on all the fun sides of Beijing. Definitely a way to stay sane.

This month, I am “correspondent of the month” which means four little anecdotes, a couple of interviews and some off the street reporting. In my first episode I talk about what has happened to the city after the Olympics.

It’s funny because I haven’t really thought about it at all but reporting about it made me realize that things have really changed in the last couple of years. It was brought home yesterday when I was sitting enjoying a little impromptu picnic in our garden, in the sunshine. Yes, you read correctly, there is a garden with real trees and everything right here in our complex. And we could, in fact, see the sun. They even have a network of ponds, a bunch of goldfish, birds that actually know how to sing, rock gardens and little mini-pagodas spread out around the area so that one can sit and contemplate the fake nature or take ones birds outside and hang their cages up in the trees for exercise, as one of our neighbors did yesterday. My point is, that it’s really quite nice here. Nicer than last year. People behave quite well too, which is strange at first but then becomes quite plesent.

Then I go out into what can only be described in the old cliche as the old “concrete jungle” where people spit and ones heels break on the uneven pavement. And of course, it looks really crappy compared to my garden. Plus, the places that wouldn’t have shocked me at all (read: toilets without running water and wooden floors) two years ago now seem really gross compared to the stainless steel loo’s in the hutong. In fact, just the other day I found a public loo that had a sitter instead of just squatters. And it was not covered in pee from someone squatting on top of the seat while peeing. Nice.

Anyway people throughout the land (and other lands), times (and me) they are a changin’ here in the ‘Jing. Our old roads are rapidly agin’. The order is rapidly fadin’.

You get the gist.